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1994-08-27
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RogueFix Patch Program
for the Epyx game Rogue
=======================
by Ken Newman Feb 92
This program is freeware. You may copy it freely, as long as the program
and this documentation are not altered in any way. The author assumes
no responsibility for any effects resulting from the use of this program.
This small patch program will be a godsend for those ST'ers with newer
versions of TOS who have fond memories of the old Epyx game Rogue. The
program patches the binary file ROGUE.PRG so that it will work on all
ST's, not just 1.0. (Not sure if it will make it work on Mega STe or TT).
Rogue was the first ST program I ever bought, back in 1986. I had played
the original Unix version well before that, and liked the game a lot.
Much to my dismay, when I got TOS 1.4, the game stopped working, and
also didn't work when I got an STe (TOS 1.6). Actually the way the
program behaves on newer TOS's is sort of funny. It lets you play
one level, then the first monster who hits you on subsequent levels
kills you instantly, and when the tombstone comes up, it says on it
"Here Lies Software Pirate, Scum of the Earth"! While this may be
true of real software pirates, I was offended since it was an original
store-bought game.
Since the game let you play a level, and this much seemed to work fine,
I reasoned that there must be some badly done check in the program that
prevented it running on newer ROMs. So I dug into the binary program
itself looking for it, and after much tedious disassembling and hacking,
found a way to defeat the checking and fix the game. Not only that, but
I found a way to give invincibility in the game, that could be an option.
The patch program included is the result. When run, it
asks you to insert the original Rogue disk in A:, then asks if you want
the regular version or the invincible version (for you impatient types).
It then writes a small patch to the file. You can re-use the program
as much as you like, to switch back and forth between regular and
invincible versions. I realize this means altering
your master disk, but since it doesn't work anyway if you downloaded
this patch, why worry? :-} Seriously, if you're worried about altering
the original program, before you use the patch, just copy ROGUE.PRG to
some other disk, it's a regular file. However, the original disk is
copy protected, so you can't diskcopy the whole disk. You can copy all
the files off it, though, if you want. (The save game feature in Rogue
actually writes on the original disk too, which is a little more risky!).
I've tested the patch program a lot, and it works fine. As a precaution,
it will only work on versions of the game where the file size of
ROGUE.PRG is 134,134 bytes. This is the size of the version I have, and
I don't know if there are other versions around, but they would probably
be a different size. The patch obviously wouldn't work on other versions,
so I added this check. If you do have a different version, contact me
on CIS or Usenet and I will try to support your version.
Enjoy the game!
Ken Newman
Compuserve: 72437,1275
Usenet: ken@isgtec.uucp [ ..uunet!utai!lsuc!isgtec!ken ]