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Text File | 1995-08-26 | 27KB | 700 lines

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General Manager Plus for Tony III Version 7.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Written by: Nick F. Keren Sept 1995 The General Manager Plus III is designed specifically to be an addition to the Tony LaRussa's Baseball III game. This modest little utility will: - Allow you to trade players from team to team or from baseball universe to baseball universe within a point & click environment. - Create a new player by cloning an existing player - Choose different directories and league files - Display player statistics. - Edit player ratings Tony LaRussa III is a fine improvement on one of, if not the best computer baseball games on the market today. Its graphics are the closest to real life I've seen so far. It's the little things like the stretch of the first baseman, the variation of slides and catches & the under hand "flip" to second with the Pivot on the Double Plays. And the stadiums .... Spectacular!. The player and team uniform colors. That's where the "true" baseball game player notices the realism - variation. The user interface on TONY3 as been reworked and is much improved over its predecessors. All in all I think its the best baseball game on the market. Allthough improved, the "Trade Player" part does not give me some of the functionality GMPLUS has. Many loyal users of GMPLUS dropped me messages asking if I was planning to support TONY3. I hope you find enhances your ability to manipulate players and build teams sets as they did. Notice: This utility is a shareware product, and as such you may freely distribute and use this product. However, you may not offer this product for resale or bundle it for profit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section Contents ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.0 Requirements 1.0 Installation 2.0 Using the GMPLUS program 2.1 Starting GMPLUS 2.2 General usage 2.2.1 MORE players 2.3 Making Trades 2.4 Cloning Players 2.5 Deleting Players 2.6 Viewing Players 2.6.1 Changing Player information 2.7 SYNC option 2.8 SELECTING teams, baseball universes 2.8.1 Free agents in GMPLUS 2.9 Player name conversion 2.10 Searching for players 3.0 Customizing GMPLUS 3.1 NICK.ini 3.2 opening picture 3.3 GMPLUS palette 3.4 Player Ordering 3.5 GMPLUS with QEMM 7.x 4.0 Other Utilities available 5.0 Shareware Registration 6.0 Revision Notes 7.0 Special Thanks 8.0 Final Note ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- @- Tony LaRussa Baseball is a copyright of Stormfront. (TLUB) 0.0 Requirements ---------------- In order to use this utility you must have: - TONY LaRUSSA's BASEBALL III game @ - VGA graphics - mouse and mouse driver installed (Although the keyboard cursor keys are supported, this utility works best when used with a mouse) - Windows 3.x is optional 0,1 Terminology: ---------------- The following terms are sued throughout this documentation. "click" -means the LEFT mouse button or the RETURN key. "Escape" -means the ESC key or RIGHT mouse button. The right button can be used to regain your mouse cursor if it "disappears" "Mousing over" -means moving the home plate cursor either by using the mouse or the cursor keys. "Drag & Drop" -means holding the LEFT mouse button while moving the mouse to where you wish to move this player to. When in "Drop & Drag" mode the "home plate" cursor turns into a "hand pointer" "Team set" - means the same as Tony 3's "baseball universe" 1.0 Installation ---------------- This following files should accompany GMPLUS - GMPLUS.exe The actual program itself - GMPLUS.img Main Menu Screen - GMINTRO.img Introduction Screen - BACKDROP.img Wallpaper - NICK.ini The configuration file for my TONY3 utilities - GMPLUS.ico Icon for GMPLUS for windows installs - GMPLUSb.ico Alternate icon for windows installs - REGISTER.txt A note on shareware, plus a registration form - ADDons.txt Other Add ons for Tony3 In order to install this utility: 1- Create a directory under the LaRussa directory. C:\TONY3\TUTIL 2- Copy all the files from the zip file into this new directory. 3- If you used the default directory when installing LaRussa you are now ready to use GMPLUS. However, if you did not then you must configure GMPLUS. (See section 3.1 for details) Your directory structure should now look like this: TONY3 ----+--- <tony3 subdirectories> |--- TEAMS30 +--- GMPLUS30 Note: GMPLUS includes an ICON and a PIF file for installing this utility under windows 3.0+ environment. Refer to your windows 3+ guide on how add a new application. For those upgrading from GMPLUS 6.x ------------------------------------ if you are installing an update of this add-on into the same directory as the previous version you will want to remove the old version first. You can do this by deleting all the old GMPLUS files. You can use the command... C> ERASE GMPLUS*.