Dark Forces FAQ

FAQ

10.0 Custom Missions and Mission Editors

10.1 Mission editors

All DF fans should thank the authors of these fine utilities for helping keep DF going!

Wedit: Dark Forces Editor for Win95
Written by Ole Thomasen/The Force. Wedit is "the hottest WIN95 tool for creation of DARK FORCES levels. The new Wedit version 3 contains new and exiting features, and now uses DirectX 3.0 from Microsoft. This allows for a brand-new view in Wedit, the 3D Game view, which allows you to traverse the various sectors of your level with lightning speed. Quite some time has gone into it, from working on polygon intersections to my own algorithm for hidden line removals. Also, major bug-fixes have been done.

Wedit is available at the Wedit homepage.

Dark Forces UtilitieS and Editor for DOS
Written by Yves Borckmans. DFUSE is a collection of MS-DOS utilities to modify/create DF levels. This is not for the casual player; it is a powerful tool that requires some skill to use. It includes geometry and object editors, viewers, and converters; .GOB-extractors and -builders. It is postcard-ware (send him one if you like the utility!).
NOTE: DFUSE is no longer being supported!

Windows Dark Forces UtilitieS and Editor
Written by Yves Borckmans. From the README.TXT file:

WDFUSE is a collection of tools to design levels for Dark Forces. It is a complete Windows port of DFUSE/DOS, with many corrections and improvements. Included in the package is the a version of the "Dark Forces Unofficial Specifications".
Minimum requirements: a computer able to run Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, 8 Mb of RAM, a mouse, 640*480*256 resolution. Recommended: 486/66 or higher, more than 8 Mb RAM, 800*600*256 resolution or higher.

For more information on WDFUSE, see The Code Alliance website.

10.2 MacDF editors

MacDF fans rejoice: Brad Oliver has created a DF editor for the Mac! It is called Dark Forge (formerly known as DFLE). See the Dark Tide website.

10.3 Custom missions

This section of the FAQ used to contain a list of all custom DF missions. Sorry, but due to constraints on my time, I found that I was not able to keep up with the flood of new levels, many of which are only available on AOL or CIS (despite my pleas for cooperation, few custom mission authors kept me updated on new missions :-(.

It's difficult to find all available custom missions in one place, simply because there are so many of them. A good place to start is DF.21.NET.

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11.0 Troubleshooting

If you run into problems running DF, make sure you've read the README.TXT file that came with DF. Try making a clean boot disk, and make sure you have enough XMS free. Beyond this, I simply cannot help you with any problems. Contact LA, giving them your exact configuration and a description of the problem.

11.1 Help installing

The most common problem is getting an error regarding JEDI.CFG. Fortunately, there's a simple fix. From the DOS command line, type INSTALL -Xk where 'k' is the letter of your CD-ROM drive.

LA has provided a fix for a "divide overflow error". The following changes to your CMOS settings are suggested:: disable the turbo switch
lower the bus clock speed
disable all caching
disable hidden refresh
or, make sure that you have the line STACKS=9,256 in your CONFIG.SYS; lower the bus clock speed
disable all caching
disable hidden refresh
or, make sure that you have the line STACKS=9,256 in your CONFIG.SYS; disable all caching
disable hidden refresh
or, make sure that you have the line STACKS=9,256 in your CONFIG.SYS; disable hidden refresh
or, make sure that you have the line STACKS=9,256 in your CONFIG.SYS; or, make sure that you have the line STACKS=9,256 in your CONFIG.SYS

11.2 Help with sound cards

SETUP doesn't recognize the IRQs of some cards correctly. You can solve this problem by patching the IMUSE.INI file. Using a disk editor, you'll find the internal names (e.g. SBCLONE.WDR (SoundBlaster compatible), SB16.WDR (SoundBlaster 16) or SBPRO.WDR (SoundBlaster Pro)). With an offset of 0Eh/0Fh bytes from the first character of the name, you find the 2-byte hexadecimal port number. The interrupt channel can be found at offset 12h, and the DMA channel is located at offset 16h. So you can easily patch the port/DMA/IRQ combination you need, even if it's not offered by SETUP.

