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*****************************************
* *
* NFL FORECASTER for DOS Version 2.0d *
* *
*****************************************
Copyright (c) 1994 by George Tylutki
Association of Shareware Professionals Member
100% Cotton Software
RR 1 Box 1622
Hop Bottom, PA 18824
717-289-4019
INTRODUCTION
==============
To predict the winners of football games, you must rank the
opposing teams; some teams must be better than others. A number
of elements may be taken into account, including yards gained
passing and rushing, average yards per down, quarterback ranking,
and home field advantage. However, ONLY TWO THINGS REALLY
MATTER: (1) a team's win/loss record which in turn depends upon
(2) the number of points scored by and against that team. A
winning team must win games and to do this it must score more
points than its opponent.
USING ONLY SCORES, NFL Forecaster assigns each NFL team an
offense and defense ranking and a total ranking (offense and
defense combined). Based on these rankings Forecaster predicts
winners of games and the point spreads. In addition, Forecaster
performs a number of other functions such as maintaining various
statistics and printing several types of reports. IT ONLY TAKES
10 MINUTES A WEEK TO ENTER THIS WEEK'S SCORES AND OBTAIN NEXT
WEEK'S FORECASTS.
Over the past ten seasons, FORECASTER has correctly predicted
winners 62% of the time and spreads 54% of the time. Although
this does not equal the percentages of some sports handicappers,
it should be noted that Forecaster predicted winners and spreads
for 93.3% of the games (only 150 of 2,076 games were too close to
call), not just Monday night games or "5-star specials." NFL
Forecaster usually picks more winners than the handicappers and
regularly predicts more spreads correctly than the Las Vegas
odds-makers.
Forecaster picks winners and predicts point spreads; it does not
try to "beat the spread." For example, let us assume that the
odds-makers have predicted that San Diego will beat the Raiders
NFL Forecaster for DOS 2
by two points. If you pick San Diego and they win by two (23-
21), you lose; the odds-makers win because San Diego (and,
therefore, you) did not beat the spread. However, if Forecaster
predicts San Diego will beat the Raiders by two points and they
do, then Forecaster "wins"; it correctly predicted the point
spread (two or more points).
Forecaster uses only scores to rank teams and it ranks them
objectively. Therefore, it cannot take into account that the
Raiders are very good on Monday night or that a quarterback broke
his arm during practice, but you can. Forecaster is like a
personal odds-maker; it doesn't bet, but it will tell you who
will probably win, by how much, and why (it shows the rankings it
has assigned to each team).
NFL Forecaster is RECREATIONAL SOFTWARE: any interest and
pleasure associated with the program is derived from using the
program and NOT from any results which might accrue from using
its forecasts. It is NOT intended to be used as an aid to
placing bets and NO claim is made that it will make you a winner,
although the accuracy of its forecasts is greater than from
chance predictions (more accurate than flipping a coin).
NFL Forecaster was written using Borland Pascal 7.0. Borland
Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International. MS-
DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Windows
is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. "Data" is considered a
collective noun taking a singular verb.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
===================
Introduction................................... 1
Table of Contents.............................. 3
Installation................................... 5
Minimum Requirements......................... 5
Installation................................. 5
Printing Documentation....................... 6
Help........................................... 7
Overview....................................... 7
Running NFL Forecaster......................... 9
Quitting NFL Forecaster........................ 9
Annual Update Disk............................. 9
Why Register NFL Forecaster?.................. 10
Warranty, License, Support.................... 11
What Is Shareware?............................ 13
What Is ASP?.................................. 14
Catching Up................................... 14
Playoff Games................................. 15
Interpreting Forecasts........................ 16
Backups....................................... 21
Reconstructing MAIN-DTA.NFL................... 21
File Formats.................................. 22
MAIN-DTA.NFL................................ 22
weekly archive files........................ 22
FCAST.CFG................................... 23
SCHEDULE.NFL................................ 23
Error Messages................................ 23
Miscellaneous................................. 26
NFL Average Points Per Game................... 26
COMMAND REFERENCE............................. 27
1. File....................................... 28
1.1 Open.................................... 28
1.2 Save As................................. 29
1.3 Print................................... 30
1.3.1 Spreads............................. 31
1.3.2 Team Rankings....................... 31
1.3.3 Category Rankings................... 31
1.3.4 Division Rankings................... 32
1.3.5 Archive Data........................ 32
1.3.6 Schedule............................ 32
1.4 DOS Shell............................... 32
1.5 Exit.................................... 32
2. Quick...................................... 32
3. View....................................... 34
3.1 Spreads................................. 35
3.2 Team Rankings........................... 35
3.3 Division Rankings....................... 35
3.4 Category Rankings....................... 36
NFL Forecaster for DOS 4
3.5 Restore Layout.......................... 36
3.6 Save Layout............................. 36
3.7 Average Points.......................... 37
3.8 Archive Data............................ 37
3.9 Schedule................................ 37
3.10 Calendar............................... 38
4. Sort....................................... 38
5. Options.................................... 39
5.1 View.................................... 39
5.1.1 Tile Windows........................ 39
5.1.1.1 Tile Vertically................. 39
5.1.1.2 Tile Horizontally............... 39
5.1.2 Turn Shadows ON/OFF................. 39
5.1.3 Toggle Video Mode................... 40
5.1.4 Colors.............................. 40
5.2 Print................................... 41
5.2.1 Printer Setup....................... 41
5.2.2 Title of Reports.................... 42
5.2.3 Spreads Initials.................... 42
5.3 General................................. 42
5.3.1 Highlight Rows...................... 42
5.3.2 Turn Sound ON/OFF................... 42
5.3.3 Names............................... 42
5.3.3.1 Use City Names.................. 42
5.3.3.2 Use Team Names.................. 42
5.3.4 NFLAPPG............................. 43
5.4 Seasonal................................ 43
5.4.1 Zero MAIN-DTA.NFL................... 43
5.4.2 Create New Schedule................. 44
5.5 Save.................................... 45
6. Slow....................................... 46
6.1 Manually Enter Scores................... 47
6.2 Manually Forecast Spreads............... 47
7. Window..................................... 48
7.1 Tile.................................... 48
7.2 Cascade................................. 48
7.3 Close All............................... 48
7.4 Size/Move............................... 48
7.5 Zoom.................................... 48
7.6 Switch.................................. 48
7.7 Previous................................ 49
7.8 Close................................... 49
8. Help....................................... 49
8.1 Help on Forecaster Help................. 49
8.2--8.9.................................... 49
8.10 About.................................. 49
8.11 Print Manual........................... 49
8.12 Print Registration Form................ 49
Registration Form............................. 51
NFL Forecaster for DOS 5
INSTALLATION
==============
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS NFL Forecaster requires DOS 3.0 or later,
-------------------- 1 disk drive with 550K free space, and
384K free computer memory (RAM). A color monitor and hard disk
are recommended. A printer is necessary to print reports.
INSTALLATION Forecaster's setup program makes NO changes to your
------------ AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files and it does not
change your PATH statement (or any other environment variable).
You can uninstall Forecaster simply by deleting the files
installed by Forecaster setup. DO NOT INSTALL FORECASTER FOR
DOS IN THE SAME DIRECTORY AS FORECASTER FOR WINDOWS. Setup
will correctly install Forecaster from the self-extracting
file (IDNFL20.EXE) or from the group of files (already extracted
from IDNFL20,EXE) and from one drive and/or directory to another
(that is, from a:\ to c:\fcast or from c:\temp to c:\sports or
from c:\fcast to c:\fcast). If you have downloaded NFL
Forecaster from a BBS, you must first unzip the file ODNFL20.ZIP
using PKUNZIP.EXE in order to extract IDNFL20.EXE, SETUP.EXE,
README.1ST and some other files.
Log on to the drive and directory that contains IDNFL20.EXE and
SETUP.EXE. For example, at the DOS prompt you might type "a:/"
and press the enter key if the Forecaster files were on a disk in
your a: drive. Then type "setup" and press the enter key. Setup
will ask you to enter a source and destination directory. The
default destination directory is "c:\fcast". Setup will
extract the files from IDNFL20.EXE and copy them to the
destination directory you have chosen.
You can choose to install Forecaster for a color or monochrome
display. If you choose color installation, Setup will
rename COLOR.CFG to FCAST.CFG. If you choose monochrome
installation, Setup will rename MONOCHRM.CFG to
FCAST.CFG. COLOR.CFG and MONOCHRM.CFG are identical
except for the display values. Options are always
saved to FCAST.CFG, so you might want to make backup copies of
both .CFG files to make it easier to later move Forecaster from a
color to a monochrome system or vice versa.
FCAST.CFG, FCAST.HLP, SCHEDULE.NFL and MAIN-DTA.NFL must be
in the same directory as FCAST.EXE or the directory in which
they are placed must be in your DOS PATH statement (see your DOS
manual) in order for Forecaster to find them. Forecaster first
looks in the current directory, then the startup directory and
then in the directories in your PATH statement.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 6
Printing the Documentation You can print this manual by choosing
-------------------------- Help/Print Manual from the Forecaster
menu. You can also print this manual by typing at the DOS prompt
"copy fcast.doc prn" which will copy the documentation file to
your printer. Finally, you can print this document (and the
other text files, such as readme.1st) using almost any word
processing program or text editor. They are plain ASCII files
with no embedded formatting commands.
The Forecaster manual is about 50 pages long and it is contained
in the on-line help so you can also read it while running
Forecaster. Be sure to read the file "README.1st"; it contains
the latest information, additions and corrections.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 7
HELP
======
NFL Forecaster provides several types of help: a complete manual;
status-line hints; and a complete context-sensitive on-line help
system accessed via the Help menu and the F1 key.
You can obtain on-line help via Forecaster's Help menu.
Highlight the menu item of the topic you are interested in and
press the Enter key.
Whenever any Forecaster menu item is highlighted, the status line
at the bottom of the screen will provide a "hint" about that
item's function. Also, whenever a menu item is highlighted, you
can press F1 to access Forecaster's on-line help; a complete
explanation of that menu item will be displayed. In order to
obtain on-line help while running Forecaster, the file
FCAST.HLP must be in the same directory as FCAST.EXE. This
entire document is contained in FCAST.HLP and, thus, is
available on-line while running Forecaster.
While viewing on-line help, you can move or resize the help
window and scroll through the help text using the keyboard
direction keys or a mouse. In the on-line text are topic links
-- highlighted words and phrases. If you move the cursor to the
link word or phrase and press Enter (or double-click the mouse),
the on-line help will jump to and display the text for that
topic.
Each topic has browse links (<< >>). The right link will
display the next topic in the manual and the left will display
the previous. Using the browse links is like turning pages in
the manual.
While viewing the on-line help, you can press Alt+F1 to display
the previous topic (up to 10 previous topics). Thus, it is easy
to follow links from one topic to another and find your way back
to where you began. Also, while viewing the on-line help, you
can press Shift+F1 to display the on-line Table of Contents.
Most of NFL Forecaster's dialog boxes contain a help button which
you can press to get help at that point.
OVERVIEW
==========
Each week you enter the scores for the games played and
Forecaster calculates new rankings for each team. Then you
indicate the teams that will be playing in the next week's games
and Forecaster predicts the winners and spreads. The new rankings
must be saved to the MAIN-DTA.NFL file so that the rankings can
be used the next week. MAIN-DTA.NFL is reused each week; last
NFL Forecaster for DOS 8
week's rankings are read into the computer's memory and used to
compute new rankings which are then written back to MAIN-DTA.NFL.
Every week's rankings should also be saved to weekly archive
files which are not updated each week. This is done
automatically if you use the Quick function. The archive files
contain the rankings of a given week, the scores of that week
(except the first week of the season) and the forecasts for the
following week (except the last week of the season). These files
may be used to find a ranking, score, or forecast of any past
week. They can also be used to reconstruct MAIN-DTA.NFL if it
should become corrupt.
