This forum has died down, so I wanted to talk to those of you who still check it from time to time http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/smile.gif)

TPM has basically been laid to rest; Lucasarts apparently has no intention of releasing any kind of patches/bonus levels/sequels etc. So, I kind of wanted to do a post-mortem on it, and see where we failed and where we succeeded.

Any questions or comments would be appreciated. I'll add as much input as I can.

For those who are interested, in spite of TPM's hit-or-miss response from the reviews [mostly miss http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/frown.gif) ] , it sold very well. The numbers I am hearing that PSX and PC combined are at about 1.6 million units sold worldwide, with some countries missing, so 2 million may be attainable.

Um, sorry, but I only played the demo (I liked it, and would buy it for cheap http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/smile.gif).

I just thought you wanted a reply though.

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"Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words."
-St. Francis of Assisi

I really enjoyed the game, although I wish the AI characters that help you in certain levels could have been smarter. I wish also that LEC would release a patch or something to fix all the glitches and bugs in the game. In the final level, the battle with Darth Maul is a little too predictable, and once you fight him, you know everything he is going to do and beating him becomes a relatively simple matter. The array of available weapons was nice, and most of the cheats did come in handy (some were completely useless). The puzzles were tricky, but not so much that they were impossible (obviously). The camera angle was a little weird, but I got used to it pretty quick. I hope this is the kind of feedback on things that you were hoping to get, and if not, then post what kind you did want to get (i.e., how could jediknight.net have done a better job to keep this forum alive [nothing you could do, in my opinion]).

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"Well, you were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short."
- Obi-Wan Kenobi

Yep, It has been a while since my last visit to this message board. And it does look pretty dead around here. But I do still enjoy playing the game from time to time. And it's nice to come to this forum when you need some help on the game or if you just need someone to talk to about star wars. This was a good game from the start and it diserved more credit then it got. I hate to see this game just dissapear in thin air. If Lucasarts won't continue the work on the game, then we should at least show that we still care about this game.

Some of the AI stuff turned out a lot better than we expected; but some of it just didn't turn out well at ALL. The Queen on the Escape from Theed level turned out to be a nightmare...some of the limitations of the code were already well in place before we realized we needed work-arounds. Basically, by then we were screwed, and wound up doing band-aids on the existing AI to try and keep her on track. While we were able to complete the level, it did indeed turn out worse than we had envisioned, because she got hung up on corners so often. And, there were several areas where she ran into the line of fire, and basically we were forced to keep it in there as it was. Nobody was happy about it...we rationalized that it would train the player to stay close to protect the queen http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/frown.gif)

Darth Maul on the Final Battle level didn't turn out anywhere what we had hoped; basically we made a mistake in that we kept putting it off until we got towards the end of the project, and then we were forced to rush his AI to get it done rather than make it memorable. I've heard that you can force-push him off the edge; that's a bug that we thought we had exterminated, but obviously we didn't.

We were at the two-week mark, where we thought we had 2 weeks to finalize the game for our target 'Gold' date, during which we thought we could improve some of the obvious problems (droids walking in place, etc.). Well, Lucasarts realized that their PSX conversion team was lagging WAY behind, and so they decided to pull the plug on the PC version to free us up to help the PSX port. As it turned out, those 2 weeks really didn't help the PSX version as much as it would have helped the PC version - 20/20 hindsight, of course. We were in the midst of revising Darth Maul's Final Battle fight for the umpteenth time when we were forced to wrap it up.

I think that the Phantom Menace has been a great game. I play it alot, and never get sick of it. There could've been better levels, such as the Mos Espa levels, but they turned out fine. Unfortunatley you guys at Big Ape had to cut some characters like Jira and Jabba's porter, but the levels were fine(as I say again). I could have a long list of changes, but I don't want to complain. Good job Zanzibar and the rest of the BigApe team for their time and effort. The Phantom Menace, in my book, is a very,very,cool game.

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Thinking, always thinking...

Yes, despite it's many faults, The Phantom Menace will go down as one of my most favorite games. That fight with all 3 Jedi in the hangar is great; you never know when Darth Maul will get sick of dueling Qui-Gon and flip over to attack you. Some of the glitches that weren't so bad did manage to challenge the player a bit in order to make the feeling of ending the level have a greater sense of accomplishment. I thoroughly enjoyed gameplay throughout, esepecially jumping around with Obi-Wan on the Gardens of Theed level, looking for more secrets. It was kind of odd how in The Final Battle, you could Force-push Darth Maul off the edge, but when you were up on either of the platforms that led to the catwalk, the Force-push had no effect. My favorite thing to do was to stand there in front of 10 or more battle droids with my lightsaber and reflect as many shots as I could. It would be awesome if they took the game even ONE step farther and developed a patch or SOMETHING, but oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next FPS...

