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- Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine version 2.5
- Program and design by Sean P. Price of Rude Dog Software.
- Copyright 1994, 1995 by Sean P. Price. All rights reserved.
-
- Final compile date: April 23, 1996
-
- Rude Dog Software Configuration File Editor v.1.7
- Program and design by Sean P. Price and Rhy E. Thornton
- of Rude Dog Software.
- Copyright 1994 by Sean P. Price. All rights reserved.
-
- Final compile date: November 8, 1995
-
- This program was written and compiled using Turbo Pascal v.7.0 and
- uses the JSDoor Communications and On-line Door Driver unit.
-
- JSDoor Communications and On-line Door Driver
- (c) 1994 John Stephenson, All Rights Reserved.
-
-
- Vampire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine.
- Designed and created by Sean P. Price of Rude Dog Software.
- Copyright 1995 by Sean P. Price. All rights reserved.
-
-
- Introduction:
-
- Vampire Knights is a scenario designed for the Rude Dog On-Line
- Adventure Engine. It is an interactive on-line adventure game set in
- an imaginary medieval land filled with monsters, ruins, towns, magical
- items, and of course treasure.
-
- The game uses ANSI graphics extensively to give a more aesthetic
- look and feel to the game. Instead of being told which directions are
- traversable, the player can easily see it on the maps.
-
- Vampire Knights contains hundreds of monsters to fight, each with
- it's own successful hit descriptions. The game's various towns are
- loaded with a variety of shops, temples, inns, and optionally whore
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- houses. Catacombs are multi-level and contain traps, secret doors,
- treasure, and relics. There is even an arena where players can fight
- other players, both offline and in real time on multi-node setups.
-
- There is much more to Vampire Knights. Read the player's
- documentation, and of course play to discover the rest.
-
- Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine was programmed using the JSDoor
- Communications Unit. The JSDoor Communications Unit is OS/2, Desqview,
- and Windows aware. This will help ensure that this game will run
- smoothly under these multi-tasking environments.
-
-
- Disclaimer:
-
- Rude Dog Software and the employees/programmers in conjunction with
- and/or affiliated with Rude Dog Software can not be held responsible
- for the condition of any software not received directly from Rude Dog
- Software through postal/parcel means.
-
- Nor can said persons be held responsible for any damage caused to
- media or hardware as a direct or indirect result of the use or mis-use
- of any of our products.
-
- Rude Dog Software would like it to be known, however, that all of
- our products are thoroughly tested before being released to the general
- public.
-
- Rude Dog Software reserves the right to change any disclaimer,
- documentation, licensing information or registration procedures and
- costs at any time for any reason with no prior warning or notice.
-
-
- General Licensing Agreement:
-
- The holder of the unregistered Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- and the Vampire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- packages is allowed a limited usage period of 30 (thirty) days, wherein
- he or she may test said packages. After the thirty day period, the
- holder of the unregistered copy of the Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine and the Vampire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine packages must register the software to be allowed further use of
- said packages.
-
- A registered copy of the Vampire Knights package may be obtained by
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- filling out the Rude Dog Software registration form and sending both
- that form and $15.00 US, in the form of a check or money order, to Rude
- Dog Software, or using a credit card by calling the Rude Dog Software
- BBS and using the on-line credit credit card registration door. The
- Vampire Knights package includes registration codes for both the Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine and the Vampire Knights scenario for Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine.
-
- Registered copies of Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine and the
- Vampire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine are
- non-transferable. The registering party may not under any
- circumstances sell, give away, or give copies of the registered
- versions of, or registration codess for, Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine or the Vammpire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine.
-
- Rude Dog Software reserves the right to revoke registration
- privileges either temporarily or permanently if the conditions of the
- registration are not properly met by the holder of the registered Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine and the Vampire Knights scenario for Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine packages.
-
- Registered copy holders of Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine will
- be entitled to upgrades for a minimal processing and materials fee of
- $5.00 US per upgrade, or by downloading the latest version from the
- Rude Dog Software support BBS.
-
-
- Printing This Manual:
-
- This manual if formatted to be printed on nearly any printer. Just
- type PRINT SYSOP.DOC from the DOS prompt.
-
-
- Requirements:
-
- You must have BBS software capable of generating a DOOR.SYS,
- DORINFOx.DEF, PCBOARD.SYS, CHAIN.TXT, TRIBBS.SYS, or GTUSER.TXT drop
- file. If your BBS software doesn't support one of the above drop file
- types, you will need one of the shareware drop file conversion
- utilities.
