OutRun Europa

[Xyphoe]

Not having much fun playing this game through to completion (in preparation of doing a longplay video at some point).

There's a couple of issues I need help with. It's had a history of bad .dsk dumps....

Recently I noticed a new dump of the game on the CPC Power website (Outrun Europa (UK) (2 faces) (1991) [Erbe Software] [Original]) and so have been trying this out.

1) The "Mediterannean" section (level 5 - speedboat) starts off with an impossibly short time limit of 48 seconds. Now with the aid of snapshots I've done this level at maximum speed, no slow downs AT ALL and I still run out of time by the end of the 2nd checkpoint. Either the level starts off with too low of a time limit, or the additional time you get passing through the 1st checkpoint isn't high enough to accommodate the level.
This is why programmers should always play test each and every level! To get through the 1st checkpoint you can't make one mistake! Yet, on previous and subsequent levels I've crashed numerous times and still made it fine. (Note time left on the previous level is not carried over as bonus time to the next level)

Help! - can anyone hack it so the level starts off with 58 seconds instead of 48? I could then be cheeky on the longplay and poke that in and carry on as normal.
If it helps someone has already found a poke to stop the timer completely by poking "00" at both addresses EE80 and EE81.
If so, someone could then possibly make a patched version for release.

2) The game crashes (on the aforementioned new .dsk dump) loading the final level which is "Germany" level 7.
Years ago I tried a previous dump of the game and it did exactly the same thing, but I can't remember if it's the Tape version or the cracked/trainer dump done by XOR (I'll be trying the latter out later). The problem might be the ending of level 6 (Italy) - as we reach the end instead of the usual markers in the road the car bumps over indicating you've completed a section - the game just suddenly stops and starts loading the intro picture of level 7 with the last sounds from the speaker still ringing out stuck - after the picture loads you can press to load level 7 which is where it crashes before starting the game (sometimes you get the border of the playing area before it finally distorts and crashes).

I can on the XOR dump (Outrun Europa (UK) (1991) (Trainer).dsk) use the level select on the trainer/cheat menu before the game loads to start on the final level 7 and complete the game however! So possibly it's a bug on level 6. *EDIT* YES - the same thing happens on the XOR/Trainer dump - crashes exactly the same on level 6!!

Help! - could someone see how to poke in your own score into the game? For the purposes of the longplay before someone finally gets a working 100% perfect dump of the game, I can play up till the end of level 6 - the game then crashes but I could use the XOR dump to start on level 7 where I can poke in my score before it crashes.

But it would be nice to see if anyone could work out why it does crash, like I said this is the second dump I've played where it's happened. Then finally release a patched dump.


Cheers!


*EDIT*

Just noticed ... this was my 666th post! Oooooerrr! \m/

[Nich]

Help! - can anyone hack it so the level starts off with 58 seconds instead of 48? I could then be cheeky on the longplay and poke that in and carry on as normal.
If it helps someone has already found a poke to stop the timer completely by poking "00" at both addresses EE80 and EE81.

The amount of time remaining is stored at FE66.

Help! - could someone see how to poke in your own score into the game? For the purposes of the longplay before someone finally gets a working 100% perfect dump of the game, I can play up till the end of level 6 - the game then crashes but I could use the XOR dump to start on level 7 where I can poke in my score before it crashes.

Your score is stored at FE6C and FE6D.

But it would be nice to see if anyone could work out why it does crash, like I said this is the second dump I've played where it's happened. Then finally release a patched dump.

Sorry, but I don't have the time (excuse the pun) to do this. Out Run Europa is a pretty big game (in terms of file size) so it would take a long time to crack it and test it.

I hope that the information I have provided will help you create a longplay video, though. I like watching them and hearing your opinions.

[Xyphoe]

Wow thanks Nich!!

Really appreciated, I'll try it out over the weekend - thank you again! 

[Xyphoe]

Assuming it's not an error with the dump or problem with WinApe... it makes me sad that as late as 1991 full priced games were being released with bugs and not properly play tested.

Shame because the programmer "Von Dazzling" as he calls himself ... wrote the awesome Turrican conversion for the Amstrad.

[Johnny Olsen]

If you play xor's version of the game with infinite credits, then go to the level 5 and
poke &29e5,&3a then you will start with 58 sec when ever you die.


Please make a snapshot file just before the game crashes.

[steve]

Assuming it's not an error with the dump or problem with WinApe... it makes me sad that as late as 1991 full priced games were being released with bugs and not properly play tested.

Shame because the programmer "Von Dazzling" as he calls himself ... wrote the awesome Turrican conversion for the Amstrad.

It is even worse now, programs are routinely released knowing that bugs will be found, reported and fixed in the next update.
Windows still gets regular updates, when did CP/M ever need an update?

[dlfrsilver]

Not having much fun playing this game through to completion (in preparation of doing a longplay video at some point).

There's a couple of issues I need help with. It's had a history of bad .dsk dumps....

Recently I noticed a new dump of the game on the CPC Power website (Outrun Europa (UK) (2 faces) (1991) [Erbe Software] [Original]) and so have been trying this out.

