CD Shareware Magazine 1996 December

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▒▒▒▒▒ Board Master v2.3 ▒▒▒▒▒ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Copyright (c)1995, 1996 Heavenware Software │ │ All Rights Reserved! │ └───────────┬─────────────────────┬───────────┘ │ Main Documentation │ └─────────────────────┘ Author: Tom Wiseman Released on: Sep 26th, 1996 TABLE OF CONTENTS: ----------------- i.............. General Overview ii............. Special Thanks iii............ New Features iv............. Beta Testing I.............. Copyrights II............. Warranty III.............Shareware Concept IV............. License Agreement V.............. Upgrading VI............. Tech Support VII............ Features VIII........... Registered Features IX............. Scenario X.............. Installation/Setup XI............. Executables Defined XII............ Inter-BBS Specifics XIII........... League Coordinator XIV............ Contacting Us XV............. Function Keys i - GENERAL OVERVIEW ---------------- Board Master is a BBS simulation doorgame, in which your users will have the chance to try thier hand at being a sysop. They will operate and control all aspects of their BBS, including advertising decisions. We have tried to duplicate the life of a Sysop in as much detail as we could without sacrificing playability or the overall objective.... Having fun! ii - SPECIAL THANKS -------------- I want to take a little space here to thank the specific individuals who took the time and energy to BETA test v2.0. Thanks to them we have a stable and noteworthy product. Bryan Turner, Sysop: Rabbitland Glen O'Gorman, Sysop: Apollo Steve Newman, Sysop: Columbia Spitfire Roy Stephens, Sysop: House of Keys Thanks ever so much for your efforts guys! I couldn't of done it without you. iii - NEW FEATURES: ------------ Inter-BBS --------- With the release of v2.0 comes many exciting new features, including support for Inter-BBS game play. This means that you can attach your BBS to a Board Master league and play against all the other players on the other BBS's. This is accomplished by using your front end mailer. By creating packets and file attach messages, we send the data over to other systems and in return you'll be receiving packets. In this fashion the game is no longer limited to the confines of your BBS. Playing in an Inter-BBS league should not only be fun but challenging as well. With a seemingly endless number of systems attached to a league, you could have thousands upon thousands of players in just one game, and all without ever leaving the comfort of your own BBS. Multi-node/tasking: ------------------ Board Master now also supports multi-node game play, meaning more than one user can be playing at the same time. This is an important step for any game if your running a multi-node BBS. Along with Multi-node support, we have also added Multi-tasking support. Board Master will automatically detect some multi-tasking systems and in turn release time slices so no one node will hog your CPU resources. This is critical if your running your BBS under a multi-tasking system like Windows, DESQview or OS/2. Special Features: ---------------- There have been several other changes and bug fixes as well. We have added several new options for players like Advertising, Payboard feature, and virus uploading and scanning. All of which make the game more intriging and interesting to play. iv - BETA TESTING: ------------ Version 2.0 endured 4 months of BETA testing, and several hundred extra hours along with alot of thinking and modifying. Board Master now has a total of over 1000 hours of work into it and over 8000 lines of code. A tremendous amount of work to say the least. If your asking why the BETA test took so long the answer is simple. I wanted a rock solid product before releasing it so you would have less worries when running it. We succesfully tested Board Master on many types of systems and under several different platforms and circumstances. The list below indicates what we tested on or under: CPU's: Pentium 133 w/16 megs, 486DX 100 w/32 megs, 486DX2 66 w/8 megs, 486DX 40 w/4 megs, 486sx 33 w/8 megs, 386 w/4 megs. Mailers: Front Door 2.12 & Intermail BBS Platforms: Shotgun Pro, Spitfire, ProBoard, Remote Access OS's: MS-DOS 6.0-6.22, LANtastic 6.0, Novell 4.01, DESQview, Windows 3.1 Modems: USRobotics, Zoom, Hayes, Maxtech Memory Managers: DOS Memaker, QEMM 7.04 / 7.50 / 8 I - COPYRIGHTS: ---------- Board Master is Copyright, (c)1995,1996 Heavenware Software. All rights