There are two ways to obtain spread forecasts and enter scores
using NFL Forecaster: Quick or Slow. For more information, see
the Quick and Slow sections.
The easiest way to use NFL Forecaster is to use Quick which takes
you step-by-step through the process of entering scores,
forecasting spreads, saving data and printing reports. You
choose the week that you want predictions for and Forecaster
reads the NFL schedule from a disk file, displays the teams which
have played each other and requests that you enter the scores.
It then calculates the forecasts for the next week, saves the new
rankings, scores and spreads to disk, prints the reports you
choose and displays the rankings in the view windows of your
choice.
Forecaster has several other functions and is highly
configurable: you can open six different view windows; print five
different reports; print or view the NFL schedule; sort the
rankings eight different ways; use team or city names; add row
highlighting; add titles to the printed reports; and much more.
At the beginning of each season you need to alter two files. In
MAIN-DTA.NFL, the number of points a team has scored, its win,
loss and tie record and other data must be set to zero for the
new season. Also, SCHEDULE.NFL must be updated with the new
schedule. (See the section "Options/Seasonal.") These files can
be modified using a word processing program; however, Forecaster
provides functions for both of these tasks. You can also
purchase an annual update disk which contains MAIN-DTA.NFL,
SCHEDULE.NFL and the latest version of NFL Forecaster (see the
section "Annual Update Disk").
NFL Forecaster for DOS 9
RUNNING NFL FORECASTER
========================
Log on to the drive and directory that contain the installed
Forecaster files and type "fcast". See your DOS manual for
information about placing the Forecaster directory in your PATH
statement so that you can run Forecaster from any other
directory.
A title and registration reminder dialog box is displayed while
NFL Forecaster loads and initializes. When the main menu is
displayed, you can press the "OK" button to continue (the button
is inactive until then). The title dialog box of the registered
version of Forecaster does not contain a registration reminder
and will close itself automatically when Forecaster has loaded.
Forecaster will run in a DOS box under Microsoft Windows 3.0 or
later. Setup places a Forecaster icon in the destination
directory; you can use Windows Program Manager to place the icon
on your desktop so that you can run NFL Forecaster for DOS by
clicking on the icon. (Cotton Software also published a Windows
version of NFL Forecaster that takes advantage of Windows
superior display and printing capabilities.)
QUITTING NFL FORECASTER
=========================
You quit Forecaster by choosing Exit from the File menu or by
pressing Alt-X. If you have loaded a file (either from the File
menu or via Quick), entered scores and thus changed the rankings
and not saved the new rankings to disk, Forecaster will warn you
that you are about to quit without saving the new rankings.
At this point you can choose to save the data before quitting and
Forecaster will open a Save As dialog box for you. You can also
choose to quit without saving the data (sometimes you may want to
enter some scores to see how the rankings would have changed if
team x had won instead of lost and do not want to save the new
rankings). Also, you can choose to cancel in which case you are
simply returned to Forecaster.
ANNUAL UPDATE DISK
====================
Since NFL Forecaster uses game scores, current rankings and
accumulated and average points for and points against to compute
new rankings and to calculate point spreads, it is necessary at
the beginning of each season to modify MAIN-DTA.NFL so that these
and the number of wins, losses and ties and the win/loss
NFL Forecaster for DOS 10
percentage of each team are set to zero. Also, in order to use
the Quick function, a new schedule file must be created.
NFL Forecaster provides functions for zeroing MAIN-DTA.NFL and
for creating a new schedule (SCHEDULE.NFL) at the beginning of
each season (see the "Options/Seasonal" section). Many users
prefer to purchase an annual update disk instead of using these
functions. The update disk contains a zeroed MAIN-DTA.NFL file,
a new SCHEDULE.NFL file and the latest version of NFL Forecaster.
All registered owners of Forecaster are notified when the update
disks become available (usually around July 1). In the past the
cost has been $7.00 (including shipping and handling). When you
register Forecaster, you receive a coupon worth 25% off the price
of your first annual update disk. Annual update disks must be
ordered directly from 100% Cotton Software.
WHY SHOULD I REGISTER NFL FORECASTER?
=======================================
NFL Forecaster is a copyrighted shareware product; it is not
freeware or public domain. You can try it before you buy it and
you are encouraged to give copies to others (see "Warranty/
License/Support" for conditions). If you use it after 30 days,
you must register it.
When you register NFL Forecaster, you will receive:
1. the latest version of the program (with MAIN-DTA.NFL
current as of shipping day) which does not have any request-
for-registration dialog boxes;
2. unlimited, life-time, free (not toll-free) telephone and mail
support;
3. complete set of archive files: 10 years of scores, spreads &
rankings;
4. 25% discount coupon: toward purchase of annual update disk
($5.25);
5. $2.00 coupon: toward registration of any other Cotton
Software product (see PRODUCTS.DOC);
6. JCSM Shareware CD certificate: thousands of programs for $9.95
+ S&H (good until 12/31/94);
7. and, of course, the appreciation of programmers who strive to
produce inexpensive, quality, useful and entertaining
software.
8. Teachers are over-worked and underpaid. Therefore, any
teacher who registers directly to Cotton Software using his or
her school letterhead will receive a $3.00 rebate check.
You can register NFL Forecaster by sending a check or money order
for $20.00 (US dollars) to:
100% Cotton Software
NFL Forecaster for DOS 11
RR 1 Box 1622
Hop Bottom, PA 18824
Orders outside of the United States should add $3.00 for S&H.
There is a registration form at the end of this manual and you
can print a registration form by choosing Help/Print Registration
Form from the Forecaster menu.
Credit card orders (MC, Visa, Amex, Discover) may be made
through: Public (software) Library
PHONE: 800-2424-PsL 713-524-6394
FAX: 713-524-6398
CIS EMAIL: 71355,470
MAIL: Public (software) Library
PO Box 35705
Houston, TX 77235-5705
Your order will be processed more quickly and efficiently if you
refer to item #11343. Be sure to tell the operator that you want
the REGISTERED version of NFL Forecaster for DOS.
The above PsL numbers are for ORDERS ONLY. Any questions about
------------------------------------------ the status of the
shipment of the order, refunds, registration options, product
details, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing,
site licenses, etc. must be directed to 100% Cotton Software
(717-289-4019). To insure that you get the latest version, PsL
will notify us the day of your order and we will ship the product
directly to you.
WARRANTY, LICENSE, SUPPORT
============================
User Groups, Computer Clubs, Disk Vendors and Distributors,
Subscription Services, Disk-of-the-Month Clubs, BBS SYSOPS, and
other distributors should refer to VENDINFO.DIZ for complete
information relating to them.
Warranty The author believes that NFL Forecaster is able to do
-------- what its documentation says it can do. Every good-
faith effort has been made to remove "bugs" from this program and
to make the user aware of its limitations. However, it is
mathematically impossible to prove a computer program correct.
Therefore, users of NFL Forecaster must accept this disclaimer of
warranty: NFL FORECASTER IS SUPPLIED AS IS. TO THE MAXIMUM
EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION,
THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE
CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THIS SOFTWARE SHALL BE HELD
NFL Forecaster for DOS 12
LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOSS OF PROFIT, DATA OR
OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR SIMILAR
CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM.
License Terms Applicable To All Use And Distribution
----------------------------------------------------
NFL Forecaster and all associated software and documentation (the
package) are copyrighted products. The NFL Forecaster package is
comprised of all files contained within the ODNFL20.xxx
compressed archive file. All rights not expressly granted here
are reserved to the author. The use or distribution of this
package is expressly prohibited, except as authorized by the
terms of this agreement. The NFL Forecaster package may not be
copied, rented, leased, sold, modified, decompiled, disassembled,
or otherwise reverse engineered except as provided in this
agreement.
License Terms Applicable To Trial Use For Evaluation
----------------------------------------------------
You are granted a limited license to use this program for
evaluation purposes for a period of 30 days. If you find NFL
Forecaster useful and continue to use it after 30 days, you must
make a registration payment to 100% Cotton Software. See above
for registration fee, benefits, addresses and phone numbers.
License Terms Applicable To Use Of Registered Version
-----------------------------------------------------
The registration fee will license one copy of NFL Forecaster for
use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this
software just like a book. That is, this software may be used by
any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer
location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it
being used at one location while it's being used at another (just
as a book cannot be read by two persons at the same time at two
different locations). If more than one copy of NFL Forecaster is
used on more than one computer at the same time, each copy of NFL
Forecaster must be individually registered or a special license
must be obtained. Low-cost site, multiple-copy, and school
licenses are available. Write or call for more information.
Limited Distribution License Permission is granted to
---------------------------- individuals charging no fees, and
to BBSs, User Groups, Mail-Order Disk Vendors, CD-ROM publishers,
and BBS File-Distribution Networks regardless of fees, to
distribute the NFL Forecaster package provided they distribute a
complete and unaltered copy of the NFL Forecaster package and
they make no claim of ownership of the package.
Distribution by other channels, and distribution of modified
versions, are also allowed, but only under the terms of the
VENDINFO data record incorporated in VENDINFO.DIZ. Any
NFL Forecaster for DOS 13
distribution satisfying all the distribution requirements
expressed in that data record is hereby authorized. Permission
to distribute the NFL Forecaster package may not be transferred,
assigned, sold or franchised. Each vendor wishing to distribute
the NFL Forecaster package must independently satisfy the terms
of this limited distribution license. The author may revoke any
permissions granted here at any time by notifying you in writing.
Certain files of the NFL Forecaster package are updated every
year to keep the package current with changes in the National
Football League (for example, the schedule). If you have a
version that is over twelve (12) months old, contact the author
to ensure that you have the latest version. Version 2.0d of NFL
Forecaster for DOS was released 15 August 1994.
Support Registered owners of NFL Forecaster receive free support
------- for the lifetime of the product. You can call (not
toll-free) 717-289-4019 or send a letter to the above address.
WHAT IS SHAREWARE?
====================
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software.
Shareware distribution gives you a chance to try software before
buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it,
you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on
details: some request registration while others require it and
some specify a maximum trial period. The benefits of
registration range from the basic right to continue using the
software to an updated program with printed manual.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software,
and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific
exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished
programmers, just like commercial authors, and their programs are
of comparable quality. The main difference is in the method of
distribution. The shareware author specifically grants the right
to copy and distribute the software, either to all or sundry or
to a specific group. For example, some authors require written
permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their
Shareware.
You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook,
whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes
fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy.
And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware
has the ultimate money-back guarantee: if you don't use the
product, you don't pay for it. But if you do use it, you must
pay for it.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 14
WHAT IS ASP?
==============
This program was produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP), an industry association founded in
1987 to which authors and vendors of Shareware programs belong.
As a user of Shareware, you benefit from ASP activities. ASP
promotes broad distribution of Shareware so that ASP Shareware
programs can continue to be reasonably priced and easily
obtained. ASP sets and maintains programming, marketing and
support standards that members must follow; thus, you can be sure
that ASP Shareware programs are of high quality, marketing is
honest and support meets minimum standards. For example, the
evaluation copy of an ASP Shareware program may not be limited
(crippled) in any way; members must respond to every
registration; members must provide technical support for their
products for at least 90 days from the date of registration.
Should an ASP member move or obtain a new telephone number, you
can locate him or her through the ASP Executive Director, 545
Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 USA, CompuServe 72050,1433, FAX
616-788-2765, Voice 616-788-5131.
ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for
you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem
with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be
able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute
or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical
support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman
at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 USA, FAX 616-788-2765
or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman
70007,3536.
You can obtain "The Shareware Compendium," a catalog of ASP
Shareware from many bookstores and directly from the ASP offices.
CATCHING UP
=============
If you obtained NFL Forecaster after the season began, you need
to "catch up" -- bring the main data file (MAIN-DTA.NFL) up to
date (see the "Overview" section). You will need a copy of the
NFL game scores from the beginning of the season to the present.
