SL-Guppies 1.3

A full featured Door game for all versions of Searchlight BBS


By Kevin Paradine

Documentation for release 1.33--- 6/25/91

1.0 Introduction
------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to SL-Guppies. I have attempted to provide, in
addition to a fully debugged door game, professional quality
documentation to aid you in it's installation and use. I
hope you and your users enjoy the game.


1.1 Credits
------------------------------------------------------------

This game is completely written in original code by Kevin
Paradine, using no outside libraries. Thanks must be given
to two people for aiding this program by their fine suggestions

Gary Deckelnick: He's the one you should thank for the screen
appearance of the game. He made many fine suggestions such as
cleaning up the 'bet' display. Also, he insisted that the
scores be right-justfied. Thanks, Gary.

Marge Robbins: Marge is the one to thank for the multiple-plays
per day option. Her users liked SL-Guppies so much they wanted
to play more than once a day. Thanks alot, Marge!

For a fine FIDO-Net BBS, try Gemini the Twin at (319) 366-1985.
It's located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and the sysop is Marge
Robbins. I was highly impressed.



2.0 Statement of Liability
------------------------------------------------------------

In no event will Kevin Paradine, the author, or any agency
connected with him, be liable for any loss related to the
use of this software. This software is supplied on an AS-IS
basis, and no guarantee is made that it will work in any
specific way. All liability rests with the user of the
software. I have endeavored to provide a bug-free program,
but in the event that any damage ensues from it's use, Kevin
Paradine shall not be held accountable for it. In effect:
if you lose 3 million dollars because of this program, it's
your three million, not mine.













3.0 Description of Game
------------------------------------------------------------

SL-Guppies is a simple game of cards very similar to the HI-
LO game played on occasion. There are three rows of card
slots on the board. A player begins the game with a cash
pool of $100. In sequence, ten cards will be drawn from a
randomized deck. When a card is drawn, a bet is placed from
the player's cash pool, and the player selects whether he
believes the next card will be higher or lower. If his
guess is correct, he wins the amount of money bet. If his
guess is wrong, he loses the amount of money bet. If the
cards are of equal value, the player wins or loses nothing.
The cards follow a sequence from 2 (low) to Ace (high). If
a Joker is drawn, the player's game ends, and all is reset
to the conditions before the player began that day's turn.
Each player may play a user-configurable amount of turns
per day. At the end of the month, a player is selected as the
winner of the game and is placed in the "LAST MONTH'S HIGH
SCORER" position at the beginning of all high-score lists.



3.5 List of files included
------------------------------------------------------------

SLGUPPY.EXE.............The SL-Guppies program file
GUPPYVAL.EXE............Validation program to register SL-Guppies
SLGUPPY.DOC.............This file
SLGUPPY.CFG.............Sample Bulletin Config file
INSGUPPY.ANS............Online instruction file
SLGUPPY.ANS.............Title Screen
MGUPPY.ANS..............Game board


3.6 List of files created by SL-Guppies
------------------------------------------------------------

GUPPY.USR...............User file for SL-Guppies
GUPPYBUL.ANS............Ansi bulletin file


4.0 Installation of SL-Guppies
------------------------------------------------------------

Before you begin, make sure you have ANSI.SYS or a similar
ANSI driver loaded. DVANSI, included in Desqview, is a very
good substitute.

The first thing you should do is to create a
directory to install the SL-Guppies files into. Let's call it
\SLGUPPY. Copy all the files in the distribution ZIP file into
this directory. Then, we're ready to install the door.

Installation of SL-Guppies was made to be as simple and
painless as possible. In your DOORS.DEF file, the following
line should be inserted:

1;0;1;10;SL-Guppies!;C:\SLGUPPY;SLGUPPY.EXE %U
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
| | | | | | | |
a b c d e f g h













a - The 1 in this position tells SLBBS to provide modem I/O.

b - The 0 in this position tells SLBBS NOT to write-protect
the disk.

c - The 1 in this position tells SLBBS to terminate the
program if carrier is dropped.

d - The 10 in this position is the minimum access level for
the door. Change this as you will.

e - The name of the door.

f - The directory for the door files. Rename this to
whatever directory you have all the SL-Guppies files
installed in.

g - Full name of the SL-Guppies executable file.

h - Tells SLBBS to pass a name to SL-Guppies with UNDERBARS
like so- JOHN_PAUL_JONES, replacing all the spaces.

