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ShareWare OnLine Volume 2 (CMS Software)(1993).iso
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WORDZ.DOC
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1993-03-05
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╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ Corporate Headquarters BBS (815) 886-3233 ║
║ (815) 886-9381 ║
║ ║
║ W O R D - Z ║
║ v1.0 ║
║ ║
║ MULTI-BBS Support ║
║ Supporting PCBoard, Wildcat!, Gap, QBBS, RBBS, Spitfire, WWIV, ║
║ UltraBBS, Telegard, TriTel, and Remote Access ║
║ ║
║ Copyright 1993 ║
║ by Robert Neal ║
║ 317 Hickory Avenue ║
║ Romeoville, IL 60441 ║
║ ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Word-Z is released as SHAREWARE. You are granted a limited license to
evaluate the program. Try it out, if you continue to use it you are required
to register the program.
To register the program send $15.00 along with your name and BBS phone # to:
Robert Neal, 317 Hickory Avenue, Romeoville, IL 60441. See the file MAILER.TXT
for additonal pricing information and special discounts available. You
may also register ONLINE with Visa, MasterCard, American Express or
Discover by calling the support BBS at (815) 886-3233 or (815) 886-9381.
Simply type CHARGE at the main menu.
Once you register Word-Z, you will be given your own unique registration
number that will inform Word-Z that the program is registered. The BBS name
supplied with payment will be the name used to create your unique
registration number.
THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS ARE DISTRIBUTED "AS IS" WITHOUT
CHARGE AND WITHOUT WARRANTY, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ANYONE INVOLVED WITH THE CREATION AND
PRODUCTION OF THIS PRODUCT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF ANY USE THEREOF OR BREACH OF ANY WARRANTY.
Word-Z is a online game, based somewhat on the board game CrossWords.
It's easy to play, making it great for all ages (my 7 year old son
finds it fun to play - and it stimulates his vocabulary), but it's also
challenging to keep players busy trying over and over to improve their
Word-Z average.
Word-Z is a game where the player tries to complete the WORD-Z (you'll
understand when you see the game) by completing three words all linked
together forming the WORD-Z (believe me, you'll understand when you
see the game) from a random selection of letters. In each round the
player is displayed a letter, this letter may be placed in the WORD-Z or
discarded. Players are limited to only 10 discards per round. Once the
WORD-Z is filled, Word-Z checks the words created against it's own
dictionary. Word-Z awards points for each correct word based on a
set value for each letter. Invalid words are ignored. Refer to the
WORD-Z.HLP file for additional playing information.
As distributed, Word-Z has a dictionary file of over 800 three letter
words. Feel free to add your own to the WORDZ.DIC file using your
favorite text editor. Don't worry about making sure the list is sorted
as Word-Z doesn't require a sorted listing. You may make the WORDZ.DIC
file almost as large as you'd like, a test file of 3200 words was used
to test Word-Z. The routine used to validate words is so fast that even
with 3200 words, Word-Z was able to validate all three words almost
instantaneously (really).
Word-Z keeps track of dual scoreboards, one ranking each player on their
overall monthly average per round and a second ranking the top 10 Word-Z
scores for the month. Word-Z will automatically reset the scoreboard at
the start of each month, requiring no sysop maintenance after initial
set-up.
FEATURES OF Word-Z
- Easy to install and requires no maintenance.
- Ansi colors and display.
- Terminates cleanly through exit code even on runtime error.
- Automatically creates a top score listing suitable for inclusion
as a text/bulletin file for display within your BBS. Both an
ANSI and ASCII file is created.
- Detects loss of carrier.
- Operates in local mode (either direct from BBS or from command line).
- Sysop function keys to return to the board, chat mode, user stats,
increase/decrease time, etc.
- Direct support for PCBoard, WildCat!, Gap, QBBS, RBBS, WWIV,
Ultra BBS, Telegard, TriTel and Remote Access.
- Support for baud rates up to 115,200
- Support for COM1-15. Optional command line for non-standard IRQ's.
- Supports PCBoard environment variables %PCBDRIVE% and %PCBDIR%
- Support Fossil Drivers. A Fossil driver is not required to use the
program.
- Fully Multi-Node compatible.
FIRST TIME OPERATIONS
Simply create a directory for Word-Z and copy all files distributed
with Word-Z to this directory. Additional data files will automatically
be created the first time Word-Z is run.
CONFIGURING THE PROGRAM
Using your favorite text editor, edit the file WORDZ.CFG. Below is the
layout of this file:
C:\PCB\PCBOARD.SYS
Corporate Headquarters
Bob
Neal
15
0
Line 1 = Full pathname of your door file. Formats supported by this
program are: PCBOARD.SYS, USERS.SYS, DOOR.SYS, USERINFO.DAT,
CALLINFO.BBS, DORINFOx.DEF, SFDOORS.DAT and
CHAIN.TXT, GTUSER.BBS, DOOR.SYS, and TRIBBS.SYS.
When using USERINFO.DAT, DOOR.SYS must be in
the same directory as USERINFO.DAT.
Line 2 = BBS name
Line 3 = Sysop First Name
Line 4 = Sysop Last Name
Line 5 = number of rounds per day that a player may play. I suggest
a daily limit of 10 to 20, but tailor to your own needs.
Line 6 = Registration number. Leave as 0 if unregistered.
