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I'm sure that I know the answer to this one (which is probably "no").

 

I've read a few things on the Internet about using the command line paraneter "FUNPARK" with RA (similar to the dino missions in Covert Ops for C&C), which supposedly gives you five bonus missions in RA. I can't seem to get this to do anything, does FUNPARK work in RA (or; probably more likely; the stuff I've read is bogus)?

 

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There's no 'Funpark' per se, but there is the Ant Missions.

 

Thanks for the info, that's what I figured... that the (few) things I read on the Internet were bogus.

 

 

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Sorry for bumping but how do you get to the Ant mission in RA?

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The original Counterstrike disk actually had a paper sheet with it that told you how to get the missions... the sheet was in Morse code though :P

.... --- .-.. -.. | -.. --- .-- -. | - .... . | .-.. . ..-. -
... .... .. ..-. - | -.- . -.-- | .- -. -.. | .-.. . ..-. -
-.-. .-.. .. -.-. -.- | --- -. | - .... . | .-. --- ..- -. -..
... .--. . .- -.- . .-.
Quote

HOLD DOWN THE LEFT

SHIFT KEY AND LEFT

CLICK ON THE ROUND

SPEAKER

In reality, you don't have to hold it down though, just tapping it once is enough. And the right shift works just as well.

 

 

I made a complete file with all morse codes for all languages, and their conversions. It can be found here:

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/manuals/Red Alert 1/counterstrike_morsecode.txt

 

 

btw, RA doesn't have FUNPARK, but it has another fun command line parameter: EDITOR :P

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Thanks but does it work in Aftermath?

 

I tried it but nothing happened.

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Care to elaborate on that one? Not just the Map Editor, is it?

 

Hehe, me thinks he's messing with our minds <grin>. Needless to say, as an RA newbie (and one who is quite gullible), I'll be spending the next hour or so "RA EDITOR <ENTER>"...test..."RA EDITOR <ENTER>"...testing... etc... LOL!

 

 

Thanks but does it work in Aftermath?

 

I tried it but nothing happened.

 

AFAIK you'll need the Counterstrike addon for the Ant Missions.

 

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Let's just say the game originally had a map editor built into it. It was rather thoroughly gutted though. The effect is... interesting.

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Let's just say the game originally had a map editor built into it. It was rather thoroughly gutted though. The effect is... interesting.

 

Hehe, I forgot I posted my reply above... quite interesting LOL! One thing I discoverd: although you can't control the units with your mouse in the usual way, you can press N (next unit) and then G (guard) to get them moving and doing something.

 

BTW, do you know of any way to load another map other than Allied mission 1? Or how to exit (I had to "hard" exit DOSBox; CTRL+F9; to exit the game)?

 

Heh, any more little secret goodies that you know of, Nyerguds <grin>?

 

Needless to say, one of the things I previously checked was my (in)famous "ATTRACT" thing... it didn't do anything though (unlike the original C&C), although it is indeed in RA's GAME.DAT executable.

 

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You can still load savegames.

 

You can also use X to move units, btw, but the direction is random, of course.

 

I once used this mode to put nuke trucks into the enemy base in some Aftermath mission. I just moved them straight into the base and saved right after the move command. Exited, started in EDITOR mode, loaded the game, watched them roll into the base unharmed (since projectiles don't seem to exist in editor mode), and then saved again.

 

Then loaded the savegame in normal mode again, and watched the fireworks :P

 

 

There is indeed no normal way to exit the game in editor mode though, since the main menu automatically loads the first mission.

 

I've actually found this same mode in C&C1 too, but there it needs some hacking to be accessed. It reacts exactly the same as the RA version though.

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You can still load savegames.

 

Thanks for the info, gonna give that a try next :)

 

 

I once used this mode to put nuke trucks into the enemy base in some Aftermath mission. I just moved them straight into the base and saved right after the move command. Exited, started in EDITOR mode, loaded the game, watched them roll into the base unharmed (since projectiles don't seem to exist in editor mode), and then saved again. Then loaded the savegame in normal mode again, and watched the fireworks :P

 

Hehe, excellent! :)

 

 

There is indeed no normal way to exit the game in editor mode though, since the main menu automatically loads the first mission.

