The Utilities Experience

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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "BALLS!" Lottery Number Generator -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please Note! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Balls!", like every other Lottery Number Generator (LNG) out there is in no way guaranteed to make you a multi-millionaire within a fortnight or indeed any length of time at all. You use "Balls!" at your own financial risk, no responsibility will be accepted for loss of data and/ or money as a direct or indirect result of the use or misuse of this program. In short - you're on your own, mate! Distribution. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The un-registered version of "Balls!" may be sold by any Public Domain house operating in the United Kingdom with the exception of the following companies who MAY NOT stock it under any circumstances. Telescan Computer Services N.J.H. Public Domain Magazines have permission to include the un-registered version on their coverdisks providing some agreement is reached beforehand. The fully-registered version of "Balls!" contains the name and address of the registered user within the main program which is displayed on the main screen. This means that pirates will be found out! In any event, this program must be distributed as a whole, with no part missing or altered in any way whatsoever. =============================================== This package comprises the following files: =============================================== Balls! Main Program 115228 b Balls!.info Icon file 2000 Data/Balls!.pin Pointer gfx 464 Balls!.100 Data Bank 1628 Balls!.gfx Graphics file 78114 Help/000 ...etc Help files +/- Docs/Balls!.doc This doc file 16392 Register.doc Registration file 2044 =============================================== If you think you have any files missing from your archive/package then feel free to write to the address at the bottom of this document and we will be happy to send you a full version, please enclose a blank disk and return postage. NOTE that we will not send out the fully registered versions in this way. Background. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Hoorah! Britain has FINALLY got a National Lottery and we can now all dream about retiring with vast sums of money and lots of time to spend it in! You no longer have to be interested in football or horseracing to stand a chance of winning a huge amount of loot! The major part of the Lottery (aside from the actual draw) is the choosing of the numbers that just might send you on your way to fortune, and the weekly cack programme (thankfully the Beeb are to change the format in the next few months - no more Mystic Meg?) has a slot given over to telling people about the weird and wonderful ways that people have selected their six numbers. So here's another LNG program, in addition to the offerings already out and available - four at the last count. But why should you use this one in preference to those others? Why "Balls!"? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Balls!" gets one over on two of the previously mentioned programs right away because it's only Shareware. This means that you can keep "Balls!" for a "test period" of one month and only then are you obliged to send the poor, poor programmer a fiver, and THAT's only if you decide to keep the program! Yes, you read that right! This wonderful program, which could turn your whole life around, costs only a fiver! Neat eh? Of course if you win millions using it and you're feeling generous... As for the other P.D./Shareware offerings now out, well "Balls!" doesn't stick with just one method, in fact there are (at the time of writing this bit) 5 different methods for generating your numbers, from a single card up to a 48-number Syndicate method. One other advantage with "Balls!" is that it isn't limited in any way. You can use "Balls!" fully straight from the word go. All features are enabled and nothing has been taken out. It also looks a LOT better than all the other LNG's... ;-) Getting Started. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Balls!" can be started from either the CLI/Shell or from Workbench, so it goes one-up on the PC world STRAIGHT away! If you start it from the CLI/Shell then you must CD to the "Balls!" dir and then run the main program, as "Balls!" loads data from a couple of sub-directories within the main dir. To run it from Workbench, open the "Balls!" drawer and double-click on the main program icon. "Balls!" requires the "Helvetica 18" font in your Assigned FONTS: drawer, this is part of the WB3 package but I have included it in the main directory just in case you can't find it anywhere. To install "Balls!" on your Harddrive, simply drag the main drawer to wherever you want it. As long as the main program is kept in the drawer then there shouldn't be any problems. The Main Screen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This contains a few lines of text about the registered status of your copy of "Balls!". If you have not received it from me then there should be a message informing you that it is an un-registered version. If you have a copy that says "This copy is registered to:" and has someone's name and address on it then you are using a pirated copy and should send it to me stating where you got it from. Computer Piracy is a Crime - Do Not Accept It! Support the Amiga - Kill the Consoles! There are also four options on the main screen, they allow you to either generate a board, update the Lottery Data (LD) bank, have a quick look at the lottery statistics so far or quit the program, saving the LD bank to disk in the process. Entering Data. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The "Update Lottery Data" option has two modes of use, you can either enter a new set of numbers for a draw that has just taken place, or you can go over the past weeks and correct any errors that you might have made/found in the existing data. Both of the modes require that you enter an 8-character "Date" string (suggested: DD-MM-YY or DDth Mmm) for your own reference, then the six numbers, followed by the Bonus Ball either from the new draw or the week that is being corrected. Obviously if you are to make accurate predictions then you should ensure that your LD bank contains the correct data. As all plans with the exception of one are based on this data, any errors will have a direct (although not necessarily catastrophic) bearing on the usefulness of this program. The unregistered version of "Balls!" is supplied with the first 20 weeks of Lottery Draw results, doudle-checked for accuracy. Obviously this means you will have to update the LD Bank yourself (it is week 21 as I'm type this), the lottery numbers can be found in most newspapers and on Teletext pages 123 (ITV) and 750 (BBC2). ITV onlt have the most recent 5 draws, BBC2 seems to have all of them so far and will probably stretch to 6 months of results, this being the maximum length of time allowed for collection of prizes. The registered versions will be posted on the Monday following receipt of your order, and so will have all the lottery data inserted. Generating your Numbers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's a list of