ftp.wwiv.com/ftp.wwiv.com.zip/ftp.wwiv.com/pub/BBS/WWIV421.ZIP/CHAIN.DOC

Text File | 1992-01-27 | 14KB | 312 lines

                 Documentation for Using Chains
                               by
                      Filo, 1 @5252 WWIVnet
                      <aka> Wig De Moville

     The WWIV documentation written by Will Daystrom provides some
information regarding the operation of Chains or Doors in WWIV.
This document is meant to supplement what is found there and to
provide some help on running doors that may be written for other
types of software.  I hope that you will find this information to
be useful to you.

1.0  WWIV Games

     Games can be characterized as WWIV games if one of two
conditions occur.  First, if the game is written to specifically
make use of the drop file known as CHAIN.TXT.  By drop file, is
meant a file that is created by the BBS software either at the time
of logon or when a door (chain) is entered.  This file typically
contains information about the user and/or the system.  A commented
CHAIN.TXT, written by MrBill is included as an appendix to this
document.  Some games are written to make specific use of the
information contained in the CHAIN.TXT file.  These games, although
perhaps not specifically written for WWIV alone, are discussed in
the category of WWIV games because they have been written to work
with WWIV.

     The second condition that causes a game to be known as a WWIV
game is that it makes use of the special dos color codes contained
in the WWIV software.  These games are characterize by use of the
DOS color commands (pseudo-ansi) found in WWIV.  These colors are
discussed in the DEFAULT section of the software and are
configurable by the user.  WWIV will interpret the  symbol as a
color command when it is followed by a number.  Because WWIV is one
of the few BBS programs that can use these color commands, games
containing them are almost always written for the exclusive use of
WWIV boards.  These games are also most often characterized as
games where the CHAINEDIT option of USE DOS INTERRUPTS should be
left at the default setting of Y.

2.0  Games for Other Software

     Games that may be considered as being written for other
software are those which do not use CHAIN.TXT and which instead use
one of the drop files of another bbs software.  These usually
include games which use DORINFO1.DEF (RBBS, QBBS, REMOTE ACCESS),
games which use PcBOARD.SYS (PcBoard versions 12 and 14), games
which use DOOR.SYS (Wildcat 3.0, GAP, and PcBoard 14.5+), and games
which use CALLINFO.BBS (pre-version 3.0 of Wildcat).  These games
can often be made to work with WWIV provided that a 'converter' is
also used.  The use of converters and so forth will be discussed
later.


3.0  Setting up WWIV games

     Most WWIV games have relatively good documentation and
therefore setting them up and getting them to work is usually very
straight forward.  However, if there is no documentation and/or the
documentation seems insufficient, then there are a number of things
that you can experiment with by trial and error to see if you can
get the game to run.

3.1  Placement of Game Files

     If the game does not tell you where to place the files, you
can try each of the following setups to see if one of them causes
the game to work:

     a.  In its own directory

         Example:  C:\WWIV\MWAR

     b.  In a directory called CHAINS (especially for older WWIV
         games)

         Example:  C:\WWIV\CHAINS

     c.  In a directory off of CHAINS (also popular place for older
         WWIV games)

         Example:  C:\WWIV\CHAINS\MWAR

     d.  In the main BBS directory

         Example:  C:\WWIV

3.2  Relationship to CHAIN.TXT

     If you get a 'parameter file not found' or other type of error
message from the game, then it may be that it is not finding
CHAIN.TXT correctly.  You may try incorporating a batch file and
copying the CHAIN.TXT to the directory where the game is located.

     Example:

     Use  DOS commands as follows:

     copy con MWAR.BAT
     @echo off
     copy chain.txt c:\wwiv\chains\mwar
     cd chains\mwar
     mwar
     cd\wwiv

then press CTRL Z or F6 (ie function key 6) to save the batch
file.

3.3  DOS Interrupts

     Some games written especially for WWIV will let the BBS handle
the DOS INTERRUPTS.  This is especially true of many games written
in PASCAL for use with WWIV.  A sign that sometimes the DOS
interrupt option is set incorrectly is when the game echos double
characters.
     If the game is viewable from local mode but not from the
remote mode, then you may want to experiment with setting the DOS
INTERRUPTS option differently.

3.4  SHRINK Option

     Many games do not necessitate the BBS to shrink out in order
to run them; however, if you experience a "lock up" or freezing of
the computer when you try to run the game, this may be an
indication that there is insufficient memory available and that you
should shrink the BBS.  Also, in my experience, it may be helpful
to set the BBS to shrink out if the game is large (ie the file size
is big).

4.0   Setting up Non-WWIV Games

     Because these games are not specifically made for WWIV, the
first step is to determine what software they support.  You will
know what CHAIN.TXT CONVERTER to run by noting the types of drop
files supported.  The more popular converters currently in use by
WWIV Sysops are:

     WWUTIL5 by Phil DeWitt. This utility will convert CHAIN.TXT
     to DORINFO1.DEF, CALLINFO.BBS, and PcBOARD.SYS.

     WWUTIL6 by Filo.  This utility is based upon Phil DeWitt's
     code, but it offers two additional parameters which may be
     useful.  A command line parameter of H will pass the user's
     handle rather than his real name to the door and an F will
     pass a locked comport speed rather than the user's baudrate.
     The latter is sometimes helpful in getting a game to work
     where you are running a hi-speed modem with a locked comport.

