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IXS and Soccer Mania Developer Found!


Mr. Ash
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Martin Wood, who did Art Direction & Management for Island Xtreme Stunts and Character Models/Textures for Soccer Mania, has his own portfolio website:ixs_b.jpg

martians_700.jpg

11/13/15: Two years after posting this, I finally made an effort to contact him. In my message, I introduced myself and explained how I found his site. Specific questions about the games were not prepared yet, but I told him that they would be composed and asked later. The only question I had immediately was if he had any more images like the ones above.

11/22/15: I finished composing questions and sent them off in another e-mail (See last post on first page).

Edited by AaronBurner05
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lol username

Lovely IXS screenshots there. The GBA version has multiplayer, interesting to see it was planned for the PC/PS2 game as well.

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The island looks a lot more like the Freeway Frenzy levels here than it does in-game. I'm really curious about what the arcade and versus modes were going to be like. Especially the versus mode. It probably would have had to do with the minigames, but it sounds like it would be difficult for two players trying to grind the Brickster's plane or rescue passngers. Maybe they were modified versions of the released minigames, unreleased ones, or actually having two players on the Island at once? Whatever it would have been like, I wonder who the 2nd character would been (or if there were a few characters to choose from, who they were).

 

As for the Life On Mars picture below, I'm guessing that there were a few martians that didn't make it into Soccer Mania when the game was released.

 

If I find anything else on the site, I'll be sure to post it as well :).

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  • 9 months later...
Shadowblaze

Now that ties125 bumped this topic, I came up with a simple idea. Why don't we put those alien face textures in LR2? I personally dislike the alien with yellow clothes that is in-game, I'd like to see a different dude instead. And come on, we have the textures right there, we could make the mod so quickly! By the way, I can't install anything on my computer, so I can't edit the MIP files from LR2 myself.

 

Oh, and, ties125, don't bump.

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lol username

The 4th one isnt a beta screenshot. Its the start-up loading screen on the dutch version :)

We know. It's the initial loading screen for the game regardless of language.

Shadowblaze, perhaps you should refresh yourself on >the rules regarding bumping. Bumping an old topic is not inherently pointless. Replying to a bumped topic merely to talk about the bump, as you sometimes do, is always pointless. If you think something is a problem, just >report it and move on without making another pointless post in return.

But in this case, we're also talking about porting those textures to LR2. They've been a bit jpg-ified, and they aren't all of the martians either. I think you might get better and more complete results by using the textures directly from Soccer Mania - once the format is figured out anyway.

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Shadowblaze

But in this case, we're also talking about porting those textures to LR2. They've been a bit jpg-ified, and they aren't all of the martians either. I think you might get better and more complete results by using the textures directly from Soccer Mania - once the format is figured out anyway.

 

I don't own the game, and as we can't extract the textures for the game, I think we should just use these ones until we discover the format.

 

Shadowblaze, perhaps you should refresh yourself on the rules regarding bumping. Bumping an old topic is not inherently pointless. Replying to a bumped topic merely to talk about the bump, as you sometimes do, is always pointless. If you think something is a problem, just report it and move on without making another pointless post in return.

 

I completely agree with you, in fact I try not to reply to people who bumps for good. I reply to who bumps just to tell him to not bump topics unless it is necessary. But come on, we warned ties125 quite a lot of times, and he still hasn't got that bumping is not technically allowed. And I got mad, and I am sorry for that. But did you really have to delete my post on that other topic? It was probably the funniest one I have ever made. :P

 

I'll try not replying again if it's not necessary.

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On my older computer, I actually ripped the Martian textures from SM a while back. Unfortunately, it is having problems at the moment and I don't have the original rips on my newer PC. What I remember is that the textures weren't as good in quality as the image in my topic because they are smaller (64x64 I believe) and have compression problems where the colors "bleed out". However, it is not anywhere near as much of a problem as IXS textures.

 

The image is missing Riegel and Vega's faces. I knew that Riegel's was in the game as he is a playable character, but I wasn't sure about Vega's. Fortunately, his face texture is actually used in-game. I'm assuming that it is used by a spectator on one of the Martian fields

 

Once I got a copy of LR2, I tried out these textures on the Martians. Unfortunately, the way they are displayed on a Martian head is really messed up. The problem is that while SM's are flattened, LR2's are more rounded so that they look more like the actual LEGO design. However, I was able to Vega's face look better by simply rotating and stretching his eyes (see my avatar).

 

I don't think it will be very hard to make Arcturus' (the red-eyed Martian with pale green skin) look better, but the other ones will be a bit of a challenge because of their masks. I'm actually working on a texture pack for LR2 that includes the other Martians. I will post some screenshots or even a topic later.

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  • 1 year later...

I sent a short message off to Martin Wood just wanted to let him know in advance that I would propose some questions later. I also asked if he had any other images like the ones posted. I'll be sure to share his response when he gets back!

