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Text File | 1996-03-17 | 20.9 KB | 405 lines

D R A G R A C E D O C U M E N T A T I O N Drag Race 1.01 SoftNet Dragstrip Copyright 1995 - 1996 SoftNet All Rights Reserved Co-Owners' of SoftNet David Smart Peter Kling Space Station Info System Technology, Inc. FidoNet: 1:324/285 1:374/169 Phone BBS/FAX: 1-508-454-0356 1-407-729-9166 ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ LICENSING INFORMATION ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ This is a licence agreement between you, the end user, and SoftNet DragRace, including any Screen, Executable, documentation, etc are the property of SoftNet. Please read the terms and conditions of this licence agreement carefully before using the software. If you for any reason, whatsoever, cannot accept the conditions in this agreement, you are not permitted to use DragRace. You acknowledge and agree that DragRace is a proprietary product of SoftNet protected by applicable copyright laws and international treaty provisions. You further acknowledge and agree that all rights, title, and interest in, and to DragRace are and shall remain with SoftNet DragRace may be used for a period of thirty (30) days on a trial basis to allow you to determine its suitability for your particular application. After this period you MUST register DragRace, or remove it from your system. Registration entitles you to use DragRace and any future versions of DragRace for as long as you wish, subject to any special licensing conditions and/or applicable upgrade fees attached to future versions. In the event that you are in violation of this licence agreement, you agree and accept that SoftNet may cancel your registration and any rights to use DragRace that you may have. In the case of a dispute over the licence agreement, you further agree and accept to fully reimburse SoftNet for legal and other expenses resulting from the dispute. DragRace is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, or fitness for a particular purpose, either expressed or implied, all of are hereby explicitly disclaimed. SoftNet only guarantees that DragRace will occupy disk space. SoftNet liability resulting from your use or inability to use DragRace is limited to the amount that the affected party has paid for it, or in the event that DragRace was registered with a third party for payment to SoftNet, liability is limited to the amount that was received by SoftNet from that third party. Neither SoftNet nor any of its employees, agents, or other representatives are in any way obligated to provide future versions of, or support for, DragRace. You may freely distribute and copy DragRace provided that no fee is charged and the DragRace distribution archive contains unmodified copies of the original files as produced by SoftNet Pay Bulletin Board Systems may, however, charge their normal fee provided that no additional charge for DragRace is levied No part of DragRace may be modified, altered, reverse engineered, sold, or distributed in any form what so ever which would involve some sort of trade without prior written permission from SoftNet ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ INTRODUCTION ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ SoftNet DragRace is an online door program for RemoteAccess, QuickBBS and other BBS packages that create a DORINFO1.DEF or DOOR.SYS drop file and use a FOSSIL driver for communications. The game challenges players to achieve the highest monthly score possible through a series of races. Players race against computer opponents such as Leadfoot Larry, Bo Nose, Harry Scarey and others. The player with the most amount of money for the month is the winner and has his or her name displayed as the "last month's high scorer" throughout the next month's play, along with the second and third place winners. SoftNet DragRace runs fine as a type 7 door. User time remaining, user inactivity and carrier detect are all tracked from within the program. If DesqView is detected, the DesqView video buffer will be utilized. Although SoftNet DragRace does not require players to have ANSI graphics turned on, those who do will benefit by being able to watch the race progress on a full-screen, ANSI graphic DragRace. This program will work on multiline systems as well as single line systems. The configuration file Drag Race.CFG is shared by all nodes in a multiline configuration. ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ INSTALLATION ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Drag Race is a very simple game. It allows the Sysop to customize many of the game settings such as maximum number of daily races, maximum number of daily gambles, maximum amount per wager, cost of crew members, and more. This is done through the use of the SoftNet DragRace setup program, DRCONFIG.EXE. This utility creates a configuration file called Drag Race.CFG which SoftNet DragRace looks for at program startup. To use the setup utility, change to the directory containing the SoftNet DragRace files and enter the command DRCONFIG. Default values will be created and may be edited by selecting the items you wish to change from the bounce bar menu. A list of the items you can edit is as follows: Menu Item Description --------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- Maximum Daily Races This is the maximum number of races that players may have per day. Valid entries are 5 to 99. The default setting is 15. Maximum Daily Wagers This is the maximum number of times that players may wager per day. Valid entries are 1 to 99. The default setting is 5. Maximum Wager Amount This is the maximum dollar amount that may be gambled, per wager. Valid entries are 100 to 1,000,000. The default setting is 100,000. Crew Paycheck Amount Each time a player enters the game on a new day, crew