     QKDOOR by Christopher Hall.  This utility provides the
     ability to convert the drop file from anyone of the following
     types of BBS software to any of the others:


                GAP             -> Door.Sys
                Genesis Deluxe  -> CallInfo.BBS
                GT PowerComm    -> GTUser.BBS
                Osiris#         -> ExtInfo#.QBS
                OsirisSE###     -> Out###.QBS
                PCBoard v12xx   -> PCBoard.Sys
                                   PCBoard.Dat
                                   Users
                PCBoard v14xx   -> PCBoard.Sys
                                   PCBoard.Dat
                                   Users
                QuickBBS        -> DorInfo1.Def
                RBBS#           -> DorInfo#.Def
                WildCat         -> CallInfo.BBS
                Remote Access   -> Dorinfo1.Def
                SpitFire
                WWIV           -> Chain.Txt

Syntax used for QKDOOR is:

QkDoor [Path\]From_Door_Type [Path\]To_Door_Type [Locked_Baud_Rate]

4.1  Batch files using converters

     You will want to call the non-WWIV game with a batch file
that uses a converter.  For example, let us say that you are going
to run a QBBS game (one that requires DORINFO1.DEF using Filo's
converter (WWUTIL6) with user handle's being passed t the game
and the game (MWAR) is located in C:\WWIV\MWAR, then the batch
file to call the game would be:

       @echo off
       WWUTIL6 H                   (the H is for Handle)
       cd C:\WWIV\MWAR
       MWAR                        (plus any command line
                                    parameters)
       cd\WWIV

If that does not work, then it may be necessary to add a line to
the batch file immediately after WWUTIL6 H which copies the
DORINFO1.DEF to the game directory:

(ie. copy dorinfo1.def C:\WWIV\MWAR

4.2  Fossil Drivers

     WWIV does not require a fossil driver in order to run because
Wayne Bell has written all of the I/O calls to the comport;
however, some BBS software requires a Fossil Driver in order to
operate because the authors have written their program to use the
Fossil.  Thus, some games may expect a fossil to be present even
though that is not mentioned in the documentation of the game.
This is particularly true for games written for QBBS, RBBS, and
OPUS.

     WWIV should operate just fine even when a fossil driver is
loaded.  Most of these fossil drivers take 5-10k of memory, so
if your system is tight on memory, you may wish to load the fossil
only when shrinking out and unload it when you finish the game.
This may be accomplished by using the EXE or COM version of the
fossil and having it loaded and unloaded in the batch file that
calls the game.

     The better known fossil drivers are X00, BNU, and OPUSCOM.
I personally use BNU170, but many WWIV system operators report
excellent results from X00.  I do not have experience with OPUSCOM
and so make no claims for it.  However, using BNU I have been able
to get many games to run that would not otherwise do so.

5.0  Other Comments regarding CHAINS

     Some of the games written for WWIV in Pascal are presented
in uncompiled form by the authors.  This is often done so that
the pascal code may be altered or customized for your board.
Usually these authors have made use of something called a
COMMON.PAS file which interfaces the game with WWIV.  If a
particular game has not been compiled, you must first compile it
with the appropriate version of the Turbo Pascal compiler using the
appropriate version of COMMON.PAS.  Most of the versions of
COMMON.PAS are available for downloading on the WWIV Support
Boards.

5.1  BRUNxx

     Some games written in QuickBASIC have been compiled to utilize
an intermediate program called BRUN (Basic RUN time module).  Such
games require the BRUN module specific to the compiler. Current
versions of BRUN are BRUN20, BRUN30, BRUN40, and BRUN45.  Again,
these programs are available on most WWIV Support Boards.  The
BRUNxx file may be placed in your path and used by all programs
that require it.  One advantage of the Basic RUN time compilers is
that the resulting EXE's require significantly less space
(approximately 35k less per program).

6.0  Comments and Suggestions

     Please send comments and suggestions regarding this doc file
to Filo (1 @5252 WWIVnet, 1 @15252 WWIVLink).


                         Appendix A
                         A Commented Chain.txt

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                           CHAIN.TXT Definition File                         *
*                                   by MrBill                                 *
*                                                                             *
*    I don't think that anyone has fully documented what everything in the *
* CHAIN.TXT file is. I could be wrong; I could be right. I could be black; I  *
* could be white. Uh oh! PIL lyrics are creeping into my brain! Anyways, if   *
* you ever did want to know what all the information in CHAIN.TXT is, here's  *
* the information. It could be useful to someone who plans on writing a DOOR, *
* online program, or conversion program for WWIV.                             *
*                                                                             *
* MrBill                                                                      *
* WWIVnet Address 1 @ 7300 [MrBill's Abode 703-369-6140]                      *
* Compuserve Address 71001,1101                                               *
* GEnie Address, oh hell, i forgot!                                           *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************
-----------------------------------CHAIN.TXT-----------------------------------
1                                     User number
MRBILL                                User alias
Bill                                  User real name
                                      User callsign (HAM radio)
21                                    User age
M                                     User sex
  16097.00                            User gold
05/19/89                              User last logon date
80                                    User colums
25                                    User width
255                                   User security level (0-255)
1                                     1 if Co-SysOp, 0 if not
1                                     1 if SysOp, 0 if not
1                                     1 if ANSI, 0 if not
0                                     1 if at remote, 0 if local console
   2225.78                            User number of seconds left till logoff
F:\WWIV\GFILES\                       System GFILES directory (gen. txt files)
F:\WWIV\DATA\                         System DATA directory
890519.LOG                            System log of the day
2400                                  User baud rate
2                                     System com port
MrBill's Abode (the original)         System name
The incredible inedible MrBill        System SysOp
83680                                 Time user logged on/# of secs. from midn.
554                                   User number of seconds on system so far
5050                                  User number of uploaded k
22                                    User number of uploads
42                                    User amount of downloaded k
1                                     User number of downloads
8N1                                   User parity
2400                                  Com port baud rate
7400                                  WWIVnet node number
--------------------------------------EOF--------------------------------------