Metal Warrior 4 GBA

Metal Warrior 4 GBA
General
Author	Covert Bitops
Type	Action
Version	1.3
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2012/02/11
Links
Download
Website

This is a GBA conversion of Metal Warrior 4 - Agent Of Metal. It is in some ways improved, some graphics for instance, and loads data during gameplay in near zero time, but has smaller screen size compared to C64.

Technical note: the GBA side engine runs just 6502 CPU & SID emulation and has "API hooks" for graphics / loading / interrupt related functions, so it is not actually emulating a C64 enviroment.

User guide

Story so far

Note: Spoilers for the games Metal Warrior 1-3. This is intended as a quickstart so that one can jump directly to part 4 and have some kind of idea what is going on and who the characters are.

In the violent near future, there existed a war/thrash metal band CYBERPRIEST, whose music brought strength and hope to the hessians struggling from day to day. It consisted of these talented individuals:

• FAUSTUS (Bass/Vocals) - a natural leader and perceptive songwriter.
• SADOK (Guitar) - an intolerable personality, whose buzzsaw-like playing and dedication more than made up for that (he joined the military for a time just to get war-metal writing inspiration, it appeared).
• PHANTASM (Guitar) - her more thoughtful playing and skillful leads brought another side to their music.
• GOAT (Drums) - an aspiring Nietzschean Over-Man, who pounded with equal ferocity both his drums and anyone who dared to pick a fight with him.

Just as the band was starting to get notoriety outside their hometown SUB-CITY, SADOK was murdered in an manner very atypical to a metalhead: it appeared to be a job of professional hitmen. His best friend and novice guitarist IAN swore to find those responsible, in the process joining CYBERPRIEST himself.

It turned out that SADOK did not die for nothing: he had uncovered a twisted military mass mind control project involving an insane scientist DR.ULTRASHRED. Then, it also turned out he was not dead at all.

In the adventures that ensued IAN, PHANTASM and GOAT each took turns unraveling the military's many conspiracies, and finally revealed and brought to justice the mastermind behind them, GENERAL IRONFIST.

But all this was not without a price: as IAN and PHANTASM fell in love after their first adventure, CYBERPRIEST dissolved hatefully, and shortly afterwards SADOK died for real during a raid to a supposedly abandoned installation. GOAT went to live in the woods, and FAUSTUS became disillusioned and simply disappeared.

Prologue

Three weeks after the events depicted in Metal Warrior 3, two figures stand at the gates of a deserted farm..

Led by a phone call consisting of ominous pig grunts & squeals, and the voice of the maniacal bassist/vocalist LORD OBSKURIUS, they have been asked to arrive at this place for reasons unknown.

They are IAN SMITH (artist name yet undecided) and JOAN ALDER (aka PHANTASM) who were, on several occasions in the past, drawn into violent conflict with a powerful military conspiracy.

With the conspiracy revealed and brought into justice, they should now be free to live together in peace, wielding their axes only in symbolic combat against the evils of the future world.

But things are about to get weird.. The Agents of Metal are about to enter the picture.

You are asked to assume the control of IAN on his journey to the unknown. As the game begins he is his usual self but an initiation and transformation into Agent form awaits...

Items

If you cannot pick up an item, you likely have reached your carrying capacity. See the STATUS SCREEN if this is the case.

Examples of items include first aid kits, armor rechargers, and the Agent gear you receive soon after game start. Firearms are also reloaded this way.

If the screen is already full of items you must go somewhere else. When a firearm is dropped, any ammunition held in it is moved to the ammunition reserve.

Note that when you move to another area, any dropped weapons, ammunition and supplies will disappear (stolen?) But if you drop them into a closet or onto a storage shelf (1 item max. per closet or shelf) they will remain.

Status Display

The bottom left part of the screen shows your score, current weapon/item selected and ammunition remaining.

For firearms, the ammunition display is split in two. Left side shows rounds in magazine and right side shows number of magazines remaining.

For melee weapons, INF (infinite) is displayed.

The top part of the screen shows your health (H) and armor power (A) meters.

Keep an eye on the health meter; when it falls to zero you are defeated and the game is over.

The armor power meter will fill only after receiving and activating your Agent gear. The armor will take most of the damage as long as it has some power left.

To replenish health, use first aid kits. To replenish armor power, use armor rechargers. You will also automatically regain health up to 1/3 of the meter after taking near-fatal damage.

Menu System

Before a game is started, only the Game Menu is accessible:

• New Game - Start a new game. You are presented with a difficulty level selection:
  • Easy - Less player damage & enemies, carrying capacity 25kg.
  • Nornal - Normal player damage & number of enemies, carrying capacity 20kg.
  • Hard - More player damage & enemies, carrying capacity 15kg.
• Load Game - Load an existing game. 1-6 are manual save slots and A is the autosave, saved on each level change.
• Save Game - Save the current game. Note that the autosave is overwritten for each new game, so it is recommended to also save manually.
• Quit Game - End game and return to title screen. You are asked to confirm.
• Music Y/N - With music off you will hear more sound effects, such as footsteps.
• SOund Y/N - Toggles whether sound effects will be played.

In the Inventory Menu, you can select the current item (weapons, first aid kits etc.) in use.

The Status Screen displays your total game time, weight of items carried, and three status bars:

• VIT - Vitality.
• STR - Strength.
• ARMOR - Armorsystem class.

With higher vitality, the health bar will deplete slower from damage.

