141 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
141 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
DSGE v1.00 Written by Andrew Pye
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Introduction
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Hi, there! First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to
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download this and try it out. Second, I'd like to thank Brian C. McDonald
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(author of "GODLIKE.PLR") for inspiring me to actually distribute this
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(it's been hanging around, wasting HD space for months now...) and give
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me Darren Lo's "*.PLR Offset Tables, version .1" (oh, BTW: I'd like to
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thank him too :-), though, all I got from his list was the offsets of
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where the horizontal and vertical screen sizes were. I found everything
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else out on my own (come to think of it, I think I found those a near the
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beginning of my hacking... Anyways, I only decided to add them after I
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saw Darren's file)). Third, DSGE stands for "Descent Save Game Editor"
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(yes, I know, you edit player files, not specifically save games, but DPE
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(Descent Player Editor) didn't have the same ring to it :-) ).
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Disclamer
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I hate these, but they are necessary... I, myself, the author of the
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program, nor the creators of Descent, or anybody else, for that matter,
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will not be held responsible for any stupid descisions made on your
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behalf. I have listed in this document all known bugs, inacuracies, etc.
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in DSGE. If your hard disk gets trashed, all your player files screwed
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up, get dumped by your girlfriend/boyfriend, get thrown into a Nazi prison
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camp, I, myself, the author of the program, nor the creators of Descent,
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or anybody else, for that matter, will NOT be held responsible. Now,
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without further delays, here's the rest of the document.
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History
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DSGE was born about 2 or 3 weeks after Christmas. Since then, it's
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been collecting dust on my HD until a few days ago (March 14, 1995), when
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Brian told me to spread it around and "to not distribute this program
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would be an injustice to all the Descent players out there." Thanks,
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Brian! Why, exactly, I decided to write this, I don't know. Probably I
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just got bored and decided that having like 65535 lazer energy would be
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pretty cool. So, I fired up old Norton Utilities and spent a week or so
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hacking the now "archaic" player file. I also decided to go all-out on
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the interface, too.
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Operating Instructions
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Not too hard, really, since it's all menu driven and there's usually
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a description of what the current menu does on the bottom of the screen.
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A word of warning, though: I do not have the registered version of
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Descent, and kind of cheated in places :-). For instance, giving yourself
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x# of Mega Missiles will: 1) Still not allow you to use Mega Missiles
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in the shareware version of the game, and 2) May not even work in the
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registered version of the game, either (also note that making a weapon
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that is only in the registered version of the game your current weapon in
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the shareware version WILL (unless you're lucky) crash the game. You are
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forewarned). I just put them in where I thought they might go. HOWEVER,
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the different items in the "Lazer Type" menu WILL work in the shareware
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version of the game. I've tested all of those.
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For those of you who REALLY need to know, here's EXACTLY how to use
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the program:
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C:\>DSGE <path and file name of .PLR file WITH .PLR extention>
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Substitute what's within the <>'s with what is described in the <>'s.
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See? Wasn't that simple? To move up and down through the different menu
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items, press the up and down key, respectively (really! What a concept!)
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To select the item, press the <Enter> key (or its nearest equivilent).
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To move between the different menus, press the left and right keys, or
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the TAB key. For those boneheads who want to give themselves mega
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armourments, like 9999 of something, though. Look at the bottom of the
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screen for the minimum (usually 0 or 1) and maximum values. IF YOU GO
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ABOVE THE MAX VALUES, the program will either compensate by reducing the
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# by the maximum value, or the game will get royally screwed up. If you
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yell at me for it, I'll point you to the following lines of this document.
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Don't say I didn't warn you (see discaimer).
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The rest of the program should be pretty easy to understand. If you
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ever want to back out of an input field, leave it blank and press <Enter>
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or press <Esc>. Also, <Esc> will get out of the program (the equivilent
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to the "Exit" item on the main menu, but <Esc> will get out from either
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menu). You will also not be told to save your game when you exit. If
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you exited without saving, it won't complain (which isn't really that bad
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since it's remarkably easy to edit the game. Only about 5 minutes lost).
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Bugs / Inacuracies
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Unfortunately, due to my conservatism (mostly affecting memory), this
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has the following bugs / inacuracies:
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* If you enter the program from a video mode outside of 80x25 (such as
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80x43 or 80x50 or some other bizarre mode), the program will only save
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(and therefore only redisplay on exit) the first 80x25 characters. I
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decided that since most people are only using 80x25 (?), not to do
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anything bigger.
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* Although I made this program work on both color and monochrome (I don't
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know why; I just did) monitors, I have only used the standard video
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segments for displaying stuff on the screen (for various reasons).
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Therefore, I have used segment 0xB800 if it detects a color monitor, or
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0xB000 if it detects a monochrome monitor. If this is a program for
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anyone, please tell me (via the addresses at the bottom of the screen)
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and I'll either tell you how to fix it, or, if that doesn't work, I'll
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recompile the source with the correct video segment for you.
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* Various inacuracies in numbers. This is a big topic due somewhat by
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the people who wrote Descent. When (if) you give yourself like 65535
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lazer energy, it will be all messed up in the game. Don't worry. It's
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because the creators of Descent didn't plan for you having >= 4 digit
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numbers for some things. It may also reset in some cases (lives).
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Don't worry. If anything, it'll just give you an infinite (!) ammount
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of the current thing.
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* If you give yourself anything higher than Lazer Type 4 and get a Lazer
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Bonus item, you'll go back to Lazer Type 4. This is not a bug in DSGE,
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but rather a 'safety' feature (bug?) in Descent. There is no way around
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it. Be careful!
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* Things pointed out above. Anything I missed here was probably because I
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already mentioned it above. I just hope you read the whole document...
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Other stuff
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Not much here. I just wanted to point out that, although this
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program is free (only because I'm too lazy to make a shareware and
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registered version :-) ), I would always accept donations. Thanks.
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How to reach me
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I can be reached on the internet at "zaphod@linux.cowland.com", and
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via US mail at:
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Andrew Pye
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1211 Best Road
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East Greenbush, New York 12061
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USA (if needed)
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I know I may have come off strong, and if I did, it's because I don't want
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anybody to complain about something I pointed out in here. I am welcome
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to any comments/suggestions/critisisms/threats/etc. I'm pretty flexible
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and if I like your idea, I'll add it. I'm always willing ot expand.
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Thanks,
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Andrew Pye |