Media Depot 5

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Media Depot 5 / mediadepotvolume51993.iso / FILES / 10 / UGE10.ZIP / UGE.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-11-07 | 58KB | 1,016 lines

HARTMAN GAME UTILITIES presents Universal Game Editor Copyright 1993 by Jack Hartman For product support I can be reached at: CompuServe I.D. 70761,2761 Prodigy I.D. VJPH45A or HARTMAN GAME UTILITIES P. O. Box 73706 Houston, Texas 77273-3706 Copyright Notice and Disclaimer of Warranty ------------------------------------------- This product is licensed "as is" without any warranty, either express or implied, of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. All warranties are expressly disclaimed. By using this product, you agree that neither the copyright holder nor any related parties will be liable to you or any third party for any use of (or inability to use) this product, or for any damages arising from the use of this product. (Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damage, so the preceeding limitation may not apply to you.) You may not reverse-engineer, disassemble, modify, decompile or create derivative works of this product. You acknowledge that this product contains confidential information and is the property of the copyright holder. Universal Game Editor is copyright (c) 1993 by Jack Hartman, all rights reserved. Licensing Information --------------------- This product is being distributed as shareware. This means that you are granted the right to evaluate this program without charge. If you don't use this software, then don't pay for it. If you do use it, please register your copy. When you register you will receive: ∙ The newest version of this program on disk ∙ ALL modules in the Universal Game Editor library of modules ∙ A key to remove shareware advertising ∙ Written notice of future versions of this program ∙ Free product support You are encouraged to give copies of this program to your friends to evaluate, and to upload it to Electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), so long as the following restrictions are observed: 1. This program must be distributed whole and unmodified. Neither the program nor the documentation may be altered or renamed. 2. You may not charge a fee or remuneration, except for reasonable disk duplication costs. 3. This program may not be distributed as part of another software package. TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 GAMES SCREEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Adding Games or Modifying the List. . . . . . . . . . 3 MODULE SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 TOOLS SCREEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tools Screen Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tools Help Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Cursor Keys Used in the TOOLS SCREEN. . . . . . . . . 7 Find Text, Numeric or Group Value . . . . . . . . . . 7 Make a VARIABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Display Width Adjustment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Split Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VARIABLE Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Go To OFFSET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Alter a Byte. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Hints and Tips for Locating Game Data . . . . . . . . 13 Appendix A (Ordering Information and Order Form) . . 16 Universal Game Editor Page 1 Overview -------- Universal Game Editor is a program specifically designed for editing SAVED GAME files. This allows the game player to change many aspects of almost any game. Universal Game Editor requires an IBM-PC compatible computer with 640KB of RAM. (It will probably run in 512KB, but hasn't been tested). When you save a game that you are playing, the computer stores all of the information about that game to a SAVED GAME file on disk. That file will contain all of the information on your progress in the game so that when you restart the game you will begin right where you left off. Universal Game Editor allows the game player easy access to the SAVED GAME file. You may change many items in each game that you play. The program uses MODULE files to hold information on SAVED GAME files to be edited. These MODULES hold descriptions of items that may be changed in each game that is edited. These items might include hit points, starship weapons, magic items, ability scores or anything else that you may want to change. Universal Game Editor comes with some MODULES already linked-in to the editor. Users may link-in other MODULE files to edit other games, or create their own MODULE files. The editor may have up to 255 games in its supported games list. Universal Game Editor makes it easy for the user to make modules for use with any game that allows you to save your game to a file. Actually, ANY file may be edited with this program, whether or not it has anything to do with a game. The possibilities are endless. Universal Game Editor is distributed with modules to edit four games. Each module is accompanied by a text file with a description of the items that may be changed and known limits to some changes. 1. Civilization. Allows changes to : A. Difficulty level setting B. Civilization names and leader names C. Player's CIV number (player may play another CIV in the same game) D. Amount of gold in treasury E. City names and sizes F. Vital statistics on all 28 military units (move, attack, etc.) ... and more! 2. Betrayal at Krondor. Allows changes to : A. Money B. Character names C. Character ability scores and skills D. Character health and stamina E. Spellbooks F. Character backpacks (you may create ANY item in the game) G. Keys ... and more! 3. Master of Orion (2 modules). These two modules allow changes to : A. Planet data (population, factories, bases, stargates, etc.) B. Non-planet data (planetary reserve, science studies) C. Ship data (weapons, engines, specials, hits, etc.) ... and more! 4. Lands of Lore. Allows changes to : A. Character data (name, hit points, magic points, experience) B. Backpacks (duplicate any item that you find) C. Money ... and more! Universal Game Editor Page 2 Installation ------------ WARNING: SAVE YOUR CURRENT GAME(S) BEFORE USING THIS PROGRAM!!!! THIS PROGRAM CHANGES THE SAVED GAME FILE(S) FOR YOUR GAME(S). Copy (or extract) all files in this archive to a subdirectory (C:\UGE or whatever). The file UGE.EXE must be present for the program to work. If other files are missing, you may not be able to use some or all of the pre-created modules. Getting Started --------------- To start the program, change to its subdirectory and type UGE. The file GAMEDAT.UGE contains the information on which games may be edited, the name of the MODULE files used to edit those games, and the names and locations of the SAVED GAME files to be edited. If the GAMEDAT.UGE file is missing, then the list of games that may be edited will be blank. If you ADD a game to this blank list, then a GAMEDAT.UGE file will be created. Note that ANY file may be edited, not just saved game files. Universal Game Editor comes configured with five MODULES to edit four games. The games are Civilization, Betrayal at Krondor, Master of Orion (2 modules) and Lands of Lore. The program originally assumes that all of these games are installed on your C: drive (hard drive). It also assumes that each game was installed using the game's default installation directory. If you wish to edit any of these games and the game was installed in the default directory on C: drive, then simply choose that game from the GAMES SCREEN list and hit <ENTER> to begin editing the saved game. If the game was installed on a different drive or in a different directory, then you will get an error if you try to edit that game. If that happens, simply choose "M)odify this list" from the GAMES SCREEN. This will allow you to change the information for that game. See the chapter called "Adding Games or Modifying the List" later in this document. NOTE: Making changes to your SAVED GAMES will allow you to do things with your games that the game designers never intended for you to do. Some games are delicate, and if you make large changes in your character's statistics, it can bomb the game out. Other games are more stable, but even then some changes will bomb your game or cause unusual things to happen when you are playing. The point is, if you are editing a game, start by making small changes. If you have a first level character, make him level 10 and play the game for a while. If nothing bad happens, then you can try making him higher and higher levels. Your game will almost certainly bomb out if you make your character level 30,000. (But then again, maybe not. And a level 30,000 character should be undefeatable!). Universal Game Editor Page 3 GAMES SCREEN ------------ The first screen that the user will see (not counting shareware advertising) is the GAMES SCREEN. At the top of the GAMES SCREEN is a title bar, with the program title, copyright info, version number and registration status. The left half of the GAMES SCREEN displays a list of games which are supported by the current configuration of the program. Games may be added to this list, deleted from this list or game information in the list may be modified. The right half of the GAMES SCREEN is the Games Screen Help Window. It gives a list of all of the choices available to the user from the GAMES SCREEN: ∙ Use the cursor keys (PageUp, PageDown, up and down arrows, HOME and END) to move the highlight bar to the game that you want to edit, delete or modify. ∙ Press <ENTER> to edit the game that is currently highlighted. You will be presented with the MODULE SCREEN. See the section on MODULE SCREEN for more information. ∙ A)dd a game. Hit "A" to add a game to the list. See "Adding Games or Modifying the List". ∙ M)odify this list. Hit "M" to modify the list entry that is currently highlighted. This will let you change the game name, MODULE file name and saved game file name for this entry. See "Adding Games or Modifying the List". ∙ <DELETE> an entry in this list. This will remove the currently highlighted entry from the list of supported games. NOTE: Deleting a game from this list only removes its information from the list. It will NOT delete any files associated with that game, and it will NOT delete the MODULE file for that game. ∙ <CTRL-PageUp> and <CTRL-PageDown> to move an entry up or down in the list. When the GAMES SCREEN is first displayed, the first game in the list is highlighted. If you are editing one game more often than others, you may want to move its list entry up to the top of the list. Put the highlight bar on the list entry that you wish to move, then hold the CONTROL key down and tap the UP ARROW key to move that entry up one position in the list, or tap the DOWN ARROW key to move that entry down one line in the list. ∙ Hit <ESCAPE> to exit Universal Game Editor and return to DOS (or whatever). Adding Games or Modifying the List ---------------------------------- Each game that may be edited has three pieces of information that are stored in the GAMEDAT.UGE file. This information is game name, MODULE file name and SAVED GAME file name. If you are adding a game to the list or modifying an entry in the list, you will be asked for all three pieces of information. Universal Game Editor tries to guess the most likely answer to every question that it asks, and that answer will show up as the default answer whenever your response is required. To accept the default answer, simply hit <ENTER>. If the default answer is not correct, then you may either type in new information or pick the correct answer from a list, depending on the information required. Remember, hitting <ESC> at any time during the adding or modifying session will exit without making any changes. Universal Game Editor Page 4 The three pieces of information are : 1. NAME OF THE GAME TO BE EDITED. Hit <ENTER> to accept the name that is displayed or type in a new name and hit <ENTER>. 2. MODULE file name. MODULE files are files that end with a .MDL extension to the filename. All files with a .MDL extension in the Universal Game Editor directory will be shown in a list. If game information is being modified, then the MODULE file that is currently configured to go with that game will be highlighted. You may hit <ENTER> to accept this choice, choose another MODULE, or choose *NEW FILE* to create a new MODULE file for that game. If you choose *NEW FILE*, you will be asked for a filename for this MODULE. You may accept the default MODULE filename or you may type in a new MODULE filename. If you type in a new filename, it may have up to 8 letters or numbers and a .MDL extension. You do not need to add the extension, it will be added for you. The filename must conform to DOS rules for filenames. See your DOS manual for details. If the name that you enter does not conform to DOS rules, you will get an error message, and you will be taken back to the GAMES SCREEN. 