ModsToTheMax Modules Restoration Project

[Reptorian]

I have decided to introduce my project which I was not able to introduce because there was not enough users or social activity as roller coaster games aren't that popular as I'd like. Anyways, for those who never heard of ModsToTheMax, it was the largest repository for modules for Ultimate Ride games until its closure some few years ago.

Now, this thread is going to be about my progress on repairing old mods using mods that was found on ModsToTheMax, and that is despite the manpower required for it to be a successful project. Now, you may ask, how is my progress on doing that? Environment icons has been improved, and most of them matches the content of original games. The main roadblocks are the icons to theme modules as there is more than 500 icons to go through. At the moment, I am stuck on taking pictures of mods for Neon themes, and that is halfway done. After that, it's pretty likely to be completed in less than a year.

So, where are the pictures? Here are some pictures with the restoration in work:

[wolfpaw]

I think I remember you sharing this on the Discord server a while ago, still crazy that I've never even heard of this before. Looks like a pretty interesting project, will definitely be following your progress - retro games and things like this have always interested me! Also, welcome to ParkCrafters!

[Kablary]

Ultimate Ride! What a throwback. I remember you talking about this on Discord now, and I think that inspired me to acquire a disc copy on eBay. Sadly, I don't have a disc reader, but it's nice to own a piece of nostalgia like that. This is one of those games that I would have never guessed had an active modding community, especially considering how dated it is. I'm sure many people said the same about RCT3, too 

It'd be great to see some before-and-after pictures to really highlight the changes that were made to the game!

[Reptorian]

17 hours ago, Kablary said:

Ultimate Ride! What a throwback. I remember you talking about this on Discord now, and I think that inspired me to acquire a disc copy on eBay. Sadly, I don't have a disc reader, but it's nice to own a piece of nostalgia like that. This is one of those games that I would have never guessed had an active modding community, especially considering how dated it is. I'm sure many people said the same about RCT3, too 

It'd be great to see some before-and-after pictures to really highlight the changes that were made to the game!

I would recommend Ultimate Ride Disney Coaster. You don't need the CD itself to run it either although you do need it to install it.

As for the pictures, there aren't changes to the game itself, but to the mods of the games as the mods has issues like buggy mods or icons. And my goal is to resolve issues. The mods can be found within Princess_G archive floating around in some places. I have some mods that are exclusive as I have made these mods, and some of them aren't in Princess_G archive either. There's ~150 Environment mods, ~60 Themes mod, ~30 tracks. And that only means that there are only 6 known lost mods that probably will never be recovered, but at least 5 have some foundations to work with. Dark Ride Environment is the biggest lost mod as it has no foundation to work with.

Here's the list of known lost mods:

• Dark Ride Environment (The most interesting thing to find. No video/pictures exist on what this is)
• Lonely Goatherd (No info exists on what this could be. From a google search, it seems feasible to have it as a theme with a mountain modeled as a environment).
• Aztec Theme (Only partly found, not as a theme itself. Mostly recoverable because of X’ian, and Backdrop 2 Theme which are both found, but it would not be the same.)
• Terminator Environment (No video/pictures exist on what this is. However, a new Terminator Environment could replace this one.)
• Cage Environment (No video/pictures exist on what this is, but it’s likely made by Layton and therefore, might be simple to recreate)
• Alice’s Horror Theme (Can technically be remade. No information other than a picture via Internet Archive. Most information are lost.)

You can see why 5 of them at least have some foundation to work with although Cage Environment is questionable because it is unknown who made it, but still very much likely a simple texture replacement to resemble cage. 4 of them are based on existing concepts, and therefore new versions can be made.

Here is a example of a exclusive environment and theme that aren't found anywhere, but my local computer:

This environment is named Cadrestial Desert.

Other exclusive mods I have are:

1. Greenarian Mountain

2. Milky Way

3. Voxel Sphere

That's about it.

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by Reptorian

[Reptorian]

There are 4 copies of a exclusive environment named "Voxel Sphere". Here is what they look like:

Note: Bottom 2 changes color depending on time setting.

Is it worth keeping the first two? As always users can delete those with ease if they don't like them.

This is one of the color changes possible for the green one:

Edited October 8, 2023 by Reptorian

[Reptorian]

Near end of year review of this project. So far, I am nearly finishing up on improving Neon series themes. However, it is still so far away from being finished in terms of times (3-6 months). That being said, I'm confident that once that is cleared up, there will be a major speed in fixing up MTTM modules. Only bad news is that no one still have files to lost mods, and the one I'm interested in the most "Dark Ride Environment" is probably still completely lost. Yes, this project is still being worked on to this day.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Reptorian

[Reptorian]

Not much news for now. But, I found pieces of Alice's Nightmare Theme. This is actually one of the lost mods for Ultimate Ride games. Could be possible that this isn't a theme at all, but I find that very unlikely. But, from ggraff png files, that picture was found in a screenshot that made me discovered there might have been Alice's Horror theme one day, so for certain I can announce that this theme is now partly found.

Edited March 2 by Reptorian

[Reptorian]

This news may or may not be a nothing-burger, but I want to hope for the best, really.

JoeTomNJ a former member of MTTM has replied to me via Youtube, and he said he may actually have some lost modules. If he does, that's big news because there's a real possibility of being able to restore the entire collection of modules that existed for Ultimate Ride games, including the forever lost mods that cannot be found on the web.

Again, let's hope for the best, really.

[Reptorian]

I am here to announce that it will not happen because of complications from YouTube side of things. Automatically hiding comments for approval issues.

I hate YouTube. Really.

If it is to happen, he needs to come here or CoasterCrazy.

Rant over.

Still have about 99% of mods any way. So...

Edited Friday at 04:57 PM by Reptorian

[Reptorian]

Now, down to 2 more neon themes to fix the icons up. So, about ~31 icons to go before the rapid speed up in restoration.

[wolfpaw]

Your dedication to this project is amazing, it's honestly inspiring to see! Good luck as you track them all down!

[Reptorian]

3 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

Your dedication to this project is amazing, it's honestly inspiring to see! Good luck as you track them all down!

Thank you.

What I have now is what I could track down. It's up to JoeTomNJ of Youtube/CoasterCrazy to come here or CoasterCrazy as YouTube is not the proper platform as my messages disappear from time to time and he doesn't seem open to other platforms which I pointed to. He's literally the missing link to the remaining mods which is very few mods left. Like 6-10 mods which is ~1% remaining. So, it's going to take a miracle at this point. Maybe once I release the project when done, some one else or even he will reach out to me and give me the remaining modules.

Edited Monday at 05:05 PM by Reptorian