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1994-03-24
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16KB
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351 lines
A L F R E D - THE AUTOMATIC LMP FILE RECORDER AND DEVELOPER v1.2
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
03/12/94
================
[1] INTRODUCTION
================
The Automatic Lmp File REcorder and Developer (ALFRED) is a very handy
utility to simplfy the recording, viewing and storing of the many .LMPs one
may collect over time. It automatically looks for the chosen .LMP file in the
seven .LMP directories, and will act accordingly for .LMPs that were made with
RANDOOM .W or PWAD .wad files.
The program was simple enough to be written in the DOS batch language, which
has one major advantage- practically ANYONE can change the way it works to
suit whatever needs they want. If you don't like the way it works, FIX IT
YOURSELF!
Please read ALL of this document, since some things mentioned early in this
document may only be explained in later sections (RanDOOM & PWAD .LMPs).
============
[2] FEATURES
============
ALFRED has been designed to record and play many different types of .LMPs
quickly and efficiently. ALFRED can currently do the following:
- Record regular .LMPs from any episode, map, and skill through
user-friendly prompts.
- Play .LMPs from other directories, which avoids cluttering up your
DOOM directory with .LMPs.
- Display introductory text files before the .LMP is played. Very
handy for remembering what each .LMP is about.
- Play and record .LMPs made with a RanDOOM configuration. All you need
to provide is the weight file and the character seed, and ALFRED
will take care of the rest.
- Creates (from a Blank template) or edits introductory text files and
RanDOOM weight files using the MS-DOS editor.
- Play and record .LMPs made with different PWAD files.
As with most programmers, however, I have the nasty habit of always
adding "just one more" feature. There's always room for improvment, and in
the future I plan to add the following:
- Recording Multiplayer .LMPs (if possible).
- Automatic compression and uncompression of .LMPs using .zip files.
- Slideshow feature.
- Full screen, frame-by-frame .LMP editor, allowing you to pause,
rewind and fast-forward an .LMP -- NOT! (Still, I wonder if that could
be done in a batch file? Hmmm...)
Programming Gurus please note: ALFRED was originally just a 5 line batch file
designed just to play an .LMP, but as you can see things sorta got out of
hand. Since the program is a batch file, you've been given the chance to see
how much my code looks like pasta. Please, no comments. I already know you
can do better. I am in no way a professional programmer, and if I was, I'd
be working for ID software.
==============================
[3] ALFRED'S FILE ORGANIZATION
==============================
Because of the large amount of .LMP files one can collect over time, ALFRED
has been designed to group them into seven separate directories (in the LMP
directory), named as follows:
HALL : Hall of Fame .LMPs
LEVELS : .LMPs of every level
MISC : Strange and/or weird miscellaneous .LMPs
MULTIPLR : Multiplayer .LMPs (none found yet - sorry!)
NITEMARE : NIGHTMARE! .LMPs
PWAD : PWAD .LMPs and their respective .wad pwad files.
RANDOOM : RanDOOM .LMPs with their respective .W weight files.
(NOTE: whenever I mention 'the seven directories' later on in the document,
I am referring to those above)
ALFRED will ONLY look for .LMPs in these seven directories. If you want
ALFRED to play your old .LMPs you will either have to copy them into any of
these directories, or modify the LMP.BAT to make ALFRED look elsewhere. When
recording an .LMP with ALFRED, you will be asked what directory you wish the
.LMP to be stored in. Once the .LMP is recorded, it will be moved to the
chosen directory. NOTE: RanDOOM and PWAD .LMPs will automatically be stored
in their respective directories.
Right now ALFRED, called LMP.BAT ('ALFRED' is too long to type, ok?), is
configured to run in your DOOM directory, and assumes to have the LMP
directory (and its seven subdirectories) in the DOOM directory as well. Once
again, being a batch file, ALFRED can be edited and changed to look elsewhere.
==========================
[4] PARAMETER DESCRIPTIONS
==========================
ALFRED has several parameters, some of which must be executed in order.
The general usage is as follows:
LMP [r|w|t|p] lmpfile [pwadfile|seed]
Please note:
- No extensions (.lmp, .w, .txt, .wad) are necessary.
- typing LMP LIST will get a directory of all the .LMP files
in the seven directories.
Descriptions:
lmpfile : Could be either lmpfile.lmp, lmpfile.w or lmpfile.txt
r : Record an .LMP. If a 3rd parameter is given, it is assumed to be
a pwad file. If the pwad file is not in the WADS directory,
ALFRED will ask if the 3rd parameter was intended to be the seed
of a RanDOOM .LMP.
w : Create/edit RanDOOM .W file as lmpfile.w from a template. It looks
for and saves these files in the LMP\RANDOOM directory.
t : Create/edit introductory text file as lmpfile.txt. ALFRED will
check the seven directories for a corresponding lmpfile.lmp, and
if it does not find any, ALFRED will ask where to put it.
p : Plays DOOM according to a RanDOOM .W file lmpfile.w and a
random seed (no .LMPs played or recorded).
pwadfile: If ALFRED discovers a second parameter (or third parameter when
recording) as pwadfile, it will first check to see if pwadfile.wad
exists in the WADS directory. If it could not find pwadfile.wad,
then ALFRED will ask if it was intended to be a RanDOOM seed.
seed : If playing or recording a RanDOOM .LMP, then a seed must be
provided as the 3rd parameter.
============
[5] EXAMPLES
============
The best way to explain how to use ALFRED is by examples. Listed below is
just about all the possible ways of using ALFRED:
lmp Typing 'lmp' without parameters will get a
help screen.
lmp list Displays a list of all .LMPs in any of the seven
directories (HALL, LEVELS, MISC, MULTIPLR, NITEMARE,
PWAD, RANDOOM)
lmp lmpfile Searches for lmpfile.lmp in the seven directories
and plays it. NOTE: For RanDOOM lmps, you must
provide a seed as a second parameter.
lmp lmpfile pwadfile Plays lmpfile.lmp with pwadfile.wad. If lmpfile and
pwadfile have the same name, then no second parameter
need be given.
lmp lmpfile c Plays lmpfile.lmp from the LMP\RANDOOM directory with
seed 'c'. NOTE: you must also have lmpfile.w and
lmpfile.txt in the LMP\RANDOOM directory in order to
view it.
lmp r lmpfile Records a DOOM session under lmpfile.lmp, and
will prompt for directory, episode, level and
skill.
lmp r lmpfile pwadfile Records lmpfile.lmp using pwadfile.wad as a PWAD
file. Since it is a PWAD .LMP, it will be placed in
the LMP\PWAD directory automatically.
lmp r lmpfile c Records a DOOM session under lmpfile.lmp as
a RanDOOM .LMP, with seed 'c'. Will prompt for
episode, level and skill. NOTE: you must have
created a lmpfile.w weight file beforehand in the
\LMP\RANDOOM directory.
lmp w wfile Creates a new RanDOOM .w file, using a basic template,