Well, I played a little in debug mode with var166 set to 20. I played in the land route sequence, and I experienced TOO MANY random death scenes. This wasn’t the case when I tried to play it not in debug mode. One of the deaths was falling off the boat on the Texas River, and it was completely out of place and I don’t think it can happen without playing in debug mode! So I think it IS problematic.
Why can’t it be cracked in a way that leaves the copy protection screen in, but you can just type what you want and you’ll still enter the game? That would be a much better crack. I’d do it myself if I knew how.
But since I can’t, I found another workaround solution, but this one’s foolproof. I found out that if you save your game, and then crack the game, the save will not be affected by the bug, so you can play a cracked copy and just load a saved game that was saved immediately in the beginnig of playing an uncracked copy. I uploaded such a saved game file here click here to download the saved game.
I’m also trying to make a copy protection answers sheet for the game, so it’ll be possible to play an untouched copy. I found a partial answers sheet and I added to it by using Google to find answers (since the questions are taken from real history). I need help to continue, if someone that have the original copy with the manual is willing to help, I’ll send him the unanswered questions with their relevant page and paragraph numbers. Shouldn’t be too much trouble.
BTW – you were right, it also happens on a 486. I checked my old saved games, they were all made in Normal mode, so I must have finished the game in Normal speed.
Another thing – does anyone have the new MacNeill release of the game? I’d like to know what changes they inserted.