reserved. Written in Turbo Pascal 7.0, Copyright (c)1992 Borland International Compiled using RMdoor 4.5, Copyright (c)1991-1994 By Mark Goodwin and Randy Hunt. II - WARRANTY: -------- Board Master is distributed without warranty. In no event will Heavenware Software be liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use of or inability to use this program. Even if Heavenware Software, or an authorized representative have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Heavenware Software will not be liable for any such claim by any other party. III - SHAREWARE CONCEPT: ----------------- Board Master is distributed as shareware. Shareware is a marketing method. This program is NOT free. Shareware simply means that the author(s) have given permission for you to try out the product before actually purchasing it. Our policy is that you may use Board Master for up to 30 days, after which, you must either register Board Master by sending $15.00 U.S. dollars (+ any state Tax due) to Heavenware Software at our address listed in the registration docs or stop using it. IV - LICENSE: ------- When you purchase a registration key, you will be purchasing a license to use our software under the terms outlined below. Heavenware Software maintains exclusive rights to the software itself, and does not give up any rights, expressed or implied, to you by selling a registration key. The license gives you the right to use Board Master for as long as you want under one (1) bulletin board platform. If you are running multiple platforms, registration of additional keys is required. The registration key is unique for your system. It is not transferrable or resellable to any other party, for any reason. Board Master and/or the file archive (BMSTR21.ZIP) cannot be sold by vendors, with the exception of shareware cd manufacturers, for more than a small disk copying fee (not to exceed $2.00), without express written permission from Heavenware Software. Use of Board Master indicates your agreement to the license agreement and policies outlined here and any other documentation contained in the original archive BMSTR21.ZIP. V - UPGRADING: --------- Heavenware Software upgrades are usually free to registered users. This means that if you have already registered a product from us that any new version of that product will not cost you anything. In order for you to receive any new version for any of Heavenware Software's products, you must call our support BBS to download it, or you may visit our web page (URL listed elsewhere in this doc). Major Upgrades may at some times have a slight fee. While we want to give you the very best service we can, we also have realized that the price for our programs have not always covered our time and research into them. We will make every effort to keep the cost as low as possible. VI - TECH SUPPORT: ------------ We offer FREE support for any of our programs, even if you are not a registered user. Feel free to contact us at any of the following data numbers. (8/N/1) Internet E-Mail: Tom.Wiseman@f10.n392.z1.fidonet.org Netmail: 1:392/10@Fidonet Fidonet Echo: DOOR_GAMES WWW: http://camalott.com/~copykat/hwsw Seventh Heaven - 915-698-9514 33.6k [VFC/V34+] All of our latest releases can be found our home BBS or on our Web page. Feel free to stop in and pick up what you need or want. VII - FEATURES: -------- Inter-BBS Multi-node/Multi-tasking Supports most door drop file formats ANSI support / Built in ANSI terminal (ANSI driver is not needed) Non-Standard IRQ support Configurable external bulletins in ASCII or ANSI Online Sysop controlled functions Supports up to 65,535 players in each game Sysop Chat Mode Support Automatic Game Reset Automatic maint. via external program (BMM.EXE) Automatic player deletion after 30 days of no activity Detection of critical flags which avoids data corruption VIII - REGISTERED FEATURES ------------------- There are 3 options in the game that your users will not have a chance to use until you register this program. They are the 'Hack Board' , 'Payboard' , & 'Advertising' options. Because some folks will not register a program they cannot use to it's full extent, FULL use of the program is possible when the baudrate is 0. Another words, if you run the game locally, it's fully functional. The only difference is on the stats menu in the REGISTERED TO: It will show EVALUATION rather than UNREGISTERED. So there is no confusion let me say this again. There are 3 options that are not available until it's registered, *unless* the game is being ran