Cobra Utilities for Doom & Doom II

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Text File | 1994-04-30 | 130.7 KB | 2,912 lines

** Table of Contents ** Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Printing the Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Special Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Install Sub-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The <ESC> key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Shareware version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 DOOM(tm) version 102 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 DOOM(tm) version 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Registered version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Slot Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Game Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 DOOM(tm) version 102 users . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 DOOM(tm) version 101 users . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Patch Edit options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Use Space-Bar toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Use Hot_Key <ENTER> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Arrows equal <ENTER> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Hot-Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Tics per second ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 <V>ersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 <ESC> Exit to Main menu & save . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 D-Day Internal Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 D-Day basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Slot file management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Save Game Sub-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 <#> Slot number to save as game file . . . . . . 18 <A> Save all slots as game files . . . . . . . . 18 <D> Delete slot file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Remote player operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 <T>ransfer slots to floppy . . . . . . . . . . . 20 <L>oad all slots from floppy . . . . . . . . . . 23 Load Game Sub-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Loading Multi-player Games . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 2 Patch Sub-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 <PG-UP/DN> file # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 <CTL-D> Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 <D>escription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 <S>earch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 <R>ename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 <E>dit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 <M>ax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 <P>layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 <C>lone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Game Saving/Patching Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Multi-Player floppy test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Loading and saving non-DOOM(tm) WAD file games . . . . . 43 Ordering the registered version of D-Day . . . . . . . . 45 D-Day Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Automating D-Day Operation with Batch files . . . . . . . 47 Status and Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 D-Day Disclaimer / User agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Software license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Network, serial link, and modem games . . . . . . . . 50 Software ownership / distribution . . . . . . . . . . 50 Shareware version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 CD ROM Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Registered version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Modified software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 3 ** Introduction ** Please read the license agreement at the end of this document before installing or running D-Day. For comments or error reports my Internet mail address is 'jray@castle.com' or 'jray@castle.uu.holonet.com'. DOOM is a trademark of id Software Inc. D-Day is a menu driven utility for DOOM(tm) that allows saving up to 60 single or multi-player games, plus a patch utility for editing all weapons and attributes for single or multiple player games. The patch utility features a full screen editor with a selection of options to customize the editor to the user's personal preferences. D-Day started out as a simple game saver written for a friend to allow him to save more than four games. Over the last few months it has grown into what you see now. Although you can use D-Day as the ultimate cheating tool, it is not specifically designed for this purpose. The original reason for adding the patch capabilities was to allow players in multi-player games to have enough ammo, weapons etc. to survive. In a two player game each player can usually find enough health and ammo, but in a three player game it gets tougher. In a four player game you are hitting the space-bar every other minute. If the players have agreed to leave the game if they are killed, a game will not last very long. By adding ammo and health you can usually play a game under these rules for quite a long time. In other words D-Day allows you to create game scenarios other than just hitting space-bar when you die. This manual is written to allow all levels of users to install and operate the program. So all you power users out there, have a little patience if the documentation refers to subjects that seem obvious to you, or if it is a bit redundant at times. ** Printing the Documentation ** To print the documentation type: PRINT DDAY.DOC <ENTER> at the DOS prompt. If your printer is connected to a port other than LPT1: or PRN:, enter the device to print to, otherwise hit <ENTER>. ** Special Thanks ** I would like to take this opportunity to thank Roger Barrett for allowing me to use his personal network system for development and testing of D-Day, and to Tom Burnett for repeated programming advice. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 4 ** Software Installation ** Shareware version: You must copy D-Day and it's associated files to the drive and directory where DOOM(tm) and it's related files are located. Registered version: If you have the registered version of D-Day you may install and run it on any drive and directory by simply copying the files to this location. However, this will require you to move to the D-Day directory area and back to the DOOM(tm) working directory every time you want to run D-Day. Note: In all cases D-Day must be initiated from the drive and directory where it is located. Commands such as: E:\dday etc. will bring up the program, but it will look for it's operation parameter data file at the drive and directory where you are located when the program is started. This will happen even if the data file is somewhere in your path. Although you can run 'I' install each time, you would end up with DDAY.DAT files in every directory you did this from. Tacky! This is the reason we recommend installing D-Day in the same directory as DOOM(tm). For now, let's assume you have installed DOOM(tm) on drive D: in a directory called DOOM. Here are two ways to copy the files over: If you are at the DOS prompt and are installing from floppy drive A: From any drive or directory: copy a:*.* d:\doom <ENTER> From the DOOM(tm) directory on drive D: copy a:*.* <ENTER> If you are installing the software from floppy drive B, you will replace the a:'s in the above examples with b:'s . If you have installed DOOM(tm) on drive C:, replace the d:\doom with c:\doom. Here is one last example: Let's say you have DOOM(tm) installed on drive E: in the directory \GAMES\DOOM and you are installing from drive B. From any drive or directory: copy b:*.* e:\games\doom <ENTER> Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 5 ** Install Sub-menu ** To run D-Day, make sure you are in the directory where D-Day is located and type: dday <ENTER>. If you are running the registered version of D-Day, you will be placed at the Install D-Day menu the first time you run it. IMPORTANT! The <ESC> key is one of the most important keys in D-Day. It is used as a multi-purpose key allowing non-destructive escape from most procedures. It is used for everything from aborting incorrect input to skipping entry selections. It is also used to abort error displays. In cases where D-Day displays an error or status message it will usually leave the error message displayed until the <ESC> key is hit. This ensures you won't miss it, and you won't have to wait for timed error messages to time out. Shareware version: In this document we will refer to DOOM(tm) versions 1.1 and 1.2 as versions 101 and 102 respectively since this is the way they are referenced internally by DOOM(tm). If you are using the shareware version of D-Day, there is no installation menu. D-Day will create a game directory for it's use called GAMES just below the directory where DOOM(tm) is located for DOOM(tm) version 102, and just above the DOOMDATA directory on drive C for DOOM(tm) version 101. Although this is transparent to the user we will illustrate for clarity. If DOOM(tm) is located on drive D in the DOOM directory, the directory tree would be as follows. DOOM(tm) version 102: D:\DOOM_ \_GAMES DOOM(tm) version 101: C:\DOOMDATA_ \_GAMES The D-Day shareware version will prompt you to enter DOOM(tm) version 101 or 102 when run. If you are using the shareware version you may skip the following installation procedures. Registered version: There are several attributes regarding the operation of D-Day that are stored in the DDAY.DAT data file created by the install routine. You must finish the installation procedure for D-Day to operate properly on your system. The menu choices are: Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 6 ** Install Sub-menu ** <1> Slot Drive - C: <2> Slot Path - <3> Game Drive - C: <4> Game Path - ** Patch Edit options ** <5> Use Space-Bar toggle - N <6> Use Hot-Key <ENTER> - N <7> Arrows equal <ENTER> Y <8> Hot Edit - N <ALT-9> Tics per second ratio - 1.000000 <V>ersion - 101 <ESC> Exit to Main menu & save The 'slot drive' and path is where DOOM(tm) stores it's 'slot files'. These are DOOMSAV0.DSG through DOOMSAV5.DSG for slots 1- 6 respectively. D-Day must know where these are in order to save and load them as 'game files'. This must be where DOOM(tm) is located for version 102, and C:\DOOMDATA for version 101. The 'game drive' and path choices are up to you although I recommend selecting the same drive with a directory named GAMES placed just below the DOOM(tm) directory for DOOM(tm) version 102 and just below the DOOMDATA directory for version 101. You should read the examples for both version 101 and 102 regardless of which version you have installed. Some of the concepts relate to both versions. DOOM(tm) version 102 users: Here's an example. If DOOM(tm) is installed on drive C: in the DOOM directory, this is what you should enter for the above suggestion: <1> Slot Drive - C: <2> Slot Path - \DOOM <3> Game Drive - C: <4> Game Path - \DOOM\GAMES Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 7 If DOOM(tm) is installed on drive D: in the GAMES\DOOM directory and you want the D-Day games to be stored in a directory called GAMES just below it, this is what you should enter. <1> Slot Drive - D: <2> Slot Path - \GAMES\DOOM <3> Game Drive - D: <4> Game Path - \GAMES\DOOM\GAMES Here is the above example with the GAMES directory placed on drive C: just below the root directory. <1> Slot Drive - D: <2> Slot Path - \DOOM <3> Game Drive - C: <4> Game Path - \GAMES Note: The last example shows how you can place the D-Day 'game files' anywhere you choose. However, it should be done in a fashion that makes it obvious the files are D-Day games files. In the first two examples, the D-Day game directory was placed below the DOOM directory. In the last example the GAME directory is all by itself and it might be misinterpreted by you, or other users, as a place to stick all kinds of games! It would have been better to name the directory DDGAMES, DGAMES, or DMGAMES in this example. The D-Day games directory should only contain D-Day 'game files'. D-Day has a routine to distinguish other files as invalid games files. However, there is no reason to fill up the directory with garbage that is not relevant to D-Day. DOOM(tm) version 101 users: These are the same examples as above, but for version 101 users. If DOOM(tm) is installed on drive C: in the DOOM directory, this is what you should enter for the above suggestion: <1> Slot Drive - C: <2> Slot Path - \DOOMDATA <3> Game Drive - C: <4> Game Path - \DOOMDATA\GAMES Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 8 Here's another example showing the GAMES directory placed on drive D: just below the root directory. <1> Slot Drive - C: <2> Slot Path - \DOOMDATA <3> Game Drive - D: <4> Game Path - \DDGAMES <- This tells you this is for D-Day For the path entries, a reverse slash should be placed at the start of the line and between each directory entry without entering any spaces. There must not be a reverse slash at the end of the entry. Here's an example showing the GAMES directory placed just below DOOM. Correct: \DOOM\GAMES Incorrect: DOOM\GAMES <- there should be a reverse slash at the start \DOOM\GAMES\ <- should not have the reverse slash at the end \ DOOM \ GAMES<- should not have spaces in the entry /DOOM/GAMES <- regular slash, use the reverse slash key Once you have entered the correct values for your version of DOOM(tm) move on to the next section. The next entries are the same for version 101 and 102 of DOOM(tm). ** Patch Edit options ** <5> Use Space-Bar toggle - N <6> Use Hot-Key <ENTER> - N <7> Arrows equal <ENTER> Y <8> Hot Edit - N <ALT-9> Tics per second ratio - 1.000000 <V>ersion - 101 <ESC> Exit to Main menu & save Items 5 through 8 allow you to customize the operation of the full screen patch editor. If they are all set to 'N', you will be required to hit <ENTER> after each entry when using the patch editor. I will cover each of them and tell you my preferences. <5> Use Space-Bar toggle: This allows use of the space-bar to toggle between 'Y' and 'N' ('yes' the attribute is active, no it isn't active) for weapons, keys, map, and backpack. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 9 <6> Use Hot_Key <ENTER>: This allows hitting the 'Y' and 'N' keys to make your selection and automatically move to the next field without the need to hit <ENTER>. Note: Items 5 and 6 are mutually exclusive. You can only select one or the other. D-Day will manage this for you automatically. If you have selected Hot-Key <ENTER> and then select Space-Bar toggle, D-Day will reset Hot-Key <ENTER> to 'N' and vice-versa. <7> Arrows equal <ENTER>: This allows D-Day to take entry like a spreadsheet in that it will accept an entry as valid by simply moving to another item via an arrow key. It's a smart <ENTER> though. It will only change the item if a value has been entered. This allows the arrow keys to move through the screen without affecting entries unless you change them. When 'Arrows equal <ENTER>' is enabled the <ENTER> key acquires an additional function. Hitting <ENTER> without any input will tell the patch editor to use the last entered value for this entry. Example, if you enter 1200 for bullets, the patch editor will remember 1200 as the last entered value. Subsequent <ENTER> presses will use 1200 as input for the current field. This will only apply if you have not entered a new value. Using the arrow keys to move will not change the field values. This "last entry memory" also applies to the 'Y' and 'N' fields if you have also selected 'Hot-Edit'. The editor is smart, it will not try to enter 1200 (or any numeric value) in the 'Y' and 'N' fields, but instead will use the last entered 'Y' or 'N' value. Entering a new value will change the "last entry memory" to this new value. The timed attribute fields do not have "last entry memory". <8> Hot-Edit: This does two things. First, it allows you to hit the right arrow key instead of 'E' to enter the edit mode. Second, it allows use of the up and down arrows keys to move from file to file. This only happens when you are not in the edit mode. In the edit mode the up and down arrows move from field to field, as they should. My preferences: I use 'Space-Bar toggle', 'Arrows equal <ENTER>', and 'Hot-Edit'. The last two are needed to provide a powerful editing environment in my opinion. The first one, Space-Bar toggle is a matter of user preference. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 10 The last two offer a editing system that is fluid and requires a minimum of key strokes. Space-Bar toggle verses Hot-Key <ENTER> is subject to personal data input style. It's up to you. This is why I included so many options. Remember, D-Day is designed to require a minimum of time using this program so you can get back to playing DOOM(tm). <Alt-9> Tics per second ratio: This is, if anything, a test of how I could calibrate the display of timed events against the error of the DOS clock. If you have a system that loses several minutes per hour, this might be worth pursuing. If not, who knows. On some motherboards the tic clock speeds up when a sound card is installed. The only thing that can happen by invoking this function is you will end up with a more accurate display of the time left for timed attributes. This assumes you can tap your head and rub your stomach at the same time. If your DOS clock is relatively accurate you might as well skip this feature. If you're a glutton for punishment, or just plain picky, read on. The concept is simple. After boot up, DOS relies on a tic count which is a percentage of the system CPU clock. This is at best a lousy way to keep time for systems that are not re-booted on occasion. However, for short events, a few hours or less, it is usually relatively accurate. For our purposes this function allows you to see how far off your system clock is, and to calibrate the display of timed events in D-Day to reflect this error. It does not allow you to add more time. It merely shows the real time available verses the time displayed without calibration. Before we go any further. If you have already started this function and want to know how to get out of it, just press any key. It will ask for number of seconds. Hitting <ENTER> with no input, entering a '0', or any negative number will set the ratio to 1.000000 (the default) ie 1:1 ratio. Unless you know, or want to know if, your system clock is way off, (a few percent error or more) there is probably no reason to perform this calibration. The calibration method is very simple. While holding a stop watch that has been reset to 00:00, (a $10.00 digital watch folks) hold down the ALT key. While holding down the ALT key, press start on the stop watch and '9' on the keyboard exactly at the same time (rub your stomach and tap your head). '** START **' will appear. It's up to you to decide how long to let this run. The longer, the better (up to 16.5 minutes - 990 seconds). Anything less than two minutes will most likely not yield satisfactory results. It just depends on how accurately you start and stop Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 11 the timer. If you are off by 1/2 second total for starting and stopping the timer for a two minute test, this will represent almost 1/2 percent error on your part. If the system clock is not off by at least this much or more (doubtful) you may actually end up with a less accurate display of timed attributes than if you had not performed the calibration. I recommend running the test for about ten minutes. Go get a cup of coffee and relax for a few. If you run past the time by a minute or two, don't worry. You have up to 16.5 minutes in which to screw up. When the elapsed time you have selected to use approaches, (or time you have to use because you over shot the time) get ready to hit any key (the space_bar is fine). Hit the space_bar, or whatever, exactly as the second counter goes to the next minute. The display will ask you to enter the number of seconds used for the test. If your test ran for ten minutes, enter 600. If you enjoyed your cup of coffee so much the test ran twelve minutes, then enter 720, etc. Now you get to see the futility of running the test. If the displayed ratio is more than .99 and less than 1.01, there was no reason to bother with the test since your system clock is off by less than 1% (unless you're picky). If the results are far from these figures, it means one of two things. Either your system clock is in sad shape, in which case this test was needed, or you screwed up the test (rub your stomach, tap your head, tap your stomach, rub your head). Which one is it? Who knows. Maybe you need to run the test again to be sure. #%^@%$! There is one more caveat. I have seen a few motherboards (very few) that the system clock runs slower when the system is cold, and faster when the system is warm! Hey, aren't these suckers supposed to be temperature compensated? Yep, but notice the phrase "supposed to be". Well, I can't believe I wrote this much about this stupid timer routine, but I did. <V>ersion: Hitting 'V' will toggle the display from '101' to '102' and back again. This represents the version of DOOM(tm) you are installing D-Day for. This must be set correctly or the patch utility will not display information about the 'game file'. There are a few other things affected that are not applicable to the installation. Just make sure this is set correctly. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 12 <ESC> Exit to Main menu & save: Hitting the escape key <ESC> will display: Is everything correct (y/N) _ towards the bottom of the screen (see note below). If you are satisfied with the data, hit 'Y'. Any other input will be interpreted as no ('N'). If you leave the install menu and realize you need to get back, just hit 'I' from the main menu. This is covered again in the "Main-menu" section. Once you select 'Y', D-Day will save all your entries in a data file called DDAY.DAT. This is saved in the directory you ran D-Day from. If the game directory path you selected to save your 'game files' in does not exist, it will be created as D-Day saves the data file. D-Day will create the entire directory path, not just one level. Make sure your entry is correct. If you intended to enter \DOOM\GAMES but instead enter \DOON\GAMES, D-Day will create a directory off the root directory called DOON and will create the GAMES directory below it. This will function fine as far as D-Day is concerned. It doesn't care where your 'game files' are as long as it can find them. If you do create an incorrect directory path, you should exit to DOS and use the RD or RMDIR commands to remove it, or them. Note: The (y/N) format is used throughout the program. In such formats the uppercase character is the default. In this case 'N' is the default and 'y' is the only character that will override this default. After completing the installation procedure, you will be placed at the main menu. This is where you will normally start when running D-Day. If the DDAY.DAT file should ever be damaged or erased, D-Day will automatically place you at the Install menu. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 13 ** D-Day Internal Operation ** Before we describe the menu operations you need to have a basic idea of what D-Day does, how it does it, and why it does it. When reading the next few pages you may be thinking to yourself "This is a awful lot to remember". Actually most of the details are transparent to the user and are handled internally by D-Day. It's for your general information and it will enhance your understanding and operation of D-Day. All through this documentation we will be referring to 'slot files' and 'game files'. For the purpose of this documentation 'slot files' are the game files loaded and saved by DOOM(tm). They are the DOOMSAV#.DSG files. The '#' in the previous example can be any number from 0-5 which represents slots 1-6 in DOOM(tm). If a slot has been saved in DOOM(tm), a DSG file will exist for this slot. For example: If you have only saved games in slots 1 and 3 there will be two DSG files, DOOMSAV0.DSG and DOOMSAV2.DSG. These files are located in C:\DOOMDATA for DOOM(tm) version 101 and on the drive and directory where DOOM(tm) is installed for version 102. 'Game files' are the files saved, patched, and loaded by D-Day. When you save a game in D-Day, you actually copy one of the 'slot files' to a 'game file' using a new name. The name used to save the game is a derivative of the name you typed in when you saved the game in DOOM(tm). If you have wondered why the 'slot file' names DOOMSAV0.DSG through DOOMSAV5.DSG are not the same as the names you saved in DOOM(tm), you probably also wondered where those names you saved are stored? They are stored in the first few bytes of the 'slot file' for that game. In other words, if you saved a game called "I finally beat John" in slot 1 in DOOM(tm), the 'slot file' DOOMSAV0.DSG contains this name in the first nineteen bytes of the file. When D-Day saves a 'slot file' to a 'game file' it extracts this internal name and uses it to create a valid DOS filename in which to save it. In the above example D-Day would extract the name, change spaces to underline characters, and truncate it at eight characters long. The resulting name would be: "I_finall" DOS will allow lower case letters in a file name but will convert them to upper case. For this reason D-Day does not bother to convert case. When saved, the resulting file will be "I_FINALL". All such files are stored on the drive and path selected for 'game files' in the install menu. Important Note: When saving files in DOOM(tm), don't use any special characters that can't be used in DOS filenames (at least not in the first eight characters). Rather than list them here, there is an easy rule of thumb to follow. If you only use letters of the alphabet, and numbers, you are safe. If you use Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 14 names like "#@&#\%@/% that Roger", you are going to be in trouble. In fact if you use a name like "John\Roger", D-Day will interpret the filename as "JOHN\ROG". D-Day (actually DOS) will look for a directory called "JOHN" and try to save the file "ROG" in it. If your name is John and you have such a directory in existence (many of use do have our names as directories) that 'game file' will be rat-holed away for a long time. Two more terms we will be using are 'game directory' and 'slot directory' these refer to the drive and directory paths in which 'game files' and 'slot files' are stored. Before describing each of the menus and their options you will need to know a little bit about the basic procedure of saving, patching, and loading 'game files'. This is only an outline. Detailed instructions on each menu's operation and features are coming up. