The Killing Cloud Level 5 - where's the bomb?!

[mk1]

Hi,

got to level 5 where you're supposed to find a bomb in the city in 120 seconds (phew!) but I just can't find it. I read that it's supposed to be near Station 3 and a light gray skyscraper, but I've gone around the area and it's nowhere to be seen.

Anyone who has completed the level could help?

[mk1]

Ok, found the bomb. It's on the top of the building next to the Station House 3, BUT it shouldn't be because you can't land there. It should be on the road in between the buildings.

I tested from my original disks and it's there, so this is a WHDLoad bug it seems. Somehow the bomb is calculated to the wrong place in the WHDLoad version..

[mk1]

Ok, there's something seriously wrong with this game.

So I got to level nine now but a) I've no idea what am I supposed to do in fact and b) it seems impossible to destroy or capture the second bike which doesn't even show up on the radar.

Has anyone managed to complete this level.. ever? I found some old usenet posts without any replies about the same level so it makes me wonder if this game is actually bugged.

EDIT: I wonder if someone could be able to debug/disassemble the game and actually see what are the winning criteria for missions 9 and 10.

[NPI]

It might be possible with the debugger to skip levels, or even to skip to the end of the game, if that's what you want.

zone the savestate after you find the bomb, or seconds before you beat a level (landing on the platform after you complete the task in a level, if I remember)

[mk1]

I'm not really interested in skipping to the end, but figuring out how to get there without cheating ie. knowing what one needs to do. This game is a prime example of how to keep the player in the dark!

I tried the trained disk version and managed to find out after using the trainer that mission 9 can be completed by shooting three nets to the second bike which can't be blown up. Amazing that there's no indication about things like this in the game or manual at all.. You just have to figure out everything by trial and error.

Oh well, mission 10 left then. Still haven't figured out how to finish this mission without dying. Would a save state help in this case? I can complete the mission by dying in the end. Judging from my previous experiences with this game I wouldn't be surprised if that was the only ending although I'd like to know for sure.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by mk1

Ok, there's something seriously wrong with this game.

So I got to level nine now but a) I've no idea what am I supposed to do in fact and b) it seems impossible to destroy or capture the second bike which doesn't even show up on the radar.

Has anyone managed to complete this level.. ever? I found some old usenet posts without any replies about the same level so it makes me wonder if this game is actually bugged.

EDIT: I wonder if someone could be able to debug/disassemble the game and actually see what are the winning criteria for missions 9 and 10.

I think the game is fully completable, except as you say, there seems to be maybe an anti-piracy thing going on with the bomb in level 5. I had to go back to floppy from my WHDLoad version. Not sure how I continued from there, does the game give you a code to the next level? If so, I used that to revert to the WHDLoad version, which Girv (top bloke!) had improved the framerate on.

In case you are interested I wrote an AGDB review here:

http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/DBA1/KillCl.html

You know there's a key you can press on the first level to remove the fog and reveal the city in all its 3D glory?

[mk1]

Originally Posted by Angus

I think the game is fully completable, except as you say, there seems to be maybe an anti-piracy thing going on with the bomb in level 5. I had to go back to floppy from my WHDLoad version. Not sure how I continued from there, does the game give you a code to the next level? If so, I used that to revert to the WHDLoad version, which Girv (top bloke!) had improved the framerate on.

Like you said I also completed that mission from the original disks in the end. I did get a code for the next mission and managed to get all the way to mission 9 until I got stuck again.

I switched to the trained version to see what that mission was all about until finally I realized that the only way to win that one was to use three nets simultaneously on the 2nd bike which made it fall down. Naturally, the mission briefing fails to mention this as well as the fact who/what/where your actual target even is. Sheesh!

Now if I only knew how to beat mission 10. The briefing is yet again as uninformative as always. The problem is that even though I've killed everyone around Alcatraz the Angels either disarmn the bomb when there's 10 secs left or if I stay around the island I blow up with the bomb. Game over.
EDIT: Wow! I managed to get the bomb explode without killing my by flying straight up to the highest altitude possible. I got the message 'Bomb exploded' and happily flew back to base only to be greeted by "Game Over - You failed to complete your mission". Well, excuse me! But isn't that what I was just supposed to do? Christ this game is seriously flawed!

