    ____                           __                           __
   / __ \____  ____  ____ ___     / /   ____ ___  ______  _____/ /_  ___  _____
  / / / / __ \/ __ \/ __ `__ \   / /   / __ `/ / / / __ \/ ___/ __ \/ _ \/ ___/
 / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / / / / / /  / /___/ /_/ / /_/ / / / / /__/ / / /  __/ /
/_____/\____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/  /_____/\__,_/\__,_/_/ /_/\___/_/ /_/\___/_/

Doom Launcher (version 115)                                by Miss H.Bazley

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*HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

To use this program you require a copy of the !Doom+ and !DoomFiler
applications from R-Comp.   You also need a CD-ROM drive and an ARM3 (or
faster) RISC-OS computer, not in order to run this program but in order to
play Doom in the first place!   This program supports interactive !Help.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*PURPOSE OF THIS PROGRAM:

This program provides an easier way to load and run the large number of
public domain Doom levels supplied on the third CD-ROM of the boxed set (the
'Maximum Doom' levels).   On my A5000, it takes nearly five minutes just to
open the directory display containing the Doom II levels - you can't
double-click on them to launch the Doom+ front end, because they are not
truly filetyped - a number of the WAD 'help files' can't be accessed from
Doom+ because they do not use the 'WADNAME/TXT' naming convention - and
there is no way of telling whether a given WAD is intended as a multi-player
or a single-player level.   It is also a nasty business to try to find a
given individual WAD in a directory containing 1,960 files!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM:

Before you can run the Doom Launcher you must ensure that the !Doom+
application has been 'seen by the Filer' so that Doom Launcher knows where to
find it.   If Doom is not in your boot-up sequence, open your Doom directory.
Doom Launcher also needs the DoomFS module, which is inside the !DoomFiler
application.   By default it looks for this inside a sub-directory called
Extras in the same directory as !Doom+
    <DoomPlus$Dir>.^.Extras.!DOOMFiler.DOOMFS
which is where it lives on my computer - if your copy of DoomFiler is kept
elsewhere, you may need to open this directory as well.

Put the Maximum Doom CD in the CD-ROM drive and run !Launcher.  A window
will open displaying the list of available WAD files.   To the left of this
is the Filter pane which allows you to 'filter' out selected categories of
WADs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*THE MAIN (WAD LIST) WINDOW

From left to right, the icons in the scrolling list of WAD files represent:

'info' icon     There is a help file for this WAD.   Click on this icon to read
                the file.
 WAD name       The name of the WAD.
'skull' icon    This WAD is playable in Deathmatch mode.
'pistol' icon   This WAD is playable in single-player mode.
'map' icon      This WAD replaces the map for one or more levels.  A few WADs
                include only replacement sounds/graphics - all other WADs
                contain a replacement map.
'Paint' icon    This WAD replaces some of the default graphics.
'bell' icon     This WAD replaces some of the default sound effects.
'sheets' icon   This WAD replaces the map for more than one level.  (So don't
                quit when you reach the exit of the first level!)

Double-clicking SELECT on the entry for a WAD will run Doom using that WAD
as if you had dragged it to the Doom+ window , 'warping' to the correct
level and using the same options (atmospheric sound, 24-bit colour, etc)
that were used the last time you ran Doom+.

You may also select several (up to 10) WADs at once by clicking on them
using ADJUST instead of SELECT.   A single SELECT-click will select the WAD
under the pointer, clearing any other WADs currently selected.  Clicking
ADJUST a second time on a selected WAD will de-select it.

Clicking MENU on this window brings up a short menu with three entries (and
may, optionally, also act as a SELECT-click on the WAD under the pointer at
the time).   The bottom entry reads 'Run Doom' and will be greyed out if no
WADs have been selected.   Clicking on 'Run Doom' will launch Doom+ using
all the currently selected WADs.  This is the only way to run multiple
selected WAD files.

** The Maximum Doom CD MUST be in the CD-ROM drive before you can get info
** on a WAD file!

Note that every time you apply a new filter (see below) all currently
selected files will be cleared.

