THE PORTABLE HOST
Version 3.2.2.9
What is The Portable Host ?
===========================
The Portable Host (PHOST) is intended to be a replacement for the HOST 3.2
program that is supplied with VGA Planets. VGA Planets is a play-by-email
game for the IBM PC written by Tim Wisseman. The PHOST program was designed
to emulate the original HOST program in as many ways as possible yet it
offers many improvements:
* It's FAST! The PHOST program runs much faster than the original HOST
program. On machines without a numeric coprocessor, the running time
of PHOST will be slower but the improvement in speed over the
original HOST on the same machine is even more dramatic.
* It's CONFIGURABLE! The configurability of PHOST greatly exceeds that
of the original HOST, especially in the area of combat.
* It's DOCUMENTED! All of the details of PHOST operation are
documented. Specifically, the order of battle is clearly explained,
all formulas are documented, and the PHOST sequence of events
(mission ordering) is completely described.
* It's BUG FREE! Well...one day it will be. The Portable Host Project
team is very responsive to bug reports and will fix bugs as quickly
as possible.
* It's FIXED! Some of the flaws with the original HOST are corrected
in PHOST. For example, combat has been fixed (no more beams that
don't fire!), planets can be given better defenses, planets can
capture ships, and more...
* It's ENHANCED! PHOST implements great support for players that wish
to formally ally, or for players that wish to form a team. Allies
can fly through each other's minefields with no threat of damage,
they can see each other's ships and planets, and their ships will
not fight each other in combat. PHOST also implements wormholes as
part of normal host processing, without the need for external
programs. PHOST also has extensive data file and turn file checking
built in to quickly catch corrupted host data and virtually
eliminate all forms of cheating.
* It's PORTABLE! The PHOST set of programs is now available as native
applications on the following platforms:
- Sun SPARCStations running SunOS
- Sun workstations running Solaris
- HP-PA workstations running HP-UX
- IBM RS/6000 workstations running AIX
- DEC Alpha AXP workstations running DEC OSF/1
- DEC 5000 workstations running Ultrix 4.2
- NeXT workstations running Mach 3.0
- IBM 286 PC compatibles running DOS
- IBM 386 PC compatibles running Windows NT or Win32 (such as
Windows 3.1 DOS boxes or OS/2 DOS boxes)
- IBM 486 PC compatibles running Linux
- IBM 386 PC compatibles running BSD/386 1.1.
- IBM 386 PC compatibles running FreeBSD 2.0.
To save compilation time and disk space, PHOST is only compiled and
distributed for platforms which are currently known to be active
i.e., currently hosting a PHOST game. Thus, the latest version of
PHOST may not be available for one of the platforms listed above. If
you want the latest version of PHOST for one of the above platforms
and it is not available at the archive sites, then send mail to the
PHOST support address listed below. We will gladly compile a version
for your platform.
Best of all, PHOST is freeware (but is not in the public domain). You can
use PHOST and its associated programs freely as long as you observe the
restrictions described in the file LEGAL.DOC.
How to get it?
==============
The latest version of the PHOST distribution can be found at the following
distribution sites:
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~asterian/phost.html
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/pc/msdos/games/vgaplanets/phost
The most recent version is 3.2.2.9 as of October 1, 1995.
What does PHOST *NOT* do?
=========================
There are some differences between PHOST and the original HOST -- these are
documented in the file named DIFFS.DOC. PHOST is almost completely backward
compatible with HOST 3.2. Be aware that results will differ, as the PHOST
code is written entirely from functional requirements, not from HOST code.
Many PHOST functions will provide more realistic results.
There are currently two major functions of HOST 3.2 that PHOST does not
support:
* Ion Storms
* Priority Build Points
These functions may be added to PHOST 3.2 in later releases.
It should also be noted that PHOST does *NOT* bypass the mechanism for
distinguishing between shareware and registered users of the VGA Planets
3.0 client program. Registered friendly codes are still limited to
registered users and only registered users can increase their starbase tech
levels above 6.
How do I get started ?
======================
Read through the *.DOC files that come with this distribution. A suggested
reading order is:
LEGAL.DOC
INSTALL.DOC
DIFFS.DOC
CONFIG.DOC
FAQ.DOC
COMMANDS.DOC
ALLIANCE.DOC
WORMHOLE.DOC
If you are familiar with PHOST 3.15, then read through NEW32.DOC for a list
of changes between PHOST 3.15 and PHOST 3.2.
Games in-progress can be quickly converted to use PHOST. Read through the
INSTALL.DOC file and the CONFIG.DOC file for information on how to switch
from HOST to PHOST in mid-game. Read through UPGRADE.DOC if you are
converting a HOST 3.2, HOST 3.15, or PHOST 3.15 game to PHOST 3.2.
What do the players in the game I'm hosting need to do ?
========================================================
Briefly, you must ensure that:
* your players obtain the PVCR.EXE program (version 2.8 or higher)
that comes with the DOS distribution (either send this program
to them or instruct them on how to obtain it).
* your players then rename the VCR.EXE program to VCROLD.EXE and
install the PVCR.EXE program as VCR.EXE. This only needs to be
done once. Future upgrades of PVCR must be installed as VCR.EXE
but the VCROLD.EXE program should never be overwritten or
removed. If your players already have PVCR, then simply instruct
them to install the new PVCR over the old one.
* you send your players a copy of the PCONFIG.SRC file, which
contains the configuration options for your game. Unlike the
original HOST, PHOST does not send player messages when the
configuration changes, so you must manually send the
configuration file to your players for their reference.
For more details, see the INSTALL.DOC file.
What's with this long version number?
