Sneak Preview Beta

This is a sub-page of Proto:Midtown Madness.

This early version of Midtown Madness is the only one of its kind that is publicly available, thanks to archival. It is not to be confused with the demo.

Being less than a month away from the final release, this build is very close to the final product. However, it has a few additional features as well as very interesting debug content.

To do: There is still a lot of content about the debug build that is documented on the Midtown Club Discord server that could be used to expand this article.

Debug Content#

The CD has a folder named "debug" that is not installed on the system by the installer. It contains an alternate version of the executable, named test1560.exe, as well as the associated MAP file for it; this program has allowed the community to improve the game even further through modifications such as the Open1560 project.

The default debug executable seems to crash on most modern operating systems. A patched version of the program is required to run it; said patched version exists but redistribution of the patch on The Cutting Room Floor has not yet been discussed with the author.

The following features in this section are only present when using the debug executable. It is all sourced from the Midtown Club Discord server community unless otherwise noted.

Debug Controls#

There are various debug hotkeys available during gameplay.

To do: Document them all! Screenshots will be needed.

One of the CULLMGR debug pages is a performance graph. This has its own subset of controls.

'Midgets' Menu#

No really, the class for this menu is "asMidgets". Angel Studios called their development UI system "widgets", this is most likely something akin to "mini widgets". This menu can be used to move through the scene tree, toggle various debug, and modify various object parameters.

Main Menu#

Position Display#

To do: Add a screenshot of the feature in action.

Pressing P will display the coordinates for the player's position on the screen.

Race Locales#

In the final game, a "Race Locales" button exists but is normally not accessible. It was made so the game's community could add their own cities and tracks to the game. However, the developers also made test maps that they accessed through the same system.

RaceCity#

It is the only alternate test city available besides Chicago. It is a symetrical map that was probably used during development to create and test races.

The city has a single Circuit Race named "The Big Loop", with the following default settings:

Despite having a maximum of 8 opponents, only 6 other racers exist in the map. All of them are Panoz Roadsters of different colors.

Interestingly, the very first Circuit Race for Chicago is named The Littler Loop, with the same settings.

Vehicles#

Disco Ball#

A round vehicle similar to a Disco Ball. It uses the VW New Beetle dashboard and brake lights. Destroying the vehicle will crash the game.

It was most likely used to test reflections on player vehicles.