This document is copyright 2005 a_heavenly_body. It cant be altered reproduced
or published under any circumstances without my permission. The only websites
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That's it. If I find it on any other website without my permission then the
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action. If you spot it on an un-authorized website inform me via e-mail as
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an e-mail asking permission and we will discuss things (see contacts section)
06 October 2005...Version FINAL. Everthing is done.
07 October 2005...version ABSOLUTE FINAL :-). Got permission from Jacob Wagner
to use parts of his FAQ. Thanks man. Also got permission from Gundam Mon to
use his reviw. Added a couple more questions in the FAQ section.
NOTE: THIS SECTION HAS NOT BEEN WRITTEN BY ME, IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY JACOB
WAGNER ON GAMEFAQS AND IS HIS COPYRIGHT. I AM USING IT WITH HIS PERMISSION.
Make sure to turn down the sensitivity in the options. At the max, an analog
joystick acts like digital controls, and that just doesn't work in a driving
game.
A.K.A. "jumping", this ALWAYS MOVES YOU FORWARD. Even when you're backing up or
sitting still, jumping causes KITT to move forward. This is important for
precise jumps.
You need to be at a complete stop to use this. Also, you have to hold the scan
button down until the scan is complete (the bar in the top-left of the screen
shows the progress of the scan), then release the button when the scanning is
complete. If you keep the button held, the game sits there until you release
it. There are 2 types of scans: Medial, the regular building scanner, and
Interstitial, used for computer access. Interstitial requires you to be closer
to the objective, but is faster. You don't get to pick which one you want to
use; the game is preprogrammed to require specific scans for each situation.
Ever seen the series? Or at least the intro to the game? This is when all those
fins extend from KITT and super speed kicks in. You know you want it. Of
course, you won't get it until 2/3 of the way through the game. Hold down the
SPM button while driving forward to transform KITT and gain super speed. The
view does a little fish-eye effect for emphasis.
While this game doesn't require the cd after the install, you won't see the
videos without the cd in the drive. To enable the movies without requiring the
cd, copy all the files in the video folder on the cd into
[install folder]\Data\Video. You can probably skip the French and German ones
unless you really want them. You could learn ever-so-useful factoids from them,
like that the game is called "K2000" in France.
The game automatically saves after a successful mission. All 8 save slots and
all configuration info is saved to [install dir]\Data\Common\savegame.usr,
which is only 1.3KB.
Start by entering the truck. You now have to do the course in time, so exit
the truck and do it. Go to the truck after you are done. This will be your
second exercise. You have to use Ski Mode. The track is almost directly behind
the truck. This is a little difficult exercise and may require a couple of
retries. There is a glitch in the game in which your game crashes if you fall
on the small path. Avoid it otherwise you have to reset the game. Complete the
exercise and go the truck.
You get your third assignment. You have to use the turbo booster. The track is
near the ski mode track. Do it and return to the truck. You get your fourth
exercise in which you have to use the scanner. Use the map to reach the
destined location. Here you will see three targets. You must go near each
building and use your scanner to find the computer. The location is random so
any advice would be useless. After you find the computer, follow the path
approximately east and scan the computer. Return to the truck to receive your
fifth and final exercise. You have to complete an obstacle course. Be careful
and use turbo boost and ski mode where necessary.
Your objective is to chase a car. You will encounter mines and other cars on
the road. Do your best to avoid them. Keep an eye on your damage meter because
if it runs out, you fail. Use the turbo boost and ski mode where necessary.
Watch the cut-scene when you get near the bank. It looks like a robbery. Scan
the bank to find out the location of the root signal. The signal is coming from
the industrial areas so go there. Enter it and follow the path under the water
tower. You will be well aligned with the building you must jump on in order to
reach the antenna. Do so and scan the antenna when you reach it. You now have
to fight a car. It is a very fight. Defeat it to end the mission.
