                 


                             The Popping Crease





                  One Day International Cricket Simulation





                          Written by Neal Pearson



                           (c) 1998 Neal Pearson




 * Special Thanks To *

The DDPlus Door Kit and all authors/contributors 

CricInfo for their up to date player and stadium statistics
  Check out their site at:    www.cricket.org

SWAG for ideas and tricks they offer programers from useful snipets and code

Seth Able Robinson for releasing the source to a few of his programs, from
which I was able to get ideas and knowledge
  Check out Seth's site at:   www.teleport.com/~sethable

Stuart Erskine for ideas, input and formulae as well as knowledge of teams

Dayna Williams for patience




Table of Contents
-----------------

1) About Shareware and Disclaimer

2) Installing the game
    - Unzipping the archive
    - What's in the archive

3) BBS Installation Guide

4) Version differences
    - Shareware version
    - Registered version

5) Running CODE.EXE to get your FreeWare Reg Number

6) Contacting the author

7) TPC Online and support

8) The future


1) About Sharware and Dislcaimer
--------------------------------
   
   Shareware (also known as user supported software and other names) is a
   concept not understood by everyone.  The authors of Shareware retain all
   rights to the software under the copyright laws while still allowing
   free distribution.  This gives the user the chance to freely obtain and
   try out software to see if it fits their needs.  Shareware should not be
   confused with Public Domain software even though they are often obtained
   from the same sources.
   
   If you continue to use Shareware after trying it out, you are expected
   to register your use with the author and pay a registration fee.  What
   you get in return depends on the author, but may include a printed
   manual, free updates, telephone support, etc.  Only by paying for the
   Shareware you use do you enable the Shareware author to continue to
   support his software and create new programs.  Considering that the
   Shareware registration fees are almost always far less than the purchase
   price of comparable retail software it's obvious that Shareware is a
   good deal for everyone.
   
   One common misconception is that the author receives payment from the
   disk distributors.  This is not true; the small fee that you
   initially pay a distributor to obtain an unregistered copy of a
   Shareware program only pays for the distributors costs.  Shareware
   authors do not receive any royalties and only get paid if you send in
   the registration for programs you use.

   There are real advantages to you in the Shareware system.  You get to
   try out software to make sure it is compatible with your hardware and
   that it fits your needs before you "buy" it with your registration.
   The author saves the expense of advertising, packaging and distribution
   and passes the savings on to you.  Plus, most Shareware authors are
   much more accessible than retail software sources so that your
   questions and suggestions are much more likely to be responded to.
   
                         Thank you for your support.

   - The Popping Crease (including all executables and documentation files)
     is copyrighted material of Neal Pearson (the author).

   - You can use the Shareware version of The Popping Crease for an
     unlimited time, free of charge.
          
   - The author reserves the right to quit giving support or releasing
     updates of the software.  

   - The software and other materials included in the distribution
     archive are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind.  The
     author does not guarantee the correct functioning and/or reliability
     of the software.  The author will not be liable for any direct or 
     indirect damages, resulting from the use of the software.

   - You may not reverse-engineer The Popping Crease in any way and you
     may not add, change or delete any files in the distribution archive.

   - You are free to distribute the original, unmodified The Popping Crease
     archive provided no fee is charged for its distribution.  This
     excludes charges for online time on electronic bulletin boards
     or other communication services.


2) Installing the game
----------------------

    - Unzipping the archive

TPCD2_0.ZIP is the archive that contains the distributed data required to
correctly run and play The Popping Crease.  As seen, this archive uses ZIP
compression, therefore it must be unzipped to extract data.

