TFX versions in the local collection

Comparison performed 13 October 2026. Following the comparison, the redundant alt4 dump and DOSBox package were removed with approval. The empty alt3 directory was also removed separately. Retained media and installations were not modified. Folder names are provenance labels, not version claims. Dates below are ISO volume creation dates, not independently verified release dates.

Current media locations

Each retail CD directory contains tfx.cue and tfx.bin. The separately acquired PC Plus playable demo is preserved as loose cover-disc files under install media/cd_demo_pcplus_1994_07/files/; its July date is the magazine issue date, not an ISO timestamp.

Existing installations and floppy media have also moved; see the current layout and the relocation manifest.

The historical comparison below retains the original labels. Binary images were moved without modification; CUE FILE references now use tfx.bin, preserving all track/index metadata and existing line endings. See the relocation record to map the earlier hash inventories.

PC Plus playable demo and additional collections

The July 1994 PC Plus SuperCD package is retained as cd_demo_pcplus_1994_07, with a linked working layout under installs/. It is a genuine restricted demo with five training missions, a reduced graph and menu, distinct engine/configuration/GUS binaries, and a launcher stamped 20 March 1994 at 22:18:57. Its instructions claim the South Atlantic “Doomsday Ship”, while its menu data routes to Yugoslavia. Nine unique decoded resources are extracted; existing models, maps and music are reused.

The Xenosoft, Piper's Pit BBS, Warez House BBS and Crazy Collection acquisitions were removed after proving they supplied duplicate game content or incomplete copies. The acquisition analysis records the demo restrictions, executable/resource differences, duplicate checks and source hashes.

What to keep

The three bundled floppy patch executables in tfx_dos_floppy/tfxpat_* are byte-identical to TFX Patches/TFXPAT_*.EXE. They are duplicate patch payloads, not evidence that the accompanying installed game has already been patched. Patch execution has now established the lineage; see patch results.

Cleanup removed approximately 1.13 GiB across alt4 and the DOSBox package. The pre-cleanup inventories retain their hashes and comparison evidence; see the cleanup record for exact file counts and byte totals.

Engine and asset families

These sizes describe the installed executable from each installer payload, not the separate TFX.DAT found at the root of some CDs.

Matching sizes alone do not imply matching contents. For example, alt5 and alt1 have identical launcher executables but different configuration executables of the same size. The archived floppy and newly installed floppy resource archives differ only in two bytes of the final four-byte trailer (offsets 0xa01da1 and 0xa01da2). All preceding bytes, including resource payloads and the directory, are identical; the trailer is the hardware fingerprint appended by the floppy installer and checked by the original floppy launcher. The archive body is prebuilt across the eight disk packs. CD archives are copied unchanged from disc, with no hardware trailer. See install-time assembly and launcher checks. Their engines differ substantially.

The later CDs also contain a separate root TFX.DAT of 1,013,255 bytes. This is not the executable installed from DISK1.DAT; comparisons must distinguish them. The removed prepared DOSBox package used the installed 1,032,503-byte executable, not that root file. Its custom batch selected the same later-CD graph while explicitly setting the resource drive; the exact commands are compared below.

The old install's version 2.0 notes describe gameplay, sound, and control fixes. They suggest a patched floppy lineage, but do not prove exactly which patch executables produced it. The newly installed floppy provides the useful clean comparison point for that later investigation.

Launch scripts and selected programs

START is the game's own START.EXE. Its argument names a saved presentation/control graph inside DID.DAT; the .par suffix is implicit. The graph handles opening scenes, menus, training, campaigns and outcomes.

For all three CDs, the extracted disc's TFX.BAT and installed copy are byte-identical. Both floppy installations share their batch and selected graph. The three full-game graph variants all contain the same ordered 33 function names, covering the full game; demo and cd_demo do not select restricted demonstration editions. The floppy graph has 1,055 nodes, December's CD graph 1,076, and the later CDs' graph 1,067. Their differences include presentation and campaign-flow revisions, rather than a command-line demo/full-game switch.