Note: This door supports the PCBoard environment variables %PCBDRIVE%
and %PCBDIR%. Non-PCBoard systems may also use these variables by
including the following either in your BBS batch or AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
SET PCBDRIVE=C: <- Drive letter of your BBS files
SET PCBDIR=\BBS <- Path of your BBS files
Then, in your WORDZ.CFG file, on the first line you may put:
%PCBDRIVE%%PCBDIR%\PCBOARD.SYS, %PCBDRIVE%%PCBDIR%\DOOR.SYS, etc.
This allows you to use just one .CFG file for multi-node operation.
EXECUTING PROGRAM
To execute the program, enter the filename followed by the config file
name (ie WORDZ WORDZ.CFG). If you are running the program from the command
line, you may optionally enter WORDZ LOCAL. The only problem with this
is the default user name sysop is used instead of the name on your board.
This is good for testing the game before putting it on your system, but
you should once play begins, execute the program locally from your BBS or
consistantly run the game from the command line when you play.
You may also specify a non-standard IRQ. Put the IRQ number after the
.CFG on the command line. For example: WORDZ WORDZ.CFG /5. This example tells
the program to use IRQ 5 instead of the standard IRQ.
You may also use the procedure above and create a variable IRQ so that
you can pass the IRQ setting as: WORDZ WORDZ.CFG /%IRQ%
Some users may have had conflicts when using non-standard IRQ's on
Novell/Netware systems. Novell seems to use the "/" character for
parameter passing. You may not optionally use the "*" character instead
of the "/", for example WORDZ WORDZ.CFG *%IRQ% is valid. Both "*" and "/"
will work.
You also have the option of running the game as 'stand alone' (without a
BBS). To do so, type WORDZ NOBBS. You will now be prompted to enter
your name. This is useful for testing the program offline for sysops and
have had people find this useful to play as a non-BBS door.
AUTOMATIC MAINTENANCE
The program will automatically during the first play of each new month
reset it's user file and top score listing. The previous months scoreboard
will automatically be renamed to WORDZ.OLD and WORDZG.OLD. This can then
be included as a text file to display the previous months winners.
You should be aware of this so if you are starting a new game for the
first time towards the end of the month, the game will automatically perform
the maintenace come the first of the month.
As an option, you may pass the parameter "NEW" on the command line, for
example WORDZ NEW. This will reset _all_ Word-Z data files, including the
overall high scorer information.
FOSSIL DRIVER
Word-Z now includes support for FOSSIL drivers. This means that the
program will now work with Digiboard (for Wildcat M and PCBoard/M
versions) and other multi-port boards. To activate the Fossil driver
support just include /FD on the command line in your door batch file.
For example: WORDZ WORDZ.CFG /FD
If no Fossil driver is available, Word-Z will display a message
indicating such and exit cleanly.
This documentation will not go into the mechanics of how you set-up a door
program on your BBS. It is assumed that you have a working knowledge of
how to complete this task.
SYSOP KEYS ACTIVE
F3 - Toggles the printer On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard and/or
written to DOOR.SYS and USERS.SYS
F4 - Toggles the Page Bell on/off. Value is passed to PCBoard
and/or written to DOOR.SYS and USERS.SYS
F5 - DOS Shell. Allows SysOp to exit to DOS from inside a DOOR.
F7 - Toggles the Caller Alarm On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard
and/or written to DOOR.SYS and USERS.SYS
F8 - Returns the caller involuntarily to the BBS.
F9 - Toggles the local display On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard
and/or written to DOOR.SYS and USERS.SYS
F10 - Activates SysOp CHAT mode within the DOOR.
ESC - Deactivates CHAT mode. DOOR is resumed.
UP - Give the caller extra time while in the DOOR.
DN - Subtract time from the caller while in the DOOR.
HOME - HELP key for Status Line options.
ALT-N - SysOp next on toggle. Value passed to PCBoard. (PCBoard only)
ALT-X - PCBoard will exit after current caller logs off. Value is
passed to PCBoard. Not available on non-PCBoard systems.
FILES USED AND CREATED
WORDZ.EXE - The program itself
WORDZ.DOC - Documentation for the sysop to run Word-Z
WORDZ.DIC - Dictionary file
WORDZ.CFG - Configuration file
The following files will be created by Word-Z
WORDZ.USR - User file of current players
WORDZ - Top 10 scores in ascii format can be used as a bulletin
WORDZG - Top 10 scores in ANSI format
WORDZ.OLD - Previous month top 10 ascii bulletin
WORDZG.OLD - Previous month top 10 ANSI bulletin
WORDZ.DAT - Contains information for scoreboard
WORDZ.HI - Contains overall high score information
WORDZ.AVG - Data file for scoreboard
WORDZ.TOT - Data file for scoreboard
CONTACT ME FOR SUPPORT
If you encounter any problems you may contact me at Corporate Headquarters
BBS (815) 886-3233 or (815) 886-9381.
I can also be reached via the RIME network in the SYSOP, DOORS,
SHAREWARE and BBS SOFTWARE conferences as well as the COMMON conference.
If you have any suggestions for improvements for this program, please feel
free to let me know. This game has included suggestions from users of my
BBS during beta testing.
VERSION HISTORY
v1.0 - (03/05/93)
Initial Release
DISTRIBUTION SITES:
As always you can find the latest version of Word-Z available for
downloading from Corporate Headquarters BBS.
Calls for support for Word-Z should be directed only to
Corporate Headquarters BBS.
Corporate Headquarters BBS (815) 886-3233 (14400 v.32bis)
886-9381 (14400 v.32bis)