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The Onramp to F4Plus:
A Guide to Patching Falcon, One Stitch at a Time
By Bob "Groucho" Marks
What About eRAZOR?
eRAZOR's & Co.'s newest version yeilds improved graphics and framerates ---and dig the new wingman commands.
Those of you who have been following my F4Plus series know all about the eRAZOR patch. The eRAZOR patch is a new executable of questionable legality that gutted the old MicroProse graphics engine and updates it to DirectX7 compatibility. Based on an unlawfully released F4 v1.07 code base, the original eRAZOR patch brought F4 graphically (once again, benefiting non-Glide users only) to modern standards. The effectiveness of the eRAZOR patch could be reworded more succinctly: It's gorgeous, and it's FAST. Now, with the newest version, you can add two more adjectives: Smart and Stable.
Our man eRAZOR has just released a new version of his patch just in time to force me to completely rewrite this entire section, and I damn him for his tuetonic efficiency. This new version is called v1.0795, produced by Das Überhacker himself along with a mystery realism patch advisor tagged as, who apparently is an actual Viper driver. This synergy results in a quantum leap over the original in both functionality and stability.
With the built-in support of F4Patch v2.11, the task of switching between RP3's well-documented realism and polished gameplay and eRAZOR's executable is a brain-optional affair. You could do some editing in your registry to accomplish a similar feat, but I think that I would rather prod about in someone's open head wound with a screwdriver than mess about with my Windows registry. I'm chicken that way.
Fear not. This new release is much more F4Patch friendly than previous versions, and will easily integrate the new eRAZOR executable.
And no, I can't tell you where to get v1.0795. So don't ask.
- Download "Falcon_v1.0795.zip"- good luck finding it. I could tell you, but COMBATSIM's crack legal team will be forced to stop chasing ambulances long enough to help my happy butt. It's out there, trust me.
- Use WinZip to extract the entire "Falcon_1.0795.zip" file into your Falcon4 directory, making sure that you have the "Use folder names" option selected.
- Run F4Patch, and point the "Executable" line to C:\MicroProse\Falcon4\eFalcon4_10795.exe. Check the (108eRAZOR_1.0795) Falcon 1.0795 box.
- Select a cockpit.
- Hit "Apply Changes."
- Move the "menu.dat" file from the main Falcon4 directory to C:\MicroProse\Falcon4\art\ckptart
- Hit "Launch." Falcon will fire up.
- Adjust the in-game graphics settings as required. Prepare for enough eye-candy to bring on diabetes, and some stunning new realism enhancements.