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 15 ** D-Day basics ** D-Day's operation is quite simple. It allows the user to save any of the 'slot files' created by DOOM(tm) as D-Day 'game files'. These are saved in the D-Day game directory for further processing or retrieval at a later date. After any number of slots have been saved in DOOM(tm) and the program has been exited, the user will run D-Day from the DOS prompt (it can be loaded automatically by a batch file. The procedure for this is towards the end of the documentation). They will then save any slots they want to save as 'game files' from the 'Save Game Sub-menu'. To retrieve the game or games at a later date, run D-Day again. The user will then select the "Load saved games to slots" menu and select the games they wish to load as DOOM(tm) 'slot files'. To patch files the user selects the 'Patch game features' menu. They can then use the full screen editor to change the attributes of their choice. Optionally they can patch additional player's attributes if it is a multi-player game. After a 'game file' has been patched or edited, it must be loaded into a DOOM(tm) 'slot file' from the 'Load saved games to slots' menu before it can be played. D-Day only allows editing the 'game files' that have been saved, not the 'slot files'. This ensures you don't inadvertently damage a 'slot file' without the ability to re- load it. There are several menus in D-Day and each has it's own function. I have tried to compose the program so all associated functions are grouped together. In addition, all menus use a uniform method for escape from unintentionally selected options. There are many subtle features in D-Day that are not always apparent by looking at the menus (although easy to use and remember). These are covered as we progress through the documentation. We will cover the main menu first. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 16 ** Main Menu ** There are five possible selections at the main menu for the registered version of D-Day. ** Main-Menu ** <S>lot file management <L>oad saved games to slots <P>atch game features <I>nstall D-Day <X> Exit to DOS All "Main-Menu" options except '<X> Exit to dos' place you at another menu so we will cover 'X' first. Hitting 'X' will prompt you, towards the bottom of the screen, to confirm exit: Are you sure you want to exit (y/N) -> _ Here is the (y/N) again. This means 'N' is the default (capitalized). The only key that will exit the program is 'Y'. If you hit 'Y' or 'y' D-Day will close any open files, clear the screen, and exit to dos. Note: D-Day does not require the use of the shift key to enter caps. Hitting 'y' will convert your input to 'Y'. You may use the shift key or caps key for input, but it is not necessary anywhere in D-Day. The closing of files is just redundant code supplied as a "just in case" measure. D-Day never leaves files open after reads or writes. This is to ensure data integrity even after a power failure. <S>lot file management: Hitting 'S' or 's' from the main menu will place you at the 'Save Game Sub-menu'. This section is used to save and rename DOOM(tm)'s DSG files as D-Day 'game files'. You must select any slots you wish to save as 'game files' from this menu. A typical menu screen might appear as follows: Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 17 ** Save Game Sub-menu ** Slot 1 - K1END 1 player Slot 2 - I4ROGER 2 players Slot 3 - S3LAST 3 players Slot 4 - INPLAY 1 player Slot 5 - ** Empty ** Slot 6 - NET GAME 3 players <#> Slot number to save as game file (1-6) <A> Save all slots as game files <D>elete slot file ** Remote player operations ** <T>ransfer slots to floppy <L>oad all slots from floppy <ESC> Exit to Main menu Enter choice -> _ The first six lines of the menu are status lines to display the internal names of the 'slot files' DOOMSAV0.DSG through DOOMSAV5.DSG for slots 1-6. If there is no current game saved in a slot '** Empty **' is displayed. The number of players involved in the game is displayed to the right of the game name. If you have not yet, or don't plan to use DOOM(tm) for multi-player games, the number of players will be one. There are additional status indicators that will be displayed to the right of the player info. Some display the progress for a particular action and others are error messages. Notice the types of names used. When saving a game in DOOM(tm) it is important to use games names that are short and to the point. You have a maximum of eight characters available for use by D-Day. If you are worried about losing the twenty- four character description line in DOOM(tm), don't be. D-Day allows you to attach a forty character description to each game. At present there are only three episodes in DOOM(tm) and each of the can be identified by a single letter. K, S, and I are all you need. If you want slightly more, then KDD, SOH, and INF should do. Follow this with a level number and a short descriptive word and you have a name that conveys all the information you need in less than eight characters. I4END, K6PLAY, S5OOPS, etc are all good choices. Whatever you use, stick to it. By the way I use K, I, and S, followed by a number. This leaves me the most room for more of a description at the end. I also use 'INPLAY' for a game I am currently playing so it is easy to find. If you decide to use dates, please put them in the D-Day description line, not in the DOOM(tm) slot name. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 18 ** Save Game Menu Options ** <#> Slot number to save as game file To save a slot as a 'game file' just hit the number of the slot you want to save. '** Saved**' should show up to the right of the player status. If you try to save an empty slot, nothing will happen. If the game name is already assigned to a previously saved game the following prompt will be displayed: Overwrite? (y/N) _ At this point you have two choices, hit 'Y' to overwrite the previous game or hit any key to cancel the save. If you want to save the game without deleting the previous game you can exit to the main menu <ESC>, go to the patch menu and rename it to something else, go back to the Main menu, hit 'S', and save the slot (this only takes a few seconds). We will cover rename in the patch menu section. <A> Save all slots as game files If you want to save all the loaded slots (not empty) as 'game files' just hit 'A'. <D> Delete slot file To delete a 'slot file' hit 'D' and D-Day will display: Slot # _ Enter the slot number to delete and (y/N) will appear. Any key other than 'Y' will abort the deletion. Deleting an empty slot has no effect. ** Remote player operations ** 'Registered Version Only' Remote operations are primarily designed for multi-player games but there is one instance where they can be used for single player games. Let's say you want to show a few games you have played to a friend. You can use the '<T>ransfer slots to floppy' option to put your current 'slot files' on a disk for him/her. You can also load previously saved games to slots 1-6 (<L> from the main menu) and transfer them to a floppy. If your friend has D-Day they can use the 'Load all slots from floppy' to transfer them to their slots. They can also use the DOS copy command to copy them to the appropriate directory. Read the next section for more information on the <T> and <L> options. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 19 ** Multi-player Games ** Multi player games are easy to manage with D-Day as long as a few rules are followed. One computer on the network or modem game should be designated as the 'Main D-Day console'. All this means is the same computer should be used to save the games in DOOM(tm) and to manage the slots and games in D-Day. By using one computer for these operations at all times, you will ensure you always know the location of a given 'game file'. This does not mean you cannot have several different computers save multi player games, it's just easier to manage from one computer. Looking at the typical screen above you will notice slot six has the name 'NET GAME'. This is the name DOOM(tm) uses for any games saved from another computer on the network or modem game. If you try to save this game D-Day will respond with '* Skipped *'. There are several reasons for this but the main reason is to keep D-Day from saving a 'game file' that is not a 'computer number 1' 'game file', as a 'computer number 1' 'game file' (huh?). Saving and loading multi player games requires the use of a floppy disk for each remote player on the system. By remote player I mean all players except the D-Day console player. A two player game will require one floppy, a three player game will require two floppies, and a four player game will require three floppies (golly! Bullwinkle). Note: I wish to add routines to D-Day to allow auto file save from the remotes but I have yet to find any code in 'C' or a good book on IPX interfacing in 'C'. Any suggestions? Perhaps a comprehensive document on the IPX protocol would suffice. I already have code that could be implemented for modem games but I hate to add the additional options to the install menu and the floppy override code without implementing IPX support. The main D-Day console user should learn about all aspects of D-Day. The remote user only needs to learn how to use the <L> and <S> options in the 'Save Game Sub-menu' (this menu). After you have saved one or more games/slots within DOOM(tm) and have exited to DOS, run D-Day. The first step is for the remote players to copy their 'slot files' to floppy using the '<T>ransfer slots to floppy' option. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 20 <T>ransfer slots to floppy (remote players only) The '<T>ransfer slots to floppy' option is used in multi- player games by the remote player to place their 'slot files' on a floppy disk for use by the main D-Day console operator (computer 1). When <T> is pressed, D-Day will display: Drive (A/B) __ Enter either 'A' or 'B'. D-Day will prompt you with: Slot 1 (y/cr/N) _ Either 'Y' or <ENTER> (cr) means transfer the 'slot file' to floppy. Any other key equals no, including the <ESC> key. There is a reason for allowing cr (<ENTER>) to equal 'Yes'. The key strokes are buffered so you can enter more than one selection before you are prompted for the next one. This means if you want to copy slots 1, 3, and 6, you can hit the following keys in secession: Slot # 1 2 3 4 5 6 Press <ENTER> <ESC> <ENTER> <ESC> <ESC> <ENTER> Equals 'Yes' 'No' 'Yes' 'No' 'No' 'Yes' D-Day will copy only slots 1, 3, and 6 to the floppy. When done, if you find you have made a mistake and copied the wrong files to the floppy, don't worry. Just do it again. When D-Day is told not to copy a 'slot file', it looks a the floppy to see if that .DSG file is already there. If it is, it deletes it. This ensures your floppy only contains files you want the D-Day console operator to use. This also saves you the time of looking at a floppy to see how many 'slot files' (.DSG files) are on any given floppy disk. As the 'slot files' are transferred to the floppy the status line for each slot will display 'Transferred' to the right of the player information. '* No File *' will be displayed if you try to transfer an empty slot. Next, the main D-Day console operator will save the slots of their choice (or all) using the <#> 1-6 or <A> option. For multi-player games, the main D-Day console user will be prompted for a floppy drive for computers 2-4. Yes, you will need those floppies in your hot little hands. This is why I am looking for IPX interface code in 'C' (or a good book on the subject). Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 21 I should explain the difference between players 1-4 and computers 1-4. DOOM(tm) expects to see the same file it saved when the game is reloaded. If you are the main D-Day console and are player number 3, D-Day doesn't care. It will still save the file on it's hard drive as coming from computer number 1. The main D-Day console is always computer number 1. You might be player 3 in the game, but you are still computer number 1 to D-Day. All other computers can be assigned as you please as long as they are always the same. It is best to make up blank formatted floppies for the maximum number of remote players you will ever have in one game. You might as well make three, just in case. Use either 5-1/4" 1.2meg or 3-1/2" 1.44meg diskettes to make sure there is always enough space for six 'slot files'. These diskettes need to be assigned to the computer they will be used on. If you have names for your computers, label the floppies 1-3 with the name or users name on the label in addition the computer number. This makes it easy to remember which floppy is assigned to which computer. D-Day names and stores files on the main D-Day console hard drive in the following format. Where [gamename] is any valid DOS file name: [gamename] Main D-Day console (computer 1) [gamename].CN2 Computer number 2 (any player number) [gamename].CN3 Computer number 3 (any player number) [gamename].CN4 Computer number 4 (any player number) The number of files saved will depend on the number of players in a given game. A three player game will have three files saved, [gamename], [gamename].CN2, and [gamename].CN3. All games with extensions are handled by D-Day and are transparent to the user. D-Day does not care what player number a file is, it just needs to make sure saved 'game files' go back to the same computer they were loaded from. If any of the remote player computers have different floppy types, (ie one has a 3-1/2" and another has a 5-1/4"), the main D-Day console will need to have both types (duh!). D-Day will prompt you for a remote player floppy after it has saved it's own 'game file'. This will appear at the end of the status line for the game being saved. The prompt for computer number 2 will be: NC# 2 drv: __ Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 22 At this point you need to enter either 'A' or 'B'. If you enter the wrong drive or if there is an error reading the diskette (not formatted, MAC diskette, etc.), D-Day will respond with '** Error **'. Hitting <ESC> will re-prompt for the drive. Hitting <ESC> additional times will move through the computer numbers until the last one (no more players) is displayed, at which point D-Day will allow for additional menu options. When you are prompted for floppies there are two ways to save games. The following swap methods are for 3 or four player games. For two player games you no not need to swap diskettes. If you are saving only one multi-player game you can just swap floppies for each computer as you are prompted for it. In fact you can use this method no matter how many game files you are saving, but there is a better way. If you are saving multiple 'game files' for more than two players the following method is the fastest, with the fewest number of diskette swaps. Let's say you want to save three, 3-player games, in slots 2, 4, and 5. Hit 2 and mount the computer 2 diskette when prompted for it. When it prompts you for the computer 3 diskette, hit <ESC>. This will skip saving the computer 3 'game file' for now. Leave the computer 2 diskette in the drive. Next hit 4, followed by the drive spec for computer 2 when prompted. Once again, hit <ESC> to skip the computer 3 diskette. Now hit 5 and do the same as you did for slots 2 and 4. This completes the saves for computer 2. Now let's save the computer 3 'game files'. Hit 2 and the following prompt will appear: Overwrite? (y/N) _ Since you just saved the D-Day console file (computer 1) a minute ago when you saved the computer 2 'game files', D-Day wants to make sure you want to overwrite this file. Enter 'Y'. When prompted for the computer 2 diskette, hit <ESC>. This will leave the computer 2 file intact and skip to the prompt for computer 3. Enter the drive for the computer 3 diskette. Now all player files (computer number files) are saved for that slot. Do the same for slots 4 and 5. Presto, you're done. For 4 player games the procedure is the same only you will hit <ESC> more times and will have to answer 'Y' twice to the 'Overwrite (y/n)' prompt. At this point all your files should be saved for patching or retrieval at a later date. We will cover patching and loading 'game files' in their own sections but for now let's assume we have retrieved or placed patched 'game files' on floppies for re-loading by the remote player. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 23 <L>oad all slots from floppy Once the D-Day console operator has patched or loaded 'slot files' onto a floppy for use by the remote player, the 'slot files' must be placed back in the slots on the remote player computer. The '<L>oad all slots from floppy' option performs this function. Since the floppy only contains 'slot files' that were selected by the D-Day console operator, all files on the diskette are loaded into the slots. The <L> option will automatically write over any existing 'slot files' so make sure you have saved any slots you might not want to lose as 'game files'. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 24 ** Load saved games to slots menu ** Use the <L> option from the 'Main menu' to retrieve stored or patched 'game files' and copy them to your slots for access by DOOM(tm). Before using this menu, you should make sure you have saved any slots you wish to keep as 'game files' from the 'Save Game Sub-menu'. The following screen shows the prompt line for all six slots. When you first enter the 'Load Game Sub-menu' D-Day will only display the prompt for slot number one. As you make entries or use the up or down arrow keys to select a different slot to load, the prompts for each of the selected slots will be displayed. A typical 'Load Game Sub-menu' screen follows: ** Load Game Sub-menu ** 1-I4ST 10-I7ST 2-I6PLAY 2P 11-S2END 3-K2END 3P 12-S3END 2P 4-K2ST 13-S3PLAY 2P 5-I4PLAY 4P 14-S3ST 2P 6-I6END 15-S4END 3P 7-I6PLAY 2P 16-S4ST 8-I6ST 17-S5END 9-I7END 18-S5ST Game # for slot 1: __ Game # for slot 4: Game # for slot 2: Game # for slot 5: Game # for slot 3: Game # for slot 6: Although this screen only shows eighteen games, D-Day will display up to sixty games on the screen. If you save more than sixty games, D-Day will display the first sixty and the rest will be ignored. If you save more than sixty games, you need to get a life. To the right of the game name, D-Day will display the number of players (if more than 1). 2P means two players etc (gee!). Although most games that display a multi-player status line have other files associated with them, they are transparent to the user. Sixty 4 player games will result in 240 games files! At up to 100k or more each, this is a lot of data! Make sure you have room. The number of rows and columns of games is adjusted automatically until a maximum number of fifteen rows by four columns is displayed. D-Day keeps the display looking uniform so you will not end up with a single column with 15 games in it. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 25 Let's talk once more about naming games in DOOM(tm) for use with D-Day. Make them short, and stick to the same naming convention. If you have the registered version of D-Day, the files are displayed in alphanumeric order. If you name one file I4START and another INFFOUR and yet another IFOUREND, the games will be displayed in a confusing order. After you get twenty or more files saved using this non-strategy, there won't be any reason to display the games in alphanumeric order. It just won't help much. Loading games into slots is easy. Just enter the slot number you want to load when prompted. The up and down arrow keys are used to select the slot you wish to load with a 'game file'. If the prompt is at a slot you wish to leave unchanged, the up and down arrow keys will move non-destructively through the slot choices. If you select the wrong floppy drive D-Day will display '* Error *'. Just hit <ESC> and re-enter your selection. Remember, the <ESC> key is a multi-purpose "get me outta this" key. If you are using a registered version of D-Day and are loading multi-player games, read the next section. ** Loading Multi-player Games ** The process for loading slots with multi player games is a mixture of the above and the floppy swap techniques learned in the 'Save Game Sub-menu' section. After moving to the slot you wish to use, enter the game number to be loaded to the slot. After D-Day has loaded the 'game file' into it's slot (computer 1) in the 'slot directory', D-Day will prompt you with: NC# 2 drv:__ Enter either 'A' or 'B' for the floppy to copy the 'game file' to. After D-Day has copied (loaded) the 'slot file', if there are any additional floppies to load, you will be prompted with NC# 3 drv:__ , etc. The technique of using <ESC> to skip files is the same as in the 'Save Game Sub-menu'. However, if there is no file saved, D-Day will respond with '** No File **'. Wait a minute! Why does it say '** No File **' when it shows it as a multi-player game? There are a few reasons this can occur, some intentional and some not. We will discuss the reasons for that in a minute, but first let's assume D-Day does find all the player files. If you wish to load more than one slot you can use the <ESC> key to skip players so you will not need to swap the floppy disk Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 26 for each file. This is essentially the same as the technique used in the 'Save Game Sub-menu'. The only difference is you will not be prompted with the 'Overwrite (y/N) _' prompt. Since you have already saved the slots as 'game files', there is no reason to worry about overwriting a 'slot file'. If you screw up, just load the erased 'slot file' back in from the saved 'game file'. That's one of the nice features of D-Day. Once you have saved 'slot files' as 'game files', there is no reason to reserve any of the slots. You can put anything you want in them. When D-Day loads a remote player game to a floppy diskette it does not use the internal name 'NET GAME'. Instead it uses the internal name from the player number 1 file with an extension representing the computer it is for. For example: The second player file for the game 'I4END' would have the internal name 'I4END.NC2'. This is the same as the actual file name in the D-Day game directory. This lets you see you have loaded a file that has been saved or processed with D-Day. Once the file has been played and re-saved from DOOM(tm), it will revert back to the name 'NET GAME'. This allows you to tell if a game has been played and might need to be re-saved or not. If you need to use a slot, and a file name like 'S5START.NC3' exists, you can use that slot. Due to it's name, you know you have already saved it in the D-Day game directory and it has not been played (no updates) since it was loaded into that slot. Ok, let's find out why D-Day might display '* No File *'. First you need to know that every DOOM(tm) multi-player 'slot file' and 'game file' has information in it for each player. If it is a four player game, it has information about all four players in each of the four files. This is why D-Day will show it as a 2 through 4 player game, even if it does not have all the player files saved. It knows the format of the file. If you save a game from the 'Save Game Sub-menu' and neglect to save (skip) one of the remote player files, it won't have all of the files associated with that multi-player game. D-Day is smart enough to tell you about this. If you have saved the files within the last few minutes you are in luck. You can re-save the file off the remote floppy. If not, oh well. You may also decide you only want to save the file for the first computer (D-Day console). Let's say you are playing a two player game and your friend (or foe) decides it's time to go. You will notice when they leave the game DOOM(tm) will display a message saying player 2 (or whatever) has left, yet you can continue to play. If one or more players leave the game, there is no reason you cannot save your game for later play. If you are the D-Day console then just save the game. If you are not the D-Day console, but wish to play the game as a single player game Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 27 later, save the game anyway! As long as you remember you have saved it as a D-Day 'game file', the file is ready to replay. This assumes the 'slot file' is not named 'NET GAME' (more on this in a minute). However, you will have to play it as a single player game. You may run into the other players during the game. There is no reason to waste ammo on them. They won't shoot back. In fact leave them alone! During the game the some of the monsters will be busy killing the other left over players and will leave you alone. If a multi-player game has been saved, and it was not saved from your computer, you will have a 'slot file' with the internal name 'NET GAME'. D-Day won't save a slot named 'NET GAME' as a 'game file'. There is a good reason for this. Whenever you load a single player game with DOOM(tm), it expects you are loading a game saved for computer number 1 (computer number 1 is my own terminology). If you have ever played a game called 'NET GAME' as a single player game, you know what I am talking about. See, D-Day has a method to it's madness. Anyway, this is why you may not have all the files for a multi-player game. D-Day will inform you of this so you can make the decision to load the game or not. Note: If you decide to play a player 1 'game file' of a multi-player game as a single player game, don't use D-Day to re-save it as a D-Day 'game file' if you want to play it as a multi-player game in the future. The reason is, D-Day has a 'player file' management routine that will delete all 'player files', [gamename].CN2 through [gamename].CN4 when a 'game file' is saved, if the player 1 file size, or internal name is different from the rest of the player files. This is to ensure that you do not end up with files that are not compatible for multi-player games. Once you play a player 1 'game file' as a single player game, your player location and attributes will change. They must be the same in all player files! You can save the game with DOOM(tm) and re-play it from it's slot as many times as you wish, just don't re-save it as a 'game file' with D-Day unless you don't intend to play it as a multi-player game in the future. If you want to play the multi-player game as originally saved with D-Day, you will have to use D-Day to reload all the player slots first. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 28 ** Patch Sub-menu ** This is the most complex menu in D-Day, yet it is easy to understand and use. The way the full screen editor operates will depend on the options selected in the 'Install Menu' There are 'Patch Sub-menu' features that are only available in the registered version of D-Day and I will cover them now. All optional edit commands: Optional edit commands such as 'Space-bar toggle' and 'Hot-Edit' are not available. The user must use <ENTER> for input. Up and down arrow file access: In the registered version of D-Day the user can use the 'Up' and 'Down' arrow keys to move through the files if 'Hot-Edit' is selected. The shareware version only allows the 'Page-Up' and 'Page-Down' keys. Attributes: The shareware version does not have access to the 'Plasma rifle', 'BFG', 'Cells', 'Max # cells', or the 'Thru-walls/Invincible' option. In addition the blue, yellow, and red cards are only accessible on the shareware version of DOOM(tm). Max values: The maximum value that can be set for 'Health', 'Armor', and 'Ammunition' is 500 in the shareware version and 65535 in the registered version. The maximum time for timed attributes such as 'Berserk' etc. is 6 minutes for the shareware version and 32 minutes for the registered version. Note: The listed times for timed attributes is based on a 1:1 DOS tick timer ratio. This is calibrated from the 'Install Menu'. Patch menu functions: The shareware version has the Search, Description, Rename, Delete, Clone, and alphanumeric sort options disabled. The 'Patch Sub-menu' screen displays a wealth of information about the selected 'game file'. This is why features such as 'Delete', 'Description', and 'Rename' are located in this menu. Starting at the top left field D-Day displays the game number and name. The number assigned to a game is for reference only. It is the same as the number in the 'Load Game Sub-menu'. The number is assigned when the program is run. If you delete, rename, or add files, the number for a given file will most Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 29 likely change. On the next line, D-Day will display 'Single player game' if there is only 1 player, and 'Net game' followed by the number of players for multi player games. The 'Player' line displays the current player selected by the 'Player #', option. This will always be player 1 when the 'Patch Sub-menu' is first selected. The 'P' key will move through the player screens assuming you are viewing a multi-player game. Successive 'P' key presses will move to the next player screen until the last player number is reached at which point it will revert to player one. Moving to another game using 'Page-up' or 'Page-down' (or optionally 'Up' or 'Down' arrow if 'Hot-Edit' is selected) will always reset the player number to 1. The Version flag is to assure you that D-Day recognizes the 'game file' as the correct version for the version of DOOM(tm) you are using. If the version was set incorrectly in the 'Install Menu' for the version of DOOM(tm) you are using, D-Day will display '* Invalid *' to the right of the Version label. This will also be the case for any other type of file that is not a valid D-Day 'game file'. If you should inadvertently copy non-game files to the D-Day game directory, D-Day will report all invalid files that do not have an extension. D-Day ignores extensions when loading the game array. The only operation that can be performed on an invalid file is 'Delete'. D-Day will not attempt to display information about it since there is nothing to display. If you copy a non-game file to the D-Day game directory that has an extension, you will need to remove it using ERASE in DOS. Do not remove any files with the extensions NC2 through NC4. These are D-Day remote player 'game files'. This should rarely occur, if ever. The only way to put non-game files into the D-Day directory is if YOU put them there. The version checking extends to the <L> option in the 'Save Games Sub-menu'. If you try to load a 'slot file' from a floppy diskette that is the wrong version, D-Day will display '* Version *' to the right of it's slot number status line and will not copy the 'slot file'. The 'Episode' label is self-explanatory, as is the 'Level' flag. The 'Skill' level labels are for my own amusement. The skill levels are: 'Wimp' (I'm too young to die), 'Not too rouge' (Not too rough), 'Hurt me please' (Hurt me plenty), 'Ultra violins' (Ultra violence), and 'Kiss your butt (goodbye)' (Nightmare). The 'Time' label was a pain! The format is simple, it's just weird. Anyway, the 'Time' label should always be within a second of what DOOM(tm) displays. In addition, if you have played for more than one hour, time will display the correct time. This is Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 30 in addition to the classic 'SUCKS'. Keep in mind the displayed time accuracy is dependent on the accuracy of the DOS tick timer. I did not add a routine to adjust the displayed time to reflect the real time based upon the 'Ticks per second ratio' option in the 'Install menu' as I did for the timed attributes such as 'Berserk' etc. <PG-UP/DN> file # To move through files one by one, use the 'Page-up' and 'Page-down' keys. D-Day will automatically stop when either the first or last game is reached. If you have the registered version of D-Day you can also use the 'Up' and 'Down' arrow keys if you have selected the 'Hot-Edit' option in the 'Install Menu'. <CTL-D> Delete (registered version) Holding down the <CTRL> (control) key while pressing 'D' will prompt the user towards the bottom left of the screen with: Delete game - are you sure (y/N) -> _ Hit 'Y' to delete the currently displayed 'game file', any other key will abort the deletion. D-Day will delete all associated files for all players if a multi-player game is displayed. <D>escription (registered version) D-Day allows you to add a description up to 40 characters in length to saved games. Press <D> and D-Day will prompt you with: Game description:_________________________________________ You can type any text you want here. If D-Day will let you type it, D-Day will store it in the description line. As with all other input prompts in D-Day, <ESC> will abort input. If you add a description to the wrong game or decide you don't want a description for this game, just hit <D> followed by <ENTER>. This will replace the description with ** No Description **'. After you get a few descriptions added to games you might find yourself looking for a 'Description' file. Don't bother, there isn't one. D-Day tags the description onto the end of the player 1 'game file'. DOOM(tm) doesn't seem to care and it makes description file updates for additions, deletions, renames, etc. totally unnecessary. Instant file management. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 31 Note: Don't add a description until all player files have been saved as 'game files'. This changes the size of the player 1 file by 42 bytes. Doing so will cause D-Day to refuse to load the additional player files and display '** Size **' since the size is different. This is actually a hard situation to get into. You would have to abort the 'Save Game Sub-menu, select the 'Patch menu', and then re-select the 'Save Game Sub-menu' to create this scenario. This is just mentioned as a caution for your information. <S>earch (registered version) To search the game array for a particular game, hit 'S'. D-Day will display: Search for -> ________ This is an instring search which simply means it will search for an occurrence of the input text in any position within a game name. If it finds a match, D-Day will make it the current 'game file' and will display it's statistics. If it does not find the selection you are looking for on the first match, hit 'S' once again followed by <ENTER>. This will continue the search from the current position in the game array and will attempt to find another match. If several matches are found, you can continue to hit 'S' <Enter> until no more matches are found at which point D-Day will respond with '** Not found! **'. This will display for 1.5 seconds on top of the search prompt. Example: If you input 'KDD' the search would find a match on: KDD1, KDD12, JOHNKDD, NEWKDD13, etc. To end or abort a search at any time just hit <ESC>. Search can also search for text in game descriptions. Just put a period '.' as the first character in the search string. Example: In input of '.ROGER' would search all 'game file' description lines for 'ROGER'. It is not case sensitive so '.ROGER' would also find 'Roger', 'roger', or even 'RoGeR'. This is a nice feature since a game name does not always tell you much. As with the standard game name search, 'S' <ENTER> will search for additional occurrences. <R>ename (registered version) The rename function is just that. Hit 'R' and D-Day will display: New name:________ Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 32 Type in a new name and hit enter. All done. Once again, <ESC> will abort rename. Rename is very simple to use but performs quite a few functions. First, input is limited to legal DOS names. (Although you can put spaces in a legal DOS name, D-Day will not allow this. Instead it will replace all spaces with the underline character '_'). Second, it not only renames the player 1 file but all associated players files. It also replaces the internal name in all of the player files. Last, it re-loads the game array and makes the newly named file the current file. <E>dit (or Right-Arrow on the registered version) At last, the reason we selected the 'Patch Sub-menu'. Editing is easy but there are so many editor option combinations there ends up being several ways to go about it. I will goes through the basic editing options first. After hitting 'E', D-Day will place a cursor at the 'Health' field. If you have the registered version of D-Day you can enter any number between 0 and 65535. For shareware versions the maximum is 500. If you enter a value higher than the maximum allowed, D-Day will set it to the maximum automatically. If you have the shareware version, or you have not selected the 'Arrows Equals <Enter>' option for the registered version, hit <ENTER> to save your selection. Editing Options (registered version) If you have selected 'Arrows equal <ENTER>' you can use an arrow key instead of <ENTER> to confirm your entry. The <ENTER> key takes on an additional meaning when 'Arrows equals <ENTER>' is selected. Hitting <ENTER> without entering a value in a field will tell D-Day to use the last entered value. If there was no last entered value since D-Day was started, it will use the maximum value allowed. The 'Last entered value' memory is retained until D-Day is exited. The 'Space-Bar toggle' and 'Use Hot-Key' options are for the 'Y' and 'N' fields. If you have selected 'Space-Bar toggle' then hitting the space-bar will toggle between 'Y' and 'N'. Hitting <ENTER> (or an arrow key if 'Arrows equal <ENTER>) will enter your selection. If 'Arrows equals <ENTER>' and 'Hot-Edit' have been selected, subsequent <ENTER> presses will use the last entered selection for the next entry field. If you have selected 'Hot-Key', then as you press 'Y' or 'N' D-Day will enter the selection and move to the next field. Other Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 33 attributes are the same as for 'Space-Bar toggle'. If you have selected 'Hot-Edit' you can use the 'Right- Arrow' key to enter the edit mode. When not in the edit mode, 'Up' and 'Down' arrows act like the 'PG-UP' and 'PG-DN', moving you from file to file. 