__________ _____ ___________ \______ \ / _ \ \__ ___/ | | _/ / /_\ \ | | | | \ / | \ | | |______ //\\____|__ //\|____|/\ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ B.A.T. Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters / Bureau des Affaires Temporelles Computer's Dream / Ubi Soft (1990) DOS Walkthrough Version 1.1 Author: Jan Larres =============================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS =============================================================================== INTRODUCTION GENERAL TIPS Food Differences Between Versions CHARACTER CREATION WALKTHROUGH APPENDICES Exchange Center Shops The Bizzy Game MAP VERSION HISTORY LICENSE =============================================================================== INTRODUCTION =============================================================================== B.A.T. is an interesting mix between a graphic adventure and an RPG. You have a set of attributes that can be increased over time, (sort of) random battles, a big city to explore and even a programmable computer, and you also have to solve puzzles and use some items like in a graphic adventure. The game has a fascinating cyberpunk atmosphere, but unfortunately many of its unique features remain quite under-utilized so the end result remains a bit unfulfilling. Still, it's definitely worth a try if you like this kind of game. You can also have a look at my longplay video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/GAe8z5-MR9A =============================================================================== GENERAL TIPS =============================================================================== - Read the manual. Knowledge of its contents is assumed throughout this walkthrough. - Remember to take your credit card out of vending machines, phones etc. If you forget to do that you should be able to find it again by using the 'Search' command in the screen where you forgot the card. - The informant at the beginning says that you only have 10 days to find Vrangor, but that doesn't seem to be true. I once slept for two months in the hotel and it didn't seem to have any effect. - Don't steal in shops! If you get caught no shop will ever sell anything to you again. - If you are injured (the B.O.B. displays at least one body part in red) you will continuously lose health. You can set your rhythm to 'Hibernation' to slow the loss down or buy anaesthetics from the Medical Shop to stop it completely. - Time always passes when you are wandering or just standing around. It doesn't seem to pass if you have menus open, but if you want to make sure that you won't suddenly get attacked or robbed (or starve) you can use the Help->Pause menu option. - If an enemy escapes during a fight they will most likely come back soon, possibly with reinforcements. So be prepared for sudden attacks. - Some of the people that are wandering around the city sell things like food and medicine. You may also be able to get certain access cards this way, but it's probably safer to follow the normal story path. Instead of buying the things you can also try stealing them, but that is obviously more risky as you may get attacked. - Be sure to always have at least 5 credits on your credit card, otherwise you won't be able to play the Bizzy game to get more money. And since Krells can't be converted to credits trying to steal money from other people won't help in that case. - You can sleep anywhere in the street if you really want to. I've read that if you do that or even just stand around for too long in one spot you may get robbed, but I've never had that happen to me. - All times mentioned in this walkthrough are based on a 24h clock, as that's what the game itself is using. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Food ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the course of this game you will have to feed yourself. The B.O.B.'s 'PROG 2' display will show your current nutrition and hydration values. If any of them reach 0 you will slowly lose health (called 'life potential'), so pay attention to them (see also the programming section at the start of the walkthrough). You can accumulate a maximum of 2000 calories, after that the value doesn't increase anymore. This means that you should always carry some food around with you in case you can't reach a shop in time. See the shop tables in the appendix for prices. Sidenote: The Amiga version (and possibly others) seems to allow for more than 2000 calories. I've also read that eating too much in one sitting will make you throw up and possibly get sick, but I haven't been able to verify that. This may also differ between versions. The maximum hydration is 99% for