Apparently, I'm supposed to save the game and resume a short time later, but I don't know how to save like I would if I was playing it on a real machine. I'm playing the patched English translation on openMSX.
Hang on. You can use the password system, so it's not a complete loss. It's extremely long, but it gets the job done.
This game was quite complex for me to get used to, the menu system took a little getting used to, and I also had little to go on. And unlike many of the other Konami MSX releases, this was one game that I just couldn't play in its original Japanese. Instead, I had to use a patched English translation, and even that one isn't 100% translated to that language. I can see this game growing on me eventually, though.
Max made a patch to fix the save to disk version for Shalom a long time ago. You can find it here: https://msxtranslations.com/archive.php
I don't know if it works on all versions of the translation by Slotman.
There are a few other ways to save beside disk:
- Password (long and prone to errors)
- tape
- Game Master 2
Game Master 2 should be put in the second slot and that option will also appear when you save.
You indeed need to save on that island. Go to the dude in a "house" made up of red blocks around him. Choose the option do something and you'll be able to save. You can just reboot and restart the save from either of the 4 options. Save states on emulator won't work.
This reminds me of how I got off the island myself the first time in the Japanese version back in the 80s. Couldn't find a way out and "talked" to everything using all options: every rock, all furniture, everything in hopes of finding some secret way out. Probably took hours... In the end saved to continue later. Later booted back up: bridge opened?! Nice...
That wouldn't be the last time in that game I tried nearly everything to progress in the game :)
I liked that game so much for some reason: made a huge map etc. I almost succeeded to finish that one in Japanese on sheer perseverance.
So is this game unwinnable? I used the password system to have the broken bridge fixed, I walk up to a Woodchuck, and for some reason, it won't let me use the show command to show him a Pass so I can use the warp holes. I'm supposed to get back to the quicksand.
Has anyone else had this problem, or is it just me?
No this game is perfectly beatable. I have done so many times.
Do you still have the pass? Can you show it to other people? Just to check that your password was not wrongly entered. Or did your pig have painful encounter?
