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Text File
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1995-06-17
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158KB
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3,175 lines
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T h e ___ " O f f i c i a l "
/ _ \ _ __ ___ __ _ ___ ___
| |_| | '_ \ / _ \ / _` |/ _ \/ _ \
| _ | |_) | (_) | (_| | __/ __/
|_| |_| .__/ \___/ \__, |\___|\___| F A Q
|_| |___/ Version 4.1
Current as of June 17, 1995
(changes and additions since v4.0 are denoted by leading '}' marks)
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Contents:
[1] Introduction
[1.1] A word from me
[1.2] About this FAQ
[1.2.1] Obtaining the latest version of the FAQ
[1.2.1.1] Obtaining the text based version
[1.2.1.2] Obtaining the HTML based version
} [1.2.2] Revision history
[1.3] Obtaining other Apogee-related FAQs
[1.4] What is Apogee?
[1.5] What does "Apogee" mean?
[1.6] How Apogee markets its games
[1.7] Getting the latest information
[1.7.1] Electronic news
[1.7.2] Apogee's internet mailing list
[1.7.3] Finger files
[1.8] Apogee's staff
[2] Historical Information
[2.1] Other companies
[2.1.1] What's Apogee's relationship with 3D Realms?
} [2.1.2] What's Apogee's relationship with id?
[2.1.3] What's Apogee's relationship with Parallax?
} [2.1.4] What's Apogee's relationship with Softdisk?
[2.2] What awards has Apogee won?
[2.3] The Apogee theme song
[2.4] The Dopefish
[2.5] History of specific games
} [2.5.1] The Kroz Series
[2.5.2] Commander Keen
[2.5.3] Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny
[2.5.3.1] "Call Apogee and say Aardwolf"
[2.5.4] Halloween Harry and Alien Carnage
} [2.5.5] Rise of the Triad
[2.5.6] Paganitzu and Realms of Chaos
[3] Lists
[3.1] Games
[3.1.1] What games are currently available from Apogee?
[3.1.2] The games are too big to download! Are there "split" versions?
[3.1.3] What upgrade patches are currently available?
} [3.1.4] Hardware requirements and support
} [3.1.5] Which of Apogee's games are good?
[3.1.5.1] Rules of the voting system
[3.2] Past projects
[3.2.1] What Apogee games are no longer supported?
[3.3] Previews
[3.3.1] What slide shows are currently available from Apogee?
[3.3.2] What are upcoming releases from Apogee?
[4] The Almanac
[4.1] Release dates
[4.1.1] Games
[4.1.2] Slide shows
[4.1.3] Miscellaneous
[4.2] Cast of characters
} [4.2.1] Heroes
} [4.2.2] Villains
[4.2.3] Cameos
[4.3] Behind the scenes
[4.3.1] Programmers
[4.3.2] Artists
[4.3.3] Musicians
[5] Obtaining the Games
[5.1] The Shareware Episodes
[5.1.1] Software Creations BBS
[5.1.2] Anonymous FTP
[5.1.3] CompuServe
[5.1.4] America On Line
} [5.1.5] Fidonet
[5.2] The Registered Episodes
[5.2.1] Ordering information
[5.2.2] Software Creations BBS
[5.2.3] What combination deals does Apogee offer?
[6] Troubleshooting
[6.1] Things to try first
[6.2] Setting the BLASTER environment variable
[7] Cheats
} [7.1] Complete cheat list
} [7.2] Hex editing
} [7.3] Secrets and other fun things
[8] Contacting Apogee
[8.1] By phone
[8.2] By fax
[8.3] By snail mail
[8.4] Through networks
[9] Credits
}[10] Dopefish and Friends
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Legal Quagmire: This FAQ is copyright (c) 1994-5 by Samuel Stoddard. No part
of this FAQ may be distributed unless it remains intact, with all credits,
attributions, and other miscellaneous praises to myself preserved. You may
keep as many copies of this FAQ as you like, on whatever and however many
different mediums that you like, and you can even read more than one copy
at one time. There's a whole lot of trademarks in here that are acknowledged
implicitly even if they aren't acknowledged explicitly in the following
statement: I hereby explicitly acknowledge the following trademarks: Apogee,
3D Realms, id, Parallax, Interplay, FormGen, Softdisk, GT, Cygnus, Argo Games,
Microsoft, Stacker, all game titles, operating system titles, and other
software titles and company names, and all the other trademarks in here. All
the trademarks that are not explicitly explicitly acknowledged are implicitly
acknowledged as explicitly acknowledged trademarks. All trademarks (including,
but not limited to, those that are explicitly acknowledged, those that are
implicitly acknowledged as explicitly acknowledged, and those that are
explicitly implicitly acknowledged) are also implicitly acknowledged here to
boot. The header for this FAQ was done with the aid of "Figlet." Finally, I
take no responsibility whatsoever for anything that happens as a result of
this FAQ's existence. Except for the good things.
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[1] Introduction
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[1.1] A word from me
Who am I? I'm just another Apogee fan, the primary difference between you and
me being that I'm the one flaunting my vast sea of Apogee knowledge. I don't
guarantee that all of the facts in this FAQ are true, but I try to make
this as informative and truthful a document as I humanly can without playing
hookey from work or school. (I do have priorities, after all.) If you have
some tidbits of information, or, heck, a whole flood of information tidbits,
let me know and I'll put it in the FAQ along with your name in the credits.
The best way to reach me is through the internet. Try these addresses in
this order: rink@unh.edu, ss1@christa.unh.edu, stoddard@ctron.com.
[1.2] About this FAQ
This FAQ is copyrighted (see above) by Samuel Stoddard. While it is
authorized and "officialized" by Apogee, it is not the property nor the
work of Apogee. However, Apogee has contributed generously to its
creation and growth; for that, I offer my sincere thanks.
As of version 2.4w, this FAQ is also available in HTML format (see the
section on "obtaining the latest version of the FAQ" for information on
how to access it). The HTML versions of the FAQ will always have a
trailing "w" as part of the version number; this denotes it as an HTML
version as opposed to a text version of the FAQ. The text versions will
always be quicker to appear, and, for minor updates, I may skip
the HTML release altogether. However, I will try to keep both versions
reasonably up to date.
[1.2.1] Obtaining the latest version of the FAQ
There are a few ways to get the latest copy of either the text based
version or the HTML version of the Apogee FAQ. These are listed below.
[1.2.1.1] Obtaining the text based version
- Via anonymous FTP: a latest version of the Apogee FAQ can be found
in the following places:
- ftp.uml.edu /msdos/games/apogee/faq/apogee.faq
- wcl-l.bham.ac.uk /pub/djh/faqs/Apogee.faq
- ftp.wustl.edu /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/game_faq/apogeeXX.faq
- ftp.wustl.edu /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/games/Apogee/apogeeXX.faq
"XX" is the version number. Note that since I upload to ftp.wustl.edu
directly, this site will receive new versions more quickly than the
other two sites.
- Through Usenet: I try to post the FAQ in alt.games.apogee,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc, and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on a regular
basis. New versions will be posted to all three newsgroups immediately
upon release.
- Email: write me at ss1@kepler.unh.edu or stoddard@ctron.com.
[1.2.1.2] Obtaining the HTML based version
- Using a World Wide Web client, connect to URL http://pubpages.unh.edu/~ss1.
From there, enter the PC Gaming Forum, followed by the FAQ library, and,
lastly, the Apogee FAQ itself.
- Alternatively, you can get to the FAQ directly by using the URL
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~ss1/apogeefaq.html.
[1.2.2] Revision history
The revision history of this FAQ is as follows:
Version 4.1 - Minor update.
Version 4.0w - HTML equivalent of 4.0.
Version 4.0 - Addition of secrets, theme song, Dopefish, and ROTT
history sections. Institution of voting system.
Reorganization of some sections. Other updates, major
and minor.
Version 3.0 - Major changes, additions, revisions, and reorganization.
Addition of the hardware requirements and some of the
history sections.
Version 2.4w - First HTML version, roughly equivalent to 2.4.
Version 2.4 - Hex editing section added. Almanac release date
updates and additions. Cheats additions. Other minor
updates.
Version 2.3 - Revision of the "blaster environment variable" section.
Updated "behind the scenes." Other updates.
Version 2.2 - Behind the scenes sections added. Other minor updates.
Version 2.1 - Minor updates.
Version 2.0 - The almanac added. Game release dates added. Tech
support addresses added. Other major changes,
additions, and revisions.
Version 1.1 - Minor updates and additions to several sections.
Version 1.0 - Cheats section completed. Many major additions.
Version 0.4 - Formatting and typo fixes. Minor additions. Not
publicly released.
Version 0.3 - First public release. The first batch of Joe Siegler's
additional information incorporated.
Version 0.2 - Minor changes made before Joe Siegler's response.
Version 0.1 - Sent to Joe Siegler for suggestions and corrections.
[1.3] Obtaining other Apogee-related FAQs
Several other FAQs relating to Apogee are available. A list, with
instructions for obtaining the latest version of each, follows:
Subject Maintainer How To Get It
------- ---------- -------------
Rise of the Triad Rylan Hilman FTP to ftp.uml.edu, and download
/msdos/games/apogee/faq/rott.faq, or
send mail to rhilman@oasis.rain.com.
Wolfenstein 3D Adam Williamson FTP to wcl-l.bham.ac.uk and download
/pub/djh/faqs/Wolfenstein-3D.faq, or
send mail to adam@scss.demon.co.uk.
Commander Keen Bill Amon FTP to wcl-l.bham.ac.uk and download
/pub/djh/faqs/commander.keen.faq, or
send mail to wamon@mbunix.mitre.org.
Note that you could probably get copies of any or all of these by simply
posting a request to alt.games.apogee or comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action.
However, to keep requests posts to a minimum, please do not do this, unless
you are unable to obtain it via the other means listed here.
[1.4] What is Apogee?
Apogee is a games distributor for PC games of many sorts. It is a diverse
gaming company, contributing to several different genres of games. While
much of what Apogee publishes are games written primarily by other companies,
such as Cygnus or Argo Games, Apogee writes their own games as well. Apogee's
staff includes an array of talented programmers, artists, and musicians. For
many years now, Apogee has been among the leading shareware games companies
for the PC and compatible market.
[1.5] What does "Apogee" mean?
According to the American Heritage dictionary, "apogee" means: "the point
in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite most distant from
the earth." Or, more generally, "the farthest or highest point; apex."
Related words are the Greek "apogaion," the neuter form of "apogaios"
which means "away from the earth." There is also the New Latin word
"apogaeum," which is derived from the Greek word. There is a French word
"Apogee" (with an accent over the first 'e'). In English, there is the
related word "apogean" and the antonym "perigee."
All this is academic, however, for according to the Apogee slogan, "Apogee
means action." :-)
[1.6] How Apogee markets its games
In 1987, Apogee came up with a unique method of marketing their games. Since
then, other shareware companies have adopted their strategy. Their scheme is
this: each game they produce is divided into three to four, sometimes even
six episodes. The first episode is free. It can be downloaded from
CompuServe, BBS's, or the Internet, or bought in a store that distributes
shareware games for disk copying charges. You can distribute the shareware
episode to your friends yourself, if you like, provided you leave all the
original files intact.
If you like the shareware episode of a game, Apogee requires that you register
it. This is the normal rule regarding shareware. Upon registration, you will
receive the complete game. Apogee uses this marketing scheme so that people
can have a good idea about the game they are buying before they put their cash
on the line.
[1.7] Getting the latest information
There are a few ways to get the latest information about Apogee, even if you
want it more quickly than keeping up with the latest revisions of this FAQ
would do. These methods are mentioned briefly in the following sections:
[1.7.1] Electronic news
On Usenet, the newsgroups alt.games.apogee, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc.action,
and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc all carry discussion about Apogee's latest.
Apogee monitors these, plus the gaming, shareware, and Apogee support
conferences on Fidonet, Rime, Intelec, ILink, U'NI-Net, and Smartnet.
[1.7.2] Apogee's internet mailing list
Apogee has an Internet mailing list. Whenever new games or slide shows are
released (or other important information), Apogee sends the information out in
a mailing. If you would like to be on this mailing list, contact Joe Siegler
(joe.siegler@apogee1.com, joe.siegler@swcbbs.com, or apogee@metronet.com, in
that order). Those email addresses send directly to Joe Siegler, and not
to a list daemon or robot. The mailing list is free of charge.
[1.7.3] Finger files
On the internet, you can finger apogee@fohnix.metronet.com, and receive all
the latest information about Apogee. Usually this entails both recent and
upcoming releases, among other things. If apogee@fohnix.metronet.com does
not work, try apogee@metronet.com.
[1.8] Apogee's staff
Scott Miller - President, Co-owner
George Broussard - Executive VP, Co-owner
Steven Blackburn - VP Operations
Tom Hall - Creative Director
Greg Malone - Creative Director
Dennis Scarff - Vice President, World Operations
Joe Siegler - On-Line Support Manager & Technical Support
Kevin Green - Customer Support Supervisor & Technical Support
Dan Linton - SysOp/Owner of Software Creations BBS
Lee Jackson - Technical Support
Dennis DeSmeth - Technical Support
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[2] Historical Information
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[2.1] Other companies
[2.1.1] What is Apogee's relationship with 3D Realms?
Apogee and 3D Realms are sister companies, both divisions of Action
Entertainment, Inc. Originally, Action Entertainment's next-generation
of 3D games were going to be published under the Apogee name. However,
in late August of 1994, 3D Realms was born, and the four next-generation
3D games that Action had under production (namely, "Blood," "Duke Nukem 3D,"
"Ruins: Return of the Gods," and "Shadow Warrior," all of which use the
"build" engine) are now under the 3D Realms label.
[2.1.2] What is Apogee's relationship with id?
Joe Siegler's explanation of the relationship between Apogee and id follows:
Apogee and id Software are two completely different companies. They
always have been, always will be. Apogee doesn't own id; id doesn't own
Apogee; nor is one a division of the other.
Apogee Software writes and distributes software. Of the many games that
Apogee has published, only a handful have not been written by Apogee as
well. id Software wrote three of these games, namely, Keen Vorticons, Keen
Galaxy, and Wolfenstein 3D.
id Software writes software, and up until Doom, had never published anything
themselves. id has published through a few companies, Apogee being one of
them. As mentioned before, Keen Vorticons, Keen Galaxy, and Wolfenstein 3D
were distributed by Apogee. (At later dates, id went on and also published
Keen Galaxy and Wolf3D in the stores through GT Software, but that's another
}story.) Some earlier id efforts such as Catacomb 3D are distributed
}through Softdisk. (Technically, these early games, such as Catacomb 3D,
}Dangerous Dave, and Rescue Rover, are Softdisk games, not id Software games,
}though they were made by the same people who would ultimately found
}id Software. The first game released as an "id Software" game was
}Keen: Vorticons.)
id has published three commercial only games. Two of these were published
by FormGen, those being Keen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter and Spear of Destiny.
These two are quite frequently assumed to be Apogee games, but they are not.
Check them; the name Apogee does not appear within. Apogee does, however,
*resell* those two games, adding to the confusion. But again, they do not
distribute them; they only sell them. Apogee has to buy them from FormGen
like any other computer store would. The third id retail game is Doom II,
published in the retail markets by GT Software.
Starting with Doom, id has been publishing on their own. Apogee has absolutely
nothing to do with Doom, nor future titles by id Software. Furthermore,
starting with the release of Heretic, id Software will also be publishing games
on their own label. They licensed their Doom engine to two companies, Cygnus
Studios (the people who did Raptor), and Raven Software. The two games
produced under this agreement (Strife and Heretic respectively), are going to
be published under the "id" label exactly the same way that id Software
themselves published Wolfenstein 3D under the "Apogee" label.
