Scary Mutant Space Aliens From Mars - Corrupt game or incorrect Solution?

[ransom1122]

I'm not sure if there's a bug in the game but there is a part where you cannot pickup the item required...

Solution:
https://www.solutionarchive.com/file/id%2C651/


1st part is the copy protection part.. Code always works 100%

SPACESHIP:
----------
e, n, open can, put cheese in can (fuel for the spaceship), s, move crates, ne, examine crates (you
find a red crate), open red crate, examine red crate, get gun, sw, s, get belt, get manual, read
manual, drop all, get wrapper, get coin, n, e (animated combat sequence), examine computer, examine
screen, type 'x36mzz4e' (copy protection), examine screen (a list over possible
destinations
appears on the screen), type '2' (off to Venus),


2nd Part I cannot pickup the white wire. I have also attached a Savestate (Using the IPF's) here. Savestate is the exact part of the solution where you are supposed to get the white wire...

https://mega.nz/file/4Uk3gCKJ#EWNQsB...8T9vxjC3Uo9QWM

SATURN:
-------
open door, e, s, get white wire, n, n, n, e, s, s, e, get book, w, s, e, get bone, w, n, n, n, n,
jump (you land on another roof), s, s, e, get gold, w, s, s, s, e, s, open door, s, s, s, s, get
disk, reach into water (you find a rope), climb rope, n, n, n, n, w, n, e, s, s (animated combat
sequence), get strippers, s, press purple button (off to Mercury)


I tried both ADF & IPF

Scary Mutant Space Aliens from Mars (1989)(ReadySoft)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr Black Monks].adf

Scary Mutant Space Aliens from Mars (1989)(ReadySoft)(Disk 2 of 2).adf

1549_Scary Mutant Space Aliens from Mars_Disk1.ipf

1549_Scary Mutant Space Aliens from Mars_Disk2.ipf

and both have the same issue?


Please test the "Get White Wire" command and see if it works?

What is not listed in the solution where you are supposed to get the white wire is....

Examine Control Panel
Examine White Wire

This will show an image of the white wire in the Ingame screen.

But I still cannot pickup the white wire ??


Hope we can can up with a solution...

[dlfrsilver]

Your link MEGA is bad.

[ransom1122]

Should be fixed now

BTW the source of the solution.txt is from gamebase

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

Should be fixed now

BTW the source of the solution.txt is from gamebase

I found what the error is :

the protection code is not 'x36mzz4e', but 'x38mzz4e' !

I discovered this with the manual on HOL. It's 38 and not 36 !

EDIT: there seems to be a printing error x38mzz4e doesn't work. x36mzz4e pass....

[ransom1122]

Oh That's great news... but I recall x36mzz4e passing when I tried it with the ipfs.

The cracked adf should bypass this with any text... Shouldn't it? Because that too stopped at the "Get the white wire" part.


I see the 38 In the hol manual vs 36 in solution.txt seems as though a bad scan confused the 8 with a 6.

Did the code with 38 allow you to pick up the wire?

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

Oh That's great news... but I recall x36mzz4e passing when I tried it with the ipfs.

The cracked adf should bypass this with any text... Shouldn't it? Because that too stopped at the "Get the white wire" part.


I see the 38 In the hol manual vs 36 in solution.txt seems as though a bad scan confused the 8 with a 6.

Did the code with 38 allow you to pick up the wire?

as said, x38mzz4e doesn't work. x36 does, but i guess there is something wrong about this. For me, the get the white wire doesn't work because the protection is faulty (possibly checksum like).

We need a whdload coder to have a look on this game.

[ransom1122]

I believe Stingray wanted to have a go at this...

I'll be replaying it tomorrow with the correct code and see what happens..

Is what your saying that all ADFs and IPFs are bad?

[ransom1122]

I can confirm there is a problem with this game.

Game manual copy protection reads x38mzz4e - yet it doesnt work in game..

x36mzz4e Works in game - but fails at the "get white wire" part

Someone needs to investigate the copy protection for this game..

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

I can confirm there is a problem with this game.

Game manual copy protection reads x38mzz4e - yet it doesnt work in game..

x36mzz4e Works in game - but fails at the "get white wire" part

Someone needs to investigate the copy protection for this game..

Readysoft fucked themselves on this game. This is an anomaly.

[ransom1122]

Bumping, in case any smart fella can fix this game..

All versions are broken... No "White Wire" is available to take at the broken part.

Fingers crossed...

[StingRay]

Looks like a game bug to me. The object status is not set to "can be taken" for whatever reason. It has nothing to do with the protection at all. In the WHDLoad patch, this problem will be fixed "on the fly". I need to test the game a bit to check if I didn't break anything else.

[ransom1122]

Fantastic news

[Seiya]

the strange things is that box of the game report "no copy protection", but me too i play it and ignore to "get white wire". You can go on, but then you cannot get other objects.
the game cracked by VF should fix these problems (they said have removed code protections), but i not yet tried.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Seiya

the game cracked by VF should fix these problems (they said have removed code protections), but i not yet tried.

Originally Posted by StingRay

It has nothing to do with the protection at all.

This is a game bug and the cracked version do not fix it! Game has 2 protection checks: one when loading/saving a game and one when using the computer ("Dryfon 3000").

[StingRay]

The patch for the game is now available, I needed to use a different approach to fix the "white wire" bug, as my first solution caused another problem shortly before the end of the game. That's why it took a while to finish the patch. The game can be completed now. Patch was nteresting but quite time-consuming (about 16 hours) to do, I will not play this game again anytime soon. For obvious reasons.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by StingRay

The patch for the game is now available, I needed to use a different approach to fix the "white wire" bug, as my first solution caused another problem shortly before the end of the game. That's why it took a while to finish the patch. The game can be completed now. Patch was nteresting but quite time-consuming (about 16 hours) to do, I will not play this game again anytime soon. For obvious reasons.

Sting, is it possible to fix the actual cracks and inject your fix into the ADF versions ?

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Patch was nteresting but quite time-consuming (about 16 hours) to do,

That is some amazing work... well done... you have made a ReadySoft incompletable game, completable.. hats off...

Was the original game bugged, or was the game just never cracked properly from day 1?

[kremiso]

always a pleasure to read the details found exploring these old titles

coded in asm68k, wow for a text adventure game

tanks for the time spent over it

[Snoopy1234]

Originally Posted by StingRay

The patch for the game is now available, I needed to use a different approach to fix the "white wire" bug, as my first solution caused another problem shortly before the end of the game. That's why it took a while to finish the patch. The game can be completed now. Patch was nteresting but quite time-consuming (about 16 hours) to do, I will not play this game again anytime soon. For obvious reasons.

Congratulations on your achievement.

[TCD]

Thank you for the patch StingRay