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- Running 'Starflight' (Electronics Arts) on the IBM PC,AT,Clones with EGA
-
- All of the patching information comes from Lee Johnson [71310,405].
-
- Also special thanks to Bert Estlow [71330,3167] who was the first to
- figure out the PC Jr. patch of Lees' would fix the ega problem.
-
- While the game 'Starflight' runs with a CGA video card without problems
- on the IBM PC/AT/Clones several of the EGA boards won't work with it.
- Lees' origional patch to get this program working on the IBM Pc Jr. will
- also allow you to use it on a PC with an ega card. We will be using his
- old patch '#5'. The new patch '#6' WILL NOT WORK with the PC type machines.
-
- Limitations
- -----------
-
- You will only get 4-color RGB output using the cyan/magenta/b&w palette.
-
- You cannot patch a game already in progress.
-
- You cannot run a saved game with the new patched program 'starflt.com'.
-
- On the orbital scans the planet is egg shaped instead of round (this may
- be the case only with my monitor and card 'NEC Multisync/STB Plus EGA card.)
-
-
- What you need
- -------------
-
- 1. Your original 'Starflight' disks (pc version is two disks 'A & B')
- 2. Two blank disks on a floppy based system. If you have a hard
- drive you can apply the patch there.
- 3. The 'debug.com' program that comes with the dos operating system.
-
- Floppy disk systems
- -------------------
-
- On a floppy based system use 'diskcopy' to copy the origional Starflight
- disks on your two blank disks. Put the origionals away.
-
- Insert the dos distribution disk conatining 'debug.com' into drive 'a'
-
- type 'debug' followed by a return key '<CR>'. The computer will respond
- with a '-' hyphen. Remove the disk with 'debug.com' on it
-
- Insert the copy (not the origional) of Starflight 'A' disk
-
-
- Hard disk systems
- -----------------
-
- On a hard disk create new subdirectories.
-
- mkdir c:\starflt (or whatever you want to call it)
- mkdir c:\starflt\play
- mkdir c:\starflt\save
-
- If you had already created these subdirectories as per the doc that came
- with the game delete all the files in those subdriectories. BE CAREFUL,
- be sure you only delete the files in the starflt subdirectories and not
- any of the other programs/data on your hard drive.
-
- Copy all the files from the two 'Starflight' disks onto your hard drive:
-
- copy a:*.* c:\starflt\play
- copy b:*.* c:\starflt\play
-
- put the origional 'Starflight' disks away
-
- copy 'debug.com' over to the hard drive
-
- copy a:debug.com c:\starflt\play
-
- type cd \starflt\play (this puts you in the subdirectory to do the patch)
-
- type 'debug' followed by a '<CR>' return key and you should see a '-'
- hyphen appear.
-
-
- Installing the patch (for both the floppy nard disk systems)
- --------------------
-
- Enter the following:
-
- n starflt.com (followed by a '<CR>' return key)
- l (followed by a '<CR>' return key)
-
- after a few seconds the '-' hyphen prompt should appear again
-
- 1. Enter the following to make sure your are patching the correct part of
- the program.
-
- d 8dcc l e
-
- Debug should display
-
- xxxx:8DCC BA D4 03 BE :T.>
- xxxx:8DD0 16 8D E8 26 FF 83 3E AF-8D 01 ..h&..>..
-
- Make sure all the numbers are the same except for the numbers indicated
- by 'xxxx'
-
- 2. At the '-' hyphen prompt type in the following:
-
- e 8dcc b8 04 00 83 ff 01 75 02 b0 05 cd 10 eb 3c
-
- 3. Now we check to see if the patch was entered correctly.
- Enter:
-
- u 8dcc l e
-
- Debug will display:
-
- xxxx:8DCC B80400 MOV AX,0004
- xxxx:8DCF 83FF01 CMP DI,+01
- xxxx:8DD2 7502 JNZ 8DD6
- xxxx:8DD4 B005 MOV AL,05
- xxxx:8DD6 CD10 INT 10
- xxxx:8DD8 EB3C JMP 8E16
-
- If you don't get the same results go back and try the patch again.
-
- 4. At the '-' hyphen prompt type 'w' followed by a '<CR>' return key.
- This will write the patched program back to the disk.
-
- Debug will display:
-
- Writing D3B6 bytes
-
- 5. At the hyphen '-' prompt type 'g' followed by a '<CR>' return key
- (this ends you session with debug).
-
- 6. Your copy of 'starflight' should now work with your PC and an EGA card.
- You should save this patched version just as you would your origional
- 'starflight' disks and only make copies to play on.
-
-