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(Page 1 of 8) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * GreatArc II * * * Copyright (C) 1994, GMH Code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In-program assistance: (a) <F1> or mouse [L] on lightbulb ("One-line Notes") (b) press mouse's [R] (right) button in any icon/box for a clue * * * The quickest introduction to GreatArc II and its features can be obtained by spending a few minutes in the first of three sections, the "Walkthrough", of this file. A section on the GreatArc Olympics follows. It is a game in which entrants race the clock to locate cities. Medals are awarded for good performances. The final section is ArcEdit (includes registration info.) * * * This .DOC file is written using simple, non-IBM characters so that its output will be readable from most printers. Files generated by GreatArc, however, make use of the IBM set. If your printer doesn't handle these special char- acters it's recommended that you run: C:\>greatarc text This generates the file GREATARC.TXT whose presence tells the program to create data files with a more general set of characters, as this file has. - Walkthrough Section - Nomenclature: [L] mouse's left button Press: press and hold down mouse button, until... Release: release the button Click: press and release mouse button [R] mouse's right button <F1> keyboard key. Examples: <F1> F1 key <Esc> escape <C> "C" (upper- or lowercase) Key modifiers - <Ctrl>, <Shift>, <Alt> - are not used in the program. Walkthrough: Move mouse's pointer to the right-hand border of the map. Click [L] on the "COLORS" icon to toggle map colors between default and optional. Move pointer to left-hand rectangle named "Cities", just above the map. Click [L] to toggle the city lights on/off. Move to light bulb icon at lower left-hand corner. Click [L] to begin the in-program walkthrough ("OneLine Notes"). Use the up/down arrow keys or click [L] on the arrow or ESC symbols. An appropriate highlight rectangle accompanies notes. Try a few of these then return. Staying at the left of the map, move up to the "zones" icon and click [L]. This turns on the (approximate) timezone banner. This may adjusted by going to the "Set GMT" - Greenwich (London) Mean Time - rectangle just above the map. Click [L]. A new window will appear. Press (and hold) [L] in the left side to increase GMT. Click on the "OK" sign when okay. Now we'll draw the great circle path between two cities. First, though, check the rectangles just below the map. The leftmost should be lit for "Pt-to-Pt" (point-to-point) mode. The next, moving to the right, should say "Path". Next should be set for "Cities Only", and the rightmost may be either. ("Great Circle" draws the path - arc - and then completes it around the world - circle.) These are the default settings. Move the pointer to Anchorage, Alaska then press and hold [L]. A window will appear. Move the pointer up into the "Home" region and release [L]. This action selects Anchorage as the starting city. Now move the pointer to Bermuda in the mid-Atlantic. Press [L] and this time release it in the "End" region. The great circle path will be drawn. Note, at the top of the screen, the "departure from"/"arrival into" head- ings, local coordinates and times, and the distances are shown. Press (and hold) [L] on the bottom right icon named "Data". You'll see data pertinent to the most-recently drawn path. Great circles, or arcs thereof, are (approximately) equators which have been tilted to include Home and End. A yellow crosshair pinpoints this new equator's north pole. Move to the rectangle named "Antipode" and click [L]. Now move the mouse over the map and notice the little yellow crosshair. This marks the antipode - the other side of the world from the mouse pointer. Click [L] on the "Lat/Long" icon at the map's left - just below Zones. This will draw the extended latitude and longitude lines from the currently active city. The antipode - as a scratch mark - is also drawn. The top icon at the right of the map (the little map) re-draws the map erasing existing paths, circles, etc. Click [L] to activate. Along the bottom row of icons is a "miles post" ("413 Mi"). Click on this icon. You'll probably incur an advisory saying that a Home city must be selected - along with other prerequisites. Select, then, the home city by pressing [L] near some city and releasing it in the "Home" region of the choice window. Now try the milepost icon again. Click [L] on the rectangle "File" ("<Enter>"). The land portions of the map will darken and the list will be compiled. This list includes the time difference between, the distance to, and the heading towards all of the other cities from the Home city. At the end you have the option of printing the list (about 3 pp.) or you may simply wish to inspect it later. Its filename has the ".AIR" extension, e.g., "DENVER.AIR". Shown below is an extract from the file NEWYORK.AIR: 1900 NEW YORK (N40d47m W 73d58m) =============================================================================== Hrs Destination Dir. Mi. NM. Km. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Addis Ababa 069 6917 6010 11132 7 Alexandria 057 5485 4767 8828 5 Algiers 067 4008 3483 6450 6 Amsterdam 049 3635 3159 5850 -4 Anchorage 321 3350 2911 5392 8 Ankara 049 5213 4530 8390 . . . . . . On the right is the "Scale" icon. Press [L] on this then release at the latitude on the map for which a scale is desired. (Vertical distances on this map are practically constant, about 690 miles/gridline.) Move to the rectangles below the map and select "EquiDist". This will draw the equidistant points (that is, the distance circle) about the currently active city. Select that city merely by clicking [L] on it. A window for selecting the distance will appear. Press [L] to adjust. Then click [L] within the little miles readout to draw the circle or in the Exit area to cancel. Circles closer to the poles will appear misshapen as can happen when spherical reality meets planar representation. On top of the map is the rectangle "Grid". Click in this to toggle the background grid on/off. Select the ship icon named "SeaLanes". This will permit the plotting of irregular paths - for example, shipping lanes - across the map. The pointer will appear at the map's center. Move it to where you'd like to begin then click [L]. The pointer may be moved by the mouse itself or by the four arrow keys or by the four "diagonal" keys, <1>, <3>, <7>, <9>. (The keyboard's NumLock doesn't affect the diag keys functioning.) Click [L] or press <Enter> to end the little voyage. If missteps occur use the <U> key to undo them. A continual distance readout appears which, by the way, is fairly accurate. To reposition the mouse on its pad without dis- turbing the path press and hold <Space> to sedate the rodent. Clicking on the sigma icon (bottom row, <F3>) inaugurates record-keeping for a multipath trip. At the completion (click again on sigma to end) you'll have a file ("distance.log") containing the termini and distance for each leg. It may be printed or saved. A sample is listed below: ORIGIN DESTINATION ------- Distances ------- Cumulative* ----------------------------------- *Mi NM Km ---------- ..Honolulu..........Seattle........ 2679.3 2328 4311 --- ..Seattle...........St.JohnsNfld... 3140.2 2728 5053 5820 ..St.JohnsNfld......Dublin......... 2067.4 1796 3327 7887 =================================== ======================================== Paths: 3 Sum of distances: 7887 Mi 6853 NM 12693 Km Average: 2629.0 2284 4230 Click [L] on the "piano keys" icon. This shows the corresponding keys for various icons and toggle boxes. (The following keys have no corresponding mouse activation:) <F> Toggles autoFormfeed (default=ON). When in-program printouts are made of either an air-miles file (e.g., "NEWYORK.AIR") or a multipath trip, as above, a formfeed is inserted to eject the print job unless this is toggled to OFF. <I>,<U> Display information about radIi and circUmferences used. <K>,<M> Set program to calculate scale-of-distance, distance circles (from EquiDist mode) and multipath's "cumulative" function (shown above for miles) in either kilometers or miles, the default. "DistFile" icon ("413 Mi") shows program status of Mi/Km. - GreatArc Olympics - Next, there is the GreatArc Olympics. Click on the five-ring icon to begin. In this game use the mouse to locate twelve target cities selected at random. The cities can be identified directly by Name at the cities window or by Description, from below. Race against the clock but be as accurate as possible - else faults result. You have ten seconds and three chances to locate the target city. Press [L] to prepare for a round; release [L] to actually begin. At the end of twelve rounds graphs showing individual times, elapsed time and faults will appear. Superior performances are accompanied by a scroll or medal. When you click on the olympic icon there are several choices that must be made. The following is a description of and {recommendation} for each. 1. Games Practice Exit {Practice} This will give you a feel for the game. Then Games. 1a. Clear Map (optional) {Yes} Gets rid of any distractions, e.g., names, paths. 2. Player's Name (appears only if Games, above, is selected) {No} May be used later if results are to be printed or saved to a file. 3. Sound. {Yes} Adds dash of auditory spice. Peeps when timer starts; mild wail announces correct city. 4. Target city identification mode. {Name} Examples of identifying modes of a target city: Name: Detroit Description: "Motor City"; RenCen, Silverdome, Greenfield Village In this "onboard" (default) version of the game, all 150 cities are available by Name. Only 20 of these cities have an accompany- ing Description, however. To be eligible for a medal there must be at least 60 candidates available in the identifying mode. As such, medals may not be earned if the targets are identified by Description (please see ArcEdit section.) You are set to begin. Press the mouse [L] button to prep. Release it to go. The target city will be identified. The timer will start counting. Now locate that city as quickly as you can! Correct "hits" occur if pointer is within two pixels, measured across, up-and-down, or diagonally, from target city. (Pointer's active pixel is the one just above and to the left of it.) The Accuracy Meter shows contiguous proximity to target. E.g., if pointer is two pixels to the left and two above the target, only one "LED" is lit (least acceptable). But if it is, say, only one pixel to the right then 4 of possible 5 appear (near perfect). Please note, however, that a hit is a hit whether only two LEDs or all five appear. The meter is there to help you. (Olympics, additional notes) Criteria for Scroll, Medals and Endorsements: Award MaxTime MaxFaults ------------------------------------- Scroll 