some reason. Drinking has the advantage that you can get water for free from the fountain near the park entrance (go left from the entry hall), so you don't have to spend as much on drinks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Differences Between Versions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This walkthrough is mainly for the DOS version, but most things should work for all available versions (DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Amstrad CPC). Most differences I've seen from short tests seem to be details like how much money you start with, some prices, or the times when people are around; the only somewhat more substantial difference is that opening hours don't seem to matter in the DOS version, but they do in the Amiga version. If anyone knows of other non-detail differences please email me. Also see the sidenote at the end of the walkthrough for a potential important difference. =============================================================================== CHARACTER CREATION =============================================================================== If you press the right mouse button on the title screen you will be taken to the character creation screen. Technically it's more of a 'modification' than 'creation', but oh well. Even though the manual talks about all the neat things you would be able to do with your competences and aptitudes, in practice they hardly seem to matter at all. Only some of them like 'Reflexes' have an influence on things like how much time you have in a battle before the enemy starts shooting and how good your pickpocketing skills are. You can probably just leave the values as they are, but if you want to have at least some optimization the following competence values should give you a reasonable character: Force: 13 Intelligence: 17 Charisma: 03 Perception: 08 Energy: 17 Reflexes: 20 You can pick up one or two weapons depending on their weight. It doesn't really make much sense to carry around two weak weapons instead of one powerful one, so pick the MOZ (the second from the right) and leave it at that. The last weapon, called NOVA, is technically a bit more powerful than the MOZ, but it is so heavy that you wouldn't be able too carry around much else. Don't forget to save your character. =============================================================================== WALKTHROUGH =============================================================================== Getting Started --------------- You start the game in the hangar with a credit card with 1000 credits and 504 Krells in cash. The first thing you should do now, before going anywhere, is program your B.O.B. The ability to program your B.O.B. is another idea that's nice in theory but has only limited use in practice, as the best thing to do is to put everything useful into one program and just run that all the time. On the 'PROG 4' screen of the B.O.B. click the 'Edit' button to start editing a new program. The following program will automatically translate from the Robot and Alien languages (why do robots have their own language?) and warn you when you are hungry, injured etc.: IF ROBOT TRANSLATE ROBOT END IF IF ALIEN TRANSLATE ALIEN END IF IF HUNGRY DISPLAY HUNGRY END IF IF THIRSTY DISPLAY THIRSTY END IF IF TIRED DISPLAY TIRED END IF IF INJURED DISPLAY INJURED END IF IF ILLNESS DISPLAY ILLNESS END IF RESTART END Note that for the DISPLAY command you need to select one of the five messages at the bottom of the command list. After you're done entering the program click 'Quit' and then 'Save', which will prompt you for a name. You will then see that name in the list on the left. Click on the name you just entered and press 'Run'. Luckily these programs are independent of the current game, so if you start a new game you can just click on 'Dir' to get a list of already existing programs, 'Load' the one you want and then 'Run' it as before. After you're done with this follow the WC sign to the bathrooms on the right. Go to the stall in the back and you will meet your contact person who will explain your mission to you and give you your weapon(s), a hologram of Merigo and a leaflet. You can drop the leaflet after reading it as it's just taking up inventory space. Return to the hangar and leave through the exit left of the bathrooms. You will be in a street with stairs leading down to a pub referred to as "A Space Pub" by the game and a path to the Astroport Square further ahead. There's nothing important in the pub so you can just skip it if you want to (unless you want to buy drinks). Continue to the Astroport Square. The Astroport Square is one of the central intersections of the game. There are exits to the