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Amiga Plus 1995 #2
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Amiga Plus CD - 1995 - No. 2.iso
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SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE COMMANDANT, STARFLEET ACADEMY
UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS
AUTHOR: ADMIRAL GREGORY EPLEY, COMMANDANT, STARFLEET ACADEMY
STARDATE: 42976.3 (OLD CALENDAR, PRESENT DAY, JUNE 1, 1991)
SUBJECT: LOW-LEVEL ACCESS GENERAL COMMUNIQUE
RE: INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION MANUAL
RELEASE TWO UPGRADE
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - TRIVIA CHALLENGE
CONTENTS: 2.1 PLAY SYSTEM
2.1.1 FLOPPY DRIVE PLAY SYSTEM
2.1.2 HARD DRIVE PLAY SYSTEM
2.2 PREPARATION
2.2.1 USING LHARC EXTRACT
2.3 INSTALLATION
2.4 CONFIGURATION
2.4.1 CONFIGURATION FOR FLOPPIES
2.4.2 CONFIGURATION FOR HARD DRIVE
2.1 PLAY SYSTEM
The play system consists of 2 areas, PLAY and DATA, broken into these
sections:
* GAME MODULE - this is the Director-built "film" which controls game play.
This is comprised of the file "ngtc.film", the Projector player, and
various game support files in the drawer "ngtc_game" in the PLAY area.
* TRIVIA DATA BASE FILES - these contain the textual trivia information.
There are 2 files for each season of trivia data stored in the drawer
"ngtc_game" in the PLAY area.
* AUDIO/VIDEO CLUE DATA FILES - these are the picture and sound files that
relate to some of the trivia questions. These are stored in the drawer
(hard disk) or drawers (floppies) "ngtc_tdb" in the DATA area (or areas).
2.1.1 FLOPPY DRIVE PLAY SYSTEM
A new floppy disk play system is required for Release Two and beyond so the
Game Module can access the Trivia Data Base Files for each season without
excess disk swapping. Under this system, the only time you will need to swap
disks is to access one of the Audio or Video Clue Data Files, assuming the
file is not on one of the mounted disks. To accomplish this, the logical
assignment names from Release One have been replaced with a specific file
structure and specific disk names.
The PLAY disk, which will have the name "NGTC.Play", is a single disk which
has enough space for the Game Module, up to 4 Trivia Data Base Files (8 files
in all), and a high scores file.
On a standard Amiga floppy disk, 880K, I estimate there is only enough room
for about 4 seasons of trivia. Right now, I seriously doubt if 5 seasons
will fit in the existing space. This leaves only 3 alternatives:
1. Keep any 4 of the available trivia files on the PLAY disk.
2. Purchase a high-density floppy drive and use a high-density, 1.52Meg
disk as the PLAY disk.
3. Purchase a hard drive and install the game on it.
I apologize if this is a problem for anyone, but eventually the game is going
to require more space than a standard floppy is capable of providing. Each
of the above options has its advantages and disadvantages. The choice is
yours.
Each DATA disk set is composed of 2 disks with enough space for all of the
Audio/Video Clue Data Files for one season of trivia. Each disk set shares a
common number which identifies the Season for the data. The first disk in
each set has "A" in the disk name, the second has "B" in the name. So
"NGTC3B" is the second data disk for Third Season.
You will need your 2 Release One play disks and 3 blank formatted disks for
installation.
Now refer to Section 2.2 to continue.
2.1.2 HARD DRIVE PLAY SYSTEM
A slightly revised hard drive play system is required for Release Two and
beyond so the Game Module can access the Trivia Data Base Files for each
season. Two logical assignment names from Release One are used to locate all
the game files; the remaining names have been eliminated under the new Game
Module.
The "play area" is the root, or master, directory (drawer) on your hard drive
which has enough space for the Game Module, up to 6 Trivia Data Base Files
(12 files in all), a high scores file, a fairly large number of saved quiz
(saved game) files, and all of the Audio/Video Clue Data Files for each
season of trivia. There are 2 main subdirectories here, one primarily for
game-related files, and the other for all of the clue-related files.
Approximately 800K of drive space is required for the Game Module and related
Trivia Data Base Files. Approximately 1.6Meg of drive space is required for
each season of Clue Data Files. This is a total of approximately 10.4Meg for
6 seasons.