members expect to get their paychecks. Here, you can specify how much money each crew member receives per paycheck. Valid values are 100 to 5,000. The default setting is 1,000. Crew Member Cost This is the dollar amount cost of hiring crew members. Valid entries are 500 to 10,000. The default setting is 2,500. Purchase Extra Turns If this field is set to ON, players are allowed to purchase extra turns once they have used their daily turns. The cost of an extra turn is half that of the race value which is determined by the player's ranking. If this field is set to OFF, players are not allowed to purchase extra turns. Status Bar Setting If this field is set to ON, the local status bar is displayed. If set to OFF, the status bar is supressed. High Speed Modem Setting This field should be set to ON if you are using at least one high speed modem on your BBS. In other words, if you have a single line system with a high speed modem or a multiline system with at least one high speed modem, this should be set to ON. Otherwise, it should be set to off. Use Door.Sys Drop File If set to YES, then Drag Race will read the DOOR.SYS file in the directory pointed to on the command line. Drag Race will work with either the short or long version of Door.Sys Once DRCONFIG.EXE has been executed, SoftNet DragRace can be run in the BBS system directory or in a directory of its own. Type 7 command line: D:\BBS\Drag Race.EXE You can specify a node # by placing a /N<node#> Example : D:\BBS\Drag Race.EXE /N1 Using RemoteAccess or QBBS you may use /N*N to pass the node number from the bbs and you may also wish to add a *M to force the BBS to swap out before loading the door. That's all there is to installing the SoftNet DragRace door. Restarting a Game: At any time you can restart a monthly tournament by deleting the file Drag Race.DTE. The SoftNet DragRace will do the rest. ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ THE PIT MASTER MAINTENANCE UTILITY ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The program PITMAST.EXE is a utility which can run in standalone mode. This program should be run as a maintenance task on your BBS. Pit Master will read through the driver roster searching for dragsters that have no tire tread or empty fuel tanks. When a dragster is found that has no tire tread or an empty fuel tank, Pit Master will change the tires and/or top off the fuel tank and charge the player for the cost of tires and/or fuel, if the player has that much money available. This utility makes it possible for the Sysop to keep the player-versus-player action going, even when some players do not frequent the game door to keep their dragsters in running condition. NOTE: Pit Master will not perform these maintenance tasks on players who have a wrecked dragster or blown engine. The Pit Master program accepts no command line parameters. It must be run from the same directory that contains the SoftNet DragRace program files. No user interaction is required, so the program can be run during regular BBS system maintenance routines. ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ SUPPORT FILES ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The following is a list of files related to the operation of this program. It is noted whether or not the file is absolutely required in order for the program to run. Filename Required Description ------------ -------- -------------------------------------------------- DragRace.EXE Yes The main progam executable. DRCONFIG.EXE Yes This is the setup utility executable. PITMAST.EXE No This is the Pit Master driver maintenance utility. DragRace.CFG Yes This is the configuration file created by DRCONFIG.EXE which holds the game configuration. TRACK.ANS Yes This is the ANSI graphic race track DragRace.ANS No This is an ANSI file that is displayed to users, only if it exists, when the program is started. DragRace.ASC No This is an ASCII text file that is displayed to users when the caller does not have ANSI graphics enabled or when the Drag Race.ANS file does not exist. DragRace.DRV Yes This is an ASCII text file that contains a list of opponent driver names. You may edit this list of names, chosing your own driver names. The only limitations being that a driver name may not be more than 18 characters long and this file may not contain more than 100 driver names. Also, there must be NO BLANK LINES within this file. Each line must contain an opponent driver name. DragRace.NUM No File created and used by the program to track the last driver number used. This is so that Drag Race knows which driver name to use next. DragRace.DTE No This is the Drag Race date file. This is the file Drag Race uses to determine when the end of month has arrived. DragRace.HSC No This file contains the last month's high scorer statistics. DragRace.DAT Yes This is the Drag Race player data file. If it does not exist, Drag Race will create it. DragRace.DOC No This documentation. DragRace.HLP Yes The online Instructions file. DragRace.LOG No This is an ASCII text log of player activity. It is intended for your viewing pleasure. DragRace.SCR No This is an ASCII text file containing the current top-15 player scores. This file may be viewed by other programs or from a BBS menu, for example. RACE_ERR.LOG No This is an ASCII text file created by Drag Race when an error is encounted. If this file exists, it is intended for your viewing pleasure. ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ PLAYING THE GAME ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The object of the game is obvious. Players try to win as much money as possible to obtain the highest score. Oh sure, there's nothing to it, right? Wrong! Obstacles get in the way from time to time. Like getting started trying to turn a profit. Tires and fuel aren't exactly cheap (especially at this track!) and since you're burning rubber at every start, one set of tires will only carry you through 3 races. Fuel is another story. The bigger your engine, the more fuel that is consumed. Yet these aren't even the major obstacles. They're just a fact of racing. Other obstacles lay waiting. A vandal might get into the trailer at night and slash your dragster's tires. The track security is on duty 24 hours a day. But, since they're paid a measley $4.25 an hour, they tend to sleep or spend the night drinking and looking at girly magazines. A crew member may have found a better job since you last raced (and that's not hard). These two obstacles are ones that are run into from time to time when a player enters this game door. There are other obstacles too. Players are only human and as such, tend to blow their engines once in a while. The computer opponents are no angels either and may also blow their engines, which would be to the player's advantage. Players may also find themselves swirving into the wall in order to avoid striking a drunken fan on the track. Or running into oil slicks and wiping out. Or even blowing an axle which also causes a crash. But, rest assured, the computer opponent can also crash and even run out of gas allowing his opponent an easy win. But watch out! Be careful not to attempt to race with an empty fuel tank or shot tires. This will always ask for trouble (and get it). False starts are another obstacle to watch out for. If you 'red light' you lose the race. But don't fear, if your opponent 'red lights' you win the race and the money! The trick is to press any key as soon as you see that green light! Once you have the green light, you must start the race by pressing a key. If you press before the green light, you'll 'red light' and lose. If you wait too long (more than a couple of seconds) your engine will rev too high and blow. Yes, and other little obstacles lay waiting. But I won't reveal any more of them here. I'll let you find them for yourself. After all, that's half the fun. The fans in the stands will more than likely voice their opinions of your driving from time to time. But you have to understand how fans get after a few big-gulp cups of beer. You'll be stopping by Pit Row quite a bit to change tires, top off the fuel tank, buy a new engine, and more. You'll find that it takes a certain number of pit crew members to perform the different tasks in the pit. It's typical to find that a crew member might quit if you work him too hard. What can I say? These American union-shop employees are pretty adamant about how much abuse they'll take. But one thing is certain; if you put 5 crew members to work on a job that should only take two, they will get the job done faster! Another note about crew members is that they don't come cheaply. When your racing team is initialized you'll be given a skeleton crew. If you care to hire any additional crew members, you'll find they will cost you some bucks. The SysOp may define how much it will cost to hire crew memebers. The SysOp also defines how much each crew member gets paid each paycheck. Crew members receive a paycheck each time you enter the game on a new day. When you enter the game on a new day, your crew members will want their paychecks. But don't worry, the game will take care of that for you. The SoftNet DragRace uses one parts shop and one parts shop only. That parts shop is Parts 'R' Us and they don't give a very good price for core parts. What's worse is that they don't give any credit for wrecked parts, although they will be glad to laugh at you, take it off your hands, and sell it for scrap. Just the good old American business that we've come to expect. Your opponents will vary. There are computer opponents such as Leadfoot Larry, Harry Scarey, Rick Rachet, along with a host of others. These guys drive anything the computer feels like giving them. From V-6's to Super- charged Hemi's. But you can also race against human opponents. If you chose to do so, the computer will run through the driver roster searching for a qualified opponent. The computer will then run through the list of qualified opponents, giving you the opportunity to choose one. Qualified opponents are players who have the necessary equipment. You know, like a dragster, an engine, tires, and fuel. If your opponent wins a race, your opponent will be awarded a purse according to his ranking. Also, your opponent's tire and fuel status changes accordingly. So be careful. You may be helping the other guy out by challenging him. If all this wasn't exciting enough, players can also place bets on their races. The BBS System Operator may define the maximum number of times players may gamble each day. The track's betting limit is defined by the System Operator (up to $1,000,000 per wager). So if you place a bet and win the race, the track will pay you back the amount of money that you bet and match it for 2 to 1 odds. If you lose the race, the track will glady keep your wager. But watch out! You don't know who is going to be assigned in the lane next to yours until race time, so it's sort of a blind bet. At the beginning of each month, all player scores are reduced back to 0 and the game begins again. The player with the highest score will have his/her name and score displayed to players throughout the following month's competition. ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ PLAYER RANKINGS ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ As a player, your ranking progresses throughout the game according to the amount of money you have. The higher your ranking, the more money a race is worth, should you win. AMOUNT OF MONEY RANKING RACE VALUE ------------------- --------------- ---------- $0 - $ 99,999 BEGINNER $ 5,000 $100,000 - $249,999 NOVICE $10,000 $250,000 - $999,999 ADVANCED NOVICE $25,000 $1,000,000 or more DRIVING ACE $50,000