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chocolate-strife

chocolate-strife — historically compatible strife engine

Synopsis

chocolate-strife [OPTIONS]

Description

Chocolate Strife is an accurate and complete recreation of Rogue Entertainment's "Strife: Quest for the Sigil". It was created through more than two years of reverse engineering effort with the blessings of the original programmers of the game (see the section HISTORY below).

General options

-cdrom
[windows only] Save configuration data and savegames in c:\strife.cd, allowing play from CD.
-config <file>
Load main configuration from the specified file, instead of the default.
-devparm
Developer mode. Implies -nograph.
-dumpsubstconfig <output filename>
Read all MIDI files from loaded WAD files, dump an example substitution music config file to the specified filename and quit.
-extraconfig <file>
Load additional configuration from the specified file, instead of the default.
-fast
Monsters move faster.
-file <files>
Load the specified PWAD files.
-flip
Flip player gun sprites (broken).
-iwad <file>
Specify an IWAD file to use.
-loadgame <s>
Load the game in slot s.
-mb <mb>
Specify the heap size, in MiB (default 16).
-mmap
Use the OS's virtual memory subsystem to map WAD files directly into memory.
-noblit
Disable blitting the screen.
-nodraw
Disable rendering the screen entirely.
-nograph
Disable graphical introduction sequence
-nomonsters
Disable monsters.
-nomusic
Disable music.
-nosfx
Disable sound effects.
-nosound
Disable all sound output.
-novoice
Disable voice dialog and show dialog as text instead, even if voices.wad can be found.
-random
Items respawn at random locations
-respawn
Respawn monsters after they are killed.
-servername <name>
When starting a network server, specify a name for the server.
-skill <skill>
Set the game skill, 1-5 (1: easiest, 5: hardest). A skill of 0 disables all monsters.
-turbo <x>
Turbo mode. The player's speed is multiplied by x%. If unspecified, x defaults to 200. Values are rounded up to 10 and down to 400.
-warp x
Start a game immediately, warping to level x.
-work
Set Rogue playtesting mode (godmode, noclip toggled by backspace)

Compatibility

-donut <x> <y>
Use the specified magic values when emulating behavior caused by memory overruns from improperly constructed donuts. In Vanilla Strife this can differ depending on the operating system. The default (if this option is not specified) is to emulate the behavior when running under Windows 98.
-gameversion <version>
Emulate a specific version of Strife. Valid values are "1.2" and "1.31".
-setmem <version>
Specify DOS version to emulate for NULL pointer dereference emulation. Supported versions are: dos622, dos71, dosbox. The default is to emulate DOS 7.1 (Windows 98).
-spechit <n>
Use the specified magic value when emulating spechit overruns.

Demo options

-maxdemo <size>
Specify the demo buffer size (KiB)
-playdemo <demo>
Play back the demo named demo.lmp.
-record <x>
Record a demo named x.lmp.
-solo-net
Play back a demo recorded in a netgame with a single player.
-timedemo <demo>
Play back the demo named demo.lmp, determining the framerate of the screen.

Display options

-1
Don't scale up the screen.
-2
Double up the screen to 2x its normal size.
-3
Double up the screen to 3x its normal size.
-8in32
Set the color depth of the screen to 32 bits per pixel.
-bpp <bpp>
Specify the color depth of the screen, in bits per pixel.
-fullscreen
Run in fullscreen mode.
-geometry <WxY>[wf]
Specify the dimensions of the window or fullscreen mode. An optional letter of w or f appended to the dimensions selects windowed or fullscreen mode.
-grabmouse
Grab the mouse when running in windowed mode.
-height <y>
Specify the screen height, in pixels.
-nograbmouse
Don't grab the mouse when running in windowed mode.
-nomouse
Disable the mouse.
-nonovert
Enable vertical mouse movement.
-novert
Disable vertical mouse movement.
-width <x>
Specify the screen width, in pixels.
-window
Run in a window.

Networking options

-altdeath
Start a deathmatch game. Weapons do not stay in place and all items respawn after 30 seconds.
-autojoin
Automatically search the local LAN for a multiplayer server and join it.
-avg
Austin Virtual Gaming: end levels after 20 minutes.
-connect <address>
Connect to a multiplayer server running on the given address.
-dedicated
Start a dedicated server, routing packets but not participating in the game itself.
-dup <n>
Reduce the resolution of the game by a factor of n, reducing the amount of network bandwidth needed.
-extratics <n>
Send n extra tics in every packet as insurance against dropped packets.
-ignoreversion
When running a netgame server, ignore version mismatches between the server and the client. Using this option may cause game desyncs to occur, or differences in protocol may mean the netgame will simply not function at all.
-left
Run as the left screen in three screen mode.
-localsearch
Search the local LAN for running servers.
-newsync
Use new network client sync code rather than the classic sync code. This is currently disabled by default because it has some bugs.
-nodes <n>
Autostart the netgame when n nodes (clients) have joined the server.
-port <n>
Use the specified UDP port for communications, instead of the default (2342).
-privateserver
When running a server, don't register with the global master server. Implies -server.
-query <address>
Query the status of the server running on the given IP address.
-right
Run as the right screen in three screen mode.
-search
Query the Internet master server for a global list of active servers.
-server
Start a multiplayer server, listening for connections.
-solo-net
Start the game playing as though in a netgame with a single player. This can also be used to play back single player netgame demos.
-timer <n>
For multiplayer games: exit each level after n minutes.

