What is the Tornado project: Discussion

[Renders]

i am one of those, i can do audio editing and various related things... let me know if i can be included in some phases...

[Frankie]

Thanks Renders. I will take note of your particular skill. One weakness of Tornado is its underwhelming explosion sounds. You let go a 1,000 pound iron bomb at 200 feet(!) and the result is the Tornado gets shredded by the blast. But the blast sound is disappointing and underwhelming. Not enough "kaboom!!!" In the sound. I don't know why. The sound files are in a proprietary format I think, definitely not MP3 or wav. I can find out from Kevin Bezant, the original programmer of Tornado.

[Renders]

i can try and maximize them after we can decode the original language. probably because they are 8 bit?

[Frankie]

Renders, really early days yet, and I don't have clear details what exactly will happen yet. But this I do know: if having to modify the sound files requires you to handle audio source files (not necessarily assembly language ASM source code) which are considered as assets, then the person in charge (you?) of modifying the Tornado sound would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement document created by Interplay.
So, Renders, can I put you down as the Sound Engineer for the project?

[mirando_flynn]

Hi Franki,

I’m in! I would love  to help with the source code. Now I work with modern languages but back at college a did some ASM and a lot of C/C++ programming. Do you have any issue/features tracker? If yes, can you please add me so I can get sense how is the project organized?

But first, I’m very interested how did you manage to start the Tornado project and get the game source code? It was always my dream to find the Tornado source files and improve it but I never even know where to start. Did you had any friends in Digital Integration? Who did you contact first? DId your profession help with that?

Cheers,
Mirando

[Frankie]

Hi Mirando

Thanks for your post! It made my day because not everyday do I get to meet an ex-Tornado gamer with coding skills and interest in extending the game. Hopefully Real Life will be kind to you and allow you a sliver of precious time to write 16-bit ASM x86 code. Who knows? The work done on 16-bit ASM can lay a stepping stone for a spiritual successor to Tornado clothed in modern day graphics.

I'm afraid I don't have a tracker system. The closest I have to a tracker is the Tornado Discord Server which is the heart of the development work. Speaking of which, I would like to invite you to be a member, but I don't have your E-mail address. Could you Private Message me your E-mail address? Once I receive it, I will send you a link that will enable you to join the Tornado Discord Server. Then you will be able to see the work up close, as well as interact (once in a while) with the Band of Tornado Brothers who have an interest in seeing the Tonka fly again.

As for my profession, I work in Education, and I am in IT. Doing e-Learning with Moodle, programming in Php, Javascript, JQuery and HTML, also updating and maintaining the company's website and doing all sorts of support and IT backup work. Yes, my profession helped in getting Tornado modded. My programming background helped me to pick up assembly language even though the last time I wrote an ASM code was when I was in college in 1991. I flunked Assembly Language 101 back then, LOL! My interest in making Tornado better helped me get to make contact with members of the original development team, including the co-founder of Digital Integration. My interest and passion for flight simulators made this all possible.

For more goodies and answers to your burning questions that I didn't address in this post, please check your PM.

Regards
Frankie Kam