Higher strength increases your carrying capacity, so that more weapons and supplies can be carried at a time. Your melee attacks and thrown weapons also become more powerful.

A higher armorsystem class means that the armor can stop more damage before requiring to be recharged.

Vitality & strength upgrades can be found in enemy installations. Use Surgical Units to install these. Armor upgrades can also be found; these can be installed simply by selecting from the inventory and use them like an item.

Conversations

You need to stand near and face the person you wish to talk to, and hold the interact control for about 1/4 seconds.

If no conversation begins, this means simply that there's nothing important to say at the moment - you might want to come back later. Also, if the person is engaged in combat, you must wait.

At times you are able to choose your reply from multiple choices; this is indicated by arrows in the message window and a question mark above your character's head. Press Up/Down to see the choices and A button to select.

Sometimes conversations are also triggered automatically when you are near a person.

When you're standing at an object that can be interacted with, an arrow will flash at your character's feet.

Doors, Switches, Closets

To enter a door, stand in front of it and hold the interact control for about 1/4 seconds. Some doors need to be opened or unlocked first by using a nearby switch or keycard lock.

To operate a switch or lock, you need to stand in front of it. Any item required will be inserted automatically.

Closets might contain ammunition, weapons or other useful items.

Computer Terminals

The contents of a computer terminal screen are displayed either in the main game screen or in the message window. Sometimes you are also be presented with a control interface similar to the game menu.

Rechargers and Surgical units

These fixed units can be used to regain lost armor power or health. The surgical unit presents you with a menu interface:

• HEAL - Restore all health.
• VIT - Install vitality upgrade.
• STR - Install strength upgrade.
• EXIT - Return to game.

Elevator

To go up on an elevator, interact while standing on its left half.

To go down, interact while standing on the right half.

An elevator call button can usually be found next to an elevator shaft.

The Map Screen

When you exit an area you are presented with a map screen to choose your next destination. Use UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT to move and A button to select.

New locations are added to the map as you learn of their existence. Note that you need to locate and use the ground level exit of each enemy installation before you can return to it simply via the map screen.

Weapon and Ammunition

There are 21 different kinds of weapons in the game, and of course your trusty fists to fall back upon.

Note that by picking up every weapon you encounter you will likely reach your carrying capacity quickly.

Common ammunition types and uses:

• 9mm - Pistols, Submachine gun.
• .44 - .44 Magnum pistol.
• 5.56 - Automatic rifles.
• 7.62 - Sniper rifle.
• 12 gauge - Shotguns.
• Darts - Dart gun.
• Batteries - Electronic stun gun.

Any experimental weapons that you encounter might require their own kinds of ammunition. The weapons with non-lethal effect are:

• Fists.
• Baton.
• Dart gun.
• Electronic stun gun.

Some weapons (such as the dart gun) have a prolonged damage effect, that the armor does not protect against. You will notice this when the health bar starts to decrease even if you have armor left, and your character flashes. Using a first aid kit stops this.

Hints and Tatics

Enemies detect you by sight and sound. When you crouch-walk (sneak), they will not hear you.

Enemies might be expecting you when there has been gunfire or other loud noises just before. It might be beneficial to let things calm down before proceeding.

Reloading in the middle of combat can prove fatal. Therefore it is often wise to ensure beforehand that you have a fresh magazine.

A damage bonus is added to surprise attacks from behind (for example, a guard might go down with one blow of the Baton).

An Agent might not necessarily have to kill; double points are awarded for non-lethal defeat of an enemy.

Good luck on your adventure!

Controls

General:

Left.Right - Move left/right

Up - Climb up

Down - Crouch, Climb down, Pick up an item

A+Left/Right - Jump left/right

B+D-Pad - Attack (6 possible directions, but not all weapons can attack behind and diagonally)

B+Down/L - Use current item/upgrades/reload

B+(hold)Up/R - Interact/talk, Drop item

A/B/L/R - Proceed to the next dialogue text display (during interaction)

Start - Game menu

Special moves:

D-Pad+(hold)Up - Go up stairs instead of down

A+(opposite)D-Pad - Perform a wall-flip while jumping

Gme Menu:

Left/Right - Move between Game Menu, Inventory and Status

Up/Down - Move within a subscreen

A - Activate a menu item

B/Start - Cancel and return to the previous menu, Continue the game

Screenshots

Credits

• Agent concept - Lionel Gendre & Lasse Öörni.
• Programming, graphics, sound - Lasse Öörni.
• Music - Harri Ahola, Lionel Gendre, Paavo Härkönen, Juha Jaakkola, Anssi Jääskeläinen, Antti Kivilahti, Bas Kooy, Juho Kotila, Dennis Mott, Daniel Wuis,Lasse Öörni.
• Concept of the gas-fist (kaasunyrkki) - Sultan.
• Ending quotes - Agent Metal.

Changelog

V1.3

• Gameplay balance adjustments.
• Mutant enemy replaced with the classic variant from MW1-3.

V1.2

• When autosaving, duration of continuous damage is reduced if it would be fatal.

V1.1

• Added autosave on level change.
• Added automatic health regain up to 1/3 health after taking near-fatal damage.
• Fixed actor lower part getting displayed only partially when overlapping the bottom border.
• Fixed actor animation while reloading the flamethrower & moving.

V1.0

• Original release, based on C64 version 1.1.

External links

• Author's website - http://covertbitops.c64.org (archived)