'Hot-Edit' is also required for some of the advanced features mentioned earlier. Try editing with the following options enabled at first and I think you will not want to change them: 'Use Space-Bar toggle' 'Arrows equal <ENTER>' 'Hot-Edit' This will give you all of the advanced editing features. Ok, now that we're done with the editor options, let's get back to the editor. Once you are in the edit mode, using the arrow keys will move the cursor up, down, right, and left through the input fields. This is a non-destructive movement meaning the current values do not change as long as no values are entered. When the editor passes the bottom right field it wraps around to the top left field and vice versa. It will also wrap from right to left or left to right. When is moves past the bottom row it moves to the next right hand column at the top row. The timed attributes fields do not take advantage of the advanced editor options and require inputing a value followed by <ENTER>. The 'Thru walls' byte is toggled from 'Off' to 'Thru walls' to 'Invincible' to 'Both' and back to 'Off' by using the space-bar. More on the 'Thru walls' byte coming up. When you are done editing, hit <ESC>. D-Day will respond in the lower left section of the screen with: Save modification (y/N) -> _ If you hit 'Y' the changes you entered will be saved to the 'game file'. This only changes the attributes of the player number displayed in the 'Player ->' field. If you have the shareware version of D-Day this will always be player 1. If you hit <ESC> again (or any other key except 'Y') the editing will be aborted. You will notice the screen does not revert back to the original values. Instead it still displays the values you have just entered. There is a reason for this. This will be explained in the 'Clone' section coming up. If you Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 34 meant to save the input but have aborted the edit by mistake, just hit <ESC> again and answer 'Y' to the 'Save modifications' prompt. If you have aborted due to selecting and editing the wrong file, just go to the new file you want to edit. The values you just input will not be saved to the 'game file'. If you want to edit the same file but want to see what the original values were, just hit the 'P' key until the current player you were editing is re-displayed. This will reset the values. Another way is to hit <S> for search and search for the current file. When it finds it will display the original values. See the 'Clone function' for more details. Now that we know how to use the editor, let's describe the fields. The 'Health' field is a special case and I need to explain a few problems when entering values larger than 199. You can enter a value of 65535 (or 500 for the shareware version) and have access to all of it, with the following limitations. The first problem is, if you pick up a blue health sphere or blue vial your health will revert to a value of 199. This may be cast in stone. I have not been able to find any bytes in the .DSG files that can overcome this. If anyone knows where to patch a .DSG file to set the maximum allowed value for health, I'd sure like to hear from you. Don't worry about 'Med-kits' and 'Stim-packs'. They only affect the total if DOOM(tm) displays your health as being below 100. In other words, if it's a white box, don't worry. If it's blue, look out. Don't worry about 'Berserk packs' or 'Invincibility spheres' either, unless you have set a value to their timed attributes. More about this later. The second problem is not as hard to overcome. Unlike most attributes in a 'game file', the health value is stored in two places for each player in a given 'game file'. The first one is a cinch to find. The second one is a pain to find. Without getting into a detailed explanation of how D-Day attempts to find the second health patch area, let's just say it looks for a byte pattern. If it finds it, then it proceeds with the patch. If successful, D-Day will display: Successful health patch 1 Otherwise it will not display anything. The 1 at the end stands for player number 1. If nothing is displayed, the 'game file' has not had it's second health area patched. There seems to be more than one possible byte sequence to search for and D-Day currently only knows about one of them. For this reason, although D-Day will patch the first health patch Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 35 area for all players, it will only attempt to find the second health patch area for single player games. Due to the possibility of not finding the correct byte sequence for all players in a given game, D-Day will not attempt to patch the second health area in multi-player games. If I can identify the rest of the byte patterns, I will include this feature in a future release. The code to search and patch this second health area for multi-player games is already in place. It is just turned off for multi-player games. This is the reason for the '1' at the end of the 'Successful health patch' display. Here's the reason the second health patch area is important. Even if the second health area is not patched, it will appear as if it succeeded when you play the game. The display will show the value you selected. This is no indication you have what is displayed! Such games will play until you have lost the amount that was displayed before you patched the 'gamefile' and then you will die. Sometimes hitting space-bar will bring you back, other times you will come back as the living dead and you won't have any weapons. If you pick up a stim-pack etc., it will look as if you are ok, but you will still have no weapons. In any case all is not lost. Even if D-Day does not patch the second health area you still have a chance. If you can get to the exit and move to the next level before any player loses all of their originally displayed health, you will not have this problem in the next level. Remember just because you move to the next level does not mean you can pick up 'Blue health spheres' or 'Blue vials'. These suckers are poison when you have a very high health level. You will ALWAYS revert to 199 if you touch these. Note: The health attribute is the only one with this strange behavior. All other displayed values are usable in their entirety. I should mention at this point DOOM(tm) will not display values over 999. Don't worry, it's still there. A value of 65535 will display as 535. When the display passes 0 it will start counting down from 999. This will happen 65 times before it actually reaches 0. All attributes except keys (cards and skulls), the computer map, and the backpack will transfer to the next level. The 'Armor' attribute is like the 'Health' attribute in that if you have 200 units or more, you can't add more by picking up the 100% or 200% armor. In fact you can't pick them up. Other than that, there is nothing to worry about. Go ahead and pick up the 'Armor bonus helmets'. They will add 1 to the total for each one even if your armor is set high. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 36 All of the weapon attributes are the same. You either have them or you don't. The shareware version of D-Day does not have access to the 'Plasma rifle' or the 'BFG'. Each piece of ammunition has two attributes. The quantity you have and the maximum quantity you can have. The second one affects your ability to pick up ammo that is laying around. For example, if you were to set 'Bullets' to 2000 and 'Max # Bullets' to 1000, you will still have 2000 rounds. But you will not be able to pick up any more until the total drops below 1000, and even then only until the total reaches 1000 again. An interesting twist on a multi-player game is this. Set your ammunition values rather low and set you max-ammunition values high. Now, the player who is the best a finding ammunition will end up with a lot, leaving his/her opponents in deep guacamole. The shareware version of D-Day does not have access to 'Cells' or 'Max # cells'. As mentioned earlier the keys, (both cards, and skulls), do not transfer to the next level (unless you're playing multi- player 'Death-match'). The easiest way to get around this is to save the game right after moving to the next level, add the keys with D-Day, and then reload the game. The Shareware version of D-Day only allows access to selecting the card keys for the KDD level of DOOM(tm). The computer map does not transfer to the next level. The timed attributes are input in minutes and tenths of minutes. The displayed times will be based on the ratio supplied when the 'Tics per second ratio' was selected in the 'Install Menu'. If the calibration was not performed, the max value for the shareware version of D-Day is 6.0 minutes, and 32 minutes for the registered version. If calibration was performed, the max displayed value will be higher or lower depending on the ratio obtained. In any case if the calibration was performed the value shown should be quite accurate. If not they will still be close, unless your motherboard is sick. All of these attributes will transfer to the next level but there is one thing to watch out for. Picking up items that affect timed attributes will reset the value to the time alloted to that item. For example, if you set the 'Radiation suit' value to 15 minutes and pick up a 'Radiation suit' during the game, DOOM(tm) will reset the timer to the value alloted by the suit (approx 1 minute). The same goes for the 'Berserk pack', 'Light amplification box', 'Invisibility sphere', and the Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 37 'Invincibility sphere'. So be careful. If a value higher than the max value is selected, D-Day will insert the highest value allowed. The 'Thru walls' byte is named 'Thru walls' by me. The actual names used in DOOM(tm) for it's functions are not very descriptive (clipping, degreeless, True God mode). The 'Thru walls' byte actually has two (or more [maybe]) functions. When the first bit is set in the byte, DOOM(tm) sets a mode that allows the player to walk through walls. There is a lot more on this function but I want to cover another bit in this byte first. If the second bit is set, DOOM(tm) sets an invincible mode that does not have the negative image effect the normal 'Invincible' mode has. This allows you to see what the hell is going on! Another plus. This invincible mode is not timed. It moves from level to level and does not run out. When you are editing the 'Thru walls' byte, hitting the space-bar will toggle from 'Off' to 'Thru walls' to 'Invincible' to 'Both' and back to 'Off' again. This simply toggles the setting to: No bits set, bit 1 set, bit 2 set, both bits 1 and 2 set, and back to no bits set. This means you can either have the attribute turned off, the ability to walk through walls, become invincible, or both. Ok, let's get back to the 'Thru walls' bit for a bit (pun intended). As stated, the 'Thru walls' bit allows any player with that attribute set to walk through walls. This can be difficult to get used to using. There are several conditions that will create weird and unusual results. So let's cover these first. If you try to walk into a wall that is an outer perimeter of the map, you will walk forever. This is because there is no where to go (or arrive at). If this should happen, turn until you can see reality. It will look like a little piece of the screen that looks correct. It's hard to say what this is but when you see it, you'll realize it. By the way, the farther you step outside the boundaries, the harder it gets to find reality. Hey, just like life. When walking though walls that are in the perimeter you will quite often find yourself changing floor levels. In other words, there is no reason to use elevators, stairs, etc. Walking down stairs will seem normal, but walking off to the side and dropping down (or up) will work just as well. One of the neat things about automatically changing levels is you can get to places you never could have before. Any place you can fit, you can go. You can get quite confused walking around by going through walls, but you will also get a feeling for the map layout in your head once you get used to it. Here are a few places to go to try out the 'Thru walls byte'. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 38 On KDD level 1 in the second room, before to get to the room with the imp up on the platform, step up into some of the control panel areas. You can also step on the platform with the imp. On the last level of KDD, set your health, armor, and ammo high. Then set the 'Light amp' time high and set 'Thru walls' option. After you blast everybody, pick up a computer map (you could have set this is D-Day also) and look at it. See the box outside the perimeter? Ok. Go out there and blast away. After they are all dead you will still see a periodic red flash. Watch your health. Yep! It's futile to try and win this one. It's best to start using the 'Thru walls' option on a small level. It makes it less confusing to get around. There are a few things you should know about the 'Thru walls' function before you continue. You cannot pick up anything with the 'Thru walls' option on. This includes weapons, ammo, spheres, etc. You also cannot trip switches that are designed to be pressure sensitive (designed to recognize your presence). This includes transports. On episodes and levels that use transports to move to the next level, you're stuck unless you are playing a multi-player game and wait for a player who does not have the 'Thru-walls' attribute set to move to the next level! Yes the 'Thru walls' option does work in multi player games. One thing to keep in mind. When you are just starting to see through to the other side when walking through a wall, you cannot be seen by monsters or opponents from that side. A good way to tell if you can be seen is to fire a bullet, or even better a short burst of plasma. If it appears as if it hit right in front of you, you are not all the way thru. That's right, although you can see them and they can't see you, you cannot fire at them until you step through far enough to allow them to see you. It's obvious to me this byte was included for internal testing purposes. <M>ax The 'Max' function simply sets the 'Health', 'Armor', and all accessible ammunition attributes to the maximum value for the player number displayed in the 'Player ->' field and places D-Day in the edit mode. This is 500 for the shareware version and 65535 for the registered version. It also sets all the accessible 'Y' or 'N' attributes to 'Y'. 