A car is carrying the required information and you have to chase it. Ram into
it and once you damage it; you must scan its wheels. You now have to go to
G-industries. Go there and scan the building. Race back to the truck since you
are timed. The time limit is generous but don't make too many mistakes. Reach
the truck to end this mission.
You have to go to G-industries. Go there and head towards the EAST side of
the building. Scan it. You now have to reach the computer inside. Go towards
the west side of the building. Notice the boxes here, use them to jump into
the factory. Use your map to navigation and very soon you will reach an area
where you have to use ski mode to get access to another area. Do it. You
should see some road going up. Use the large track with an open door at the
top of it.
Head inside the building and jump from roof to roof until you reach the system.
Scan the system. You now have to bring the data to the computer for analysis.
Backtrack to the previous area to notice a new building. Go inside and scan
the data. Now race up the second track. Use the special abilities of your car
where necessary.
You receive a signal, go for it? Get to the antenna and then go the location
given by Karr. You are timed so DONT make any stupid mistakes.
Reach there to end this mission.
You have to race Karr. This is a two-lap race. Remember that Kitt is superior
then Karr in terms of speed. So, at maximum speed, Karr does not stand a chance
against you. Don't forget to ram Karr as many times as you like. There are no
disqualifications for doing it plus it will help you in winning the race.
You have to chase Karr. You will encounter some mines, avoid them. Remember to
use turbo boost and ski mode where necessary. Karr will enter a mine at the
end so use your night mode to follow him.
You have to destroy Goliath. Instead of being a Knight in shining armor and
attacking it right from the start, use a little intelligence and wait for your
shield to regenerate. After it does, don't go hitting Goliath at all places,
try to hit him on his sides BECAUSE these are its weak areas.
You have to follow the helicopter. Don't go ahead of it. Use turbo boost and
ski mode where necessary. Avoid the bombs and tail it until you end this
mission.
You have to reach the helicopter before it takes off. You can use super pursuit
mode in this mission. There should be some boxes near a building not far from
the heliport. Use them to reach the roof. I will refer this roof as base roof.
Jump onto the roof right in front of you. Now head left and jump again. Scan
the helicopter twice. Go down and exit this place. You have to scan the first
point in the street. Do it. Now head back to the base roof and jump on the
building on your right. Jump to another roof near you and use ski mode to reach
another roof.
Follow the short road and jump two roofs to reach the second factory. Jump onto
the roof right in front of you and head down. There should be two locations,
scan both of them and backtrack to the roof (the last roof, the one you were on
before descending). You should notice the window here. Jump in, break the other
window and enter the last building. Scan it. Follow the path and very soon you
should see a pile of boxes. Use it to reach the roof and look at the first
factory to see your objective. Go to the highest roof possible and jump to the
first factory. Find the entrance and go through it for a cut-scene. Follow the
path jumping on the boxes. Jump through the window in front of you to end this
mission.
Enter the G-industries. You have to find and scan the control panel. Do it and
enter the main building. Use the lift nearby. You will be in a tunnel. Follow
the path through it avoiding all obstacles and using your car's special
abilities where necessary. You are times so DONT make many mistakes.
This mission is very much similar to mission 12. Same advice applies, use
your car's special abilities where necessary and avoid all obstacles. You are
timed so DONT make any stupid mistakes.
The last mission of the game. You have to fight Karr. He is pretty difficult
and has his own set of special abilities. Keep an eye on your damage bar, DONT
let it finish. Attack Karr while dodging its attacks. This mission may require
a couple of retries.
1) Noticed an error/mistake...
Ans) a.heavenly.body@gmail.com
2)I encountered this bug/game freezes/glitch...
Ans) This game is known to have many technical issues. Unfortunately no patch
was released fixing them so I cannot help you in any way. You should reset the
game if you encounter a bug.
3) Nice FAQ/Bad Faq...
Ans) Thanks/**** off.
4) Who developed the game?
Ans) Davelex Studios.
5) Help...i am stuck on this mission/part....
