BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/doors_1/melee21.zip/HISTORY.DOC

Text File | 1992-05-01 | 17KB | 336 lines

                          MEALTIME MELEE  v2.1
                             by Stew Oswald
                       name by Charlene Gallagher
                    User Friendly BBS  [phone]

HISTORY:

7-10-91   Began Beta Testing with actual players.

7-11-91   Added these instructions.

          Turned on Gender Checking.

          Added Gender specific targets.

7-12-91   Sped the movements up quite a bit by changing the number of times
          that the timer line writes.  It now writes on the "M" key and the
          "Z" and "X" keys but only if the last digit of the timer is a zero.
          (TOM HAMLYN, TUCKER LATHOM)

          Removed CASE SENSITIVE keys, you may now use upper or lower case
          keys for movement.  (TOM HAMLYN)

          Spread the food and faces apart. They were all bunched up towards
          the middle of the screen and one could sit on the edge of a food
          and still hit a face without even moving.  Now, one must move at
          least one space to hit a face.

          Corrected the file management (on my end).

          Corrected the points subroutine.  Points are now added and subtracted
          correctly (I hope).

          Changed the appearance of the Jello and the Peas (barely).

          Changed the colors of the Timer Line.  The old colors were to hard
          to read.

          Added Comments to the Free Throw Line.  It now states what food you
          are carrying (for the B/W callers), if you miss and if you connect.
          (STEVE HARTMAN, RITA ENGLAND)

          Added the Standings Option.  You may now see the other players stats
          without going into the cafeteria.

          Turned on the Watermelon Subtractor that subtracts one watermelon
          when you leave the cafeteria.

          Turned on the Cafeteria Pass Checker that checks to make sure that
          you only play once per day.

          Turned on the maintenance file so you receive your $15 and you pass
          daily.  It is ran at maintenance which is 12 midnight everyday.

          Added the Standings to the closing screen.

          Turned on the Registration Checking (hey, we're registered)

7-13-91   Fixed Alignment problem on standings screen and target selection
          screen.  All players after the 9th were shifted over one character.

7-14-91   Added a Cafeteria entry screen.  I was getting frustrated at entering
          the cafeteria and realizing that I had no food or wasn't satisfied
          with the little bit of food I did have.  You now must enter a "y" or
          a "Y" to enter the cafeteria when it asks you if you are sure that
          you are ready to enter it.  It also comes up with a brief objective
          and description of the keys for the many people (like myself) that
          do not actually read the docs.  I couldn't really find a place to
          put a description on the controls in the cafeteria screen that I was
          real happy about.  I believe this solves that problem as well.

          Added a "QUIT" feature from the cafeteria for those times when you
          run out of food and don't feel like waiting until the timer runs
          out.  It is the "Q" key and there is protection against accidental
          key contact.  You must confirm the exit.  This feature should make
          it easier if you do run out of food.  Remember however, that any
          time enter the cafeteria, you lose you pass, so make sure you
          are really sure before you exit, cuz there ain't no free lunches!
          (RITA ENGLAND, REX ENGLAND)

          Added a Results Summary Screen following the cafeteria.  It very
          basic information right now but soon will have complete results
          based on what food went how far, what targets you hit for what
          percentage and a whole lot more.  All of the code is now there
          to capture the totals, I just have to write the formulas.  I think
          this will add a lot to the game later.

7-16-91   Turned on the Game log.  All throws are now kept in the log.  This
          is going to be used for a future option where you will be able to
          see your complete game stats, from beginning to end, who you have
          nailed, the total points for all of them, your average, how much of
          each particular food you have thrown at them and pretty much any
          other stat that I can come up with a formula for.

          Added the "Tattle-Tale" Feature.  You may now bribe the Class Tattle-
          Tale for $1 and find out who has thrown food at you when you were not
          looking.  She will also take your bribe even if no one has picked on
          you since the last time you bribed her.

          Changed the daily allowance to $20 and the beginning amount to $50.
          Also, the beginning points have been changed to 200.  I would
          really like some feedback on these changes and I want to see if these
          are too high now.

          Added a $99 maximum for money.  This will keep players that haven't
          logged on in awhile from having a "time-bomb" effect on the game.
          Hopefully, this will keep things a little more fair.  By the way, the
          foods also have a maximum number of 99.

          Reset the game.

          Changed the Range of the Jello from 6-10 to 7-10


          Changed the Spread of the Pies from 1 to 1-5

7-19-91   Completed and turned on the "Grudge" feature.  This allows you to get
          revenge on the other players if they select you.  The chances are
          1 in 3 that you will get revenge on them.  There is only one way of
          revenge at the present time, but more will be added.  Currently, you
          will throw the food back at them and get a small percentage of the
          points that they would have gotten from hitting you.  You can only
          set one grudge at a time, but you can change it any time you wish.

