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How to run the Lethal Xcess Beta Version with STEem

Please note that this guide is preliminary, it will be extended soon, to offer you a bit more help. Anyway let's start with a shopping list:

What do I need to play Lethal Xcess Beta?

How do I set up all that stuff up?

Hey are you serious? Download everything into a single directory, e.g. "C:/STEEM" and try the following actions:

  1. Unpack Steem-Debug into that directory
  2. Rename STEEM.EXE to STEEM_DBG.EXE
  3. Unpack STEEM to the same directory and overwrite files if necessary
  4. Unpack PASTI.DLL to the same folder
  5. Unpack the TOS package to the same folder
  6. Unpack the TOS file
  7. Start STEEM_DBG.EXE and point to the right locations for TOS and Floppy Images
  8. Proceed with the instructions given below

 

How do I activate and configure PASTI?

After successfully copying the PASTI.DLL into your STEem folder you see the following alert box when starting STEem or STEem debug.

Now click onto the small disk symbol in your icon bar. The following window should open...

Now click onto the "Disk Manager Options" (the symbol with the small wrench) to open a menu.

Activate the Option "Use Pasti" so it shows a little checkmark.

Afterwards select the "Pasti Configuration" entry to enter the following screen.

Select the tab "Speed" and click onto the button "Max Accuracy". Afterwards press "OK" and enter the Image of the Lethal Xcess Beta Version before closing the disk options.

 

What other STEem settings should I use?

  • Machine: 8 MHz, 1-4 MB (doesn't matter), Colour-Monitor
  • TOS: 2.06 UK
  • General: Run Speed 100%
  • Sound: Output Type (Direct)
  • Display: Frameskip (Draw every Frame), Borders (Always Show Borders)

 

How do I patch Lethal Xcess Beta?

First of all make sure you followed all instructions given above, then start STEem Debug and insert the STX of Lethal Xcess beta into drive a:

Cold-Reset the machine but don't start it yet.

Open a memory browser from the debug menu and let it start at $1814.

Set a breakpoint at $1814 and fast forward the machine until it says that it has reached the breakpoint. (The protection is just about to jump onto the PSG address here, which would trigger a LINE-F exception on real hardware. We need to "emulate" that on STEem as well, since due to a bug it behaves differently)

Now open a second memory browser at $0016. Enter the following three values for these addresses. (These are the values which would appear on the stack if the exception is triggered.)

$16 = $2700
$18 = $FFFF
$1A = $8800

Set the PC=8 and the SP=$16 (These two are to adjust the program counter and the stack pointer to emulate a real machine.)

Now you might save a memory dump to avoid patching it a 2nd time.

If you did everything right, you are ready to Launch Lethal Xcess Beta. A black screen showing the words "The sleeper awakes" indicates your work was successful.

If it didn't work out and you crash again, just do a coldboot and repeat the procedure, the breakpoint should survive the reboot, so you just need to redo the patches.

However since STEem debug is a bit slow, I recommend to use the normal STEem to play the game. It's quite easy if you keep both executables inside the same folder, you can just quit STEem debug and start STEem then.

Enjoy...

 

Thanks and Credits

Lots of thanks have to go to Ijor for writing PaSTi and for pointing out why STEem doesn't work with the disk image. In addition to that, I wish to thank him for sending me his patch and some explanations for TOS 1.0, from there on it wasn't much effort to get to a TOS 2.06 version.
 

Isn't there an easier Way to play Lethal Xcess beta?

Woah, wait you are a bit lazy eh? Anyway, if you have managed to set up your STEem Engine like given above, I could provide a memory dump file to make life less miserable for you. Just cry for it loud enough :) Another option would be to wait until Russ will fix up STEem...
 

Lethal Xcess aka Wings of Death II a classic shoot'em up for Atari ST(E) and Amiga computers was developed by Claus Frein and Heinz Rudolf, Music by Jochen Hippel, Producer Marc Rosocha.

MouseAttack

 
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All files on the Lethal Xcess Website copyright © 2001 Heinz Rudolf
Lethal Xcess copyright © 1991 Eclipse Software Design.
Wings of Death copyright © 1990 Thalion Software.
ST/Amiga Soundtracks copyright © 1990/1991 Jochen Hippel.
Cybernetics Font copyright © 1991 Jérôme Hubert.
C64 Graphics © 1992 Oliver Lindau
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This page has been updated 10.01.2005