                     Fire Hawk - Enhanced HDD version
                     --------------------------------
                              by FRS, 08/2011
                            -------------------
                                Version 1.4
                                -----------

===========================================================================
                             License
                           Terms of use
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) This patch is free (gratis) for non-commercial purposes. You can only run,
   make backup copies or distribute the patch under this strict condition.

2) You are only allowed distribute the patch files (online or on a removable
   media) under the following conditions:
   2.1) No commercial transaction of any kind is involved
   2.2) All the included files are distributed together inside the same
   compressed file.

3) If you want to use this patch for commercial purposes you MUST contact me
   first to negotiate the terms and conditions. Use the e-mail supplied on
   this document for contacting me.

4) This software is provided free of charge for non-commercial purposes, and the
   author retains its copyright.

5) You cannot distribute ROMs or any files with my patches applied on them.

6) This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty
   or support. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages
   arising from the use of this software.

7) USE THIS SOFTWARE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. NEITHER GAME ARTS NOR MYSELF
   ANSWER FOR ANY TYPE OF DAMAGE MADE ON YOUR COMPUTER OR YOUR DATA BY USING
   THIS SOFTWARE.

8) If you don't agree with the terms of this license, you cannot use it.
   You must then delete all files related to this patch from your disk.

===========================================================================
This patch upgrades the game "Fire Hawk - Thexder the Secont Contact", with
a lot new features, detailed bellow.


- New features/bugfixes
  - Turbofixed. Now the game runs properly at any CPU speed. VDPs with turbo
    blitter engines are also supported (like the OneChipMSX turbo-blitter mode).
  - Hard-disk installable. But can be installed on floppydisks also, just
    use the INSTFLOP.BAT command to do that. (both MSX-DOS2.3x or higher and
    Windows CMD.EXE are supported by this batch)
  - The game now passes on both MSX Acid1Test and Acid2Test. This means it is
    now fully compliant to the MSX coding guidelines and no illegal direct
    hardware access is done anywhere.
  - A lot of optimizations were made, and the game now runs better and much
    more smoother (less slowdowns) than the original game.
  - Added support for the Megadrive 3-button joypad connected though a joymega
    adapter. But don't connect the joypad directly to the MSX! The adapter
    *MUST* be used.
    http://frs.badcoffee.info/hardware/joymega-en.html
  - Multi-language support. You can change between English and Japanese by
    typing "SETLANG EN" or "SETLANG JP", respectively, at the MSX-DOS2 prompt.
    (MSX-DOS v2.31 or higher required for SETLANG. Windows' CMD.EXE also
    accepted)
  - Exit to DOS implemented on the Main Menu. It's now possible to quit the
    game without needing to reboot.
  - The troublesome and limited RTC load/savegame routines were replaced by a
    brand new load/savegame on disk. This has many advantages:
    a) Allows multiple savegames even for those who don't own a PAC
    b) Savegames can be easily transfered from one MSX to another or to
    emulators by just copying the FIREHAWK.PAC file
    c) The generated FIREHAWK.PAC file is standard and compatible with the PAC
    managers around there, so the savegames can be copied to/from a real PAC
    d) Real PAC (SRAM) support is still built-in and available by using a
    command-line switch. 
  - Hold the TAB key to throttle the game speed (if your machine has enough
    CPU speed, off course)
  - Enhanced the FM detection routine, and now it has the following preference
    order for detection: MSX-Audio BIOS v1.3, internal MSX-Music, external
    MSX-Music.
  - Added support for the PSG->OPL3/4 translation routines of the MSX-Audio
    BIOS v1.3. Those routines will be used on OPL3 and OPL4 cartridges that
    have the BIOS. This results on all sound being produced by a single chip,
    thus eliminating discrepancies that most MSX have on the mixing volumes
    between the chips. It also provides an elegant solution for running the
    game with the turbo enabled on Panasonic 2+ machines (FS-A1WSX/WX/FX) or on
    machines with homemade turbos. Because on those machines the internal PSG
    sound pitch goes off tune when the turbo is enabled.
  - A mixer for the PSG is now implemented. Use the new tool PSGMIXER to set
    the PSG volume attenuation. This will help on machines that have the PSG
    volume much louder than the OPLL volume, like the MSX Turbo-R.
  - Replaced the keep-key-pressed-on-load configuration routine by a new one
    that receives command line parameters. Also, a command-line help is now
    available. 
  - If present, the SystemTimer will now used to enhance the random number
    generator.
  - Fixed all graphic glitches, solved by a new page-flipping routine that also
    eliminates tearing completely.
  - Fixed the bug that caused the robot image to be corrupted on the first four
    frames on the beginning of the game.
  - Fixed the corruption of the ASCII table characters that caused the wrong
    apostrophe on phrases like "ATTACK NEDIAM'S ENGINE BLOCK!"
  - The game will detect and politely refuse on a MSX1 computer instead of
    just crashing
  - If there's enough free DOS memory, the game will not freeze after the
    "The End" anymore. At least the free memory equivalent of MSX-DOS1 with
    CTRL pressed is needed for this (In other words, BDOS must be higher than
    the address DC06h).
  - A lot of polishing here and there

- Known issues
  - There isn't any more space on RAM for a proper disk read error message, so
    any disk read error will freeze the game with the screen border changed to
    red. As disk read errors on HDD and Flash cards are very rare, this will 
    probably not be a big issue.