MAIN-DTA.NFL contains the rankings for the twenty-eight teams as
of the end of the previous season before any playoff games
(points for, points against, win, loss, and tie have been
zeroed).
1. First, make a backup copy of your disks and install NFL
Forecaster.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 15
2. Run Forecaster.
3. Choose Quick from the main menu.
4. In the list box choose "Enter week 1 scores & forecast week 2
spreads."
5. Enter the scores. Forecaster will update the rankings and
calculate the spreads for week 2.
6. Press the "No" button when Forecaster asks if you would like
to forecast spreads for some non-scheduled games.
7. Press the "Yes" button when Forecaster asks if it should save
the updated rankings to disk.
8. Press the "Yes" or "No" button when Forecaster asks if it
should print the reports.
9. Press the "Yes" or "No" button when Forecaster asks if it
should open the view windows.
10. Repeat steps 3 to 9 until you have entered the scores for the
last week that NFL games were played. Of course, at step 4
you must choose the appropriate weeks.
When you are done, you will have one or more weekly archive files
and MAIN-DTA.NFL will contain the latest rankings and statistics.
You can then use Quick each week to update the rankings and
obtain spread forecasts. If you want a complete printed record
of the predictions, you should choose "Forecast week 1 spreads"
the first time you come to step 4; Forecaster will skip to step
6.
PLAYOFF GAMES
===============
For the playoff games and the Super Bowl, you must use Slow/Enter
Scores and Slow/Forecast Spreads because Quick cannot use the
schedule file to get scores and forecast spreads (the playoff
teams are unknown when the schedule is constructed).
For each playoff game and the Super Bowl,
1. use File/Open to load MAIN-DTA.NFL;
2. use Slow/Enter Scores to enter each of the scores;
3. use File/Save As to save MAIN-DTA.NFL (press the "Yes" button
when Forecaster asks if it should replace the current file);
NFL Forecaster for DOS 16
4. use Slow/Forecast Spreads to obtain forecasts for the next
round of playoff games;
5. use File/Print to print the reports that you desire;
6. and use View to view the rankings.
INTERPRETING FORECASTS
========================
In addition to the information in this section, you should also
see the section "NFL Average Points Per Game."
Over the last 10 seasons, Forecaster declared only 6.7% (150) of
all games (2,226) too close to call (even). It attempts to
predict a winner and spread for every game, not just "5-star
specials" or "this week's picks." Of the 2,076 games (93.3%) it
predicted winners for, it was correct 62% of the time and it
correctly predicted the spread 54% of the time. Of course, this
includes the difficult to predict strike season and many, many
close games (1 or 2 point spreads).
YEAR-BY-YEAR ACCURACY FOR 10 SEASONS (84-85 TO 93-94)
Games Wins Spreads
Games Predicted Correctly Correctly
Season Predicted Even Predicted Predicted
--------------------------------------------------------------
1984-85 209 15 69% 61%
1985-86 209 15 60% 55%
1986-87 210 14 61% 51%
1987-88 202 8 57% 52%
1988-89 210 14 58% 51%
1989-90 208 16 60% 55%
1990-91 208 16 64% 56%
1991-92 210 14 68% 58%
1992-93 204 20 62% 51%
1993-94 205 19 60% 53%
--------------------------------------------------------------
Averages 93.3% 6.8% 62% 54%
As the season progresses, Forecaster tends to become more
accurate in its predictions; changes in coaches and players,
offensive and defensive systems, and even locations can affect
the strengths of teams which are not reflected in the start-of-
season rankings (which are carried over from the previous
season). In general, the larger the spread Forecaster predicts,
the more likely it is to be correct. The same is true for human
forecasters. If Tampa Bay plays San Francisco, we (and
NFL Forecaster for DOS 17
Forecaster) will probably predict that San Francisco will win by
2 or 3 touchdowns. Our (and Forecaster's) prediction is more
likely to be correct than when we predict that one of two
closely-ranked teams will win by a field goal.
FORECASTER ACCURACY FOR 10 SEASONS (84-85 TO 93-94)
If Forecaster it correctly it correctly
predicted a predicted predicted
spread of the winner the spread
-------------------------------------------------
1.0 to 1.9 55% 53%
2.0 to 4.9 61% 58%
5.0 to 5.9 69% 46%
6.0 to 8.9 74% 58%
9.0 to 11.9 69% 42%
12.0 to 12.9 75% 38%
13.0 and above 78% 44%
all spreads/games 62% 54%
There are, of course, seasonal averages. For example, for the
86-87 season Forecaster predicted winners in the 6 to 8.9 point
range with 88% accuracy but with only 67% accuracy for the 88-89
season. The 87-88 strike season brings down the overall accuracy
about .4%.
There is very good correlation between the win/loss/tie records
and the average of Forecaster's total rankings (a measure of
offense and defensive strength), except for Minnesota and
Cincinnati (probably due to their strong offenses) and the LA
Raiders (probably due to sheer contrariness). Correlation is
nowhere near as good between Forecaster's rankings and average
points scored by a team (a measure of offense alone) and average
points scored against a team (a measure of defense alone).
NFL Forecaster for DOS 18
Win/Loss/Tie Record for 10 Seasons (84-85 to 93-94)
Compared to Forecaster's Average Total Ranking,
Average Number of Points Scored by Each Team Per Game,
and Average Number of Points Scored Against Each Team Per Game
Win Average Average Average
Loss Total Points+ Points-
Team Tie Ranking Per Game Per Game
----------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco .758 ( 1) 128.2 ( 1) 26.3 ( 1) 16.0 ( 1)
Chicago .642 ( 2) 114.6 ( 2) 20.9 ( 9) 16.6 ( 2)
NY Giants .623 ( 3) 110.4 ( 3) 20.5 (10) 17.4 ( 3)
Denver .619 ( 4) 108.7 ( 5) 21.7 ( 4) 18.8 ( 5)
Washington .616 ( 5) 110.0 ( 4) 22.6 ( 3) 19.0 ( 9)
Miami .604 ( 6) 107.0 ( 7) 23.6 ( 2) 21.0 (20)
New Orleans .560 ( 7) 107.4 ( 6) 20.5 (11) 18.5 ( 4)
LA Raiders .560 ( 8) 101.8 (15) 20.0 (17) 19.2 (10)
Philadelphia .541 ( 9) 104.2 (11) 20.2 (13) 19.0 ( 6)
Buffalo .535 (10) 104.6 (10) 21.0 ( 8) 19.8 (14)
Kansas City .522 (11) 103.3 (13) 20.1 (14) 19.4 (11)
Houston .522 (12) 103.3 (12) 21.7 ( 5) 21.1 (21)
Minnesota .516 (13) 106.0 ( 9) 21.5 ( 6) 19.6 (12)
Pittsburgh .503 (14) 101.7 (16) 19.8 (18) 19.7 (13)
Dallas .503 (15) 101.2 (17) 20.1 (15) 20.1 (15)
Seattle .497 (16) 101.1 (18) 19.4 (20) 19.0 ( 7)
Cleveland .487 (17) 102.2 (14) 19.2 (21) 19.0 ( 8)
LA Rams .484 (18) 98.7 (20) 20.5 (12) 21.4 (22)
NY Jets .456 (19) 97.3 (21) 19.8 (19) 21.0 (19)
Cincinnati .434 (20) 106.9 ( 8) 21.4 ( 7) 22.8 (26)
San Diego .428 (21) 98.8 (19) 20.1 (16) 21.0 (18)
Green Bay .425 (22) 96.3 (22) 18.9 (22) 20.7 (16)
New England .421 (23) 93.6 (23) 17.8 (26) 20.9 (17)
Detroit .406 (24) 92.6 (24) 18.6 (23) 22.0 (24)
Indianapolis .371 (25) 87.5 (27) 16.2 (28) 21.8 (23)
Arizona .362 (26) 90.2 (25) 18.3 (25) 22.6 (25)
Atlanta .336 (27) 89.0 (26) 18.4 (24) 23.9 (27)
Tampa Bay .270 (28) 83.9 (28) 17.0 (27) 24.5 (28)
Other Information That May Help You Pick Winners
The following covers the 10 seasons from 84-85 to 94-94
There were only 5 tie games:
Philadelphia vs Detroit week 10 84-85 23 points
Philadelphia vs Arizona week 14 86-87 10 points
Denver vs Green Bay week 2 87-88 17 points
Kansas City vs NY Jets week 5 88-89 17 points
Kansas City vs Cleveland week 11 89-90 10 points
NFL Forecaster for DOS 19
There were only 22 games in which one team scored 50 or more
points. The top 10 are:
NY Jets 62 Tampa Bay 28 week 11 85-86
Cincinnati 61 Houston 7 week 15 89-90
Houston 58 Cleveland 14 week 14 90-91
Cincinnati 56 Tampa Bay 23 week 8 89-90
Washington 56 Atlanta 17 week 11 91-93
San Francisco 56 Atlanta 17 week 7 92-93
NY Giants 55 Green Bay 24 week 16 86-87
Indianapolis 55 Denver 23 week 9 88-89
San Francisco 55 Detroit 17 week 16 93-94
San Diego 54 Pittsburgh 44 week 14 85-86
There were only 10 games in which the combined score was 75
points or greater:
98 San Diego 54 Pittsburgh 44 week 14 85-86
96 NY Jets 51 Miami 45 week 3 86-87
90 NY Jets 62 Tampa Bay 28 week 11 85-86
79 NY Giants 55 Green Bay 24 week 16 86-87
79 Cincinnati 56 Tampa Bay 23 week 8 89-90
78 San Diego 50 Miami 28 week 1 86-87
78 Indianapolis 51 Houston 27 week 12 87-88
78 Indianapolis 55 Denver 23 week 9 88-89
76 Pittsburgh 52 San Diego 24 week 13 84-85
76 Buffalo 52 Pittsburgh 34 week 2 91-92
The most points scored by a team:
NY Jets 62 Tampa Bay 28 week 11 85-86
There were only 4 games in which the spread was 40 or more points:
54 Cincinnati 61 Houston 7 week 15 89-90
51 Cleveland 51 Pittsburgh 0 week 1 89-90
44 San Francisco 51 Minnesota 7 week 15 84-85
44 Houston 58 Cleveland 14 week 14 90-91
The 10 highest Forecaster Total rankings (100 is average) were:
173.2 Buffalo week 4 92-93
172.5 Washington week 3 91-92
172.1 Washington week 3 91-92
171.2 Cleveland week 2 89-90
167.3 Washington week 5 91-92
167.2 Washington weeks 5, 7, 8 91-92
167.1 Washington week 7 91-92
166.9 Washington week 6 91-92
164.5 Chicago week 12 85-86
164.3 Buffalo week 3 92-93
NFL Forecaster for DOS 20
The 10 lowest Forecaster total Rankings (100 is average) were:
36.6 Cleveland week 1 84-85
44.0 Pittsburgh week 1 89-90
46.8 Minnesota week 1 84-85
50.5 Indianapolis week 1 85-86
51.5 Cleveland week 2 85-85
51.6 Indianapolis week 1 85-86
54.3 Indianapolis weeks 4 & 5 86-87
54.9 Indianapolis week 3 86-87
55.3 Detroit week 1 91-92
55.9 Indianapolis week 7 91-92
The 5 top scoring teams (strongest offense) were:
513 Miami 32.1 per game 84-85
485 Washington 30.3 per game 91-92
475 San Francisco 29.7 per game 84-85
467 San Diego 29.2 per game 85-86
459 San Francisco 30.6 per game 87-88
The 8 lowest scoring teams (weakest offense) were:
140 Seattle 8.8 per game 92-93
143 Indianapolis 8.9 per game 91-92
174 Cincinnati 10.9 per game 93-94
179 Indianapolis 11.2 per game 93-94
181 New England 11.3 per game 90-91
196 Arizona 12.3 per game 91-92
199 Tampa Bay 12.4 per game 91-92
200 Buffalo 12.5 per game 85-86
The 8 teams with the best defense (fewest points scored against
them) were:
187 Chicago 11.7 per game 86-87
189 NY Giants 11.8 per game 93-94
198 Chicago 12.4 per game 85-86
202 New Orleans 12.6 per game 92-93
210 Chicago 13.1 per game 93-94
211 New Orleans 13.2 per game 91-92
215 Chicago 13.4 per game 88-89
224 Washington 14.0 per game 91-92
The 7 teams with the worst defense (most points scored against
them) were:
484 Minnesota 30.3 per game 84-85
462 Cleveland 28.9 per game 90-91
454 Buffalo 28.4 per game 84-85
452 Atlanta 28.3 per game 85-86
446 New England 27.9 per game 90-91
437 Atlanta 27.3 per game 89-90
436 Atlanta 29.1 per game 87-88
NFL Forecaster for DOS 21
There were 108 shutouts. Atlanta and Detroit were shutout in at
least one game in 5 of the past 10 seasons.
