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Night Owl 6
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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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README.TXT
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1991-10-04
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PiloTSR -- BOB/SWOTL Pilot File Backup/Restore Utility
Copyright (c) 1991 by Steve "Auger" Edwards
All rights reserved.
This program may be copied and distributed freely. It is
provided as-is and with no warranty, either expressed or
implied. Every effort has been made to ensure compatibility
and safe operation with other programs, but no guarantees
are made as to its compatibility with specific programs and/
or operating systems. The user bears full responsibility for
any lost data and/or other damage(s) caused by the use of
this program.
If you find what you feel is a "bug" in this program, please
contact me via CompuServe's FSFORUM, section 7 (Historic
Air Combat). Please post your message private to UID 71610,2736
with a message title of "PiloTSR Bugs" or something similar.
This program has been tested and found reliable from within
both BOB and SWOTL on a Dell 16mhz 386sx running DOS 3.3
and QEMM 5.0.
------------
Introduction
------------
PiloTSR is a memory-resident (TSR) program designed to ease the pain of
killing your BOB and SWOTL pilots and to simplify their resurrection. It
works by making copies of your pilot files and restoring them at the press
of a key, and all from within the game -- there is no need to exit to DOS.
Let's say that you're playing SWOTL, and you're flying as a P-47 pilot
(Dual-Role) who is twelve missions into his second tour of duty. Due to
a slight error in judgement, you plow face-first into that machine gun
tower you were shooting at, thus bringing your otherwise illustrious
career to a very sudden end. Not to fear! Simply exit back to the Main
Screen and press a key, and voila! your pilot is restored (you can verify
this by selecting Combat Records and looking at your pilot's stats).
------------
Setup
------------
There are only four things you need to do to set up PiloTSR:
1) Copy PILOTSR.EXE to your hard disk and make sure the
directory you put it in is on your path,
2) Create a directory to hold the backup pilot files,
3) Create a .LST file that contains the names of the pilots
you want to save and restore, and
4) Run PiloTSR, specifying the Program and Backup
directories and the name of your .LST file.
------------
.LST Files
------------
In order to save your pilot files, PiloTSR has to know what the filenames
are. PiloTSR accomplishes this by reading a list of filenames from a .LST
file (which is just a fancy name for a text file containing a list of
names).
The rules for creating .LST files are very simple:
1) There should be no blank lines or spaces
2) There should only be one filename per line
3) Filenames should be complete, ie. name and extension,
and appear only once in the file
4) There can be no more than 25 filenames per .LST file
5) All .LST files should reside in the Backup directory
The following is an example of a .LST file:
----------------------- Beginning of file
AUGER.109
MANFRED.110
EDDIE.RAF
ROGER.RAF
STUPID.J87
BLIND.J88
----------------------- End of file
As you can see, the pilot names don't have to be in any order, and you can
mix and match pilots of different types. You can even include BOB and SWOTL
pilots in the same .LST file, but you would then wind up with SWOTL pilots
in your BOB directory and vice-versa.
I suggest organizing your .LST files so that the pilots that fly together
are in the same .LST file, ie. you may have some P-51 pilots and some B-17
crews in the same .LST file, a .LST file just for your Go-229 pilots,
another for RAF pilots, etc.
A quick and simple way to make .LST files is to do a DIR of the files you're
interested in (ex: DIR *.USA) and redirect the output to a file, which you
can then edit with a text editor or word processor. This can be done at the
DOS command prompt by typing in (for example):
DIR *.109 > 109.LST
and then editing the created file (in this case 109.LST) to remove the
directory listing header, file sizes and dates, and bytes free. By making
good use of the DOS wildcard characters "*" and "?", you can generate a list
pretty close to what you want with a minimum of editing.
------------
Running
------------
To load PiloTSR, type in the following command:
PILOTSR /L=LSTfile /P=ProgramDIR /B=BackupDIR
where: LSTfile is the name of the .LST file (without
extension) that contains the names of
the files to be backed up and restored
ProgramDIR is the full path (drive and directory) where
the program resides, with no final backslash
(ex: "C:\BOB", not "C:\BOB\")
BackupDIR is the full path (drive and directory) where
PiloTSR will store the backup files, with
no final backslash (ex: "C:\BOB\PILOTS", not
"C:\BOB\PILOTS\") .LST files are also stored
in this directory.
