Frozen Fish 1: Amiga/FrozenFish-Apr94.iso/bbs/alib/d6xx/d651/501.lha/501/ReadMe.501

Text File | 1992-05-14 | 14KB | 302 lines

                501-THE GAME
                   ©1991


Welcome dart enthusiasts. Here it is; a data base essentially constructed by
one's performance at the game of 501.

Apart from an Amiga it is absolutely essential to have a dart board and a good
set of darts on hand. This is not a computer based game. The game is
played on a regular bristle board, using the finest darts you can afford.
The best arrangement I've found is to place the keyboard and screen
perpendicular to the board, off to one side and in such a manner that when
at the line, you can still see the screen. Obviously, space and living
arrangements may impose or suggest some other disposition. A dart den and an
extra Amiga are a great asset. A pint of ale is also considered good form.

This program, apart from being a handy calculator, for subtracting you score
from your tally, also keeps track of your performance from game to game
throughout a season. Once you're within range it suggests the most
common routes to doubling out.

I'm assuming you have some prior knowledge of the game 501. If not, I'm
afraid this will probably ressemble the dullest program you have ever seen.
There are some bells and whistles, but all are related to the game. At this
time there is no animation.

The program itself is fairly straight forward. It takes about thirty seconds
to load on my 7.23 mega hertz clunker; but after that everything just breezes
along.

FILENAMES

After the Logo screen you are given an opportunity to preview the stats. A
simple <ENTER> will skip the previewing. If you choose to preview you
then must identify which file. Enter the appropriate filename, choosing from
the files listed. The default is "Top Flights" which I have used to present
some sample stats.

After the preview option, you are asked to either enter an existing filename
or to create a new file. Upon creation of a new file you are prompted to set
a dart limit. See below for an explaination of DartLimit.

The file you create will contain, besides the dart limit, the names of the
players who regularily use it and information relating to their performance.
At the prompt type a name and hit RETURN; if you are happy with the spelling
hit RETURN again, or else hit the "n" key. Player names are limited to 10
characters. Type in all the players and then type "END". You do this only
once, when you open a new file.

If you have already created a file and you reopen it, you are given an
opportunity to append players to it. The maximum number of files is twenty
and the maximun number of players per file is twenty.

If there are no new entries, simply hit <ENTER>.


W”HO'S PLAYING
ϥ
From here on almost everything is done from the numeric key pad. The only
"Hot Keys" are the "n" for NO, the "y" or the <ENTER> for YES, the backspace
key to correct scoring errors before they have been <ENTER>ed, and the "r"
key to back up in case of erroneous entries.

To indicate who's playing press the appropriate number listed opposite the
player name and hit <ENTER>. A requester will appear asking if the opponents
are correct. If yes hit <ENTER>; if not hit the "n"+<ENTER> keys and reselect
the opponents.

PLAYING THE GAMEœ

Darts are shot in the regular fashion. Key in your score and away you go. If
you make a mistake you can use the backspace key to erase. If you've hit the
<ENTER> key before becoming aware of your error use the "r"+<ENTER> key to
rewind. If you rewind more than one turn, you are responsible for
remembering what you shot on previous turns.

On the last volley, once you've doubled out, a requester appears asking to
validate the end of game. Hit <ENTER> for yes, the "n"+<ENTER> key for no.

You are then asked for the number of darts used in Checking out. Appropriate
responses are 1, 2 or 3. Key in the answer and hit <ENTER>.

If you played a game under 48 darts it will be printed to the screen. If you
shot more than 48 darts, only you're average will be posted. There is a brief
pause while the information is written to disk, and then you are asked if
you'd like to play another. <ENTER> for yes, "n"+ <RETURN> for no.

High scores, high Check-Outs, low dart counts and other stats are only
retained if a game is completed, even if it is a dud. A game aborted by a
Ctrl-C <BREAK> will not be recorded.If there are only two players in a file,
it is assumed the loser will shoot first the following game. If there are
more than two players, you are once again asked who's playing.

