BassMap
Version 1.0 May 25, 1989

Nels Anderson
92 Bishop Drive
Framingham, MA 01701



Many people have expressed interest in creating their own lakes for
Dick Olsen's "BassTour". Since I wrote the original tools that Dick
used in creating his program it seemed only natural that I create a
version that is usable by anyone.

BassMap is a companion to BassTour. It allows you to:

o create new lakes to fish on
o change existing lakes
o change the lake description
o display maps in a format suitable for printing

BassMap is easy to use. It will show you a portion of the lake you
are working on along with a cursor to show you where your change
will go. A help screen is always available, plus there are screens
that show the icons that are used in creating maps, a condensed view
that lets you seen the whole map at once, and a monochrome view that
is suitable for printing.

There are two versions of BassMap, one ("bassmap.exe") for EGA
systems and one ("bassmapc.exe") for CGA systems. Make sure you use
the version appropriate for your system. The maps you make can be
used in any graphics mode supported by BassTour.

BassMap is provided as ShareWare. You may use it, copy it for your
friends, upload it to BBS's, etc. If you continue to use BassMap
and would like to support its further development and other software
I'm working on, you can send a donation ($10 suggested) to me at:

Nels Anderson
92 Bishop Drive
Framingham, MA 01701

Registered users will get the latest update of BassMap and perhaps
another ShareWare program to try out. Support is also available
through my BBS, )(evious, at 508-875-3618 or 617-449-7322, 300/1200/
2400/9600HST.

If you're connected to one of the minicomputer nets (InterNet,
uucp...) you can try reaching me at one of these addresses:

ima!primerd!en-m32.prime.com!nja
uunet!en-m32.prime.com!nja
csnet-relay!en-m32.prime.com!nja
nja%[email protected]
[email protected]



Using BassMap


You should run BassMap in the same disk directory that you use for
BassTour as it uses some of BassTour's support files. To start it
up, just type "bassmap" (for EGA systems) or "bassmapc" (for CGA
systems). You'll get a title along with the normal BassMap prompts;
the title will go away as soon as you load a map.

The normal alphabet and number keys are used for editing maps. To
access commands the ESC key is used followed by a single letter to
indicate the command. The number pad is used to move the cursor
and ctrl-left arrow, ctrl-right arrow, Ins, and Del are used to
scroll the screen. All available commands are summarized in a
screen that is shown when you press the F1 key.

Let's look at the available commands.


ESC R -- Read in a Map

You'll probably want to start with this command so you can see
what an existing map looks like. All the maps are stored in files
with the extension .map (i.e., "mead.map"). You do not need to
use .map when entering the file name but you can if you want.

After you hit ESC followed by R a window will pop up asking for
a file name. Enter the name you want and press enter. The window
will clear and the map will load and be displayed.


ESC S -- Save a Map

When you're done editing your map you'll want to save it. To
save a map just hit ESC S and a window will pop up asking for the
name you want to use for the file. Enter any name up to eight
letters and press enter. Your map will be saved to the current
disk. You can continue to edit it after saving.

It's probably a good idea to do a save every so often even if
you're not done yet. This prevents you from losing all your work
should you make a mistake or if the power fails or some other
disaster occurs.


ESC N -- New Map

If you want to start your map from scratch this is the command to
use. Hit ESC N and the map will be set to all open water. A
window will pop up asking for the description of the lake you are
creating. Enter the description and press the enter key. The
window will clear and you can begin creating your lake.


ESC C -- Clear Map

This command is similar to the New Map command, except that it
leaves the lake description unchanged and allows you to set the
whole map to any icon of your choosing. After you hit ESC C a
window will pop up asking for the image you wish to clear to.
Hit the key corresponding to the image you want (see the ESC V
command to see how to view the available images) and the map
will be cleared.


