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I spent some time playing, mapping, and ultimately defeating Alien Syndrome this weekend, and noticed something that I think may be an unsolved mystery. Basically, I unexpectedly got a weapon upgrade (laser) against the final boss, Mr. Mimi, which made the fight dramatically easier. But on my previous attempt, I didn't get one, and had to muddle hopelessly around with the default weapon. The question is, why?

Well, there's almost nothing about it on the web, but this Sega Notebook page on SMS Power says:

Mr. Mimi: If you defeat Minosaur using fireballs and without dying, you will get unlimited lasers when fighting Mr. Mimi. Likewise, using lasers on Minosaur will provide you with fireballs against Mr. Mimi. Face him and shoot upwards at his mouth. (Although Mr. Mimi does not appear in the instruction book, direct correspondance with Sega revealed that this is the name of the round 7 boss.)

On my winning run, I did initially fight Minosaur with fireballs, but I lost a life and had to finish him off with the regular weapon. However, when I fought Mr. Mimi, I got the laser.

And on my previous, unsuccessful run, I beat Minosaur without dying using the laser...but I didn't get a fireball weapon against Mr. Mimi.

Now, here's a third piece of evidence -- a tool-assisted speedrun of the game:

Note that the player beats Minosaur without dying using fireballs, but does not get a weapon upgrade against Mr. Mimi. That pretty much refutes the Sega Notebook claim.

Given all this, here's an alternative thought: wouldn't it make more sense if the weapon upgrade is a reward for saving all the hostages? I'm not sure if I managed that on my first, unsuccessful run, but I did save them all on my second run. The point reward for saving "extra" hostages in the first couple levels is minimal (100 each), so it's logical that you'd need some incentive to do it.

Is there a good way to check on this? Maybe there's a RAM location that gets checked before the final fight, or one that can be manipulated in a debugger?

goldenband wrote

Is there a good way to check on this? Maybe there's a RAM location that gets checked before the final fight, or one that can be manipulated in a debugger?

Yes I think that would be the easiest way to proceed.

a) use e.g. MEKA 0.8x Cheat Finder to locate the RAM location where the current weapon is stored. (and we may discover cool stuff too)

b) from there see which code is using this value. e.g. set a breakpoint to stop at any write access to the "current weapon" variable and get to the final boss, or disassemble the game and see where is the value set, Etc.

This thread has reasonable instructions on how to use the Cheat Finder, if you want to give it a go:
http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14235

If you don't feel confident with that we can help.

Bock wrote

This thread has reasonable instructions on how to use the Cheat Finder, if you want to give it a go:
http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14235

If you don't feel confident with that we can help.

Cool, that's very helpful. Obviously a weapon-change value will be trickier to spot than a life-counter decrement, but I'll give it a shot when I can. I don't have a Windows partition right now (still running OS X Snow Leopard), but when I get time I'll either fire up an old Windows desktop or finally set my MacBook Pro up for it.

Was actually surprisingly easy to find.

Press == a few times
Change weapon
Press != one time
Press == a few times
Change weapon
Press != one time
Press == a few times
etc.

The weapon is stored at $C8ED (RAM offset $8ED)

00: default weapon
01: fireball
02: laser

Bock wrote

Was actually surprisingly easy to find.

Press == a few times
Change weapon
Press != one time
Press == a few times
Change weapon
Press != one time
Press == a few times
etc.

The weapon is stored at $C8ED (RAM offset $8ED)

00: default weapon
01: fireball
02: laser

It could have been even easier though :D
http://shinobiman.proboards.com/thread/5185/par-alien-syndrome

It literally takes 1 minute to find those with a Cheat Finder :)

Even better, www.smspower.org/Cheats/AlienSyndrome-SMS

Apologies for a resurrecting an old thread but in my quest to analyse every SMS game for its secrets, I solved the answer to the original poster's question.

Final boss power-ups
If you collect a certain amount of question mark boxes throughout the game, you will be rewarded with a power-up when you come to fight the final boss.

20-24 boxes: Temporary invincibility
25-29 boxes: Fireball weapon
30+ boxes: Laser weapon

Any question mark boxes you collect that are used for temporary invincibility will not count towards your total.

I've also amended and added to the 'Temporary invincibility' secret.

Temporary invincibility
Wait until 272, 262, 232, 222, 171, 161, 131, 121, 070, 060, 030 or 020 is displayed on the counter, then collect a question mark box to become temporarily invincible. It lasts for about 5 seconds. A method for remembering which numbers work is that the first & third digit must match and the second digit must be either a 7, 6, 3 or 2.

EDIT: made minor adjustment, first power-up is rewarded for 20-24 boxes

An addendum to this: I had been speedrunning the game this year and during an attempt, did as instructed but did not get the powerup. I looked into this and my understanding is that not only must you collect ? powerups, but, the last one you grab must be when the timer ones digit reads 1 or 0, and does not fall on an invincibility time mentioned above.

To verify this, you can poke $0096 with the desired ? quantity, and $0097 with a 1/0

Excellent work! I'm going to have to revisit this game after seeing your boss strategies. As a child, I thought I had a good run if I made it to Stage 4.

