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Text File | 1990-10-19 | 17KB | 346 lines

╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ BassMap ║ ║ Version 1.2 October 19, 1990 ║ ║ ║ ║ Nels Anderson ║ ║ 92 Bishop Drive ║ ║ Framingham, MA 01701-6540 ║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Many people have expressed interest in creating their own lakes for Dick Olsen's "BassTour". Since I wrote the original tools that Dick used in creating his program it seemed only natural that I create a version that is usable by anyone. Dick's latest program, Bass Class, is also now supported by BassMap. BassMap is a companion to BassTour and Bass Class. It allows you to: o create new lakes to fish on o change existing lakes o change the lake description o display maps in a format suitable for printing BassMap is easy to use. It will show you a portion of the lake you are working on along with a cursor to show you where your change will go. A help screen is always available, plus there are screens that show the icons that are used in creating maps, a condensed view that lets you seen the whole map at once, and a monochrome view that is suitable for printing. There are two versions of BassMap, one ("bassmap.exe") for EGA systems and one ("bassmapc.exe") for CGA systems. Make sure you use the version appropriate for your system. The maps you make can be used in any graphics mode supported by BassTour. BassMap is provided as Shareware. You may use it, copy it for your friends, upload it to BBS's, etc. If you continue to use BassMap and would like to support its further development and other software I'm working on, please send the $10 registration (plus $2 for shipping/handling for your updated version) to: Nels Anderson 92 Bishop Drive Framingham, MA 01701-6540 Registered users will get the latest update of BassMap and perhaps another ShareWare program to try out. If you have any suggestions or discover any problems with the program you can reach me via the )(evious BBS (PCBoard) system (300/1200/2400/9600-HST, 8N1) at 508-875-3618 or 617-449-7322. Leave a C)omment to the sysop to reach me. )(evious is the official support BBS for all my software and the latest versions are always available for downloading there. There is also a support conference for people to exchange game tips or ask questions. J)oin conference #31 and check out the latest tips. Check B)ulletin #1 for the list of all software supported on Xevious, along with latest version numbers and recent changes. You can also reach )(evious through RelayNet. If there's a RelayNet board in your area send a routed message to me at node XEVIOUS. The Shareware conference would be the best choice, but if that's not available try TPascal, Games or even Common. I'm also available through CompuServe's email system. Send email to me at 71020,2613. ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Using BassMap ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ You MUST run BassMap in the same disk directory that you use for BassTour or Bass Class as it uses some of their support files. To start it up, just type "bassmap" (for EGA systems) or "bassmapc" (for CGA systems). You'll get a title along with the normal BassMap prompts; the title will go away as soon as you load a map. If you have both BassTour and Bass Class in the same directory you'll be asked which icon file you'd like to use when you first start up. BassTour and Bass Class use different though functionally equivalent images (icons) in drawing your lakes. Both sets have the same land and water types in the same positions so the icon files are interchangeable; use the one that you prefer. The normal alphabet and number keys are used for editing maps. To access commands the ESC key is used followed by a single letter to indicate the command. The number pad is used to move the cursor and ctrl-left arrow, ctrl-right arrow, Ins, and Del are used to scroll the screen. All available commands are summarized in a screen that is shown when you press the F1 key. Most commands can be aborted by hitting the ESC key again. For example, if you do the Save Map command, hitting ESC when prompted for the file name will abort the save. Let's look at the available commands. ESC R -- Read in a Map You'll probably want to start with this command so you can see what an existing map looks like. All the maps are stored in files with the extension .map (i.e., "mead.map"). You do not need to use .map when entering the file name but you can if you want. After you hit ESC followed by R a window will pop up asking for a file name. Enter the name you want and press enter. The window will clear and the map will load and be displayed. ESC S -- Save a Map When you're done editing your map you'll want to save it. To save a map just hit ESC S and a window will pop up asking for the name you want to use for the file. Enter any name up to eight letters and press enter. Your map will be saved to the current disk. You can continue to edit it after saving. It's probably a good idea to do a save every so often even if you're not done yet. This prevents you from losing all your work should you make a mistake or if the power fails or some other disaster occurs. ESC N -- New Map If you want to start your map from scratch this is the command to use. Hit ESC N and the map will be set to all open water. A window will pop up asking for the description of the lake you are creating. Enter the description and press the enter key. The window will clear and you can begin creating your lake. ESC C -- Clear Map This command is similar to the New Map command, except that it leaves the lake description unchanged and allows you to set the whole map to any icon of your choosing. After you hit ESC C a window will pop up asking for the image you wish to clear to. Hit the key corresponding to the image you want (see the ESC V command to see how to view the available images) and the map will be cleared. ESC F -- Fill an Area This command is similar to the fill command in many paint programs. It lets you quickly fill a portion of your map with the same image. You can use this to do things like adding a swampy area in a portion of your lake, or to draw the outline of an island and then fill in the middle with one command. The fill function only works from the cursor line up, so you don't have to close in the bottom of the area you want to fill. ESC V -- View Images This command lets you see what icons are available for creating a map. After you