Cream of the Crop 12/Cream of the Crop 12 (Part II)/Cream of the Crop 12 (Part II).iso/BBS/FOOTB120.ZIP/SYSOP.DOC

Text File | 1996-05-02 | 16.7 KB | 353 lines

                         Franchise Football v1.20
                             by Scott Snella
                    Internet: [e-mail]
                          or: [e-mail]

                               May 1996

                           SYSOP DOCUMENTATION

Table of Contents:
        [1] Warranty
        [2] Agreement
        [3] Problems, Comments and Questions
        [4] Installation and Requirements
                [4.1] Franchise Football Setup
                [4.2] Multi-Node Operation
                [4.3] Nightly Maintenance
                [4.4] START.BAT and In Game Modules
                [4.5] Fossil Drivers
        [5] Special Keys
        [6] Bulletin Files
        [7] IGM's: What are they, and what do they do?
        [8] Thanks


[1] Warranty:

There is none.  No warranty of this product is given, either explicit
or implied.  I do not promise that this program will do anything but take
up hard drive space.  While I have made an effort to test it on several
systems, and configurations, it is impossible to test all possibilities.
If you do have trouble with the use of this product I would like to hear
about it, and hopefully work to solve the problem in future releases.
So, if you find anything that you feel is, or may be, a bug or problem
you may send email to the above internet address or netmail me at 1:332/129
- that is a FIDOnet node number.  I will look into the problem.

Franchise Football is programmed using the Opendoors Door Programming
Toolkit, which is (C) Brian Pirie.  All other programming and game code
are (C) 1996 SnellaSoft.


[2] Agreement:

I give you the right to run one Franchise Football game on your BBS or
LAN, and only one game, with the unregistered version.  You may continue to
run only one game at a time for an reasonable period of up to 4 months.  I
have disabled several functions for the unregistered version, and view that
as an incentive to register the game for $20.  You may not, run more than
one unregistered copy of the game.  Please remember that for us to continue
to design great games, we need your support.

Please distribute this shareware version of Franchise Football freely.
It may be included in, but not limited to the following means of
distribution:

        CD ROM's
        BBS downloads
        floppy disk distribution

A small fee may be charged by the distributor for the price of disks or CD
ROM manufacture.

The official distribution site list in the file DISTRO.DOC is a list of sites
where the latest version of all SnellaSoft products should be available.  If
for some reason one of the sites is no longer a member, has gone down,
or for some other reason does not have the software, you may get a copy from
one of the others.  This list (DISTRO.DOC) is not a list of the only boards
allowed to carry the software, again please feel free to upload this package
in it's unregistered form to as many systems as you'd like.

Please remember that in the world of online services, the Internet, and
private BBS's, things crash, go down or for other reasons are unavailable.
I will make every effort possible to inform you of the sites where you may
obtain a copy of Franchise Basketball, Franchise Football, or any other
SnellaSoft releases, but situations may be out of my control (hence, the
growing list of places to obtain your new copy).


[3] Problems, Comments and Questions:

If you have any questions, comments, problems, or notice any bugs in the
program, please contact me immediately either at FIDO: 1:332/129, or VIA
the Internet email at [e-mail].  I will attempt to answer
the question, fix the problem or add suggestions to later versions of the
software.

Remember, the latest versions of all Franchise Sports games may be obtained
from all distribution sites in the DISTRO.DOC, at Mos Eisley 413-684-4266,
or by Internet FTP at the following locations:

        ftp.jaxnet.com   /private/mconn/FFBL###.ZIP

        ### = the current version of the software.


[4] Installation and Requirements:

Franchise Football, unlike Franchise Basketball does NOT take stadiums
and other purchased items away at the end of the season (in perpetual
games).  For this reason, it is sometimes difficult for users to make
enough money to buy new items (stadiums, concessions, etc).  Therefore,
we suggest that you allow several days between games for merchandise
efforts and bank interest to accumulate, and play several regular season
games (16 is a normal professional football season).  This should allow
users to get a good feel for the game, train some players and upgrade a
couple of levels in everything.

*** Franchise Football creates several datafiles.  It is suggested that
        you have up to 1.5 megabytes of free hard disk space available
        prior to installation.  Many of these files are created the first
        time MAINT.EXE plays games.

FFBL uses ANSI screen codes to create a friendly user interface, and
therefore must be run on a BBS using at least ANSI terminal emulation.
RIP and AVATAR setups will also function fine.  Most LAN or PC users will
not have to worry about this, the screen codes for those setups are handled
by your DOS, or BIOS.  Monochrome and B&W VGA users may "lose" some of the
text due to color translation problems.  This will not effect the game,
just your view of the screen.