Mecafood Center, the Exchange Center, an (expensive) sleep-pod hotel and various streets. Before exploring the city we should get prepared a bit better, so go to Mecafood Center and buy some food (check the appendix for prices), and then exchange about 500 credits to Krells at the Exchange Center. This leaves us with two things that we need to get: ammunition and shields. Go straight ahead to the street in the middle of the Astroport Square, past the car and then on that junction there's the weapon shop on the right. Buy about 3 clips of E-300 ammunition for your MOZ (or E-10 if they run out of that). After that go to the armor shop (refer to the map to find it quickly) and buy 2 strength 8 force fields. Now we're prepared to explore the city. You may wish to just walk around a bit to get more familiar with the layout, or you can go straight to doing one of the following three tasks. They can be approached in any order, but storywise it makes sense to try to find Merigo first. Dealing with Merigo ------------------- Go to the Night Bar a bit north of the Central Junction (depending on which version you're playing it may only be open during certain hours). Ask the woman in front about Merigo and pay the 46 Krells she demands. She will tell you about a member of a specific race that she heard talking about Merigo. Write the race down, it is randomized for each game. Now we have to go find this person. Walk around the city and ask every member of the race you wrote down about Merigo. Note that you don't have to ask the what the manual calls 'static' characters, only the wandering ones that you talk to using the 'interpellation' icon. It's also important that you use the 'ask' menu item and not the hologram -- the hologram doesn't actually seem to be useful. Once you find the correct person he will tell you to meet him at the museum in the park at a certain time. Again, write the time down as it is randomized (or at least different between versions). Also make sure that you have at least 100 Krells (better 400) in cash to be able to pay him. Be at the museum at the specified time (you can ask the 'static' guy there about the time), and an interpellation icon should show up. Talk to him and pay the 100 Krells for his information. He will tell you that he spoke with Merigo at a certain time yesterday in the Xifo club. Write that time down as usual. The club is for members only, so you also need to get a membership card from him. You can either buy it from him for 300 Krells or try stealing it. If your pickpocket attempt fails you will probably have to kill him, though. Once you know the time and have the membership card go to the club at the specified time. Before you enter set your rhythm to 'accelerate', this should make the fight a bit easier. Inside the club go to the back and wait for Merigo to show up. He will attack you immediately, so be prepared. After killing him search the screen to find an electronic key. This will become useful later. Lydia ----- We now need to meet up with a woman called Lydia as she will help us out later. Go to the dance club in the hot quarter between 01:00 and 06:00, set your rhythm to accelerate and pay the 50 Krells to be let in. Inside Lydia will approach you and ask to dance with you. Say yes. In the following dancing minigame you have to alternately press the left and right mouse buttons as quickly as possible to fill up the progress bar on the right. Keep doing that until she talks to you again. At that point she will agree to accompanying you around the city. Sloan ----- The second person we need to meet is Sloan. Make sure you have at least 1000 Krells in cash and then go to the arcade (again in the hot quarter) between 13:00 and 14:00, and go up to the Bizzy machine (don't just wait around in the arcade). Sloan will pop up and challenge you to a contest. Agree to it, and she will start playing the Bizzy game. You are going to play after her and then have to beat whatever level she reached. When you have won she will ask you what you want her to do, say that she should act as your guide. Note: For more information on the Bizzy game see the appendix. A visit to Kortakis ------------------- Now we're going to try buying a DRAG (essentially a vehicle for inter-city travel). Go to the airlock, and then try going through it behind the guard. The guard will tell you're that you're not allowed in, but at this point Sloan will intervene and get him to let you through. In the DRAG room go to the top right into the small control room. The guy there will tell you that renting a DRAG will cost 5900 Krells and ask you to pay. Say 'no' here, even if you should have enough. Now Lydia will interrupt and tell you about