Scrabble Door (Multi-Node) - Revision of Changes

(Please see the Whats.New file for changes in the current release)

v1.0n - Sat 06/27/92

  -  Some minor cosmetic changes.  Add (back) the display of "Game You
  Are Playing" when selecting "P" to Play a game.

  -  Minor changes to the support of non-standard comm ports.  Please note
  that the entries for new BaseAddress and new IRQ are BOTH listed in
  hexadecimal notation!  Eg. COM3 $3F8 $5   (See ANode.Cfg)

  -  Added a Shuffle Option from the Game Board Display Menu.  This will
  randomly shuffle the display of tiles in your hand.

  -  Added a message text export feature whenever it's someone new's
  Turn to Play.  This is designed to allow for BBSs that are able to
  import ASCII text files into their Message Base.  Since I have no idea
  how these utilities expect to find these files formatted I will leave it
  up to the Sysop to design their own message files.  I will use a Template
  file - called Message.Txt (must be in the Scrabble directory).  You can
  edit this file to suit your needs.

  *** NOTE ***
  If you DO NOT wish to use this option (and want to prevent the
  creation of the MSG.### files) - simply DELETE the Message.Txt file!

  I will support the use of variable tokens that will be used to place
  the appropriate information into the exported Message Files:

             %NAME  - The Player's Full Name
             %FIRST - The Player's First Name
             %GAME  - Game Number
             %DATE  - The Current Date (mm/dd/yy format)

  See the provided sample MESSAGE.TXT file for an example.

  The program will attempt to create "MSG.1" whenever exporting a message.
  It will continue incrementing the extension until it finds a unique number.
  Thus, it is possible to have up to 999 exported messages - I will leave it
  up to the Sysop to delete the MSG.* files after they have been imported
  into the BBSs Message Base.

v1.0M - Sun  04-05-1992

  -  A couple of new configuration file additions:
  (For the Node.Cfg ONLY!  No changes to the Local.Cfg)

  BEEP | NOBEEP - Will either sound/not sound an alarm on the local
  terminal whenever a player tries to use a bad word!

  PRIVATE | NOPRIVATE - Will either display/not display the current
  player's tiles on the local terminal screen.

  -  Recompiled with an updated Async Professional.  Many bug fixes for
  the communication routines.

v1.0L - Sat  03-07-1992

  -  Added support for a FOSSIL driver back in.  The main reason for
doing this was to improve support for non-standard port addresses that
just wouldn't work properly. Specify on the COMx line in the Node's
config file.

v1.0K - Sat  02-29-1992

  -  Added support for non-standard port addresses and IRQ levels.
These are determined with the addition of optional parameters in the
config file. (See sample configs for example)

  -  Changed the way the Combined Points is tallied for the Top Ten
Winners Bulletin.  Rather than being an accumulative total it is now
figured as the high point value for any one game.  It will be necessary
to either edit the existing values in the Players.Dat file (using the
Players.Exe utility) or to erase the existing Players.Dat file to start
with a fresh set of data.

  -  Made some formatting changes to the Game Status display.  It should
now properly handle large game files (and be much faster to boot!).

  -  Added two new Sysop commands:

  Rewrite Bulletins - will rewrite the current Status and Top Ten
  Bulletins.

  Pass Turn - which will pass the current player in any game without the
  possiblity of a Final Score being forced.  A Sysop "Pass Turn" will
  not be tallied in the Pass.Dat file, thus, will not be counted when
  determining whether or not a player should be removed from a game
  (based on the 3 pass rule).

v1.0j Sun  02-16-1992

Added a "Keep Port Settings" line to the aNode.Cfg file! This makes
obsolete all the previous Comm Port settings.  It attempts to open the
port with the current existing parameters.

Several PCBoard Sysops have stated that they had problems with high
speed modems when MNP vs non-MNP callers logged in.  The configuration
that seemed to work the best with these circumstances was:  A Locked
Baud Rate (eg. 19200), CTS and YES (for the Keep Port Setting).

When a Player selects <P> to Play - the display will now show all games
where it is his/her TURN, not all games he/she is PLAYING.

Enhanced the Status Bulletin again (request from Charles Taylor). Added
to the Winner Line:

***  WINNER  ***  Winner/Second_Place  Win_Score/Second_Score - Moves

Added an extra 5 Points awarded to the Combined Points Score for ANY
player that made a BINGO in a game!  For those of you that don't
understand the terminology (I didn't either until talking with Charles),
a BINGO is where a Player wins the 50 point bonus by using all of their
tiles in one move.

v1.0i Sun  01-19-1992

  Changes to the configuration files - PLEASE EDIT YOUR OLD ONES!

  Added support for WildCat v3.0+ UserInfo.Dat file.  Keyword: WC30

  Major changes to the timer and inactivity timeout routines.

  Added generation of a Game History file, this is strictly an ASCII file
  and should be displayed from the BBS only (no way to view it in game).
  Added the [path\]filename to this file to the Scrabble.Cfg.

  Added an optional "Extra Line" tag line that will be displayed under the
  Main Menu Title.  Please put your text in the Scrabble.Cfg file or leave
  a blank line in the config file if you do not wish to add anything.

  Corrected scoring problems when one of the players in a two player game
  Concedes.  The win will now go, properly, to the last remaining player
  no matter what the scores were at the time of the "Concede".

v1.0h Tue  12-31-1991

  -  Trying to resolve problems with "Dropped Carrier" when re-writing the
  Status Bulletins.  This fix applies to both the Door Executable and
  SDMaint.

v1.0g Sun  11-24-1991

  -  Quite a few changes in how User & Sysop Names are handled in the
  Status Bulletins, etc.  I'm attempting to correct problems for the BBS
  systems that allow single user names.

v1.0f Mon  10-21-1991

  -  Converted over completely to using Turbo Power's Async Professional
  communications program.  A FOSSIL driver is no longer required (or
  supported).

