[Solved] RAMA remove/increase time limit in the last part

[Eisflügel]

Hi guys,
I started playing RAMA again after a few years and again I hit the last part of the game with the time limit from the atomic bombs. Which I hate with a passion!
There you are in the Octospider lair, one of the most interesting areas in the whole game and you can't explore it in your own time...

I think I a few years back I googled if there was a way to remove or increase the time limit and found something, but I can't find it now.

Do you know of a way to remove this time limit? I am currently using the Windows installer, but I would also be ok with switching to the DOSBox version.

[Rath Darkblade]

Er ... I'm not sure about that, sorry. Never played RAMA. Maybe Collector can help you?

And welcome to the forum.

[Eisflügel]

Thank you.

I'm actually hoping that the time limit is somewhere in the savegames. But I can't figure out how to open/edit them. They're a combination of savegame.0 and savegame.cat files.

[Tawmis]

I never got very far in RAMA. It has some difficult puzzles and some math (I hate math).

So I am of no help. And googling for Rama cheats or Rama bombs is not yielding anything for me.

[Eisflügel]

I guess RAMA isn't that popular of a game.
But maybe you can help me in a more general way.

In the screenshot you can see the save game structure. Do you know how to open these files?
Then I can poke around myself a bit. I'm hoping that the time limit is just some kind of number I can edit.

[Eisflügel]

I found a solution!

You can open the save games in a hex editor. And after some comparison I found the timer part.
Just create two save games - with the timer running - a few seconds apart without doing anything else at all. Then open these files in a hex editor that can compare files and find the difference at the end of the file. It's a combination of two binaries, e.g. 60 54 (which is the full six hours). Now after playing a while you can save your game, and then edit the save game to reset the timer.
Don't set it higher than 60 54 or the game will crash and don't set it to FF FF or the atomic bomb will explode.

See the screenshot for more visual details.

I can't edit the topic title. So maybe an admin can add a "solved" so other people now they can find help here.

[goatmeal]

Interesting. Looks similar to the way Thexder 95 counts ammo or inventory items. The resulting decimal value here appears to be total seconds remaining:

Offset(h) # -- values 0A & 0B: xy zn

0A = xy = (16^1)*x + (16^0)*y = 16x + 1y
0B = zn = (16^3)*x + (16^2)*n = 4096z + 256n

0A 0B = 16x + 1y + 4096z + 256n

0A 0B = 60 54
= 16(6) + 1(0) + 4096(5) + 256(4)
= 96 + 0 + 20480 + 1024
= 21600 sec
= 6 hr
= 6:00:00


The calculation for the next value set you show (60 50) doesn't yield 5:52, however. I calculate it to be:

0A 0B = 60 50
= 16(6) + 1(0) + 4096(5) + 256(0)
= 96 + 0 + 20480 + 0
= 20576 sec
= 5.715556 hr
= 5:42:56

I wonder if there is something else to the calculation that I'm missing?...

[Tawmis]

I found a solution!

Nice!

I can't edit the topic title. So maybe an admin can add a "solved" so other people now they can find help here.

Done.

[Eisflügel]

I wonder if there is something else to the calculation that I'm missing?...

No, you are probably right and I just didn't type the correct time here. Nice to see the calculation for the time.