---- FEARS doom-clone Passwords explanation by Giovanni Meroni -------- When I solved the first level and I got the level code for the second level I saw that this code was a 8 digit hexadecimal number but I thougth that this was meaningless and the code was only a casual sequence of digits... No! That's wrong!!! In the level code is coded (well is a code after all...:-)) all the important stats of the player: His number of lives, ammo, level and the type of weapons. Infact try to end the first level many times, with different number of ammo or lifes, you'll get a different code for the second level... Note that these codes don't remember things like energy, treasures founds, time used, secrets founds, so when you enter a level using a code all this stats will be at a default level. After collecting some Level 2 access code I started to try to understand how all these informations are coded. First of all I discovered that the 8 digit sequence has to be seen as the union of two 4 digit numbers: In the first one are coded the level, the number of lives and the type of weapons available, and in the second one the number of the two type of ammo. Exemplation: lv code F8F856A5 \__/\__/ \ \__ means 99 weapon of type 1 and 28 of type 2 \_____ means access to level 2 with gun and 0 lives left lv code C9F545B9 \__/\__/ \ \__ means 53 weapon of type 1 and 14 of type 2 \_____ means access to level 3 with gun and machinegun and 3 lives left N.B: the two groups of digits are completley scorrelated!!! so you can always get the first 4 digit from a level code and the last 4 of another one and you'll have another valid level code!!! example: using the two code above you can buld up two other codes: F8F845B9 and C9F556A5 , and those are valid codes too!! So... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Explanation of the SECOND group of a level code ( the last 4 digits) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (My GrandFather always told me to start at the beginning ;-) ) Well... I had no luck and so there is NO explanation :( but I collected a few codes so here they are: ___________________________ | Lv code | type1 | type2 | Type1 means the number of ammunitions of +---------+-------+-------+ type 1 ( gun and machinegun ammo) | 54AD | 99 | 14 | | 94AC | 98 | 14 | Type2 means the number of ammunitions of | 40A8 | 00 | 14 | (guess ?) type 2 ...( Rockets ) | 91ED | 91 | 14 | | 519D | 87 | 10 | | 5000 | 64 | 00 | | 45B9 | 53 | 14 | | 56A5 | 99 | 28 | | 5C8D | 99 | 42 | | 5E85 | 99 | 56 | | 742D | 99 | 70 | | 7625 | 99 | 84 | | 7C0D | 99 | 98 | | BC0F | 99 | 99 | +---------+-------+-------+ When I foud out BC0F I stop searching new codes because it'd be pointless: BC0F is the best code to use to start every level with the max ammo and so... I often use it... If you manage to find out how ammo numbers are coded into this 4 digit well... DONT let me know!!!! ;-) I really don't care much adout it.... Well now .... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Explanation of the FIRST group of a level code ( the first 4 digits) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here the thing is a bit tricky : It envolves the use of Binary to Hexadecimal conversions and so if you dont know much about it... Jump to the conclusions ;-) In the first 4 digits are coded the level number, the type of weapons and the number of lives. The code number is a Hexadecimal number, so it can be written in binary: D8F5 -> 1101 1000 1111 0101 and the meanings of each group of bit is: xxxx 100x x11x xxxx \__/ \____/ \__/|\_ =1 if you have the machinegun (0 else) \ \ \ \__ =1 if you have the rocket launcher (0 else) \ \ \____ in this triplet is coded the level : \ \ 111 = level 1 110 = level 2 101 = level 3 \ \ 100 = level 4 011 = level 5 \ \_________ this is a sort of checksum to see if the code is valid: \ I had not foud out how this works but you can try \ some combinations and use the only one that works \___________ in these bits is coded the number of lives you have: 1111 = 0 lives 1110 = 1 life 1101 = 2 lives 1100 = 3 lives ..... ....... 0111 = 8 lives 0110 = 9 lives Here are some codes I found out: I calculated them first and then I tried to insert them as password in the game and they all worked well | Level | only Gun | Gun+Machinegun | gun+Machinegun+ | | | | | rocket launcher | +-------+-----------+----------------+-----------------+ | 1 | | | 6D7F | 9 LIVES +-------+-----------+----------------+-----------------+ | 2 | F8F8 | F879 | | 0 LIVES | | E878 | E8F9 | | 1 LIFE | | D9F8 | D979 | (*) | 2 LIVES | | C978 | C9F9 | | 3 LIVES | | BAF8 | BA79 | | 4 LIVES (*) .... | | (*) | 7C79 | | 8 LIVES | | | 6CF9 | 6DFB | 9 LIVES +-------+-----------+----------------+-----------------+ | 3 | F974 | F875 | | 0 LIVES | | E9F4 | E8F5 | | 1 LIFE | | D874 | D975 | (*) | 2 LIVES | | C8F4 | C9F5 | | 3 LIVES .... | | (*) | (*) | 6C77 | 9 LIVES +-------+-----------+----------------+-----------------+ | 4 | | F971 | F873 | 0 LIVES | | | E9F1 | E8F3 | 1 LIFE | | | D871 | D973 | 2 LIVES | | | C8F1 | C9F3 | 3 LIVES | | | | BA73 | 4 LIVES | | (*) | (*) | AAF3 | 5 LIVES | | | | 9B73 | 6 LIVES | | | | 8BF3 | 7 LIVES | | | | 7C73 | 8 LIVES | | | | 6CF3 | 9 LIVES +-------+-----------+----------------+-----------------+ | 5 | | | FBEF | 0 LIVES | | | | EB6F | 1 LIFE | | | | DAEF | 2 LIVES | | | | CA6F | 3 LIVES | | | | B9EF | 4 LIVES | | (*) | (*) | A96F | 5 LIVES | | | | 98EF | 6 LIVES | | | | 886F | 7 LIVES | | | | 7FEF | 8 LIVES | | | | 6F6F | 9 LIVES +-------+-----------+----------------+-----------------+ (*)I Have no code for this combinations of level,lifes,weapon_type because I have no time to spare on this silly things :) (And, most important fact, finding out new codes is really boring, when you know how to do it) If You really need them (I cant immagine why), Well found them out yourself!! ----------------- | CONCLUSIONS | (The most waited part......) ----------------- The complete codes to start a level with all ammo, all weapons, 9 lives are: level1: 6D7FBC0F level2: 6DFBBC0F level3: 6C77BC0F level4: 6CF3BC0F level5: 6F6FBC0F *++++++++Ending note.... - Forgive my Spagetti-English... but I'm a Spaghetti-eater (i.e an Italian boy) - All these codes works well on my version of FEARS, but in the building of the codes there is room to have a different set of codes for different copy of the game.. If it'd happen, these codes won't work (obviously) but I think that the logic behind won't change.Try to change the '100' part in the checksum nibble, or the '11' bits between checksum and level nibble. - Let me know your opinions on this. - You can use this doc and the informations inside it as you want, but dont steal the credits !!! Giovanni Meroni