BStone

A source port of Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Blake Stone: Planet Strike.

Disclaimer
Overview
Profile
Compiling
Command-line options
Cheat key
Debug keys
Third party use
Credits
Links

1 - Disclaimer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

For a copy of the GNU General Public License see file LICENSE.
For an original source code license see file "Blake Stone source code license.doc".

2 - Overview

BStone is a source port of Blake Stone game series: Aliens of Gold and Planet Strike.

Features:

High resolution rendering of world (extended vanilla engine)
Modern and vanilla controls
Allows to customize control bindings
Separate volume control of sound effects and music

Supported games:

Aliens of Gold v1.0 full
Aliens of Gold v2.0 full
Aliens of Gold v2.1 full
Aliens of Gold v3.0 full
Aliens of Gold v3.0 shareware
Planet Strike v1.0
Planet Strike v1.1

3 - Profile

The port stores configuration file, saved game files, etc. in user's profile.
The path to those files depends on platform.
To override the path use --profile_dir option.

On Windows, the path might look like:
"C:\Users\john\AppData\Roaming\bibendovsky\bstone\"

On Linux, the path might look like:
"/home/john/.local/share/bibendovsky/bstone/"

On Mac OS X, the path might look like:
"/Users/john/Library/Application Support/bibendovsky/bstone/"

Configuration file name: bstone_config
Log file name: bstone_log.txt
High scores file name: bstone_game_high_scores
Saved game file name: bstone_game_saved_game

Where "game" is:

aog_sw - Aliens of Gold (shareware)
aog_full - Aliens of Gold (full)
ps - Planet Strike

4 - Compiling

Minimum requirements:

C++11 compatible compiler.
CMake 2.8
(http://cmake.org/)
pkg-config
(http://pkg-config.freedesktop.org/)
(only for non Visual C++ compiler)
SDL v2.0.1 (non-Windows) / SDL v2.0.3 (Windows)
(http://www.libsdl.org/)

Tested platforms:

Windows 10 x64
Visual C++ v19.10.25019 (Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition)
CMake x64 v3.9.0
SDL v2.0.5
Ubuntu Desktop x64 16.04.4
GCC v5.4.0
CMake x64 v3.5.1
SDL v2.0.4

CMake variables:

CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE
Selects wich build(s) to compile.
Use semicolon to separate entries. Usually it's Debug or Release.
For other values see CMake documentation.
BSTONE_PANDORA
If enabled prepares build for Open Pandora.
BSTONE_USE_PCH
If enabled utilizes precompiled headers to speed up compilation.
Note: Visual C++ only
BSTONE_USE_STATIC_LINKING
If enabled links modules statically to avoid dependency on
system and custom libraries at run-time.
SDL2_INCLUDE_DIRS
Defines directory with SDL2 headers.
Note: Visual C++ only
SDL2_LIBRARIES
Defines list of SDL2 libraries.
Use semicolon to separate entries.
Note: Visual C++ only

Notes:

Use ON value to enable option and value OFF to disable option.

