Game Club 199X #16 - Electro Man (PC-DOS)

[Weasel]

A reply from Daniel Klyczynski:

Corwin,
thanks for interest in my music and for kind words.

As of the EB music: I had a copy of the game box once, together with the
enclosed audio cassette. I have, however, moved several times since that
time and I don't have it anymore, nor have I the master tape with this
soundtrack.

There's still some hope some-one has a copy of this package, so that I can
transfer audio to computer and do a proper remastering. Actually, a month
ago I was suddenly contacted by a record company wanting to release my old
stuff on CDs, so I started hunting for the tapes.

I will let you know about the results. At this moment I don't have anything
more than that YT link posted on my website.

Regards,
Daniel Kleczynski

[Snarboo]

There's another mystery besides the cassette tape: The back of the box for the Polish 1.0 release of Electro Body shows screenshots of what appears to be a different game entirely! For starters, the character sprite now looks like the Terminator, there are weapon upgrades that don't exist, one of the screenshots shows an enemy that appears to be firing directly at the player, and there's a stage that doesn't seem to be in the final game. I'm curious if these are from a prototype of the game, or if they're simply mock ups. I'd love to get an explanation for this one, or get my hands on the prototype version.

[kal]

"There are also samples from Front 242's song, don't know which one, but it was "Jesus is here"."

Found this on a Youtube video for the first stage of Electroman.

Big big shame with Mr Kleczynski having lost his copies of the music, though it's likely there's at least one cassette of it kicking around - the downside is that it's probably in Poland somewhere.

____

Some stuff I dug up looking for information on the games original release.

Here's a Polish interview with one of the devs

Far more accessible though to all English speakers is this google translated article on the development on Electro Body. Including an explanation behind the games name and a little bit about the games development.

If for some reason you need to restart a level entirely, you can press R to do this.

Also if anyones interested in trying the Polish Electro Body release - it has an form of copy-protection after each stage that requires access to the manual, you can brute force your way through it since it's simply asking for a specific letter in the manual but this will take a lot of time (sorry, no manual available on the internet). Apparently the game doesn't have TOO many letters it can ask for so you can in theory work it out but you only get 3 tries.

Why would you want to try the Polish release? Well it runs about 20% slower and supports EGA/CGA and as Weasel has demonstrated Hercules. The levels are also SLIGHTLY different but the core puzzles remain identical. I guess it also has COVOX support (which DOSBOX might be able to get working, haven't tested it much) - unsure if the Electroman release bothered supporting COVOX.

[tengutenga]

Hey, poor! Hey poor!
You don't have to be poor anymore!
Jesus is here!

SPOILER: Click to show

NO SEX UNTIL MARRIAGE!

Front 242 - Welcome to Paradise

[Weasel]

Feb 9, 2013 21:15:31 GMT -5 kal said:

Why would you want to try the Polish release? Well it runs about 20% slower and supports EGA/CGA and as Weasel has demonstrated Hercules. The levels are also SLIGHTLY different but the core puzzles remain identical. I guess it also has COVOX support (which DOSBOX might be able to get working, haven't tested it much) - unsure if the Electroman release bothered supporting COVOX.

DOSBox does have Covox Speech Thing support; I think the setup program in Electro Man refers to it as "Sound Source (LPT1)" or something to that effect, since the most commonly available Covox-compatible device in the States was the Disney Sound Source.

Though, really, "Covox-compatible" is something of a misnomer; I'm told that buildling a "Covox" was really not that difficult, as the parts to build one (LPT cable, 8-bit DAC, speaker) were orders of magnitude cheaper than buying one from Covox themselves.

[kal]

Yeah I've noticed some people on the Internet building Covox's and they sound alright too.

[Snarboo]

I've just beaten the game, and the ending is quite a doozy:

SPOILER: Click to show

[muteKi]

So apparently if you go down the first hole (after going left) in stage 3 and take the first teleport you see, while you'll pick up a weapon power-up, you'll also be trapped and have to die to continue. God I hope that isn't a continuing theme in this level...

[tengutenga]

This game's hard. Not because it of its design, but because I played it like a conventional platformer. I am right now halfway through Level 3, the one with the glorious neo-Brutalist architecture and pretty fluoro flowers.

