Jason Aller Floppy Collection/266.img/STUNT.ZIP/STUNT.TXT

Text File | 1990-09-01 | 13KB | 244 lines

                   Stunted Driver from Spectrum-Hollowhead
                       Cracked by R. Bubba Magillicutty

                     Brought to you by The Happy Hacker!

Graphics: Herc/CGA/Tandy/EGA/VGA-16/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard/Joystick/Mouse
Sound: Unintelligible digitized & regular honker/Tandy 3-voice and DAC mode
       /digitized Adlib/Soundbastard
Cracking notes:
     Medium difficulty doc check.  Easy enough to get by, but it would lock
up after a few seconds of driving.  In the middle of the doc check it would
stick your answer in memory for later verifying.  I found where it stuck the
number and had it insert the correct answer in there.  The thing also
included a bit of self-changing code.  If you skipped the doc check
completely it would run a CALL that would do Bad Things.  Running the doc
check changed the CALL to some harmless statements (OR AX,BX if I recall).  I
tried removing the doc check screen, but it would just appear a bit later.  I
tried skipping tons of code but it kept reappearing.  So you'll see the
screen as it loads up the game.  I wasn't willing to spend the time tracking
down all the routines that displayed the screen.  I hope you can live with
it.  I don't believe it slows the game down at all, and I can be sure it
works this way.

Other notes:
     This will probably be my last release for quite some time.  It's rather
nice if you like driving simulations.  I like the sense of humor shown
throughout the game.  When you failed the doc check it would say "Merry
Christmas, welcome to DOS!"  The Tokyo background includes a monster
destroying the city (presumably Godzilla but it doesn't much look like him.)
And when you ram a cow, you hear an indignant digitized "Mooo!"
     For those that didn't know, Acronym closed up shop about a week ago when
half the group went back to THG, leaving me alone.  The Computer is Your
Friend will be going down within the week.  You probably won't be seeing much
of me for a while.  If The Happy Hacker keeps delivering Spectrum-Hollowhead
stuff I'll probably give it to whichever group I feel deserves it the most,
along with any other software I happen upon or is given to me by one of my
contacts.  I originally intended to release my cheat compiler, which allows
anyone to make interactive cheats without any programming knowledge, to the
public.  But for the moment at least I've given it all, including source
code, to Rescue Raider.  He does nice work and writes cheats for pretty much
everything, so he might as well make nice ones.  I may release an occasional
cheat or come out with new versions of the program, but then again I may not.
It's all in Rescue Raider's hands for now.  I still may decide to give out
the compiler, and will probably give a copy to Lord Zombie if he asks nicely.
     I have a nice digitized Adlib player available for use in loaders.  I've
managed to pull out the digitized sounds from Flight of the Intruder, Stunt
Driver, Megatraveller, Prince of Persia, and many others, and can make custom
samples with my digitizer card.  A VOC player for the adlib should be along
soon.  I have all the needed info here (thanks to The Disk Changer!) but have
yet to look at it.  If anyone is interested in using this in an intro, let me
know.  I'm also rather good at graphics programming, though unlike Lord
Zombie I will do absolutely no artwork.  If someone like INC, who has a good
artist but no impressive intros, wants a nice animated intro with digitized
adlib and is willing to supply all the art, please contact me.  I like to
keep in practice.
     If anyone needs to contact me after my BBS goes down, you can call me
at The Road Toad Eatery Drive-Thru: [phone], NUP:IAMASCUM, 2400bps.
If that's not available, I can be reached at The Hideout: [phone],
HST.  I'll probably check for mail at Road Toad about once a week, a bit less
often at The Hideout.  My voice number is common knowledge as well, so you
can yell at me that way if you have the number.
     There was going to be more, but I had better just get this thing out.
I've been holding it for two days now for various reasons.  I had planned on
leaving messages to a few different people, but that will have to wait.  For
now, just one last message to everyone out there: Quit taking everything so
seriously!  This isn't real life!

And so, as they say, Be seeing you....

                                     DOCS

I don't have the actual docs to this game.  These come from playing, and so
aren't guaranteed to be complete or 100% accurate.  However, I tried to
include as much as possible and it should be more than enough to get you
started.  When I get the docs in a day or so, I will update this file and
re-release it if appropriate.  If there aren't many differences and I have
all the important info in here already, I won't bother.

Installation notes:
     This is an installed copy.  It's all I could dig up this early.  But
it's a real copy.  It just went into production today, I believe.  Anyway,
there's an INSTALL program which uses Spectrum-Holobyte's INFLATE/DEFLATE
program to uncompress the 256 color VGA graphics.  It's pretty much useless,
but I included it to be complete.
     If the file DEFAULT.DEF is missing, the game will ask you for a computer
speed and video mode when you first load it.  The chart shows different
computer speeds on the left and video modes on top.  Cross-reference your
computer speed by the video mode you want to play in.  It will show you the
recommended speed setting.  NR means Not Recommended.  As you can see, VGA
256 color mode is not recommended on anything less than a 386-20.  I tried it
on my 386SX and it was a bit sluggish and the card was hard to control.
Speed settings control detail level, regular or digitized sound, backgrounds,
etc.  I found 16 color VGA to be about ideal on my machine.

Programs to run:

CROWDON.BAT and CROWDOFF.BAT - These will turn on or off the digitized crowd
sounds.  It defaults to on.  You hear crowd sounds as you pass bleachers full
of people.

CFGED - Lets you modify internal game variables.  The different categories of
variables are 3D Graphics, Global Variables, Friction and Skid Variables,
Collision and Damage Variables, Player Car, and Opponent Cars.  These let you
modify the game pretty drastically.  To use the program, type:
CFGED Filename <Optional Filename>.
The filename is the CFG file to be editted (STOCK and EASY are included) and
the optional name I believe is what the new config file will be saves as.  Be
sure to include the .CFG extension since this program assumes nothing.  To
use CFG files that you make, use the file names (including the extension) as
a parameter to STUNT.EXE when you run it.

