First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

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Hilwo
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First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Hilwo »

Not sure if this has been done before, but I thought it might be fun idea to start a topic in which
we can share the specific things we remember of our very first playthrough of Trespasser. And
maybe a bit of info prior to getting/starting the game. I'll go first:

I remember reading about the game in various magazines, what stood out for me was that the
game was going to be one big level and that the dinosaurs would not stay in one place but would
move all over the island. I had a PC Zone Benelux membership and remember seeing ads, a review
for the game and a CD that came with the demo. I was amazed with the demo, but somehow I
never bought Trespasser when it first came out. I tried, but I just can't remember why I didn't
buy it back then, but it was probably a money issue or maybe our computer wasn't up to it.

In any case I must have forgotten about the game (how could I?) until about 6 months after its
release. I then asked a classmate to burn me a copy of the game, it'd take a while for him to
get it, though. Yeah I know, an 'illegal copy'. I'm a terrible person, shoot bullets through me :yum:
I've got several original copies now, so I think I more than made up for it. Anyway, all I had during
the wait for the full game, was the demo.

By the time I got the full game I'd done it all; I got past the rocks (I think with help from TresNet),
got past the Rex, saw the canal and had no idea what it was for. Let alone did I know this was
once Pine Valley, hell... I didn't even know about a level being cut at all back then.

Ah, the full game... I won't go through all the levels, but just some specific things that come to
mind concerning my very first playthrough of Trespasser. Maybe I'll remember more later but here's
the things that come to mind for now;

That wooden ramp thing in the Beach level, ever tried to make that jump with a pre-patched game?
I did, lots of time! My advice; don't. I remember how impatient I was, wanting to pass that ramp
and wanting to see the rest of the game.

The most specific thing I remember was the way I got into Wu's house. Instead of solving the puzzle
and unlocking the gate, I dragged a couple of boxes over, made a staircase out of them and hopped
over the gate. I realise I completely ruined the puzzle the developers had intended me to solve, but
I remember just how surprised I was that it was even possible in a game to do this. If I hadn't
already realised this game was different, this must have been the place where I made that realisation.

The Lab level must have been my favorite level from the beginning. I remember that when I saw that all
buildings at the compound needed a keycard, I was worried I forgot to bring one along and had to hike
all the way back. I was a bit dissapointed with the way-too-easy 'Kandar' puzzle, I was hoping it
would have been harder. That way you would have felt more proud solving it yourself.

Well that's all for now, how about you guys?
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Rebel »

Hell, 1st thing I had to do was buy more ram and a new processor, only after that could I play the game. I was following the game since its inception too, and being a dinosaur fan all my life, in spite of some bugs and some sporadic stutter, I still loved the game. The town (the lab a close second) was always my favorite place; I spent hours there just wandering around, looking for things I might have missed. After beating the game several times, I also tried to get through the entire game without using guns, though I can't recall if I actually made it all the way through or not -
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by tatu »

Hilwo wrote:The most specific thing I remember was the way I got into Wu's house. Instead of solving the puzzle
and unlocking the gate, I dragged a couple of boxes over, made a staircase out of them and hopped
over the gate. I realise I completely ruined the puzzle the developers had intended me to solve, but
I remember just how surprised I was that it was even possible in a game to do this. If I hadn't
already realised this game was different, this must have been the place where I made that realisation.
Haha I did the same, never figured out how to open the gate. Drag them all the way from the church. Still remember like it was yesterday haha.
Did the same to get past the gate to plains. Took me years before I knew about the white keycard :lol:

The best memory I have is that I played BE and JR for days before I completed them, and like you said. Make that jump in BE is nothing to do without the patch xD
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BE-PH1: Released
PH2-IT: Pre-released
PL-SUM: In production

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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Second Illiteration »

My first memory of this game was seeing a commercial, something with a trex knocking something over, possibly sticking it's head into a building. It was Jurassic Park related and looked cool, so I had to get it. So I bought Chaos Island, thinking it was the game I had seen...I was wrong but not too much later, Trespasser came out and I convinced my mom to buy that one too.

I remember being awed by it, loved the game. The first raptor encounter definitely scared me, I remember a flutter in my stomach hearing that first growl. I remember some trouble in the beach level, but most of it wasn't too frustrating until I got to the monorail station. I spent forever trying to open the gates, stacking crates, using rebar etc. I figured that if I jumped from the track, I'd die. Then I tried it, and it worked, and I felt relieved.

Anyway, my favorite levels are probably the ones prior to the town, the "jungle" levels. They just held the most awe and beauty to me.
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Microceratops »

I remember I first read about the game not too many years ago, but I wasn't too interested on it as the reviews for it were extremly low. Finally some day I dediced to give it a try to the demo, and boy I loved it. I loved the fact that it felt so realistic. The graphics looked great, and the semi-open world was really fun to explore. I remember on my first playthrough I always jumped out of my seat when a Raptor roared from behind me and practically killed me. And I remember being out of ammo thinking "Shit, I gotta find a weapon soon". The sense of isolation and claustropoby in a such an open world was amazing.
And the fact that you got to know all this stuff from the island that wasn't on the movies really impressed me. For example, The Town level really got me. I felt in love with that level. I remember just loving walking aimeslly from building to building, exploring for stuff, and the best: Hearing the voice-overs. It was like knowing Jurassic Park from a place we never knew it before. Which curiously enough was never developed on any of the sequels.

