RISC OS port of

Sometime around July '97, Crack dot Com, a PC game software house, released the source code to Abuse into the public domain. By chance I came across it and decided to try and compile it under RISC OS, and this is the result.

Download

• abuse-a.zip (241K) - contains !Run, !Runimage v0.05b, etc.
• abuse-b.zip (827K) - contains part of the Abuse shareware data set
• abuse-c.zip (738K) - contains the rest of the Abuse shareware data set

Requirements

• Risc PC
  Currently, the game is only likely to run on a Risc PC, a StrongARM will obviously give better performance, but I believe it runs reasonably well on an ARM610. The game runs in a 320 x 200 pixel 8 bit or 32 bit mode. A mode definition file is supplied for anyone who doesn't already have such a mode on their system.
• !X-files
  The abuse-b.zip archive contains an X-files directory which in turn contains the data set for Abuse, so a copy of !X-files is required.
• About 8Megs hard disc space
• Toolbox modules

Installation

 # 320 x 200
 # Non-letterboxed mode
 startmode
 mode_name:320 x 200
 x_res:320
 y_res:200
 pixel_rate:12587
 h_timings:42,14,12,320,12,0
 v_timings:2,50,0,200,0,30
 sync_pol:2
 endmode

Running the game

Game keys

    Up arrow - main character jump
  Left arrow - main character left
 Right arrow - main character right
       Mouse - move sight
      Select - fire
      Adjust - special power
           P - pause
      Return - unpause
         1-7 - choose weapon
  R-Ctrl/Ins - cycle through available weapons
Home/Page Up - as above
          F1 - display keys
      Escape - return to the Abuse main menu with the option of
               returning to the game or desktop
         F12 - return to desktop (not when paused)

The main menu

The options window

• 320x200x256(P)
• 320x200x256
• 320x200x16M

• If the file has a .lsp (or /lsp) extension then set the -lsf button.
• If the file has a .spe (or /spe) extension then set the -f button.
• If the file cannot be identified from the above then set the -f option if the first four bytes of the file contain the letters SPEC.
• If the file can still not be identified then default to the -lsf button and assume that the correct button will be set manually.

The Editor option will start the game in editor mode. Note that attempts to use the Spec file option with the editor will be ignored as level files should be loaded from the editor itself.

Selecting the reset item from the main menu allows all level data loaded, if any, to be discarded ready to start again. The reset option should be used before selecting a new alternative file from the options window or before enabling/disabling the editor, however, the game does not need to be reset to toggle the sound or change display mode.

All options can be applied and saved to disc by clicking on the Save button in which case they will be reloaded when !Abuse is next run. Using the Set button, will apply the options without saving them to disc .

Command line options

• -vmode
  The functionality of this option is now part of the options window and is no longer supported.
• -no_fastload
  Every time Abuse starts up, it creates a file called fastload in !Scrap which it uses during the game. This file should be deleted by Abuse on a clean exit. If Abuse exits by any means other than the main menu then this file will not be deleted automatically. At over 2Megs it's quite a large file, so manual deletion is advisable.
  I added this option to disable the use of the fastload file. This should cut the disc space required by over 2Megs, but may affect level loading speeds.
• -nodelay
  Switch off frame delay so that the game runs as fast as the computer will allow.
• -nolight
  Disable lighting effects.
• -lisp
  Start up in the builtin LISP interpreter.

Saved games are written by Abuse into the X-file directory.

Filenames can be either of the DOS or RISC OS type:-
DOS - / as directory separator, full stop as filename extension separator
RISC OS - full stop as directory separator, / as filename extension separator i.e. a standard RISC OS filename.

Although the music files are included, the music does not work as I couldn't find any information on the file format :-(. In the next version I might add support for standard General Midi file play back although the user may have to supply their own music files.

Despite the fact that the network code for multi-player games still exists in the game, it is not functional and should not be used.

The purchasing information displayed on exiting Abuse is left over from the DOS version and does not relate to this RISC OS port.

Thanks to Samuel Kock for confirming that the registered data set does work with my port.

History

• v0.01
  Initial release.
• v0.02
  Fixed slight problem with RISC OS directory names that contain '/'. These were being parsed as directory separators.
• v0.03
  Previously, Abuse's memory manager allocated a memory pool of a maximum of about 3MB, no matter how big the wimp slot was. This prevented some large add on levels from being used. The size of the memory pool allocation is now linked to the current wimp slot that Abuse is running in.
• v0.04
  Fixed load level menu option.
  Keyboard auto repeat is acceptable now, I think, but not exactly WIMP standard.
  Changed weapon cycle keys to what they should have been. The source code uses the word INSERT so I assumed it meant the one above DELETE. It should have been keypad 0. I guess I should have looked at the help screen closer :-)
• v0.05
  Added a 256 colour programmable display mode to the choice of modes. In a simple test, this proved to be slighly faster than the 32 bit mode, plus the fact that colour translation isn't required as it was before.
  Added WIMP front end and game reset.
• v0.05a
  Fixed edit option in options window.
• v0.05b
  No code changes, just additions to the !Help file concerning MDFs. This is mainly for new user's, if you already have v0.05a running, then you don't need this version.

• Dots occasionally appear at bottom of screen. This is an error message concerning a missing file. The file isn't actually missing, some SPEC files refer to a corresponding .cpf (cache profile) file using a DOS rooted filename i.e. c:/.../... which is then added to the !Abuse path.
• When moving up the directory structure in the editor's file selection windows, you can't move back down (presumably, DOS would automatically return the special directory .. to allow this).
• When a filename is selected in the editor's file selection window, they are rooted and too long to see the leaf name.
• Due to the addition of the WIMP front end, some text messages are lost. These are not usually important but may be in some circumstances. A future version may address this problem.
• If Deskspace (and possibly other similar utilities) is being used then on returning to the desktop from the game the pointer jumps up to the next screen despite attempts by myself to reset it to the centre of the current screen. I've no idea why this is, it's annoying but not serious.

Crack dot Com is hereby releasing the source code to Abuse to the public domain.

Ownership:
The following are statements of Crack dot Com's ownership. These items are NOT being submitted to the public domain.

• Crack dot Com retains ownership of the Abuse trademark.
• Crack dot Com retains ownership of the Crack dot Com trademark.
• Crack dot Com retains ownership of the Abuse "retail" data set.
• Crack dot Com retains ownership of the Abuse "registered" data set.

The "retail" and "registered" data sets are defined as the levels, sound effects, music, artwork and other data which are NOT common to the "shareware" release of the game.

Licenses and Third Party Owners:
Crack licensed the DOS Abuse rights to Electronic Arts and the Mac Abuse rights to Bungie. Crack is therefore NOT releasing the full data set to the public domain to protect EA's and Bungie's investments in the product.

Sound effects found in the shareware release of Abuse are the copyright of Bobby Prince and are not being submitted to the public domain.

Disclaimer of Warranty:
As with most public domain software, no warranty is made or implied by Crack dot Com or Jonathan Clark.

Examples of What you CAN Do:

• Make another game and sell it commercially using the Abuse source code.
• Use pieces of the source code or shareware data (excluding the WAV's- you must speak to Bobby Prince) however you see fit.
• Learn how to make a better game.
• Port Abuse to any system you like.

• The game data supplied is that of Abuse shareware version 2.00
• The sound effects are copyright Bobby Prince and are NOT public domain

Abuse links