in LOCAL mode. IX - SCENARIO: -------- Board Master is a BBS simulation game, offering your users the chance to try thier hand at being a Sysop. Most of what Sysops go through have been duplicated in this game. The player that earns 100,000 points first, wins. Board Master will automatically reset itself after a player wins the game. X - INSTALLATION/SETUP ------------------ *If you read nothing else in this document, please read over this section, and read it over carefully. You could save yourself alot of headaches in the long run. There are 2 setup options: Normal and Inter-BBS. If you are not involved in an Inter-BBS league game then use steps 1-7. For Inter-BBS, use all of the steps. 1. If you are upgrading from v2.0 simply copy the new .EXE's over the old and your on your way. If you are currently running v1.0-v1.4, you will need to delete everything from your Board Master directory except your key file if you have one and do a fresh install with this version. 2. Copy the files into the directory you will be running it from. 3. Edit the DOOR.CFG file. Sample door configuration file: GAP Line 1: Door data file type C:\SHOTGUN\NODE1 Line 2: Path to the door data file(s) Tom Wiseman Line 3: BBS Name Seventh Heaven Line 4: Sysop's Name 38400 Line 5: Locked Baud Rate ;BMSCORES.ANS Line 6: Name of ANSI bulletin to create. ;BMSCORES.ASC Line 7: Name of ASCII bulletin to create. ^ Remove the semi-colon to enable the bulletins. You also may use the full drive\path\filename if you wish to create the bulletins elsewhere. Data file types this door supports: PCB - PCBoard GAP - Door.sys (Generic, See note below) SF - Spitfire RBBS - RBBS WC - Wildcat! TRIBBS - TriBBS WWIV - WWIV NOTE- Wildcat 4.x and above systems should use GAP rather than WC. The Locked baud rate is specified in line 5 of the DOOR.CFG file, if you don't lock the serial port, you *must* specify 0 for the locked baud rate. 4. Create your batch file(s) that will execute Board Master. Sample batch file shown below: @echo off cd\mybbs\door BBSMSTR DOOR.CFG Nonstandard IRQs can be used by specifying the IRQ number after the config parameter on the command line used to run the door. If you use a non-standard IRQ, it is imperative that you use the switch as shown in the example below. Ex: BBSMSTR DOOR.CFG IRQ ^^^ Replace this with the actual irq that port is using. Board Master can be played locally which does not need a drop file. Ex: BBSMSTR DOOR.CFG /L 5. Add Board Master to your existing menu(s). 6. Add a statement to your nightly maintenance batch file that will execute BMM.EXE. BMM calculates everything a player has done during that day and adds or subtracts new users & points as necessary. Normally you would not want to run BMM more than once a day. If by chance you want to speed up the game, then you could run it twice a day. Use caution though as running it more than twice could seriously affect game play. Ex: cd\bbs\door bmm 7. Board Master will automatically reset itself when someone wins, however it may be necessary at times or you may wish to reset the game on your own. You may reset your game at any time by running RESET.EXE. If you want to set up automatic resets through a batch file for tournament play, simply add a /A for automatic at the end. ex: RESET /A Use caution when using the Auto feature as it will not prompt you for confirmation. It is exactly what I said... Automatic. Inter-BBS Setup --------------- 9. Make sure you have PKZIP & PKUNZIP in your path. 10. In the batch file that runs Board Master add IBBS on the line that calls Board Master. ex: bbsmstr door.cfg ibbs This will tell Board Master to create IBBS packets when users play. 11. Rename the IBBS.SAM to IBBS.CFG and edit as necessary. ex: C:\FD\FILES C:\FD\MAIL C:\DOORS\BM\OUT 121:2170/0 LINE 1: Drive\Path to inbound file dir. for your mailer This is where Board Master expects to find inbound packets. LINE 2: Drive\Path to netmail dir. (where .MSG's are stored) LINE 3: Drive\Path to outbound game packet dir. LINE 4: Your mailer address. ZONE:NET/NODE. All systems in a league must be using the same ZONE. NOTE: If you have more than 1 network address, make sure that your uplinks and downlinks are using the address you use in the IBBS.CFG. 12. Rename the BMNODES.SAM to BMNODES.DAT and edit as necessary ex: 2110/301 None 2170/106 Crash 1. This file is used to list your uplinks and downlinks for the league game, it is not suppose to have every league member in it. While other IBBS games usually have a full blown nodelist style listing, we choose a more simplistic approach. 