In case you are interested I wrote an AGDB review here:
http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/DBA1/KillCl.html

Have to read it. Maybe I'll learn something new about this miracle of game design..

You know there's a key you can press on the first level to remove the fog and reveal the city in all its 3D glory?

Yes, it's actually mentioned in the manual. I'm surprised!

[NPI]

I just beat the game - with the debugger, cheater I am :P

did the bomb fell into water?

[mk1]

If you mean in mission 10, no it didn't fall into water. I landed on Alcatraz, armed the bomb and left it there.

How did you manage to beat the game then?

[NPI]

I told you I've cheated with the debugger. Now I read again what you said, I didn't understand at first what you did so ignore the bomb comment, I just saw a glimpse of mission 10.

[mk1]

Ah ok. But you can verify that there's an ending for the game which is other than 'Game Over - You're dead but the bomb exploded' ?

[NPI]

yes, the game ends with congratulation conclusion.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by NPI

yes, the game ends with congratulation conclusion.

mk1 - I don't remember the ending, I just remember thinking "wow, I actually completed a game!" which is quite unusual. Have you tried reverting back to floppy for the last mission in case those crafty vektor grafix guys put another level 5 style anti-piracy feature in there?

[mk1]

Yeah, I've tried from floppy as well. No luck. I can get the bomb to explode on the island but when I fly back to Station House 1 I get a 'Game Over - You failed complete your mission' message..

[T_hairy_bootson]

Was the bomb on top of the building on mission 5 ever fixed? I was playing and noticed this just today.

[Reynolds]

I personally never thought that with it's original speed anyone can complete even the first missions in that game...

[iso7]

Just played through this on the minimig core in a1200 mode. The whdload version definitely still has the bomb glitch on mission 5. It’s a shame because apart from this single mission the rest of the game plays great using the whdload and every other mission can be completed successfully. Load times and framerate are much better than dealing with floppies on an a500 that’s for sure.

[jotd]

if someone can provide all details to reach that point, this can be checked out.

[iso7]

The level code for mission 5 is:
3XX8Q6E6

Entering this code from title screen will start you at mission 5, then it’s a case of taking off a flying to the Chinatown area. There’s a police station building and the bomb should be on the road next to it, but when playing the whdload version it spawns on the roof of the building next to the police station instead. Might be a timing bug when the level is being setup.

Realise none of this means that much to anyone not familiar with the game, so I can probably do a video capture if it’ll help someone debug it. The workaround is still to just play the adf version for this single mission (it’s quite a short one), and then once you’ve got the lvl code for mission 6 you can switch back to the whdload, so it’s not a massive issue.

[paraj]

I think this is missed copy protection kicking in. Manual protection screen is run with some kind of byte code interpreter that can also call native code. After the check it calls a native at $02910c:

lb_2910c:
    ; Manual check passed?
    LEA     lb_28146+2(PC),A0           ;2910c: 41faf03a
    CMPI.W  #$0013,8(A0)                ;29110: 0c6800130008
    BNE.S   lb_29122                    ;29116: 660a
    ; Yes, add #$400 to the some variable
    ADDI.L  #$00000400,lb_22390+2       ;29118: 06b90000040000022392
lb_29122:
    RTS                                 ;29122: 4e75

I've confirmed that the variable at $22392 is read when level 5 is loaded (but not e.g. level 1), but not that it is the case because:
1) I'm crap at the game, and don't know how to find Chinatown
2) I can't get level 5 to load with latest WHDload version. Maybe error on my side, but I think there's at least a missing relocation, which is easily fixed, but then it goes off the rails a bit later.

Does the level work for anyone with v. 2.2 of the slave, with or without relocations?

Anyway, somebody who is decent at the game can confirm if the above is the cause by checking:

Killing Cloud, The (1991)(Vektor Graphix)(M3)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr SKR] -- Bomb should be in wrong place (skips manual check completely like WHDLoad version).

Killing Cloud, The (1991)(Vektor Graphix)(M3)[cr CPY](Disk 1 of 2).zip -- Bomb should in the correct place (only skips verification).