MazeWarz Converter 2.52 Documentation                  (C) 1993 Silicon Systems
-------------------------------------

IMPORTANT:   You  must copy the included 'iff.library' to the libs directory of
your  boot  disk to use the converter.  In addition, it is recommended that you
retain  a  backup  of  the  MWEditor.iff file in-case you forget to save a maze
under a different name.

    In  order  to  create  a  maze  you  will  need  the following:  Converter,
MWEditor.iff,  and a paint program.  The Editor is a picture that can be loaded
into  any  paint program.  Your paint program must support a grid.  DPaint (all
versions)  has  this,  but  I  assume most others would as well.  The following
steps outline the method for creating mazes for Maze Warz:

    Designing  a  MazeWarz  maze  is a two step process:  drawing the maze, and
converting  it.  Your paint program is used for the former (steps 1-10) and the
Converter  utility  for the latter (steps 13-14).


(Although this is a long list, it is really a very simple process.  I have just
been very verbose in order that lamers may also enjoy the pleasures of creating
a MW maze, so bear with me..)

1.  Load  your  paint  program.

2.  Select 'Load' and choose "MWEditor.iff".  Click "YES" in Dpaint in response
to whether you want to change the resolution and colours.

3.  Select  GRID  ON.   In DPaint  click on the gadget that looks like a window
just above the magnify gadget.

4.  Change the grid settings to 9 by 9 pixels.  In DPaint, click with the RIGHT
mouse button on the grid gadget.  A window will appear.  Change the 'X spacing'
and 'Y spacing' both to read 9.  Click OK.

5.  Use the GET BRUSH tool (in DPaint click on the  icon above the grid gadget)
and  try to pick up the red box near the bottom of the screen (1 from the right
in  the  bottom row).  To check that your grid is correct, Click the brush down
in  the  four  corners  of  the large grey box.  If you go over any of the grey
lines,  or  there  are  blank spaces between the red box and the grey box, then
your  grid setting is either not 9x9 or it is adjusted incorrectly.  Check that
it is 9x9.  If the problem still occurs, you will have to adjust the grid.

6.  Save this picture under a different name.  This ensures you never erase the
original template (MWEditor.iff).

7.  The large box represents the maze.  You will have to fill this box with the
various  maze  components  shown in the toolbox near the bottom.  Make sure you
have  a  clear  maze  to  begin.   (Use Right mouse button with BOX function to
clear).   The  grid  makes sure you pick up and put down the maze components in
the  correct  place.   It should be noted here that Maze Warz does not use this
maze, rather Converter 'reads' this picture file and converts it to the correct
file format.

8.  You may quickly realise that you need not pick up the exact piece  that you
require  to  fill  the maze.  In fact, you only need one piece!  Pick up one of
the  four  single  walls  (the  first  four wall components).  Using the rotate
function,  rotate  it  90  degrees  and you have the next wall...etc In DPaint,
simply press 'z'!  (caps lock off).

9.   You  will  also  need to put teleporters, a door, and havens in your maze.
Pick these up and place them strategically as required.  Use only the colour of
haven  supplied:   you cannot determine the actual resulting haven colours when
designing the maze.

10.   Put  exactly  one  blue arrow in a square (usually adjacent to the door).
This  represents  the direction faced and point which is occupied when a player
enters the maze, and the direction faced.

11.  There are a few rules you must obey when drawing the maze:
        a) You may include as many teleporters as you like, or none at all.
        b) You must have one and only one door.
        c) You must have exactly four havens. Use the same colour (as included)
           for all: the colours are decided inside the program.

12. A few hints for successful maze development:
        a) Use teleporters sparingly and thoughtfully.
        b) Don't make it impossible to escape from a particular area. For
           example, don't have two segment 'cells'.
        c) As you draw the maze, think about how you would play each of the
            areas, and whether you would play the maze at all. A few minutes 
            spent here can increase the enjoyment of the maze, as well as 
            ensure it is played more that once...

13.   Now  that  you have the completed maze saved as an iff picture on a disk,
you  will  need  to  convert  this  to a MW data file by passing it through the
converter.  Workbench 2.0 and above users may launch the program from workbench
and choose the maze file from the requester that appears.  The program requires
Asl.library,  which  all  2.0  users should have.  You may use a patch for this
library, however I'm sure only 2.0 users can take advantage of all this.  Those
of  you  who are stuck in the dark ages running 1.3 or below will be stuck with
using  Converter  via the command line interface (yes the good 'ol CLI)...which
of course you are familiar with if you're a 1.3 user anyway :-) ...).  A single
argument  is  required:  the name of the picture to be converted.  You may also
specify  the  output filename, however this is not recommended (despite all the
extra programming effort that went into that feature :-( ...)

14.    The  maze  is  saved.   The  datafile  that  is  saved  will  be  called
"MWmazedataXX"  where  XX=n+1, and n is the number of mazes on the disk (in the
same  directory as Converter).  You may rename this file, however its name must
begin  with "MWmazedata".  If this seems confusing, you can also specify a name
to be used for the output file as the second argument to the converter program.
You  can  accomplish  the  entire  procedure  with one command by specifing the
output file as, say, mazes/MWmazedata17 (if 17 is not used).

    You have finished.  Move the maze into the mazes drawer and PLAY!
    Power  users  may  have noticed that the method of storing the data file is
not  very  efficient, as it uses ASCII to represent hex, and includes comments.
There  is  a reason for this.  It makes it easier to cheat!  The method is left
as an exercise...

Special thanks go to Christian A. Weber for his easy to use iff.library.
