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Ultomat User Manual Copyright (c) 1993/95 Thomas Hövel (Thomas Hoevel) Thanx 2 David L. Stewart 4 proof-reading and inspiration! Introduction ============ The programs in the Ultomat Fun Package feature a comprehensive on-line help. You may press F1 in the main window, or Alt-H (for Help) in almost any dialogue to open these on-line manuals. However, this printable manual is provided for your convenience. If you prefer printed manuals, just print it. To print this manual on an ASCII printer, just type COPY MANUAL.TXT PRN Or load this file with your word processor and print it. Shareware users: run the Readme Symbol for a detailed description of differences between Shareware and Registered version and for order information, printable orderforms etc. Introduction.......................................................1 ASP-Information (incl. Ombudsman-Statement)........................2 DS-Koordinatoren...................................................2 Installation.......................................................3 The Lights Go Down.................................................3 Starting LGD ..................................................3 Personal Configuration ........................................4 Selection a Screen Saver .................................4 Testing a Screen Saver ...................................4 The Randomizer ................................................5 Bitmap List ...................................................5 Noisy Screen Savers ...........................................6 The Mouse Corners .............................................6 Useful Hints ..................................................6 MindMaster for the Windows operating system........................8 3D Labyrinth.......................................................9 Quest for the Green Point.........................................10 WinPulse..........................................................11 WControl..........................................................12 .INI File.........................................................13 Read Me!..........................................................13 Uninstaller.......................................................14 Windows: <TM> of Microsoft Corp. Norton Commander: <TM> of Symantec -2- ASP-Information (incl. Ombudsman-Statement) =========================================== _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER ASP Ombudsman Statement This program is produced by 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 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. DS-Koordinatoren ================ [If you have a shareware-related problem, you may contact the DS - Association of German speaking shareware authors and distributors. To make life more easy for them you should write in GERMAN, of course!] Herr Thomas Hövel ist anerkanntes Autorenmitglied der DS - Deutschsprachige Shareware, Autoren- und Händlervereinigung. Sollte sich im Geschäftsbetrieb mit einem unserer Mitglieder ein die PD/Freeware/Shareware-bezogenes Problem ergeben, das Sie im persönlichen Kontakt nicht mit diesem Mitglied lösen können, so sollten Sie sich an einen unserer Koordinatoren wenden. Er wird versuchen, zwischen Ihnen und dem Mitglied zu vermitteln. Er kann Ihnen jedoch in dieser Funktion keine unmittelbare Hilfestellung geben, wenn Sie bei der Anwendung von Programmen Schwierigkeiten haben. Bitte wenden Sie sich schriftlich bei Problemen mit Händlermitgliedern an Werner Heidel Im Huferfeld 5 40468 Düsseldorf und bei Problemen mit Autorenmitgliedern an Andre Franzmann Forst 6 41844 Wegberg -3- Installation ============ System Requirements: You need the Windows operating system (version 3.1 or higher, you may use Windows 3.0 running in Protected Mode, not Real Mode, but this is not recommended) and more than 2 MB of disk space, a graphics adapter like HGC, EGA, VGA or higher (CGA is not supported by all programs) - VGA or better is strongly recommended. The Windows<TM>-based installation routine INSTALL.EXE copies the program files and creates a Program Manager group for you. To run it, you may enter WIN A:\INSTALL (or WIN B:\INSTALL respectively) at the command prompt. Or select Run from Program Manager's File menu (Alt, F, R) and type A:\INSTALL or B:\INSTALL respectively. The set-up program suggests a folder for installation. You should use this folder, if you have enough disk space on the drive where Windows <TM> is installed. The directory you specify must either exist or be creatable by MkDir. Make sure that more than 2 MB are available on the disk specified. After successful installation you will have an Ultomat group in your Program Manager (or any fully compatible Windows desktop). Now you may double click the "Read Me!" icon. If you click on "What is what?", you'll find a short introduction for any symbol in the group. The Lights Go Down ================== Starting LGD ------------ If you use Windows 3.1, you may run LGD in one of two different modes. With Windows 3.0, there is only one mode available. Windows 3.1 only: Run the Control program and select Desktop. Pick LGD Loader as your screen saver and use the Configure and Test buttons to set the screen