-
- You must have at least 250K of free conventional memory. This game
- uses a lot of large arrays for the maps, etc.
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- If you are using a high speed modem with QuickBBS or any other BBS
- software that doesn't place the locked baud rate in it's drop file,
- you'll need to use the LOCK<baud> command line switch. For more
- information read the section about command line switches.
-
- If you are running OS/2, I suggest that you use Ray Gwynn's SIO and
- VSIO serial I/O drivers. These are replacements for OS/2's built in
- serial I/O drivers. They offer some very nice features not found in
- OS/2's built in routines.
-
-
- Installation:
-
- 1. Create a directory for the game. E.g. "C:\MAX\DOORS\VAMPIRE"
-
- 2. Copy all the files from the archive VKxx.ZIP into the directory
- that you created for the game. Change to that directory and
- execute the file INSTALL.BAT. This will extract all files required
- by Vampire Knights into the proper directories.
-
- 3. Run RUDE_CFG.EXE and edit the file GAME.CFG to suit your setup.
- The configuration editor will display help for each option.
-
- NOTE: If you are upgrading from a previous version of Vampire
- Knights, you should load your GAME.CFG into the configuration
- editor and set any new configuration options to update everything.
- Skip to step 5.
-
- 4. From within the configuration editor choose the option for
- initializing the user file.
-
- NOTE: If you are upgrading from a previous version of Vampire
- Knights, you should skip this step. Initializing the user file
- will destroy all games currently in progress.
-
- 5. Follow your BBS software's documentation on installing doors to
- create an entry for Vampire Knights. Usually you setup your BBS
- software to run a batch file that changes to the game's directory,
- runs the game, then changes back to the BBS directory. If you are
- running QuickBBS on a high speed modem, you will need to add the
- appropriate command line switches. Read the section on command
- line switches for a complete list. Below is an example of a basic
- batch file:
-
- C:
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- CD \MAX\DOORS\VAMPIRE
- RUDEOLAE.EXE
- C:
- CD \MAX
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- 6. Run the game locally from within your BBS to make certain that you
- have everything setup correctly.
-
- 7. Setup a batch file to run the game's maintenance utility. This
- batch file should be executed during your nightly event. Below is
- an example of such a batch file:
-
- C:
- CD \MAX\DOORS\VAMPIRE
- MAINT.EXE
- C:
- CD \MAX
-
- NOTE: The maintenance utility should only be run once a day. Don't
- run it every time that you run the game.
-
-
- Command Line Switches:
-
- Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine offers support for locked baud
- rates, non-standard IRQs, non-standard comport address, and alternative
- configuration files, through the use of command line switches.
-
- All command line switches are optional and override the settings
- read from the drop file. Each command must be separated by a space.
- Below is a complete list of these switches and their functions.
-
- LOCK<baud>: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to
- lock the com-port at the specified baud rate. Any baud
- rate is considered a valid value. Although it is
- usually only used for high speed modems. E.g.
- 'LOCK38400' would lock your com-port at 38400 baud.
- You usually don't need this because most BBS systems
- provide this information in the drop file. However,
- QuickBBS' DORINFO1.DEF file doesn't properly pass this
- information. If you use QuickBBS and a high speed
- modem, you'll need to use this command line switch.
-
- IRQ<irq>: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to
- use the specified IRQ when accessing the modem. E.g.
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- 'IRQ11' would cause Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to
- access the modem through IRQ 11. NOTE: This command
- line switch is only valid if you don't have a fossil
- driver active.
-
- ADDR<address>: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- to use the specified address when accessing the
- modem. E.g. 'ADDR$3F8' would cause Rude Dog
- On-Line Adventure Engine to access the comm port
- through address $3F8. NOTE: This command line
- switch is only valid if you don't have a fossil
- driver active.
-
- CFG:<filepath>: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- to use the configuration file specified in
- <filepath>. E.g. 'CFG:GAME1.CFG' would cause Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to use the
- configuration file GAME1.CFG instead of the default
- file GAME.CFG.
-
- NODE<node>: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- what node this session is running on. It is used to
- read the proper DORINFOx.DEF file on multi-node systems
- using the DORINFOx.DEF dropfile type.
