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============== MELEE v1.90 ===============
An FRPG Gladiatorial Combat On-Line Game
Written by Kevin L. Higgins
FidoNet Node 1:128/74
V-Net Node: 1:521/101
===============================================================================
In addition to the above addresses for NetMail, Kevin Higgins may be reached
in the following FidoNet echos: DOORWARE, DOORGAMES, ON_LINE_GAMES and MELEE
(which is on the V-NET backbone, and is also available from 1:128/74; for
information F'Req the file MEL_ECHO.ZIP to find out the list of MELEE hubs).
The MELEE Support BBS is The Hornet's Nest (719) 579-0593. NetMail will also
be answered if you mention whether you will poll again to receive your answer
or wait for a ROUTED Netmail response to get back to you. If you send NetMail
with questions about MELEE, and are not answered within five days, it's because
I'm away from home, in which case I'll answer as soon as I return; meanwhile,
you can address the question to Kevin Watkins (U.S.S. Light Speed ][) either
via Fidonet NetMail or in the DOORWARE echo and he will do his best to answer
his question (keep in mind he does not have access to the source code).
===============================================================================
Files included in this archive:
The following files should be included in this archive. If any files
are missing, you have gotten an incomplete archive. If your archive is not
complete, please do not distribute it. You may always obtain the latest,
complete, version of MELEE by downloading it from The Hornet's Nest BBS
(USA (719)579-0593 -- first time access for MELEE downloads) or by File
Requesting it from FidoNet Node 1:128/74 using the magic name of MELEE.
Name Description
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arena.ans Ansi file of the combat arena
Armor.dat Armor data values and costs
Beam.ans Ansi file of The Beam combat environment
Cage.ans Ansi file of The Cage combat environment
Cmbrule.txt An explanation MELEE's blood-match challenge protocol
Disclaim.txt Author's disclaimer and License info. Must read!
FightEnv.txt An explanation of the combat environments
Helm.dat Helmet data values and costs
Howfight.txt An explanation of the combat screen and how to fight
Maint.exe The MELEE nightly maintenance program
Mel_Fin1.Ans Bonus ANSI Advertisement for MELEE. Excellent work!
Mel_Fin2.Ans Bonus ANSI Advertisement for MELEE. Excellent work!
Mel_Log1.Ans Alternate Intro Screen (Shown in registered version)
Mel_Log2.Ans Alternate Intro Screen (Shown in registered version)
Melee.cfg The DOS text configuration file. Must edit!
Melee.doc MELEE Players' game documentation
Melee.exe The MELEE main program
Melee.ovr Main program overlay file
Mudpit.ans Ansi file of The Mudpit combat environment
NPC_gen.exe MELEE combat android generation program
NPCguys*.dat Combat androids data files. * = 1-5 (level of android)
NPCscrp*.dat Combat androids script files
Order.frm Info on registering your copy of MELEE
P-Editor.exe Player deletion utility for trimming Player.dat file
Pattern.ans The Pattern-recognition template for Intel development
Profexpl.txt An explanation of the fighting proficiencies
QBBSbeta.doc A caveat for those running QBBS 1.75+ beta
Rankings.ans The ansi file used as a base for the ANSI bulletin
Rankings.exe The MELEE Warriors/Androids rankings program
Readthis.now Important supplementary info for each release
Sands.ans Ansi file of The Sands combat environment
Screen.ans Ansi file of The Arena combat environment
Shield.dat Shield data values and costs
Statinfo.txt Information on the MELEE Warrior characteristics
SysOp.doc Sysop's documentation. How to set up and run MELEE
Tactics.ans Ansi file used as a base for script determination
Tactics.txt An explanation on the various MELEE script tactics
Update.asc A history of improvements and bug-fixes
V-Editor.exe Visiting Warrior deletion utility. Trims Visitor.dat
in the occasion that you geta corrupted visitor file
from somewhere...
Warrior.bat Sample batch file for running MELEE from a BBS
Weapon.dat Weapon file for data values and costs
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Files:
Tourney.exe Utility for selecting Tournament Entry archives for
Warriors who want to enter MELEE tournaments. The
resulting file will be called ????????.MTE where the
'?'s will be numbers reflecting the time the archive
was created (to avoid duplicate filenames). Tournament
entries must be uploaded or file-sent (for FidoNet
or other front-end-mailer using systems) manually.