saver up. Select the delay in the Desktop dialogue. Advantages of this method: If you use LGD this way, Windows will start LGD only when it has been idle for a while. LGD will terminate when you press any key (Mouse or Keyboard). Therefore no LGD icon or window will bother you. Against: The Quick Start Mouse Corner feature cannot be used. (The Saver Off Mouse Corner is available.) -4- Windows 3.0 and 3.1: You may run LGD all the time. LGD will detect idleness of your machine and will blank the screen. Enter the delay in LGD's delay dialogue (Options / Delay, Alt, O, E). With Windows 3.0, you should add LGD.EXE to the RUN= line in your WIN.INI file. Windows will load LGD automatically when you run Windows. With Windows 3.1, you may as well copy the LGD icon to your Start-up group. Change the properties for this icon to run LGD minimised (as an icon). Select (None) as screen saver in the Control / Desktop dialogue to avoid running two screen savers concurrently. Advantages: The Quick Start Mouse Corner is available. Disadvantages: LGD will be in memory all the time, and LGD will be visible as a window or icon on your desktop. I prefer using LGD this way. The memory consumption is of no consequence on systems with 8+ MB of memory. And I can easily access LGD (by using ALT+TAB or double clicking the LGD icon) to change screen saver settings. Personal Configuration ---------------------- LGD's window shows four buttons: Demo (Alt-D): Runs the selected (highlighted) screen saver Options (Alt-P): Modifies the behaviour of the selected screen saver Info (Alt-I): Displays information about the selected screen saver Help (F1): Opens the on-line help for the selected screen saver Using Alt-P or the Options button you may configure the selected screen saver. Selecting a Screen Saver ------------------------ Using the keyboard you change the selection with the cursor movement keys (up or down). Or you may type the initial letter of the saver's name. You may have to press it several times if more than one screen saver has this initial letter. Using the mouse, just click on any screen saver in the list box. Use the scroll bar to move to savers that aren't visible. With both mouse or keyboard you may open the Saver menu (Alt-S) and select any screen saver. Testing a Screen Saver ---------------------- Use the Demo button or press Alt-D to run the selected screen saver. Press any key (mouse or keyboard) to stop the saver again. Or place the mouse cursor anywhere in the saver list box and press the right button - this will run the selected screen saver, not the saver you clicked on! -5- To configure an individual screen saver, just double-click its name in the list box or press Alt-P. An Options dialogue is available for many saver modules, but not for all. The Randomizer -------------- The Randomizer is a special screen saver capable of running the other saver modules for individual periods of time. Due to its immense flexibility, the Randomizer features a dialogue window that looks a bit complicated at the first glance. But it is not as difficult as it seems! The Randomizer features 20 "Programmes" or program slots. First, you have to select the "Programme" you want to modify (e.g. No Name 7). All other controls will then only modify the selected Programme. You assign a new name to the selected Programme by hitting "Programme Name". Let's create a Programme "Puckman vs. Apple". The "All..." and "None..." buttons help to select the set of saver modules for the active Programme. "All..." will activate all modules, while "None..." will de-activate them. As we want to use only two modules in our sample Programme, we use the "None..." button to deactivate all savers. Now select the Apple saver in the Saver list box. Check the "Use Saver" check box in the Saver Settings group to activate the Apple saver for our Programme. Then we select the PuckMan saver in the Saver list box. Again we have to check "Use Saver" to include this saver in our Programme. The Options button is a convenient way to invoke the Options dialogue of the highlighted screen saver. Note: changes made for individual saver modules are global (and not local for the selected Randomizer Programme). The "Power..." button invokes another special feature of the Randomizer: you may specify a period of time (in minutes); the Randomizer will animate the screen only for the period specified and will then blank the screen completely. This feature was introduced for displays with an integrated power saver feature. The display switches off when the screen is black. You may use the nice animations of LGD as step 1 (e.g. after two or five minutes of idleness) and make the screen black in step 2 (using the "Power..." feature of the Randomizer. Note: windows that remain "always on top" obscure the active screen saver. The Power Saver feature, however, will obscure these "always on top" windows as well. -6- Bitmap List ----------- The Bitmap List icon in the Ultomat group runs Notepad to edit the file SS_BITMP.LST. The screen saver Bitmap Show uses the bitmap files listed in this file. Run this icon if you want to make minor changes to the list. The DOS utility WHERE.COM (included with LGD) can scan your hard disk for bitmap files and add them to this list. To