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Desert Frog Screen Scenes v3.3 for DOS BBS Special Edition
Table of Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
3.0 INSTALLATION
3.1 ADDING SCREEN SCENES TO YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE
4.0 USING SCREEN SCENES v3.3 FOR DOS
4.1 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
4.2 HOTKEYS
4.3 MENU OPTIONS
5.0 HOW TO CONTACT US
6.0 CUSTOM PROGRAMMING
7.0 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
8.0 REGISTRATION AND SITE LICENSES
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This is Desert Frog Screen Scenes v3.3 for DOS BBS Special
Edition (Screen Scenes). This unregistered version of Screen
Scenes provides 3 different scenes. It is a tiny sample of
the 49 (16 non-VGA) scenes included in the registered
version of the program. The wide range of registered scenes
includes a kaleidoscope, an aquarium full of Crazy Fish,
the long-awaited hopping frog scene and a set of wild
256-color palette-animated fractals!
Screen Scenes v3.3 is easy to control and customize. Each
scene can be enabled, disabled or demonstrated individually.
The length of time to delay before popping up can be set to
between 1 and 60 minutes. All the scenes can be password
protected, preventing unauthorized use of your PC. You can
leave multi-line messages on the screen or hit the "instant-
on" key if the boss walks by at an inconvenient time.
Screen Scenes looks at the keyboard, mouse and printer to
decide when it should pop up. This means that it will not
pop up when you are entering data or printing.
2.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Desert Frog Screen Scenes for DOS v3.3 requires a hard disk
and a color CGA, EGA or VGA video card and monitor.
Grayscale VGA monitors are also supported. Expanded memory
is recommended but not required. The program works with DOS
versions 2.0 to 6.2 and is compatible with Microsoft and
Logitech mice. OS/2 and Geoworks are NOT supported (see
below for coexistence with unsupported programs).
Screen Scenes requires 420K of available RAM during
installation and removal from memory. Screen Scenes also
requires 1,400K of space on your hard disk or 700K on your
hard disk and 700K available EMS memory. Screen Scenes
occupies less than 7K of RAM when waiting to pop up.
3.0 INSTALLATION
Screen Scenes is easy to install. Just copy the files in
this archive into a directory on your hard disk. The
recommended name for this directory is DFSS, but any name
can be used.
The Screen Scenes program itself is called SCRSCENE.EXE. To
run it enter the path and file name as shown below (assuming
that Screen Scenes is installed in a directory called DFSS
on your C: drive):
C:\DFSS\SCRSCENE
Using the full path as shown above guarantees that Screen
Scenes can find it's files when trying to pop up.
3.1 ADDING SCREEN SCENES TO YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE
The best way to use Screen Scenes is to add it to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This file is basically a list of
commands that are performed each time you turn on your PC.
By adding Screen Scenes to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you will
save yourself from having to run it manually.
Screen Scenes should be loaded after any network drivers or
communication programs or other programs that receive real-
time messages. Screen Scenes should also be loaded after
multitasking software like DesqView or OmniView. Finally,
Screen Scenes should be loaded before any DOS Shell or menu
programs.
As an example, assume you have installed Screen Scenes in
the C:\DFSS directory. You would then add the following
line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
C:\DFSS\SCRSCENE
Do NOT add this line to your PATH statement. It should be a
separate line.
Using the full path as shown above guarantees that Screen
Scenes can find it's files when trying to pop up.
The next time you reboot or power up the system, Screen
Scenes will be automatically loaded and ready to save your
screen.
4.0 USING SCREEN SCENES FOR DOS v3.3
Screen Scenes has a wealth of options, allowing you to
customize the program for your system and personal style.
When you run the program, you can set one or more command
line options. Once the program is installed in memory, you
can use the menu system or the hotkeys to further control
the operation of the program. You can also just run the
program without using any of the options. In the vast
majority of cases everything will work perfectly without any
further effort on your part.
4.1 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Screen Scenes can accept various commands when it is run
from the DOS prompt. There are two types of command line
options. One type controls how Screen Scenes configures
itself. This type is entered when Screen Scenes is first
run, and the configurations they set do not change while the
program is in memory. The other type commands Screen Scenes
to do something now. These only work when Screen Scenes is
already active.