2.2 PREPARATION
If you obtained these files from Fred Fish you should have the following 9
archive files with the following names:
NGTCR2A.LZH NGTCR2B.LZH NGTCR2C.LZH
NGTCR2D.LZH NGTCR2E.LZH NGTCR2F.LZH
NGTCR2G.LZH NGTCR2H.LZH NGTCTEST.LZH
For the remainder of installation, I will assume you have the above named
files. If you do not have these files by these names you did not obtain the
files from Fred Fish. If you contact me for help please realize that I
cannot know what has been done to my files, so it may take a while to solve
your problem.
If you are the least bit "accident prone" or haven't been working with the
Amiga for very long, I would strongly recommend you make a backup copy of
your Release One play disks or copy the Release One files on your hard drive
to floppy disks. If something goes wrong during installation you can simply
erase the mess and restore Release One again by copying the contents of the
backup disks to your hard drive or play disks.
You may use the CLI or a Workbench directory utility for most installation
operations. However, you should only use LhARC from the CLI or use one of
the special point-and-click versions of LhARC to extract the archive files.
"IntuiFace", on FF#366, reportedly handles several types of archive files.
The most important thing to consider, whatever means you use to extract the
archives, is: can I use or specify the options "-m -x e"?
-m tells LhARC to avoid messages for queries to make directories
-x tells LhARC to consider the path information stored in the archive
e tells LhARC to extract
Unless these options are used to extract the archives, I cannot guarantee
that you will end up with anything but a mess. There's a reason for those
options. Don't try second-guessing me or assuming you can do it "your way."
Installation steps for floppy setups have the letter (F) beside them; steps
for hard drive setups have the letter (H) beside them. If the step is for
both, both letters are shown. If the letter is not shown, skip to the next
step.
Release One should be installed and running on 2 floppy disks or your hard
drive before proceeding. If not see Section 1.2 for information on Release
One.
Three supplementary documents, each with the extension ".idx", are included
so you can see what's in the archives and where everything should be if it's
installed correctly.
* NGTCPlay.idx shows an index of the PLAY area after correct installation.
* NGTCData.idx shows an index of the DATA area (or areas) after correct
installation.
* NGTCArch.idx shows an index of all Release Two archives, except the test
archive.
PLEASE consult these documents before you contact me for help. You might
save yourself the cost of a long-distance phone call. NOTE: The "Disk.info"
and ".info" files are irrelevant; don't concern yourself if you do or don't
see them as shown (by ".info", I am referring specifically to files with that
name, not any file that ends in ".info").
If you are absolutely certain you know how to extract LhARC files including
imbedded path information, you may skip to Section 2.3 to continue.
2.2.1 USING LHARC EXTRACT
This section is not a CLI tutorial. Since each person's system is different,
it's impossible to show you the exact command format you may need.
Actually I was a little surprised to find that many people don't have the
foggiest notion of how to use the CLI. This is required for LhARC, unless
you happen to have one of the special point-and-click versions. Frankly, if
you don't know how to use the CLI, or don't want to use it, I don't know why
you bothered to get an Amiga in the first place. You should trade in your
Amiga, get a Macintosh, and join the rest of those stupid "clickophites" (my
term for people that can't use a computer without a mouse). That said and
out of the way, I'm going to "attempt" to show you how to use LhARC from the
CLI.
STEP 1: Accessing CLI - this was described in Chapter 7 of my "Introduction
to the Commodore Amiga 2000" manual. Yours may vary, but there
should be a chapter in your introductory manual related to AmigaDOS
and the CLI. You should have a CLI open and ready before proceeding
to STEP 2.
STEP 2: Command Example Format - when you see something such as:
1> dir
it means, type in "dir" (less the quotes) at the CLI prompt (the
"1> ") and press <RETURN>. Can't make it any simpler than that.
However, I can only list "possible" command examples in some cases.
It's up to you to use the right one, or pick one that's close to what
you need. How do you know what you need?
