DM.EXE -- The DeathManager What is DM? DM is an easy-to-use interface that replaces the hassle of typing command- line parameters to SERSETUP.EXE and IPXSETUP.EXE, the programs used to network our games DOOM, DOOM2 and HERETIC. It is also much easier than starting network games from the SETUP.EXE program as there are no menus to navigate, everything is on one screen. And the really nice feature of DM is that it saves all the information you enter, so the next time you run DM, all the options you last used are selected. Using DM To use DM, make sure that you're in the directory with DOOM, DOOM2 or HERETIC and type DM. A menu will pop up and you navigate it using the arrow keys. The spacebar or ENTER will change the status of an item. Some items are grouped together, so when you choose them they will deactivate other items in the same group. If you choose 3-player, then 2-player will be deactivated since you can't play 2-player and 3-player at the same time! Some items require input, such as the SKILL item. The legal range of values is listed below: Item Legal values Notes SKILL 1-5 1 = easiest, 5 = hardest EPISODE 1-3 1 = shareware, 2-3 = registered MAP 1-9 DOOM2 map values are 1-32 TIMER 1-99 the number you enter is MINUTES you play the level before the game takes you to the intermission screen TURBO 1-250 This changes your speed in the game CALL 14-digit This is the number SERSETUP will call Some items are FLAGS, which specify whether to turn those options on or off in the game: No Monsters: If this option is selected, NO MONSTERS will appear in the game. Perfect for DeathMatch! Respawn This option will make monsters respawn after you kill them! WADs If this is set, the list of external WADs will be used, otherwise, DM just ignores the list, but still keeps it around for later use. In the "Connect Type" area are 3 options, Modem, IPX Network, and Serial Cable. This specifies how you will be connected playing a network game. If you choose Modem or Serial Cable, the "# of Players" will change to 2. If you choose Serial Cable, the "Modem/Serial" changes to Already Connected for you. In the "# of Players" area you can choose to play a 2,3 or 4-player game. You can only choose the 3 and 4-player options if you have "IPX Network" selected. DM will not allow you to change the number of players to anything other than 2 if you are connected by modem or serial cable. In the "Game Type" area are 3 options, DeathMatch, Cooperative, and Old DeathMatch. The DeathMatch option is really the DeathMatch 2.0 rules for DOOM and DOOM2, where in HERETIC, there are no Old DeathMatch rules. In DOOM and DOOM2, the Old DeathMatch option will leave all the weapons where they are when a player picks them up and none of the items on the level respawn. In the "Modem/Serial" area, you specify how you are connected by modem or serial cable. If you are using IPX Network, DM will ignore any settings in this area. The "Already Connected" option is what you select if you are connected directly by serial cable, otherwise, if you are connected by modem you would choose either "Wait for call" so your modem auto-answers or type a phone number in the field to the right of Call. If you want to build a database of phone numbers that you can easily choose from, press the F2 key. Press the F1 key to create a new phone number entry. Another input dialog will come up with the Name and Number fields ready for you to edit. Press ENTER on the Name field and type the person's name, then press ENTER. Move the cursor to the Number field and press ENTER to edit the number. When you're finished editing the Name and Number info, press the F10 key to save the information. In the "Select person to call" dialog, pressing the ENTER key will take the phone number and put it in the field to the right of Call. There's no way to just delete a Name and Number entry, edit it instead. In the "Map Warping" area, there are two choices. If you are playing DOOM or HERETIC, choose the first option, DOOM or HERETIC so you can enter the Episode and Map values you want to warp to. If you don't want to warp to a level, press ESC while entering a map or episode value. Thus, if you want to get rid of the map warping flag, press ENTER on the option, then press ESC to turn it off. The "COM Port" area is used only if you are connecting by modem or serial cable. If you are playing on an IPX Network, DM will ignore the settings in this area. If you like playing PWAD files, you can tell DM which ones you want to use by pressing the F3 key. Press ENTER on the first empty field then type in the pathname of the PWAD file. For example, if you had a subdirectory off your DOOM2 directory named WADS and in that directory you had a PWAD named CLASSIC.WAD, you would input WADS\CLASSIC.WAD and press ENTER. To get rid of an entry, press the DEL key. To tell DM to use the PWAD files in the list, select the WADs option. When this option is turned on, DM will pass along the files in the WADfile list to the SERSETUP or IPXSETUP programs. Those are all the options that DM will handle for you. If you require use of even more advanced options, you can enter them on the command-line right after invoking DM. To record a demo, you could type "DM -record demo" and DM will pass the "-record demo" parameters along for you. To actually start playing your game, press the F10 key to launch SERSETUP or IPXSETUP (depending on your Connect Type). If you want to just launch the game without connecting, press the F1 key. This will directly launch DOOM, DOOM2 or HERETIC with all the options you've selected. Just make sure you select Cooperative so you don't start in a strange place in single-player mode! DM saves a configuration file named DM.CFG. If DM has a problem starting up, delete DM.CFG. When you finish your game and want to play again after changing some options, re-run DM after exiting the game. Now you are in a never-ending loop that will take hours to get out of. Have fun!