The Gamer's Edge team at Softdisk carry on where their former teammates left off Catacomb 3D, with further charmingly EGA-tinged battles against the sinister Nemesis.
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Debug Keys#
During the game, hold F10 and press one of the following keys:
- 1 - 8: Gain one of the 8 scrolls.
- G: Toggle god mode.
- I: Gain 4 of all items, 1 of each key, all gems and scrolls.
- M: Show memory usage.
- Q: Instantly quit to DOS.
- T: Show frame rate information.
- V: Show version info.
- W: Warp to given level.
- Z: Freeze time.
In addition, the file C4_DEBUG.C in the game's source code defines several additional debug keys left over from Catacomb 3-D which are no longer enabled:
- A: Message test.
- B: Set border color.
- C: "count objects" (actual function no longer exists).
- D: Start/end demo recording.
- E: End current level.
- F: Show player's position and direction.
- H: Deal 5 damage to player.
- O: Show overhead map.
- P: Pause/freeze frame.
- S: Slow motion.
- V: Extra VBLs (modify game speed).
- X: Gain 4 of all items except keys or scrolls.
Unused Maps#
A total of seven unused maps are present in the game. Three of them are "normal" levels, intended to be found by the player via the level warp cheat advertised in a secret room in The Passage To The Surface.
Mike's Blastable Passage#
Level number 5. The exit sends you to Big Jim's Domain.
Named in reference to, and presumably designed by, programmer Mike Maynard.
Big Jim's Domain#
Level number 17. The exit sends you to Nolan's Nasty.
Named in reference to, and presumably designed by, programmer James T. Row.
Nolan's Nasty#
Level number 18. The exit sends you back to Mike's Blastable Passage.
Named in reference to, and presumably designed by, programmer Nolan Martin.
Tile Tester 3#
Level number 19. Name does not appear in the original DOS executable.
A large, map-sized room with 24 seemingly-random wall tiles in the top half. Several of them are doorways - passing through them will send you to The Towne Cemetary.
Of the remainder of the unused levels, only one is normally accessible in the original DOS version. The rest will crash the game if accessed, likely due to reading past the end of the level names array. The CatacombGL source port fixes this bug and lets you see what they are.
Tile Tester 1#
Level number 20.
Another large, map-sized room with 28 random wall tiles scattered across both the top and bottom halves. As with Tile Tester 3, the door tiles will take you to The Towne Cemetary. Also present is the archway from the final room of The Passage To The Surface. As in that map, using it will start the end-of-game sequence.
Tile Tester 2#
Level number 21.
Yup, another large, map-sized room. This one has 11 assorted wall tiles and several objects. Using the doors (or the well from The Subterranian Vault) will, once again, take you to The Towne Cemetary. Also present are five pairs of portals (the maximum amount supported), five sets of all five coloured gems, and Nemesis himself.
Good map to use#
Level number 22.
A direct copy of the map data from Catacomb 3-D's Level 19 (Halls of Blood), without any changes. As such, it's paradoxically a bit different in Abyss's tile definitions - the red demons are now blue ones, the exit gates are now red demons, and the wall textures are a bit strange.