The entry 'WAD info' leads to a small window giving details of the name of
the WAD's help file (if any), the date when the WAD file was last altered,
the size of the file and the lowest-numbered map contained within it, in the
format 'E3M1' for Doom I WADs and 'MAP02' for Doom II WADs.  This is the
level on which you will start if you run this WAD.   This information is not
stored within the Doom Launcher but is read directly from the CD - this is
what causes the slight delay before the menu appears.   The program will
also complain if you click MENU on this window without the CD in the drive!

The entry 'Export' leads to a save box.   Dragging the WAD file icon from
this box allows you to download this WAD from the CD-ROM onto your hard
disc, or any other writable medium (RAMdisc, floppy disc, etc.) - if a WAD
has an associated help file this will also be 'downloaded'.   You cannot
save WAD files directly into the window of another program.   However, if
you drag the icon to the Pinboard rather than into a Filer window, the file
icon will then be Pinned to the backdrop, and can then be dragged into other
programs, etc, just like any other icon on the Pinboard.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*THE FILTER PANE

This contains one writable icon and seven 'tick boxes'.   These are
three-way option icons which cycle when clicked through 'yes', 'no' and
'either' states, represented by a tick, a cross and a question mark
respectively.   These eight icons act as a filter, restricting the display
in the main window to just those WADs which match the current settings.

For example, you can show only those files which do NOT contain deathmatch
start positions by clicking on the icon labelled 'Deathmatch' until it shows
a cross.   Likewise you can further refine the filter to list WADs which are
NOT Deathmatch WADs and DO contain replacement graphics by then setting the
'graphics' icon to show a tick.   Icons which show a question mark are
ignored.

Click on the 'Filter' icon at the top of the pane to apply the filter.

You can also carry out a wild-carded search on the WAD names using the
writable icon 'WAD name'.   The wild-cards are '?' which will match any
single letter and '*' which will match ANY number of letters (zero or more).
For example, *X* will match BOXING, EXCALIBR, COMPLEX and XFIRE2 - and the
37 other DOOM2 WADs whose names contain the letter 'X' in any position.
However, X* ('X' followed by any number of letters) will only match X-INGS2,
XCAL1, XENO112 and XFIRE2, and *X (any number of letters so long as the
word ends in X) matches COMPLEX, PULPFX, STATIONX and only 11 other WADS
ending in 'X'.

Likewise P?L* will match any WADs whose names start with the letters 'P' and
'L' separated by a single letter: PALACE2, PILLAR2, POLYMAD2 and PULPFX.

Pressing RETURN while the caret is in this writable icon has the same effect
as clicking on the 'Filter' icon - the filter is applied immediately.

Because there are three possible values for 'Deathmatch' and 'Single player'
in the WAD list window - Yes (gun/skull icon), No (blank) and Don't Know (?)
- for these two icons alone you can also 'invert' the filter by clicking on
the TEXT rather than on the tick-box of the icon, causing the colour of the
text to cycle between green and red. When it is green, the icon functions
normally. For example, a tick in the 'Deathmatch' icon will cause the filter
to list only WADs which ARE suitable as deathmatch WADs - the 'Yes'es.
When the text is red, a tick in the 'Deathmatch' icon will cause the filter
to list all WADS EXCEPT those which are known to be suitable as Deathmatch
WADs - i.e. both the 'No'es and the 'Don't Know's.   A question-mark in the
icon is ignored, whatever colour the text is!   This option allows you to
view the 'Don't Know' WADs (the ones I never managed to test), which form
the vast majority.


Clicking MENU over the filter pane brings up the standard iconbar menu (see
below), which contains a 'Clear filter' entry that will reset all the icons
so that the full WAD list is displayed again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*THE ICONBAR MENU

The 'Info' entry leads to a standard info window.
The 'Clear filter' entry resets the filter so that the full WAD list is
displayed again.
The 'Configure' entry leads to the configuration menu (see below).
The 'DOOM1' and 'DOOM2' entries reload the relevant WAD list.   It is not
possible to view both at once.
'Quit' quits the program.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*THE CONFIGURE MENU

This menu allows you to alter the behaviour of the program in four ways.

'Run Doom and quit' causes the program to quit automatically after setting
up the parameters for Doom+.   If this option is not ticked the program will
still be there on the iconbar when you return to the desktop - but you will
have 96k less memory available while Doom is running.   On a 4Mb machine
this is enough to cause a significant deterioration in performance!

