Copyright: BANG Version 3.42 - Windoom 95 edition


BANG 95 - Version 3.42
Windoom 95 Edition

Version 3.42

The program the world was waiting for!

This is the winter '98 edition of the famous windoom tool BANG.

Please choose:

Installation

Usage

Configuration

Requirements

Release History

Greetings

The Makers of BANG


The Makers of BANG
The Makers of BANG™

BANG™'s first release was in the year '91. The program was made in a new technique of programming called "Experimental Programming™ (EP™)". This new technique was developed by the original three programmers of BANG™. It's primary intention is the handling of MUFF™-oriented user-interfaces like WINDOWS™. We would like to introduce some of the basic structures of EP™ but we don't really know how. Let's say it this way: "Put in some functions and procedures, shake them well and look what happens!"

The BANG™ Development Crew

POWER MIKE

MIKE is a german abroad. He lives at the other end of the world - in "Amiland".

eMAIL-address:	michael@autocyte.com

REMBRANDT

Dr. REM is the scientist of our development team.

eMAIL-address:	heiner_eichmann@h.maus.de

h.eichmann@iqo.mbox.uni-hannover.de

JOSH

JOSH is the sound expert of our development team.

eMAIL-address:	juergen_christ@h.maus.de

juergen.paul.christ@t-online.de

Beta-Test and techno-cockoo-sound

Manfred Pfingsten (McManne)

Used material

Microsoft Visual C++™, Version 4.2

Stunts

Computer of POWER MIKE: 	Pentium 200 MMX

Computer of REMBRANDT: 	Pentium 90

Computer of JOSH:	Pentium 133

No human casualties!

Stunt coordinator

Varies from time to time!

Product manager

The chaos!

Distributor

Uncounted Mailboxes, Mailbox-Nets and the World Wide Waiting.

Second Unit

We are operating without net and double floors!

Best Boy

What in the hell is a Best Boy?


MUFF
MUFF™

MUFF™ (Mäuse und Fenster Firlefanz)

To our english speaking friends: MUFF™ means the known expense when you move your mouse and try to find the right button for any action taken in a graphic-oriented user-interface like WINDOWS™ - i.e. the waste of time and your nerves.

MUFF™ is a trademark of the german computer magazine c't (Edition 12/90, Editorial). One of the funniest they ever created!


Windows
WINDOWS™

WINDOWS™ is a registered trademark of Microsoft

REMBRANDT wants to say something about WINDOWS™ and his special relation to this user-interface:

"WINDOOM is the most advanced virus the world has ever seen: It consumes more system resources and wastes more CPU-time than all other virus-programs. Contrary to other viruses the user is paying money or it!!! And the user is buying expensive hardware to obtain the speed of a C64 with his P200."


Microsoft
Microsoft™

All Microsoft products are obviously registered trademarks of Microsoft


MS Visual C++
Microsoft Visual C++ is a registered trademark of Microsoft.


Universe

You know the sentence from the famous stories written by Douglas Adams? Of course, who doesn't know it?

Oh - you are the last one, who hasn´t read it at all? In this case go to your local bookstore and buy...

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the three following books of the trilogy. It's the best tip you can get!

We wish to send our special greetings to Douglas Adams! Even he never reads this lines!


Windoom
WINDOOM™

This word has been created to meet the fact that the intensive contact with Windoom totally changes the life of a real programmer and his relationship to his computer.

In other words: Windoom™ is really the doom of the users programming actions.

Windoom™ is a nonregistered trademark of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporations.

If you know other fitting nicknames of Windoom™ (like WINDOZE) please contact one of the programmers!


Installation

-	Copy all the files included in the BANG342 archive into a newly created subdirectory.

-	Install BANG

•	Preparation: Open two Explorer windows:

Explorer Window 1: Double-click on "My Computer" and navigate your way to the BANG directory.

Explorer Window 2: Click on the Start button, select Settings and then the Taskbar menu item. Click on the Start Menu Programs tab and click on the Advanced button.

To tile both windows nicely on the desktop, right-click on the task bar and select Tile Windows Vertically.

•	Drag BANG95.EXE from Explorer Window 1 and drop it in Explorer Window 2 (right part), which you just opened. This creates an item called "Shortcut to BANG95.EXE". Click again on this items name to rename it to any name you like preferably "Bang 95". This way, you have easy access to Bang 95 every time you click on the Start button.

Or:

•	Double-click on Programs and than on Startup in Explorer Window 2. Drag BANG95.EXE from Explorer Window 1 and drop it here in the Startup folder of Explorer Window 2. Again, by clicking again on the selected item, you can rename it to whatever you want. This takes care of starting Bang 95 every time you start Windows 95.

 	Or:

•	Drag BANG95.EXE with the right mouse button from Explorer Window 1 to your desktop. Of course, you might want to rename it from "Shortcut to BANG95.EXE" to something more fun. With that, Bang 95 is always in sight when you need it.

Or:

•	Use all three methods. That is the only way you don't have to search all day long how to fire up Bang 95 when you feel the sudden urge of shooting something to relief your anger. Blast that damn program into space which caused so much headache.

