Enthusiast found Turok game source code on old computer

On YouTube-channel vintage computer games SiliconClassics enthusiast named Aaron posted a video with a remarkable discovery. He managed to find an old computer, apparently belonging to one of the developers of the popular in the 90s game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter . The source codes of this game for the Nintendo 64 set-top box were on the computer.

The computer found was an inexpensive workstation manufactured by Silicon Graphics. The sticker on the system unit says that the equipment is the property of Iguana Entertainment and has inventory number 000695. It should be noted that it was this gaming studio in the 90s that worked on the creation of the Turok game .



A Winchester from this idle computer was connected to another Indy workstation system unit from the same SGI to read the information. And there they found something interesting.



As you can see in the screenshot, the development environment Ultra 64 is installed in the system. Probably, this could be used to emulate the environment when developing the game for the game console. But even more interesting was the directory with a complete set of files with the source codes of the game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter : the files are dated July 15, 1993 (the official release of the game took place in 1997).



The folder contains several hundred files.



Some files contain audio, some probably have graphics. There is a folder / gamesfx with 120 original sound effects for playing in AIFF format. It seems that these are sound effects for the entire game completely. A few thousand more sound files in another folder - probably for some other game. The author of the video could not demonstrate them, because there are about 5,000 files in the folder and when you try to open it, the IRIX operating system freezes.


In the comments to the video, Stephen Broumley, one of the developers of the original game, responded . His name is indicated in the first lines of the source file trex.cshown in the video (see the screenshot above, the name of this developer can also be seen in the credits of the game). It was he who coded all the bosses, effects, and many other objects in the Turok game during his youth when he worked in a game studio. Stephen Broumley sincerely thanks SiliconClassics for the video and showing these sources, which brought him back to his youth and gave rise to memories of that fascinating work.

Broumley agreedThat code is very complicated. A team of more than 20 people worked on it for more than two years. Moreover, the guys sat in the office longer than they should and worked 6 days a week, at least for the last seven months before the deadline.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a 3D first-person shooter developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Acclaim for the Nintendo 64 console and for the Windows operating system in 1997. According to the plot of the game, the main character - the American Indian Turk - must save the Universe from the alien invader Campaigner, who seeks to possess an ancient and powerful weapon Chronoscepter. An alien invader and other creatures like dinosaurs try to penetrate our world from a parallel primitive world in which there is no time. Joseph Turok is the only one who can hold them back.

The plot is based on a 1954 comic book series of the same name. Turok became the first exclusive Acclaim title for the Nintendo 64 and in general one of the most popular games for this console. This was probably the first high-quality first-person shooter for the N64. It almost 100% used the graphics capabilities of the hardware, and the developers even had to compress the textures to squeeze the game into an 8-megabyte cartridge.

The game combines the 3D graphics and the game style of the iconic Doom with elements of gaming research modeled on Tomb Raider . No wonder Turok has become a cult game for its time.

Broumley writes that all the developers were a little over 20 years old or so, and they were all genuinely passionate about their work. It seemed to them that they were doing something significant, important. In general, there was no feeling that this is work. Stephen writes that he still maintains contact with many of them, now they have made successful careers around the world, which is not surprising for such talented guys.

Finding an old computer with the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter source code is a great event for fans of old games. Unfortunately, Aaron did not dare to publish the source codes in the public domain, perhaps he is afraid of copyright problems and claims of the copyright holder (the guy is a lawyer by training). He plans to auction computers at eBay.

By the way, among the unexplored "iron" he stilltwo dozen of the same Indy workstations manufactured by Silicon Graphics, property of different companies. Who knows what digital treasures are hiding there.



An enthusiast bought these workstations after selling off the property of the bankrupt Acclaim Entertainment. Computers will be sold at auction. Maybe someone will buy them just to get the source code. In this case, the "iron" will go "to the load."

Perhaps Aaron will change his mind and, with the permission of the copyright holder, will publish the source code. The source codes for about a hundred commercial games are available today , and it’s good if another one appears.