The Armageddon App

[55Aavenue]

Well the time has come, two years later the sequel to my first mod "Short Circuit Oracle" is finally done! I present to you...

The Armageddon App



This is a Keen 5 mod and the story continues right where Short Circuit Oracle left off. Here's a run down of some of the highlights this game has to offer to keep you entertained:

More Levels! There are 20 levels, plus not one but TWO secret levels, for a total of 22 playable levels!
More Music! I composed a massive original soundtrack for this game, every single level has its own unique song, add that to the intro, high scores, game over and ending sequence jingles and you've got a Keen soundtrack with 26 different tunes! The soundtrack is probably one of the aspects of this mod I'm most proud of.
More Patches! I did way more patching this time around, meaning the game can have more unique aspects about it, and doesn't have to follow the exact structure of the vanilla Keen 5.
More Variety! The original Keen 5 has much less variety between levels than Keen 4 or 6 does. But in this game you will find yourself traveling across the plains of Korath III before you find your way on board the space station, allowing for more of a variety of environments.

Once again I've used the points reset when you die patch and this time around a perfect score is 1,730,200. Want the special ending? Well, you better get at least 80% of those points then.

Thanks to everyone who tried out Short Circuit Oracle, it motivated me to put even more effort into this one. I hope you all enjoy!

DOWNLOAD VERSION 1.2

https://www.dropbox.com/s/um09gzh13v5ib ... 2.zip?dl=1

[DarkAle]

Cool. I was waiting for this

[Roobar]

Oh that's great! Sounds very promising! Can't wait to play this.

Want the special ending? Well, you better get at least 80% of those points then.

Ok I think this is a good motivation to try to collect everything.

Will comment more when I have the time to play.

[Nisaba]

Man, I am just a few levels in (54300 Points so far) and already having so much fun. This mod is full of unique ideas and techniques that haven't been seen before. so much love, so much detail! I enjoy every second of it. formidable work so far! can't wait to progress even further



...it's noteworthy that this mod features nearly 1000 lines of patch code. kudos to you...

[K1n9_Duk3]

Currently there is only one bug that I'm aware of, and its to do with the elevators on the station. They have been VERY uncooperative with me during development. Once you leave the 1st floor of the station via the 1st elevator and start completing levels on the 2nd floor or higher, going back to the 1st floor is risky, it often will just spit Keen out in the top left corner of the map where you will be stuck. There is no reason to go back anyway, unless you skipped an optional level on the 1st floor and decide to go back and play it. I would recommend finishing that level before moving on to the 2nd floor. Anything I've tried to do to fix this make the elevators become even more problematic. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, please let me know.

I'd like to help you fix this bug, but I just can't get it to pop up at all and I haven't seen any obvious bugs in your patch scripts that might be responsible for this. If you know how to reproduce the bug or have a saved game that always triggers this bug, let me know. Please don't PM me, my inbox is almost full.

I did find a few other bugs though:

The very first %patch instruction in the patch file is unsafe and might corrupt memory. Instead of "%patch $4210 $EB" you should use "%patch $4211 100w" instead to make the credits pics start at the middle of the screen.

Your "opening doors subtracts 1 card instead of setting stat directly to 0" should use "%patch $AD16 $90 $90" directly after "%patch $AD12 $FF". Also, you swapped INC and DEC for this patch, so the number of the cards is actually a either negative number or 0, but that's not a problem since the code only checks if the value is 0 or non-0.


Other design issues and glitches:

The like/dislike system is kind of trash. Getting 100 likes in a row gives you an extra life and resets the likes to 0, so collecting a dislike after having just collected 100 likes instantly kills Keen. I don't think that's good design. You could make Keen start with 50 likes and give an extra life at 150 (resetting the likes to 50 again) and then kill Keen at 0 likes. The game can't draw negative numbers, otherwise you could just kill Keen at -50 or -100 likes.

The first credit pic on the terminator intro is a bit glitched and doesn't get erased correctly. Parts of it get scrolled again in at the end.