There has been no "big divorce," or "feud" or something along those lines
between id and Apogee. The id guys and the Apogee guys are all good friends,
and in fact get together every once in a while to shoot pool at the id
offices. Other mutual activities include paintball (which also involves
Cygnus). There was never a fallout between Apogee and id. Anyone trying to
imply this is driving a wedge where it doesn't belong or exist.
[2.1.3] What's Apogee's relationship with Parallax?
In the credits for the game Descent, written by Parallax and distributed by
Interplay, there is a thank you note to "Scott Miller and Apogee Software."
Mike Kulas, the leader for the project, was asked why that was in there,
and his response is given below.
Hi Joe,
We put Scott and Apogee in there because we truly appreciate
all that Apogee did for us. Scott showed a lot of faith in
us when we didn't really have anything to show anybody. If
not for Scott, I don't think we would be anywhere near where
we are today.
You can tell people exactly this, if you like.
Mike
}[2.1.4] What's Apogee's relationship with Softdisk?
}
}Daniel Tobias' (senior programmer/editor for Softdisk) explanation of the
}relationship between Apogee, id, and Softdisk follows:
}
}Apogee and Softdisk are two companies whose paths have crossed time and
}again since Scott Miller submitted Kingdom of Kroz to them on November 26,
}1987. It won second place in Softdisk's CodeQuest '87 and published on
}issue #20 of Softdisk's subscription software product "Big Blue Disk"
}(which later became "On Disk Monthly" and, finally, "Softdisk PC"). Scott
}Miller continued to submit his games, listed below:
}
} Title Submitted Issue/Date
} ----- --------- ----------
} Kingdom of Kroz 11/26/87 BBD #20, 06/88
} Computer Quiz 01/20/88 BBD #21, 07/88
} Astronomy Quiz 01/20/88 BBD #26, 11/88
} Maze Runner 01/20/88 BBD #26, 12/88
} BASIC Quiz 01/20/88 BBD #28, 02/89
} Dungeons of Kroz 01/20/88 BBD #29, 03/89
} Meteors 03/12/88 BBD #30, 04/89
} Block 5 01/20/88 BBD #32, 06/89
} Caverns of Kroz 04/22/89 BBD #35, 09/89
} Castle of Kroz 08/31/89 BBD #47, 09/90
}
}These are available as back issues of the Big Blue Disk; only the Kroz games
}are currently available from Apogee.
}
}Apogee's Vice President George Broussard wrote a game for Softdisk under
}contract called "Scubadventure," which was published as part of a defunct
}monthly game disk subscription from Softdisk and also sold as a stand alone
}item.
}
}Apogee's, Keith Schuler also made a submission to Softdisk, namely,
}"Chagunitzu," the forerunner of Apogee's "Paganitzu." This was published
}by Softdisk on Big Blue Disk #44 (dated 6/90).
}
}The id team also has its ties with Softdisk. Originally, the people who
}ultimately founded id Software worked for Softdisk and wrote numerous
}games for them.
}
}Games done as full-time employees of Softdisk:
} Catacomb [2D game published first as an Apple II version on
} Softdisk #114, then ported to the PC for BBD #50]
} Dangerous Dave [published on a game "sampler disk"]
} Catacomb II [later changed to "The Catacomb"]
} Slordax
} Rescue Rover
} Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion
} Hovertank 3D
}
}Games done on a contract basis after the id group left:
} Keen Dreams
} Rescue Rover 2
} Catacomb 3D
} Tiles of the Dragon
}
}Solo works of John Romero:
} Twilight Treasures [on BBD #35]
} Zappa Roids [on BBD #36]
} Pyramids of Egypt [on BBD #46]
}
}Solo works of John Carmack:
} Dark Designs I [on BBD #52]
} Dark Designs II [on BBD #54]
}
}Keen Dreams was released in a shareware version by Softdisk (latest shareware
}release is v1.20), as well as various registered, catalog, and retail
}editions.
}
}The 3D game, "Catacomb Abyss," was not written by the id crew, but rather a
}team of Softdisk programmers, headed by Greg Malone, after they had left.
}The engine for "Catacomb Abyss," however, was the Catacomb 3D engine
}previously written by id. "Catacomb Abyss" is part of a trilogy along with
}"Catacomb Apocalypse" and "Catacomb Armageddon."
}
}Of the various people mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ, the following are
}former full-time Softdisk employees: Jason Blochowiak, Adrian Carmack,
}John Carmack, Tom Hall, Jerry K. Jones, Greg Malone, Michael Maynard, John
}Romero, and James T. Row.
[2.2] What awards has Apogee won?
Apogee has won over a hundred national and international awards -- far too
many to list here -- but here are some of the highlights:
Commander Keen - Best Entertainment Software - 1992
Commander Keen - Best Overall - 1992
Math Rescue - Best Education Software - 1993
Wolfenstein 3D - Best Entertainment Software - 1993
Wolfenstein 3D - Best New Home, Hobby, Entertainment - 1993
Wolfenstein 3D - Best Overall, People's Choice - 1993
[2.3] The Apogee theme song
The earliest hint of a theme song for Apogee Software might have been in such
early games as Crystal Caves and Secret Agent, wherein the then Apogee logo
was accompanied by a series of trills uttered by the PC speaker. It was
less of a theme song and more of a "semi-standard opening" for Apogee games
at the time. The first real appearance of the familiar Apogee theme song,
however, was in the game Major Stryker. Today, any Apogee fan will
instantly recognize the Apogee theme song and will probably be capable of
humming it on command, though there's no guarantee that he'll simply refuse
to do it. The Apogee theme song is a short, simple, but sweet few bars,
and one could easily imagine it as a theme in a symphony or fugue.
Lee Jackson's paraphrased history of the Apogee theme song follows:
Robert "Bobby" Prince, the composer of the scores of numerous Apogee games,
did the original theme song, which appeared essentially unaltered in Major
Stryker, Monster Bash, Bio Menace, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, and Blake
Stone: Planet Strike. He composed a "rock"-like version for Duke Nukem II,
which was later used in Raptor v1.2. (Previous versions of Raptor had a
version of the theme much like the original.)
For Halloween Harry (Alien Carnage) and Mystic Towers, something different
was needed. These use MOD music instead of the MIDI-style used in our other
games, so a new file was needed. The folks at SubZero composed a dramatic
version for Harry; a rather silly version was made for Mystic Towers, since
since the game itself is quite silly.
I took over the MIDI version of the fanfare starting with Hocus Pocus. It
wasn't something I was asked to do -- I just played around with an idea, gave
it to Tom Hall and Joe Siegler, who then played it for Scott Miller and
George Broussard, who dubbed it the "John Williams fanfare." (It was actually
an attempt to emulate the MOD file that SubZero did for Harry -- I always
liked it.) This fanfare has, to date, appeared in Hocus Pocus, Wacky Wheels,
Boppin, and Rise of the Triad. It is the current "official Apogee fanfare."
[2.4] The Dopefish
Lee Jackson's history of the Dopefish:
Dopefish is the product of the fertile mind of Tom Hall. It was one of 24
drawings he did of ideas for characters for Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy!
while part of id Software. Dopefish was one of the characters from these
drawings that made the cut. According to Tom, "I just drew this stupid
little fish," and the rest is history.
Dopefish is described in the cast of characters for Secret of the Oracle as
the second dumbest creature in the universe (the number one ranking is
anyone's guess). His thought patterns go, "swim swim hungry, swim swim
hungry." Dopefish "will eat anything alive and moving near them, though they
prefer heroes."
Dopefish was "adopted" by the Tech Support staff at Apogee soon after Joe
Siegler, Steve Quarrella, and myself came onboard. Dopefish was Joe's
favorite character, and Steve was the resident Keen expert -- I provided a
few vocal effects and some art. We got hold of some screen capture software
and went to town.
The Dopefish "product line" started with an ANSI screen which Joe and I did --
he converted a screen capture to raw ANSI, and I cleaned it up and made it
presentable. You can see the results by logging into Software Creations and
typing DOPEFISH (or just DO for short) at the menu prompt. After this, we
convinced Jay Wilbur of id to have some Dopefish polo shirts made from an EPS
file of the front-facing burping Dopefish (a.k.a. "Burpfish"). When Christmas
rolled around, my wife decided we needed to bring Dopefish into the real
world, so she made 20 or so stuffed Dopefish dolls (mostly side view, with a
couple of Burpfish for good measure). These were done in both EGA (green)
and CGA (purple) versions and were given out at the Apogee Christmas party
that year. When Jay Wilbur heard of this, his first thought was that we
needed to get a life. This past Christmas, Brenda (my wife) took a printed
enlargement of a screen capture and did pixel-for-pixel-accurate needlepoint
tree ornaments, and Joe had coffee cups made with a Burpfish on them. Below
the Burpfish on the mugs is the caption, "Eat Your Veggies!", which is the
title of the music for the level that Dopefish appears in, composed by Bobby
Prince.
Please note that this Dopefish merchandise is not, and was not ever, for
sale to the general public. They were all strictly in-house gags, so
please don't swamp Apogee with requests for any of these items. However,
if you're a Dopefish fan yourself, and have created some goofy Dopefish
items yourself, Joe Siegler would love to hear about it. See the sections
on "contacting Apogee" for information on how to reach him.
Other Dopefish-related items that have appeared include several Windows and
OS/2 desktops/icons (including the "official" OS/2 Apogee icon on the only
OS/2 machine at the office, mine), screen savers, and fax images. Joe has a
full-page Dopefish that will occasionally mysteriously show up in someone
else's fax machine. Dopefish has also appeared in countless taglines,
Internet signature files (described by Tom Hall as "Pisces Swimeatus"),
and even in a reinterpretation of the birth of the universe, where the Big
Bang is replaced by the Big Burp. Steve even holds the title, granted via a
mail-order ordainment service, as "Pope of the Church of the Dopey Fish."
The title is legally recognized, by Texas state law.
Why Dopefish? Well, he swims, he eats, and he burps. What more can you ask
for? I personally think that the latter reason is why Joe likes him so much.
Joe is known for a few wall rattlers, and personally did the voice of Dopefish
in Wacky Wheels and Rise of the Triad. He really practiced for it, too.
Sitting at his computer at four in the morning with a two liter bottle of
Diet Coke, he ran through take after take, hurting himself a couple times
in the process, until he came up with just the right length and resonance.
To date, Dopefish has been involved in three Apogee games: Commander Keen:
Goodbye, Galaxy! (as a character), Wacky Wheels (making a secret cameo
appearance), and Rise of the Triad (as a command line parameter and the
subject of a song, the "Fish Polka," composed by me). Even though he belongs
to id Software, he is a welcome adopted member of the Apogee family. If
there are ever any new Keen games, you can wager a goodly amount that
the Dopefish will be in it.
[2.5] History of specific games
[2.5.1] The Kroz Series
Scott Miller had been programming games since 1975, when he was in high
school. In 1987 he wrote Kingdom of Kroz in Turbo Pascal, and, with the
full knowledge that, at the time, 99% of shareware was not profitable for
its authors, released it into the shareware market. Thus, it was a
mystifying surprise when Kroz turned out to be a smash hit. The letters
poured in, expressing love of the game and demanding sequels. In 1988,
}Kingdom of Kroz I received top honors in the game category of Softdisk's
}CodeQuest '87, a national programming contest, and came in second overall
(it lost to a spreadsheet program). Scott Miller himself said, in the notes
to a later version of the game, "Thanks to Kroz I now know what a mutual fund
is, but on the downside my taxes require a book two inches thick to figure
out."
In short, Kroz marked Apogee's birth, emergence into the national
mainstream, and coronation as one of the earliest kings of shareware.
What inspired Kroz? At the time, Scott Miller's favorite games were
M.U.L.E., Archon, and Spelunker, among others. He liked games where puzzle
solving was first, and the action secondary. Kroz's main inspiration was
probably Rogue, which Scott used to play, but disliked for its randomness
and reliance on chance. So Kroz was born. Another of Scott's favorite
games is evident from the title; Kroz spelled backwards is "Zork," one of
Infocom's most famous and successful text adventure games.
The various episodes and versions of Kroz are many. To confuse the issue,
Kroz, as well as many of the other early Apogee games, were not sold
strictly in a single bundle of three or four episodes. The shareware
episode, Kingdom of Kroz, could be registered at a cost of $7.50, and this
registration made the customer eligible to buy other episodes at $7.50 each,
or several episodes at some savings. The episodes of Kroz are as follows:
1. Caverns of Kroz
2. Dungeons of Kroz
3. Kingdom of Kroz
4. Return to Kroz
5. Temple of Kroz
6. The Final Crusade of Kroz
7. The Lost Adventures of Kroz
}Episodes 1-3 comprised "The Kroz Trilogy," and originally published on
}Softdisk's Big Blue Disk series. These episodes were later redone in 1990,
their names changing to "Caverns of Kroz II," "Dungeons of Kroz II," and
"Kingdom of Kroz II." Since Kingdom of Kroz II had significant map changes
to 17 different levels, the original "Kingdom of Kroz I" remained available
for purchase to registered owners of "Kingdom of Kroz II."
Episodes 3-6 comprised "The Super Kroz Trilogy." These contained more
levels, more items, and more effects. This trilogy was intended to complete
the Kroz series, but the letters kept pouring in, including one from
Patricia Baker, RI, who said, "I have lived in Kroz for almost a month and
was sorry tonight to finally find the Amulet."
So one final episode of Kroz was to be made, namely Episode 7, "The Lost
Adventures of Kroz." This contained 75 new levels, and, as such, was sold
at the slightly steeper rate of $20. As said earlier, however, the rates
were lowered if more episodes were purchased at once. In early 1991, one
could buy the first six episodes for $35 total, or $45 for all seven.
"The Lost Adventures of Kroz" was the final episode to be completed. At
one time, another episode had been planned for release in March 1991
entitled "The Underground Empire of Kroz," but this never saw the light of
day. Apogee, along with the rest of the gaming community, started moving
on toward more ambitious projects.
Unlike most of Apogee's early games, the Kingdom of Kroz is still
commercially available from Apogee. The episodes you'll get upon a $24.95
registration are the revised Kroz Trilogy, the Super Kroz Trilogy, and
the Lost Adventures. You cannot buy the individual episodes for Kroz or
any other Apogee game any longer; Apogee stopped doing this in mid 1993.
[2.5.2] Commander Keen
Joe Siegler's explanation of the history of the Keen series:
Here's a short history of the Commander Keen games. First, I'll list
all the games and their titles. All of them were written by id
Software.
1) Marooned on Mars ---\
2) The Earth Explodes | ---> Invasion of the Vorticons
3) Keen Must Die ---/
3.5) Keen Dreams
4) Secret of the Oracle --\__ Goodbye Galaxy
5) The Armageddon Machine --/
6) Aliens Ate My Babysitter
Episodes 1-3 are collectively called "Invasion of the Vorticons,"
and are published by Apogee Software. This series of Commander Keen
was released on December 14th, 1990, according to Tom Hall, Apogee's
Creative Director, and at the time, Creative Director of id Software.
Episodes 4 and 5 are collectively called "Goodbye Galaxy," and are also
published by Apogee Software. This series of Commander Keen was
released somewhere around June of 1991. There was also a special CGA
edition of Keens 4-5 made. The game is functionally exactly the same
as the standard EGA version of the game, but the graphics are in CGA.
Episode 6 is a "stand alone" game, and is entitled "Aliens Ate my
Babysitter." This episode of Keen is distributed by FormGen. It is
commercial software, and is available at your local software store
(such as CompUSA). This is also sold by Apogee, but Apogee only
resells this product, we don't actually distribute it. FormGen also
decided to put off-disk copy protection on the full version of this
game. Furthermore, FormGen also has a playable 3 level commercial
demo available for perusal before purchase. Apogee Software sells a
version of Keen 6 in CGA. I do not know if FormGen sells the CGA
version of Keen 6 in the stores; it may only be available from Apogee
Software. Check with FormGen for more details.
