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1993-02-25
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BATTLE GRID
-----------
VER 3.0
S Y S O P D O C U M E N T A T I O N
**************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER: Locatha Industries, Inc. Makes no warranties of any kind,
either expressed or implied, or inferable from the course
of dealing or the custom of trade including but not
limited to any implied warranties of merchantability and
fitness for any particular purpose, with respect to this
documentation, its quality, or it performance. Battle Grid
is licensed "AS IS". The entire risk as to its quality and
performance is with the buyer. Locatha Industries, Inc.
will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or
conseuential damages resulting from the use or misuse of
Battle Grid. The use of Battle grid constitutes agreement
with this disclaimer and releases Locatha Industries, Inc.
from any form of liability or litigation.
COPYRIGHT Battle Grid Copyright (c) Locatha Industries, Inc., 1991,92-
93 ALL Rights Reserved. This game, and the computer programs
to which it relates are the property of, and embody trade
secrets and confidential information proprietary to, Locatha
Industries, Inc., and may not be modified or reverse engineered
without the prior express written approval of Locatha Industries,
Inc.
TRADEMARKS Battle Grid <tm> is a trademark of Locatha Industries, Inc.
***************************************************************************
TECHNICAL
UPDATE NEWS: There are no longer any Command line parameters required for
the operation of Battle Grid HOST. The HOST now has a
configuration program where you will set the options
particular to your system so that BATTLE GRID can run on it.
There are also no longer any Command line parameters for
the BG-TERM (terminal) side of battle grid. It will
automatically detect the COM PORT, MODEM SPEED, & TYPE.
All your users should have to do to run the terminal is
exit there ANSI terminal package (without dropping CARRIER)
and type BG-TERM.EXE.
***************************************************************************
I. GETTING STARTED FAST
II. INFORMATION ABOUT BATTLE GRID THE SYSOP SHOULD KNOW
III. B.S. NOTES
***************************************************************************
GETTING STARTED FAST
---------------------------------------------------------
BY THIS TIME YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY RAN THE INSTALLATION
BATCH. HAD BATTLE GRID UNCOMPRESSED IN ITS CORRECT
DIRECTORY AND HAD RUN ITS CONFIGURATION PROGRAM SETTING
BATTLE GRID TO THE PARTICULARS OF YOUR SYSTEM. NOW ALL
THAT IS LEFT IS TO SET IT UP AS A DOOR ON YOUR BBS.
When installing BATTLE GRID on your BBS there are two things you should
consider.
1. If your BBS SOFTWARE allows for DOS INTERRUPTS or
intercepting DOS CALLS as with WWIV, you should
be sure that these options are toggled 'OFF'.
BATTLE GRID handles all of its own communications
and does not require this function.
2. Also, you should do whatever means your BBS SOFTWARE
provides for shrinking the BBS SOFTWARE out of
memory. BATTLE GRID is a memory intensive game and
will need as much memory as you can muster.
HOST REQUIREMENTS:
GRAPHICS OFF/MUSIC OFF
350K of base memory
GRAHPICS ON/ MUSIC ON
580K of base memory
TERM REUIREMENTS:
WITH MUSIC OFF
425K of base memory
WITH MUSIC ON
500K of base memory
After keeping these two factors in mind you should simply install
BATTLE GRID as any other door. We suggest using the BATCH file
methode since BATTLE GRID may not be contained in your BBS root
directory. Here are a couple of examples of what i mean:
(NOT USEING THE .SYS PATH OPTION IN THE "BGCFG.EXE" PROGRAM)
"Lets assume that your BBS is on your 'C:' drive under the
directory 'BBS'. Your BBS path would look like:
'C:\BBS'
Now, lets assume that BATTLE GRID is in its own director
on drive 'C:' under the 'BBS' directory. Its path may
look like this:
'C:\BBS\GAMES\BGRID'
to run BATTLE GRID as a door on your BBS system you would
actually call the batch file below from within your "CHAINEDIT",
"DOOREDIT" functions on your particular BBS SOFTWARE PACKAGE.
'C:\BBS\BGRID.BAT'
BGRID.BAT:
copy door.sys c:\bbs\games\bgrid
{ OR WHICH EVER .SYS FILE YOU USE }
cd c:\bbs\games\bgrid
BG-HOST.EXE
erase door.sys
{ OR WHICH EVER .SYS FILE YOU USE }
cd c:\bbs
This method copies the 'door.sys', 'chain.txt', 'callinfo.bbs',
'dorinfo1.def', or 'sfdoors.dat' to the BATTLE GRID directory
so that BATTLE GRID may use it to get information about the
user playing the game.