* 2.0 Using GMPLUS ----------------- This section explains what you can do using GMPLUS, and how to go about it. 2.1 Starting GMPLUS -------------------- To start GMPLUS, change your current directory to where you installed GMPLUS and enter GMPLUS at the DOS prompt. C> GMPLUS Or, for windows users simply double click the GMPLUS icon. Or, for those who have installed my Ultimate Utilities Collection for Tony 3, select the "Player Trades" icon of the main menu. 2.2 General Usage ----------------- The usage of GMPLUS should be fairly straight forward. The screen has the following basic parts: 1 - Option area Players - click on players to show the non pitchers on your team Pitchers - click on pitchers to display each teams pitchers SYNC - toggles minor league synchronization (see section 2.6) Find - click on find to start a player search Exit - click to exit the GMPLUS program About - click on about for general GMPLUS information Help - on-line help. 2 - Team Areas There are 4 team windows. Within each team window, the players or pitchers are displayed. Each team window will take on the colors of the team inside the window. Each team window also special buttons. The SELECT button allows you to select another team. The MORE button allows you to see other players on the 40 man roster The bottom of the Team area also displays the name of the "universe" (team set) that these players are from. 3 - Temporary Areas At the bottom of the screen there are 3 temporary areas. These areas exist for you to place players while making complex trades. CLONE Area: Allows you to duplicate a player. TRADE Area: A temporary holding place while making complex trades. DELETE Area: Players in this area are deleted. The mouse or cursor keys are used to make various selections. Mouse Notes: A couple of things to keep in mind while using the "ultimate utilities". - If your mouse cursor disappears or becomes erratic. You can reset it by clicking the RIGHT mouse button. - On some mouse products if you press the buttons very firmly and let go or bang on the button instead of "clicking" the mouse button. The utils will interpret that sometimes as 2 separate clicks. You may notice this when especially in GMPLUS or Creating lineups. If you click on a player once and his stat display appears, this is typically th cause. A more gentle "click" will resolve this. 2.2.1 MORE players ------------------ GMPLUS III has a MORE button associated with each team area. This allows you to see the remaining players on the team's 40 man roster, independent of the other teams. You can manipulate the remaining players on the 40 man roster just like any other player. You can trade them to a different team, or trade them for someone one there own team. That would have the effect of "calling" the player up to take someone roster spot and demoting the other player to the reserve list. 2.3 Making Trades ----------------- In order to make a trade from one team to another, simply mouse over to the desired player and click. The player will be hi-lighted. Then, mouse over to the other player who is involved in this trade and click. The players will then exchange teams. -OR- simply mouse over to the desired player and press the LEFT button. The player will be hi-lighted. Then, without releasing the LEFT button, mouse over to the other player who is involved in this trade and release the button. You have just used "Drag & Drop" to exchange the players. "Drag & Drop" was added to GMPLUS because this is the style used to manipulate information in Tony 3. It should make it easier on all of us. Note: Tony LaRussa baseball has roster restrictions on the number of pitchers and players a team may have. Because of its internal design you must trade a pitcher for pitcher, player for player, etc. This is why the concept of having a minor league set of teams works well. (see Section 2.7) 2.4 Cloning Players ------------------- In order to create new players, you can "clone" an existing one, then change the name and certain other information. In order to make a duplicate of a player, all you must do is mouse over to the desired player and click. The player will be hi-lighted. Then, mouse over to the CLONE area at the bottom of the screen and click. A copy of the player will appear in the CLONE area. To replicate, use the same procedure for making trades, and "trade" the player from the CLONE area to a team window. Notice that a copy of the player still remains in the CLONE area. 2.5 Deleting Players -------------------- Deleting players is done by "trading" a player from one area to the delete area. 2.6 Viewing Players ------------------- Viewing a player's