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Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso
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-READ.ME-
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Text File
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1991-01-10
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8KB
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197 lines
PC HACK version 3.4 for MSDOS(tm) computers
-------------------------------------------
April 1, 1986
============================================================================
PC HACK 3.4 Overview
This is the complete PC implementation of UNIX version of HACK 1.03.
There are a few enhancements:
1) Configuration uses less environment space.
2) PC HACK can use graphics characters for the dungeon. This *is*
supported on DEC Rainbows.
3) Floppy, RAMdisk, and HardDisk support. A RAMdisk makes the game
much faster, especially for floppy-only systems.
4) A bunch of new options. Pack sorting, confirmation before
hitting tame monsters, turning the bell off, whether you pick up
everything you step on. Numeric keypad for moving on IBM BIOS
compatible computers.
5) Protection against disk full problems.
PC HACK requires ANSI.SYS to be installed. You need to have a
line like:
device=ansi.sys
in your config.sys file.
The documentation HACK.DOC is formatted for 66 line paper in
case you want to print it out. The simplest way to print the
documentation is:
copy hack.doc prn:
Configuration Overview
----------------------
Basically, people with HardDisks will want to create the directory:
\GAMES\HACK for the PC HACK support files (of course, you can
choose your own directory name, but for this short discussion,
assume this name). Copy all files except HACK.EXE and HACK.CNF
into \GAMES\HACK. Copy HACK.EXE and HACK.CNF into a directory
accessible by the PATH environment variable (you might use \GAMES).
Edit the HACK.CNF file to remove the comment characters `#' from
the `hard disk configuration' and put comment characters in front of
each line of the `two floppy configuration'. Change OPTIONS to put
in your player name and other options. If you are using a directory
other than \GAMES\HACK, change HACKDIR to your directory choice.
At the MSDOS prompt type:
C> hack
and you should be playing.
People with floppy only systems will want to keep all PC HACK files
on one floppy (called the "GAME" disk), and have 1 or 2 extra
formatted floppies, one called "LEVELS" and one called "SAVE". The
LEVELS floppy will be in "B" drive. The SAVE floppy can be used
for storing saved games.
The GAME disk (in drive A:) must contain a copy of COMMAND.COM
if you wish to use the `!' command (start up a new COMMAND.COM)
and for copying bones files, which uses COMMAND.COM. I suggest
using "format /s" to create a bootable GAME disk, then copying
all files except HACK.DOC and HINTS.DOC to the GAME disk. Copy
ANSI.SYS to the GAME disk and put the line:
device=ansi.sys
in your CONFIG.SYS file.
Edit HACK.CNF to put in your personal OPTION choices (see HACK.DOC
for details).
At the MSDOS prompt type:
A> hack
and you should be playing.
The documentation HACK.DOC has further details for configuration of
PC HACK for your system. Neither HINTS.DOC nor HACK.DOC are needed
by HACK when you are playing so you can move them to your documentation
disk or directory.
============================================================================
To: All beginner HACKERS
Re: An overview and some hints
The file HINTS.DOC is meant for people who have never played HACK
or ROGUE before and want a description of what they can do in HACK.
Clearly, the major fun in HACK is discovery and surprise, so there
are not many details in HINTS.DOC
============================================================================
RAMdisk
If you have a RAMdisk, PC HACK can use it for a quieter and faster
game. In HACK.CNF put a line like:
RAMDISK = d:
`d' is a drive letter, usually C or D. The colon `:' is required.
============================================================================
DEC Rainbow users
You must *NOT* use the `rawio' option. If you do, your computer
will hang. If some kind DEC Rainbow user could send me the
details of the MSDOS IOCTL call I could put `rawio' in for
DECs too.
You can use the "line-graphics character set" for displaying
the dungeon. Since DECs only use 7-bit characters (decimal
value 0 - 127), take the decimal value of the line-graphic
character you want and add 128 to it. Now it will have
decimal value from 128 - 255 and PC HACK will recognize that
you want a character from the line-graphic character set and
will output the appropriate character.
In order for PC HACK to treat the graphics characters properly,
you must use the `DECRainbow' option.
============================================================================
Changes since PC HACK 3.3
1) Better handling of RAMdisks. When the RAMdisk fills, old
level files are swapped to permanent storage.
2) Added commands ^A (control-A, abort) and `a' (do again).
Moved the apply command to `A'.
============================================================================
Changes since PC HACK 3.2
1) Much faster copying of "bones" files to and from the RAMdisk
2) No need for the environment variable HACKDIR. Put
HACK.CNF somewhere on your PATH and HACK will find it.
HACKDIR still exists, but is now inside HACK.CNF
3) A bugfix for `Da' occasionally causing the dungeon to collapse.
4) A bugfix for a tame worm collapsing the dungeon when it
tried to follow you down the stairs.
5) Some non-PCDOS version of ANSI.SYS do not have default
numeric values. This has been compensated for.
6) A small change concerning a few monsters. I'll leave it
to you to find the change, but I hope you like it as I
would like to add something like this to more monsters.
============================================================================
Changes since PC HACK 3.0
1) A bug involving the GRAPHICS variable in save and bones
files has been fixed. Unfortunately this means all old
save files and bones files will be unusable. All other
files are OK.
2) A bug in the confirm option has been fixed, so if you answer
`n' to the prompt about `Really hit?', the monsters don't
move.
3) *IMPORTANT* It is now impossible to `run' into monsters.
You can only walk into them. This was done because the
PC version is slower than the UN*X version and sometimes
keystrokes would get queued up. Now you can use the
`running' commands (HJKL ... ) to cruise in corridors
without accidentally hitting Nymphs or Lepies.
============================================================================
Miscellaneous
The problem with ^P causing `echo to printer' being turned on has been
solved, thanks to help from Mark Zbikowski (markz@microsoft.UUCP). The
solution was to use a PCDOS function call for IOCTLs to change the
terminal into `raw' mode. An added bonus is noticeably faster display
speed. However, the PCDOS and MSDOS versions of this function call are
not identical and this function call *hangs* DEC Rainbows.
To avoid this problem, DEC Rainbow users must *NOT* use the
`rawio' option (see the HACK.DOC for more details). For IBM
computers the `rawio' option works fine. IBM compatibles may or may
not have problems with it. Try `rawio' and if your system doesn't
do strange things then use it.
============================================================================
Don Kneller
UUCP: ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!kneller
ARPANET: kneller@ucsf-cgl.ARPA
BITNET: kneller@ucsfcgl.BITNET
USmail: D. G. Kneller
2 Panoramic Way #204
Berkeley, CA 94704