DOCUMENTATION FILE FOR RAEASY VER 1.1 RAEASY is a "trainer" utility written for Rebel Assault by LucasArts. It functions by altering the mission data records in the game's executable file, ASSAULT.EXE. Rebel Assault is distributed only in CDROM format (all files are read-only). In order for you to use RAEASY on the ASSAULT.EXE file, these 2 files must be located on and run from the Hard Drive -- this necessitates copying the Rebel Assault executable from the CDROM to your Hard Drive. Instructions for doing this copy command and other game execution-related info is discussed later in this file. Rebel Assault mission data is stored as 3 groups of data structures. These groups are identified by the game difficulty level - Easy, Normal, and Hard. One data group contains ALL the mission data for the EASY level, another contains ALL the mission data for the NORMAL level, etc. RAEASY allows you to edit INDIVIDUAL or ALL missions at ANY selected difficulty level. (The author wrote RAEASY in this manner so you can tailor specific levels. For example, you can make all the missions VERY EASY at the EASY game setting while keeping the NORMAL and HARD levels unchanged. Then just choose which level you wish to play at game run time.) This version of RAEASY allows you to edit the following mission parameters for any or all missions at any difficulty level: 1) SCORE POINT INCREMENTS FOR GAME PLAY TIME, KILLS, LEVEL COMPLETION, AND BONUSES. The Score Point Increment for Game Play Time is the point increment you get just for surviving. It is on a system timer and automatically bumps your point score. The Score Point Increment for Kills is the number of points you get for making a kill. Level Completion and Bonuses are the points you get for successfully completing game Levels and any Bonuses which are awarded at that time. 2) JOYSTICK-TO-SHIP ROLL, LIFT, SLIDE, AND DRIFT CONTROL SENSITIVITIES. Alter these values when you want to make your ship more or less sensitive to joystick movement. The game functions by taking input from your joystick and mixing it with predefined ship movement pathways. Note that you can set these values to 0 and the ship will almost fly itself through missions. 3) DAMAGE MONITORING LEVELS FOR MISSILE, COLLISION, AND GUN FIRE DAMAGE. Sets the amount of damage your ship can sustain before it is destroyed. Rebel Assault uses these 3 damage parameters for determining total damage to your ship. Normally, the game sets these values based on the type of mission you are doing, i.e., the Collision Damage setting will be a higher value than the other two levels if you are mainly flying through canyons or river valleys during a mission. If you set all 3 levels very low (0 or 1), your ship will take little or NO DAMAGE. 4) AUTO TARGETING LEVEL. Controls how much manual targeting you have to do (with your joystick) before getting a "Lock/Fire" indicator for shooting your weapons. Setting this value high (over 100) forces the game to do ALL the targeting for you -- essentially an AUTO TARGET mode. Just pull the trigger and you will auto target and destroy enemy both in front of and behind your vehicle. 5) COMBAT FINE TUNING SWITCHES FOR TARGET FRAMING, TARGET RETICLE DISPLAY, VISIBLE WEAPON FIRE, TARGET EXPLOSIONS, TORPEDO PRIMARY WEAPON CONTROL, AND KILL SCORE DISPLAYS. Target Framing -- Controls whether or not the enemy currently being targeted is "framed" or bracketed by colored lines. Target Reticle Display -- Turns the target reticle display on and off. Turning this off makes it hard to target enemy! Visible Weapon Fire -- This switch determines whether or not you see the laser or torpedo as it fires from your ship. Target Explosions -- Determines whether or not an explosion is generated when you hit a target. Torpedo Primary Weapon Control -- Determines what your primary weapon is. If ON, torpedoes are you primary, otherwise you are given lasers. If you're tired of lasers, try this switch. Kill Score Displays -- Activates a special display that shows you the points you just received for a kill. The display is written to the screen at the location where you just made the kill, i.e., when you shoot a TIE Fighter you'll see a number come up on the screen at the TIE's last location. This number is the score increase you just got for destroying the TIE Fighter. The RAEASY author set up a "demo" game by changing all CONTROL SENSITIVITIES to 0, all DAMAGE LEVELS to 0, and AUTO TARGETING to 32767. The ships essentially fly themselves and all you do is pull the trigger. Of course, play with these parameters to tailor the game to your flying and combat skills. ******************************************************************************* INSTALLATION Installation is easy. Just copy RAEASY.EXE, and this text file (if desired) to your Rebel Assault directory (\rebel, usually). Run RAEASY by typing the filename, "raeasy". For program information, type "raeasy ?". ******************************* NOTE -- In order to minimize the size of RAEASY, the author made use of several extended character codes for performing screen display functions. You should have the extended screen and keyboard driver, ANSI.SYS, running before you run RAEASY. RAEASY will run without the driver but the screen displays will be poorly managed. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you save a few cents in downloading RAEASY!! On most computers, ANSI.SYS is automatically loaded as a device driver in the CONFIG.SYS file. Use the "mem /c" command to see if ANSI.SYS is running. ******************************* Once RAEASY completes its initial security checks on the ASSAULT.EXE file, you will be presented with a difficulty level menu. Select the level you want to modify and press . The "Mission Alteration Menu" will come up next. Select items <1> to <21> to alter an individual mission, or select items <22> to <34> to alter ALL missions at this difficulty level. Selecting an individual mission for alteration will give you a summary of the mission parameters at your selected difficulty level. Alter any parameters for the mission. (See below for a listing of the mission numbers and their associated chapter names.) Altering ALL missions at your specified difficulty level (items <22> to <34>) will alter ALL THE MISSIONS, i.e., if you set all the DAMAGE LEVELS to 0, then you can fly ALL the missions at this level and sustain NO DAMAGE. Selecting item <4> from the "Difficulty Level Menu" will exit RAEASY and save your selections in ASSAULT.EXE. (If you don't like the selections you just saved, copy ASSAULT.EXE from your CDROM drive and run RAEASY again.) ******************************************************************************* RUNNING REBEL ASSAULT FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE For RAEASY to alter the game's primary executable, ASSAULT.EXE, you MUST run Rebel Assault from your HARD DRIVE. You can easily do this by doing two things: 1) Copy ASSAULT.EXE from your CDROM to your HARD DRIVE, and 2) run ASSAULT.EXE from your HARD DRIVE, while forcing it to access the data files on the CDROM. (Hey, unless you have 350MB of hard disk space available for copying the entire game to your hard drive, this is the best way to do it.) (The following examples assume your HARD DRIVE IS DRIVE C: AND YOUR CDROM IS DRIVE D: -- substitute other drive names for your system. These examples also assume your Rebel Assault HARD DRIVE directory is \rebel.) Do the file copy using a command such as: COPY D:\ASSAULT.EXE C:\REBEL Next, you need to modify the batch file that Rebel Assault provides for you, REB.BAT, to make the game run from the HARD DRIVE while reading data from the CDROM. This version of RAEASY includes a file, REB-EXAM.BAT, that is a copy of the author's batch file for running the game. It is duplicated here with comments. Of course, do whatever alterations are necessary for your system. ************ REB-EXAM.BAT BATCH FILE *************** echo off REM THIS IS AN EXAMPLE BATCH FILE FOR RUNNING REBEL ASSAULT USING REM THE CDROM AS THE WORKING DRIVE & DIRECTORY (D:\), WHILE THE REM ALTERED EXECUTABLE, ASSAULT.EXE, IS RUN FROM THE \REBEL DIRECTORY REM ON YOUR HARD DRIVE (C:). REM REM YOU MUST COPY THE ASSAULT.EXE FILE FROM THE CDROM DRIVE (ROOT REM DIRECTORY) TO YOUR HARD DRIVE REBEL ASSAULT DIRECTORY (\REBEL) REM PRIOR TO RUNNING RAEASY. REM REM EXAMPLE COPY COMMAND: "COPY D:\ASSAULT.EXE C:\REBEL" REM REM RAEASY MUST BE LOCATED IN THE SAME HARD DRIVE DIRECTORY AS ASSAULT.EXE D: *** make the CDROM drive the WORKING drive *** cd \ *** make the CDROM drive root dir the WORKING DIRECTORY *** C:\rebel\assault /x3 /c5 /b388 /i7 /d3 /s1500000 /f15 /t300 /u0 /J ** run game** c: *** make the hard drive the WORKING DRIVE once the game is done *** cd \ *** make the root dir the WORKING DIRECTORY once the game is done *** ************ ******************************************************************************* GAME CHAPTERS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED MISSION NAMES RAEASY references missions using the game's internal reference names. Since these names differ from the "Chapter" names seen during the game, the following list gives the correlation between these two name types (it also includes a set of Passcodes received while playing at the NORMAL difficulty level): MISSION NAME CHAPTER NAME PASSCODE ENTRY 1A Flight Training - Part I 1B Flight Training - Part II 2 Asteroid Field Training 3 Planet Kolaador 4A Star Destroyer Attack BIGGS 4B 5A Tatooine Attack 5B 6 Asteroid Field Chase 7 Imperial Probe Droids KAIBURR 8 Imperial Walkers 9A Stormtroopers 9B 10 Protect Rebel Transport 11 Yavin Training MYNOCK 12 Tie Attack 13 Death Star Surface 14A Surface Cannon 14B 15A Death Star Trench DAGOBAH 15B GAME END (Not a Chapter) MIMBAN ******************************************************************************* FINAL COMMENTS RAEASY was not written to allow one to cheat his/her way through Rebel Assault. It is intended as a tool to allow your progression through Rebel Assault in a shorter-than-normal time span while still giving you LOTS of enjoyment and fun with experimentation. Please use it with this attitude in mind. If you have any questions or comments concerning this program, or YOU WISH TO MAKE A DONATION of $5 (please make any checks payable to WAYNE SIKES), please contact me at: Wayne Sikes 435 Sego Lily Bosque Farms, NM 87068 CompuServe: 70733,1562 Phone: (505)-869-3522 Feel free to distribute copies of this program. The only thing I ask is that you DO NOT MODIFY this text file or the RAEASY.EXE program. When distributing, PLEASE ALWAYS INCLUDE A COPY OF THIS TEXT FILE ALONG WITH THE EXECUTABLE. If you include this program in any retail or wholesale software packages, compilations, libraries, archives, etc. please contact me. As with all my analysis and engineering software, this program is copywritten by K & W Computer Works. Thank you for using RAEASY and enjoy Rebel Assault! ********************* END OF RAEASY.DOC FILE ***********************