  [4.1] Franchise Football Setup

        1. Create a directory to store the files included in the FFBL
           archive.  For our example, we'll call it C:\BBS\FFBL.

        2. Unarchive the FFBL###.ZIP file into this directory.

        3. Run the file called FINIT.EXE by switching to the FFBL directory
           and typing FINIT.

        4. Since this will be the first time you have run the FINIT program,
           your league must be created.  To help you setup the league, FFBL
           will prompt you for several items of information about your
           league.  Each of these prompts is preceded by a brief description
           of exactly what the item means, the values you may enter, and
           often will give suggestions for your settings.

        5. After you enter all of the information to setup the league, a
           screen will recount some of the vital information, and after
           pressing a key, you will be brought to the FINIT.EXE main menu.
           Several options here will be unavailable to unregistered users.
           We have, however, now setup the league and may exit the FINIT
           program.  At this point you can try the game by typing

                FOOTBALL L

           This runs the game in local mode, but at least you can get an
           idea of what the game looks like.

        6. Finally, you must edit two files to suit your system configuration.
           The first is the batch file that will be called from your BBS
           system, or LAN workstation.  For your ease, a sample batch file,
           START.BAT has been included in the distribution archive.  I
           strongly recommend that you simply edit that file and use it as
           your batch file... since FFBL allows the addition of third party
           software to be added to the game, and the batch file is critical
           to the successful execution of that software.

           First, change the drive and paths in the file to those for your
           system.  This will include the drive and path of your FFBL
           directory, under :RUNFFBL, and the same for your BBS directory
           under the heading :END.

           The START.BAT file will be run with one parameter, the node number.
           So, the command line from your BBS may look something like this:

                C:\BBS\FFBL\START.BAT %N

           (Where N is the node number of the caller).  Most BBS systems will
           have some variable that will pass that parameter to the batch
           file.

           * LAN users can just use one node (always in local mode), node 1.
             So you'd have a configuration file called FOOT1.CFG, and run
             the program with the line
                START 1

           In the batch file itself, the variable %1 takes on the value of
           the node number.  You'll notice that the game is executed with
           the command line:

                FOOTBALL FOOT%1.CFG

           The FOOT#.CFG file is the other file that we must now edit (The
           # is the node number).  First exit the editor, make one copy of
           FOOT.CFG (included in the archive) for each of your BBS nodes,
           each named FOOT#.CFG (#=the node the file is for).  This allows
           us to easily setup nodes with unique configurations.  Edit each
           of the FOOT#.CFG files with your node/BBS information.  The
           .CFG files are liberally commented, and should be self
           explanatory.

        7. The absolute last thing you need to do it execute the START.BAT
           file from your BBS with the node number, and add a menu option.
           It may seem like a lot, but you should be able to get the game
           up and running in a very short period of time.

  [4.2] Multi-Node Operation

        *** This section only applies to sysops with more than one node ***
        *** This section does not apply to LAN games, or non-BBS games ***

        As a multi-node BBS, your system will most likely create drop-
        files in an individual directory for whichever node is in
        operation.  (ie. C:\BBS\NODE1\DOOR.SYS)

        You must define an individual .CFG file for each node. ( ie.
        FOOT1.CFG, FOOT2.CFG, etc. ).  When you call your batch
        file to run the door, send it one parameter, the node number...
        C:\BBS\FFBL\START.BAT %N (%N being your node number).

  [4.3] Nightly Maintenance

        The MAINT.EXE file must be run at least once per day.
        This event must be exclusive.  No one may be in the game when
        MAINT.EXE is run, because it updates and edits ALL data files,
        and creates many files as well.

  [4.4] START.BAT and In Game Modules

        Franchise Football is now equipped with an In Game Module (IGM)
        system, so third party authors may design utilities, add-ons, and
        more to go with Franchise Football.  To accomplish this, FFBL
        should be run from a batch file like the one included in this
        ZIP file, called START.BAT.  You should be able to edit START.BAT
        easily to fit your system.  It is liberally commented to allow easy
        setup.

        NOTE: For advanced sysops, FFBL creates two files, DO#.BAT and
        IGMINFO.#, where # = Node number.  In addition the program exits
        with an errorlevel of 50 when an external IGM is executed.  If the
        DO#.BAT file is called from the batch file it will execute the IGM
        selected and should loop back to the BBS after execution of that IGM.

