Alien Breed Tower Assault AGA 1.1 version?

[dex]

I bought the AGA 1200 version on disk as well as the CD32 version, now I found out that there was a 1.1 disk version

The WHDload install says:

That install applies to "Alien Breed Tower Assault" © 1994 Team 17 It supports floppy disks (v1.0 & v1.1) and CD32 version.

Now my questions: what are the differences between Tower Assault 1.1 and 1.0? Which version is on the CD32 CD? What has been fixed and was there any kind of changelog or readme? Was this version sent out by Team 17 after you posted in your original disks?

And most importantly - was 1.1 easier or did it actually give you any more passwords between the levels...

[dlfrsilver]

the main difference between the v1.0 and v1.1 is that the 1.1 includes a cheat mode.

CD32 release is version v1.1x.


Type on the game menu in the password option 'POIUYTREWQ654321'

It enables ingame keys:

F9: Turn some collisions on/off.

HELP: Level selection
Need 2 digits after pressing this key (NOT from the numeric keypad).
(eg. to select 2nd level, enter: 02).

01: Crash landing site
02: Civilian Zone 1
03: Civilian level 2
04: Civilian level 3
05: Civilian level 4
06: Outdoor sector 2
07: Stores level 1
08: Stores level 2
09: Stores sector 3
10: Stores sector 4
11: Outdoor sector 3
12: Military sector 1
13: Military sector 2
14: Military sector 3
15: Military sector 4
16: Security zone 1
17: Security zone 2
18: Security zone 3
19: Security zone 4
20: Colony ground sector 3
21: Science sector 1
22: Science sector 2
23: Science sector 3
24: Science sector 4
25: Colony ground sector 4
26: Engineering sector 1
27: Engineering sector 2
28: Engineering sector 3
29: Engineering sector 4
30: Corridor zone 1
31: Corridor 2
32: Corridor 3
33: Corridor 4
34: Corridor 5
35: Corridor zone 6
36: Corridor zone 7
37: Corridor zone 8
38: Corridor zone 9
39: Corridor zone 10
40: Corridor zone 11
41: Corridor zone 12
42: Corridor zone 13
43: Corridor zone 14
44: Corridor 15
45: Corridor 16
46: Corridor 17
47: Main tower level 1
48: Main tower level 2
49: Main tower level 3
50: Main tower level 4
51: Main tower level 5
52: Tower level 6
53: Tower level 7
54: Exit game
55: Outer colony sector 5

from 56 and beyond the game returns an error (green/yellow flashing).

L: Increase both players lives.

N/1: Jump to next level (through possible exit 1)
(May return an error).

2: Jump to second next level (through possible exit 2)
(May return an error).

3: Jump to third next level (through possible exit 3)
(May return an error).

F1: Select weapon 1.

F2: Select weapon 2.

F3: Select weapon 3.

F4: Select weapon 4.

F5: Select weapon 5.

F6: Increase player's 1 weapon's power up to 4 levels
(turn back to minimum level after that).
(Notice that a weapon re-selection is required after triggering that one).

F7: Increase player's 2 weapon's power up to 4 levels
(turn back to minimum level after that).
(Notice that a weapon re-selection is required after triggering that one).

NUMPAD ENTER: Jump to next level (stable).

NUMPAD 1: Kill player 1.

NUMPAD 2: Kill player 2.

Since it's a little bit unstable i presume it was made for testing/debugging purposes.

The program also supports command line arguments.

-f: Load the files from the original floppy disks
(doesn't seem to work properly).

-1|2: Set one or two players option by default.

-c<num> : Supposedly to set the startup number of credits for both players
but doesn't work as the game set them to 10000 no matter what.

-l<num> : Set the startup number of lives.

-k<num> : Set the startup number of keys.

-a<num> : Set the startup number of ammunitions.

<num>: Set the start & restart level numbers.



There's a bug in the arguments parsing routine so any number following a letter argument needs to be followed
by a space char (eg. "-l20 " without the quotes) otherwise the results are unpredictable.

Also, i have found why there are crashes in this game, on both v1.0 and v1.1 (will crash on corridor 15 which should lead to science sector 2, and another level which also crash with yellow/green stripes. When this game was assembled by Stefan Boberg on the computer he worked on, his LHAconv compressor and encryptor tool had what seems to be a bug, which has led to have 2 tilemap data files emptied (those files are present on both ECS and AGA releases, and are common to both). Their size is small (it's only the header, when the files uncorrupted are 32kb in size). As such, we would need to ask for those files to Martyn Brown in order to rebuild a working release of Tower Assault Amiga. Because to this day, all the releases are knackered, the CD32 release also has the 2 datafiles corrupted too (tested with track2file from aminet).

