Wait A Minute, Something's Wrong Dept. Before I describe the program you have just downloaded, I must offer the following diatribe to those among you who have loyally downloaded any or all of the six previous fLAtDiSk VR Dreams, or to anyone who has purchased Domark's Virtual Reality Studio 2.0 as a result of having sampled a fLAtDiSk VR Dream. If you are not one of these former VR Dreamers, or if you're in a hurry, you may skip over to the Usual Rambling Docs Dept. and find out how to experience NITEMALL, but I suggest you all read my Angry Essay Written After Upgrading to Virtual Reality Studio V2.0 I was a pretty cocky guy back in '92. I had quite a bit of success with Domark's VR Studio 1.0. Over 1500 people downloaded the six fLAtDiSk VR Dreams, and I'd made some new friends and gotten lots of nice email for my efforts. People were talking to me like I was some sort of VR guru (I'm not, but I enjoy the spotlight, ok?). New Media offered me a free six-month subscription. No money, but what's money, eh? I'm in the FreeWare business, after all. Well, kids, money is what you use to pay for commercial software like Domark's VR Studio 2.0. Even though I was a registered user of VRS1, I got no offer from Domark to upgrade cheap. I had to trot down to the Egg like everybody else and take a chance that there really was a reason to buy a new version at Egghead's slightly-off-list price. I had already begun a new project in VRS1. I wasn't eggactly rolling in dough. I wanted to buy Vista Pro and Distant Suns. Etc., etc. I gave in. I bought VRS2 anyway. After all, it could only be an improvement, right? Yes and no. VRS2 is not what it appears. It is a new version to be sure, but the designers have made some bad decisions about what to change and/or sacrifice to make changes. The resulting version has bugs that can drive you right up a virtual wall. The astute among you will notice only two of these in fLAtDiSk VR Dream #7, and they won't affect your PC or cause your mouse to drop off, but before you go out and invest in VRS2 I feel you have a right to know THE TRUTH. You might be better off buying VRS1 (which is probably going cheap) or not upgrading at all if you already have the original. Here's the list, Domark. (If you had only done me the courtesy of answering my letter, eh?) Readers take note that all references are to the VRS2 PC version. The Amiga version may work just fine. Maybe it's Todd R.'s fav for all I know (or care). The VRS2 editor "supports" AdLIb, Roland, and horrible PC speaker. Exactly how this sound support works is not documented. VRS2 also comes with a separate sound editor for each of the above, so you can compose sound effects for your programs. Unfortunately, the main VRS2 editor doesn't always remember the custom sounds you loaded into your program file in a previous session. It gets worse: VRS2 makes stand-alone programs, but the compiler refuses to compile any sounds at all. I have, I admit, an AdLib compatible, ATI Stereo FX card, but it worked fine with VRS1. The only other VRS2 user I am contact with could not get the compiler to do sounds with his card either. Hi, Josh. The box also lists Sound Blaster, but there are no visible drivers for SB. Final compiled programs won't even run silently without all of the (useless) drivers for all sound options in the user's directory. (I don't know zilch about Roland, but support for that card was one of the "improvements" made for VRS2. Maybe it works, maybe not.) As you will see when you run NITEMALL, programs compiled in VRS2 do not start up right. The first thing you get is a borderless picture of the first scene (or Area, to those in the know). There is no documented way to correct this. If you don't know that it is necessary to press Esc to reset the program and get it to start, you might think something has gone horribly wrong. Many users might press the PC's reset in tears, fearing Albanian viruses or something. This problem did not exist in VRS1. There have been several changes in the editor's user interface that make it clumsy and overly complex. Using the okay button on the object edit interface lands the mouse pointer right on the reset button in the main control panel, for example. There is a new, confusing, nonintuitive system of menus that will make Windows or Geos users shake their heads with pity. The new attribute clicks in the dialog boxes are useless, as they are only temporary. You