For eaxmple: if BOB resided in C:\BOB and you wanted your backup files to be
kept in D:\BACKUP and the name of your .LST file (located in D:\BACKUP) was
109.LST, you would type in the following:
PILOTSR /L=109 /P=C:\BOB /B=D:\BACKUP
Once loaded PiloTSR stays in the background until you press one of the
following key combinations:
[Ctrl-Alt-B] Backup the files listed in the .LST file
(copy them from the Program directory to
the Backup directory)
[Ctrl-Alt-R] Restore the files listed in the .LST file
(copy them from the Backup directory to
the Program directory)
[Ctrl-Alt-U] Unload (remove from memory) PiloTSR
* Note * You can only unload PiloTSR if you are at the DOS command
prompt and you are not "shelled out" from another program.
Also, loading additional memory-resident programs after
PiloTSR may keep it from unloading.
If you forget the command keys, run PiloTSR again (without any command line
parameters) and it will list them for you.
When resident, PiloTSR communicates with you via a series of tones:
A series of short beeps indicates file access in progress
A quick high-low-high beep indicates successfull completion
of a file copy, either backup or restore
A long high-low indicates failure of a file copy or the inability
to unload
A long low-high indicates a successful unload
After loading PiloTSR it would be a good idea to make an initial backup of
your pilot files before entering the game (PiloTSR does *not* do this
automatically). Press [Ctrl-Alt-B] and wait for the completion beep, then
run your game normally.
Once in the middle of the game you can backup and restore your files at any
time, but I would suggest doing so only at a main menu. Although I've made
every effort to make PiloTSR bullet-proof, it is still possible to really
screw things up by trying to backup or restore files at the same time the
game is trying to update them.
If you are viewing a pilot file when you restore, you probably won't see
the data change right before your eyes; but if you exit out of the view
screen and get right back in, you should see the restored pilot data. In
some of SWOTL's menus there is a "retry" button; pressing it should have
the same affect.
------------
Advanced Use
------------
Once PiloTSR is loaded you can retrieve the current settings by running
PiloTSR again with no command line parameters.
You can also change the Program and Backup directories and the current .LST
file by running PiloTSR with different parameters. There is no need to
unload PiloTSR first.
There is nothing in PiloTSR that precludes its use with other programs. If
you wanted to, you could set it up to save and restore your RB ROSTER.DAT
file or your F16CP pilot files. However:
PiloTSR HAS NOT BEEN TESTED WITH ANY PROGRAMS OTHER THAN
BOB AND SWOTL AND I CAN THEREFORE NOT MAKE ANY CLAIMS AS
TO ITS COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER PROGRAMS OR ITS SUITABILITY
FOR A PARTICULAR APPLICATION. I REMIND YOU AGAIN THAT YOU
USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK.
------------
Problems?
------------
If you have problems loading PiloTSR, check the following:
1) Make sure that you aren't putting an ending backslash on
the ProgramDIR and BackupDIR parameters (ei. "C:\BOB", not
"C:\BOB\")
2) Make sure that you aren't putting a file extension on the
LSTfile parameter (ei. "USA" not "USA.LST")
3) Make sure that your .LST file is located in the Backup
directory
If PiloTSR loads but you get a failure tone when you try to backup or
restore files:
1) If you're trying to backup your files, make sure the files
exist in the Program directory
2) If you're trying to restore your files, make sure the files
exist in the Backup Directory
3) Make sure that each filename listed in your .LST file
is correct; check for misspellings, missing file extensions,
and extra characters
4) Make sure you have enough disk space to copy the selected
files; remember, they'll be in two places at once so they'll
take up twice the normal space
If you are unable to unload PiloTSR:
1) Make sure you aren't "shelled out"; type "EXIT" and see if
you return to another program
2) Check to see if any TSRs were loaded after PiloTSR; unload
them first
I hope you have as much fun using PiloTSR as I had making it. Good luck,
and happy hunting!
- Steve "Auger" Edwards
Oct 3, 1991