a friend that would be able to help you out, and give you a phone number. WRITE IT DOWN, it is randomized and you won't be able to ask her again, so if you forget it it will be impossible to finish the game! (But see the sidenote at the end of the walkthrough for a possible difference between versions.) Go to the hangar that you started in, or the street between it and Astroport Square, and use the telephone there. Call the number that Lydia told you and ask the guy about an appointment with Kortakis. He will tell you that you are welcome at any time. Go to Kortakis' building through the hot quarter and the guard will let you in. Once inside ask Kortakis for money, and she will transfer 3000 credits to your credit card. She will also give Lydia a jewel. The Mobytrack & The Underground City ------------------------------------ For this part we're going to need the electronic key we got from Merigo, so if you haven't killed him yet do that now. Then go to the Astroport Square and go to the right behind the hotel, and continue going into the derelict building. Here Merigo's key will allow us to go through the entrance to the Mobytrack, a large and very confusing labyrinth. Don't try going through it without some kind of map or you will go mad. Also note that at least in the DOS version you shouldn't open the B.O.B. while you are on the Mobytrack or your display will get corrupted. Since there is only one way through the labyrinth to the underground city it is easier to just provide directions instead of a map. The way to the underground city: 1L, 2R, 1L, 1R, 1L, 1R, 2R, S, 1R, 2R, 1R, S Legend: nL: Take the nth door on the left. nR: Take the nth door on the right. S: Go straight through the door ahead of you. After going through a door you will face either right or left; which direction it will be is fixed for each door. T: Turn 180 degrees. After arriving at the underground city continue to the control room. When you arrive there Lydia will tell you that there is a hole shaped like the jewel she got from Kortakis. Tell her to insert it into the hole, and you will hear a noise. Now search the screen to find an access card. This is all we need to do here, so go back to the Mobytrack. The way back through the Mobytrack: S, S, 1L, S, S, T, S, 1R*, 1R, 1R, 1L, 1L, S, T, 1R, 1R, S, T, S, S * This is not the door immediately to the right of you since that's the one you came through. Note that the way back is different from our way here because some doors only open in one direction. Preparing for the showdown -------------------------- Now there's only two more things to do before we can go after Vrangor: Exchange the credits we got from Kortakis to Krells so we can buy a DRAG and find another access card. First go to the Astroport Square and exchange enough credits so that you have at least 5900 Krells. After that go to the Grand Hotel, say that you want to stay 1 day, go to your room and search it. You should find a technician's access card. Before we head to Vrangor's station make sure that you have at least one full magazine clip and at least one full shield with strength 7, better 8. Showdown with Vrangor --------------------- Go to the airlock with the guard, but instead of going through it to the DRAG room turn left instead to the technician's room. In there talk to the technician on the left and he will let you use the computer thanks to our access card. On the computer scroll through the entries until you come upon the one for the 'Epsilon' station (the same one as the one written on the card we found in the underground city). The computer will show an access code made out of Ls and Rs. Write it down, it's again randomized for each game. Now go to the DRAG room and buy a DRAG in the control room. Your DRAG will be on the left of the DRAG room. Enter it. Driving the DRAG is done in a 3D first-person perspective. Use the mouse to move to the left and right, the left mouse button to speed up and the right mouse button to slow down. On the radar in the lower left you will see Terrapolis as a white dot. Our goal is Vrangor's base, which will be shown as a red dot. Speed up your DRAG and look around until you can see the red dot on your radar. Once you do just head towards it. Sidenote: I've read in some places that the access card from the underground city is not necessary for the red dot to appear, which would essentially make the entire subplot around Merigo and the underground city unnecessary. This doesn't seem to be true in the DOS version, I wasn't able to find the red dot without the card even after driving around for more than ten minutes. Since that subplot is a large chunk of the game I assume that that might have been a bug in other