Interview with the restorer of Maui Mallard's PC-version

On May 17, 2019, the PC version of Maui Mallard In Cold Shadow appeared on the GOG and Steam platforms, becoming available for purchase in a digital version for the first time ever. Previously, only a fan build of the user called r57shell was available on the Internet, where fullscreen and controls from the gamepad did not work. And only four years ago it became possible to enjoy the PC version in all its glory. On the anniversary of this event, I found and questioned Victor Pryadko, the same person who returned this lost masterpiece from Disney Interactive to players around the world.

Русский вариант (Russian version) интервью доступен здесь

Hi, Victor. It turns out we've been in touch with you before on our Maui Mallard community while you were still working on the PC version recovery. But then I didn’t even suspect that it was you who was behind its re-release on digital platforms. Tell us how you got into this project.

Hi, Max. I have been in the gaming industry since 2008. I worked for a company that was a contractor for a number of American gaming companies, including Disney. The company itself is from the USA, but the office with the developers is located in Russia (I will not disclose its name, even though Disney has left us now).

At some point, we received a request from Disney if we could restore the performance of some of their old games (and games that became such after purchasing other assets). The problem was that most of the older games didn't have any source code.

Among all the old projects, Maui Mallard looked the worst. In its original form, the game refused to work under Win32, since it was originally made under Windows 3.x. Looking for solutions, I stumbled upon your group, read about the game and found a variant that ran.

Great! It turns out that my efforts to preserve the memory of Maui were not in vain! It's damn good to know that there's a bit of my input in this reissue. And how exactly did our community help?

The hardest part was understanding why the original game didn't work. Actually, the search came to your group, and a patched game was found here. Naturally, I had to disassemble both the original code and the code of the patched version.

By comparing the executables, a problem was found in the ancient WinG graphics library for Windows 3.11, which was not really used, but nevertheless tried to work directly with the video card to enable full screen mode. Fortunately, removing it did not bring any problems to the game, and full screen could be implemented with other hacks.

Then it's a matter of technique, a little assembler magic, code injection so that the music is in the game. In general, the connection with the ancient library was broken, the full-screen emulation has been redone, etc.

How long did it take to restore the game?

In general, the work stretched out for a month or two, but according to the net time, everything was done there in a week.

Judging by the date of your first post in our community, you have been working on the PC version of Maui since the end of September 2018. And it came out on GOG and Steam only in May next year.

Well, Disney doesn't report back to us when they release a game. It doesn't work like that. But I remember that the game was not released for a long time, so I stopped tracking. It seems to me that six months have passed since we gave everything away, maybe even more. The distribution of games across Steam and GOG is solely the work of Disney.

Do you remember where exactly on the Internet you got that Maui file that you worked with? Because the portable version (fan build by user r57shell) that was available earlier on Rutracker differs from yours in one of the screens. In a previously available portable version, Donald's name is written in large letters on one of the first screens. This is the version for the European market. And in yours there is no mention of him, because in all American releases the name of Donald was removed. In other words, you did not work with this file.

Disney itself sent two versions. The difference was only in the names. But they decided to release only one of them.

What other Disney games have been re-released with your help?

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Hercules, Toy Story, Star Wars: Battlefront 1-2. Maybe there was something else, but I don't remember.

By the way, Hercules was released at the same time as Maui on digital platforms.

Yes, I did them both at the same time.

Did you restore them alone?

Yes, I was the only one working on the project. By the way, a fun fact about Hercules. It may not have been released anywhere on digital platforms, but the PC version was released on a CD by Russian company New Disk of the late 90s, on which the game worked without problems. Where they got it from, I don't know. Perhaps at that time they still had the source code.

Did you work with this version on Hercules?

No, it seems they had protection there, and it was completely Russified. In general, it did not fit. I fixed the PC version from Disney. There seems to be an original file of a PC game, without protection and music. Music had to be taken from other discs.

It's ironic that Hercules is built on the groundwork of the canceled Maui sequel for the Playstation.

I went through Hercules, but Maui did not sunk into my heart. Maybe because it passed me by as a child. I passed Hercules on Mega Drive (Chinese pirate port - ed.).

What are your favorite Disney games from childhood?

Aladdin and The Lion King for Mega Drive (Sega Genesis). I also had NES. The Disney NES games I liked were probably Chip and Dale 1-2. But Darkwing Duck for some reason infuriated me there.

And other games besides Disney?

The most memorable on Mega Drive were Lethal Enforces (I bought it with a pistol), Comix Zone, Pitfall, Zero Tolerance. Well, if you take a broader approach to the issue, then, of course, Earthworm Jim, Desert/Jungle/Urban Strike, Sonic games, Road Rash, Mortal Kombat.

Curiously, in the original box of the PC version there was such a coupon with a gamepad ad. But in the settings of the game itself, you can't set up gamepad controls. You can only remap the keyboard buttons. Only the built-in XboxBar in my Windows 10 automatically made the gamepad work with this game, but I still can’t remap the buttons on it.

Have you been given the task of making gamepad controls in Maui? Because a game with so many acrobatics (clinging with a ninja staff) should ideally be played with a gamepad.

As far as I remember, there was no such task for this game, but in general, such goals were set in other games.

And how realistic is it to get the original sprites from the PC version? I just miss these sprites. Only sprites from the Genesis and SNES versions are presented on the Web.

I don’t know. I’ve never been interested in this issue, but I think if you have the desire and time, everything is possible.

Thanks for this interview, Victor. And, of course, for bringing back to life the once-lost version of Maui for PC.

I was happy to help.

© Max Nasikan. May 2023.
Exclusively for Maui Mallard VK communuty.