Man Goes Down hack

[e1will]

This is a simple hack that lets you see what's after the "ending" of Man Goes Down (i.e. the golden bars of death.)

 

I modified 4 bytes of the code in the Stella debugger to force the "man" to the top of the screen at all times, which lets him survive the golden bars.

 

It's not playable, really, but if you've ever been curious what would happen if you could somehow survive past the golden bars of death, well, now you can find out.

 

It's mostly just more screen glitches; not too exciting, but sort of interesting in a Pac-Man split-screen sort of way.

 

I was curious if it would loop around to the beginning, but nope: eventually the scrolling slows to a halt. Here are some screenshots of the "new" ending.

 

Enjoy!

 

--Will

 

EDIT: If you play around with the memory location $AA as RevEng suggests below, it will indeed loop back to the playable screens after a VERY long time.

 

mgd_hack.bin

Edited April 22, 2010 by e1will

[tetrode kink]

A-hhaaa, very interestink!

 

Unt das Rep Point!

 

-tet

[RevEng]

A most worthwhile experiment Will!

 

Sort-of in the same vein as Adventure with a Balloon, as it let's you peer where you shouldn't be allowed to see.

 

I can't check at the moment - does the rate of slowing down to the stop seem deliberate? Does it seem like Alex Herbert intended for Man to actually get somewhere in the end, and just didn't complete the data for that part yet?

Edited April 21, 2010 by RevEng

[e1will]

A most worthwhile experiment Will!

 

Sort-of in the same vein as Adventure with a Balloon, as it let's you peer where you shouldn't be allowed to see.

 

I can't check at the moment - does the rate of slowing down to the stop seem deliberate? Does it seem like Alex Herbert intended for Man to actually get somewhere in the end, and just didn't complete the data for that part yet?

 

Hard to tell... if I had to guess, though, I'd say random, since it speeds up and slows down wildly a few times. It may be possible to make it a constant scroll velocity with another tiny hack, that would let us see even further.

 

--Will

[RevEng]

Just got a chance to check it out. Very cool!

 

I think you're right that the full stop is unintentional.

 

It looks like $AA is the "scroll speed" variable, or at least a factor. When the scrolling stopped, I could restart the scrolling by entering a non-zero into it.

 

More of the same randomness lies beyond. The real ending to MGD is still a mystery!

[e1will]

It looks like $AA is the "scroll speed" variable, or at least a factor. When the scrolling stopped, I could restart the scrolling by entering a non-zero into it.

 

Ah, interesting!

[Albert]

This reminds me of the area in Mountain King that you can jump up to.

 

..Al

[nems]

I have a suggestion for Man Goes Down which I’m too software-challenged to implement. I actually wanted to suggest this to the games developer Alex, but he has not made any changes since 1996. Anyway, here is my idea. Hopefully, this will spark the interest of someone capable of coding this...

 

Allow game-play to start via the joystick fire button (which is how the game currently works), or via the “game select” switch on the console (which is what needs to be hacked in). This change will allow players to use either a joystick or paddles. Yes, paddles! You hold one paddle in each hand and press the fire buttons to move left and right. The paddles make for very comfortable, accurate, and fast game-play. I find the game feels more natural using the paddles. The game is already coded so that the paddles work for control. Currently, the only problem is starting game-play (i.e. no access to a joystick fire-button) when paddles are plugged in, which is why we need the “game select” switch activated to start game-play.

[e1will]

I have a suggestion for Man Goes Down which I’m too software-challenged to implement. I actually wanted to suggest this to the games developer Alex, but he has not made any changes since 1996. Anyway, here is my idea. Hopefully, this will spark the interest of someone capable of coding this...

 

Allow game-play to start via the joystick fire button (which is how the game currently works), or via the “game select” switch on the console (which is what needs to be hacked in). This change will allow players to use either a joystick or paddles. Yes, paddles! You hold one paddle in each hand and press the fire buttons to move left and right. The paddles make for very comfortable, accurate, and fast game-play. I find the game feels more natural using the paddles. The game is already coded so that the paddles work for control. Currently, the only problem is starting game-play (i.e. no access to a joystick fire-button) when paddles are plugged in, which is why we need the “game select” switch activated to start game-play.

 

Interesting suggestion. But what about the bubble? When you have that, it's controlled with all four joystick directions.

 

--Will

[nems]

 

Interesting suggestion. But what about the bubble? When you have that, it's controlled with all four joystick directions.

 

--Will

 

Oh, snap. You got me there! I so rarely get to the bubble that it didn't occur to me.

 

BTW, thanks for the extended ending to MGD.

Edited July 19, 2010 by nems

[e1will]

Oh, snap. You got me there! I so rarely get to the bubble that it didn't occur to me.

 

BTW, thanks for the extended ending to MGD.

 

You're welcome! I just wish there was a cart with a "proper" ending... I know a lot of people here would love to give Alex some $ for the awesome game he's created.

 

--Will