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I've put together some questions for him regarding Island Xtreme Stunts:

1.    Versus and Arcade modes were both removed from the game. Do you have any information about these features?
2.    A character known as “Rolf the Vet” is absent along with a “Matching Brickimals” minigame. Was there ever some dialogue or a visual appearance for this character before they were removed?
3.    The protagonist Pepper Roni had multiple different versions of his stunt suit during development. He wears an entirely black suit in the actual game, but the video cutscenes and some old screenshots depict him with black pants and an orange top. I also discovered another version in dark green that used Pepper’s faces from the previous LEGO Island game. What influenced these changes as the game further developed?
4.    The original island was much larger according to this map. Are there screenshots of the early island?
5.    Players can do 17 subquests outside of the main minigames, but there is some unused quest data in the game’s files. Dean Roskell’s map labels as many as 54 subquests. What were some of these quests like?
6.    Were there any other cut characters, minigames, or game features?

Be sure to let me know if there is anything else you would like to include with these! I didn't send these to him yet, and I'll collect questions while awaiting his response.

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MaelstromIslander

What game engine does ixs\sm use? (question)

Its likely it doesn't use a special engine at all, at least not one you can acquire.

Or, it runs on DirectX like LEGO Island does. Who knows.

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Fluffy Cupcake

It uses DirectX, and in the .exe it says "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" so I assume it was programmed in C++. That being said, engines can use DirectX and be programmed in C++.

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What game engine does ixs\sm use? (question)

Its likely it doesn't use a special engine at all, at least not one you can acquire.

Or, it runs on DirectX like LEGO Island does. Who knows.

lol you have no idea how games work do you

anyway we don't know the name of the engine or anything but it's proprietary and is shared between soccer mania, IXS, and some of their other games

http://www.nvidia.com/object/silicon_soccer.html

 

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I whipped through both ports of the game and observed the content. For the PC, I captured the cutscene images and cropped early/cut characters that were most likely from a team (sorry for the bad quality! I accidentally saved the images in 8-bit depth 8S):

large.Collage.png.a6628dfb6afb5ac4953313

  1. The first cutscene shows both teams from the 2002 LEGO Soccer line. Only the red/white uniforms made it into the game, but the LEGO All Stars team has a blue cap for its goalie while the City Strikers' wears a red cap. Part of me is thinking that the LAS could have worn the white/blue uniforms. They also appear in the GBA port as the LEGO City All Stars.
  2. Another shot of ordinary soccer players. This time they are actually wearing uniforms from the 2000 sets. Minifigures are also seen in the intro movie wearing them.
  3. Nautical Nina's hair is purple instead of red.
  4. Cut Indian character.
  5. The guy wearing blue and grey is basically a grey recolor of Captain Ross Ranger, whom never made it into the game. Also, Crystal Aput.
  6. Baron Von Barron. He could have been part of the Adventurer Villain team, or he might have originally taken Sam Sinister's place as goalie.
  7. Vega.
  8. Space Port ground control. He looks like Technician Bob except he has a face like Sam Sinister's.
  9. Although his jumpsuit is purple and we cannot see his face, it is quite obvious that this Martian uses Arcturus' textures due to his paleness.
  10. Finally, a creeping Mizar.

The only exclusive characters I noticed in the GBA port were Life on Mars Astronauts and an Ogel Team, ironically named Team Alpha. Martin only worked on character models/textures for the 3D ports, but it is possible that he could have created textures for both teams if they were ever planned for PC/PS2.

Edited by AaronBurner05
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Lind Whisperer

interesting that alpha team was going to be in there

No, what Aaron is saying is that there was a team of OGEL villains, ironically named Alpha Team. Not the actual Alpha Team...

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Here's some screenshots from the old LEGO Interactive website (amusingly, they're still hosted on LEGO.com). It calls the team Ogel, but I'm guessing it's a beta screenshot (some of the other games had beta screens in their galleries):

footballmaniagba_4.jpgfootballmaniagba_9.jpg

For some reason I have a vague memory of seeing a team of skeleton drones in one (beta?) screenshot... But, I could be completely misremembering that.

Edit: A bigger and probably more permanent gallery, still no skeleton drones though. http://www.ign.com/images/games/lego-soccer-mania-gba-481399 

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For some reason I have a vague memory of seeing a team of skeleton drones in one (beta?) screenshot... But, I could be completely misremembering that.

The GBA teams have "regular" and "special" player types. I'm pretty sure there's no difference between them apart from the sprite, but the drone is most likely regular while Ogel is special.