'Max' does not save this data to the 'game file', it just inputs the data for you. You will need to hit <ESC> followed by 'Y' to save the data. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 39 If you enter 'Max' by mistake just hit <ESC>, answer 'N' to save modifications, and hit 'P' (Player) until you are back at the current player number. This will be a single keystroke for single player games. <P>layer (see Note:) The 'Player' function just toggles from the current player screen to the next player screen starting at player 1. If the last player has been displayed, the screen will rotate back to player 1. This allows you to edit each player individually by selecting a player followed by the 'E' (edit) key. After any given player has had modifications made to it's data fields, you must hit <ESC> followed by 'Y' to save the data. Note: The shareware version will display the other player's data but you will not be able to enter the edit mode unless you are at player 1. <C>lone (registered version - multi-player games only) The 'Clone' function is just that. It clones the current player 'screen data' to the player of your choice. 'Clone' is primarily used to duplicate one player's attribute values to another's. Obviously this function is for multi-player games. The concept is this. Once you have input the data for a particular player, all the other players are going to want the same thing (or more). 'Clone' allows this without re-entry of the data for each player. First we will assume you are going to give the same attributes to each player and you are editing for player 1. Once you have input the data for player 1, hit <C> for 'Clone'. D-Day will prompt you with: Clone player 1 to player __ Let's say this is a 3 player game. Enter a '2' and hit <ENTER>. This will save the displayed data to the player 2 attributes in the 'game file'. Notice we said it will "save the data". That is correct. The 'Clone' function writes the data to the file. Once you have selected a player to clone to, and hit <ENTER>, it's a done deal. Keep in mind if you screw up you can always re-type the data and the use 'Clone' again. Let's assume everything went as planned. Once the player 2 data has been saved to the 'game file', use 'Clone' again and enter '3' as the player to clone to. At this point you have saved the player 2 and player 3 data to the 'game Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 40 file'. You have not yet saved the player 1 data. There are two ways to do this. The simplest is to hit <ESC> and answer 'Y' to the 'Save modifications (y/N) -> _ ' prompt when you exit the edit function. The other way is to hit the 'P' key (player) until you are on either player 2 or 3. Select 'Clone' again. This time select player 1 as the player to clone to. Either way will save the player 1 data to the 'game file'. The data on the screen is not saved by osmosis. It realizes there may be input errors etc. You must elect to save the data for it to be saved to the 'game file'. The 'Clone' function on the other hand does not assume this. Once you have selected to clone data to a player, the 'Clone' function assumes you have looked at the edit screen and have selected to clone it to another player because it is correct. The 'Clone' function by design is to allow you to clone one player's attributes to another's. Remember when we said there was a good reason for not re- displaying the original player attributes if you answer 'N' to the save modifications prompt? Well there are actually two reasons for this. If you have hit <ESC> to leave edit, you may not want to lose all of the data you have input just because you made a mistake. There might just be one field you forgot to edit. The other reason is, in multi-player games you might find yourself entering the data for the wrong player by mistake. Do you want to throw it all away by hitting 'P' until the correct player is displayed and then be required to re-input all the data? No way! Let's say you want to edit player 3's data but mistakenly edit player 1's data. All you have to do is this. After the input is the way you want it for player 3, hit <ESC> and answer 'N' to the 'Save modifications' prompt. Now hit <C> and enter '3' as the player to clone to. Player 3's data is now cast in stone. You can press 'P' until D-Day displays player 3 to check this out. You might as well since you will have to press 'P' anyway to re-display the original data for player 1. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 41 ** Game Saving/Patching Procedures ** Ok. Let's go through a single player game saving and patching scenario. If you would like to create some blank files to work with, just run DOOM(tm), select 'New Game' and select an episode. As soon as the game appears on the screen hit <ESC> and select 'Save Game'. You can create up to six files in just a minute or two this way. Note: If you don't already know about the 'IDCLEV' command in DOOM(tm), it allows you to move to any episode and level while playing DOOM(tm). Once you are in a game, type 'IDCLEV' (do not hit enter). Follow this with the episode number and level you want to move to. DOOM(tm) will load this combination and you will be placed at the beginning of the game. For example typing 'IDCLEV16' will place you in KDD, level 6 etc. However, no matter how many weapons, or how much health or ammo you have, you will start over with a pistol. Using 'IDCLEV', you can create any game you want as a template for use by D-Day. 'IDCLEV' does not function in multi- player games. Assuming you have already saved one or more game slots in DOOM(tm), exit to DOS and run D-Day (DDAY <ENTER>). Press 'S' for 'Slot file management' and you will be placed at the 'Save Game Sub-menu'. Status for all loaded slots will be displayed. Select the slots you want to save as 'game files' by pressing their slot numbers 1 through 6. After the selected slots have been saved as 'game files', hit <ESC> to exit to the main menu. Now hit 'P' to select 'Patch game features'. This will place you at the 'Patch Sub-menu'. Hit 'E' to select 'Edit' mode. The cursor will appear on the 'Health' field. Type 66000 and hit <ENTER>. See how D-Day defaults to the max value (shareware 500, registered 65535). You can either use the 'Up-Arrow' key to move back to the 'Health field' and re-enter a new value or leave it as it is. Using the arrow keys, practice moving around on the screen (this should take about 2 seconds to master). Select any fields you want to edit and enter new values. When you are satisfied with the selections, hit <ESC> and answer 'Y' to the 'Save modifications' prompt. Hit <ESC> and you are back at the main menu. The file is saved, and patched for use immediately, or at a later date. Here is the part most users forget (myself included). Even though you have saved a 'slot file' and have patched it, it is still a 'game file' and must be loaded from the D-Day 'game directory' to a 'slot file' in the DOOM(tm) 'slot directory'. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 42 Select 'L' for 'Load saved games to slots' and you will be placed in the 'Load Game Sub-menu'. Using the 'Up' and 'Down' arrows keys to select the slot to load, enter a game number to load to the selected slot or slots. When done hit <ESC> to exit to the main menu. Now your game is ready to play. Processing a file reads longer than it takes to accomplish. The whole procedure takes about a minute when you get good at it. For multi-player games the procedure is the same. The only difference is you will have to swap the remote player floppies and patch each user individually or use the 'Clone' function. Here's a way for several players to save a single player version of a multi-player game that is going to be aborted for one reason or another. Before leaving the game each player saves the game from their computer using a unique name and slot for each player. Then D-Day can be used to transfer each of these slots to a floppy. You can either use one floppy for all the players and swap it from computer to computer (this would be done if the players wanted all the games to be available on one computer), or they can each use individual floppies so they can take the game home with them. They can also save it as a D-Day 'game file' on their computer since it will not have the name 'NET GAME' if saved in this manner. ** Multi-Player floppy test ** Some floppy controllers do not respond well to the read test performed by D-Day to test if the floppy drive is ready. This may be due to the BIOS routines provided with my 'C' compiler. I am not sure. Test the <T> 'Transfer slots to floppy' and <L> 'Load all slots from floppy' in the 'Save Game Sub-menu' several times before ordering the registered version of D-Day for multi-player use. If you receive the '** Error **' message, please let me know the model and brand of controller you are using. I have had problems with a few Adaptec models, yet the same model might work on another computer. The problem seems to be the BIOS routine's inability to deal with the time required for some controllers to return a drive ready (available) status. I have tried re-try loops and conditional time delays with some success. I assume I will be able to alleviate the problem if I receive enough input about error conditions and models from users and manufacturers. Until then, test that sucker. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 43 ** Loading and saving non-DOOM(tm) WAD file games ** Loading and saving games created when playing DOOM(tm) compatible 'WAD' files other than DOOM.WAD is easy as long as you follow the rules. The procedure of saving the games is the same as any other game. D-Day can save, patch, and load them to slots as long as the WAD file are created correctly. (There are a few out there that won't save from DOOM(tm).) The special procedure comes into play when re-loading these games for re-play within DOOM(tm). First let's decide how to name these saved games. You should use a name that indicates which WAD file was used and yet allows room for some form of a description of the game itself. Doing this in eight characters can be a lot of fun. Actually it's not really that hard if you are willing to rename the WAD file. Let's say you have a WAD file called 'THEEND.WAD'. If you don't have any other WAD files with 'THE' or 'END' in their names you can use these as names and have five characters left for a game description. Another way is to use just the first character of each word in WAD files that contain more that one word in their name. In this case 'THEEND.WAD' would be renamed as 'TE.WAD'. Note: Always use the extension '.WAD' so you know what the file is. Make sure WAD file names don't encourage game names that might be confused with more than one WAD file. Example: If you have a 'TE.WAD' file and a 'TENTS.WAD' file, a game named 'TENEXT' might mean 'TE NEXT' or 'TEN EXT'. Just make sure WAD file names can allow for unique game names. If you have used WAD files other than DOOM.WAD, you should know the command line options for running the file. You might even know the method for re-loading the game. To replay a game saved when using a foreign WAD file, you must instruct DOOM(tm) to load the same WAD when the game is re-played. If the episode and level of the WAD file are not episode 1, level 1, then you must also specify these when re-loading the game. The following example assumes the WAD file is based on episode 1, level 1. Let's say you save a game under DOOM(tm) while playing a WAD file called 'TE.WAD'. This is treated like any other 'game file' as far a D-Day is concerned. Once D-Day has loaded the 'game file' to a 'slot file' (let's say slot 1), it is ready to play. For single player games, just specify TE.WAD as the WAD file to load without any other options, as follows: doom -devparm -file te.wad <ENTER> Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 44 This will place you at the DOOM(tm) startup menu and you can then load slot number 1. For multi player games you will need to use the 'LOADFILE' command line option in addition to any others, as follows: ipxsetup doom -devparm -file te.wad -loadgame 0 <ENTER> Creating batch files can make game loading much easier to accomplish and more reliable. There are a multitude of possible batch file configurations. Here is one we use quite often (I say we, I developed and play DOOM(tm) at my friends house since I do not have a networked system). It allows selecting the episode and level using the '-wart' command line option. echo off 'ipxsetup doom -devparm -file %1 ' '-wart %2 %3 -skill %4 -nodes %5 -loadgame %6' Note: The last two lines are in single quotes because they should actually be on a single line. Also notice the space ' ' after -file %1 . We call the file DOIT.BAT. It allows input like: doit te.wad 1 1 3 4 0 <ENTER> This will tell doom to use the 'TE.WAD' WAD file, for episode 1, level 1, skill level 3, 4 players, and to load the first slot. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 45 ** Ordering the registered version of D-Day ** (I am currently accepting U.S. orders only!) Perform the 'Multi-player floppy test' before ordering the registered version of D-Day! To order, run DDORDER.EXE from DOS. You must have a printer online on LPT1: or PRN: (normal printer port) to complete the order form. The form prints out on standard 8-1/2" x 11" paper. DDORDER.EXE prompts for input and creates your order- registration form and our shipping label to ship D-Day back to you. Keeping this is mind, make sure the output is dark enough and of high enough quality to ensure good legibility. Orders without this order form will not be processed. Please include your Zip code in the Zip+4 format if known. Once the form has been printed fold as shown below and insert either a money order or cashier's check for $5.00 made out to: John Ray DO NOT SEND CASH OR LEAVE THE 'PAY TO' SECTION BLANK! If cash or a blank money order is lost in the mail, you have no recourse to regain your funds. Sorry, no checks. This speeds processing. ** Folding Instructions ** (read form for details) Bottom of form to the inside -> / <- bottom fold line / / | Money order 'face down' -> / / | / / | / / | \ / | Top of form -> \ | (printing on outside) \ | \ | \ | \ | \| <- top fold line Fold at the top fold line so the printing is to the outside of the fold (opposite of normal letter). Next fold on the bottom fold line the same way and put the bottom flap to the inside of the folded form. Place the money order or cashier's check face down on the bottom flap (inside the fold). Folding the form and inserting the funds in this manner creates a data shield to protect the contents from viewing. Place the form in a standard #10 envelope so the top of the form is to the back of the envelope and address as shown on the form. Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. (it usually takes less) Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 46 ** D-Day Block Diagram ** The labels 'DOOM(tm)', 'D-Day', 'slot dir', and 'game dir' will be used in the examples where: 'Function' = function to be performed, 'Process' = the process involved, 'Src' = source location, and 'Dest' = destination. ** Block Procedures ** DOOM(tm) <save game> Function: <save slot> Src: "DOOM(tm)" (RAM) Dest: "slot dir" (file) ---------------------------- D-Day <save game menu> Function: <create game file> File Location Diagram Process: open file Src: "slot dir" ____________ Process: process name | "DOOM(tm)" | Process: copy file |____________| Src: "slot dir" \ Dest: "game dir" \ ____________ ---------------------------- | "slot dir" | D-Day <patch menu> |____________| Function: <patch game file> / Process: open file ___________ / Src: "game dir" | "D-Day" | Process: apply patch |___________| Dest: "game dir" \ ----------------------------- \ ____________ D-Day <load menu> | "game dir" | Function: <load game> |____________| Process: copy file Src: "game dir" Dest: "slot dir" ----------------------------- DOOM(tm) <load game> Function: load slot Src: "slot dir" (file) Dest: "DOOM(tm)" (RAM) Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 47 ** Automating D-Day Operation with Batch files ** Here are a few batch files that will automate the transition from DOOM(tm) to D-Day and back again. Either use an ACSII editor or copy the console input to a file to produce the files. DDS.BAT: This batch file is for single player games. Type in the following six lines. echo off dday echo Preparing to run DOOM. Hit Ctrl-C to exit to DOS. pause doom dds To use the batch file, type: dds <ENTER> This will run D-Day first to allow you to load any 'game files' you might wish to play. When you exit D-Day, the system will display: Preparing to run DOOM. Hit Ctrl-C to exit to DOS. Hit any key to continue. Hit <ENTER> to run DOOM(tm) or hold down the 'Ctrl' key and hit 'C' to exit. DOS will display: Terminate batch job (Y/N)? Enter 'Y' to exit to DOS or 'N' to run DOOM(tm). When you exit DOOM(tm), the batch file will place you back in D-Day as a gentle kick in the butt to remind you to save any 'slot files' you wish to keep as 'game files'. The loop will continue until you select Ctrl-C to exit to DOS. If you don't have an ASCII editor, enter the following at the DOS prompt to capture keyboard input to a file: copy con dds.bat <ENTER> Enter each of the six lines as they appear above followed by <ENTER>. Hold down the 'Ctrl' key and hit 'Z' to save the file. DDM.BAT: For multi-player games name the batch file 'ddm.bat' and change the fifth line from 'doom' to 'setup'. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 48 ** Status and Error Messages ** The following D-Day status and error messages may be displayed at various times. Can't open file! (error message - <ESC> to exit) This message should never be displayed unless D-Day has had an internal error or has not been installed correctly. ** Done ** (status message) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' after either 'Transfer slots to floppy' or 'Load all slots from floppy' is finished. ** Empty ** (status message) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' if one of the DOOM(tm) game slots is empty (available for use or loading). ** Error ** (error message - <ESC> to continue) Displayed if an attempt to read or write a floppy diskette fails. Reasons include, wrong drive, un-formatted disk, wrong format, drive alignment problems, etc. Note: See 'Multi-player Floppy test' for more details. * File Exists! * (error message - timed 1.5 seconds) Displayed if an attempt is made to rename a 'game file' to a name that already exists. ** Not found! ** (status message - timed 1.5 seconds) Displayed in the 'Patch Sub-menu' if 'Search' fails to find a file or description search string. ** No Description ** (status message) Displayed in the 'Patch Sub-menu' on line 25 to the right of '[gamename] - ' if there no description line currently assigned to the currently selected 'game file'. ** No file ** (status message - <ESC> to continue) Displayed in the 'Load Slots Sub-menu' if D-Day does not find a remote player 'game file' associated with the game being loaded to a slot. ** No game files saved... Use slot file management first. ** (<ESC> to exit to 'Main menu') Displayed when D-Day cannot find any 'game files' in the D-Day 'game directory'. Reasons include attempting to access the 'Patch' or 'Load slots' menus before saving any slots as 'game files', deleting all game files in the D-Day 'game directory', or re-installing D-Day and selecting a new 'game directory'. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 49 ** Reserved for Registered version ** (information message - timed 1.5 seconds) This is a timed message that appears towards the bottom left hand side of the screen. Get the registered version of D-Day, and it goes away. ** Saved ** (status message) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' after successfully saving a 'game file'. ** Size! ** (error message - <ESC> to continue) Displayed in the 'Save games Sub-menu' if an attempt is made to save a remote player 'slot file' from floppy that is not the same file length as the game D-Day is associating it with. Reasons include, inserting wrong diskette, damaged 'slot files', or adding a description to the player 1 game file before saving the remote player files (the last example is hard to reproduce unless you try). The file is then skipped and the message is displayed. * Skipped * (status message) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' when a 'game file' is either named 'NET GAME' or '[gamename].NC#'. Slot Loaded (status message) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' to indicate successful loading of slots when 'Load all slots from floppy' is selected. Successful Health patch 1 (status message) Displayed in the 'Patch Sub-menu' if D-Day successfully patches the second health patch area for a single player game. Transferred (status message) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' to indicate successful transfer of slots when 'Transfer slots to floppy' is selected. * Version * (error message - <ESC> to continue) Displayed in the 'Save Games Sub-menu' when an attempt has been made to load slots from a floppy which are for a different version of DOOM(tm) than the one you have installed D-Day for. The file is skipped and the message is displayed. # files missing (status message) Displayed on line 25 in the 'Patch Sub-menu' if D-Day is unable find all remote player files associated with a multi- player game when patches are applied. This is normal for multi- player games saved for single player use. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch program Page 50 ** D-Day Disclaimer / User agreement ** DDAY.EXE, DDAYORDR.EXE, DDAY.DOC and any other files provided with past, present, or future versions of either the shareware, or registered, versions of D-Day are provided "AS IS", and without warrantee. This includes, but is not limited to, any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages or loss of time or data that may be incurred through the use of these programs, files, or supplied diskette. In addition all files are provided without any expressed or implied merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The user agrees their exclusive remedy shall be replacement of the diskette on which the registered copy of D-Day was supplied if found to be defective at the time of initial installation. Software installation, copying files to a computer system, storage device, media, or usage of the supplied programs or files constitutes acceptance of this agreement. ** Software license ** Users are granted non-exclusive rights for operation of D-Day and associated files on a single computer system. Any exceptions to this are listed below. Registered users are granted license for use on a single computer in the single player mode. Network, serial link, and modem games: Registered users are granted license for use on the number of computer systems required to operate one multi-user game on one network system at a SINGLE LOCATION. Each site, network system, or multi-user game (upper limit of four players) will require one registered copy of D-Day. Each group of players (maximum of four) will require one registered copy of D-Day. Each player in a modem linked game will require one registered copy of D-Day. ** Software ownership / distribution ** The user is granted software operation license only. All software remains the property of John Ray and Fairfield Distributing. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved D-Day Game Saver/Patch Program Page 51 Shareware version: Shareware versions of D-Day may be distributed only by electronic means such as bulletin board services that do not charge for distribution of programs, and only if the software is distributed in it's original form with all associated files. Organizations that charge by CPU time, on line time, or monthly user fees may distribute the shareware version as long as no charge is made for downloading of individual programs or files. No rights are granted for distribution by any individual or firm that charges a fee for distribution of programs. This includes, but is not limited to, charging copy fees, or individuals or organizations that distribute public domain or shareware software. In addition, any individuals or organizations which purposely make, or have made, available by any means, copyrighted software for which they do not own or have permission or license for distribution, are restricted from distributing any version of D-Day. CD ROM Distribution: Suppliers of CD ROM shareware compendium disks may include the shareware version of D-Day as long as D-Day is one percent or less of the total number of programs provided on the CD ROM (one hundred programs minimum). To ensure the CD ROM will include the latest shareware version of D-Day, it must be ordered in the same manner as the registered version to obtain distribution rights. With the order include the indicated funds and a cover letter stating the order is for CD ROM distribution. Registered version: No rights are granted for distribution of the registered version of D-Day. Any organization wishing to distribute the registered version of D-Day should contact John Ray or Fairfield Distributing in writing for details. Modified software: Modified versions of the shareware, or registered versions of D-Day, any associated files, or any program containing copyright protected source, or binary, code derived from said files may not be distributed without express written permission from John Ray or Fairfield Distributing. Copyright (c) 1994, John Ray - All Rights Reserved