3. SAVED GAME file name. This operation will bring up a list of directories and files. If game information is being modified, and the SAVED GAME file that was previously specified does exist, then the displayed directory will be the directory containing the SAVED GAME file, and the SAVED GAME file will be highlighted in the list. If a game is being added to the list then the displayed directory will be the root directory of the drive from which Universal Game Editor was run. Use the cursor keys to move the highlight bar to the file name desired, and hit <ENTER> to choose it. Hit "C" to change to a different drive. The list may be sorted by file name, filesize or time by hitting "N","S" or "T" respectively. When sorted by name the list is sorted alphabetically by filename. When sorted by filesize the list is sorted with the largest files listed first. When sorted by time the files are sorted with the newest files listed first. Note that no matter how the list is sorted, directory entries will ALWAYS be listed first. Sorting only affects files, not directories. The ".." directory entry, if it exists, will always be at the top of the list, regardless of how the list is sorted. If the file you are looking for is not in the displayed directory, you may change directories by moving the highlight bar to the desired directory and hitting <ENTER>. You may back out of a directory by moving the highlight bar to the ".." directory entry and hitting <ENTER>. If you are already at the root directory, then the ".." directory entry will not show up. MODULE SCREEN ------------- When you have chosen a game to edit, the program will display the MODULE SCREEN. The MODULE SCREEN has three parts. The left half of the screen is the Variable Window. This window displays the VARIABLES that the MODULE contains, and their current value in the SAVED GAME file that is being edited. A VARIABLE is something that has a variable value. For instance, when you start a game you might not have any money (gold, dollars, megacredits or whatever). But, as you play the game, you aquire money (or whatever). So the value of your stash of money varies, or is VARIABLE. The MODULE SCREEN allows easy access to the VARIABLES used in games. The value of these VARIABLES may be changed with Universal Game Editor, and when you next play that game, you will have much more money (or whatever). Universal Game Editor Page 5 The upper right portion of the screen is the Editor Status Window. This window displays information about the current MODULE and game being edited. The first line is the title of the window, EDITOR STATUS. The second line shows the name of the game that is being edited. The Editor Status Window also displays the following information: SAVED GAME FILE - This is the name of the SAVED GAME file being edited. MODULE NAME - This is the name of the MODULE file that is being used to hold the VARIABLES that are used to edit the SAVED GAME file. VARIABLE TYPE - This shows the TYPE of the currently highlighted VARIABLE. There are two types of VARIABLES, text and numeric. Text VARIABLES may hold words or letters, such as player's name or city names. Numeric VARIABLES may only hold numbers, such as the amount of money the player's character has or the number of hit points the player's character has. RANGE - This is the range of the currently highlighted VARIABLE. This tells you what kind of value is expected for this VARIABLE. If the range is "7 letters" then you may change the value for this VARIABLE to a word or combination of letters up to seven letters long. If the range is "+/- 32,767" then you may enter a number from -32,767 (negative 32,767) through 32,767. Numbers may not contains decimal places, commas or any non-numbers (except for the "-" minus sign for negative numbers). OFFSET - This is the location in the SAVED GAME file where the currently highlighted VARIABLE is located. SHOWING LINE - This just tells which VARIABLE is being displayed and how many VARIABLES are in this MODULE. Each MODULE may contain up to 1000 VARIABLES. The bottom right portion of the MODULE SCREEN is the Module Screen Help Window. It gives a list of all of the choices available to the user from the MODULE SCREEN: ∙ Use the cursor keys (PageUp, PageDown, up and down arrows, HOME and END) to move the highlight bar to the VARIABLE that you want to edit, delete or modify. ∙ Press <ENTER> to change the value for the currently highlighted VARIABLE. The value field in the Variable Window will be highlighted in red, and a flashing cursor will be placed at the first position in the field. Type in a new value and hit <ENTER> to accept the new value, or <ESC> to exit without making any changes. If you do type in a new value, then the SAVED GAME file is updated immediately with the new value. ∙ M)odify this list. Hit "M" to modify the list entry that is currently highlighted. This will let you change the VARIABLE name, OFFSET and VARIABLE TYPE. See "Making VARIABLES" later in this document. ∙ T)ools. This will take you to the TOOLS SCREEN. This screen contains many utilities for finding VARIABLES and creating custom MODULES. See "TOOLS SCREEN" for more information. ∙ <DELETE> an entry in this list. This will remove the currently highlighted entry from the list of VARIABLES. NOTE: Deleting a VARIABLE from this list only removes its information from the list. It will NOT delete or change any values in the SAVED GAME file. ∙ <ALT-P> will output all of the parameters for all of the VARIABLES in the current MODULE to a file. The output file will have the same name as the MODULE file, with a .LST extension instead of .MDL. This file will be a text file and may be read and edited with almost any word processor program. This file is a good place to keep notes about what values in which VARIABLES have what effect in the game. ∙ Hit <ESCAPE> to exit the MODULE SCREEN and return to the GAMES SCREEN. Universal Game Editor Page 6 TOOLS SCREEN ------------ The TOOLS SCREEN contains many utilities to directly access SAVED GAME files and to create and expand MODULE files. If you already have a MODULE for the game that you are editing, and that MODULE allows access to everything you wish to change in your game, then you will not need to use this feature. This screen displays the contents of the SAVED GAME file that is currently being edited. The contents are displayed as byte values and ASCII values. A byte value is a number from 0 through 255, and all information in any file on any disk is stored in byte values. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and simply determines which letter will be typed on the screen for each byte value. There are a total of 256 byte values (0 thru 255), and there are 256 ASCII codes. Some ASCII codes do not make a printable character (PAGE EJECT, BACKSPACE, BELL, etc.), so they will be represented on the TOOLS SCREEN with a SPACE (spacebar). The ASCII codes 65 through 90 print the capital letters A-Z. The ASCII codes 97 through 122 print the small letters a-z. The TOOLS SCREEN is only accessible from the MODULE SCREEN. When you first enter the TOOLS SCREEN, the display will start at the OFFSET of the VARIABLE that was highlighted on the MODULE SCREEN when you typed "T" to get to the TOOLS SCREEN. If no VARIABLES existed on the MODULE SCREEN, then the TOOLS SCREEN will start its display at OFFSET 0. The top line of the TOOLS SCREEN tells, from left to right, (1) the name of the game whose SAVED GAME file is being displayed, (2) the OFFSET, or location in the SAVED GAME file where the cursor is currently located, (3) the size of the SAVED GAME file being displayed and (4) the current screen display width. Tools Screen Display -------------------- The middle portion of the TOOLS SCREEN is the Tools Screen Display. This section displays the contents of the SAVED GAME file in byte values and ASCII values. All files are just collections of bytes. This section displays those bytes and allows you to easily search the SAVED GAME file for specific information. It also allows you to display two files simultaneously, to compare those two files for differences, to instantly go to any OFFSET in the file, and much more. The left edge of this display (with cyan background) shows the OFFSET that each line of bytes begins at. The OFFSET is simply the location of the byte in the SAVED GAME file. The first OFFSET in a file is OFFSET 0, and the last OFFSET will be one less than the filesize. After the OFFSET number will be an arrow pointing to the right, at the line of byte values beginning at that OFFSET. After each OFFSET, the byte values are displayed. The byte values are displayed on a black background, except for the cursor, which has a magenta background. The color of the byte values displayed gives information about those bytes. Lightgray numbers mean that the byte values at that OFFSET have not been assigned to any VARIABLES. Red numbers mean that those byte values have been assigned to a numeric-type VARIABLE, and yellow indicates a text-type VARIABLE. Usually 12 byte values will be displayed on each line. So, if the cursor is on OFFSET 0 (the first OFFSET in the file), then the first line of the display will start at OFFSET 0, the second line will start Universal Game Editor Page 7 at OFFSET 12, the third line at OFFSET 24, and so on. At the far right of the Tools Screen Display is the ASCII value display. This portion of the Tools Screen Display shows the ASCII values for the same bytes that are displayed on the left side of the screen. Both the byte value display and the ASCII value display will have a cursor at the same OFFSET. Between the byte value display and the ASCII value display is a vertical brown bar. This bar is the position-in-file scrollbar. This scrollbar indicates what portion of the SAVED GAME file is currently being displayed. The top of the scrollbar indicates the first byte in the file, and the bottom of the scrollbar indicates the last byte in the file. The small diamond indicator shows what part of the file is being displayed. So, if the diamond is near the top of the scrollbar, then the display is showing bytes from near the beginning of the SAVED GAME file. Tools Help Window ----------------- The bottom portion of the TOOLS SCREEN contains the Tools Help Window. This window gives a list of choices for the user. In the bottom right corner of the Tools Help Window is a reminder of the color-coding for the Tools Screen Display. Bytes belonging to text VARIABLES are displayed in yellow and bytes belonging to numeric VARIABLES are displayed in red. A detailed description of the choices available to the user follows. Cursor Keys Used in the TOOLS SCREEN ------------------------------------ Use the cursor keys (PageUp, PageDown, HOME, END, and the up, down, left and right arrows) to move the cursor around the Tools Screen Display. If you try to move beyond the boundaries of the display, then the display will scroll. Two keys that are not listed in the Help Window are <CTRL-LeftArrow> and <CTRL-RightArrow>. Hold the <CONTROL> key down and hit the <left arrow> key to move the cursor to the beginning of the current line or <right arrow> to move the cursor to the end of the current line. Hitting <ESCAPE> will exit the TOOLS SCREEN and return to the MODULE SCREEN. The highlight bar will be on the VARIABLE that it was on when the TOOLS SCREEN was entered, unless new VARIABLES were created. If new VARIABLES were created, the highlight bar will be on either the last single VARIABLE that was created, or the first VARIABLE of the last cluster of VARIABLES that was created. Find Text, Numeric or Group Value --------------------------------- This function will search the SAVED GAME file for specific data. The search will always begin at the current cursor location. So, if you want to begin a search from the start of a file, then make sure you hit <HOME> first to position the cursor at the top of the file. The Tools Help Window will be replaced by another window where you will enter the paramaters for the search. First, you must decide if the data to be found is text, numeric or group. If you want to find a word or name, then the search type would be text. If you want to find a number, then the search type would be numeric. If you are looking for a specific series of known bytes, then the search type would be group. Universal Game Editor Page 8 After you have specified the search type, you must enter the data to be searched for. Text data such as names may contain any printable characters, and the search will be case insensitive (capital letters will be treated the same as small letters). Numeric data may only contain positive whole numbers (no decimal places, no minus sign and no commas) in the range 0 through 2,147,483,647. Group data may contain up to 10 byte values. Each byte value must be a positive whole number (no decimal places, no minus sign and no commas) in the range 0 through 255. When doing a group type search, the program will search for the specified byte values in a group. So, if you specify five byte values for a group type search, the program will search for those five values in a row. When entering group data, you will be asked to enter the byte values to search for. Type in a number from 0-255 and hit <ENTER> to confirm your choice. You may enter up to 10 byte values to be searched for. When you are finished entering byte values, hit <ENTER> on a blank field to begin the search. If a match is found for your search data, then the search will stop, and the cursor will be positioned on the first byte of the match. If the search type was text, then the cursor will be positioned on the first letter of the text that was search for. If the search type was group, then the cursor will be positioned on the first byte of the group. If the search type was numeric, then the cursor will be positioned on the first byte of the bytes that make up the number that was searched for. If the number was in the range 0 through 255 then only one byte value is needed to represent that number. If the number was in the range 256 through 65,535 then two byte values are used to represent that number. If the number is larger than 65,535 then four byte values are used to represent that number. Once a search has been started, it can be halted by hitting any key. Once a search has been specified, it can be repeated by hitting "F" for F)ind, and choosing "R)epeat last search". This search will begin from the current cursor position with the same parameters as last specified. Make a VARIABLE --------------- This command will allow you to create a single VARIABLE, which will be added to the current MODULE. A VARIABLE is anything with a variable value. For instance, when you start playing a certain game, the turn number is 1, or the first turn. After you have played the game for a while, the turn number might be 90. Universal Game Editor makes it easy for the game player to find the location in the SAVED GAME file where the information for game turn is stored. Once this data is located, a VARIABLE is created to mark the spot in the SAVED GAME file. From then on, the game player has easy access to the turn number VARIABLE. So, if the game is scheduled to end on turn 100, then the game player could save the game, exit, and run Universal Game Editor. Pick the game to be edited from the list of supported games on the GAMES SCREEN, then pick the turn number VARIABLE from the MODULE SCREEN. The turn number may then be set to any number desired. To make a VARIABLE, the location of the changeable data must be located in the SAVED GAME file. See the section "Hints and Tips for Locating Game Data" later in this document. Universal Game Editor Page 9 Once the data is located in the SAVED GAME file, the cursor should be moved onto the first byte of the data. Then, hitting "M" will begin the VARIABLE creation. The Tools Screen Help Window will be replaced with another window. Then you will enter the parameters for the new VARIABLE. First, you will be asked for a name or description for this VARIABLE. Type in a name or description up to 20 keystrokes long. The name should indicate what this VARIABLE is designed to change, such as "Turn number". Next, you must enter the starting OFFSET of this new VARIABLE. Universal Game Editor assumes that the current cursor location is the starting OFFSET. If the displayed OFFSET number is correct, simply hit <ENTER> to confirm it. If the displayed OFFSET is not the starting OFFSET of the new VARIABLE, then you may enter the correct OFFSET and hit <ENTER> to confirm it. The OFFSET number that you enter may be a number from 0 through one less than the filesize. Lastly, you will be asked for the VARIABLE TYPE. You will be presented with a list of VARIABLE TYPES. Choose from this list. Use the cursor keys to move the highlight bar to the VARIABLE TYPE that you wish to assign to your new VARIABLE, and hit <ENTER> to choose it. In the case of our new turn number VARIABLE, we would probably choose a two-byte VARIABLE with a range of from 0-65,535. If we were absolutely sure that the turn number could never get above 255, then we could make turn number a one-byte VARIABLE with a range of from 0-255. There are 25 VARIABLE TYPES. There are 20 text types, with word sizes ranging from 1 to 20 letters. And there are 5 numeric types. The numeric types contain either 1, 2 or 4 bytes, and allow ranges of from -2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647. Once a VARIABLE has been created, it will be added to the current MODULE file. The value for that VARIABLE may then be easily changed from the MODULE SCREEN. You will notice that certain bytes in the Tools Screen Display will turn either yellow for text VARIABLE TYPE or red for numeric VARIABLE TYPE. Hitting <ESCAPE> at any time before the VARIABLE creation process is complete will exit the "M)ake a VARIABLE" option and return you to the TOOLS SCREEN. Display Width Adjustment ------------------------ This function will change the number of bytes on each line. The display width may be from 2 through 255 bytes wide. The display can show a maximum of 12 bytes on each line. If the new display width is larger than 12, an indicator will show up at the right hand border of the byte value display and at the right hand border of the ASCII value display to show that the screen display is not showing all of the bytes on that line. Each line will begin at an OFFSET that is the OFFSET of the previous line plus the screen width. This feature is useful for getting blocks of data in a save file to line up on the display. Universal Game Editor Page 10 Split Screen ------------ This feature lets you view the contents of two files simultaneously. The Tools Screen Help Window will disappear, to be replaced by two windows. The new window on the right displays a list of files in the same directory as the SAVED GAME file. Universal Game Editor tries to guess which file you will be wanting to look at. If any files in the directory are the same size as the SAVED GAME file then the newest of those files will be highlighted. This list of files may be sorted by N)ame, S)ize or T)ime. Sorting by name sorts the list alphabetically by filename. Sorting by size sorts the list with the largest files at the top. Sorting by time sorts the list with the files with the newest date at the top. NOTE: No matter how the list is sorted, directory entries will ALWAYS be listed first. Sorting only affects files, not directories. The ".." directory entry, if it exists, will always be at the top of the list, regardless of how the list is sorted. If the file you are looking for is not in the displayed directory, you may change directories by moving the highlight bar to the desired directory and hitting <ENTER>. You may back out of a directory by moving the highlight bar to the ".." directory entry and hitting <ENTER>. If you are already at the root directory, then the ".." directory entry will not show up. Hit <ENTER> to choose the currently highlighted