Frostbyte's 1980s DOS Shareware Collection

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Text File | 1989-09-23 | 18.8 KB | 489 lines

ATCSIM V1.2 ----------- Air Traffic Control Simulation ------------------------------ System Requirement ------------------ - Intel (TM) 8088,80286,386,486 processor running at any clock speed - graphics adaptor card: CGA,MCGA,EGA,VGA,Hercules Monochrome & Incolor (TM) - DOS 2.0 or higher (but not MS-DOS 2.11!) - at least 256K of memory - hard disk optional - for registered program, if you have at least 199K free extended memory or free disk space on your default hard/floppy disk, the program will swap most of itself out of conventional memory during shell to DOS, using up only 3K. Otherwise, program will shell to DOS using 3K of conventional memory. Files Distributed ----------------- ASE.DOC - explains how the Aircraft Specification Editor works ASE.EXE - Aircraft Specification Editor ATC.DOC - this file ATC.EXE - the game REG.DOC - registration form REG.EXE - program to enter registration data to ATC.EXE and to enable all the features Quick Start ----------- If you are already familiar with air traffic control (ATC), you can play the game right away. Run ATC.EXE, when the radar display appears, press <ESC> to see the menu, then press <H> to display help on command syntax, exit radials and restrictions. On the right of the radar display is a "rack" of flight progress strips (FPS), upper half for departures and lower half arrivals. To upgrade from V1.0 or 1.1 to 1.2 ---------------------------------- If you are already a registered user of ATCSIM V1.0 or 1.1, this upgrade version 1.2 is free to you! Replace ATC.EXE and REG.EXE of Version 1.0 or 1.1 with those from this version and run REG.EXE using the same password I sent you before. If you unfortunately lose your password, send me the registration form quoting your registration number and I shall send you the password again. What is ATC ? ------------- Aircrafts fly in and out of a large airport in fixed routes called airways. They are equivalent to the freeways for cars. Unlike driving where you can stop and look around, aircrafts must keep on flying. The job of the air traffic controller is to direct aircrafts from one place to another via radio and to keep them separated to avoid collision. He achieves this with the help of radar. In this game, the radar display shows the airport at the center of the screen as a light-red triangle of 3 dots. There are 2 runways. Each can be used at either end. At the start of the game, the program will decide which runway or runways may be used for takeoff and landings. There may be only one active runway or all 4 possible runways may be active. An active runway is shown on the radar display as a yellow dotted line together with its approach area shown as a light-blue rectangle. There are 5 exits where departing aircrafts will leave. They are shown as light-green brackets together with their names near the edges of the radar display. You have to direct departing aircrafts to take off, climb to a certain altitude (at least 6,000 ft), to turn left or right so that they fly towards their destinations (the 5 exits). You have to direct arriving aircrafts to descend to a certain altitude (maximum 4,000 ft), to turn left or right so that they fly into the approach area (rectangle), 'clear' them for approach and clear them to land. To prevent collisions, aircrafts fly at heights at least one thousand feet apart. When 2 aircrafts are vertically separated by less than 1000 ft. and horizontally less than approximately 0.5 inch on the radar display, a collision is likely and the condition is called "near miss". The game ends when 2 aircrafts collide in midair. A word about 'headings' ----------------------- Flying is like sailing where direction is measured on a 360 degree basis. North is heading 0, east 90, south 180, west 270. Therefore, if you direct an aircraft to turn right heading 135, you tell it to fly south-east. Runways are named by its heading in tenth's of degree. Runway 09 is heading 90-99 east, runway 16 is heading 160-169 south south east. The reciprocal runways (takeoff and landing in the opposite direction) are respectively runway 27 and 34. Flight Levels ------------- Aircrafts fly in heights measured in hundreds of feet called flight levels. A flight level of 30 means 30 hundred feet or 3,000 feet. Throughout this game altitudes are measured in flight levels and so are your altitude changing commands. What is a Flight Progress Strip (FPS) ------------------------------------- Air traffic controllers keep details about each aircrafts on strips of paper called flight progress strips (FPS). These FPS are displayed on the right of the radar display in 2 sections, the upper half departures, lower half arrivals. The FPS of each aircraft consists of 2 lines of data, e.g. 24X 747 XKL 580 09 120 140 16 60 135 100 24X is the identification of the aircraft. It is the 'call sign' which you have to enter on each command. 747 is the aircraft type. In this game, there are 2 types of aircrafts by default: Boeing 747 and Cessna 182. 747 is the fast jet which climbs and fly faster and 182 is the slower single propeller plane. Please note that you can change the name and performance of these aircrafts and optionally add up to 2 aircrafts of your own specifications using the Aircraft Specification Editor. Please see accompanying ASE.DOC XKL is the name of the destination for departing aircrafts. For arriving aircrafts, this field is blank. There are 5 destinations: Name Radials (bearing from airport center) ---- ------- ELT 93 ECO 125 DVR 162 EDS 232 XKL 322 580 is the fuel indicator for the aircraft. 