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1993-01-13
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BATTLETECH MAP EDITOR
Version 1.2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Code, Graphics by Brian Futrell
Sprite overlapping routine by Fred Sexton Jr (QB News Vol 2, No 3)
Other routines from PBClone QuickBASIC library v1.7 (registered)
by Thomas G. Hanlin III
Battletech is a trademark of FASA Corporation.
QuickBASIC is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.
NOTICE!!!
=========
This program is SHAREWARE. This means that a person or a group of people
decided to release this software on a "try before you buy" basis. Try the
program out for thrity (30) days. If you continue to use the program after
that, send a $10.00 check or money order to:
Brian Futrell
2633 Pleasant Hill Dr.
Zebulon, NC 27597
Registered users do not have to register future updates of this program and
get rid of the annoying screens that appear when exiting the program.
WARRANTY
========
This program is distributed AS IS, meaning that there is no warranty of any
kind attached to this program. I, Brian Futrell, am not responsible if this
program damages your computer (it shouldn't) or is not suited to a particular
task. I have tried the program on my computer (a 386 operating at 40 and 16
mhz) and the program has worked without difficulty.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
====================
A knowledge of the Battletech science fiction combat game,
An IBM PC/XT/AT/386/486 with 512k of memory (AT or above recommended),
A Microsoft or compatable mouse and mouse driver,
A MCGA/VGA video graphics card and monitor,
A 720k or higher capacity floppy disk or hard drive (hard drive recommended)
Also recommended is a disk cache of approximately 512k to speed up disk
operations.
PROGRAM FILES
=============
The following files are found in the archive. All of them must be present,
with the exception of the documentation, in order for the program to work
properly.
BTASHAPE.ARY BTMAEDIT.EXE BTMASHP1.DAT
CMAP.BOX CREDITS.BOX DISK.BUT
DISKBOX.ARY EBUTTON.ARY EDIT.BUT
ERASE.BUT ETEXT.BUT EXITP.BOX
GCHARS.ARY LARGEEND.ARY LSBUTS.ARY
MANAMES.DAT MAP1.DAT MAP2.DAT
MAP3.DAT MAP4.DAT MAP5.DAT
MAP6.DAT MAP7.DAT MAP8.DAT
MAPPLAQ1.BOX MAPPLAQ2.BOX MMCLRS.CLR
MMENU.ARY OMENU.ARY OOPS.BOX
OTHER.BUT OVERWRIT.BOX OVERWRIT.BUT
RZMAP.BOX SIZEMAP.BUT SMALLEND.ARY
TENTRY.BOX
Also, when maps are saved and there are no previously stored ones on the disk,
extra files are created. MANAMES.DAT is the file that stores the names of
every map in the directory. Mapxx.DAT is the actual map file where xx is a
number from 1 to 9999.
STARTING THE PROGRAM
====================
To load the program, go to the drive and directory that the program is stored
in and type BTMAEDIT. The program will then check for a mouse and a VGA/MCGA
graphics card. If the program finds both of the forementioned items, it will
load data into the computer's memory, then display the title screen. To start
editing maps, press the OK button. To exit back to dos, press the EXIT
button.
THE SCREEN
==========
The screen is divided into two sections, as shown below:
+----------------------+---------+
| | |
| | |
| | Menu |
| Map | |
| | |
| Area | |
| | Area |
| | |
| | |
| | |
+----------------------+---------+
The Map Area is where a portion of the map is displayed. To scroll around the
map, use the blue arrows on the top of the Menu Area. The name of the map is
displayed at the bottom of the screen in the Map Area.
The Menu Area is where you can alter the map and scroll through it. Each of
the items will be described in detail below, althoug I have tried to make this
program as easy to use as possible.
MAIN MENU
=========
The main menu conatins everything neccessary to edit the map. To do other
things, like resizing the map, naming the map, and disk operations use another
menu.