 

That's what I was thinking. No biggie though, as a simply CTRL+F9 in DOSBox terminates the DOSBox session instantly.

 

 

I've actually found this same mode in C&C1 too, but there it needs some hacking to be accessed. It reacts exactly the same as the RA version though.

 

Hehe, now I just *KNOW* that *YOU* know what my next question is gonna be, right LOL?! Do I even need to ask <grin>? :)

 

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Pfff... I already implemented it (as command line parameter "EDITOR") in C&C95 :P

 

but allright, I'll see if I can find it in DOS C&C.

 

I must warn you though, that's the start of a dangerous amount of debug options that include a full tech tree unlock and a map reveal :P

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Pfff... I already implemented it (as command line parameter "EDITOR") in C&C95 :P

but allright, I'll see if I can find it in DOS C&C.

 

Many thanks, Nyerguds... you da man! :)

 

 

I must warn you though, that's the start of a dangerous amount of debug options that include a full tech tree unlock and a map reveal :P

 

Hehe, you know me... I like living dangerously LOL!

 

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I got good news and bad news...

 

Good news is, I know where to find the offsets in DOS C&C.

 

Bad news is, they're in virtual memory. So, in a part of the program that simply doesn't exist unless it's started. Meaning, you can't enable it by hacking some byte from 0 to 1, It will actually need hacking to manipulate code into putting it on 1.

 

167CC Debug_Quiet ; no sound

167D0 Debug_Cheat ; maximize buildlevel

167D4 Debug_Remap ; unused (in C&C95)

167D8 Debug_Icon

167DC Debug_Flag

167E0 Debug_Lose ; unused (in C&C95)

167E4 Debug_Win ; unused (in C&C95)

167E8 Debug_Map ; 'EDITOR' mode

167EC Debug_Passable ; unused (in C&C95)

167F0 Debug_Unshroud ; show entire map

167F4 Debug_Threat

167F8 Debug_Find_Path

167FC Debug_Check_Map ; checks if a map contains errors; doesn't actually work though, from what I tested: the check always fails

16800 Debug_Playtest ; unused (in C&C95)

16804 Debug_Heap_Dump ; unused (in C&C95)

16808 Debug_Smart_Print

1680C Debug_Print_Events

 

Normally you have to add 1128A4 to that number to get the physical address, but you'll see that that goes right outside of the file. Because it's in a section behind it that only exists in virtual memory.

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I found something... there's a way to enable the Quiet mode by starting the game with -XQ

 

The address of the place where it enables the Quiet mode is E3537.

 

You'll see the bytes there are CC 67 01 00 - the address 167CC. If you change that address to one of the other ones I mentioned above, you should be able to enable a different option with the same -XQ parameter. The Quiet mode should normally prevent the playing of all music and sound effects. However, when I tested it in C&C95 (v1.06c beta), the EVA and units speech still worked.

 

I hope this helps you a bit... I got no way to enable multiple debug options together though. I didn't even know about the -XQ parameter before I started looking into this.

 

From the way the code looks, it seems to first look for the -X and then see if the byte behind it is Q. This probably means that in the original beta versions, the game interpreted many more, so -X was probably used for accessing ALL debug modes. Some of the looping structure to go over all of the argument letters one by one still remains.

 

In fact, if you try other options, like -XF, you'll get an "invalid option switch" error.

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Thanks for the investigation, Nyerguds! :) Gonna try out the various "-XQ" options/hacks ASAP (had a little mishap with a ladder today resulting in two bruised ribs <ouch>!).

 

(edit) Heh, that finally explains that "-X" command line parameter in there (e.g. "-CD -DESTNET -SOCKET -STEALTH -MESSAGES -ATTRACT -V -O -X" etc...) :)

 

Edited by Rich Nagel

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Small note about the Unshroud option: It SHOWS the entire map, but it doesn't REVEAL it. You can see this by the way helicopters refuse to go into the terrain until you've actually physically revealed it. The problem is that besides with helicopters, the game gies no indication of which stuff is actually revealed and which isn't.

