Has anyone ever completed 5th Gear?

[MethodGit]

Was playing this one today, and after much frustration with the godlike difficulty I resorted to just playing through it with Vision Factory's trained crack.

Two major problems I noticed with this game:

1) A certain 'checkpoint' on Level 2 has been programmed so badly that it respawns your car on top of deadly rocks/foliage. Cue your vehicle exploding over and over. If you bought the turbo boost, you can still jump, but you won't generate anywhere near enough momentum to get out of this death trap.

2) Level 3 appears to be unwinnable. No, really, actually unwinnable. Having cruised through most of the game by way of infinite lives and flagrant (and well-timed) abuse of the turbo boost jump, I notice towards the end of the course that the game suddenly stops remembering any of my progress past the last checkpoint of the course. So when I reach the turnaround and proceed to head back, should I die, I'll be placed back at the last checkpoint facing upward again. If I inch carefully back to the start of the course (by way of save states of course, really don't fancy having to redo a large chunk of my progress due to the game having a memory like a sieve), nothing happens when I touch the start/finish line. So it's like the game's completely given up at some point and left its watching post, leaving me with a poor replica of the Ecto 1 and the racecourse from hell to repeatedly crash into until I eventually die of boredom.


Now, I have no clue whether these two issues have anything to do with the trainer, but I doubt it - most of the modifications involve putting a NOP or two and no code is corrupted. And besides, considering even Level 1 requires inhuman skills and precision to beat I'm not really willing to invest a whole day trying to play this the 'fair' way. But still........... is this beatable? Like, at all? Or is it really that horrendously programmed?


Bottom line - the music is the sole good aspect of this sorry game.

[lordofchaos]

I've only ever played the c64 version and that for me was brutally difficult, don't think I ever got further than first few levels.. If it wasn't for the music I'd never load it again.

[MethodGit]

Righty-ho, an update.

So I opted this time round to play with the IPF, while setting up a custom control configuration to assign Quick Load and Quick Save onto the shoulder buttons of my controller to ensure no time is senselessly wasted. (Except in a way I still feel like I wasted time, as you'll soon find out...)

I can already confirm off the bat that the two major issues I mentioned in my last post still persist here too, so it's definitely not any custom cheats fudging things up they shouldn't be. Unless it's strictly an emulation issue, I can safely say that I'm not surprised that this game received such crap reviews at the time - I doubt any of them could even get past Level 2 without avoiding that one game-breaking bug!

There were a few new things I noticed while playing Level 3 however. One is that I noticed after a while - during the turn back - that my car was respawning at a different checkpoint than the one it kept sticking me at closer to the end of the track. Around the same time, I noticed one disturbing issue where my car was seemingly exploding at random, even in mid-air (where you're supposed to be safe from everything). I kept noticing this while reloading my quick save and trying to get through without dying, in the end I had to just luck out and eat the life loss, after which it didn't happen again.

But the best is yet to come. After a while I was just trying to get back to the line as quickly as possible through a combination of careful boost jumping and speed gaining. Eventually I flew towards the line - where, surprise, no win screen popped up yet again - but because I was going full pelt in mid-air when I did, I went careening over the surrounding scenery, out the other side, and I was treated to this....



FYI, this is safe ground, and I drove for what felt like an eternity so evidently there is no solid wall awaiting me anytime soon.

To sum up, if this is REALLY all the Amiga port programmers could come up with, then it's easy to see which version of the game received treatment from the REAL talent. (Hint: not this one!)


I'd really like one of us to track down the lead guy and ask for confirmation that there is in fact no ending, because I *really* don't feel like loading this glitchy pissstain of code up again in future.

[Ian]

I imagine with such a glowing review he'd tell you to piss off and do better yourself.

[Codetapper]

@Ian: We need a like button on here

@MethodGit: Why don't you use your elite haxx0r skills to skip the levels? Surely skipping levels would be an absolute breeze for someone so skilled at using the ROBD command in Action Replay 4?