5 - Command-line options

--version
Outputs the port's version to standard output and
into message box.
--aog_sw
Switches the port to Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (shareware, v3.0) mode.
If appropriate data files will not be found the port will fail.
Default switch strategy: AoG (full) -> AoG (SW) -> PS
--aog_10
Switches the port to Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (full, v1.0) mode.
If appropriate data files will not be found the port will fail.
Default switch strategy: AoG (full) -> AoG (SW) -> PS
--aog_2x
Switches the port to Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (full, v2.0/v2.1) mode.
If appropriate data files will not be found the port will fail.
Default switch strategy: AoG (full) -> AoG (SW) -> PS
--aog_30
Switches the port to Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (full, v3.0) mode.
If appropriate data files will not be found the port will fail.
Default switch strategy: AoG (full) -> AoG (SW) -> PS
--ps
Switches the port to Blake Stone: Planet Strike (full, v1.0/v1.1) mode.
If appropriate data files will not be found the port will fail.
Default switch strategy: AoG (full) -> AoG (SW) -> PS
--no_screens
Skips start-up screens (AoG/PS) and ending promo pages (AoG SW only).
--cheats
Enables so called "debug mode" without much fuss.
--data_dir path_to_data
Specifies location to the game's data files.
Default: current working directory.
--profile_dir path
Overrides default location of the game's profile files.
--vid_renderer [d3d|ogl|ogles|ogles2|soft]
Forces to use a specified SDL renderer.
"d3d" selects a Direct3D renderer.
"ogl" selects an OpenGL renderer.
"ogles" selects an OpenGL ES renderer.
"ogles2" selects an OpenGL ES 2.0 renderer.
"soft" selects a software renderer.
Fallback renderer: soft.
Default order without this option: d3d, ogl, ogles, ogles2, soft.
--vid_windowed
Runs the game in windowed mode.
Default video mode: 640x480
--vid_mode width height
Selects the specified resolution for windowed mode.
Without this option the game will use desktop's resolution.
Minimum width: 640
Minimum height: 480
--vid_scale factor
Refinement factor. The higher a value the greater internal resolution
mode will be used to render a scene. The dimensions of the resolution mode
are proportional to the original one (320x200) by 'factor' value.
This option can greatly affect the performance of a renderer (especially a
software one).
Minimum factor: 1 (identical to the original game)
Default factor: depends on the game's resolution mode.
--vid_window_x offset
Sets a horizontal offset from the left side of the desktop screen.
Applicable for windowed mode only.
--vid_window_y offset
Sets a vertical offset from the top side of the desktop screen.
Applicable for windowed mode only.
--snd_rate sampling_rate
Specifies sampling rate of mixer in hertz.
Default: 44100 Hz
Minimum: 11025 Hz
--snd_mix_size duration
Specifies mix data size in milliseconds.
Default: 40 ms
Minimum: 20 ms

6 - Cheat key

[J] [A] [M] [Enter]
Press specified keys sequentially.
Shows message "NOW you're jammin'!!", and gives to you all keys,
all weapons and restores health to 100% but zeroes score points.
Not available in shareware version.

7 - Debug keys

Add option "--cheats" to enable these keys.

[Backspace]+[A]
Toggles visibility of actors on auto-map.
[Backspace]+[C]
Shows counts of total static objects, in use static objects,
doors, total actors, active actors.
[Backspace]+[D]
Toggles player's invisibility.
[Backspace]+[E]
Win mission instantly.
[Backspace]+[F]
Shows player's coordinates and direction.
[Backspace]+[G]
Toggles god mode.
[Backspace]+[H]
Hurt yourself by 1%.
[Backspace]+[I]
Each usage adds 99% health, 5 tokens, 50 ammo, one new weapon.
[Backspace]+[K]
Shows total counts of enemies, points and informants on the map.
[Backspace]+[M]
Memory information.
[Backspace]+[O]
Shows push walls on auto-map.
[Backspace]+[Q]
Instant quit.
[Backspace]+[R]
Shows full map.
[Backspace]+[S]
Slow motion.
[Backspace]+[U]
Unlocks all maps.
[Backspace]+[W]
Warps to specified map.
[Backspace]+[Shift/Caps Lock]+[W]
Warps to specified map but loads it from scratch
rather from a saved game file/memory.
[Backspace]+[Home]
Selects previous ceiling texture.
[Backspace]+[Page Up]
Selects next ceiling texture.
[Backspace]+[End]
Selects previous flooring texture.
[Backspace]+[Page Down]
Selects next flooring texture.
[Backspace]+[-]
Decreases shading depth.
[Backspace]+[=]
Increases shading depth.
[Backspace]+['[']
Decreases shading drop off.
[Backspace]+[']']
Increases shading drop off.

8 - Third party use

Simple DirectMedia Library (v2)
http://libsdl.org/
See file COPYING-SDL2.txt for a license information.
DOSBox
http://www.dosbox.com/
See file dosbox/COPYING for a license information.
Note: The source port uses only an OPL emulation code.

9 - Credits

id Software
Developing Wolfenstein 3D engine.
http://www.idsoftware.com/
JAM Productions
Developing the game.
Apogee Entertainment, LLC
Publishing the game and releasing a source code.
http://www.apogeesoftware.com/
Boris I. Bendovsky
Author of the source code.
bibendovsky@hotmail.com
Scott Smith
Adaptation to Pandora console, various fixes.
Filipe Tolhuizen
Testing the port.

10 - Links

Home page:
http://bibendovsky.github.io/bstone/
Apogee's article about releasing of an original source code:
http://www.apogeesoftware.com/uncategorized/apogee-releases-blake-stone-source-code

startrail / bstone