+-----------+ Directional Arrows (arrows are Blue):
| ^ | -------------------------------------
+-----+-----+ These buttons scroll the map in the direction indicated.
| << | > | When scrolling, the coordinate window will change. This is
+-----+-----+ the coordinate of the upper-left hex.
| v |
+-----------+
+-----+-----+ Terrain Buttons
| | | ---------------
| | | These buttons select the type of terrain that will be placed
+-----+-----+ on the map if your cursor is in a hex when the mouse button
is pressed. The selected terrain will have a green square
beside it.
+-----+-----+ Level Buttons
| ^ |\---/| -------------
| / \ | \ / | These buttons raise and lower the level of the terrain
|/---\| v | affected by the terrain buttons. When these are pressed,
+-----+-----+ all of the terrain types will visibly change to indicate
the level selected.
+-----------+ Other Button
| /\ | ------------
| \/ther | This button displays the menu in place of the main menu.
+-----------+ Each of the options will be explained in detail in the
OTHER MENU area in the document.
OTHER MENU
==========
This is where all of the non-editing tasks are performed. This is also where
the program is exited from.
+-----------+ Name Button
| NAME | -----------
+-----------+ This is where you edit the name of your map. Use the cursor
keys to move the cursor and type your map name in. ENTER
changes the name of your map to the one that was typed. ESC
keeps the name of you map to what is was previously.
The mouse cursor can also be used. To place the text cursor
under a specific position, move the mouse cursor to the
location and press either mouse button. To accept the text,
press the OK button. To abort, press the EXIT button.
+----------+ Resize Map Button
| +------+ | -----------------
| +---+ | | This button resizes the map into one of four configurations:
| | | | | 16 hexes wide by 17 hexes long,
| +---+--+ | 32 hexes wide by 17 hexes long,
+----------+ 16 hexes wide by 34 hexes long,
32 hexes wide by 34 hexes long.
SELECTING A MAP SIZE WILL CLEAR THE MAP!!!!!
+-----------+ Erase Map Button
| +-------+ | ----------------
| +-------+ | This button will ask for confirmation before earsing the map.
| | | | To continue and erase the map press the YES button. To
+-----------+ To abort the erasure, press the EXIT button.
+-----------+ Load Map Button
| +-----+| ---------------
|<<- | o || This button displays a list of the files in the directory.
| +__|__+| To load a file, press the mouse button when the cursor is on
+-----------+ one of the filenames. The box beside the filenaame will
+-----------+ Load Map Button
| +-----+| ---------------
|<<- | o || This button displays a list of the files in the directory.
| +__|__+| To load a file, press the mouse button when the cursor is on
+-----------+ one of the filenames. The box beside the filenaame will
light up indicating that the file has been selected. To load
that file, press the LOAD button on the right of the file
list. If there are more than 12 filenames, You can scroll up
and down the file list by pressing the up and down arrow to
the right of the file list.
+-----------+ Save Map Button
| +-----+| ---------------
| -> | o || This button displays a list of the files in the directory.
| +--|--|| To save the map as a mew one, press the NEW button and the
+-----------+ file list will be automatically updated. To overwrite an
existing map, press the mouse button when the cursor is over
the filename. The square beside the filename will light up,
indicating that the filename has been selected. Then press
the SAVE button. A menu will come up asking if you want to
overwrite the file. To overwrite the file, press the YES
button. To abort, press the NO button.
+-----------+ Credits Button
| --/ | --------------
| / | This button displays the program credits. To exit this
| /- | simply press either mouse button.
+-----------+
+-----------+ Mini Map Button
| +------+ | ---------------
| | | | This button displays a scaled-down view of the map. Each
| +------+ | type of terrain is represented by a diffrent color. Once the
+-----------+ map has been displayed, press either mouse button to exit.
+-----------+ Exit Other Button
| EXIT | -----------------
| OTHER | This button exits the OTHER MENU and re-enters the Main Menu.
+-----------+
+-----------+ Exit All
| EXIT | --------
| ALL | This button will exit the program to DOS, but it will first
+-----------+ ask for confirmation. To exit to DOS, press YES. To abort,
press EXIT.