stats can be done by either pressing the RIGHT mouse button (like in the tony3 game) or double clicking on the player(like in previoius versions of GMPLUS). Once in the view screen, you have the following options: - toggle between his real life stats, simulated stats, career stats, or playoff and world series stats by selecting from the stats menu located in the top right corner of the display screen. - Changing the following player data. - Player's name - Stats year - Bats / Throws - Age. - Player's Ratings - Player's skin attribute - OK button returns to the trading screen. - SAVE button. Saves your changes to this player and returns to the trading screen - CANCEL button or the ESC key. Does not save your changes to this player and returns to the trading screen. 2.6.1 Changing Player Information --------------------------------- After displaying a player, you may change certain data by mousing over to the data and clicking. Name field - First and last name separated by a blank Stats year - A number greater than 1870 Bats - Toggle what hand he bats Throws - Toggle what hand he throws with Ratings - A number between 1 and 12 Skin Attr - L (light) D(dark) 4th Pitcher- Toggle between Slider, Sinker, screwball, etc. (pitchers only) Protrait # - enter a portrait number to assign to this player. The LEFT mouse button (or RETURN) increases the value. The RIGHT mouse button decreases the value. See the TLUB manual for definitions of each rating level. 2.7 The SYNC option ------------------- The SYNC option is something I built in as an aid to help me keep my teams up to date. The best way to explain how to use it is by example: For each baseball universe there is a SYNC entry in the NICK.ini file. When then SYNC option is turned on, team windows 2 & 4 are kept "in sync" with team windows 1 & 3. For example: I specify the SYNC "universe" for MLB1993 is MINORS. When I turn the SYNC option on, team one of MLB1993 will be "in sync" with team one of "MINORS". In this manner I can make 1 for 2 player type trades, bringing up someone from the minors, or assigning someone to the minors easily. See Customizing NICK.ini file for details on how to setup the SYNC entry for each baseball universe. HOWEVER, If you do NOT specify an associated SYNC universe in the NICK.ini file, GMPLUS will display the available TONY3 baseball universes and allow you to select the "in sync" universe as you use GMPLUS. 2.8 Selecting teams, Baseball Universes ---------------------------------------- By default the utility will display the first 4 teams. To select a different team within that league, click the SELECT button. You will be shown a list of teams. Click on one, or click on the SELECT button within this window to choose a different league. Note: The bottom of each team window has the actual team set of the team file for visual verification. 2.8.1 Free Agents in GMPLUS ---------------------------- If you're keeping up with the mlb rosters like I am, you'll notice that there has been a lot of players who are free-agents, refused a minor league assignment or simply let go by their teams. This creates the dilemma of where to put these players until they find new teams. In the past I used the SYNC option and placed them in the minor league team associated there old team. However this does not pan out very well if you forget which one are the free agents and which are the minor leaguers. So I have enhanced the GMPLUS program to create a "free agent" holding team where these players can be kept. Thereby removing them from the former team and but will not "loose" them from the league itself. Here's how it works. If you "click" the SELECT button you'll notice that the same old list of team names appear. However, at the bottom right will be the a selection called "free agents". Once you select the "free agents" for the first time, GMPLUS will create a team file called FA.v30 for your league. Now GMPLUS will treat the "free agent" team just as any other. You can trade to it, from it, clone players, etc. However, this team does not exist as far as TONY3 is concerned. Each baseball universe will have its own "free agent" team. Try it and see what you think. This is also a nice place to place released players if you are playing a fantasy or sim league. 2.9 Name Conversions -------------------- The actual data provided with TONY3 comes in a combination of mixed case and upper case player names. This looks ugly on reports. The GMPLUS utility automatically converts any player name to mixed case. This has no impact on the actual game playing because TONY3 shows uppercase names. When you have the team, the player's names will have become converted. 