Carnivores


 * This article is about the 1998 game. For the series as a whole, see Carnivores (series).



Carnivores ( Хищники  in Russian, and frequently shortened to Carn, Carn1, or C1) is a fantasy first-person shooter developed by Action Forms and released on November 30, 1998 for the PC. Carnivores, released shortly after WizardWorks Software's successful Deer Hunter, "proves itself more than 'just another Deer Hunter clone' by adding two major twists to the genre: allowing the hunter to hunt dinosaurs, and allowing the dinosaurs to hunt the hunter as well" as some critics say. The Carnivores 2 sequel gives slightly better graphics, a new format, more dinosaurs and weapons, brand new maps, and improved AI. Carnivores Ice Age offers a whole new take on the series with animals from the Ice Age and levels to fit the theme.

Storyline
Gameplay in Carnivores doesn't follow a storyline; the player picks a weapon, a dinosaur, and a hunting area, and they hunt. This lack of plot is followed by Carnivores' two sequels as well. However, there is an "official" storyline behind the game:

"On a routine exploration mission in 2190 A.D., science vessel FMM UV discovered a planet with suitable climate for humankind. During the initial scout expedition, this young planet, code-named FMM UV-32, was declared inhospitable for colony life, due to its unstable terrain and immense population of prehistoric reptiles. News of this amazing planet spread, and articles on the 'Dinosaur Planet' lead an Earth corporation to purchase the rights to the planet and create DinoHunt Corp. DinoHunt creates the opportunity for paying customers to become dinosaur hunters for the first time in 50 million years. You are the newest client of DinoHunt Corp."

A slightly different version of this is provided in the Readme.txt file found in the game's base installation directory:

"2190 AD. On a routine exploration mission, science vessel FMM UV discovered a planet with a suitable climate for humankind. During the initial scouting expedition this young planet, code-named FMM UV-32, was declared inhospitable for colony life due to its unstable terrain and immense population of prehistoric reptiles. News of this amazing planet spread and articles on the 'Dinosaur Planet' lead an earth corporation to purchase the rights to the planet, and create DinoHunt Corp. DinoHunt created the unique opportunity for paying customers to become dinosaur hunters for the first time in 50 million years. You are the newest client of DinoHunt Corp."

The source code given to the community includes a README.TXT file with a third version of this story:

"''While exploring the Universe, mankind has found the planet, code-named 'FMM UV-32'. Further surface and inhabitant exploration has disclosed that it was 50 millions years younger than Earth and was populated with prehistoric reptiles. A hunting company was established, giving customers a unique chance to become a dinosaur hunter.

You, the hunter, become a client of this company, and receive authorization to hunt for dinosaurs. You will receive besides a variety of weapons and ammunition recommended for a hunt.''"

The original press release announcing the development of Carnivores included a fourth account:

The story begins in the year 2167. While exploring the Universe, mankind have found the planet, codenamed "FMM UV-32". The new planet was smaller in size than the Earth, but had very similar surface and atmosphere. The further exploration of its surface and inhabitants disclosed that it was 50 millions years younger than Earth and was populated with prehistoric reptiles.

For detailed study of the planet and species that were considered to be extinct, the orbital research center was created. But after scientists found the way to regulate the population of dinosaurs, a hunting company was established on the territory of this space station, giving customers a unique chance to become a dinosaur hunter.

You become a client of this company, and get authorization to hunt for dinosaurs. The company possesses several sites on the territory of "FMM UV-32", specially intended for having a hunting experience. You receive the variety of weapons and ammunition, and also tutorials and recommendations for a hunt.

Gameplay
The gameplay of the original Carnivores remains constant throughout the series, with few changes. The game opens with a login screen, where users can make a new account or load a previous one. If creating a new account, they will be asked to read and approve a "waiver", stating that the player releases DinoHunt Corp. of responsibility in case the player is injured or killed (an interesting sidenote is that the player can't really be injured in any of the games - the closest the player can come is by staying underwater or walking through lava, in which a health bar pops up; when attacked by dinosaurs, however, any hit is instant death).