- How to Play?
   Just type "firehawk" at the MSX-DOS prompt. It's not that hard.  :)

   Note: MSX-DOS v2.3x is required, and COMMAND.COM v2.4x is highly recommended.
   Note2: If you receive a message about not enough RAM on MSX-DOS2, you can
   try the following:
   - Upgrade to COMMAND.COM v2.4x, as it leaves more free memory
   - Run the utility RUNDOS1 before running the game. It will leave a lot of
     free memory for running games.

- Command line parameters
  - /H or /?: Shows the help message
  - /D: Print debug information and quit
  - /M: Select MSX-Music if both MSX-Music and MSX-Audio (>=1.3) are found.
  - /P: Force the PSG for playing the music even if an OPLx chip is present.
  - /S: Use PAC SRAM for savegames. A PAC-compatible device must be present

- Game controls:

+----------------+----------+----------------+-----------+
| Action         | Keyboard | Joystick       | JoyMega   |
+----------------+----------+----------------+-----------+
| Move the Robot | Arrows   | Direction      | Direction |
| Fire Laser     | Space, Z | Trigger-1      | Button-B  |
| Enable Shield  | SHIFT    | Trigger-2      | Button-C  |
| Open Menu      | CONTROL  | Hold Trigger-2 | Button-A  |
| Pause game     | STOP     |    --          | START     |
| Kill robot     | F1+F2+F3 |    --          | X+Y+Z     |
+----------------+----------+----------------+-----------+


===========================================================================
- Installing the patch:

The patch has a script that automatically copy the game files from the disk
images, patches them and copy some adittional files to their places.
But you have to provide the required files for it to work. Follow this easy
steps:

1) Read the disk images from your original floppies using your favorite
   disk imaging tool, i.e. "RawWrite for Windows". On Unix and Mac, you can
   use dd. If the disk images were generated fine, they will have the following
   SHA1 checksums:

   SHA1(FHAWKJPA.DSK)= 614f389365c44654448aa8a1cc0b5e8cfcefdef2
   SHA1(FHAWKJPB.DSK)= ca33dd80bb8ce424991ae7c23cbe98ae6a439930

2) Place the disk images inside the folder "disks". Name them FHAWKJPA.DSK
   and FHAWKJPB.DSK
3) If you want to, get the FireHawk English translation patches from the
   MSX IPS Archive ( http://ips.tni.nl ), decompress it and place the two IPS
   files under the folder "translation", naming them FH-EN-D1.IPS, and
   FH-EN-D1.IPS . The translation patches are not a requirement, so this
   upgrade patch will run fine without any translation.
4) On Windows, double-click the upgrade_firehawkHDD.bat file. On Mac OS-X and
   other Unixes, open a terminal and run the upgrade_firehawkHDD.sh script.
5) Wait for it to finish. If everything went file, the message "Patch
   successufly applied." will be shown at the end of the script.

Note: For other flavors of Unix other than Mac OS-X you must have xdelta3 and
   uips installed on your system before running this patch.

===========================================================================
- Special thanks:
  - The hardworking betatesters and people directly involved: Antoniutti,
    Vampire, Sturaro, SLotman, Manuel Bilderbeek, Dante and all others that
    helped on the MRC forums
  - Rikusu, for his English translation of the game (sorry for the confusion
    on the first release, man!)
  - The openMSX team, for their awesome emulator/debugger
  - Sjoerd Mastijn and Aprisobal, for the SjASMPlus assembler
  - FiXato, for kindly compiling many development tools I use on Mac OS-X
  - The MRC crew, for the place where MSX hobbysts can meet and exchange ideas
  - The original author of the FireHawk KSS extracting tools (fm_source), which
    inspired this project, and also for the mex tool.
  - The MSX Assembly Page crew, for being an excellent source of documentation
  - Alex Rouge, for improving KSS-X just for my soundtests
  - Adriano Cunha, for his support to continue this project and his ideas on
    how to solve many bugs, waaaay back in to the beginning of the project,
    10 years ago.
  - Daniel Caetano (aka DJC), for his ideas on how to solve many bugs.
  - Rigues, for kindly hosting my website

===========================================================================
- Donations
  If you like the enhancements done here and want to donate any amount, or MSX
  hardware, in retribution, please feel free to do it.
  Donations can be done via PayPal to frs@pop.com.br, and for MSX hardware,
  try contacting me on that e-mail address too.

===========================================================================
I hope you enjoy these enhancement & fixes.