2.10 Player Searching ---------------------- GMPLUS now has the ability to search through a team set to look for a player. This feature is handy when you don't remember what team a certain player may be on. To find this player you... 1) Click on the "Find" option. 2) A dialog box will appear that will ask you to enter the player's last name If you know the name of the player you are looking for, enter it. ie. SMITH If you don't recall the entire last name, enter what you know. ie. SM In this case the player search will find, SMITH, SMYTH, SMITTERS, etc. 3) A baseball universe selection dialog box will appear. You can use this to select what universe you will to search for this player. 4) As the player search progresses, dialog boxes will appear when it finds a player that matches. Example: REGGIE SMITH BOSTON [yes] [no] IF this is the player you are looking for, click on the [yes] button. The team will then be loaded into the window area for the 3rd team. Any sync team associated will be loaded into the 4th. Just as if you selected this team yourself. If you answer [no], the player search will continue. Once no other players can be found a message will be displayed. Hitting ESC will cancel this operation 5) IF the player is not found in the baseball universe, then a dialog box will appear asking you if you'd like to search another baseball universe for this same player. 3.0 Customizing GMPLUS ---------------------- 3.1 NICK.ini -------------- GMPLUS may be customized for your preferences. If you are familiar with the ,ini files concept from Windows, this is be a snap for you. The Nick,ini file can be modified by using any text editor. For example, Windows Notepad, DOS EDIT, QDOS editor, etc. The default NICK.ini comes like this: [MAIN] <-- MAIN group is required PATH c:\tony3\ <-- directory where TONY2 was installed TUTIL c:\tony3\TUTIL <-- directory where GMPLUS was installed mouse on <-- do you want to use a mouse? color on <-- use team colors ? sort on <-- display players in sorted order? intro on <-- display GMPLUS intro version TONY3 <-- Required. [CLASSIC] <-- "universe" (team set) name SYNC CLASSIC2 <-- "universe" (team set) that this "universe" is "in SYNC" with [MLB1993] SYNC MINORS When the SYNC option is OFF, the 4 team windows can represent any team from any league. However when the SYNC option is ON, Windows 1 and 3 can represent any team (ie. are selectable), but windows 2 and 4 are automatically associated with the teams in windows 1 and 3 respectfully. Note: Any of the options specified in [MAIN] can be overridden for a individual team set. For example if you did not want to use the team color palette for the CLASSIC team set, Change your NICK.ini like so..... [CLASSIC] color off SYNC CLASSIC2 Note: You can NOT have a team set called MAIN 3.2 Opening Picture ------------------- The introductory picture can be surpressed. 1- By entering GM -n or GMPLUS -n at the DOS prompt 2- By specifying a default option in the nick.ini file. 3- By deleting or renaming the GMPLUS.img file You can disable the feature by adding the line below under [MAIN] in NICK.ini INTRO off 3.3 GMPLUS Color Palette -------------------------- The Ultimate Utilities use the information specified in the Tony LaRussa III team files to determine the color scheme for that team. This allows GMPLUS to change with your team or "universe". Word of warning.... TLUB defines its colors via RED, GREEN, BLUE components. GMPLUS tries to map this color to one of the 16 colors available. This is not an exact science. For instance navy blue will be represented in GMPLUS as either dark blue or black depending upon how navy the navy blue is. Similarly on the bright end of the spectrum. A color like "peach chiffon" will be represented as white in GMPLUS. (Just as well, baseball teams have NO business to be wearing "peach chiffon" in the first place !) Your Decision: If you do not want the Ultimate Utilities to use the team colors, you can disable the feature for every "universe" by changing the COLOR option in [MAIN], or disable for individual leagues by adding the following line to the "uinverses" you wish to change COLOR off By default team Colors are used. 3.4 Player Ordering ------------------- At times it is hard enough to determine how many infielders a team had, not to mention who the reserve players are. So I implemented player ordering. With in each team display area the players will be order: - By position. Catcher down to DH. - By games played within each position. - The reserve players will always appear at the bottom. Pitchers appear in the order they are physically on the team file with the exception that the reserve pitchers will appear at the bottom. With Player ordering you can quickly see who the reserves are because they will always be at the bottom of your player list. The player ordering is DYNAMIC. That is to say, every time you make a trade the teams will be re-sorted