8 Indianapolis
7 Atlanta
6 Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Green Bay, New England
5 NY Jets, Arizona, Dallas, Tampa Bay, San Diego, Detroit
4 Houston, LA Rams, Denver, Seattle
3 Philadelphia, LA Raiders
2 Buffalo, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Chicago
1 NY Giants, Miami, Washington
0 San Francisco, New Orleans
Forecaster uses only scores to rank teams. Therefore, it cannot
take into account the facts that the Cowboys are not so good in
dark uniforms, that Washington is very good at home or that a
star defensive end is holding out for a better contract -- but
you can. Combining your knowledge with Forecaster's objective
predictions, you have a much better than average chance of
predicting winners.
BACKUPS
=========
You should save each week's data to a backup archive file (on a
floppy disk, for example). This can facilitate reconstructing a
disk should it go bad (see the section "Reconstructing MAIN-
DTA.NFL"). Archive filenames should be easy to decipher. The
form used by Forecaster is WEEK-??.yy -- for example, WEEK-03.92
or WEEK-11.95.
You could simply save a copy of MAIN-DTA.NFL to a different disk
or directory each week, but the file name would give no
indication of how many week's data it contained and you would not
have backups for all of the weekly archive files.
Use File/Save As to save a backup file. Use the various list
boxes in the dialog box to set the path to a different disk. Use
the file name Forecaster offers as the default or enter the name
you have invented. When you press the "OK" button, Forecaster
checks whether a file with the same name already exists on the
disk. If it does, you are given the opportunity to replace it or
cancel.
RECONSTRUCTING MAIN-DTA.NFL
=============================
The total, offense and defense rankings, points for, points
against and other data are saved in the file MAIN-DTA.NFL (see
the section "File Formats). Each week this information is read
NFL Forecaster for DOS 22
into your computer and after you have entered the latest scores
it is used to compute new rankings which are used to forecast
spreads. The new rankings and other data are then saved back to
MAIN-DTA.NFL. NFL Forecaster cannot function without a valid
MAIN-DTA.NFL file. If MAIN-DTA.NFL is deleted or is corrupted,
it must be reconstructed.
In order to reconstruct MAIN-DTA.NFL, you need only to load the
appropriate weekly archive file and save it as MAIN-DTA.NFL.
(This is a good reason for making a backup of the weekly archive
file on a floppy disk.) For example, let us say that it is the
Tuesday morning after the games of the 10th week of the 1994-1995
schedule have been played. When you attempt to use Quick to
"Enter week 10 scores & forecast week 11 spreads," you receive an
error message that says Forecaster cannot read MAIN-DTA.NFL.
After trying several times it becomes clear that MAIN-DTA.NFL is
no longer useful, so you need to reconstruct it. The latest
weekly archive file on your disk would be WEEK-09.94. Use
File/Open to load WEEK-09.94. Use File/Save As to save the data
as MAIN-DTA.NFL. That's all there is to reconstructing MAIN-
DTA.NFL. Now you could use Quick to "Enter week 10 scores &
forecast week 11 spreads."
FILE FORMATS
==============
SCHEDULE.NFL, MAIN-DTA.NFL and the weekly archive
files are ASCII text files. Care must be taken that all data
items are included in each file, in the correct order and in the
correct format. NFL Forecaster takes care of this for you; you
should never have to modify these files.
MAIN-DTA.NFL The data file which is loaded and saved each week
------------ (MAIN-DTA.NFL) is identified by the characters "MD"
as the first item in the file. This is followed by information
concerning each of the 28 NFL teams: total value, offense value,
defense value, win/loss/tie percentage, accumulated points scored
by the team and against the team, number of wins, losses and
ties, and a sort tag indicating the team's ranking as last
sorted. A single character sort key is also saved indicating by
which category the teams were last sorted. Finally, the average
number of points scored by each team per game for the last week
is included.
Weekly archive files The archive files contain the same
-------------------- information as MAIN-DTA.NFL, except that
the first item in the file is "AD" indicating the file is an
archive data file. In addition, the archive files contain the
scores of a given week (except the first week of the season) and
the forecasts for the following week (except the last week of the
NFL Forecaster for DOS 23
season). These files may be used to find a ranking, score, or
forecast of any past week. They can also be used to reconstruct
MAIN-DTA.NFL if it should become corrupt.
The contents of these files do not change. There should be one
archive file for each week of the season. They are normally
titled WEEK-xx.yy (where xx = week and yy = year). WEEK-00.yy is
the archive file for the first week of the season (when you
obtain forecasts, but do not enter scores). Archive files are
saved automatically by Quick.
The weekly archive files are not compatible with previous
versions; scores and spreads are now saved as well as rankings.
FCAST.CFG This file contains the various Forecaster
--------- configuration values, such as reports titles,
display colors, etc. There is no need to modify any item in this
file; Forecaster handles reading and writing this file and you
can change the values it contains via the Options menu. IN FACT,
YOU SHOULD NOT EVEN LOAD THIS FILE INTO A WORD PROCESSING OR
EDITOR PROGRAM. IT IS NOT AN ASCII FILE AND DOING SO COULD
CORRUPT IT!
SCHEDULE.NFL The first line of a schedule file contains the
------------ version number. The current version number is 1.6;
earlier 16-week, 17-week and 18-week SCHEDULE.NFL files contained
different version numbers. The following lines contain numbers
representing participants and dates of each game of the season.
The last line of SCHEDULE.NFL indicates the NFL season of the
file -- for example, ".94-95". SCHEDULE.NFL is not compatible
with previous versions; there are now 17 regular season NFL games
instead of 18.
ERROR MESSAGES
================
There are a number of messages that Forecaster may issue which
are self-explanatory, such as "No reports have been selected for
printing." The following is a list of other messages with
explanations. Most of these messages are related to reading from
and writing to disk. There are many causes for these errors
(including bad disks and corrupted DOS); therefore, there may
other causes for the errors than those listed below.
1 Not enough memory available to complete operation You may
--------------------------------------------------- receive this
message when attempting to use Quick, view or print the schedule
or reports and at other times. You need to free up some memory
by quitting any other programs you have running (including TSRs)
or removing drivers from memory.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 24
2 Could not open options file Forecaster looks for FCAST.CFG
----------------------------- in the current directory, then the
startup directory and then the directories in your DOS PATH
statement. If FCAST.CFG is in the Forecaster directory, then
it may be corrupt or there may be something wrong with your disk.
3 Error reading options file; it may be corrupt Forecaster reads
----------------------------------------------- FCAST.CFG
when it loads options and when it saves options and the windows
layout. If there is an error reading the file, there is
something wrong with the file or your disk. Try deleting
FCAST.CFG and saving options to create a new configuration
file.
4 Invalid options file The file Forecaster has found named
---------------------- FCAST.CFG is not a Forecaster
configuration file or the file has become corrupt. Try deleting
FCAST.CFG and saving options to create a new configuration
file.
5 Could not create options file Something is wrong with your
------------------------------- disk.
6 Unable to open/read data file This error may occur when
------------------------------- Forecaster is trying to load
MAIN-DTA.NFL or an archive data file or read the old MAIN-DTA.NFL
file when you choose Zero Main Data from the Options/Schedule
menu. The file may not exist, it may be empty, it may be
corrupted, or the DOS path or file name may be invalid.
7 Not an NFL Forecaster data file An attempt was made to load a
--------------------------------- file and its internal format
is not what Forecaster expects. You have probably chosen the
wrong file to load.
9 Unable to open window: not enough memory or invalid window
------------------------------------------------------------
This message may occur with #1. Follow the advice there.
10 Cannot find MAIN-DTA.NFL
---------------------------
11 Cannot find SCHEDULE.NFL Forecaster cannot find the schedule
--------------------------- or main data file. Be sure that
they are in the Forecaster directory or in a directory in your
DOS PATH statement.
12 Wrong schedule file version You have attempted to load an
------------------------------ older schedule file (pre-1994-95
schedule).
NFL Forecaster for DOS 25
13 Error reading SCHEDULE.NFL The schedule file is the correct
----------------------------- version, but is incomplete. Copy
a good copy of the schedule file to the Forecaster directory.
14 Error reading SCHEDULE.NFL; file is corrupt One or more
---------------------------------------------- values in the
schedule file is invalid. Copy a good copy of the schedule file
to the Forecaster directory.
15 Unable to open data file
---------------------------
16 Error writing data file These errors may result if a file is
-------------------------- locked, if its name is invalid, if
the DOS path is invalid and sometimes if the disk is full or
corrupt.
18 Error writing options file; it may be corrupt This message
------------------------------------------------ almost
certainly indicates that there is something wrong with your disk.
24 Error renaming/deleting data file This error may occur when
------------------------------------ when you choose
Options/Seasonal/Zero MAIN-DTA.NFL or Options/Seasonal/Create New
Schedule. Both functions require that a temporary file be
created and/or that a file be renamed *.OLD and/or deleted.
There is probably something wrong with your disk.
25 Error reading/writing data file This error may occur if you
---------------------------------- have chosen
Options/Seasonal/Zero MAIN-DTA.NFL. Forecaster must read from
the input file you have named and write to a new MAIN-DTA.NFL.
Either the input file is corrupt or there is something wrong with
your disk.
26 Error writing SCHEDULE.NFL Something is wrong with your disk.
-----------------------------
27 Unable to initialize printer: memory may be low Insufficient
-------------------------------------------------- memory is the
most likely cause (see error #1), although there may be something
wrong with your printer cable or printer.
28 Unable to open help file Forecaster is unable to find the
--------------------------- file FCAST.HLP or there is
insufficient memory (see error #1).
-4 Forecaster requires DOS version 3.0 or later Forecaster will
----------------------------------------------- not run if your
DOS version is not at least 3.0.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 26
MISCELLANEOUS
===============
You should remember that data saved on a RAM disk is volatile; it
disappears when the electricity is turned off (unless you have a
memory board with battery backup). Thus, it is important to
transfer data files from the RAM disk to permanent media (floppy
or hard disks).
When you are entering scores, if a team scores more than 98
points, just enter 98. This is so far above the average of 21
points per game that the increase in the team's offensive ranking
(and the decrease in the opponent's defensive ranking) will be so
substantial that the difference between 98 and, say, 103 will be
negligible. If a team ever scores more than 98 points (in the
last 9 years the highest score was 62 points and the record is
99), we will provide an update to NFL Forecaster at no charge to
any registered user who writes or calls.
NFL AVERAGE POINTS PER WEEK
=============================
There is a value that is crucial to the proper working of NFL
Forecaster: the average number of points scored by a team each
game. Historically, every NFL team scores 21 points per game on
average, although this has been decreasing in recent years.