[lordofchaos]

So there is no known version for download (including disk versions) that you can complete from start to finish without crashes?

[dlfrsilver]

Exactly. I have spent hours just to finally find that all the amiga versions are plagued with the same problem.... you can't have fun on all levels as planned. Another way if the amiga data were not available from source code, would be to hack the PC version, which has all the levels fully working. I did a test from my PC original disk release, and the corridor 15 leads to Science Sector 2 once completed.

And hell, there is that bug with the end music, which is corrupted not on disk but in memory by some code !!!

[lordofchaos]

Wow I`m quite shocked! I guess I should cross this off my very long "Amiga Games To Complete" list.

[sokolovic]

But it is still possible to finish the game by just don't using the corridor 15 and the other level no ?

[dlfrsilver]

true, you can finish the game, but even the end has a non working music due to data overwritten in memory.

[lordofchaos]

It makes me wonder how many other commercially released Amiga games had similar issues. Given the fact they were so much harder to complete than todays games, I must have played over a thousand Amiga games, probably finished 3% of them..

[dex]

That's right. Especially GODS, still almost sure all you guys who claim to have played through the game without cheats are well... maybe NOT SO SERIOUS? xD I mean, Chaos Engine was WAY easier than Gods, WAY. The only game harder than Gods from the Bitmaps must be Xenon 2. Well, maybe Cadaver but you can at least save in that one.

Back on topic: I'd suggest playing the CD32 release which has the FMV intro, outro and also the "pixel graphics" end screen (much nicer than the video, actually) and then avoiding Corridor 15. As already mentioned, the bugs seem to be present in all releases.

[dlfrsilver]

you verified what i said on CD32 release and disk release ?

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by dex

That's right. Especially GODS, still almost sure all you guys who claim to have played through the game without cheats are well... maybe NOT SO SERIOUS? xD I mean, Chaos Engine was WAY easier than Gods, WAY. The only game harder than Gods from the Bitmaps must be Xenon 2. Well, maybe Cadaver but you can at least save in that one.

Gods is easy when you know what do to.

Anyway - interesting research Dennis, I would never know it as Tower Assault is too difficult for me to complete.
Could you try to contact Martyn Brown with that issue?

[dlfrsilver]

it's in my book actually, i have to contact him. He said he has the source codes in a disk box in an interview on LemonAmiga.

[Predseda]

Please try, you have the whole community support

[dex]

Yes, you do dlfrsilver, I'm with Predseda there

@dlfrsilver: I couldn't verify anything yet as I am still not through this game myself I just thought your recent findings about these bugs were quite plausible There is also a longplay of Tower Assault CD32 with a working end sequence (FMV and still screen with music).

[Psygore]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Also, i have found why there are crashes in this game, on both v1.0 and v1.1 (will crash on corridor 15 which should lead to science sector 2, and another level which also crash with yellow/green stripes.

This flash colors mean that there is a problem with the level number.
In this case, the game reads the wrong next level and set it to 0.
I've done a workaround into the slave and you go to the science sector 2 after finishing the corridor 15 level.

[dlfrsilver]

that's not enough psygore. The whole level doesn't work correctly due to the problem i found (the aliens freeze, and the tiledata is not present, and the level fucks, not counting that the security alarm runs out!). It's good that you've made this patch for the moment.

Can you check where the problem is with the music at the end of the game ?
the module is OK on the disk, but corrupted or crushed in RAM, and plays bad.

[Psygore]

I don't have any problem in corridor 15 level, btw the 2 empty files are not used in the game.

For the end music, there is a wrong module pointer only if the game is played from the standard hd version.
No sound problem using the whd version or floppy disks.

Tested with the floppy AGA version 1.1, real amiga (whd) and winuae.

[dlfrsilver]

the problem is here too with version v1.0 (on tested on real amiga 1230), under whdload, the end music is corrupted.

the amiga version doesn't behave correctly. I have the IBM disk release in original, and the corridor 15 is working correctly. The PC release has none of the bugs that plague the amiga versions. The corridor 15 level doesn't behave correctly on the original (disk, hd, and also whdload installed version).

[mailman]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

true, you can finish the game, but even the end has a non working music due to data overwritten in memory.

You mean disk version? I completed it several times using different routes (of course without entering into Corridor 15) and there was music in the outro. The same as in the menu.

[dlfrsilver]

the outro song is corrupted on originals.