Powerstar (Atari)

Games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Apple ][ and the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Strident
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Powerstar (Atari)

#1 Post by Strident » Sat Nov 26, 2022 12:53 am

User Stonic has contributed this partial solution to Powerstar... which seems like it may need the expertise of a couple of Atari adventure experts to help him finish. ;)
https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C1 ... rstar.html
S O L U T I O N


LEFT, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP
GET KEY
LEFT, LEFT
GET BOOTS
UP, UP
GET MATCHES
LEFT, LEFT
START TERMINAL
GET MESSAGE
READ MESSAGE
DROP MESSAGE
UP, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, RIGHT
GET RADIO
GET BATTERY
DROP RADIO
RIGHT, UP, UP
START ENGINE WITH KEY
RIGHT, RIGHT, UP, UP, RIGHT
STOP ENGINE
LOAD FUEL
START ENGINE WITH KEY
RIGHT, UP, LEFT, UP
"flying at 1,000 feet"
UP
"flying at 10,000 feet"
LEFT, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP
"flying at 100,000 feet"
UP
"suborbital altitude"
UP
"in orbit"
RIGHT, UP, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP
"space station"
UP, UP
"docking bay"
STOP ENGINE
WEAR BOOTS
UP, RIGHT, UP, LEFT
GET TORCH
GET LANTERN
PUT BATTERY IN LANTERN
LEFT, UP, RIGHT
LIGHT TORCH WITH MATCHES
OPEN DOOR WITH TORCH
DROP TORCH
DROP MATCHES
RIGHT, UP, RIGHT
GET TANK
RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, UP
DROP TANK
RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, UP
"lounge"
RIGHT
GET COINS
RIGHT, UP, UP, RIGHT, UP
"vent room"
OPEN VENT WITH COINS
DROP COINS
TURN ON LANTERN
UP, RIGHT, UP, UP, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT
KICK VENT
UP
DROP LANTERN
GET LASER
RIGHT, UP, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP
"state room"
LEFT, UP
GET MIRROR
LEFT, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP, UP
SHOOT ROBOT WITH LASER
RIGHT, UP, RIGHT
GET CARD
RIGHT, UP, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP
OPEN DOOR WITH CARD
UP
SHOOT ROBOT WITH LASER (robot may or may not be here)
UP
SHOOT ROBOT WITH LASER (robot may or may not be here)
RIGHT, UP
UP, UP
HOLD MIRROR
DROP MIRROR
UP
control room, north end
UP
PUSH GREEN BUTTON
LEFT
GET BOMB
LEFT, UP, UP, UP, RIGHT
DROP BOMB
RIGHT, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, RIGHT
PUSH BUTTON
LEFT
OPEN DOOR WITH CARD
UP, UP, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, UP, UP, UP
GET SUIT
LEFT, LEFT, UP, UP, UP, UP, RIGHT, UP, LEFT
GET TANK
PUT ON SUIT
LEFT, LEFT
PUSH BUTTON
UP, RIGHT
DROP PISTOL
GET AMULET
LEFT, UP
TAKE OFF BOOTS
TAKE OFF SUIT
START ENGINE WITH KEY
LEFT, LEFT or RIGHT, RIGHT
UP, UP, UP, UP
"Immenseness of space"
LEFT, UP
"suborbital altitude"
UP
"altitude is 100,000 feet"
UP
"altitude is 1,000 feet"
LEFT, LEFT, LEFT
"runway in distance"
UP
landed on runway
LEFT, UP
STOP ENGINE
UP, UP
LEFT, UP, LEFT
OPEN DOOR WITH CARD
UP, LEFT
TURN KEY
"Enter password:"

Here's where I get stuck. The only thing that has writing on it is the amulet, and if you read it, it has "AMUZOZ" on the back of it. But that's apparently not the password. This reviewer ran into the same problem: https://www.page6.org/archive/issue_25/page_16.htm
At this point it might require someone to look at the code and see what the password is.
That reviewer's name seems a bit familiar. ;)

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Garry
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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#2 Post by Garry » Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:00 am

The reviewer was me. I never did finish that game.

EDIT: Powerstar was originally issued on a cartridge. It has since been dumped to an xex file. I just had a look at the file in a hex editor and there are no recognisable strings, apart from the title. It is no doubt compressed. The compression is impressive. All the code, strings and graphics are compressed into just 16 KB, so it must have been a 16 KB cartridge.

Alastair
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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#3 Post by Alastair » Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:52 pm

There are some errors in the above partial solution, in particular the directions when leaving the robot room and also after picking up the bomb. Then there is the question of the spacesuit, how does Stonic know that the suit is there? I have not been able to find a way to see anything (or use any of the other senses) in the steam rooms.

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Alex
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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#4 Post by Alex » Sat Nov 26, 2022 8:55 pm

Interesting game code. Each location consists of 4 different room numbers. You can grab an object if it is in one of the 4 connected room numbers, but you will only see the object if you are standing where the object is shown (looking in the right direction).

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#5 Post by Alex » Sat Nov 26, 2022 9:27 pm

To give an idea on how the map works, the first part of the map. The 7 locations are actually 28 different locations.
partial map.png
partial map.png (51.12 KiB) Viewed 17386 times
To walk around typing the cardinal directions is faster than using a joystick.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#6 Post by Alastair » Sat Nov 26, 2022 10:52 pm

Alex, have you been able to decode a verb list?

