Pop 4D stuck!

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:13 pm

You finished? The whole POP1 game or just level 8?

oh so very stuck! · Post by **oh so very stuck!** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:11 am

The whole pop1 ofcourse

. I wouldn't post a message just for finishing one level. Is that strange?

JKSM · Post by **JKSM** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:40 am

oh so very stuck! wrote:I finished it! By cheating though.... (patience not my strongest feature, and what little i have 4dprince has worn it off).

You missed all the fun by not waiting for the gate to open.

Or did you see it? If not, see this gate opening screenshots. Long ago, I solved it by accident after being tired of walking to and forward, I waited near the gate to think what went wrong. What a pleasant surprised I had.

Here's how i cheated. I did what you jksm told me to do, that is i edited the bat file. But, that was not all. After i wrote prince megahit the game wouldn't start by clicking on the bat file as it did before. It played if i clicked on the exe file, but no cheats. Trying to find a way to cheat i noticed that that in the original bat file had after prince the following "%1 %2 %3 %4". So i wrote prince megahit and those numbers after it and it worked. If i remember correctly it worked after i restarted my pc because i was trying first to give the command on the dos prompt.
With 4dprince i tried first the bat file you gave, jk. Nothing. I got a message of bad command or filename. So i changed it adding the %1 etc, and it worked so far as to skip level 3 only now i only have 15 minutes and no other cheats. I mean nothing else works, just the level skip cheat and with 15 minutes i don't think i'll be able to finish the game.
Anyway, the save solution you gave worked fine . I can now save the game (4d prince that is) without any problems.
Thanks!

If you skip levels with a reduction to 15 minutes, that means your cheat mode did not work. This way of skipping levels is part of the game.

If you did follow my method by copying the POP levels i.e. kirill file to the original POP then you should not be using the old cheat. You should be using the same cheat bat as the one that you played the original POP (i.e. the one you said using prince megahit %1 %2 %3 %4)

Hmm, I never knew people using %1 %2 %3 %4 for POP when start up. Probably it was the format of your game or something else. I know for some games, it starts up like that because the format of file is part 1, 2 .etc. The way it was copied from floppy to hard disk. If I don't remember wrongly it was Humans or Lemmings that had such a start-up.

oh so very stuck! · Post by **oh so very stuck!** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:37 am

You misunderstood me. I waited for the mouse to come and open the gate, and did not skip any levels, because i wanted to see those levels and finish them. I cheated using the k cheat on some of the guards (i killed jaffar without cheating) and tried some of the cheats to see how they worked. I did not see any point in killing those guards without cheating, they were very easy to kill. It was generally a fun game and i enjoyed it

As for pop4d, i played with the files and tried various combinations to make the game work. So far what i have accomplished is this: either i can save but can't cheat or i can cheat but can't save plus i get the error on level 10 (that is i can't get to level 10 at all).
It is a dead-end because either way i can't get past level 9, on the first occasion because i do not have any time left on the second because of the error.
But the way i see it pop4d after the 3rd level is the same as pop1 or am i wrong?
I did use the bat file you gave me, jk, and i noticed that the original game does not have a bat file.
I will not tell you what experiments i conducted to reach the results above, because i myself cannot remember and i do not want to mislead you.

JKSM · Post by **JKSM** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:30 pm

Glad you liked the game. That's the whole fun of it seeing the whole story and all.

(i killed jaffar without cheating) and tried some of the cheats to see how they worked. I did not see any point in killing those guards without cheating, they were very easy to kill.

True, it makes not different about killing guards by fighting or not unless you like fighting. Glad you killed Jaffar yourself, otherwise you will forever not end the game. I tried for fun once using cheat to kill Jaffar and got stuck.

You would have to kill Jaffar yourself then the exit door will open.

Anyway, for those who like swordfighting. The most challenging guards to fight are the skeleton and the skinny guard at the beginning of level 8. Next will be the fat guard. Other guards are all for fun.

So far what i have accomplished is this: either i can save but can't cheat or i can cheat but can't save plus i get the error on level 10 (that is i can't get to level 10 at all).

Error about insert disk on level 10. The kirill file that you rename levels, was it the patched version of POP4D? I know you downloaded many times POP4D, hope you didn't get them mixed up.

It is a dead-end because either way i can't get past level 9, on the first occasion because i do not have any time left on the second because of the error.

Not enough time? You managed to clear level 3 POP4D? or are you talking about POP1 and you spent too much time on earlier levels.

But the way i see it pop4d after the 3rd level is the same as pop1 or am i wrong?

No there are some levels that are different and some the same. For the levels that are totally different in POP4D, maybe gamemaster can tell you exactly which ones.

