ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 Shareware Freeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)

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Text File | 1991-06-05 | 18.0 KB | 367 lines

RUN FOR THE MONEY! A Horse Racing Simulator version 1.09 by Bob Sewell Copyright (C) 1991 All Rights Reserved Documentation for the SysOp Overview: --------- Run For The Money! is a horse racing game where your users can really get involved in each race, almost as if she or he were at a real track! The user can view each horse and jockey, see their strengths and weaknesses, look at the horse's past racing record, and check the odds on the horse. This lets the user make a more intelligent choice on which horse to bet. The players can look at the bets placed by the other players, and see the total bets placed on each horse. He or she can watch a "video tape" of the race(s) to see exactly how each horse performed, and view the scores of the fifteen wealthiest players, i.e., the high scores. As sysop, you have the option of running the race(s) once every day, every other day, or every three days. Which ever you choose, the first user to log on to RFTM! on race day automatically triggers a process that runs the race(s), calculates the scores of each player, writes the high scores files, then sets up the next race(s). This takes a little extra time, but the faster your computer, the less time this process takes. This is an updated version to the original version 1.03, released January 1991. The major cause for this update is to allow systems with locked comm ports to run the game, by using the fossil driver only for communications to remote users. Other changes have been made. Please see the history file for complete details. Commercial: ----------- RFTM! is BonusWare, not CrippleWare, or DemoWare. The game is fully functional without being registered, and does not contain a "time-bomb". It will run one race per race day, using five of the first ten horses and jockeys in the respective .DTA files, randomly selected for that one race. Except for some hints at the beginning and end of the game, and the "user info box" that shows three possible bets, your users will not know the difference between your copy being registered or not. However, as an incentive for a $10 registration fee, I will send you, via U.S. mail, a registration code to be plugged into the RMCONFIG.DTA file. This code is derived by doing some off-the-wall calculations based on the SysOp names it finds in the RMCONFIG.DTA file, and, if valid, will allow three races to be held each race day instead of just one. It will also use all thirty horses and jocks to select from, rather than just the first ten. This game has taken a lot of work (and nearly caused a divorce!). I hope you will find it enjoyable enough to register. I'll be a lot less grumpy about supporting it and sending out updates if you do. Use the form at the end of these docs to register. It is very important to spell your name EXACTLY as it appears in the RMCONFIG.DTA file, so that I send you the correct code. Your registration code will work for all future (if any) enhanced versions of RFTM!. System Requirements: ------------------- Computer: IBM Compatible PC, PC XT, PC AT, etc. with at least 512K Ram. | RFTM! will use around 120K to run. | Modem: Hopefully, any modem will do. This game now runs through your | FOSSIL driver. Therefore, it should work with any comm port | address, locked or unlocked, as this is transparent to the game. | Fossil: This game now requires the use of a fossil driver. Hard Disk: is preferable, but RFTM! can be run from a 360K floppy disk. Color Monitor: You and the players must have the ANSI.SYS driver installed. This game depends heavily upon ANSI escape sequences, especially for the animated races. Improved ANSI emmulators should also work fine. Setting Up RFTM!: ---------------- The RFTMxxxx.LZH file should include the following files: RMONEY.EXE - The executable program. RMCONFIG.DTA - The initial configuration file. More on this later. RMHORSES.DTA - Data for all thirty horses. RMJOCKS.DTA - Data for all thirty jockeys. RMLOGO.SCN - The start-up screen. RMMENU.SCN - The menu screen. RMTRACK.SCN - The race-track screen. RMROUTES.DTA - Map, tells the horses how to navigate the track. RMPLAYER.DOC - On-line documentation for the players. RMSYSOP.DOC - You're lookin' at it. 1) Unarc these files into any subdirectory. They must all reside in the same directory! This is very important, for if any file is missing, the game will blow up in somebody's face, and put egg on your's or mine. Files that will be created by RFTM! are: RMSETUP.DTA - Contains needed information for the upcoming race(s). RMPLAYER.DTA - Contains info on the players, names, bets, etc. RMRESULT.RC1 - Results and history info of the previous race #1. RMRESULT.RC2 - Same as the above file, for race #2. RMRESULT RC3 - Same as the above file, for race #3. RMSCORES.ANS - High scores ANSI screen. Its path\filename is optional. RMSCORES.ASC - High scores ASCII screen. Its path\filename is optional. RMERROR.LOG - Run-time errors for troubleshooting. Hopefully this file will never be created! 