Welcome to WADGOD 1.0! Ultimate control over DOOM! By Chuck Agne WADGOD is a front end for id Software's DOOM game. It allows you to launch WAD files automatically, specifying loaded games, warping, demos and other features. Several things drove me to write WADGOD: the pain of unzipping all those great wads that are being written, reading the text file to see what level to go to, fooling with the DOOM command line, then deleting the wads, text files, etc. to keep things tidy, blah-blah-blah. I also wanted to keep the wads in a different directory. Okay, I'm a tidy freak. (Does "anal retentive" have a hyphen?) WADGOD also lets you keep your WADs in space-saving files that have been compressed using Phil Katz's PKZip 2.04g. You don't need to unzip your files before running WADGOD! The program will find WAD, LMP (demo) and TXT files in your zipped archive and list them. With the exception of net and modem play (sorry, I have no way to test), all DOOM command line options are supported. You need only click to launch. WADGOD will zip your WAD files for you, launch your favorite WAD (map) and game editors and you can specify a text viewer, should you choose not to use the one that's conveniently built-in. In fact, it's so easy to use, you don't even need documentation! (How's THAT for a cop-out?) But for those who insist, here's how to install WADGOD, and how the program works. REQUIREMENTS: I didn't worry too much about the size of WADGOD, figuring that if you had enough memory to run DOOM you weren't going to sweat 200K of either memory or disk space. There are, however, a few requirements: ANSI.SYS must be part of your CONFIG.SYS file PKZIP/PKUNZIP 2.04 must be in your PATH You must have a mouse with a mouse driver installed. (if there is any demand, I'll revise it to accept keyboard input but, to me, DOOM without a mouse is a ship without a rudder...like becoming BERSERK with no enemies around.) I'm also assuming that you're using a VGA monitor and hardware able to support up to 50 lines on the screen. WADGOD uses the 50 line mode but resets to 25/43 lines should you desire. SETUP: 1. If you want to keep your wads (except for DOOM.WAD) in a separate directory, first create that directory and move the zipped wads into it. If you have some unzipped ones, don't worry, WADGOD can help you zip them, just move them into the wad directory now. For instance, my directory setup looks like this: C:\FUN\DOOM\STUFF. STUFF is where all the wads are kept, all of DOOM (including DOOM.WAD) is in the DOOM directory. If you want to keep everything in your DOOM directory, that's okay, too. NOTE: DO NOT ZIP DOOM.WAD! 2. Place WG.EXE, the main executable, and WADGOD.BAT into your main DOOM directory. 3. Enter WADGOD.BAT (or just WADGOD) at the DOS prompt. Make sure you enter WADGOD and NOT WG.EXE or things will get a little confused. 4. You'll be told that WADGOD can't find a configuration file. That's okay, Just click on Utilities and then Configure on the menu bar and fill in the blanks. If you want to use an external text viewer, a saved game editor, or map editor be sure to include their full path if they aren't in the DOOM directory. 5. Enter all Path names WITHOUT a trailing "\". 6. Be sure to save your configuration right away RUNNING WADGOD: Everything is pretty self-explanatory once you get started. The interface is point-and-shoot (just like DOOM). No help is included due primarily to my getting too tired to continue. You'll notice that when you select a file for unzipping it puts the WAD, LMP, and text files in the proper places. Just play around for a while, you'll figure it out, no sweat. Select the things you want with the mouse by double-clicking, click on LAUNCH and have at it. Also, WADGOD consists of several files: FILE_ID.DIZ WADGOD.BAT gets things started WG.EXE main program WADGOD.TXT this file WADGOD2.BAT finishes off the program WADGOD.CFG the configuration file The last two files are created when you first run WADGOD. Don't delete them, especially WADGOD.CFG. Once in WADGOD, there will be a window listing all the ZIP files in the directory. UnZipped wads won't appear, so if you need to, select Utilities/Zip Files from the menu and zip up the wads. I find it most convenient to just keep everything in the zipped form the wad is distributed in. OTHER STUFF: I've tried to include most things I thought would be useful but would welcome any comments concerning problems/improvements (heck, even praise). Mail can be addressed to: Internet: chucka@kaiwan.com Compuserve: 73006,1610 AOL: chucka I tend to be on the 'net more than the other two. Responses to mail sent via AOL may take a while 'cause I have a heck of a time getting on. Special thanks to Dwight Silverman for his incessant prodding, clever ideas, selfless testing, the name and all the hype in the introduction. He'd be a good person to contact if you have trouble getting my attention. He can be reached thusly: dwights@NeoSoft.COM Oh yeah, like most defendants in high profile Los Angeles court cases (Rodney King, the cops, Menendez bros., etc.), I am not responsible for anything that I do - that includes anything that happens as a result of using this program. THIS IS FREEWARE. Please feel free to distribute it, but only in it's original Zipped state and with all/only the files noted above. DOOM is a trademark of id Software. PKZIP is a trademark of PKWARE, Inc. WADGOD: Copyright 1994 by Chuck Agne - the name, the code, etc. is mine.