  [4.5] Fossil Drivers

        Franchise Football uses external fossil drivers by default.  The
        program should read any non-standard ports or IRQ's from the fossil
        driver without having to worry about anything.  Therefore you should
        not have to specify your non-standard ports in the CFG file, the
        game will read them from your fossil driver.  If, however you do
        not use a fossil, or your system is not operating properly with
        that setup, you may enable your setup in the FOOT#.CFG file.

If your drop file is not supported, you may define a drop file by using the
configuration file option.  (See your copy of FOOT#.CFG for more details)


[5] Special Keys:

        UP/DOWN Arrow - Increase/Decrease time user has left in door.
        Alt-C - Chat mode (I suggest refraining from the use of this option,
                as the Opendoor routines cause some display problems
                following the return to FFBL, due to the games display
                methods)
        Alt-J - DOS Shell
        Alt-H - Hang Up on User
        Alt-K - Suspend input from the online users keyboard
        Alt-N - Reserves the system for the sysop next (RA 1.00 and Apex
                ONLY)
        Alt-D - Drop user back to BBS without hanging up
        F1-F6 - Various status line toggles
        F9 - Sysop help
        F10 - Turn off status line

[6] Bulletin files:

        ANSI/ASCII Scoreboard:
                FFBLSCRE.ANS      These are in the FFBL directory, and make
                FFBLSCRE.ASC      excellent bulletin files for login to the
                                  BBS.  They contain the last games scores.

        Player Instruction Text file:
                PLYRINST.TXT      This is a brief text file that explains
                                  the game and how to play.  It is for
                                  users to download.

        For suffering through this document to make a better world for your
        users, try typing "T|" at the "Scout Opponents Office Screen".


[7] IGM's: What are they, and what do they do?

IGM is an abbreviation for In Game Module.  In Game Modules (IGM's) are
external modules (programs) that are called and run from a BBS door.  The
first program, I believe, to make use of the idea was Seth Robinson's
Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD).  IGM's allow for many things... #1 and easy
way for aspiring third party authors to write additions to the main program.
As any software author probably knows, there are more suggestions than time
in the day, so by adding IGM's, others can write modules taking advantage
of these ideas.  #2 an easy way for me to keep the game fairly simple, yet
allow for certain boards (if they choose) to add several levels of detail.
I have attempted to design all Franchise Sports games with both the
enthusiast and the beginner in mind (those that may be less interested in
sports).  On several occasions, people have suggested more complex statistics
and record keeping for the game.  I felt that the more records and numbers,
the more intimidating the game may become to novices and have shied away
from that.  Now, however, FFBL allows for as much complexity or simplicity
as the IGM's allow.  IGM's may be developed for more specific stats, or
even less specific "plain English" summaries.

When a user enters an IGM, through the "Other Locations" Menu option, they
are returned back to that position following the execution of the IGM, thus
giving the appearance that they never left the FFBL system.

If you are interested in programming In Game Modules for Franchise Football,
there is a text file included with this distribution archive called
IGMWRITE.DOC.  That text file will detail the basics of programming the IGM's
and linking them to the BBS door.  If you'd like more information, I am
currently assembling a programming library in Borland C/C++ 3.1 and above,
and additional programming texts regarding the programming of IGM's.  The
IGM "toolkit" can be obtained at Mos Eisley 413-684-4266.


[9] Thanks:

I'd like to thank the following system operators for their help testing
Franchise Football.  If you are running a system that is not mentioned
in this document, and have tested Franchise Football on that system,
please E-mail me and I will add your configuration, and system name to
this text file as an official tester.  Only the first E-mail for a
specific system will be added to the list.  If you would like to be an
official SnellaSoft distribution Site, however, there is an included text
file listing all distribution sites and the procedures for applying to be
a site called DISTO.DOC, please read it for more information.

     Thanks for alpha/beta testing goes to:

          Dave Ferber           The Castle of       619-488-7784 Node 1
                                  Deception         619-488-7785 Node 2
          Tony Boles            Opening Day Data    317-649-7996
                                  and Sports
          Marv Conn             Game Board          904-276-0372

     And a special thanks to Dave Kober of the UpperLevel BBS
     [phone] for finding all the holes in the IGM system :)
     Look for some of the fine IGM's from UpperLevel Software including
     Stats Galore.

     Thanks goes out to all the users on each of these boards (and
     my own, Mos Eisley) for bearing with us through all the changes
     and resets.

Coming in '96:
     Additional Franchise Basketball and Football Utilities
     More Great Sports Doors...

Thank you for choosing Franchise Football...

Franchise Football (C) 1995-96 SnellaSoft