must write code in various condition windows to permanently affect an object's attributes. The box and manual proclaim a new "VCR style playback function". It works nicely in the editor, but forget the manual's claim that it can be added to your final stand-alone using Freescape commands. (Freescape is the programming language built into both versions of VRS). If there are such commands, they are completely undocumented. The documentation looks impressive. Domark includes a video like the last time, and there is a very funny, reasonably thick, Douglas Adams style manual. Unfortunately, the book only skims the surface and then resorts to a badly laid out glossary that makes the old Microsoft manuals look friendly. "Double the number of control commands", the box proclaims. Useless if you have to spend the rest of your life figuring out what they're for, says I. The "print out/screen dump" option claimed on the box is not documented, if it exists at all. The Freescape code is written in modular fashion, and each module can indeed be dumped to a .TXT file, but there is no overall code dump. The new graphic drawing commands, which could be quite powerful, are not documented outside the glossary. Some of the new commands definitely don't work. (DISK, for example.) Added I/O support is completely ignored in the manual. You can load in a title screen (see NITEMALL), but it may take you ten hours to figure out how. The manual and the dialog boxes refer to .IFF as being the file extension for all graphic files used by VRS2. The correct, undocumented PC extension is .LBM. The perfectly wonderful 256-color palette control from VRS1 has been replaced by a clumsy menu system. VRS2 doesn't allow you to save your palettes for future projects. The blend option is gone. Unclear border load options can wipe out your palette changes. The old color system was one of VRS1's best features. Customizing a palette with the new system is annoying and time consuming. The load and save options have been extended and speeded up, but they remain unusually unintelligent. There are still no warnings against overwriting existing filenames. VRS2 needs to be first told and then constantly reminded which of its subdirectories contain its various file types. The program's install sets up these directories. Is it too much to ask that it knows their names? Instead of just a couple of compact files like VRS1, a "stand-alone" for VRS2 now requires 15 separate files. When does a stand-alone stop being a stand-alone? To be fair, there are many new features that work just fine. You'll see some of them while you're tripping around in NITEMALL. (Too bad you can't hear them too). After all, this is still the only program of its kind for PC, and some of the old VRS1 bugs have been stomped out, but, there's a lesson here, dear Potential Dreamsters: Don't upgrade just because an upgrade is available. Do your homework first. Check out a working copy before you buy. Or wait for the PC mags to do it for you. It's ok to put your faith in ShareWare and FreeWare, but beware "commercial" software. The big guys worry most about their car payments. Personally, I take the local bus. !o)Old Indy. Usual Rambling Docs Dept. NITEMALL A fLAtDiSk(tm) FreeWare Virtual Reality Dream (7th in the series - see BDREAM.ZIP, FURTHER.ZIP, PURPLE.ZIP, NOUPDOWN.ZIP, EARTHNAP.ZIP, MOANBIRD.ZIP, in no particular order.) System requirements: AT or better, with minimum VGA/MCGA 256-color card/monitor. Rodent, and/or joystick required. No sound this time (see above essay for why). Tools Used This Time Department: Programmed using the Domark Virtual Reality Studio 2.0, by Rich La Bonte, (a.k.a.. FLAtRich on America OnLine, the user-friendly network). The fLAtDiSk(tm) User Interface was created in ZSoft's PCPaintbrush V+ and John Wagner's IMPROCES 4.1, then converted to .LBM format using VPIC. Title Screen and Sneaky Spock Self-Promotion created in IMPROCES 4.1. NITEMALL is FreeWare by fLAtDiSk SoftWorks, circa 1993. Abuse at will. We will always make no reparations to any eye strained individuals addicted to VR or computers who can't get enough of a good thing. Please include all files if you want to distribute NITEMALL, or it probably won't work. (Considering the buggy nature of Domark's VRS2, I make no absolute promises that it will work with all the files on specific systems either, but it probably will. At least I tested it on several very different