Proto:Jurassic Park: Trespasser/PC Gamer Preview Prototype

This is a sub-page of Proto:Jurassic Park: Trespasser.

In September of 2016, former Executive Producer Seamus Blackley came across some prototypes of Trespasser. After some discussion, he happily released them to the Trespasser fanbase. These turned out to be the 1998 E3 demo (both a full and a smaller "build 6") and a PCGamer prototype. The main interest of the PCGamer prototype is Plantation House. The text files in the prototype seem to indicate the PCGamer prototype was built on Tuesday June 16, 1998. This build contains early versions of Jungle Road, Plantation House, Industrial Jungle, Pine Valley and TestScene.

The PCGamer build was supposed to be a build to be shown in the PC Gamer magazine. Based on what is found in the build, and from what images and articles found of the game to date show, it is possible that this build was never sent to the magazine, as no images or articles found have the same content as this build. It's possible the engine's stability was called into question with this build. (See below.)

General Differences

• Anne uses a much older and higher detailed model. Despite this, it has very few animations at this point and no breast tattoo. Interestingly, like Build 96, the texture for her shirt tends to change between levels. Also Anne's bust size is notably smaller. Her bust size was increased as development progressed to hide the fact she didn't have legs.
• Speaking of which, she has leg bones in this build and bobs up and down as she walks.
• The physics engine is very buggy at this point. Colliding with objects or simply being near them while they're ragdolling may sometimes hilariously result in Anne floating away like a balloon until the game crashes or being thrown into the sky at high speeds. Sometimes Anne may also be pushed under the level and fall into the abyss below, something that's near impossible in the final as the game will simply not allow her to fall through.
• It is very hard for Anne to die as she does not take fall damage and all the dinosaurs do very small amounts of damage or none at all.
• In contrast, most dinosaurs are notably easier to kill, though they usually don't die properly but seem to lose proper function of their legs being unable to move. Killing dinosaurs in general is risky because the ragdoll physics are notably more sensitive and if a dinosaur falls on its side wrong, it could stretch and contort its body out of control causing the game to crash.
• A debug mode of sorts seems to be active. Pressing B on the keyboard enables what would later become the BONES cheat in the final.

Pressing Spacebar without a weapon results in a very weird forced ragdoll behavior on whatever object is in front of Anne currently. This ragdoll button may result in Anne tipping over on her side and being unable to put herself upright again. She can still walk around but will have to walk around on her side or back. Sometimes this may also result in Anne's body bouncing around the map uncontrollably as well. The button can also be used to injure or even kill dinosaurs, though because of the problem noted above, it's ill advised. Finally pressing R will restart the level either from the beginning or where ever the last save was made.

• The way the game saves is different. Rather than a unique filetype, the game saves to the .scn format which is used for both the final and all prototype builds as a main level file.
• None of the levels can be completed as their exit triggers do not exist yet.
• Dinosaur animations look more natural compared to the final's. However, they are much buggier and colliding with objects is more likely to contort them into odd shapes and in some rare cases (such as the Triceratops or Parasaurolophus on occasion) crash the game.
• ActOuch is working in this build.
• Anne cannot stow away objects.
• Anne can throw objects by holding the right mouse button, aim and release it, unlike using the "F" button in builds after 96.
• Most sound effects are missing from levels.
• Weapons are notably scarce in this build. What ones are there either lack sound or use sounds for other weapons. Notably, the Mac-10 seems to fire in slow bursts rather than continuously fast rapid-fire.
• Dinosaurs may not spawn properly. Their LOD sprites may be seen but upon approaching enough to where their 3D model should be rendered, they may disappear.
• The UI is a lot more primitive.
• The launcher uses a completely different image than Build 96 and the final.
• The opening FMV is the same as the Trespasser demo, but lacks the Dreamworks logo.
• The opening FMV is followed by a splash screen of the Dreamworks logo.
• Menu graphics are stored as mostly .bmp files.

Sub-Pages

There aren't as many levels here as Build 96 but what ones are here are very different from their finalized versions and Build 96. Notably, more foliage.

Jungle Road It seems for whatever reason, this level had some objects already in it removed at some point between this and the April version that was acquired a while back. The textures are also glitchy at a distance.

Plantation House This is probably the second most complete level in this build and it's exclusive to the PCgamer build.

Industrial Jungle Arguably the most complete of the levels. It's almost like a completely different level from the final.

Pine Valley While filled with objects, almost no dinosaurs are found here.

Test Scene There are far fewer things in this version of the level than in Build 96 and the final.

errorlog.txt

This text file contains the following information:

Lost World Error:
-----------------

Date and Time:
--------------

Tue Jun 16 16:23:05 1998


Error Message:
--------------
 
Assertion failed!
(L:\drop\smoke\game\data\TestScene.GRF)

C:\jp2_pc\Source\Lib\Sys\W95\textout.cpp

Line #: 650

Apparently there were some problems with TestScene.GRF and Line #650 in a source file.

To do: Possibly look at this line in the source and see what it does.

Area Notes.txt

It also contains notes for what was added in this build. Judging by the information in the file, it seems Plantation House is a relatively new addition to the game at this point.

Area Release Notes

Plantation House:

Points of interest:
Starting area: plank is now a monobox.  Took out dummy objects.
Parasaurolophus - bad behavior has been fixed.
Rock-throwing puzzle
Construction Area and nearby raptors: there is a gun under the trailer.  There are pieces of rebar on top of the tin  shed and the trailer, which you can use to pull it out.
Gateway with swinging piece of wood:  I couldn't lower this any, so I put a piece of rebar which you can pick up and  swat the piece of wood with.  It's cool.
Crashed truck w/raptor and T-Rex:  There is a gun on the bed of the truck.  I taunted the T-Rex into knocking over the  jeep trying to get at me.  It looked very good. 
Plantation House
Stables:  I couldn't fully fix the stable doors - they will always want to swing open.   You can jump up and swing  from the rafters.


Known Problems:

Pushing too hard on the house's front doors will either a) cause the door to open anyway, or b) cause the table to explode.
Sometimes, shooting the table AK-47 will cause it to interpenetrate with its neighbors and explode.

Industrial Jungle

Changes:

Sound materials on nearly everything.
T-Rex vs. Trike fight.
New ambients.

World.txt

Seems to be a file from compiling. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be very wise to post it here because the text file is HUGE. It basically details locations of instances, triggers, and entities and their locations listed in XYZ coordinates anyway.