Now, we are almost done. There is also another file called
SLGUPPY.CFG. This file tells SL-Guppies where to place your
bulletin files. A simple ASCII file is what it is, and it's
only two lines, like so:

C:\SL20\TXT\
1

Remember to put on that last backslash on the first line!
At the end of each playing session, SL-Guppies will write the
bulletin file to the directory you just specified in the first
line. The second line is the number of plays per day allowed
for each player. 1 is the default, but you may set it to any
number from 0 to 65535.

Now, wasn't that painless?


5.0 Registration and Support
------------------------------------------------------------

Now, that you've gotten SL-Guppies to work, now you want to
find out how to get rid of that really annoying delay at the
beginning of the program, right? Well, there's an easy way.
Send $10 (check or M/O) to:

Kevin Paradine
955 Meredith Dr.
Toms River, NJ 08753













And I will respond promptly with your own registration
number. Please remember to include your FULL NAME, not your
BBS name or handle. A BBS name or handle can not be a legal
recipient of registration benefits. You will then use
GUPPYVAL to install your name and reg number into your
personal copy of SL-Guppies. At that time the delay will be
removed.

Support for SL-Guppies is provided on the Zeppelin BBS at
the following numbers:

(908) 929-2790 Hayes V-Series 9600
(908) 506-0686 USR-HST 14.4

The Zeppelin BBS is operated 24 hours a day, and is located
in Toms River, NJ. There is a support SIG available
immediately upon login for all your questions.

6.0 Pertinent information
------------------------------------------------------------

If you have the game working, you may have a few questions
about how it generally operates. Well, SL-Guppies depends
on SLBBS to provide all Modem I/O. It could concievably
be used with the shareware program DOORWAY which provides
similar services to SLBBS for serial I/O. In this case, SL-
Guppies could be used with another BBS system, and I may in
the future make a provision for this by making the status
line at the bottom optional.

On another note, it is possible you might want to edit your
SL-Guppies data files. I don't reccomend this, as it is
cheating, but if any of you out there are inclined to do this,
I provide the file format for the GUPPY.USR file below:

type
guppyplayer=record
name:string[40];
score:comp;
lastplay:word;
numofplays:word;
end;

The first record in this file is the previous month's high
scorer. The file has no fixed number of records, and the file
is erased and reset at the beginning of each month. The file
is sorted by the score field upon each play. The lastplay
word is the day as in month/day/year. The Numofplays field is
how many times the player played that day. It is zeroed out
if a new day is detected.













The .ANS files included are regular ANSI files. They may be
modified however you see fit, though I do not advise modifying
the game board or the login screen. They are sized correctly
and any modifications will most likely screw up the screen
appearance. However, feel free to modify the instruction
screen.


7.0 A final note
------------------------------------------------------------

I personally found the writing of this game to be
pleasurable and the debugging process to be satisfying. I
hope you all enjoy the game, and let me all know what
suggestions and additions you have in mind. Thanks!

Kevin Paradine
5/9/91


8.0 Credits
------------------------------------------------------------

Searchlight and SLBBS are (c) Searchlight Software
Desqview is (c) Quarterdeck


9.0 Revision History
------------------------------------------------------------

1.33 Screen bug: Blue streak removed, was caused by direct ANSI
console commands. Fixed! Also, added an error message when
more than one change-card is attempted per line.

GUPPYVAL.EXE keyboard error eliminated. Guppyval had
the annoying tendency to not accept keystrokes depending on
whether the SLBBS driver was loaded or not. Basically, if
SLBBS wasn't there it would not accept SINGLE keystrokes.
However, if you pressed the key twice it would accept them.
Fixed! 6/25/91

1.32 ENQ character (ASCII 07h) removed from program completely.
The ENQ caused erratic behavior with Telix and other programs
that support Compuserve QuickB downloading. 6/1/91

1.31 Ctrl-Break/Ctrl-C disabled. Also, dangling pointer
problem located and squashed. Thanks to many for pointing
this out to me! 5/29/91

1.3 Multiple plays per day now allowed, configurable in
SLGUPPY.CFG. 5/28/91

1.21 Minor modification, score is now right-justified
instead of being left-justified. 5/20/91

1.2 First distributed release.
Minor modifications, added commas to large numbers,
cleaned up logoff screen, Validate program working
properly. 5/9/91

1.1 Data file format finalized, switched to COMP type for
large numbers. Streamlined SLBBS interface routines.

1.0 Initial release, all features operational now.

pre 1.0 : Testing purposes only.