So, here is a hint: consider a deck of playing cards (like in Solitaire/Patience), what number would an ace represent there? What number would three aces, placed next to each other, would represent?
If you are using Windows or DOS (in case you want to try it on an old laptop from the 90s) then you can download Petra099n.zip and run one of the executables inside. For Linux download Petra099nLinux.tar.xz. If you have a Mac download Petra099m.dmg - it is a slightly older version, but there weren't any Mac-specific changes in 0.99n anyway.
Assuming you are using the Windows/DOS archive, the executables you may want to try are:
glpetra.exe - Windows: this will give you the OpenGL HW accelerated version
sdlpetra.exe - Windows: this will give you the software rendering version but wont support gamepad
gdipetra.exe - Windows: this will give you the software rendering version and supports gamepad, but it will be choppier
d3dpetra.exe - Retro Windows: Direct3D 7 HW accelerated version for old Windows PCs
winpetra.exe - Retro Windows: DirectDraw software rendering version for old Windows PCs
petra.exe - Retro DOS: DOS version for old PCs
If you are not sure and just want to check out the game and your laptop is not older than 15-20 years or so, you can run glpetra.exe.
You mean the Anbernic RG-350M? Might have to do with 640x480 output, i'm not sure if SDL on it does software or hardware scaling (the game requests 320x240 mode).
I haven't implemented joystick/gamepad support in the SDL versions - i might do that at some point. Though the engine itself doesn't really "know" about gamepad (originally the game was written for DOS with keyboard-only input), the versions that have support for gamepad simply generate fake key events, so it wouldn't be that different from using the D-PAD. But i might try it anyway in a later version.
Hello, don't have time to play much (as I'm indie dev as well with not much time to play), but I want to praise the visual of the game and fact that it's under the DOS. It's heartwarming to see those screenshots, strongly reminds me of Tomb Raider 1 with color palette from System Shock 1. Thumbs up!
I just can't workout the Filter Room Code, you know the; "Middle is where my favourite book is at. First front row chairs. Lastly next after first and second minus three." Tried all the combinations that made sense to me and to my stream viewers and even tried to brute force it assuming that the first number was correct. Any help, hints or just the code would be helpful. Thanks really enjoyed playing!
About the code, basically it is a failure to provide good feedback on my end - the result of making stuff up as i go i guess. Someone wrote that it looks like Tomb Raider - initially i was planning to make a TR-like platformer but making those animations took time and as you noticed, controls are a bit janky... so i just started adding more and more puzzles instead :-P.
Your initial guesses were actually right, it is just that there wasn't any feedback about what to do about the middle number.
Since itch.io doesn't seem to have a way to mark spoilers, i'll give you a hint on what to do: go "at" the book's title (the "at" was intentional :-P) and use the action button. And now i guess you can see what i mean with failing to provide good feedback... there should have been a way to tell when you can interact with something (the same applies with the bookcases - only those in the room are interactive). But i thought of that too late (i made that room near the end of the deadline).
But this is basically a half-baked 3D platforming engine forced to become an adventure game engine mid-development :-P. Anyway, i can tell you the full code if you want, just send me a mail at badsector -at- runtimeterror -dot- com :-).
About some other things. The game didn't crash the first time, from what i can see in ~33:50 when you opened the inventory you had the Quit button highlighted and i guess you pressed Enter or Space which activated it. This is something i pretty much added the last moment (i was killing DOSBox or pressing Alt+F4 for most of the development to exit the game) and the UI system was hacked quickly together in an afternoon, which is why it doesn't have any confirmation popup... or why the note disk text sometimes reads in a weird way (there is no scrolling nor word wrapping so i was trying to fit the text in the few lines and characters as if it was Twitter :-P).
The sound was a bit choppy... my guess is the K6 you use wasn't fast enough. It'll sound counterintuitive but the software version (WINPETRA.EXE) might work better - i've only written the D3D code recently and only tried it on my 1GHz P3 machine whereas i tried the software renderer on weaker machines and optimized it a bit more.
About DOS not having audio and DMA issues: Soundblaster has two DMA types, low DMA and high DMA. The low DMA was there from the beginning but only supports mono audio whereas the high DMA was introduced in SB16 and supports stereo. Post Apocalyptic Petra requires SB16 to do stereo so it uses only the high DMA. Your sound card probably doesn't support the high DMA mode, which is why you get that. There might be a way to get stereo audio out of low DMA-only SB compatible cards because it sounds weird to me that these cards forced DOS games to be mono. Then again, i guess by the time they were new most people used Win9x and DOS support wasn't much of a concern. I might check that out at some point.
Thanks for the fast reply! For a game jam project with Windows and DOS versions I think it's pretty great. Will be giving it another go with that clue, I'll try the software renderer versions also. Cheers
Hi can you provide a video for this game? It looks interesting but I can't get it to work even on DosBox-X. All it does is show a "RUNTIME TERROR" screen.
Does it do anything if you press space? It might take a bit to load the data (though the latest version should display a message when it is loading, are you using 0.99f?).
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game was pretty cool. good job
Thank you :-)
Hi Bad Sector! I'm really really stuck trying to figure out what three aces mean, if you could give me a hand would help me a lot, great game btw
Hi.