Keen Dreams has kind of an interesting story. This is referred to as
the "Lost Episode" of Commander Keen. I like to think of it as "Keen
Episode 3.5." The reason for that is that Keen Dreams falls in between
Vorticons and Galaxy, both in terms of technology and story line.
Before the id guys actually formed id, the majority of them worked at
Softdisk, a computer software publisher in Shreveport, LA. The
founding members of id Software left Softdisk to do the Vorticons
series of Keen for Apogee Software. However, they were contractually
obligated to deliver another game to Softdisk, and since development
had started on the Galaxy series, they threw together a Keen game for
Softdisk, and Keen Dreams was born. This game is not sold by Apogee
Software, nor does Apogee have anything at all to do with it. You'd
need to contact Softdisk for any further information regarding Keen
Dreams.
Episodes 1, 3.5, 4, and the 3 level demo for Episode 6 are
the only ones that you are legally allowed to upload and download
anywhere. Episodes 2, 3, 5, and the full version of Episode 6 are
commercial software, and should not appear on any BBS, online service,
or should otherwise be sold except for authorized sellers of the
games.
Here are the BBS filenames as currently available from Apogee for the
various Keen games from Apogee.
Keen 1 -> #1KEEN.ZIP
Keen 4 -> #4KEEN.ZIP
Keen 4 -> #4KEENC.ZIP (Special CGA Version)
I've seen the 3 level Aliens Demo available with the filename
#6K-DEMO.ZIP and K6DEMO.ZIP. I've seen Keen Dreams available with
the filename KDREAMS.ZIP. However, neither of these are Apogee
products, and I cannot vouch for the files' names.
If you played Keen 5, there was a screen that said something to the
effect of "Join us in December 1992 for the greatest Keen adventure
yet." There was a picture of Keen smiling, with a Santa Claus hat on.
At the time, id Software was intending to do a third series of
Commander Keen, tentatively entitled "Commander Keen: The Universe is
Toast." However, other projects came up (Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of
Destiny, and later, Doom). At this time, there is no development
going on in the Commander Keen department. There will probably be
more Commander Keen games by Apogee Software. However, even if the
work were to commence on the game TODAY, it would still take about twelve
months to see the light of day. The earliest development could start
on this game would be late in 1995, so I would not look for any new
Commander Keen games before the third quarter of 1996.
On a different note, Commander Keen, and artifacts from the Keen games have
found their way into other games. Commander Keen is listed in the default
scoreboards of a handful of Apogee games, mentioned in the instructions of
one, and has made a few more prominent appearances, which are listed under
the "Cameos" section of this FAQ.
[2.5.3] Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny
Joe Siegler's explanation of the history of the Wolfenstein series:
On May 5, 1992, Apogee Software released the shareware episode of Wolfenstein
3D, and has been distributing it in the shareware market since. Apogee
is the official distributor of Wolfenstein 3D's original six episodes in the
shareware market.
Somewhere around September of 1992, FormGen Corp released Spear of Destiny.
This is a retail sequel to Wolfenstein 3D. This game consisted of one episode
with 20 levels. This game consists of some new wall art, a couple of new
objects, and new boss creatures. This game is essentially the same as Wolf3D
generally, but is completely new in the level design aspect. This game is
available in stores like CompUSA. Apogee also resells this product, but is not
responsible for its distribution. Apogee has to buy it from FormGen
like any other store would. There is a two level playable demo floating around
for Spear of Destiny. It's the same first two levels that appear in the full
version of the game. It is not shareware; commercial demos are for the most
part non-interactive, however, this one *is* interactive, and since it bears
a close resemblance to Wolfenstein 3D, which is shareware, the SOD demo is
frequently mistaken for being shareware, which it is not.
There have been numerous editors and extra levels created by users for both
Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny. With regard to Wolf3D, Apogee
respectfully requests that you not make or distribute any editors, extra
levels, or other add-ons that will work on the shareware episode. If you
choose to make add-ons, please make these items for the registered version
only, and be aware that Apogee cannot support user-created items.
Sometime in mid/late 1993, id Software decided that they were going to publish
these same six original episodes in the retail market. These are the same six
episodes that Apogee had been selling since May of 1992. Since Apogee was at
that time not set up for retail distribution, id Software went with another
company called is GT Software. This package is available in CompUSA and
contains the same six episodes that Apogee distributes. Apogee has absolutely
nothing at all to do with this product. The GT Software version of
Wolfenstein 3D is totally a GT product. Apogee has no control over the
packaging, quality control, or price.
In May of 1994, FormGen Corporation released an update to Spear of Destiny. It
was two new epsiodes and are available in the stores. The collective name of
the product is "Spear of Destiny Mission Add-On Packs." The new new epsiodes
each have their own individual titles, these being "Mission 2: Return to
Danger," and "Mission 3: Ultimate Challenge." These are add-ons to Spear of
Destiny and have some new level graphics, some differently colored actors,
but is essentially more levels for Spear of Destiny. These extra versions do
require that you have the first Spear of Destiny game (the original six Apogee
Wolf episodes are not required). Neither Apogee Software nor id software
has anything to do with these add-on packs. Neither Apogee nor id sells the
packs or supports it. It is strictly a FormGen product.
id Software has also either written or released versions of Wolfenstein 3D for
other platforms over time. Apogee Software has nothing to do with any
of them. id Software holds the copyright to Wolfenstein 3D and can
license it to others for other platforms or do whatever they want with it.
These versions are listed for completeness' sake only.
The Super Nintendo version was released around Jan/Feb of 1994. This was
published through a company called "Imagineer." Due to Nintendo restrictions,
some elements of the game had to be removed. These were, 1) all Nazi
references, 2) the dogs (replaced with rats), and 3) blood (replaced with
sweat). This is still a good game, considering what it's programmed for.
There was a version released for the Atari Jaguar around August of 1994, and
this version is probably the best graphically of any version published. When
you go up right against walls and the like, they do not become as blocky or
chunky, as compared to previous versions of Wolfenstein 3D. This version was
published by Atari. id also licensed Wolf3D so that it could be published
on the Macintosh computer. This version was released in October 1994 and is
being distributed by MacPlay, a division of Interplay. WolfMac is a
shareware title, and there is a shareware version of it available. When you
register, you get something like 30 levels. Again, Apogee has nothing to do
with these versions of Wolfenstein 3D; you would need to contact the various
companies, or id Software directly for more information on them. There was
yet another version published in late 1994 by Vitesse, this version being done
for the Apple IIGS. This brings the game full circle, as the original Castle
Wolfenstein was written for the Apple IIe. The IIGS version was done by Burger
Bill Heinemann (as was the Mac version).
The premiere issue of Game Developer's Magazine stated that Apogee Software was
working on a game called "Wolfenstein 3D: Part II," which was to be a totally
new game, with completely new actors, and new everything; the only thing the
same being the title Wolfenstein 3D. This information is partially
incorrect; there is no such title under production at either Apogee or id
Software. However, this was under production at Apogee for a while back in
early 1994, but this was dropped, and the project changed to "Rise of the
Triad." This game is now available from Apogee Software.
[2.5.3.1] "Call Apogee and say Aardwolf"
Joe Siegler's explanation of "Aardwolf":
"Call Apogee and say Aardwolf." It's a sign that to this day is something
that I get asked about a lot. This is a sign that appears on a wall in a
particularly nasty maze in Episode 2 Level 8 of Wolfenstein 3D. The sign
was to be the goal in a contest Apogee was going to have, but almost
immediately after the game's release, a large amount of cheat and mapping
programs were released. With these programs running around, we felt that
it would have been unfair to have the contest and award a prize. The sign
was still left in the game, but in hindsight, probably should have been
taken out, since we still get calls now, almost three years after the game's
release.
Also, in a somewhat related issue, the registered version had letters after the
highest score in the score table in some revisions of the game. These letters
were to be part of another contest that got scrapped before it got started,
where we were going to have people call in with their scores and tell us the
code; we'd then be able to verify their score. However, with the cheat
programs out there, this got scrapped too.
[2.5.4] Halloween Harry and Alien Carnage
Halloween Harry was written by Sub-Zero software, located in Australia.
Apogee is the game's distributor. In October of 1993, Apogee released
v1.1 of Halloween Harry in the United States. As with both Mystic Towers
and Wacky Wheels, the first American version was 1.1, not 1.0. The reason
for this is that an incomplete version of the game was released overseas
as a cover program and referred to as v1.0. Please note, however, that
these are not complete, finished versions of the games.
A month later, v1.2 of the game was released. A year after that, Apogee
suggested a title change to "Alien Carnage." Sub-Zero agreed. Thus, in
early November of 1994, "Halloween Harry" was dropped from Apogee's
distribution, and "Alien Carnage" added. Alien Carnage v1.0 is essentially
Halloween Harry v1.2 with a name change, price change, and episode
reorganization. The shareware version of Alien Carnage (its first episode)
is Halloween Harry's episode three. With the exception of this
reorganization, Alien Carnage consists of the same episodes as Halloween
Harry. The shareware version of Halloween Harry is still legal to
distribute; however, Apogee prefers you distribute the shareware version of
Alien Carnage only, as this version has the new pricing information
screens.
[2.5.5] Rise of the Triad
Back in early 1994, a game called "Wolfenstein 3D: Part II" was under
production. This was dropped, and the project became "Rise of the Triad," or,
as it is casually known, "ROTT." Version 1.0 was released on December 21,
1994; in February 1995, versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.2a were released. The disk
based registered version was available starting in late February; the regular
CD based registered version started shipping in March, and the Site License CD
started shipping in April.
Tom Hall, the creative director for Rise of the Triad, dubbed the Rise of the
Triad team the "Developers of Incredible Power" (DIP?). ROTT was the first
release of the Developers of Incredible Power, under that name, although most
of the members of this team had worked on previous Apogee projects.
One of the curiosities of ROTT is that the actors in the game were digitized
and voiced by members of Apogee. The following chart shows who was scanned
and who was sampled to create each ROTT character.
Character/Description Real Life Actor Voice
--------------------- --------------- -----
Low Guard Steve Quarrella Steve Quarrella
(Grey Shirts - There are lots of em) (Former Tech Spt)
High Guard Steve Blackburn Steve Blackburn
(Green Uniforms - Drop MP40's) (VP of Operations)
Lightning Guard Kevin Green Kevin Green &
(Begs for Mercy, Steals your weapon) (Cust Support Mgr) Willam Scarboro
Triad Enforcer George Broussard George Broussard
(Throws Hand Grenades) (Exec VP of Apogee)
Strike Patrol Scott Miller Scott Miller
(White Shirts - Ducks and Rolls) (President of Apogee)
Overpatrol Nolan Martin Nolan Martin &
(Brown uniforms - throws nets) (Former Programmer) Chuck Jones
Death Monk Lee Jackson Tom Hall
(Waddles, drains your life) (Musician)
DeathFire Monk Allen H. Blum III Tom Hall
(Shoots Fireballs) (Programmer)
Robot Guard Was a model by Sound CD #4005
(Small Metal Robots) Gregor Punchatz
General Darian Steve Maines Mark Dochtermann
(Large Boss with Rocket Launcher) (Former Art Director)
Sebastian "Doyle" Krist Joe Siegler Joe Siegler
(Boss in Chair) (Online Support Mgr)
NME (Nasty Metallic Enforcer Boss) Was a model by Sound CD #4005
} (Nickname "Spray") Gregor Punchatz
El Oscuro Tom Hall Tom Hall
(Main Boss - All three forms) (Creative Director)
Taradino Cassatt Not Applicable Joe Selinske
Thi Barrett Not Applicable Susan Singer
Doug Wendt Not Applicable Lee Jackson
Lorelei Ni Not Applicable Pau Suet Ying *
Ian Paul Freeley Not Applicable Jim Dose'
* Pau Suet Ying is a waitress at a Chinese Resturant about half a mile from
Apogee's Headquarters.
Not everyone that was digitized was used in the game. The following chart
shows other people who were scanned and sampled, but not used in the final
release of the game.
Character/Description Real Life Actor Voice
--------------------- --------------- -----
Alternate Low Guard Marianna Vayntrub Colleen Compton
(Fiancee of Mark D.)
Alternate High Guard Steve Hornback Steve Hornback
(Main ROTT artist)
Alternate Overpatrol Pat Miller Pat Miller
(Scott Miller's Mom)
Alternate Strike Team Ann Grauherholz Ann Grauherholz
(Tom Hall's Friend)
Alternate Lightning Guard William Scarboro William Scarboro
(ROTT Programmer)
Alternate DeathFire Monk Mark Dochtermann Tom Hall
(ROTT Programmer)
[2.5.6] Paganitzu and Realms of Chaos
About a year before Keith Schuler wrote Paganitzu for Apogee, he wrote
another game called Chagunitzu for Softdisk. These two games were almost
identical, containing the same characters and story and so forth. Unlike
Paganitzu, however, Chagunitzu does not adapt to the speed of your computer,
making it virtually unplayable on fast computers.
Following his success with Apogee's Paganitzu, Schuler began a sequel
in early 1992 entitled, "Paganitzu II: the Bloodfire Pendant." Later, it
went through a name change to "Alabama Smith and the Bloodfire Pendant."
Still later, its name became "Realms of Chaos," losing all its Paganitzu
references in the process.
Realms of Chaos was originally supposed to be a 16 color EGA game, slated
for a 1994 release, but, with the increasing popularity of VGA games, it was
decided that time should be spent converting Realms of Chaos to a 256 color
VGA game. Realms of Chaos should be available from Apogee sometime in the
second quarter of 1995.
Contrary to what one might think, the 3D Realms project "Ruins: Return of the
Gods" was not ever associated with Paganitzu, even in its early days.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[3] Lists
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[3.1] Games
Please note that this information is constantly changing, especially when new
games are added to the list of Apogee products. Some of the information given
here could become out of date rather quickly.
[3.1.1] What games are currently available from Apogee?
A list of Apogee games follows. The filename given is the file -- on
CompuServe, BBS's, and the Internet -- which contains the first episode of
each game. Note that on the Internet, the filenames do not contain the
leading '#' mark. On CompuServe, there are no numbers or punctuation in
the filenames at all.
The price given is the cost of the *complete* game with all episodes. The "Ep"
field contains the number of episodes in the complete version. The "Ver"
field contains the latest version number of the game. "Gph" is the best
graphics mode that the game utilizes.
