PC HACK version 3.6 for MSDOS(tm) computers -------------------------------------------- Oct 22, 1986 ============================================================================ Configuration Details --------------------- ** IMPORTANT ** PC HACK requires ANSI.SYS or NANSI.SYS to be installed. You need to have a line like: device=nansi.sys in your config.sys file. ANSI.SYS should have been supplied with your version of DOS. NANSI.SYS is an improved version and is supplied with the PC HACK files. *************** HARD DISK SYSTEMS: Basically, people with HardDisks will want to create the directory: \GAMES\HACK for the PC HACK support files (of course, you can choose your own directory name, but for this short discussion, assume this name). Copy all files except HACK.EXE, HACK.CNF and TERMCAP into \GAMES\HACK. Copy HACK.EXE, HACK.CNF and TERMCAP into a directory accessible by the PATH environment variable (you might use \GAMES). Edit the HACK.CNF file to remove the comment characters `#' from the "hard disk configuration" and put comment characters in front of each line of the "2-floppy configuration" section. Change OPTIONS to put in your player name and other options. If you are using a directory other than \GAMES\HACK, change HACKDIR to your directory choice. At the MSDOS prompt type: C> hack and you should be playing. FLOPPY DISKS: Format a system disk (format /s) and put these required files - NANSI.SYS, HACK.EXE, HACK.CNF, TERMCAP, and RECORD - on it (this disk is called the "GAME" disk and will be booted from drive A). Create a CONFIG.SYS file on the GAME disk and put the following line in it: device=nansi.sys The optional PC HACK files - HELP, HH, RUMORS, DATA - make the game more interesting. HELP and HH are used when you do the help command, '?'; RUMORS is used when you eat a fortune cookie; DATA is used when you do the whatis command, '/'. Copy as many of these onto the GAME disk as you have room for. Try to have at least RUMORS and DATA on it. Format a second disk without putting the system on it and use it in drive B. This "LEVELS" disk will contain bones files from prior games (if any), the temporary levels of the current game, and the save file. Format a third disk called "SAVE" which may have to be swapped in for the GAME disk on drive A if your save game gets too large for storing on the LEVELS disk. The SAVE disk must have a copy of COMMAND.COM on it, but it doesn't have to have the DOS system on it. ============================================================================ PC HACK 3.6 Overview - a bug with hell hounds has been fixed. - PC HACK now uses a TERMCAP file which describes the escape sequences to send to the console driver to change display modes. With TERMCAP, you can redefine the *colors* HACK uses for display. ============================================================================ PC HACK 3.5 Overview Mostly, this is a bugfix version. The bugs were: - Rest_on_space was accidentally removed. - The game did not prompt you to put the game disk back in after completing a save, so the bones files could not be copied back to the LEVELS directory. - After saving then restoring a game the object descriptions would be screwed up. You could have two orange potions which did different things. One new restriction has been added: - There must be a copy of COMMAND.COM where COMSPEC says it is for the entire game. This is because the DOS copy command is used for moving bones files to and from the RAMdisk. ============================================================================ PC HACK This is the complete PC implementation of UNIX version of HACK 1.03. There are a few enhancements: 1) PC HACK can use graphics characters for the dungeon. This *is* supported on DEC Rainbows. 2) Floppy, RAMdisk, and HardDisk support. A RAMdisk makes the game much faster, especially for floppy-only systems. 3) A bunch of new options. Pack sorting, confirmation before hitting tame monsters, turning the bell off, whether you pick up everything you step on. Numeric keypad for moving on IBM BIOS compatible computers. 4) Protection against disk full problems. The documentation HACK.DOC is formatted for 66 line paper in case you want to print it out. The simplest way to print the documentation is: copy hack.doc prn: ============================================================================ To: All beginner HACKERS Re: An overview and some hints The file HINTS.DOC is meant for people who have never played HACK or ROGUE before and want a description of what they can do in HACK. Since the major fun in HACK is discovery and surprise, there are not many details in HINTS.DOC ============================================================================ RAMdisk If you have a RAMdisk, PC HACK can use it for a quieter and faster game. In HACK.CNF put a line like: RAMDISK = d: `d' is a drive letter, usually C or D. The colon `:' is required. ============================================================================ DEC Rainbow users You must *NOT* use the `rawio' option. If you do, your computer will hang. If some kind DEC Rainbow user could send me the details of the MSDOS IOCTL call I could put `rawio' in for DECs too. You can use the "line-graphics character set" for displaying the dungeon. Since DECs only use 7-bit characters (decimal value 0 - 127), take the decimal value of the line-graphic character you want and add 128 to it. Now it will have decimal value from 128 - 255 and PC HACK will recognize that you want a character from the line-graphic character set and will output the appropriate character. In order for PC HACK to treat the graphics characters properly, you must use the `DECRainbow' option. ============================================================================ D. G. Kneller UUCP: ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!kneller ARPANET: kneller@ucsfcgl.ARPA BITNET: kneller@ucsfcgl.BITNET USmail: 2 Panoramic Way #204 Berkeley, CA 94704