budious

While the topic of this thread is centric on the unaltered original trilogy, based on my disdain of the prequels and my disdain of George's disdain for my preference of his worst cuts... I did find this amusing bit from EPI:TPM in which early theatrical prints to cinemas contained a "PG safe" version of Darth Maul plummeting down the shaft whole. Later, when the preferred split Darth Maul sequence had been approved for a general audience PG rating, the remaining prints were rushed to cinemas with the updated sequence.

None of these websites are mine but I do appreciate their efforts and enjoy studying cinema, especially as it regards the Star Wars legacy. I post it here because while I was aware of the differences I had not studied it in detail until after stumbling across the fanedit The War of the Stars which in turn used movie footage not from an official SW release but from the preservation efforts of two 16mm reels known as the Puggo Grande. Looking at the photos of the projection from the Senator Theater's presentation of the 35mm and screencaptures of the 16mm preservation, both show how much brighter and richer in color the original prints were. The gradual degradation of master prints due to noise reduction and color timing has killed a lot of the contrast and made the film darker, and either too red or too blue in many shots. The struggle for fans of cinema demanding that George Lucas release the original unaltered trilogy in restored high definition and audio goes along the same lines as the gaming community here being discontented by the pedestrian nature of the Star Wars gaming franchise. Unified in our displeasure and discontent, somewhere on Skywalker Ranch, a fat man in his underwear adulates this post. Added more links to the original post: http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/starwarsaudio.html (1977 70mm Audio) http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russdawson/mono/ (Mono Sound Mix) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/alternateversions (ANH changes) http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Colortiming-Cinematography-was-What-changes-was-done-to-STAR-WARS-in-93/topic/9805/ (Color Timing in 1993 THX Edition)

Added a few new links in original post. In particular, check out the links regarding content because changes to the film impacting quality and home releases were prevalent from the start. Numerous changes existed between Star Wars (1977) with the original "Star Wars" scrawl and the later "A New Hope" (1981) re-release opening crawl. Also, while the film remained in theaters during it's initial run, minor bits of dialog and scene lengths were adjusted depending on the 35mm Mono/Dolby Stereo or 70mm 6-track audio projected in cinemas. Similar history is documented for Empire Strikes Back cinema releases in which the 70mm prints had numerous differences in comparison to the 35mm prints. Later editions of the film released on early home video offered numerous remixes in audio, speed-up for CED time compression, and the 1993 THX "enhanced" release VHS boxset produced significant motion ghosting and coloring issues due to digital video noise reduction (DVNR). Prior to even being tampered with for the 1997SE and 2004SE releases, the films had already undergone significant mutations. This most noticeable distinction is the loss of contrast and color depth, the current special editions and 2006 official "GOUT" release both suffer crushed blacks/whites (in film terms, the color range is compressed and less detail is evident), though the 2004SE is noticeably darker than the 2006 "GOUT", both are significantly darker than their Laserdisc and 16mm/35mm film preservation counterparts. (View the screenshot comparisons links and pay attention to the star backgrounds, shadowy halves of planets, and dark corners of rooms and hallways.) Why purposefully reduce the image quality of the original trilogy? When George Lucas produced the Phantom Menace, he once again turned to 35mm film to record the live-action sequences (70mm is industry standard for live-action special effects so you can zoom and crop, and most shots only the budget to be done once in the case of models, explosive sets). This required him to digitalize the film frame by frame before inserting the special effects. This is how film has been traditionally done. However, desire to be cutting edge (ILM) and reduce the expense and time required to produce the special effect elements, Lucas turned to filmless digital recording to shoot Attack of the Clones live-action sequences. The problem was the first generation studio digital HD cameras were only 1080p and then only supported non-anamorphic recording modes (1.78:1, commonly referred to as 16:9 HDTV), to produce the desired 2.35:1 aspect ratio for Attack of the Clones, the camera could only capture live sequences at 818p (1920x818). This means at most the original source recording of Attack of the Clones only has about %20-25 resolution of any of the previous Star Wars films. Production of Revenge of the Sith continued with digital HD cameras, but the second generation now supported anamorphic 1080p (live action shot at 1920x1080 for mastering purposes, vertically stretched) for 2.35:1 aspect ratio shooting. This means while Revenge of the Sith has superior master to Attack of the Clones, both are still far inferior to the 35mm counterparts used in traditional film making (Episode I, IV-VI). Now to simplify the technicalities regarding film, 35mm film depending on it's quality can yield between 4K-6K lines of resolution, and is not uncommon to be scanned at 8K for producing digital HD masters that will be downscaled to blu-ray resolution but will long preserve the film for future home video standards (Wizard of Oz was remastered in 8K line resolution prior to blu-ray release), 70mm film in most instances can yield 8K-10K lines of resolution. Mastering and yielding resolution are not the same, a frame of film may render 5K lines of resolution and be mastered at 8K, such that about every 1.6 lines contains a unique pixel and can be interpolated to produce the missing pixel. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases (Details in changes of cinema cuts, 1997SE, 2004SE, PT DVD releases) http://www.aptirrelevance.com/otscreenshots/screenshots.php (Shot 1 is a good example of degraded contrast, note the star field on the left of the screen) http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/DVNR-smearing-in-GOUT-not-in-the-master-Or-is-the-1995-release-a-different-master-altogether/topic/11856/ (1993 THX "DVNR")

