THE GREAT AMERICAN FOOTBALL FORECASTER B & V ELECTRONICS SHAREWARE VERSION 2.0 Released Sep, 1991 Contents 1. Introduction 2. How to Use A. Main Menu B. Update C. Prediction D. Team Stats E. View 3. Files Included 4. Some More General Information 5. History of GAFF 6. Shareware Information 7. Whats Next 8. Final Notes 9. Bug Report (Oh, Oh) 1. INTRODUCTION This program is being released into shareware with the usual stipulations, they will be explained later in this document. The Great American Football Forecaster (GAFF) is a easy to use semi-self updating football prediction program that "learns" how the team performs. To use, enter in the teams that will be playing, save the predictions for updating next week. On the following week enter the actual scores in the update area, then repeat the prediction process. The program automatically keeps track of some of the team stats as well. For a more detailed explanation see How to Use. The program is designed to follow a process for the most accurate results (about 70 - 75%) accurate in the past few years. For best results use this program every week. GAFF is an intelligent program, if you skip a few weeks of predictions, then start up the program again it will eventually compensate for the lag time. This program is designed for REGULAR SEASON USE ONLY!! You can use it for pre-season and playoffs but this will lead to a little less accurate results for a short time. *** NEW Features, check for the stars (***) for new documented features. *** MOUSE SUPPORT IS HERE! Click with the left mouse button on your choice in the menus or click on the right mouse button to abort operation and return to main. Note:mouse works slightly different in Update mode. *** 2. HOW TO USE I feel this is a fairly easy to use program with self explanation (and HELP) in the program. Try getting your feet wet and play around with it. Then come back and read this information when you want/need to. The 1st Weeks Process Flow. Select Predictions from the Main Menu. Select the teams that will be playing each other. Save the predictions. You can View the Forecast at this time if you wish. Wait until next week to the start the standard process flow. The Standard Process Flow. Select Update from the Main Menu. Verify the Week of Regular Season Play. You will be prompted to enter in the actual scores for each game. Save this information to get the stats up to date. Select Predictions from the Main Menu. Select the teams that will be playing each other. Save the predictions for use in Updating next week. ***NEW F1=HELP: Press the F1 key for HELP in the Main Menu, Prediction, Team Stats or Update areas. You can also click on the word HELP using the left mouse button. *** *** ESCAPE : Press the ESCape key or click the right mouse button to abort the current operation and return to the main menu. Note: when in Update mode the mouse has some different functions. *** A. MAIN MENU The Main Menu is made up of 5 choices, Update, Prediction, Team Stats, View Forecast and Exit. Press the Highlighted Letter of the choice(U,P,T,V,E) to execute, or Click on the choice using the left mouse button. Click on HELP or press F1 for Help. B. UPDATE *** NEW number entry system: To enter in numbers when in Update mode, use the following keys: + Increment number by 1 (or click left mouse button) - Decrement number by 1 (or click right mouse button) PAGE UP Increment number by 10 PAGE DN Decrement number by 10 Press Enter when number is correct. *** When you go into Update the first thing that happens is that the data is reread into the program to insure accuracy. You will be asked to verify the Week number. If it's correct press or click on Y if not press or click on N and you will prompted to correct it. Next you will be prompted to enter the number of points scored by a team, then you'll be prompted to enter the number of points scored by there opponents. You'll need to verify that information, if it's incorrect you may enter it again. At this time you can press ESCape to Abort the Update mode and not Save or make any changes to data. If everything's OK press or click on Y and you'll go through the process again until all the games have the scores. Then press or click on Y to Save the information (in order to update the stats) for next week. C. PREDICTION Here's where you build your forecast. Enter in the Visiting Teams letter/number or click on the teams name of the game you want predicted. Enter, in the Home Teams letter/number or click on the teams name, press or click on Y to verify. The prediction will be displayed, press or click on Y to make another prediction or N to quit. After the total amount of games is entered you will get a message that the prediction buffer is full. (You may Save Predictions before the buffer is full) Press or click on Y to Save the predictions into the prediction buffer file, or N to quit. ***NEW Warning: If a team has been picked more than once in the same session. Allows you to still pick the team though. *** D. TEAM STATS ***NEW All Team Stats, Overall Rankings: Now get the Win/Loss/Tie record of all teams on one screen. Under individual team stats