Name Genre Filename Price Ep Ver Gph
---- ----- ------------ ------ -- --- ---
Rise of the Triad 3D Action #1rott12.zip $29.95 5 1.2a VGA*^~=
Boppin Puzzle #1bop11.zip $29.95 4 1.1 VGA*~
Wacky Wheels Auto Racing #1wacky.zip $34.95 6 1.1 VGA*
Mystic Towers 3D Puzzle #1mystic.zip $24.95 6 1.1 VGA
Hocus Pocus Platform #1hp11.zip $24.95 4 1.1 VGA
Raptor: Call of the Shadows Shooter #1rap12.zip $34.95 3 1.2 VGA
Blake Stone: Planet Strike 3D Action [none] $24.95 1 1.01 VGA+~
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold 3D Action #1bs30.zip $29.95 6 3.0 VGA~
Duke Nukem II Platform #4duke.zip $34.95 4 1.0 VGA
Alien Carnage Platform #1ac.zip $19.95 4 1.0 VGA^
Wolfenstein 3D 3D Action #1wolf14.zip $49.95 6 1.4 VGA~
Bio Menace Platform #1bio11.zip $29.95 3 1.1 EGA~
Monster Bash Platform #1bash21.zip $34.95 3 2.1 EGA*~
Commander Keen: Galaxy Platform #4keen.zip $34.95 2 1.4 EGA*^
Commander Keen: Vorticons Platform #1keen.zip $29.95 3 1.31 EGA^
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Platform #1cosmo.zip $34.95 3 1.2 EGA
Duke Nukem I Platform #1duke.zip $29.95 3 2.0 EGA
Major Stryker Shooter #1majr14.zip $29.95 3 1.4 EGA
Crystal Caves Platform #1crystl.zip $29.95 3 1.0 EGA
Secret Agent Platform #1agent.zip $29.95 3 1.0 EGA
Math Rescue Edu-Game #1math.zip $29.95 3 2.0 EGA
Word Rescue Edu-Game #1rescue.zip $29.95 3 2.0 EGA
Dark Ages Platform #1dark.zip $29.95 3 1.0 EGA
Paganitzu Puzzle #1paga.zip $29.95 3 1.02 EGA*~
Arctic Adventure Platform #1arctic.zip $24.95 4 2.0 CGA
Pharaoh's Tomb Platform #1ptomb.zip $24.95 4 3.0 CGA
Monuments of Mars Platform #1mars.zip $24.95 4 1.0 CGA
The Kroz Series Puzzle #1kroz.zip $24.95 7 1.0 TEXT
Spear of Destiny 3D Action $34.95 1 1.4 VGA+~
Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My BabySitter Platform $34.95 1 1.4 EGA+*
+ - Spear of Destiny and Aliens Ate My Babysitter are commercial pieces of
software by FormGen Corporation. id Software wrote both of them, and
FormGen distributes them. Apogee only resells these titles. There are
demos available from FormGen for these games, but they are not Apogee
titles, and Apogee does not distribute the demos for these games.
Blake Stone: Planet Strike is also distributed by FormGen, but written
by Apogee. There is no demo or shareware version of the game.
* - There is an optional CGA mode in Paganitzu.
There are CGA versions of Keen: Galaxy and Keen: Aliens.
There is a "Monster Bash Lite" version of this game, which contains the
first three levels of the shareware episode. Apogee does not
distribute this version anymore, but it is still legal to pass
around. If it still exists on an FTP site or BBS, its filename
will probably be "1mblite.zip".
There is a smaller registered version of Wacky Wheels, which contains
only the first three sets of tracks, available for $24.95.
There is a smaller registered version of Boppin called Basic Boppin which
contains only the first two episodes of the game, is available for
$19.95. This version does not contain the level editor, nor the
ability to play user-created levels. The $29.95 version is
called Super Boppin, and contains the complete game and level
editor.
There are several versions of Rise of the Triad available. The regular
registered is $29.95, and contains 32 regular levels and 30
comm-bat zones. The power pack add-on contains 10 extra comm-bat
zones, a random level generator, and BMP and WAV files from the
game. Super Triad is for CD only, costs $34.95, and contains
everything in the regular registered, plus the power pack, plus
more BMP and WAV files, plus some extra Apogee shareware games.
The Site License version is also for CD only, costs $89.95,
includes 10 more comm-bat zones, a signed site license agreement,
and eleven command cards. For people to play a networked game
using the registered version, each member must have either their
own registered versions, or a site license version owned between
them.
^ - The full titles of the Keen games are "Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy!"
and "Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons."
Alien Carnage used to be known as "Halloween Harry."
The shareware episode of Rise of the Triad is also known as "Rise of the
Triad: the HUNT Begins"; the registered episodes are also known as
"Rise of the Triad: Dark War".
~ - These games contain some measure of graphic violence, and may be
unsuitable for young game players.
Of these, Rise of the Triad, Blake Stone, and Wolfenstein 3D have
official notices about violent content.
Boppin v1.0 has an option to minimize the violence somewhat. Boppin v1.1
does not have violent content unless a command line parameter is
given. (See the cheats section.)
Rise of the Triad has adjustable violence levels.
= - The file specifications for Rise of the Triad are available as
ROTSPEC1.ZIP in any official Apogee area.
- RTSMaker, a RemoteRidicule sound editor for Rise of the Triad, is
available as RTSMAKER.ZIP in any official Apogee area.
[3.1.2] The games are too big to download! Are there "split" versions?
Most of the larger games have split versions available from Software
Creations, the Internet, etc. Again, the filenames have a leading '#'
mark except on the Internet.
Game Split Filenames
---- ---------------
Rise of the Triad 1rot12a.zip 1rot12b.zip 1rot12c.zip 1rot12d.zip
Boppin 1bop11a.zip 1bop11b.zip 1bop11c.zip
Wacky Wheels 1ww-a.zip 1ww-b.zip 1ww-c.zip 1ww-d.zip
Mystic Towers 1mt-a.zip 1mt-b.zip 1mt-c.zip
Hocus Pocus 1hp11-a.zip 1hp11-b.zip 1hp11-c.zip
Raptor 1rap12a.zip 1rap12b.zip 1rap12c.zip 1rap12d.zip 1rap12e.zip
Blake Stone 1bs30-a.zip 1bs30-b.zip 1bs30-c.zip 1bs30-d.zip
Duke Nukem II 4duke-a.zip 4duke-b.zip 4duke-c.zip
Alien Carnage 1ac-a.zip 1ac-b.zip 1ac-c.zip 1ac-d.zip
Wolfenstein 3D 1wolf-a.zip 1wolf-b.zip
Monster Bash 1bash2a.zip 1bash2b.zip 1bash2c.zip
[3.1.3] What upgrade patches are currently available?
These are the upgrades that are available on BBS's and networks only; if
you need an upgrade that isn't listed, call Apogee. The "S/R" field says
whether the patch is for the shareware or registered version of the game.
Filename Game S/R From To
-------- ---- --- ---- ---
rot12arp.zip Rise of the Triad Reg 1.2 1.2a
rot12asp.zip Rise of the Triad SW 1.2 1.2a
rot12spt.zip Rise of the Triad SW 1.1 1.2
rot11spt.zip Rise of the Triad SW 1.0 1.1
bops11pt.zip Super Boppin Reg 1.0 1.1
bopb11pt.zip Basic Boppin Reg 1.0 1.1
hppat-r.zip Hocus Pocus Reg 1.0 1.1
rpat_12r.zip Raptor Reg 1.1 1.2
rpat_12s.zip Raptor SW 1.1 1.2
rappat-r.zip Raptor Reg 1.0 1.1
rappat-s.zip Raptor SW 1.0 1.1
bs30pat6.zip Blake Stone Reg 2.1 3.0
bs21pat6.zip Blake Stone Reg 2.0 2.1
bspatch6.zip Blake Stone Reg 1.0 2.0
[3.1.4] Hardware requirements and support
[Rise of the Triad]
Required: 386SX-40, VGA, 4 megs RAM, Local Bus
Recommended: 486DX2-66, VGA, 8 megs RAM, Local Bus
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse, Gamepad, Cyberman,
Space Player
Sound - Soundblaster 16/Pro, Soundblaster, AWE 32,
Waveblaster, Adlib, Roland Sound Cavas, Gravis
Ultrasound, Ensoniq Soundscape, Pro Audio
Spectrum 16, Logitech Soundman 16, Disney Sound
Source, Tandy Sound Source, and General MIDI
}Features: 11 player network play, modem play, null modem cable play,
} control config, 5 character selections, 4 skill levels, saved
games
Notes: For modem or serial play, a 8250 serial port is required, and
a 16550 serial port is recommended.
[Boppin]
Required: 386SX-16, VGA, 2 megs RAM
}Recommended: 4 megs RAM, Joystick, Mouse (for level editor)
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse
Sound - Soundblaster 16/Pro, Soundblaster, AWE 32,
Waveblaster, Adlib, Roland Sound Cavas, Gravis
Ultrasound, Ensoniq Soundscape, Pro Audio
Spectrum 16, Logitech Soundman 16, Disney Sound
Source, Tandy Sound Source, and General MIDI
Features: level editor (in Super Boppin), 2 player mode, control
config, 8 saved games
[Wacky Wheels]
Required: 386SX-25, VGA, 4 megs RAM
Recommended: 486SX-33 (for split screen mode), Local Bus
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Gamepad
Sound - Gravis Ultrasound, Pro Audio Spectrum 16,
Sound Canvas, Soundblaster 16/Pro, Soundblaster,
Waveblaster, General MIDI
Features: modem play, null modem cable play, 2 player mode,
control config, 8 character selections, 2 skill levels
[Mystic Towers]
Required: 286, VGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse
Sound - Soundblaster, Adlib
Features: control config, 4 mid-level saved games, practice mode
[Hocus Pocus]
Required: 386SX, VGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Gamepad
Sound - Gravis Ultrasound, Soundblaster 16/Pro,
Soundblaster, Adlib, Sound Man 16, Sound Source,
Roland Sound Canvas, General MIDI, and others
Features: control config, 3 skill levels, 9 saved games
[Raptor]
Required: 386SX, VGA, 2 megs RAM
Recommended: 386SX, VGA, 4 megs RAM
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse, Thrustmaster
Sound - Soundblaster 16/Pro, Soundblaster, Waveblaster,
AWE 32, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Gravis Ultrasound,
Adlib, Roland Sound Canvas, and General MIDI
Features: control config, 4 character selections, 4 skill levels,
unlimited saved games, practice mode
[Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Planet Strike]
Required: 386SX, VGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse, Gamepad
Sound - Soundblaster, Adlib
Features: control config, 4 skill levels, 10 mid-level saved games
[Duke Nukem II]
Required: 286, VGA
Recommended: 386DX-33, VGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Gamepad
Sound - Soundblaster, Adlib
Features: 3 skill levels, 8 saved games
[Alien Carnage]
Required: 286, VGA
Recommended: 386DX-33, VGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Sound - Soundblaster
Features: 3 skill levels, 5 saved games
[Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny]
Required: 286, VGA
Recommended: 386DX-33, VGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse, Gamepad
Sound - Soundblaster Pro, Soundblaster, Adlib,
Disney Sound Source
Features: 4 skill levels, 10 mid-level saved games
[Bio Menace]
Required: 286, EGA
Recommended: 386DX-33, EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Gamepad
Sound - Soundblaster, Adlib
Features: 3 skill levels, 6 saved games per episode, practice mode
[Monster Bash]
Required: 286, EGA
Recommended: 386DX-33, EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Sound - Soundblaster, Adlib
Features: 3 skill levels, 10 saved games per episode
[Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy and Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter]
Required: 286, CGA
Recommended: 286, EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick, Gamepad
Sound - Adlib
Features: 3 skill levels, 6 mid-level saved games per episode
[Commander Keen: Vorticons]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Features: 9 saved games per episode
[Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure]
Required: 286, EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Sound - Adlib
Features: 9 saved games per episode
[Duke Nukem I]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Features: 9 saved games per episode
[Major Stryker]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Sound - Soundblaster, Adlib
Features: 3 skill levels, 10 saved games
[Crystal Caves]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Features: control config, 10 saved games
[Secret Agent]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Features: control config, 10 saved games
[Math Rescue]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Sound - Adlib
Features: 2 character selections, 3 skill levels, saved games
Notes: The music may sound scrambled on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[Word Rescue]
Required: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard, Joystick
Sound - Adlib
Features: 2 character selections, 3 skill levels, saved games
Notes: The music may sound scrambled on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[Dark Ages]
Required: 286, EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard
Sound - Adlib
Features: control config, 3 skill levels, 1 saved game
Notes: This is the first game ever to support the Adlib sound card.
This game may run too fast on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[Paganitzu]
Required: CGA
Recommended: EGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard
Features: 5 saved games
[Arctic Adventure]
Required: CGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard
Features: limited control config, 1 saved game
Notes: This game may run too fast on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[Pharaoh's Tomb]
Required: CGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard
Features: limited control config, 1 saved game
Notes: This game may run too fast on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[Monuments of Mars]
Required: 8088, CGA
Recommended: 8086, CGA
Supported: Control - Keyboard
Features: limited control config, 1 saved game
Notes: This game may run too fast on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[The Kroz Series]
Supported: Control - Keyboard
Notes: This game may run too fast on fast computers; if this
happens, slow your computer down before running.
[3.1.5] Which of Apogee's games are good?
What follows is a series of evaluations for each game. Ratings are given on
a scale of 1-10, 5 being the minimum "good" rating. (A rating of 10 does not
mean perfection, for in the gaming world, perfection is never achieved;
someone will always come out with something better later.)
Ratings are given for different categories. For all but the last category,
the ratings are my own personal ratings. The final category contains the
results of the rating system, whereby game players far and wide may contact
me via Internet email with their own evaluations of each game. To send
your own evaluations, please see the instructions and rules in the next
section.
For the "Grph" field, the letter indicates (T)ext, (C)GA, (E)GA, (V)GA,
or (S)VGA. "Snd" is sound. "Msc" is music. The "Enem" field rates how
unique and interesting the enemies are. The "Lvl" field rates the design of
the levels. The "Game" field rates the gameplay, or how well the game "works"
as a game. The "Overall" field is not an average, but rather how lastingly
enjoyable the game is to play. The "Vote Results" field gives two values:
the first is the average rating from the voting system; the second is the
number of people who have given ratings for that particular game.
Name Grph Snd Msc Enem Lvl Game Overall Vote Results
---- ---- --- --- ---- --- ---- ------- ------------
}Spear of Destiny V 8 9 7 8 9 10 10 6.8 4
}Wolfenstein 3D V 8 9 7 8 8 10 10 7.0 6
}Raptor: Call of the Shadows V 10 10 9 5 7 8 10 8.7 9
}Duke Nukem I E 5 3 N/A 9 10 9 9 6.0 2
}Duke Nukem II V 9 9 10 10 8 8 9 8.5 2
}Rise of the Triad V 10 9 9 7 9 8 9 7.7 6
}Alien Carnage V 9 8 5 6 8 7 8 5.8 4
}Monster Bash E 5 6 10 9 8 7 8 5.6 5
}Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold V 7 7 6 7 7 8 7 6.3 3
}Bio Menace E 5 4 6 9 8 7 7 5.0 2
Crystal Caves E 4 3 N/A 7 9 8 7 4.0 2
}Secret Agent E 4 3 N/A 6 8 7 7 3.0 2
}Commander Keen: Aliens E 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6.0 4
}Commander Keen: Galaxy E 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 8.0 4
}Major Stryker E 6 7 9 6 7 7 7 7.0 2
}Wacky Wheels V 7 6 8 N/A 6 7 6 8.0 7
}Mystic Towers V 7 7 7 4 6 6 6 4.3 3
}Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure E 6 4 6 6 8 6 6 6.5 4
}Commander Keen: Vorticons E 3 3 N/A 4 5 6 6 7.3 4
Word Rescue E 3 6 7 6 6 6 6 4.0 1
Math Rescue E 3 6 7 6 6 5 6
}Paganitzu E 2 5 N/A N/A 7 6 6 8.0 1
}Hocus Pocus V 9 6 3 5 3 4 5 6.5 2
Arctic Adventure C 2 2 N/A 3 6 6 5
}Dark Ages E 3 4 6 4 4 5 4 8.0 1
}The Kroz Series T 2 2 N/A 2 6 6 4 10.0 1
Monuments of Mars C 2 2 N/A 3 5 5 4
Pharaoh's Tomb C 2 2 N/A 3 5 5 4
}Boppin V 5 2 2 N/A 5 3 3 5.5 4
}Blake Stone: Planet Strike V 6.0 1
[3.1.5.1] Rules of the voting system
To send in your votes, send mail to one of: rink@unh.edu, ss1@christa.unh.edu,
or stoddard@ctron.com. Include something on the order of "Apogee Votes" in
the subject line. The body of the message should contain one or more Apogee
games that you're voting on, one vote per game. Your vote will be a rating
from 1 through 10, inclusive. Use whole numbers -- the decimals in the
results are given for accuracy. Include one vote per line, something like
this:
10 Duke Stone
8 Commander Logan: Call of the Vorticons
6 Mystic Wheels 3D
4 Monuments of Destiny: Goodbye Triad!
The games you can vote on are those listed in the above section ONLY. Don't
vote on non-Apogee games, discontinued Apogee games, or beta versions of yet
to be released Apogee games. (Note, however, that while "Keen: Aliens" and
"Spear of Destiny" are not, technically, Apogee games, you can still vote on
them.)