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"Well, you were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short."
- Obi-Wan Kenobi

To see an exclusive screen from a cutscene that was taken out of TPM, goto www.monolith3d.com/gungbattle2.jpg). (http://www.monolith3d.com/gungbattle2.jpg.)

-UkeNuke www.monolith3d.com) (http://www.monolith3d.com)

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The Darkside? I've been there. Do your worst.

I only played the demo. It was fun, and overall okay. I watched my roommate beat the game. It doesn't look like a game I would buy. Maybe if it was dirt cheap and I had nothing else to spend my money on..

Yeah, a "gamasutra.com" type of post-mortem would be cool Zanzibar!

Kurgan

I bought the game as soon as it was out, because I am a big Star Wars fan. Although the game was a little disappointing in the terms of AI and OPTIONS, and the fact that I completed it in 5 hours, I still thought it was a good game. I love killing battledroids.
I do believe the game would have survived longer if you had included a multiplayer-mode and other palyable characters. I remember that Zanzibar said something about a Mace Windu patch he was using, but that it was unauthorized,and also something about an unauthorized multiplayer version.
You guys should really release this(unauthorized or not ) because of all the fans of this game that would like a new addition to the game.
Next time, include more options, multiplayer and PLEASE make the game more easily editable!!

I quite liked the game. I've played it a million times and it doesn't get old. It has a lot of glitches though, most of which have been mentioned on numerous occasions. One thing I haven't seen has to do with the sound files. Recopying the sound files to the hard drive EVERYTIME a level is loaded slows everything down, and with repeated loading the sound/music sometimes starts to break down and the game often crashes. Copying all the sound files to the hard drive on installation would have avoided all this.

Being able to change characters is a definite plus, though it's a drag having the wrong voices. I also wish you didn't have to keep typing in the code all the time.

A cool feature would have been alternate paths through certain levels. For example, on the Trade Fed. level you could be Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan and there'd be a different path through the level depending on which one you were. Also, the game needn't cling so closely to the movie story line. It would have been better if there was a way to keep Qui-Gon alive [if you kill Darth Maul, by God he should stay killed!]or maybe a different way to get off Tatooine other than the Watto/Podrace bit. It would be very nice if you guys released an update or expansion of the game [like with Jedi Knight] with some of these features.

The camera angle was good as a default view, but a rotating camera angle [Tomb Raider] would have helped and would be a lot easier than having to type in a code everytime you want to change the view, then type the code in again to change it back. Although I'm always interested in new games, First I'd like to see an add-on to this one. It's not like it would be that much trouble to make [which means Lucas Arts won't do it].

This is my favorite Star Wars game [ranking above both Jedi Knight & Power Battles] and I give it 9 out of 10.

I would give this game, about a 7.3. The gameplay is a little bit above average. Most everything else in this game is good, except for one thing: The Graphics. The graphics on the people is to jagged and blocky. You guys at Big Ape did pay attention the little things, like the water splashes, lightsaber trails, ect..... , but the architecture wasn't that great at all. The MTT's and the AAT's had great graphics, but the graphics on everythings else was below par. I know you guys could of done alot better than that. But besides the graphics, I think it would be a very good idea to create an addon pack for this game. I would buy it.

That's my 2 cents worth.

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Fear, fear attracts the fearfull; the strong, the weak, the insolent. Fear, fear is my ally - Darth Maul

Oh yeah, would there happen to be a code for invulnribility or fly mode, Zanzibar? (PC version)

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Fear, fear attracts the fearfull; the strong, the weak, the insolent. Fear, fear is my ally - Darth Maul

Unfortunately no, no cheat code for invulnerability or flying. That stuff was taken out late in testing.

Well, Zanzibar, I just got this game from by brother-in-law...and please realize that I'm not really a gamer by nature (time, more than anything else precludes it!)...but I'm hooked on this game!

My question is probably one that's been brought up many times: on certain levels (ie. Otoh Gunga), there are certain bubbles where I cannot see thru the top. Needless to say, this makes it difficult to proceed with a lot of them! Matter of a fact, it's only by the power of the Force that I've made it to the multiple moving pillars in water bubble.

I find that when I move over to position myself for the first jump from the ledge, I can't see a thing. This has precluded me from going any farther, obviously, and I was hoping you might have a simple solution (or even complex, if necessary) on how to fix this.

I have a Packard Bell Pentium II 350 MHz with 64 MB RAM/6.4 GB HD and a 3D acclerator that was preinstalled...I think it's a RageII AGP.

"Any hep here wud be had!"

I have a ATI Rage Fury 128 and i've never had a problem with those bubbles.