36 sec. 6 Iron medal 32 sec. 4 Bronze medal 28 sec. 2 Silver medal 24 sec. 1 Gold medal 22 sec. 0 sub-20 Silver 19.99 s 1 (endorsement w/medal) sub-20 Gold 19.99 s 0 (endorsement w/medal) Both criteria - time and faults - must be met for a particular award. Thus, a finish in 26.70 seconds with 3 faults would qualify for the Iron medal, not the Bronze even though it meets the Bronze criterion for time. A fastest-overall-time message appears, if appropriate. At the end of the games two graphs appear. The upper one shows the medal selection values: overall time and fault level in relation to the awards. The lower chart tracks the individual rounds showing the approximate time to find each city and the average time per round. If one or several faults (misses) occurred, these appear in red. Record-shattering times are noted. Novices who can get the Scroll or the Iron have a pretty fair knowledge of world geography going in. With practice, earning the Bronze, Silver and even the Gold can be routine. Begin with the practice sessions until you're comfortable with the controls and the rhythm of the game. Check up on cities you're not sure of. Know where Thule, Greenland is. The all-time ten best performances - with no faults - are saved in the special file "DEFAULT.T10". These may be viewed by clicking on the Top Ten icon, just below the Olympics icon. One entry is kept for the fastest completion with a single fault. (If source files are used then accompanying files, *.T10 for each *.CTY file, are automatically created and maintained.) * * * The Descriptions for some major world cities (e.g., Rome, Jakarta, Sao Paulo) may be seen at the bottom of the screen when that city is selected for normal functions. For example, simply press [L] when mouse pointer is on, say, Los Angeles. (Please see section below.) These descriptions use two shorthand notations: "C" means capital, "LC" means largest city. Paris, for example, is both the "C&LC" of France. The two numbers to the right of the "Load .CTY File" icon indicate the number of currently active cities and those with descriptions. The default values of these are 150 and 20 (that is, 150 Names, 20 of those cities also have Descriptions and countries.) - ArcEdit - The GreatArc editor, "ArcEdit", can instantly generate a template file containing the complete names/coordinates/times and notes (descriptions) and countries for all 150 cities used in GreatArc. This file may be loaded at the command line or read into the program from the LOAD *.CTY icon. A second source file containing the complete data for another 150 world cities is also supplied. Either template file may be copied and edited, adding (max = 190 cities), deleting, altering as you like. A single session of GreatArc may use several source files. (Twenty of the default cities, e.g., New York, London, Tokyo, already have their description and country built in, as mentioned above. To view these, simply press [L] on the city. Its country and description appear at the bottom of the screen. The rest of the built-in cities, however, lack the complete data. The two source files mentioned above correct this deficiency.) Associated with each source file used by the program is a data file storing information on the "Top Ten" performances for each file while it is active (see previous page). These files have the extension "T10" so that, for example, a source file named "CAPITAL.CTY" would have associated with it the file "CAPITAL.T10" (automatically created the first time it's loaded into the program and maintained thereafter.) Using either template file (or a variant customized with ArcEdit) you can play the GreatArc Olympics using the Descriptions mode of target identification and be eligible for medals. * * * If you would like to obtain extra capability made possible by ArcEdit please use the invoice on the next page. With it you'll get the complete data - including descriptions and countries - for the 150 cities of GreatArc and a second source file also with the complete data on another 150 world cities. You'll also receive the editor with which to make your own source files or edit these. The package includes a floppy (please state size: 3 1/2 or 5 1/4) con- taining ArcEdit and the two *.CTY source files, plus further notes about GreatArc and great circles. «INVOICE» ------------------ From: | | ------------------------------ | GMH Code | | P.O.Box 2117 | ------------------------------ | Lowell, MA 01851 | | | ------------------------------ ------------------ Please enclose your check or money order for (U.S.) $10 payable to GMH Code. Specify format: 3.5" 5.25" ------------------------- Propine -------------------------- Registered users receive the following: 1. A floppy containing the GreatArc editor plus two CTY source files. The first contains the complete information (name/coords/time/description/country) for the default 150 cities built into the program. A second source file has an additional 150 world cities. (Because both files contain the full data they can be used with the target-mode "Des- cription" and yield medals.) The files may be used with the editor ("ArcEdit") to create customized *.CTY files for your own use. 2. A discussion of great circles. ======================================================================== > Beefs? > Problems? > Suggestions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your comments are valuable and welcome.