2. There are 3 mailer flags you may use. None, Hold, or Crash. The flag must be on the line under each system listed. If you don't understand what each flag means, please read your mailer documentation for an explanation. 3. Do NOT use a ZONE in this file. Only Net/Node! 13. For normal IBBS game play this is all that is necessary. XI - EXECUTABLES DEFINED: ------------------- In case you haven't read it elsewhere or I missed it, here's a list of the exectuables contained within the archive and what they do. BBSMSTR.EXE Main file. BMSETUP.EXE Setup program which allows you to change many of the default values within the game BMM.EXE Maintenance utility. Run once per night. BMIN.EXE Inbound packet processor. Req. for IBBS only. RESET.EXE Resets your local game. Command line options- /A for automatic reset /L for league reset if you are the league coordinator. XII - INTER-BBS SPECIFICS: ------------------- Now that you have Board Master completely setup lets get into some of the specifics of Inter-BBS game play. 1. As we have already discussed, you must have renamed your IBBS.SAM to IBBS.CFG and renamed your BMNODES.SAM to BMNODES.DAT. This tells Board Master you are playing in IBBS mode so it can take the appropiate action(s). Be sure to rename those files back to .SAM if you stop playing in an Inter-BBS league game. This will prevent packets from being created and will speed up some processes as well. 2. Resets for IBBS are the same as local resets with the exception that an outbound packet will be created for each player so the rest of the league is notified you have reset your local game. 3. When a player wins the game 2 things happen. 1st your local game is automatically reset and will be unavailable to new players for 1 day. And 2nd, an IBBS packet is created so the rest of the league is notified someone has won. The 1 day delay is to allow time for the rest of the league to receive your packet. The entire league will start back up on the exact same day (whatever day your game starts back up on). XIII - LEAGUE COORDINATOR: ------------------ Responsibility: -------------- As a league coordinator, you are responsible for maintaining order, & settling disputes within an IBBS league game and issuing league wide resets when needed or as you desire. You would also need to make sure that all league members are using the same version of the game and have it setup properly to ensure a smoothly run league game. League Reset: ------------ To perform a league wide reset simply run RESET /L. You will be prompted for the date of the restart. This is the date that players will be allowed back into the game. If a player tries to enter the game before the restart date, they will be notified that the system has received an IBBS reset and the restart date and then turned away. Make certain you enter the date in the format it asks for. Also keep in mind that if you have any long distance boards attached to the league that they may need a day or so extra to get their reset packet. A good rule of thumb is to use a date at least 3-4 days in advance from the day you perform the reset. BMNODES.DAT: ----------- As the LC, you need to know *exactly* how the game should be setup so you can help others when they get stuck. Two files I forsee people having the most difficulty with is the BMNODES.DAT & IBBS.CFG. The BMNODES.DAT is not a league nodelist. The only systems that should be listed in it are those that are links from/to your system (your uplink and downlinks). Under each address there should be a mailer flag. The only 3 flags Board Master supports is None, Hold, or Crash. I highly suggest using None unless special circumstances are present. Crashing packets will speed up the game and could greatly affect the overall fun of it. It could also exclude any long distance boards since they may not beable to or wish to crash packets. The BMNODES should not contain any ZONE info. Just Net/Node! Board Master pulls the zone from the IBBS.CFG instead. Also, make sure all league members are in the same zone as you. Board Master doesn't support cross zone league games. And make sure that league members are using the right address in their IBBS.CFG. This can be somewhat confusing, but here's what I'm talking about. If you have a system under you who has two addresses, 1:392/10 & 1:392/20, and that sysop is using 1:392/20 in the IBBS.CFG, but you have 392/10 in your BMNODES.DAT, your system will resend that sysop the same packets their sending you. Another words, you'll have a dupe loop