and the players displayed in the order described above. For example: IF you trade a 3rd baseman for an outfielder, after the trade has completed, the two players will not remain where they were. They will be re-ordered within the respective teams. If you do not want the Ultimate Utilities to order players, you can disable the feature using the below command in the NICK.ini file SORT off By default ordering players within a team area is done. IF you disable the player ordering feature, players are displayed in the order they physically appear in the team file. Note: Player ordering does not affect how the players will be physically stored in the team file 3.5 GMPLUS with QEMM 7.x ------------------------- For those who use QEMM version 7.x, run OPTIMIZE once before starting GMPLUS. This will clear out any old memory allocations and allow GMPLUS to work more effecient with QEMM. 4.0 Other TLUB Utilities ------------------------ (See ADDons.txt) 5.0 Registration ------------------ A lot of effort has gone into this utility, and all I'm asking in return is that you take the time to register it. The Registration amount is $25. For my entire suite of "Ultimate" utilities which includes GMPLUS. (See REGISTER.txt for a registration form and ADDONS.txt for details about other TONY3 utilities and add ons.) For this measly amount, in addition to the utility itself you will get: 1) Support - any questions will be answered - any bugs will be fixed (where possible) 2) TUTIL - I have written a series of utilities for Tony LaRussa baseball. These include - Scouting and Lineup reports - Reports based on actual stats - Reports based on league stats - League standings - Multiple lineups and "spot" starter - Pitcher confidence levels - Compare game play stats to actual. - Global ratings update feature - and much more 3) A SCHEDULER 4) Updates - See below Feel free to evaluate this product for 30 days. After the evaluation period if you decide to continue to use GMPLUS you must register them. Since only small % of the people actively using GMPLUS took the time to register it, an expiration date was implemented. Note: CompuServe Users are able to register these utilities via the "Shareware Registration Database". Select GO SWREG. The registration number for the "Ultimate Utilities" Collection is 7200. 5.1 Where to go to get updates: -------------------------------- I will release updates periodically. These updates will include fixes to any reported bugs and more importantly new features suggested by folks like yourself. The updates are FREE to those who register. You may get updates or evaluation versions of my other add-ons from the following sources: CompuServe ---------- In the SPRTSIM forum, Baseball Library. The file name would be GMPLUS.zip or TUPDTxx.zip You can also use 'KEREN' or 'TONY3' as a keyword. American Online --------------- Either in the main file system or in the 'Dugout libraries of the sports hobby section. Use file search and enter the keyword 'KEREN', or 'TONY3'. PC Sports Connection BBS ------------------------ If you are a member of this BBS, you can download from the Tony3 directory. INTERNET -------- If you have internet access you can obtain updated versions from the site pdomain.uwindsor.ca in the directory pub/people/nick/baseball/TONY3. Note the caps on TONY3. Unix is case senative Or, check out my homepage URL: http://bedlam.uwindsor/nick From Me ------- You can obtain the latest updates along with evaluation versions of other add-ons directly from me. You must include a cheque or money order for $5. This will cover the cost of a diskette and postage back to you. My address is listed at the end of the doc file. 6.0 Revision Notes ------------------ Version 6.0 - Reworked to support Tony LaRussa Baseball III 7.0 Special Thanks ------------------ To STORM FRONT Productions - great product.... don't settle at that, keep enhancing it. To Hudson Phiel, programmer on TONY3 - Excellent work. I have great repect all the effort that when into the making of Tony3. Alot of people enjoy baseball alittle more because of your hard work. I hope you guys had some fun along the way. To Bill Steen. Thanks for beta testing. Your help and suggestions were very much appreciated! The best part of all of this, a new friend. To all those who have registered with me in the past, especially those who dropped e-mail of encouragement while I was converting this add-ons for Tony3 ..... Thankyou. 8.0 Final Note: ---------------- I would love to hear what people think of this utility. So, if you have any comments or suggestions regarding GMPLUS, I can be reached at.... Nick F. Keren 1078 Heritage Drive American Online: NickKeren Windsor Ont. Internet Address: NICK@uwindsor.ca Canada COMPUSERVE: 73113,2711 N9H 2E2 Phone Number: (519) 253-4232 ext 2750