So what will your votes do? Your votes will be averaged in with all the other
votes. The average and the total number of voters will be listed in the
ratings section. Your votes will be taken into consideration for the next
release of the Apogee FAQ, and, from then, forever after. There is no need
to resend votes unless you want to change a vote.
[3.2] Past projects
[3.2.1] What Apogee games are no longer supported?
Apogee no longer takes orders, technical support calls, or offers any other
form of support for the following games: The Thor Trilogy, SuperNova, Beyond
the Titanic, Word Whiz, and Trivia Whiz. Apogee retains the copyright on
these games, but not much else. Apogee requests that these games no longer
be distributed.
There are three games that Apogee does not distribute, sell, or register
any more. These three are Jumpman Lives!, Star Trek Trivia, and Star Trek:TNG
Trivia. Apogee retains no copyright on these and requests that the shareware
episodes (if they exist) on any Apogee site be removed from distribution.
[3.3] Previews
[3.3.1] What slide shows are currently available?
Filename Gph Game
-------- --- ----
#1xp-pix.zip VGA XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport
#1rotpx2.zip VGA Rise of the Triad
#1rotpix.zip VGA Rise of the Triad
#1boppix.zip VGA Boppin
#1ww-pix.zip VGA Wacky Wheels
#1mt-pix.zip VGA Mystic Towers (includes Triad and Ruins shots)*
#1hp-pix.zip VGA Hocus Pocus (includes Shadow Warrior shots)*
#1rappix.zip VGA Raptor: Call of the Shadows
#1bspix3.zip VGA Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
#4dn-pix.zip VGA Duke Nukem II
#1hhpix2.zip VGA Halloween Harry
#1bm-pix.zip EGA Bio Menace
#1mb-pix.zip EGA Monster Bash
* - "Ruins: Return of the Gods" and "Shadow Warrior" are upcoming games from
3D Realms, Apogee's sister company.
[3.3.2] What are Apogee's upcoming releases?
Game Genre Release Date
---- ----- ------------
Realms of Chaos Platform 3rd Quarter 1995
XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport Fighting 3rd Quarter 1995
Crazy Baby Platform 3rd Quarter 1995
Stargunner Shooter 3rd Quarter 1995
Monster Bash VGA Platform 3rd Quarter 1995
Fumes Auto Racing 3rd/4th Quarter 1995
Crystal Carnage Combat 3rd/4th Quarter 1995
And from 3D Realms:
Duke Nukem 3D 3D Action August 1995
Shadow Warrior 3D Action Summer/Fall 1995
Blood 3D Action Summer/Fall 1995
Ruins: Return of the Gods 3D Action Fall 1995
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[4] The Almanac
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[4.1] Release dates
What follows are lists of games and slide shows and the dates they
were released. The lists are not complete.
[4.1.1] Games
Game Version Date Released
---- ------- -------------
Rise of the Triad 1.2a 02/25/95
Rise of the Triad 1.2 02/17/95 ~
Rise of the Triad 1.1 02/08/95
Rise of the Triad 1.0 12/21/94 *
Boppin 1.1 12/09/94
Boppin 1.0 11/15/94 *
Alien Carnage 1.0 11/02/94 *
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold 3.0 11/02/94
Blake Stone: Planet Strike 1.01 10/28/94
Blake Stone: Planet Strike 1.0 10/28/94 *
Wacky Wheels 1.1 10/17/94 *
Hocus Pocus 1.1 10/05/94
Raptor: Call of the Shadows 1.2 09/26/94
Mystic Towers 1.1 07/15/94 *
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold 2.1 07/15/94
Hocus Pocus 1.0 06/01/94 *
Raptor: Call of the Shadows 1.1 06/01/94
Raptor: Call of the Shadows 1.0 04/01/94 *
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold 2.0 02/11/94
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold 1.0 12/02/93 *
Duke Nukem II 1.0 12/02/93 *
Halloween Harry 1.2 11/07/93
Halloween Harry 1.1 10/10/93 *
Bio Menace 1.1 08/24/93
Bio Menace 1.0 08/03/93 *
Math Rescue 2.0 08/01/93
Word Rescue 2.0 08/01/93
Monster Bash Lite 2.1 07/27/93
Monster Bash 2.1 05/23/93
Monster Bash 2.0 05/11/93
Monster Bash 1.1 04/26/93
Monster Bash 1.02 04/12/93
Monster Bash 1.01 04/10/93
Monster Bash 1.0 04/09/93 *
Major Stryker 1.4 02/20/93 +
Major Stryker 1.0 01/93 *
Wolfenstein 3D 1.4 01/01/93 +
Math Rescue 1.0 10/92 *
Wolfenstein 3D 1.2 06/28/92
Wolfenstein 3D 1.1 06/25/92
Wolfenstein 3D 1.0 05/05/92 *
Word Rescue 1.0 Spring 92 *
Cosmic Cosmo 1.2 04/15/92
Cosmic Cosmo 1.0 03/92 *
Secret Agent 1.0 02/01/92 *
Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! 1.4 02/01/92
Paganitzu 1.02 12/01/91
Paganitzu 1.0 1991 *
Duke Nukem 2.0 11/01/91
Crystal Caves 1.0 10/23/91 *
Duke Nukem 1.0 06-07/91 *
Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! 1.0 06/91 *
Dark Ages 1.0 02/01/91 *
Commander Keen: Vorticons 1.31 01/23/91
Commander Keen: Vorticons 1.0 12/14/90 *
Arctic Adventure 1.0-2.0 1990 *^
Pharaoh's Tomb 1.0-3.0 1990 *^
Monuments of Mars 1.0 1990 *
Beyond the Titanic 1990 *
Star Trek: TNG Trivia 1990 *
Star Trek Trivia 1990 *
Word Whiz 1990 *
Trivia Whiz 1990 *^
Caves of Thor 1989/1990 *
SuperNova 1989 *
The Kroz Series 1.0 1987 *
* - This indicates the first U.S. release of the game.
^ - These games were originally published under the name Micro F/X. Micro F/X
was the name of the software company that George Broussard ran before
he teamed up with Scott Miller in 1990.
+ - Major Stryker versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, and Wolfenstein 3D version 1.3
were never released to the public.
~ - The registered version of the game started shipping with this shareware
version.
[4.1.2] Slide shows
Game Date Released
---- -------------
Boppin 10/18/94 *
Rise of the Triad #2 10/11/94
Wacky Wheels 08/30/94 *
XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport 08/15/94 *
Rise of the Triad #1 07/15/94 *
Mystic Towers 07/01/94 *
Hocus Pocus 05/16/94 *
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold #3 02/11/94
Raptor: Call of the Shadows 01/27/94 *
Duke Nukem II 11/18/93 *
Halloween Harry #2 10/06/93
Halloween Harry #1 08/93 *
Monster Bash 06/11/93 *
Bio Menace 05/23/93 *
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold #1 03/25/93 *
* - This indicates the first U.S. release of a slide show of the particular
game.
[4.1.3] Miscellaneous
Product Filename Associated With... Date Released
------- -------- ------------------ -------------
RTS Maker rtsmaker.zip Rise of the Triad 03/13/95
ROTT Specs rotspec1.zip Rise of the Triad 02/14/95
[4.2] Cast of characters
[4.2.1] Heroes
Game Name Comments
---- ---- --------
}Rise of the Triad Taradino Cassatt Voiced by Joe Selinske
}Rise of the Triad Thi Barrett Voiced by Susan Singer
}Rise of the Triad Doug Wendt Voiced by Lee Jackson
}Rise of the Triad Lorelei Ni Voiced by Pau Suet Ying
}Rise of the Triad Ian Paul Freeley Voiced by Jim Dose'
Boppin Yeet
Boppin Boik
Wacky Wheels Tigi The tiger.
Wacky Wheels Blombo The elephant.
Wacky Wheels Ringo The raccoon.
Wacky Wheels Razer The shark.
Wacky Wheels Uno The panda bear.
Wacky Wheels Sultan The camel.
Wacky Wheels Morris The moose.
Wacky Wheels Peggles The pelican.
Mystic Towers Baron Baldric First appeared in "Baron
} Baldric," by Animation/FX.
Hocus Pocus Hocus Pocus
Blake Stone Robert Wills Stone III Alias Blake Stone.
Duke Nukem II Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem I Duke Nukem
Alien Carnage Halloween Harry
Spear of Destiny B. J. Blazkowicz
Wolfenstein 3D B. J. Blazkowicz
Bio Menace Snake Logan
Monster Bash Johnny Dash
Commander Keen: Aliens Billy Blaze
Commander Keen: Galaxy Billy Blaze
Commander Keen: Vorticons Billy Blaze
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Cosmo
Major Stryker Harrison Stryker Related to Duke Nukem.
Crystal Caves Mylo Steamwitz
Secret Agent Agent 006 1/2 A short Duke Nukem?
Paganitzu Alabama Smith Related to Nevada?
Arctic Adventure Nevada Smith His second adventure.
Pharaoh's Tomb Nevada Smith His first adventure.
[4.2.2] Villains
Game Villains
---- --------
}Rise of the Triad General Darian, Sebastian "Doyle" Krist, NME
} (Nasty Metallic Enforcer, AKA "Spray"), El Oscuro
Boppin Hunnybunz
Hocus Pocus Trolodon (Terexin isn't really a villain)
Blake Stone: Planet Strike Dr. Pyrus W. Goldfire
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold Dr. Pyrus W. Goldfire
Duke Nukem II The Rigelatins
Duke Nukem I Dr. Proton
Spear of Destiny Trans Grosse, Barnacle Wilheim, UberMutant,
Death Knight, Angel of Death
Wolfenstein 3D Hans, Dr. Schabbs, Hitler, Otto Giftmacher,
Greta Grosse, General Fettgesicht
Bio Menace Dr. Mangle, Master Cain
Monster Bash Count Chuck
Commander Keen 4-5 The Shikadi
Commander Keen 1-3 The Vorticons
Major Stryker The Kretons
Secret Agent Dr. No Body, DVS terrorist leader
Math Rescue The Gruzzles
Word Rescue The Gruzzles
Dark Ages Garth
[4.2.3] Cameos
Frequently, the star of one Apogee game will make a cameo appearance in
another. Or, sometimes, someone from the real world shows up. A list of
such cameos follows. Appearances of Apogee characters in the default
scoreboards of games are not mentioned here, however, since there would be
too many to list.
WARNING: much of the fun of these games is running across these
things during play. Do not read this section if you want to be
surprised!
Game Description
---- -----------
Wacky Wheels The Dopefish, from Keen, (voiced by Joe Siegler).
Bio Menace Commander Keen as one of the hostages in episode 2.
Bio Menace Scott Miller, George Broussard, and Jim Norwood, in
episode 2; also artifacts from other Apogee games
including Keen and Duke. Yorp aliens from Keen
are there, among other things, as is a portrait
of Duke Nukem on the wall.
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Duke Nukem, in episode 2, level 7.
Duke Nukem I Commander Keen, mentioned by Dr. Proton in the
first episode.
Secret Agent Commander Keen, mentioned in the instructions.
Paganitzu Yorp from Keen: Vorticons; also Keen's helmet.
* - See the "secrets and other fun things" section for instructions on
seeing this cameo.
[4.3] Behind the scenes
[4.3.1] Programmers
Name Games
---- -----
Darren Baker Mystic Towers
Steve Baker Mystic Towers
Jason Blochowiak Keen: Galaxy Keen: Aliens XenoPhage^
George Broussard Pharaoh's Tomb Arctic Adventure
Allen H Blum III Major Stryker Duke Nukem 3D*^
John Carmack Keen: Vorticons Keen: Galaxy Keen: Aliens
Wolfenstein 3D
Robert Crane Alien Carnage Fumes^
Karen Crowther Word Rescue Math Rescue
Mark Dochtermann Rise of the Triad
Jim Dose Rise of the Triad
Andrew Edwardson Wacky Wheels
Scott Host Raptor
Steve Hovelroud Mystic Towers
Stephen P Lepisto Boppin
Peder Jungck Secret Agent
Frank Maddin Crystal Caves Monster Bash Shadow Warrior*^
Nolan Martin Rise of the Triad
Michael Maynard Blake Stone
Scott Miller Word Whiz Trivia Whiz Beyond the Titanic
SuperNova The Kroz Series
Jim Norwood Bio Menace Shadow Warrior*^
Todd J Replogle The Thor Trilogy Monuments of Mars Dark Ages
Duke Nukem I Cosmo's Adventure Duke Nukem II
Duke Nukem 3D*^
John Romero Keen: Vorticons Keen: Galaxy Keen: Aliens
Wolfenstein 3D
James T Row Blake Stone
William Scarboro Rise of the Triad
Keith Schuler Paganitzu Realms of Chaos^
Dave Sharpless Jumpman Lives!
Mike Voss Hocus Pocus
Lindsay Whipp Mystic Towers
* - A 3D Realms game.
^ - Not yet released.
[4.3.2] Artists
Name Games
---- -----
Randy Abraham Duke Nukem II
Debra Berry Blake Stone
Allen H Blum III Dark Ages Major Stryker Duke Nukem I
George Broussard Pharaoh's Tomb Arctic Adventure Secret Agent
Crystal Caves Duke Nukem I
Adrian Carmack Keen: Vorticons Keen: Galaxy Keen: Aliens
Wolfenstein 3D
Jeff Dee Blake Stone
Manda Dee Monster Bash
Rich Fleider Raptor
Shaun Gadala Wacky Wheels
Dale Homburg Math Rescue
Jimmie Homburg Math Rescue
Stephen A Hornback Major Stryker Cosmo's Adventure Duke Nukem II
Rise of the Triad Duke Nukem 3D*^
Chuck Jones Rise of the Triad Duke Nukem 3D*^
Jerry K Jones Blake Stone
Frank Maddin Crystal Caves
Lucinda Maddin Crystal Caves
Tim Neveu Raptor Rise of the Triad
Jim Norwood Secret Agent Crystal Caves Duke Nukem I
Bio Menace Shadow Warrior*^
Les Pardew Major Stryker
Bud Pembroke Word Rescue
Jennifer D Keitz Boppin
Todd J Replogle Monuments of Mars
Keith Schuler Paganitzu Realms of Chaos^
Susan Singer Rise of the Triad Realms of Chaos^ Duke Nukem 3D*^
Gary Sirois Major Stryker
Steven Stamatiadis Alien Carnage Fumes^
James Storey Rise of the Triad Duke Nukem 3D*^ Terminal Velocity*^
* - A 3D Realms game.
^ - Not yet released.
[4.3.3] Musicians
Name Games
---- -----
Steven Baker Alien Carnage Fumes^
Lee Jackson Rise of the Triad Duke Nukem 3D*^
Mark Klem Wacky Wheels
Andrew J Lepisto Boppin
Matt Murphy Raptor
Bobby Prince Major Stryker Cosmo's Adventure Bio Menace
Wolfenstein 3D Duke Nukem II Blake Stone
Rise of the Triad
Keith Schuler Dark Ages
George Stamatiadis Alien Carnage Fumes^
Rob Wallace Monster Bash
* - A 3D Realms game.
^ - Not yet released.