Dehacked and wad merging

-aa <files>
Equivalent to "-af <files> -as <files>".
-af <files>
Simulates the behavior of NWT's -af option, merging flats into the main IWAD directory. Multiple files may be specified.
-as <files>
Simulates the behavior of NWT's -as option, merging sprites into the main IWAD directory. Multiple files may be specified.
-deh <files>
Load the given dehacked patch(es)
-merge <files>
Simulates the behavior of deutex's -merge option, merging a PWAD into the main IWAD. Multiple files may be specified.
-nocheats
Ignore cheats in dehacked files.
-nwtmerge <files>
Simulates the behavior of NWT's -merge option. Multiple files may be specified.

Environment

This section describes environment variables that control Chocolate Strife's behavior.
DOOMWADDIR, DOOMWADPATH
These environment variables provide paths to search for Doom .WAD files when looking for a game IWAD file or a PWAD file specified with the `-file' option. DOOMWADDIR specifies a single path in which to look for WAD files, while DOOMWWADPATH specifies a colon-separated list of paths to search.
PCSOUND_DRIVER
When running in PC speaker sound effect mode, this environment variable specifies a PC speaker driver to use for sound effect playback. Valid options are "Linux" for the Linux console mode driver, "BSD" for the NetBSD/OpenBSD PC speaker driver, and "SDL" for SDL-based emulated PC speaker playback (using the digital output).
OPL_DRIVER
When using OPL MIDI playback, this environment variable specifies an OPL backend driver to use. Valid options are "SDL" for an SDL-based software emulated OPL chip, "Linux" for the Linux hardware OPL driver, and "OpenBSD" for the OpenBSD/NetBSD hardware OPL driver.

Generally speaking, a real hardware OPL chip sounds better than software emulation; however, modern machines do not often include one. If present, it may still require extra work to set up and elevated security privileges to access.

Files

$HOME/.chocolate-doom/strife.cfg
The main configuration file for Chocolate Strife. See strife.cfg(5).
$HOME/.chocolate-doom/chocolate-strife.cfg
Extra configuration values that are specific to Chocolate Strife and not present in Vanilla Strife. See chocolate-strife.cfg(5).

History

The source code for Strife was lost, which means, unlike the code for all the other commercial DOOM-engine games, it cannot be released. The only access we have to the code is the binary executable file. Reverse engineering tools were employed to disassemble and decompile the executables, which were cross- referenced against the Linux DOOM and DOS Heretic sources and painstakingly combed over multiple times, instruction-by-instruction, to ensure that the resulting Chocolate-Doom-based executable is as close as possible to the original.

Legality

Reverse engineering is a protected activity so long as the original code is not used directly in the product. Due to the vast amount of information lost through the process of compilation, and the need to refactor large portions of code in order to eliminate non-portable idioms or to adapt them properly to Chocolate Doom's framework, the resulting code behaves the same, but is not the *same* code.

In addition, James Monroe and John Carmack have both stated that they have no objections to the project. Because they are the original authors of the code, and neither Rogue nor their publisher, Velocity, Inc., exist any longer as legal entities, this is effectively legal permission.

Bugs

Chocolate Strife is almost, but not entirely perfect, in recreating the behavior of Vanilla Strife. Help us by reporting any discrepancies you might notice between this executable and the vanilla DOS program.

However, do *not* report any glitch that you can replicate in the vanilla EXE as a bug. The point of Chocolate Strife, like Chocolate Doom before it, is to be as bug-compatible with the original game as possible. Also be aware that some glitches are impossible to compatibly recreate, and wherever this is the case, Chocolate Strife has erred on the side of not crashing the program, for example by initializing pointers to NULL rather than using them without setting a value first.

Authors

Chocolate Strife is part of the Chocolate Doom project. It was reverse engineered from the DOS versions of Strife by James Haley and Samuel Villarreal. Chocolate Doom was written and maintained by Simon Howard, and is based on the LinuxDoom source code released by Id Software.