If you use this program please send me some money. If you’re a cheapskate, then just send me a letter. My electronic-mail address is:
AMiller@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.edu
My postal address is:
Adam Miller
P.O. Box 1156
Yale Station
New Haven, CT 06520
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Sure thing is part of the Thieves' Tools package. It is an INIT/cdev that allows you to modify the standard random number generator on your Macintosh. (By the way, not having the icon show up at startup is a feature: people can't tell you're using Sure Thing.) What it does is to have the standard “random” routine return a number of your choice. This can be useful in many games for getting nice results. Here are a couple of examples:
• Some games choose randomly whether an enemy fires at you. It is easy to make it so they never fire.
• In certain games where pieces are randomly placed, Sure Thing can be used to have, for example, all the pieces put into a neat line.
• Often a game will kill you by having stupid enemies move randomly. With Sure Thing, you can have them all cower in a corner.
• In fantasy role-playing type games, rolling good attributes for your characters can be a pain. Wouldn't you like to have a perfect party?
You can find some way to use Sure thing in almost all games. Be creative!
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Sure Thing is both simple and powerful. Most times, you will only need to use the most basic controls, but there are powerful features for the advanced Sure Thingers. The cdev has the following controls:
• In Use - When this check box is checked, Sure Thing will intercept calls to “random”. If it isn’t checked, it will leave those calls alone.
• Every Other Time - If you want Sure Thing to work every other time, check this box.
• Infinite Loop Check - The drawback to Sure Thing is that some programs don’t like it when they don’t get random numbers. Sometimes, they will keep waiting until they get random numbers, and this can freeze the computer. To avoid freezes like that, check the Infinite Loop Check box. The only reason that it’s an option is that in some very fast programs, Sure Thing will think that you are stuck in a loop and start giving the program random numbers again.
• Random Once In Every - This is a number from 0 to 32000, which indicates how often Sure Thing gives out a random number instead of a phony one. If you have the Every Other Time option on, and set the Random Once In Every to 3, then real random numbers will be given four out of six times.
• Replacement Number - When Sure Thing doesn’t return a random number, this is the number it does return. Sometimes a little experimentation is required for finding the optimum Replacement Number.
• Help - (sorry, just my little joke)
Almost all games can be usefully manipulated with Sure Thing. Combine Sure Thing with Cheat and you have an invincible game-winning force! Be creative!
For source code to Sure Thing, send $25 to my postal address. Hefty sum, but it's pretty unique code.