 

Warcraft 2 has a similar debug option in its cheats: while "on screen" actually reveals the entire map, "showpath" only stops drawing the shroud, meaning that you still can't give attack commands against units in the area you haven't really revealed yet, much like the C&C helis refuse to move into the shroud. Though WC2 has the advantage that it showed the actually unrevealed terrain as darker on the minimap.

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Original uses for each option, these options appear in all C&C games, before Generals and Renegade;

 

Debug_Quiet

Kills any processing in audio playing routines.

 

Debug_Cheat

Used mostly for the BuildLevel cheat, but also globally used for whatever they wanted, this was there general cheat boolean.

 

Debug_Remap

Toggles features of the shape blitter remap when drawing shapes with remap.

 

Debug_Icon

Shows a colour and icon index for the terrain cell tiles instead of drawing the graphic

 

Debug_Flag

This was a runtime boolean for testing whatever they mapped to it, example would be in Tiberian Sun where it is used to play the entire video array.

 

Debug_Lose

Runtime boolean to instantly lose the current session.

 

Debug_Win

Runtime boolean to instantly win the current session.

 

Debug_Map

Set on game initialization to decide if the game should ignore a lot of game logic dependent functions and snippets. This was the boolean to initialize the Westwood Editor and Trigger Editor

 

Debug_Passable

Toggles passable properties for terrain cell tiles.

 

Debug_Unshroud

Checked in the main loop of the game, if found true would unshroud the whole tactical map.

 

Debug_Threat

Toggles advanced threat rating values when processing unit missions.

 

Debug_Find_Path

Logs various information onto the screen about path finding for ingame objects.

 

Debug_Check_Map

Checks the scenario for cell, object and path finding errors, this is checked on every frame the game processes.

 

Debug_Playtest

Enables the play test sandbox mode

 

Debug_Heap_Dump

Print game object heaps onto the monochrome monitor attached to the machine.

 

Debug_Smart_Print

Print advanced network values onto the monochrome monitor attached to the machine.

 

Debug_Print_Events

Print network event types onto the monochrome monitor attached to the machine.

 

 

The problem is that besides with helicopters, the game gies no indication of which stuff is actually revealed and which isn't.

The game does know what is revealed and what is shrouded, all the Per_Cell_Process() functions check this, but again never checked C&C95 and this could be another bloody thing we discovered about the programmers communication between working on RA95 and C&C95.

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@Nyerguds,

 

Bruised ribs be damned, I figured I try messing around with the "-XQ" parameter and hacks LOL!

 

Unfortunately I didn't have any luck. No matter what I hex edit offset E3537 to, the only thing that "-XQ" does is disable the sound.

 

BTW FWIW, unlike what you replied about C&C95, it completly disables all sound in the DOS version (if you try to bring up the sound and music options menu, you get the error message "No sound card installed).

 

 

@CCHyper,

 

Thanks for the detailed descriptions of those debug options :)

 

Edited by Rich Nagel

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That's just plain bizarre... but I got the same thing here :|

 

Maybe I can do what I did in 1.06... make all these special conquer.ini options like MCV, Scores, Helipad etc into simple 1/0 booleans. That should free up enough space to squeeze in a few extra ini options there :P

 

The only disadvantage is that I can't really add new strings into the game. But I can use existing strings, or the endings of existing strings :P

 

[edit]

 

Big surprise there... all code is 100% correct, and yet it crashes without any detectable reason. Bahh. Hate this DOS crap.

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Maybe I can do what I did in 1.06... make all these special conquer.ini options like MCV, Scores, Helipad etc into simple 1/0 booleans. That should free up enough space to squeeze in a few extra ini options there :P

 

Don't go to any trouble or work with this for the DOS version, Nyerguds. Like y'all have posted about those types of options, they're mostly debug type stuff... interetsting to twiddle around with, but really not much use in general gameplay.

 

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Well writing the code wasn't hard, and converting these options to booleans freed up 50% of the space. But as always, DOS C&C just acts bizarre and crashes -_-

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