file. The new window on the left is the Split Screen Help Window. It reminds you of your options. Remember, if you hit <ESCAPE> before choosing a file for the Split Screen, then you will exit the Split Screen feature without splitting the screen. When you choose a second file to view, the Tools Screen Display splits into two halves. The top half of the Tools Screen Display will show the SAVED GAME file, and the bottom half will show the file that you chose to view. Between the two halves will be an information line that will show the name of the file in the bottom half of the screen. The cursor will be present in both displays at the same OFFSET. Only the top half (the SAVED GAME file) may be A)ltered, and F)ind will only look at the SAVED GAME file. Also, if the new file is smaller than the SAVED GAME file, then the filesize indicator will be changed to be equal to the size of the smaller file. This means that if the second file is smaller than the SAVED GAME file, you may not view the portion of the SAVED GAME file past the end of the second file. When the Tools Screen Display is split, two new commands are available. Choosing "U)nsplit" will cause the program to display only one file again. Choosing "C)ompare files" will begin a byte-by-byte comparison of the two files, beginning at the current cursor position. If a difference is found, the program will stop its comparison and put the cursor on the OFFSET where the bytes differ. Hitting "C" again will begin comparing again from the current cursor position. Hitting any key while a comparison is being performed will stop the process. Universal Game Editor Page 11 VARIABLE Clusters ----------------- Hitting the <INSERT> key will allow you to create a cluster of from 2 through 255 related VARIABLES, which will be added to the current MODULE file. See the section titled "Make A VARIABLE" for more information. A VARIABLE Cluster is simply a related group (or cluster) of VARIABLES. For instance, you may be playing a role-playing game that allows you to control six characters at one time. You may want to make a MODULE that allows you to edit each of your character's stats (character name, strength, dexterity, etc.). You could make each VARIABLE individually with the "M)ake a VARIABLE" option. You might make a VARIABLE to hold the first character's name. You could call this VARIABLE "Character 1 name". The VARIABLE for the second character's name would be called "Character 2 name", and so on through six characters. Then you would repeat the process for each of the other VARIABLES (Character 1 strength, Character 1 dexterity, etc.). Or, you could make six related VARIABLES at once with the cluster feature. Once you have located the OFFSETS of the data that you want to make VARIABLES for, make a note of the OFFSET of the second VARIABLE (in this case it would be "Character 2 name"). Then, move the cursor to the OFFSET of the first VARIABLE. Then hit <INSERT> to access the cluster feature. Like the "M)ake a VARIABLE" option, you will be asked to enter the parameters for your new VARIABLES. The cluster feature will ask for two additional parameters, for a total of five parameters. If we wanted to make a cluster of VARIABLES to hold the names of all six of our characters, we would enter the following parameters: 1. Quantity of VARIABLES to add. How many related VARIABLES are in this cluster. You may add from 2 through 255 VARIABLES in one cluster. In our case, we would enter 6 for the quantity. If this is not the first cluster that is created in this session, then Universal Game Editor will remember how many VARIABLES were added in the last cluster and that number will be the default answer for this parameter. 2. Name or description. This parameter has a new option when accessed from the cluster feature. Since we are adding several VARIABLES to our MODULE with one command, we may now number each VARIABLE name. If we type a "#" (pound sign or number sign) into the name or description parameter, then the "#" will be replaced by a "1" for the first VARIABLE name, a "2" for the second VARIABLE name, and so on. So, we would type "Character # name". When the VARIABLES are created, the "#" will be replaced in each VARIABLE by a number. If we put "##" in a VARIABLE name, then the second "#" will be replaced by a number. So, if we typed "Character ## name", the first VARIABLE name would be "Character #1 name", and so on. If you add 10 or more VARIABLES in one cluster, then the numbering feature will pad the numbers with leading zeros where required. 3. OFFSET of the first VARIABLE in this cluster. Universal Game Editor assumes that the current cursor location is the starting OFFSET. If the displayed OFFSET number is correct, simply hit <ENTER> to confirm it. If the displayed OFFSET is not the starting OFFSET of the first new VARIABLE, then you may enter the correct OFFSET and hit <ENTER> to confirm it. The OFFSET number that you enter may be a number from 0 through one less than the filesize. Universal Game Editor Page 12 4. OFFSET of the second VARIABLE in this cluster. If this is the first cluster that is being created in this session, Universal Game Editor will assume that the second OFFSET is the next OFFSET after the first. If one or more clusters have already been created in this TOOLS SCREEN session, then Universal Game Editor will remember those parameters, and will try to guess the OFFSET of the second VARIABLE. If the displayed OFFSET number is correct, simply hit <ENTER> to confirm it. If the displayed OFFSET is not the starting OFFSET of the second VARIABLE, then you may enter the correct OFFSET and hit <ENTER> to confirm it. The OFFSET number that you enter may be a number from 0 through one less than the filesize, and must be larger than the OFFSET of the first VARIABLE. 