Ans) Read the part dedicated for that area. Questions like this will be
deleted on sight.
NOTE: THIS SECTION HAS NOT BEEN WRITTEN BY ME, IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY JACOB
WAGNER ON GAMEFAQS AND IS HIS COPYRIGHT. I AM USING IT WITH HIS PERMISSION.
ANY QUESTION RELATING TO THIS PART MUST BE FORWARDED TO HIM.
jrwag@hotmail.com
First off, there are no known cheats for this game. One trainer (an outside
program that you run along with a game to cheat) is available that claims to
give you infinite time, but it doesn't seem to work with the US release of the
game.
Game Text and Lost Levels Info
------------------------------
The files used by the game are installed in a Data directory, and many of them
are raw text files with a different extension. You can find all sorts of neat
bits of info in them.
For example, it seems 3 levels were removed before the game was completed. In
[install folder]\Data\Text\English\langstrings.ini is all the text for the
game. Between The Bad Son and Tunnel Vision are titles for 3 levels that don't
appear in the game, called The Knight Train. Perhaps this is where you were
intended to use the Night Vision option.
You can also look at the numerous spelling and grammatical errors in the game
in that file. All the text from the cutscenes is there, plus some that wasn't
used. The Knight Train seems to have involved Garth putting explosive chemicals
on a train with the intent of blowing them up when the train passed by FLAG HQ.
It seems you had to stop the train in part 1, then get ahead of the train in
part 2 in order to get Michael on board. Was there an on-foot section planned?
Another couple of amusing points of interest: Some of the strings in the 520's,
as well as 902 and 903, quite clearly come from the PS2 version of this game.
Debug Mode?
-----------
The question mark is due to the fact that I have been unable to activate any
debug mode, though there obviously was one before the game was released. The
same langstrings.ini from the last section mentions it, and Application.ini
(in the install directory) has options related to it, but switching them on
doesn't seem to activate anything new in the game.
Change KITT's Appearance
------------------------
Admittedly, I didn't try a lot with this one. The character models are stored
in .NIF files, so by copying some of them and renaming them, you can change
(for example) KITT into KARR. Other replacements are possible, though as I said
I didn't experiment much with it myself.
Alter KITT's Stats
------------------
Look through the following files in [install folder]\Data\Vehicle:
kitt_0.ini
kitt_0_graphics_high.ini
kitt_0_graphics_low.ini
kitt_0_graphics_medium.ini
KITT_Data.ini
kittphysics_0.ini
Use a plain text editor (Notepad or Wordpad will do) to open any of them, and
edit the variables inside. I tried upping the damage multiplier in kitt_0.ini,
and KITT seemed to cause enemies vehicles more damage, though it's hard to
tell. If you're looking for more to do after finishing this game, mess with the
physics in the files listed and some of the other ini files in that directory.
Misc Level Changes
------------------
In each directory inside Data\Tracks is a set of 4 ini files, one for each
detail level. In those, you can do weird things like change the fog color (I
haven't tried it, I don't know if it really works, but it should) or make the
cars drive on the other side of the road. For that, look under [WaypointSystem]
and change BritishMode to 1 instead of 0. More fun is under [Traffic], where
you can change Enabled to 0 and remove the traffic from any level that had it
before. Some vehicles that are programmed to sit in specific spots will still
be there, but the random traffic disappers.
Enabling Super Pursuit Mode Early
---------------------------------
What's this, an actual useful cheat?
Open up (install dir)\Data\MissionScripts. In here are the programmed events in
the game, conveniently stored in basic text format. Open any ".ms" file that
has a 1 at the end (eg. 02_bad_lands_1.ms, 03_camera_obscura_1.ms, etc). One of
the sections will be labeled "MONITORS". A few lines below that you'll find
this:
monitor entry
{
// only one chance to fire this monitor, so let's do it!
condition( always() ) ;
execute
{
enable_ski_mode() ;
enable_turbo_boost() ;
.