747 starts off with 600 units of fuel and 182 with 400. They burn fuel while waiting for departures as well as flying. They use more fuel climbing and less descending. You should keep an eye on it. When an aircraft runs out of fuel, the game is over! 09 is the runway indicator: - when an aircraft is waiting for departure, either 09,16,27 or 34 will be seen showing it is waiting for take off at that runway. - when you clear an aircraft for take off, the indicator becomes 09T etc. to show that the aircraft is rolling down that runway. - after take off, and for arriving aircrafts in flight, this field is blank. - when you clear an arriving aircraft for approach, the indicator shows 09A etc. - when an aircraft is cleared to land, the indicator becomes 09C etc. 120 is the heading that the aircraft is currently flying. 140 is the desired heading that you direct the plane to turn towards. When the plane is not turning, this field is blank. 16 is the altitude in Flight Levels (hundreds of ft) that the aircraft is currently flying (1,600 ft). 60 is the desired altitude you specified. When the plane is flying level, this field is blank. 135 is the bearing of the plane from the airport center. This plane is to the south-east of the airport. When the plane is waiting on the ground, this field is blank. 100 is the distance of the plane from the airport. It is approximately 100 units for the edges and 130 units for the corners of the radar display. Departure Example ----------------- Plane : (24X is ready for take off runway 09) A beep is heard and you see on the departure section a FPS with this entry: 24X 747 XKL 598 09 There are no aircrafts around so you clear it for departure by this command: ATC : 24XT<CR> Plane : "Two Four rolling" The pilot replies in synthesized voice! When the plane gets off the ground, you hear a beep and it will be displayed on the radar by a circle and a line, indicating its heading. In 3-dimensional display mode, a smaller brown circle is seen below the aircraft. This is the shadow of the aircraft on the ground. A data-tag will also be near it showing its call sign, altitude and speed. The bearing of XKL from the airport is 322. To fly to the exit XKL at 6,000 ft or above, you issue the command: ATC : 24X+60L300 Plane : "Two Four climb to six zero left three zero zero" When you see that the bearing of the plane approaches 322, you tell it to turn right heading 322. It will then fly directly to XKL. ATC : 24XR322<CR> Plane : "Two Four right three two two" Arrival Example --------------- You hear a beep and you see on the arrival section a FPS: 14C 182 396 65 90 245 158 A Cessna 182 at 9,000 ft is flying in from south-west. While it is outside the radar display, you cannot 'control' it. When it enters, you hear a beep and you enter this command to prepare it to land using runway 09: ATC : 14C-40L40<CR> Plane : "One Four descend to four zero left four zero" The aim is to direct the plane to enter the approach rectangle at 4,000 ft or below. You can only clear an aircraft for approach while it is inside the rectangle. In 3-dimensional display mode, while the brown circle is inside the rectangle. ATC : 14CA09<CR> Plane : "One Four approach zero nine" After you have cleared an aircraft for approach, it will automatically turn left or right to align with the runway and gently descend towards the ground using the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) on board! Before it touches the ground, you have to give landing clearance. Otherwise scores will be deducted. ATC : 14CC<CR> Plane : "One Four cleared to land" Other commands -------------- There are commands for help, to quit the game, to change how fast the game is played, to change sound level, to shell out to DOS (so that your boss will not know!), to toggle between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional display and to save the game so that it can be played again from exactly the same situation. Press <ESC> at any time for the menu, press <Q> to quit the game, <H> for help, <O> to jump to DOS, <D> to change speed, <S> to change sound level, <T> to toggle 2-D/3-D display and <V> to save the game. Why paid & register? -------------------- Many months of hard work have been spent on writing this program. If you like this game, if you appreciate my work, please send me a contribution. The copy of this program you received is a trialware version with limited capability. It is a demonstration to let you evaluate if it is worth $20 or not. The jump to DOS, change speed and save game functions are not available and you can only handle 2 aircrafts at a speed of 3 seconds per 'tick'. This is too slow and too few aircrafts for the experts and may be too fast for the beginners. After registration, you will be able to: 1. Choose your skill level from 1 to 5: Level 1 : Trainee - play 'at your own pace' from as slow as 9 seconds per tick - no fuel restriction - no exit restriction. Fly departing aircrafts anywhere you like to 'get the hang of ATCing' - handle 6 aircrafts generated at slower successions. Level 2 : Cadet - still no fuel restrictions - now learn to fly aircrafts to their destinations - handle 10 aircrafts. Level 3 : Officer - with full fuel & destination restrictions - handle 14 aircrafts generated at faster successions. Level 4 : Supervisor - arriving aircrafts may 'miss approach' due to poor weather condition or poor technique of pilots. They are low on fuel so you have to 'vector' them for another approach as soon as possible. - handle 18 aircrafts Level 5 : Chief - meet the greatest challenge and handle 22 aircrafts at a busy airport! - you cannot play slower than 5 seconds per tick - exit name will not be shown on the display - there will be more miss approaches 2. Change speed of play depending on skill level restriction. 3. Shell out to DOS with only 3K of DOS used up! You can work and play together! 