1) The "Mediterannean" section (level 5 - speedboat) starts off with an impossibly short time limit of 48 seconds. Now with the aid of snapshots I've done this level at maximum speed, no slow downs AT ALL and I still run out of time by the end of the 2nd checkpoint. Either the level starts off with too low of a time limit, or the additional time you get passing through the 1st checkpoint isn't high enough to accommodate the level.
This is why programmers should always play test each and every level! To get through the 1st checkpoint you can't make one mistake! Yet, on previous and subsequent levels I've crashed numerous times and still made it fine. (Note time left on the previous level is not carried over as bonus time to the next level)

Help! - can anyone hack it so the level starts off with 58 seconds instead of 48? I could then be cheeky on the longplay and poke that in and carry on as normal.
If it helps someone has already found a poke to stop the timer completely by poking "00" at both addresses EE80 and EE81.
If so, someone could then possibly make a patched version for release.

2) The game crashes (on the aforementioned new .dsk dump) loading the final level which is "Germany" level 7.
Years ago I tried a previous dump of the game and it did exactly the same thing, but I can't remember if it's the Tape version or the cracked/trainer dump done by XOR (I'll be trying the latter out later). The problem might be the ending of level 6 (Italy) - as we reach the end instead of the usual markers in the road the car bumps over indicating you've completed a section - the game just suddenly stops and starts loading the intro picture of level 7 with the last sounds from the speaker still ringing out stuck - after the picture loads you can press to load level 7 which is where it crashes before starting the game (sometimes you get the border of the playing area before it finally distorts and crashes).

I can on the XOR dump (Outrun Europa (UK) (1991) (Trainer).dsk) use the level select on the trainer/cheat menu before the game loads to start on the final level 7 and complete the game however! So possibly it's a bug on level 6. *EDIT* YES - the same thing happens on the XOR/Trainer dump - crashes exactly the same on level 6!!

Help! - could someone see how to poke in your own score into the game? For the purposes of the longplay before someone finally gets a working 100% perfect dump of the game, I can play up till the end of level 6 - the game then crashes but I could use the XOR dump to start on level 7 where I can poke in my score before it crashes.

But it would be nice to see if anyone could work out why it does crash, like I said this is the second dump I've played where it's happened. Then finally release a patched dump.


Cheers!


*EDIT*

Just noticed ... this was my 666th post! Oooooerrr! \m/

Hi Xyphoe,

Here is the explanation in the pokes for the game from CPC-power :

values at address &EE80/EE81 must be "zeroed" otherwise the counter generate a stack overflow in level 6.

I discovered it while play testing the disk and tape release.

Poke &00 instead of &3D in &1400 to get max turbos (it helps a lot), for levels up to 5.
Poke the same value at &1423 in level 6, and in &142B in level 7.

This game uses dynamic encryption, and the datas moves in RAM, hence the 3 differents operations above.

And the game is not specifically buggy, and can be finished (i did it numerous times so you should be able to do it too).

[Xyphoe]

Cool!

So if I understand you correctly....

"values at address &EE80/EE81 must be "zeroed" otherwise the counter generate a stack overflow in level 6."

So the game is bugged? We need to do that at the start of level 6 so it doesn't crash?

Note ... I get the crash before level 7 doing the game without making any pokes/cheats at all.

Thanks!

[dlfrsilver]

Cool!

So if I understand you correctly....

"values at address &EE80/EE81 must be "zeroed" otherwise the counter generate a stack overflow in level 6."

So the game is bugged? We need to do that at the start of level 6 so it doesn't crash?

Note ... I get the crash before level 7 doing the game without making any pokes/cheats at all.

Thanks!

The game is not bugged, it's the way it has been coded. You can't disable on memory address without doing the other. The first poke
we had had only EE80 zeroed. After checking it appears that the second value needs to be done too.

More precisely, you need to apply the 1st poke when starting on level 1. Once Level 6 has loaded, apply 2nd poke, then once level 7
has loaded, apply the 3rd poke.

I used CPCE to do the game to the end. If you use another emulator, i can't be sure that it will be all fine.

[arnoldemu]

The game is not bugged, it's the way it has been coded. You can't disable on memory address without doing the other. The first poke

I disagree.

If a game needs pokes to complete it then it was released with bugs in it.


If you had to poke an xbox game to finish it then that would be considered bugged yes?

[robcfg]

I think he means that you can actually complete the game without pokes, but if you use them, then you have to do all the steps.

[dlfrsilver]

I think he means that you can actually complete the game without pokes, but if you use them, then you have to do all the steps.

Exactly. Without the pokes you can finish the game. It's just that the game is easier with pokes , but due to the way levels are loaded, you need 3 pokes instead of one, because the address moves depending on the levels.

And no this one is not buggy

[Xyphoe]

But that's what I'm saying, I didn't use *any* pokes and the game still crashed just before loading level 7?

[Xyphoe]

Well, I finally got round to doing this video. I put it off for a long time (not sure why) but instead of trying to fake it with the pokes, I used them anyway but came clean showing what I did. Because - more interesting.

As you'll find out from the vid the Speccy owners got a far rougher deal on this game than we did, but I must declare that this game has bugs. As you can see in Stage 6 I do it perfectly without losing any speed and I still run out of time. Or at the very least, it wasn't playtested and was unbeatable without using pokes.


[AMSTRAD CPC] OutRun Europa - Longplay & Review

[Gryzor]

Thanks for the vid, mate! Really enjoying it as I'm typing this. Never played ORE in any length, but it looks pretty nice, maybe I'll give it a go (must find trainer...)