Did you know the version of Star Wars you watch today is not the same that most fans have the privilege of remembering? Over the years, George Lucas has taken it upon himself to "correct" his films by tampering with color balance, resolution, new CGI sequences or replacement FX, and controversial moves that effect character bio and influence the mood of the film (Han shoots first in ANH, Sebastian Shaw replaced by Hayden Christensen in RotJ). Most younger fans can shrug off the importance of the original preservation and accept the newer cuts at face value but for those of us who funded the original Lucas empire, we feel he has an obligation to fulfill our desire to see full preservation of the GOUT (George's Original Unaltered Trilogy). While unauthorized efforts have been undertaken by the community, George Lucas has repeatedly expressed his disdain for the original cuts and refuses to fund their preservation or offer their release in high definition. The following websites offer general information about the preservation efforts and also document how the original cuts have been slowly transformed over the years. Also check out the blu-ray boycott and petition websites demanding high definition GOUT releases. History and preservation information: http://www.savestarwars.com/ http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html Versions (Content): http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases http://partners.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/502318 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/alternateversions (ANH specific) Versions (Video/Audio Quality): http://www.aptirrelevance.com/otscreenshots/#versions http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/starwarsaudio.html (1977 70mm Audio) http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russdawson/mono/ (Star Wars Mono Sound Mix) http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Colortiming-Cinematography-was-What-changes-was-done-to-STAR-WARS-in-93/topic/9805/ (Color Timing in 1993 THX Edition) Frame captures and comparisons: http://www.aptirrelevance.com/otscreenshots/ Film Presentations: (This is what proper theatrical cut Star Wars on blu-ray should look like!) http://s321.photobucket.com/albums/nn388/sixpakcinema/ESB%2016mm/ (ESB 16mm) http://savestarwars.com/technicoloribscreening.html (ANH 35mm at Senator Theater) http://petergaultney.smugmug.com/Movies/historic/Star-Wars-at-The-Senator/13089279_nXePV#948662138_wuqj9 (ANH 35mm at Senator Theater) Discussions on these subjects and more: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/ Petition for "GOUT" availability on Blu-Ray: http://originaltrilogy.com/petition/ Threads on these forums with similar content: viewtopic.php?p=544691 THX 1138 Films made by Lucas prior to Star Wars have not escaped his wrath either. The 1971 classic, THX 1138, was retouched in 2004 with its own Special Edition DVD and the original theatrical cut was not optioned to collectors. http://www.maverick-media.co.uk/movies/thx_1138_1971/changes_001.html (Comparison of THX 1138 1971/2004 Editions)

