Questions, of course!

[gila]

Hey John! I have a few questions about Dangerous Dave (1990):

Why there's a separate file EGADAVE.DAV?

What does "PCR" in the end of Level 2 mean?

Did you make the LEVEL 4 with that spinning ball so player should maneuver and get away and so you didn't give player a gun?

Whose idea was about "secret levels" or WARP ZONES?

and... why did you make so damn many traps with treasures?  

also - are/were there any old levels or "outtakes"?  

[The Romero]

Hey there!      Your answers, my friend:

(1) I made the EGA file separate...for no apparent reason.  I cannot remember why I did this at all.  I linked the CGA and VGA graphics in with the EXE easily enough; I don't know why I didn't do the EGA graphics the same way.  I just looked through the source code and there's no explanation either... ??

(2) PCR stands for "PC Arcade", which was the name of the disk before the name change to Gamer's Edge just before shipping the first disk.

(3) Yes.  This was originally designed on the Apple II and I made sure it worked the same way on the PC.

(4) Mine, since it was all my own game.  I was trying to emulate Super Mario Bros. with this game and secret warp zones were directly from that.

(5) I was just sadistic -- kinda like the Lifewater Oasis waterdrops....!!

(6) No -- this first PC version was put together in record time, as fast as I could go, for the launch of Gamer's Edge, so there was no room for throwing stuff away.  If you want more Dave like this one, you'll have to wait for me to put up the Apple II version -- there's some differences for sure, like Level 2 is totally different.
   
 
 [ October 19, 2002, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: The Rome.ro ]

[gila]

LOL

Thanks for the answers!

And... you mean that Apple2 versions of Dave aren't available anywhere (even some roms/warez sites? hehe:)
 
 [ October 19, 2002, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Gila Monster ]

[Frenkel]

In level 4 I always jump into that enemy so both me and him die. The next time I come there the enemy is gone and the level is much easier.

[gila]

Yes, Frenkel, I do that too...

There is one sorta "feature" (or a bug) - when you're in Level 5, for example and you go to the "Warp Zone" and return from it back to Level 5 all "entities" (enemies and treasures) in the level will be "respawned", thus allowing to increase SCORE alot... which leads to another sorta bug - when your SCORE is outmaxed (all 999999) and with that if you pick up Gun, Jetpack or Trophy Cup you will get another Life... and another... With that in mind game is pretty easy.

[The Romero]

Wow, you guys are hardcore Dave fans.  Pretty cool.

When I do the Dangerous Dave game entry, I will be posting the Apple II version for download.  Oh, and it has some different levels!  

[Brick_Sledge]

John, you should set up a store where we could by the games on Apple II floppies.

Emulators suck in compared to the real thing.

[Blizzard555]

Hey Bricksledge,

Your icon resembles a Metallic Kirby sucking the air with it's little arms flapping.  Is that what it's supposed to resemble?

[Brick_Sledge]

quote:Originally posted by Blizzard555:
Hey Bricksledge,

Your icon resembles a Metallic Kirby sucking the air with it's little arms flapping.  Is that what it's supposed to resemble?

It's a spaceship from the movie "Heavy Metal".
Rent it, it kicks major ass.

[Frenkel]

Heavy Metal was on tv here in Holland last Saturday. I didn't watch it, my brother did, but he fell asleep  

In level 9 in the secret section all to the right it says:
La
ne
I think that's a reference to Lane Roathe.

[Frenkel]

You all probaly know already that when you are halfway under a brick and you jump you will stand in the brick. This is handy for getting most of the points in level 4.

[gila]

heh, yeah, using bricks collumn as a ladder is very useful in level 4. by the way i recently mastered how to dodge that spikey ball, it's actually easy.

there is a very kewl bug in level 6. as you know, without a trophy, you actually walk *through* the exit door. well, in level 6, you can go straight through the door atop of the level, just as if you want to get in the warp zone. but! if you will fall down off the left edge, you will enter warp zone that doesn't exist, and the game will "hang" forcing you to restart it. but if you will continue walking to the right, you can then jump over the chasm and get into warp zone from other level (the one full of crowns) but it would be counted as a part of level 6! using this bug you can complete level 6 without even dealing with enemies. and get shitloads of scores collecting these crowns and rings. and then, from further levels you can enter this warp zone the normal way, getting shitloads of scores again (i think it would be level 8).

you know, in the level 1, look at the right end of the screen - it's not a red brick column but a "earth" texture column - that's actually a part of warp zone from level 10.

more to come.

[gila]

oh, one more thing about jumping. you of course can jump from under the brick to it's top... like this

B
@
B

where B are the bricks and @ is dave  

you can then make it this way, jumping from under the brick over it:

@
B

B

that helps in alot of ways, and sometimes level can be completed with very little usage of jet pack.

[Frenkel]

About that PCR. I just saw that when you press F2 it says PC-Arcade Control Panel.

I've tried to write an EGA level viewer, but I can't find where the information is where all the creatures are in a level. And I can't find the VGA pictures. All the walls and points work in my program.

[The Romero]

quote:Originally posted by Frenkel:
About that PCR. I just saw that when you press F2 it says PC-Arcade Control Panel.

I've tried to write an EGA level viewer, but I can't find where the information is where all the creatures are in a level. And I can't find the VGA pictures. All the walls and points work in my program.

Yes, the PCR was short for PC-Arcade, the original name of the Gamer's Edge department (and disk).  I can't remember where all the creatures are stored, but it might be in the EXE file (!).  The VGA and CGA graphics are inside the compressed EXE for sure.