How do you know how to look up a word you can't spell in the dictionary? If
you can't spell it, and you need to look it up to see how to spell it, but
you need to know how to spell it to look it up to see how to spell it...you
see where this is going. It's one of those "dumb" things in life. Somehow
you usually manage to just sort of "know" approximately where to look to find
the word. You might have to actually "think" or use a little common sense to
do it, but you usually do. That's what you need to do here. I can't hold
your hand and punch the right keys for you. You can do it if you just make
the effort.
STEP 3: Accessing LhARC - I can't tell you exactly how to do this, since I
don't know where you have LhARC on your system. Here are some
examples of where it might be:
* sys:c/lharc - in your system's "c" directory.
* AmigaLibDisk404:c/lharc - in the "c" directory on Fred Fish
(replace 404 with the appropriate disk number.
STEP 4: Extract the test file - I've included a test LhARC file so you can
be sure you're entering the LhARC extract command properly. First,
copy the file to RAM:
1> copy amigalibdisk404:ngtc.1.of.2/ngtctest.lzh ram:
Change to the RAM: directory:
1> cd ram:
Extract the file:
1> sys:c/lharc -m -x e ngtctest
When LhARC finishes, open the RAM: disk from the Workbench. You should see
a drawer named "NGTC.drawer". Open that drawer and you should see a file
named "NGTC.file". If so, you did everything right! You can use the
NGTCTEST.LZH file to test archive extraction using Workbench directory
utilities or point-and-click versions of LhARC.
This information is based on LhARC v1.10, Jan 29 1990, by Paolo Zibetti.
2.3 INSTALLATION
Make sure you have a standard, complete version of the operating system
(Workbench) booted. If you do not, reboot with one now and return to this
point before continuing. It is preferable, but not necessary, to have a
copy of the "LhARC" program in your system's "c" directory.
STEP 1:
(F) Format 3 new disks if you have not already. You can leave the
"Trashcan" on each disk if you like, but you don't really need it.
STEP 2:
(F) Name or rename the 5 disks as shown (less the quotes):
* Release One, disk #1, "NGTC.Play"
* Release One, disk #2, "NGTC1B"
* First Blank disk, "NGTC1A"
* Second Blank disk, "NGTC2A"
* Third Blank disk, "NGTC2B"
STEP 3:
(F)(H) Referring to the ".idx" documents, use the CLI or a WB directory
utility to delete all files indicated with "<del>" from your old
Release One play disks or play area.
STEP 4:
(F) Drag the "ngtc_tdb" drawer from disk "NGTC.Play" to disk "NGTC1A". If
you have erased the drawer's icon, you'll have to do this from the CLI
or a WB directory utility. Make sure you remove the "ngtc_tdb" drawer
from "NGTC.Play".
STEP 5:
(F)(H) Archive extraction is a fairly simple process. You can extract the
archives directly from a source disk to their destination, but the
command line can get very long and complicated looking this way. It's
probably better to copy the archive files to RAM: and extract from
there. You may not have enough memory to copy all 8 archive files to
RAM:, which is fine. Just remember that you'll have to repeat this
"Copy" step and the remainder of the next "Extract" step on your own,
because I'm going to assume that you copied all 8 files to RAM:. A
portion of these are in the directory "NGTC.1.of.2" on Fred Fish, the
rest are on a related Fish disk in the directory "NGTC.2.of.2". Copy
these files:
* NGTCR2A.LZH
* NGTCR2B.LZH
* NGTCR2C.LZH
* NGTCR2D.LZH
* NGTCR2E.LZH
* NGTCR2F.LZH
* NGTCR2G.LZH
* NGTCR2H.LZH
STEP 6:
(F)(H) Extract the archive files in RAM:. The only parts of the following
commands that may differ on your system are the location of LhARC, the
location of the archive file, and the destination for the archive
contents. Example are given for both floppy and hard drive setups.
I will assume you have "LhARC" in your system's "c" directory:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2a ngtc.play:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2b ngtc.play:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2c ngtc2a:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2d ngtc2a:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2e ngtc2a:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2f ngtc2b:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2g ngtc2b:
(F) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2h ngtc2b:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2a dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2b dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2c dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2d dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2e dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2f dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2g dh0:
(H) 1> lharc -m -x e ram:ngtcr2h dh0:
STEP 7:
(F)(H) Icons are included for both the 1.2/1.3 and 2.0 operating systems.
