Path: news1.icaen!news.uiowa.edu!news1.chicago.iagnet.net!qual.net!iagnet.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-east.sprintlink.net!news-in-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!151.164.30.38!newsgate.swbell.net!swbell!not-for-mail From: Rubywand Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: LogicWare's Wolfenstein 3D BUG! a Fix? Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 01:38:36 -0600 Organization: Southwestern Bell Internet Services, Richardson, TX Lines: 128 Message-ID: <34F1277C.4B091BCE@swbell.net> References: <6cdk8g$32d@nntp02.primenet.com> <34F01EAC.461AA0BE@swbell.net> <6cp9qi$7f5$1@elna.ethz.ch> <34F07C59.EBF270AE@swbell.net> Reply-To: rubywand@swbell.net NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp-207-193-9-68.hstntx.swbell.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: (null) 888219418 29072 (None) 207.193.9.68 X-Complaints-To: usenet@nnrp1 X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) Xref: news1.icaen comp.sys.apple2:130550 Geoff Weiss writes ... > > .... > I don't know what kind of crack you are on, .... > Henrik 'Ratte' Gudat writes ... > Ruby, > > It's always great to see comments from people who are still looking for the ANY > key on their keyboard. .... > > - henrik Nathan Mates writes ... > > .... > Geez. What venom from someone who doesn't even have the balls or a > clue to submit an actual bug report to the main programmer. > .... > .... You paid nothing for it, you > can be a LOT more respectful, or you can just shut up. > First, I have to admit that nearly all of the above went unread. A quick scan confirmed the more or less expected response. Wolfenstein 3D was released last weekend. Despite play-testing, it has a bug which is sure to cause system crashes on many machines running the standard OS. The bug went unmentioned until Tuesday. On Tuesday, Clayburn Juniel reported that he was experiencing crashes upon exiting the game. Thank goodness he did, because I had experienced the crashes, too, and was beginning to suspect a hardware problem. It simply did not occur to me that, after all this time, Wolfenstein 3D would be released with a system crashing bug. Still, unraveling things cost me just a few hours. I wonder how many users tried re-installing System 6 or reformatting their hard disks. How many pulled Slot cards, pulled and reconnected cables? How much worry and frustration do you suppose users experienced before information about the bug was posted? After Sandy's post recommending a Shift-boot, it seemed wothwhile to try pulling NDAs and INITs in the hope of finding a file which might be causing the problem-- again, it did not seem possible that Wolfenstein 3D could be at fault. An INIT file named Hierarchic used by Spectrum seemed to be the at fault. When it was installed, the game often crashed upon exit. When it was removed from SYSTEM/System.Setup, the crashes seemed to disappear. When the information was posted, I and other users were told by Nathan Mates that the bug is not in Hierarchic, it is in the Operating System and that Wolfenstein 3D had exposed this problem. Questions about a possible fix for the game led to some information and the assertion that the game does _not_ have a bug and does _not_ need to be fixed! For five days every reasonable effort was made to obtain a fix for the game, a fix for the OS, or adequate information to pursue one or the other. These efforts produced little more than the observation that users would have to wait for a set of OS fixes to be completed and repeated assertions that the game has no system crashing bug. A game which is released to the public for running under the standard OS is not supposed to crash user systems. A game which, for some reason, requires a patch to the OS is supposed to include the needed patch file. In either case, if the game as delivered to the public crashes, it has a bug. Bugs are supposed to be fixed. There is nothing weird or revolutionary in the above. It is standard practice. It is called "taking responsibility" for ones product. On the whole, LogicWare seems to have done a very nice job on Wolfenstein 3D. I've gone through just a few Levels and enjoyed playing; it's too bad the game has a BUG which B O M B S the OS! It is an absolute shame that LogicWare chose to remain silent even after the bug was reported. A developer is supposed to have too much pride in his/her work to lurk while someone tries to double-speak users into believing that a bug is not a bug. All that was really necessary was for a LogicWare spokesman to say: "Yeah, we screwed up; we're sorry about the inconvenience caused users. The darn bug will be fixed as soon as possible." Okay; admitting mistakes is not easy. My last post in this thread does imply a conspiracy of sorts. For that I apologize. While scanning the program earlier in the evening, I came upon information which indicates that, probably, the bug was the result of last-minute changes and so escaped play-testing. The reason I happened to be scanning the program is that an idea occurred for, possibly, getting rid of the bug; and, so far, it appears to work. The experimental fix involves changing four bytes in the Wolfenstein.3D file: Since you need to scan Wolfenstein.3D in order to find the bytes and since this file contains a resource fork, things are easier if you first move Wolfenstein.3D to RAM disk (/RAM5) or to an empty diskette. Using BlockWarden, ZAP, or some other block editing utility, search for the (hexadecimal) bytes A2 01 0A 22 00 00 E1. You should find them somewhere in the first 15 or so blocks. I found them in Block $000F (15) starting at offset location $0DC. Enter EDIT mode and change 22 00 00 E1 to 68 68 68 68 (i.e. A2 01 0A 22 00 00 E1 becomes A2 01 0A 68 68 68 68). Save the file. Rename the changed file to W3D, move it to your Wolfenstein 3D folder and double-click to give it a try. What the patch does is eliminate the SetTSPtr CALL. The stack PULLs (68's) are to remove PUSHed CALL parameters. Since this CALL seems to be used mainly or entirely to display a message telling you that your Desktop file is being updated when you first start the game, eliminating it should not affect game play, except, of course, that Wolfenstein 3D should no longer bomb upon exit. Again, the patch is _experimental_. The original Wolfenstein 3D file is left alone 'just in case'. If you discover a problem with the patch, be sure to post an alert. Rubywand