Math Invaders

After the cliffhanger ending of Chill Manor, you'd think that the third and final Action Learning game would be another part of the "Meen series". But instead, Animation Magic decided to make it about an Earth spaceship getting attacked by evil geometry-themed aliens, and the player solving math problems in order to repair the ship and save the crew. Yep.

Welcome... to Math Invaders.

Unused Graphics#

The nag screen from the demo sampler for Math Invaders exists in the final's data, unused. Interestingly, the title code/VDN numbers aren't unique to this game - they first appeared (by mistake, most likely) in an unused graphic in Chill Manor's sampler demo.

Hidden Cheats#

Math Invaders has a few hidden cheats that can be entered during gameplay:

Combo	Effect
KWN(X)L	Add the corresponding weapon to the player's inventory, with (X) being any number from 0 to 9, and displays the message "Add Weapon". Note that 0, 8, and 9 will add non-functional inventory items to the weapons slot, which cannot be switched back to after putting them away.
KVURL	Maxes out strength and energy and adds the spacesuit item, while displaying the message "Add Strength, Shield".
K(X)L	Warps to the corresponding level, with (X) being any number from 1 to 27.

(Source: Reverse Engineering a Windows 95 Game - Editor Mode, and Conclusion)

In addition, there are a handful of messages at 9386C in the main executable relating to cheats that were removed before the game was released:

Add Key
Add Everything
Problem Debug Mode ON
Problem Debug Mode OFF

Editor Mode Strings#

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: The above source implies that Editor Mode is mostly intact apart from the removal of its input keys. Can it still be reactivated?

Located at 949F6 and 94EEC are various bits of text belonging to the game's level editor:

 *** EDITOR MODE *** 

Game Editor
All Behaviors

Behavior:
Hard
Normal
Easy

All Difficulty Level:

Room:

Type:

ResetP

PackAll 
Pack L
Pack G

Close
Settings
New
Load
Save
Delete
Insert
Restart
Reset
Play

%sGame.pak
pak
Packing %s...
Packing Game...

Are you sure you want to delete %d item%s?
s?
No items selected for deleting.

3D Game Editor

Game Settings   
%sLevels\GameData.dat   
%sLevels\%s.lev
Can't open texture list '%s'  
%s\texutres\%s.lst

No name or model specified!
Switch Editor - %s
Door Editor - %s
Type Editor - %s
Instance Editor - %s
Object Editor - %s
Ammo Editor - Index %s
Weapon Editor - Index %s
Room Editor - %s
All Types

All Rooms

v · t · e The Action Learning series
DOS	I.M. Meen • Chill Manor (Demo)
Windows	Math Invaders