*************** Introduction to Excalibur! ********************************* Excalibur! is a unique BBS game in a medieval setting. Players enter the kingdom of Excalibur! and start out in the city of Camelot, where they may joust for gold, purchase knights or traveling potions, check their status, and many other things. They can go questing for adventure and riches, where- upon they venture away from Camelot into the deserts, mountains, plains, for- ests, swamps, and other cities of the kingdom, which is built upon a 260 square map. As the players explore the kingdom, their map is revealed to them one square at a time. Each type of terrain is fraught with its own dangers and/or rewards. A player can capture cities, defend them, and collect taxes from them on a daily basis. Once a player builds enough strength, he or she can challenge the existing monarch for the throne, and if successful, will become the new ruler, collecting taxes from the other players and holding court within Camelot. The game can be played by up to fifty players. The players can send private messages to one another to plot strategies, while the ruler and the sysop also have the power to post public messages within the game. ************EXCALIBUR! II INSTALLATION AND INFORMATION********************** **** LICENSING INFORMATION **** First, let's get the legal aspect out of the way. Excalibur! II and its associated software Copyright (c) 1990 Richard L. Chism are protected by US and international copyright laws. You are granted the right to use Excalibur! II on your BBS for trial purposes only, and to distribute this demonstration version in its entirety for demon- stration purposes as long as the files have not been modified. The author is not liable for damages to hardware or software related to the use of this game. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sorry to put you through that, but you know how the world is these days. If you use the game beyond a period of 21 days, I assume that you and your users enjoy the game, and I would appreciate registration so that I can afford to provide additional fun and/or useful software. If you register, I will send you a personalized version of the game along with an editor so that you can modify your player files, and a mapmaker so that you can create a person- alized map of the kingdom. For more information on registration, type O at either the Camelot menu or the Questing menu. ************************ INSTALLATION INFORMATION ********************** **** WWIV **** To install the game on a WWIV BBS version 4.10 or greater, edit your chains. Create a new chain as follows: A. Description : Excalibur! II B. Filename : XCALIBR2.EXE %1 C. SL : (Whatever you want) D. AR : (Whatever you want) E. ANSI : Optional F. DOS Interrupt: Not Used <== This should SAY "Not Used" G. 300 Baud : (Whatever you want, I recommend against it.) H. Shrink : Yes **** BBS Systems using DORINFO1.DEF user files **** For systems which use DORINFO1.DEF to pass user information, simply use the command XCALIBR2 The game will automatically look for a DORINFO1.DEF file in your BBS root directory. If the DORINFO1.DEF file is in another directory, you must specify the complete path as an argument. For example: XCALIBR2 C:\ALTDIR\DORINFO1.DEF For information on how the game distinguishes between the WWIV CHAIN.TXT file format and the DORINFO1.DEF file format, see the section on Running the Game Locally Without the BBS (below). ***** EASY INSTALLATION ***** The easiest way to install EXCALIBUR! II is to UNZIP all the files into a single directory. While in that directory, type INSTALL followed by the path to your BBS root directory ( e.g. INSTALL C:\BBS ), and the batch file will prompt you for the required information and copy all files into the required directories. ***** MORE DIFFICULT INSTALLATION ***** If you do NOT want to run the installation program to install EXCALIBUR! II, then follow the instructions below: Place the file XCALIBR2.EXE in your BBS subdirectory (the one that contains the executable BBS file). Create a subdirectory of your BBS directory called XC2. For example, if your BBS executable file is in C:\BBS, then create C:\BBS\XC2 Copy all the files with the extension .XCL into the newly created XC2 subdirectory. ************** RUNNING THE GAME LOCALLY WITHOUT THE BBS ******************** The game will run as a stand-alone if you type in XCALIBR2 XXXXXXXX.TXT for a WWIV formatted user file (XXXXXXXX can be any eight characters -- the .TXT extension tells EXCALIBUR! II that the file is in CHAIN.TXT format). For a user file in DORINFO1.DEF format, type XCALIBR2 XXXXXXXX.YYY where XXXXXXXX is the name of the user file and YYY is any extension other than TXT. In either case, the referenced chain file must exist on the same directory as the XCALIBR2.EXE file unless the entire path is specified along with the name of the user file. **** INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE CREATION **** If you would like a brief message to your players to be typed out as they log on to the game, place the text in a file called XC2NOTE.XCL in the XC2 subdirectory with the other *.XCL files. **** TOP TEN LISTING **** If you want to print out the top ten players in Excalibur! II on your BBS, use the file XC2STATS.ANS in your BBS directory for a color listing, or use XC2STATS.TXT for a non-ANSI listing. **** FILE HOUSEKEEPING **** The following files are associated with the game. B = Binary, A = ASCII XCALIBR2.EXE B The executable file. QUESTHLP.XCL A Instructions available while you are questing. INSTRUCT.XCL A Instructions available from within Camelot. USERS.XCL B The players and their associated maps and data. COUNTIES.XCL B The map and information about the various fiefs. XC2NOTE.XCL A OPTIONAL. If present, is displayed at start of game. JOUSTERS.XCL A The opponents you face when you go jousting. INTRO.XCL A The introductory screen. MAINMENU.XCL A The menu available in Camelot (for non-expert mode). QUESTION.XCL B Questions the Warlock will ask if you want an amulet. JOUST.XCL A The results of the jousting matches, selected at random. TEXTMSG.XCL A Various messages which will be printed in the game. TEXTMSG1.XCL A More messages used throughout the game. WIDEMENU.XCL A The Camelot menu for 80 character screens. MONARCHS.XCL B Auto created. Listing of the kings and dates of reign. ORDERING.XCL A How to order Excalibur! (PLEASE leave this for my sake!) MESSAGES.XCL B Auto created. Messages between players, announcements. PENALTYS.XCL B Auto created. Record of penalties exacted by the king. THUGS.XCL B Auto created. Record of highwaymen and cutpurses hired. XC2STATS.ANS A Auto created. Color listing of the top ten players. XC2STATS.TXT A Auto created. Ascii listing of the top ten players. You may also see some other temporary files in your XC2 subdirectory which will have the prefix OLD or NEW or the extension BAK. These are remnants of file cleanup operations and are not required for the game. They will be rewritten or written over as required. Best bet is to just ignore them, except for the following: USERS.BAK B The previous record of the USERS.XCL file. COUNTIES.BAK B The previous record of the COUNTIES.XCL file. You may need to rename these to their current counterparts in case of a disaster. HAPPY QUESTING! Richard L (Rick) Chism The Party Line BBS California Wino 2@7757 Mountaintop, PA (717) 868-5435 3/12/24/96 HST/v.32/v.42 August 7, 1992