Robots! Pew pew! Revolution! Let's play 2400 A.D.! -- Done!!

[lightbane]

Random question: Can you attack npcs? If so, can you kill the Revolution leader to force a special game over screen or something?

 

[Pussycat669]

Sorry, I'm just taking a short break from Uukrul. Not many people seem to be interested in this little LP though. :/ :attentionbee:

I'm interested but, like with many other LPs I find interesting, I never played the game myself and hence don't have anything of value to add. Participation is the hard part and there might be times where you don't even want your audience to keep you going. In that vein: stop the damn whining already and get on with it!

 

[Crooked Bee]

Thanks, dear three readers.

Oh yeah, this is a map of the game world.

Uhm, is it spoilerish much? This isn't Uukrul, of course, where consulting a map equals cheating, but I'd rather (attempt to) beat the game without any external help. It's not like getting around is too hard, really. It's just that maps tend to kill exploration sometimes... I wonder if this game originally came with a map; if not, I'd rather not use one either.

Random question: Can you attack npcs? If so, can you kill the Revolution leader to force a special game over screen or something?

Yup, you can attack NPCs and kill pretty much everyone. But no, there's no special game over screen or anything. I'm not sure if plot-critical NPCs respawn though -- exiting and entering the area certainly doesn't respawn them (I tried), but perhaps they do respawn after some time? I dunno. If, however, they indeed stay dead, well, that just means you're screwed and (probably) won't be able to finish the game, simple as that. At least I think so.

That is truly the best and cutest bee image I've ever seen, in spite of its horrible, frightening, anti-bee content.

 

[MisterStone]

Dudes this game is tha shizzit. I played it about 20 years ago on an Apple II. It is sort of like Ultima Lite, HOWEVER the challenge increases later on with fun stuff like mazes based on teleporters and moving sidewalks. There's lots of cool markers of progress such as getting a certain kind of pass key, etc. that lets you get to new areas, which always made me excited. The huge city map was pretty awesome too, the police system was pretty fun, also the way that you get busted and sent to prison/the hospital was pretty innovative for that time IIRC. IIRC there is a lot of adventure game stuff (use 'item' on 'square') to make it worth playing, but it's not a highly strategic battle simulator sort of game. Later on you basically finish some side quests and assemble teh best equipment evar, and I don't think there's really any strategy on that front other than get the best stuff, and upgrade when possible.

I believe that at some point you can hack some shit so that you needn't go back to that citizen's tracking office, so no worries there.

Also, you can be run over by the subway, definitely have to try that out for us.

I can't remember a whole lot about the game now, but I know that it is pretty damn good, not just for what it is, but good period.

 

[MMXI]

Uhm, is it spoilerish much? This isn't Uukrul, of course, where consulting a map equals cheating, but I'd rather (attempt to) beat the game without any external help. It's not like getting around is too hard, really. It's just that maps tend to kill exploration sometimes... I wonder if this game originally came with a map; if not, I'd rather not use one either.

It's not for you. It's for other people who want to visualise the game world. You can spoil the fun for yourself, of course, but that's up to you. Though I'm sure you are above such things.

Yup, you can attack NPCs and kill pretty much everyone. But no, there's no special game over screen or anything. I'm not sure if plot-critical NPCs respawn though -- exiting and entering the area certainly doesn't respawn them (I tried), but perhaps they do respawn after some time? I dunno. If, however, they indeed stay dead, well, that just means you're screwed and (probably) won't be able to finish the game, simple as that. At least I think so.

I don't think you can really screw yourself completely. I mean, you can kill NPCs and miss out on all the clues, but I believe the game will still be completable if you know the codes and can somehow survive. Actually, having thought about it, you probably need to leave the vendors alive to get some necessary items, though you can kill them afterwards.

Dudes this game is tha shizzit. I played it about 20 years ago on an Apple II. It is sort of like Ultima Lite, HOWEVER the challenge increases later on with fun stuff like mazes based on teleporters and moving sidewalks. There's lots of cool markers of progress such as getting a certain kind of pass key, etc. that lets you get to new areas, which always made me excited. The huge city map was pretty awesome too, the police system was pretty fun, also the way that you get busted and sent to prison/the hospital was pretty innovative for that time IIRC. IIRC there is a lot of adventure game stuff (use 'item' on 'square') to make it worth playing, but it's not a highly strategic battle simulator sort of game. Later on you basically finish some side quests and assemble teh best equipment evar, and I don't think there's really any strategy on that front other than get the best stuff, and upgrade when possible.

Yep. It's very much like an adventure game. I've always said that the Ultima games sit near the border with adventure games within the sphere of RPGs. 2400 A.D, being an Ultima-like Origin game, follows on from them. As a fan of adventure games, I quite like the mix.

I can't remember a whole lot about the game now, but I know that it is pretty damn good, not just for what it is, but good period.

Pretty much this.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Dudes this game is tha shizzit. I played it about 20 years ago on an Apple II. It is sort of like Ultima Lite, HOWEVER the challenge increases later on with fun stuff like mazes based on teleporters and moving sidewalks. There's lots of cool markers of progress such as getting a certain kind of pass key, etc. that lets you get to new areas, which always made me excited. The huge city map was pretty awesome too, the police system was pretty fun, also the way that you get busted and sent to prison/the hospital was pretty innovative for that time IIRC. IIRC there is a lot of adventure game stuff (use 'item' on 'square') to make it worth playing, but it's not a highly strategic battle simulator sort of game. Later on you basically finish some side quests and assemble teh best equipment evar, and I don't think there's really any strategy on that front other than get the best stuff, and upgrade when possible.