Author	Message
goldenband Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 127 Location: New York	Alien Syndrome (SMS) question/mystery Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 4:27 pm
	I spent some time playing, mapping, and ultimately defeating Alien Syndrome this weekend, and noticed something that I think may be an unsolved mystery. Basically, I unexpectedly got a weapon upgrade (laser) against the final boss, Mr. Mimi, which made the fight dramatically easier. But on my previous attempt, I didn't get one, and had to muddle hopelessly around with the default weapon. The question is, why? Well, there's almost nothing about it on the web, but this Sega Notebook page on SMS Power says: Mr. Mimi: If you defeat Minosaur using fireballs and without dying, you will get unlimited lasers when fighting Mr. Mimi. Likewise, using lasers on Minosaur will provide you with fireballs against Mr. Mimi. Face him and shoot upwards at his mouth. (Although Mr. Mimi does not appear in the instruction book, direct correspondance with Sega revealed that this is the name of the round 7 boss.) On my winning run, I did initially fight Minosaur with fireballs, but I lost a life and had to finish him off with the regular weapon. However, when I fought Mr. Mimi, I got the laser. And on my previous, unsuccessful run, I beat Minosaur without dying using the laser...but I didn't get a fireball weapon against Mr. Mimi. Now, here's a third piece of evidence -- a tool-assisted speedrun of the game: Note that the player beats Minosaur without dying using fireballs, but does not get a weapon upgrade against Mr. Mimi. That pretty much refutes the Sega Notebook claim. Given all this, here's an alternative thought: wouldn't it make more sense if the weapon upgrade is a reward for saving all the hostages? I'm not sure if I managed that on my first, unsuccessful run, but I did save them all on my second run. The point reward for saving "extra" hostages in the first couple levels is minimal (100 each), so it's logical that you'd need some incentive to do it. Is there a good way to check on this? Maybe there's a RAM location that gets checked before the final fight, or one that can be manipulated in a debugger?

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8652 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 4:37 pm
	goldenband wrote Is there a good way to check on this? Maybe there's a RAM location that gets checked before the final fight, or one that can be manipulated in a debugger? Yes I think that would be the easiest way to proceed. a) use e.g. MEKA 0.8x Cheat Finder to locate the RAM location where the current weapon is stored. (and we may discover cool stuff too) b) from there see which code is using this value. e.g. set a breakpoint to stop at any write access to the "current weapon" variable and get to the final boss, or disassemble the game and see where is the value set, Etc. This thread has reasonable instructions on how to use the Cheat Finder, if you want to give it a go: http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14235 If you don't feel confident with that we can help.

goldenband Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 127 Location: New York	Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:11 pm
	Bock wrote This thread has reasonable instructions on how to use the Cheat Finder, if you want to give it a go: http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14235 If you don't feel confident with that we can help. Cool, that's very helpful. Obviously a weapon-change value will be trickier to spot than a life-counter decrement, but I'll give it a shot when I can. I don't have a Windows partition right now (still running OS X Snow Leopard), but when I get time I'll either fire up an old Windows desktop or finally set my MacBook Pro up for it.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8652 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:24 pm
	Was actually surprisingly easy to find. Press == a few times Change weapon Press != one time Press == a few times Change weapon Press != one time Press == a few times etc. The weapon is stored at $C8ED (RAM offset $8ED) 00: default weapon 01: fireball 02: laser

Calindro Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 624	Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 8:41 pm
Calindro Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 624	Bock wrote Was actually surprisingly easy to find. Press == a few times Change weapon Press != one time Press == a few times Change weapon Press != one time Press == a few times etc. The weapon is stored at $C8ED (RAM offset $8ED) 00: default weapon 01: fireball 02: laser It could have been even easier though :D http://shinobiman.proboards.com/thread/5185/par-alien-syndrome

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8652 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 9:58 pm
	It literally takes 1 minute to find those with a Cheat Finder :)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:26 am
	Even better, www.smspower.org/Cheats/AlienSyndrome-SMS

ian Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 85 Location: Essex, UK	Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:29 am
ian Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 85 Location: Essex, UK	Apologies for a resurrecting an old thread but in my quest to analyse every SMS game for its secrets, I solved the answer to the original poster's question. Final boss power-ups If you collect a certain amount of question mark boxes throughout the game, you will be rewarded with a power-up when you come to fight the final boss. 20-24 boxes: Temporary invincibility 25-29 boxes: Fireball weapon 30+ boxes: Laser weapon Any question mark boxes you collect that are used for temporary invincibility will not count towards your total. I've also amended and added to the 'Temporary invincibility' secret. Temporary invincibility Wait until 272, 262, 232, 222, 171, 161, 131, 121, 070, 060, 030 or 020 is displayed on the counter, then collect a question mark box to become temporarily invincible. It lasts for about 5 seconds. A method for remembering which numbers work is that the first & third digit must match and the second digit must be either a 7, 6, 3 or 2. EDIT: made minor adjustment, first power-up is rewarded for 20-24 boxes

TheArbiter Joined: 31 Mar 2015 Posts: 27 Location: Carlisle, UK	Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 7:26 pm
	An addendum to this: I had been speedrunning the game this year and during an attempt, did as instructed but did not get the powerup. I looked into this and my understanding is that not only must you collect ? powerups, but, the last one you grab must be when the timer ones digit reads 1 or 0, and does not fall on an invincibility time mentioned above. To verify this, you can poke $0096 with the desired ? quantity, and $0097 with a 1/0

Oxwah Joined: 04 Apr 2020 Posts: 24 Location: Buffalo, NY, USA	Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 4:52 pm
	Excellent work! I'm going to have to revisit this game after seeing your boss strategies. As a child, I thought I had a good run if I made it to Stage 4.

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