I've had the "Judgment Rites" CD-ROM for years and one of the problems is that it seems to suffer from some programming errors, causing it to skip some sounds and animations found on the floppy disk Movie & Sound Pack. Specifically, the TV series digital sound effect sound effect for the transporter only plays in the level "Though This Be Madness", while all other levels use the old Adlib synthesizer sound effect.

And, even though there are three "warp" animation files are on the CD (as there were in the Movie & Sound Pack), it only plays one. There are also some other animations missing that are found on that disk version (such as the "can they escape their fate" opening), but I assume those were by design.

I contacted Interplay years ago, but they didn't know what I was taking about. Even sent my CD in for replacement with a newer pressing, but it was the same.

Has anyone yet downloaded the GOG edition and do they know if GOG's is just a straight copy of the CD-ROM version, or does it have some of these issues fixed? Especially the transporter sound, which really annoys me. I'm hesitant to order if I'm just getting the same bugged release.

I'm also interested in this information.

Last time I played this game was several years ago but if I recall correctly, after a quick investigation I came to the conclusion that there is no definitive version of Judgement Rites, the disk version doesn't have speech and has some videos when you enter and leave orbit that are missing in the CD version, but the CD version has speech from the original cast and thus is hard to overlook. I could be wrong but I think that, like Beneath A Steel Sky, both versions of Judgement Rites have a different introduction video too. And unfortunately, no fan has undertaken the task of combining the best of both versions into one definitive version either.

If that's the case and this is just identical to the DOS CD-ROM, I'd love to see GOG include both DOS floppy versions for completists' sake. The same goes for 25th Anniversary (as I've always preferred the shorter version of "Vengeance").

I've not tested it myself, but I read somewhere that the shorter version of Vengeance is accessible if you select a certain dialogue choice at the start of the mission. I don't know if it is possible to achieve a perfect mission rating if you choose the shorter path however.

Edit: decided to make my own topic instead of posting info here.

The Mac version also has a brief but unique prologue cutscene, after the title sequence and before the player is first given control, that sets up the plot of the game.

I don't know why this didn't make it into the DOS CD version... a bug? A deadline?

I just ripped and uploaded this cutscene to YouTube, for anyone who's interested:
Link

That prologue scene is also on the DOS Floppy Disk Version with the Movie & Sound Pack Expansion. Another reason I'd love to see GOG include the Floppy versions along with the CDs.

Off-topic: Speaking of the Mac version, has there ever been any effort to develop a Mac OS program similar to DOSBox? It would be great to run the Mac versions of some of these via PC through a command line interface.

I recently did a little experimenting/research with the CD-ROM and upgraded floppy versions of ST:JR.

The animation file for the extended introduction from the upgraded floppy version ('BOOMER1.ANM') as well as the files for the three unique warp sequences ('WARP1-3.ANM') are all stored in the 'UNCOMP' directory on the Enhanced CD-ROM, and are also copied over during a regular installation.

Additionally, all the relevant *.VOC files for the speech and sound in the extended floppy opening are also stored on the CD in 'DATA.VCC,' as well as the three digital transporter sound effects (I verified this using 'MAKEVCC.EXE,' which was also on the CD - http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?p=81516&sid=4c50557deacce9a9148f0db16675c57b).

So it does indeed look like all these issues were caused by faulty or rushed programming.

FYI, here are the specifc *.VOC speech and sound files for the expanded opening (in order):

- 'BREATH.VOC'
- 'CANTHEY.VOC'
- 'NOTNOW.VOC'
- 'EXPLODE2.VOC' (SFX for the exploding Klingon warship)
- 'ANOTFAIL.VOC'
- 'YOUWERE.VOC'
- 'CERTAIN.VOC'

Thats interesting. They had also stuffed up the MT32 soundtrack on the CD release as per a previous post I have made. Might be worth posting your discovery on the VOGONS (http://www.vogons.org/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=ad603e77fc8ee83cd795b6824286f11c) forum and seeing if someone like NewRisingSun would like to take a look and maybe fix it. They are the guys who fixed the MT32 issue in this game and have fixed or combined different versions of many other games.

On the off chance that someone is still monitoring this thread: I've played around a bit with the CD ROM version and the floppy "movie & sound pack".

It should be possible to patch the CD ROM version to enable the two missing warp animations and fix the transporter sound effects. All this requires is copying a few files from the floppy version and (in the cases where this is not possible due to other changes) crafting others.

Enabling the alternative intro sequence is also possible, but it is a bit more cumbersome.

Judging from the first tests, this seems to be working. Would anybody here help testing the approach by playing the game?

Tell me what to do and I will give it a test.

Thanks!

For the transporter sound and warp animation fixes, unpack the content of this archive into the game's main directory.

To re-enable the alternative intro you can use this archive. it contains two directories: DATA and UNCOMP. The DATA directory should simply be pasted into the game's installation directory, as above. The content of the UNCOMP directory, however, has to reside with all the other files within the game's UNCOMP directory, which is on the CD. This means either inserting the file into the CD image or copying the whole CD content to your hard drive and editing the game's config file to point to that local copy.

Just tell me if you should need more detailed steps.

Ive tested as far as the second mission. Transporter sounds and warp animations are working as expected, in fact when using sound canvas for audio I previously was missing the transporter effect but your patch has reinstated it. Well done!

The alternate intro is working but has its issues. The new part that is straight out of the floppy version works fine but then it goes to the floppy "boldly go" intro instead of the CD one and is missing background music (for me at least). If there is a way to use the floppy title.dem but then switch back to the CD "boldly go" intro then it would be awesome, but I have no idea how feasible that is as the CD uses an .mve file called trekints.mve instead of an .anm file.