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Crawly Crypt Collection 1
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crawlyvol1.bin
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airdef31
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sysop.txt
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Text File
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1991-04-07
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7KB
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148 lines
Air Defense Setup Instructions
As of: April 7, 1991
Version 2.4
I think you will enjoy Air Defense.
This game is written by Darel Schartman, a user on my
BBS. I've known Darel for a few years and he has programmed
several on-line games for Forem XEP, the 8-bit BBS program.
This is Darel's first game specifically for Forem ST. Air
Defense has been Beta Tested by Nodes 391, Carlis Darby, and
398, Bill Day, and myself at Node 224 for over a month prior
to this release. Our thanks to both for their help. As an
overall protection, there is a general error routine that
will trap all fatal game errors, return the user to the BBS,
and write an Air.Err file in the Air Defense game folder.
AIR.ERR will contain the date, time, and error code
responsible for the untimely program termination.
The modem code and the message routines are the two
places where the user interacts with the program, and
through that, your BBS. The input routines are armored to
filter out all but ASCII characters. No hanky panky
allowed. Even the famous 1e45 from SEE has been tested --
it will cause Air Defense to abort to the BBS, however,
because of the times that data is saved, it won't do a user
any good to use it. The input routines all have time-out
features and will terminate the game if there is no input
for approximately 2 minutes. Like Forem, a 30 second
warning will be given.
The players login name is read from Forem.Dat. I chose
to do this instead of using Dorinfo1.dat because that was
the code I wrote previously for NFL Picks. I'm lazy. If
you have a good argument for using Dorinfo1.dat instead,
I'll change the code to read Forem.Opt (to find out where
the silly bugger is), and then the code to read the info.
In NFL Picks, I used a routine to look for carrier
detect and if found, assumed the player was on the modem.
Conversely, if carrier was not present, the game defaulted
to local mode. I changed this for Air Defense to look
instead for the word "local" as a parameter to the run line
in the Fdoorsx.dat file. There's a little less room for
error this way.
I will personally guarantee that there is NO backdoor
in this program, nor any code to accomplish anything except
handle game play. I have examined every routine, not
because I didn't trust Darel, but because I was helping him
debug the code and get the Forem functions working properly.
Game Setup
Create a game folder on the drive of your choice and
copy all game files into it.
You need to create two text files, AIR.SET and
PATHS.DAT. You can do this with a text editor or by using
the supplied AIR_CNFG.PRG. To use the AIR_CNFG.PRG, you
must follow the instructions below.
AIR.SET contains three lines, the path to Forem.Dat and
the path to the Air Defense game files, and the reset
period: blank for no reset, 1 for monthly, and 2 for bi-
monthly.
c:\
d:\defense\
2
PATHS.DAT contains six lines as follows:
line 1 - path to news and hall of fame file
line 2 - hall of fame filename <--- Note:
filename only
line 3 - Today's News filename <--- Note:
filename only
line 4 - Yesterday's News filename <--- same as
above
line 5 - Sysop's login name
line 6 - Alternate Sysop's login name
For example, my file reads as follows:
e:\games\
db015.003
db015.001
db015.002
DOC HOLIDAY
DAREL SCHARTMAN
The PATHS.DAT file gives you the capability to put the
files anywhere you choose and with any name. They will be
maintained by the game and are also viewable from within the
game. Note that the data base files contain information
that the internal game files don't. I strongly suggest you
add these files to an appropriate database area. The Sysop
and Alternate Game Sysop entries are case sensitive and DO
NOT automatically convert your entries to upper case. This
is to allow for the later versions of Forem which permit
mixed case logins.
Place the AIR.SET file in the same directory as
Forem.Tos. The PATHS.DAT file is placed in the same folder
as the Air Defense program files.
Included with the game program is a program called
AIR_CNFG.PRG. This is a configuration program that can be
used to create or alter the AIR.SET and PATHS.DAT files.
The AIR.SET file will be written to where you have FOREM.TOS
and PATHS.DAT will be written to the game folder you
specified in AIR.SET. However, this program is designed to
be installed in DOORS and will work from local or from
remote. You can retrieve and reset the values at any time.
Note that you CANNOT run this program from the desktop
without a "local" parameter. This is because it looks in
the basepage for the "local" command. You can, however, run
the program from within FOREM's sysop mode using the
"system" or "K" command ("k" only on the newer versions of
Forem) to execute the file. Just type the full path and
filename, add a space, and type "local" (example:
d:\defense\air_cnfg.prg local). You can then use this
program to automatically generate or modify your game path
files. Remember that you also select a reset period. You
have three choices, no reset, reset monthly, or reset bi-
monthly. Based upon your selection, when the month changes,
the game will note the change and if reset is due, the game
will be reset and the winner recognized in the Hall of Fame
file.
The first time you run the game, all the necessary
files will be created and placed in accordance with the
PATHS.DAT file. The Hall of Fame, Today's News, and
Yesterday's News will only be created when there is
something to report.
When you as the Sysop or your designated Game Sysop
complete game play, you will be shown an additional System
menu. From this menu you may alter any of the paths or
filenames in PATHS.DAT or redesignate the Sysop or Game
Sysop. You can also reset the game. Resetting creates an
entry in the Hall of Fame file. What this means is that the
game runs until you decide to reset it. The menu also has
two other commands. One prints the player file to your
screen. You use this command to find out what user is
playing with what game alias and what player number he/she
is. The purpose of having this list available is to aid you
in using the last command available, the