( USING THE .SYS PATH IN THE "BGCFG.EXE" PROGRAM )
The only difference with this methode from the above described
methode is that you will not need to copy the 'door.sys',
'chain.txt', 'callinfo.bbs', 'dorinfo1.def', or 'sfdoors.dat'
file to the BATTLE GRID directory. Nor, should you have to
erase the file from the BGRID directory. The path in the Configuration
program should point to the path of where to locate this file
and BATTLE GRID will do all the changing of directories to find
the file and use it. So in the scenerio listed above, if your
'door.sys' file would be created in your BBS's root directory then
you would place this path in the BATTLE GRID configuration
program.
C:\BBS
{WITHOUT A TRAILING '\' }
if you mis-entered this information in the BGCFG.EXE (CONFIGURATION)
program you may go to the BATTLE GRID directory and type the
above listed .EXE program and make the desired changes.
Multi-Node systems should use an environment variable(consult your
DOS manual for indepth information on this topic). The Environment
variable will be appended to the .SYS PATH by battle grid to locate
the subdirectory that you have the correct 'DOOR.SYS' (or which ever
userinfo file you are using ) file located in. i.e:
If your .SYS PATH is
C:\BBS\NODE
and your environment variable is PCBNODE (could be anything)
and holds the node number for 5 then your Environment Variable
will be in the BGCFG.DAT file
PCBNODE
and BATTLE GRID will look in the path C:\BBS\NODE5 for the
appropriate 'DOOR.SYS' file.
In otherwords it acts like any other Multi-Node door you have on
your system now. Infact, Impart from the Graphic Term...their is
no difference installing BGrid than any other ANSI door.
Welp, thats it to the installation of BATTLE GRID. Once you've gotten
it in your BBS and the BATCH file written and working then you should
now be able to log onto your BBS locally and run the door locally.
If you have GRAPHICS set to 'ON' in the Configuration program then you
should be able to see battle grid....play and enjoy...
if you have GRAPHICS set to 'OFF' in the Configuration program then
you will only be able to see:
BATTLE GRID IN PROGRESS
-----------------------
blinking in blue at the top of your screen. Unfortunately...there
isn't an easy way out of this since you can't see the screen. however,
at this point you should just hit <ESC> to exit you back to the board.
*****************************************************************************
INFORMATION ABOUT BATTLE GRID THE SYSOP
SHOULD KNOW
---------------------------------------
1. If graphics is turned 'ON' then the sysop will see all the
graphics even when another user logs on to play. So you may
watch a user playing battle grid in real time online.
If Graphics is turned 'OFF' then the sysop will see only the
'BATTLE GRID IN PROGRESS'
blinking in blue at the top of his screen during battle grid
execution.
2. We have now accounted for allowing the terminal package to be
downloaded via BATTLE GRID. So when a user calls and has never
played BATTLE GRID before they will see the following:
'DO YOU HAVE BATTLE GRID GRAPHIC TERM VERSION 3.0 [Y/N]'
If they answer 'NO' to the above question it will proceed asking
them a few questions about there system..then package them up
a terminal version and upload it to them in a self-extracting
compressed file. It will then instruct them to exit there
term without dropping carrier and uncompress the file. Then
all they will need to do is run BG-TERM.EXE and they are in
the game. THE TRANSFER PROTOCAL USED IS ZMODEM HOWEVER, YOU
DO NOT NEED TO HAVE DSZ.EXE OR ANY OTHER PROTOCOL DRIVER IN
THE BATTLE GRID DIRECTORY. BATTLE GRID HAS ZMODEM INTERNAL.
** SPECIAL NOTE **
"BGTERM30.EXE" and "BGTRM30.ZIP" should have been created during
the installation of BATTLE GRID. The BGTERM30.EXE file you should
leave in the BATTLE GRID directory so that users may download it via
BATTLE GRID when they instruct BATTLE GRID to send it to them.
it is a self-Extracting file and contains the exact files that
are with in the BGTRM30.ZIP. The BGTRM30.ZIP file should be placed
in your file area for users to Download incase they do not support
zmodem transfer or if they have any problems with transfering the
file via BATTLE GRID.
