Midtown Madness

Midtown Madness
Developer: Angel Studios Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Platform: Windows Released in US: April 30, 1999 Released in EU: 1999 This game has unused playable characters. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors. This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment. Such as: Very colorful language from error messages.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

This game's online features are no longer supported. While this game's online features were once accessible, they are (as of June 19, 2006) no longer officially supported and online-exclusive features may be documented as now-unseen content.

Midtown Madness is the somewhat rushed debut installment of video game series of the same name, despite being the first open world racing game, beating out Driver by a couple of months. It has unpolished keyboard and mouse driving controls (they actually can be sometimes buggy), complicated driving physics, etc. The Midtown Madness series would spiritually be succeeded by the Midnight Club series.

Now that's racing Chicago style!

Sub-Page

Prototype Info

Extra Files

The retail version of the game shipped with MIDTOWN.MAP, for EXE version 1.0. The file contains a full listing of function and variable symbols, along with the addresses and object files they were given at compilation time. This would have been used for debugging the game. Unsurprisingly, this was removed from later versions.

Unused Cars

To do: A picture or two would be nice. We don't need a video.

A yellow monster truck was found in the game files. It resembles a second-generation Dodge Ram pickup truck with flared fenders, a hood scoop, and wheels that oddly look similar to the wheels found on the 1992 Dodge Viper.

Extra Cheats

The game contained a couple unused "cheats".

Single-Player Cheats

"xcam" - This cheat allowed the player to use a modified version of the "V" cam, which locked the rotation to the vehicle's rotation.

"ver" - This cheat echoed the game version into the chat.

Multiplayer Cheats

"rc edit" - This cheat allowed developers to place around gold/hideout/bank positions while in Cops n Robbers mode. By entering this cheat, you would toggle a message "edit on", which can allow you to place positions with your keyboard.

Unused Graphics

REPLAY.DDS is the word "REPLAY" most likely written in Paint. During a replay this would flash on-screen. Replays are inaccessible without editing the games' executable.

Unused Text

midtown.exe (the game's executable) has some noteworthy strings.

Test

At 1AE230 is a... test.

This is a test

Debug Texts

Contained inside Version 1.00.1588 at 0x1A42A4:

CPU:%3d%% PageIn:%4d PageOut:%4d Idle:%04d
Load:%3d%%  T.Phys:%5dK A.Phys:%5dK

There's also some info for texture loading at 0x1BA38C:

BEGIN SURFACE DUMP
c:/surf.dump
END SURFACE DUMP: %d bytes (%dK) total.
TEXTURE: SYS: %d, AGP: %d LOCALVID: %d VID: %d
BUFFER: SYS: %d, AGP: %d LOCALVID: %d VID: %d
BITMAP: SYS: %d, AGP: %d LOCALVID: %d VID: %d
TOTAL MEM: %d

Error Messages

Scattered throughout the executable are some interesting error messages, as well as vulgar ones, which are shocking to see in the parameters of an executable file of a family-friendly driving video game. It's likely that they were worked on by an angry video game development team member being under stress considering the fact this game needed more time for completion, yet it contains an excess amount of problems.

Blitz checkpoint count greater than 6!  Fred lied to me.
Cheating bastard!
Path %d, has a cop initial position conflict.
I'm trying to pop a vehicle off a non-existant lane.
Can't set the position of an aiPedestrian through instance API!
ERROR: I'm Lost!!
This kind of damage is no longer implemented
NetAudioManager::AssignSounds police siren not stopped major error!
Negative RPM's on the engine!!!
asNetwork lib: NetObject::PositionUpdate() - should never be called
Someone is still holding a ref on the city's template
Hey!  Some hoser is oversampling.
Drawbridge -- already one in this cullroom.
::DeclareMover : An unparented instance is being declared to the PhysMGR - ignoring it.
mmPhysicsMGR::Cull - Bound got paged out before I could draw it.  No big deal, really.
PHYS.Collide : fucking piece of shit computers 1!
PHYS.Collide : fucking piece of shit computers 2!
asBound::Collide()- NumVerts over 120! Breaks our hack.
Fades don't work in release build.
Separate texture memories (probably a voodoo!)
No perspective texturing, useless to me!
Trying to restore stuff...
Oh, dear!  DLPGroup hosed.
Tell Dave to implement (%x,%x,%x,%x)-->(%x,%x,%x,%x) copyrow function.
You are problem-free!
DAC - TRANSITION FROM NULL CAMCS!!!
asBound::Collide()- NumVerts over 120! Breaks our hack.
mmBoundTemplate::AddIndex() - More than 25 errors, I'll stop bugging you about it.