I believe that at some point you can hack some shit so that you needn't go back to that citizen's tracking office, so no worries there.

Also, you can be run over by the subway, definitely have to try that out for us.

I can't remember a whole lot about the game now, but I know that it is pretty damn good, not just for what it is, but good period.

I already got run over by the subway, actually, but no one seems to have noticed. :emobee:

Though I'm sure you are above such things.

Oh your smugness is killing me.

 

[MMXI]

I already got run over by the subway, actually, but no one seems to have noticed. :emobee:

Quit whining. Only MisterStone failed to notice. Everyone else appreciated your failed in-game suicide attempt.

Oh your smugness is killing me.

 

[MisterStone]

Sorry about that bro, I finally caught up to the let's play, sort of. So much talking in this game, it's like Ultima V in a shoebox.

Actually, if you added up all the local maps, I bet it wouldn't be much smaller than the ones in UV. That's a huge azz city.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Update 3: I got the power

In which we get a plasma rifle.

Previously on this LP, we met the leader of the Metropolis resistance, collected some info, and bought a Heavy Shield for Bee. Now it looks like our grinding (= robot killing spree) is causing quite a stir around the city:

We're in the underground now, looking for new NPCs to meet. One of them is Horace:

As you may remember, Horace is the one who, as Melvin was kind enough to tell us, knows the code for something called a "binary maze". So we ask Horace for the CODE:

DDDUD, nice. The maze is binary, so it's basically 00010.
We still have enough credits left to buy a new weapon at Wes', by the way:

We buy a Laser Cutter for 1000 creds.

LASER CUTTER: A very fragile weapon that is easy to use due to its long-duration beam. Moderate strength.

That this weapon is fragile is in fact, contrary to what it might seem, pretty good for us while Bee is still low-level (even though, as you surely have noticed, there are strictly speaking no character levels in this game). That's because whenever a weapon breaks, Bee can try fixing it (by pressing F to open the repair menu), and whenever Bee succeeds in repairing the weapon, his IQ goes up by 1-2 points, which is nice. From what I've gathered, that's the only way of increasing IQ apart from going for an IQ boost (which costs of lot), so it's pretty important for things to sometimes break.
But anyway. We've bought the Laser Cutter:

It's devoid of energy though, and as you may remember there's an stash of energy cells nearby, so we climb the pipes to get there:

Having grabbed the cells, we load them into the Laser Cutter. Voila, we have not only a new shield, but also a new weapon. We're armed and dangerous. Robots, beware!

At Tim's, we sell our old weapon, the Hand Blaster, for 35 credits:

Not much, but we don't need it anymore, so it's better than nothing.

Another public announcement informs us of a power interruption in the western zone of Metropolis:

It has nothing to do with our quest though, it's just there to add to the atmosphere of a bustling city.
Yet another one wants us to believe the robots are our friends:

Like fun they are!
We check in at the tracking office and go grind some, interrupted only by even more public announcements. It looks like the Tzorgs are triumphant throughout the galaxy...

...or at least that, again, is what they want us to believe. Bloody bastards.

As you know, last time we visited Sid we couldn't get the code for the transporters -- the teleporter thingies that let you quickly move around the city -- from him. The only reason we (well, I) failed was the totally confusing keyword system. So we go back to Sid:

I asked him for "code" and "transporters" last time, but what I should've asked about was "access". Complicated! Anyway, we now have the code: it's LETSGO!

The next NPC we come across is Elroy who tells us about a useful thing called a Transporter Guidance Device:

Device?

It looks like we'll need the device in order to get through the secret tunnel leading to the Authority Complex, i.e., for the main quest. Also, apparently, we must go looking for it in a collapsed research lab. Hmmm. Duly noted.
Another NPC, Sybil, is standing right near Elroy, but she seems to be useless to us, at least for now:

So we move on.

Having grinded some more as well as discovered that the Univerisity is located in the southern zone of Metropolis, we buy a fake ZAC for that zone from Jeff:

Not sure why I'm buying all these ZACs, we could probably just pwn any robot coming our way, but well, we're not really strong ... yet.
Bee's inventory is limited to only 8 items, so I decide to make an improvised storage right near Jeff's -- it's going to be easy to get here whenever we need to fetch something, plus there's almost no one around. So we drop our Subway Token here:

So far, so good.

Close to the university there's, unsurprisingly, a University Bookstore:

Lisa is selling books here:

All those letters make your head hurt, sis?
Near the Bookstore is Gilbert's Electronics:

When we approach him, Gilberts asks us if he can be of any assistance:

Since this is Gilbert's electronics, we input "electronics".

Gilbert: You know! Tubes and regulators and stuff like that.

Uhm, tubes?

You threw one out, eh? Meaning we'll need to find it among the trash, right? You know, the way it's usually done in adventure games.
And, uhm, regulators?

As we saw in the previous update, Hugo's Store sells microstats. Good to know we can exchange one for a regulator here. Hopefully this info will come in handy. (SPOILER: It will. Soon.)

