Hey guys / Johnny,
Wonder if you could help me here? I'm looking for a poke.
I'm doing a longplay of Arachnaphobia in time for Halloween and I've hit a snag with the very final level of the game.
The game is like Ghostbusters - move around a town, visit a building and get rid of the spiders before the final level boss encounter. 7 towns in total, before you move onto level 8 which is in South American jungle fighting a queen spider and then the General spider. It's a really good game actually, very impressively presented and shame it's been so overlooked!
However it's clear they haven't play tested the final level!!
* Two bites on this level and you're dead. A bite from the queen or general results in losing 2 points of energy, you have 4 points and you're dead.
* The first spider moves too quickly for you to drop the 'bug bomb' (you get 5 of them this level, and it slows the spider down giving you breathing room to blast them with your bug spray)
* ... so you always take 'one hit'. No way around it. Tried all kinds of combinations of jumping etc, but that's bugged itself beacuse you're supposed to be able to jump over spiders but it always registers as a hit
* I'm able to kill this spider (after taking a bite), then the final spider arrives. The best I can do is a get a bug bomb on the go slowing him down somewhat but he needs several hits usually from behind/chasing him. But he's chasing you and by the time he's pushed you to the edge of the screen you can't avoid getting another hit - and it's game over!
* The bug bomb doesn't not slow down the spiders sufficiently enough.
* Compare to the Amiga version and longplay to see what I mean - Amiga Longplay Arachnophobia - YouTube (http://youtu.be/oFUBkpK0i2A?t=28m5s)
*** Jump to 28mins 05 secs. ***
See how the bug bomb slows them down, on the Amstrad version it only very slightly slows them, making it impossible.
Here's where I need help. And hopefully it should be easy to find.
CPC Power has two dsk's - http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=288 (http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=288)
The cracked one with menu cheats - I could use this HOWEVER the game 9 times out of 10 often crashes after defeating the final spider, and if you do get the final ending screen - the game stalls. It's supposed to go back to the menu and show you your results (time taken, number of spiders killled, etc)
So I'm needing a poke for the original dsk there.
Either -
* Queen/general spiders only take one hit of energy when you get bit
* The flamethrower is enabled (normally this happens when you collect a gas can and matches in the normal game)
* The bug bomb slows down the spiders much more
* Or last case scenario - infinite energy/no hits (although this will make the longplay look a bit crap)
Sorry to bother you! No worries if you can't.
Cheers!
Xyphoe
I don't know the game and have never played it.
I see that this is a multiload game, which could cost trouble because the poke address can change
with the level.
Please can you use WinApe to make save a snapshot (CTRL+F6) when you have a flamethrower.
and a snapshot of the start of the final level.
johnny
Thanks Johnny!
First, attached is a snapshot just before picking up the 'matches', walk right and pick them up then you have the flamethrower!
(To get the flamethrower you have to first pick up a red gas bottle, then finally the matches - as soon as you have both it's immediately activated)
After picking up if you fancy it continue walking right and through the door - you'll find a room with a spider egg sack, destroy it (down+right to angle your weapon, then fire to shoot) and the Queen spider for this town will appear! She'll have yellow bits on her legs and be far more aggressive. Destroy her and you'll move onto the final level.
One last attachment -
This is the beginning of level 8, the final level in the South American jungle. Saved milliseconds after it loaded and control is given over to you.
It's fire + down simultaneously to drop a 'bug bomb'.
(Oh and fire + up to jump - which as mentioned previously is broken, you should be able to jump over smaller spiders but you always get a hit. Probably should be able to jump over the queen too! You can tell it's bugged that when you jump ONTO the normal spiders they get squished leaving a bloody mess but you still take a health hit! Gah!)
First comes a queen spider, then after the general spider. This is the only time the general appears.
For the snapshot you'll need the original dsk from the CPC Power website (http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=dumps&num=288 (http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=dumps&num=288)) already loaded. And on Side 2.
Thank you again!!
I'm going on vacation tomorrow.
I have found so far.
level 7:
Infinite Flamethrower &9d03,00
Level 8:
Spider 1 - &A243,Hit - default=2
Spider 2 - &A24c,Hit - Default=4
infinite Energy &A450,0
More energy &4f,04
Infinite Bomb &98E6,0
&98E7,0
Hope this will help you.
Look like game is defect - can't load after final level
Quote from: Johnny Olsen on 16:43, 22 October 14
Spider 1 - &A243,Hit - default=2
Spider 2 - &A24c,Hit - Default=4
Brilliant! That's just the ticket! I'm able to defeat both of them but....
Quote
Look like game is defect - can't load after final level
That's correct. The game corrupts each time! FUCK SAKES!!! At least the cracked version loads at least the ending screen 1 out of every 10 attempts. So we won't ever get to see the true ending with the score count etc. Oh well.
Quote
infinite Energy &A450,0
More energy &4f,04
Although not really needed now, that doesn't seem to work.
At &A450 the value there is 0E, I change that to 00 but it doesn't do anything.
And "More energy", what address is &4f? Is the &4f00? Changed that to 04 after getting hit but didn't do anything.
Sorry if I'm mistaken!
sorry My mistake
it is &A250,0
&004F is the address where it stored how many hit you can take before you die - Default 04
Your problem could be a copy protection side effect : it only affects the last level, and the end screen doesn't load that correctly.......
I remember when this came out I had wished the Ghostbusters 2 game had been more like this and built on the general concept of the first GB game. Wasn't really keen on the actual GB2 game we got (nice graphics but I didn't like the gameplay at all)