Sitting Ducks (PlayStation 2, Windows)

Sitting Ducks
Developer: Asobo Studio Publishers: LSP (EU), Hip Games (US) Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 2 Released in US: March 2, 2004 (Windows), June 29, 2004 (PS2) Released in EU: November 28, 2003 (Windows), December 5, 2003 (PS2) This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused cinematics. This game has revisional differences. This game has unusual dummy files.

To do: Look into the debugging stuff. See what's inside the unused Bigfiles, and whether there are any other ones. It's possible that the TransText file has unused text.

An open world game based on a CGI cartoon about a duck and an alligator.

Unused XM Player Leftovers

All music in the final version is streamed, but the developers may have had different plans at some point, with evidence of the XM (Extended Module) tracker format support present in the executable file.

A massive table of all notes in several octaves, alongside several text fields, possibly in order to display debug print-outs from the tracker player:

C-0
C#0
D-0
D#0
E-0
F-0
F#0
G-0
G#0
A-1
A#1
B-1
C-1
C#1
D-1
D#1
E-1
F-1
F#1
G-1
G#1
A-2
A#2
B-2
C-2
C#2
D-2
D#2
E-2
F-2
F#2
G-2
G#2
A-3
A#3
B-3
C-3
C#3
D-3
D#3
E-3
F-3
F#3
G-3
G#3
A-4
A#4
B-4
C-4
C#4
D-4
D#4
E-4
F-4
F#4
G-4
G#4
A-5
A#5
B-5
C-5
C#5
D-5
D#5
E-5
F-5
F#5
G-5
G#5
A-6
A#6
B-6
C-6
C#6
D-6
D#6
E-6
F-6
F#6
G-6
G#6
A-7
A#7
B-7
C-7
C#7
D-7
D#7
E-7
F-7
F#7
G-7
G#7
A-8
A#8
B-8
C-8
C#8
D-8
D#8
E-8
F-8
F#8
G-8
G#8
A-9
A#9
%s %s|
%02X
===
---
%02d

Various other mentions of it in the EXE file of the Windows version:

XMObject_Z

.\Includes\XMObjectPc_Z.h

D:\Projects\ASOBO_CODE\LIBPC_Common\XMPlayerPc_Z.cpp
Couldn't start Module PlayBack

EXTENDED MODULE: 
D:\Projects\ASOBO_CODE\LIBPC_Common\XMObjectLoadPc_Z.cpp
Sound

Unused Data

All Bigfiles (DPS/DPC files) in the game that are used start with the header with the string

v1.22 - Asobo Studio - Internal Cross Technology

(v1.24 for the Russian Windows version, v1.19 for the PS2 versions). There are several Bigfiles built with earlier versions of Asobo Studio's tools that are not used in the game, contained in the RTC directory (Real-Time Cinematics) and the WORLD directory (the level map).

• The string

  v1.14 - Asobo Studio - Internal Cross Technology

  appears in RTC\E_STO\E_STO_61\SUBL_5, RTC\S_EPI\W_EPI_7\SUBL_5 and RTC\S_EPI\W_EPI_7\SUBL_6.
• The string

  v1.17 - Asobo Studio - Internal Cross Technology

  appears in RTC\E_EPI\E_EPI_0, RTC\E_EPI\W_EPI_3\SUBL_1, WORLD\LEVEL1\D0\SUBD_193, WORLD\LEVEL1\D4\SUBD_211, WORLD\LEVEL1\D4\SUBL_4, WORLD\LEVEL1\D5\SUBD_251. Of note is that SUBD_251 is the only file in the D5 directory.

Disc Image

For some random reason, the North American Windows re-release contains a .NRG (Nero) disc image of the final game on the disc. It's possible that it was included as a padding file, though a few of Asobo Studio's later Windows games such as The Mummy: The Animated Series more sensibly go for a large empty padding file instead.

Version Differences

Various versions were released, such as PS2 (Europe, North America) and Windows (Europe, North America, North America re-release, Russia, Russia re-release).

• The videos TRAILER.PSS (video that plays when idling on the title screen) and SIZZLER.PSS (100% completion bonus video) were removed from the Windows versions, possibly due to engine limitations. The game does still try to play TRAILER.AVI on the title screen in the Windows version, but fails, which leads to it restarting the title music in an odd way.
• The North American re-release for Windows has a rebuilt executable from 2005. Some noticeable differences include text no longer scaling with screen resolution, and the removal of the 100% completion bonus video button (that doesn't do anything anymore) to accommodate for its removal from the Windows versions.