Incoming and Incoming Forces Archival Project 2012/08/30 by CW Cyrix/Ami Sapphire Last Updated: 2012/09/03 Timeline 2012/08/08 - Added original unfinalized tagged MP3s of the Incoming Soundtrack (both versions). Silently released. 2012/08/18 - Created skeleton HTML files of the Incoming section, added Betas in download directory. This was done while waiting for the rest of the CDs to arrive. 2012/08/25 - Added proper finalized tagged MP3s of the Incoming Soundtrack (both versions). Silently released. 2012/08/30 - Incoming and Incoming Forces CD archival in progress. Two OEM CDs are not reliable for IMGBurn by itself. Clone CD, anyone? Also, testing the tracks in each CD image. Nearly eight hours of audio testing of the same music! Seriously. Re-ripped the AMD OEM version of Incoming. Creative's is fine. The retail versions should be fine. Conversions to BIN/CUE from CCD on the OEM releases and both Incoming Forces CDs break nothing. 2012/08/31 - Work on CD ripping is complete. Results: Incoming Forces: Deliverance needs an audio track mod (finished), as does AMD K6-2 3DNow! release of Incoming (finished). Retail Version of Incoming Forces as well (finished). Seriously, fixing these images is tiring. If there was better QA, this would be one less process that I have to do. Since I have other things to do, testing these releases and analyzing them won't be for another few weeks at most. All original and audio fixed CD images are silently released. 2012/09/01 - Incoming Forces' Soundtrack is finished. Silently released. The CD images' silent release process has finished past 4 AM on 2012/09/01. 2012/09/02 - Tidying up this document, clarifying things. Also, this is less an Incoming comparison section and more of a SafeDisc v2.60.52 defeat method right now. The original and modded images work without emulation, it's the disc copy that fails. Though, IMO, Deliverance is more fun than the retail, lol. Never realized that Incoming Forces was copy protected until I decided to use the original CD. >.> Messing with an archivist here... The writeup will really not be for another few weeks, then. 2012/09/03 - I'm simply going to place the workarounds in a separate zip file along with a readme of what they are. Until they modify the Groove release EXE present on the CD and not the one already available (they're actually somewhat different), the disc image will not be modified by me. This annoyed me so. Interesting Facts 1998 [Real Events] * Rage Software handed different OEM releases to different OEM companies. Acer and Creative had the January release (that I know of), 3Dfx and AMD had the March release (that I know of). * An early retail release exists as well. I technically consider it a late OEM version, however. * The game was actually released in June 30, 1998 in North America, not July 9, 1998 as Wikipedia says. * People assumed there would be a full version of Incoming with their hardware purchase. There was, but it was the OEM version. Classic, Rage Software. The retail version has a final date of April 1998 on some files, as the OEM versions usually have January 1998 - March 1998 as their final date. Why would you think the early retail version exists, huh? * Interview: [http://incoming.8m.com/intrview.htm ; also, archive it, plz] [Game Differences: Incoming] * The weapons in some waves differ between the OEM releases and the retail versions. One example is the tank in Scenario 1 at one point had double shooters compared to the final retail version having a single missile weapon. * The graphics are generally worse on the OEM versions than the retail versions. The January release, when run on the ATI Rage 128 Ultra, glitches slightly, evidenced on the Rage logo. Interestingly, on the ATI 3D Rage Pro (a card one generation behind the ATI Rage 128 Ultra), it is fine. * The controls are shot on some early OEM releases. The January one is the worst, of course. At one point, in the stationary shooter waves (unsure about the vehicle and helicopter waves) if you held the left arrow key and quickly switched to the right arrow key, you will still keep going left until you let the right key go and press it again. Also, they are sensitive. This should be fixed in the retail releases. * There are two versions of the soundtrack for this game. Version 1 tracks are generally longer than the Version 2 tracks. The differences between the two: Tracks... 2 and 3: Slower in Version 1. Majorly changed, but the form is still there. Also, more fast-paced in Version 2. 4: Just length differences. 5: Sounds beta-y in Version 1. Majorly changed. Generally more polished in Version 2. 6 - 7: Just length differences. 8 - 10: Same tracks in both versions. 11: Only present in retail versions. 