If accepted, the game proceeds to the main menu; declining exits the game. From the main menu, the player can view their hunting statistics, enter a hunt, view their trophies in the trophy room, change game settings, view the game's credits, or exit the game. In the hunt screen, you must pick a location, an animal to hunt, a weapon, and optional equipment. Choosing any equipment decreases the total amount of points you can get on any hunt by a set percentage, except for the tranquilizer, which increases the amount of points obtained. Information on each item is provided. In Carnivores, which dinosaurs, areas and weapons the player can choose depends on that player's rank.

After the player has selected their settings, they can hunt. During the hunt, the player is provided with an on-screen compass and wind direction indicator, which can be activated and deactivated with the Caps key. Sometimes the player spawns near a huntable animal, which is bad if the animal is a carnivore. The player can also draw weapons (with the number keys), look at the area map (Tab), or use the binoculars (B). When a kill is made, the player's trophy is picked up by the dropship, unless tranquilizer mode is used. If the player is killed, all points and trophies earned in that hunt are lost. The player can choose to exit the hunt or respawn on the map anytime by pressing Esc or Esc, respectively. If the player dies, he must choose to either exit or respawn. The player can be killed by drowning, burning in lava, or by being attacked, but not by falling (regardless of the height), so climbing mountains is an often-used strategy when hunting carnivores.

Development
Development on Carnivores was announced on March 26, 1998, six months after the release of Action Forms' first title, Chasm: The Rift. Action Forms' original press release: Kiev, Ukraine, March 26, 1998... Action Forms Ltd., known as the developer of 3D Action Game: "Chasm-The Rift", is proud to announce its upcoming first-person 3D game: "Carnivores". We would like to emphasize, that this game represents a brand new genre in 3D action games. It is not just mindless pure killing of everything that moves, but instead is a life-like angerous hunting experience. However, this doesn't mean an absence of action, because you can also become the prey for predators, that you are hunting for. The idea is that having a variety of deadly weapons and armor, you still don't rule the territory that you came to. Even in case of succesfull hunt, you can lose your hardly obtained prey together with your life. So, the guideline of the game is: if you came to the world of carnivores, you should respect their rules in order to survive.

Story

The story begins in the year 2167. While exploring the Universe, mankind have found the planet, codenamed "FMM UV-32". The new planet was smaller in size than the Earth, but had very similar surface and atmosphere. The further exploration of its surface and inhabitants disclosed that it was 50 millions years younger than Earth and was populated with prehistoric reptiles.

For detailed study of the planet and species that were considered to be extinct, the orbital research center was created. But after scientists found the way to regulate the population of dinosaurs, a hunting company was established on the territory of this space station, giving customers a unique chance to become a dinosaur hunter.

You become a client of this company, and get authorization to hunt for dinosaurs. The company possesses several sites on the territory of "FMM UV-32", specially intended for having a hunting experience. You receive the variety of weapons and ammunition, and also tutorials and recommendations for a hunt.

In the beginning of the game You get the rank of "beginner", which means no authorization for hunting on large and dangerous creatures, and also no powerful weapons usage. Depending on the success and productivity of hunt, your rank gets bumped, giving you an access to better weapons and more difficult territories. You also have an opportunity to hunt together with your friends over Internet or LAN via TCP/IP protocol.

Environments and Animals

All the terrains are 3d models with realistic HighColor texture mapping, backgrounds, trees, stones, etc. Carnivorous dinosaurs are extremely dangerous and may attack if noticed you. Also, they can follow you, hiding and awaiting for a chance to attack. While non-dangerous species are usually afraid of humans, they may attack or become aggressive if wounded.

In general, each animal has unique behavior, habits and is hard to find, so player will need to have certain experience which can be obtained from tutorials and game process itself. Tutorials will help you choosing the appropriate weapon, hunting tactics and will contain a lot of other useful information and tips.

In case of successful hunt, your trophy will be taken to the trophy hall and certainly will increase your rank.

Game will feature:

-HighColor graphics (landscape textures, backgrounds, textured models)

-Full range of HighColor video modes

-Terrain, animals and all objects (trees, stones, weapons, bushes) are textured 3d-models

-3d-acceleration cards support

-Huge hunting areas

-Environmental and weather effects

-Realistic behavior of all animals

-High-quality sound effects and ambient sounds (16bit, 22khz)

-Multiplayer hunting over Internet or LAN

For more information about this game visit Action Forms home page at www.action-forms.com

By March 27, a minimal set of system requirements was known (the mentioned image is shown to the right): Action Forms (те самые украинские хлопцы которые сделали Chasm) работают сейчас над новым проектом под названием Carnivores.