We break open Gilbert's backdoor (I love how NPCs don't care about you breaking and entering, truly a staple of the role-playing genre) and search around:

There's a Multiplier Tube here, thrown away by Gilbert yesterday. How ... predictable. Well, we don't need it right now, and our inventory's limited, so let's leave it be. We'll come back to fetch it later, when/if need be.

Kirby gives us another hint re: the trash:

But we've searched through the heap already, so meh, whatever.

City Maintenance Department is next door from Gilbert's:

We meet Nancy here, and she's got a pretty important job:

In the back yard, Brian gives us yet another clue pointing us to the trash heap:

So many obvious clues.
The next helpful NPC we meet is Naomi standing near the entrance to the southern subway station; she is indeed a helpful one:

Help?

Like Elroy, Naomi also tells us about the Transporter Guidance Device. Tell us more, Naomi!

Naomi: Ask around at the University. They can help you.

Another trail leading to the University, yay!
At the Social Rehabilitation Center -- the jail --

-- we kill plenty of class two robots; all your credits are belong to us!

Pictured on the above screenshot is a robot called Follower (class 2) we've just destroyed.

At the City Sanitation Department, Beth's job is to register complaints:

My, it must be hard for you! So what's those complaints about, Beth?

Fair enough!

We grind, grind a lot! Here's a screenshot depicting the results of my battle against three different kinds of robots -- a Checker (class 1), a Patroller (class 1), and a Guard (class 2) -- at once:

The funny thing is, since the slidewalks are moving, if you destroy a robot when it's standing on a slidewalk it will naturally be carried away, so we have to run after it to strip it of credits! Fun!

Oh, and the Tzorg empire wants us!

No, thanks.
(Yeah, it's just another public announcement.)

Another new place is Moe's bar:

When asked about the refrigerator, Moe says:

Moe: I need to have Hugo take a look at it.

Yup, Moe's there just to point us to Hugo in case we need something repaired.

Moe: He fixes things. He has a shop on the north slidewalk.

We know that already, Moe, you silly!
As we finally enter the southern zone of Metropolis...

...we meet Rhonda:

Help us?

Rhonda: A field disperser is the best armor you can get.

The best armor? Sounds cool! But where can we get one?

Rhonda: Ask around at Megatech.

At Megatech, you say? It's in the northern part of town. (I've already been there but haven't yet covered that zone in this LP, leaving it for later. We'll be sure to return there to get that field disperser thingie.) Thanks, Rhonda!
At the nearby University Faculty, Cheryl works for Linda:

Her research? Hmm. Let's go find Linda.

Linda is the third, after Elroy and Naomi, to tell us about the Transporter Guidance Device. She apparently used to work on one. But what is that device for, Linda, dear?

Oh cool, sounds essential for our mission.
At Alice's restaurant, Alice tells us she can get us anything we want:

Anything, really?

Oh.
Alice also informs us about weapons being sold in the underground, but we know about that already.

Maurice is into research:

From him, we get another hint about the collapsed underground research lab. Nice. Since it's a university research lab, I assume it must be somewhere below the university area.
At the University Administration building we meet Bob:

He doesn't have any useful info to share... yet.
We also meet Fred who tells us about the fabled plasma rifle:

Fred: I've found references to one having been around, but it broke. Ask Eggbert about it.

Looks like we're getting closer to finding the plasma rifle, yay! Let's find Eggbert.

Hi Eggbert, could you please tell us about the plasma rifle?

Eggbert: Oh yes... I think when it broke, the owner took it apart and sold the parts.

Sold the parts? :/

Oh well. Surely you've already guessed what all those electronic parts we've encountered in this update are for -- yup, for fixing the broken plasma rifle. Provided we find it, that is.
(Oh, and asking Jerrold is of no avail. He simply tells us that Larry and Gilbert are selling parts, nothing new to us.)

Jane gives us yet another trash pile hint:

Yeah, yeah, there's a tube in there required to fix the plasma rifle! I know!
Next we meet Richard, the one Pinkie -- the revolution leader -- told us to find:

Richard tells us that once he and Bob saw a "strange device" in the research lab:

Apparently he mean the mysterious Transporter Guidance Device. Let's return to Bob and ask him about it!

Yay! Bob tells us we can get to the research lab through the subway! Finally a really useful clue!


In the main university building we meet Rudy...

...who kindly informs us about a room full of energy cells at a place called System Storage:

Another stash of energy cells, yay!

An announcement is heard:

A defective robot!
Meh, who cares.
Also, subversive activities are on the rise:

I wonder if our Bee has anything to do with those.

Now, after some more grinding, off to Megatech we go! It's in the northern zone, so we buy a ZAC from Jeff.
Here's Megatech Building A:

There are buildings A to F here, as well as a City Water Works building. Ofelia is there, fixing leaks all day:

Poor thing. :/
At building B, Mickey is a machinist:

Your, uhm, mood?

Mickey: Right now, I'm angry with one of my customers. The guy really needs an IQ boost.

After that, Mickey tells us we can get our IQ boosted in the underground; bah, we know that from the very first update.
On the second floor, Oscar is filing blueprints:

He points us to the blueprint room, so there we go hoping to come across something useful!
Along the way we meet Sanford who tells us we need a scanner if we want to find our way around the big junkyard, the one with the tunnel leading into the Authority Complex:

And here we are in the blueprint room:

X-TREME!
Searching around it, we find some blueprints -- when you first see them, they are identified as "Field Disperser" blueprints, but I wasn't quick enough to take a screenshot:

That means ... we can use them to build a field disperser, the best armor in this game!