5. VARIABLE TYPE. See the section "Make a VARIABLE" for more information on the different VARIABLE TYPES. Choose a VARIABLE TYPE from the list. In our case, we would choose a text VARIABLE TYPE from the list for the character names. If we knew that the character names could be up to 12 letters long, we would choose a text type VARIABLE of 12 letters. After you have entered all of the parameters, your new VARIABLES are created and added to the MODULE. After the new VARIABLES are added, they are stored in the MODULE file exactly like any other VARIABLE. The cluster feature is an easy way to add several VARIABLES at once. Go To OFFSET ------------ This feature will let you instantly move the cursor to any OFFSET. Hit the "G" key to activate this function. The Tools Screen Help Window will be replaced by a window where you will specify the OFFSET to jump to. The OFFSET must be a positive whole number (no decimal, minus sign or commas) from 0 through the last OFFSET in the file. The last OFFSET in the file will be one less than the filesize. Alter a Byte ------------ Choosing this option will let you change the byte value at the current cursor location. You will be asked to enter a number from 0-255. Enter a number and hit <ENTER> to confirm, or hit <ESCAPE> to quit without altering the byte. The new value will be written to the SAVED GAME file as soon as you confirm it. NOTE: In split screen mode, only the byte in the SAVED GAME file (top half of the screen) will be changed. Universal Game Editor Page 13 Hints and Tips for Locating Game Data ------------------------------------- This section details tricks and techniques that can make creating and using MODULES as easy as possible. Before adding a game to the list of supported games, you must have a SAVED GAME file for that game. You should run the game program and either start a new game or load a previously SAVED GAME. At the first opportunity, save your game. Some games allow for several SAVED GAMES to be active at one time. Save your game into the slot that you will want to edit. Then exit the game and run Universal Game Editor. From the GAMES SCREEN, choose "A)dd a game". Enter the game name and specify the MODULE file to link-in. Next, Universal Game Editor will ask you to specify the SAVED GAME file. Use the cursor keys to move the highlight bar to the name of the directory where your game is located. Hit <ENTER> to display the contents of that directory. Hit <HOME> to make sure that the highlight bar is positioned on the ".." directory entry. Then hit "T" to sort the list by time. The list will be sorted with the ".." directory entry first, followed by any subdirectories, followed by the filenames sorted by the date of the file (timestamp). Since you just created a SAVED GAME file moments ago, this file should be at the top of the sorted filenames. If no file looks like it is the correct file, then maybe your game writes its SAVED GAME files into a subdirectory. Look for your SAVED GAME file there. If you are about to make a new MODULE or expand on an existing MODULE, you should make some preparations. First, run your game program and start a new game. If the game allows you to control several characters at once (or ships, countries, planets, or whatever), then you should fill all available positions. When giving your characters names, make a note of the maximum number of letters allowed in the character names. Using pencil and paper, write down all of the statistics for all of your characters (or whatever), including name, ability scores, money, etc. Save your game and exit the game program. Then, run Universal Game Editor. If you haven't already done so, add your game to the list of supported games. Choose your game from the list and hit <ENTER> to begin editing. You will be presented with the MODULE SCREEN. If are creating a new MODULE, then the Variables Window will be blank. To create new VARIABLES, you must enter the TOOLS SCREEN (choose "T)ools"). Hit <HOME> to position the cursor to the beginning of the SAVED GAME file. Then choose "F)ind", and specify that you will be searching for T)ext. Type in the name of the first character in your game. Don't worry about capital letters, all letters are treated as capitals. The program will begin its search, and will stop when it has located a match. If no match is found, then make sure that you have spelled the name correctly. If no match is found again, then the name is not stored in the file that you have designated as the SAVED GAME file, or it is stored in an unusual manner. Some games may store data in more than one file. When you are adding a game to the list, and you sort the filename list to look for the newest file, make a note of how many files have the same time and date as the newest file. It is possible that game data is stored in more than one file. If this is the case, you may make separate MODULES for each SAVED GAME file. Universal Game Editor Page 14 When you have found where the name of your first character is stored, then you should search for the name of your second character. When you have found the OFFSET where the name of your second character is stored, make a note of the OFFSET. Move the cursor back to the first letter in the name of your first character. Then hit <INSERT> to create a cluster of VARIABLES. When asked for the quantity of VARIABLES to add, enter the number of characters (or whatever) that you have named. Next, enter the name of this VARIABLE, something like "Character # name" or "Char ## - Name" or whatever. Then you will be asked for the OFFSET of the first and second VARIABLES. Lastly, you will be asked to specify the VARIABLE TYPE. Choose a text type VARIABLE with enough letters to hold the longest allowable character name, but no more than that. After the first cluster has been created, Universal Game Editor will remember the number of VARIABLES in the cluster, and the number of bytes between the first and second VARIABLES. When you create another cluster, Universal Game Editor will assume that you want to make the same number of VARIABLES in this cluster. It will also calculate the OFFSET of the second VARIABLE based on the previous cluster. This information is forgotten when you go back to the GAMES SCREEN. If there are other VARIABLES to be created, then there are several ways to try to locate the OFFSET of the data in the SAVED GAME file. Move the cursor to the first byte of the first VARIABLE of the first character on the Tools Screen Display, and make a note of how many bytes are between the first and second character names. An easy way to do this is to subtract the OFFSET number for the name of the first character from the OFFSET number for the name of the second character. Choose the option "D)isplay width adjustment" and enter the number that you calculated as the new display width. If you calulated it correctly, the names of all of your characters will be lined up on the left side of the Tools Screen Display. Move the cursor to the right and look for a number to match one of the statistics that you are looking for. If you find a number that looks like it could be the data that you are looking for, look at the bytes directly under your data. These bytes should represent the same data for each of your characters. If the bytes below your data do not match up with the statistics for your characters, then it is likely that the data is not what you are looking for. Continue