Carnivoris - очередной 3D-шутер. Действие которого происходит в 2167 году, и вы являетесь охотником на динозавров на планете очень смахивающую на Землю. Целью игры является отстрел динозавров.

В самом начале игры вам присваеватся ранг "beginner", это означает что вы пока не имеете разрешение на отстрел более опасных денозавров и не можете использовать новое, более мощное оружие. Но с накоплением опыта вы получаете ве более и более опасные задания...

Разработчики обещают очень высокий AI динозавров.

Пока о движке игры ничего не сказано и вывешен лишь один скриншот.

Игра будет поддерживать все основные акселераторы, 3d звук. Поддержка по интернету или LAN.

Системные требования:

Pentium 200Mhz, 32 Mb RAM, 3D акслелератор, 16 bit soun card

News by Vegoman Translated into English: Action Forms (the same Ukrainian lads who made Chasm) are now working on a new project called Carnivores.

Carnivoris - another 3D shooter. The action of which takes place in 2167, and you are a hunter of the dinosaurs on the planet very much like the Earth. The aim of the game is to shoot dinosaurs.

At the very beginning of the game you are assigned the rank of "beginner", which means that you do not yet have permission to shoot more dangerous denosaurs and can not use a new, more powerful weapon. But with the accumulation of experience you get more and more dangerous tasks ...

The developers promise a very high AI dinosaurs.

So far, nothing has been said about the game engine and only one screenshot is posted.

The game will support all major accelerators, 3d sound. Support over the Internet or LAN.

System requirements:

Pentium 200Mhz, 32 Mb RAM, 3D accelerator, 16 bit soun card

News by Vegoman

On April 21, an update and four new screenshots were posted. The screenshots are apparently of an early version of "Basmachee Rocks"; three of them depict an Allosaurus in a default pose, and the fourth shows a floating bridge system that would later be removed.

Version and release history
The Carnivores demo was released on November 13, 1998, and the full game was first available for purchase on Wizard Works' website on November 30. Two 3DFX patches, one for the full game and one for the demo, were released on December 1 or 2; a new version of the demo incorporating the 3DFX patch was released on December 9 or 10. The full game was released in stores on December 15. A Direct3D "1.3 (beta!)" patch was released by December 21. One last patch, a Direct3D "beta 1.5" patch, was released on September 11 or 12, 2000.