Stylization Rebellion holds a unique status in the Star Wars gaming catalog, it is the only title that plays out from an alternative history starting point and the outcome of the game is controlled entirely by the player. The game starts after A New Hope but includes technologies and characters from the latter episodes and expanded universe but most importantly, isolated from the influence of the prequels. It's this simplistic and wholesome positioning of the franchise rooted firmly in the post A New Hope universe that our story begins, can be controlled by our actions, and the fate of the Star Wars universe lies in our hands. Yes, there are a few scripted actions like Luke going to Dagobah, or Solo being captured by bounty hunters, but we never have to endure Hoth, Cloud City, or Ewoks. Lando Calrissian has a clean reputation to build on, Boba Fett doesn't die pathetically in the mouth of the Sarlec, and his boss Jabba is still around. Rebellion II should embrace this ANH centric glimpse of the Star Wars universe and such be a reboot of Rebellion I and not a proper sequel. George Orwell's 1984 Terry Gilliam's Brazil Alan Moore's Watchmen ... does Rebellion/Rebellion II have a place amongst great alternative history, technologically challenged dystopias? Budious' Wants I want the Tie Fighter game engine in the tactical mode so I can play strategy up to the battle, then switch over to the joystick and lead the attack! Also, I want no hard coded blocks on pairing Luke and Leia on romantic getaway missions to luscious jungle moons. Missions to Tattooine by Han Solo result in his capture by Jabba. Only Luke can lead a successful rescue mission. Greedo is NOT in the game, Han shot first, and KILLED him in ANH (proper). In fact, bar all references to continuity to prequels and special editions, and ESB and RotJ. The original game's timeline is directly after ANHs conclusion. Rebellion II should be a remake or reboot rather than a proper sequel, else we killed Vader and Emperor and captured Coruscant already, or else the Alliance lost... duh. Scrap the whole research mission, it's tedious and unnecessary constraint. Use proper tech leveling at various intervals, stages in game transition if you must. Recruitment missions are also tedious and unnecessary (imo), make all A-list characters available at start, then set a base rate for each side to acquire B-list characters which can be influenced by rate of expansion, but capped to a reasonable number. B-list characters can be randomly generated and replace killed characters. Focus more on espionage, abduction, assassination, sabotage, incite uprising, diplomacy missions and greater character diversity. Random name and character generator to replace those B-list characters that killed in action inevitable, A-list characters of course don't die.

http://www.gamecritics.com/richard-naik/journeys-with-a-terrible-game-star-wars-rebellion Yeah... he went there. Chime in and give him your two cents.

Virtual PC does not support client hardware acceleration last I checked. Use an alternative solution from VMware or Virtualbox. Also, rebexe.exe is finicky in it's design (a major oversight) that it requires a sound device to be installed, whether or not you use it or have speakers installed is irrelevant, but Windows must have the hardware and driver for the hardware installed, or you will get similar errors. 1) Hardware acceleration (yeah I know it's software DirectX, DirectDraw) (in a virtual machine supporting guest access to host graphics hardware and guest additions enabled) 2) Audio hardware and driver installed (in a virtual machine, have the guest additions with audio enabled)

I think the common source of what is going wrong in so many of the Vista/7 replies is that people are messing up the manual copy. CD Root Folder (D:\REBELLION) Destination Root Folder (C:\...\Star Wars Rebellion) Example: copy D:\REBELLION\rebexe.exe to C:\...\Star Wars Rebellion\rebexe.exe copy D:\REBELLION\MDATA to C:\...\Star Wars Rebellion\MDATA If you have an additional REBELLION folder in your destination path then you did not follow the given directions, please read carefully. (C:\...\Star Wars Rebellion\REBELLION\smack32.dll is incorrect; the proper path is C:\...\Star Wars Rebellion\smack32.dll)