I still don't get why the game has so many bad reviews, when in fact it's bloody brilliant. Sure, it has glichtes. But it's from 1998, for Christ sake! Only a very few games in the 21st century impressed as much as Trespasser did. Why can't more modern games be more like this, I don't know... I love the fact that it's not a mindless action game, but instead if features a lot of the thinking elements that old adventure games used to have.
That's what annoys me of modern shooters: They have no brains behind them. I mean, sure it's fun at first killing everything you see, but after that, there's no challange and it gets terribly boring, at least for me. When I play a video game I'm looking for a challenge, that not only keeps on my toes, but also has me thinking.

And favorite levels: The Town and The Lab, for sure. Always end up replaying those. In fact, I think I'm gonna play those right now...
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by tatu »

Microceratops wrote:That's what annoys me of modern shooters: They have no brains behind them. I mean, sure it's fun at first killing everything you see, but after that, there's no challange and it gets terribly boring, at least for me. When I play a video game I'm looking for a challenge, that not only keeps on my toes, but also has me thinking.
I agree! Modern games are all about the graphic. If you read something about the a new game, and the graphic are not too good, it sucks! Does a good game have good graphic, it rocks! That's it..
And what do you do in modern FPS for exampel? In the first level you kill, in the second you kill, in the third you kill... you only running around killing people, nothing else o.O
Active project: Trespasser: Isla Sorna
Status:
BE-PH1: Released
PH2-IT: Pre-released
PL-SUM: In production

"...there used to be more benches, but InGen's workers removed them during the evacuation in the name of framerate."
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Draconisaurus »

Nice memories..
I, too, went through BE without the EXE patch. In fact, I believe I went through the *entire* game, on my first round (which lasted a few weeks, went on and off between it and learning to mod), without the patch. I remember that each crate puzzle was a doozy in BE, and that bridge, I definitely spent a day (on and off) trying to do it. Sometimes I play BE again and am saddened by how easy it is - I leapfrog up it as if it's not even there.
With your worry about bypassing the dev's planned level progression - It's my impression from their earliest desires for the engine that they WANTED people to have the ability to solve the puzzles presented to them in diverse ways, especially in ways maximizing the realistic physics engine. So I think you did 'em good there. Wish I thought of it back then, even....

I've posted in multiple threads with this topic in the past but will recall some of my experience again..
Though I was an avid dinosaur fan since a year old and huge JP fan clear through the release of TLW, I never heard of Trespasser when it came out. My dad didn't even let me see TLW film, I watched it years later on TV in bad reception. Despite that, I had many JP and TLW toys when the movie as out lol. In 1998 I probably had my 256-color Macintosh Quadra, System 7 something. Got into 3D graphics in early high school, took classes in it. Got heavy into the Star Trek starship modeling scene, though I was slower than a rock and didn't get much done. JP had dropped out of my life shortly before the release of JP3, which I didn't even bother to see for years, I guess because I had so much else going on (mostly with Legos, my medium of choice). In late Spring 2004, I finally got my own Windows XP computer and continued modeling starships. By some chance event that Summer, I was doing a random Google image search when a picture of some familiar toys set in an outdoor environment caught my eye. I clicked and discovered that an entire, bazillion-page story had been put together using high-quality photos of toys in realistic environments. As a kid I'd wanted to film a movie using my JP toys (I have the storyboards to prove it) at the local park and this reignited that fire. I joined my second forum, JPtoys.com, where I planned to use CG models as an asset to toy diorama stories, where I modeled the Isla Sorna fence. Late that Autumn, JPXTom was promoting TC Isle at the forum, and I was shocked to hear that people were making new JP game environments (that looked awesome) using 3DS Max. Tom arranged for us and Madppiper to have a group chat in AIM where he revealed the full potential of the engine (though to my memory he lead us to believe some things that I would not count as realistically possible :lol: ;)). This was happening in my Junior year at school, where I took a programming class in Visual Basic .NET, which played a part in my shift of interest in 3D from making videos to making interactive environments. It later proved invaluable for allowing me to comprehend the scripting engine. (I took Visual C# .NET the following year)

Anyways, Tom and I were plotting and scheming behind the scenes. I had turned my idea for a side-plot in my diorama story into an entire game explaining the abnormal creatures seen in JP3, cover the entire island, originally planned as 1 giant level, but Tom convinced us to break it up into 3 (and now the first broken into 4, lol, big dreamers). I finally got the Trespasser demo, with no sound. Spent several days experimenting ontop of the helipads, unable to get down. Learned a lot about the physics engine. The level, rendered in software mode, seemed to stretch on forever in all directions; I felt there really was infinite forest, even if unpopulated. The silence only added to the mystery. The dinosaurs, too, had me watching for a long time, trying to see what they looked like. I finally was told to shoot the trailer leg - something I would never have done on my own, what a strange thing to do?? Was extremely careful each time I descended. Threw every gun onto the ground each time before I went. Spent lots of time and calculated moves attempting to kill each raptor before proceeding without running out of ammo. (By the way, Hilwo, you say you got beyond the Rex without using TresEd? I didn't know this was possible.)

