		  -- README - Deathlord UnKracked --

	  -- "The Jade Cities of the Emporer are Falling" --

You've got your hands on the unkracked version of the EA game
Deathlord.  It's "unkracked" because it's in its original EA
"copy-protected" format, (not much good that does for the apple II
emulator market!).

			-- Disks & Platform --

boot.nib		- Deathlord boot disk.
masterA.nib		- Master Scenario A.
masterB.nib		- Master Scenario B.
scenario[AB].nib	- Scenario disks ready to run.
blank.nib		- Extra disk.
README			- This file with generic instructions.
death.doc		- Commands and stuff.

To play the game, you need an emulator that can handle 232960 byte
.nib disks.  If your emulator doesn't support this format, bug the
maintainer.  This is a superior format because it closely resembles
the original DiskII storage format, and so you don't need kracked
versions of things.

Some emulators, (ApplePC!), have incomplete .nib support which may
cause problems while playing.  In particular, ApplePC can't format
.nib disks, so you won't be able to use the in-game utility to create
your scenario disks.  For this reason I've included both scenario
disks ready-to-run.  To see if your emulator can format .nib disks,
boot to DOS3.3 using the included blank.nib and type INITHELLO.  If
this dies with an error, then your emulator is buggy.  (bug the
maintainer).

		 -- Reason (DOOM GOLEMS be damned) --

So you're probably wondering why I did this.  A few reasons.  One,
Saltine's krack is incomplete, (you can't get off the island of
Kodan).  And even if you know the hack to get around this, there are a
bunch of other crafty checks at random points in the game.  I had
attempted my own krack a few years back based on another incomplete
method described in Computist #62.  Needless to say I didn't get all
that far.  And let's just say that we want to preserve the bits in
their original format for historical reasons.

		-- If you can't beat 'em, join 'em --

So following an idea I gleaned from Saltine, (SST), I decided to
transfer the Deathlord disks in their original form over to my PC.  I
cooked up an Applesoft Basic and 6502 assembly prog based on "DUMP" by
Don Worth in "Beneath Apple DOS".  I used this hybrid to bsave the
nibblized track data to files.  Then I uploaded the slices one by one
over an xmodem connection to my PC.  Once on my PC, I filtered them
through some q&d C-code to extract the full track information.  Then I
ran this through some more code to pad 0xff's between the concatenated
tracks to form the standard 232960 byte file.

		   -- Game Utilities & Character Options --

Make your scenario disks the standard way in the Utilities menu,
(unless your emulator is crappy, see above).  For completeness I've
included an extra blank.nib disk and two ready-made scenario's with
the standard party, (MASAMUNE et. al.), ready to play.

			-- Playing the game --

You can now escape from Kodan on the Emporer's quest. "And so the
brave adventurers sailed forth from the land of Kodan on the Emporer's
quest".

You can now get to the islands on sideB.

Hell Island appears when you get the Sharktooth.

I haven't tested much more than this, but will eventually get to it as
I play the game.  I don't forsee any problems unless I concatenated a
track incorrectly...

			   -- Thanks To --

Saltine, for the original unfinished krack and the SST inspiration.
As far as I can tell Deathlord beat all attempts at kracking it and
might stay UnKracked forever...

Al Escudero and David Wong, for much fun and frustration playing and
hacking their killer code!

The Deathlord.  Without whom, none of this would be possible.

				  --

	In the '80's we were called software pirates.  Now the
        politically correct term is "software preservationists."

				Enjoy,

			    Blackstar 259
