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- January 13, 1991
- Build-A-Fish 2.1
- Copyright 1991 Virginia Marine Science Museum
- Programmer - Mark C. Vang (VMSM)
-
-
- The Build-A-Fish program allows the user to define physical attributes
- of a fish and then the computer displays the fish. This program is capable
- of generating 67 different fish. Each fish is described briefly. This
- program is an interactive exhibit used on the floor of the Virginia Marine
- Science Museum.
-
- Computer requirements:
- Build-A-Fish was originally written for a 4mhz XT computer with 256K RAM.
- It has also been run on IBM compatible AT computers.
- CGA graphics capability is required.
- The program and all graphics files will occupy about 1.3 megabytes of disk
- space.
-
- Program description:
- Build-A-Fish was originally written in GWBASIC.
- It was compiled using QuickBASIC 4.5 in December of 1990 with enhancements.
- The graphics files were also updated at this time to make use of the full
- CGA color range.
-
- Program operation:
- Build-A-Fish incorporates a timeout feature which causes the program to
- return to the previous menu if the keyboard is unattended. This
- modification was included primarily for use at the Museum so that a
- patron would always start at the beginning of the program and not where the
- last patron left it. The program sets up simple timing loops to determine
- how long it will wait. Since this program was written for use on a 4mhz XT
- it was necessary to allow the user to change the timeout values. If you
- were to run this program on a 12mhz AT with the values for 4mhz, you would
- be bounced back to the main menu so fast you wouldn't know what happened.
- To change the timing values, run TIMEOUT.EXE. This program is disributed
- with the Build-A-Fish shareware package. TIMEOUT.EXE will allow you to
- enter your own values for the timing loop and then saves it in TIMEOUT.DAT
- which the Build-A-Fish program looks for when it starts out. Remember, this
- value is NOT in seconds. If the Build-A-Fish program does not find the
- TIMEOUT.DAT data file you will get a "FILE NOT FOUND" error message. Simply
- run TIMEOUT.EXE to create the file and then run Build-A-Fish. Be sure that
- you keep ALL of the Build-A-Fish programs, data files, graphics files on the
- same directory/sub-directory of your hard drive.
-
- Please see REGISTER.DOC for information on registering Build-A-Fish,
- software upgrades and a list of programs which come in the Build-A-Fish
- package BLDFSH.ZIP.
-
-