[Nisaba]

[...]
The first credit pic on the terminator intro is a bit glitched and doesn't get erased correctly. Parts of it get scrolled again in at the end.

yeah. this is how the glitch looks like in game:
... and:

[55Aavenue]

I'd like to help you fix this bug, but I just can't get it to pop up at all and I haven't seen any obvious bugs in your patch scripts that might be responsible for this. If you know how to reproduce the bug or have a saved game that always triggers this bug, let me know. Please don't PM me, my inbox is almost full.

I did have a saved game file where this glitch was happening a few days ago, but now they seem to work fine and I can't reproduce it either. Maybe I unknowingly changed something since then...well if they work now that's good I guess, but I'm still nervous that bug is going to pop up on someone. The elevators have been very finicky for me, there seem to be certain map coordinates where they just don't work. I had to keep moving them around and even change the map height before they would work reliably.

The very first %patch instruction in the patch file is unsafe and might corrupt memory. Instead of "%patch $4210 $EB" you should use "%patch $4211 100w" instead to make the credits pics start at the middle of the screen.

The first credit pic on the terminator intro is a bit glitched and doesn't get erased correctly. Parts of it get scrolled again in at the end.

Did you mean 0001W? Anyway, that glitched first credit is a side effect of the credits appearing in the centre, so maybe I should just get rid of that all together and have them scroll normally.

Your "opening doors subtracts 1 card instead of setting stat directly to 0" should use "%patch $AD16 $90 $90" directly after "%patch $AD12 $FF". Also, you swapped INC and DEC for this patch, so the number of the cards is actually a either negative number or 0, but that's not a problem since the code only checks if the value is 0 or non-0.

Thanks for the advice. At one point I was trying to get the status screen to show a different icon if you had 1 card or 2 cards, but abandoned it because I couldn't get it to work, but maybe it was because I was subtracting cards the whole time when I thought I was adding them. I might take another stab at that now.

The like/dislike system is kind of trash. Getting 100 likes in a row gives you an extra life and resets the likes to 0, so collecting a dislike after having just collected 100 likes instantly kills Keen. I don't think that's good design. You could make Keen start with 50 likes and give an extra life at 150 (resetting the likes to 50 again) and then kill Keen at 0 likes. The game can't draw negative numbers, otherwise you could just kill Keen at -50 or -100 likes.

Haha, I don't know if I would call it trash...but I have to admit I think I like your idea a little bit better. I might implement this, but I'll wait a awhile to make sure any other bugs get weeded out first so I don't have to do a million updates.

[K1n9_Duk3]

Did you mean 0001W?

No, I meant it as I wrote it. This is the decimal 100, not hexadecimal. And the w is because we're patching a word value (= 16 bits = 2 bytes). You could omit the w here, since both the old and the new value are less than 256, but it's safer to have it there for future modifications. This patch means set the initial position to 100 pixels (instead of the default 240). The screen is 200 pixels high, so the middle is 100 pixels. The position refers to the center of the credits pic, since the pics can have different heights and the code must work for all of them.

[Syllypryde]

Is anyone else playing this right now? I have beaten the game 3 times so far, twice on easy, once on normal. First score was 1,540,100. Second score was 1,666,300. Third score was 1,700,000. I just cannot quite get the perfect score. I reached both secret levels, Korath III Moon and Asteroid Belt. Nice job hiding them. This is a really good mod. It has enough to maintain the original Keen 5 feel, but has enough new shading, new graphics, new dynamics, actually being able to explore Korath III, and both secret levels makes this really good.

I am definitely impressed with this modder. His Short Circuit Oracle is really good too. Hopefully soon in the future after he finishes his Keen 6 reimaging, I am really looking forward to him doing a total modification from scratch.

Great job!

[Syllypryde]

I did have a saved game file where this glitch was happening a few days ago, but now they seem to work fine and I can't reproduce it either. Maybe I unknowingly changed something since then...well if they work now that's good I guess, but I'm still nervous that bug is going to pop up on someone. The elevators have been very finicky for me, there seem to be certain map coordinates where they just don't work. I had to keep moving them around and even change the map height before they would work reliably.