'MENU-click selects WAD' refers to the treatment of mouse-clicks in the WAD
list window.   If this option is ticked, clicking MENU will select the WAD
under the pointer in addition to accessing the CD to obtain the relevant
information on this file and opening the WADinfo/Export/RunDoom menu.   in
other words, the 'Run Doom' option will not be greyed out.

'Show Doom 1 files at start' and 'Show Doom 2 files at start' simply control
which set of WADs will be shown in the main window when the program is first
loaded.   These options only take effect when the program is starting up, so
alterations here will have no effect unless you save the configuration
settings and reload the program.

'Save configuration' saves the current setting of the options above the
dotted line on the menu.
'Save filter settings' saves all the current settings of the icons in the
filter pane (see above) including the text in the 'WAD name' icon and the
colour of the 'Deathmatch' and 'Single player' icons.

The default configuration (and filter settings) may be restored simply by
deleting the !Launcher.Config file.

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*FILES

Both low- (for the desktop modes I usually use) and high- (for Risc-PC
owners) resolution application sprites have been provided.   The sprites
used in the WAD list window are high-resolution sprites VERY carefully
designed to give an acceptable appearance in low-resolution modes.

The Input1 and Input2 CSV files contain the data needed to draw the WAD list
window, in the following format:
  WAD name,Helpfile name,Deathmatch status (Y/N/?),1-player status (Y/N/?),New
  map status (Y/N),New graphics status (Y/N),New sound status (Y/N),Multiple
  level status (Y/N)

You are welcome to update the Deathmatch/Single player status where this is
currently unknown, delete broken WADs, and correct any other errors in this
data which you may encounter;  but note that the last line of the file MUST
give the total number of records in the file as a four-digit number, padded
out with leading zeroes if necessary (e.g. 0190)

The file !Launcher.Source.compsource gives the commented assembly source
code for my 'wildcard compare' routine.   The file
!Launcher.Source.codesource gives the source for the machine code actually
used by the filter routine in Doom Launcher, but this is rather less likely
to be useful to anyone else.

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*PROBLEM WADS FOUND SO FAR

NIN/WAD (Doom2) contains only MIDI music
ZEPPLIN/WAD (Doom2) contains only MIDI music
ANDER/WAD is a Doom 1 WAD
HOTEL_VU/WAD (Doom2) contains only MIDI music
FILTH/FILTH2 (Doom2) keep crashing
CHUMP/CHUMP2 are same as FILTH (and still crash!)
Can't get WESTSND to work
FOREST2/WAD (Doom2) will not load
BLASTEM1 keeps crashing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*HISTORY

Version 10  (April-June 1999)
	First version.
Version 110 (21st December 1999)
	Added Export option (so you can 'download' files from the CD, if you
	like them, without having to wait five minutes to open the Filer window)
	Dragging from the 'save window' to the pinboard will pin the file to the
	backdrop, dragging to a Filer window will save it to disc.
Version 111 (17th April 2000)
	WAD list window altered to allow for width of desktop font on RiscPCs.
Version 112 (18th April 2000)
	The 'Export' option now saves the accompanying help file, if any, to
	disc along with the WAD file.
	Data files updated - all graphics/sound effects data now present.
Version 113 (17th May 2000)
	Resizing of main window and inversion of icons altered to match changed
	window width.
Version 114 (9th June 2000)
	Routine which calculates the start level for a given WAD altered to
	return correct value for certain malformed WADs.
	Corrected bug in multiple WAD selection caused by a misspelt variable.
	Extended text buffer for 'Start level' icon.  3D border no longer lost
	when reading Doom II WADs!
Version 115 (15th June 2000)
	Both start and end level for given WAD now displayed in WAD info for
	multi-level WADs.   'Start level' icon hence changed to read 'Levels'.
	Data files updated:		358 WADs play-tested so far
					258 WADS auto-analysed from help files
					932 WADs left to go!

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*LICENCE

"Doom Launcher" is freeware.   You may use it, copy it, and give it to your
friends without paying me for the privilege.   Full source code is provided
and you may use part or all of the BASIC or assembler/machine code in your
own programs if you wish.   Different conditions apply to the use of the
DrWimp library and if you wish to use this then you should read the REMs at
the beginning of the BASIC file.

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*CONTACTING THE AUTHOR

   The author may be contacted at:
     144, Merton Hall Road
     Wimbledon
     London SW19 3PZ

or via e-mail at harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk
