Bionicle Nestlé

Bionicle Nestlé
Developers: Advance, Ghost Publisher: LEGO Platform: Windows Released internationally: 2001 This game has unused code. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused text. This game has a hidden level select.

Bionicle Nestlé is an expanded edition of the Bionicle CD-ROM that was packaged with the original line of sets and given out during promotions. As the name suggests, this altered version was available in Nestlé cereal boxes.

Unused Video

xprobio.mov, stored in the \MOV folder of the disc, was intended to play after completing the six demo missions. While it is used, it horribly glitches and as a result is nearly unwatchable.

Interestingly, it is the only video which does not have a renamed copy in the LEGO Software\Products\Bionicle Nestlé\MOV folder and the only one which isn't copied during the installation process.

Level Selector

The program is split into two executables; Bionicle.exe and nestle_game.exe. It starts with Bionicle.exe, which then calls nestle_game.exe to start the correct level for the platform game when needed.

We can manually start the level we want executing nestle_game.exe with the following arguments in a CMD:

exe + argument	Description
nestle_game.exe 0	Starts the second menu that unlocks when you completed all the challenges
nestle_game.exe 1	Gali challenge (This is the default when you don't pass arguments or incorrect arguments)
nestle_game.exe 2	Tahu challenge
nestle_game.exe 3	Kopaka challenge
nestle_game.exe 4	Onua challenge
nestle_game.exe 5	Pohatu challenge
nestle_game.exe 6	Lewa challenge
nestle_game.exe >=7	Unused Insert CD Screen

Unused Code

Unused "No CD" Screen

This screen can be seen trying to access a non-existing level with level selector.

The program is completely copied to the hard drive when installing, making this screen unused.

Hidden Credits

There's an unused routine that displays the development credits on the screen in the platform game. It's made of 3 test al,al machine instructions followed by a je (jump if equal) instruction. We can enable it by changing these je instructions at 0x237DD, 0x237C5, 0x237AD with jne in nestle_game.exe.

The hidden message says:

The Bionicle game was developed.by Ghost Aps, dec. 2000
Programming: Morten Fugl
Graphics: Thomas Skellund

Ghost is the studio that produced the animations on the CD. It seems Fugl and Skellund may also have been doing work on games at Interactive Television Entertainment during this time period, perhaps this is what qualified them to work on this platform game part of the disc.

Note that the default high-scores have MOF with 100 points at first place, followed by THS with 50 points at second place.

Logging Function

To do: Find if the second cmd argument does something.

There's a logging functionality that was used during development and wasn't disabled in the executable. It needs nestle_game.exe to be run as administrator, and it logs messages into a log.txt file. These messages are very simple by default.
nestle_game.exe accepts up to 3 numerical arguments. The 2 first arguments are logged into log.txt, being the first the level selection previously mentioned. The purpose of the second argument is unknown.
A third argument can also be passed, if it's different from 0, it will enable advanced DirectDraw log messages.

Unused Text

Some unused strings can be found in nestle_game.exe.

Decoders

The game reads game files with internal decoders. These decoders have lots of message strings. Here are some of their leftover copyright strings.

unzip 0.15 Copyright 1998 Gilles Vollant 

 inflate 1.1.3 Copyright 1995-1998 Mark Adler 

Copyright (C) 1998, Thomas G. Lane

Adobe APP14 marker: version %d, flags 0x%04x 0x%04x, transform %d

Source Code References

There are references to some source code files and directories for the logging feature. Examples:

C:\dev\common\tb_device_mouse_dinput.cpp

C:\dev\common\tb_interface_windows.cpp

C:\dev\common\tb_server_sfx_dsound.cpp

C:\dev\common\tb_server_video_qt.cpp

//Imhotep/Projects/Bionicle/nestle/game/work/data/