VOGONS


First post, by rfnagel

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I've recently been having a real blast playing the old JetFighter III Platinum Edition. FYI, the "Platinum Edition" is the same thing as the original JetFighter III with the "Enhanced Campaign CD" installed. I'm almost done playing ALL of the campaigns and missions in the game, but during my gameplay discovered a few bad bugs with some of the campaign missions.

Attached is a ZIP, I call it "JetFighter III Platinum Edition Unofficial Update #4" (as Mission Studios had released three official updates to the game back in the day), that fixes the problems with these missions. Readme included in the ZIP:

JetFighter III Platinum Edition Unofficial Update #4
----------------------------------------------------
This unofficial update fixes problems with several of the campaign mission
files where the next mission in the campaign would constantly loop back to the
current mission, REGARDLESS if you win or lose the current mission.

This unofficial update also fixes problems with several other campaign mission
files where the next mission in the campaign would constantly loop back to the
current mission, unless that you LOSE the current mission.

These fixes now force the next mission in the campaigns to continue to the next
mission, as they should.

The included fixed campaign mission files are:

MSN09038.DAT
MSN12001.DAT
MSN12002.DAT
MSN12003.DAT
MSN12004.DAT
MSN12005.DAT
MSN12006.DAT
MSN12007.DAT
MSN12008.DAT
MSN12009.DAT
MSN12010.DAT
MSN12011.DAT
MSN12012.DAT
MSN12013.DAT
MSN12014.DAT
MSN12015.DAT

To install, simply copy the included files to the "JF3\CAMPAIGN" directory on
your hard drive, overwriting the existing files in that directory.

It's surprising that none of their beta testers (or customers) discovered these bugs back in the day, as they are definitely a showstopper... the affected mission files will NOT allow you to progress to the next campaign mission in the affected campaigns <DUH!>.

Anyhow, these hex-edited mission files fix those problems.

Also attached is a text file with some of the hex offsets for various values that I've discovered while playing the game for your "PILOT##.DAT" pilot data file, as well as the "MSN#####.DAT" campaign mission files. The hex editing investigation for the pilot data file came about because apparently the "JF3PILOT.EXE" Pilot Editing Utility that comes with the Platinum Edition / Enhanced Campaign CD is BROKEN and crashes back to DOS EVERY time (again, <DUH!>).

Anyways, is anyone still playing this old game? If so, you might find these files useful 😀

Attachments

  • Filename
    JF3PEHEX.TXT
    File size
    1.61 KiB
    Downloads
    69 downloads
    File license
    Public domain
  • Filename
    JF3UPDT4.ZIP
    File size
    555.19 KiB
    Downloads
    71 downloads
    File license
    Public domain

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 1 of 3, by dormcat

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Thanks! But I often found the plane "refused to land" i.e. "floating" a few feet above the runway even with engine off. Running it on my P233-MMX could be a bit choppy but on P3-800 it became kinda buggy. 🙄

Reply 2 of 3, by rfnagel

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I've never had that problem. Although one time I got "stuck" inside the carrier after making a landing 🤣! Other than that, never had any problems with landings.

I've been running the game under DOSBox, it's quite smooth as long as I set the game resolution to 640x400, no ground shading, and no clouds.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 3 of 3, by rfnagel

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I finally completed ALL of the campaigns in JetFighter III Platinum Edition, and here are my final statistics. I completed a total of 125 sorties over the course of 6 different campaigns (not including the initial flight training missions), and have over 54 hours of mission flight time.

PILOT01.PNG
Filename
PILOT01.PNG
File size
610.72 KiB
Views
605 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net