Welcome to the configuration program for Tank Wars. This program allows you to customize and save many of the available options. 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 option, redisplay this message.
SOUND OPTIONS
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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 I have ever heard. I suggest you leave Flying Sounds off. %
Midi Support
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Although Midi support is not yet available, it is on the way. Please see the appropriate section in BOMB.TXT for details.
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 while loading Tank Wars (ie. BOMB /BKA). The radio cluster on the left allows you to choose which background, or set of backgrounds, you wish to see during the game. Selecting a single background will cause Tank Wars to display that background for the entire game. Selecting Random will display a different one each round, and selecting User Defined will cause Tank Wars to select a random display each round from the checked boxes on the right.
None
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If this option is selected, all background displaying and movement actions will be disabled. Use this option if the bright backgrounds give you a headache. -
Starry Sky-Scape
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This background consists of many small twinkles of light that twinkle on and off, if allowed. !
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 your 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 a lot more like water. Note that Player 3 has a distinct advantage on this board, as he blends in quite well.
Static
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This background is nothing but random fuzz. It can be quite confusing as it hides shot trails, and sometimes tanks. !
Rectangles
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This background consists of multiple rectangles originating at the center of the screen. These rectangles will spread outward (or inward depending on your video card) creating a hypnotic display. Please don't stare at this one too long or it may burn in an eyeball.
Asterisk
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I'm sorry but I just couldn't think up any other name for this display. It doesn't really look like an asterisk, but who really cares. I figure most people will never even read this, so if you can think of a better name for this background, feel free to tell me. /
Random Background
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This option will cause Tank Wars to display any background it feels like. This is the suggested option, as it gives you variety while playing the game. In a series of twenty games you will most likely witness all possible backgrounds. +
User Background
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This option is similar to Random Background, except that it will only select a background from those checked on the panel to the right. Use this option if there are some backgrounds you just can't live without, or can't live with.
ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS
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These options control the environment of the game, such as wind level, wall reflectivity and crumble percentage. #
Wind Levels
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None - When this option is set there will be no wind. (Simple, isn't it) a
Low - When this option is set the wind will have little or no effect on the outcome of a shot. g
Standard - This is the standard setting for wind, and was the only setting in versions 2.0 and below. v
High - When this option is set you will see more of those 100-600 mile per hour winds that make life so interesting.
Gale - Watch out, winds of this level can exceed 10,000 mph. This can make for very interesting playing at times, and can really confuse the computer. But be warned, Wind Master is rated at 98% accuracy up to winds of 4000 mph. He just might run away with the game.
Random - 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. 1
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. /
Wall Reflectivity
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Non Existent - 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 the shot will abort then and there.
Sticky - When this option is selected any projectile or laser will bounce off of the four border walls back into the playing field. Any material weapon (ie, not a laser) will loose 50% of its velocity during the bounce. #
Elastic - When this option is selected any projectile or laser will bounce off of the four border walls back into the playing field with no loss of velocity. Computers tend to shoot more wildly when this option is on. They know that no matter what happens, they're going to hit something. ]
Accelerating - When this option is selected any projectile will bounce off of the four border walls back into the playing field with an increase in velocity. (Anybody out there remember flubber? If so then you've got the idea.) --WARNING: If a projectile reaches too great a speed air friction will become high enough to detonate it in midair.--
Warping - This setting acts exactly like Non Existent except that the projectile will wrap around from left to right (or right to left).
Random - When this option is selected then form of wall will be randomly determined each round. The kind of wall you are dealing with will be written down the left side of the playing field.
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, marking its path. The trail is slightly dimmer than the player that shot it 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. 1
Damage By Death
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This option has been removed. Tanks will now always take damage when hit by the debris of an exploding tank. '
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.
Team Play
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This options controls the default of the team play setting. Regardless of this setting it may still be changed within the program. Team Play is covered in the manual, and it is not very complicated and most previous users should be able to figure it out.
COMPUTER OPTIONS
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Computer Purchases
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When switched on the computer is allowed to make purchases. This allows for fair combat between humans and computers. Switch this off if the computers are constantly getting the better of you.
SPEED SETTINGS
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This area allows you to set the speeds of various elements of Tank Wars. The default values produce good results on a 16MHz computers. Users of slower computers may wish to increase the speed, and those running on speed demons may wish to slow things down a bit. These values are entered in units of one microsecond (1/1000 s). Thus a value of 1000 would create a one second delay between actions. F
Palette rotation speed can be found under Options - Palette Control. %
Turret Speed
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This option controls how fast the turret direction will change while pressing a key or using the mouse. If the turret speed is changing way too fast for you, increasing this value will slow down the movement. (Remember, you can also use ALT+key on keyboards.) !
