DOS Days

Beneath a Steel Sky

Released: 1994
Published by: Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Developed by: Revolution Software
Author(s): Charles Cecil, Dave Cummins, Dave Gibbons, Daniel Marchant, Tony Warriner, David Sykes, James Long, Les Pace, Steve Ince, Stephen Oades, Adam Tween, Paul Humphreys

** This page is a work in progress **

Game Audio Samples

Sound Blaster (OPL3SAx)  OGG, FLAC
Roland MT-32  OGG, FLAC
 Game Introduction (video) w/ OPL3SAx

System Requirements

System Requirements Intel 80386 CPU, 2 MB RAM.
Graphics support for MCGA or VGA only (320x200 max. resolution).
Audio support for Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Roland MT-32, CM32L, and General MIDI.
Keyboard and Mouse supported.
Original Media Six 3.5" high-density (DS/HD) floppy disks, or one CD-ROM ("talkie" version)
Installed Size (MB) 8.9 MB (Floppy disk version) or 93 MB (CD-ROM version)

From where can it be run?

The game must be installed to your hard disk. Run A:\INSTALL to begin the installation from Disk 1.

 

Copy Protection

BASS has no copy protection.

 

How to Setup

Insert the first floppy disk and run INSTALL.EXE:

1) Game installation:

2) Other Configuration Options:



Note that the 'Port Addresses' option only allows you to configure settings for a Sound Blaster. For Roland MT-32 the game is hard-wired to I/O Address 330h. Also worth mentioning is that BASS supports the additional sound effects of a Roland CM-32L.

You can change the configuration at any time by re-running INSTALL.EXE (it skips the game installation portion and jumps straight to the 'Setup Menu').

Once installed and configured, run the game by executing SKY.EXE in the game directory.

The main executable has the following command-line options which will override what is in the non text-editable file SKY.CFG:

R      = to force Roland MT-32 sound mode (by default it will use Ad Lib/SB)
m     = to force music and sound effects OFF.

 

Problems

Symptom: When I start the game I receive this error: "Fatal Error Previously installed software is neither VCPI not DPMI compatible".
Cause: You are running an Expanded Memory Manager such as EMM386 but with the NOEMS option to give you XMS memory. BASS uses a custom memory manager which scans your memory automatically and in theory you should not need to run any memory manager at all.
Resolution: Change your CONFIG.SYS line where you load EMM386 and remove the "NOEMS" option. Then retry running the game.

Symptom: I am running the CD-ROM "talkie" version of BASS with the Roland MT-32 sound option, but I only hear music - there is no speech.
Cause: This is not possible, sadly. If you want both sound and speech you must run the game using the Sound Blaster option instead.

To Quit the Game

Press F5 at any time, then move the mouse to the button to the left of 'C:\DOS'. Then click the green tick box to confirm.


Supporting Documents

.

Save Games

.

Versions of the game known to exist

Version Date Comments
1.0 1994 Initial public release on floppy disk.
  1995? CD-ROM "talkie" version.


Original Floppy Disk Contents

The six floppy disks have no specific volume label. BASS uses a compression system from Rob Northern Computing called Pro-Pack. Pro-Pack is a cross-platform compression tool most commonly found on the Amiga. This creates files with a .RNC extension. The most recent release of Pro-Pack is v2.08. Here are each of the game disk's contents:

    Disk 1 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD, English):

     
                
    Directory of A:\         
    INSTALL  EXE        28,925 08-22-94   3:30p
SKY_1    RNC     1,427,664 08-17-94   4:32p
        2 file(s)      1,456,589 bytes
                             512 bytes free

     

    Disk 2 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD, English):

     
    Directory of A:\
    SKY_2    RNC     1,457,664 08-17-94   4:32p
        1 file(s)      1,457,664 bytes
                               0 bytes free
     

    Disk 3 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD,English):

    Directory of A:\
    SKY_3    RNC     1,457,664 08-17-94   4:32p
        1 file(s)      1,457,664 bytes
                               0 bytes free
     
     

    Disk 4 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD,English):

    Directory of A:\
    SKY_4    RNC     1,457,664 08-17-94   4:32p
        1 file(s)      1,457,664 bytes
                               0 bytes free
     
     

    Disk 5 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD,English):

    Directory of A:\
    SKY_5    RNC     1,457,664 08-17-94   4:32p
        1 file(s)      1,457,664 bytes
                               0 bytes free
     
     

    Disk 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD,English):

    Directory of A:\
    SKY_6    RNC       674,051 08-17-94   4:32p
        1 file(s)        674,051 bytes
                         783,360 bytes free
     
     

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:

    Directory of D:\GAMES\BASS
    .            <DIR>         11-09-21   4:54p
..           <DIR>         11-09-21   4:54p
INSTALL  EXE        28,925 11-09-21   4:54p
SKY      DNR        11,564 11-09-21   4:54p
SKY      DSK     8,829,811 11-09-21   5:01p
SKY      EXE       402,642 11-09-21   5:01p
SKY      RST        53,720 11-09-21   5:01p
SKY      CFG             5 11-09-21   6:56p
        8 file(s)      9,326,667 bytes
                      52,166,656 bytes free