Warriors sent to Tournament Host systems will be
fought off using the MELEE Tournament Module, which
fights each Warrior, with his accompanying tactics-
script file, off in a double-elimination tournament
against all other entries. Method of posting/notifi-
cation of results will be up to the Tournament Host.
NOTE: The MELEE Tournament Module is completely
separate from the MELEE door. The Tourney.exe program
is included as a complimentary utility. Only
registered MELEE sites will be allowed to enter
Warriors in *most* tournaments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please:
Read the file Disclaim.txt, included this the MELEE archive. If this
archive does not contain the file Disclaim.txt, it is not an authorized
MELEE archive and should be deleted. Any use of MELEE constitutes consent to
the conditions outlined in the file Disclaim.txt. Take a look at the Order.Frm
file. You may want to fill it out one of these days.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make sure you follow the instructions in the READTHIS.NOW file!!!
See the UPDATE.ASC for fixes/changes since the last version. Leave it in
the MELEE directory, since the game allows your interested users to view this
also.
===============================================================================
SETUP:
These docs assume that you are at least a little bit familiar with DOS,
and that you know how to run a door program from your BBS. If you are clue-
less on these counts, it is highly recommended that you learn your way around
your system prior to installing any doors, let alone MELEE.
1) Unarchive the MEL_180.ARJ archive into a directory of your choice.
If you are upgrading from v1.51 or earlier a complete reset is necessary.
Follow the instructions in the READTHIS.NOW file if you have not already.
Then merely unarchive MELEE into your MELEE directory, overwriting any old
MELEE files with the new ones in this version. It is your option whether or
not you want to replace the combat androids files (NPCGUYS#.DAT and
NPCSCRP#.DAT).
2) Edit the included MELEE.CFG file to reflect your board's info. It
is well commented, so you should have no problems. Remember to include trailing
backslashes on ALL of the path/names required! Don't forget to make the
directory where the messages will go.... Editing the .cfg file should be done
with your favorite ascii-text editor. Most "RunTime Error 003" problems are
a result of misnaming your directories here.
Don't forget to create the IMPORTS directory directly below the MELEE
directory (eg., \MELEE\IMPORTS) if you ever plan on importing visiting
Warriors into your game. There is more detail on this in step 10, below.
NOTE: If you run MELEE on a multi-nodal system, you may feed MELEE a single
command line parameter which should be the name of the .cfg file which you want
MELEE to read for that particular node.
NOTE: MELEE does ALL the file locking necessary to make running it on two
nodes simulataneously a fine idea. There is still no node-interaction. Beta
testing for the FULLY multi-nodal version will begin one of these days,
sometime after I get my BBS working multi-nodally, so I can test my work!
OPTION: If you are editing the MELEE.CFG file and are not a member of Fido-
Netor any other network, then this recommendation by Don Dean is a fine idea
for the way to fill out your Zone:Net/Node fields: The best way to fill these
configuration lines is to put the last four digits of your BBS phone number in
the FIDONET NODE NUMBER(Line 4 of the config file), and put the first three
numbers in the NET NUMBER(Line 3 of the config file). Finally put your area
code or whatever in the FidoNet Zone(Line 2 of the config fie). In this fashion
you can make it so that MELEE will zip up your exports in the correct manner
and give you a (reasonably high) probability of having a uniquely named file
to export to other systems running MELEE.
3) An Exitinfo.bbs file (created by some BBSes in conjunction with a
Dorinfo#.def file) is not required or used.
4) Put the included WARRIOR.BAT file in the directory where you have
all your other door .bat files. Edit it so that it changes the current
directory to the one in which MELEE's files reside, then changes back to the
bbs directory upon completion. Do whatever you need to do to make it work with
your BBS.
NOTE: MELEE may be run independent of a BBS, or without a fossil by
feeding it a command line parameter. If, after the name of the program, you
leave a space and then feed the program an "L" parameter (without the quotes,
of course), MELEE will prompt the player for his name. Or if you do not wish to
use MELEE's communications routines (say, you prefer to use Doorway, or run
a BBS which can handle ALL the communications on its own) and run a board
which can feed a program command line parameters, then make MELEE's three
parameters the user name and time left, and MELEE will use that. This is ideal
for those who cannot, or do not want to, run a FOSSIL driver.
