Welcome to the configuration program for Tank Wars. This program allows you to customize and save any of the available options. It is suggested that even if you wish only to play with the defaults that you enter the Hardware section and read the descriptions of each option. If the program fails in any way, your first course of action should be to check these options and disable any that may be incompatible or undesirable for your machine. You may bring up a case sensitive help window at any time by pressing F1. This will describe the currently highlighted option, or if there is no help for that object will load this message.
STANDARD SOUNDS
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Standard sounds are those little effects that make the game worth playing. Things like the sound of a shot being fired, and a tank exploding.
FLYING SOUNDS
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Flying Sounds are sounds that the projectile makes while in the air. These sounds are possibly the most annoying things you have ever heard. I suggest you leave Flying Sounds off.
SOUND OPTIONS
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This menu allows you to customize the sounds produce by Tank Wars.
NUMBER OF GAMES
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This option allows you to set the default number of games to play in one set. Type any integer between 1 and 99.
BACKGROUND SELECTION
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This menu allows you to select which (if any) of the available background screens you wish to use. The letters to the side of each option are the letters that can be used on the command line (ie. /BKA).
NONE
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If this option is selected, all background displaying and movement actions will be canceled. Use this option if the overly bright backgrounds give you a headache.
STARRY SKY-SCAPE
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This background consists of many small twinkles of light that will twinkle on and off.
COLOR BARS
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This background consists of many horizontal bars of color, each nicely fading from one to the next. These bars will move up across the screen and can be quite headache inducing.
CIRCLES 'O COLOR
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This background consists of multiple circles originating at the center of the screen. These circle will spread outward (or inward depending on you video card) creating a hypnotic display. Please don't stare at this one too long or it may burn out an eyeball.
SPREADING COLORS
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This background consists of the same series of colors as all the others, simply rearranged as to walk around the board in a circular pattern. Nothing fancy, just another possibility.
BLUE BACKGROUND
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Call it what you will, it's blue. It was intended to be the sky, but some say it looks allot more like water. Note that Player 3 has a distinct advantage on this board.
RANDOM BACKGROUND
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This option will display any background it feels like. This is the suggested option, as it gives you variety while playing the game. In a series of ten games you will most likely witness all possible backgrounds.
ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS
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These options control the environment of the game. Included is wind level, crumble percentage, and wall reflectance.
NONE
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When this option is set there will be no wind. (Simple, isn't it)
LOW
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When this option is set the wind will have little to no effect on the outcome of a shot.
STANDARD
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This is the standard setting for wind, and was the only setting in versions 2.0 and below.
HIGH
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When this option is set you will see more of those 100-600mph winds that make life so interesting.
GALE
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Watch out, winds of this level can exceed ten thousand miles per hour. This can make for very interesting playing at times.
RANDOM
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When this option is set, the wind category will be randomly determined at the beginning of each individual game. One game a nice balmy breeze, the next a vicious hurricane.
CRUMBLE PERCENTAGE
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Enter any number between 0 and 100. This percentage will determine how often unstable ground will fall, often taking tanks with it.
NOT BOUNCY (REFLECT OFF)
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When this option is selected any projectile or laser will leave the screen when it reaches the border. If the wind level or gravity deems it should return to the screen, it will. If there is absolutely no chance of returning then the shot will abort then and there.
RANDOM
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At the beginning of each round, the reflectance of the walls will be determined randomly. If reflect is deemed to be in effect, a magenta 'R' will appear to the left of the playing field.
BOUNCY (REFLECT ON)
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When this option is selected any projectile or laser will bounce off of the four border walls back into the playing field. Computers tend to shoot more wildly when this option is on, they know they're going to hit something.
SHOT OPTIONS
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This menu allows you to select various options concerning the appearance of the projectile.
VISIBILITY
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This check box determines whether or not the projectile is visible. When turned off the shot and its associated tracking bars are disabled. This option however has no effect on laser bursts.
SHOT TRAIL
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This check box determines whether or not the shot will leave a trail behind it marking its path. The trail is the same color as the player that shot it (slightly dimmer actually) and will remain for the duration of the round.
TANK OPTIONS
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These options affect the various ways in which a tank may be killed.
DAMAGE BY DEATH
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This option determines weather or not you can be harmed directly by the particles flying off of a exploding tank. When off you cannot be injured by the flying streamers or sparks, you can however still be caught in the blast caused by the tanks final explosion.