Also, X00.SYS has a known bug. It will Drop DTR during Disk
access cuasing BATTLE GRID to loose some charactes during the
ZMODEM transfer. So it will take MUCH!!! longer to transfer
the FILE using the X00.SYS and FOSSIL com type option. We
highly suggest BNU.COM.
3. The terminal package for BATTLE GRID does not support the
additional communications methods as does the HOST. The
only communications method open to the users is the
standard UART communications COM's 1-4. Therefore, if one
of your users is having trouble getting the term to work
properly...make sure that he/she is not running a fossil
driver or a non-standard communications port. Also, sometimes
the term may get confused when attempting to check for
the correct communications port where a mouse or some other
serial device such as a scanner is located before the
communications port. i.e.
Mouse on COM1
MODEM on COM2
However, these are very very rare occasions and only the
real strange mice tend to have this problem.(Those with
special or unusual mouse drivers).
4. Our TECHNICAL support numbers to reach us for any problems
are:
The Hall of Bones: (904)/241-6301 (2400bps)
Locatha Industries:(904)/387-9796 (VOICE)
(Allow 8 rings for Answering Service to
answer the phone)
5. Currently the DIGI-Board support routines are untested. However,
There currently are many documentations running-about informing
such users on how to utilize a fossil for the same purpose. If
you are running DIGI-BOARDS please call one of the ABOVE numbers
to inform us of your success. THANK YOU in advance.
6. The host side of BATTLE GRID works much faster than the USERS SIDE
because of some unique buffering and compression of data. Therefore,
if you are watching a user play....do not meddel with the keys on
your end because the user may not have yet recieved everything.
Oh!..yes...Your keys will operate the same as the users on the
other end...therefore it would be possible in conjunction with the
chat function of BATTLE GRID to walk a new user through battle grid
explaining some of it's functions.
7. When playing a game of battle grid, a [NAME OF GAME].USE file is
created to maintain game activity on Mulit-Node systems. This
will prevent more than one person accessing the same game at any
one time. However, occasionally during an unexpected lockup or
drop carrier this file is not erased as it normally would be on
a standard "EXIT" of the game. This will result in this message
being displayed any time another user wishes to play that game:
"GAME CURRENTLY IN USE"
"TRY BACK LATER"
The remedy to this situation is simple. When you are sure that
no one is currently in Battle Grid, go to the Battle Grid
directory and type
"ERASE *.USE"
This will make that game usable by the other players again.
Although this function was installed for Multi-Node systems, those
boards with only one node will also be affected by this if this
should happen.
8. In the game raster screen (where the games names are listed) you
will notice that you have (HOST) two more commands than the user
(TERM) has. They are the:
'G' = MAKE ANSI SCOREBOARD
'D' = DELETE A GAME
'G'
This will allow you to make an ansi scoreboard to post on your
board so that everyone can see who is ahead.
'D'
This will allow you to DELETE a game from the list and your HARD
DRIVE if for some reason it should become currupted or due to
lack of use no longer active.
9. The old BATTLE GRID game files are NOT compatible with Version
3.0. Therefore, you'll need to delete any currently active
games if you are updating to version 3.0 from 2.0b. The
simplest method to do this is to just erase all of BATTLE GRID
version 2.0b and then install VERSION 3.0 in that directory.
****************************************************************************
B. S. NOTES:
We hope you enjoy the latest version of BATTLE GRID. We realize the
versions in the past were a bit buggy ...however, we've taken some
very intensive steps to make this version as "SOLID" as possible and
as user friendly as possible. Some of our registered users may notice
some of there suggestions in the game...I must apologize now that we
didn't keep track of who suggested what...so for that reason there are
no special thanks credits....However, I think all our previously
registered BATTLE GRID users should get a pat on the back for some of
the BEST!! Beta testing ever. We contribute this version to you guys
and thank you for your support. You have allowed us to move onto some
bigger and better projects which you will see very soon in the future.
Future projects will be taking advantage of the widely used VGA 256
graphic cards and the ever growing Multi-node BBS's out there...So
we are WARNING YOU NOW!!! If you do not have a vga card attached
along with a VGA monitor to you computer...."INVEST NOW!" We'll
be taking BATTLE GRID along with all our new releases to these new
hights very soon.."heh sooner than you may think!"
Evan Schwartz