versions of the game that was fixed in the DOS version. In Vrangor's base you will find a control panel in the lower left. Enter the access code you wrote down before starting from the top, pressing the left button for an L and the right button for an R. After you're done set your rhythm to accelerate and go to the right. In the next room you will get attacked by Vrangor. If you have enough shield and ammunition left he should be easy to defeat. Congratulations, you have beaten B.A.T.! Curiously enough you can actually continue playing the game by going right from the ending screen, but obviously there's nothing left to do. =============================================================================== APPENDICES =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exchange Center ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exchanging credits to Krells incurs a 1% charge. Also the exact exchange rate varies a bit, but is usually a bit over 2 Krells per credit. Note that it is not possible to convert Krells to credits. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shops ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mecafood Center ------------------- Be aware that the vending machine also charges you for items that are out of stock. I don't know if that's a bug or intended. ---------------------------------------- No Name Credits Calories ---------------------------------------- 0 Suchi (sic) 50 50 1 Slimeburger 23 800 2 Chips 30 500 3 Sausage roll 38 300 4 Autumn rolls 40 700 5 Saveloys 35 450 6 Kradokinoi 39 410 7 Shell surprise 60 50 8 Blue orange 25 40 9 Dish of the day 65 850 ---------------------------------------- A Chin Merchant --------------- ------------------------------------ Name Krells Calories ------------------------------------ Selenian Salad 20 75 Kiche (sic) 18 250 Kluck Pate 24 175 Steak and Chips 36 750 Merluz Nitrokola 22 550 Saveloys 12 450 ------------------------------------ A Space Pub / The Night Bar --------------------------- -------------------------------- Name Krells Percent -------------------------------- Double Splatz 8 25 Nitrokola 12 20 Seven Down 10 30 Metalurc 16 30 Centauriax 10 35 -------------------------------- Weapon Shop ----------- Power is called "Perforation coefficient" in the manual. ------------------------------- Name Krells Power ------------------------------- Voktrasof 80 LP-12 16 4 Beckmann 160 LP-57 20 5 Hacker 200 A610-80 30 6 Haas 10 300 N-29 36 5 T-02 40 7 MOZ 400 E-10 50 7 E-300 56 8 NOVA 480 NOVA battery 60 9 ------------------------------- Armor Shop ---------- Computer test/repair is for when the B.O.B. gets damaged in a fight. ------------------------- Name Krells ------------------------- Force 6 200 Force 7 280 Force 8 400 Computer test 40 Computer repair 80 ------------------------- Medical Shop ------------ 'General' surgery is for increasing 'life potential' (health) and varies in effectiveness. The others are for healing the injured body parts that are displayed red in the B.O.B. ----------------------------- Name Krells ----------------------------- Stimulants 28 Anaesthetics 34 Surgery (Head) 60 Surgery (Chest) 50 Surgery (Abdomen) 40 Surgery (Left leg) 30 Surgery (Right leg) 30 Surgery (Right arm) 20 Surgery (Left arm) 20 Surgery (General) 80 ----------------------------- The Astroport Hotel ------------------- The Astroport Hotel is rather expensive, so I recommend against staying there unless you're rich for some reason. 40 minutes of sleep cost 5 credits, so for 8 hours you will have to pay 60 credits and 180 credits for 24 hours (the maximum). Note that the time scale on the left is logarithmic. The Grand --------- This fancy hotel is actually much cheaper than the Astroport Hotel, 1 day is only 20 Krells. You can stay up to 7 days. The time restrictions seem to be enforced somewhat inconsistently, though; if I only stay one day I get kicked out once the time is up, but once I said I wanted to stay 7 days and was able to sleep through 2 whole months without being disturbed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bizzy Game ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bizzy game works roughly like the old 'Simon' board game: It shows you a number of symbols in a certain order and you have repeat that order after it finishes, with each level having one more symbol than the previous one, starting with 3 symbols for the first level. The main differences are that the order changes every level, so you only get to see the sequence once, and there are 8 symbols instead of 4 colours. In each level you have to bet a certain number of credits, starting with 5 for the first level, and if you win you get twice that money back. So if you have 100 credits and win the first level you will end up with 105 credits. The following table shows the amount you have to bet for the first few levels and the total number of credits you will have won if you successfully complete that level. ------------------- Level Bet Total ------------------- 1 5 5 2 6 11 3 9 20 4 14 34 5 21 55 6 30 85 7 41 126 8 54 180 9 69 249 10 86 335 15 201 1090 20 366 2570 ------------------- And if that's not enough for you you can calculate the bet amount and total won amount with the following two formulas. 