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#7 Post by Alex » Sat Nov 26, 2022 11:06 pm

No unfortunately not. Until now I only started to visit all the locations and mapping them. Thats normally the easiest part of playing a game. Next will be making a list of all the objects.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#8 Post by Alastair » Sun Nov 27, 2022 12:38 am

I have managed to finish it, but not with a full score (184 out of 216) and I don't know why the password is what it is.

Starting off, I have managed to decode the following:
inventory look north south east west fuel hilox score fir¥shoot ugotit use take off put on wear get tak¥pic«carry put drop place read save load kic«hit play pus¨press stop turn off shut off hold start turn on turn cut burn weld light open unscrew remove torch bomb oxygen tank radio battery
volt lantern flashlight lamp boots pistol laser gun printout paper message cardkey coins matches book key suit amulet mirror shuttl¥engines rocket ship computer terminal printer door lock steam grat¥vent screws valv¥wheel red button buttons green buttons robot guard game equipment panel keyswitch bottles bureau cabinet desk it them antenna eart¨fac¥galley lakes loudspeaker loung¥offic¥passwor¤reel rods shower stov¥tic«tools top pandora ‚amuzoz attac¨by copyright •cryogeni£dens¥di¤di¥doc«hop¥loos¥m¥mov¥o«respon¤sli¤software in£ughversion
‰was yet  th¥a is you t¯in of her¥ar¥spac¥throug¨se¥ther¥on an hav¥for this up wit¨control from blow aroun¤your that larg¥away at room station air tabl¥feet floor ocean altitud¥bar bay be¤beac¨bits chairs clouds direction distanc¥emergency en¤fiel¤flas¨front furnitur¥gravity groun¤hall hiss hous¥instrument ladder left lif¥medicin¥mountains object orbit reactor shaft shelves sid¥sign sky soun¤sourc¥star stat¥tap telescreen thing transmitter unit voic¥wall water wav¥way window an¤Œthen b¥becaus¥bounc¥can can t com¥cras¨destroy d¯don t emits enter fail fill g¯has includes kill lea¤meet not parke¤power repair reveals run says seems sit slopes stan¤stretc¨surroun¤travel want will all already bac«blu¥brilliant brown close¤dar«down empty faint few four goo¤green immens¥lost magneti£main many necessary n¯now nuclear off on¥opposit¥out sic«silver som¥storag¥tw¯abov¥befor¥gon¥nearby under i what ; ½micr¯£su¢por ¾s Œing €e¤es š‚ness al ¤ful
Ignoring the yet to be replaced tokens you will see the odd word "ugotit" this is a simple letter rotation of "amuzoz":

Code: Select all

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
uvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrst

amuzoz
ugotit
The question is why? Then there is still the matter of how Stonic discovered the spacesuit.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#9 Post by Garry » Sun Nov 27, 2022 1:41 am

I had another look at the xex file and think I found where the vocabulary starts. It is heavily encoded/compressed such that it looks like gobbledegook. I'm impressed that you were able to decompress it at all. On the surface, it looks like if the high bit is set, it marks the end of a word. As an example, if you clear the high bit on all those yen symbols (¥), they become '%' and this is the code for 'e'.

Regarding the spacesuit, I dug out my old notes. There is a room described as "The shelves and storage cabinets here are filled with the tools and equipment necessary for space station repair." When facing west in this room, you see a space suit.

Regarding the password, I can see that I tried a simple rotation cipher, but I only tried one or two rotations in each direction. Now that you've discovered the answer hidden away in the vocabulary, I guess I should have tried all 25 possibilities. There must surely be a hint to how many rotations to use somewhere in the game, otherwise it is very unfair.

All in all, my memory of the game is very hazy. I distinctly remember the steam room, but not much else. I can see from my notes that you get killed a lot, so I would rate it as cruel.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#10 Post by Garry » Sun Nov 27, 2022 4:06 am

I think I've got the vocabulary worked out. If bit 7 is set, it's the end of the word. Synonyms are stored side by side. If bit 6 is also set, then it's the last of the synonyms. When you clear these two bits, you get the normal character. The bulk of the characters are encoded. If they're outside the normal ASCII range for lower case letters, add 64 to decode them. So, to decode the vocabularly (in pseudo BASIC code):

Code: Select all

    READ a
    IF (a > 224 AND a < 251) THEN
        a = a - 128
    END IF
    IF (a > 160 AND a < 187) THEN
        a = a - 64
    END IF
    IF (a > 32 AND a < 59) THEN
        a = a + 64
    END IF
The vocabulary ends at around about "copyright". From then on, I think these are the lookup tables for the compressed strings.

Regarding the password 'ugotit', if you expand this, it becomes 'u got it' or 'you got it'. Get it?

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#11 Post by Alex » Sun Nov 27, 2022 8:52 am

Well done! Both of you. I'll just finish my map and see if every location is visited with the above provided solution.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#12 Post by Alex » Sun Nov 27, 2022 11:47 am

For some reason I always start the game with 32 points. Strange.
Last edited by Alex on Sun Nov 27, 2022 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#13 Post by Alex » Sun Nov 27, 2022 1:33 pm

Alastair wrote:
Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:52 pm
Then there is the question of the spacesuit, how does Stonic know that the suit is there? I have not been able to find a way to see anything (or use any of the other senses) in the steam rooms.
In one of the steam rooms you find a valve. You must close it to get rid of the steam.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#14 Post by Alex » Sun Nov 27, 2022 4:36 pm

I finished the game with 216 points.

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Re: Powerstar (Atari)

#15 Post by Alex » Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:23 pm

I've uploaded my map and solution. I also mentioned you in the solution, because without your hints I wouldn't have solved it so quickly.

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