-
- USER:<name>: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to
- run using the user name specified by the <name>
- parameter. It should only be used in conjunction with
- the LOCAL switch. If the user name is more than one
- word, replace the space with an underscore ("_")
- character. E.g. USER:FRED_THE_UNDEAD will cause Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to use "FRED THE UNDEAD"
- as the user name. NOTE: This is not the character
- name used in the game, but the name of a user.
-
- LOCAL: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to run
- in Local mode.
-
- DEBUG: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to
- generate a system debug log. It will create a file called
- NODEx.LOG where x is the node number. It logs Drop Path,
- Drop File Type, IPC Path, Username, BPS Rate, User's
- Graphics Type, Comport, Date, and Time.
-
- RESET: This switch tells Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to
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- reset the game. It will delete all files in the USER
- directories and re-initialize the USER.STS and USER.SAV
- files. After completion Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- will terminate.
-
- NOFOSSIL: Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine normally tries to
- auto-detect the presence of a fossil driver. This switch
- disables auto-detection of a fossil driver and forces
- Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to use interrupt driven
- comm routines.
-
- FOSSIL: Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine normally tries to
- auto-detect the presence of a fossil driver. This switch
- disables auto-detection of a fossil driver and forces Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to use the fossil driver for
- comm routines.
-
-
- Multi-Node Use:
-
- Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine should work fine on a multi-node
- system as long as SHARE.EXE is installed. There are two ways to setup
- Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine.
-
- Method One:
-
- The first is to use Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine's direct
- support for environment variables. Most BBS software packages
- create drop files in a seperate directory for each node. These
- directories usually have a name like WORKx or NODEx where x is the
- node number. These BBS packages also set an environment variable
- for the current node. These environment variables usually have
- names like %NODE%, %WCNODEID%, etc. In the Configuration Editor
- you can use your BBS package's environment variables directly in
- path options. When Rude Dog On-line Adventure Engine reads the
- configuration file it will convert the environment variable. E.g.
- "D:\WC\NODE%WCNODEID%\WORK" would get converted to
- "D:\WC\NODE1\WORK" for node 1, "D:\WC\NODE2\WORK" for node 2, etc.
-
- Method Two:
-
- The second method of setting up Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine for multi-node use is to create a seperate configuration
- file for each node. Each configuration file should have the actual
- drop file path for each node without any environment variables
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- imbedded, and should be named GAME1.CFG, GAME2.CFG, etc. with the
- number corresponding to the BBS node number. Below is a sample
- batch file for this type of multi-node setup. The environment
- variable %NODE% gets expanded to the actual node number by your
- command line processor, causing Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine
- to read the appropriate configuration file.
-
- C:
- CD \MAX\DOORS\VAMPIRE
- RUDEOLAE.EXE CFG:GAME%NODE%.CFG
- C:
- CD \MAX
-
- NOTE: Your BBS software may use a different environment variable to
- denote the node number. Consult your BBS software's documentation for
- further information.
-
- In addition to the steps outlined above, there are two
- configuration options that concern multi-node use.
-
- The first is an option to turn multi-node support on or off. This
- switch enables/disables the multi-node inter-process communication
- support.
-
- The second option is the IPC Path. This should specify the
- complete path name, including drive and directory, that you want Rude
- Dog On-Line Adventure Engine to use to store it's inter-process
- communication files. E.g. "C:\VAMPIRE\IPC" This would cause all IPC
- files to be stored in the "\VAMPIRE\IPC" directory on drive "C:". This
- path must exist. Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine will not create any
- directories for you. Also, it is recomended that you use a RAM drive
- or a fast hard drive for the IPC directory. This directory will be
- accessed often and drive speed will affect obverall system performance.
-
-
- Installing your Registration Code(s):
-
- If you have registered Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine or the
- Vampire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine via
- mail, you will receive a letter containing your registration code(s).
- If you registered online using a credit card, you will receive your
- registration code(s) via E-Mail.
-
- To use your registration code(s), run the Rude Dog Configuration
- Editor and enter your registration code(s) exactly as it/they
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- appear(s) in the letter you received. If you do not enter the
- registration code(s) exactly, Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine will
- still run as if it were unregistered.
-
- NOTE: Your name and BBS name must be exactly the same as what you
- entered on your registration form, or what you entered during online
- registration. If they are different then Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine will run as if it were unregistered.
-
-
- Restrictions On The Un-Registered Game:
-
- 1. Players are restricted to 30 minutes per day.
- 2. The Inn's aren't available.
- 3. Whore House isn't available.
- 4. Ten second game delay at start and end of game play.