Examples:
a) For non-bbs usage:
MELEE L
This is for non-BBS usage. MELEE will prompt for a user name.
Time left defaults to 90 minutes. Communications routines are
bypassed.
b) If you want to use DoorWay, or another program to handle the
communications for MELEE, then feed MELEE three command line
parameters in your batch file:
MELEE %1 %2 %3
MELEE will use %1 and %2 as the user name (first and last), and
the %3 parameter (which must be an integer) will be used by MELEE
to set the user's time remaining.
NOTE: When you feed MELEE any command-line parameters OTHER THAN
the name of the config file (something that should only be done
if you run a multi-nodal system) then ALL of MELEE's communication
routines are disabled!
Here is a DoorWay configuration that works excellently with MELEE
(assuming that the DoorWay program is registered):
DOORWAY /R^X /R^K /S:C:\BBS\ /B:M /O: /P:MELEE.EXE %1 %2 %3
NOTE: In order to run the registered version of MELEE when you
are either not using a BBS or not using a dropfile, you must
create a file called MELEE.INF in the MELEE directory. MELEE.INF
is a plain ascii text file with the following format (do not
include the "Line 1:" prefixes):
Line 1: Registerer's First Name
Line 2: Registerer's Last Name
Line 3: BBS or Company Name or System Identifier requested when
the registration form was submitted
Line 4: Amount of time you want the player to have in the game.
5) Run the program MAINT.EXE once a day (preferably in your midnight
events) from within the MELEE directory. This will reset some of the local
values needed for the players to train their characters, and age the Warriors
(one month/day of real time). There is no advantage to running the MAINT.EXE
program more than once a day and it is not recommended. Maint.exe will first
back up your data files, in case something happens and your data becomes cor-
rupted. If you want more than one day's worth of backup, then you will have
to rename the backup file (called MELEEBAK.ZIP) in the batch file you use to
run your events. For this to work, you must have PKZIP in your path somewhere.
6) At your option, run the RANKINGS.EXE program during your nightly
events (from within the MELEE directory) to generate a nice looking rankings
bulletin. The rankings program will not run if there is no Player.dat file
(ie, no players in the game... makes sense, eh?). If you are going to run it,
the RANKINGS.EXE program should be run AFTER the maintenance program. In order
to work, the directories named in the MELEE.CFG file must exist and be spelled
correctly. The rankings file will exit gracefully if you have less than four
Warriors to be ranked. Note that even if you don't have the requisite 4
players, the program will still import Warriors you may have gotten from
another system. If you have it configured in your MELEE.CFG file, the rankings
program will unzip any Warrior files you want imported (if there are any in
your imports directory) and place them into your game. It will also export and
archive your top three Warriors. For these two functions to work, you must
have PKZIP in your path somewhere.
7) Run the game! Local/Remote mode will be automatically determined
from the ComPort value in the DORINFO or DOOR.SYS file so no special settings
are needed if you are running the game from a dropfile-producing BBS (ie.,
using dorinfo#.def or door.sys files for user data). MELEE will initialize
its own data files when the first person enters the game.
8) The game will report any problems in the PROG_ERR.LOG (for the
main game), the RANK_ERR.LOG (for the bulletin generator), or the
MAINTERR.LOG (for the maintenance program) files.
9) Special Keys: Shift-F5 will hang up on the user immediately, unless
the modem has carrier detect forced to ON
(drops DTR for 700 ms). No message is sent to
the player what-so-ever.
Shift-F9 will force the player to return to the BBS.
Shift-F10 will pull the user into Chat. Hit [Esc] to exit
Chat.