Rankings are based on the percentage that any given team is
better or worse than the offense and defense average (this is an
oversimplification, but basically true). That is, a team that
scores 30 points per game has a stronger than average offense and
a team that holds its opponents to 19 points has a stronger than
average defense. However, rules changes can affect this value; a
liberalization of the rules governing pass defense could result
in fewer passing yards (and points) being gained.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 27
Average Number of Points per Game
per Team for the Last 10 Seasons
All Points/ Avg of
All Games Weekly Avgs
--------------------------------------
84-85 21.21 20.94
85-86 21.53 21.48
86-87 20.52 20.51
87-88 21.60 21.59
88-89 20.26 20.19
89-90 20.61 20.61
90-91 20.12 20.20
91-92 18.97 18.95
92-93 18.73 18.72
93-94 18.70 18.80
--------------------------------------
10 year avg 20.22 20.20
As you can see from the table above, the average fluctuates, and
the 10-year average is down from 21.0 to 20.2 (excluding playoff
games). However, only in the last 3 years has there been a
significant deviation from the 21 point average. The NFL is very
sensitive about decreases in scoring (fans complain) and changes
the rules in order to keep the scoring at its historical average.
This year the NFL has made several changes which should increase
scoring. Therefore, it is probably unwise to modify this value
unless there is a significant and lasting change in the average
number of points scored per game by each team, although some
users do change this value every year to reflect the average
points per game for the preceding season.
NFL FORECASTER COMMAND REFERENCE
==================================
Below is an description of each menu command. If you press the
F1 key when a menu item is highlighted, the on-line help will
display the appropriate descriptions below.
A menu item that has a right arrow character on its right will
cause a submenu to be displayed when that item is chosen. For
example, under Options, "View" has a submenu that contains
entries for tiling windows, shadows, etc.
A menu item that is followed by an ellipse (...) will cause a
dialog box to be displayed when that menu item is chosen. For
example, File/Open... invokes the File Open dialog box.
A menu item that has a shortcut key description can be selected
directly without having to go to the menu. For example, the
NFL Forecaster for DOS 28
entry for Open under the File menu looks like this
"Open Ctrl+O". This means that you can press the Control key
and "O" key simultaneously to invoke the File Open dialog box at
any time without having to use the menu. Another example: the
entry for Zoom under the Window menu looks like this "Zoom F5".
Thus, you can press the F5 key anytime a view window is open to
zoom and unzoom it.
Some groups of menu items are like radio buttons; only one can be
selected at a time. The selected item in such a group has a dot
to its left. For example, only one sort menu item can be chosen
at one time and that selection will have a dot on its left side.
Some menu items will have a check mark on their left side to
indicate that that menu item is selected. For example, if you
select Options/General/Highlight rows, there will be a check mark
on its left side to indicate that you want row highlighting.
The text of some menu items will change each time you select that
menu item. For example, "Turn Sound OFF" will change to "Turn
Sound ON" if you choose it and change back to "Turn Sound OFF" if
you choose it again. The menu item tells you what will happen if
you choose it.
1. FILE Generally, Forecaster Quick handles loading and saving
======= data files for you. Sometimes, however, you may want or
need to load and save a file. You need to load MAIN-DTA.NFL,
enter the scores and save MAIN-DTA.NFL yourself (1) for the
playoff games and (2) when there is a disruption of the NFL
schedule as happened in 92-93 when a hurricane caused the Miami-
New England game to be postponed for several weeks. You could
not use Quick to enter the scores for the first week because
there was no score for the Miami-New England game. And, during
the week when the postponed game was played, Quick would not
forecast spreads for the Miami-New England game because it was
not on the schedule. So it was necessary to load the data, enter
the scores, obtain forecasts and save the data yourself. (3)
There may be times when you want to load archive weekly files for
information purposes -- to view or print the ranking of a
particular team at a particular time or look back at some scores
or spreads.
1.1 File_Open CTRL+O Choosing File/Open causes a File Open
-------------------- dialog box to appear. You can enter the
name of a file or choose it from the list box. The file name
input line maintains a history list of file names. When the
cursor is in the file name input line, you can press the down
arrow key (or click on the down arrow with the mouse) and select
from a list of previous file names. To select a file from a
different disk drive, press the "Drive" button.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 29
When you press the "OK" button, Forecaster will examine the file
to determine that it is a valid Forecaster data file before
loading it. Once the file is loaded you can View or Print the
rankings or use Slow to Enter Scores or Forecast Spreads.
If you have loaded the file just to View or Print rankings, you
can load another file or quit Forecaster. If you have loaded a
file and entered scores, you probably will want to use File/Save
As to save the data; entering scores causes the rankings to
change and you probably want to save these changes. If you
attempt to quit Forecaster after entering scores, it will remind
you that you have not saved the new rankings to disk and ask if
you want to save the data first.
1.2 File_Save As CTRL+A Choosing File/Save As causes a File Save
----------------------- As dialog box to appear. Forecaster
will offer the name of the file you have loaded as the default
name for saving. You can accept that name, enter another name or
choose a name from the list box. When you press the "OK" button
or double-click on a file name, Forecaster checks whether there
is a file with the same name already on the disk. If so, it will
ask you if it should be replaced. To select a file from a
different disk drive, press the "Drive" button.
File/Save As can also be used to make backups of each week's
rankings. After you have used Quick to enter the scores, obtain
forecasts, print the rankings, and save the data, you can use
File/Save As to save the data to another disk. If you do not
regularly back up your entire hard disk, we recommend that you
make a weekly back up of the Forecaster data files. Then, if an
electronic glitch should cause MAIN-DTA.NFL to become corrupt in
the 14th week of the NFL season, you will not have to reenter all
of the season's scores in order to bring MAIN-DTA.NFL up to date.
File/Save As CANNOT be used to make copies of files. When you
use Save As to save a file (or when Quick saves an archive file),
Forecaster checks to see if scores were entered and/or spreads
forecast. If so it includes them in the archive file. If you
simply load an archive file from one directory and save it under
a different name (maybe in a different directory), the file will
contain the rankings, but not the scores or forecasts (since no
scores were entered nor spreads forecast). If you want to make
backup copies of files, you should proceed as described in the
preceding paragraph or use DOS to copy the file.
File/Save As is meant to be used after using Quick to save a
back-up copy of the data and after using Slow/Enter Scores and
Slow/Forecast Spreads for the playoffs and non-scheduled games.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 30
1.3 File_Print You can print five reports which are basically
--------------- the same as what you see in the five View
windows. You can also print the NFL schedule.
When you choose File/Print, a reports dialog box pops up with a
check box for Spreads, Team Rankings, Division Rankings, Category
Rankings, Archive Data and Schedule. When you first start
Forecaster, only the Schedule check box will be enabled. After
you load a data file, the Spreads, Team Rankings, Division
Rankings and Category Rankings check boxes will be enabled. The
Archive Data check box will be disabled unless you have loaded an
archive file. Check the reports you want to have printed and
press the "OK" button. When you save options (Options/Save
options), a list of the currently checked reports is saved. (The
state of the Archive scores/spreads check box is not saved.)
Thus, if you would like to print a Team Rankings and Spreads
report each week, check these two reports and print the reports.
Then choose Options/Save options. Now the print reports dialog
box will pop up with Team Rankings and Spreads already checked
and you can just press the "OK" button.
Forecaster reports require no fancy formatting and can be printed
on even the oldest, simplest printers (including typewriter-type
printers). You can press the "Printer Setup" button to change
printers or printer ports (see the section "Options/Print/Printer
setup").
At the top right of each report (except Archive Data and
Schedule) is printed the season and week (if you are using
Quick). You can add a title to each report and initials to the
spreads report, highlight rows, and use team or city names. See
the section "Options/Print" for more information.
While the reports are printing, a "Cancel Printing" dialog box is
displayed. If you press the "Cancel" button, Forecaster cancels
printing at the next line of the report. However, if you are
using a fast printer or computer, using a print spooler or if
your printer has its own buffer, printing may not immediately
cancel, because at the time when you press the cancel button,
large chunks of the report (or even entire reports) may have
already been sent to the printer or buffer.
Forecaster prints one report after another. If your printer
requires that you insert pages manually, do the following.
Choose only 1 report to print in the Print Reports dialog box and
print it. Insert a new page. Select another report in the Print
Reports dialog and print it. And so on.
Forecaster assumes that the page is 8.5" x 11" and that the
printer will print at 10 characters per inch in a non-
proportional (fixed) font. The left margin is sufficient for
NFL Forecaster for DOS 31
punching holes so the reports can be put in a binder.
If you want fancier reports with different and/or proportional
fonts and typefaces, you should obtain NFL Forecaster for Windows
which takes advantage of Windows superior printing facilities.
1.3.1 File_Print_Spreads Report The Spreads report shows the
------------------------------- same information as seen in the
View Spreads window as well as additional items. Boxes before
each team name are provided so that you can check your choices.
Spaces are provided after the team names for noting the scores.
The right side contains three columns with a cell for each game
-- two for checking off whether Forecaster correctly predicted
the winner and the spread (Forecaster will blank out any game
cell which is predicted as even) and whether you correctly picked
the winner (you may put your initials at the top of this column
via Options/Print/Spreads initials).
At the bottom right side, cells are provided for the total number
of predictions, of correct choices and of correct percentages for
each week for each column and to keep running totals for the
season. (Forecaster will automatically calculate the total
number of weekly predictions for you.) It is interesting as the
season progresses to see how well Forecaster does at predicting
winners and spreads and how well you do.
The spread report contains the forecasts calculated up to the
time of printing whether this is two or sixteen. If no spreads
have been forecast, Forecaster will display an error message and
return you to the main menu.
Forecaster's on-line help contains a sample Spreads report and an
explanation of it.
1.3.2 File_Print_Team Rankings Report The Team Rankings report
------------------------------------- is very similar to the
View Team Rankings window. The field upon which the rankings
were sorted before printing is indicated by a dot to the left of
the field name. The average number of points scored by each team
is printed at the bottom of the report. At the end of the season
you can use this number from each week's Team Rankings report to
calculate the average number of points scored by each team in
each game for the season. (See the "NFL Average Points Per Game"
section about the importance of this number.)
1.3.3 File_Print_Category Rankings Report This report provides
----------------------------------------- the same information
as the View Category Rankings window. The team and city names
are shortened in order to fit all of the columns on the page.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 32
1.3.4 File_Print_Division Rankings Report This report provides
----------------------------------------- the same information
as the View Division Rankings window.
1.3.5 File_Print_Archive Data In order to print archive scores
----------------------------- or spreads, you must load an
archive data file first. This function prints the scores of the
week of the archive file (except the first week, WEEK-00.yy) and
the spreads for the following week (except the last week, WEEK-
17.yy). They are printed on a single page with the name of the
archive file as titles. They never have highlighted rows. The
Archive Data check box is always unchecked when you invoke the
print dialog box; you must explicitly check it each time.
If you print the spreads report each week and fill in the scores,
there is no need to print archive scores or spreads. However, if
you want a separate, printed copy of the scores each week, do the
following. Use Quick to enter scores, obtain forecasts, save
data, and print the reports. Then choose File/Open and load the
archive file for the current week (it was just saved by Quick).
Then choose File/Print/Archive Data.
1.3.6 File_Print Schedule The current schedule (SCHEDULE.NFL) is
------------------------- printed three weeks to a page (six
pages). Options/Print/Title, and Options/General/Highlight Rows
are ignored when the schedule is being printed.
1.4 File_DOS Shell This menu item enables you to exit to the
------------------ DOS command line, from which you can execute
DOS commands or run another program (assuming there is enough
memory available). To return to Forecaster, at the DOS prompt
type "exit" and press the Enter key.
1.5 File_Exit ALT+X See the section "Quitting NFL Forecaster."
-------------------
2. Quick
========
2.1 Prompted weekly update CTRL+Q Rather than loading a data
--------------------------------- file (File/Open), individually
entering scores for each team (Slow/Enter Scores), choosing teams
for spread forecasts (Slow/Forecast Spreads), and saving the
data back to disk (File/Save As), you can use the Quick function
which does this semiautomatically. You must use the Slow
functions to enter scores and predict spreads for the playoff
games (see the "Slow" section).