Using your favourite UNZIP utility (pkunzip,winzip etc) extract all files to
a directory of your choice.

 example for DOS users;
              pkunzip -d TPCD2_0.ZIP c:\tpc

    - What's in the archive

The original TPCD2_0.ZIP distribution file should include;

TPC.EXE      : the main executable program
TPCUTIL.EXE  : sysop config/team maint program
FILE_ID.DIZ  : text file used to display information for BBS's
MANUAL.TXT   : manual file for the game (this file)
REG.TXT      : registration form
NZL.DAT      : New Zealand team data file
AUS.DAT      : Australia team data file
IND.DAT      : India team data file
ZIM.DAT      : Zimbabwe team data file
PAK.DAT      : Pakistan team data file
SRI.DAT      : Sri Lanka team data file
S_A.DAT      : South Africa team data file
ENG.DAT      : England team data file
TPC.CTL      : Control file for BBS to game interaction
HELP.ANS     : Ansi file for help
TITLE.ANS    : Ansi title screen
RECORD.ANS   : Ansi display file
GRAPH.ANS    : X-Y axis for Worm Graph ansi file
CHAMP.ANS    : Ansi display file for champion team

files created by TPC when needed;

CHECK.TIM    : For Maint
RECORD.TPC   : contains all game records
CONFIG.TPC   : BBS configuration file
RESIGN.TPC   : track recorder of who quit a team that day
SYSTEM.TPC   : used for Championship Mode calculations
CHAMP.TPC    : information about reigning champion team
CODE.EXE     : program to give you the FreeWare Code


3) BBS Installation Guide
-------------------------

Firstly you need to edit the file TPC.CTL and configure it to match your own
BBS system.  The file is well commented, so if you get stuck, just relax and
read the information again carefully.

This file should be in the same directory you run the TPC.EXE main executable
file from.  So if you plan on having several copies of TPC.EXE (say one for
each node in some cases) then make sure you have the TPC.CTL file along with
it in each respective directory.

Now run TPCUTIL.EXE to setup your BBS information.  You will be prompted for
a team to load, select any one.  Once at the main menu, select (S) to setup
your BBS configuration.

Enter the required information as necessary to suit your system and needs
then quit TPCUTIL to save the modified data.

In order to run the game online, the following parameters can be used:

        "/Bxxxxx"   This tells TPC.EXE to lock its baud rate at
        xxxxx.  In order to get the most efficiency out of a high speed
        error correcting modem (9600 baud or above), you may lock the baud
        rate to a speed higher than what the caller is actually using.
        By locking the baud to say 38,400, the modem can compress text data
        that is being sent and achieve a baud rate much higher than the
        actual transmission rate.
        This will lock the baud rate at the same value for all nodes that
        use this command line.  If you perfer a more selective way to lock
        baud use 'LOCKBAUD' command in the TPC.CTL file.

        "/Cx"     (where x is 1..4) This specifies a comport number.
        Some bbs software does not create door information files (dropfiles)
        that contain the comport number.  If your bbs does have a comport
        listed in the dropfile then there is no need for this parameter.
        The default is comport 0, local mode.

        "/E" - Expanded Memory Specification If your machine has over one
        megabyte of memory, then you may have some available.  TPC.EXE can
        utilize EMS to improve game performance and reduce conventional
        memory requirements.
        This command will tell TPC.EXE   to use EMS memory to hold its
        overlay buffer.  Otherwise disc area may be used to hold this buffer.
        This needs a memory manager and when enabled and is compatible with
        DESQview. Default is NOT to use available EMS.

        "/L"      This tells TPC.EXE to load up in LOCAL mode.
        This is good for testing or when a sysop just wants to "try out" the
        door without messing with his BBS setup.  The "/L" mode will ask the
        user for his name and run the door in local mode.

        "/Nx"     (where x is 1..9) This specifies a "node number".
        Some bbs software support multinode environments in which you must
        know the node number of the drop file to use. For example, RBBS-PC
        uses DORINFOx.DEF. If you specified "/N2" then TPC.EXE would use
        DORINFO2.DEF.

        "/Mx"     (where x is up to 2 filename acceptable characters)
        Used to specify one of Multiple control files.  If you have created
        more than one TPC.CTL file (TPC1.CTL, TPC2.CTL, etc.) for each
        node or network PC then you can select the one you want by using
        the /M parm.
        Example:  "/M2" will force TPC.EXE to use TPC2.ctl.

        "/Pyyy"   This specifies the path to the drop files.
        For example, "/PC:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE1" would tell TPC.EXE to
        look for the drop file in C:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE1. If this is left
        out the program assumes the drop file is local.