12 - 45: Only present in Incoming: The Final Conflict. The last track is always a ten-second silent track. * Acer's CD, Creative's CD, and the Groove Software re-release CD have Version 1 tracks. The early retail CD, AMD's CD, the original UK final retail CD, and The Final Conflict have Version 2 tracks. * Interestingly, on the AMD K6-2 CD, which has Version 2 tracks, Track 2 has a glitch at around 0:44, which is not present in the other CDs. The original Voodoo2 OEM release, which also uses Version 2 tracks, will probably not have this issue. * On the Final Conflict retail release, which also has Version 2 tracks, Tracks 3 and 4 have switched places, Tracks 5 and 6 have switched places, Tracks 7 and 8 have switched places, and there are also voice audio tracks (also a glitch at the end of track 37), making it a total of 46 tracks (including the data and silent tracks), therefore making this the largest CD image at around 729MB. [The others fall around 402MB ~ 632MB.] * It seems that Incoming itself has copy protection on some disc releases. SecuROM R1, for the record. My versions do NOT have them (neither does the Groove re-release!), but apparently there is a No-CD crack available. Since the images I created do not contain copy protection (I checked the original CDs that I have obtained), that crack is not needed at all. 2002 [Real Events] * Review: [http://www.gamingexcellence.com/pc/games/incoming-forces] [Game Differences: Incoming Forces] * There are two versions of this game: Incoming Forces (Retail) and Incoming Forces: Deliverance (OEM). * Audio Track differences: Incoming Forces' Track 13 differs from Deliverance's Track 13. * In Deliverance, Track 2 is horribly glitched. Fixed in a CD image mod by yours truly. * Tracks 3 and 10 in Deliverance have slight glitch. * Incoming Forces Retail version has a slight glitch in Track 4, which is not present in Deliverance. My CD is pristine. If I feel like it, an audio mod of Retail version will surface like the OEM version has. (Too soon. Retail version audio mod created.) * Incoming Forces' CD structure is specified as MODE1/2352 while Incoming Forces: Deliverance's CD structure is specified as MODE2/2352 or MODE2/FORM1/2352. Thought it was a typo when I made the CUE sheet for the OEM audio mod, but it actually WAS MODE2. * Deliverance is NOT copy protected. The retail is, however, so here are some workarounds: 1) use the unwrapped forces.exe file in the original's place; 2) use the No-CD Loader instead. It will complain about the CD if there is none present for some reason, but it will bypass the SafeDisc authentication. You're going to need it for the music anyway; 3) if CloneCD is installed on the computer along with Incoming Forces, check off Hide CDR Media and use your burned copy. This method is not supposed to work in the USA, but it works on my Windows 7 x64 laptop, though I live in Detroit, MI. (USA!) 4) simply mount the image in Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% / 52%. The music did not play when I used Alcohol 52%, interestingly. Daemon Tools may need emulation. Alcohol 52% did not, last I checked. NOTE With all these issues regarding the audio tracks in Incoming Forces and Incoming Forces: Deliverance, I recommend the Audio Mod images over the original images! The original images are primarily for research purposes, anyway, though Retail is fine. The OEM isn't, but picky me made an audio mod for both versions. For the Retail version, you have to use the workarounds to play the game! 2012 [Ami Sapphire's Take] * I, Ami Sapphire, decide to retrieve different versions of Incoming and analyze them. Since I had the Acer version, I went to look on the Internet for more info. The last resort was going to eBay and Amazon and blindly buying the six versions of Incoming. Incoming Forces had two, which includes Deliverance. Also nabbed Deliverance. Did that. Somehow had not obtained any duplicates when doing so, either. * Looking back at Incoming's history (Incoming Forces has practically none), the drama in the newsgroups archives, etc., I found this... unsurprising. Descent 2 and 3 had this same treatment as Incoming, and their release years are 1996 and 1999, respectively. * Back in July 24, 2012, I accidentally found the eight known Incoming Betas by searching for more info regarding Incoming and its history. They were, according to the original poster on the betaarchives.org forums, on a CD in his CD archive collection. I quickly archived those eight betas in case they disappear in the future. * Accurately ripping the Incoming OEM discs, Incoming Forces, and Incoming Forces: Deliverance were very painful. You had to rip them with CloneCD, then convert them to BIN/CUE using UltraISO. Keeping the original CloneCD rips are a must, however, even with the BIN/CUE conversions. * I largely prefer Incoming Forces' soundtrack to the original Incoming. Both are great, though. * After the Audio Mods have been created, the total of the original images and the Audio Mods images are 9.6GB ZIP-compressed. Uncompressed, it could be a little over 12GB. Oh, and the Audio Mod releases are actually Repaired Audio Track releases. * Incoming Forces retail (original and audio mod) will need workarounds for them to work. This will be on the server later. Deliverance does not need them at all.