10) To import Warriors, you must first grab some Warrior export files from
a friendly supplier. You can always get current ones from 1:128/74 by F'Reqing
WARRIORS; or log onto The Hornet's Nest at 719-579-0593, create an account, and
after you're validated you will be able to download the file Warriors.zip from
the Banzai Software directory. Then, create a directory called IMPORTS as
as sub-directory off of your MELEE directory (for example, if you MELEE direc-
tory is C:\BBS\DOORS\MELEE then your imports directory must be
C:\BBS\DOORS\MELEE\IMPORTS). It is important that you call this directory
IMPORTS and not just IMPORT! Edit the MELEE.CFG file, if you have not already
done so, so that the rankings program knows where to look for the Visiting
Warriors Files (which are named using the following convention: EXPT*.* (spec-
ifically, EXPT+YourFidoNetNode.YourFidoNetNet (eg., at 1:128/74, my Warrior
packet archives are named EXPT74.128. If your Net's number is greater than
999 then it will be truncated to the first three numbers, likewise for your
node number if it's greater then 9999 (But you really don't need to know all
that...).))). Of key importance is that you do not unzip the EXPT*.* files
yourself; the rankings.exe program will do that for you (you must have PKUNZIP
in your DOS path, however!). If you downloaded an archive of archived packets
(ie., Warriors.Zip), then you must unzip that into your IMPORTS directory
prior to calling the rankings.exe program. Rankings.exe must be run from within
the MELEE directory in order to work. That's it! Simple, eh?
11) If you place the game's .doc and .txt files in an archive and make
it available to your players/users, it will help them quickly grasp the more
subtle ins-and-outs of the game, thus promoting their enjoyment and enhancing
their rapid climb to the top of the rankings.
The game can be reset by merely deleting the Player.dat file and the
messages in the private file directory and then running the Maint.exe program.
PLEASE: When you or a user have a bug report, be SPECIFIC. When bug-fix
updates are released, they will be available from 1:128/74 under the magic
filename: BUGFIX or as MEL_FIX.ARJ. The magic filename MELEE will always get
you the latest official release. The author is almost always active in the
FidoNet DoorWare, On_Line_Games, DDS_Doors, and DoorGames echos. Bug-fixes can
be sent to 1:128/74 via NetMail, or reported in the MELEE echo. If you don't
get an immediate response, it's often because I'm too busy with work, or am
deployed for a training exercise. It is NOT because I am disinterested in your
problem, or unwilling to support this most excellent door. <grin>
Known Anomalies:
1) The program p-editor.exe can be used to truncate the player.dat
file, or delete select characters, thus trimming the competition or fixing
corrupted files. The program v-editor.exe does the exact same thing for the
visiting Warriors data file.
2) It is not advisable to enter CHAT while the program is waiting for
the player to enter a line of text (Player Name, City Name, etc).
Borland Turbo Pascal Error Messages you can get with MELEE:
Number Meaning With regards to MELEE
------ ----------------------- -------------------------------------------
2 File not found You are missing a file.
3 Path not found You likely have an incorrect path in the .cfg.
4 Too many open files Increase your FILES= statement in your
CONFIG.SYS We recommend about 25.
5 File access denied Either a file has been set to read only, a
directory is full, a RENAME tried to rename to
an existing file name or a file is not open.
6 Invalid File Handle File handles have become corrupted; DOS error.
100 Disk Read Error Most often, an attempt was made to read past
the end of a typed file. Or something is cor-
rupted in the record pointers.
101 Disk Write Error Generall an indication of a full hard disk.
103 File Not Open File is closed when it shouldn't have been.
104 File Not Open for Input Text file is closed when it shouldn't have been.
105 File Not Open for Output " " " " " " "
Errors 150 through 162 indicate various HARDWARE failures. If you're getting
these, then something is wrong with your PC and I can't be of much help there.
Some commone ones are:
152 Drive not ready Controller problem or drive not spinning
154 CRC error in data Scrogged disk (real technical eh? (grin))
156 Disk Seek error Head problem or bad controller
157 Unknown media type Did you just change to DOS 4.0 or 5.0???
158 Sector not found Head problem or bad controller
159 Printer out of paper Hit Control P! Disable printer logging.
160 Device write fault Disk problem
161 Device read fault Disk problem
162 Hardware Failure "Generic" nasty, nasty problem.
Fatal errors generally indicate a problem that must be fixed before you
can continue to run the game.
200 Division by zero Now I hope you cannot make one of these happen
as I check before every division to make sure
it DOESN'T happen.