Launcher binaries and alternate arguments

There are four distinct START.EXE builds across the five retained full-game installations:

The argument supplies a data-program name rather than selecting a hardcoded demo/cd_demo/tfx mode in the launcher. The actual .par loading and missing-parser diagnostic belong to the engine in TFX.DAT. Each full-game archive contains only its default one of demo.par, cd_demo.par and tfx.par: neither of the other two names resolves there. Thus the main-game command names cannot simply be exchanged while keeping the unmodified data. demo works for both floppy installations, and tfx works for both later CDs, because the corresponding graph exists in those archives. Other graph names can be supplied to select those programs; their required state and dependencies determine whether they are useful standalone entry points.

Renaming the batch or choosing another argument does not convert one edition's data into another's. Actual launcher swaps now reach the pilot-selection menu across the retained engine families, provided their sound-service interrupt agrees (IRQBASE=96 when either component requires the older fixed INT 60h interface). The original floppy launcher additionally checks a machine-specific four-byte archive trailer, absent from the CD archives. This is startup compatibility, rather than a full campaign/all-soundcard validation; the launcher comparison records the tested combinations, native hardware-stamp result and identified code changes. The Inferno preview's 33,840-byte launcher is also identical across all three CDs, but differs from the full-game December launcher despite matching its size; it has not been included in the swap tests.

The supplied update chain preserves these command lines: December patched through 2.01 still runs start cd_demo, and the patched floppy still runs start demo. All 15 retained patch-attempt records have the same batch hash afterwards as their starting installation. The patches do not replace DID.DAT, so updating the engine alone does not substitute the later CD graph.

Other launch arrangements:

• Removed prepared DOSBox package: its installed batch was start DID=D: tfx. DID=D: explicitly points resource lookup at drive D:, while tfx still selects the later-CD tfx.par. The disc inside that package carried the ordinary start tfx batch. The installed batch's exact bytes are confirmed by the historical SHA-256 inventory.
• Removed October 1996 rerelease: start tfx, with the same batch hash as March/September.
• Inferno preview on all three CDs: root INFERNO.BAT clears DID, changes into inferno, and runs start trash4. The copy inside INFERNO/ clears DID and runs start trash4 without changing directory. Both select the preview's trash4.par. INFERHD.BAT instead changes into inferno.hd and runs its hard-disk installer.
• Jurassic Park TFX slideshow: TFXDEMO.BAT changes into tfx and runs slide. This uses the standalone SLIDE.EXE picture player, without START.EXE or a .par graph; it requires a CD drive and requests CD-audio track 12. See the retained preview.

Literal batch contents, source hashes, selected-graph hashes and patch checks. This comparison reads the retained scripts and unpacks each selected resource directly from its installation's archive; it does not modify the launch commands.

Data-only rerelease: suspicious differences

Relative to alt1, the rerelease changes just:

• 8 bytes in TFX's DID.DAT;
• 2 bytes in DISK1.DAT, affecting the installed main program and launcher;
• 8 bytes in Inferno's DID.DAT;
• 13 bytes in Inferno's installer payload.

Every one of these 31 differences sets bit 0x04, at regularly aligned offsets. This is a corruption signature, not convincing evidence of 31 intentional game fixes. All 18,929 Mode 1 sectors pass their EDC checks, so the changes are already represented in the mastered payload and its checksums. This does not prove when or why they occurred; suspected pre-mastering corruption remains an inference, not a demonstrated bad raw-sector rip. The image also adds a manual and omits audio tracks; those are genuine packaging differences. Sector checksum results are recorded separately in rerelease-sector-check.json.

Audio is a separate comparison

Alt1 and alt4 have identical ISO filesystem bytes. Their audio differs in track/pregap boundaries and small timing offsets, but not substantively in music. After aligning each track by approximately 35 ms, every sample in the overlapping interior matches exactly (excluding a quarter-second at each end). Residual mismatches are in very quiet endings, mostly within the final 30 ms; track 15's mismatches extend across roughly the final 130 ms. This is consistent with ripping or boundary-handling differences, rather than a different musical mix. It does not identify the precise hardware or process responsible.

The retained alt1 therefore represents this soundtrack and game-data family; alt4 was removed. Sample-level results preserve the evidence. tools/compare_cd_audio.py can repeat the comparison if alt4 is restored.