Regarding original topic about blu-ray release: http://uk.artsgrantsfinder.com/tag/anakin-skywalker/ Slightly off-topic but more relevant to my interests than Star Wars (2004 meh edition) on Blu-Ray are independent fan preservations from original film transfers and audio sources to reconstruct digital copies of the film grained and weathered, but classics we remember... well the old timers anyways. Also, recently, using these sourced preservations as the base, several new fan edits have hit the Internet are equally entertaining. A fanedit of Star Wars: A New Hope called The War of the Stars which cuts out some portions of the original film, a natural grindhouse wear from a 16mm preservation of the original theatrical cut, additions to some new rotoscoped gore effects during storm trooper deaths and some evil vader eyes, cheeseball music during key scenes adds to the atmosphere, and deleted scenes, alternative takes, and backstage footage is also spiced into this cut, all topped off by the plot twist at the end of movie tying up the loose ends without need for sequels. This is the new definitive A New Hope cut. My one complaint with this fanedit is the integration of the Troops (Cops spoof) footage, while funny, it feels too modern in comparison to something otherwise right of the 1970s grindhouse double-feature. (Hint Hint: Look Here:) http://1337x.org/torrent/67979/0/ Screencapture from The War of the Stars with added blood splatter. http://i39.tinypic.com/105qro4.png Also see for info on the 8mm puggo edition and 16mm puggo grande preservations: http://www.gappon.com/star-wars-16mm-preservation-project-puggo-grande-1542017.html

Thanks for the update... but I'll pass on this one... in fact all of them... LucasArts used to be cutting edge but now like their parent IP holder, they are consistently shoveling out crap. I'm still waiting on a new Tie Fighter simulator but it'll be a cold day in hell before I see another of those I suppose. Thank you George Lucas for the continual source of disappointment you have been in my life since you savagely raped and sodomized my childhood back in May of 1999...

I don't remember offhand so don't quote me on this but RebEd may be hard coded to look in the C:\Program Files\ directory and installation elsewhere C:\Program Files(x86) or D:\Program Files buggers it. You can attempt to open the unpacked version of rebedit.exe that I posted in another thread, maybe look under Rebellion 2 subforum, that has executable file compression removed and can be edited in standard hex editor. You can manually change the installation path using hex editor if you have knowledge, so long as the resulting path name is no longer than the original and unused characters are replaced to null to keep the filesize (memory offsets) the same. More Info Here: viewtopic.php?p=543330#p543330

64-bit Vista? Search the forums or site wiki, there are numerous existing discussions documenting how to get it working. Start here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3033&start=0 , need more help, reply there.

You can try placing smackw32.dll in the C:\Windows\system32 (x86 32-bit) folder and running the command regsvr32 C:\Windows\system32\smackw32.dll and see if that makes a difference. The same instruction for x64 64-bit is a slight different. C:\Windows\sysWOW64\regsvr32.exe C:\Windows\sysWOW64\smackw32.dll after copying smackw32.dll to the C:\Windows\sysWOW64\ directory. (Note do not call regsvr32 directly as it will bring up the 64-bit process for handling 64-bit dll's, use the full path as noted in italics. - I didn't actually have a x64 Windows system handy to try this so I don't guarantee it to be right, it was my best guess. Due to the convoluted nature of the x64 environment, the C:\Windows\system32\ path holds the 64-bit system resources on x64 systems for those confused as to why 32-bit applications are going in a folder with "64" in the path name. Microsoft...

Well depending on the error, you need either d3drm.dll or smackw32.dll, the files on the cd should suffice so long as they are in the applications root folder (ie. C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Rebellion), if that doesn't work try also putting a copy in the system32 folder on x86 (32-bit) versions of windows or in the syswow64 folder on x64 (64-bit) windows.

If you did not install the Reloaded mod you only need to use the replacement REBEXE.EXE file in the REBEXE 1.02 folder if you intend to offload movie files to the hard drive and use the customized directory path in my patched registry files. If you used the Rebellion installer with a x86 (32-bit) version of Windows 7 you can use the original REBEXE.EXE file. SMACKW32.DLL file should be present by default in the C:\Program Files\Star Wars Rebellion\ so either it is missing or has not been registered with the system. Would help to know if you are running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7 and if you are intending to install only Rebellion, or Rebellion/Reloaded side-by-side parallel installations. I can help you further when you do.

Try hitting spacebar to skip the movie. You may have used the included registry file supplied by me that defaults to pointing the media directory to the hard drive. You must use the new executable and copy the movie files from the CD to the hard drive to create the local cache. So either A) Installed one of my registry files; copied movie files to hard drive; replaced executable or B) Used the Rebellion installer, or modified my registry file with the reversed changes noted here; if you used a modified registry then you copied the base installation (you can copy the movies also but they won't be read from hdd so it's wasted space) or it was done for you by the installer; use the original executable to play the game.

