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Text File | 1992-11-27 | 17.7 KB | 390 lines

King of the Board Copyrighted June 1988,1989,1990,1991,1992 By Chuck Valecek - Suburban Software Version 8.0 November 1, 1992 BACKGROUND King of the Board started about a 4 years 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, satisfy those Sysops who wanted to use the door but could not, due to the newer modem speeds and system incompatibilities. Since the version 7 release there have been quite a few sysops that are running the door under BBS software other than PCBoard. This was a real task since the door required PCBoard files. There were converters to create the files but some sysops still had problems getting the DOOR to run correctly. Introducing version 8.0. This version is a complete rewrite of the 7.0 version. This time it supports MOST major brands of BBS Software. A list of the supported Systems are described later in this file. 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) 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. KOBG.DAT Sign on screen for King - Color Version QOBG.DAT Sign on screen for Queen - Color Version KOB.DAT Sign on screen for King - No Color QOB.DAT Sign on screen for Queen - No Color ADOPT.DAT Sample of a Adopt-a-door screen that can be used - No Color ADOPTG.DAT Sample of a Adopt-a-door screen that can be used - Color THE DOOR King is a trivia game in which users try to make it up the pyramid to the top. To accomplish this, the user must challenge 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. It's a quick game and won't 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 challenge only the 26th, 27th, and 28th positions. If he is on the grid he can only challenge 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 they get. 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 characters (!@#$$%) 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 in the correct position are replaced. There is an option that allows the sysop to choose whether he wants the game to use a point system. The point system assigns a point value to the person being challenged. The points are assigned as follows: A person 3 positions above the player is worth 2500 points. A person 2 positions above the player is worth 2000 points. A person 1 position above the player is worth 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, an 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. If you wish, this file could be copied over as a bulletin 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. That's about it for the door operation. It's simple yet fun! SETUP Most of you out there are familiar with the setup of a door. This door follows the standard setup of Doors. Since the config file has gotten so large, I have incorporated a configuration option in the KOBUTIL.EXE. It will allow you to edit or create the config file 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 or edit your existing config file. 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 KINGxxx KINGxxx.CFG 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 KINGUTIL.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 encrypted file it may look like gibberish to you. Choosing the option Convert to text will allow you to use any text type editor and edit the questions or answers, and 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. 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 accomodate 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. It's up to you to insure that the answers are correct. I believe 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. Conversion: DO NOT RUN DUMPQUES.EXE ON THE QUESTION FILE CONTAINED IN THIS PACKET DO NOT USE ANY PROGRAM FROM THE PREVIOUS VERSIONS, THEY WILL NOT WORK Either create a new directory or remove all the files except the KING.USR and QUESTION.DAT, if you create a new one then copy those files in. Run DUMPKOB.EXE - It will convert the KING.USR to a text file. Run DUMPQUES.EXE - It will dump the question file into a text file. Run BLDKOB.EXE - It will create a new QUESTION.DAT file and a new KING.USR file for the door. KOBUTIL.EXE will allow you to create a new config file or you may edit your old one the choice is yours. YOU MUST RUN THIS AS SOME OPTIONS HAVE CHANGED OR ADDED. If you get a error from the door when it executes then the CFG file was not updated for this version of the door. The KINGUTIL.EXE is all new so before you use any of the options make sure that the KING.USR and QUESTION.DAT file are properly backed up. I would recommend to all PCBoard Sysops to use the USERS.SYS file instead of the PCBOARD.SYS file. To do this go into PCBSETUP Main Conference setup. Go into the DOORS.DAT file and select the USERS.SYS file in the door setup. GENERAL CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR PCBOARD.SYS ------------------------------------------ C:\PCB\PCBOARD.SYS <=- (Full pathname of your PCBOARD.SYS file) Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR USERS.SYS ------------------------------------------ C:\PCB\USERS.SYS <=- (Full pathname of your USERS.SYS file) Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR DOOR.SYS --------------------------------------- C:\BBS\DOOR.SYS <=- (Full pathname of your DOOR.SYS file) Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR CALLINFO.BBS ------------------------------------------- C:\BBS\CALLINFO.BBS <=- (Full pathname of your CALLINFO.BBS file) Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR DORINFOx.DEF ------------------------------------------- C:\BBS\DORINFOx.DEF <=- (Full pathname of your DORINFOx.DEF file where 'x' is the BBS Node number. Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR SFDOORS.DAT ------------------------------------------ C:\BBS\SFDOORS.DAT <=- (Full pathname of your SFDOORS.DAT file) Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR CHAIN.TXT ---------------------------------------- C:\BBS\CHAIN.TXT <=- (Full pathname of your CHAIN.TXT file) Suburban Software <=- (Change this to your BBS name) Chuck <=- (The Sysop's first name) Valecek <=- (The Sysop's last name) NOTE: This Door supports COM 1-4 on the standard IRQ's - COM1/COM3 = IRQ4 and COM2/COM4 = IRQ3. If you wish to use a non-standard IRQ, add the IRQ number after the configuration filename. Let's assume your Door is called KING and you want to use COM1 and IRQ5. The command line passed to your Door would be: KING KING.CFG /5 or KING KING.CFG /%IRQ% for the environment variable. The /5 tells the Door to use IRQ5 rather than the standard IRQ4 that is normally used with COM1. No /x parameter is needed for the standard IRQ's. ============== ------------------------------------ DOOR OPERATION -------------- F3 - Toggles the printer On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard. F4 - Toggles the Page Bell On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard. F5 - DOS Shell. Allows SysOp to exit to DOS from inside a DOOR. F7 - Toggles the Caller Alarm On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard. F8 - Returns the caller involuntarily to PCBoard. Without letting them know that the sysop called them back! F9 - Toggles the local display On/Off. Value is passed to PCBoard. F10 - Activates SysOp CHAT mode within the DOOR. ESC - Deactivates CHAT mode. DOOR is resumed. HOME - HELP key for status line options. UP - Allows the SysOp to temporarily give the caller extra time while in the DOOR. This time is NOT passed to PCBoard. DN - Allows the SysOp to temporarily subtract time from the caller while in the DOOR. This time is NOT passed to PCBoard. ALT-N - SysOp next on toggle. Value is passed to PCBoard. ALT-X - PCBoard will exit after current caller logs off. Value is passed to PCBoard. WATCHDOG/CTTY/ANSI.SYS ---------------------- CTTY and WATCHDOG are not required and should not be used with this program. The Door contains its own communication routines which monitor the COM port. If carrier is lost, it will return to system where the BBS will log the user off the system. ANSI.SYS, or something similar, is required for the door to function properly! Thats it for now I would like to take a few lines and thank those who made this door possible: Clark Development for writing the BEST BBS program out, Ted Freeman 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. And a special Thanks to Howard Hartman of Network East, Heather Broadhurst for the edited question file, Israel Silverman, Sysop of The Round Table BBS for editing this doc file so it is more "readable" and to 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!! REGISTRATION If you wish to register the door it would be greatly appreciated. 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 their doors that run on my system. 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. Please direct all complaints about the door to my wife, I am trying to get even with here!!! All the changes to the door in the past years 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. 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 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.