So, here is a hint: consider a deck of playing cards (like in Solitaire/Patience), what number would an ace represent there? What number would three aces, placed next to each other, would represent?
So uh... can I play this game on my laptop or not? if yes, how?
If you are using Windows or DOS (in case you want to try it on an old laptop from the 90s) then you can download Petra099n.zip and run one of the executables inside. For Linux download Petra099nLinux.tar.xz. If you have a Mac download Petra099m.dmg - it is a slightly older version, but there weren't any Mac-specific changes in 0.99n anyway.
Assuming you are using the Windows/DOS archive, the executables you may want to try are:
If you are not sure and just want to check out the game and your laptop is not older than 15-20 years or so, you can run glpetra.exe.
Awesome to see a DOS game! It looks amazing.
Thank you :-)
Played on the 350M, lags a bit and was sad I couldn't use joystick. I couldn't figure out how to escape, but I like the Tomb Raider vibes.
You mean the Anbernic RG-350M? Might have to do with 640x480 output, i'm not sure if SDL on it does software or hardware scaling (the game requests 320x240 mode).
I haven't implemented joystick/gamepad support in the SDL versions - i might do that at some point. Though the engine itself doesn't really "know" about gamepad (originally the game was written for DOS with keyboard-only input), the versions that have support for gamepad simply generate fake key events, so it wouldn't be that different from using the D-PAD. But i might try it anyway in a later version.
Just came across this, wow this looks really cool. I bumped you up to the fresh games section on the homepage.
Thanks :-). I just realized i do not have a short description set :-P.
Hello, don't have time to play much (as I'm indie dev as well with not much time to play), but I want to praise the visual of the game and fact that it's under the DOS. It's heartwarming to see those screenshots, strongly reminds me of Tomb Raider 1 with color palette from System Shock 1. Thumbs up!
Hi and thank you :-).
I just can't workout the Filter Room Code, you know the; "Middle is where my favourite book is at. First front row chairs. Lastly next after first and second minus three." Tried all the combinations that made sense to me and to my stream viewers and even tried to brute force it assuming that the first number was correct. Any help, hints or just the code would be helpful. Thanks really enjoyed playing!
Hi! I just finished watching the steam video :-).
About the code, basically it is a failure to provide good feedback on my end - the result of making stuff up as i go i guess. Someone wrote that it looks like Tomb Raider - initially i was planning to make a TR-like platformer but making those animations took time and as you noticed, controls are a bit janky... so i just started adding more and more puzzles instead :-P.
Your initial guesses were actually right, it is just that there wasn't any feedback about what to do about the middle number.
Since itch.io doesn't seem to have a way to mark spoilers, i'll give you a hint on what to do: go "at" the book's title (the "at" was intentional :-P) and use the action button. And now i guess you can see what i mean with failing to provide good feedback... there should have been a way to tell when you can interact with something (the same applies with the bookcases - only those in the room are interactive). But i thought of that too late (i made that room near the end of the deadline).
But this is basically a half-baked 3D platforming engine forced to become an adventure game engine mid-development :-P. Anyway, i can tell you the full code if you want, just send me a mail at badsector -at- runtimeterror -dot- com :-).
About some other things. The game didn't crash the first time, from what i can see in ~33:50 when you opened the inventory you had the Quit button highlighted and i guess you pressed Enter or Space which activated it. This is something i pretty much added the last moment (i was killing DOSBox or pressing Alt+F4 for most of the development to exit the game) and the UI system was hacked quickly together in an afternoon, which is why it doesn't have any confirmation popup... or why the note disk text sometimes reads in a weird way (there is no scrolling nor word wrapping so i was trying to fit the text in the few lines and characters as if it was Twitter :-P).
The sound was a bit choppy... my guess is the K6 you use wasn't fast enough. It'll sound counterintuitive but the software version (WINPETRA.EXE) might work better - i've only written the D3D code recently and only tried it on my 1GHz P3 machine whereas i tried the software renderer on weaker machines and optimized it a bit more.
About DOS not having audio and DMA issues: Soundblaster has two DMA types, low DMA and high DMA. The low DMA was there from the beginning but only supports mono audio whereas the high DMA was introduced in SB16 and supports stereo. Post Apocalyptic Petra requires SB16 to do stereo so it uses only the high DMA. Your sound card probably doesn't support the high DMA mode, which is why you get that. There might be a way to get stereo audio out of low DMA-only SB compatible cards because it sounds weird to me that these cards forced DOS games to be mono. Then again, i guess by the time they were new most people used Win9x and DOS support wasn't much of a concern. I might check that out at some point.
Thanks for the fast reply! For a game jam project with Windows and DOS versions I think it's pretty great. Will be giving it another go with that clue, I'll try the software renderer versions also. Cheers
Hi can you provide a video for this game? It looks interesting but I can't get it to work even on DosBox-X. All it does is show a "RUNTIME TERROR" screen.
Does it do anything if you press space? It might take a bit to load the data (though the latest version should display a message when it is loading, are you using 0.99f?).
I'll upload a video later.
Oh man. space worked. I tried return and escape but didn't think of pressing space. I'm not familiar with DOS games conventions.
This is really cool. It's like System Shock meets Tomb Raider. It's pretty unbelievable that this is done in DOS.
DOSBox needed `cycles=auto` for me, which ends up using `max`.