The elevator glitch happens to me as well. Through my several playthroughs when I got frustrated on Main Engineering and/or Korath III Moon, I took the first elevator, played the the 4 sphere levels, but made sure the other two levels were complete before taking the second elevator. So once I knew better on what I was doing I was able to avoid the glitch altogether. Other players might not be so lucky, though you did warn them in advance at your introductory post.

Thanks for the advice. At one point I was trying to get the status screen to show a different icon if you had 1 card or 2 cards, but abandoned it because I couldn't get it to work, but maybe it was because I was subtracting cards the whole time when I thought I was adding them. I might take another stab at that now.

Here is a warning to other players about the second keycard you can take with you into another level: If Keen dies before you use the second keycard you will lose it. Saving and going back to that save can prevent this from happening.

Haha, I don't know if I would call it trash...but I have to admit I think I like your idea a little bit better. I might implement this, but I'll wait a awhile to make sure any other bugs get weeded out first so I don't have to do a million updates.

Personally I like the like/dislike dynamic. It makes for a more strategic play, plus it works really good storyline wise considering this is supposed to be Keen 5 modernized and likes/dislikes is a major part of our social media world today. But I will admit I do agree that hitting your 100 likes, likes reset to 0 then immediately dying if you accidentally hit a dislike right after does seem unfair. Maybe instead of doing 50 likes and getting an extra life at 150 likes, you could work the start counter for likes at 3 or 5, but keep the extra life at 100. Having the start counter too high would make the whole like/dislike system worthless because dying from negative likes would rarely happen or never happen at all.

Plus with Keg O' Vitalins no longer extra lives we need to have some other way to obtain extra lives besides the score lives. Though to many players, especially those who abuse saving in-level extra lives are meaningless, those of us who try to save between levels only or save when we are done playing, the difficulty of the game even on Easy makes it able to lose all of our lives quite quickly.

[banana]

I'm still stuck on Cargo Bay 'A'. I have found the regular way to the exit, but I can't proceed until I figure out a way to get this green key. I already found the green door, but seemingly no way to grab the key without dying. I'm assuming there is some solution I'm just not seeing yet. Definitely quite a bit tougher to find the answer to this secret than most of the secrets in Short Circuit Oracle.

Anyway, it's very fun. I recognise your style from Short Circuit Oracle, and it works well here. Like on Short Circuit Oracle, the music is great. The level designs I've seen so far are amazing and very variant. The first couple of levels have a bit of a mixture of a Keen 4 and Keen 6 going on, while aboard the Omegamatic it gets more into the Keen 5 vibes. What I also really like is the atmosphere and attention to detail. Subtle references in the story to Korath parking habits for instance. And so much additions of background scenery. A cafeteria, signs showing Korath protests, signs detailing the Shikadi organisation, an office for the CEO, it's all there in SGA and it adds a lot. And Keen taking selfies if you let him stand still for a while is great.

I'm not too far in so I can't speak about the difficulty in the later levels, but so far the difficulty seems on point. I died quite a lot, but that's also to be expected when diving in blindly on Hard mode, and once I get to learn the level a bit more and what to expect it becomes a lot more manageable.

About the likes and dislike system. I do get the complaints. It does seem a bit arbitrary if one time the punishment of accidentally tapping a dislike is just -1 likes, and another time it's death, just because you happened to be at that number. I'm wondering if it's possible to instead of killing Keen, it's possible to subtract a life from the lives counter and reset the likes to 99. And if -1 is a bit too mild, maybe give every dislike -10 likes or something, as they're generally not too hard to avoid if you pay attention. I have no idea if the engine would support something like that though.

[Syllypryde]

I'm still stuck on Cargo Bay 'A'. I have found the regular way to the exit, but I can't proceed until I figure out a way to get this green key. I already found the green door, but seemingly no way to grab the key without dying. I'm assuming there is some solution I'm just not seeing yet. Definitely quite a bit tougher to find the answer to this secret than most of the secrets in Short Circuit Oracle.