[MethodGit]

@Ian: Well sorry if I seem to be in a mood, but really, YOU try and play the game and see if an ending is possible to trigger. By the end of it you'd be cursing them and the game out as well.

@CT: it's plainly obvious to me now you are in full goading troll mode. You seem to have a real thing against methods and devices which make most people's lives easier. Don't like me using ARs and WinUAE debugger? Boo-bloody-hoo, I'd sooner stick with those than with whatever medieval "sticks and stones" methods the 'elite' were using back then.


Like I said, I don't want to load the game up anymore, so I can't be chewed to find the flags needed to auto-end levels. The fact remains that Level 3 shouldn't have been made so badly to begin with, and Level 2 shouldn't have an instant-game-loss condition to begin with.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by MethodGit

I'd sooner stick with those than with whatever medieval "sticks and stones" methods the 'elite' were using back then.

You make it sound like the 'elite' back then didn't do shit seeing that they used "medieval sticks and stones" methods... Besides, cartridges were used back then, some people even built their own devices! So much for that one...

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

@Ian: We need a like button on here

Shame we didn't make that game all those years ago lol

[Codetapper]

Well MethodGit, I worked out a level skip in all of 5 minutes, there are 3 levels and when you complete them it goes back to the first level again. Maps for the 3 levels to come via Maptapper!

I'll give you the 1 line trainer code but the second I post it, I'm sure I'll be told that you've trained it yourself about 3 different ways. So I think I'll hold back until you've posted your success story or given up in frustration.

PS: I trained it using the tried and true medieval-sticks-and-stones methods. I've also found they work best when you sacrifice a small goat.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

I've also found they work best when you sacrifice a small goat.

As far as I know, haruspicy can be used to "read" anything, so it could work fine for computer code.

I think I'll start my own branch and call is HaruspiC++

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by MethodGit

Like I said, I don't want to load the game up anymore, so I can't be chewed to find the flags needed to auto-end levels.

Let me get this straight. You come on here to start up yet another thread asking for help in a game that you now say you "don't want to load up anymore". Why did you even bother with this thread then? A 30 second search on Lemon64 would have shown you the C64 version had 3 levels, and back then most games had identical levels on all systems.

Finding the flag needed to skip a level is not rocket science, but it's a damn site harder than typing ROBD and having the cart do your work done for you. Hence I don't believe for a second that you can do it. "Can't be chewed" is just you saying "I can't do it".

BTW, the level maps are now on HOL if you want to see the full 3 non-corrupt levels.

[MethodGit]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Well MethodGit, I worked out a level skip in all of 5 minutes, there are 3 levels and when you complete them it goes back to the first level again.

So it doesn't even give you a "Congratulations, You Rule!" type screen like the C64 version does?

I'll give you the 1 line trainer code but the second I post it, I'm sure I'll be told that you've trained it yourself about 3 different ways. So I think I'll hold back until you've posted your success story or given up in frustration.

Guess what? Still don't feel like loading the game up again (not so soon anyway). So go ahead and be the first to promote a level skip.

Let me get this straight. You come on here to start up yet another thread asking for help in a game that you now say you "don't want to load up anymore". Why did you even bother with this thread then? A 30 second search on Lemon64 would have shown you the C64 version had 3 levels, and back then most games had identical levels on all systems.

The actual point of this thread (in case it was lost amongst the rage) was to inquire whether it was in fact possible to legitimately trigger the end of the game without resorting to hacking the code. My two findings suggested it couldn't be, but the paranoid side of me is wondering if it could be *anything* - be it slightly dodgy WinUAE emulation or what have you. I guess the only other thing left would be to request someone on here to playtest the game (original or trained) on a real Amiga and confirm if Level 2 still respawns you onto rocks and Level 3 still forgets your progress in the level and refuses to let you win, in that case.

It'd be quite shocking if hacking in your own level skip function was in fact the ONLY way to beat the last level at all.

For the record, I did complete the C64 version back in the day, and was intrigued in completeing the Amiga version and seeing if it offered anything even slightly different - after all, the design of the maps (I always had this awareness there were only 3 levels) differed from the C64 port.