The following are command line options. They are entered
like this: SCRSCENE /D /S C:\DFSS. This set of options
tells Screen Scenes to always swap to the disk and to put
its swap files in the DFSS directory on the C: drive.
The command line options are:
/D force disk swapping. Allows you to prevent
Screen Scenes from using expanded memory. You
would want to choose this option if you need to
reserve the expanded memory for another program,
or if you have an extended memory RAM disk that
you would like to use for the Screen Scenes swap
files.
/G go to sleep. Allows the user to prevent Screen
Scenes from popping up automatically. It is no
longer necessary to use this command when running
your telecommunication software. Also useful if
Screen Scenes causes problems when popping up
over a particular program. Use this command line
option when Screen Scenes is already active.
/H hexkey specify TSR hotkey in hexadecimal notation. It
is possible that one of the programs you use may
itself use the default <ALT><.> hotkey for
something. If that is the case you will want to
change the hotkey which activates Screen Scenes
to something other than <ALT><.>. This option
allows you to do so. Two alternate hotkeys are:
<ALT><LeftShift><Z> (enter A2C as the hexkey) and
<ALT><TAB> (enter 80F as the hexkey). See
section 4.2.1 CREATING CUSTOM HOTKEYS for
instructions on creating hotkeys other than those
shown above.
/M disable swapping messages. Screen Scenes
normally displays a message when swapping itself
to and from the hard disk. If you don't want the
message displayed, select this option.
/N no mouse detection before popping up. The Screen
Scenes mouse motion detection routine may
conflict with some programs. Use this option to
disable the mouse detection in case of conflicts.
/S path specify drive and directory for swap files. When
swapping itself to the disk, Screen Scenes
normally puts it's swap files in the C:\
directory. If you want them stored somewhere
else, use this option to enter the drive and
directory to use. Use this command to change the
drive to one that has more space if you see a
message like "Swap path invalid or insufficient
swap space" when you run SCRSCENE.EXE.
/U unload Screen Scenes. Removes Screen Scenes from
memory. This will not be possible if another TSR
program has been loaded after Screen Scenes.
Screen Scenes will provide a message on the
screen telling whether or not it was successfully
unloaded. Use this command line option when
Screen Scenes is already active.
/V force VGA graphics. On some systems Screen
Scenes has trouble detecting that the video card
is VGA compatible. Use this command line option
to force the use of VGA mode, regardless of what
video card the program thinks you have. Use this
option when you first run Screen Scenes (put it
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). If you do not have a
VGA system, DO NOT use this command.
/W wake up. Reactivates the Screen Scenes automatic
pop-up code. Use this command when the program
is asleep and you are ready for it to resume it's
automatic function. Use this command line option
when Screen Scenes is already active.
/? show these command line options. Use this
command line option when Screen Scenes is already
active.
4.2 HOTKEYS
Hotkeys are commands to Screen Scenes that can be used at
any time, including while another program is running! Each
hotkey is actually a pair of keys depressed simultaneously.
Hotkeys are shown like this in the descriptions that follow:
<ALT><.> This means to depress the ALT and the . keys
simultaneously. It is called the Alt-Period
hotkey.
<ALT><,> Alt-Comma is the "Instant-on" hotkey. When
pressed, this hotkey tells Screen Scenes to
immediately display a scene. If Screen Scenes is
swapping to disk it will actually take several
seconds for the scene to appear. If Screen
Scenes is popping up over a graphics-mode program
there will be an additional delay while Screen
Scenes stores the contents of video RAM on the
hard disk. The advantage of using this hotkey
is that it lets you bypass the menu system if you
just need a scene on the screen right now.
Alt-Comma is not active when the Main Menu is
active, a scene is visible on the screen, or for
several seconds after a scene has been
deactivated.
<ALT><.> Alt-Period activates the Main Menu. For details
about the use of the Main Menu see section 4.3.
Alt-Period is not active when the Main Menu is
already visible or when a scene is visible on the
screen.
<ALT><;> Alt-Semicolon tells Screen Scenes to go to sleep.