This is brilliant, must watch! http://io9.com/5431426/70+minute-review-of-phantom-menace-is-the-only-prequel-im-ever-watching-again

Likewise, I don't understand all that... but Compiz is a series of desktop enhancements, it has been tightly integrated with the Gnome desktop environment but features are available in KDE and others. Gnome is supported on Linux, BSD, and OpenSolaris (Sun Unix). While a similar effect may be achievable with Windows desktop zoom tools (perhaps with included magnifying glass tools) or a third party application, I have not tried to reproduce a similar effect in Windows. Virtualbox is supported on Windows, Linux, BSD, Mac OSX, and Solaris (ofc). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox

For those still interested, mirrors to Unpacked RebEd v.26 (hex edit friendly) and my hex edited variant ReloadEd v.26r ReloadEd v.26r ReloadED 0.26r (Hacked RebED 0.26) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Build 001 Release - July 10, 2007 ------------- About: Provides RebED support for editing the Star Wars Reloaded Mod when installed via the Rebellion Refreshed and Reloaded Ultimate Package. ------------- Requirements: Reloaded Mod must be installed in C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Reloaded and the appropriate Reloaded_x**.reg file merged to registry. ------------- Limitations: Unknown, assumed functionality equivalent to RebED 0.26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RebEd v.26 Unpacked (hex edit friendly) RebEd v.26 Unpacked (hex edit friendly) About: Unpacked version of RebEd.exe v0.26 Compared to the original Delphi executable compression, the original file was smaller but obfusicated the contents so that attempting to hexedit the executable was not feasible. The unpacked version can now be easily hex edited and served as the base for the ReloadEd v.026r package.

Force Unleashed II doesn't surprise me but doesn't excite me either, it's just more of the same which is ok and low risk in a down economy. I still long for the days when LucasArts was an innovator and not another extension of the Electronic Arts cartel pushing sub-par products to market. However, the number of platforms the complexity of each has complicated the development process so it's hard to do more with less these days. So eh...

So I was playing about with a Windows XP virtual machine installed on VirtualBox 3.1.0 in OpenSolaris (snv_128a) w/ Gnome 2.28.1 and Compiz features enabled. I need to experiment further with plug-ins, configurations of Compiz but my first runs proved successful enough that I would gloat about it. Basically, I'm running Rebellion in XP virtual machine at 640x480 then using Compiz zoom to soft scale the VM window up to a larger resolution. There are probably some additional filters, plug-ins, that can be enabled to provide some additional filtering to the zoom, or someone could develop if there isn't. http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2753/rebellioncompiz.th.png http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2753/rebellioncompiz.png

You could try just placing d3drm.dll into the C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Rebellion path, it may work. I don't have my Vista install handy or I would verify that for you now. Depending on the executable, it may check multiple paths looking for the first instance of the file it is looking for. In this case, simply having d3drm.dll in the applications installation directory should suffice... but again, I don't recall if that applies to Rebellion or not but you can try and give us feedback

If you are running the game installer from the disc, it is not supported on 64-bit versions of Windows. x64 does not support 16-bit applications, the Rebellion game installer is a 16-bit application, however, the game itself is a 32-bit application. x86 (32-bit) versions of Vista and Windows 7 can however still run 16-bit applications such as the native installer. There is an x64 installer thread in the main forum. You can find my post here documenting how to manually install the game onto x64 Vista,7 systems. viewtopic.php?p=67704#p67704

No

Try clicking the "Click to start download..." just above the "Save to my Account" button. I don't even have an account on that site and download still works fine for me. Needed to clarify a few things, so I updated the original post of this thread as well as the reply from a few weeks ago with the same content, the text of the registry files is not quoted and can be easily copied to notepad. However, you need my executable if you decide to use the redirected data caches from CD to Hard Drive. The changes are noted below, you can simply edit the provided code for the registry keys to their original values and then merge and use the original game executables if you wish. [-] denotes change away from original registry key value to [+] denotes updated registry key value to redirect game caches.