ADVENTURE SECRET

[atari70s]

HEY guys what was that toss away secret. ( when you toss something out of the screen ) i remember you can go though the wall or something happened i cant rememeber what anyone remember?

[StanJr]

are you talking about the Programmer's easter egg where you take the grey dot out of the Black (I think) caste maze and carry it through the black line on the right wall to go to the secret room? There's a web site somewhere on this board that lists all the easter eggs known, but I can't remember what it was.

[atari70s]

can it be reached from level 1?

[StanJr]

No, the Black Castle doesn't have a maze in it on level 1.

[Nukey Shay]

atari70s--

Nope, the black castle has no dungeon in level 1 (hence, no grey dot). I once hacked the game to change the dot's location (by swapping the location of the magnet in the data table)...but the game still refused to reveal the screen on level 1.

 

StanJr-- http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/index.htm

A walkthough can be found there as well.

[Nukey Shay]

Oh, it doesn't show this in the .gif...but you need to push the controller down/right to pick up the dot in the doorless room shown on the map. You will hear the sound of something being picked up, and it will only be visible in the orange "visibility" square or inside non-dungeon walls.

[StanJr]

right. And to access the secret room you will need to be in the room down and right from the Yellow Castle with at least one other thing (Bat, Dragon, item) While carrying the "dot" you can go through the black line into the secret room.

I just did it on both 2 and 3

[StanJr]

got it bookmarked now,

thanks Nukey Shay!

[Nukey Shay]

You don't need to carry the dot...it just needs to be in that room in order to pass through the line.

BTW you need two other objects (besides the dot) in the room to pass through...only one object will just turn the line grey (it will still block you).

[StanJr]

You're right. I had the Bat AND the Green Dragon there when I did it. I was carrying the dot, but its nice to know you don't have to. I dropped it twice and nearly collapsed!

[Nukey Shay]

lol

If you want to experiment, I suggest dropping the dot just inside of a wall (so you can still see it)...though it finds many more uses in the game Indenture.

That game can be had here : http://home.epix.net/~fmercury/chris.html

and a short interview of C.P. is here : http://www.gooddealgames.com/interviews/in...Craig_Pell.html

 

Be warned...games 4 and 5 are HUGE (has anyone actually beaten game 5?)...with two dots being used at multiple locations.

[StanJr]

I have heard much talk of this "Indenture" I shall give it a try. Thanks for the link. did you say "two" dots! Yipes!

[Nukey Shay]

It is one of the most faithful ports of a game that I've seen (though the enemies' logic is a bit different, and the objects move a bit jumpy...since the game uses redefined characters to render them).

Games 1-3 are virtually the same as the originals'...and 4-5 contain all the new stuff (game 5 has all game objects scattered randomly as in game 3). The original dot is used to pass right panels, and the second dot is used to pass the lefties. You need to carry an object into all the "dark" mazes in order to find it...objects in dark rooms will flash if another object is present.

[davidbrit2]

You know, speaking of the dot trick, I once found a way to get the easter egg without the dot. I grabbed the magnet, and positioned myself inside the bridge so it moved up and down with me as a walked. Essentially, I could walk freely up and down the screen. (You can get to some weird places with this.) Then it was just a matter of finding the right place to go up off of the screen to end up to the right of that line.

[Nukey Shay]

Really? On which console or emulator? The programmer made it impossible to even glimpse the screen without at least TOUCHING the dot. To see an example of this, use the bat to drag two of the dead dragons into a castle...and "train" it to fly with the remaining dead dragon from left to right (on a screen with another object, allow the bat to swap them at least twice by moving carefully right...then carry the other object off the screen). Bring all of the other objects into a castle (make sure the bridge is in a different castle than the dragons). Drop the bat at the screen directly below the yellow castle and hit reset. Then, let the bat fly into you. Be sure to drop the bat as soon as you are eaten by the now-alive dragon. The bat will carry you past the barrier, but there will be no easter egg screen. Hit reset again, and use the bridge to get to the dot (making sure that the bat doesn't see it). Pick the dot up, but leave it in the black castle. Go back down and get eaten again. Although the bat normally* isn't allowed in the bonus screen, there will be a split-second where you can see it.

*if there happen to be objects in the bonus screen, the bat will "see" them and leave you there when you catch a glimpse. Also, if the bat is chasing a live dragon...I believe that it's possible for it to follow the dragon as it enters the bonus screen (though this is not confirmed**). In any case, the dot would still need to have been disturbed by you.

**Put ALL of the objects in the bonus screen, and let the bat and live dragons roam around overnight...chances are, some of the objects will have been moved by morning.

BTW there is no other way INTO the bonus screen (if you examine the data table at the end of the disassembly, you will see that only the screen with the panel shows the screen as an exit). Must have been a pirate cart or something.

