Bookworm Adventures Volume 2

To do: Decompile the LUC files, there's more in them, they are compiled with LUA 5.0.2 but likely stupidly headered.

Bookworm Adventures: Volume 2 is a sequel to the previous word-based Bookworm RPG from three years before. It's more of the same pretty much, except when EA purchased PopCap, at some point in 2016 they just decided to unexpectedly delist all sales of the Bookworm series and pretend it never existed (outside of cameos from Lex in other PopCap titles).

This game has been through a bit, is what we're saying.

Debugging Material#

To do: Enable this if possible.

Developer Cheats#

scripts/cheat.luc appear to have developer cheats, functions are modify HP, level up, modify XP, instant kill, complete chapter, complete book, modify tile architectures, set particles, nuke profile, status testing, load debug profile, add items, beatdown multiplier modifiers, die, save, get selected chapter, modify treasure count, bypass/repeating tutorials, give player+enemy buffs/debuffs, enabling minigames, enabling bestiary, delete words, forcing an attack, and hiding treasures.

The game also looks for this file on bootup.

Beta Support#

Some files mention BETA_BUILD, this likely refers to builds distributed from PopCap's game beta testing page and is also a flag for what current build type is used when released to the public.

Bad String Handler#

To do: Where is this detected? The LUC/LUAs and/or plaintext data?

If the game detects a bad string, this text from scripts/common.luc will show in red:

Someone passed in a string with invalid characters. Probably because they forgot to save the file as plain text and it contains some specially formatted Word characters. This is bad. We can't render those. I'll let the program continue, but it may result in messed up text. This would probably be a bug for Steve if you get this. I'll let the program keep running though, as this is just cosmetic.

Cheat Detection#

To do: What triggers this? Memory edits, developer cheats or both? Test.

scripts/BattleEngine.luc mentions CHEAT and YOUCHEATED in flagging terms, the game would most likely detect the use of memory editing or some sort of cheat format and force your best and longest word to be CHEAT and YOUCHEATED, it would be impossible to get YOUCHEATED as your longest word during legal play since that word is not in the in-game dictionary.

Leftover Source Binding Files#

main.pak/scripts has a leftover source binding files, the name of the second one is capitalized.

scripts.vssscc#

""
{
"FILE_VERSION" = "9237"
"ENLISTMENT_CHOICE" = "NEVER"
"PROJECT_FILE_RELATIVE_PATH" = ""
"NUMBER_OF_EXCLUDED_FILES" = "0"
"ORIGINAL_PROJECT_FILE_PATH" = ""
"NUMBER_OF_NESTED_PROJECTS" = "0"
"SOURCE_CONTROL_SETTINGS_PROVIDER" = "PROJECT"
}

MSSCCPRJ.SCC#

SCC = This is a source code control file

[scripts.lup]
SCC_Aux_Path = "P4SCC#perforce:1666##anthony##AntLaptop"
SCC_Project_Name = Perforce Project

[scripts.sln]
SCC_Aux_Path = "P4SCC#perforce:1666##anthony##AntLaptop"
SCC_Project_Name = Perforce Project

To do: Does it refer to Anthony Mackey instead?

A Perforce source control file, mentioning files titled scripts.lup and scripts.sln, both not existing in public distributions. Anthony likely refers to Anthony Coleman, one of the key programmers who also takes role as one a game designer.

Revision List#

To do: Check other OEMs.

• 1.0.4.8465 = Initial release!
• 1.0.6.2376 = Bug Fixes

Copy Protection#

If you remove or rename properties/partner.xml from your installation of the game and use the extracted game executable from the wrapper to play, the keyboard and main in-game GUI other than the Pause and Scramble buttons will stop working after 2 seconds of gameplay. This affects the entirety of the in-game GUI and the keyboard. The pause menu also doesn't have the black background fade.

When set to a 60 minute trial with the animated trailer, loading the game without the trial wrapper or killing it when run will immediately lock out the game after loading saying the trial has expired.

Revisional Differences#

To do: There's more.

Main Menu#

Astounding Planet, The Monkey King and Fractured Fairytales	Bookworm Adventures Volume 2

Appareantly, in the three demos of the game, the main menu is different, resembling more the one from the PopCap Loader version. It also lacks the Hall of Fame, Arena and Mini-Games buttons.

In Game Pause Menu#

Astounding Planet, The Monkey King and Fractured Fairytales	Bookworm Adventures Volume 2

The three demos of the game also lack the Credits button when pausing in game.