Parameters

By running Midtown.exe with the parameters "-console -help" you will get a list of these parameters;

Argument	Result
-affinity
-afilter
-agiverbose
-alphafont
-ancientgl
-archives
-border
-cacheage
-cdid
-cleandir
-config
-console	Live output game messages
-d3d
-depth
-dplay	Likely related to multiplayer joining/hosting (DirectPlay)? Doesn't seem to do anything.
-eventdbg
-fontscale
-fovfix
-frameclear
-gldebug
-glstream
-heapsize
-height
-help	"Show list of available command line arguments", requires -console to see.
-integrated
-labelf
-labelp
-legacygl
-mapping
-maxaspect
-maxcops
-maxfps
-maxptx
-maxskid
-maxverts
-menurefl
-minaspect
-mip
-mirrordist
-mousemode
-msaa
-multiheap
-multitex
-nativeres
-nfog
-opengl
-pack
-pause
-reshack
-rv3
-safeheap
-scaling
-sdlwindow
-smoothstep
-speedrun
-speedycops
-square
-sw	Set graphics to software rendering mode.
-sync
-use555
-vsync
-width
-window	Launch game in windowed-mode instead of full screen.

Unofficial parameters

Found by using Process Explorer; in the string-tab of the properties of the executable.

Argument	Result
-noui	Launch game immediately into playing without menu.
-blitz <0-999>	Used with -noui; Set game mode to "Checkpoint Race", and choose index of the race.
-circuit <0-999>	Used with -noui; Set game mode to "Circuit Race", and choose index of the race.
-race <0-999>	Used with -noui; Set game mode to "Blitz Race", and choose index of the race.
-keyboard	Used with -noui; Set controller to Keyboard.
-joystick	Used with -noui; Set controller to Joystick.
-wheel	Used with -noui; Set controller to Wheel.
-adir
-allrace
-allcars
-ambient
-archive	Seems to be related to; -record, -playback.
-blitztime	Used with -blitz; Change the blitz time.
-triple	Seems to be related to; -single.
-single	Seems to be related to; -triple.
-primary	Seems to be related to; -secondary.
-secondary	Seems to be related to; -primary.
-sysmem
-test
-path
-nomovie
-noaudio
-log
-fasttune
-page
-nopage
-nobc
-ime
-nodamage
-stoabs
-supercops
-noai	No civilians and traffic?
-nocops
-archivecycle
-sample
-dragtimer
-noopponents
-prio
-crash
-damagescale	Seems to affect how much damage your car can take.
-fsverbose
-logopen
-quiet
-com
-mono
-record	Seems to be related to; -playback, -archive.
-playback	Seems to be related to; -record, -archive.
-simdbg	Seems to be related to; -updatememdbg, -updatedbg, -heapdbg, -leakdbg.
-updatememdbg	Seems to be related to; -simdbg, -updatedbg, -heapdbg, -leakdbg.
-updatedbg	Seems to be related to; -simdbg, -updatememdbg, -heapdbg, -leakdbg.
-heapdbg	Seems to be related to; -simdbg, -updatememdbg, -updatedbg, -leakdbg.
-leakdbg	Seems to be related to; -simdbg, -updatememdbg, -updatedbg, -heapdbg.
-old
-agiverbose
-low
-paltex
-depth
-system
-vram
-debug
-ramp
-hal
-rgb
-mmx
-uirgb
-nozb
-noblit	Seems to be related to; -notexblit
-notexblit	Seems to be related to; -noblit
-fullmip	Seems to be related to; -automip, -nomip.
-automip	Seems to be related to; -fullmip, -nomip.
-nomip	Seems to be related to; -automip, -nomip.
-square
-nfog
-notexcomp
-nomultitex
-maxtexmem