  -  The program now has it's own built-in Ansi terminal.  Ansi.Sys is
  no longer necessary on the host machine (or for you DesqView users).

  -  The field widths for the Sysop and System Names have been expanded
  to allow for those BBS's that get somewhat carried away with names <G>.

v1.0e  Sat  08-17-1991

  -  Some major changes made in the way Scrabble handles the PASS.DAT
  file.  This will, hopefully, correct the problems with running the
  SDMaint utility.

  -  Included a ViewPass.Exe utility to see what's really in there!

v1.0d  Wed  12-19-1990

  -  Some minor changes to reading the PCBoard.Sys file having to do
  with how the Sysop name is determined.

  -  Changed the TopTen Winner's Bulletin to include some CR/LF's so
  that the maximum length of each line would be shortened.  These long
  lines were causing display problems with certain BBS programs (GT in
  particular).

  -  Found a minor glitch in the dictionary look-up routine in that it
  wouldn't find the FIRST word in the dictionary.  This HAS BEEN
  CORRECTED!  Thanks to Morton Cohen for finding this one!

  -  Improved the formatting of the Status Bulletins.

  It will be necessary to obtain the new SDMaint.Exe file as this
  program also utilizes the new Status Bulletin procedure.

  -  Changed the procedure for reading the configuration file so that
  any comments in the lines are ignored.  Note: Must be at least ONE
  space separating the information from the comment!

  -  CALLING SYNTAX CHANGE FOR SDMAINT!
  SDMaint no longer requires a SDMaint.Cfg file!  The configuration
  information is read directly from the ScrabMN config file.  Whatever
  configuration file you wish to use should now be passed on the command
  line to SDMaint.  Eg.  SDMaint Scrabble.Cfg 5

v1.0d - 10/16/90

-  Add the First Initial to the Who's Turn Name in the Status Bulletin.

-  Added a configuration option to SConfig to Enable/Disable automatic
   checking for QkTerm at program start-up.

-  Added support for DesqView (thanks to Joel Bergen) to release
   time-slices when waiting for user input.

-  Updated the Maintenance Utility to keep track of the number of Passes
   made per each player. A Pass.Dat file will be created and maintained
   for this purpose.  If a player PASSES 3 turns - he will be removed
   from the game. If a game has only 2 players and one of the players
   PASSES three turns - the game will be Killed.

-  Added several prompts for the Play Game and Join Game Options to
   display current available games.

-  Added the InActivity Time-Out variable to the Setup.Cfg file!
   *** Please edit your Setup.Cfg and run SConfig.Exe ***
   Improved checking for InActivity Time-Out checking in ALL major
   loops.

-  Added a "Black List" feature.  Checks for a filename - Black.Lst and
   if it exists then compares the current player with all the names in
   the file.  If the current player is listed in the file, then he will
   not be allowed to play ANY games.  Black.Lst is a straight Ascii
   CR/LF delimited file.

-  Added a simple message capability between users.  The program does
   NOT verify that the message is addressed to a valid player.

v1.0c - 8/21/90

-  Changed the display of the Status Bulletins to display a page at a
   time while in the game.

-  Added two new variables in the Setup.Cfg file (for SConfig):

   Working Directory - This will be the directory where all the
   Inter-Node communications are handled.  Can either be the default
   Scrabble Directory (leave blank) or, you may path it to a RAM Disk
   (faster access, etc.) or Drive\Directory of your choice.

   MilliSecond Inter-Node Delay - This will allow the Sysop to fine-tune
   the time between checks for Inter-Node communications.  Default value
   is 20000 msec.  Higher values will result in fewer disk reads in
   checking for Inter-Node messages, etc.

-  Updated the Check Game Status to include Winner's Name/Score if game
   is Completed.

-  Added the ability to View/Delete the Requested New Words File.

v1.0b - 7/20/90

-  Cleaned up the Status Report to not show a Player's Turn in Completed
   games.  Other minor cosmetic changes.
-  Updated SConfig.Exe so that the Max Number of Games can be changed
   without losing existing games.
-  Slight change in how program reads the DoorType line in the
   Scrabble.Cfg file. Certain sub-directory names could cause confusion
   as to what type of DoorInfo file to read.
-  Added Optional Command Line Parameter to Log onto the Game with a
   particular Player Name.  Eg. ScrabMN Any.Cfg Chris Hall
-  Fixed Bug in SMNMaint.Exe using the Optional /T or -T (Test Mode)
   parameter.
-  Inserted a new line in the Configuration File.  This will determine
   whether or not to use Direct Screen writes for the Game Board
   display.  This option will speed the display up for Local Play, as
   well as, when someone is using QkTerm remotely.

v1.0a - 6/08/90

-  Corrected bug in how the Game handles Killed Games, etc.  Some minor
   cosmetic changes in the Status Bulletin.

-  Added Setup.Cfg for use by SConfig.Exe.  This will enable defaults to
   be saved in a straight Ascii file for easy editing and re-use.

-  Added Winner's Name to the Status Display.

-  Corrected bug in reusing Completed Games after proper number of days.

-  Added a Forced Pass Option to SConfig.  If enabled, whenever a Player
   enters a Game where it is his turn - if he Exists the Game without
   making a move - he will be forced to Pass his turn.

