[Marphy Black]

I'm having an issue with a classic Apogee title that I think people here would be able to appreciate the uniqueness of.

Basically, I've been wanting to try out the Dopefish patch for the original Rise of the Triad available on the official Dopefish site (direct link to patch here) for some time now, but I've hit a snag. The patch specifically requires the 1.3 CD version of ROTT as it can only patch that version of DARKWAR.WAD. I figured this shouldn't be a problem in my case, but after years of searching, I've come to a sad conclusion: although I still have the box complete with manual and all of the original inserts, I've shamefully managed to lose my ROTT CD somehow. I even still have my The Hunt Begins floppy diskettes, but the Dark War CD has simply vanished into the ether.

You might think I should just get a replacement copy of ROTT by purchasing one of the recent digital releases, and I do indeed own both The Apogee Throwback Pack on Steam and the 3D Realms Anthology. However, that's where a second snag arises: the GoG, Apogee Throwback Pack, and 3DR Anthology releases of ROTT all only offer the 1.3 Site License CD version. This means the included DARKWAR.WAD file is modified and the Dopefish patch cannot be applied to it.

Hence, I'm in a conundrum. I own ROTT at least three times over, yet I have nothing that can be used with the Dopefish patch. I've scoured the net, and I've found no alternate installation methods or workarounds. As a Half-Life enthusiast as well, I'm a big fan of Chuck Jones' work and have wanted to see his Dopefish rendition for years, but it seems I won't be able to without some outside assistance. Short of forking over the cash to buy ROTT yet again in CD format, could anyone here offer any suggestions?

Due to the nature of this patch, I can't see much of an alternative other than to obtain the appropriate DARKWAR.WAD file itself from some kind soul here who may have it, but I understand there would be a reluctance to share the registered WAD file. Thus, I wish to provide ample evidence that I do, in fact, own more ROTT than I know what to do with:



Any help would be much appreciated.

[Player Lin]

If you can't accept warez then don't click spoiler...

Spoiler

I found a copy of RotT CD 1.2 from somewhere on my harddisks(I don't remember how I got actually, but it was warez for sure..., since I later got a copy from GoG as my legal one...), then patch it to 1.3 with R13CDPT.ZIP that I found from "www.filewatcher.com", finally patched to 1.DFISH without problems...

If you want I can give the package of patched files(1.DFISH) or the 1.2 CD files(let you patch to 1.3 and 1.DFISH by yourself) to you via PM.

Or maybe you can ask on here, as Joe Siegler has come back to work with new 3DR...maybe he can do something about this, since the whole dopefish things and the patch were created by him...

(The dopefish.com sub forum in 3DR has been archived, but I think it's fine for just go there to ask...)

[Marphy Black]

Thanks to the very kind help of Player Lin and Hendricks, I was finally able to get the Dopefish patch running. Screenshots for the curious:




Also, the extracted non-mirrored Dopefish sprites:



I do wish there was an easier way to distribute this patch for the sake of Site License users. It's not as simple as releasing the WAD file, unfortunately, as the patch modifies the executable as well in order to load the Dopefish graphics.

[ReaperMan]

I really want my boxed copy of ROTT back now

[Micky C]

Is there no way of modifying the patch to work with the online version?

[Player Lin]

Micky C, on 03 November 2014 - 02:59 PM, said:

Is there no way of modifying the patch to work with the online version?

The patch on Dopefish.com is only works with 1.3 CD of RotT game files, other versions will give you "OLD FILE IS NOT FOUND ERROR", even the file name are the same, the old patcher just refused to patch at all, so you can't use every one copy of GoG/Steam/3DR Anthology with the patch since they're NOT v1.3 CD.

[Marphy Black]

Greetings, fellow ROTT heads! It's been nearly ten years since I made this thread, and sadly, the Dopefish Patch for Rise of the Triad has remained just as difficult to install now as it did a decade ago. Today, I wish to rectify this longstanding injustice. There are two main issues why this patch is such a challenge to use in its current form:

• It specifically requires the 1.3 CD Version, yet the only version commercially available today on all digital platforms is the newer 1.3 Site License CD Version.
  
• The patching process is DOS-based, and, for whatever reason, it will not work in DOSBox.

Long story short, to ensure the long term preservation and availability of this canonical Dopefish appearance for generations to come, I've converted the Rise of the Triad Dopefish Patch into a more easily usable delta patch form which works with the 1.3 Site License CD Version. This is the version you get on GOG, in The Apogee Throwback Pack (probably also this Steam release?), and the 3D Realms Anthology.