.
.
along with some other stuff. (If you opened the first training script, you
won't find the ski mode and turbo boost lines. Just note where they are in the
other files.) Add the line "enable_spm() ;" after the turbo boost line to
enable SPM in that level. Put it in the number 1 script for each mission up
through 11 to use SPM early. (Missions 12 and later already have SPM enabled.)
Thanks to http://www.4cheaters.de/cheat.php4?gameid=3817 for the trick. I can't
read German, but the basic idea comes across anyway.
Any kid who was born in the late 70's/early 80's remembers the TV show Knight
Rider very well and very fondly. It was the story of a ''Shadowy flight into
the dangerous world of a man...who does not exist.'' The tales of FLAG agent
Michael Knight and his super-powered talking Pontiac Trans-Am, KITT, did not
make the most serious or realistic television show ever, but it was fun and
memorable to many individuals from our generation. Many companies have tried
to make a faithful Knight Rider game in the past, but to little or no avail.
It is difficult to capture the essence of Knight Rider, the things we all
want to see and do in a game where we are behind the wheel of KITT.
While I am glad that Davilex comes closest to that mark, I am sorry to say
that it just doesn't do the mythos enough justice.
Knight Rider: the Game takes place in the late 1980's (the characters make
references to events that happened three years ago; 1985-86). The game begins
like most episodes of the show; a simple bank robbery turns into a more
complicated search for the thieves of KITT's molecular bonded shell formula,
and Michael Knight runs into two of his most well-known and die-hard
adversaries as the game progresses (Knight Rider fans probably know who
I'm talking about). The story suffers because it feels like it could have
happened anywhere, anytime. You see the same rocky, desert landscape from
start to finish, there are no outside characters to interact with, nowhere
out of the way to go and investigate, etc. In all honesty, this is a game
that could have any title tacked onto it.
This game is has, obviously, a lot of driving missions. They're either chase
missions, search and destroy, or stealth where you must scan buildings to
retrieve information. Unfortunately, there are no parts of the game where you
can get out of KITT and control Michael; this limits what you can do and
where you can go significantly (i.e. don't expect anything remotely like Grand
Theft Auto 3/Vice City). You can't walk around and ask people questions or
complete tasks on foot, which cuts much of the investigative feel of Knight
Rider down, turning it into a simple racing game.
Don't expect Gran Turismo-style driving or customization, either. KITT's top
speed is 123 MPH in normal mode, although much higher in Super-Pursuit Mode.
He handles pretty well, and driving on the burms of the road won't slow you
down at all. He does get squirelly though, as KITT's back end swings out
from time to time. The physics of the game are questionable(and nowhere
remotely near life-like), as sometimes you'll run into another car and come
to a dead-stop, whereas it would probably be destroyed on the show. You
also cannot configure KITT in any way, shape, or form; he'll be the same
car throughout the game, in look and ability. I would have personally
loved to be able to repaint KITT, or perhaps improve his tires, or adjust
his handling, but it's not going to happen.
There's also no aspect of exploration in Knight Rider. All missions are
one-way trips, and most of them are timed. There aren't ''missions,'' but
''levels'' that you must complete in a certain order. Never can you take
KITT for a joyride; it ain't gonna happen. The cities aren't complex
enough, the ''traffic'' is sparse, there are no pedestrians, and so forth.
Even if this game was a carbon copy of GTA3 with Tommy replaced by Michael
Knight, it would have been much, much better. Just think of it: undercover
missions, high-speed police chases, turbo-boosts across congested traffic,
and so forth (drool). Basically, the world of this game feels empty and
hollow.
All in all, the controls are kind of jumpy, but the Training Mission will get
you accustomed to handling KITT and all of his special abilities. I recommend
using a gamepad if you have one, but I'm not sure if the Control Customization
will support a steering wheel, though.
