the cutting room mirror

Electro Man

A difficult puzzle-platformer from Poland, bought to the rest of the world by the ZZT lads.

Cheat Mode#

With the Electro Man release, type in CHAOS. A sound effect will play confirming cheat mode is active, then type either SUPER for god mode or SKIP to go to the next level. W0 through W5 changes your weapon to the corresponding level. DISK gives you all disks, and KILL kills you (usable in god mode).

Error Messages#

The error messages are completely different between the two versions. These can be found loaded into memory when the game is running.

Electro Body#

Original

Translated

Nie ma miejsca na obiekt!
Brak obiektow w grze!
Obiekt o nieznanej procedurze obslugi!
Obiekt o nieznanej procedurze dotkniecia!
Brak check pointa startowego!
There is no place for this object!
No objects in the game!
Object with unknown operation procedure!
Object with unknown collision procedure!
No starting check point!

Electro Man#

Game error: 'TOMOBJ'
Game error: 'NOOBJ'
Game error: 'UNKNPROC'
Game error: 'UNKNTPROC'
Game error: 'NOCHKP'

Version Differences#

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: There's probably a lot more version differences here to cover.

  • Electro Man only supports VGA and Monochromatic VGA. Electro Body, on the other hand, supports not only VGA, but also EGA, CGA, and Hercules.
  • Electro Man allows the player to jump with the Control key, while Electro Body allows the player to jump with the Q key.
  • Annoyingly, to exit Electro Body, one must press F10. The player can simply press Escape to exit Electro Man.
  • The framerate is slower in Electro Body v. 1.0, but tweaked to be a little higher in later versions.
  • The "Jesus is here!" sound effect that plays upon reaching a checkpoint is reversed in Electro Man.
  • Electro Body supports Covox, SoundBlaster, and PC speaker. Electro Man adds AdLib support on top of that.
  • After completing a level in Electro Body, it sends you to room where the player must select the correct letter from a page in the (Polish language) manual. Failing to do so sends the player to an inescapable room which has the words "żadna odpowiedż nie była poprawna" (That answer wasn't right) embedded in the background.
  • Electro Man allows the player to restart a level by pressing R.

Electro Body v. 1.0

Electro Body v. 1.5

Electro Man

The title screen got a huge overhaul by Version 1.5 and improved further with Electro Man.

Electro Body

Electro Man

Even from the first level, there is a noticeable graphical revamp of the levels, containing much more detail on the objects.