High Seas Trader | < > | Highway Hawks |
download the install package | HighSteel.lha |
created at | 2025-01-23 |
size of install package | 68891 Bytes |
Author/Contact (use it to report problems with that install) | DJ Mike |
Hall Of Light | 707 |
Lemon Amiga | 3256 |
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 |
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WHDLoad Slave information | |
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HighSteel.slave - 23.01.2025 13:14:08 - 1940 bytes | |
required WHDLoad version | 19 |
flags | NoError EmulTrap |
required Chip Memory | 512 KiB ($80000) |
Expansion Memory | 0 KiB |
info name | High Steel |
info copy | 1989 Screen 7 |
info install | Installed and fixed by DJ Mike Version 1.1 23-Jan-2025 |
Kickstart name | 0 |
Kickstart size | 0 KiB ($0) |
Kickstart checksum | $0000 |
Configuration | C1: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 | ||||||
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Unpacked | Lvl | Method | Packed | OS | Date/Time | Name |
8673 | 1 | lh5 | 7181 | Amiga | 2003-06-05 22:15:08 | HighSteelHD/HighSteel.coloricon |
11942 | 1 | lh5 | 11693 | Amiga | 2003-06-05 22:15:30 | HighSteelHD/HighSteel.exocolor |
28207 | 1 | lh5 | 22906 | Amiga | 2003-06-05 23:30:44 | HighSteelHD/HighSteel.exocoloralt |
476 | 1 | lh5 | 335 | Amiga | 2025-01-23 13:14:08 | HighSteelHD/HighSteel.islave |
16326 | 1 | lh5 | 7149 | Amiga | 2003-06-05 22:14:42 | HighSteelHD/HighSteel.newicon |
1940 | 1 | lh5 | 1479 | Amiga | 2025-01-23 13:14:08 | HighSteelHD/HighSteel.slave |
1193 | 1 | lh5 | 660 | Amiga | 2025-01-20 08:57:00 | HighSteelHD.info |
9995 | 1 | lh5 | 2722 | Amiga | 2003-06-06 08:42:56 | HighSteelHD/Install |
711 | 1 | lh5 | 352 | Amiga | 2003-06-06 08:45:18 | HighSteelHD/Install.info |
6223 | 1 | lh5 | 3161 | Amiga | 2025-01-23 13:13:14 | HighSteelHD/ReadMe |
2004 | 1 | lh5 | 1542 | Amiga | 2003-06-06 08:45:18 | HighSteelHD/ReadMe.info |
20312 | 1 | lh5 | 7507 | Amiga | 2025-01-23 12:07:04 | HighSteelHD/src/HighSteel.asm |
3637 | 1 | lh5 | 1413 | Amiga | 2025-01-20 16:50:48 | HighSteelHD/src/HighSteel.islave.asm |
Old Install Archives |
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HighSteel-20030606.lha |