Getting the error "insert disk ..." would be due to a missing link. The easiest way to get it is to completely remove levels.dat and you will the error immediately when you start the game. I experimented before.

oh so very stuck! · Post by **oh so very stuck!** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 3:37 pm

I should change my username as i am not stuck anymore.
Jk thanks. I finally did it. It took many tries and a lot of help from you.
I had forgotten all about the kiril.dat that was the first thing i tried to fix as you recommended. Now i have about five folders with the pop4d files, but the one that works is the one that contains: 4d_prin.exe, prince.bat edited with the cheat code as i have stated in my previous posts and the kiril.dat that you have patched. It works fine, in fact everything works the game the cheats everything.
Ofcourse i have not passed the 3rd level of pop4d, if i had i would have posted something here to let everyone that's interested including you and gamemaster, know. I simply skipped it and since the cheats work now i do not have the 15 minutes penalty to deal with. I'm still interested though to know if anyone has passed the level without cheating. (Before i could pass the 3rd level of pop4d but with the 15 minute penalty). Now finally everything works.
Well it's been a very long post this one! Nearly 50 posts and finally finally we have figured it out! Thank you very much again for all the help you have provided

One last thing i did not rename the kirill dat to levels dat as i get the error from the start of the game instead of the 3rd level. It works better as kirill dat with no problems at all.

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:26 pm

Congratulations, your problem is solved at last!!!

Now one to mine.

Cheats still don't work, maybe I'm misspelling kirill or something.
(Is it kirill or kirill! ?)

And level 4. The rooms are being repeated each time and it's making me CRAZY!!!!!

I hope someone figures out level 3

not stuck! · Post by **not stuck!** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:52 am

It's kirill! The right one is "kirill!" But check out my previous post and see if you can make the cheats work by having those files on the game folder.
And don't worry about level 4. They do repeat themselves but you have to go left and then after you open the exit gate you go right and down and you're out.

JKSM · Post by **JKSM** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:47 am

I should change my username as i am not stuck anymore.

not stuck!

lol

Glad that you finally solve everything

Well almost everything except level 3 of POP4D

Hope you enjoy finishing the rest of POP4D and maybe we'll all relook level 3.

Your managing to solve the technical problems was mainly due to your persistance in experimenting and willingness to get help. It eventually pays off.

You'll find that the benefits are rewarding that comes in the enjoyment of the game.

You're really one of the rare "guest" that seek clarification and provide feedback. It's good, at least others can find a way to help you.

Nearly 50 posts and finally finally we have figured it out!

lol

what you said is true. Seldom there are threads in this section with so many posts in one thread. Well, it was fun discuss POP with you & gamemaster, I enjoyed it too.

not stuck! · Post by **not stuck!** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:05 pm

Thank you for your kind words jksm, but i'm hardly worth them, i mean i needed help, if i did not give you info how else would you provide it me?! You're not psychics here

As for level 3 well i would like to finish it but the truth is that you me and gamemaster, if i'm not mistaken, know what to do to finish the level, it's not a matter of finding something that we haven't found, it's more a matter of knowing how to go up and out. So if someone makes it i would like to find out but well... i will not loose sleep over it

Thanks again for everything

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:20 pm

We should do this more often

Yup. Discussing POP is fun.

JKSM · Post by **JKSM** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 7:41 pm

GameMaster.EXE wrote:Yup. Discussing POP is fun.

Especially if there are people to discuss it with.

If you are really interested in more in-depth & technical stuff like aplha test PrincedV3, creating mods, playing other users created mods & levels, helping in the programming of Freeprince and discussing the bugs, you can follow the link I previously mentioned. For myself, I'm more interested in playing the game and creating some levels, not into programming or bug testing.

By the way, gamemaster, did you manage to get you cheat working or getting out of level 4 POP4D after following notstuck's suggestion?

Notstuck, now that you finished POP1, you may like to read about how POP1 was solved in 17mins & 36secs (leaving 42:24) by shortcuts suggested in this walkthrough. If you want to read a normal walktrough on Gamefaqs.

By the way, if you are interested in playing official POP1 for other platforms, you may want to try POP for Super Nintendo (SNES), it has 20 levels and is said to have extra levels from the normal POP. For POP made on other platforms, they are almost the same.

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 11:05 am

I'd like to find the game boy color version of POP. Been looking for it over an year now. Found it once on ebay, but the next day I checked, it was gone.

And I'll try to see about getting those cheats to work.

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 11:29 am

Yea! The cheats work!