'i' here signifies the number of the level you want to get the result for. i Bet: x = 5 + SUM (2 * (n - 1) - 1) i n = 2 i n Total won: t = 5 + SUM (5 + SUM (2 * (k - 1) - 1)) i n = 2 k = 2 =============================================================================== MAP =============================================================================== This map is based on the one by Fred J. Philipp in the book "Quest for Clues IV". ________________ .---------. / \ |Kortakis | .------. .-------. | .-------. | G | |Hangar| |Vrangor| | | DRAG | '---------' '------' '-------' | |Control| | .-------. | | | '-------'\ .---------. |Table | .------. .-------. | .-------. |Kortakis'| |Merigo | |Button|_| Door | \______________| DRAG | |Building | | F | |Panel | | | | Room | '---------' '-------' '------' '-------' '-------' | | | .-------. .-------. .-------. .-------. |Street |_| Xifo | | Tech |_| Air | .--------. | | | Club | | Room | | Lock | | Galaxy | '-------' '-------' '-------' '-------' '--------'\ | | .-------. .-------. .-------. | .--------. |Street | | Dance | |Museum | | |Arcade &| | | | Floor | | E | | | Sloan | '-------' '-------' '-------' | '--------'\ | | | .-------. | .-------. .-------. .-------. | Food | | | Hot | | Dance | .--------. .------. |Outside| | Shop | | |Quarter|-|Club & | | Path |-| Path |-|Museum | '-------' | '-------' | Lydia | '--------' '------' '-------' | | | '-------' | | __|___ | | .--------. .------. .-------. / | \.-------. .-------. |Fountain|-| Arch |-| Path | | | |Outside|__________|Street | '--------' '------' '-------' .-------. |Airlock| | | \_______________|Outside| '-------' '-------' |Park | '-------' | .--------. _____________________/ |Bedroom | / | C | | '--------' | | | .--------. .--------. | .-----. | Cell | | Grand | | | Bar | '--------' | Hotel | | '-----'\ | '--------' .------. .--------. .--------. | .-------. |Street|------------|Outside | |Police | .--------. | Armor | '------' | Bar | |Station | | Street | | Shop | | '--------' '--------' '--------' | B | | | | | /'-------' .-------. | .--------. .--------. .--------. .--------. |Medical| | | Weapon | | Street | | Street |-| Side | | Shop | | | Shop | '--------' '--------' | Street | '-------'\ | | D | | | '--------' .------. '--------'\ | .--------. |Street| .--------. | Street | '------'------------|Central | '--------' | |Junction| | .--------. .------. '--------' | | In |___ To |Street| | | |Building| Mobytrack '------' _______________|_________/ /'--------' | / | / .------. .------. .--------. .-------. .--------. .-----. |Food | |Street| |Exchange| |Vehicle| |Outside | |Hotel| |Center| | | | Center | | | |Building| | | '------' '------' '--------' '-------' '--------' '-----' | | | | | | .-------------------------------------------------------. | Astroport Square | '-------------------------------------------------------' | .-------. .--------. +---------------------------------+ |Street | | Stall | | A Hologram of Merigo, leaflet, | | | | A | | weapons | /'-------' '--------' | B Force field | / | | | C Technician's card | .----. .-----. .-------. .--------. | D Ammo | |Side|_|Space| |Hangar |_|Bathroom| | E Xifo club pass | |Room| |Pub | |(Start)| | | | F Electronic key | '----' '-----' '-------' '--------' | G Money, jewel | | H Radar decoding device | +---------------------------------+ .-------. .------. .------. .-------. .----. .--------. From ___|Chamber|-|Houses|-|Street|-|Street |-|Tiny|-|Derelict| Mobytrack '-------' '------' '------' '-------' |Room| | Ship | '----' | H | '--------' =============================================================================== VERSION HISTORY =============================================================================== 1.1 (2012-06-03) - Added link to longplay on YouTube 1.0 (2012-06-07) - Initial release =============================================================================== LICENSE =============================================================================== Copyright (c) 2012 Jan Larres This document is released under the Creative Commons BY 3.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vim: cc=80 tw=77 sw=2 sts=2