          Added a few more lines to the Results Summary after the Cafeteria.

7-20-91   After careful consideration and many excellent arguments, I have
          randomized the targets.  When you select the targets for the
          cafeteria, the order could be rearranged so that you will not know
          who will be where and therefore you won't be able to select a
          particular player and put them right by the watermelon for example.
          This was added to make the game more challenging, and to get you
          to move around a little bit more.  (TOM HAMLYN, DON GALLAGHER)

7-29-91   Changed the "Tattle-Tell" to "Tattle-Tale"  (TOM HAMLYN)

7-31-91   Changed the Cost of Green Peas from $2 to $3.

          Maintenance Program now adds points to the Dummy User (#1).
          This was the easiest and fairest way to add points to the game.

          Maintenance Program now sets the dummy's grudge against a random
          user.  I could be anyone of the users and changes daily.

8-31-91   Fixed an error where when any of the three targets had a grudge
          against you and you threw a food at a blank space (not at a face),
          The third person's grudge would take affect.  Problem is gone.

          Changed the Range of the Jello from 7-10 to 7-11.  Should hit more
          often now.

          Changed the Range of the Pies from 6-11 to 6-13.

          Added a line after "Do you want to see you results? " because if
          the user said "No" then it looked bad.  Just a cosmetic change.

          Located and Fixed my most annoying and hard to find Bug.  Problem
          was in the data file maintenance.  It was causing peoples scores
          and data to be messed up.  The problem only occured when users
          points were below 10, and I figured out what it was.  The bug WAS
          in the Door and the Maintenance file and has been "squashed" in
          both.

          Added and turned on the end of game feature for the winner.  To
          win you must score 999 points.  The winners name is save and
          viewable to all, the game is reset, the scores are deleted,
          the log is deleted, the tattle tale files are deleted, and a
          new game is started.

          Added the "CAFETERIA IS CLOSED" display.  If a player has already
          used his/her pass OR there are not enough players, it will be
          displayed and won't allow the player into the cafeteria.

          The name was changed to MEALTIME MELEE, based on a suggestion
          by user Charlene Gallagher.  Thanks for the great name Charlene!

9-01-91   MEALTIME MELEE v1.0 released to public.  (Only about one month later
          than expected.)

9-04-91   Added a pause to the Standings and Grudge Screens for every 19
          players that are displayed.  Before, it just ran off the screen with
          out a chance to view them.

9-05-91   Added "Note Check" at the beginning of the game.  If you have notes,
          they will be displayed and deleted.  If not, you will be told so.

9-06-91   Added "Pass a Note" to the menu.  You may now pass notes to other
          players, via the Note Center.

9-08-91   Changed 2 Straggling "Taddles" to "Tattles".  (TOM HAMLYN).

9-15-91   Added an introduction screen.

9-22-91   Added ANSI Bulletins.  There is now color in the Standings file that
          can be used as a bulletin from the BBS.

          Reconfigured some of the status lines so that the ones that haven't
          changed are not written.  This makes the game a little bit faster as
          the food and the target's points that haven't changed since the last
          throw are not written.

9-23-91   Squashed the "Midnight Bug".  This MAJOR bug was overlooked prior to
          this.  If a player was in the cafeteria through midnight, that user
          would have time equivalent to about 24 hours left in the cafeteria.
          Imagine how many watermelons he could throw!!!

          While I was squashing the Midnight Bug, I went ahead and changed the
          whole time keeping process.  The timer line is now written auto-
          matically every ten seconds, even without hitting a key.  Also,
          it will automatically kick you out of the cafeteria when your time
          is out.  Before, it only did it when someone hit a key after their
          time was out, enabling someone to just sit there and waste time.
          Now the timer line will write at least 12 times in the cafeteria.

9-25-91   Turned on the randomized spread for the Cream Pies.  For some
          unknown reason, I had it hardcoded at 1 and the results would always
          be 10 or less.  It should now pick a spread between 1 and 5.  Sorry!

9-26-91   Added a pause for every twenty names that go by on the target
          selection screen before you enter the cafeteria.  After 20
          or so people, you were unable to see the first few people and
          they would get off without being selected.  We couldn't have that
          now, could we?

10-01-91  MEALTIME MELEE v1.10 is released to the public.

10-27-91  Added a limit of 30 players.  This is mainly due to the selection
          screens and the standings screens.  This will allow ALL of the
          players to be displayed on the screen at once.

11-02-91  Changed the Cafeteria selection screen to the same appearance
          as the standings screen.  This will allow ALL of the players
          to be displayed on the screen at once.  It will also allow you
          to see if the players have played already today, and it just
          looks so much nicer.