When you choose Quick from the menu, Forecaster displays a dialog
box; from the list, pick which weeks you want to enter
scores/forecast spreads for. Forecaster reads the disk files
MAIN-DTA.NFL (which contains the current rankings) and
NFL Forecaster for DOS 33
SCHEDULE.NFL (which contains the current schedule).
Quick then opens a dialog box for entering scores. The teams are
displayed by conference and division in six columns. Use the
mouse (double-click on a team name) or keyboard (highlight a
team name and press the spacebar) to choose the teams that will
play in next week's games and enter the appropriate scores for
the week just completed. You can choose teams and enter scores
in any order.
A score of twenty-one will be highlighted in the list box where
you enter the scores. Acceptable scores range from 0 to 98 (see
the "Miscellaneous" section). When the teams and scores are
correct, press the "Enter" button. Forecaster will prompt you to
confirm that the teams and scores are correct and if you answer
yes it will display them in the lower part of the screen.
Forecaster will not allow you to choose a team to play itself.
When you confirm that the teams and scores are correct for each
game, Forecaster removes the team names from the list box.
Since Forecaster has read the schedule, it will know when all of
the scores have been entered and immediately update the rankings
based upon the new scores. You can press the "Cancel" button at
anytime to throw away any scores entered so far.
If you make a mistake entering scores, and do not catch the
mistake when Forecaster prompts you to confirm the scores, press
the "Cancel" button. Do NOT save the data. Choose Quick from
the menu and start over.
After Forecaster updates the rankings, it will ask if it should
save the new rankings to disk. You should answer yes, unless you
have some special reason for not saving the rankings. Forecaster
will then save MAIN-DTA.NFL and a weekly archive file.
Forecaster will calculate the spreads for the next week and ask
if you would like to forecast some non-scheduled games. You can
forecast a maximum of 16 spreads each week (2 extra for a normal
14-game week). Some users like to calculate the spreads for
their favorite team against other teams (archrivals, strongest,
division leader) each week. If you answer yes, a dialog box
similar to the Slow/Forecast spreads (see the appropriate
section) dialog box will open.
When you have gotten the spreads for as many non-scheduled games
as you want/can (or if you choose not to obtain non-scheduled
spreads), Forecaster will ask whether it should print the
reports. If you answer yes, the print reports dialog box will
open (see the appropriate section). Check the reports you want
(Spreads, Team Rankings, Category Rankings, Category Rankings)
and press the "OK" button to print them (see "Printing" for more
NFL Forecaster for DOS 34
information).
Finally, Forecaster will ask if it should open the view windows.
If you answer "yes," it will call View/Restore Layout (see the
appropriate section), opening the view windows in the sizes and
positions that you last saved via Views/Save Layout.
The week before the first game of the NFL season use Quick to
"Forecast week 1 spreads." (The archive file for this week is
WEEK-00.yy.) After the first week's games have been played, but
before the second week's games are played, use Quick to "Enter
week 1 scores & forecast week 2 spreads." Each week until after
the last week you use Quick to "Enter week x scores & forecast
x+1 spreads." After the last game of the season, you need to
"Enter week 17 scores" (since there is no 18th game to predict
spreads for).
For the playoff games and the Super Bowl, you must use Slow/Enter
Scores and Slow/Forecast Spreads because Quick cannot use the
schedule file to get scores and forecast spreads (see the "Slow"
section). See the section "Options/Seasonal" for information
about zeroing MAIN-DTA.NFL before the start of each season and
about creating a new schedule file. See the "Annual Update Disk"
section for information about purchasing an annual update disk
(with the new NFL schedule, a zeroed MAIN-DTA.NFL file and the
latest version of NFL Forecaster).
3. VIEW The View function enables you to open a view window for
======= team, division and category rankings, and spreads. The
average points per game may be displayed in a modal dialog box.
Scores and spreads from an archive file can also be viewed. The
View function also enables you to display the NFL schedule. The
View menu item is enabled whenever you (or Quick) load a file.
Use the mouse and scroll bars (or keyboard direction keys) to
scroll the window horizontally and vertically. The Home key
resets the View window to the upper left corner. The End key
resets the View window to the lower left corner. The Page Up and
Page Down keys (or clicking on the scroll bar above or below the
thumb button) move the contents of the View window up or down one
window; for example, if 8 lines are being displayed in a View
window and you press the Page Down key, the next 8 lines will be
displayed. The Up and Down arrow keys (or clicking on the
vertical scroll-bar arrows) scroll the window vertically 1 line.
The Right and Left arrow keys (or clicking on the horizontal
scroll-bar arrows) scroll the window horizontally one character.
More than one view window may be open at the same time. You can
change the size and position of a window (except the average
points dialog box) and switch from one view window to another
using the mouse or keyboard: see the section "Window" below.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 35
3.1 View_Spreads CTRL+S The forecasts are listed down the screen
----------------------- with the winning team, the losing team
and the point spread listed left to right. If a game is declared
to be EVEN (too close to call), the order of the team names is
irrelevant; the team on the left has NO advantage over the team
on the right. Forecaster does not predict spreads greater than
28 points. Only sixteen spread forecasts can be obtained at one
session; see also Forecast Spreads. Since the spreads are based
on the rankings, Forecaster will forecast spreads of partial
points -- for example, 6.5 or 3.2. Of course, no team can score
partial points, but Forecaster gives you precise spreads rather
than rounding them to 1, 2, 3, 6, or 7 points. This is
especially useful when two teams are about equally strong. It
would be misleading to forecast that a game between Dallas and
San Francisco is even or that one team will win by a field goal
when in fact one is only 1.2 points stronger than the other.
3.2 View_Team Rankings CTRL+T Across the screen are listed: the
----------------------------- team's rank (1-28); the team's
name; the total ranking; the offense ranking; the defense
ranking; the number of points the team has scored (Pts+); the
number of points scored against the team (Pts-); the average
number of points the team has scored each game (Avg+); the
average number of points scored against the team each game (Avg-
); the team's win-loss-tie percentage (0.000-1.000); and the
number of games won, lost and tied (0-16). The team's name is
also displayed at the right side to make it easier to read the
rankings when the window is scrolled to the left.
The total, offense and defense rankings range from 0 to 200 with
100 being an average total ranking, 101 being an average offense
ranking and 99 being an average defense ranking. Roughly,
average means that a team consistently scores twenty-one points
per game (or whatever the average points per game is; see section
"NFLAPPG" below) and holds the opposition to twenty-one points
per game. The higher the ranking, the stronger the team is. An
average team will display about 21 in the Avg+ and Avg-
categories. A strong offensive team will show Avg+ values
greater than 21 and a strong defensive team will show Avg- values
less than 21.
See the section "Sorting" for information about sorting View Team
Rankings.
3.3 View_Division Rankings CTRL+D Rather than being displayed in
--------------------------------- sorted order (by some
category) from 1 to 28, the View Division window displays the
teams sorted within their division and conference. They are
sorted automatically by win/loss percentage; you cannot sort them
by other categories. The same information is displayed across
the screen as with the View Team window, except that the rank
NFL Forecaster for DOS 36
listed at the left of the screen is the rank of the team
according to the last sort category used; a dot is always
displayed to the left of the "%" category header and another dot
is displayed to the left of the header of the category by which
the rankings were last sorted. If you are displaying both the
Team Rankings and Division Rankings and sort the Team Rankings,
the rankings on the left side of the Division Rankings will
change to reflect the new sort and the dot on the category header
will move.
3.4 View_Category Rankings CTRL+C This function automatically
--------------------------------- sorts each of the eight
categories (total, offense and defense rankings, points for,
points against, average points per game for, average points per
game against, and win/loss percentage) and lists the teams under
the category headings. There is a trade off between Category and
Team Rankings displays. Category Rankings is the quickest way to
get an overall picture of all of the rankings. You can sort by
any of the eight categories with Team Rankings, but you can see
the rankings displayed only by one sorted category at a time.
Category Rankings shows you all eight sorted categories at one
time. However, only the names are displayed and not the actual
rankings.
3.5 View_Restore Layout CTRL+R
------------------------------
3.6 View_Save Layout The views layout includes the position and
-------------------- size of each view window (Spreads, Team,
Category, Division) that is open. For example, let's say that
each week you would like to look at the team and division
rankings and the spreads. Open each window and size and position
them the way you would like. Then choose View/Save Views Layout.
The layout will be saved to FCAST.CFG. Now, any time that you
choose View/Restore Views Layout, the three windows will be
opened, positioned and sized as you saved them. Of course, the
spreads view window will not open unless spreads have been
forecast. The last thing the Quick function will ask you is
whether you want to open the view windows. If you answer "yes,"
Quick will call Restore Views Layout.
To clear the layout, choose Save Views Layout when no view
windows are open; then when you choose Restore Views Layout, the
four view windows will be opened (if spreads have been forecast)
and cascaded.
The views layout is saved from the View menu, not from the
Options menu. When you choose Options/Save, the views layout is
not saved. This means that you can make changes (for example,
turning row highlighting on or off) and save them without having
to be sure that all of your view windows are open, positioned and
sized correctly. Conversely, you can make changes to the views
NFL Forecaster for DOS 37
layout and save it without having to be concerned that all of the
other options are set correctly.
The view archive data window is neither saved nor restored.
NOTE: If you save the views layout while in 43- or 50-row modes
with one or more windows partially or completely below row 25 and
then restore the views in 25-row mode, part or all of a window
may be invisible because it is located below row 25 (and you may
not be able to drag it up with the mouse). If this happens,
choose Window/Move on the menu and use the arrow keys to move it
up.
If you attempt to save the windows layout and receive an error
message, you should go to the Options menu and save the options
(Options/Save). Then try to save the windows layout again. If
you still receive an error message, you should copy the original
FCAST.CFG to the Forecaster directory, because the one on your
disk must be corrupt. If there is no configuration file on disk,
you can still save options; Forecaster will create a new one.
But if there is not a valid configuration file on disk, you
cannot save views layout.
3.7 View_Average Points When you choose this menu item, a dialog
----------------------- box opens with two pieces of
information: the average points per game contained in the loaded
file and the average points per game calculated after new scores
have been entered (this will be 0 until scores are entered). You
might use this if you do not regularly print a Team Rankings
report which includes the average points per game each week it is
printed.
You can also use this option to obtain the average points per
game per week for an entire season, by loading each weekly
archive file (File/Open) and then View/Average points. This
information is useful if you adjust the NFL Average Points per
Game (see the appropriate section) after each season.
3.8 View_Archive Data Archive scores and spreads can be
--------------------- viewed only after you load an archive
file. No scores are displayed for WEEK-00.yy and no spreads are
displayed for WEEK-17.yy. Assuming you have loaded WEEK-09.93,
the scores displayed are those of the games of the 9th week of
the season and the spreads are those computed for the following
week (10).
3.9 View_Schedule When you choose this menu item, a dialog box
----------------- opens and the current schedule (SCHEDULE.NFL)
is displayed in a list box. Use the keyboard or mouse to scroll
through it.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 38
3.10 View_Calendar When you choose this item, the current month
------------------ with the current date highlighted is
displayed. Use the up and down direction keys to page forward
and backward a month at a time.
4. SORT
=======
4.1 Sort_Total ALT+T
--------------------
4.2 Sort_Offense ALT+E
----------------------
4.3 Sort_Defense ALT+D
----------------------
4.4 Sort_Pts+ ALT++
-------------------
4.5 Sort_Pts- ALT+-
-------------------
4.6 Sort_Percentage ALT+%
-------------------------
4.7 Sort_Avg+ ALT+A
-------------------
4.8 Sort_Avg- ALT+G Team Rankings are sorted by the current sort
------------------- field before being displayed. You can
change the sort field via the Sort menu which is enabled only
while viewing team rankings. Until you close the Team Rankings
window, you can resort the rankings on the field of your choice.