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[5] Obtaining the Games
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[5.1] The Shareware Episodes
[5.1.1] Software Creations BBS
Apogee's home BBS is the Software Creations BBS. There are over a hundred
lines. Apogee's games are released here first before anywhere else in
the world. The numbers are:
(508) 365-2359 2400 baud
(508) 368-7036 @ 9600-14.4k v.32bis
(508) 365-4035 @ 28.8k v.fc / v.34
[5.1.2] Anonymous FTP
The official FTP site for Apogee is ftp.uml.edu. uml has several mirror sites
which can be used in the event that uml is down or too crowded. Mirrors are
generally updated on a daily basis. A list of sites follows:
Site Name Directory Notes
--------- --------- -----
ftp.uml.edu /msdos/games/apogee the official site
ftp.uml.edu /msdos/games/id/home-brew Keen/Wolf3D stuff
ftp.uml.edu /msdos/games/editors crippled Duke I editor
ftp.uwp.edu /msdos/games/apogee uml mirror
ftp.ulowell.edu /msdos/games/apogee uml mirror
wuarchive.wustl.edu /systems/msdos/msdos-games uml mirror
ftp.uni-paderborn.de /pcsoft/msdos/games uml mirror
ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/msdos/uml uml mirror
nctuccca.edu.tw /Ulowell/msdos uml mirror
src.doc.ic.ac.uk /computing/systems/ibmpc/ uml mirror
msdos-games/games
swcbbs.com /pub/apogee Software Creations
ftp.cdrom.com /.3/games/Games/Apogee misc Apogee games
ftp.cdrom.com /.3/games/historic/msdos/* older games
ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca /wolf3d Keen/Wolf3D stuff
wuarchive.wustl.edu /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/games/Apogee user-supported
[5.1.3] CompuServe
Type "GO APOGEE" at a ! prompt. Remember that on CompuServe, the filenames
do not match those in the filenames list given previously; on CompuServe,
Apogee games have neither the leading episode number nor a version number
embedded in the filename.
[5.1.4] America On Line
Use the keyword "APOGEE" to go to Apogee's forum.
[5.1.5] Fidonet
If you are a Fidonet SysOp, you can get Apogee's games on the Fido Filebone.
}Talk to your local filebone hub about the Apogee FDN areas. See FILEBONE.NA
for more information. Send netmail to 1:124/9006 for more information on
these areas.
[5.2] The Registered Episodes
The registered versions of the software are the complete versions, and, as
they are not shareware, cannot legally exist on public BBS's or FTP sites.
The registered versions of the software must be purchased directly from
Apogee or from one of Apogee's dealers.
In many of Apogee's newer games, a DEALERS.EXE executable is archived with
the game. This is an executable readme containing a list of the foreign
dealers that sell Apogee's software.
[5.2.1] Ordering information
To order directly from Apogee, call 1-800-APOGEE1. The line is open 24 hours
a day. They'll need to know what disk size you desire, the best graphics
mode you are able to run (CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA), and whether you have an XT,
286, 386, 486, or Pentium. Note that some games have minimum CPU and
graphics requirements. Also note that Apogee's VGA games come only on high
density disks.
Use the ORDER.FRM file, which comes with virtually all of Apogee's games, if
you want to send in an order by mail. Send it to:
Apogee Software, Ltd.
P.O. Box 496389,
Garland TX 75049-6389
Or, you can fax a copy of your order to (214) 278-4670. Please include a
return fax number if you make use of this facility.
[5.2.2] Software Creations BBS
If you like, you can download the full registered versions of any Apogee game
from Software Creations by using a credit card for payment. (Apogee will mail
you the game manual and catalog, which you will receive a few days later.)
This only applies to disk-based versions of the games, though, as the CD
versions are too large to download. See the previous Software Creations
section for information on calling Software Creations.
[5.2.3] What combination deals does Apogee offer?
Combo Name Games in Combo Price Save
---------- -------------- ------ ----
Blast'em Raptor, Major Stryker $49.95 $15
Duke Duke Nukem I, Duke Nukem II $39.95 $25
Duke/Cosmo Duke Nukem I, Duke Nukem II, Cosmo $59.95 $35
Kid Word Rescue, Math Rescue $39.95 $20
Keen Galaxy/Aliens Keen: Galaxy, Aliens $59.95 $10
Keen Vort/Galaxy Keen: Vorticons, Galaxy $49.95 $15
Keen Fun Pack Keen: Vorticons, Galaxy, Aliens $69.95 $30
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[6] Troubleshooting
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[6.1] Things to try first
If you have a program with an Apogee game not starting correctly, there are a
few things you can try. First, make sure your system meets the hardware
requirements of the game. If they don't, you probably can't run the game
without upgrading your hardware.
Second, make sure you have the most recent version of the game. Many older
versions of games have bugs that are fixed in the most recent versions.
Third, if there is a XXXXHELP.EXE file that came with the game, read it.
(Most registered Apogee games have such a file on the first game disk;
with shareware versions, you might find it there and possibly in the directory
the game was installed to as well.) This file will contain numerous common
technical problems with their solutions. There are plans underway to make
a file available on-line which will contain all the current versions of
the technical support files in them.
If the game is failing to start due to insufficient memory, you can try
removing TSRs, or booting "clean." With MS-DOS 6.0 or greater, you can do
this by holding down either the shift key or F5 while the system is booting.
This causes your autoexec.bat and config.sys files to be bypassed. If you
are running a memory manager, try removing the manager altogether; this
seems to fix most problems Apogee games have with EMS/XMS memory. Additional
suggestions on how to free up memory may be in the XXXXHELP.EXE file.
Also, you may want to check the cheats section of this FAQ, as, for some
games, it lists several technical support parameters you can pass to the
game. Sometimes this fixes problems with certain pieces of hardware.
If you problem is your Soundblaster card (or a Soundblaster emulating card),
then the problem may be the settings on the card or the BLASTER environment
variable. Check the section on that subject below.
With regard to drive compression, Apogee has tested their entire product
line with Stacker 3.1, Stacker 4.0, and MS-DOS 6.22's DriveSpace. The
products all worked fine, with the following exceptions: Monster Bash
suffered a slowdown using DriveSpace. The install procedure for the Rise
of the Triad CD version 1.2a does not work under any drive compression
program, but the game may be installed manually and will run fine.
If you've tried everything and still can't get an Apogee game to work
correctly, contact Apogee's technical support services. These are listed
under "Contacting Apogee."
[6.2] Setting the BLASTER environment variable
This section may be useful if you are having problems with sound or music in
an Apogee game.
Apogee games that use Sound Blasters look at the BLASTER environment variable
to figure out where to send its sound output. Check to make sure that you
have the SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This code is an example,
and probably isn't exactly what you need to put in your system.
NOTE: Some of these parameters (P, H, & E) are dependant on certain types of
cards. For example, the E is only needed if you have an AWE 32. The
minimum requirements are to have the A, I, D, & T parameters. The other
three may or may not be needed depending on what type of card you have.
Please read this entire section to see if you need any of them. If you
are using a clone card, or some card that's not a "true" Sound Blaster,
then you will most likely only need A, I, D, & T.
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3 P330 H6 E620
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |_______ AWE 32 Only Parameter
| | | | | | | |__________ "High" DMA Channel
| | | | | | |_______________ MIDI Port
| | | | | |__________________ Type of Card
| | | | |_____________________ DMA Channel
| | | |________________________ Interrupt
| | |_____________________________ Port Address
| |___________________________________ Environment Variable
|________________________________________ DOS Command
NOTE: There can be no spaces between the word BLASTER and the equal sign (=).
If you have a space in there, your system will read the parameter incorrectly,
and it will not be recognized by our games.
Now, these may not (most likely not) be the same for your board, because the
Port Address, Interrupt and DMA Channel can be set by adjusting "jumpers" on
your sound board. Some newer cards have this information controlled by
software, please consult your card's manual for more information on how to set
these things. You should also check your manual if you are unclear as to how
to tell what settings your card is set at. The information *IS* important, so
it's recommended that you know precisely what the settings are. If you are
using a card that "emulates" the Sound Blaster (such as the Gravis UltraSound
through software, or the PAS16), you should check your card's manual on how to
set the card for Sound Blaster emulation.
For PORT ADDRESS, it's almost always 220. That seems to be the default for
most sound cards out there, and unless you know you've switched it away from
220, it's a safe bet it's still there.
The INTERRUPT is something that varies from system to system. Mystic Towers
and games prior to Raptor require that your IRQ be set at 7 or less. Apogee
does not recommend using IRQ2, as it causes problems.
The DMA CHANNEL sometimes causes problems if it isn't set to 1, which is the
usual default. If it is not set to one, some Apogee games may lock up.
The TYPE OF CARD should be 1 if you have an older Sound Blaster, or a Sound
Blaster emulating card. Use 3 if you have a newer plain Sound Blaster. Use
2 for an older Sound Blaster Pro. Use 4 for a newer Sound Blaster Pro.
The MIDI PORT parameter will only be needed if you are using a card that has
MIDI capabilites. If so, this is where you define what MIDI port you are
using. 330 seems to be the default, so if you have a MIDI card, and you
haven't changed anything from factory defaults, this is probably where it still
is.
The HIGH DMA CHANNEL is something that is used primarily on Sound Blaster 16
cards. This is not the same as the standard DMA channel, this is a different
one. This is only used if you're using a 16 bit sound card capable of playing
16 bit Sound Blaster sounds. By default, this is usually 5, so unless you know
that it's something else, it's probably still 5.
The E620 parameter is something that is needed _only_ if you have a Creative
Labs AWE 32 sound card. If you have one of these, this parameter will have
been set up properly assuming you've installed the software that came with the
card. Check your AWE 32 documentation for a more thorough explanation of what
this parameter is used for.
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[7] Cheats
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Apogee has almost always made a point of putting cheats in their games, both
documented and undocumented. Sometimes these cheats are available in all
versions of the game; other times they are only available in the registered.
>From 1987 to around May 1993, Apogee games came with a hint sheet, which
often contained cheats in them. From May 1993 to December 1993, Apogee games
were shipped with a XXXXHINT.EXE file, which had the same text as the old
hint sheets. Beginning in 1994, the XXXXHINT.EXE files are done away with
too; the information is now contained in the actual game manuals. Sometimes,
however, cheats are mentioned in XXXXHELP.EXE files which previously
contained strictly technical support information.
The cheats listed in the complete cheat list are subdivided by category.
The customer cheats are the cheats listed in the hint sheet, hint file, or
game manual that comes with the game. Some of the games also have a debugging
mode, which is not generally documented. Their original purpose is to aid in
the beta testing of the game. Lots of times, however, the debugging mode is
left intact, available for the regular game-player to use. Finally, there are
technical support parameters, which are not really cheats, but are used to
correct some technical problems.
[7.1] Complete cheat list
This section contains a variety of cheats from various Apogee games.
Actually, in the words of Joe Siegler, it's "the first comprehensive cheat
[list] ever published for all Apogee titles."
Note that while the customer cheat keys are officially supported by Apogee,
the debug keys are not. If you use the debug keys, Apogee cannot provide
any support, since this alters game performance to a state where their
standard support comments and issues might not apply. In short, neither
Apogee or I can be held responsible for damage caused by usage of the debug
keys. (Though, as a word of reassurance, I have never heard of such a thing
happening, save where expressly noted below.)
[Rise of the Triad]
+ Customer Cheat - Type in each cheat code, letter by letter, to get the
desired effect. You can type in either the "code" or
the "alternate". Note that for the codes, the slash
is a backslash, not a forward slash. The codes are not
case sensitive. The "dipstick" code must be given before
any others, to enable the other cheats. Note that any
cheats marked by an asterisk work only in the registered
version of the game. All other cheats work in both the
shareware and registered versions.
Code Alternate Description
---- --------- -----------
\ECC DIPSTICK Enable/disable cheat codes.
Control:
\GTL GOTO Go to another level.
\GOO GOOBERS Restart current level.
\REL REEN Re-enter level.
\L8R GOGATES Exit to DOS.
\ECL GOARCH Exit current level.
\FUN [none] Pause and enter rotation mode (use mouse).
\EKG [none] Extreme Gib mode.
\LEE MAESTRO Game jukebox.
Gameplay:
\WWW CHOJIN Woundless with weapons.
\GOD TOOSAD God mode (temporary invulnerability).
* \DOG WOOF Dog mode (temporary invulnerability).
\MER FLYBOY Mercury mode (flying).
\SHR BADTRIP Shrooms mode (drunk?).
\ELA BOING Elasto mode (bounce; no friction).
\RFA SPEED Enable autorun.
\PAN PANIC Reset to normal; full health; no modes, keys,
or extra guns.
\OOF WHACK Hurt yourself.
\DIE 86ME Kill yourself.
Effects:
\DON DIMON Light diminishing on.
\DOF DIMOFF Light diminishing off.
\FON LONDON Fog on.
\FOF NODNOL Fog off.
\SON SHINEON Light sourcing on.
\SOF SHINEOFF Light sourcing off.
\CON GOTA386 Turn off floor and ceiling textures.
\COF GOTA486 Turn on floor and ceiling textures.
Equipment:
\BAR SHOOTME Bulletproof armor.
\FAR BURNME Asbestos armor.
\GAR LUNGDUNG Gas mask.
\GAI SIXTOYS Get items (keys, bulletproof armor, health).
\BUM SLACKER Get all keys required to finish the level.
\OFP HUNTPACK Outfit player (bulletproof armor, keys,
heatseeker, and, in the registered version,
a split missile).
\GW2 JOHNWOO Double pistols.
\GW3 PLUGME MP40 machine gun.
\GW4 VANILLA Bazooka.
\GW5 HOTTIMES Heatseeker.
\GW6 BOOZE Drunk missile.
\GW7 FIREBOMB Firebomb.
\GW8 BONES Flamewall.
\GW9 SEEYA Hand of god (permanent god mode).
* \GWA SPLIT Split missile.
* \GWB KESOFDEATH Kinetic energy sphere.
* \GWC HOMERUN Excalibat.
* \GWD CUJO Dog weapon (permanent dog mode).
Views:
\CAM RIDE Missile camera on/off.
\HUD WHERE HUD on/off (x,y,room coordinates).
\MAP CARTIER Show entire map (doesn't work *from* the map).
Demos:
RECORD Record a demo (does not work in v1.0).
STOP Stop a demo (does not work in v1.0).
PLAY Play a demo (does not work in v1.0).
+ Misc Command Line Parameter - In the registered version, "dopefish" will
cause Scott's "mystical head" to appear on
the main log on screen to the accompaniment
of belches performed by Joe Siegler.
[Boppin]
+ Customer Cheat - The following cheats are available:
From the main menu, these are available in both the shareware and
registered versions of the game:
[ctrl] [V] - gives a slide show of all episodes (while the
show is playing, you can hit the left and right
arrow keys to go to the previous and next levels,
or esc to quit)
[ctrl] [T] - sound testing dialogue
During gameplay, the following are available in both the shareware and
registered versions of the game:
[ctrl] [B] - display the mystery spot
[ctrl] [L] - moves you to the next level, at the expense of
a life; will not work during the final battle
[shift] [ctrl] [L] - moves you back a level; this will not work on
either the first level of an episode, or the
final battle
During gameplay, the following are available provided the password
"TOYS" is given to activate them. These work only in the registered
version:
[ctrl] [F] - go to the final battle for the episode
[alt] [H] - delivers one maximum hit during the final battle
[ctrl] [F5] - add one credit to player one (nine maximum)
[ctrl] [F8] - add one credit to player two (nine maximum)
[1] or [!] - set lives for player one to zero *
[2] or [@] - set lives for player two to zero *
* These two cheats may not work if the shift key is used for a button.
Finally, in v1.1 of Boppin, the command line parameter "blood" may
be used to access the violence mode from v1.0.
[Wacky Wheels]
+ Customer Cheat - The following command line parameters can be used in
both the shareware and registered versions of the game:
/2 Fast gameplay.
/3 Really fast gameplay.
/debug Create a ERR.LOG file as you play.
turbo Activate the turbo key [brake]+[fire].
jump Activate the jump key [brake]+[accelerate].
Additionally, you can specify ONE of the following three weapon parameters:
hog Get 99 hedgehogs.
ice Get 99 ice cubes.
fire Get 99 fireballs.
