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High Seas Trader< >Highway Hawks

High Steel (Screen 7)

download the install packageHighSteel.lha
created at2025-01-23
size of install package68891 Bytes
Author/Contact
(use it to report problems with that install)
DJ Mike
Hall Of Light707
Lemon Amiga3256


Short:    HD Installer for High Steel
Author:   DJ Mike (djmike@crystalmike.com)
Version:  1.1
Type:     game/patch
Requires: WHDLoad 19, RawDIC 5, 512k chip mem

This patch applies to "High Steel" © 1989 Screen 7

Supports two releases, including SPS #1397.

REQUIREMENTS

- Original disk or compatible disk image
- Slave requires WHDLoad 19+
- RawDIC 5 for the imager
- Game requires 512k chip memory
  (+ approx 335k other memory for preload option)

FEATURES

- Loads entirely from HD
- Uses real files, which can be compressed with Propack/CrunchMania/FImp/XPK
- Quit at any time (default key F10), including on 68000 machines
- Highscores loaded and saved to HD (unless you cheat)
- Long track protection on one version removed
- Game bug fixed: Falling off building screen corrupted on 2nd viewing
- Game bug fixed: Crane didn't draw correctly in later levels
- Game bug fixed: If more than 8 eggs dropped (level 9+), game would corrupt
  and eventually crash due to falling items data being overwritten
- Game bug fixed: Crash when climbing to the top of floor 16 in level 16+
- Game bug fixed: Every level from 17+ only has 16 floors to build, but some
  data was initialised as though there were more, causing issues; also fixed
  the floor count displayed at the start of the level
- Game bug fixed: Missing name for level 25 due to being too long
- Set starting level with CUSTOM1=1-32
- Trainers added - set CUSTOM2 with any of the following:
  + 1 for infinite lives
  + 2 for infinite time
  + 4 for infinite health
  + 8 for invincibility
- 2nd button/CD32 controls - set CUSTOM3=1 to enable
  * 1st button/red to pick up and drop
  * 2nd button/blue to throw wrench
  * Forward+Reverse+Play to quit
- Press F9 for a more amusing quit routine :-)
- NewIcons and ColorIcons included (made by Captain HIT)
- Source code included

HISTORY:
Version 1.1 (2025-01-23)
- Second version supported (SPS #1397)
- Long track protection on SPS version removed
- Multiple original game bugs fixed including crashes
- Invincibility cheat added
- 2nd button/CD32 control support
- Keyboard interrupt replaced
- Added splash screen options
- Source code added

Version 1.0 (2003-06-06)
- Initial release

GAME CONTROLS

The manual listing for the keyboard controls is wrong!
The actual keys are:

SPACE - Start game with keyboard
A - Climb up
Z - Climb down
< - Move left
> - Move right
TAB - Pick up/drop
SPACE - Throw spanner in current direction
/ - Drop only
HELP - Pause game

If 2nd button/CD32 controls are enabled, throwing the wrench is assigned to
button 2/blue, while button 1/red will pick up and drop.

WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR

I've wanted to deep dive into this game for years, ever since my initial
patch, as there are some gnarly issues that make it go haywire when you get
further into it. Turns out the game has quite a lot of problems, no matter
which release of it you play!

The first bug that gets you is from level 9 onwards. As you finish the 9th
floor, a mother/pig egg drops, as on previous floors, and tries to hatch
- or rather doesn't, and just sits there. As you build further, more eggs
drop and fail to hatch, and then strange stuff happens. If you're lucky,
items fall from the sky but leave weird ghost trails behind them. If you're
unlucky, the game outright crashes. What's happening is: a data entry is
added for each egg, but there are only 8 entries allocated in memory, and
they are never reused, even after hatching. So by egg #9 we're out of valid
space and into... the data for falling items! As these start to get more and
more corrupted by eggs, their code gradually gets more confused until it
just blows up.

If you somehow reach level 16, the game nukes itself as soon as you try to
climb up to the top of floor 16 - all because the indicator bar at the right
of the screen overflows into a negative number and manages to wipe over the
program stack in the process. Oops!