11.3 Misc help

Does DF run too slowly for you? Rerun the SETUP program and transfer more components of DF to your hard drive, provided you have the room.
DF runs fine in Windows 95. Just make a .PIF file to specify settings when running from Windows (note that you can't run DF in a window), or you can simply run DF from the command line.
DF also runs fine under OS/2 (and you can run it from a network CD-ROM drive).
Certain models of Cyrix chips may lock up when loading a DF level. To fix this, the DOS4GW.EXE that comes with DF needs to be replaced with an older version. Contact LA for the fix.

11.4 How do I contact LA technical support?

CI$:: Game Publishers Forum A (GO GAMAPUB); section 7; Or send email to ID# 75300,454
America Online:: Keyword "LucasArts"; Or send email to LUCASARTS3
GEnie:: Games RT (m805); category 27; Or send email to LUCASARTS
Internet Email:: 75300.454@compuserve.com; Or www.lucasarts.com
Technical Support BBS:: +(415) 257-3070

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12.0 Acknowledgements

If you gave me tips and your name is not listed here, I apologize. I use a "first one gets credit" system -- many people sent me tips and secrets after I had already found them. Also, I was unprepared for the deluge of mail I received, and often lost track of messages; sorry! If I ever meet any of the following people, I'll buy them a beverage of their choice:

Tim Smulders sent me a bunch of custom Missions I was missing--including his own!
Steph Smith gets a big cheer for counting all enemies in all levels at all levels of difficulty; he also wrote descriptions of some cheat codes
Troy Benge uncovered the hidden Tentacle
Paulius Stepanas gave me lots of feedback on things ranging from grammar (how embarrassing!) to strategy, and made the kewl shots-to-kill table
Allen Do found secrets for Missions III, IV, X, and XI; as well as the extra non-secret in Mission XII
Dennis McKenna, after spending a "damn week on this level", found another way of getting an extra life in Mission IV
Marc Atkin found a secret in Mission IV
Alexandre da Silva Pereira found how to get to the Ewok in Mission IV without cheating
Jim Kwon found seven secrets in Mission VI, and also provided the hack for key mappings
Bart Barenburg clarified the function of a switch in Mission VI
Clark and Shannon Janes clarified the elevator positions in Mission VI
Steven Loretero fixed a coordinate in Mission VI
Charles Bird set me straight on flickering maglocks
Michael Montona found the Ewok in Mission VII
Tom found the Ewok in Mission VII without cheating
Shawn E. Robinson assisted me with the walkthru in Mission VIII
Jason D. Wright clarified the function of a switch in Mission VIII
Alan Hartman found a convenient ledge in Mission VIII
Atsushi Kanamori helped with Jabba's Jacuzzi
Adrian Kwong drew the ASCII map of the Hexagon
Clint Cox provided descriptions of most of the cheat codes
H. Ian Novack reminded me of the name of the Mouse Droids, plus gave tips on combating enemies
Eushuk Hong provided info on Windows 95
andyhat@bj-42.rh.uchicago.edu ran DF under OS/2
Jason Dyer gave me info on Cyrix chips
Mark Haidekker provided info on patching IRQs
KerryH5912@aol.com first came up with the term "Dork Farces" :)
Bob Dunlap II, Chik, and Brad Oliver helped me with MacDF info
Jeff Keyser helped me iron out a bug.

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13.0 References

The Adventurer, #9: Winter 1994/5 (published by LA).
CD-ROM Magazine, Vol.1, #5 (Dec.1994).
Computer Game Review Vol. 4, No. 11 (June, 1995)
Computer Gaming World #131 (June, 1995)
PC Games Plus Global, Vol.3, No.1 (#44).
Star Wars Insider, #23.

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This document is copyright © 1996-2001 by Karsten A. Loepelmann. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for reproduction, distribution, transmission, or storage for noncommercial purposes only, on the condition that the contents are not changed in any way. Permission for any other use or distribution of this document must be obtained from the rights holder, Karsten A. Loepelmann. All trademarks herein are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners. Star Wars is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. Dark Forces is a trademark of LucasArts Entertainment Company.