The sparse video clips are pretty tight, especially the opening cinema which
faithfully recreates the TV theme. The video cutscenes are clearly a labor of
love, and are perhaps the best I've ever seen in a game. It seems odd that
the most effort was put into the FMVs instead of the game itself. Either
that, or the videos were farmed out to another company, because they really
don't mesh with the game.
My real problem with the graphics, though, is the customization ability, or
lack thereof. You can adjust Resolution, Detail, and Color Depth, and that's
it. You can't adjust each individual aspects of the game, like reflective
textures, fog distance, lens flare, dirt particles, etc. So if you have a
lower-end computer, and want to play with some modicum of non-choppiness,
you'll have to settle for ''Medium'' in Detail, but KITT won't look as good
as he does in ''High.'' I personally would raise KITT's detail as high as
possible, and drop everything else, so it would still be smooth-flowing,
but KITT would look more realistic and reflective (for some odd reason KITT
looks a deep blue instead of black in ''Medium''). It is possible to do this
by editing the various configuration files that control graphics, but this
obviously isn't a choice for many gamers who don't know anything about
programming.
Many of KITT's sound effects from the 80's are faithfully recreated: his
scanner, the Turbo Boost, the ''beep'' as the car goes into Ski Mode,
Super-Pursuit Mode, etc. The only fault is KITT's engine; not only does it
sound like it has just one gear, but it also sounds nothing like it did on
the show. The explosions and various other sound effects are done very well,
although somewhat muted, as is the Knight Rider theme music that plays as the
game starts up, through the Menu commands, and chimes in at the end of a
mission. The in-game music, however, leaves much to the be desired, as kind
of a techno/industrial beat. You can turn it off if you wish, or KITT's engine
will probably drown it out.
The voice acting is not all that terrible; but of course, none of the actors
from the show return to play their respective roles. It's a letdown, but their
replacements do a decent job, especially the voice actor for KARR, KITT's evil
twin. The problem is that there aren't enough characters in the game; there
are perhaps six speaking roles, and that's it, leaving Knight Rider with the
feel that it happens in a bubble. Characters like Devon Miles and Bonnie fade
out as the game progresses, leaving only Michael, KITT, and his adversaries.
You can easily beat this game in an afternoon on Medium difficulty without
too much trouble. You might get hung up on one or two missions, but they're
not impossible to figure out. The problem stems from the lack of things to
do in Knight Rider. There are no bonus missions/alternate vehicles/hidden
abilities, etc. It's just from one mission to the next in Campaign mode, which
unlocks the exact same level in Mission mode, although you can do whichever
level of the latter you choose. What really knocks this game down a notch is
the lack of multiplayer; four KITTs or KARRS running around, or perhaps KIFT
from Knight Rider 2000, or any of the Team Knight Rider vehicles would have
seriously aided this game.
After you beat all of the missions, there isn't much left to do, asides from
playing through them all over again on a harder mode, although the end result
is the same and you get nothing to show for your effort.
I don't have a problem with the game per se, but I am disappointed by all of
the wasted potential of Knight Rider. There needed to be more of everything;
levels, vehicles, characters, alternate game modes, etc. There are even FAQs
out there that insist that three levels were cut from the game before it was
released (the ''Knight Train'' levels), which is why the night vision mode is
almost never required.
I can find this game in stores now for $10. If you're a Knight Rider nut, and
absolutely must have it, then by all means. In terms of driving-based mission
games, though, it pales gameplay-wise to many other games out there, even to
earlier titles such as Carmageddon and the Driver games.
Should Davilex (or hopefully a much better company such as Sierra or Rockstar)
make a sequel, I suggest making the world bigger, the game longer, the
customization more adaptable, and more hidden goodies. Believe me, I've
played worse racing games, but I've played better ones, too.
Me..For making a great FAQ.
Jacob Wagner....For letting me use parts of his great FAQ. Thanks man.
Gundam Mon...For letting me use his review in my FAQ
You..For Reading it.
[Your name here]..For sending a great addition in my FAQ.
yada yada yada yada......................