hit ESC V, the screen will change to a display of all available icons and the letter, number, or symbol you hit on the keyboard to put that icon on your map. When you're done looking at the icons, hit any key to return to the map. ESC D -- New Map Description This command lets you change the description that goes along with your map. This is the description that is shown on the title page of BassTour when you select the lake to fish. After you hit ESC D a window will pop up and it will ask you for a description. Enter the description you want and press the enter key when done. ESC X -- See Whole Map Since the whole map doesn't fit on the screen it is sometimes difficult to see how things fit together. Pressing ESC X will display a compressed view of the whole map in a corner of the screen. You will still be able to see most of the full size map behind the compressed map. When you're finished viewing the compressed map hit any key to clear it. ESC Y -- Printable Map This command displays a version of the map where the whole map fits on the screen. If you've loaded a print screen routine like "graphics.com" which is normally included with MS-DOS, you can dump this screen to your printer. Hit ESC Y to display this version of the map; hit any key when done. See the instructions for graphics.com in your DOS reference manual for information on how to do screen dumps. Only CGA is supported by graphics.com, so if you're using the EGA version of BassMap you'll need an EGA print screen routine. I've included a file called scrndump.com that will dump EGA screens to several printer types. I believe the program is public domain. To install it you'll need to tell it your type of printer; see scrndump.doc for details. The map is on screen page 1; after you read the docs you'll know why you need to know this! ESC Q -- Quit When you're done with your map (and after you've saved it!), hit ESC Q to quit BassMap. MOVING THE CURSOR The cursor is displayed on the screen as a box that surrounds a single map icon. Because of the limits of available colors, especially in CGA graphics, the cursor may at times blend into the background. If you can't see it, move it around and you should be able to see the movement. The number pad is used to move the cursor. The keys with arrows (2,4,6,8) move the cursor straight up/down and left/right. The other keys (1,3,7,9) move the cursor diagonally. The 5 key has no effect. SCROLLING THE MAP Because the whole map doesn't fit on the screen it is necessary to scroll to the portion you want to work on. To scroll left and right, hold down the control key and at the same time hit the left or right arrow key. To scroll up and down use the Ins and Del keys. You can also jump immediately to portions of the map. Use the control key plus the 1,3,7,9 keys to jump to the corresponding corner of the map. Control plus PrtSc jumps to the center of the map. THE ESC KEY Scrolling or moving one position at a time can be tedious. Using the ESC key you can immediately move or scroll as many positions as you want. Hit ESC, then a number (use the number keys on the alpha-numeric portion of the keyboard, not the ones on the number pad), and finally the function you want. If you choose the scroll left function after hitting "ESC" "1" "0", the screen will scroll left 10 places. USAGE TIPS BassTour will only notice the first 20 lakes it finds in its directory, so if you create a lot of lakes you'll have to keep only the 20 you want to use in the BassTour directory. Drawing the shoreline can be tricky. There are enough images so that you can get a shoreline where the images connect properly but it will take a little practice. You may find it helpful to do a screen dump of the images screen displayed by the ESC V command. Each map must have a weigh-in area, which is designated by the flag symbol (drawn using the { symbol). In addition, the weigh-in area must be in the upper-left quadrant of the map because this is the portion of the map shown when the game starts up and the boat is initially placed next to the weigh-in area. During the game you've probably noticed other boats moving around the lake. Those are generated by the game itself, and are not taken from the map. Any boat symbols you place around your lake will remain stationary during the game. ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Included Files ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ The following files are included in BassMap: BASSMAP.EXE BassMap program for EGA systems BASSMAPC.EXE BassMap program for CGA systems BASSMAP.DOC This file BASSMAP.TXT Brief description of BassMap ORDERFRM.TXT BassMap registration form for your printer SCRNDUMP.COM Dump graphics screen to your printer SCRNDUMP.DOC Documentation for scrndump.com You are free to pass this program along to friends, give it to user groups, upload to BBS's, etc. with the understanding that anyone who continues to use the game is required to register it. All these files MUST be included when distributing this program. If you archive the program for distribution through BBS's, please use the name BASSMP11.ZIP (or .LZH, .PAK, etc. as appropriate). ***************************************************************************** * DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY * ***************************************************************************** This software is sold "as is", without any warranty as to performance or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. Because of the many hardware and software environments into which this program may be used, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. Any liability of the seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or the refund of the registration fee. ***************************************************************************** * ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS * ***************************************************************************** This software is produced by Nels Anderson who is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006, USA or send a CompuServe message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER ***************************************************************************** * AVAILABLE SOFTWARE * ***************************************************************************** For a list of other software which I've written, please see the file BASSMAP.TXT. - - - - - BASSMAP is copyright (c) 1988-1990 by Nels Anderson. All rights reserved.