Fall Speed
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This option affects the speed of falling tanks. Change this if they are dropping too slow or too fast. +
Explosion Speed
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This option controls the speed of weapons detonations. Depending on your video board adjusting this may be necessary if explosions vanish too fast or take too long. #
Laser Speed
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This option controls the speed of the laser weapon. Depending on your video system adjusting this may be necessary if the beam travels too fast or too slow for your liking. H
Projectile Speed (and Calculation Accuracy)
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This options is slightly different than the other speeds, whereas the others are microsecond delays inserted every so often, this value controls the amount of calculation the computer does when tracking a projectile. At the default setting of 10, each movement is broken down into ten smaller calculations for greater accuracy, and slower speed. Increasing this value will give greater accuracy and slower speeds (perfect for you 33Mhz powerhouses out there). Decreasing this value will increase the speed of the projectile, but decrease the accuracy of the calculations ie, at 1000 power a projectile may make it off the screen before a wall catches it, or it may pass right through a tank!
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 option 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. Checking this option is highly recommended, unless your computer crashes when it is checked. If you cannot use this option I suggest that you disable crude video access because it will cause the black 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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Anyone who managed to get 3.0 prior to the release of 3.1 will notice that this option has returned, others never saw it leave. Its meaning is now slightly different. When on, Tank Wars will use its own internal routines to manage the keyboard, providing the best and smoothest response time. Some computers, such as old PC's and XT's require that their own BIOS be used. If this is the case the Extended Keyboard routines may crash the computer when a key is pressed. If this happens turn this option off, and Tank Wars will first let BIOS handle the key, then it will read the BIOS keyboard buffer. This is not as reliable in cases of multi-key presses, such as CTRL and ALT key combinations, and may not correctly read the release of a key, but at least it shouldn't bring down your system. 7
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) wait 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) 18-70 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 disables that wait. The palette will be updated immediately, regardless of what the video system 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 Loadup
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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 OPTIONS
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These settings control the method and frequency with which Tank Wars plays with video cards palette settings. A new method has been added. Instead of linking into the Timer interrupt and moving the palette 18.2 times a second, it can link into the Video Retrace Interrupt and work 70 times a seconds. Using the VR interrupt is cleaner, produces less interference, and will not screw with your system clock. ;
Video Retrace Interrupt
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This method of palette rotation links directly into the Video Retrace signal from your video card. This assures that there is minimum interference on the screen while changing the video DAC palette. This also occurs 70 times a second creating much smoother background animation. Note, some video cards don't have a video retrace signal. Also some devices that use IRQ-2 (A few Mice and a few Midi boards) have locked up when using the VR Interrupt. If either of these happen on your system then the background will not move or the mouse will freeze, and you should select the Timer Interrupt option instead. +
Timer Interrupt
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This method of palette rotation links into the timer interrupt instead of the VR interrupt. This method is what versions previous to 3.0 used to update the palette. This can cause static or black splotches on the screen, or even screw up your system clock. None of these happened on my system, but the VR interrupt still provides a much smoother background movement. !
Not Active
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This will completely disable palette rotation. I currently see no need for this, as one of the above two will work on almost any system. I have provided this just in case neither method works. 9
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 18.2 (Timer Interrupt) or 70 (Vertical Retrace Interrupt) movements per second. If this is too fast, or if this slows your system then increase this value appropriately.
BOSS SCREEN MEMORY
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This setting controls how much memory is allocated for saving the screen when you press F10 (BOSS Key). Many video adapters will preserve the graphics screen when they change to text mode, allowing you to simply change back without actually saving the screen. However BIOS uses this area while in text mode to store font information, and different computers use different amounts of memory for this. Tank Wars thus allows you to set how much of the screen it will save when you press F10, the rest it will assume is preserved by your video card.
The default value of 63 is enough to save the entire screen, and is most likely a waste of memory. You can trim this down to a smaller number, and press the TEST button to see if it is adequate. The screen will fill with a pattern of lines flash to text mode and return. Then as much of the screen as you told it to save will be redrawn. If the screen returns correctly, then the amount of memory you have selected is satisfactory to retain the screen, and you may be able to cut the number back further. If there is interference of any kind remaining on the screen, or parts of it are missing then you need to increase this number. Setting this to 0 will disable the boss screen.
Windows Users: Because of the way Windows shuffles video memory about, Tank Wars may not get the same chunk of memory it had before it changed video modes, thus it is a good idea to set this to 63, so that the entire screen is redrawn.
EXIT (NO SAVE)
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This will exit the configuration program leaving all previous data intact. It will make no attempt to save the data entered, and it will make no attempt to correct a damaged configuration file if it 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 this program (which it should not have been) I suggest you do this first to clear out somebody else's configuration.
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. I can see no reason that this tiny (<100 byte) file should give you troubles, and thus there is no error checking for that occurrence. (How's that for crude programming.) After saving it will return you to DOS.
SAVE
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This option will attempt to save all options to a configuration file in the current directory without exiting.
(.txt)