You don't NEED to use the correct icon , but since the color registers
changed in 2.0, I included an icon that would look nice under 2.0.
The 1.2/1.3 icon is named "ngtc.film.1.3" and the 2.0 icon is named
"ngtc.film.2.0".
(F) The Game Module icons are in the "ngtc_icons" drawer on disk "NGTC2B".
Drag the desired icon over to disk "NGTC.Play".
(H) The Game Module icons are in the "ngtc_icons" drawer where you
extracted "NGTCR2H.LZH". Drag the desired icon over to your PLAY
area.
(F)(H) Rename the icon "ngtc.film" (less the quotes). The "ngtc.film" file
should already be installed. When you examine the PLAY area from
Workbench, you should see 3 files:
* ngtc.film, with an icon showing the ST:TNG logo and a space scene.
* proj2, with an icon that looks like a movie projector.
* ngtc_game, with an icon that looks like a drawer.
(F)(H) There should not be ANY other files visible in the PLAY area. You can
make PLAY areas for 1.2/1.3 and 2.0, but that is beyond the scope of
this document.
2.4 CONFIGURATION
The control script has been eliminated for Release Two and beyond. Release
Two relies exclusively on certain ToolTypes set in the Game Module icon file
for configuration. The default ToolTypes are for a floppy setup using
Season One and Season Two trivia databases.
I will assume you know how to access the ToolTypes to set or change them as
described below. ToolTypes MUST be spelled as given and MUST be in all caps
to be recognized.
There are 3 valid ToolTypes common to floppy and hard drive setups:
* FLOPPY=<switch>, where <switch> is ON or OFF, tells the Game Module if
you are running from floppy drives (ON) or a hard drive (OFF). This
ToolType MUST be set or the Game Module will abort (FATAL).
* PLAYDB=<list of numbers> tells the Game Module which databases you want
to play by default so you don't need to select these from within the Game
Module each time you play, and should be a list of numbers in the range
1-6, as in the following examples:
PLAYDB=12 to play First and Second Season databases.
PLAYDB=2 to play Second Season database only.
PLAYDB=35 to play Third and Fifth Season databases.
PLAYDB=214 to play First, Second, and Fourth Season databases.
Characters outside 1-6 are ignored. The current Game Module only
recognizes 1 and/or 2, pending future Game Modules to fix any bugs or
problems. This ToolType is optional, and is provided so players may set
default selected databases. If omitted, no databases are selected, and
you must set them each time you run the game.
* TOUCH=<indicator>, where <indicator> is 1 to enable, or anything else to
disable, the touch screen function. Mouse input is handled normally if
this function is disabled. Mouse input is handled through an optional
touch screen if this function is enabled. If the ToolType is not listed
the function is assumed disabled. This function should not be enabled
until you have familiarized yourself with normal game operation using the
mouse.
The touch screen should have a diagonal measurement of at least 14"
(inches) to ensure that all display elements are large enough for most
fingers to activate. This ToolType is optional, and is provided so
players may play the game in true "Star Trek" fashion through a touch
screen.
Now refer to Section 2.4.1 for additional floppy instructions or Section
2.4.2 for additional hard drive instructions.
2.4.1 CONFIGURATION FOR FLOPPIES
The default ToolTypes are:
FLOPPY=ON
PLAYDB=12
You may change these ToolTypes according to the information above. Refer to
Section 3.1 to continue.
2.4.2 CONFIGURATION FOR HARD DRIVE
There are 2 additional hard drive ToolTypes which MUST be set or the Game
Module will abort (FATAL).
* GAME=<path> tells the Game Module where to look for game-related files,
and should consist of a hard drive and directory specification for the
"ngtc_game" directory, as in the following examples:
GAME=DH0:STTNG/
GAME=HD2:
GAME=FD1:Games/NGTC/
Notice the trailing slash "/" following entries with a directory or
subdirectory. You MUST include this slash!
* CLUE=<path> tells the Game Module where to look for the clue files, and
should consist of a hard drive and directory specification for the
"ngtc_tdb" directory.
See the GAME ToolType above for examples.
Refer to Section 2.4.1 for the default ToolTypes. Refer to Section 3.1 to
continue.
< end of document >