ESC F -- Fill an Area

This command is similar to the fill command in many paint
programs. It lets you quickly fill a portion of your map with
the same image. You can use this to do things like adding a
swampy area in a portion of your lake, or to draw the outline
of an island and then fill in the middle with one command. The
fill function only works from the cursor line up, so you don't
have to close in the bottom of the area you want to fill.


ESC V -- View Images

This command lets you see what icons are available for creating
a map. After you hit ESC V, the screen will change to a display
of all available icons and the letter, number, or symbol you hit
on the keyboard to put that icon on your map. When you're done
looking at the icons, hit any key to return to the map.


ESC D -- New Map Description

This command lets you change the description that goes along with
your map. This is the description that is shown on the title page
of BassTour when you select the lake to fish. After you hit ESC D
a window will pop up and it will ask you for a description. Enter
the description you want and press the enter key when done.


ESC X -- See Whole Map

Since the whole map doesn't fit on the screen it is sometimes
difficult to see how things fit together. Pressing ESC X will
display a compressed view of the whole map in a corner of the
screen. You will still be able to see most of the full size map
behind the compressed map. When you're finished viewing the
compressed map hit any key to clear it.


ESC Y -- Printable Map

This command displays a version of the map where the whole map
fits on the screen. If you've loaded a print screen routine
like "graphics.com" which is normally included with MS-DOS, you
can dump this screen to your printer. Hit ESC Y to display this
version of the map; hit any key when done. See the instructions
for graphics.com in your DOS reference manual for information on
how to do screen dumps. Only CGA is supported by graphics.com,
so if you're using the EGA version of BassMap you'll need an EGA
print screen routine.

I've included a file called scrndump.com that will dump EGA
screens to several printer types. I believe the program is
public domain. To install it you'll need to tell it your type
of printer; see scrndump.doc for details. The map is on screen
page 1; after you read the docs you'll know why you need to
know this!


ESC Q -- Quit

When you're done with your map (and after you've saved it!), hit
ESC Q to quit BassMap.


MOVING THE CURSOR

The cursor is displayed on the screen as a box that surrounds a
single map icon. Because of the limits of available colors,
especially in CGA graphics, the cursor may at times blend into
the background. If you can't see it, move it around and you
should be able to see the movement.

The number pad is used to move the cursor. The keys with arrows
(2,4,6,8) move the cursor straight up/down and left/right. The
other keys (1,3,7,9) move the cursor diagonally. The 5 key has
no effect.


SCROLLING THE MAP

Because the whole map doesn't fit on the screen it is necessary
to scroll to the portion you want to work on. To scroll left
and right, hold down the control key and at the same time hit
the left or right arrow key. To scroll up and down use the Ins
and Del keys.

You can also jump immediately to portions of the map. Use the
control key plus the 1,3,7,9 keys to jump to the corresponding
corner of the map. Control plus PrtSc jumps to the center of
the map.


THE ESC KEY

Scrolling or moving one position at a time can be tedious. Using
the Esc key you can immediately move or scroll as many positions
as you want. Hit Esc, then a number (use the number keys on the
alpha-numeric portion of the keyboard, not the ones on the number
pad), and finally the function you want. If you choose the scroll
left function after hitting "Esc" "1" "0", the screen will scroll
left 10 places.


USAGE TIPS

BassTour will only notice the first 20 lakes it finds in its
directory, so if you create a lot of lakes you'll have to keep
only the 20 you want to use in the BassTour directory.

Drawing the shoreline can be tricky. There are enough images so
that you can get a shoreline where the images connect properly
but it will take a little practice. You may find it helpful to
do a screen dump of the images screen displayed by the ESC V
command.


Included Files


The following files are included in BassMap:

BASSMAP.EXE BassMap program for EGA systems
BASSMAPC.EXE BassMap program for CGA systems
BASSMAP.DOC This file
BASSMAP.TXT Brief description of BassMap
ORDERFRM.TXT BassMap registration form for your printer
SCRNDUMP.COM Dump graphics screen to your printer
SCRNDUMP.DOC Documentation for scrndump.com