All fields are sorted in descending order (most to least), except
Pts- (total points scored against a team) and Avg- (average
number of points scored against a team) which are sorted in
ascending order (the fewer points scored against a team the
stronger it is). The current sort field is indicated by a dot to
the left of the sort field name on the menu, in the view window
and printed report.
When the data is saved to disk (MAIN-DTA.NFL or weekly archive
file), it is saved in the last sorted order. When you load MAIN-
DTA.NFL or a weekly archive file and View team rankings, the
saved sort order will be used unless you change the sort order
before loading the file.
Division Rankings are always sorted within each division by the
percentage field, but the rank on the left side of the window or
page is the rank according to the last team sort. Thus, if you
sort the team rankings by Defense, a team might be displayed as
first in its division in Division Rankings, but have a ranking of
10 (Defense). Category Rankings are sorted within each category.
Spreads are not sorted.
A dot is displayed to the left of the chosen sort menu item.
Like radio buttons (in a dialog box), only one sort field can be
chosen at a time. When you choose another sort field, the dot
NFL Forecaster for DOS 39
will be removed from the old choice and placed before the new
choice.
5. OPTIONS The Options menu enables you to set up a number of
========== parameters to make the program more convenient to use
and to meet the needs of your computer system. You can change
any of the configuration settings while Forecaster is running.
The settings are saved in the file FCAST.CFG which is
automatically loaded when Forecaster is run. FCAST.CFG must
be in the same directory as FCAST.EXE or in your DOS PATH
statement (see your DOS manual). If Forecaster cannot find
FCAST.CFG, it will use some default values, which you may or
may not find pleasing.
The options are grouped into several categories: (1) View
options affect only the screen display. (2) Print options affect
only printing. (3) General options affect both viewing and
printing. (4) Seasonal includes activities that you need to
perform only once-a-year before the season begins.
5.1 Options_View The four View options -- Tile windows, Toggle
---------------- video mode, Turn shadows ON/OFF, and Colors --
affect the screen display.
5.1.1 Options_View_Tile windows When you chose Tile from the
------------------------------- Window menu (see below), all
open View windows are resized and repositioned so that no window
covers any part of another window. When windows are tiled, they
can be placed side-by-side or one above the other.
5.1.1.1 Options_View_Tile Vertical When the View windows are
---------------------------------- tiled vertically, they are
placed side-by-side with no window covering any part of another.
5.1.1.2 Options_View_Tile Horizontal When the View windows are
------------------------------------ tiled horizontally, they
are placed one above the other with no window covering any part
of another.
5.1.2 Options_View_Turn shadows ON/OFF When a color monitor is
-------------------------------------- in use, Forecaster's
menus, windows and dialog boxes are accompanied by shadows which
give them a 3-D look and make them easier to isolate visually on
a crowded desktop. If you prefer, you can turn shadowing off.
However, this function does not turn off shadowing of buttons in
dialog boxes which are used to give the impression that the
buttons have been depressed and released. Button shadowing can
be turned off via the Options/General/Colors menu item (see
below).
NFL Forecaster for DOS 40
5.1.3 Options_View_Toggle video mode This options enables you to
------------------------------------ switch your monitor to and
from a video mode that displays more than 25 rows. More rows
means that you can see the entire contents of a View window
without having to scroll through it. However, it also means that
the characters will be smaller and more difficult to read. If
you have an EGA video adaptor, 43 lines can be displayed. If you
have a VGA adaptor, 50 lines can be displayed.
5.1.4 Options_View_Colors Choosing this menu item invokes a
------------------------- dialog box by which you can choose the
foreground and background colors of the various components of the
Forecaster display.
Forecaster's on-line help contains a sample choose color dialog
box and explanation.
The Colors dialog box consists of two list boxes, a text display
area, the standard OK, Cancel, and Help buttons. On color and
black-and-white systems, it also contains two color palettes
while on monochrome systems, it contains a set of radio buttons
instead of the palettes.
On the left side of the dialog box is a list box in which you
choose the region of the program that you want to customize. The
various elements are grouped under headings. For example all of
the elements that make up the menu system are grouped as "Menus."
When you choose a group from the Group list box, all of the items
that make up that group are listed in the Item list box. For
example, menus have normal text, selected text, disabled text,
and so on.
On color and black-and-white systems, you use the Foreground and
Background palettes to choose the colors for the elements in the
Items list box. For example, you could choose Menus from the
Group list box, then Selected text from the Item list box, and
then set the colors of a selected menu item to white (foreground)
on blue (background).
On monochrome systems, you use the Colors set of radio buttons to
modify the character attributes (instead of colors).
On all systems, the display text (above the Help button) shows
the current color or attribute settings.
Changes do not take effect on the desktop until you close the
Colors dialog box by choosing OK. Because there are so many
color items, it can take some time to get everything to look just
the way you like. Therefore, after you have completed
customizing Forecaster's colors and saved them (see
NFL Forecaster for DOS 41
"Options/Save" below), you should make a back-up copy of
FCAST.CFG (the file that contains the options). If the file
becomes corrupt or is accidentally deleted, you can easily and
quickly restore all of the options you have customized by using
the back-up copy of FCAST.CFG.
One of the elements listed in the Items list box when you choose
Dialogs in the Group list box is "Clusters." A cluster is a
group of controls, such as radio buttons or check boxes.
Forecaster has only one cluster: the group of check boxes in the
Print Reports dialog box.
If you want to remove ALL shadows, first choose the menu item
Options/View/Shadows. Then choose Options/View/Colors/Dialog
boxes/Button shadow and set the foreground and background colors
to the same color used as the dialog box's background color
(static text, labels, etc.).
5.2 Options_Print The three Print options -- Setup, Reports
----------------- title, and Spreads initials -- affect only
printing.
5.2.1 Options_Printer setup This menu item opens a dialog box
--------------------------- from which you can pick a printer
and printer port. The same dialog box opens when you press the
"Printer Setup" button when the Print Reports dialog box is
displayed.
Most printers are connected to the parallel printer port LPT1.
If your printer is connected to LPT2 or LPT3, you should press
the appropriate radio button. If your printer is connected to a
COM (serial) port, you should use the DOS MODE command to
configure your printer's baud, parity, etc. and to redirect
printer output from the parallel port to the serial port. For
example, at the DOS prompt you might type "mode lpt1=com1". See
your DOS manual for more information.
Because Forecaster's reports are uncomplicated, there are only
three printer choices:
1. Laser printer -- If you have a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet (any
model) or if your laser printer is compatible with the Hewlett-
Packard LaserJet (most are), then press this radio button.
2. Dot matrix w/ graph characters -- If your printer can print
the IBM extended character set, press this button. Your printer
need not be a dot-matrix printer; it can be any printer that is
not a laser printer and can print the extended character set.
3. Dot matrix w/o graph characters -- If your printer is not a
laser printer and cannot print the IBM extended character set (a
NFL Forecaster for DOS 42
set of characters used to draw boxes), you should press this
radio button. Most printers in this category are older printers
such as the Epson MX (without the Dots Perfect upgrade), early
daisy-wheel and typewriter-type printers. Forecaster will use
printable ASCII characters to draw boxes and lines.
5.2.2 Options_Print_Title of reports You can enter up to 11
------------------------------------ characters that will appear
at the top left of the Spreads, Team Rankings, Category Rankings,
and Division Rankings reports -- your name or the date, for
example.
5.2.3 Options_Print_Spreads initials You can enter three
------------------------------------ characters (usually your
initials or first name) that will appear at the top of the third
column on the Spreads report. In this column you check off
whether you picked the correct winners.
5.3 Options_General The General options affect both printing and
------------------- viewing.
5.3.1 Options_General_Highlight rows Row highlighting in the
------------------------------------ Spreads, Team Ranking and
Category Ranking view windows takes the form of drawing every
fourth row in the color you choose for highlighting menu items
via Options/View/Colors. In the Division Rankings view window,
each division title is highlighted.
Row highlighting on the Team Rankings and Category Rankings
reports takes the form of a line drawn beneath every fourth row.
The Division Rankings, Archive Data and Spreads reports have
their own row highlighting which cannot be turned off.
5.3.2 Options_General_Turn sound ON/OFF If Sound is turned on,
--------------------------------------- warning, error, and
informational messages are accompanied by a beep to get your
attention.
5.3.3 Options_General_Names Whenever a reference is made to a
--------------------------- team, whether on screen or on a
printed report, you can have Forecaster use either the team's
name or its "city" name.
5.3.3.1 Options_General_Names_Use city names The team's
-------------------------------------------- geographical name
will be used: for example, Miami, New England, Arizona.
5.3.3.2 Options_General_Names_Use team names The teams "mascot"
-------------------------------------------- name will be used:
for example, Dolphins, Patriots, Cardinals.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 43
5.3.4 Options_General_NFLAPPG Via this menu item you can change
----------------------------- the value that Forecaster uses for
the NFL Average Points Per Game. Be sure to read the section
"NFL Average Points Per Game" above before changing this value
which can range from 15.0 to 30.0. It is unlikely that you will
ever want or need to change this value. It is here because some
users change it at the beginning of each season to reflect the
previous season's average points per game and because you cannot
read the configuration file (FCAST.CFG) into an editor to
change it. You must NEVER try to modify FCAST.CFG using an
editor or word processing program (see the section "File Formats"
above).
5.4 Options_Seasonal Forecaster uses game scores, current
-------------------- rankings and accumulated points for and
points against to compute new rankings and to calculate point
spreads. Thus, at the beginning of each season MAIN-DTA.NFL must
be modified so that points for and against and average points for
and average points against are set to zero. For the program to
be useful, the number of wins, losses and ties and the win/loss
percentage for each team must also be set to zero. Forecaster's
Quick function uses SCHEDULE.NFL to prompt you for scores and to
calculate point spreads, so a new schedule must be constructed
before the new season begins. You can use a word processing
program to create a MAIN-DTA.NFL file and assign your own
rankings to each team (see the section "File Formats"). However,
NFL Forecaster provides functions for zeroing MAIN-DTA.NFL,
creating a new schedule, and displaying or printing the schedule.
You can also purchase an annual update disk which contains MAIN-
DTA.NFL, SCHEDULE.NFL and the latest version of NFL Forecaster
(see the section "Annual Update Disk").
5.4.1 Options_Seasonal_Zero MAIN-DTA.NFL You need to zero
---------------------------------------- MAIN-DTA.NFL only once
a year before the new season begins. This utility prepares a new
MAIN-DTA.NFL file for a new season. It takes the data from one
file (usually MAIN-DTA.NFL), modifies it and saves it as MAIN-
DTA.NFL. The number of points scored by a team and scored
against a team, the average number of points scored by a team and
scored against a team, the number of wins, losses and ties, and
the win/loss percentage must be set to zero, since at the
beginning of a new season no team has scored any points or won
any games.
You will be asked for the name of the source file you want to use
to create the updated MAIN-DTA.NFL. Since Forecaster is used
through the playoffs and Super Bowl, the rankings contained in
MAIN-DTA.NFL at the end of a season are a bit distorted because
only some teams play in the playoffs. Thus, most users choose to
use the weekly archive file from the last week of the previous
season as the source file. In this case it is best to rename
NFL Forecaster for DOS 44
MAIN-DTA.NFL to POSTBOWL.YY (for example, POSTBOWL.92) before
using MAIN-DTA.NFL update. Then you will have an archive data
file of the rankings after the last week of the season and
another of the rankings after the Super Bowl. If you use MAIN-
DTA.NFL as the source file, it is renamed to MAIN-DTA.OLD and the
new data is saved as MAIN-DTA.NFL.
You have two choices when updating MAIN-DTA.NFL for the new
season: you can Keep (carry over) the total, offense and defense
rankings or you can give each team an equal and Average total,
offense and defense ranking.