201 Range Check Error Array index out of range.
202 Stack Overflow NOT ENOUGH MEMORY for the stack! You will have
to swap your bbs out of memory to allow MELEE the author a small fee to compile a special,
enough room to run.
203 Heap overflow error Same as 202.
204 Invalid Pointer Op. Can be caused the same as 202.
205 Floating point overflow Should not happen--this is a problem with using
real numbers for mathmatical operations; MELEE
does very little of these.
207 Invalid Floating point You have a real thats trying to be converted to a
Operation Long int and it's greater than 2 billion.
209 Overlay File read error MELEE had a problem getting an overlay from the
MELEE.OVR file. If you're not using EMS, then
the .OVR file is missing or is setting on a bad
sector on your harddisk. If you are running EMS
then you have a bad memory chip! (yegads!)
Well this covers a large portion of the technical support for MELEE. If you
have further questions, contact the author at (719)579-0593 (data), or Fido-
Net 1:128/74, then call back a few days later to receive your response (or wait
for one via ROUTED NetMail if you are in the FidoNet or V-Net Nodelist).
LOOK FOR OTHER Banzai Software RELEASES
===============================================
BanzaiChess -- Very simple, very free Chess Door
MELEE Tournament Module (coming soon)
Battle Captain -- Cyber Space Tactical Development Door (coming soon)
============================================================
Acknowledgements and sundry comments:
First thanks goes to Alex Dwelis, for his tireless, consistent,
detailed, and always helpful observations, instruction, and alpha testing.
If you consider this game to be somewhat free of bugs, he is the one you
have to thank. Any bugs you find are strictly my oversight, not his (but
I am still not responsible for damages! <grin>). He also spent a great deal
of his valuable time proof-reading the documentation.
Second, I would like to acknowledge the MELEE team of subsidiary
Alpha and Beta testers. Their efforts went a long way toward making the game
as it is today. They spent a lot more money on the game than it costs to
register it, and I owe them a debt of gratitude (and eternal free upgrades!).
Third, I would like to thank John Parlin and Rod Hancock for their
superb product JPDoor, without which this door would never have been written;
Kelly Drown, for her FidoUnit routines; Bruce Ruona, for his help with the use
of Kelly Drown's routines <grin>; and Galen Barnes, for his patient help with
the chat-screen capture/restore (he wrote all the important parts!); and the
TAG Team, who wrote the great BBS that really got me involved in the remote-
communications world, which in turn eventually impressed upon me the desire
to learn to program. Thanks also to Donald Huggins (co-author of DoorFix, the
best dropfile converter around), for his assistance during my very steep
learning curve when first learning Turbo Pascal, and Mark McKay, for his help
while I was laboring under TP ignorance (Starting to sound like the Grammy's,
eh?). A SPECIAL thanks to Lionel Loquias for his excellent ANSI artwork! And
yet MORE special thanks to Trevor Carlsen, of the FidoNet PASCAL echo, for
writing the sort routine which allows unlimited players to be sorted (rather
than the upper limit of 21, which it had been before v1.90), and to both Steve
Lin, of Arm of the Dragon fame, and Jesse Patterson for their ability to sow
seeds of creativity in my meager brain, thus encouraging me to write ever more
complex (and thus, entertaining) doors.
Lastly, I would like to give recognition to my grandfather, Leslie
Charteris (of "The Saint" fame), and my parents, for giving me the brains to
teach myself Turbo Pascal, and churn out a program like this as my VERY first
effort at coding in this language, and for developing in me the work ethic
(sometimes a curse, eh?) which drove me to stick with the game, and continue
to improve it. As of this release, MELEE has brought in enough in registrations
to pay for 3/5ths of my new 386-33MHz computer, and I thank all the honest
SysOps out there who have validated my belief that you don't have to cripple
a piece of software in order to get people to register it.
If I've forgotten anybody who helped along the way, I'm sorry, and
please accept my apologies. To all those who walk around spouting such B.S. as,
"In order to write an enjoyable door, you must have been programming for at
least a year (preferably two)," I feel the need to quote Bill the Cat:
"Phlblblttt!"
From learning the TP language (thanks to Tom Swan for writing the book I used
as a tutorial) to first release was six months.
"Vasha Zdrovia!"
Kevin Higgins
24 Feb 92
<<Good Hunting>>