Xenophobe

[JagChris]

I can't believe there's no thread for this game. It's beautiful. Especially on the new LCD screens. And learning to control it has some nuances that are interesting. 

 

Unfortunately my copy is buggy. When I hit the elevator rooms this is all I see in the attached photo.

 

I've learned to stumble through it by pressing forward until the option 1 window tells me to 'use elevator' up or down. Then when it dings or whatnot I stumble forward until I clear that room into a new one. And then it's fine. 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by JagChris

[Lostdragon]

A big fan of the Lynx version myself, it added a good deal of depth to the arcade version and has a proper ending. 

 

I know some purists aren't keen on the zoomed in view, way characters face you, when you've a clinger attached to you as you walk... 

 

 

And for a handheld title, it really did need a password save system, but that applies to a the likes of SOTB and others, so i can't single it out for that. 

 

Never encountered the bug you have, guess I was lucky. 

Edited March 13, 2022 by Lostdragon

[Ninjabba]

Played this game recently (finally) in comlynx mode with three people. 

I didn't know this (I don't have the manual) but you can play as a xeno as well, killing the other players. Cool gimmick but a bit pointless since it won't progress the game and you're effectively making it more difficult for yourself.

The last level has some really cool sprite art and a final boss.

[+jgkspsx]

Bizarre bug. Does that happen if you load the rom on a flash cart?

[Leonard Smith]

6 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

 

And for a handheld title, it really did need a password save system, but that applies to a the likes of SOTB and others, so i can't single it out for that. 

 

 

I agree with you and I think this applied to a lot of the Lynx arcade game ports.
For a handheld with limited battery life, playing Xenophobe, Ms Pac-Man, or even Xybots on the go was really not ideal.  Xybots in particular with its 50+ levels.  
A save or password system was truly an oversight.

 

[JagChris]

5 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Bizarre bug. Does that happen if you load the rom on a flash cart?

I dunno. Don't have a flash cart. I'm thinking about grabbing the BennVenn.

 

I tried cleaning the contacts with an eraser and blowing out the slot. No change. Just a bad copy I guess. It does make it harder to determine how many floors a level has though. 

 

Has anyone determined how much the new screens extend battery life, percentage wise on average? 20%? 50%?

[JagChris]

10 hours ago, Ninjabba said:

Played this game recently (finally) in comlynx mode with three people. 

I didn't know this (I don't have the manual) but you can play as a xeno as well, killing the other players. Cool gimmick but a bit pointless since it won't progress the game and you're effectively making it more difficult for yourself.

The last level has some really cool sprite art and a final boss.

Most of these games should have their manuals available on archive.org and elsewhere.

[PFG 9000]

Xenophobe is one of those Lynx games that I really need to sink some time into.  I've played it for a half hour or so.  I'm aware that it has some big fans and that it's generally well regarded.  And I'm a massive fan of the Alien franchise.  But I didn't have Xenophobe when I was a kid, when I had more time for gaming.  I do really want to explore Xenophobe, but for whatever reason I've never gotten around to giving it the time it deserves.

[JagChris]

On 3/13/2022 at 3:07 AM, JagChris said:

I can't believe there's no thread for this game. It's beautiful. Especially on the new LCD screens. And learning to control it has some nuances that are interesting. 

 

Unfortunately my copy is buggy. When I hit the elevator rooms this is all I see in the attached photo.

 

I've learned to stumble through it by pressing forward until the option 1 window tells me to 'use elevator' up or down. Then when it dings or whatnot I stumble forward until I clear that room into a new one. And then it's fine. 

 

 

I tried this in my El Cheapo last night and even the ROM does this exact thing. 

 

So there's something amiss with my Lynx. It's recapped. New power circuit. New Flex circuit. Bennvenn screen installed. Cart and contacts fastidiously scrubbed.

 

So far. No other game seems to glitch or crash. So far. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by JagChris

[+karri]

7 hours ago, JagChris said:

I tried this in my El Cheapo last night and even the ROM does this exact thing. 

 

So there's something amiss with my Lynx. It's recapped. New power circuit. New Flex circuit. Bennvenn screen installed. Cart and contacts fastidiously scrubbed.

 

So far. No other game seems to glitch or crash. So far. 

Sounds very much like a software bug in  the game. There may be some uninitialized memory locations that just happen to be in some state.

[JagChris]

I actually think It's a contact problem.

 

I scrubbed my lynx's contacts again today and when it got to the elevator room it appears now when it swings from right to left or left to right and then centers but once it centers it goes back to that glitch....But that's better than before. I'll keep working on it see if it eventually clears up.

[JagChris]

On 5/9/2022 at 10:16 PM, karri said:

Sounds very much like a software bug in  the game. There may be some uninitialized memory locations that just happen to be in some state.

It's only happens on my system. I scrubbed the contacts and it seemed to almost get back to normal. I don't doubt these things are happening but it may have something to do with my physical connection. Now it's back to the way it was. 

 

Some roms don't work. Baseball, 2048, pinball Jam. So now I don't know if it's bad roms or my actual physical connection.

 

Is it possible it's a incompatibility with my Bennvenn screen?

 

Is there any program that will run a memory check on the system?

Edited May 29, 2022 by JagChris

[+jgkspsx]

It seems extremely unlikely it’s bad roms.

[JagChris]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

It seems extremely unlikely it’s bad roms.

Intend to disagree. This seems like something that is more into making certain aspects under certain conditions fail then entire roms not booting.

 

But I won't know until someone else runs into the same problem with recent downloads of those roms like I am having. Or not.

Edited May 29, 2022 by JagChris

[Axe]

Love this game, the only one I Comlynxed on. Annoying friend always had to be the snotterpillar. Managed to get a £12 copy recently and it worked fine after cleaning.

[+karri]

You could re-solder the cart connector pins. It may have been through physical stress and some solder could be bad.