=====================================
The version information for PHOST has 4 components: the first 2 describe
the original HOST version which PHOST tries to emulate. For example, PHOST
version 3.2.X.XX means that this version is intended to be a replacement
for HOST 3.2. The last 2 components describe the revision level of PHOST
itself. The third component is the major revision number and changes when
the latest revision of PHOST becomes incompatible with previous versions.
The last component is the minor revision number and changes with each
new release.
It is safe to simply replace an older version of PHOST with a newer version
when only the minor revision number changes. When a backwards-incompatible
version of PHOST is released, the major revision number will be
incremented. Upgrade instructions will be provided at this time.
See the file UPGRADE.DOC if you wish to upgrade an existing PHOST 3.15.1.x
or HOST 3.1x/HOST 3.2 game to PHOST 3.2.2.x.
The Distribution Files
======================
There are several different distributions of PHOST, one for DOS and others
for non-DOS systems. The DOS distribution and Win32/Windows NT distribution
contain pre-built executables while the remaining distributions contain
object files that must be linked together to form the executable programs.
Here is a description of the files that are included with both DOS and
non-DOS PHOST distributions:
README.DOC -- You're reading it
LEGAL.DOC -- Legal information for PHOST
INSTALL.DOC -- Guide to installing and running PHOST
UPGRADE.DOC -- Instructions for upgrading to PHOST 3.2
NEW32.DOC -- What's new in PHOST 3.2, compared to PHOST 3.15
CHANGES.DOC -- Revision history of PHOST
DIFFS.DOC -- PHOST improvements, bug fixes, and differences
OOB.DOC -- Order-of-battle description
FORMULAS.DOC -- Detailed description of PHOST behavior
CONFIG.DOC -- Description of new configuration options
COMMANDS.DOC -- Description of PHOST command processor
ALLIANCE.DOC -- Description of PHOST alliance implementation
WORMHOLE.DOC -- Description of PHOST wormhole implementation
FAQ.DOC -- Common questions from players and hosts (with answers)
UTILDATA.DOC -- New auxilliary data file information
PCONFIG.DOC -- Documentation for the PCONFIG program
PCONFIG.SRC -- A sample configuration file for the original ship list
PCONFIG2.SRC -- A sample configuration file with alternative combat
PCONFIG3.SRC -- A sample config file with alt-combat and PLIST
PCONFIG4.SRC -- A sample config file for maximal HOST emulation
PLANG.HST -- Language database (place this with global data files)
In the non-DOS distributions (except for Win32/WinNT):
MAKEFILE -- Makefile for building the programs
LIBPHOST.A -- PHOST object file library
*.O -- Object files for the separate programs
PCONVERT.DOC -- Description of the PCONVERT program
MAINSTUB.C -- Stub file for GCC versions lower than 2.6 (or
non-GCC compilers). This file is only present in
distributions that were compiled with GCC.
In the DOS-only distribution:
PHOST.EXE -- The PHOST program
PCONFIG.EXE -- The HCONFIG replacement program
PVCR.EXE -- The VCR replacement program
PVCR.DOC -- Documentation for the PVCR program
In the Win32/WinNT distribution:
PHOST32.EXE -- The PHOST program
PCFG32.EXE -- The HCONFIG replacement program
PCONVERT.EXE -- The PCONVERT program
PCONVERT.DOC -- Description of the PCONVERT program
The executable programs in the DOS-only distribution assume a 286 or better
processor and a VGA graphics card. A minimum of 410K of free memory is
required. For more details on hardware and software requirements, see the
INSTALL.DOC file.
Feedback
========
Your comments, suggestions, and bug reports are appreciated. Please send
all messages to the following address:
phost@novellnet.gensys.com
You can also post questions, comments, bug reports, etc. to the
alt.games.vga-planets newsgroup if you think that your message will be of
interest to other PHOST users. Please place the word 'PHOST' somewhere in
your subject line to identify your posting as being PHOST-related.
Before sending in a bug report, please ensure that:
* ...your bug is still present in the latest version of PHOST
* ...you are not reporting a bug that has already been reported
* ...you really have found a bug. The complexities of this game can
make it very easy to think a bug exists when in fact it is just an
artifact of how the game works. Before submitting your bug report,
check the documentation to make sure the observed behavior really is
a bug. It would also help if you asked someone else to double-check
your findings.
It is not our intention to discourage bug reports, quite the opposite, but
handling bug reports is a very time consuming process being handled by
people with limited time. Spurious reports only serve to slow down the
fixing of real bugs.
Cast of Characters
==================
PHOST was programmed by Andrew Sterian, Thomas Voigt, Steffen Pietsch and
Matt Mueller. Other members of the Portable Host Project team provided
valuable assistance and contributed many useful suggestions. Michael Lemon
helped with the documentation. The work of Falko Poiker and Chris Smith is
appreciated. Thanks to Jeff Hupp for maintaining our infrastructure. Thanks
to Dave Boynton for the use of his HOSTEDIT program. Thanks to Mike
Campbell for the Solaris port and John Spickes for the use of his
swampthing. Thanks to Matt Mueller for his work on alternative combat.
Thanks to Thomas Voigt for translating the language database into German.
Thanks to Guenter-Paul Leiterer for translating the language database into
French. Thanks to Robert Jackson for his hyperjump formula. Thanks to
Joshua Io for his advice. And special thanks to Thomas Voigt for knowing
more about this game than anyone else in the Echo Cluster and for freely
contributing his knowledge to the project.
Finally but foremost, many thanks to all those who participated in the
testing of PHOST, both as hosts and as players. Special thanks to the PHOST
3.2 beta test list for their patience and their tolerance of new releases
every few days.
The Portable Host Project Team is:
Mike Campbell, Jeff Hupp, Michael Lemon, Stefan Lundgren,
Sean Martens, Matt Mueller, Steffen Pietsch, Falko Poiker,
Chris Smith, Andrew Sterian, Thomas Voigt