Corrupt Level

[Fleexy]

I am trying to make a level pack for Keen 1, but a level I made crashes the game when I enter it in the game. It is too big for me to remake it, and I get a dialog box with an error message. Here is what is says:

KEEN1.EXE
The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS:0549 IP:9000 OP:c6 04 00 c7 Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Then there are two buttons saying Close and Ignore. When I enter the level, there is a low tone, the starting screen is shown but without sprites, and the game crashes with the said dialog box.

Could some Crazy pAtcHeR help me (any help would be nice, I just expected it from a Crazy pAtcHeR because of the hexadecimal)? Thanks in advance.

-Fleexy

P.S.: The level # is eight if that helps.

[CommanderSpleen]

You've probably exceeded the maximum size for the level. Though I've only ever seen that result in some strange quirks after loading the level, not an outright crash.

What happens if you run it in DOSBox? What editor did you use? Can you still open it? What are the dimensions of the level you tried to create?

[Fleexy]

THANK YOU for a reply. Let's answer some questions. My level is the same dimensions as the original level. My one and only editor is Mindbelt (thank you, CK Guy). We can't figure out DOSBox. And for size, do you mean dimensions or tiles/sprites? I added quite a few ice cannons. I downloaded DOSBox, but it was very confusing. I look forward to any other comments/suggestions. Thanks,

Fleexy

[Tulip]

for the easiest use of dosbox I recommend downloading turbo dosbox http://www.turboirc.com/tdb/
just install it in your dosbox directory, and then right-click on your keen executable an choose "simulate with turbo dosbox".

How many Ice cannons did you use? maybe we can create another level with the same amount of cannons and see if that's the problem.

[Fleexy]

I only used 21 cannons.

[KeenRush]

Can you open the level in another Keen level editor, then save it again, and then try again?

[levellass]

21 cannons exceeds the maximum memory space that a level is allocated, it's no wonder you're having problems, make a backup of your level and remove all but 5 of the cannons and see if that helps.

Maximum level dimensions are 255 in any direction or a level 'volume' over about 10'000 tiles.

If further problems persist, send me the level and I can comb through it myself.

[CommanderSpleen]

Maximum level dimensions are 255 in any direction or a level 'volume' over about 10'000 tiles.

The maximum is 16,384, or 0x4000 in hex. You can build a square level of 128x128, for example, but anything more will break things.

[levellass]

Close enough! :)

I prefer decimal roundness, and when you get a level above 10K, other issues start to appear.

[CommanderSpleen]

Oh? What other issues?

I like nice round binary numbers. 256 is my favourite number.

[Fleexy]

I took it down to 5 cannons, and it works fine, but the cannons are what makes the level hard :(

[Tulip]

Take a look at this level of Kidnapped Keen.

It's got 13 cannons in it, well it's a small level, but the bug building of shadow keen 1 is bigger and also has 13 cannons in it. It may be save to go up to 13 cannons.

[levellass]

The issue is not how many cannons you have, but how much memory the level uses, a small level can be packed with cannons, but a larger one takes up more room, not to mention has more sprites in it. If you are smart, you can work to the very limits of the level.

[CommanderSpleen]

I take it this is one of those "other issues" to which you referred.

[levellass]

Actually no; if you fit a large number of sprites into a small level, you get this issue. The issues related to size are things such as sprites not spawning, doors not working properly and shots disappearing.