Re: Pirates! COMPUTIST deprotect and HD mods

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

EDavis writes ...
> 
> Rubywand, I attempted the deprotect method posted by you from the
> Computist.  Everything worked fine, EXCEPT....
> 
> When I start a new game from the de-protected disk, NONE of the
> towns show up.  I am in an "unsettled" Carribean.  If I boot the
> de-protected disk, and load a previously saved game, it appears to
> work fine.
>

     An "unsettled Carribean" should pose a unique challenge!

     One thing to check is that the DTA folder is present and that it
contains the cities, main, etc. files. If it is, then, possibly, there
is a "PIRATES" prefix which has not been changed to match your HD and
folder names. 

 
> I am using Locksmith (v8.3?) to do the byte scanning.  Just for grins,
> I tried repeating the process outlined in the post, but checked for
> a second occurence of each string that was mentioned, (in case I was
> editing the wrong string, and messing up the wrong file).  The strings
> appear to be unique, with only one occurence of each on the entire disk.
> ....

     This could be the problem. Using Block Warden, I just did a scan
for instances where the "PIRATES" prefix was changed and found four.
Three are in the same block (one in one sector, two in another); another
instance was found in an earlier block. (To give you some idea of
relative locations: on a copy of everything to /RAM5, one instance is in
Block $430 and three are in Block $435.)

     It may be that Locksmith does not always find target strings when
they wrap around to the next 'line'. This glitch shows up in other
search/edit utilities. Try changing the search string to something
shorter (like "PIR" or "RAT").


Rubywand