Troubles getting Fire Rescue (Hudson Soft, 1984) to work properly.

Master (236)

15-11-2016, 12:56

I have tried multiple copies of the game, be it .dsk or .rom files, they all crash, freeze, or reset the game (along with high score) after beating stage 008. One copy even did THIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XLBCD4JUGg

I have tried emulating different MSX machines with various settings, with both blueMSX and openMSX, but nothing has helped so far. My guess is that most copies of the game are corrupted.

Any help, please? :)

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Van AxelF

Champion (398)

26-11-2016, 19:36

Yes, you are right. even the CAS images have this bug.
I think the game should continue to level 9, because it does not have a
'GAME COMPLETED' screen.

Van AxelF

Champion (398)

26-11-2016, 20:43

Have created a IPS patch (For the ROM file) to reach Stage 8 really easy, and see what happens. :p

Van ~mk~

Champion (340)

26-11-2016, 22:00

Cool ending

Van Louthrax

Prophet (2492)

27-11-2016, 13:30

AxelF wrote:

Have created a IPS patch (For the ROM file) to reach Stage 8 really easy, and see what happens. :p

Thanks for the patch AxelF! Any idea what was the cause of the crash (corrupted dump or bad coding ?).

Van AxelF

Champion (398)

27-11-2016, 15:05

I'm not shure, the code isnt very good (leaves data on stack every round)
but this does not cause the crash.
I hope someon can provide us with a proper dump of the ORIGINAL ROM or TAPE to be shure.

Van ~mk~

Champion (340)

27-11-2016, 15:25

This reminds me of a bug I found in another game... the superb game Tensai Rabbian.
I was once playing for points, stacking up enemies and killing them all at the same time, and discovered that if your score goes over 655360 (8 bits + fixed zero) it rolls back to zero and the number of lives go crazy.
They screen got filled up with rabbits (the lives character) and then after redrawn it looked like this:

I find this kind of "bugs" really interesting, has anyone achieved something similiar in any other game?

BTW if you didn't know, in Tensai Rabbian there's a key combination that takes you to Tensai Rabian 2 with a whole lot of new levels. At the title screen press direction keys: UUDDRULU

Van Manuel

Ascended (19676)

27-11-2016, 17:29

I guess the dump of Fire Rescue on "Cintas MSX" is as original as you can get it.

Van rderooy

Paladin (686)

27-11-2016, 23:07

If you look at "Het Grote MSX Peeks, Pokes en Truuks Boek Deel 2" on page 12, they also comment that the game crashes
https://archive.org/stream/het_grote_msx_peeks_pokes_en_truu...

So I guess the game is just buggy.

Van gdx

Enlighted (6422)

28-11-2016, 00:32

At address 04294h there is a loop with a DJNZ. When B = 0C4h, the address 0314h is put in the stack somewhere and Fire Rescue crash when a call return to this address. I have not had time to look over.

I also noticed that the fire extinguisher does not always respond when pressing Space when the game becomes fast. It makes the game even more difficult.

Hudson soft has sold this game without checking it.

Van gdx

Enlighted (6422)

28-11-2016, 09:39

~~04294h~~ 042C4h. The problem seems caused by the stack.