But first we must find someone who can build it for us. Oh well. Things are never really simple.
Or are they?

We meet Jackie; Jackie mentions Les:

Les?

Jackie: He's a wizard! Given the plans, he can build almost anything.

Build almost anything, you say? Hmm. I wonder if we should show him the blueprints...

In the street we stumble into Denise; he's looking for Verne:

Verne's a device dealer in the underground; we already met him. But why are you looking for him, Denise?

Denise: He sells time bombs.

And?

You're a true bro, Denise!
We also come across Robert, another guy Pinkie advised us to find, who tells us about the blueprint room:

Meh, we've already found the blueprints. You're totally useless, Robert.

And finally, in Megaton Building F, we locate Les and show him the blueprints!

Les offers to build a field disperser for us ... for 3500 credits. Ouch, that's pricey.
Oh well, it's not like we've got a choice. We'll come back here once we have the money.

After another session of grinding, we enter the only yet unexplored area of Metropolis -- the western zone!
It's the Administration area, and there's ... a prisoner being held here, right before the entrance to the administration building:

Bloody robots! :angry:

We enter the administration:

In fact, we already explored this area in the first update. It is here that we exited the underground when getting out of prison.
The only area of the administration building that remains unexplored is the -1 level. We have to break open a door marked in red to get there:

Doors marked in red require 40 points of energy to be broken open, that's why we couldn't do it earlier.
Behind the door is a corridor leading to a transport tube to the 1st underground level:

Another red-marked door. We break it open and find ourselves in a room with A LOT of shelves:

We cross the room and get to another tube, this time leading to level -2:

We take it:

On this level, we have to climb pipes to progress:

That done, we get to ... a terminal?

Let's interact with it. In this game you interact with a computer by talking to it:

An access code, hmm?
We know two codes. One was given to us by Ponzine, 0977; let's try it out:

Of course it didn't work. It was supposed to be a passcard code, after all.
Let's now try the access code for the terminals Jimmy shared with us: "ACCTRM followed by a the number of levels it is underground, minus two". This is level -2, so the code must be ACCTRM0. Let's see...

Yay, it worked!
Inquiry? Well, in the first update, Mark told us about "terminals that give deactivation codes for the robots; they're needed at the Control Console", so, uhm, let's input "deactivation"? ... Nope. Uhm, "codes"?

We're given the "primary deactivation code", CHLOBU. Success!
Oh-kay, let us proceed. We enter the tube leading further down to level -3.

Oh wow, a lot of slidewalks! This is a puzzle/labyrinth, it seems!


Most of the slidewalks carry you back to the starting place, but after some trial and error plus some slidewalk hopping, Bee manages to get across:

Yay. Another terminal. Since this is the 3rd underground level, we enter ACCTRM1:

The terminal give us the "secondary deactivation code", PERABR. Kewl!
It may look like there's no further way, but in fact there is. It's a very simple puzzle. To proceed further we must CLIMB OVER the terminal and then the shelf. That done, we find ourselves in a corridor leading to a transporter:

We enter the transporter by pressing E and then input the code Sid gave us, LETSGO. We are then asked for the destination code... but I got dumb and couldn't think of anything, and so had to go back. It is in fact another easy puzzle, but well, even easy puzzles sometimes, well, puzzle me. You see, this is a secret underground transporter; the destination codes for the "normal" transporters are 00-04 -- they transport you to 5 different places across Metropolis. Isn't it kinda obvious that I should've tried 05-06 here, for this underground transporter? ... It certainly is, but I didn't. We'll come back here later, once I get that bright idea.

So yeah, we get back to the surface and grind some more. We also buy a passcard with 0977 from Jeff:

Just in case. Who knows when we're going to need it?

And here comes the most pleasant surprise. On our third or fourth visit to Wes -- the weapon dealer -- he says:

Wes has a gift for us!!

It's a ... broken plasma rifle! I can't believe my eyes!


Yup, folks, I'm not sure if there's an alternative way to get a plasma rifle in this game, but that's how I got one!
It is, however, broken, and we can't fix it by ourselves:

I guess we'll need to ask Hugo to repair it. Still, we've got a plasma rifle, the most powerful weapon, folks! Bee surely has grown. Now we only need to get Les to build the field disperser for us (which is, as you remember, the most powerful armor), and Bee will be the most badass revolutionary in the galaxy!

 

[Azira]

 

[Excidium]

Great LP, looks like a fun game except for that timer.

 

[MMXI]

Fuck yeah. You're now only a few hours from finishing this game. Now that your statistics are ultra high and you've almost reached the point where you have a working plasma rifle, you're a few seconds away from being unstoppable. You just need to buy a jet-pack to become the ultimate badass.

I actually quite like the way that there are multiple people giving out what is effectively the same clue. In the Ultima games from that period there was usually only a single person giving out a particular clue. This meant you had to talk to every single person multiple times while adding to and crossing off a list of things to say to people. This game gives you a little leeway. I don't know why you are rolling your eyes every time someone in the game gives you a clue to something you've already found. That's kind of the beauty of non-linear games. Another player may have found different NPCs useful as they may have traversed the world in the reverse order to you.

Anyway, this is most excellent and very near completion. More please!

 

[Fowyr]

Looks like you have impressive progress.