I will give you a hint on how to get the green gem.

Spoiler... You are missing a switch, 2 switches actually, one to get seemingly unreachable points, the second to get the green gem. These 2 switches look completely different than the usual Keen 5 switches.

[55Aavenue]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback so far! I'm thrilled that everyone is enjoying the game and noticing all the little details!

It seems the consensus is that I should adjust the likes/dislike system a little bit so its not an instant death if you touch one after a 1up. I'll take all the suggestions under consideration and tweak it a little bit, but I want to wait to do an update until I can get this elevator problem sorted out.

The elevator glitch happens to me as well. Through my several playthroughs when I got frustrated on Main Engineering and/or Korath III Moon, I took the first elevator, played the the 4 sphere levels, but made sure the other two levels were complete before taking the second elevator. So once I knew better on what I was doing I was able to avoid the glitch altogether. Other players might not be so lucky, though you did warn them in advance at your introductory post.

Any chance you have a save file of this kicking around? I just can't get it to happen anymore.

I'm still stuck on Cargo Bay 'A'. I have found the regular way to the exit, but I can't proceed until I figure out a way to get this green key. I already found the green door, but seemingly no way to grab the key without dying. I'm assuming there is some solution I'm just not seeing yet. Definitely quite a bit tougher to find the answer to this secret than most of the secrets in Short Circuit Oracle.

I had to up my secrets game in this one a little bit haha. Looks like Syllypryde gave you a hint already, but there's also a bit of a hint if you watch the high scores demo...

[Syllypryde]

Any chance you have a save file of this kicking around? I just can't get it to happen anymore.
if you watch the high scores demo...

I am on my second run on normal. I am going for the perfect score this time. I think I was able to find the points I was missing. Originally I thought I was missing a Keg O' Vitalin, but I did find all 13 of them. For most of my Keen mods I have created new folders to store my level saves so I can go into the game at any point. Coincidentally I am currently on the top section of the Armageddon App working on Management Sphere and Research and Development Sphere. I'll try to record a video in Dosbox and get it to you. On the Keen Wiki for Keen 5 in the section on bugs it mentions a secret elevator. That elevator just happens to be at the same place your elevator glitch happens.

Here is something to ponder. I cannot remember what mod it was, but someone addressed the point that glitches can happen depending on what version of the Keen executable is being used. Since this is a Keen 5 mod, there are 3 different versions of Keen5e.exe., Version 1.0, 1.4 and 1.4 GT Interactive. Since most Keeners copy Keen 5e.exe from another Keen 5 mod or level pack, each individual mod may also have an affect on the executable. I have version 1.4 and I copied it from Battle of the Brains to the Armageddon App. Not sure if this has anything to do with the elevator glitch. It is just a suggestion.

[Roobar]

I've got some time to play this. So I'm currently right after teleporting myself to the space ship. That last level on Korath III was the most interesting one so far. There are some fun elements in it which made it more exciting (for example). And now I'm excited to explore the space ship.

While I've been playing, I have found a lot of SGA texts. I've spent more time reading these than actually playing the game .

Here are a few of my thoughts:

SOME SPOILERS

To me, the world map of Korath III looked a lot like a Keen 6 world map with some Keen 8 vibes, but with Keen 5 elements (enemies, platforms) tossed here and there, garnished with some unique and new graphics/ideas. It's a strange feeling.

I like the background storytelling going on with Koraths wanting their freedom from the Shikadi. That's neat.

https://i.postimg.cc/B6hPhKhw/ck5patch-002.png

There are a few text references/jokes here and there, which are nice, but I want to point to this one:

https://i.postimg.cc/1tY17mDK/ck5patch-001.png

While I get the meaning behind this, which addresses the Bethesda mobile crap, you also literally have an iphone main menu! And Keen making selfies with his phone! Heck, your mod is called an "App"! Also, Apple advertisements all around? Bruh!!