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Fear, fear attracts the fearfull; the strong, the weak, the insolent. Fear, fear is my ally - Darth Maul

<font color="green1">I had this same problem, at first. On the startup box, click Hardware Configuration; then click Video Options; then select Use Additive Blending. This worked for me.

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http://fan.starwars.com/Fishsticks/files/Jedi3.jpg)
I am the Lizard King,
I can do anything.

[This message has been edited by Master Qui-Gon (edited June 08, 2000).]

Master Qui-Gon is absolutely correct; the Additive Blending (In the Launcher, under Hardware Configuration) was created PRECISELY for your brand of video card, because they have a different way of dealing with transparency than most cards. It gave our compatibility programmer FITS before he came up with this solution.

From what I saw of it, the additive blending gives a REALLY COOL look to Otoh Gunga - all the bubbles GLOW instead of just being see-through. Personally, I thought it looked much more like the movie. WARNING: I have no idea what happens if you turn Additive Blending on when you don't have the ATI Rage Pro card. It may or may not look different.

i think i would rate this game a 8 1/2 to a 9. i just wish it had multiplayer capabilities. overall the game is really cool. It has pretty awesome graphics and gameplay.

I'm back! After about a year of not posting, something told me to take a trip back down memory lane. Hows it going guys?

I haven't read all the other posts, but...

I loved the game. I remember downloading the demo and playing it for the first time, I did every thing I could to scrape up enough cash to buy it. Finally I got it, and I wasn't dissapointed. I couldn't stop playing it. The game followed the movie perfectly. The only problem I had was my video card sucked and I sometimes the backround was huge yellow blocks. Then when I tried to fix it, the blocks turned black instead. Anyway, the characters where great, the weapons were cool, and I loved the last two levels where it switched back and forth betweem Queen Amidala and Obi Wan. The only thing that took a while to get used to was the over head view. Besides that, everything else was great.

Anyone who said this game sucked has no idea what the hell they're talking about.

-Obi-Gon-

I agree with Obi Gon. The way the last level switched back and forth(like the movie) was cool. I also liked the cut scenes.

The cutscenes are a great story. Lucasarts was doing just about all of the cutscene stuff (I rendered out the Mos Espa Arena flyby, and the second text scroll at the beginning of the Assault on Theed level), and initially time ran out on them in December - the TPM cutscene team was supposed to move on to other projects. At the time, their results weren't the best. Lucasarts then made the best move of TPM - they decided to burn the midnight oil to make sure the cutscenes turned out well, and lo and behold, they were great!

I'm a little lost. I have a Rage also and have the same problem with the bubbles. Where might I be able to find this "Additive Blending" button on some startup-thingy. I've been looking around and can't seem to find it.

Some button on the launcher leads to a place that lets you see a button labeled video options and then you can fiddle with additive blending.

Most amazing thing happened last night. My brother got out TPM to play it for the first time and got past the bubble in Otoh Gunga with the collapsing pillars on his his attempt. I'd never seen anyone do it as fast as he did.

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Still no real sig.

Ah, I have not been here for a LOOONNNGGG time... I too think that TPM would have been a great game but a little extra time given from LucasArts would have gave you guys at Big Ape time to enhance the game... Also Zanzibar, where is Jira from Mos Espa? My friends said that they found her, but I could not. Is she there at all?

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http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/pcwhiz/quigon.jpg)

"Be Mindful of the Living Force." - Qui-Gon Jinn

I'm not so sure I like this game so much.
I rate it at a 4...and I pretty much love all the Star Wars genre games.

The key feature that was not done well was "playability". It was difficult to see (dark) and difficult to find things (bad angles). Other games have allowed me to change the viewing angle so I could look up and down, even from a third-person view.

I think that "shuffle-to-the-side" as opposed to or in addition to the "roll-to-the-side" would have been appreciated. I have to work hard to get the character in the right position to shoot from the most defensive angle. "Roll-to-the-side" covers a fixed distance and sometimes I don't want to go that far.

There's a "quick save"; how come there's no "quick load"? With all the jumping across gaps, right now it's more convenient to run around to the original jump-off spot than to reload the last quick save.

I'm only at Naboo right now (second scenario) but is Force-push the only power? That would rot.

The graphics are great, but so far, playability is slightly less than that of "Shadows of the Empire". It's still a level-by-level console game. With all the different pieces and situations, it's a much less coherent game than "Jedi Knight". It could have been a lot better game and I was expecting much better from LucasArts.

This just tells me that I shouldn't buy games that are also released for consoles.

Welcome back Qui-Gon! http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/smile.gif)

Is Simpson still around anywhere?

No idea. >.>

But it's possible.