Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Adventure Rock

Hi, the game Adventure Rock (variations include Superia, Ketnet Kick, etc.)
is a game that means a lot to me and is nostalgic.

Why did this game lose support/shut down?
Depending on the reason, I think it would be a good
idea to bring it back; if not in its usual form, at least in some form.

An online interaction element would be nice but I understand this is more expensive and difficult to maintain but I would be happy enough to just get the game to work.

I have tried to login to Adventure Rock (CBBC variation)
and it either gives me an error or freezes and closes.

Please tell me if there is a way to launch this game.
Even if there are no updates, I just want to play the game again.

I don't mind other versions (Superia, Ketnet Kick, etc.)
I would take any of them because the game was so nostalgic and had a lot of potential. (Also, it was pretty fun! )

It had nice graphics, gameplay mechanics (e.g. the jump animation was quite nice and the platforms too)
and it was quite unique in its style.

Please reply soon. :)

According to Wikipedia it was shut down due to lack of popularity and updates. I don't know if Larian was still involved at that point, but I can ask.

Yes, can you please ask them!
Let me know how it goes.
I hope there is a way to update the game and get it to launch
with / or without my old account. (I don't mind starting again if it makes it easier to trick the game to launch.)

Keep me updated of Larian's reply, thank you!

I have not gotten a reply.

Is this still the case right now?
Still no reply?

Still no reply. Unfortunately, the game wasn't designed to be playable offline, or using a local server, though, and I think if anyone was going to come up with a workaround, it would have happened by now.

Thanks again for checking, Raze.
Although I think the reason no one has found a workaround is that
the demographic either doesn't remember the game (it's been years since it was functional
and CBBC haven't left a trace of Adventure Rock pages on the website at all, it's all been taken down.)
or it doesn't include many (if any) software/DirectX experts to trigger the game to launch.
I'm fairly computer savvy but not to the level where I can reverse engineer software/games
beyond editing some config files, unfortunately.

Recently me and a few AR fans on YouTube have been trying to
look at the files' code to look for clues as to how to launch it locally.
We're not particularly experienced in anything like this but one of us
is trying to figure out what kind of file or response the game wants
when it requests the server for login data and/or whatever triggers the game to launch.

And perhaps a local location, dedicated server or alternative server could
substitute the CBBC server that I assume has shut down. (I'm guessing due to some
glitches that made the game unplayable, lost players and then decided to shut it down.)

Even if I found some people that are good at game software design online,
I don't think many would be interested due to the demographic. (Mostly children.)
Maybe Larian studios isn't the best place to ask?
I don't know who holds the rights (if any) to being allowed to distribute
the game or tell people how to get it to work again or anything like that.
But so far I can only see links with Larian, CBBC and possibly the TV company
associated with Ketnet Kick. (Although they're dutch so communication with them
won't be easy as I don't know the language.)
Ketnet Kick appears to have the option to play locally and was made before Adventure Rock so I think it may be possible to make AR play locally with relatively little effort.

Do you have any ideas on what I should do now?
If you don't that's ok, I'm just asking in case anyone knows how to help.

Okay, lets do this.
i played superia when i was a kid, and NRK (the website who hosted the superia version) shut it down for many years ago, but they still have all the files on the internet. i got my old harddrive (wich had superia installed), but i couldnt log in (beacuse the login servers are down). but i managed to mess with some files and get it to download. my harddisk is going totally crazy, and i can see in taskmanager that SuperiaLauncher.exe is using network as crazy, it is currently at 8 out of 20 dots downloaded (if you know what i mean) and im so hyped!

i saw your post and began thinking if it was possible, and ill reply to you later if it works. it is very late tho so dont think you'll get any fast response from me :P

if this works im going to relive the old days.
reply if you are interested in this (i hope you are :P)

see ya!

Hi, yeah I actually can't believe I'm getting another reply!
It felt like there was no hope.
Yes please, tell me more!

jaffamanj, did you get the game to work?
Please let me know as soon as possible.

Hi. Getting Adventure Rock or the like to work, without support from the broadcasters, is not easy. It's not something you can easily set up.

For instance, let's see what happens when you start up Adventure Rock.

- You need to log in with a BBC iD.
- I think in order for this to work, or even to be able to create one, you need to be in the UK. You could use a proxy, but then you'd have to hope that BBC didn't change its Single Sign On addresses or Single Sign On API in the meanwhile.

This is gate #1.

Gate #2 is the game checking for updates. It could be that if it doesn't find the XMLs online that describe the patching system, that it doesn't even start up. I think that BBC has taken the patching server offline but I'm not sure.

Gate #3 is the "dynamic gamedata" folder that is located online somewhere. This is all sorts of data that describes different things in the game. E.g. it can be used to create messages, to lock or unlock studios and levels, to change textures in the game, etc. This is also probably offline and no longer available on BBC's servers.

What you should have to do is replicate this folder and file structure on a local webserver (or on an online webserver) and then force the game to think that the addresses it is looking for are actually somewhere else (e.g. by editing dns records).

Even if you were to find out these URLs, and you'd succeed in making your game think these URLs are located somewhere else, you'd still need the files and their contents.

Developing the game, we had config files that we could use to specify these addresses, and an offline version of course, that looked at a local folder for these dynamic files.

Getting this game to run without the server for logging in, without the patching server, and without the dynamic contents server, is a big challenge and even I wouldn't know how to start given the fact that I don't know the names or contents of the files.

However, I can have a look at work to see what I can dig up. The only problem is time (i.e. I have none) and rights (i.e. I don't know if I am allowed to simply give you files and solutions for this without breaking all sorts of laws because BBC and other broadcasters are the actual owners of this game, not just Larian Studios).

Ok, this thread is a bit older but i got a question:
Was there ever a physical release (CD, DVD, Gamebox etc.) of one of these games: Adventure Rock, Superia or Gulliland?
According to my research, these games were only available as a download, but maybe someone has other information.

@AdventureLand171 here you can download and play these games offline:
https://anthe.studio/kic/
Have fun!

I often wondered that as well, as for the Monkey Labs, too.

@ForkTong : Thank you for this detailed explanation.