 

[Black Cat]

This seems to be quite a cool game, and one I had never even heard of. I'll get up to speed with your adventures and follow what's left of them, given it seems you are already near the end.

 

[dextermorgan]

I your LP efforts Bee, very interesting!

 

[Crooked Bee]

New readers, yay!


And here's a little gift for you --

 

[Crooked Bee]

Update 4: Things we need

In which we get a field disperser and a transporter guidance device.

So yeah, we got a broken plasma rifle, a 0977 passcard, as well as two deactivation codes. What else do we need if we are to make it into the Authority Complex and then to main console in order to disable it?

1. Obviously, we must fix the plasma rifle to be able to use it. For that, we must visit Hugo's.
2. Then we need to collect 3500 credits for Les so he could build a Field Disperser for us, which is the most powerful armor in this game. Without it, I don't think we stand a chance against higher-class robots. We also need it to bypass force fields, of which, I guess, there will be at least a few along the way.
3. We need to find out the third deactivation code; last time we couldn't get to the 4th underground level below the administration building because I couldn't guess the destination code for the transporter.
4. We need a Transporter Guidance Device. As told by Elroy, Naomi and Linda, it is needed to get through the tunnel leading to the Authority Complex. To get it, we must access the collapsed underground research laboratory through the subway.
5. Finally, we need to buy a Scanner so as not to get lost in the junkyard. This is the easiest part: Verne sells scanners in the underground for 300 credits each.

Hmm, yeah, I think that's that. Let us proceed.

What I forgot to mention so far is that destroying robots increases Bee's AGILITY, and running around like crazy increases ENERGY. Ah, the charm of improve-by-use systems...
But anyway. Let's head to Hugo's:

We approach Hugo and ask him to fix the plasma rifle for us. Things turn out to be not that simple, however:

We still need the parts: an energy regulator, a high voltage oscillator, and a multiplier tube.
As you may remember, Larry's Electronics sells HV oscillators:

They also sell microstats here that, as we found out in the previous update, can be exchanged for energy regulators at Gilbert's. So we buy both an HV oscillator and a microstat and then go to Gilbert's:

We now have a regulator, yay. The only thing that remains for us to get is a multiplier tube. And you know what? We saw one in the trash heap in Gilbert's back yard!

We grab the tube and now have everything it takes to fix the plasma rifle!
At Hugo's we're told it will cost us 550 credits to have the rifle repaired:

So we pay the sum and...

Hugo: It should work fine now.

...the plasma rifle is now working!


We load it up with energy from a nearby power node and then equip it. Now Bee can go totally x-treme. ... Well, almost. We need some powerful armor first, so let's kill some robots to save up 3500 credits for Les.

A public announcement is heard:

Soy!?

The robot rule truly is horrible!

And another announcement:

As you remember from the previous update, Leroy was on display inside the force field just outside the administration building. Funny thing is, every time this announcement is heard, there turns out to be someone else there on display, hence "the latest enemy of the state". Just a nice detail.

But anywayz. Notice the timer in the above screenshot? It shows 120 ticks lefts, meaning there's no way we can get to the tracking office in time. And you know what?

...looks like a fun game except for that timer.

You know what? Screw the timer! Ignoring the timer means all robots will attack us, but Bee's now strong enough to simply kill any robot he meets in the street (there are no robots stronger than class 2 patrolling the streets). So yeah, let me reiterate: screw the timer and screw the tracking office!

Now that we can ignore the timer, the game is considerably inclined. In fact, I think we could've ignored the timer even earlier, I just wanted to play it safe.

As we go about killing robots, the government announces it has done something horrible to 10 more citizens -- they are now ... rehabilitated!

This government certainly needs to be wiped out.

...whenever the Legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common Refuge, which God hath provided for all Men, against Force and Violence. Whensoever therefore the Legislative shall transgress this fundamental Rule of Society; and either by Ambition, Fear, Folly or Corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other an Absolute Power over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of the People; By this breach of Trust they forfeit the Power, the People had put into their hands, for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty.

So yeah, we finally manage to collect 3735 credits -- and off to Les we go!

Yup, we pay! And...

...receive a field disperser!



We've got the most powerful armor now.
It is, however, different from the regular armor in that it uses energy and so must be charged at a power node. Which is what we do -- and then equip it. Here goes:

Coolity cool. Naturally we go slay some more robots -- their attacks don't seem to affect us now!


I assume things will be different with higher-class robots, but those of classes 1 and 2 are of no harm to us now. Good.

Remember I told you different people -- different "enemies of the state" -- are held on display outside the administration building every time the announcement is heard? Last time it was Leroy, and now it's Tim:

Meaning we can't interact with him during this period. Nice touch.

Let's now get back to the transporter and get the last deactivation code:

Like I told you in the previous update, we'll be trying 05 and 06 as destination codes this time. 05 doesn't work...

...but 06 does it:

Yay!

And we find ourselves on the 4th underground floor:

This is a really funny place -- it is a maze of, uhm, boxes. You must push them around so as to clear the way to the terminal. You can only push one box at a time, which means that if two or more boxes and standing in a row, you can't push them in that direction. Oh, and in the above screenshot I'm screwed, actually. Good thing the maze resets whenever we reenter the room. To get back to one floor up, we must enter 05 as the destination code for the transporter; easy.
Finally, after some trial and error, I find my away through the maze:

Well, not quite. I make it to the window, but not to the door. Let's try a different way...

