Lost Apidya level found after 16 years.....

[Yanni Oblivion]

Hello everyone, it has been a while since I posted here, and if I remember correctly it was when I leaked the info about the Super Stardust re-make that was being tested at SCEE's first party offices. But without any further ado, I shall get to why I'm posting here again.

Apidya was one of my favourite games on the Amiga, but something always seemed not quite right about it.

On the music test there was a track called "Speed Of Light", and as far as I was aware at the time there was not a bonus round with that name. Many years later when I got internet access it seemed that nobody else knew what that piece of music corresponded to either.

Then I happened upon this link:
Link (http://www.girv.net/blog/archives/apidya-lost-bonus-level-uncovered-after-16-years.html)

Someone delved into the code and found the hidden bonus level. As such, I dub the person who did that a legend. It is an interesting article, as it lifts the lid on a bug that could possibly prevent players from accessing the bonus round in question.

[Harrison]

Nice find.

So I'm guessing that this bonus level has been accessible all along but no one had found the entry point until now?

[Graham Humphrey]

It first cropped up on this thread (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=34908) earlier this year. One heck of a find, indeed.

[Buleste]

Well done to KG and John Girvin for finding the level.

[Harrison]

There is a bug in a data table in level 4 that would prevent the "speed of light" subgame from ever starting. Two values were swapped which essentially said "move along, nothing to see here" even if you were at the right location to trigger the game.

Ah! So you couldn't access it unless the actual game code is hacked.

[Buleste]

I had tracked down the original developer of Apidya, Peter Thierolf, and informed him of our discovery. After some discussion, an examination of the original source code that Peter still had and a comparison of that source code to the released binary, we realised that the game wasn't actually bugged as I had thought. The subgame was simply very well hidden (until now) and very difficult to get into.

It wasn't a hack just well hidden. If you watch the video on the first link then for good reason as it is extremly hard.

[Harrison]

I watched the video of the bonus level being played and it gets bloody fast!

[Yanni Oblivion]

I find it weird that unlike the other bonus levels it has nothing to collect. But it also reeks of poor beta testing that they didn't know it was unreachable/stupidly heard to reach.

On a similar subject, I found a bug in Apidya years ago that enables you to skip much of the first area. When you get to the boss at the end of 1-1 have a decent weapons line-up and a charge shot ready, then as soon as you see the boss let off the charge shot and defeat it asap whilst flying straight into it. If successful you'll see the "You have survived scene 1" dialogue and go straight to the second area, bypassing 1-2, 1-2, and the end of area boss.

I wonder if any other Amiga games have things in them hidden as such that are waiting to be discovered?

[Harrison]

I bet they do, and fans who repeat play them over and over are sure to eventually discover more. Many cheats are also exploits of bugs rather than designed into the game on purpose.