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Text File | 1995-01-23 | 32KB | 866 lines

THE PIT v4.xx - SYSOP DOCUMENTATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written by James R. Berry Welcome to The Pit 4.0, the latest release from Midas Touch Software. This document has been prepared with the new player in mind. It explains step by step by step how to play, with special attention to new features introduced in this version. Game Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Regal City had a problem. Thieves and vagrants owned the streets, tormenting honest merchants and ambushing visitors. And if that weren't bad enough, those few honest citizens that could swing swords were teaming up into gangs of vigilantes, adding to the violence. In a fit of desperation, King Reginald Hornbluff cleared out the dust and debris from the town square and constructed a huge arena. Then, he issued an invitation for the thieves and vigilantes to meet in the town square to settle their differences publicly. This appealed to the egos of both groups; they agreed to appear. On the night of the big event, the stands were packed with innocent townspeople wanting revenge. King Hornbluff was not a stupid man, he charged the townspeople 3 gold pieces a head to watch the fight and sold sausages and beer at an outrageous markup. The first battle between the thieves and the vigilantes was bloody, violent, and extremely profitable. So profitable in fact, Hornbluff scheduled a rematch. As time passed, the duels in the arena became more and more popular. Young men who would have turned to thievery now became gladiators, earning fame, glory, and no small amount of gold. Hornbluff sent his men to capture monsters from the surrounding territory to challenge these warriors. Today Regal City is a legend. Warriors come from all around for a chance at honor, glory, and a quick buck. Hornbluff's Arena, known simply as The Pit, features battles between some of the strangest and most powerful creatures in the land. Rumor has it that even the Gods themselves will visit to smash foolish mortals wishing to challenge them. These fights are profitable, but usually very short. 3 And that's where you come in: a lowly farmer's boy ready to seek his fortune in Regal City. You've done odd jobs along the way, sweeping stables and tending livestock, and you've saved every penny for a sword and armor once you get there. Maybe one day you'll become one of the true legends, an Immortal. Or perhaps just a dark spot on the floor to be swept away with the sawdust. Either way, it's in your hands. Copyright (c) 1990-94 by MIDAS TOUCH SOFTWARE, all rights reserved Copyright (c) 1990-94 by James R. Berry, all rights reserved 2 WHAT'S IN THE ARCHIVE --------------------- FILES INCLUDED IN PIT4XX.ZIP: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PIT.EXE - Executable of THE PIT v4.xx online game. CONTROL.EXE - This program allows you to configure the THE PIT's options to match those needed by your particular BBS system. PEDIT.EXE - This program is a PLAYER EDITOR. With it you can adjust any players stats to those that you desire. PITEDIT.EXE - This program allows the SYSOP to edit weapons, enemies, magic, and other settings in THE PIT. It is a powerful program with too many options to summarize. PBULL.EXE - This program generates a TOP 10 LISTING for use as a bulletin by your BBS. RANKBLD.EXE - This program uses your PLYR.LST and PLYR.DAT files to rebuild your RANK.DAT (Player Ranking List). Use this if your list of rankings has become corrupted. PLAYER.DOC - This file is all of the documentation needed by players. Note however that a majority of this information is contained within the game itself in the form of online instructions. SYSOP.DOC - The file you are now reading. ORDER.FRM - Order Form (Fill out to register THE PIT). HINT.DOC - Lists hints and other userful information about behind the scenes info on THE PIT. (ie. percentages in regards to the TAVERN and other things like ASSASSINS and the DARK AVENGER) 3 SYSOP COMMANDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are a few commands that can be activated only by a local sysop. They are listed below: <F1> - Help Screen - Lists these function key commands <F2> - System Status (Memory, Stack Space) <F3> - Add five minutes to time left for player. <F4> - Subtract five minutes from time left for player. <F5> - Throw player out of THE PIT. <F10> - Chat with player in a two color chat mode. 4 FEATURES OF THE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MULTILINE CHAT/COMBAT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have a multiline BBS, THE PIT is capable of handling chat and player vs. player combat. Players chat in a multiline chat window in real time. From inside that area players can challenge each other to combat, and provided the other player accepts, they drop into a multiline arena to do battle. GRAPHICS ~~~~~~~~ THE PIT is capable of displaying graphics to the local player. It will play sound effects/music through a sound card or pc speaker. And mouse control is also provided. ANSI EMULATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This game simulates ANSI with its own fast screen write routines. The ANSI.SYS device driver is not required to see the ANSI screens properly. In fact the program even pops windows up using ANSI emulation and restores the background to its original condition. BBS MUSIC ~~~~~~~~~ This game will send BBS MUSIC to terminals that are capable of playing it (QMODEM, TELEMATE, ect.). It will also play the music locally only when the local sysop is playing. Sound effects enhance the game by having weapons clang, arrows fly and healers chanting... CHAT MODE ~~~~~~~~~ This game also includes a CHAT MODE that will pause the timer while the player is chatting. A pop-up window will appear that is in split screen chat mode. VISUAL BATTLES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The primary thing this game offers that many others do not is a visual battle. Multiple opponents move about on the screen in an attempt to defeat the player. Arrows fly, and make sounds as they take flight. And a defeats even end with a death march. BATTLE SAVE ~~~~~~~~~~~ If a player is in the middle of a battle and either runs out of time, hangs up, or is thrown off, the battle is automatically saved and completed at a later time. Notice that players hanging up in the middle of battles not only get their game saved, they also get penalized for their attempt at cheating. 