Yay, we're almost there...

We did it! Since this is level -4, we enter ACCTRM2 which grants us access to the terminal:

The third and, from what I've gathered, final deactivation code is EDDONE. Nice!

Okay, what now?
Well, let's go for the Transporter Guidance Device now. We know it is in a research lab that can be accessed via the subway system. Another thing we know is that it is a former university research lab, so it is probably somewhere in or near the southern area (in which the university is located). That's why I decide to check out the Southern Subway Station first.

From the platform we climb over to the central pipe. Where do we go now, east or west?
First we decide to head east.

Nothing here.

Hmmm, a dead end. Oh well. Let's now climb west.

Nothing here so far...

Yay, a door. It's marked in red, meaning normally we'd have to waste 40 points of energy on breaking it open.
BUT. We've got a plasma rifle now. Meaning we can BLAST THE BLOODY DOORS OPEN!!

Totally kewl.
Entering the door we crawl down the corridor and reach some stairs:

We climb the stairs, blow another door open with our plasma rifle and...

...reach a series of force fields!
Well, what can I say? Good thing we're wearing the field disperser armor -- it lets us cross the fields unharmed. Whenever a field is crossed, the field disperser loses, at most, one point of energy (of which it has 99); no big deal.

There are four class 3 robots in here! My oh my.
Still, with the plasma rifle and the field disperser on we deal with them no probs.

We then proceed to charge our weapon and armor with the help of those two conveniently located power nodes -- and blast the next door open. It opens into a corridor with three more doors leading to three rather spacious rooms; we search through them and...

...find the Transporter Guidance Device!



And then we return to the surface.

Tell you what, folks? We've now got: the plasma rifle, the passcard, the deactivation codes, the field disperser, AND the transporter guidance device.

Bye-bye, evil robots.

 

[Fowyr]

I definitely should play this next.

Is this attention enough, oh Great Bee? M:

 

[Crooked Bee]

Yup, Fowyr, dear, I guess that'll do.

 

[lightbane]

No wonder that the rebellion is succesful, these robots seem to be retarded, they couldn't even implant spies or something. Anyways, looking forward to the end of this lp.

PS: I think it's a bit of that you don't have the option of betraying the humies and eventually embrace their robotic overlords.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Update 5: A full-on assault

In which we do it the straightforward way.

Last time we saw our dear Bee, he had almost everything he needed to make it into the Authority Complex. The only things left to acquire are a Scanner and a Jet pack (well, MMXI told me about needing a jet pack, which was kind of spoilerish to say on his part, as I didn't know I'd need one ). There are, however, two ways to proceed. The first way -- the way it is supposed to be done -- is to follow the main quest, get into the junkyard tunnel and find the secret entrance into the Authority Complex; the second way is to launch a full-on frontal assault on the Complex, entering it through the front door.

Guess what we're gonna be doing in this update?

Yup, a frontal assault it is!


Also, I'll pretend I didn't hear MMXI's advice and so WON'T be taking a jet pack with me in here -- 'coz I didn't know I should take one with me and so would've most probaby entered the Authority Complex without one. So yeah.
With the field disperser equipped, we easily pass through the force field north of the entrance, kill a lone robot patrolling the corridor, and recharge our weapon at the nearby power node:

Then we go east and turn south, crossing another force field:

We kill another robot -- a class 3 Cyborg -- and blast the next door open:

Two Viewers (class 3) are in there; we dispatch them easily:

Going through the force field to the north we destroy a Looker (class 2)...

...and then head east and south, facing two Seekers (class 2); no probs here as well:

We blow another door open with our plasma rifle and come face to face with two stationary robots -- two Tanks (class 4!):

These are the first class 4 robot we've met, and their attacks really do some damage. We use on of them as a cover, so that the stupid second Tank attacks his brethren instead of us. Naturally, we destroy them both, then go through the force field and enter the tube leading to the 2nd floor:

We're greeted by five robots attacking us at once -- three Cyborgs, a Viewer, and a Scanner (class 3); and then there were none:

Conveniently enough, there's a lot of power nodes along the way -- placed so that the robots could recover energy -- meaning we can recharge our plasma rifle and field disperser without thinking too much about running out of energy cells.

We first go east and north from here...

...but end up in a dead end and turn back. This time we head west.
This is a tricky area -- a series of forced fields patrolled by many class 4 robots called Protectors:

Given that the robots can't hit us from behind a force field, we slowly kill 'em one by one -- the Protectors require many hits to be killed, have very high agility so we miss often, and their attacks harm us for 3 hp every time they hit us -- using a dead Protector as a cover when required.

Lots of them! Notice that our HP is only 42 now; those robots hit hard!
The DosBox also lags quite a bit in this area, probably having troubles processing the force field and robot flicker animation. But finally the Protectors -- as well as a Cyborg and two Viewers who were waiting for us behind the force fields -- are all destroyed. Good riddance.

