Bio Menace/Cheats
This pages lists all the known cheats and debugging codes for Bio Menace.
Conventional cheat
Pressing C + A + T will give the player 99 grenades, 90 (?!) bullets and one clip. This only works in the registered version (the cheat is still present in the shareware version, but pressing the key combination calls a "do nothing" routine.)
Special moves
Apparently not a cheat (just a "secret") but certain key combinations will result in a "special move."
| Special Move | Procedure |
|---|---|
| Super Plasma Bolt | Look up for about two seconds (until a 'charged up' sound plays) then fire (don't let go of the up arrow until after pressing the fire key.) |
| Fireball | Press and release the left arrow, then right arrow, then left arrow, etc. Do this relatively quickly and after six keypresses (three each of left and right arrows) press fire. |
| Electron Shield | Do the same as the Fireball, but instead of firing, jump. |
| Invincibility Burst | Look up for two seconds (you don't need to wait for the 'charged up' sound) and then look down. You can also do this by holding both the up and down arrows, and after the two seconds release the up arrow a fraction of a second before releasing the down arrow. |
Debugging codes
Unlike Commander Keen (which uses the same game engine), Bio Menace contains a multi-level "unlocking" mechanism to enable the debugging cheat codes. During the game, follow this procedure:
- Press C + O + D, and a prompt will appear asking you to enter in a code
- Type in 91827 and press enter. This activates the key combination required to enable the debugging keys.
- Enable the debugging keys by pressing J + I + M + Space. This is no doubt a reference to Jim Norwood, who created the game almost single handedly (minus the engine and a few other things.)
- The F10 cheats in the table below can now be used.
Note that the C + O + D keys can only be used in the freeware version. It's possible to hex edit the other versions to allow the activation of the debug keys, which means pressing J + I + M + Space will display the "Debugging keys active" message, but like the C + A + T cheat, pressing F10 calls another "do nothing" routine, so none of the actual cheats (like F10 + G) work. It is a curiosity that the version released as freeware supports these cheat codes, whereas the officially released versions never supported any of the F10 cheat codes.
| Keys | Result |
|---|---|
| F10 + B | Change border colour |
| F10 + C | Active/inactive object count |
| F10 + D | Record a demo (or if recording a demo, save it) |
| F10 + E | End/finish level (will execute TED5 again if run from TED5) |
| F10 + G | God mode on/off (invincibility) |
| F10 + I | Free items (no message displayed) - 90 bullets, one clip, 99 grenades (green only), 99 keys, 99 access cards(?), all the crystal shards, all the items and an extra life. |
| F10 + J | Jump cheat (in limited 'Keen Dreams' mode) |
| F10 + M | Display memory usage |
| F10 + N | No clipping |
| F10 + P | Pause game (unlike the Pause key, doesn't display a message and leaves the music going.) |
| F10 + S | Slow motion |
| F10 + T | Sprite test: Tile information (use left/right arrows to view all tiles/sprites) |
| F10 + V | Add extra VBLs (Vertical Blanking Loop? Waits for this many CRT retraces in each game loop) |
| F10 + W | Warp to a level |
| F10 + Y | Show hidden passages |
| F10 + Z | Kill player (only if God Mode is off) |
Miscellanous codes
- F9 is a "boss key" which displays a fake DOS prompt on the screen (to disguise the fact that you're playing a game at work if your boss unexpectedly walks in.)