 * The demo was distributed in a self-extracting archive named CarnivoresDemo.exe; the files contained in this archive have last modified dates from July 27 to November 10, 1998, and running it shows that the demo is version 1.00.000. The files contained in this archive are not directly the demo files, instead the files which are actually installed are packed in an archive file named data1.cab.
 * The Huntsoft.exe and Hunt3dfx.exe files distributed with the demo were build v1.02, with a build date of November 1, 1998. Most of the files installed as part of the demo have last modified dates of November 9 and earlier (two of the files (HUNTDAT/MENU/DINOPIC/MALLO_ON.TGA and HUNTDAT/MENU/DINOPIC/MSTEG_ON.TGA) have dates of January 4, and one (HUNTDAT/MENU/TROPHY_G.TGA) of January 5!), but one file, HUNTDAT/COMPAS.3DF, has a last modified date of December 24; it is not known how this file's last modified date came to be later than the dates of all the other files in both the installed and packaged demo files, as well as later than the demo itself was released.
 * The HUNTSOFT.EXE and HUNT3DFX.EXE files distributed with the CD version of the full game were build v1.02, with a build date of November 1, 1998, and a last modified date of November 4.
 * The demo 3DFX patch files were distributed in c_patch1.zip; HUNT3DFX.EXE is build v1.03, with a build date of November 24, 1998. The files have a last modified date of December 2. This patch was likely released on December 1; see for example this download site which lists that date for it (the difference between the last modified date and the release date can be credited to different time zones being used to calculate the dates).
 * The full 3DFX patch files were distributed in patch_f1.zip; like with the demo patch, HUNT3DFX.EXE is build v1.03, with a build date of November 24, 1998, and the files have a last modified date of December 2. Despite this, HUNT3DFX.EXE differs between the demo and full version patches. Interestingly, the README.TXT file included in this patch is almost identical to the file included with the demo patch (the only difference is the removal of the word "Demo" in the first line of the full version patch), meaning both READMEs instruct the user to "[c]opy hunt3dfx.exe to the directory that contains Carnivores demo files". This patch was likely released on December 1; see for example this download site which lists that date for it (the difference between the last modified date and the release date can be credited to different time zones being used to calculate the dates).
 * A second version of the demo, including the 3DFX patch, was distributed in a self-extracting archive named carnivoresdemo12.exe; several of the files in this archive are apparently identical to the files in CarnivoresDemo.exe, and the ones that differ have last modified dates of December 9. This demo version was likely released on December 9; see for example this download site which lists that date for it. Like the last version of the demo, the files which are actually installed for the demo are contained in a data1.cab archive file which is contained in the self-extracting archive. After installing this version of the demo, a version.txt file is present in its installation directory which states the demo is v1.01. The following files differ between version 1.00.000 and this version of the demo (all other files are identical between the demo versions):
 * HUNT3DFX.EXE (build v1.03, with a build date of November 24 and a last modified date of December 2; this file is identical to the file included in c_patch1.zip)
 * version.txt (added in this version; last modified December 9)
 * A copy of the source code was distributed to the community some time after 2013; this contains two versions of the source code, one located in a "backup" folder. Both versions of the source code have a build version of v1.03 for all three rendering backends, with a build date of November 24, 1998 for the software and 3DFX backends; while the 3DFX build version and date match up with the HUNT3DFX.EXE files included in the c_patch1.zip and patch_f1.zip patches, it is probably impossible to say if any relevant code was modified between those executables being compiled and this version of the source being saved. For the D3D backend, the backup version of the source code has a build date of December 15, while the second version has a build date of December 18.
 * The "1.3 (beta!)" Direct3D patch files were distributed in carn1_3b.zip; HUNTD3D.EXE is build v1.03 with a build date of December 18, 1998. It, RELNOTES.TXT, and the HUNTDAT folder have last modified dates of December 19, while the contents of the HUNTDAT folder have last modified dates of December 11. It is likely that this patch was compiled from the same version of the source code that was released to the community. This patch was released by December 21; see this site which lists that date for it.
 * The "beta 1.5" Direct3D patch files were distributed in d3dptch1.zip (sometimes named d3dptch15b.zip instead, apparently); HuntD3D.exe is build v1.05, with a build date of September 1, 2000 (there is no known evidence of any build version 1.04, public or otherwise). The files in the HUNTDAT folder have a last modified date of December 11, 1998 and the folder itself has a last modified date of December 21 (in spite of this difference, the folder and its contents are identical to the "1.3 (beta!)" patch); and the HuntD3D.exe and RELNOTES.TXT files have a last modified date of September 11, 2000. This patch was likely released on September 11, the same day as the latter's last modified dates; this post, which was posted on September 11, discusses the patch.

No further official builds, releases, patches, etc. are known (or likely) to exist.

File formats, files, and extensions

 * Truevision TGA ("Targa"); raster image format used for the menu screens
 * WAV; audio file format used for the various in-game sounds
 * 3DF; raw data format used for the sun, wind dial, and some other objects
 * CAR; raw data format used for the animals, weapons, and some other objects
 * Carnivores MAP; raw data format used for the areas
 * Carnivores RSC; raw data format used for the areas and containing much of the raw information and the objects
 * RAW; headerless grayscale bitmap image file used to delineate selectable areas on menus
 * Carnivores SAV; raw data format used for savegames
 * TXM; text file used for metric descriptions
 * TXU; text file used for United States/imperial descriptions
 * NFO; text file used for equipment descriptions
 * BMP; bitmap image file used for the area preview screenshots
 * TXT; text file used for area and weapon descriptions
 * GRP
 * PRJ
 * carnivor.log; log file generated by the game
 * Readme.txt; readme file installed with the game
 * Carnivor.ico; icon used for the game's desktop shortcut