About
These are earlier builds of Dean Software’s Helicopter game, recovered from deleted files on an original Solo Software Helicopter UK disc. They lie underneath the released version on both sides, so the disc was evidently duplicated from the developer’s working disc. The released game is in the library as Helicopter UK.
The early game builds call it the “TATUNG HELICOPTER GAME”, © Dean Software 1984. The released version drops the Tatung name and becomes “HELICOPTER GAME V1.0”.
What’s Included
| File | Build | Change from the one before |
|---|---|---|
HELICD68.XBS | game D68 | earliest recovered |
HELICD76.XBS | game D76 | 53 lines |
HELICD77.XBS | game D77 | 4 lines |
HELICD78.XBS | game D78 | 4 lines |
HELICD79.XBS | game D79 | 8 lines; the released D89 changes 98 more |
INSTRD8.XBS | instructions D8 | the released D10 changes 21 lines |
UKBASD24.XBS | map D24 | the released map D27 changes 32 lines |
MAPDAT4.OBJ | map data | from the same disc |
Every file is byte for byte as recovered from the disc. A listings folder in the zip holds each build as readable text, with the released versions for comparison. Other deleted files on the disc, among them builds D16, D17, D67 and D75, had been overwritten and could not be recovered.
Running It
Load XBAS, put the disc image in drive 0, and run a build by name: RUN"HELICD79" for game build D79, or RUN"UKBASD24" for the D24 map. The builds chain to each other by name as they did during development, so the game builds expect the map and instructions to be on the same disc.
Files in the Package
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
HELIDEV.dsk | disc image holding the builds above |
HELIDEV.mfi | the same as a MAME flux image |
listings/ | every build as text, plus the released versions |
README.txt | details and checksums |
Gallery
