               Air Defense Setup Instructions
                    As of: April 7, 1991 
                         Version 2.4

   I think you will enjoy Air Defense.

   This game is written by Darel Schartman, a user on my 
BBS.  I've known Darel for a few years and he has programmed 
several on-line games for Forem XEP, the 8-bit BBS program.  
This is Darel's first game specifically for Forem ST.  Air 
Defense has been Beta Tested by Nodes 391, Carlis Darby, and 
398, Bill Day, and myself at Node 224 for over a month prior 
to this release.  Our thanks to both for their help.  As an 
overall protection, there is a general error routine that 
will trap all fatal game errors, return the user to the BBS, 
and write an Air.Err file in the Air Defense game folder.  
AIR.ERR will contain the date, time, and error code 
responsible for the untimely program termination.

   The modem code and the message routines are the two 
places where the user interacts with the program, and 
through that, your BBS.  The input routines are armored to 
filter out all but ASCII characters.  No hanky panky 
allowed.  Even the famous 1e45 from SEE has been tested -- 
it will cause Air Defense to abort to the BBS, however, 
because of the times that data is saved, it won't do a user 
any good to use it.  The input routines all have time-out 
features and will terminate the game if there is no input 
for approximately 2 minutes.  Like Forem, a 30 second 
warning will be given.

   The players login name is read from Forem.Dat.  I chose 
to do this instead of using Dorinfo1.dat because that was 
the code I wrote previously for NFL Picks.  I'm lazy.  If 
you have a good argument for using Dorinfo1.dat instead, 
I'll change the code to read Forem.Opt (to find out where 
the silly bugger is), and then the code to read the info.

   In NFL Picks, I used a routine to look for carrier 
detect and if found, assumed the player was on the modem.  
Conversely, if carrier was not present, the game defaulted 
to local mode.  I changed this for Air Defense to look 
instead for the word "local" as a parameter to the run line 
in the Fdoorsx.dat file.  There's a little less room for 
error this way.

   I will personally guarantee that there is NO backdoor 
in this program, nor any code to accomplish anything except 
handle game play.  I have examined every routine, not 
because I didn't trust Darel, but because I was helping him 
debug the code and get the Forem functions working properly.  

Game Setup

   Create a game folder on the drive of your choice and 
copy all game files into it.

   You need to create two text files, AIR.SET and 
PATHS.DAT.  You can do this with a text editor or by using 
the supplied AIR_CNFG.PRG.  To use the AIR_CNFG.PRG, you 
must follow the instructions below.

   AIR.SET contains three lines, the path to Forem.Dat and 
the path to the Air Defense game files, and the reset 
period:  blank for no reset, 1 for monthly, and 2 for bi-
monthly.

                c:\
                d:\defense\
                2

        PATHS.DAT contains six lines as follows:

           line 1 - path to news and hall of fame file
           line 2 - hall of fame filename   <--- Note: filename only
           line 3 - Today's News filename   <--- Note: filename only
           line 4 - Yesterday's News filename  <--- same as above
           line 5 - Sysop's login name
           line 6 - Alternate Sysop's login name

           For example, my file reads as follows:
                e:\games\
                db015.003
                db015.001
                db015.002
                DOC HOLIDAY
                DAREL SCHARTMAN

   The PATHS.DAT file gives you the capability to put the 
files anywhere you choose and with any name.  They will be 
maintained by the game and are also viewable from within the 
game.  Note that the data base files contain information 
that the internal game files don't.  I strongly suggest you 
add these files to an appropriate database area.  The Sysop 
and Alternate Game Sysop entries are case sensitive and DO 
NOT automatically convert your entries to upper case.  This 
is to allow for the later versions of Forem which permit 
mixed case logins.

   Place the AIR.SET file in the same directory as 
Forem.Tos.  The PATHS.DAT file is placed in the same folder 
as the Air Defense program files.

   Included with the game program is a program called 
AIR_CNFG.PRG.  This is a configuration program that can be 
used to create or alter the AIR.SET and PATHS.DAT files.  
The AIR.SET file will be written to where you have FOREM.TOS 
and PATHS.DAT will be written to the game folder you 
specified in AIR.SET.  However, this program is designed to 
be installed in DOORS and will work from local or from 
remote.  You can retrieve and reset the values at any time.  
Note that you CANNOT run this program from the desktop 
without a "local" parameter.  This is because it looks in 
the basepage for the "local" command.  You can, however, run 
the program from within FOREM's sysop mode using the 
"system" or "K" command ("k" only on the newer versions of 
Forem) to execute the file.  Just type the full path and 
filename, add a space, and type "local" (example:  
d:\defense\air_cnfg.prg local).  You can then use this 
program to automatically generate or modify your game path 
files.  Remember that you also select a reset period.  You 
have three choices, no reset, reset monthly, or reset bi-
monthly.  Based upon your selection, when the month changes, 
the game will note the change and if reset is due, the game 
will be reset and the winner recognized in the Hall of Fame 
file.

   The first time you run the game, all the necessary 
files will be created and placed in accordance with the 
PATHS.DAT file.  The Hall of Fame, Today's News, and 
Yesterday's News will only be created when there is 
something to report.

   When you as the Sysop or your designated Game Sysop 
complete game play, you will be shown an additional System 
menu.  From this menu you may alter any of the paths or 
filenames in PATHS.DAT or redesignate the Sysop or Game 
Sysop.  You can also reset the game.  Resetting creates an 
entry in the Hall of Fame file.  What this means is that the 
game runs until you decide to reset it.  The menu also has 
two other commands.  One prints the player file to your 
screen.  You use this command to find out what user is 
playing with what game alias and what player number he/she 
is.  The purpose of having this list available is to aid you 
in using the last command available, the delete player.
