Onesimus: A Quest For Freedom

Onesimus: A Quest For Freedom
Developer: Tim Sweeney Publisher: Ark Multimedia Publishing Platform: DOS Released internationally: 1992 This game has unused areas. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has debugging material.

Onesimus: A Quest For Freedom uses the Jill of the Jungle engine and plays a lot like that. The big difference is that this is a Christian game, where you must gain freedom from slavery.

Unused Areas

The level Underground (levels 8 and 9), which is taken from Jill Goes Underground, contains a weird placeholder tileset on the place of what was level 16 ("A Sticky Situation") of the second episode.

The area looks like a hub map because of the fence, trees and grass.

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The extreme bottom portion of the hub map features forest area as well as a gray brick alley. This area is otherwise nothing of interest.

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To the north east (top right) of the castle tileset in the hub map, there is another forest lane and three huts. These huts do not lead to any level as they lack triggers associated with the maps.

This indicates that more than 30 levels were planned to be included.

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Unused Enemies

The game has three colors for the bouncing balls. However, the blue ones remain unused, despite being functional.

A large blue ball that does not bounce off of the floor, but simply remains on the floor instead, as if it's very heavy.

A tiny variation of the blue ball.

Unused Abilities

Animal forms

Like in Jill of the Jungle, the player can turn into various animals when collecting powerups. None of these powerups are present on any level. The levels taken from the Jill of the Jungle series are slightly redesigned to accommodate the absence of these powerups, where turning into a certain creature is required.

Unused Graphics

The player turned into a fish form.

The projectile launched by player while they are in the fish form.

Unused Items

An equivalent to "Jill" label in Jill of the Jungle. This Christian cross powerup was meant to turn Onesimus into his human form. However, the ability to be turned into various animals is an unused but working feature of the game. On all the official levels, this sprite is never displayed on the left panel when the player is in human form.

This powerup item turns the player into a frog but is unused. It is an equivalent to the same powerup in Jill of the Jungle.

This powerup item turns the player into a bird but is unused. It is an equivalent to the phoenix powerup in Jill of the Jungle, which turns Jill into a phoenix.

Like in Jill of the Jungle, this invincibility shield is a fully functional item that can be placed with level editors or cheats. However, it is not found on any of the official levels. It has a bit different artwork than in Jill of the Jungle.

Debugging Material

Using the level editor

The game has a hidden level editor, which can be accessed by pressing Ctrl + E on the main menu. Use of the editor is a little cryptic, and there is a brief set of instructions on the ModdingWiki.

(Source: ModdingWiki)

Aside from the level editor, pressing Ctrl + P on the main menu can also be used to play the intro level shown behind the main menu.

During the game, pressing Z three times will show the amount of free memory as a number in the status window, and pressing X three times will give the player full health and some items.

(Source: JotJ Cheats on ModdingWiki)