This hotkey is useful when you don't want Screen
Scenes to pop up automatically. It is no longer
necessary to use this hotkey during
telecommunication sessions. It is also useful if
Screen Scenes causes problems when popping up
over a particular program. For situations where
you know you will always want Screen Scenes to
sleep, you are better off using the command line
switches in a batch file as described in section
4.1.
<ALT><'> Alt-Single Quote tells Screen Scenes to wake up.
This hotkey reactivates the Screen Scenes
automatic pop-up code. Use this command when the
program is asleep and you are ready for it to
resume it's automatic function. There is an
equivalent command line switch that can be used
in a batch file (see section 4.1).
4.3 MENU OPTIONS
The Screen Scenes main menu can be activated by pressing
<ALT><.> (Alt-Period) once Screen Scenes is installed. The
menu provides information about the program and allows the
user to configure the program to his or her taste. The main
menu is also the place to create a message to leave on the
screen. The menu options are:
About - Provides information about this version of Screen
Scenes as well as information about other Desert Frog
Software products. This screen also acknowledges the Stone
Soup Group, authors of the program FRACTINT. FRACTINT was
used to generate all the fractal scenes. Press a key to
exit this screen.
Exit - Exit the main menu. Returns you to the DOS prompt or
to whatever program was running when you hit <ALT><.>.
Configure - Allows the user to modify the operation of
Screen Scenes. Sets the number of minutes to delay before
popping up, enables/disables the main menu sound effects,
enables/disables password protection (see Password below)
and enables/disables borders on those scenes which support
them. Press <CTRL><ENTER> when done modifying these
parameters.
To move the highlight down the list press ENTER, the Down
arrow, TAB or Page Down. To move up the list press the Up
Arrow, Shift TAB or Page Up. Note that the mouse is not
enabled when the configure screen is active.
Select Scenes - Provides a scrolling list of the available
scenes. Scenes are enabled (eligible to pop up) when there
is a check mark to the left of the scene name. The
currently selected scene is highlighted. The currently
selected scene can be enabled, disabled or demonstrated.
When a demonstration is being run, the screen will appear
exactly the way it would if the scene were popped up.
Moving the mouse or pressing a key ends the demonstration.
A list of currently enabled scenes is saved whenever you
exit the scene list.
Keyboard Control - To move the highlight down through the
list you can use the Down Arrow, Right Arrow or Page Down
keys. To move the highlight up through the list use the Up
Arrow, Right Arrow or Page Up keys. Pressing the Space Bar
toggles the highlighted scene between the enabled and
disabled states. To run a demonstration of the highlighted
scene press the Enter key. Press any key to exit the
demonstration. Press the Escape key to exit the scene list
and return to the Main Menu.
Mouse Control - To highlight a scene move the mouse cursor
(a red block with a white triangle in it) over the name of
the scene you wish to highlight and click the left mouse
button. To enable or disable the highlighted scene, click
the left mouse button while the mouse cursor is on the
highlighted scene name. Repeated clicking of the left
button toggles the highlighted scene between enabled and
disabled. To view a demonstration of a scene, highlight the
scene name then click the right mouse button. To end the
demonstration move the mouse or click either mouse button.
Along the right-hand side of the scene list is a vertical
bar with an arrow facing up at the top of the bar and one
facing down at the bottom. This is the scroll bar. To move
the highlight down through the scene list place the mouse
cursor over the downward facing arrow on the scroll bar and
click the left mouse button. Repeated clicking will move
the highlight to the end of the visible list of scenes and
will scroll the list to display scene names that are not
currently visible.
To move the highlight up through the scene list place the
mouse cursor over the upward facing arrow on the scroll bar
and click the left mouse button. Repeated clicking will
move the highlight to the top of the visible list of scenes
and will scroll the list to display scene names that are not
currently visible.
It is also possible to move through the list by placing the
mouse cursor on the scroll bar itself and clicking the left
button. If you place the mouse cursor at the top of the
scroll bar and click, the highlight will be moved to the top
of the list of scenes. If you place the mouse cursor at the
bottom of the scroll bar and click, the highlight will be
moved to the end of the list of scenes. If you place the
mouse cursor in the middle of the scroll bar and click, the
highlight will be moved to the middle of the list of scenes.
Note that the scroll bar represents the entire list of
scenes and not just those that are visible at the moment.