going. This is because your system will see the incoming packets as being from /20 and when it goes to check for other systems that this packet should be sent out to, it's not going to find 392/20 because you have 392/10 Morale of the story is make sure everyone knows what addresses are being used and sets up correctly. The IBBS.CFG is just as critical! If the address listed is wrong or the paths are incorrect, there could be serious problems. It is usually best to have a seperate directory for outbound packets. As shown in the example in the IBBS.CFG the easiest way is to create a dir. off the door dir. called OUT. You should suggest to all of your league members they do the same. Packet Naming: ------------- The packet naming convention is simple yet should be flexible enough for anyone out there. Board Master names all packets EXCEPT league reset packets BM + MIN + SEC + HUND + .BIP which looks something like BM104589.BIP. League wide reset packets are unique, therefore the filename is also. League wide reset packets are appropiately named BMRESET.BIP. All packets are archived using PKZIP. Therefore it is crucial that PKZIP and PKUNZIP be in your path. Configuration Changes: --------------------- Configuration changes can be made by using BMSETUP. This will allow you to change most of the default values like starting cash and the prices for the individual items. Take note though that even as the LC nothing you change is sent to the rest of the league, so if you want to make changes, make certain everyone else in the league is setup just like you are or someone is going to have an unfair advantage. The easiest way to do this is to send out your SETTINGS.DAT to all league members. Tell them to place it in their Board Master directory. Take caution when changing the default values as it could really change the way the game is played and the strategy required to win. Should you change the default settings and decide later to go back to them, simply delete the SETTINGS.DAT. Once that file is gone, Board Master will use it's internal settings once again. Generally, if you use the default values, it will take someone approx. 2-3 weeks to win. This is approx., since obviously more experienced players will know the ins and outs and could earn 100,000 points before the 2 week time period. Names & Messages: ---------------- For fake user info. like the mail that comes in from them or who is logged on to your board, we use two text files named NAMES.DAT & MESSAGES.DAT respectively. These are nothing more than ASCII text files and can be changed or you can even add to them. The only restriction is that messages must not be more 80 char's long (one line in standard DOS edit), names must not be more than 30 char's long, and for both files, each line must have a carriage return at the end, except for the last line which should not have a carriage return. We have allowed this open architecture to allow you to personalize your game in whatever way suits you. You can have as many messages or names as you wish, but be aware that the longer each file is, the longer it will take to read in the information when someone is playing. As with the SETTINGS.DAT, nothing you change here will be sent to the other league members. Wrapping Up: ----------- Board Master will basically run by itself. It will issue reset packets when someone wins, and run it's maint. as you define. As the LC, you should have to do very little once it's all set up. If I have left anything unanswered in this document or the others within the archive, feel free to contact me at one of the locations below. XIV - CONTACTING US: ------------- Here's some ways to contact us: Fidonet Echomail, DOORGAMES echo. Fidonet Netmail, 1:392/10 LinearNet Netmail, 121:2170/0 E-Mail, Tom.Wiseman@f10.n392.z1.fidonet.org WWW, http://camalott.com/~copykat/hwsw XV - FUNCTION KEYS: ------------- While the door is running, the sysop has certain functions available. The following is a list of the keys and functions they perform: Key(s) Function HOME Toggles between the user status window and a help display that lists the special keys. F6 Takes 5 minutes away from the caller. NOTE: This will NOT be returned to BBS, this is only for the door's use. F7 Gives 5 minutes to the caller. NOTE: This will NOT be returned to the BBS. F9 Quit the door and return the caller to the BBS. F10 Enter chat mode. Pressing the ESC key exits the chat mode. Alt+D Drop to DOS. Thankyou for trying Board Master, I hope that you and your users will find it enjoyable. *** End of File ***