Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails (Wii)

Unused SoundsIs that Pierce Brosnan?

Unused Graphics#

Legal Screen#

Legal.tpl from the billboards folder is an unused legal screen that has copyright dates from 2009. The legal screen that is used in the game has copyright dates from 2010 and the link to HiT Entertainment's website was removed.

Unedited Background#

BG.tpl from the Games_Menu folder is the unedited background for the Minigame Menu, which is a screenshot taken directly from the racing scene of the movie.

Unused Minigames#

Present in the Games_Menu Folder are unused titles for minigames based around Harold the Helicopter and Cranky the Crane, characters who are not used anywhere in the final game.

Early Minigame Names#

Also present in the Games_Menu Folder are several unused titles for minigames.

An early title for the "Sorting" minigame.

An early title for the "Washing" minigame.

An early title for the "Pairs" minigame.

An early title for the "Shunting" minigame.

Scrapped & Unused Characters#

To do: Rip the sounds.

Many cut narrator voicelines and sound effects exist for characters, which means that they were likely intended to make appearances somewhere in the game.

• Stanley's whistle and corresponding voicelines. Strangely, despite not appearing whatsoever in the film, Stanley was apparently given a focal point in the story for the game at one point, being narrated as the leading character for cut "journeys" in many voicelines.
• Edward is mentioned in the files, being given a whistle and corresponding narration. In the game, he would appear going to Callan Castle in a scrapped race "journey" between Stanley and Gordon.
• Henry is given a whistle and appears in early outlines in the game files. He would appear in a race to Henry's Tunnel, a minigame centering around him which was ultimately cut.
• Toby is given a a matching bell and narration, in which it seems he would play a small role in the game's story. He would have appeared in the later half of the game.
• Billy from the episode Don't Be Silly, Billy is mentioned in the narration as an engine who would be seen in passing while traveling.
• Rosie is mentioned in the narration as an engine who would be seen in passing while traveling. She also has a whistle.
• Mavis is mentioned in the narration as a diesel who would be seen in passing while traveling. She also has a whistle.
• The twins Iron 'Arry and Bert are given whistles in the sound files, but nothing else in the files correspond to them.

While some engines have files remaining, others do not appear whatsoever beyond unused comments in various scripts in the files for the game.

• Salty is mentioned in progressscript.lua, apparently appearing in the scrapped Henry race. Ultimately, he was not added to the final game, nor did he appear in the film.
• In the same script, Rheneas has a scrapped shunting minigame to himself which would have taken place in Great Waterton. He would appear in an area named "castletodevil". He is the only narrow gauge engine mentioned at all in the game, and none of the Skarloey Railway would make their debut in Thomas's CGI world until Blue Mountain Mystery, three years after the release of the film this game was based on.

Unused Videos#

To do: Properly rip the rest of the videos.

Tempfile.tmp#

Tempfile.tmp from the video folder is actually the first four seconds of the Season 12 intro. Judging by its filename and length, it was likely used as a placeholder.

Intro PAL.mo#

Intro PAL.mo is a textless version of the original Hero of the Rails movie intro. Likely a placeholder for the game's opening, which the final does not have.

Washingmini.mo#

Washingmini.mo is what looks like a tutorial or gameplay footage of an early version of the Washing mini-game. It has much more simply modelled scenery and Thomas facing left to the camera as opposed to being at a 3/4ths angle like in the final. Thomas also seems to be using an earlier model, with slightly different textures from the final.

journeyintro.mo#

journeyintro.mo uses the Washingmini.mo as a placeholder, meant to be used for the intros to the cut "Journeys" from pre-release versions of the game.

outro.mo#

outro.mo uses the Washingmini.mo footage as a placeholder, meant to be used for the outro to the game, which the final does not have.

Unused Text#

Developer Documents#

Download HerooftheRails_DeveloperDocuments.zip File: HerooftheRails_DeveloperDocuments.zip (info)

Two game documents are present in the milestone folder. Journey info.rtf is a list of track tiles along with a brief description of what they correspond to. Wrong Cams.doc contains a blank table that would have listed scene names and camera numbers. The latter document also has metadata that states it came from Broadsword Interactive Limited, a game studio that was possibly involved in the game's development at some point.

Batch Scripts#

Some batch scripts used for generating various game assets are leftover.

Convben.bat#

@echo off
dir *.tga /s/b > datalist.txt
convRGB5A3.py datalist.txt

Runme.bat#

..\BuildLanguageSamples English

SetLoops.bat#

LoopWiiStream "menu.brstm"
LoopWiiStream "Music 10 -glock.brstm"
LoopWiiStream "Music 10 -melody.brstm"
LoopWiiStream "Music 10.brstm"
LoopWiiStream "sponge_.brstm"

Game Scripts#

The game uses uncompiled lua scripts, many of which contain comments left by the developers.

American.lua#

data.STR_TEST = { "(american) Here is some text", "sodor_24", "100", "0", "0", "50", "50", };

beautySpots.lua#

This script contains a reference to a development directory in a comment.

-- ------------------------
-- C:\development\Thomas2\data\trackData\beautySpots.lua

OrigionalProgressscript.lua#

The game was in development as far back as January 23, 2009 according to this script, which details what looks to be either an early game map or a map of what was finished at the time.

-- This is to specified progession as of 23/01/2009. It jumps after 'all other track tests' to enable stanley
-- as the parents to that path require more information to be fully implemented - hcf

--  introspeech
--      |
--  tidmouthsheds    fatcontroller    stanley        trackwork             Minigames
--      |
--  washing    ----------------------------------->basic driving
--      |                                            |
--  painting                                    repair tutorial
--      |                                            |
--  whilstle        activated<------------------time limit track testing
--                      |                            |
--                  All Games                    up hill                        
--                                                  |
--                                              points
--                                                  |
--                                              bends
--                                                  |
--                                              all other track tests
--                                                  |
--                                              .........
--                                                  |
--                                  activated<--Docks---------------------->Cranky
--                                      |            |
--                                  All Games    .........
--                                                  |
--                                              Others places-------------->Races etc
--

progressscript.lua#

-- This is to specified progession as of 20/02/2009 - hcf , b_d
--  power and speed tests moved back to behind points, hills and bends so they can be used in the tests
--  see UnlockSequence.docx

--AddElement("stanley"); removed for access to minigames for testing - remember to add 'stanley' back to stanley
--AddDependency("stanley", "stanley_t"); removed for access to minigames for testing