get more complete information including the Overall Team Rank. (1-28, 1 being best). Note: if 2 or more teams are tied they may have the same rank. *** Enter the Team Letter/Number or Click (left mouse button) on the Team you wish to view stats on. The current stats will be displayed. Enter Y to view another team or N to quit,(or Click on Y or N). Team Stats include: Week Number, Win, Loss, Tie, Point For (how many they racked up), Points Against (how many teams racked up against them), Winning Percentage and Team Ranking. You may use the print screen to get a hard copy of team stats or any other screen. E. VIEW FORECAST Select from the Main Menu and View the Predictions that you made earlier. Press Any Key or Click on the left or right mouse button to return to Main. You may use the print screen to get a hard copy of the Forecast. F. EXIT Select this and it's "That's All Folks" for you. 3. FILES INCLUDED The following files are included in this package, as you can see I believe in making backups. GAFF2.EXE - The main program, does all the work. GAFF2.TXT - This documentation file. NEWGAFF2.TXT -List of several NEW features. TEAMINFO.DAT - Stores all the team information, statistical data. TEAMINFO.BAK - Backup file of TEAMINFO.DAT, created automatically by GAFF every time used. PREBUF.DAT - Stores the prediction information saved by you after making predictions. PREBUF.BAK - Backup file of PREBUF.DAT, created automatically by GAFF every time used. BOS.DAT - Beginning of Season copy of the Teaminfo.dat file. Not normally used unless you have a major loss of data. HELP1.GAF to HELP4.GAF - 4 Help Files, used On-Line. 4. SOME MORE GENERAL INFORMATION The auto-backups of the above files takes place at the start of the GAFF program. This feature was put in, in case you saved a file when you shouldn't have or one becomes corrupted. If this does happen, exit out of GAFF. DO NOT re-run GAFF yet. Either rename or copy the filename.bak to the filename.dat, then rerun GAFF and everything should be OK. As GAFF does read and write to the disk, this program works faster on a hard drive then a floppy. Also keep all of the above files in the same directory or the program will not be able to find them. The BOS.DAT file is not necessary to run this program. It is only there if your files become really corrupted. If you use this program on a weekly basis you will have the most accurate information and the best results. The more you use it the more accurate it will become. Sometimes it may take a few weeks for this program to settle down on some teams, due to blowouts etc. 5. HISTORY OF GAFF GAFF actually started out several years ago when I bought my first computer, a Commodore 128. The program was very, very basic, since then I added a few features and it has grown. With help from my partner in B & V Electronics we made the program ready for release for the Commodore 64/128 computers. The preliminary copies people liked but soon the Commodore field basically died. We had learned quite a bit by this time. I bought a IBM/CLONE AT 286 computer a year or so ago, yes we finally moved up. I recently decided to knock off the dust on our Commodore version of this program and revamp it for release on the IBM/CLONE computers. This is my first release on an IBM type computer. Based on various versions of the Commodore release we calculated this program to be about 70% - 75% accurate. The big thing this program CAN NOT do is know when a key player is injured, figure out how the weather may effect the game or any other similar circumstance. This program will give you a base idea of the outcome. You may want to add a point here or there for other factors. There is a slight home field advantage factor built in. 6. SHAREWARE INFORMATION You may NOT make any modifications to this program. You may copy this program (with all the files included) and give it to other computer users/football fans. If you use this program on a fairly regular basis, say 1/4 of a season or more please register it. The registration fee is $7.00 I feel that this is fair. To Register send your name, address, program name, version number and registration fee to: Craig Burgess P.O. Box 216 Kensington, MD. 20895 7. WHATS NEXT? Things to look for in future versions: Automatic Prediction Mode - This may change??? Team Stats Comparisons Your Inputs - ??????? Let me know. 8. FINAL NOTES If NFL rules change or (heaven forbid) bugs are found I will correct/make the appropriate changes and release a new version ASAP. I will not require re-registration of previous registered users for bug fix/rule change versions. If any other changes come up I will release new versions to cover them. 9. BUG REPORTS Version 1.0 - Update Bug (Fixed in Version 1.1) Version 1.1 - Points For/Against - Bug caused some of this info. to be incorrect, though this did not effect anything else (win/loss records or updates) (Fixed in Version 2.0) Note:This bug was a non-reported bug. If you have any comments, send them to the address mentioned above or drop me some email on America On-Line (Screen-Name: Craigbomb). Later All - Have a Happy Football Season, Craig Burgess