the available "perms" (to leech a word from the pools!) that you can try. Note that later versions might have more perms as the program is always being added to. Single Ticket ------------- Simply generates six random numbers for you to use. If should be more random than any human could possibly create because computers are not influenced by things like Birthdays or Anniversaries. Most Frequent ------------- Generates six numbers at random from the ten numbers that have occured the most since you started filling the LD bank. Least Frequent -------------- Generates six numbers from those that have appeared LEAST often, you can argue that the law of averages might help this one work. Hot Numbers ----------- Every now and again certain numbers appear for a few weeks in a row for no reason and upset everybody because they didn't pick 'em. This one lets you pick hot numbers from the past three months. Syndicate 48 ------------ Pick eight lots of six numbers and cover all but one ball, so you know that you're going to get five of them. This way you're only waiting for TWO more numbers on five tickets. The Stats Screen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Provides an "At-a-Glance" display of how the 49 numbers have performed over the past weeks, for example, until I had written this function (19th Lottery Week) I had no idea that number 34 has NEVER been drawn, either as a main number or as the Bonus Ball, neat eh? You can flag specific numbers that you definately want to see on your ticket, so that you can specify birthdays, house numbers etc. Quit/Save ~~~~~~~~~ If you have edited the data in the LD bank then you ABSOLUTELY MUST use the "Quit to DOS" option on the main screen to leave "Balls!", as this is when the LD bank is saved to disk. If you simply reset then you will lose all of your changes, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! When you first receive your un-resistered copy of "Balls!" you may find that the LD bank is out of date by several weeks. If this is the case then you simply enter all the missing weeks in one go, no problem! Registered versions of "Balls!" will be sent with an up-to-date LD bank. PLEASE NOTE that help is available on most of the buttons in "Balls!" before you actually press them. All you generally need to do is press the RIGHT mouse button while over the gadget that you want help on, and a help file will be loaded and displayed. I have not included help files for gadgets with blatantly obvious used (Like "Main Menu"), but having said that, most buttons have them. Music Option: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have a Soundtracker/Protracker module that you want to have playing while you are working out your numbers, you can save it in the Data directory as "Balls!.mod" and it will be loaded and played every time you load "Balls!". Please note that the AMOS replayer isn't really briliant, so some modules may not work properly. This module should not be crunched, unless you have your own decruncher patch - either RTDD or PPP will work fine. Using Powerpacker and PPP it is possible to crunch the file "Balls!.gfx" from 78k to 9k! No Guarantees! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I stated at the start of this document, there is no guarantee stated or implied in this package, I'm not going to say it'll make you rich, but then I'm not going to say it WON'T either. The whole point of the program is to cater for people who want to have six numbers based on existing data, either because they can't be bothered to go through the results of all of the draws looking for set patterns, or they want a completely random set of numbers. At the end of the day you're going to have six numbers, all this program does is make it easier for you to pick numbers that conform to a few rules, but YOU still have to decide what those rules are! Something for the Future, Sir? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A short list of all the bits that I'd like to see implemented in future registered versions of "Balls!", bearing in mind that it's my ability to translate these ideas into program code that will decide whether or not they actually DO appear... Dividend Predicting ------------------- I believe it is possible, once the draw has been made and the numbers have been entered for the week, to predict what the prize will be based upon the Total Prize Fund and the numbers that come up. More "Perms" ------------ If you're got any other ideas for perms that are not implemented then please write to the address at the bottom. If I use your idea in any future revision then you'll be sent a free registered copy of "Balls!" if you do not already have one, or you can select one of the AGA titles listed below. Contact the Programmer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you experience any problems with "Balls!" that you think might well come under the heading of "Bugs" or even "Undocumented Features" then please feel free to write to me and tell me what's wrong. Please try to send as much information as possible, including: Your machine configuration? What were you doing? What happened when you did it? Have you managed to do it again using the same conditions? Do you have an idea what caused the problem? If you can help at all with the devlopment and maintenance of this progam (That's usually called "Bug-Fixing") then please write to the following address, a S.A.E would be appreciated. R. Monks. N.F.A. P.O.Box 42, Grimsby, South Humberside. DN33 1RY You should also use this address for your registration fees, send £5 to the address, plus the form in the Docs drawer (Copy it out to paper if you don't have a printer), please make all cheques payable to R. Monks. ----------------------------------------------- If you'd also like any of the following N.F.A titles, send £1 per disk and we'll get them in the post to you A.S.A.P. ----------------------------------------------- Bodyshop 8 AGA Slideshow - 3 Disks Big Girls II AGA Slideshow (*** 15 RATED ***) - 3 Disks Pamela Denise Anderson AGA (*** 15 RATED ***) - 2 Disks Claudia Schiffer 94 AGA Slideshow - 3 Disks The Word issue 5 Disk-Magazine - AGA Only - 1 Disk ----------------------------------------------- Many thanks for taking the time to read this doc file, and I hope that you win something on the Lottery in the not-too distant future! R. Monks. a.k.a. Freak of NFA 26th March 1995 Support the Amiga - Kill the Consoles! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ABOUT "BALLS!" Credits: Programming and Artwork - Freak/NFA Graphics & Layout ideas - Pex/Quantum Inc. ß-Testers: Damian Johnson (Aladdin Sane/iNDi) Jonathan Pexman (Pex/Quantum Inc.) Mike Carter (ßudda/NFA, Author "Phuk the World") Phil Ruston (Phil!/Neø, Author "Giddy 1&2", "Op. Firestorm" "Aquanaught" ) Tools Used: Amos Professional by Europress Software CygnusEd v3.0 by CygnusSoft Directory Opus IV by Jonathan Potter Deluxe Paint v4.5 by Dan Silva & E.A. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bug-Fix History: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ v1.00 - Released to the above ß-Testers on 14th April 1995. v1.01 - Bug fixed in Registered User DeCryption routine, it did too many bytes and threw several wobblers at once. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-