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1992-02-26
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CivManager V1.3 - By Paul Hickman (ph@doc.ic.ac.uk)
===================================================
Disclaimer
----------
This product is not in any way endorsed by, or connected to
MircoProse Software Ltd., or the authors of civilisation. This
software is supplied on an "as is" basis - I accept no legal
responsibility if it does not perform as documented, or causes any
other problems to your system.
Civilization is Microprose Software's trademark for it's simulation
of human history.
Files
-----
Civman/Civmanager The program.
Civman/Civmanager13.e The source code.
Civman/Civmanager.doc This file.
Civman/DevSaveIcon.info The icon used for saved games.
Civman/Install_Civmanager The commodore installer script
Civman/Reqtools.library Nica Francois' reqtools library
Overview
--------
Civilisation is an absolutely brilliant game, but it is sadly
lacking when it comes to saving games - you must save them to the
root directory of a disk, and they have names like 'CIVIL0.map' etc.
which make it impossible to workout which game is which from outside
civilization. CivManager fixes this, allowing you to save your game
to any location, with any filename, and as a single file.
Requirements
------------
A Copy of CivilizationAGA.
A Hard Disk Drive (CivManager will work on a floppy disk,
but is totally pointless to use it, since
you save the root dir anyway)
2Mb of chip memory. (Well, CivManager only uses around
20k, but civilization needs 2Mb)
Workbench 3.0 (Civmanager only needs 2.04, but CivAGA needs 3.0)
The Commodore Installer Utility (Recommend, but not neccessary)
Installation
------------
To install CivManager - Simply Click on the "Install-Civmanager"
icon. If the commodore "Installer" program is not on your current
path, you must set the default tool of this icon to the actual
location of your installer with workbenches "information" menu
option.
To install by hand:
1) Copy "CivManager" & "DefSaveIcon.info" to your CivAga directory.
2) Copy Reqtools.library to your LIBS: if you don't already have it.
4) Rename the icon CivilizationAGA.info to CivManager.info
3) Set the tooltypes of this CivManager icon:
CIV=<Your civAGA directories path>
FONTS=<Your civilization fonts path>
DIR=<Your Default Game saves directory path>
You can leave out the FONT= line if your civilization fonts are
in civAGA/Fonts, where they are put by the civilization install
script.
4) Remove the 5 assigns (CIV1:, ... , CIV4: and FONTS:) from your
s:user-startup file that were put there by the civilization
installer program - this is done by Civmanager at runtime.
Starting A New Game Of Civilization
-----------------------------------
To begin a new game of civilization under CivManger, double click
the CivManager Icon. When the reqtools filerequester appears,
enter the name of a new file to save the game to. (I recommend you
end the name in ".Civil", as the default pattern of the
filerequester is to only list "#?.Civil" files). This allows you to
give your files descriptive names, instead of "Civil0.map", and put
them in a sub-directory.
When the civilization title screen appears, select Start Game as
usual, but when you come to save the game, save it to the top
position on the RAM: disk. Whenever you save to the top position on
the RAM: disk, CivMangaer will copy your saved game to your the
.Civil file.
Loading an Existing Game Of Civilization
----------------------------------------
To continue a game, simply select the '.Civil' file to load from the
file requester. When the civilization title screen appears, select
load game, and load the top file from the RAM: disk. To resave your
game, save it back over this file, and CivMangaer will copy it back
to disk.
Alternatively, shift-select the .Civil icon of the game you wish
to play, or double click it, or create a tool manager Exec object
& App Icon / Dock Icon for CivManager, and make the exec object of
type WB with the arguments box checkmarked. Then you can drop game
saves on the icon to load them into civilization, or click on the
dock icon to bring up the file-requester.
Controling CivManager
---------------------
Civmanager installs itself as a commodity, so it can be quit by:
- Running It Again
- Selecting Remove from Commodities Exchange
- Any other standard way of removing commodities
- You can also quit by deleting the file RAM:CIVIL0.SVE
- CivManager does not quit when you quit civilization
You can also suspend it (Stop it copying the file to harddisk)
can making it inactive from commodities exchange.
NOTE: I have not implemented any normal commodities tooltypes -
It does not have an interface, therefore no popup or hotkey.
It does not intercept the input stream therefore no priority.
I only made it a commodity, because that saved me having to
build an interface to quit / suspend the program, and it made
it more system friendly.
Converting Existing Civilization Saves To CivManager Files
----------------------------------------------------------
To convert your existing civilization files, open a shell, and CD to
the directory containing your saves, then type:
join CIVIL0.map CIVIL0.SVE AS=<Filename>.Civil
Where <Filename> is the full path & filename of where you wish
to create the ".Civil" file. Repeat the process for CIVIL1, CIVIL2,
etc. e.g.
Join CIVIL4.map CIVIL4.SVE AS=MyGame.Civil
How Does It Work
----------------
CivManager uses the new AmigaDOS 2.04+ Notify facility to ask
AmigaDOS to inform it every time the file RAM:CIVIL0.SVE is
modified. When it is modified, CivManager joins the .map and .SVE
files, and copies them to the file you selected. If the modification
made was a delete, the program quits.
Credits
-------
Many Thanks Go To Wouter van Oortmerssen for the wonderful 'Amiga E'
language which which CivManager was written, Nico Francois for the
reqtools library, all those who've distributed installer scripts
with their programs from which I gleamed enough information to
write the CivManager installer, Commodore for writing the installer,
Jason Maskell for his example of how to program a commodity in E,
and of course Sid Meier & Microprose for the best amiga game there
is - Despite the bugs :-(