-	Right-Click on the BANG-Icon in the system tray and choose Configuration.

See also:

Requirements


Usage

By right-clicking the BANG icon you get the main selection menu. Choose:

-	Activate! to activate the DEATH TO MICKEYSOFT window,

-	Close (no, don't choose this one),

-	Configuration to configure BANG,

-	Statistics to show the counted hits on the desktop (hehe),

-	Help to get this Online-Help for BANG,

-	About Bang... to learn things you always wanted to know and

-	About About... to vote against Mickeysoft.


Statistics

Everywhere in the whole world you can get statistics about everything you want. BANG will be no exception. All shots with the machine gun and all thrown grenades are counted. If you choose this menu item you can see the statistics about the hits on the WINDOOM-Desktop!

If you're working on the desktop, BANG is sleeping on the System-Tray and you need to know when it's time to punch some new holes, you can move your mouse to the BANG-Icon and watch the statistics poking up.


Configuration

By choosing Configuration in the main selection menu you can configure BANG:

Four WAV files (sounds) are shipped with BANG. They are automatically attached to the four sound events (left part). Change them if you got some better ones. To do so simply click on the corresponding button and select the WAV-file. During the file selection a "PLAY" Button allows to listen the selected WAVe. If you use your own WAV-File for the Grenade, you should adjust the GrenadeDelay-value, which is the time between the beginning of the sound and the hit on the desktop. The Cockoo Sound is required for a special effect which can be activated by checking the With Cockoo check box.

The Use DirectX Sound check box turns-on and off the sound. It is turned off automatically if the initialization of DirectX failed. With DirectX turned off Bang 95 can run even if the dsound.dll does not exist (without sound of course).

Change the Firespeed (in the middle) of the Machine-Gun at will. It is the speed of the holes painted on your desktop.

Soundspeed is the speed of the gun sound. To find a proper setting, check the Play Machine Gun checkbox. This will turn on a permanent machine gun.

Three different profiles are maintained which allow the usage of three different configuration settings. Initially the user defined profiles use the techno cockoo sound.

The configuration profiles will be stored in the "BANG.INI"-File located at the directory of the "BANG.EXE"-File. Is's a proprietary standard because Microsoft™ announces that they won't support WIN.INI or PRIVATE.INI in future releases of Windows 95™ and Windows NT™. We think you shouldn't fight with the binary registry. If you want to remove BANG™ from your PC (hopefully you won't do that!) just kill all files. Nothing remains.

Press Apply to save the changes or Cancel to forget them.


Requirements

BANG 95 is running on Windows 95 and Windows NT only. If you are using Windows 3.1 please use BANG 2.2!

BANG 95 is written to work with WAV-files. To get optimum results you need an additional sound device like the Sound Blaster card.

BANG 95 uses some the new features of DirectX - especially the DirectSound-Interface. You need at minimum some DirectX-DLLs to get BANG 95 work. You will get best performance and soundeffects, when you install DirectX on your PC. See README.TXT for details.

See also:

Release History

Configuration


Release History

Public releases of BANG:

BANG 1.0	Written for WINDOWS 3.0. Provides squeaker-sound, machine gun, and some funny about WINDOWS. Works on WINDOWS 3.1 as long as no external sound device is installed.

BANG 2.0	Written for WINDOWS 3.1. Provides additionally a grenade, WAV (external sound device) and squeaker sound, configuration, statistics, online help and auto install routines.

BANG 2.2	Update for WINDOWS 3.1. Some minor Bugs are fixed and the configuration is changed.

BANG 95 (V 3.42)	Written for Windows 95/NT. Provides new sound effects like multiple flying grenades, simultaneous MG- and grenade-sound, sound profiles and some Windows 95 features.

See also:

Requirements

Configuration


Greetings

Oh yeah! What is a program, if there isn't any place where you can greet your friends, the whole world, the universe and just everything? OK, we won't make any exceptions - so here are the obligatory greetings:

We send our greetings in alphabetical disorder to...

-	Brigitta Christ (JOSH's wife), who patiently listened the 1042th time to the sounds of BANG during development - especially the "Hasta-La-Vista-Sound!". "Hey, Gitta! You can remove your OROPAX! (hehe!)"

-	Caroline Windolph (REM´s girlfriend), another victim of BANG! There wasn´t much time left over between the laserfire and the endless BANG-Programming-Sessions. Sorry Caro - it´s hard to resist the temptation, but we think you like it, too!

-	Dr. Holger Eichmann, who has discovered the Word WINDOOM™!

-	The Deutsche Telekom AG, which collects a lot of money during the endless phone-calls and data-transfers. We hope that we sometimes receive the golden phone. (hehe!)

-	All those people which sent us bug reports about BANG up to Version 2.2 and of course people which sent us ideas for future development.

-	to be continued!

Most important, we thank ourself for this really important program the world was desperately waiting for.


Autostart
Startup (Autostart)

Contains all files which are started at the beginning of the windows session. It should contain (of course) BANG.

See also:

Installation


Start Button

Contains the most important files and program groups. It should contain (of course) BANG.

