server.manoel.dev/extra_games/dos/DOSGAMES/VirtualHD/Below The Root/

Below The Root
Copyright 1984 Windham Classics
(probably qualifies as abandonware by now, huh?)

Crack Loader and DOS Translator
Copyright 1998 BurritoSoft
Cracked by Flaming Burrito
(aka Scott Worley, ICQ: 2171652)


INTRODUCTION:
Below The Root is an interesting old game which has now had its non-DOS,
copy-protected attitude thoroughly smacked around! :) I hope you enjoy
playing it as much as I enjoyed hacking it to bits!


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Geez, these are some burly system specs; I sure hope you can swing 'em! :)

    IBM PC compatible or better
    CGA compatible graphics
    DOS 2.0 or better
    75K free memory


PROGRAM OPERATION:
1) Run LOADER.COM in DOS or a Windows DOS console.
2) Press K for keyboard, or J for joystick control.
3) Play the game (See BTROOT.TXT for instructions).
4) Press ESC to quit to DOS.


CAVEATS:
The game appears to run well in a Windows 95 DOS console window; however, if
you experience any problems, the first thing to try is running in straight DOS
with as little overhead as possible.

The game supports the PCjr's tone/noise generator (it seems); unfortunately,
I don't have any programming specs on this device, so if you quit while it's
producing sound, the sound may just keep going. The only suggestion I can give
you is to quit only while no sound is being produced (like in a game menu).

The loader redirects I/O calls with user interrupt INT 63h; if you're using a
device driver or TSR that uses this vector (unusual), odd things could occur.

The game programs the 8253/8254 timer chip and I believe this is the mechanism
controlling the animation speed as well as being used for producing sound. The
game runs at correct speed on my Pentium 233MMX system with one exception: when
RESTing, time flies by at a rate that I can only assume is too fast. Also, the
game has been reported to run too fast on AT class machines, so it may not be
perfect in adjusting to system speed. An advantage of being able to run the
program in DOS is that you can use a slowdown utility like ATSLOW or MOSLO.


BUGS IN THE PROGRAM (yikes!):
While testing the loader, a couple of bugs were found in the game. The bugs
exist in the original booted-off-the-floppy game, so they aren't byproducts of
running the game in DOS or the operation of the loader.

In the save/restore game menu with a game in progress, pressing the cursor keys
too quickly will cause the game to select an option or slot. This can be very
annoying; avoid it by not pressing keys too quickly one after another. A fast
machine may be what causes this.

Restoring an empty game slot with a game in progress corrupts object locations.
The program reports no error when restoring an empty slot; but when resuming
the game in progress, moveable objects (the ones that can be picked up) have
either disappeared or they appear all over the screen, including suspended in
mid-air and embedded in the terrain! This is bad. Avoid.


DESCRIPTION OF FILES:
Some information about what the files are and where they came from:

LOADER.COM:
This small assembly language program loads BTROOT.EXE as if it were an overlay,
and allows the game to be run like a nice, well-behaved DOS program. Cracking
the game's copy protection is actually the least of what it does. The most
complicated thing it does is translate the game's BIOS I/O (sector-based) to
DOS I/O (file-based). It also eliminates useless (and interruptive) messages
about the user needing to swap disks; sets up a larger (more DOS-friendly)
stack than originally designed; and provides a key to quit to DOS (ESC).

README.TXT:
This load of anemic squitter (to quote Douglas Adams) you're looking at. :)

BTROOT.TXT:
The documentation for the game. This began as a complete transcription of the
original game documentation that was made by a group called "Project 64" that
preserves old Commodore 64 program documentation as text files; and the PC was
fortunately covered as well because all supported platforms were documented.
This document has been edited from the original to remove information that is
non-essential, outdated, or confusing. Taken out were the descriptions for the
other hardware platforms, instructions for using "storage disks" (the loader
translates saved game storage into a file), and other historical references.

BTROOT.EXE:
The main game executable; more or less original code. Not entirely original,
because the executable was built as a device driver (SSCDOS.SYS) to be loaded
by the bootstrap loader on the original game disk. This file was obtained by
simply stripping the 64-byte device header off the original device driver
file, but it is otherwise byte-for-byte the same. You can run this executable
directly in DOS; however, to do this you need a working copy of the original
game disk (with its exotic format and copy protection sector) in the A: drive.

SPRITE.DAT:
The game data file; originally not even treated by the game as a file (it just
reads sectors off the disk), and the file just served as a way of keeping the
data from being overwritten. LOADER.COM reads this as a DOS file.

QUESTS.SAV:
This file is not included in the archive. It will be created by LOADER.COM if
it doesn't exist. The data from the game's 5 saveable "quests" is stored here.
Each saved game uses 13 sectors (6656 bytes), and if all 5 game slots are used,
the maximum file size is 33280 bytes. This storage method is far handier than
the game's original "data disk" approach, and you can archive your saved games
with ease; or wipe them by just deleting the file.


THE END