Keep sets the points for, points against, win, loss, tie, and
win/loss percentage categories to zero. The total, offense and
defense rankings are carried over (kept). Usually you will want
to carry over the old rankings because despite the draft and
other activities intended to produce parity, the NFL teams do not
start each season as equals.
Average sets the points for, points against, win, loss, tie, and
win/loss percentage categories to zero. The total, offense and
defense rankings of every team are set to an average value (total
= 100; offense = 101; defense = 99). Because the rankings are
all equal, all of the games for the first week of the season will
be declared Even. Most users do not use this function, but you
might want to see how the rankings would work out IF the season
began with parity among the NFL teams.
The default button in the dialog box is "Cancel." You must tab
to "Keep" or "Average."
NOTE: Two new teams are supposed to join the NFL next year.
Therefore, the format of MAIN-DTA.NFL will change and this
function will not work. See the note at 5.4.2.
5.4.2 Options_Seasonal_Create new schedule If you purchase an
------------------------------------------ annual update disk,
you do not have to create a new schedule yourself. This function
opens a dialog box similar to the one used by Slow/Forecast
Spreads. You use it to indicate which two teams play in every
game of the new season. After you choose two teams, press the
"Game OK" button. You will be asked to confirm that the choices
are correct. You also will be asked to confirm that the choices
are correct after each week's schedule has been entered. You
cannot selectively make corrections; that is, you cannot go back
and fix game three of week seven or game eleven of week twelve.
You must make corrections immediately or a week at a time. If a
week has 14 games, Forecaster will know when an entire week's
games have been entered. If a week has less than 14 games, press
the "Week OK" button.
NFL Forecaster for DOS 45
If you press the "Cancel" button, Forecaster will ask you to
confirm that you want to stop. Although this function makes
creating a new SCHEDULE.NFL file quite easy, there is still a
substantial amount of work involved. You cannot save a partial
schedule and resume work at a later time; thus, the choice to
cancel should not be taken lightly.
When you create a new schedule, SCHEDULE.NFL is renamed to
SCHEDULE.OLD. If SCHEDULE.OLD exists, it is overwritten. To
save each year's schedule, rename it before you choose
Options/Seasonal/Schedule/Create new schedule (for example,
SCHEDULE.93).
Note: This function helps you create a 17-week schedule for 28
teams. If the NFL changes the length of the season or increases
the number of teams, this function cannot be used to create a new
schedule. For many years the NFL season was 14 weeks long and
later 16 weeks. Then for 3 years it was 17 weeks and last season
it was 18 weeks. This season they have gone back to a 17-week
season. Even if the NFL stays with a 17-week season next year
(95-96), two new teams are supposed to join the league.
Therefore, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to use
this function to create a new schedule. However, the annual
update disk contains a new MAIN-DTA.NFL file, a new SCHEDULE.NFL
file and the latest version of NFL Forecaster. When you register
Forecaster, you receive a coupon worth 25% off the price of your
first update disk. So you can upgrade for next season for $5.25.
If the NFL keeps the schedule at 17 weeks after the 95-96 season,
you will not need to purchase an update disk.
5.5 Options_Save options When you choose Options/Save, the
------------------------ current values for all of the options
are saved to FCAST.CFG. The options saved and their values
when you first run Forecaster are:
-- tile windows vertically or horizontally (vertically)
-- shadows (yes)
-- video mode (25 lines)
-- colors
-- printer setup (LPT1 and Dot Matrix w/ graph chars)
-- the reports title (94-95 v. 2.0d)
-- spreads report initials (YOU)
-- row highlighting (yes)
-- sound on (yes)
-- team or city names (city);
-- NFLAPPG (21.0)
Options are NOT automatically saved when you quit Forecaster;
therefore, you can experiment without changing the settings in
FCAST.CFG which aren't changed until you select Save from the
Options menu. Also contained in FCAST.CFG are Views Layout
NFL Forecaster for DOS 46
and the reports that you have checked in the Print/Reports dialog
box (see the appropriate sections for more information).
If there is no FCAST.CFG file on your disk when you save the
options, Forecaster will create a new one.
It can take some time to set all of the options just the way you
like. Therefore, after you have completed customizing
Forecaster's options and saved them, you should make a back-up
copy of FCAST.CFG (the file that contains the options). If
the file becomes corrupt or is accidentally deleted, you can
easily and quickly restore all of the options you have customized
by copying the back-up copy of FCAST.CFG to your Forecaster
directory where Forecaster can find it when it runs.
6. SLOW Slow enables you to manually pick the teams to forecast
======= spreads for and to manually enter scores. Generally,
you should not have to use Slow. There are ONLY TWO occasions
when you have to use Slow.
FIRST, you must use Slow/Forecast Spreads and Slow/Enter Scores
for playoff games because Quick uses the SCHEDULE.NFL file to
prompt you for scores and forecast spreads and the playoff teams
are unknown at the beginning of the season when the schedule file
is created.
SECOND, it is necessary to enter scores and forecast spreads via
Slow when there is a disruption of the NFL schedule as happened
in 92-93 when a hurricane caused the Miami-New England game to be
postponed for several weeks. In that case, you could not use
Quick to enter the scores for the first week because there was no
score for the Miami-New England game. Further, during the week
when the postponed game was played, Quick would not forecast
spreads for the Miami-New England game because it was not on the
schedule. If you have to use Slow because there is a disruption
of the NFL schedule, be sure to save the data to disk since the
new rankings will be the result of actual games. Save both MAIN-
DTA.NFL and a weekly archive file (Quick normally does this for
you). See the sections "File/Open" and "File/Save As" for
information about loading and saving files.
Except in these two cases, you should not use Slow. If you do
use it to "play around" and enter scores, be sure not to save
data to disk (the rankings will not reflect the scores of actual
games).
It is crucial that you obtain forecasts for next week's games
only AFTER you have entered last week's scores (and, therefore,
have updated the rankings). Otherwise, the forecasts will be
based on last week's rankings. This is not a problem if you use
Quick, but you must remember to do this in the proper order if
NFL Forecaster for DOS 47
you use Slow: Enter the scores and then Forecast the spreads.
6.1 Slow_Manually enter scores CTRL+E In order to use Slow to
------------------------------------- Enter scores, you must
first load a file -- either MAIN-DTA.NFL or a weekly archive file
-- because new rankings are based upon current rankings (which
are contained in a disk file). The Enter Scores dialog box
displays the teams by conference and division in six columns.
Using the mouse or keyboard, choose the teams that played in last
week's games and enter the appropriate scores. You can choose
teams and enter scores in any order: pick team, enter score, pick
team, enter score; or pick team, pick team, enter score, enter
score; or enter score, pick team, enter score, pick team; etc.
A score of twenty-one will be highlighted in the input box where
you enter the scores. Acceptable scores range from 0 to 98 (see
the "Miscellaneous" section). When the teams and scores are
correct, press the "Enter" button. Forecaster will prompt you to
confirm that the teams and scores are correct and if you answer
"yes" it will display them in the lower part of the screen. If
you answer "no," you can reenter the teams and/or scores. When
you have entered all scores for all of the games, press the
"Done" button. Forecaster will immediately update the rankings
based upon the new scores. You can press the "Cancel" button at
anytime to cancel Slow/Enter Scores and throw away any scores
entered so far.
Forecaster will not allow you to choose a team to play itself.
After you confirm that the teams and scores are correct for each
game, Forecaster will remove the team names from the list box.
This prevents you from accidentally entering a team twice. When
the scores for fourteen games have been entered (the maximum
number), Forecaster will automatically close the dialog box. See
also the relevant sections for viewing and printing the rankings
and spreads.
If you make a mistake entering scores, and do not catch the
mistake when Forecaster prompts you to confirm the scores, press
the "Cancel" button. Do not save the data. Then reload the file
and reenter the scores.
6.2 Slow_Manually forecast spreads CTRL+F In order to forecast
----------------------------------------- spreads, you must
first load a file -- either MAIN-DTA.NFL or a weekly archive file
-- because spreads are based upon current rankings (which are
contained in a disk file).
The Forecast Spreads dialog box displays the teams by conference
and division in six columns. Using the mouse or keyboard,
choose the teams that will play in the up-coming games. Then
press the "Forecast" button and Forecaster will display the
NFL Forecaster for DOS 48
winner of the game and the winning point spread at the lower part
of the screen. When you have obtained forecasts for all of the
games of the next week, press the "Done" button. You can press
the "Cancel" button at anytime to cancel Slow/Forecast Spreads
and throw away any spreads you have obtained so far.
Forecaster will not allow you to choose a team to play itself; it
will, however, allow you to choose the same team more than once.
Thus, you can test your favorite team against other teams in
hypothetical games. When sixteen forecasts have been computed
(the maximum number), Forecaster will automatically close the
dialog box. See also the relevant sections for Viewing and
Printing spreads.
7. Window This menu item enables you to position, size, close
========= and switch View windows.
7.1 Window_Tile When View windows are tiled, they are arranged
--------------- on the desktop side-by-side or one above the
other (see "Options/View/Tile"), so that no window covers any
part of another window.
7.2 Window_Cascade Cascade causes all open View windows to
------------------ resize and overlap each other. When View
windows are cascaded, they are stacked one on top of th other so
that a small portion of each one is visible.
7.3 Window_Close all This will cause all open View windows to
-------------------- close.
7.4 Window_Size/Move CTRL+F5 Use this command to change the size
---------------------------- or position of the active window.
Use the arrow keys to move the window. If you press Shift while
using the arrow keys, you can change the size of the active
window. Once you've adjusted its size or position, press Enter.
With a mouse you move a window by dragging its title bar and
resize a window by dragging the resize corner (lower right)
7.5 Window_Zoom F5 Choose Zoom to resize the active window to
------------------ the maximum size. If the window is already
zoomed, you can choose this command to restore it to its previous
size.
You can also click on the window's zoom icon or double-click
anywhere on the window's title bar.
7.6 Window_Switch F6 Choose this menu item to cycle forwards
-------------------- through the open View windows making each
the active window in turn. You can also click the mouse inside
NFL Forecaster for DOS 49
an inactive window to make it active.
7.7 Window_Previous SHIFT+F6 Choose this menu item to cycle
---------------------------- backwards through the open View
windows making each the active window in turn. You can also
click the mouse inside an inactive window to make it active.
7.8 Window_Close ALT+F3 Choose this menu item to close the
----------------------- active View window. You can also click
the Close box in the upper right corner of the window.
8. Help The file FCAST.HLP must be in your Forecaster
======= directory in order to access on-line help. See also the
section "Help" above.
8.1 Help_Help on Forecaster Help Choose this item for a
-------------------------------- description of how to use
Forecaster's on-line help.
8.2 Help_Contents Choosing this item will display the Table of
----------------- Contents of Forecaster's on-line help.
Choosing an item from the Table of Contents will display that
topic. Anytime you are viewing an on-line help topic you can
press Shift+F1 to display the Table of Contents.
8.3 Help_Introduction
---------------------
8.4 Help_Overview
-----------------
8.5 Help_Catching Up
--------------------
8.6 Help_Menu Commands
----------------------
8.7 Help_Error Messages
-----------------------
8.8 Help_Registration
---------------------
8.9 Help_Shareware Choosing any of these Help menu items will
------------------ cause the appropriate topic to be displayed.
8.10 Help_About Choose this item to display the NFL Forecaster
--------------- version number and copyright information.
8.11 Help_Print manual Choosing this item will cause the NFL
---------------------- Forecaster manual to be printed. The
printer setup dialog box will be first displayed so that you can
choose a printer and printer port.
8.12 Help_Print registration form Choosing this item will cause
--------------------------------- the NFL Forecaster
registration form to be printed. (See the "Why Should I Register
NFL Forecaster for DOS 50
NFL Forecaster?" section above.) Press the Printer Setup button
to choose a printer and printer port.
NFL FORECASTER FOR DOS 2.0 REGISTRATION FORM
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