Games that can't be completed because they was never fully play tested before release

[hipoonios]

I have played many Amiga games and have encountered a few, that can't be completed because they was not tested properly before release. Examples of such games are Plumpy and DNA Warrior which has now recently been fixed thanks to talented EAB members. This is also the reason why i created this thread - To get the games fixed!

And the reason why these games can not be completed is usually due to buggy/faulty level design.

Note that this thread is not about bad cracks or bad disk images (there are threads for these already).

Many of these games are PD games and some not even worth the time fixing them. But will list them anyway:

1. Zeus: The Game

The problem: This Puzznic clone has 40 levels. One of the levels (level 32) has a bug making the level impossible to complete. As seen in the attached screenshot, there is only one blue block with a ring which means you can not pair it.

Possible solution: Remove the block or add another one.

ADF: HERE
HOL Entry: HERE
Password to level 32: JUDASPRIEST

More games to follow...

[ross]

Hi hipoonios, game can be patched but I need to know how remap the blocks
With 'ring' made to space or block the level is unfinishable...

Or I need to play it I've played it

[Dan]

Hi, i made a quick byteswap on the pure adf, and now the missing tile is simply a block.

Ok this looks better now.

I'v added the map of all levels, made with maptapper. (with the bugged piece on level 32 !)

[ross]

Originally Posted by Dan

Hi, i made a quick byteswap on the pure adf, and now the missing tile is simply a block.

Ok this looks better now.

No, with a block cannot be finished...

Try this

[Dan]

Yeah playtested it meanwhile and replaced the 0-block with an x-block.

edit: i see, i wrote "and now the missing tile is simply a block." but haven't corrected that in the edit.

it should read: "and now the wrong tile is an X block"

[Gzegzolka]

Pinkie was fixed some time ago
Magic Lines by Thalion are unplayable.

[ross]

Well, now there is two 'level 32'

[ross]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

Magic Lines by Thalion are unplayable.

Please elaborate..

[hipoonios]

Thanks guys for taking your time to fix the level. I tried it and it is now possible to finish level 32. I also decided to play the remaining levels to see if there are more that needs to be fixed.

Well, tried level 38 for almost an hour and have yet not managed to finish it. This level seems to be impossible even though there are no missing tiles! I have played many Puzznic games and have never been stuck on a level for so long (and this level looks fairly easy with just a few tiles). So suspect this level is broken too. But I want to try another hour before scream "another bugged level"

If you want to try, then the password is: "AERTZTE "

[Rotareneg]

Captive can't be played past base 1 of mission 2316 because the map generator crashes, but I somehow doubt anyone's actually gotten far enough to run into that issue.

[honx]

someone probably got that far, otherwise you wouldn't know about that issue.

[Rotareneg]

In this case I think it's from the game being reverse engineered, check out http://captive.atari.org/ if you're curious about every tiny detail about how Captive works, including step-by-step details about the map generation. It's pretty clever, but it does also explain why the maps could be so frustratingly illogical.

[Anakirob]

Originally Posted by Rotareneg

Captive can't be played past base 1 of mission 2316 because the map generator crashes, but I somehow doubt anyone's actually gotten far enough to run into that issue.

But Captive cannot be finished anyway as it goes on forever in theory!

Also, I seem to recall that it was possible to simply skip some missions, but I could be remembering incorrectly :P

[Gzegzolka]

I wonder if somebody finish Liberation, Captive sequel.

[Dan]

Hi, in my post #3 there is a new attached adf, with playable level 38.

Yesterday i wrote an editor (win 32bit) for Zeus levels, which is able to write the edited levels back to the adf file.

There are few things which i would like to add to it,before the release. So maybe tonight or tomorrow it will be ready.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Dan

Hi, in my post #3 there is a new attached adf, with playable level 38.

Where? Must be the invisible type

[ross]

But it's only me or ZEUS have a totally broken handlers?
I'm tempted to rewrite keyboard and mouse input events..

Good work for the editor Dan

[hipoonios]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

Pinkie was fixed some time ago
Magic Lines by Thalion are unplayable.

Pinkie can be played to the end but the corrupt graphics in the ending is in the original release. So yep worth to list it here

Another game with broken ending is the Polish game Łowca Głów. Here, the ending does not load at all. But not sure if this also happens in the original release (need IPF to check).

What's the problem with Magic Lines? The time limit? I read in the comments on Lemon Amiga that people have problems to complete the first level because you start with 5 seconds. But in the shortplay videos on YouTube I see they start with 2 minutes. It sounds like a bad crack is out there? Have not tried the game myself yet.

Originally Posted by Dan

Yesterday i wrote an editor (win 32bit) for Zeus levels, which is able to write the edited levels back to the adf file.

Awesome!

Originally Posted by DamienD

Where? Must be the invisible type

Seems he forgot to attach it.

Originally Posted by ross

But it's only me or ZEUS have a totally broken handlers?

Wonder if the controls is this sensetive on real Amigas? Someone (Dan) on YouTube told me to set the mouse speed between 2 and 4 in Host/Game Ports to make it more playable. But joystick would be preferable

[Dan]

Originally Posted by hipoonios

Seems he forgot to attach it.

oops, i guess i have chosen the file but haven't uploaded it. Anyway, its up now.

Wonder if the controls is this sensetive on real Amigas? Someone (Dan) on YouTube told me to set the mouse speed between 2 and 4 in Host/Game Ports to make it more playable. But joystick would be preferable

Yeah, its the Dan from eab ^^

[Galahad/FLT]

Reference Magic Lines, I think the problems come down to people not knowing how to play it.

You literally have to start moving pieces right away, after 5 seconds the flashing "thing" on the screen starts moving and expects to run into a block the same way that Pipe Mania fluid expects to run into the right block.

I've checked both Skid Row variants, and it appears that FFC actually cracked it properly, however, there is a couple of instances when WinUAE reported that something was writing to a non standard disk format, and sure enough, the game is attempting to write hiscore information to track 4 it seems. Whether its successful and corrupts data I don't know.

Graphically its a nice game, however its far too difficult to play from the get go, I don't think theres anything here to fix, but it looks tedious to play.