systems before I uploaded it.) ALL fLAtDiSk files are scanned for viruses with MS Anti-Virus before distribution. (With the Stealth scan option on, just to be sure.) Practice safe data, use virus protection. Endless List Of What Should Be Included For This ZIP To Be Legit Department: 6x6font.3fd (818) - a font file. 8x8font.3fd (884) - another font file. runner.3sd (1646) - a file that has to do with the sound that doesn't work. runner.3wd (54528) - a file that deals with actual program graphics and stuff. soundal.drv (2812) - a useless sound driver for AdLib soundns.drv (377) - a sound driver for no sound, which appears to work too well. soundpc.drv (2718) - another useless sound driver - for horrible PC speaker. soundrl.drv (2902) - a sound driver that may or may not work with Roland cards. video.drv (9859) - a video driver, most likely. nitemall.exe (8859) - the program runner file. runner.exe (96176) - the VRS2 runner file. ad.lbm (23742) - the ad file. fdvrd05.lbm (6374) - the cool fLAtDiSk border file. Steal if you must. title7.lbm (55888) - the title file, 7th take. runner.rsc (1327) - another obscure file. flatface.gif (11865) - a GIF file that explains the fLAtDiSk mouse user interface. flatdocs.txt (13761) - this file, of course. Longer than previous ones 'cause I'm mad! I tried to eliminate some included useless and sound related files to make the ZIP a little smaller, but the program won't load without them. Only the aforementioned authors of VRS2 know why. You can delete FLATFACE.GIF and this file if you don't need them. They have nothing to do with making the program work. Installation and Use Of Dept. With all those files, it's probably a good idea to make a NITEMALL directory, then put all the files unZIPped from NITEMALL.ZIP into that NITEMALL directory. Use your brain and figure out how to complete these steps all by yourself. To run it, type NITEMALL and press ENTER. The first thing you will see is a DOS menu that asks if you are English, French or German. Make a choice or sit there staring at the screen wishing there was some other option. Another DOS menu asks if you are using a mouse, keyboard, or a joystick. I KNOW the rodent works. (If you want to struggle with the keyboard alternatives, they're listed at the end of these docs.) Then you'll see a black screen with a scene in the middle. Yes, something's wrong, but it's not your fault. It's also not my fault. It's Domark's fault. (See essay above). Press Esc. Now you're at the opening fLAtDiSk title screen. Admire it for a while. Press any key. Now you're back to the first scene, but you've got a gray border and control buttons to play with. The FLATFACE.GIF file tells you what does what. You can probably figure it out. Go ahead. Try it. GENERAL HINTS: fLAtDiSk (tm) Dreams are not games, only alternate realities. You're just a Dreamer. You can't do anything to get killed or penalized. Take your time and look around. If the controls seem to go nuts or the view becomes unpleasantly distorted, use the big button to righten yerself: you are probably upside down or something. Collide to pass through obvious portals. Use the left rodent button to shoot at anything that you are curious about: some things are actually portals. As I've already mentioned, Domark blew it with the sound, so you won't hear any of the nice effects I came up with this time. There are no dead ends in fLAtDiSk VR Dreams. Use them buttons! To restart at any time - or if you get stuck - click on the GUI button marked R. You will probably have to hold down the SHIFT and ESC keys for a while when you QUIT back to DOS (or whichever shell). You should NOT have to press your computer's reset button to get out. When you move around in there, the left mouse button is normal speed and the right is double speed. KEYBOARD ALTERNATIVES O move forward Q rotate left I center view K move backward W rotate right U u-turn J move left P rotate up Esc reset to start H move right L rotate down SPACE to shoot R move up N tilt left F move down M tilt right TO QUIT back to whatever shell or OS you use, press SHIFT and ESC together. This program may not launch from Windows because of (believe it or not) sound driver conflicts. It will launch from GeoWorks Pro. I don't if it will launch from GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0, OS/2, or Amiga or Mac DOS emulators. It's happy to run any ol' time in MS-DOS 5 and 6. Have FUN. :o)FLATRich