Tbcb 2.5?

[Rocco Del Sesto]

So who is Paul Norman?

[Rob Morris]

Originally Posted by Rocco Del Sesto

So who is Paul Norman?

His company, PISD Ltd, bought the rights to produce the computer version Title Bout Championship Boxing. He subsequently lost interest and the program has not been updated for maybe a decade or more.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Originally Posted by Rob Morris

His company, PISD Ltd, bought the rights to produce the computer version Title Bout Championship Boxing. He subsequently lost interest and the program has not been updated for maybe a decade or more.

Oh ok. I didn't think or realize that connection with TBCB 2013.

Thank you Rob
Rocco

[Rob Morris]

Not that it matters now but I seem to remember when TBCB first launched way back when there were concerns raised about the elicense system by members of this community but assurances were given there would be no problems as elicense was a secure, safe system that was here to stay and well, here we are, even if like me you have your elicense code you cannot activate it as the servers are no longer active.

[Cap]

Imagine that, eh. Obsolete technology. Hard to believe.

Cap

I guess nothing is guaranteed.

[Cap]

Originally Posted by Rob Morris

Not that it matters now but I seem to remember when TBCB first launched way back when there were concerns raised about the elicense system by members of this community but assurances were given there would be no problems as elicense was a secure, safe system that was here to stay and well, here we are, even if like me you have your elicense code you cannot activate it as the servers are no longer active.

Bingo! We were guaranteed by certain OOTP personnel that the system was secure and we would never have to worry about the elicense becoming inoperable. Guess they didn't figure on a game still being played twenty years later. Imagine if OOTP baseball hadn't been updated in the last twenty years. Would anyone still be playing it?

Does OOTP baseball use the elicense system? I guess not!

Cap

[Rob Morris]

Originally Posted by Cap

Bingo! We were guaranteed by certain OOTP personnel that the system was secure and we would never have to worry about the elicense becoming inoperable. Guess they didn't figure on a game still being played twenty years later. Imagine if OOTP baseball hadn't been updated in the last twenty years. Would anyone still be playing it?

Does OOTP baseball use the elicense system? I guess not!

Cap

The company that provided the elicenses were called Viatech iirc, I cannot find them by searching online for them. OOTP moved away from the elicenses, everything is done through the webstore or Steam.

[Rob Morris]

Again, iirc a disk version of TBCB 2.5 went on sale, I remember it on Amazon but I seem to recall there was an issue with it but can't remember exactly what the problem was.

[Rob Morris]

Also, PISD still offer TBCB 2013 for sale, I wouldn't be sure that support is still offered.

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Cap

Does OOTP baseball use the elicense system? I guess not!

Cap

They used to. I had to update from OOTP 13 to OOTP 25 due to elicense issues.

[Rob Morris]

Originally Posted by pilight

They used to. I had to update from OOTP 13 to OOTP 25 due to elicense issues.

OOTP no longer use elicense, everything is done through their company webstore or Steam.

Steam take 30% iirc but it does get your product out to a wider audience.

[Rob Morris]

Originally Posted by pilight

The next step would be to ask Andreas for permission to reverse engineer a non-commercial version of the game that doesn't require eLicense, then work on coding that. Alternatively, you could do it without permission but you leave yourself open to lawsuits.

I found some quotes from Paul from 2016 about who owns the rights to what:

"At the moment TB2.5 is still controlled by Andreas so I am unable to offer any help. If (that's is big IF) I can work out how to build the tb2.5 code which is based on a old compiler no longer available, I would like to offer TB2.5 as a free demo style download. I don't know if I will ever be in a position to do so though.

I bought the entire TB computer game rights so I now own it. By control, I mean Andreas has the Esellerate login so any TB2.5 licensing support etc needs to go to Andreas. Neither of us have the compiler tools to build the old TB2.5 code because it uses an old complier. As I stated if I can work out how, I would like to make TB2.5 a free download, but this is not easy nor is it a high priority."

[Cap]

So mystery solved I guess. It's up to Paul and he is running silent. We'd need somebody with money and the knowhow to free up TB 2.5 for everyone.

Cap

[pilight]

Trying to decompile 2.5 to remove the DRM is an exercise in futility. You'll have a much better chance of success building a compatible program that emulates the fight engine.

[Cap]

Originally Posted by pilight

Trying to decompile 2.5 to remove the DRM is an exercise in futility. You'll have a much better chance of success building a compatible program that emulates the fight engine.

I don't know about AI. The grandfather of the tech refers to it as Alien Intelligence though. He works at the University of Toronto. I'm wondering if someone could use AI to program a game similar to Title Bout...

Cap

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Cap

I don't know about AI. The grandfather of the tech refers to it as Alien Intelligence though. He works at the University of Toronto. I'm wondering if someone could use AI to program a game similar to Title Bout...

Cap

Someone could certainly get an AI to do most of the coding, though a person would still need to check behind them. One thing AI does well is write code.

[Rob Morris]

Originally Posted by Rob Morris

Again, iirc a disk version of TBCB 2.5 went on sale, I remember it on Amazon but I seem to recall there was an issue with it but can't remember exactly what the problem was.

So as I am in the position of owning TBCB 2.5 but not being able to play it as you cannot activate your licence anymore (I don't think I am the only one either) I bought the disk version of TBCB for £5.

It works on my system which runs Window 11 and you don't need to activate a licence. Bad news is it is TBCB 2.0 not 2.5. I cannot remember what the differences are and I haven't tried to apply the 2.5.27 patch yet and I'm not even sure it would work any way.

I will play around with it a bit more and report back if anyone's interested.

[Rob Morris]

I found an old message from Andreas to someone who asked if the 2.5.27 would work with the disk version and Andreas said it would not.

[Rob Morris]

According to AI these are the differences between TBCB 2.0 and TBCB 2.5:

Title Bout Championship Boxing 2.5 (TBCB 2.5) introduced several, primarily organizational and cosmetic, enhancements over TBCB 2.0 designed to improve user experience, particularly for those managing large, complex universes.
Key differences between TBCB 2.0 and TBCB 2.5 include:
Unlimited Group Assignments: In TBCB 2.0, you were limited to assigning a maximum of two groups per fighter. In TBCB 2.5, the number of groups a fighter can be assigned to is unlimited.

Visible Aging Ratings: TBCB 2.5 makes career stage ratings (pre-prime, prime, etc.) visible and editable as distinct records, rather than keeping the adjustments hidden as was the case in 2.0.

Revised Auto-Aging: The auto-aging system in 2.5 has been revised to create a new career stage rating record if one is not available, rather than just adjusting the base rating.

Easier Large Database Management: The update enhanced functionality to assist in managing large universes (e.g., 23,000+ fighters).

Import Process: 2.5 includes a designed import process for transferring TBCB 2.0 universes without requiring manual changes.

While some users in forums reported that the core game felt similar and that the update felt more like a patch than a completely new engine, the 2.5 version, particularly in its later patches (e.g., 2.5.27), was considered more refined for long-term universe management.

[Rob Morris]

One interesting thing about TBCB 2.0 is that it has the original fighter biographies which are quite colourful in some instances and were removed or heavily amended in TBCB 2.5 because iirc Jim said that a family member of one of the fighters complained.