+ Miscellaneous - Hitting [F10] during game play will write the screen out to
a PCX file.
+ Misc Command Line Parameter - "now" will start the game directly from the
main menu.
[Mystic Towers]
+ Customer Cheat - Cheats are activated by typing "BALDRIC" during a level.
Once actived, your score is reset to zero, and you can
press the following key combos to achieve what is listed:
[lshift] R xx - where xx is a number of a room to jump to (01-45)
[lshift] H - to get maximum health, also food and drink
[lshift] K - to get all keys except the end tower key
[lshift] W - to get full weapons
[lshift] C - to get ten coins
Only the health cheat works in the shareware version; the
rest require the registered version.
[Hocus Pocus]
+ Customer Cheat - Type these:
FEELGOOD - full health
BLAKE - both keys
BANANA - laser shots (registered version only)
QUARK - rapid fire (registered version only)
[Raptor: Call of the Shadows]
+ Customer Cheat - The backspace key will restore all your energy and give
you a death ray, at the cost of all your money. This
will only work in the registered version.
+ Debug mode - Set the environment variable "S_HOST" to the value "CASTLE"
at the DOS prompt by typing "SET S_HOST=CASTLE" (it must be
in caps). Then, when you play Raptor, you become completely
} invincible, and have all the weapons at your disposal. In
} addition, you can skip levels by starting them, hitting
} [esc], followed by [n]; you'll be returned to the hangar, and
} when you exit again, you'll be on the next level.
+ Warp - There is a level warp built into the game, so you can see any level
you want at any time. What you need to do is to get to the screen
where you see the level selection (Bravo Sector, etc...). The warp
combination is a 2 key entry. The keys are not to be pressed at the
same time. Note that you cannot use the level warp unless debug
mode (see above) is active.
Key 1 - Z, X, or Y (Z is Episode 1, X is Episode 2, and Y is Episode 3)
Key 2 - Any key between Q and O on the keyboard. Q is Level 1, and O is
Level 9.
This works in both the shareware and registered versions. Note that if you
try and warp to a registered episode from the shareware version, it will
crash the game.
[Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Planet Strike]
+ Customer Cheat - [J] [A] [M] [Enter] - These keys are to be pressed one at a
time. When all are pressed, the message "Now you're
Jammin'" appears, and you will be given all keys, and you
will get 100% health. Your score will also be taken to 0.
This will only work on the registered version of the game.
+ Debug Mode - Command Line Parameters
POWERBALL - Enables debug keys. This also requires that you hold down the
left and right shift keys during the JAM Logo intro. Don't
hold them down until the white letters start to appear.
Once the PC-13 screen is loaded, you can let go. You will hear
a "ching" sound during the intro when debug mode has been
successfully enabled. The "ching" sound will only happen if
you have a sound card. If you have a PC speaker, you won't hear
this.
TICS - Display TIC INFO in score area.
MUSIC - Enable music test mode: [backspace] [arrows] changes music.
RADAR - Displays a rotating overhead view during gameplay. Please note
that this REALLY slows the game down, to the point of being
unplayable.
These cheat keys can be use during gameplay only if you invoked
the program with the "powerball" parameter:
[backspace] W - Warp to level ([shift] [W] loads the default map)
[backspace] D - Player invisible (dumb objects)
[backspace] G - God mode
[backspace] I - Item cheat
[backspace] M - Memory info
[backspace] P - Pause screen
[backspace] Q - Fast quit
[backspace] A - Add Actors to AutoMapper.
[backspace] U - Unlock all floors
[backspace] O - Show hidden walls on auto mapper
[backspace] E - Quick Win Mission
[backspace] B - Border color
[backspace] C - Count objects
[backspace] F - Facing spot
[backspace] H - Hurt self (only if not in God mode)
[backspace] S - Slow motion
[backspace] V - Extra VBLs (Vertical Blanking Signal -- this will do
nothing for most users)
[backspace] [home] - Dec sky color (if ceiling textures are OFF)
[backspace] [pgup] - Inc sky color (if ceiling textures are OFF)
[backspace] [end] - Dec ground color (if ground textures are OFF)
[backspace] [pgdn] - Inc ground color (if ground textures are OFF)
[backspace] + - Add shading depth (if textures are OFF)
[backspace] - - Dec shading depth (if textures are OFF)
[backspace] ] - Inc shading drop off (if textures are OFF)
[backspace] [ - Dec shading drop off (if textures are OFF)
[shift] [tab] - Show full automap containing all live actors.
These cheat keys can be used during gameplay:
[6] [7] - Collect all bonus items (gold, ammo, health, etc).
[7] [8] - Kill all actors.
[6] [8] - Collect all bonus items and kill all actors.
+ Tech Support Command Line Parameters - These aren't really debug codes, or
cheats, either. They're in here for Apogee's Tech Support to use in
assisting customers who might be having problems running the game.
VERSION - Display version information.
SYSTEM - Display system information.
HIDDENCARD - Disable checking for video card.
NOJOYS - Disable checking for joysticks.
NOMOUSE - Disable checking for mouse.
NOMAIN - Disable checking for main memory.
NOEMS - Disable checking for EMS memory.
NOXMS - Disable checking for XMS memory.
NOAL - Disable checking for Adlib.
NOSB - Disable checking for Sound Blaster.
NOPRO - Disable checking for Sound Blaster Pro.
NOSS - Disable checking for Sound Source.
SST - Disable checking for Tandy Sound Source.
SS1 - Disable checking for Sound Source on LPT1.
SS2 - Disable checking for Sound Source on LPT2.
SS3 - Disable checking for Sound Source on LPT3.
NO386 - Disable checking for 386.
ENABLEGP - Enables NoteBook GamePort checking. (This will do bad things if
you try it on an Acer.)
[Duke Nukem II]
+ Customer Cheat - For the registered version only, the following two codes
can be used during gameplay. Please note that all three
letters have to be pressed at the same time.
[E] [A] [T] - health is restored to maximum, but score is reset to zero
[N] [U] [K] - get a random weapon, plus all inventory required to finish
the current level
[Alien Carnage]
+ Customer Cheat - Pressing [B] [I] [G] all at the same time will give you
full health and jetpack power.
+ Debug mode - The following debug keys work for version 1.1 of Halloween
Harry only:
[ctrl] [R] [E] [N] - Gives you all weapons, and activates
god mode for several seconds.
[alt] [L] - Level warp. Type the number of the
episode (1-4), followed by the number of
the level (1-5). Illegal input will dump
you to DOS. This can not be used in the
shareware version to access levels in the
registered version.
[alt] [=] - Change location within a level. Type
coordinates after this code; illegal
input will probably crash the game.
+ Tech Parameter - Pressing these four keys at the same time will show you the
coordinates you are at on the level. This serves no real
function on its own, but it is used by Apogee's Game Hint
Line sometimes to locate a player in a level. The keys are
[ctrl] [alt] [rshift] [F12]
+ Misc Command Line Parameter - "skip" will start the game directly from the
main menu.
[Wolfenstein 3D / Spear of Destiny]
+ Customer Cheat - Pressing [I] [L] [M] all at the same time, will give you
both keys, and will give you 100% health. It will also
take your score to zero. This cheat will work in both the
shareware and the registered version.
+ Debug mode -
The debug mode is activated with a different command line parameter
depending on what version of the game you have.
v1.0 -> -next
Once in the game, press [ctrl] [tab] [enter] to activate.
v1.1+ -> -goobers
Once in the game, press [lshift] [alt] [backspace] to activate.
Spear -> -debugmode
Once in the game, press [lshift] [alt] [backspace] to activate.
Once activated, these are the keys you can use.
[tab] [Q] - Quit
[tab] [W] - Warp to level xx
[tab] [E] - Exit to next level
[tab] [T] - Debug info in memory
[tab] [I] - Free items
[tab] [O] - Map of level (only works in beta versions of Wolf3D)
[tab] [S] - Slow motion
[tab] [F] - Position info
[tab] [G] - God mode (no damage)
[tab] [H] - Hurt yourself
[tab] [X] - Extra stuff (???)
[tab] [C] - Statistics
[tab] [V] - Add extra VBLs (Vertical Blanking Signal -- this will do nothing
for most users except maybe increase or decrease
the game speed.)
[tab] [B] - Change border color
[tab] [M] - Memory map
[tab] [N] - No clipping (walk through walls)
(This works only in Wolf3D v1.0 shareware. This mode can cause
really bad things to happen to the game, including corrupting
itself, which is why it was taken out.)
+ Tech Support Command Line Parameters are the same as in Blake Stone, except
VERSION, SYSTEM, and ENABLEGP do nothing in Wolf3D.
+ Misc Command Line Parameter - "NOWAIT" will start the game directly from
the main menu.
+ Note 1: If you press [B] [A] [T] all at once, you'll get a message wondering
why you're trying to cheat, since this is the old Keen Galaxy cheat
code.
+ Note 2: For Spear only, if you do nothing in the game for 30 seconds, BJ
will either cross his eyes or stick his tongue out at you. It
happens quickly, so you have to watch carefully.
[Bio Menace]
+ Customer Cheat - [C] [A] [T] - During gameplay, you can press these three
letters at the same time, and you will receive the machine
gun, 99 ammo, & 99 grenades. This works only in the
registered version.
+ Tech Support Command Line Parameters -
COMP - Turn on SVGA compatibility
NOAL - Disable Adlib sound card detection
NOJOYS - Disable joystick detection
NOMOUSE - Disable mouse detection
HIDDENCARD - Disable video card detection
+ Other Notes - The following secret weapons are available in both the
shareware and registered versions:
Super Plasma Bolt - Hold the up arrow until you hear a charge sound,
then hit fire; this causes one hit point of damage.
Fireball Attack - Turn left and right 6 or 7 times in succession,
then hit fire.
Electron Shield - Turn left and right 6 or 7 times in succession,
then hit the jump key.
Invincibility Burst - Hold the up arrow until you hear a charge sound,
then hit the down arrow.
[Monster Bash]
+ Customer Cheat - In the registered version only, you can press the [Z] and
[F10] keys down simultaneously to receive five lives. Hold
down [Z] first; since the [F10] key, by itself, has meaning
in the game, the cheat won't work if you push both down at
the same time and the [F10] is the first to register.
[Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! and Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter]
+ Customer Cheat - Pressing the [B] [A] [T] keys all at once will give you 99
shots, an extra life, and all the gems. This does not work
on early versions of Aliens Ate My Babysitter.
+ Debug Mode - Pressing [A] [2] [enter] all at once will activate debug mode.
Once activated, these keys will perform the following
functions:
[F10] [G] God mode
[F10] [I] Free items
[F10] [J] Jump cheat (Note that you will not be able to jump
down while the jump cheat is activated)
[F10] [N] No clipping (Be careful. If you fall off the bottom
of the level, you'll die, even if you
are in God Mode.)
[F10] [Y] View hidden areas in the level.
[F10] [B] Set border color (1-15)
[F10] [C] Show number of active/inactive objects in the level
[F10] [D] Record a demo
[F10] [E] End the current level
[F10] [M] Display memory usage
[F10] [S] Slow motion
[F10] [T] Sprite test
[F10] [V] Add 0-8 VBLs (Vertical Blanking Signal -- this
will do nothing for most users)
[F10] [W] Warp to any level
[F10] [Y] Reveal hidden areas
[Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons]
+ Customer Cheat - Either of these cheats will work with either the shareware
or registered versions of the game. The key combinations
need to be pressed at the same time.
[C] [T] [space] - Gives pogostick, all keycards, and full ammo.
[shift] [tab] - Pass through an unplayed level on world map.
+ Debug mode - [G] [O] [D] - pressing all three of these at the same time
will put you in god mode, and will give you a "jump cheat,"
which means when you press "jump," you fly.
[Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure]
+ Customer Cheat - Pressing [C] [0] [F10] down simultaneously will give you
a full health and bombs. This cheat only works once
per game.
+ Debug mode - Pressing [tab] [del] [F12] at once activates debug mode. The
debug keys are:
[F10] [G] - God mode
[F10] [W] - Warp
[F10] [M] - Display memory usage statistics
+ Command Line Parameter - Give "apogee" on the command line when starting
up Cosmo. The effects of this are many. One,
the game will not recognize your old high
scores or saved games. (The high scores will
be reset to those of Simpsons' characters until
you exit and re-enter the program normally.)
In this mode, if you die quickly enough after
entering a level, you'll be invincible from then
on, to everything but pits on the bottom of
each level.
[Duke Nukem I]
+ Customer Cheat - Pressing [backspace] [pgdn] at the same time will give you
all keys and full gun power. This can be used in either
the shareware or registered version of the game.
+ Debug mode - To activate, you must enter "asp" on the command line, and it
must be in lower case. Once activated, you can press these
key combinations inside the game. All must be pressed
simultaneously.
[G] [O] [D] - Full health & all items
[G] [O] [W] - Level Warp. This isn't a real warp; it will
just take you to the next level. You need to
keep on using it to progress through the levels.
[Major Stryker]
+ Customer Cheat - The cheats here are a bit more complicated than in other
games. There is a two step procedure to active the cheat
mode. (This cheat mode only works in the registered
version. It does nothing in the shareware version.)
Step 1 - Type [C] [H] [E] [A] [T] at the Main Title Screen.
All keys need to be pressed one at a time. When
you get it, you'll see the message that says
"Cheat Active" (it really isn't yet).
Step 2 - During the game, hold down the [backspace] key,
and then press the [H] & [S] keys at the same
time. When you are successful, you'll see a
message that says "Cheat Mode On" (it is now).
You can hit these three keys again to turn the
cheat mode off.
Once activated, you can press these keys to activate various
options. Please note that you must hold down the [tab] key
first before pressing the others, or it won't work.
[tab] [O] - Fire Options
[tab] [R] - Rapid Fire
[tab] [S] - Shield Options
[Crystal Caves]
+ Customer Cheat - All keys need to be pressed at the same time:
[X] [T] [R] [A] - Gives you max ammo.
[N] [E] [X] [T] - Lets you warp to any level.
+ Debug mode - Pressing [Z] [E] [U] [S] at the same time will put you into
God mode and will let you activate the other debug mode key,
which is [G]. Pressing that will reverse the gravity in the
game.
[Secret Agent]
+ Customer Cheat - Pressing these key combinations at the same time will
activate the functions listed. This will work with either
the shareware or registered versions of the game.
[U] [V] [K] - Gives you 25 ammo.
[Z] [G] [I] - Gives you the disk and dynamite.
+ Debug Mode - Pressing these key combinations at the same time will activate
the functions listed. This will work with either the shareware
or registered versions of the game.
[P] [J] [X] - God Mode
[B] [O] [N] [D] - Warp
[Math Rescue]
+ Customer Cheat - These cheats will work in either the shareware or the
registered versions of the game. Key combinations have to
be pressed at the same time.
[E] [L] [M] - Gives you lids and slime.
[P] [A] [M] - Level warp. When you hit this combination,
the game will freeze. Press a number here,
and you will be taken to that level. You
will not be able to see the number when you
are typing it.
+ Tech Parameter - Pressing the [+] or [-] keys will speed up or slow down the
game appropriately.
[Word Rescue]
+ Customer Cheat - These will work with either the shareware or registered
versions of the game.
[L] [Z] - Warp. When you type this, the screen will
freeze. Enter the level number you want to go
to. You will not be able to see the number
when you are typing it.
[P] [S] - Gives you slime.
[Escape] - Will skip the finish of the key sequence.
[Dark Ages]
+ Customer Cheat - Press [F10] to activate the cheat mode in either the
shareware or registered versions of the game. This
activates the following cheats:
[backspace] - Reduce extra health requirement to 5 coins.
[+] - Rapid fire.