There is also only enough memory allocated for 16 floors total, but that
apparently didn't get applied to the level setup code, because every level
past 16 just assumes the building goes up higher and higher, leading to yet
more bugs. The game does finish the level when you complete floor 16, so
there was clearly some effort to keep to that limit!

All of these are now fixed, and a couple of other bits too. The crane didn't
draw properly on later levels because a comparison check was broken by a
blitting routine. The name for level 25 also didn't display due to being too
long for the display code, but a simple change fixed that.

Since testing these fixes would have been a nightmare - the game is insanely
hard on later levels - I've added an invincibility cheat that keeps you from
being injured or killed by anything. You'll still slide along on banana
skins but they won't harm you if you fall.

Lastly there is now 2nd button support, which throws the wrench rather than
holding left/right and pressing fire, making it a bit easier to use (and is
something the game's keyboard controls already supported!).

I had a lot of fun thoroughly disassembling this game to see what made
everything tick. It is a bit of a strange one and probably not much interest
to most, but it's among the earliest games I can remember playing back on
the ZX Spectrum, so I've a soft spot for it.

Enjoy! :-)

P.S. The non-SPS version of the game has a silly built-in cheat - just press
F1 to give yourself infinite time + energy. The SPS version of the game
removes this, which suggests it accidentally got left in by mistake!

-- DJ Mike (23rd January 2025)

         Bug report form, full WHDLoad package and other installs:
                          http://www.whdload.de/

THIS PACKAGE COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO USE, RESULTS AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PACKAGE IS ASSUMED BY YOU AND IF THE PACKAGE SHOULD PROVE
TO BE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR OTHER REMEDIATION.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, CAN THE AUTHOR BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE
CAUSED IN ANY USUAL, SPECIAL, OR ACCIDENTAL WAY, ALSO IF THE OWNER OR A
THIRD PARTY HAS BEEN POINTED AT SUCH POSSIBILITIES OF DAMAGE.

Icons contained in install package

WHDLoad Slave information
HighSteel.slave - 23.01.2025 13:14:08 - 1940 bytes
required WHDLoad version19
flagsNoError EmulTrap
required Chip Memory512 KiB ($80000)
Expansion Memory0 KiB
info nameHigh Steel
info copy1989 Screen 7
info installInstalled and fixed by DJ Mike
Version 1.1 23-Jan-2025
Kickstart name0
Kickstart size0 KiB ($0)
Kickstart checksum$0000
ConfigurationC1:L:Starting Level:-,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32
C2:X:Infinite Lives:0
C2:X:Infinite Time:1
C2:X:Infinite Health:2
C2:X:Invincible:3
C3:B:2nd Button/CD32 Controls

Install Archive Content Listing
UnpackedLvlMethodPackedOSDate/TimeName
86731lh57181Amiga2003-06-05 22:15:08HighSteelHD/HighSteel.coloricon
119421lh511693Amiga2003-06-05 22:15:30HighSteelHD/HighSteel.exocolor
282071lh522906Amiga2003-06-05 23:30:44HighSteelHD/HighSteel.exocoloralt
4761lh5335Amiga2025-01-23 13:14:08HighSteelHD/HighSteel.islave
163261lh57149Amiga2003-06-05 22:14:42HighSteelHD/HighSteel.newicon
19401lh51479Amiga2025-01-23 13:14:08HighSteelHD/HighSteel.slave
11931lh5660Amiga2025-01-20 08:57:00HighSteelHD.info
99951lh52722Amiga2003-06-06 08:42:56HighSteelHD/Install
7111lh5352Amiga2003-06-06 08:45:18HighSteelHD/Install.info
62231lh53161Amiga2025-01-23 13:13:14HighSteelHD/ReadMe
20041lh51542Amiga2003-06-06 08:45:18HighSteelHD/ReadMe.info
203121lh57507Amiga2025-01-23 12:07:04HighSteelHD/src/HighSteel.asm
36371lh51413Amiga2025-01-20 16:50:48HighSteelHD/src/HighSteel.islave.asm

Old Install Archives
HighSteel-20030606.lha

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last change : 2025-01-23
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