Password - Allows the user to enter a password for use with
all the scenes. When password protection is enabled (see
Configuration above) and a scene is active, the PC will
remain locked with the scene active until the proper
password is entered or the PC is turned off or otherwise
rebooted.
When typing your password, the characters you type will be
replaced by asterisks (*) on the screen so that no one can
see what you have typed. When finished entering the
password, press Control-Enter <CTRL><ENTER>. You will then
be asked to reenter the password to confirm it. The
password must be 20 characters or less. Your password is
encrypted and saved with the other configuration data when
you exit the password screen. It is not necessary to enter
your password every time you turn on the computer, the
password you select remains in force until you enter a new
one.
Leave a Message - Allows you to leave a message on the
screen containing up to 5 lines of 35 characters. Just type
your message into the space provided on the message screen.
Most editing keys (Arrows, Insert, Delete, etc.) are
functional but automatic word-wrap is not provided. Each
line of the message is automatically centered. Password
protection is active for messages if it has been selected on
the configuration screen.
5.0 HOW TO CONTACT US
There are three good ways to contact Desert Frog Software.
They are:
Phone: (602) 843-0183
U.S. Mail: Desert Frog Software
P.O. Box 10413
Glendale, AZ 85318-0413
CompuServe: 70641,1102
Address your questions to Bill Mann.
6.0 CUSTOM PROGRAMMING
Desert Frog Software provides custom programming services.
We specialize in graphically-oriented applications for DOS
and Windows and provide a high-quality scanning service.
Custom versions of this program are also available.
To discuss your project contact Bill Mann at (602) 843-0183.
We are located in Arizona, which is always on Mountain
Standard Time. Our time is two or three hours earlier than
on the East Coast and the same time as, or one hour later
than, the West Coast, depending on time of year.
7.0 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Desert Frog Software provides free technical support to
users of our products. Please see section 5.0 HOW TO
CONTACT US.
8.0 REGISTRATION AND SITE LICENSES
Please use the registration information for your country or
region. If your location is not listed, use the US
registration information.
All registered users receive the latest version of Desert
Frog Screen Scenes, a printed manual, technical support,
upgrade notices and reduced prices on upgrades.
Discounted site licenses are available for all Desert Frog
products. See section 5.0 for information on how to contact
us directly.
US REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The registration fee for Desert Frog Screen Scenes v3.3 is
$20.00 plus shipping and handling.
Desert Frog Software
Screen Scenes Order Desk
P.O. Box 10413
Glendale, AZ 85318-0413
All checks/money orders must be in US funds and drawn on a
US bank.
US REGISTRATION FORM
Name ____________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________
City _____________________________ State ________________
Zip Code ______________ Telephone Number __________________
Specify Disk Format: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25"
Shipping/Handling
Quantity Price US Non-US Total
____ Screen Scenes v3.3B $20.00 $3.00 $5.00 _____
Subtotal _____
Arizona residents add sales tax _____
Total _____
If you don't mind answering a question, where did you get
this copy of Desert Frog Screen Scenes?
___________________________________________________________
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The registration fee for Desert Frog Screen Scenes v3.3 is
$35.00 Australian. This includes shipping and handling.
Orders can be placed with:
BUDGETWARE
P.O. Box 496
Newtown NSW 2042
AUSTRALIA
Phone (02) 519-4233 Int'l +61 2 5194233
Fax (02) 516-4236 Int'l +61 2 5164236
BUDGETWARE accepts cheques, money orders, BANKCARD, VISA and
MASTERCARD.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND REGISTRATION FORM
Name ____________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________
City _____________________________ State ________________
Zip Code ______________ Telephone Number __________________
Specify Disk Format: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25"
Quantity Price Total
____ Screen Scenes v3.3B $35.00 Australian _____
Total _____
EUROPEAN REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The registration fee for Desert Frog Screen Scenes v3.3 is
17 Pounds Sterling. This includes shipping and handling.
Send your registration to:
Hillfoots Data Services
Mains House
Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire
FK13 6PQ, UK
EUROPEAN REGISTRATION FORM
Name ____________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________
Specify Disk Format: [ ] 3.5" [ ] 5.25"
Quantity Price per copy Total
____ Screen Scenes v3.3B 17 Pounds Sterling _____
Total _____
