****************************************************************** PD (Prize Door) by Peter Francis Deane Version 2.0 was 15 June 1991 Version 2.1 25 November 1994 Manual $VER: 2.1 (25-Nov-94) ****************************************************************** Intro ~~~~~ Well, here it is, a PRIZE DOOR, just like the Remote Access (QBBS) Q-Prize, only (I reckon) BETTER!! This door will select a number and then ask the users to guess it. If they DO get it they can be credited with a number of Uploads or Public Message Posts, or an extra amount of time for this call. It supports full ANSI graphics, and has menus made up with ANSIMaster using lots of nice IBM graphics characters. Files ~~~~~ Okay, firstly check to make sure you've got all the files... This version needs only these 2 files to start up: * door.exe The compiled door program * pd.config Configuration file for the door (You should also have the docs and the source code in ASCII format for future reference). Setup ~~~~~ Okay, let's start with the easiest first... In your doorfiles1 (or doorfiles2...) directory, create a new directory called DOORxxx (where xxx is a number you have available). Copy to this directory the files marked with an asterisk in the above list. (All of them, nearly!). In fact, you may as well copy the lot into this directory.. no harm done! Make a new entry in your BBSFILES/doorcmds1 (2,...) file so the users can then get to the door! Config ~~~~~~ This program has a config file, so you can change things to work the way YOU want them. Here's my pd.config (the line numbers are for reference only and do NOT form part of the config): ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1: Inquestor BBS 2: Peter Deane 3: This is a fantastic new version of the Prize Door. 4: 0 5: 20 6: 5 7: 10 8: 3 9: A Date ------------------------------------------------------------------- Explanation: 1: Should be the name of your BBS (Now NOT USED) 2: Should be the name of the 'Prizemaster' (Now NOT USED) [1 & 2 are now read from Metro.cfg and are the BBSNAME and SYSOPNAME keywords. They are now just taking up space in the file...] 3: Is a line that's printed up on the title screen. It can just as well be blank if you like, but I'm sure you'll think of something to say. (75 chars maximum). 4: Whether the game is winnable or not. If you like, the prize door will cheat and re-select a random number if the player actually picks the right one (!). Make this value '1' to make the game un-winnable, or '0' for normal fair play! If someone with level 9 plays this door, they can see whether it's set to be winnable or not by examining the tatus within the door. 5: Number of bonus minutes awarded 6: Number of uploads credits given 7: Number of message posts given 8: The highest number the program will select. (IE in this example the random number is from 1 to 10). 10 is a GOOD figure, 15's what they use in the original. Any higher makes it unpopular. As you can see, you can be as generous as you like. (BTW If you have the game set to 'unwinnable' then make sure that you are picking from a high range... they'll get sus otherwise. They can also get a list of the winners, so it may pay to add the odd winner to the list every now and again)! You can also make line 8 to be '1' if you like (especially when you first setup the door to test). That way the random number will be from 1 to 1 (which isn't really all that random)! 9: The date the door was last run. If you are running the door for the first time you should make this line a blank carriage return. The door itself will look after this line of the config file. The Door ~~~~~~~~ Well, I suggest you run the program to see how it works. There are instructions within the door itself. A player can win message/upload credits or time. The message/upload credits will add a dummy line to your daily log file that will be detected by the logstats program (from the Statsdoor) and added to the player's total in the next midnight event (Yep just like the original). You will easily be able to see who's won by just looking at the log. Logstats.run just looks for the text 'Uploaded' or 'Posted A Pub' to credit the user with a message post or an upload. So, I simply add enough text to fool logstats. (Of course this option is not much good to the users unless you ARE running logstats, so everyone can see what's been going on!) If a player wins time, we do a bit of a kludge to increase the time remaining. Another quirk of the program (please don't report it as a bug) is that if you have level 9, you can play it any number of times in a day. I added this feature while testing it, and thought it was a good idea to actually leave it in. That way you can test it to your heart's content when you first set it up. (Especially if you have the random number from 1-1 set). A warning: If you have the random number set to be from 1-1 and have the game un-winnable, the program will launch itself into an endless loop as it tries to pick another random number. Okay? So just either make sure they can win, or have the number picked from greater than 1-1!! Files it will create ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Don't panic. These files will be created in your door directory. pd.played A list of users who've played the door today. This is automatically looked after by the door. pd.win A list of the winners on your door. If this file doesn't exist, the door simply reports that no-one's won anything yet, so no drama there. This file is self-maintaining, and will only keep track of the latest 15 winners now. No more work for you sysops! As the 16th player wins, the top player rolls over and off the list to make room. Copyright Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PrizeDoor is (c) 1994 by Peter Francis Deane. ALL rights are reserved, except that electronic distribution may be made, provided a profit is not made by such distribution. If a profit is made, the proceeds must be forwarded to Peter Deane. Naturally, NO responsibility is accept for any damages caused by this program whatsoever. Contact Me ~~~~~~~~~~ Postal: Peter Deane PO Box 228 Swansea NSW 2281 AUSTRALIA Call Inquestor BBS 24 Hours: 011-61-49-72-1647 from the USA (049) 72-1647 from within Australia Have fun! Have Fun - Peter Deane