If you no longer wish to play, at the end of a game press the "n" key +
<RETURN>. A requester appears asking for confirmation. <ENTER> for yes.

The asteriks accompanying certain Check-Out suggestions indicates choices
for which other routes have a certain following. In the end you can shoot
whatever you like, these are only suggestions.

When viewing the Stats the BackSpace key will take you back one screen.
The last screen is slow. My algorithm for it is not as lean as
I would like. The calculating is a bit too labor intensive. Lots of floating
points.

Just wait a few seconds and your averages will appear.

DARTLIMIT

A few words on the Dart Limit. It is set by default at 99. If you've thrown
any darts you'll know that by the time you've tossed sixty or seventy darts
you've been aiming at the double 1 for a while, and probably the game has lost
some of it's vitality. A reasonably active player should be shooting in the
30 to 50 dart range. I suggest setting the dart limit some 12 or 15 darts
above the group average. However, this is strictly a matter of personal choice.
The World Dart Federation does not recognize the DartLimit.

The way the limit works is this. If both players reach the limit without
either having checked out, the game is ended and declared a dud. The standings
are then consulted and the player having the lower standing is accorded the
win. However he or she is also tagged the maximum number of darts, thereby
increasing his/her D.P.G.W. average. If by chance both players are tied in
the standings, then a random coin is tossed. The player on the left of the
screen has heads, the other tails. The number generated indicates the
winner.

You can choose not to set a dart limit other than the default of 99. The group
I tested the system on set a limit of 51 during the season, but went with the
default during the playoffs. Unfortunately, the 99 limit is hard coded into
the program.


THE STATS•œ

On the main screen each player's current wins are printed next to his/her name.
Hi-Sc is the most recent High score for a single volley of three darts.
Although a High Score is printed to the title bar during game play, it is
checked against records on disk, so that a bad high score or one shot during
an uncompleted game will not be posted the succeeding game.

HCO is the most recent high check-out. This value is not simply the highest
double, but the highest combination of darts, in a single volley, leading to
zero with the last dart being a double. The maximum is 170, the combination
being T20 T20 DB.

The <> represents the range of the top ten best games shot. The perfect game
is shot in nine darts. Good Luck!!!!!

THE STATS DEPARTMENT•œ

ŒListed on the first three screens are the ten best marks of he statistics
explained above. In addition there is the Hi-Streak board. This represents
the greatest number of consecutive games won by a single player. The streak
is listed only after the player's first loss. That is, if you've won, for
instance twelve straight games, and the high Streak is at ten, your streak
will not occupy first place until you lose your next game.

On choosing a filename, the players on that file are presented. Opposite
their names is their mean number of darts thrown per game won and notice
of where they are at in the Streak Department. I'm presently working on
incorporating some other interesting but deceiving stats. Consult future
upgrades of this program for this and other types of enhancements.

D.P.G.W. represents an average of darts shot per games won. It is a
particularily deceiving statistic. A person could play, for instance, ten
games and win but a single one. On that game however the person shot an
extraordinary 18 darts. His/her D.P.G.W. would be an incredible 18.0, whereas
his/her win/loss average would be a miserable .100 .

On the last screen players are ranked according to their win/loss percentage.

THE DART MANAGER

The Dart Manager is an accompanying program, which operates essentially on
the data files. It permits stuff like changing a player's name without losing
his/her stats; deleting players no longer active; deleting old files;
rectifying errors that have snuck into the files somehow, usually through
human error; printing out the stats in a nice clean formatted form, with
title and all, from whatever file desired in as many copies as paper permits.

Print-outs are great for comparing performances from week to week and over
the long winter months. Winter? Uh! Yes well my reality does contain severe
winter.

Last year I  D.T.P.'d  a newsletter called DartWorld of which the stats
pages where of primary interest.

With the DartManager you can also print out a score sheet specific to a
file, on which to score if playing away, the Amiga not being the worlds
most portable computer. Also included is a means of keying in the Away
data, without going through the bother of playing out the games. This is
great for keeping your stats up to date even if you're not playing at
home.

The Dart Manager provides other information, in a more brute form.
It's a perfect companion, very handy to have, and dirt cheap all things
considered.

PUBLIC DOMAIN•

Though I retain the copyright to 501-The Game© it is otherwise completely
free. You can give it away as you please but you cannot sell it or derive
any profit from it's use without some form of contractual agreement with me.
My friends suggested I disable the program somewhat, like not saving the
stats, but I couldn't see doing that. I've retained the printing functions;
but otherwise the program is perfectly operational.

If you like it, if you use it, if you believe in the spirit of PD, and last
but not least if you have any money I'd really appreciate a token payment.
If you're interested in the DartManager send a certified cheque or
money-order for the sum of thirty-five (35$) American dollars to:

            G. Lepageƒ
            c/o Vox Populiƒ
            4060 Boul. Saint-Laurentƒ
            Local 301ƒ
            Montreal, Qc, H2W 1Y9ƒ
            Canada.

and I'll put you on my list of customers to be notified of subsequent upgrades.
I'll also send you the most recent version I'm working on, along with the
DartManager. All this by certified post. ƒ

FONTS AND LIBS

If you move the game, like copying it to a hard disk, don't forget to shift
the Fonts and Libs to their appropriate drawers. You can use SID or JPDUtil
in the Fred Fish collection if you're uncomfortable with the CLI.

I've used Basic 32, Helvetica 24 and 9,Script 16, and Ruby 12. These may
not be on you boot disk and for sure neither Basic nor Script are on your
Extras disk. I've provided a script file to copy these to you system but
you'll need at least 30k free space. If you don't have the room, run the
script FontMover and type "n" at the first prompt and "y" at the second.
The fonts will be placed in RAM and you can then run the game.

On a standard WorkBench diskette there are 26k free. If yoy transfer
a single font you rarely use, to another diskette and then run the
InstallFonts script everything should work fine.

The program itself occupies 92k and uses approximately 3k for the records
it maintains for each file created. If this program is on a full diskette
there may not be room to open any files. Just copy the entire 501-The_Game
drawer and 501-The_Game.info to some place more spacious and start again.

If you've played on disk for a while before making a transfer don't forget
to take the appropriate files with you, if you don't want to lose your
statistics. Filenames plus the extensions ".players", ".scores", and ".rnd"
are essential, as is "Game.Index".

I've made no provisions for users with a single drive-512k system, running
version 1.2 of the operating system.

I've tested the program on both the 500 and 2000 running either 1.3 or 2.04
KickStart and it works fine. I've been told it will not work on systems
using the Motorola 68040.

CREDITS AND THANKS•

Thanks especially to my wife Francine who was there to appease my frustration
and helped in making the program user-friendly. Her suggestions on lay-out
where timely and important to the essence of the game rather than the
program.

Thanks to my friends who played endless games on a prototype prone to bomb,
without ever complaining. Thanks too for their debugging thru interaction.

Thanks to Tom R. Halfhill and Charles Brannon, the authors of ADVANCED AMIGA
BASIC, published by Compute! This I considered the bible of Basics, though
it is now fast growing old with all the new flavors abounding and with an
ever growing number of users CALLing and DEF FNing their functions.

Thanks too to Amazing Amiga and AmigaWorld, and in particular to a couple of
authors who's programming demonstrations I really appreciated.

Bob Ryan in Amiga World for his Basic by the Numbers.
Robert d'Asto in Amazing Amiga for information on the pointer.
Brian D. Catley in AmigaWorld for truly inspirational programming.

Thanks to Abacus for some good Tricks and Tips.

This program contains 1,686 lines of code and a single GOTO,
where I thought it was essential.

ON ERROR GOTO 0.

MISCELLANEOUS

Multi-tasking is an unknown. Who'd want to while shooting darts and
quaffing ales anyway! May be trouble in module WINDOW.

The program never did anything to my system, but if something happens, I am
not responsable.

If you find a bug please try to get the sequence down so I can stomp it. If you
have suggestions send them along. If you think of some interesting stats
please let me know. Good Darts.

Gilles Lepage
Montreal,Qc.
22/04/1992