Meanwhile, JPXTom was sending me the files from his retail Trespasser disc over a dial-up connection, one little bit at a time. After like, a week or something, I finally had it and installed the game. I believe I actually played BE for a while, got stuck at the bridge, and moved on to play TC Isle. Isle was soooo freaking awesome for both of us!!! Thick fog everywhere, I could not visualize the shape of the terrain and progressed using landmarks and memorized directions to travel from each. Back then, on that computer, you could not see the outline of the palms on the sky, so it was really a mystery. Funnily enough, the Pteras were impossible to see in this level of fog. It wasn't until TresEdding much later that I discovered them to exist. But it was soooooo much fun, I spent more time in TC Isle than retail Tres for the first couple months.

Anyways on Dec. 4th, I revealed my progress on a new mesh for Spinosaurus, soon to become my many-paged JPDS thread.

TO BE CONTINUED!
(gotta do the marketing)
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Hilwo »

Nice replies everyone! :)

Draco; I think I remember reading somewhere that some dev was dissapointed
that some people would just hop over the fence. Can't remember where I read
it though, it might have been the post-mortem (not sure if that was written by
a dev?).

About getting past the Rex in the demo, I think it was done while saving/loading
once the 'timer' had been acivated. This would deactivate the timer and allow
you to continue playing. Don't remember it exactly though, as it's no longer of
much interest now that we can edit and teleport our way through :)
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Draconisaurus »

Ah interesting. My experience with Tres timers (with the delay AT) was that they actually did get accounted for in savegames (while testing EastDock), but I'll take your word that it had something to do with that..
And lol I do kinda remember reading about dev disappointment as well, though perhaps that was more about players utilizing the engine's glitches (like passing straight through gates).


Next part!

...Not actually too much more to go, but I continued to play the entire game with no sound and in software mode (at the time I thought the Hardware mode look was a graphics improvement from TC Isle). The only widely-known fixes at the time were said to be downgrading your computer's sound drivers and I wasn't about to monkey with that. I occasionally listened to voiceovers and other sounds using TresEd and as a result, my memory of the voices and music tracks is not tied to the original game hardly at all (thus why Scall's renamed soundtrack was especially confusing ;)). Playing the game without sound had a number of fun benefits including being scared out of my gourd half the time raptors would appear. This was especially frightening in SUM (it took me a few weeks of occasional attempts after finding the elevator to operate it properly and get up there) where there are literally c-tribers everywhere. That was the most genuinely difficult raptor encounter of the game, among those wind turbines, and still is. The most difficult part of the game PERIOD, though, was definitely the rock-jump halfway to the foot of the mountain in AS2. After the mini Mayan ruins and the "congo bongo" stuff. No patch.... These days it's easy :?

To sum up - I eventually got sound to work with ATX's troubleshoot option, and then when Big Red added the CD verification, I had to make arrangements to buy an actual disc :lol: I acquired what turned out to be a Chinese-character-covered UK version, wrapped in the outer cover of the instruction booklet, for a pretty cheap price. Years later Tatu confirmed it was identical to the "normal" UK version - I hadn't felt like installing the whole game in Chinese, in case it was, and used the CD for direct file access and the verification. I will probably keep this CD around for good, even after I sell my computer next year, just so I can occasionally throw it in someone's poor computer and have a good ol' time.. So thanks Big Red ;P
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Hilwo »

Draconisaurus wrote:Ah interesting. My experience with Tres timers (with the delay AT) was that they actually did get accounted for in savegames (while testing EastDock), but I'll take your word that it had something to do with that..
You'll have to ask around more if you are interested, I don't remember the
details but I do remember that the timer could somehow be disabled. Had
to be, because I don't think even TresView excisted back then.
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by Egghead »

I remember my first time seeing trespasser, I was watching a trailer for it on my windows 98 instalation disk. Being somebody who loves the obscure and different games I had to have it. I proceeded to download the demo and played it until my copy from ebay came in. Been loving it ever since! I clearly remember the level with the rex and the two raptors ("jr" i believe) I was hiding behind a tree and the rex tripped over a rock and flattened one of the raptors! Funniest moment in the game! I also remember being in the town level and I was hiding in one of the cottage/houses and when I tried to leave a raptor jumped around the corner and scared me to death! I love Trespasser for the reason it was different from all the other games out at the time.
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Re: First contact with Trespasser and your first playthrough

Post by badraptor92 »

It was awesome; I played through it just like a cinematic experience. From the beach to the summit, it was just like being in a movie. I could care less about the few glitches (except in a few places where I got killed because of them :x ), and I personally liked the targeting system of the game. It made it more realistic. After all, if I had just crashed in a plane and broken my left arm, I don't think I'd have cat-like reflexes :mrgreen: . Best of all was the way Hammond's voiceovers played into it; it made the whole game very chilling and suspenseful, especially when Anne reboots the Cray.
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