The magnet trick works, however (though not where the bonus screen is concerned). If you carry the magnet to the upper-left of the hero, the bridge will float along and allow north/south movement though anything. If the bridge happens to touch an open portcullis of a castle, it will enter that castle (leaving you trapped in the castle face). However, it's impossible to use that trick to go NORTH past the next screen's southern wall...the instant that the magnet is off the screen, the bridge will no longer follow (making it impossible to move north out of that wall). If you had done it, I sure wouldn't mind owning that cart

 

[ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Inky]

IS there a walkthru for Indenture? I have spent so much time on that frustrating game.

[Nukey Shay]

Update--

It is possible to use the bridge to get past the barrier by moving SOUTH. In order to get to the black castle, you move left at the start of the blue maze. Instead, carry the bridge right and work your way to the dead-end (the maze screen with the large open area). Drop the bridge, and move down it's left side into the wall. The north wall of the panel screen will block you...so as you are in the blue maze wall, move left to pick up the bridge. Hold the controller down and right, and drop the bridge again. Repeat a second time and you are now between the two panels (again, the bonus screen is off limits unless you touched the dot).

No magnet required (wasn't that a Phil Collins cover?).

Inky--

Somebody here was working on one about a month ago. The last I heard, all the screens had been dumped and he was in the process of linking them (good luck). As I've said, it's easier just to draw arrows on paper as you play the game (listing landmarks as you go).

 

[ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[StanJr]

Glad you brought that up, Inky. I just got off an hour of playing Indenture Level 4, and STILL cannot find the GREEN castle! I've got the sword, the magnet, the #3, and the White Key and Green Key, but no where can I find the Green Castle? I assume it is in the secret maze, right?

Anyway, be careful. I had to stop playing Indenture when the bat and I crossed paths, me carry my dot and him a key. When we collided, near the bottom of a room, the dot got stuck in the wall and could not be reached. Anybody else have this happen and know how to fix it?

[Nukey Shay]

Use the bridge...and don't forget to save early/save often next time (and lock that *@#$&! bat in a castle until you're through).

BTW the dots are used at ANY panel...take a look behind all of them. The larger second dot opens left panels, while the original dot opens right ones.

 

[ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[StanJr]

Right, now where do I get the big dot.

 

Oops, I forgot that I could do that with the bridge. Thanks.

[Nukey Shay]

Nooo! I won't tell. I will say that it's at a five o'clock position in a dark maze not far from the red maze. Just carry an object around until you find a screen that makes it flash (indicating that another object is present in the darkness). The bridge works well for this type of exploration, and I think that it's in the yellow maze in game 4 (of course, the bat could have messed that up).

[atari70s]

is there a way to make the bridge go right to left ( must be a way to program it to do that)

[Nukey Shay]

Nope.

And I doubt that there is an easy way to add it, since the original game is packed as it is...and I don't think that a labelled disassembly of Indenture is easy to come by.

[Nukey Shay]

Of course, you could hack the game to ignore background collisions...but being God is boring!

 

God version :

 

Use PCAE to change the following lines...

14c6:ea ea (original = d0 2d ... BNE $2d)

14cc:ea ea (original = d0 27 ... BNE $27)

14d0:a9 00 (original = 29 40 ... AND #$40)

 

The first patch will allow you to move over any background graphics. The second and third disable missile collisions (those panels).

 

If you perfer to create a special rom, you could use showgfx and editgfx to do this...

Copy the file ADVNTURE.BIN to the same directory that show/edit are in. Go to dos mode and type the following...

 

SHOWGFX ADVNTURE.BIN 0 4096 > AD2.TXT

 

Then type EDIT AD2.TXT and change these lines...

04c6|XXX_X_X_|

04c7|XXX_X_X_|

04cc|XXX_X_X_|

04cd|XXX_X_X_|

04d0|X_X_X__X|

04d1|________|

(replace _ with spaces, add X's wherever needed)

 

Finally, save it and convert it into a binary rom by typing the following...

 

EDITGFX AD2.TXT AD2.BIN

 

There you have it! A hack where you can go anywhere.

Dunno how to do this in Indenture yet. Interestingly...everything that has anything to do with the easter egg (including collisions, sprite handling, etc.) is coded as seperate routines by the program. Many lines being excruciatingly redundant. It's a wonder that the Atari suits never caught on to his scheme. Without all that special handling, he probably could have saved a few pages of memory (the message itself is nearly a page...the entire cart being only 16 pages long). Way to stick it to 'em, Warren!

 

Note : show & edit are available in one zipfile (2600GFX) at Dan Boris' site ... http://atarihq.com/danb/a2600.html

Nifty little programs. You can scroll down and create new characters in the games (be sure that the new ones fit in the exact amount of space that the old ones occupy). Example : Since the bat in Adventure uses collision detection to pick up objects, you could scroll down to find and erase the two bat sprites (effectively removing the little ... from the game).

 

[ 09-26-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Mot]

I once made a messed up adventure game with holes in all the walls, using the Disassibled version. Just to see where they would go. I'll give it out if anyone wants it. (Ya, right)

I know we use to spend hours playing adventure, back in the day. We use to find different ways to win, like put the magnet over the gate and take the Chalice to the top of the yellow castle and drop it.

 

BTW: You can see Warren at Warren Robinett's Home Page He has a page on Adventure with PowerPoint slides about the 2600 too.