
From: Al Lowe (a.lowe@genie.geis.com)

Well, here it is, you asked for it, you're going to get it.
This is the way I discovered how to edit FRONTIER.EXE.

First, you need to get a program called UNLZEXE, this is what 
unpacks FRONTIER.EXE.  You see, GameTek got, how shall I say it, 
well, this is how they managed to keep everything under 1 meg.  
Some French dude named Fabrice Bellard designed this program 
called LZEXE.EXE  that compresses EXE files, but leaves them 
executable.  I don't know how he did it, but it seems to work 
pretty good. Anyway, that's what GameTek did to FRONTIER.EXE, and 
that's why no one (until now) was able to figure out how to hex 
edit the ships.  The way I discovered it is while exchanging 
letters in the RTC someone mentioned that it had probably been put 
through the wringer, with something like PKLITE.  So that started 
me to think.  I found a program in the IBM RTC on GEnie that is 
called ISL22.  What it does is examine your COM and EXE files to 
see if they have been compressed and then tells you what program 
did it.  Any that's how I discovered the problem we were having 
with undoing FRONTIER.EXE.

Anyway, after you decompress the file (FRONTIER.EXE), you need a 
hex editor like what's in PCtools, or Norton Utilities.  I used 
Norton, I've used PCTOOLS, and I find that Norton is more 
reliable.  Now the first thing I did was start searching for a 
string of hex characters for the Puma that represent the Mass, 
fully laden, and the Internal Capacity.  This is where I 
discovered a slight error in the file on GameTek's part.  If you 
look at the manual under ships, you'll notice that it says the 
Panther has a fully laden mass of 2500 tons, and an internal 
capacity of 2100 tons with no drive fitted.  If you run the 
program and choose the starting point of Mars, then go to the 
shipyard and look at the ships available to buy.  There should be 
a Panther Clipper for sale.  View it, you'll notice a Mass, fully 
laden of 1775 tons and an internal capacity of 2000 tons, not 
counting the drive.  So, I search for the hex equivalent of 1775 
and 2000, BUT you have to do this in reverse.  The normal hex 
equiv of 1775 is 06 FA.  But you have to reverse it to FA 06.  
Like wise 2000 is 07 D0 in hexadecimal  and you reverse that to D0 
07.  So the string you look for is FA 06 D0 07.  This should be 
found at HEX 47106, and you will see a string of hex numbers that 
look like this below.

C6 46 9D C9 04 00 EF 06 D0 07 C1 0A D6 01 28 40
AA AA BB BB CC DD EE EE FF FF

0C 00 08 00 09 80 0A 00 4C 1D 08 07 94 11 CA 08
GG    HH    II

Now I'm going to explain this, look at the letters I put under the 
hex numbers, now look at the table below.  This should explain it 
all.

AA AA Forward Acceleration  You have to be careful with this.  60 G's is the
                            max that any ship can handle.  I have mine set as
                            in the example above and I get 36.3 g's, which I
                            find to be plenty.
BB BB Reverse Acceleration  Same as above.  By using 9D C9 I get 25.7 g's which
                            again works fine for me.
CC    Gun Mounts.           01=1, 02=2, 03=3, and 04=4  I wouldn't try any
                            number higher than 04.
DD    Fuel Scoop.           00=no 01=yes so, change it to 01 for the Panther
                            which normally can't take a fuel scoop.
EE EE Mass Fully Laden.     If you change this, you're going to have to keep the
                            exe file you create this way.  This is the only
                            stat that doesn't get saved in a save file.  This
                            determines how much damage your ship has.  It
                            compares the number in your save file to the number
                            in the exe file and that's how it knows how damaged
                            your ship is.
FF FF Internal Capacity     Change this to your heart's content.  I have found
                            though that 4000 tons is plenty.
GG    Number of crew        This includes the YOU, so the number should never
                            be less than 01.
HH    Number of Missles     I haven't done much with this, since I find missles
                            to be useless any way, unless your on a mission
                            where they give you a nuclear missle.
II    Hyperdrive type.      The number is always one more than the type.  And I
                            don't think there is a type 9 or 10.


Well, that's it.  Hope this helps all you Hexers out there.  If you have any 
questions, send me e-mail.

Al Lowe  (a.lowe@genie.geis.com)

----------------------------------------------

With slight editing by scratchi@instanet.com

CAUTION: if you don't understand what Al's talking about, you 
shouldn't be trying it. Proceed at your own risk. It is highly 
advised that you backup everything before you even start!

Visit the Frontier Home Page at:
"http://www.instanet.com/~scratchi/frontier.html"

