ANT RAID 1.00 The Last of the Picnic Breakfasts! By Neale Davidson / 29 December 1993 With special thanks to the following lot of people: Steve Ames, Joe Drasin, Daniel Lawrence, Steve Lorenz "Shareware is for everyone but registration is for those who want more!" (c)1993/1994 CIOE Corp * Introduction This one is a wierd one. ANT RAID is a strategy game where players control their colonies and attempt to kill the queens of their opponents. Opposing players scour the earth for food, and use their soldier ants to attack opposing workers and queens. The queens hatch new ants to bolster forces. * Unpacking Ant Raid When you first recieve ANT RAID, it's generally in the form of a compressed file. That means, it's usually a ZIP, ARC, or ARJ file. You must first decompress the individual files this archive file into the same directory. This is usually accomplised through a command like 'PKUNZIP ANT100.ZIP'. For more help on archive files, refer to the indivual decompression files. If you are installing onto an earlier release of the game, you must still uncompress the new files over your old version. Your GAMEMAP.DAT file, the game in progress, will not be overwritten, enabling players to continue with their games without interruption Manifest * Manifest A manifest of the files which should be included in your registered package follows. INS*.TXT - On-line instructions ANTRAID.EXE - The Door Executable ANT01.ANS.RIP - Welcome screen ANT02.ANS.RIP - Game Full screen ANT03.ANS.RIP - Loser's screen ANT04.ANS.RIP - Winner's screen ANT05.ANS.RIP - Out Of Turns screen ANTICONS.ZIP - Rip Icon Files If you already have a DOOR.CFG file for the game, you will not need to create a new one. Otherwise, follow the directions as follows for the creation of a DOOR.CFG file. The DOOR.CFG needs to be created in the same directory as the door files. This configuration file tells the door about your BBS setup. Line 1 - Door file type Line 2 - Door file path Line 3 - Sysop Name Line 4 - BBS Name Line 5 - Locked Baud Rate Line 6 - Path to DSZ.EXE Line 7 - Turns per day The door file type is specified on line one and can be any one of the following: GAP - DOOR.SYS PCB - PCBOARD.SYS RBBS - DORINFO1.DEF WC - CALLINFO.DEF SF TRIBBS WWIV The second line informs the door where to find the door user file, (DOOR.SYS, USERS.DAT or DORINFO1.DEF). This is only the path to the file, do not include the filename itself. The third line is reserved for the BBS name. It is important that this line be correct, because the registration key looks here for the BBS name. The forth is for the name of the sysop to your BBS. If the sysop locks the baud rate on his modem, that rate must be specified on line five. If the baud rate isn't specified, then a '0' must be entered for the line. If you have a high-speed modem and experience problems, you may wish to set the "locked" baud rate to your modem speed, regardless if the modem is truly locked or not. The sixth line tells Ant Raid where to find the DSZ program. Be sure to include both the path and program name on the line. Majyk Empires uses DSZ for auto-downloading of Icons, as well as sending the map and events files. If you do not wish to use DSZ, or do not have that program available, then leave this line blank. The seventh line is the number of turns per day each player is allotted. If this line is ommitted, the game defaults to three turns per day. It's generally a good idea to keep this value between one and five. The following is a sample door configuration file for a WildCat! 3.0 BBS using DSZ: GAP C:\WC30\GAMES\ANTRAID CIOE InfOrder Joseph Drasin 19200 C:\WC30\DSZ.EXE 5 Ant Raid can also be run locally outside of the BBS by adding '/L' after the configuration file parameter in the DOS command line. The local user will then be prompted to enter his name. Nonstandard IRQs can be used with the door by specifying the IRQ after the configuration parameter in the command line. Lastly, the door will automatically detect if RipTerm or Ansi is available, ignoring the values passed by the door config file. This was done to allow the door to be played on BBS systems which may or not have Rip available. If, for some reason, Ant Raid cannot detect either ANSI or RipTerm, the user is prompted to force either ANSI or RipTerm sequences. Users should only do this if they do indeed have either ANSI or RipTerm, but did not have their terminal options properly detected. Users must have either RipTerm or an ANSI-compatible terminal program in order to play. Once the config file is set up, the door can usually be executed with the DOS command ANTRAID DOOR.CFG. This will usually be placed within a batch file such as the following: C: CD C:\DOORS\ANTRAID ANTRAID.EXE DOOR.CFG CD C:\BBS The door will initialize itself when the first player successfully logs in. This will automatically create a GAMEDAT.MAP file. Deleting this file will reset the game. Two other files will be created as users take their turn. The first is the WORLD.MAP file, which is a text file showing the world's armies, cities, and terrain. RIP users can download this file to get a better view of the world situation. The second file is the EVENTS.DAT file, which details the use of spells, combats, builds, and special events in the game. RIP users may also download this file during the game. * RIP Graphics For RIP players, a set of icon files must be provided for download. These icons are the unit and flag displays on the map field. The map will be unreadable without them. Ant Raid will attempt to detect the icons on the user's terminal. If it cannot find them, the game will default to ANSI mode. If DSZ exists on the path (according to the DOOR.CFG file). Users are given the option of downloading the icons from within Majyk Empires. For this to work properly, DSZ must be available on the path and ANTICONS.ZIP must be in the game directory. If you do not wish to support auto-downloading, or do not have DSZ, please place the included ANTICONS.ZIP file available for public download. * Game Play See the attached INS*.TXT files for information on how to play the game. * Game Map File At the end of every turn, a text-version world map is produced, which reveals all foodstuffs and ants. This file can be provided for download by the Sysop, or can be downloaded by RIP users directly by using DSZ support. * Inactive Players Players who leave their ants unattended for more than fourteen days will have their empires removed from their control. You never allow ants to roam free for long! * Version History 1.00 - 29 December 1993 First version release. * Registration Information Ant Raid is not cripple-ware. What you have is a full playable door game with many options. That said, registration gives you MORE options, as well as removes the "This game is UNREGISTERED" notice at the beginning of the game. Registered users also recieve news about upgrades and other products in our newsletter. Without registration, several features of the game have been turned off, such as cannibilizing enemy units, and the creation of new queens. This doesn't hurt the play of the game, though it does limit the options available to players. Use the enclosed registration form to register your software today! Registration is $15.00 ($5 shpping) and can be sent via US Mail. Credit Cards are accepted either by Voice or OnLine on our network. * Technical Support If you have any questions about Ant Raid or any other CIOE products, you can reach us by mail, voice, or by our network system. CIOE InfOrder 207 North Street, Suite 102 West Lafayette IN 47906 Voice: (317)743-3487 BBS: (317)743-4487 14.4K N81