create a new list, just invoke the program at the DOS prompt as in the following example: WHERE C:\*.BMP >SS_BITMP.LST To append bitmap files from drive D: to the list, use WHERE D:\*.BMP >>SS_BITMP.LST The files WHERE.COM and SS_BITMP.LST are in the directory where you installed Ultomat. Both examples assume that you are in that directory. To delete individual bitmaps from the list, just run the Bitmap List icon. You may either delete the lines with the bitmaps you do not like or precede these lines with a semicolon (;) to mark them as comments. Noisy Screen Savers ------------------- A Sound Extension is available for a few saver modules. Install the sound extension using INST-SND.EXE after you installed Ultomat. Specify the same folder for both Ultomat and Sound Extension. The Sound Extension may not be included on 1.2 MB shareware diskettes due to its size. You need a Sound Driver to use the Sound Extension. A driver for the PC speaker is included on disk. The Mouse Corners ----------------- With LGD you may specify two Mouse Corners (see Starting LGD, Page 3). The Quick Start Mouse Corner provides a convenient method to start the screen saver at any time. You may use the Clear Screen option along with Quick Start. This will blank the screen immediately to protect confidential information - if you leave the room or if somebody comes in. The Saver Off Mouse Corner prevents the screen saver. Use this feature if your computer has to perform a lengthy task. You specify the Mouse Corners by invoking the dialogue with Alt-M (or Options / Mouse Corners, Alt, O, M). SPX Converter ------------- You can use SPX modules - originally written for the Screen Peace screen saver by Anthony Andersen - with The Lights Go Down. -7- To do this, you simply copy the .SPX files you want to use to the LGD directory. Then run SPXCNVRT.EXE under Windows (you can start it from LGD's help file or from the File Manager). You can either configure the SPX modules with default settings by choosing Auto-Conversion mode. For best results with the Randomizer you should go through the questions dialogue! Note: SPXCNVRT.EXE is not included in the Shareware version! Saver always on top ------------------- LGD defaults to running "always on top" thus obscuring other utilities that stay on top, too. If you clear the "saver always on top" option in LGD's Options menu, the screen savers will run in normal windows. This allows you to use other utilities (like the Clock applet included with Windows or WinPulse) on top of the screen savers. This doesn't prevent burn-in, however! Note: The Power saver feature of the Randomizer will always run on top! Useful Hints ------------ 1. To minimise LGD's window, just press ESC. This is very convenient, e.g. when you ALT-TABbed LGD from another program to adjust the settings, you can press ESC to return to that program. 2. Run LGD minimised, when you start it from your Start-up group. 3. Try F1 (or Alt-H in dialogues) if you need further information anywhere in the program. -8- MindMaster for the Windows operating system =========================================== An old idea, but still puzzling: you can play it with numbers or with coloured pegs - like MindMaster. The computer picks a set of colours. You have to figure this hidden combination out. This can be done if you understand the hints the computer will give you. Press OK (or Enter) when you have set a combination. The computer will respond with black and white pegs. A black peg indicates that one of your colours is in the right place; a white peg tells you that you picked a correct colour but in the wrong position. Detailed information on playing this game is at your fingertips: just press F1 and read the "How to play MindMaster" section. Using the mouse, you select the column by clicking on it. You select a colour by clicking on the coloured peg on the right side of the Window (this is not Drag and Drop, so just click there). You may choose a colour first and click on the column afterwards or click on a column and choose the colour later. However, a peg in that colour will appear on the screen when you have clicked both fields. If you use the keyboard then you should activate Options / Show Keys (Alt, O, K). Select a column by pressing 1 through 6, select a colour by pressing the appropriate letter (R = red, G = green, Y = yellow, and so on). Pressing G2 as the same effect as pressing 2G. If you use a resolution of 800x600 or higher, you may want to magnify the MindMaster Window. Use Options / Display Size / Factor 2 for that purpose. Factor 1.5 is available, too, but the result may be unpleasant. MindMaster lets you play with 4 through 6 columns and with up to ten different colours. You may decide whether or not colours may be used more than once in a set of colours. Therefore MindMaster offers a large variety of levels of difficulty. -9- 3D Labyrinth ============ 3D Labyrinth is the first non-trivial Windows program I wrote. The computer generates a maze and places you somewhere in it. All you have to do is: find an exit! Finding an exit is very easy in the Normal mode. If you follow the wall, either on the left or right side, you will find the exit sooner or later. But it ain't no fun when it's simple, is it? If you like it more difficult, choose the Rings mode. The start is in the centre of the labyrinth, the exit somewhere in the outer wall. The walls form circles around the centre. Bear the shape of the labyrinth in mind and find your way to the outer circles. Don't lose your bearings! The Tricky mode is the one I like best. At the start of the game, a long passage lies ahead of you. The exit is somewhere on the opposite wall (not ahead of you, but to the right). So all you have to do is turn right and make your way through the labyrinth. There are different sizes available. 