(Since you took the time to find the "end the level" trigger and rip all three maps, did you ever work out if it was possible for the trigger to occur naturally on the last one?)

Finding the flag needed to skip a level is not rocket science, but it's a damn site harder than typing ROBD and having the cart do your work done for you. Hence I don't believe for a second that you can do it. "Can't be chewed" is just you saying "I can't do it".

Not really, more like "this game depressed and pissed me off so much for wasting my time that I don't feel at all inclined to try and force a game-complete trigger just to get around its shitty game-breaking glitches".

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Ian

I imagine with such a glowing review he'd tell you to piss off and do better yourself.

[Retro1234]

Not sure what bugs there are, game looks horrible but was also released in 1992 compilation Sports Pack '92 - unlikely but maybe small bug fixes?

[MethodGit]

Well, after Codetapper helped me out recently by informing me about the triggers and where they were, I decided to do a little investigation into the game (with breakpoints and monitorings of said triggers) and came across an interesting find or two.

Namely........ the third and last level was programmed to be unbeatable!

Quick version: one offset records the distance you've travelled across the course, going up and down depending on the direction you're facing. The values for each level are designed to allow the "go back" trigger to occur just as you reach the "Turn Here" sign at the other end. But the target value for Level 3 was made to be higher than the actual length of the track itself. So it's no damn wonder I couldn't complete it! The solution was to go to the group of offsets where the target "minimum" and "maximum" distances for each level are stored, and change Level 3's "maximum" value to a less stupid one. And hey presto: my car now faces the correct way upon respawning, my checkpoints on the way down are now recorded, and crossing the line should actually get me out of this stupid racecourse.

Just for added measure, in a similar manner to the above situation, they moved the "complete the level" goalpost to further behind the line than the other two levels, to the extent that you'll crash before triggering it if you just try to drive down. You have to boost-jump over the ravine to achieve enough distance to get the "well done" screen (or, you know, just change the value to a more tolerable number). Which, btw, is the same "Well Done" screen you get on the other two. And then it wraps back to Level 1. That's it. Just like Codetapper said earlier.

Another little tidbit btw: you know how I mentioned before how I jumped over the scenery behind the starting line and found myself in the garbled mess captured above? Well, it's doable on every level, and it's stupendously easy to pull it off provided you have the turbo boost jump. Just for fun, I travelled further down than I bothered the last time, and eventually I found myself driving across mixed up tiles of various terrain (including water). In the meantime I kept watch of the distance offset as it counted back down from FFFF. Eventually, a few minutes later or so (with savestating to speed up the process, since it's possible to get killed by a deadly tile) I was able to trigger first the turnaround, then the finish, all by driving backwards through a corrupt mess and boost-jumping like no tomorrow.

All in all, just another example of bad playtesting for you.

So, to sum up this game in bulletpoints:

1) It's not as nice as the C64 version.
2) Level 2 can be an instant game-killer if you die around the spot of the Checkpoint Of Doom.
3) Level 3 was never designed to be beatable without hacking.
4) You can jump over the starting terrain and drive through garbage.
5) The music is still the ONLY good aspect of this port.
6) It's become so obvious now that the people behind this port couldn't be assed towards the end of development, forgoed a congratulations screen, then made it impossible to complete naturally to hide their embarrassment. That, or just troll players by the dozen.

Is it any wonder I'm feeling peeved?

[Greyfox]

Fascinating stuff..really. To know that a development team would con customers like this, unknowning to the publisher, what the dev team pulled. I wonder how many other games do this, it would make for great reading with the unveiling of the scams these teams got up too, just like this one..

Thanks for all your frustration and persistence

[Codetapper]

The fact they made the game so difficult, tedious and slow meant if they did have playtesters, they would have been unlikely to be able to beat the 3rd level so wouldn't have detected the problems. Then again, they probably had no playtesters at all for a quick conversion like this.

And credit where credit is due, you found some useful stuff MethodGit - well done!