moving the cursor to the right, looking for matches in the statistics that you have written down from your characters. When you find data that you are sure represents the statistics that you are searching for, use the cluster feature to create new VARIABLES to hold that data. In some games, statistics are stored in bytes before the character names. Also, SAVED GAME data could be stored in several different files. The point is, some data may be hard to find. Another technique for locating data uses the "F)ind a value" feature. If you want to make a VARIABLE for the amount of money that your party has in your game, then make a note of the party's total money before you save the game. Then run Universal Game Editor and pick your game from the list. Go to the TOOLS SCREEN and hit <HOME> to go to the top of the SAVED GAME file. Hit "F" and search for a numeric type value, and type in the amount of money Universal Game Editor Page 15 as the search data. If a match is found, the cursor will be positioned at the match. You may make a VARIABLE right then at that OFFSET, maybe called "Money???". The VARIABLE TYPE would be numeric, and in most cases would be a four-byte numeric value. Then you can hit "F" (for Find) and then "R" (for Repeat last search) and the program will search for more matches for your data. If more matches are found, then you should make more VARIABLES called "Money???". When no more matches are found, then exit Universal Game Editor and run your game program. Play the game until you have aquired more money. Save your game and run Universal Game Editor. Choose your game form the list and go to the MODULE SCREEN. Look at all of the "Money???" VARIABLES that you created, and see if any of them now have a value equal to the amount of money that you had when you saved the game this time. If only one "Money???" VARIABLE now has the correct value, then it can be safely assumed that this is the correct VARIABLE. Move the highlight bar to the correct "Money???" VARIABLE and hit "M" to modify this entry. Change the name to "Money" or "Party gold" or "Resource points" or whatever is descriptive. Leave all other information as it is (just hit enter to accept the default value that is displayed). After you have found the correct VARIABLE for party money, delete the incorrect "Money???" VARIABLES by highlighting their entries in the list and hitting the <DELETE> key. Note that when using the "F)ind a value" feature to locate a numeric value, it is best to search for a number larger than 255. Since a single byte can hold a number from 0-255, many matches may be found for numbers in that range. A number between 256-65535 requires two bytes, so the search would have to find two bytes in a row to match your search data. A number larger than 65,535 requires four bytes, and would be the least likely to get multiple matches. Another technique makes it easier to find data such as backpack items, items carried, starship weapons, and similar data. Start your game program and look at your first character's backpack (or starship weapons or items carried or whatever). Remove all items from that character's backpack. Then save your game in a different file than the one that you will be editing. Then, immediately put one item into the first location in your first character's backpack. Quickly save the game into the file that you have specified as the SAVED GAME file. Exit the game, run Universal Game Editor and pick your game to edit. Go to the TOOLS SCREEN and choose to "S)plit screen". In most cases, the game file where you made your first save will be the same size as your SAVED GAME file. If this is true, when you are asked to choose a file to display in the bottom half of the split screen, the highlight bar will already be on that file. So you can hit <ENTER> to accept that choice or choose another file. In this situation, Universal Game Editor will usually correctly guess which file you want to choose. After you have confirmed your choice, the Tools Screen Display will be split. The top half of the screen will display the SAVED GAME file, and the bottom half will display the file that you just specified. Hit <HOME> to position the cursor at the top of the file(s). Then hit "C" to begin a comparison of the two files starting at the current cursor location. When a difference in the two files is found, the search will stop and the cursor will be positioned at the OFFSET where the two files differ. This might be the first backpack location for your first character. You may create a VARIABLE at the current cursor location and call it something like "Char 1 Backpack 1". Then hit "C" to begin searching again from the current cursor position. If no more differences are found then you can be fairly sure that you have found the backpack area of your character(s). You may repeat this technique to find the last backpack position, and maybe knowing the first and last backpack position will let you infer where all of the backpack positions are. Universal Game Editor APPENDIX A Page 16 Please register your copy of Universal Game Editor. Send a check or money order for $35 in US dollars drawn on a US bank to: HARTMAN GAME UTILITIES P. O. Box 73706 Houston, TX. 77273-3706 ORDER FORM +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Item Quantity Total | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Universal Game Editor ($35.00 each) ________ _________ | | | | Texas residents add sales tax 7.25% _________ | | | | Shipping FREE in US. Foreign orders add $4 _________ | | | | Amount enclosed _________ | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Please specify disk size ( ) 5.25" ( ) 3.5" | | | | If you do not specify disk size, you will get 5.25". | | All disks are high density. | | The disk will contain the latest version of this program, all | | MODULES in the UGE library, and a key file to block out shareware | | advertising. Registration entitles you to free product support | | and notice by mail of future versions of Universal Game Editor. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Please fill in the address where you want to receive your disk | | | | | | Name: ____________________________________________________ | | | | Address: ____________________________________________________ | | | | ____________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | Where did you hear about Universal Game Editor? | | | | ___________________________________________________________ | | | | ___________________________________________________________ | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ Thank you for your order