        "/R" To force local RIP for the sysop. Used only if the program
        has RipLink built in and the door supports RIP.  Use AFTER the
        /L parameter if you are using the door in local mode.
        
        "/V"    This command will tell TPC.EXE not to show any display
        on the local screen.  Only a colored screen and a message will be
        displayed.  The cursor will not move as it will be turned off.
        Saves a little processing on multi-tasking systems.

        "/W"      This flags the program that a network is present even
        though no multitaskers are detected.  This is useful if the door is
        run on a network such as Novell that doesn't use multitaskers.

Next you will have to create a batch file for your BBS to load and run TPC.EXE
This will vary depending on what type of BBS system you have, and how you
have it configured.  Here are a few samples to maybe point you in the right
direction if you are having trouble...

Sample 1:

cd\bbs\doors\tpc          {change to your TPC directory}
TPC.EXE /N1 /PC:\BBS      {run TPC.EXE on NODE1 finding the dropfile in \BBS}
cd\bbs
exit

Sample 2:

cd\bbs                              {in your BBS directory copy the dropfile
copy dorinfo1.def c:\bbs\doors\tpc   required to the TPC directory}
TPC /N1                             {run TPC.EXE on NODE 1}
cd\bbs
exit

Sample 3:

cd\bbs\doors\tpc                  {change to the TPC directory}
TPC.EXE /N3 /M3 /PC:\BBS\NODE3    {runs TPC on NODE3, with TPC3.CTL, finding
cd\bbs                             the dropfile required in C:\BBS\NODE3}
exit


4) Version differences
----------------------

    - Unregistered version (shareware)

The unregistered version of The Popping Crease has no time limit for evaluation
purposes, that is to say, you can continue to use this version for your
pleasure for as long as you like.  This version however will not save
updated player statistics to disk after each match, therefore all player/team
data that has been modified (ie averages, balls faced, high scores etc) will
be lost when the game is exited.  

    - Registered version

The registered version of The Popping Crease:

  * When you register The Popping Crease, you will receive a code
    that will unlock all the unique features of this software
  * Saves and updates team and player statistics after each match
  * Includes a Team Maintenance program in which new teams can
    be created, team statistics modified and updated, players added
    and removed or altered, and all player statistics can be updated
    and modified
  * Sysop has more control over the game, allowing setable max games
    per day, grace periods, make teams to be never deleted etc
  * Allows free upgrades to all future versions of The Popping Crease

5) Running CODE.EXE to get your FreeWare Reg Number

Use CODE.EXE and follow the instructions.  Enter the name of your BBS 
or whatever name you want this software registered to.  Press enter, and
you will be given a numerical code.  Then use TPCUTIL and hit S to 
Setup BBS Configuration, press 1 and enter the BBS name/whatever you
used in the CODE program, then press 5 and enter the numerical code that
CODE.EXE gave you.

It is important that you use the same BBS Name you gave to the CODE.EXE
program as you give to the BBS Config Name of BBS etc.  Likewise with
entering the correct code that CODE.EXE.


6) Contacting the author

If you're having problems with a registration code then immediately get in
touch with me at one (or both) of the addresses below, and we'll sort it.

The author can be contacted
 via the internet:
    neal.pearson@xtra.co.nz
 
Please feel free to drop me a line with suggestions, bug reports or anything.

7) TPC Online and Support

I have managed to bag myself some webspace, and will be running it as a
support site for The Popping Crease.  Basically it's nothing flash, just
a place where you can ALWAYS get the latest version..... its at;

         ---------------
www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/9511/
         ---------------


8) The future

TPC is just about all done now.  I can't think of much else to add to it
at this stage.  I must say that feedback has been disappointing, I know
plenty of people have the game and have looked at it.  To those that have
given feedback, then thank you very much, and I hope I have managed to
implement your ideas and thoughts to the latest versions of TPC.

TPC has been a good hobby to write, and now it's just about finished I'll
get bored no doubt and want to write something else.. so if anyones got
any suggestions on what BBS door game is necessary in todays world, and 
should be written, then tell me....



