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1992-11-28
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2SF4SRE
(C) 1992 by Robin Duffy
All rights reserved
This package contains two useful utilities for using Solar Realms
with Spitfire. SF2SRE is a utility to quickly convert SFDOORS.DAT into
DOORFILE.SR for Solar Realms, and LIMITSRE will allow you to run
multiple games of SRE while limiting callers to playing just one game.
This package is distributed as SHAREWARE, meaning you are free to
try these programs on a trial basis. You are encouraged to give this
package to your friends and upload it on your favorite BBS. If you
continue to use either of these programs after a reasonable time, you
should register your copies. See the included REGISTER.DOC for more
registration information.
========================== SF2SRE.COM ==============================
SF2SRE.COM will create the player file for SRE while allowing
somce degree of control over the conversion process. To install SF2SRE,
simply copy the file SF2SRE to your Solar Realms program directory.
Command line syntax of SF2SRE is:
SF2SRE [options]
where options is one or more of the following command line
switches:
/I - Do not force IBM character set
/B - Use DTE rate instead of DCE rate
/T - Ignore time limit
Normally SF2SRE will tell SRE to use the IBM charater set. Using
the /I option will instead tell SRE that this option is unknown,
forcing it to use standard characters. The /B option will report the
max baud rate of your BBS to SRE, instead of the default of the
caller's baud rate. /T will set the time limit to -1, which tells SRE
not to be concerned with time. The default is to report the caller's
time left.
Place SF2SRE in your Spitfire batch file in place of SRDOOR.EXE
like this, assuming that SRE is set up as door A:
:DOOR_A
CD DOOR_A
COPY ..\SFDOORS.DAT > NUL
SF2SRE
SRE
DEL SFDOORS.DAT
DEL DOORFILE.SR
CD..
GOTO LOOP
SF2SRE will read the appropriate lines from SFDOORS.DAT and
create DOORFILE.SR. If you do not delete DOORFILE.SR as part of your
batch file, then SF2SRE will overwrite the old copy.
For reference, here is the format of DOORFILE.SR and the lines
from SFDOORS.DAT used:
DOORFILE.SR COMMENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
User Name SFDOORS.DAT line 2
ANSI? SFDOORS.DAT line 10, TRUE or FALSE
IBM Character set? Set to 1, if /I then set to -1
Screen lines Set to -1, SRE defaults to 25
Baud Rate SFDOORS.DAT line 5, if /B then line 20
COM Port SFDOORS.DAT line 6
Time Limit SFDOORS.DAT line 7, if /T then set -1
======================== LIMITSRE.COM =============================
LIMITSRE.COM is a handy utility that will limit player access to
Solar Realms when you are running multiple games. One of the main
reasons for running multiple games is to allow more players access to
the game. This utility will enforce that ideal for you.
The program operates by getting the caller's name from
SFDOORS.DAT, then inspecting each game's USER.SR file to determine if
the caller is playing somewhere else. If he is, then a display file is
shown to the caller and the program exits with the DOS ERRORLEVEL set
to a value of 50. Your batch file detects this condition and skips the
call to SRE. LIMITSRE also handles multi-node operation.
To install the program, copy the file LIMITSRE.COM to your main
Spitfire directory. Configure the program by creating an ASCII file
named LIMITSRE.CFG in your Spitfire directory with the following
format:
Line 1: COM port
Line 2: Display file name
Line 3: Path to game one
Line 4: Path to game two
.
.
Line x: Path to game x
Each line is described below.
Line One: COM Port
LIMITSRE supports standard COM ports 1 - 4 for display of the
copyright notice and the denial display file. Here are the I/O bases
and IRQs currently supported:
Name Port IRQ
-----------------------
COM 1 03F8h 4
COM 2 02F8h 3
COM 3 03E8h 4
COM 4 02E8h 3
As yet, non-standard COM port arrangements are not supported.
Line Two: Display File Name
When LIMITSRE denies access to a caller, it looks for a display
file to show. This name is the path and filename of the display file to
show, minus the extension. For ANSI callers the extension of .CLR will
be searched for and used first, if it exists. If the caller is not
using ANSI or the .CLR file cannot be found, then LIMITSRE will search
for the display file with an extension of .BBS. If neither display
file can be found, a default message will be shown to the caller.
Line 3 to Line x: Paths to each game
Every line that follows the first two are the actual game
directories for your SRE games. The program can handle up to 1200
different games, suitable for most applications. The path name can be a
relative or absolute path. Place one path per line. You may order the
games in any manner you see fit, but LIMITSRE will assume the first
path given is game #1, the second is game #2, and so on. This is
important to remember when modifying your SF.BAT file.
The next step in the installation is to include LIMITSRE in your
batch file. Place LIMITSRE after each SRE door label with a command
line parameter like this:
:DOOR_A
LIMITSRE gamenumner
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO LOOP
Gamenumber above is the number of this particular game of SRE.
LIMITSRE uses this parameter to know which game it should skip while
checking each USER.SR file.
As an example installation, let's assume you are running four
games of Solar Realms in directories C:\SF\DOOR_A, DOOR_B, DOOR_C, and
DOOR_D. You have created two display files named NOSRE.CLR and
NOSRE.BBS and placed them in your display directory. Your modem for
this node is on COM 1. Your installation steps are:
1. Place LIMITSRE.COM in your C:\SF directory.
2. Create a text file named LIMITSRE.CFG and place it in C:\SF
directory. Its contents are:
1
C:\SF\DISPLAY\NOSRE
C:\SF\DOOR_A
C:\SF\DOOR_B
C:\SF\DOOR_C
C:\SF\DOOR_D
Please note that LIMITSRE will assume DOOR_A is game one, DOOR_B is
game 2, and so on.
3. Edit your SF.BAT file so it looks something like this:
:DOOR_A:
LIMITSRE 1
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO LOOP
CD DOOR_A
COPY ..\SFDOORS.DAT >NUL
SF2SRE
SRE
CD..
GOTO LOOP
:DOOR_B
LIMITSRE 2
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO LOOP
.
.
GOTO LOOP
:DOOR_C
LIMITSRE 3
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO LOOP
.
.
GOTO LOOP
:DOOR_D
LIMITSRE 4
IF ERRORLEVEL 50 GOTO LOOP
.
.
That is all there is to the installation. Now when a caller opens
any Solar Realm game, he will see a message stating "Checking other
games, please wait...". LIMITSRE will quickly scan all SRE games except
the one given on the command line. If the caller is in another game, he
will be shown the display file you create and returned to the BBS.
Otherwise he drops right through to the game.
======================= IN CONCLUSION ==========================
If you have any questions or comments regarding either program in
this package, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to assist
you in any way I can. I may be reached at the address listed in
REGISTER.DOC, or you may call my BBS at (606) 561-5766 300-14.4K baud
v.32/v.42bis 24 hours daily.