STUNT - This is the main game.

Command line parameters: Complete file names of CFG files created with CFGED.
Be sure to use a valid file name.  The program doesn't adequately check for
errors.  If you specify an invalid name, it will ask for a line of input
(technical explanation: when trying to open a non-existant file, they aren't
checking for errors.  It stores the file handle, which defaults to 0 for
error.  When they try to open file handle 0, which happens to be one of the
built-in handles, it will get input from the keyboard.  Practical
explanation: Don't specify an invalid file name!)

Menu commands:

Play - Play the game.  If you've just crashed/burned/been mangled/ate
asphalt/went for a swim/etc. it will restart the game.

VCR - Replays a section of your last race.  The keyboard commands to control
the VCR are labeled on the buttons.  The View buttons (F1-F6) are active.
They will be explained in more detail in the Play Commands section.

Restart - Starts the current race over.  Useful if you're losing badly or
just stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

Sound - Has options to toggle engine and other sounds on and off, and allows
you to pick your sound card with the Options option.

Courses - This is where you pick or design the course to race on.  Courses
1-5 are always available from here.  Custom courses gives access to courses
you've designed, or to the 4 included with the game (made by beta testers I
believe.)  The editor option will allow you to create your own courses.

     Editor commands:
        Arrows - move around on the course map
        Shifted arrows - move the piece selector around
        Enter - place a piece on the course map

Difficulty - Selects the difficulty level of the race.  You pick from one of
three settings.  The second two settings include opponents to chose from.
You must qualify on the easist setting (Trainee) if you want to make the Top
10 list for that course.  In Trainee, you'll have no opponents.  You just
have to run the course in the time show in the top right corner.  The two
higher difficulty levels are the actual races.  To see how good each opponent
is, use the CFGED program.

Options - This includes a bunch of options (hence the name):
        Control - Chose from keyboard, joystick, or mouse.  Also, set
        steering sensitivity.

        Head to Head - Modem play.  Set all the paramaters, save them, then
        pick done to dial or get ready to answer.

        Backgrounds - Pick a background for the races.  Cities included are
        San Francisco, London, Tokyo, New York, Paris, a forest, and perhaps
        another one or two I've forgotten.  The background can be toggled on
        or off withing the game (see Play Commands section.)

        Credits - Wow, see who wrote the game.

        Top 10 - Shows the 10 best times for this course.  Each course has a
        seperate Top 10 listing.

        Save options - Saves your sound, controls, background, etc. choices.
        Especially useful if you want to hear the opening "Start your
        engines!" in Adlib or SoundBlaster instead of PC Squeeker.

Quit - Take off, eh?

                                Play Commands

These commands are usable while racing:

Arrow keys - Speed up, slow down, turn left and right (what did you expect?)
Keypad 5 - Face forward.  By holding this key down you can get limited
auto-pilot.  Especially useful with cruise control on.  Useless when you go
off the road, however.  Helps with those tight curves (but won't allow you to
make tight curves if you're going too fast.)

A - Get into gear.  For getting out of reverse or neutral.
B - Brake
C - Cruise control.  Keeps going at current speed until a button is pressed
    that modifies your speed.  You still have to steer, but it's much easier
    on your fingers in this mode (if you're using the keyboard.)
D - Dashboard toggle.  Clears up the screen at the expense of useful info.
E - Engine sound toggle.  Useful for shutting up the obnoxious white-noise
    engine sound.  Especially vital for those stuck with the PC-Squeeker.
G - Speed up.  Same as the up arrow.
H - Honk your horn.  Beep beep.
N - Uses your nitrous oxide for a nice speed boost.  The dashboard has a NO2
    indicator to show you how much is left.  This is how you get up enough
    speed to make loop-de-loops and other high-speed obstacles.
P - Pauses the game, showing you a course map including your position and the
    position of your opponents.
R - Go into reverse.  If you haven't applied the brakes first, you'll just
    get unpleasant gear-grinding noises.
S - Sound toggle.  Shut the game up, or just listen to the lovely engine
    noises.
T - "Talk."  Used in Head-to-Head play to send messages to your opponent.
W - Neutral.  Get some nice RPMs going before dropping into gear.
X - Heck if I know.  Does weird things.  I couldn't figure it out.  It seemed
    to move me around or at least change my facing.
Z - Toggles the background on and off.  Backgrounds are chosen in the Options
    section of the main menu.

F1 - Forward view
F2-F4 - Side and rear view.  I'm not sure which is which.  Live it up.  Find
    out for yourself.
F5 - Aerial view.  Nice for replays.  Hard to drive in this mode though.
F6 - Camera view.  Camera placement effects how this looks.  Occasionally
    useful for replays.

There's also an alternate letter diamond you can use instead of the arrow keys
if you are so inclined:
     I
  J  K  L
     M

I believe that should about do it.  The rest you should be able to figure out
for yourself.  The hand icon will show up to point you in the right direction
if you get off the road (though it occasionally changes direction in bizarre
moments.)  Speed signs will show you the maximum speed for making tight
curves.  They'll also pop up for different obstacles.  Some, like the hill
and the bridge, have a maximum speed.  Others, like the loop-de-loop, have a
minimum speed.  The symbols are fairly obvious.  You'll also see a Wrong Way!
sign pop up if you start driving backwards.

Hit the brakes on the black square of the pit stop and you'll be fixed up
while being treated to a animated show with appropriate digitized sound.  It
helps make up for ramming the bleachers a few times.

                               - The End, Bub -