FALLING TANKS
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This option determines whether or not tanks not supported by anything will fall to their deaths. When off any tank with no ground under it will simply hover there (this can greatly confuse some computers.) When on tanks will fall taking appropriate damage on the way down.
COMPUTER OPTIONS
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These options (option actually) allows you to control various aspects of the computer players.
COMPUTER PURCHASES
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When switched on the computer is allowed to make purchases. This allows for fair combat between humans as computers. Switch this off if the computers are constantly getting the better of you.
HARDWARE OPTIONS
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This very important area allows you to access those hardware options only accessible via the command line. Very often these options should be set for increased performance but are not because of those who neglect the documentation. By setting the options via this area they are saved so that the parameters are not necessary. Please read the description of each entry so that you understand how it will affect your game play.
DIRECT VIDEO PORT ACCESS
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When this option is set Tank Wars will directly access the video DAC (Digital-Analog Converter) to update palette entries instead of going through BIOS. BIOS is quite slow, and tends to cause black splotches to jump all over the screen when access is being done quickly. This option is highly recommended, unless you computer crashes when it is set on. If you cannot use this option I suggest that you disable crude video access, this will cause the block splotch to remain at the high end of the screen. Also if you cannot use this option, palette rotation is NOT suggested.
EXTENDED KEYBOARD ACCESS
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When toggled on Tank Wars will communicate directly with the keyboard instead of going through BIOS. BIOS is annoying because when holding down a key the keyboard will outrun the program resulting in that ever so familiar buffer full sound. When this option is not selected the program will run as usual, however they keyboard will be nowhere near as responsive and the various handy CTRL keys will be disabled.
PALETTE ROTATION
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When this option is selected the colors in the background will move about. Color stripes will climb the screen, stars will twinkle, etc. The speed of this is controlled by the number you enter on the palette rotation speed line. Disabling this option will completely disable background movement, leaving all processor time for the game. Please see the help on crude palette access and palette rotation speed concerning what to do if rotation slows the game down unbearably
CRUDE PALETTE SETTING
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Once again, another method for circumventing standard BIOS procedures. Normally when setting palette registers, BIOS (and my standard procedures) waits for a vertical retrace so that data is being sent when the screen is not actively doing anything. This means that there is a distinct pause every time the palette is changed. This is not normally a problem, as it only slows down that process a little. The problem arises when background tasks, such as palette rotation, attempt to do this while other things are happening. The end result is that (when rotation speed is set to maximum) 18 times per second the palette attempts to move. During this attempt the whole system pauses while waiting for the video to indicate a vertical retrace. This slows down everything, such as a shot currently in motion. Setting this option on disables that wait. The palette will be updated immediately, regardless of what the monitor is doing. It does this so fast that there is no decrease in program speed, and thus no problem. This however is (as always) incompatible with some video systems. It may work flawlessly on some systems. On systems such as my own it produces a very slight amount of snow. On some systems it blanks the screen and crashes. I suggest you play with this option activated unless it creates problems for you.
MOUSE ACTIVE
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When this option is selected Tank Wars will automatically assume that a Microsoft compatible mouse is present and will not test for one.
NO MOUSE
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When this option is selected Tank Wars will not even look for a mouse. It will assume that none is there and act accordingly. Use this if you don't have a mouse but Tank Wars was detecting one.
CHECK UPON LOAD-UP
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When this option is selected Tank Wars will automatically determine the status of the current mouse driver (if any) and act accordingly.
PALETTE ROTATION SPEED
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This determines the default speed at which the background images will move if allowed. A setting of 0 is fastest, at (theoretically) 18.2 movements per second. If this is to fast, or if this slows your system then increase this value appropriately. A setting of 8 is about 2 times per second.
EXIT (NO SAVE)
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This will exit the configuration program leaving all data intact. It will make no attempt to save the data entered, and it will make no attempt to correct a damaged configuration file that was detected upon start-up.
RESTORE DEFAULTS
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This option will (or already has depending on where you are) restore all options to their default values. If a configuration file was included with the disk this programs (which it should not have been) I suggest you do this first to clear out somebody else's option.
SAVE AND EXIT
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This option will attempt to save all options to a configuration file in the current directory. If the save is unsuccessful the program will probably crash, as I can see no reason that this tiny (<100 bytes) file should give you troubles, and thus there is no error checking for that occurrence (How's that for rude programming). After a successful (or failed) save it will return you to dos.
(.txt)