See also:

installation


Death to Mickeysoft

This Window appears if you choose Activate! in the main selection menu (see usage) or if you double-click the BANG-icon. The cursor changes to a cross-hair. With the left mouse button you can trigger the machine gun. The fire speed can be changed, see Configuration. With the right mouse button you can fire a grenade. You can fire up to three grenades in sequence. By double-clicking the right mouse button BANG is stopped. By clicking the underscore button on the upper right corner of the death to mickeysoft window or by choosing Minimize in the main selection menu the window is closed - BANG is still resting on the system tray. Clicking the cross button on the upper right corner of the death to mickeysoft window or choosing Close in the main selection menu forces BANG to close and to vanish from the system tray. (No! Don't close BANG - you lose the chance to kick the desktop for doing something you won't appreciate!)


Firespeed

This field of the configuration window allows you to change the repetition rate of your machine gun. The fastest setting (500) is the limit of your computer. To attain the speed of uncle Arnie's gun you probably need a 300 MHz Pentium Pro or a 500 MHz Pentium Pro++ or a 1GHz Pentium Pro Ultra or another operating system (like DOS).


Arnie

Nickname of Arnold Schwarzenegger

 Uncle Arnie


Arnold Schwarzenegger

Main actor of Terminator


Terminator

One of the best action films we've ever seen. At the moment there are two parts: Terminator and Terminator 2


Films

There are many very good films, e.g. Terminator, Terminator 2 and Star Trek.


Star Trek

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with BANG, but we like these films!


Terminator 2

Title of the motion picture Judgement Day.

You should see it!


Judgement Day

From this nice action film we have taken our WAV-files. Thanks to arnie.


Amiland

To our american friends: "Amiland" is a german nickname of "America".

:-)


Power Mike

Dipl.-Ing. Michael Schuschk works at Autocyte, Inc. in Burlington, North Carolina, USA. His job is developing apps which try to remotely control microscopes to do telepathology. (Hey, how about RemoteBang?) He hates internet connections with less than 15 kbytes/s, departing planes he wanted to catch, cars with blinking-lights and Jaz drives which go to hell just when you need it most.


REMBRANDT

Dr. rer. nat. Heiner Eichmann worked at the university of Hannover in germany.

His job was firing pulsed laser beams on poor atoms and other innocent targets.

Are looking for a programmer?

He loves drinking beer, playing computer games, StarTrek (original series), diving in deep pools and even deeper oceans, wasting time with mad movies, going into movies with bad criticism,

He hates WINDOWS™, movies with good criticism and all forms of free areas on working desktops.


JOSH

Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Christ works at the "Deutsche Telekom AG" in germany. His job is to think about bigger, better and faster data communication services for development crews like the BANG-Team.

He loves drinking beer,  playing computer games, all forms of StarTrek (especially the newer ones), playing with his little daughter, telephone answering machines, hard disks with big capacity.

He hates time planers (especially time planers for networks), calories and computers running without any errors.


DirectX

DirectX is Microsofts new application - hardware interface. It allows stereo panning, playing of multiple WAVs, direct video access and much more. BANG just uses the sound support of DirectX. If you are using WindowsNT or if you have already installed DirectX (for example by playing DOOM for Windows95) everything is fine. Otherwise you have to search the internet for the latest DirectX version. A good choice is www.microsoft.com


proprietary
Of cause it's proprietary! Every new version of BANG™ has a new and absolutely incompatible configuration file. Why should we do any exception from other software developers!

BTW:	You can remove a [BANG]-section in your local WIN.INI, if you encounter one from older versions. It's no longer valid!


better ones
If you got some new BANG-sounds - especially a new "grenade"- or "hasta-la-vista"-sound, would you please send us an email where we can get this sounds, too. Also you can send us a tip, in which film a good sound appears which we can fetch. Just send an email and JOSH will power up his sound-equipment! hehe


special effect
OK - OK! It's a mad tick of JOSH - he wants the cockoo - he programs the cockoo - he gets the cockoo! If you don't like it - disable it!

Thanks to McManne for creating the techno-cockoo! His synthies did really good work!


WAV-files

The WAV-files which are shipped with BANG have this data:

BANGGUN.WAV

sampling rate: 11025 Hz

resolution: 8 Bit

channels: mono

length: 0.163s

BANGGREN.WAV

sampling rate: 22050 Hz

resolution: 8 Bit

channels: mono

length: 4.143s

BANGHLVB.WAV

sampling rate: 22050 Hz

resolution: 8 Bit

channels: mono

length: 2.414s

BANGKUCK.WAV

sampling rate: 11025 Hz

resolution: 8 Bit

channels: mono

length: 4.086s

TECKUC1-WAV

sampling rate: 22050 Hz

resolution: 8 Bit

channels: mono

length: 1.103s

If you want to use your own WAV-Files please note that the BANGGUN-sound can be heavily used. You will get best performance if you don't get above 11KHz with the sampling rate and the sound isn't too long.

Sound with stereo channels aren't very useful because of BANG's panning effects.

You want to use 16 Bit resolution and 44 KHz sampling rate? Oh dear, what do you want to hear? Classical music as a grenade sound? Remember, there must be an explosion with noise, distortion and those things!