The original CD and alt1 also share exact PCM passages in all 14 tracks, with small sample offsets, but not completely identical aligned overlaps. Alt5 did not match the same PCM anchors. That does not by itself prove different compositions or mixes: ripping errors, offsets, and mastering differences need a separate audio comparison. March FLACs have since been extracted; see retained audio comparison.

Recommended analysis baseline

Use the September 1994 CD as the reference build, identified as 2.05 by its configuration program. The supplied CD patches take December's engine to March's 2.01 engine; they do not produce September's distinct build. The archived floppy's core executables match the clean floppy after patches 1 and 2 (2.0). See patch lineage and execution evidence.

Keep earlier versions for comparison. Exact gameplay changes between 2.01 and 2.05 remain to be mapped.

Reproducing the comparison

Run from the repository root:

python3 tools/compare_versions.py
python3 tools/compare_version_details.py
python3 tools/check_rerelease_sectors.py

The JSON inventories below are pre-cleanup snapshots and intentionally include the removed copies. Rerunning the tools produces inventories of the current files.

• Full inventory: SHA-256 of source files, per-disc ISO hashes, disc-file hashes, raw track ranges, exact duplicates, and installed-file matches inside CD installer packs.
• Detailed comparisons: installer component hashes, rerelease byte differences, and exact PCM-alignment checks.

The tools read media in place; they do not extract full additional disc copies or modify installations. The detail tool uses the installer layouts established for these particular copies and rejects unknown pack sizes. The ISO reader currently supports their Mode 1/2352 data tracks and ordinary single-extent ISO9660 files.

October 1996 copy removal

The installer rejected TFX.DAT with an incorrect-checksum error during manual installation, corroborating the payload corruption. The media and installation were subsequently removed; the unique MANUAL.TXT was preserved byte-for-byte. Historical inventories retain the original comparison evidence and paths. The cause of corruption (including whether physical disc damage was involved) remains unproven.

The three retained CDs have now had all audio tracks compared: see retained CD audio comparison. March audio is retained separately; September does not warrant duplicate FLACs.

Complete floppy resource comparison

Both retained floppy DID archives have now been compared entry by entry with the reference CD. Their 3,460 decoded resources are identical to each other; 3,376 entries reuse CD content and 84 earlier/extra payloads are extracted separately. See the findings and comparison browser, including removed waypoint authoring files whose compiled programs remain on CD. Loose installation resources are audited separately.

Complete eight-floppy image set

The collection supplied on 15 October 2026 is retained under install media/floppy_1993_11/, with its filesystems extracted once in files/. All eight installer packs exactly match the retained loose distribution; disk 1's standard sectors and installer exactly match the previously retained single-disk image. This completes the original media set without adding a new game-data version. The retained 86F preserves six nonstandard disk-1 sectors, including four bad-data-CRC records consistent with the copy-protection label. No intermediate disk-1 IMG was created. See the format, protection and byte-comparison findings.

The redundant loose/media extractions and standalone raw disk 1 were consolidated into this complete set. The HxC MFM representation was removed after verifying identical encoded tracks. Both installer variants remain: the loose one is unpacked and reverses the key-disk check branch. See consolidation and installer analysis. Existing installed-directory names retain their earlier provenance labels.

Earlier CD resource sweep

All 6,622 entries from the December and March TFX DID archives have now been compared with September 2.05. All 116 differing December pictures are the same artwork in original ILBM encoding; scripts, text and effect-program revisions are retained separately without duplicating existing content. See the CD resource findings and comparison browser. Inferno-demo resources are excluded.

Engine executables, including the Inferno preview

The eight-build engine comparison now treats the bundled Inferno preview executable as an early TFX-engine variant. All three CDs carry that same executable. Its presentation data is non-interactive, but player flight code, three TFX aircraft presets, renderer code, sampled-effect definitions and the high-score roster remain linked in.

The six early executables have an LE bootstrap that loads three uncompressed sections described by an EOF footer. Their actual program images and relocations are now decoded and checked against the original loader instructions. All three preview presets produce the same ordered values and write sizes as the November floppy presets, through different field addresses. The study now also includes the PC Plus playable demo, whose three aircraft initialisation streams match March and September. Its distinct presentation format, save paths and Gravis helper are examined in the demo/retail comparison. The report also records later initialisation differences, routine matches, strings and original source hashes; September 2.05 remains the main analysis reference.