Slaying another Looker along the way we go north and reach the next tube:

Up to level 3 we go!
A Guard (class 2) assaults us here; easy peasy:

As well as three Sentry robots; class 1 lol:

There's a slidewalk in here, but it's moving in our direction so we can't enter it:

And behind it is a ladder. Hmm. I feel butthurt incoming...
For now, however, everything seems to be fine. We go west and north and reach the next tube, ready to take us to level 4 of the Authority Complex:

A Follower aka "evil eye" meets us on level 4, poor fellow; we dispatch him:

There's a room with a bed and a TV set in here; I guess even robots love themselves a good sitcom:

Oh yeah, and there are many class 1 Mechs on this level but they are service, not battle robots; they try running away from us, but we kill 'em all.
And the next tube...

...takes us up to level 5:

Oops, more class 4 robots.

Quite a lot in fact! It's not just class 4 Protectors, but also class 3 Scanners. Soon, however, they stand disabled.

There is a problem however. The door on level 5, one we must go through to proceed further, is blocked by a pile of trash! I forgot to take a screenshot 'cause I'm silly; I'll show you this place in a couple of moments from the other side -- but yeah, looks like all our effort in getting to level 5 have been in vain! And all because of the trash blocking the goddamn door!
Trash, why are you blocking the path!?


Oh well. There is, however, a solution. But -- yeah, you've guessed it -- we have to buy a Jet pack first.
So we exit the Authority Center and go to Jetway:

We buy a Jet pack for 1000 credits and reenter the Authority Complex.
Oh my, all the robots are recharged and back in action already!


So we have to fight through them again up until we get to level 3.

Why level 3? Why, definitely because there's a slidewalk here -- the one behind which there's a ladder:

We can't walk to the other end of this slidewalk, but we can sure as hell fly there! So we activate the Jet pack. Be sure to notice the two small rockets next to Bee in the above screenshots! Fun!

And here we are on the other end. Success!
We climb the ladder.

We are on level 4, in a small room with another ladder leading up to level 5. We climb it.

Hooray! And this, my dear readers, is precisely that bloody pile of trash that prevented us from reaching this corridor from level 5 and made us go buy a Jet pack. Oh well. At least we're here now.
We go through the force fields to the north and...

...reach the bloody Main Console!

Mission accomplished? ...

...

Nope. In the next update we'll be reaching the console properly, i.e., the hard way! So stay tuned!

Oh, and

PS: I think it's a bit of that you don't have the option of betraying the humies and eventually embrace their robotic overlords.

I like your attitude, bro lightbane! This ain't that kind of game though.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Update 6: Fireworks

In which we do it the hard way, solve a few devious puzzles, reach the main console, and deactivate the robots!

Let's now try entering the Authority Complex the hard way -- that is, according to the clues we've collected during the main quest -- through the tunnel located somewhere in the junkyard. Going a bit ahead of myself, I should note I find it pretty funny that, at least to me, doing it all the mindless way -- simply by frontally assaulting the Authority Complex -- was, like, two times easier than beating the game properly. Shouldn't it be the other way round?

Anywayz. I reload a savegame -- and the first thing I do is buy a jet pack. Why? I dunno, I just don't feel like going back all the way again for a jet pack in case we need one. (Still, I will have to go back though once I hit a nasty bug; but more on that later.)
So ... let's check Bee's equipment:

Looks like almost everything is in place: the transporter guidance device, the jet pack, the passcard, the field disperser, and the plasma rifle. Now we only need to buy a Scanner -- and for that, let's head underground!

Nguyen sells Scanners for 300 credits a piece; we buy one. Let's see how it works...

Hmm, neat: a partial automap of the area is displayed. Now I see why it may be useful in getting through the junkyard maze.
The junkyard is in the northern zone of Metropolis:

We enter it and consult the scanner:

(Bee is depicted as a green dot on the automap.)
You can see some labyrinthine passages on the scanner map, I guess we're supposed to navigate them.

As we explore the junkyard we kill some guardian robots -- those are Seekers (class 2).
We check the scanner -- and the way becomes clear to us:

Well, not really, as we don't know exactly where the objective is. Whatever.
As we continue navigating the junkyard, the path becomes narrow and less distinguishable:

Navigatable squares are a bit lighter, and non-nagivatable, darker. Can get a big confusing, with a color palette like this.
But finally we reach some stairs:

Yay! I guess that's where we're supposed to enter the tunnel.
And indeed, as we climb down the stairs, we find ourselves underground:

Getting out of the trash pile beneath the stairs -- I wonder if Bee smells funny now -- we make it to a corridor with some pipes and boxes around.
A door marked in red gets in our way -- we blow it open...

...and find ourselves in an area with a lot of transporters:

Etc.
This must be some kind of transporter puzzle. Weeell... Let's start with the first transporter. Given that we've talked to pretty much each and every NPC in this city, we probably have the required codes already. Let me just check the NPC list... (You can find it at the end of update #2 in case you want to look at all the NPCs I was able to find; the list is totally up-to-date.) ... Hmm, how 'bout this one?

Don knows the sequence; "the one for the first tunnel transporter is '18,09,12,15'".

Plus, as we know from Sid, the general access code for transporters is LETSGO. So we enter the first transporter...

...and then input "18" as the destination code:

Yay! It works! (If you input a wrong code, it says "destination code invalid", so there can be no mistake about "18" being the correct one.)
And we get transported...

...to a room with another transporter!

We enter "09" here -- and find ourselves in yet another room with a transporter, in which we enter "12", etc., and then finally "15":

We are transported to one more small room, this time one with a ladder:

Nice. Climbing the ladder, we get to...

