206 lines
9.8 KiB
HTML
206 lines
9.8 KiB
HTML
<!doctype html>
|
||
<html lang="en">
|
||
<head>
|
||
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
|
||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
|
||
<title>2006 and later Catz and Dogz</title>
|
||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css" />
|
||
|
||
<!-- saudade includes -->
|
||
<script src="/saudade.js?@root" type="module"></script>
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<div class="center green">
|
||
<p>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<span class="big"
|
||
><b>2006 and later Catz, Dogz and Horsez games</b><br />
|
||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br />
|
||
As of late 2006 and beyond... Just a note to anyone who potters along
|
||
to Petz.com or Babyz.net and sees the new games that were released
|
||
recently.<br
|
||
/></span>
|
||
Most of you already knew that a bunch of virtual life games have been
|
||
released by UbiSoft since 2006, for various consoles and for the PC.
|
||
Hamsterz Life, Hamsterz 2 and Bunnyz are apparently only for the
|
||
Nintendo DS, Horsez and Horsez 2 are released for NDS and PS2 as well as
|
||
for PC, and there are some wildlife "petz" games also for the NDS
|
||
centered around Tigerz and Dolphinz. various Catz and Dogz games have
|
||
been released for mobile phone, Gameboy Advance, NDS, PS2, Wii and PC.
|
||
Although most of these would be playable and, presumably, moddable on
|
||
the PC using emulators, it's the native PC versions that I'm talking
|
||
about here. If anyone wants to mod, or hex, the NDS or mobile phone
|
||
versions of the games you'll find very active modding communities
|
||
amongst the emulator scene. There is also a PS2 emulator for anyone who
|
||
wants to try that, and there may well be a modding community for PS2
|
||
games, but I don't believe that there is any way as yet to play a Wii
|
||
game on an emulator.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<span class="big"
|
||
>Although they are named Catz and Dogz or Catz 2 and Dogz 2, the
|
||
latest "Petz" games for Windows are not really part of the Petz series
|
||
we know and love.</span
|
||
><br />
|
||
They are not really a "Petz 6" although for convenience people have
|
||
referred to them that way; the first two were also known as Catz 2006
|
||
and Dogz 2006 for a while. There are many differences between these
|
||
latest games and the ones that we have so far enjoyed, the most obvious
|
||
being that the catz and dogz are 3D and that you have to earn points, or
|
||
coins, to get even the basics that your pet will need. I'm sure a lot of
|
||
people will enjoy the games, but they are not a part of the original
|
||
series and you will not be able to import your petz from Petz 5 or
|
||
earlier. If you enjoy these games, you might like to check out
|
||
<a
|
||
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100223210547/http://www.lostsockgames.com/games.html"
|
||
>Lost Sock Games </a
|
||
>titles -- Puppy Luv, Kitty Luv, Pony Luv and Hollywood Pets are very
|
||
similar in many ways.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p class="big">
|
||
As regards modifying the games, however, things have been made easy
|
||
enough for us "hexers" apart from the 3D models. The files used by the
|
||
game are:
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b>LUA, INI,</b> and <b>TXT</b> files all of which are text files which
|
||
can be edited in Notepad.<br />
|
||
You'd have to get used to what all the various column headers and key
|
||
words mean, but there's no harm in experimenting -- so long as you keep
|
||
backups of everything of course. The saved-game files, which is where
|
||
your pets are stored, are .sav files, also just text files, which can be
|
||
edited. They are stored in your<br />
|
||
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ubisoft\Catz (or
|
||
Catz2)<br />
|
||
folder or<br />
|
||
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ubisoft\Dogz (or
|
||
Dogz2).
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b>TGA</b> files which are a recognisable format for most paint
|
||
programs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><b>WAV</b> and <b>MP3</b> files which are editable sounds.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b>DDS</b> files, which are actually editable with the correct tools.
