Genewars

Genewars
Also known as: Gene Wars Developer: Bullfrog Productions Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: DOS, Windows Released in US: October 1996 Released in EU: September 1996 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has debugging material. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

Genewars answers the question of what you would get if you spliced the DNA of Command & Conquer with that of Spore.

Sub Pages

Prerelease Info

Debug Mode

To activate the in-game debug mode, enter SALMONAXE at any point during the game.

Key	Effect
B	Instantly builds or upgrades
C	Access all purebreds and hybrids
D	Show memory info
L	Summon monoliths
S	Improves technology
T	Makes buildings translucent
W	Win immediately
Shift + Z	Reveal whole map
F5	Duranium bulb appears at cursor
F6	Drop bombs from cursor
F7	Shoot at selected creature
F10	Add money

(Source: KasketDarkfyre)

Build Date

Hidden inside gw.exe.

Version	Code
beta 4	Jul 19 1996 03:32:58 Bio Debug log file adds: Version 12383(RReed)
1.0	Sep 02 1996 16:28:45 Bio(Opti)
Demo	Sep 26 1996 09:54:56 Bio(Opti)
1.1	Nov 26 1996 14:54:45 Bio(Opti)

Development Strings

Version 1.1

Hidden in gw.exe at 0x12B614:

(c) 1996 Diadem Inc.

There's also this error message at 0x12C75E:

SHIT IT TIMEDOUT

Version beta 4

Map 'conq020' opened in the level editor

Binary file of this version is much larger than other versions (over 5MB), as it is a debug build, which:

• contains debug information (names of global and local variables, names of functions source code line numbers),
• contains debug logging (additional printf() calls with various messages which help in debug, and assert() calls),
• contains the level editor, which can be invoked by command line parameters

Revision Differences

Version 1.1 adds a networking mode accessible right from the main menu and speed controls.

Oddities

Command line parameters

When entering an unrecognized command line argument, the game still references itself Biosphere. It also prints out recognized command line arguments, many of which have no effect in the final game, but do work in debug builds (beta 4):

Biosphere Options:

 - n             Network mode enable
 - x<name>       Network session name
 - d             Debug mode enable
 - dl            Debug Lo / Hi res emulation
 - dk		 Debug keyboard handler
 - s		 Enable hi quality sounds
 - e             Editor enable
 - g		 Screen shots mode
 - z		 Tester Autosave

Most parameters are case insensitive (except `-i`). This is visible in the array used by command line options parser:

const char cmdln_opts[] = {
    'z','x','t','s','r','p','m','i','g','e','d',
    'Z','X','T','S','R','P','M','G','E','D','?',
};

Pathfinding modifier key

Pressing `z` during the game modifies pathfinding for the local client, so that routing ignores buildings (see forceAllowRouteThroughStuff()). On network game, this causes desync as the algorithm is only changed for the player pressing the 'z'.