Download: dfrottcd_deltapatch.zip

Installation instructions:

• Extract included delta patch files.
  
• Use a patching program (I recommend Delta Patcher) to apply the following patches on their respective files in your ROTT 1.3 Site License CD Version installation:
  
  • dfrottcd_rottexe.xdelta on ROTT.EXE
    
  • dfrottcd_darkwarwad.xdelta on DARKWAR.WAD
• The modified ROTT installation may now require DOS4GW.EXE which is included. Simply extract and place this file in your ROTT directory.
  
• Run ROTT. If properly patched, you will see the game version as "1.DFISH".
  
• Swim, Swim, Hungry!

[Phredreeke]

DOPEFISH LIVES

[NightFright]

After nine years of waiting, someone finally had mercy.

[Marphy Black]

Having tested this Dopefish Patch a little further, I wanted to confirm that it does come with one additional gameplay modification that affects a couple of the Comm-Bat game modes. As a refresher, among these multiplayer modes is Eluder and Deluder where you tag and shoot, respectively, roving Triad objects for points. Normally, there will only be one Triad from a random spawn point present at any one time during the level, making these modes akin to a one-on-one game of tag. However, the Dopefish Patch modifies the game so that all Triads spawn simultaneously, suddenly turning these modes into wild and frantic collect-a-thons with Triads (or Dopefish, as per the patch) rushing all around you. Joe does sort of mention this in the included documentation, but he confusingly lumps it in with a description of some features that definitely did not make the cut in this public release (which means more ROTT lost media for us!).

To demonstrate the Dopefish Patch as a whole, I've recorded this video:


At 1:35, I start a game of Eluder showing the increased Triad/Dopefish spawning.

At 3:25, I restart the game to combine the Dopefish Patch with the Dopefish launch parameter. I then start a game of Deluder to create what is undoubtedly the most terrifying official mode you can canonically experience in Rise of the Triad.

[MrFlibble]

Marphy Black, on 17 June 2023 - 05:28 AM, said:

• The patching process is DOS-based, and, for whatever reason, it will not work in DOSBox.

I'd venture a guess that this is because the patch checks the date/time stamps on the files it is about to modify before applying the changes. If one installs ROTT in vanilla DOSBox, the date stamps on the installed copy will be set to the date/time when these files were written to the user's HDD. While the patch expects them to be the original date stamps when the files were last modified (this is how the stamps would normally behave on a real DOS machine from the period).

The solution to this is to use a modified build that preserves original date/time stamps, like DOSBox-X or the outdated SVN Daum.

[Marphy Black]

MrFlibble, on 20 June 2023 - 09:01 AM, said:

The solution to this is to use a modified build that preserves original date/time stamps, like DOSBox-X or the outdated SVN Daum.

Just tried DOSBox-X, and it didn't work.




You can see that it did properly patch DARKWAR.WAD, which is what occurred in most other DOSBox versions I tried, so it's not a matter of DOSBox failing to patch anything altogether. However, no matter what build I used, the patch would inevitably fail to patch ROTT.EXE (or some combination of the two files). And keep in mind, this was on top of finding the absolute one and only precise version of ROTT that could be patched. In the end, I did find the right version (and believe me, there were many possibilities), but it was always the final Dopefish Patch process that would fail. Ultimately, I gave up on all DOSBoxes entirely and went full Windows 98 virtual machine, specifically PCem. Lo and behold, it worked first try. I didn't question it, but obviously no one else would ever go to such lengths and rigamarole, so this truly cursed DOS patch method can now be put behind us forever in the advent of the provided xdelta patches.

Anyway, some last trivia I noticed about the Dopefish Patch. Currently, all of the "latest" versions of ROTT report their version number of "vR1.3", as shown:


However, with the Dopefish Patch installed, the reported version number is upped to "vR1.4", like so:


Therefore, the Dopefish Patch is canonically the most officially updated, and therefore best, version of ROTT to have been released back in the day by Apogee.

[Player Lin]

Back when I tried to patch the game myself, I did that in Virtual PC's MS-DOS(or Win9x, just forgot) and it works fine. I guess DOSBox doing something weird to the file date thing that confused the patcher for some reasons so it didn't worked no matter what...I just feel that's so weird. *Thinking*

The "version" field on the crash/error screen likely couldn't fits/shows "1.Dopefish" because the field just too small to fit unlike the startup screen(or they have to reformat the field that would be extra works), so just bump that to v1.4R would be more easily, I guess.

Still, good to know now we have better way to get the 1.Dopefish version with the new diff patcher, thank you for release that patcher.