11-11-91  Changed the Cafeteria Selection Screen, the Standings Screen, and
          all the other "player listings" screens to be 2 columns, and 15
          lines on each column.  This allows ALL players to be seen at once.

11-15-91  Converted from DOORPCH v3.7 to DOORPCH v3.8.  You must have DOORPCH
          v3.8 to run all MEALTIME MELEEs from 2.0 on.

11-20-91  Sorted the Standings Screen and the Exit Game Screen.  Also
          sorted the Bulletin.

11-29-91  Sorted the Cafeteria Selection Screen as well.

11-30-91  Squashed the "Pick on Zero" Bug.  Before one was able to keep
          receiving points for hitting someone that had zero points or that
          would have less than zero with that throw.  Now, once a target
          is down to zero, no more points will be scored even if the player
          gets a hit against them.  This makes it so that someone can't just
          pick on a player that doesn't play often and lets their score get
          down to zero.

          Hopefully, finally fixed the "50 Point Pie" Bug.  The max score
          for a pie was set at 50, however NOONE ever got it.  Should be
          fixed now.  (Crossing fingers).

          Spread out the Bulletin File.

12-01-91  MEALTIME MELEE v2.0 is released to the public.

02-06-92  Fixed a bug in the Maintenance program that was causing the system
          to go into an endless loop while trying to set the Dummy's grudge
          when there were no other players in the game besides the dummy.
          Sorry, I'm sure it pissed off a lot of sysops to see their board
          stuck in maintenance when they woke up in the morning.

03-03-92  All Player Listing Screens are now sorted.

04-27-92  Added use of the 4,5, and 6 keys (arrows w/Num Lock on).  You may now
          use the default keys (Z,X and M) or the arrow keys (4,5, and 6) with
          the 5 key for picking up and throwing food.

          Corrected a spelling error ("you pass" to "your pass") on the cafe-
          teria entrance screen.

04-29-92  Added a new feature to the Maintenance program (REGISTERED VERSIONS
          ONLY) that will allow the sysop to set the amount of money to be
          received by each player each day.  It can be set between 5 and 99 and
          defaults to 20 if it is out of this range.  May sure you only set it
          to integers.  This should allow sysops to control the speed of a
          game.  Experiment.  The game may be a little more fun and a little
          faster if it is set fairly high, but very competive and slower if
          it set lower.  THE MELEE.CFG FILE HAS BEEN CHANGED...  SEE THE DOCS
          OR YOU WILL GET A RUNTIME ERROR!!!

          Added a new feature to the Maintenance program (REGISTERED VERSIONS
          ONLY) that will allow the sysop to remove "zero" players.  These
          players are the ones with a score of zero, which usually results
          from not playing for awhile.  This should free up some extra slots
          for those boards that have hit the 30 player maximum in a game.
          It should also allow some players that get picked on quite a lot
          the ability to jump back in with 200 points and be right back in
          the thick of things.  THE MELEE.CFG FILE HAS BEEN CHANGED...  SEE
          THE DOCS OR YOU WILL GET A RUNTIME ERROR!!!

          Turned off the MELEE.LOG feature.  I have decided (after MANY long
          hours of coding) that the LOG SUMMARY feature is not going to be
          added to the game, so all the MELEE.LOG file was doing is taking up
          space (and quite a bit of it as well).

          Changed the *.TDL and the *.NOT files up a little.  While this may
          add a little bit more space to each of them files, it will increase
          the speed of the "Tattle-tell is writing all of this down" quite a
          bit and also cause a lot fewer disks accesses at that point.

          Added a new feature to the Game (REGISTERED VERSIONS ONLY) that will
          allow the sysop to give a "learning curve" to Teachers' Pets.  The
          Teachers' Pets are anyone that has 200 points or less.  The learning
          curve will allow the Teachers' Pets to get a little better average
          at hitting their opponents, but only until they get up to 201 points
          then they are back to normal.  THE MELEE.CFG FILE HAS BEEN CHANGED...
          SEE THE DOCS OR YOU WILL GET A RUNTIME ERROR!!!

04-30-92  Completed code of the "smarter" initialization/configuration program
          (MTMINIT.EXE). You should find this one much easier to use than the
          previous "get it out the door, release it to the public, I don't care
          how difficult it is, it gets the job done (barely)" version of it.
          All options of MTMINIT.EXE are self contained and there is no reason
          to feel scared about running it at any time.  It is much "safer"
          than the last one.  This will correct the re-writing of the config
          file every time MTMINIT.EXE is ran, even when you tell it not to.
          (Sorry about that guys...)

          Modified the MELEE.ANS (opening screen).  All I did was take out the
          teeth and made the guy a little "cuter".  I experimented with an
          animated opening screen, but it took to long to sit through.

05-01-92  MEALTIME MELEE v2.1 is released to the public.


END OF HISTORY