TUTORIAL - "HEXING 101" PART 5 On to a first, "easy" hex job. Copy your GO229.SPC file to GO229B.EXP to create a "working" copy. Take a look at your printout of the GO229.SPC file (or just access the file via PCT). At the PCTools address (0108), which is the same as DEBUG 208, you'll find the start of a weapons string. This is for the 2 x 2205 pound bombs. Well, that's no fun, let's make it 8 x 551 pound bombs instead! . As you should remember, we know this is a bomb string because of the initial "02" byte at the xxx8 address. The second byte value, "16" merely puts the right words in the weapons menu. There is no string in the BGERMSTR.PAC that matches 8 x 551 pound bombs, so you could leave it alone, or change it to 12, which would then read 2 x 551 pound bombs. We'll leave it alone. The fifth byte of the string is 02, the ammo byte, so we'll up that value to 08 for eight bombs (remember that hex and decimal are the same from numerals 0 -9). Now, we're not done. Analysis of the 9th and 10th bytes shows that they equal the weight of a single bomb. The program then multiplies this by your number of bombs. It is not the total bombweight, as is evident when you compare strings for differing numbers of the same size bombs. Currently, these two bytes are 9D 08, (which is 2205 in decimal). We need to change this to be 27 02, the weight of a 551 pound bomb. Again, the conversion: 2 7 0 2 (2x16) (7x1) (0x4096) (2x256) These all add up to a decimal value of 551. By the way, the weight of the bomb is equal to it's "firepower". I found this out while attempting to make itty bitty cluster bombs. So, to make 8 x 551 pound bombs, we must make two changes: the 02 changes to 08, and the 9D 08 needs to be 27 02. However, since they are not consecutive, when we write the debug, the simplest way to write it is to include the old values inbetween the two changes. So here is our DEBUG: DEBUG GO229B.EXP -E 208 02 16 00 00 08 00 30 75 27 02 -W -Q Actually, there is a simpler DEBUG. The weapons string starts at 208, but we don't begin making changes until 4 bytes later (the 02 becomes 08). So really, a shorter DEBUG would be: DEBUG GO229B.EXP -E 20C 08 00 30 75 27 02 -W -Q Therefore, the original weapons string and our new string: 02 16 00 00 02 00 30 75 9D 08 01 00 32 00 5E 01 02 16 00 00 08 00 30 75 27 02 01 00 32 00 5E 01 Try this out, and if you've already backed up your GO229.SPC file, you can copy this mod into it by typing from dos, COPY GO229B.EXP G0229.SPC. Then fly the plane!! You will be happily rewarded by 8 bombs in the bomb counter. Not really an unrealistic mod, as the overall bomb weight stays the same. But this is just the tip of the iceberg!! The whole point of hexing is that it gives you some control over the program.