16x16 is recommended for beginners, while 8x8 may be appropriate for little children. 64x64 is the expert mode! (You're an expert, aren't you?) The computer marks your way in the maze (see Options menu), if you like. This makes it easy to see when you are running round in circles. This may help a lot, especially in the "expert" mode. Please note: if you change Labyrinth Mode or Size (Options menu) then you have to restart the game (Game/New, F2). The Back to Start command (F9) puts you back to the origin. This is helpful when you have lost your bearings. The Reset command (F5) puts you back to the origin and resets the way-markings and the moves counter. Using F5 you may replay the maze (if you want to find a shorter way to the exit) or have others compete with you. Can they find a shorter way? -10- Quest for the Green Point ========================= This dice game is dedicated to ecology movements. It is about environment-friendly behaviour and garbage reduction. First you have to open the Settings dialogue (Options / Settings, Alt- S). In this dialogue you specify who will play the game (up to 4 players). The computer may simulate up to four players, so you can play this game on your own - the computer may even play it on its own if you think it is bored. However, it's more fun to have at least one human competitor. Select Human or Computer for any active player and enter a name. Additionally you may change the Mode of the Game. Strike Mode means that a Man has to go back to the start when another player moves to the same field. Block Mode means that a field may be occupied by only one Man at a time. Other players are blocked. The Tolerate Mode allows more than one Man on each and every field in the game. However, the fields Start, Pause and Home may contain any number of men - irrespective of the Game Mode. The other fields may not contain more than one Man of each colour - even in the Tolerate Mode. The game is over when all players have all their men in the Home field. The player with the highest score is the winner of the game. When a Man enters Home, the player may get bonus points. The bonus depends on how may Men of other players are still outside Home. Therefore you should try to move your Men to Home and, at the same time, stop the other players from getting there. If your dice shows a 1 or 6, you may choose whether or not you want to move ahead. If you do not want to move, just click on the Green Point in the lower left corner and you will get a bonus of one Green Point. If the dice shows a 7 (a bit unusual, ain't it?), the computer will show you an Event Card. You will gain or lose Green Points. Players who have all their men in the Home can still "act" - if the dice shows 1, 6, or 7. With 1 or 6, just click the Green Point to get a bonus. Playing the game is quite simple. With a mouse, click on the Man you want to move, click on the field you want to move to, or press Tab on the keyboard: the computer will highlight the men you can move (or the Green Point for a bonus). Press Tab several times to see all possible choices. Press Space or Enter to choose. Enjoy! And think! -11- WinPulse ======== WinPulse is a utility program - and it's always fun to look at it. It may even be useful sometimes!!! The Window of WinPulse displays the CPU usage during the last 30, 60, or 120 seconds. This may give you interesting insights into Windows. For example, if I run the Norton Commander (TM) in a DOS Window under Windows (3.1), WinPulse will show a high system usage while NC is only waiting for input (active waiting). However, when I press F1 in the NC, it will open the help window - and system usage is low again (the idle time detection of Windows detects idleness now ...). When I close the help window, CPU usage is rather high again. I found out later that NC is detected as idle if it doesn't display the clock on the menu bar. I like Windows and I like NC and the information mentioned above is no reason not to use these programs. However, if you use NC in a DOS Window, this Window should not be active in background, or deactivate, at least, NC's clock! WinPulse can display the free system resources (FSR) in the caption of its Window. The FSR value as displayed by Program Manager (and other Windows programs) is the minimum percentage of free User heap and free GDI heap (GDI and User are two modules of the Windows system). WinPulse can display both GDI and User heap, too. Please note: WinPulse will update the System Resources display in intervals of one second. If you start a program to find out how much System Resources it uses, you will have to wait a moment to see a change in the caption of WinPulse. You may notice that Program Manager