The only obstacle left is this:

On my Win2k, I played POP1 through DOSbox but the cheats don't work. On my Win95 (Which I'm using right now) the cheats do work. Should I use Win2k's own Command Prompt to run the game???? It worked with this mario game I had and POP1 worked on my cousin's XP without DOSbox(the sound was crappy though)
What should I do?!?

not stuck! · Post by **not stuck!** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 12:09 pm

ok, i admit it, i enjoyed it too, this thread i mean.
But discussing pop1 on nintendo, or what on earth is win2k?! i cannot follow, i mean i only play games on my pc and only recently have i discovered both dosgames forum (trying to find a way to finish pop4 ofcourse) and dosgames. I have played mostly adventure and rpg games on my pc, mostly recent games.
As for indepth and technical stuff jk, well i'm just a gamer, the rest might very well be written in chinese for all i understand

Right now, i have to admit that i am pretty stuck in level 11 of pop4, has anyone of you finished it? I can't find the lever to open the exit door.
Gamemaster did you finish the 4th level of pop4?

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 7:49 pm

Heres a update on my problem:

On my Win2k (short for Windows 2000) when I play POP1 or 4D through DOSbox, the sound is fine but cheats don't work. On Win2k's command prompt, the cheats work but the sound is PC Internal Speaker crap. How do I sort this out?

JKSM · Post by **JKSM** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:39 am

GameMaster.EXE wrote:Heres a update on my problem:

On my Win2k (short for Windows 2000) when I play POP1 or 4D through DOSbox, the sound is fine but cheats don't work. On Win2k's command prompt, the cheats work but the sound is PC Internal Speaker crap. How do I sort this out?

For POP1, to solve crappy PC internal speaker sound get POP version 1.3 as I previously mentioned in earlier post. POP version 1.3 doesn't like POP4D levels, the colour is either a bit off or it cannot save. POP4D levels only work with POP version 1.0 so I can't help you get better sound for POP 4D.

Actually whether POP / POP4D needs to use dosbox depends on either your graphics or sound card. Some people including myself have tried running POP under other versions of windows including XP and we can run it fine by clicking the .exe in windows and without any use of dosbox.

not stuck wrote:Right now, i have to admit that i am pretty stuck in level 11 of pop4, has anyone of you finished it? I can't find the lever to open the exit door.

I'll see if I have the time to draw you a map, otherwise gamemaster might want to answer you first.

*edit*
I have roughly jigsaw piece together a map of POP4D level 11 for you after extracting from level editor PV2.5. The structure is not 100% accurate but roughly there. I haven't figure out which symbol stands for the switch to open the exit door. Guessing that it might be one of the red numbers.

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:45 am

JKSM wrote:
GameMaster.EXE wrote:Heres a update on my problem:

On my Win2k (short for Windows 2000) when I play POP1 or 4D through DOSbox, the sound is fine but cheats don't work. On Win2k's command prompt, the cheats work but the sound is PC Internal Speaker crap. How do I sort this out?
For POP1, to solve crappy PC internal speaker sound get POP version 1.3 as I previously mentioned in earlier post. POP version 1.3 doesn't like POP4D levels, the colour is either a bit off or it cannot save. POP4D levels only work with POP version 1.0 so I can't help you get better sound for POP 4D.

Actually whether POP / POP4D needs to use dosbox depends on either your graphics or sound card. Some people including myself have tried running POP under other versions of windows including XP and we can run it fine by clicking the .exe in windows and without any use of dosbox.

I see. I guess I could live with color messed up or not being able to save.
Alright, POP1.3 it is. Small question. If I replace POP1.3's levels.dat with kirill.dat, will the cheats still remain as PRINCE IMPROVED or kirill.dat cause it to change to KIRILL! ?

Couple of years ago on my cousins XP, I tried POP1 and it worked except he got crappy PC internal speaker sound too. I guess it all depends. I just don't know why POP1 and 4D reconize my Win95's external speakers and use it for sound, but they won't use Win2k's external speakers. It's making me go

JKSM · Post by **JKSM** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 9:57 am

GameMaster.EXE wrote:Heres a update on my problem:
I see. I guess I could live with color messed up or not being able to save.
Alright, POP1.3 it is. Small question. If I replace POP1.3's levels.dat with kirill.dat, will the cheats still remain as PRINCE IMPROVED or kirill.dat cause it to change to KIRILL! ?

The cheats become PRINCE IMPROVED since you would be using the original POP exe file. So far what I noticed is that when the person, Kirill Terebilov modified the game, he changed the .dat file and the .exe file of the original POP version 1.0. The rest of the files seems to be about the same. The cheats would follow whether .exe file you are using. By the way, when replacing levels.dat with kirill.dat, don't forgot to rename the file to levels.dat.

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 4:14 pm

I solved the problem! Everythings fixed! And I didn't even need POP1.3! I could tell you how, but it would be long and boring. It did include making batch files, I'll tell you that. But I'll just leave it as it is.