ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/BBS/DOORS/KING709.ZIP/KING.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-04 | 11.2 KB | 226 lines

                             King of the Board
                        Copyrighted June 1988,1989,1990
                   By Chuck Valecek - Suburban Software
                               Version 7.08
                              October 4, 1990

BACKGROUND

    King of the Board started about a year ago as a Door written in QuickBasic
and incorporated Door routines in DOORPATCH. Since then it has been modified
from version 1.0 through 5.4 with suggestions by users and Sysops. It has become
very popular with PCBoards all over the country and very popular with the users.

    The 7.0 was the first official release of the door which was completly
rewritten using Turbo Pascal and ProKit Door routines. This will, I hope,
statisfy those Sysops who wanted to use the door but could not do to
the newer modem speeds and system incompatablities.

FILES

The following files are either included in the package or created by the door.

KINGxxx.EXE  The door program itself (xxx would be the version number)
QUESTION.DAT Question file (included)
QUESTION.TXT Question file in text format
NEXTQUES.DAT Next question (created by the door)
NEW_QUES.DAT New questions entered by the users (created by the door)
KINGUTIL.EXE Utility program to list users etc (included)
KINGxxx.CNF  Sample config file
KINGxxx      Sample batch file
KING.LOG     Optional log file (created by the door)
KING.HLP     Help file
KINGP.HLP    Help file if using the Point version.
KOB.DAT      Sign on screen for King
QOB.DAT      Sign on screen for Queen
CONV705.EXE  Conversion program from 7.04 to 7.05
MKKOB708.EXE Program to create the config file for Version 7.08
KINGQUES.EXE Program to add questions quickly


THE DOOR

    King is a trivia game that users try to make it up the pyramid to the top.
To accomplish this the user must challange another user in a position above him.
The user is asked a question and if he gets it right he changes places with the
user he challenged. Its a quick game and wont tie up your board as some games
do because the user is asked only one question and is allowed only one play per
day. He may call back tomorrow and find himself back were he was or even further
down the pyramid. If the user is beyond the playing grid (only 28 users on the
grid) he can challange only the 26th,27th and 28th position. If he is on the
grid he can only challange one of the next three players. After the player
has a turn he is asked if he would like to enter a qustion into the game. These
questions are placed in a hold file for the sysop to review and merge into the
question file. Each time a user calls in the question is changed. The program
reads the question file sequentially so the more questions in the file the less
chance the user will get a repeat. The sysop also has the option to limit the
number of chances the user gets to answer correctly. I use 3 and it seems to
work out just fine. One sysop, I won't mention his name, changes the number
of chances so his users never know how many tries he gets. The format of the
question is shown to the user. All alpha characters are replaced with a *, all
digits are replaced with a N and special caharcters (!@#$$%) are shown as is.
After each guess the user is prompted to see if he would like to try again. If
so the correct letters are replaced so as to give him a hint. This helps if the
user is unsure of the correct spelling. Only letters that are replaced are
those that are in the correct position.

    There is an option that allows the sysop to choose if he wants the game to
use the point system or not. The point system assigns a point value to the
person being challenged. The points are assgined as follows:
Person 3 positions above the player 2500 points.
Person 2 positions above the player 2000 points.
Person 1 position  above the player 1500 points.

If the player answers the question incorrectly the person he challenged gets a
bonus of 500 points.

If you choose to set the point option a extra file will be created by the door
which will contain the point standings. This will only appear if the point
option is set. The user will also be asked if he would like to review the file
before the door terminates. This file could be copied over as a bulletin if you
wish in the door batch file.

Just add "copy kingpts c:\pcb\gen\bltnn" and "copy kingptsg c:\pcb\gen\bltnng
in your batch file before you return to the board.



   Thats about it for the door operation. Its simple yet fun!

SETUP

    Most of you out there are familar with the setup of a door. This door
follows the standard setup of the ProKit series of Doors.


Since the config file has gotten so large I have written a program that will
create the config file for you through a series of prompts. Answer the prompts
and a config file will be created. You can always rerun the program to create
another file if you made an error.

If you are a previous registered sysop of King of the Board your old
registration number will work with this door.


And you thought it was hard!

Okay now to set up a batch file for the door to run. Remember this is just like
any other batch file except there is no ".BAT" extension.

The standard DOOR script for ProKit doors has this format:
     echo off
     cd \king
     KING600 KING600.CNF c:\pcb
     copy KINGPTS C:\PCB\GEN\BLT30  (Only if the points are in effect) OPTIONAL
     copy KINGPTSG C:\PCB\GEN\BLT30G (Only if the points are in effect) OPTIONAL
     cd \pcb
     board
 There is nothing else required in this batch file.


