Syndicate (1993, DOS)

Syndicate is a game, where a squad of four agents wreak havoc against other corporations. It received a FPS spin-off in 2012.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Level Select#

While this may be a bug, it seems to in fact be a leftover debug feature that wasn't properly turned off. In the original version of the game, clicking on any country in the game and then pressing Enter on the keyboard proceeds to the briefing for that level, even if it's not yet available, or has already been beaten. This was fixed in Syndicate Plus.

Unused Areas#

Western Europe#

There is a building east of the starting location. Despite appearing on the enhanced briefing map, you can't reach it.

When the assassination target makes the getaway, he will approach a landing pad. This landing pad isn't visible in the briefing map, nor can you scroll to it.

Scandinavia#

There's a sewer system north of the starting area (which cannot be safely entered), which connects to a door on the north wall of the main city. As visible on the briefing map, the sewer system extends well east of the main operational area. Those with map editors can see that the sewer platform extends even beyond the surface terrain.

Kamchatka#

To the west is a building that's barely on the map. Some tiles on the top are incorrect, instead looking like three solid white blocks.

Pacific Rim#

There's a large unused island complex east of the city, visible on the briefing map, but no ability to scroll there.

Unused Maps#

The game's DATA directory contains many maps that are not used by the game. Using fan made tools to view the maps shows that while some are blank (MAP09.DAT, MAP15.DAT), others contain actual content. Specifically some are multiplayer levels that would later be included and playable with Syndicate: The American Revolt (e.g. MAP16.DAT, MAP17.DAT, MAP21.DAT, MAP94.DAT) but there are also several maps that seem to be totally cut:

MAP37.DAT#

MAP52.DAT#

MAP55.DAT#

Note the odd tiles in the water to the right, suggesting this map was unfinished.

MAP73.DAT#

Note the road on the right never links up, again suggesting an unfinished level.

Eight Agent Support#

Analysis of the game's level files show that in fact all the game's levels have eight player agents defined at the start area in them, a leftover from the earlier period of development when the player indeed could have eight agents simultaneously in a mission.

Cut Items#

Hacking saved games shows there are at least three equipment items that were cut from the game, that were situated between the access card and the energy shield. This is further corroborated by the game's sprite files, that have a gap of three missing objects at the same point.

Hacking the objects into an agent's inventory reveals the following:

Auto Mapper#

Text strings in the executable at position 335260 show this item listed right after the access card. What is more remarkable is that the icon for the object still exists in the menu graphic files. In-game it does nothing, and oddly appears with the access card's icon in the inventory. If it's dropped in-game it simply disappears. This item suggests at one point the in-game map wasn't a given and an item was needed to actually see the map. Oddly the auto mapper is specifically mentioned as an item that can be researched in the Amiga Format review of the game, suggesting it may have been cut fairly late on (it's not present in the April 1993 DOS demo, however).

Unknown 1#

This uses the energy shield icon in the menus. In-game it again appears as an access card. It has no apparent use. If dropped in-game, it again just disappears.

Unknown 2#

This appears with an otherwise unseen blank tile in the menus. In-game it appears as a blank tile and has no use. More interestingly, if dropped it uses what seems to be a unique floor graphic:

Unused strings around the same location as the access card text in the executable show there are entries for items called SHIELD1 and SHIELD2, as well as ACCESS CARD1 and ACCESS CARD2, so the above may be one of these. There's also some text right at the end that may just be something else truncated, or may indeed have been an item: EMP.

Unused Text#

The game's executable has various unused text strings present.

The codes for the game's cheats can be seen at 4EBA0:

NUK THEM
WATCH THE CLOCK
DO IT AGAIN
ROB A BANK
TO THE TOP
COOPER TEAM

There is leftover text for the cut multiplayer mode still present in the executable. Interestingly this is totally different to what is seen in Syndicate: The American Revolt where multiplayer was enabled, suggesting these may be debug strings for the mode. they can be found at position 52088. After these follow the strings for the multiplayer level selection menu, which are identical to those seen in Syndicate: The American Revolt.

Exchanging Info
Sending
Receiving
How many players ?
Number of Players Accepted
Searching for other players
Communicate with all players
calling %d (%d %d)
Cancelling player %01d
Please Wait.
add name return %x(%s)
ERROR trying to add %s name
DELETE name returns [%s]
-----NET error %s[%d] %d 0x%x-----
ERROR ALLOCATING MEMORY FOR MOUSE BACKUP

The main menu text for the cut MULTIPLAYER GAME option is still present at 51EAC.

A message at 5270C:

BYE FOLKS

Undocumented Controls#

Analysis of the game's code shows that the keys F3 and F4 in fact control the game's speed, with F3 speeding up and F4 slowing the game down. These even work in the menus, allowing to speed up game days (and thus research) like a slower version of the "Watch the clock" cheat.

Command Line Options#

The game has some otherwise undocumented command line options for setting sound card options (these are normally set in the .bat file to run the game). There is actually a help output for these that can be seen by running the game via MAIN /?

Syndicate Help options:
    /iirq(n)        set sound irq=n.
    /idma(n)        set sound dma=n.
    /iio(n)         set sound io=n.
    /s              no sound.

There are also other valid arguments that have unknown effects (e.g. /d and /p). Running the game with /l causes it to fail trying to load various files starting with the letter l including lpointer.dat. Based on the fact the game uses HPOINTER.DAT and the file naming convention of other Bullfrog games where H is used for High resolution assets, this was probably an unused low resolution mode that fails due to the needed assets not being present.

The /c argument sets the game's language, defaulting to /c0 for English.