Here's a lazy review about the game's design:

• Many hazards and traps in the game aren't obvious until you are caught in them. This is probably a consequence of having a constrained artwork budget. Sometimes, mundane objects such as trashcans in Stage 3 (and identical-looking light fittings) kill Electro Man on contact for no apparent reason.
  
• Memorization is essential to winning. The levels are designed like mazes, obstacle courses and cheap traps are everywhere. It seems that the game designers wanted you to figure out the right path through trial and error.
  
• I am actually liking the lack of BGM in the game. I find that having no music works very well for maze-puzzle games. But if you really want music, try some Jean Michel Jarre. Oxygene makes quite a good accompaniment.
  

[xerxes]

Feb 15, 2013 7:52:06 GMT -5 tengutenga said:

Many hazards and traps in the game aren't obvious until you are caught in them. This is probably a consequence of having a constrained artwork budget. Sometimes, mundane objects such as trashcans in Stage 3 (and identical-looking light fittings) kill Electro Man on contact for no apparent reason.

Some of it is cheap, but other tricks impressed me. Some of the destructible scenery, for instance, is placed right in front of something you want to shoot. So if you rush through guns blazing, your shot will be blocked and you'll run right into the hazard.

I think one of the reasons this game feels so weird is that it's a slow, non-scrolling platformer that is built around being slow and non-scrolling. They took limitations and turned them into gameplay. Results vary, but it's a good design philosophy.

[Narushima]

Feb 15, 2013 11:07:28 GMT -5 xerxes said:

Some of it is cheap, but other tricks impressed me. Some of the destructible scenery, for instance, is placed right in front of something you want to shoot. So if you rush through guns blazing, your shot will be blocked and you'll run right into the hazard.

That's precisely what I call cheap.

[R4Zi3L]

Awesome, some polish game finally

[muteKi]

i dunno, stage 2 feels pretty unpolished to me

[tengutenga]

Feb 15, 2013 14:41:17 GMT -5 R4Zi3L said:

Awesome, some polish game finally

Feb 15, 2013 16:54:17 GMT -5 muteKi said:

i dunno, stage 2 feels pretty unpolished to me

Suddenly, puns in thongs everywhere!

Level Five Hint, Short Version
Life is a cycle,
Walk your every step. Don't use
Warp zones to skip steps.

Level Five Explained

SPOILER: Click to show

If you find the Violet Maze be too confusing, that may be because you have been jumping into teleporters before you have understood the level's structure.
The Violet Maze is actually not a maze at all. It is basically a looping corridor. You will step through what looks like four different variations of the same loop. After the fourth, you will return to the first, starting all over.

Each loop has a structure like this:

2	3
5	4
6	7	8/E	F	A	B
1	S	H	G	D	C

Route
When you are just traversing, you follow the route

• S -> 1 teleport to 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5-> 6 ->7 -> 8 teleport to 1 -> A -> B -> C -> D teleport to A -> B -> C -> D teleport to E -> F -> G -> H back to S, and so on...
  
• You start from the first loop's S.
  
• 8/E represents two rooms on the same screen separated by a wall.
  

Teleporters
There is a teleporter at 1, 3, 6, 8 and D.

• Teleporters at 1, 8 and D will be used when traversing.
  
• Teleporters at 3 and 6 will take you to the same place in the next loop.
  

I hope I have explained this clear enough
The colored lights will tell where you are, and where in one of the four loops you are on.

You can win the level by going left when starting/continuing from a checkpoint, and then traversing the corridor, ignoring every teleporter except:

• to climb back up from a pit or.
  
• when you reach a dead end.
  

Just remember to jump into the tiny portal in the third loop (its checkpoint has one blue and one red strobe light) after you score your three chips.

If you find a naked Game Boy cartridge chip in a reachable place, get it. If you can't reach it, leave it. If you have to kill yourself to continue after getting a chip, it's okay to die, but it is perfectly possible to complete the level without suicide.

[muteKi]

One of the nice things about the 5th level is it's also really easy to get lots of power ups (batteries) in it -- in fact, there is one fairly accessible in each room to the left of the room where the checkpoints are. Just use the teleporter at the left side, and teleport right back and pick up the power up on the right. Alternately, batteries can be used to help track which loop you're in like breadcrumbs, though it's not a long enough level to probably be an issue!