2) Change into the subdirectory where RFTM! resides, e.g., if you copied RFTM! into the subdirectory C:\BBS\GAMES, then at the DOS command prompt you would type: CD\BBS\GAMES <Enter> 3) Run the SETUP option of RFTM!, by typing: RMONEY SETUP <Enter> The setup option will ask you for some info about your board and how you want to set up RFTM! to run. Each question has a default answer, shown in square brackets. To keep the default, just press the <Enter> key. Otherwise, type in the new information for the question and hit <Enter>. It would be wise to have your answers in mind before you run setup. The info needed will be: The name of your board. Your first name. ──┬──> NOTE: The two names here will be the name Your last name. ───┘ under which the game will be registered. Make sure the spelling matches with the names you registered this game under, though the game is case-insensitive. Path\filename of the ANSI high score file. Path\filename of the ASCII high score file. Registration code. Frequency of race days. 1 = every day, 2 = every other day, 3 = every third day Note: For a neater appearance, use lower-case letters with caps for the first letters in the bbs name and sysop's names, for example, "No Particular BBS" and "Bob Sewell". The next step in the setup process is game initialization. If this is the first time you've set this game up on your system, you MUST answer yes to the "continue initialization?" prompt. This process will create the RMSETUP.DTA file, the three RMRESULT.RCx files, and will create the high scores files. The RMRESULT.RCx files will contain only zeros at first, until the first races are run. If you have had RFTM! running on your system already, you probably will want to skip this step, as it will create totally new races that will not match the ones that your users have already placed bets on. Hit the <N> key to just say no. If you hit yes instead, and wipe out the races that your users have bets on, you'll need to manually delete the RMPLAYER.DTA file and let the players start from scratch. If you've been running RFTM! for a while and decide to register it, you'll need to run the setup process again to enter your registration key-number into the RMCONFIG.DTA file. Just hit <Enter> to default through all the prompts except the "Registration Code" prompt. If your code contains letters of the alphabet, you may use upper- or lower-case letters. RFTM! is case-insensitive. Running RFTM!: ------------- To run RFTM!, change into the subdirectory where the program resides, and type (or have your batch file do it): RMONEY <option> [fossil switches] where <option> can be one of six arguments: SETUP - The game setup we've already discussed. LOCAL - To run RFTM! from outside the BBS environment. X:\PATHNAME\PCBOARD.SYS - The complete path\filename to your pcboard.sys file. NOTE! This game only reads pcboard.sys files that are PCBOARD 14, not 12!!! X:\PATHNAME\DORINFOx.DEF - The complete path\filename to your dorinfox.def file. X:\PATHNAME\CALLINFO.BBS - The complete path\filename to your callinfo.bbs file. | X:\PATHNAME\DOOR.SYS - The complete path\filename to your door.sys | file. NOTE: This is the drop file produced by | GAP bbs. | and [fossil switches] can be one of the following two: | /INIT - forces the game to initialize the modem. The game will not do this | by default. Unless this option is specified, it will assume the | fossil has not been de-initialized when you bbs drops to DOS. | /CTS - tells the modem to use CTS/RTS hardware handshaking. If you need | to use this option, you MUST use the /INIT as well. | /B:xxxxx - the baud rate your modem is locked at. This option is probably | not needed, but I threw it in anyway. If you find you must use | it, then you MUST use the /INIT option also. | NOTE: Bulletin board software and modems are not created equally. If your | users get garbage when running this game, try different combinations | of the above fossil switches until it works. This game only recognizes version 14 PCBOARD.SYS file, the DORINFOx.DEF format from QuickBBS/Remote Access, CALLINFO.BBS from Wildcat! BBS, and DOOR.SYS from GAP Bulletin Board System, for reading the user information from your board. If your BBS software doesn't write one of the above, use a converter program to generate one. These converter programs can be found almost anywhere. Just make sure it can read your software's user file and be able to write one of the four formats of user-info files listed above. Example #1: Your system uses the DORINFOx.DEF format for it's user files, and it writes it into a directory called C:\BBS\USER. When a user chooses to run RFTM! from your board, your board should exit and execute a batch file similar to the following: CD\BBS\GAMES ; change to the games subdirectory. RMONEY C:\BBS\USER\DORINFO1.DEF ; run RFTM!, telling it what user-file ; to use and where to find it. CD\ ; change back to the root directory. EXIT ; exit DOS shell to the bulletin board. Example #2: Your bbs drops the DOOR.SYS file into a directory called E:\GAP, you have the RFTM! files in D:\DOORS\RFTM, and your modem is locked at 19200 baud. Your bbs menu might exit to DOS and execute the following batch file: D: ; make drive D: the default drive. CD\DOORS\RFTM ; change to the rftm directory. RMONEY E:\GAP\DOOR.SYS /INIT /B:19200 ; call RFTM!, giving it the pathname ; to the user drop file, telling it ; to initialize the fossil at 19200. CD\ ; change to the root directory. E: ; go back to the E: drive. EXIT ; exit DOS shell to your bbs. Of course, these batch files will need modifying for use on your system, but it'll give you the basic idea. RFTM! is case-insensitive as far as the command line goes. Typing in "RMONEY Local" is the same as "RmOnEy LoCaL". Questions and Answers: ---------------------- Q. When I get my Registration Code, does it matter when I put it into my RMCONFIG.DTA file? A. No. If the players already have bets on the current race when you enter your code, the game will recognize that it can now run three races, but it will only operate on the current race until the next race day. At that time, it will set up three races that your user can bet on, but before that time, their bets on the current race will not be affected. Q. What is the final object to this game? A. The object is for the players to try to out-score the other players. The scores are cleared on the first race day of each month, and the high scorer for that month is recognized in the high scores bulletin. On the first race day of each year the horse histories are cleared. Q. Can I manually alter the RMCONFIG.DTA file with a text editor? A. Sure! Just keep everything in the proper order that RFTM! expects, and you shouldn't have any problems. Q. Can I edit any of the other data files? A. Yes, and no. While you can get away with changing the names of the horses and jockeys, don't mess around with the numbers that follow the names, or unpredictable things might happen! If you get into trouble by altering any of the data, just restore them from the original RFTMxxxx.ZIP file. NOTE: If you do change the horse's and/or jock's names, keep the horse's names at 16 characters or less, and the jockey's at twelve characters or less. Q. Where can I get updates to this game? A. Since I don't run my own board, I get local sysops to hatch this thing out onto the Door Distribution System. It can be Freq'd from Strawberry Fields BBS, 1:116/6000, and The RX Shop, 1:116/5000, both at HST speeds. If you have other questions, or comments, write me or call me voice at: Bob Sewell (615) 391-4221 5200 Dove Trail after 5:00pm weekdays (CST) Hermitage, TN 37076 9:00am to 9:00pm weekends (CST) You may also reach me for questions or comments through the DoorWare echo, or the DDS echo, thanks to Glen Harness and Strawberry Fields BBS. If you have problems, please make sure you have read all of this documentation before you call or write me. You may find the answer here, and will save me some time, and yourself some long distance phone charges. Special Thanks: --------------- I'd like to thank the following people who helped me in different ways to get this, my first on-line game, off the ground: John Sewell, my brother, who's knowledge of statistical mathematics and endless patience with me helped me to understand the formulas which give the odds on the horses. James Fair, sysop of The Fishing Hole, for suggestions, technical help with bulletin board door files, for letting me (ab)use his BBS by testing my program there, and for aid in distribution. Glen Harness, sysop of Strawberry Fields, for allowing me to test this game on his board (more abuse), for many excellent suggestions, and for aid in distribution. Steve Barber, sysop of The Gamer's Connection, for testing this game on his board (yet more abuse), and for suggestions. Robert McCullough, sysop of the Workbench BBS, for technical help and text files that answered a lot of questions about door programs. Neal McClain, Jason Bennett, Charles Ligon, Jack Smith, Danny Mingle for technical help with BBS software and door programs. A host of others for suggestions, comments, and help with the testing. Warranties: ----------- The author gives no warranties, neither expressed nor implied, regarding the use of this software, or the suitability of this software for any purpose for which the user may operate the software. The author assumes no liability for any damages resulting from the use of this software, or the inability to use the software, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. You are free to copy and distribute this software and the files which accompanies it in unmodified form, as long as no monies are charged for this distribution, except for a reasonable fee to cover the cost of the media and/or shipping costs. Registration: ------------- To register, just fill out this form and send it, along with a check or money order for $10 written to Bob Sewell, at the address listed on the previous page. - Detach on the dotted line - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob, my users and I find your Run For The Money! 1.09 program amusing enough to send $10 for my personal Registration Code number, so we can race more horses and more races. Please send it to: Name: ___________________________________ (Spelling MUST MATCH the name in your RMCONFIG.DTA file) Street Address: _____________________________________________ Apt.# _________ City, State, Zip Code: _______________________________________________________ Bulletin Board Name: ____________________________________ FidoNET mail Address: ______________ Comments, critiques, and or suggestions (all are welcome!) ___________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________