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I finished composing the e-mail:

Hello again Martin,

I have prepared questions about the two LEGO Games you worked on. Most of them are regarding Island Xtreme Stunts:

1.    Versus and Arcade modes were both removed from the game. Do you have any information about these features?
2.    A character known as “Rolf the Vet” is absent along with a “Matching Brickimals” minigame. Was there ever some dialogue or a visual appearance for this character before they were removed?
3.    The protagonist Pepper Roni had multiple different versions of his stunt suit during development. He wears an entirely black suit in the actual game, but the video cutscenes and some old screenshots depict him with black pants and an orange top. There is also another version in dark green that uses Pepper’s face textures from the previous LEGO Island game. What influenced these changes as the game further developed?
4.    The original island was much larger according to this map. In addition to the different shape, a lot of buildings were removed including the Football Pitch and railroad. Are there screenshots of the early island?
5.    Players can do 17 subquests outside of the main minigames, but there is some unused quest data in the game’s files. Dean Roskell’s map labels as many as 54 subquests. Do you know what some of these would have been like in-game?
6.    Were there any other cut characters, minigames, or game features?

These are my questions about Football Mania:

1.    There are two characters that speak in the game. One of them is the field referee, Freddy Fit, but the other is an unnamed commentator with glasses and white hair. Do you know if he was ever given a name?
2.    A few of the Life on Mars aliens were cut from the game. Vega (the Martian wearing orange), Arcturus (pale skin and red eyes), and Mizar (dark grey mask) only appeared in non-graphical cutscenes, while the other six in your photo made up the Martian Team. Were any of the cut characters in the team at one point or featured as bonus characters?
3.    Baron Von Barron, a villain from the LEGO Adventurers line, appears in a cutscene. Something that created confusion among LEGO fans was that he was later renamed to Sam Sinister. However, that name originally belonged to another character who was the goalie for the Adventurer Villains’ team. Sam was then renamed to Slyboots, but his still had his original name in Football Mania. Was the Baron originally going to take the place of Sam/Slyboots, or were they both going to be included?
4.    The Gameboy Advance version of the game featured a couple exclusive teams. One was a team of skeleton drones from LEGO Alpha Team, and the other utilized astronauts from Life on Mars rather than the City Space Port subtheme. If these teams were ever planned for the PC and Playstation 2 ports, did you get to create textures for them?

I also am very confused about the texture files for both games. They share a .BMB extension, although their structures appear to be vastly different. Island Xtreme Stunts uses the .TGA format and groups the images together for an object, while Football Mania has a file for each individual texture and apparently uses Bitmaps. Is there any information you can provide about these files, including how they were created?

Thank you so much for reading this!

 

[First name edited out] Aaron

I will probably move his response over to a new topic so it doesn't get lost in here. Hopefully these were reasonable questions...

Edited by AaronBurner05
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The "unnamed" guy you asked about is Barry Baloney. He was in some other stuff, like the videos for the Rocket Racers attraction at LEGOLAND Windsor (vaguely related - there was also another character in those videos, Freddie/Freddy Sherbert, who wore a yellow/grey racing outfit, had this head, and drove a yellow version of Brad Speedo's car from Stunt Rally. I don't remember exactly what his outfit looked like, but I wanna say it was a yellow helmet and grey torso, maybe...?).

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Fluffy Cupcake

I will probably move his response over to a new topic so it doesn't get lost in here. Hopefully these were reasonable questions...

No no, keep it here, this topic isn't large, you can even edit the first post of this topic as it belongs to you and link to the post from there.

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The "unnamed" guy you asked about is Barry Baloney. He was in some other stuff, like the videos for the Rocket Racers attraction at LEGOLAND Windsor (vaguely related - there was also another character in those videos, Freddie/Freddy Sherbert, who wore a yellow/grey racing outfit, had this head, and drove a yellow version of Brad Speedo's car from Stunt Rally. I don't remember exactly what his outfit looked like, but I wanna say it was a yellow helmet and grey torso, maybe...?).

Hmm... that's funny because I actually feel like I've heard the name before, but I never knew it was linked to whom I asked about! By any chance, do you know if he appeared in a LEGO Magazine series? I might have read something that mentioned this a long time ago, but I couldn't find him in any of the North American magazines I own. Perhaps Barry was in a UK edition?

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The "unnamed" guy you asked about is Barry Baloney. He was in some other stuff, like the videos for the Rocket Racers attraction at LEGOLAND Windsor (vaguely related - there was also another character in those videos, Freddie/Freddy Sherbert, who wore a yellow/grey racing outfit, had this head, and drove a yellow version of Brad Speedo's car from Stunt Rally. I don't remember exactly what his outfit looked like, but I wanna say it was a yellow helmet and grey torso, maybe...?).

Hmm... that's funny because I actually feel like I've heard the name before, but I never knew it was linked to whom I asked about! By any chance, do you know if he appeared in a LEGO Magazine series? I might have read something that mentioned this a long time ago, but I couldn't find him in any of the North American magazines I own. Perhaps Barry was in a UK edition?

possibly in Adventures!, that was a Lego Media thing. Unfortunately we don't have many issues documented (help us Will, you are our only hope)

 

 

 

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