August 28, 1990
v3.0


A M E R I C A !
EGA/VGA fireworks to celebrate the USA!

by
Thomas R. Wilson
4407 1/2 Stanford St.
Houston, Tx 77006


THE IMPETUS:

The United States of America. What a place! What a
concept! We've got FREEDOM and we've got FUN! And on the
Fourth of July, you can bet that folks everywhere are
gathered to see fireworks shows. With every burst and boom
in the sky, replies of 'oooh' and 'aaaaah' rise from the
excited crowd.
Here in Houston, the best show is at Hermann Park. The
symphony plays Sousa, and anyone can hear for free. When the
band plays 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', the crowd knows
it's fixin' to be time!
Then, the BIG cannons bellow happy birthday thunder, and
the crowd about faces to see the fire falling from the sky.
Another year of independence!
But wait, aren't those Brits I see out there dancing and
cheering with the Yanks? Sure! That's the beauty of the
celebration. It's not only independence that's got everyone
so excited...it's that this is just such a GREAT place to be!

THE PROGRAM:

AMERICA takes care of itself, so if you want to enjoy the
fireworks, simply run the program and sit back.
By default, AMERICA will chose the quantity of particles
to run based on machine speed, maximizing the quality of the
animation. A default value of 6 is used for explosion size.
While the program is running, these values can be changed any
time with the cursor keys.
The user can force other values on startup via the
command line as follows:

AMERICA [ PARTICLES EXPLOSION ] [ EXIT ]

Use values for both PARTICLES and EXPLOSION. Values
should be in hexadecimal format, range: 0 to F, separated by
spaces.
Also, exit control can be varied. Normally, the ESCAPE
key will terminate the program. This can be overridden so
that the program will continue running despite an ESCAPE.
This is useful for 'demo' purposes.
Termination is still, however, possible via CTRL-Q. To
override ESCAPE, the last character on the command line
should be 'X', separated from the others by space.

Command line examples:

AMERICA ;auto adjust
AMERICA X ;auto adjust, override ESCAPE
AMERICA 7 9 ;force value of 7 for PARTICLE quantity, 9
for EXPLOSION size,
AMERICA c 8 X ;force value of 12 for PARTICLE quantity,
8 for EXPLOSION size, override ESCAPE

Key commands available while running:

Cursor Up - increase particle quantity.
Cursor Down - decrease particle quantity.
Cursor Right - increase explosion size.
Cursor Left - decrease explosion size.

ESC - Quit. If ESCAPE has been overridden through the
command line use CONTROL-Q

REFERENCE:

- America! was written in 'C' using Turbo-C 2.0 from
Borland International.

- Script animation created with SIGNATURE by T. R. Wilson
note: At the time of this writing, this program is not
yet released.

HISTORY:

7/04/89 v1.0 released for Independence Day.
3/24/90 v2.0 released. Improvements made in the explosion
generating algorithms.
8/28/90 v3.0 released. Initial data may be input via the
command line. ESCAPE may be overridden. Added
fancy script at exit.

BY THE WAY:

AMERICA! may be copied and distributed freely about the
planet. AMERICA! is one of thousands of programs created by
programmers that is available to you, the user, free of
charge. We create these programs for a specific need, or out
of sheer love for programming, then pass them along to the
rest of the world.
However, if you appreciate excellence in software, and
the fantastic network we have for its distribution, you
should support those involved. If you enjoyed AMERICA!
please send $10 to the above address. It can only help your
karma.
Please write if you have any questions or comments.
Refer to version numbers in correspondence. Employment
opportunities are also welcome. For those of us who launch
our programs into the infinite ether from our tiny corners of
the world, feedback is the only way we ever find out just how
far our babies have gone.

ALSO by Thomas R. Wilson...

Send $10 for a disk of the following programs:

SHARKS! - Predator/prey simulation. A fascinating program to
watch. By adjusting life parameters, the interaction between
related populations can be studied. Requires EGA/VGA.

PETE - this colorful character comes to your EGA/VGA screen
to dazzle you and your friends for hours (or days!) on end.
His talent for exciting the senses is sure to please.

SOME_PIG - Professional Executive Time Waster runs on all
color systems, CGA/EGA/VGA. A must for the serious collector
of graphic demos.

EGA_LSD - Take a "trip" into the psychedelic world of the
infamous hallucinogen LSD...without leaving your seat or even
taking the drug! EGA/VGA.

PRISM - An animation from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
Spinning rainbows and sparkling light for the easily amused.
EGA/VGA.

HATE*WAR - a radical video game where the targets are
representatives of race, religion and politics. Shoot at the
people and ideas you love to hate!
EGA/VGA.

S O F T W A R E F O R T H E P E O P L E
O F T H E U N I V E R S E !