

  ADVANCED TACTICAL FIGHTERS UTILITY v0.9 BETA
  ============================================


  an utility for A.T.F.

  written 1995,1996 by Bart Kamps, release date 05/MAY/96


_________________



  OVERVIEW
  --------
  1. (DE)INSTALLATION
  2. HOW TO USE IT
  3. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
  4. KNOWN PROBLEMS
  5. CHANGES BETWEEN VERSIONS



  1. (DE)INSTALLATION
  -------------------

  To install A.T.F. Utility, copy all the files to the directory
  where you've installed the game. You can start the utility by
  running ATFUTIL.BAT

  If you want to deinstall this utility, simply command DEL ATFUTIL*.*
  and all files used by this utility will be deleted.




  2. HOW TO USE IT
  ----------------

  Basically you'll only need four keys for this program: CURSOR UP,
  CURSOR DOWN, ENTER and ESC. With the CURSOR keys you can go through
  the menu's and select your choice with ENTER or back up a menu with
  ESC. From the main menu ESC will quit the utility. There is no mouse
  support, sorry. If a pilot or mission will be deleted, the program
  will ask you a confirmation by pressing Y.

  The following functionalities are offered:


  --- PILOT CHEATS

  - Select any mission
  You can select any mission from one of the campaigns to play, so
  you don't need to play the campaigns in order or you can just play
  your favourite missions from a campaign again. If your pilot is in
  the Egyptian campaign, a list of all missions from this campaign is
  show. The same for the other campaigns. If your pilot is not in a
  campaign (after finishing one f.e.), you can't select this option.

  - Undead pilot
  Arggh! You were killed in action and you had already played half the
  campaign and now you can't use your pilot anymore. With this undead
  feature you can bring him back alive and play on. Even if you're
  busted or MIA, this cheat will put you back in the skies. If you're
  not KIA/MIA/busted you can't select this option.

  - Reset mission failures
  Your superiors are getting though on you, one more failure and you're
  fired. To soften the pressure reset your mission failures and you can
  again mess up a couple of missions without being fired. If you have
  no mission failures or you're dead, then you can't select this option.

  - Reset mission failures
  Delete the selected pilot for ever. A confirmation is asked.


  --- MODIFY CUSTOM MISSIONS

  - Select any aircraft
  Create a custom mission in A.T.F. and then use this option to change
  your aircraft to any aircraft from the game. Be aware that a B-52 can't
  take off from a small airfield, etc. This logic is all up to you.

  - Create mission briefing
  If a selected mission has no mission briefing file (.MT), this option
  will make a default mission briefing, which thereafter can easily be
  completed by selecting 'edit mission briefing' and fill in all the
  bracketed { } sections.

  - Edit mission briefing
  The mission briefings have to be written with a text editor. This option
  allows you to easily start the editor with the selected mission. See the
  file BRIEFING.TXT in your A.T.F. directory for information on how to write
  these briefings. If the mission has no mission briefing (.MT file), you
  will edit an empty file. You can't use this option if no mission briefing
  file exists, use 'create mission briefing' first then.

  - Edit mission
  If you're an advanced mission writer, it might be handy to edit the
  mission file with a text editor, to make changes that the A.T.F. editor
  in the game won't allow you to do.

  - Delete mission or mission/briefing
  Deletes the selected mission and briefing if any. A confirmation is asked.


  --- OTHERS

  - Play A.T.F.
  This options starts ATF.BAT which will run the game.

  - View README
  Starts an editor with this file you're reading now.

  - About
  Shows information on author, version, etc.




  3. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
  -----------------------

  This utility works only with A.T.F. and is not tested on foreign
  versions of A.T.F, users of 'non-standard' A.T.F. versions beware.
  If you have another version than v1.0xx you'll get a warning message
  if you start the utility. 

  Although the program is tested thoroughly, it's always possible that
  your pilot or mission files are messed up by this utility. So it is
  wise (and probably not necessary) to backup your pilot and mission
  files, or don't use this utility one the pilots or missions that
  are important to you. I.e. create a new pilot and use this pilot
  for all the cheats you want to use.

  This utility assumes that an EDIT program is in your path (usually
  the DOS EDIT.COM program). Otherwise you won't be able to edit the
  missions files or view this readme file from the utility. If you use
  another editor, your can create a batch EDIT.BAT file including a line
  like this:  CALL C:\PATH\MYEDITOR.EXE %1  and put this batch file in
  your A.T.F. directory.

  This utility comes with the following files:
    ATFUTIL.BAT    -  the batch file to start A.T.F. Utility
    ATFUTIL00.EXE  -  the main program
    ATFUTIL.TXT    -  this readme file

  When running this utility, the following files will be created:
    ATFUTIL.DAT    -  configuration file holding your cursor position, etc.
    ATFUTIL00.BAT  -  temporary batch file to execute A.T.F. and EDIT




  4. KNOWN PROBLEMS
  -----------------

  I didn't check all disk I/O for errors, so you might get a runtime
  error if you have a unhealthy harddisk or if your harddisk is completely
  full. Your problem really. With a good hard disk, you should have no
  problems.

  Not all mission names are included for both campaigns, so you'll have to
  do it with only the mission number. Future releases will include more or
  all of them.




  5. CHANGES BETWEEN VERSIONS
  ---------------------------

  This document goes with version 0.9B of ATFUTIL, here is an overview
  of the changes between versions.

  0.9B   05/06/96   First release




_________________

  Have fun!

  This utility is written by Bart Kamps, email kamps@cs.utwente.nl,
  maintainer of the unofficial ATF homepage on WWW:

    http://wwwedu.cs.utwente.nl/~kamps/atf.html

  You're allowed to distribute this utility freely, as long as you
  don't make any changes to it and include all the stuff that should
  go with it. Comprendo?

  Advanced Tactical Fighters is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc.