-
-
- Support:
-
- Rude Dog Software has several support and distribution sites world
- wide for your convenience. For a complete list read the file
- DISTRO.DOC.
-
- NOTE: If there isn't a distribution site in your area and you would
- like to become one, please contact me.
-
- NOTE: I'm also looking for registration sites in other countries. You
- must be a member of FidoNet to be a registration site.
-
-
- Contacting The Author:
-
- I can be reached by voice at (619)377-3589 from about 10:00 AM to
- 8:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. * NO COLLECT CALLS * Please let the
- phone ring at least eight times. It sometimes takes me awhile to get
- to the phone.
-
- I can be reached by modem on Sanctuary from The Law BBS -
- (619)377-3611 - 24 Hours.
-
- I can also be reached through Fido-Net at 1:205/46, and InterNet at
- sprice@ridgecrest.ca.us
-
- The latest version of Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine and the
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- Vampire Knights scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine can be
- FREQ'ed at 1:205/46 using the magic name VAMPIRE.
-
- Finally, I can be reached by ground mail at the following address:
-
- Rude Dog Software
- c/o Sean P. Price
- P.O. Box 1364
- Inyokern, CA
- 93527-1364
-
-
- Registration:
-
- The Vampire Knights package can be registered on-line using a
- credit card, or via mail using a credit card, check, money order, or
- charitable donation. We accept VISA, Master Card, American Express,
- AMEX Optima, and Discover card.
-
- To register on-line using a credit card, call the support BBS and
- use the new on-line registration door. You will receive your
- registration codes immediately.
-
- For full details on registering the Vampire Knights package via
- mail using a credit card, check or money order please refer to the file
- REGISTER.FRM.
-
- For full details on registering the Vampire Knights package by
- making a charitable donation, please refer to the file CHARITY.DOC.
-
-
- Bug Reports, Comments, and Suggestions:
-
- I have made every effort to ensure that Rude Dog On-Line Adventure
- Engine is bug free. However, no program is ever bug free. There's an
- old programmers axiom that states: "Any bug free program is obsolete."
- If however, you do find any bugs, please report them to me at one of
- the places described in the section of this document entitled:
- "Contacting The Author." Please give as much detail as you can about
- the circumstances, your setup, etc. If possible send me a copy of your
- GAME.CFG and the batch file that you use to run Vampire Knights. Also,
- please tell me what version you are running. This will greatly help me
- in finding and killing the offending insect.
-
- If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to send
-
-
- -10-
-
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- them to me. I will read them ALL, and seriously consider valid
- suggestions. Suggestions from users are an important tool in
- programming. They offer the programmer some insight as to what users
- want in a product, allowing the programmer to improve the product in
- future releases. I cannot guaranty that I will respond to ALL of the
- comments and suggestions, but I will make an effort.
-
-
- Future Plans:
-
- 1. Even more monsters.
- 2. Possible negotiation with monsters of similar alignment.
- 3. A bank.
- 4. A casino.
- 5. More ANSI pictures of monsters.
-
-
- Non-Association Disclaimer:
-
- All products mentioned are copyrighted and/or trademarked by their
- respective creators. I am only affiliated with Rude Dog Software. I
- in no way endorse any other company's products, nor am I affiliated
- with any other company.
-
-
- Thank You:
-
- I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people for
- their help in creating this game.
-
- JSDoor author John Stephenson: Thanks for providing a powerful and
- easy to use communications library.
-
- My Beta Team: Thanks for all of your bug reports and wonderfull
- suggestions. This game has improved tremendously
- since I aquired all of you. You found bugs I would
- have never even noticed existed.
-
-
- Final Notes:
-
- I have spent countless hours developing this product. I am
- releasing it as shareware to give you, the user, a chance to thoroughly
- test the software before you pay for it. I hope that you will like the
- product and register it. Your registration guarantees future support
-
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- and improvement of this product.
-
- As stated above, I have spent countless hours in the development of
- this product. Being a quadraplegic, all my work is done using a mouth
- stick. As you can imagine, this is not a very efficient method of
- typing. This document took about seven hours straight. As a full time
- student, I also have to try to fit in programming time around school
- and homework.
-
- This is my first large scale program written in Pascal, and my
- first release of a DOS program. I am however a veteran programmer and
- have released many products for other platforms, ranging from simple
- utilities to a complete BBS package.
-
- Well, I guess that's enough rambling. Please register this product
- if you use it.
-
-
- Thank you,
-
- Sean P. Price
- Rude Dog Software
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