Re: LogicWare's Wolfenstein 3D BUG! a Fix?

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

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