[Paganitzu]
+ Customer Cheat - To active the cheat mode, you need to be at the game menu
screen. When you are there, press these three keys at the
same time [ctrl] [A] [L], and you will be taken to another
screen where you can enter a number. The numbers you can
enter and their functions are listed below, and they will
work with either the shareware or registered versions of
the game.
325 - Gives you 99 lives.
589 - Goes to the end-game sequence.
822 - Double point value.
7xx - Level warp where xx is the level to warp to.
642 - Turn god mode on.
643 - Turn god mode off.
[Arctic Adventure]
+ Customer Cheat - [M] [F] [X] - Pressing all three of these keys at the same
time will give you all the keys, the boat, infinite ammo,
and infinite pick axes. This will work with either the
shareware or registered version of the game.
[Pharaoh's Tomb]
+ Customer Cheat - When the scroll lock is on, the grey plus key will advance
you through the levels. This will work on both the
shareware and registered versions of the game.
[Monuments of Mars]
+ Customer Cheat - To activate the cheat mode, you need to press [capslock],
and then press the combination of [shift] [.]. Once
you've done that, you can press [pgdn] to advance a level.
This will work in either the shareware or registered
versions of the game.
[The Kroz Series]
+ Customer Cheat - To activate the cheat mode, you need to press either [!]
or [X]. This depends on which version you're playing, so
you will need to try both to see which works on what you
have. Once activated, you can use these cheats:
[shift] [9], then [rightarrow] - go to the next level
[shift] [0] - free items
[7.2] Hex editing
Editing saved game files is one of the finer methods of cheating. Below are
the specs for the saved game files for some Apogee games. To make use of
these specs, you'll need a hex editor (an editor, as opposed to a text
editor, which allows you to directly edit a binary file), and a small dose
of know-how. If you are not comfortable with computers in general, it is
not recommended that you attempt to cheat in this manner; mistakes editing
these saved game files may cause unpredictable results. Naturally, neither
Apogee nor I take responsibility for any damage caused by manually editing
saved game files.
[Wacky Wheels]
Edit the WACKY.CFG file:
872H - number of laps, in longints (back up three and use those four
bytes; remember that longints, integers, and words have
reversed bytes).
876H - Difficulty level (1=amateur, 2=pro, 3=champ).
882H - Your points.
886H - Opponent's points.
88AH - Opponent's points.
88EH - Opponent's points.
892H - Opponent's points.
896H - Opponent's points.
89AH - Opponent's points.
89EH - Opponent's points.
87AH - Course group (bronze, silver, etc).
87EH - Course number (1-5).
8C3H - Number of porcupines.
957H - Horsepower of your engine (1=12HP, 2=6HP).
Changing your character type is slightly more complicated. First,
edit location 86AH as follows, remembering your old character number.
0=Uno, 1=Sultan, 2=Morris, 3=Peggles,
4=Razer, 5=Ringo, 6=Blombo, 7=Tigi
At location 8A2H should be the number of your old character.
Somewhere between 8A6H and 8BEH should be your new character number.
Switch those bytes, so the one with the new character number has the
old one in it, and your character number has the new number in it.
}Note that changing the course group in the shareware version will not permit
}access to the registered version course groups, but will instead crash the
}game.
[Raptor: Call of the Shadows]
With a hex editor, change bytes 27h and 28h of a Raptor saved game file
(char????.fil) to the value FF. When you load this saved game, you'll have
a few million dollars to spend on equipment. If you don't have a hex editor,
there are some programs available that do this for you. The most common
is RapCheat, available in various game cheat archives.
[7.3] Secrets and other fun things
Frequently, game programmers will embed little fun things into their games.
Usually, these things would not crop up under ordinary game play. Sometimes
it requires doing certain things, typing certain codes, or even activating
the program on a particular day or time. Sometimes these little things are
called "easter eggs." Below are some such things that can be found in some
of Apogee's games, and the instructions for getting to them.
[Rise of the Triad]
If you start ROTT when your system clock indicates that it's one of five
different holidays, the "group picture" of the five main characters is
changed slightly. In addition, on Christmas, the music for the first
level is changed to a familiar Christmas tune. The holidays and effects
are as follows:
Easter <varies> Lorelei Ni wears Easter Bunny ears.
Cinco de Mayo 05/05/XX Ian wears a sombrero.
Independence Day 07/04/XX Doug holds an American flag.
Halloween 10/31/XX Thi wears a witch's hat.
Christmas 12/25/XX Taradino wears a Santa Claus hat; new music
for the first level.
Also, there's a way to get all five "holiday hats" in Rise of the Triad to
show up on the screen at the same time. If you finish the game the right way,
and destroy all the larvae in the last level, watch ALL the credits (takes
several minutes). You'll get to a screen that says "The HUNT is victorious.
The End." Do nothing. Let it sit there for about a minute or two, and
you'll get another "The End" screen where all five "holiday hats" are shown
at once.
}Bosses play big roles in Rise of the Triad. There are four, one at the end
}of each episode, and arranged in order of weakest to strongest. There are
}ways to kill two of the bosses that the programmers at Apogee never thought
}to try. These "loopholes" may be "fixed" in future versions of ROTT, but
}as of version 1.2a, the loopholes are still there. For Sebastian "Doyle"
}Krist, you can lure him out of the room by hitting the touch plate diagonally
}away and to the right of the gold door as you enter it. The triggering the
}touchplate will block the gold door and open a passageway. Lure Krist
}through here carefully, then through the brown door. Then go up the
}staircase! Krist, in his wheelchair will follow you up. However, due to
}a bug in Krist's programming (he was never intended to ascend stairs), he
}won't fall back down to the ground. He'll fire missiles at you, but with
}you safely beneath him, they won't hit. Shoot him until he's dead.
}
}The second loophole involves the final boss, El Oscuro, in his final form
}(the snake-like form). Get a firebomb and an asbestos vest. Then find
}El Oscuro and lure him into a corner. Keep the corner at your back. Aim
}the firebomb down and fire it -- this will thrust you up into the air.
}Land on El Oscuro and wait for him to die underneath your weight. (The
}intended method of killing him is to not fire at him at all, but dodge his
}own attacks until he dies of exhaustion. Firing at him simply makes him
}stronger!)
Several people have run across the curious message "I'm Free" while playing
ROTT, and don't know what it means. If you get this, you're probably playing
either the "This Causes An Error" level in the registered version, or you're
playing a user-made level. The cause of the note is whenever a moving wall
crosses the boundary of a level and just keeps on going. The game detects the
problem, but, before crashing with a regular error message, manages to put up
}the picture saying, "I'm Free" (drawn by Tom Hall). The "This Causes An
}Error" level, originally titled "WanderWall Bug Map," has a pushwall in it
}that leaves the level, crashing the game with the "I'm Free" message.
What all this is, is a manifestation of in-house humor. If you don't get it,
that's good, because you're not supposed to. It's one of those "you had to
be there" things. At any rate, the story goes...during the development of
ROTT, when a level was tested wherein a pushwall was inadvertantly directed
out of the level bounds, someone joked, saying, "I'm free." He probably
wishes he hadn't, for all the confusion it's caused customers who have run
across it -- either that, or, if he were more like me, he feels a deep sense
of satisfaction in having successfully dumbfounded a significant enough
percentage of the gaming community to warrant mention in FAQs such as these.
[Wacky Wheels]
To see the Dopefish, a creature from Commander Keen, start any single player
race. When everybody else moves, stand still. Hold down the break, and turn
left all the way around until the Dopefish shows up. Note: the lion that
starts the race must remain on the screen the entire time; otherwise, the
Dopefish won't appear. You can do this as many times as you like, so long
as the lion doesn't leave the screen.
[Raptor: Call of the Shadows]
Raptor was written by Cygnus, and it seems to be a birthday present to
themselves. Whenever Raptor is started when your system's clock matches the
birthday of one of the people at Cygnus, Raptor behaves a little strangely.
Here's the list of recognized birthdays. You can reset your system clock
to one of these dates manually, if you wish; any year should be all right,
so long as it's not in the past:
March 12 Bobby Prince
May 16 Scott Host
August 28 Rich Fleider
October 2 Jim Molinets
Note that in v1.0 of Raptor, Bobby Prince's birthday was not recognized,
while Tim Neveu's was.
What happens is this: first, the Apogee logo is displayed, but not with
Apogee's trademark music. Instead, you hear the Cygnus folks, sounding a
little tipsy, humming the Apogee theme music themselves. In addition, some
of the Raptor levels contain enemies that don't normally appear such as
monkeys who throw coconuts at you, raptor dinosaurs scurrying across the
screen, and cows with machine guns concealed beneath their hides. Most of
these peculiar enemies appear on the first mission of the game, and they
are usually difficult to kill.
Finally, when you exit the game, you get to hear the member of Cygnus whose
birthday it is give an impersonation of a monkey. This might consist of
hooting or screeching sounds, or simply an eloquent rendering of the word
"monkey." (The raucous you hear when monkeys appear during the game are
all the monkey impersonations playing together at random.)
There is a way, beyond setting the system time to a particular birthday, of
getting the monkeys and raptors and cows to fight you. When the screen comes
up where you must choose a sector to fly, flip the switch at the bottom center
of the screen by clicking on it with the mouse. It should darken. This
activates the three lights to the right of this switch. In version 1.0 of
Raptor, you should turn on the first and third lights; in v1.1 and v1.2 of
Raptor, you should turn all three lights on. Then you can select a sector or
"auto pilot" and fly the level. You'll know the cheat worked if you hear a
static-like sound. All levels have some new enemy that appears by using this
cheat, though sometimes they are small and inconspicuous. Besides monkeys,
cows, and raptors, there are: the ship from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the ship
from Space 1999, pedestrians, a woman sunbathing on a roof, and other
miscellaneous items.
Note, however, that if you activate the "battle cow" mode using the switches,
as opposed to running the game on a Cygnus birthday, you don't get the goofy
Apogee theme song in the beginning, nor the individual monkey impersonation
at the end.
[Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy!]
In Keen: Galaxy, episode 4, go to the level entitled "Pyramid of the Moons,"
and from there, to the half moons painted on the floor. If you stand on
these and do nothing for a while, Keen will moon you, instead of his usual
idle activity of reading a book. This will only happen once per game,
however.
Also, in all episodes of Commander Keen, signs are written in an alien
language. The comment is made, "too bad you don't know the language." Well,
now you do. The language is a simple symbol substitution, the key of which
is given below. This key appears only twice in all the Keen games; in the
secret areas of the secret levels of episodes three and six.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
# # # #### # # ##### # ### # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # #
# # # # ## # # # # ### ### # # # # # # #
# # # ## ### # # # # # # ###
# #### # # # # # # #
##
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
# # ## # # # # ## # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # ### # # # # # #
# # # # ### # # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # ##### ### # # # # # # #
# # # # ### # #
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[8] Contacting Apogee
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[8.1] By phone
Apogee's technical support line is (214) 278-5655. It is open from 8am-6pm
Central Time on Mondays through Friday. It is also closed for major national
holidays and on the weekends.
You can contact George Broussard at (214) 278-7828.
[8.2] By fax
Apogee's fax number is (214) 278-4670. Include a return fax number.
[8.3] By snail mail
Send mail to:
Apogee Software, Ltd.
POB 496389
Garland, TX 75049-6389
United States of America
[8.4] Through networks
You can contact an Apogee representative from the computer networks
listed below by using one of the given addresses.
Internet / joe.siegler@apogee1.com
joe.siegler@swcbbs.com
apogee@metronet.com
CompuServe / 74200,553
AOL / APOGEE
GEnie / APOGEE
Prodigy / CXVP94A
Fidonet / 1:124/9006
Rime / ->APOGEE
->1674
You can contact George Broussard on CompuServe at 73121,2743.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[9] Credits
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In no particular order, thanks to:
- To Scott Symes <symes@lfs.loral.com> for forwarding information about
the relationship between Apogee and id.
- To QUAKE <decerman@ouray.denver.colorado.edu> for writing said
information.
- To Mike Vasconcellos <mikev@netcom.com> for Apogee game lists.
- To Audry A. DeLisle <rad@crl.com> for information regarding MS-DOS 6.22's
DriveSpace program, Apogee's recommended system configuration for it,
Apogee games lists, and combination deal offers.
- To Bill Amon <wamon@mbunix.mitre.org> for Keen cheats and the Keen FAQ.
- To Rylan Hilman <hilman@ichips.intel.com> for more Keen cheats,
Rise of the Triad cheats, and the Rise of the Triad FAQ.
- To Stanley Stasiak <stasiak@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> for the Wolf3D FAQ.
- To Adam Williamson <adam@scss.demon.co.uk> for taking over the Wolf3D FAQ.
- To Diane Winters <diane@netcom.com> for several cheats.
- To Robert Wade <rewade@aol.com> for the Raptor birthday mode dates.
- To Warren Buss <wbuss@primenet.com> for Wolf3D and Blake Stone
information.
- To Benjamin William Andrews <bandrews@pen.k12.va.us> for passing along
the ROTT cheats.
- To Vincenzo Alcamo <alcamo@arci01.bo.cnr.it> for compiling a ROTT cheat
list.
- To <danm360381@aol.com> for the Wacky Wheels hex editing instructions.
- To Robert Mueller <lsrlight@netcom.com> for miscellaneous cheat codes.
- To Spencer Candland <swcteam@aol.com> for Cosmo cheats.
- To Kelly Youngblood <jry@pinn.net> for the Keen language.
- To <ryanj85154@aol.com> for keeping sharp eyes on FTP sites.
- To Michael T. Oda <az171@freenet.carleton.ca> for cheat corrections.
- To Eric Baker <eric.baker@pctie.microbbs.us.com> for various corrections.
- To Stanley Adams <stanley.adams@search.van.wa.us> for Keen secrets.
} - To <jwnrski@execpc.com> for undocumented Wacky Wheels and Raptor cheats.
} - To Charlie Grasmick <sftk@mt.net> for correcting typos.
} - To Bryce C Liu <ptsm14c@prodigy.com> for observations about Wacky Wheels.
- To David B. Laprad <psc10003@frank.mtsu.edu> for some of the Paganitzu
and Realms of Chaos history and prompting the discovery of the rest by
his watchful curiosity.
- To Donna Wong <donna@omc.lan.mcgill.ca> for noticing important details.
} - To Daniel Tobias <dtobias@webcom.com>, senior programmer/editor for
} Softdisk, for extensive and precise information regarding the relationship
} between Apogee, id, and Softdisk.
- To Lee Jackson <lee.jackson@p5.f9005.n124.z1.fidonet.org>, composer for
Apogee, for the history of the Apogee theme song, the Dopefish history,
and being otherwise helpful in aiding in the development of this FAQ.
- Last, but certainly not least, to Joe Siegler <joe.siegler@apogee1.com>,
for his undying research and patience in the face of my unending string of
questions and requests put forth before him. His efforts in promoting
the accuracy and completeness of this FAQ are greatly appreciated.
Apologies if I missed anyone.
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[10] Dopefish and Friends
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"YYAAAAAAAAAAAA...HA...HA...HA...HOOOOEEYY!!" -- Goofy
"Yabba dabba doo!!" -- Fred Flintstone
"Habba, habba, ha-hhhhhaaaaa...." -- Jackie Gleason
"Ahweehrwyyhwhryrhwwehrwehrwrhwherr...." -- Dick Van Dyke, "Mary Poppins"
"Yerhudurdhrrdrhudrtdhtudhrtduhtddhrtur...." -- Sebastian, "Little Mermaid"
"Belch." -- Dopefish, Commander Keen
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| _|\_ | |\ _,,,---,,_ |
| \ / \ Pisces Swimeatus | ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ |
| |>< |> OO The Dopefish | |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' |
| / \___/UU | '---''(_/--' `-'\_) |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
"I just drew this stupid little fish." -- Tom Hall
"And did I mention it has HUGE sprites?" -- XenoPhage slide show
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