...a slidewalk maze! Another one! I love these things.
This is in fact the binary maze Horace told us about:

Horace: when asked about the "code" (for the "binary maze"), says the code is DDDUD.

You see, each square section has two slidewalks to enter, an upper (=U) and a lower one (=D). The correct sequence, according to Horace, is DDDUD, so we must take the slidewalks in that particular order. Easy and obvious? ... Well, not exactly. Truth be told, I didn't recognize this maze as the binary one on my first, nor my second, try.

The scanner is, by the way, of no use here:

It gives you an overview of the maze, but no sense of the directions slidewalks are moving in.
And here's what happens if you choose a wrong way through the maze -- like I did at first:

The slidewalk takes you...

...slowly and inevitably...

...to a tube...

...that transports you to...

...the ground floor of the Authority Complex!


On my third try I do, however, finally "get" the maze and take the correct path. First the lower teleporter (=D):

Then the lower one again:

And again:

Then the upper one:

And finally the lower one again:

That done, we arrive to...

...another puzzle room!


Well, it's too early to be celebrating, in fact. Why? Because I seem to have hit a nasty bug. :/ You see, to solve this puzzle, we need the Transporter Guidance Device. And we had one in the beginning in this update, as you can see for yourself. However, somewhere along our way through the junkyard, the Guidance Device mysteriously disappeared from our inventory! I think that had something to do with using the scanner, but I'm not sure. One thing I am sure about is that I didn't drop the device though -- it just disappeared.
Too bad I didn't notice that earlier. Now I have to reload a save and get through the tunnel ... again. :/ Oh well.

...

/* Some time later. */

...

Welcome back, dear audience, to the underground tunnel leading, presumably, to the Authority Complex! So here we are, in the room with four transporters again -- this time with the Transporter Guidance Device, yay!

So yeah. If we enter any of the four transporters without carrying the Guidance Device, it will simply transport us to another of these very four transporters, i.e., across the room. Remember what NPCs told us about the Guidance Device earlier? Let me remind you.

Elroy tells us about a "Transporter Guidance Device" located in a "collapsed" University lab and needed "in a particularly puzzling section of the tunnel entrance", i.e., in the tunnel leading to the Authority complex.
Holly tells us a guidance device is required for "a transporter beneath the junkyard"; "using a guidance device in th' transporter lets ya get t' sections ya couldn't ordinarily get to".
Linda: when asked about "research", tells us she was working on a Transporter Guidance Device; "it would allow people to get into the Authority Complex; the person carrying it can use any of the four 'funny' transporters to get to the fifth".

The clue we got from Linda is definitely the most important one: it is only by carrying the Guidance Device that we can get transported not simply to another of the four transporters inside this room, but rather outside it, to the fifth transporter you can see in the lower part of the screenshot.
So we enter one of the transporters carrying the Guidance Device and...

...get transported to the southern corridor (and slay a robot patrolling it)!



We are now in a large section of the underground, with a lot of machines around:

Finally we make it to a red-marked door:

Once we blast it open, we are attacked by two Seeker robots:

Easy.
Two more doors blown open --

-- we find ourselves warmly welcomed by six class 4 Protector robots! Nasty.
They are soon all disabled though:

That has been a tough battle, however, much tougher than anything I experienced when frontally assaulting the Authority Complex in the previous update. Oh the irony.

Exploring this area further...

...we have to fight four more class 4 robots. To think that this is supposed to be, like, a secret non-problematic tunnel into the Authority Complex. Or maybe Pinkie, the revolution leader, just wanted Bee dead? That would make sense, I guess, since Bee's definitely seizing all the power for himself after defeating the robot army.

Then I got lost for quite some time because the devs played another nasty trick on poor me -- they hid the next section of the tunnel behind one of the shelves, of which there are many too many here:

Brilliant.
And finally we reach a ladder...

...that leads us to another ladder...

...and another one...

...one more time baby...

...and it looks like we are indeed inside the Authority Complex.

Yup, here's the slidewalk where we used the Jet pack in the previous update. (As you can see, we didn't at all need the Jet pack on our way through the tunnel. )
Two more ladders later, we finally make it to level 5:

Looks familiar, doesn't it?

Yup, dear readers, THE END IS NIGH

WE APPROACH THE CONSOLE

It says we need the "deactivization codes" -- luckily we have them

DO NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES :twisted:
(Wanna know what hapens if you make a mistake? Easy: you instantly end up in jail. )

The first code is CHLOBU

The second code is PERABR

And the third code is EDDONE. All the codes are now entered correctly!
An alert is heard:

Malfunction, yay!

The robots are ... melting?

"Immelt" = "I melt?"

Pure gibberish!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Heroic efforts!

Free! OR ARE THEY? :twisted:

A cliffhanger, yay! (There was supposed to be a sequel, 2500 A.D., but it got canned, alas. :/)

We have.

We'll be sure to!

Nice, I definitely should make some suggestions!

AND HERE IT COMES FOLKS -- THE ENDING CUTSCENE!!

FIREWORKS!!

We've beaten this funny little game, dear readers. Thank you for your attention -- and your comments! They're much appreciated. 'Til next time!

 

[Pussycat669]

(Always wanted to do that. Now to actually reading the thing)

 

[MisterStone]

Bee you make me proud to own a retail boxed version of this game.

 

[lightbane]

Congrats, Bee! Another lp done!!


Too bad that these developers were unable to predict the Decline...