shows a different result for Free System Resources than WinPulse. Program Manager takes the size of the heaps and the free space, rounds these values to kilobytes (kB) and calculates the percentage with these rounded values. WinPulse reckons with the exact byte values to calculate the percentage. However, I haven't seen more than 1 percent difference - this should be of no consequence anyway. WinPulse supports an Always on Top mode. -12- WControl ======== "Electronically challenged people" (thass NEWSPEAK 4 "Unimaginative Nerds" - David says: "Call a spade a spade"...) {working for a well- known German computer magazine} wondered: "What's a Windows program to terminate Windows good for?" Well, there are some programs (no names here!) that terminate in an unusual manner (by generating Protection Faults). However, when started again, one such program shows a message that it has terminated abnormally, that some of its DLLs are still in memory, and that the user should re-start Windows to use the program again (this is not a Shareware program - but full price supposedly-professional quality software I'm talking about). I write programs for Windows, too, and early versions sometimes terminate a bit abnormally, too. These crashed programs still take up memory, so I have to re-start Windows at times while developing new software. (However, I have distributed LGD since 1991. There were only a few minor bugs - nothing serious - in retail versions. I use LGD every day and assure you that all programs in the Ultomat package were carefully tested and there are no known problems with these programs!) This is one thing WControl can do for you: you just double-click a Symbol in the Program Manager and Windows will re-start (without wondering if you really are definitely sure about wot yer doing). The command line should look like: WCONTROL.EXE /restart Another option is simply to terminate Windows without confirmation. Or to exit Windows and re-boot your machine. The last feature of WControl will stop Windows, run a DOS program and re-start Windows afterwards. Example: CHKDSK /F will not work under Windows (at least with contemporary DOS versions). If CHKDSK detects an error, you cannot correct it. However, using a lengthy command line you may start CHKDSK /F from the Program Manager (e. g. WCONTROL.EXE /exec C:\DOS\CHKDSK.COM /F). You may use this feature to start games that won't run under Windows, too. -13- .INI File ========= This symbol invokes NOTEPAD.EXE to edit the WEEP.INI file where all settings of the UL-TOMat package are kept. In this file you may change the colour settings for WinPulse, 3D Labyrinth or Green Point Quest. GPQ lets you choose a different font for its Window, too. Other settings should only be modified through the Options menus of the respective programs. Read Me! ======== This symbol opens the main help file. Here you find general information and a short description for any icon in the group (see What is What). You may open other help files or even run the programs. If you have a Shareware version of UL-TOMat you will find a printable order form and information about registration, too. -14- Uninstaller =========== The Modular Uninstaller requires VGA! The Modular Uninstaller looks like this when you start it: Esc: Exit, F1: Help, F8: Delete highlight, Cursor Keys ^v: Move highlight All UL-TOMat files Cnt Filesize ProgDr. WinDr. |--->UL-TOMat Entertainment Package 78 883781 933888 34816 |--->LGD Screen Saver Collection 65 692252 757760 4096 | |--->LGD Apple 0 0 0 0 | | \-->LGD Apple 16 0 0 0 0 | |--->LGD Plasma 1 17074 18432 0 | | \-->LGD Plasma 16 1 17074 18432 0 | |-->LGD Earth Is Flat 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD Moonbase 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD Spores and Pollen 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD Bitmap Show 4 95860 100352 0 | |-->LGD Demo 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD Nature 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD Cookies 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD PuckMan 1 20462 20480 0 | |-->LGD SDK (Developer sources) 0 0 0 0 | |-->LGD SPX Converter 0 0 0 0 | |-->SPX modules 17 119923 137216 0 | \-->LGD Sounds 0 0 0 0 |-->MindMaster 0 0 0 0 |-->3D-Labyrinth 0 0 0 0 |-->Green Point Quest 0 0 0 0 |-->WinPulse (System Usage Meter) 0 0 0 0 \-->WControl (Windows Controller) 0 0 0 0 Filesize = Sum of file sizes ProgDr. = Disk usage in the Program Directory WinDr. = Disk usage in the Windows Directory Sizes for a node include all child nodes! In the center of the screen you see a list of nodes that you may delete. The top level is the UL-TOMat package as a whole. The next level (shown by indent) contains programs in the package like The Lights Go Down or Green Point Quest. The third level is available for LGD only: it allows you to save some of the screen saver modules - only big modules are listed in the Uninstaller. Uninstaller displays a description for the highlighted item on top of the node list. To delete the highlighted node, just hit F8 and confirm with Y. You can only delete nodes when there are files associated with it. Greyed nodes with a file count of 0 cannot be deleted. To print this manual on an ASCII printer, just type COPY MANUAL.TXT PRN