5 CHALLENGE ~~~~~~~~~ If a player is alive and not already engaged in a saved battle, you can challenge them. LOG OF BATTLES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A complete two day log of battles is kept track of by the game. You can find out exactly when someone logged onto the game and what major conflicts occurred during their session. STATUS LINE ~~~~~~~~~~~ A status line appears on the bottom of the local sysop screen. It tells you who is on and how much time they have remaining. GRAPHICS TERMINAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PIT features a user terminal interface. It acts somewhat like the ZMODEM protocol. The player activates the THE PIT BBS game as they do normally. They then activate their PIT TERMINAL INTERFACE (Either ANSI or EGA version) as if it were a file transfer. Provided they installed the interface correctly on their end, a substantial improvement in speed will result. (2400 baud connects will seem more like 14.4K) It also has animation, mouse control, panning graphics, ADLIB MUSIC, and SOUND BLASTER sound effects. If you do not already have this terminal it is available for download at: MTS BBS (806)797-2239 (14.4K - 24 hrs) 6 PLEASE REGISTER! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The continued support of this game and others of similar quality depend soley upon registration. It is simple logic that if a programmer is not payed for his (or her) efforts, then the programmer will work go to work for someone else and games like this one will disappear. UPGRADE POLICY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can register for the low price of only $29.95 + Shipping (See REGISTER.DOC). There are several ways to register this game. And they are all listed in our registration form. (See REGISTER.DOC) All MINOR bug fixes (v3.01 - v3.99) are FREE if DOWNLOADED from our BBS (Contact us by VOICE to obtain them). All additional MAJOR versions (v5.0, v6.0, ect.) cost about $8.00 + Shipping. BUGS! ~~~~~ If you have found a bug or you have a question or suggestion, please call our BBS: MIDAS TOUCH SOFTWARE BBS 14.4K - 24hrs/Day (806)797-2239 Or call our CUSTOMER SUPPORT phone number: MIDAS TOUCH SOFTWARE (806)796-1781 [MON-FRI 10AM - 7PM CST] Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the configuration program for The Pit 4.x. Use this program to tell the game about your system. We've done our best to provide useful options and make things easy to configure. Most problems that people encounter running The Pit can be solved by adjusting these settings. If something isn't functioning properly, check your configuration file first. System Requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Pit 4.x can run on any IBM system. It takes up 420k of memory and 2 Megs of disk space initially. It is possible to play The Pit in Local mode without being connected to a BBS. This version of The Pit supports multi-line BBS's. Specific information is provided later in this document. Program Layout ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just use the standard control keys (Arrows, Pg Up, Pg Down) to move to the item you wish to change and press Enter. The area will be highlighted while you're working on it. When you're done, just press ESC. 3 MAIN MENU: SELECT A COMMAND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Edit Pit Configuration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command allows you to select a specific PIT configuration to edit. You simply select a configuration file and we will enter an editing menu. 2. Edit Node Configuration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command allows us to select which pit configuration a specific BBS node (phone line) will run from. 3. Toggle Multiline Active ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command toggles multiline play on or off. 4. Edit Number of Nodes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We use this command to select how many nodes we wish to run. This setting will effect the number of nodes displayed in the "Edit Node Configuration" menu. This number should be set to the number of lines you are running on your BBS. It can be changed to a number greater than "1" if "Toggle Multiline Active" is set to Multiline Play Active. 5. Reset THE PIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A) Reset Entire Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command clears all of the data files used by THE PIT. This effectively restarts the game. B) Reset Player Node List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command resets the player node list. This is the list that tells the game which node a user is on and also controls multiline challenges/chat. This file may require resetting to solve a persistent multiline error. C) Reset Immortal List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command resets our immortals list. We provide this in case of possible file corruption. If the immortal list keeps resulting in game crashes, reset this file. 6. Quit CONTROL STATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This command as well as the <ESC> key will allow us to exit the CONTROL STATION. 4 EDITING THE PIT CONFIGURATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Load/Edit New Config ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Choose a pit configuration file you would like to edit. 2. Edit Description of Config ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can attach a description to a pit configuration file to make it easier to keep track of its function. 3. Save Config File as... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can save the file you are currently editing under any name you wish. Choose a file name to save it as, or choose "<F2>New" to save it under a new file name. 4. Modem Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section allows us to setup the modem so that it will function properly with in the game. A. Fossil Driver Usage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This defaults to "Inactive". Normally THE PIT uses its own internal communication routines to handle the modem. Sometimes the fossil driver is required for our software to run on your BBS system. If you have X00.SYS, BNU.SYS, or a digiboard fossil loaded you can set this option to "Active". The game will automatically detect the driver and utilize its communication routines instead. B. Com Port Addressing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section will allow you to change the default settings for your com ports. Normally these do not require any changes, as they are already set to the default addresses used by 99% of all BBS systems. Notice that these settings are used internally by only our game. They will have no effect on your BBS Systems settings nor DOS. C. Baud Rate Setting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We provide the ability to lock the baud rate of your modem to almost all of the baud rates possible for a modem. For most BBS systems the best selection is "Do Not Set, Use Default Rate". This option forces THE PIT to run at the baud rate at which the BBS is already connected to the caller. Any 5 C. Baud Rate Setting (Continued) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ other option results in THE PIT setting the baud rate on the modem to the rate specified. On a high speed modem the baud rate might readjust itself based on the integrity of the phone line. This might result in THE PIT setting the baud rate incorrectly. The most noticeable effect will be the appearance of ANSI trash on the screen instead of the ANSI expected. D. Flow Control ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This selection has only two options, either "None" or "CTS/RTS Flow Control". If you are running a modem that is faster than 2400 you are ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to have CTS/RTS turned on. Under this setting, the game uses the CTS and RTS pins on the modem to regulate the flow of data across the phone line. Without the CTS/RTS set on, the result would be that no data would flow at all. The remote caller would see nothing on their end, and they would be unable to get a response from any key press. E. 16550 FIFO Buffer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This setting allows you to select the size of the "First-In First-Out" buffer on your 16550 chip. This buffer is used primarily by high speed modems to achieve an effective transfer rate greater than the normal 19,200 baud rate. The safest setting is "FIFO Buffer Is Turned OFF". However, if you know what your BBS is using, you can always change it to 1, 4, 8, or 14 byte buffers. 6 5. Door File Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option is used primarily to choose which BBS door file type we are using and where it is located (i.e. its path). A. BBS Door File Type ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can select which BBS door file your BBS system passes its user information through. We currently support 9 different door file types. B. Path To Door File Type ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You select this option to tell the game where your BBS door file (i.e. DOOR.SYS) is located. There are also several parameters available (%P, %N, and %Z) to make setting this easier for multiline BBS's. By passing specific codes on THE PIT's command line, you can take advantage of these parameters. %P : This parameter is replaced by a path that is passed to THE PIT at run time. This is done by a command line parameter called "/PATH=". For example, if you set the path as "%P\NODE1\" in the pit configuration. Then you passed a run time parameter to THE PIT like so: "PIT /PATH=C:\BBS". The game would replace the %P parameter with the run time information passed to THE PIT. This would result in the path internally rewritten as: "C:\BBS\NODE1\". This parameter was primarily added to allow BBS's with a hundred or more phone lines, an easy way to define the path of the door file on the fly. %N : This parameter is replaced by the node number that is passed to THE PIT at run time. This is done by a command line parameter called "/NODE=". For example, if you set the path as "C:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE%N\" in the pit configuration. Then you passed a run time parameter to THE PIT like so: "PIT /NODE=12". The game would replace the %N parameter with the run time information passed to THE PIT. This would result in the path internally rewritten as: "C:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE12\". %Z : This parameter works exactly the same as %N except the internal number is expanded into a 3 digit zeroed number. For example if the node number passed is "3" then %Z would be replaced by "003".Or if the number is "12" then %Z would be replaced internally by "012". 7 6. Game Time Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section deals with the length of and display of game time. A. Maximum Time Per Day ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the maximum number of minutes you will allow the caller to play THE PIT per day. This value self-adjusts for each caller, depending on how much actual time they have left on your BBS system each day. B. Show Time Left In Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This setting has two options, either "Yes" or "No". If set to "No", the time left will not be displayed to the players. If set to "Yes", THE PIT will display how many minutes the user has left in the game on the menu. Each time a key is pressed in the game, the displayed time is updated. C. Game Down Time ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option will make THE PIT inaccessible for the duration of time given. 