4. Save the game in a file ATC.SAV in the default drive and subdirectory and resume playing it later. Data about all the active aircrafts, sound level, speed of play, active runways as well as 2-dimensional/3-dimensional display mode is saved. To resume playing a saved game, choose option 0 at the start-up screen. Please note that the file ATC.SAV is a binary data file. You should not edit it or the program will go haywire. 5. You will be able to change and save aircrafts performance data using the Aircraft Specification Editor (see ASE.DOC) Registration is simple. Print & fill in REG.DOC and post it together with a US$20 personal check, bank draft or money order payable to "Francis Yan Keung Leung" by air mail to Francis Yan Keung Leung 38A Hillwood Road, 3/F Kowloon, Hong Kong. After I have received your form, I shall mail you the password to be used with REG.EXE to register your own copy of ATC.EXE and I don't have to send you another disk! If you are a CompuServe user and you have supplied your User ID, I shall send the password to you via EasyPlex. After registration, all the features of the game will be available and the program will display your name and address when you start the game. Each user will have his own unique password. Notes on Shelling to DOS ------------------------ For registered program, at the start of the game, the program will check if you have enough extended memory or EMS available (about 199K) to swap the program when you shell to DOS, leaving only 3K of conventional memory used up. If you don't have enough memory, the program will open a hidden file SWAP.$$$ on your default disk and subdirectory. It will be 199K big. If you don't have enough disk space, the program will warn you and the program will jump to DOS without swapping, using up 202K of conventional memory. My advice to hackers -------------------- There are no unbreakable protection scheme but please don't waste your talent cracking my code. If you like this game, please support and pay. It is only $20! Distribution Policy ------------------- This software is distributed as Trialware = try before you buy. You are given 30 days to try out this product. If you are satisfied at the end of 30 days, please register. If you are not satisfied, you should cease using it. You are free and encouraged to distribute this program as widely as possible in its unmodified form. You should not charge a fee more than the cost of a floppy disk + postage and in case of Bulletin Boards, the normal connected charges if present. Please help trialware by uploading it to anywhere you think people are interested in. Trialware can only survive and continue to produce quality program at such a low price if the author does not have to spend a lot of money on advertisement and there are many users who do paid. Thank you in advance for your support! This version 1.2 has been thoroughly tested. Unless I hear some great suggestions from you or a bug is discovered, there will be no revisions for a while. So please distribute. Legal Stuff ----------- This program is supplied 'as is' without guarantee of any kind. The author will not be liable for any losses or damages consequential or coincidental to the use of this software. This software is copyrighted under International Laws applicable. You can only distribute the original trialware version of the program in its original package (the ATCSIM.EXE) freely. You cannot disassemble the program or modify it so as to enable the functions for registered users. The only legal way to modify the program ATC.EXE is by using REG.EXE to enter the password supplied from registration and the ASE.EXE to modify the aircraft specification data. ATC.EXE after registration will become your personal copy and cease to be trialware. Distribution of registered personal copy is a violation of applicable Copyright Laws. Acknowledgement --------------- The speech synthesizer module is by David Neal Dubois and Michael Day and is available in Borland Programming Forum A Library 2 as TALK.ZIP The execswap module to swap most of the program to EMS or hard disk during shell to DOS is by Kim Kokonen and is available in Borland Programming Forum A Library 2 as EXECSW.ARC Feedback -------- If you have any comments and suggestions, please feel free to write to me or send EasyPlex to ID 14777,101 if you are a CompuServe user. What I shall do for the next revision (and next program!) depends a lot on users feedback and support. If you encounter any bugs please also report. If you have a graphics card that is not supported, I may be able to provide a custom made program for you. Please send details about your graphics card. Thanks for your support of Trialware! Revision History ---------------- Version 1.2 - September 23, 1989 - add option to save/resume game in file ATC.SAV. - add 3-dimensional display. - add Aircraft Specification Editor to change aircraft performance data and optionally add 1 or 2 more aircraft types. - display number of aircrafts handled. - add runway 27 and 34. - randomly use 1-4 runways. - allow shell to DOS even though there is not enough swap space. - sometimes a datatag will not clear at the next 'tick', bug fixed. - documentation revised. Version 1.1 - August 1, 1989 - when the last active aircraft has landed/reached destination, the program will go haywire and may hang the system requiring reboot, bug fixed. - an aircraft may repeatedly miss approach. The algorithm has been rewritten so that it reflects the real situation better. - on start up screen, the state is shown as 2 upper case letters instead of one upper case and one lower case. - the cruising speed of Boeing 747 is increased to 26 making the game more exciting! (This change becomes redundant in V1.2 as you can use the ASE) - better documentation (this file!) Version 1.0 - July 21, 1989 - initial release.