|
||
They can easily be edited using a plug-in which works with either Paint
|
||
Shop Pro or Photoshop, available for free from
|
||
<a href="https://developer.nvidia.com/">Nvidia's</a> site -- the is
|
||
dds.8bi<br />
|
||
http://developer.nvidia.com/docs/IO/1176/ATT/dds.8bi
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
GR2 files, which are "Granny 3D" files. These are not so easy to edit
|
||
and are, in a way, the 3D "bones" of the game. Of course anyone who has
|
||
the Granny 3D SDK would be able to edit them, but that's beyond the
|
||
pocket of most of us I'd have thought! I have heard rumours that there
|
||
is a Milkshape plug-in that allows these to be edited, but if not there
|
||
is at least a tool that allows them to be viewed, obtainable for free
|
||
from
|
||
<a href="http://www.radgametools.com/gramain.htm">the Granny 3D site</a
|
||
><br />
|
||
<b
|
||
>Update as of mid-2008 -- there is now a free way to extract the GR2
|
||
files so that they can be edited in a 3D modelling program. A close
|
||
friend of mine called Topper Carson has the games and he found that
|
||
there are some amazing people who have been picking away at the Gr2
|
||
files which so many games use these days. For useful tools and info
|
||
pop along to the
|
||
<a
|
||
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111230075015/http://gr2decode.altervista.org/index.html"
|
||
>"Decode Gr2"</a
|
||
>
|
||
site. So theoretically you should be able to modify anything that you
|
||
wish in these games.</b
|
||
>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b
|
||
>The Horsez game, as with Catz 2006 and Dogz 2006 and beyond, is not a
|
||
real part of the Petz series. You're supposed to care for your chosen
|
||
horse as well as enter it for shows and have some adventures with it,
|
||
and the environment is a 3D one. For anyone who has the game and wants
|
||
to edit it, the graphics are in the form of editable .tga files which
|
||
you should be able to edit in a reasonable paint package, and the
|
||
"bones" of it are in the form of .nmo files which will have been
|
||
created via Virtools. If you have
|
||
<a
|
||
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090115210846/http://www.virtools.com/"
|
||
>Virtools </a
|
||
>of course you'll be able to edit them. I don't know if there is a
|
||
cheaper utility for editing such things, but if you're keen you could
|
||
have a look around Google. The saved-game files are in a directory off
|
||
the Horsez one, called Save, and the files in there are .txt files and
|
||
therefore should be easy to edit. You'd have to get used to what all
|
||
the various column headers and key words mean, but there's no harm in
|
||
experimenting -- so long as you keep backups of everything of
|
||
course.</b
|
||
>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b
|
||
>Babyz players, the only new games available for you from Ubisoft now
|
||
seem to be only for the NDS. So far there is "Imagine Babies" (also
|
||
called "Imagine Babyz" in the US) and possibly due for release in
|
||
September 2008, "Imagine Baby Club". The first one is probably closer
|
||
to the original Babyz experience, but in my opinion neither seems like
|
||
a good replacement. They are part of the extremely girly Imagine
|
||
series for NDS<br />
|
||
A footnote for Babyz players -- there is a new game out called "Bratz
|
||
Babyz", which starts up with a "Babyz.exe", which you might stumble
|
||
across when looking for updates etc. As far as I know, it is not a
|
||
UbiSoft game and it is certainly not in any way a new kind of Babyz
|
||
game, plus the Babyz.exe will not work with your old favourite babyz
|
||
game.</b
|
||
>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b
|
||
>I doubt that I'll be editing any of these newer PC games. Even apart
|
||
from the fact that they aren't likely to work under my beloved Win 95,
|
||
I don't really have the time even to play these days, and as for my
|
||
skill in editing graphics, well... let's just say I'm "graphically
|
||
challenged", LOL. Of course I'd have no trouble cheating in the catz
|
||
and dogz games, as the saved-game (i.e. pet) files are just LUA files
|
||
-- in other words, they are editable in Notepad.</b
|
||
>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><b>Enjoy</b></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><b>Carolyn</b></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<b
|
||
>For people who are interested in such things, since 2006 the rather
|
||
complex ownership of the games is as follows. The Petz titles are now
|
||
trademarks owned by "Ubisoft Entertainment". The mobile phone versions
|
||
of Petz, Catz and Dogz have been released by Gameloft. The DS Catz
|
||
games were developed by Powerhead Games while the DS and GBA Dogz
|
||
games and the Catz GBA game are copyright to MTO Inc. For the Wii and
|
||
PS2 the Dogz and Catz games are copyright to YUKE’S Co. as well as
|
||
Ubisoft. For the PC, the Dogz and catz games were developed by
|
||
ImaginEngine which is a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment.<br />
|
||
It's all a long way from the day in 1995 when P.F. Magic created and
|
||
put up for download their own unique and exciting game "Dogz". You
|
||
could download it and try it, and if you liked it you could buy a key
|
||
online -- which also was a new concept back then. It was so popular
|
||
that it was also then released for the Apple Mac in 1996.</b
|
||
>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|