ALL ROUNDER (C) Gary Brown 1992 ------------------------------- A Cricket Simulation produced with AMOS --------------------------------------- Hi there, you mean you actually bothered to read these docs? Good foryou, now you'll learn a little about the how, why and wherefore. Firstly, thanks go to Mandarin/Europress/Francois for producing AMOS, without which etc,etc...Thanks are due to Neil for the loan of his Scanner and also for finding me a font which looks half decent on screen. Thanks to a company called I think Games Unlimited (who probably aren't in existance anymore) who produced a cricket simulation using dice in the late seventies which is largely the inspiration for this game. My reasons for producing this game are as follows. The dice game mentioned above had given me many happy hours in my youth, so when I bought a ZX81 I wrote a simple version in 16k to simulate the game. I then traded up to a VIC-20 and produced another 16k version, this time with colour. My next move was a BBC B with 27k available, and this version introduced the con­ cept of saved files containing averages. Finally, the Amiga version appears (I've owned Amigas for three years now) containing all the features and more of the earlier version, and introducing for the first time - GRAPHICS. Okay, so they aren't exactly Psygnosis, but at least my game is accurate and realistic. This is more than I can say for other Amiga cricket games on the market (An honourable mention goes to AMOS CRICKET which was released shortly before I completed this effort). All the commercial attempts relea­ sed so far have been wildly inaccurate, simply because it is felt necessary to involve the player in the action (Pull joystick down to straight drive etc). I don't give a shit what anybody else says, I am fed up with my team being all out for 7 and the computer's team regularly hitting 24 off an over. I offer realism from a cricket enthusiast's point of view - Call it ANORAK CRICKET if you will. I'd really like you to register with me. I intend to develop this game fur­ ther. At the moment I am working on a stand alone program to display the averages of all 198 players in order at once, as you would see in Wisden. There will also be an update when next years Sunday...sorry Pyjama League begins (Longer matches, white ball, jim jams). I may also do a module using a knockout format. It is my intention to introduce weather effects and reduced length matches in the next version. Also I want to improve the intelligence of the computer when selecting bowling, this is probably my main weakness at the moment. If you'd like to be a part of this then please send 4.50 Sterling to the address below, I will acknowledge your registration. Gary L Brown, 29 Finch Close, Woodville, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, DE11 7QH, England. AN APPEAL: If you register or not, please, if anybody has a better algo­ rithm for the league fixtures, let me know. My routine ensures that all teams play 17 games, against each oponent once but it results in some teams having many games in hand over others at the mid point of the season, it gets the job done but it's messy. There are 153 games in a season and it ain't possible to make up a fixture list manually. TWO APOLOGIES: I'm sorry that the disk has to access some times for no apparent reason, AMOS has a habit of losing the graphic font that you have set for text when you load other screens. Also I know you'd like to write protect the disk but if you want the averages and league sections to work then you can't. Just back up the disk before using. A FEW COMMENTS ON USAGE: The game is pretty self explanatory in use. Menus have boxes for you to click in, a box in the bottom right hand corner is one that will allow you to continue when you click it. The best way to play is probably 2 players in the league, although you can have fun against the computer - just don't expect him to be the next Mike Brearley. The summary method if good for getting around games you can't be bothered to watch, although you can switch methods in between the innings if you wish. The game does favour batting very slightly, in that the average innings scores are a fraction (5-15 runs) above what they are in real life over 40 overs. I'm quite happy with this as the batting part is always more interesting I think. The highest innings I have ever seen over 40 overs is 153 not out by G.Gooch (who else?) and the highest team score 292-7 but I forget who by. Unfortunately it is sods law that the records always get broken when you ain't there (IE you are using SUMMARY mode). FINALLY: If anybody finds any bugs or apparent weaknesses or incompatabili­ tes then keep them to yourself....No of course I want to know. I have tes­ ted the game over many matches and I don't think there's any gremloids lur­ king, but you never know. ALL ROUNDER v1.00 (v4.00 Really). Written on A500 AMIGA with 1mb memory, external drive and monitor, using AMOS Basic and Compiler, Dpaint IV, PD Fonts and backgrounds. Developed from 19th July 1992 to 19th September 1992. Gary Brown 19th September 1992.