Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas - Unofficial Classic Patch 1.0
===================================================================

A free, unofficial patch that runs the original 1999 Cutthroats on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11,
with the original game's crashes and freezes fixed. It is the original game: the same rules,
balance, economy, ships, artwork, fonts, music, speech, movies and save files. It is not a
remaster and adds no new features.

This patch contains no game data. You need your own copy of Cutthroats (English, CD release).
It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hothouse Creations, Eidos or any current rights holder.


INSTALL
-------
1. Install Cutthroats from your CD with the FULL installation (so that the Video folder is
   copied), or copy the whole CD into a folder. The game should be patched to V1 P7, the
   last official English patch; the rebuild is made from that version. Older data was not
   tested.
2. Make a copy of the installed game folder, for example C:\Games\Cutthroats Classic.
   The patch never changes your original install; use the copy.
3. Copy everything in this zip into that folder, beside its Audio, Data, Graphics, gfx and
   Video folders:
       Play Cutthroats Classic.cmd
       classic-patch\
       classic-settings.example.cmd   (optional)
4. Double-click "Play Cutthroats Classic.cmd".

No CD is needed in the drive: the launcher maps the game folder to a spare drive letter while
the game runs. Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unknown program; choose "More info" and
"Run anyway" if you trust where you downloaded the patch (check SHA256SUMS.txt).


SAVED GAMES AND SETTINGS
------------------------
Saved games and Cutthroats.cfg stay in the game folder, in the original format, so saves move
freely between this patch and the original game. Back up SavedGames\ before you start, as you
would with any patch.


DISPLAY AND SOUND
-----------------
The game runs in a window scaled up by the largest whole multiple that fits your screen, with
sharp original pixels. Rename classic-settings.example.cmd to classic-settings.cmd to change
the window size, scaling or smoothing, or to pick another sound driver if audio is distorted.


OTHER SYSTEMS
-------------
The patch is a Windows program. It also starts under Wine on macOS and is expected to work
under Proton (Steam Deck, Linux) and CrossOver; those are not supported. Run the launcher
through Wine's command prompt from the game folder, for example:
    wine cmd /c "Play Cutthroats Classic.cmd"
Under Wine the CD check is answered from the game folder automatically.


WHAT IS FIXED
-------------
See CHANGES.txt. In short: crashes, freezes and endless loops; save and load corruption;
bugs that silently lost or duplicated gold, cargo, items, crew or ships; and problems that
appear only on modern 64-bit Windows (unresponsive window during loading and fades, broken
sound streaming, 64-bit memory faults).

What is deliberately NOT changed: game rules and balance, prices and economy, combat and AI,
governor and crew behaviour, text, artwork, fonts and the interface. Harmless 1999 oddities
(a warning that never appears, a wrong plural) are left as they were.


REPORTING A PROBLEM
-------------------
If the game stops with an error, the launcher keeps its window open. Please report what you
were doing and attach classic-patch\cutthroats-reference.log (and the save, if it is
reproducible).


LICENSES
--------
classic-patch\licenses\ holds the licenses of the libraries the patch uses (SDL2 under zlib,
libsmacker under LGPL 2.1, stb_image). The libsmacker relink kit is published beside this zip.