UTILITIES

Okay now to the new Sysops. There is a program called KINGUTL4.EXE.This utility
will display the users file, print the users file, Purge users from the users
file, Verify the question file (explained later), Merge the new questions into
the question file, Create a TEXT file from the question file for editing and
rebuild the question file from a TEXT file. Since the question file is a
formatted Pascal file it may look like gibberish to you. Chosing the option
Convert to text will allow you to use any text type editor and edit the questions
or answers then rebuild the question file. All the options are in LOTUS type
menus. Select the option with the arrow keys and press return.

    The questions entered by the users go into a file called NEW_QUES.DAT.
This is a standard text file and can be edited with any text editor. Edit this
file before merging the new questions into the question file.
The format of the data is question,answer,user. That is the question followed
by a comma followed by the answer followed by a comma followed by the username.
As of this release all three (3) fields must be present. the KINGUTIL will strip
off the users name before it is merged.

    If you convert the question file into a text file the first line will be the
number of questions in the file. Example: 1147,0. There is no need to change
this record. Leave as it is the KINGUTIL will place the correct number of
questions in the first record. Why this record. The door creates a file called
NEXTQUES.DAT that contains the number of the next question. If this number
exceeds the number of questions it will reset to 2 allowing the first question
to be asked. In future release this may be removed and a editor built into the
KINGUTIL to accomadate editing of the questions. But for now this is the way
it has to be.

    PLEASE edit your new question file!!! I have had users call me long
distance to complain that they lost because of a word was entered incorrectly.
This is not MY problem. Its up to you to insure that the answers are correct.

    I beleive I have tried to cover most of the requirements of the programs.
Sample config files, batch files and questions have been included in the
package.

REGISTRATION

    If you wish to register the door it would be greatly apprecaiated. For a
mere $20.00 you can get rid of that stupid message <EVALUATION COPY> and

    $$$$ Please help the sysop Register this door $$$

    I will contact you by BBS or mail you the latest version of the door along
with a registration number. This number will turn off the messages and allow
your BBS name to be displayed on the opening and closing screens. As I stated
before this door is not Crippled in any way or form and will run forever even
if you did not register it. All monies received go back to other Door Authors
for thier doors that run on my system, the lastest version of Pascal etc. In
the past I have contacted registered sysops and uploaded the newest versions.
It has become almost impossible for me to continue this practice since there
have been so many registrations. I always have a open door for sysops on my
board. Sign in and go into my Support Confrence and you will find the latest
version of my doors there for downloading.

    Please if you have a problem with setting it up or find a bug (?) Don't
call Salt Air and gripe about it, call my board and you will get a FASTER
response. I know there are some Sysops out there that can vouch for this. I
called many Sysops voice and tried to help them out at my expense, even before
they registered the door.

    If you are a Author of a door and want to exchange registered copies let
me know. We can work out something!! I may even throw my kids into the deal!

OH! One more thing. If you have any suggestions please drop me a line. All the
changes to the door in the past year have been suggestions made by sysops who
have registered the door. I will review all suggestions and if they have any
merit I will incorporate them in the next release or so. If time permits I will
compile a list of suggestions that have not yet made it into the code for you
to review and voice your opinion on.


    I would like to take a few lines and thank those who made this door possible
Clark Development for writting the BEST BBS program out, Sam Smith for doing
such a GREAT job on the routines used in this door and to all of you that have
taken the time to register the door and have added suggestions to the door.

   I have made a request to the authors of PCBoard to be placed on the
list of 3rd party authors and software developers. Hopefully I can receive the
file layouts for 15.0 as soon as they are finialized. This will allow me to
the neccessary changes before everyone is on 15.0.

   And a special Thanks to Howard Hartman of Network East and all the sysops
who have help me test the beta release and for thier suggestions. If you have
an idea that you would like to see turn into a door. Drop me a line and we can
discuss your ideas. And maybe turn it into a door!!


   Also a VERY special thanks to Heather Broadhurst who created a question file
containing 1800 questions. This file is included with this release.

Okay here is the address to send the MILLIONS!!

Chuck Valecek
Suburban Software
P. O. Box 368
Oak Lawn, IL 60454
(708)-636-6694 (Node 1) (708)-636-6697 (Node 2) USR HST 19200
I am PcPursuitable via Chicago

Effective November 1989 our area code was changed from 312 to 708 so please make
a note of it. Oh! Please make the checks or money order payable to me not
Suburban Software. Believe it or not my bank won't cash them unless I open a
business account.