7. Monitor Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section deals with the video monitor's settings. How data is written to the screen as well as what mode the game will run in. A. Monitor Type ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option allows you to either specifically tell the game what kind of monitor you are running, or let it auto-detect it. If Monochrome is selected, the game will always run in black and white. If CGA is selected, it will result in the game running in color text mode, but graphics will be inaccessible. The other modes allow you to play in either text or graphics mode. B. Video Write ~~~~~~~~~~~ This option tells the game what kind of text mode screen writes you wish the game to perform. "Direct Video Write" is the best option since it writes to the screen four times faster than any other mode. "Bios Video Write" is provided strictly for compatibility sake. Bios writes are not recommended because they are so slow. 8 C. Snow Checking ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option is given for compatibility. Only very old CGA monitors require this selection. It can be left OFF in most cases. D. Display ANSI Graphics Only ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option was installed primarily for Desqview users. It forces THE PIT to never allow graphics mode activation in THE PIT. When a user activates the PIT Terminal in graphics mode, THE PIT will change modes on the BBS end to match the remote terminal. Desqview BBS Systems suffer from screen bleeds when too many nodes utilize the graphics screens. Setting this option to "Yes" will prevent this from occurring. 8. Hardware Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section is used to set up the hardware peripherals that are attached to the system. Sound Cards, Mouse and Joystick are covered. A. Music ~~~~~ MIDI music will be played through a sound card, the pc speaker, or not at all. You must choose the best choice for your system. Remember to not choose a sound card if you are running under DESQVIEW. Multiple users accessing the same sound card might cause a system crash. Notice that the Sound Blaster Pro 16 is not given as a choice. At the time this game was written we did not own a SB 16. We believe that it will only function if "Sound Blaster v1.5" is chosen as the sound card type. B. Sound FX ~~~~~~~~ Sound Effects will be played through a sound card, the pc speaker, or not at all. You must choose how your sound effects will be played. (See the notes about Desqview and the Sound Blaster Pro 16 above.) C. Sound Blaster Card Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This selection will allow you to change your Sound Blaster settings from the defaults. If you have your sound card dip switches set to alternate settings, you will have to change these settings to match it. We provide you the standard choices of IRQ's and Addresses provided by the manufacturer. 9 D. Adlib Card Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section will allow you to change your Adlib settings from the defaults. If you have your sound card dip switch set to alternate settings, you will have to change these settings to match it. We have provided you with the standard choices of IRQ's and Addresses available from the manufacturer. E. Mouse ~~~~~ This option allows us to either auto-detect the existant of a mouse and utilize it, or claim to have none. F. Joystick ~~~~~~~~ This option allows us to either activate the use of a joystick or not activate it. 9. SysOp Flag Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option will effect the setting for the Hangup Penalty. If a user hangs up in the game, this flag will penalize the user if it is set to "Active", or not if it is set to "Inactive". Notice that this penalty can be individually controlled with in the PLAYER EDITOR (PEDIT.EXE). 10. Bulletin Creation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section controls the creation and file name used when creating a top ten list of players. A. Create Bulletins ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section activates the creation of a particular bulletin and when exactly you would like to have it created. B. ANSI Bulletin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the full path and file name of the color ANSI bulletin. C. B&W ANSI Bulletin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the full path and file name of the B&W ANSI Bulletin. D. ASCII Bulletin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the full path and file name of the ASCII Bulletin. 10 11. LAN/Multitasker ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Select which kind of mutliline platform you are running. A. None ~~~~ This is the default setting. This is the only choice if you are running a single line system. If any other setting is selected while in single line mode, this mode will over-ride all others. If you are running in Multiline Play mode this selection will default to "Share.exe" mode. Multiline play is impossible without share loaded. The game utilizes share excusively to perform its multiline file locking. B. Share.exe ~~~~~~~~~ This selection is the best choice if you are unsure of which choice to make. As long as SHARE.EXE is loaded, running this game in multiline mode should give you no problems. C. Desqview ~~~~~~~~ This selection tells the game that you are running desqview. Actually the game automatically detects the existance of desqview and will utilize its functions regardless of what you choose. This selection verifies your choice of running Desqview and share.exe as your multiline system. The game will give up time desqview time slices while it runs. D. OS/2 ~~~~ This selection tells the game that you are running OS/2 as your multitasker. The game will require that SHARE be loaded as well. It will also give up time slices under OS/2 as a result of your selection. E. Windows ~~~~~~~ This selection tells the game that you are running Windows as your multitasker. The version of Windows you are running will be auto-detected and displayed at the intro to the game. The game will require that SHARE be loaded, and time slices will be given up under Windows. F. Net Bios Compat. LAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This selection tells THE PIT that a netbios compatible LAN is being run. The game will attempt to detect the existance of NETBIOS in memory. If this selection fails for you, or you are running NETWARE, choose "Share.exe" instead. "Desqview" could also be chosen if you are running a combination of Desqview and Netbios. 11 12. PIT Game Setting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Select which set of game data files to use in THE PIT. This will control which set of weapons, armor, enemy's, ect will be used for game play.