|│         IMPERIAL Viewer        Top-Menu Logo - The Night Prowler  ·│|
∙│·   Version 1.00 (April 1994)         CATalog Logo - Zorlak        ∙
Documentation - Coluche & Zorlak  |

Imperial  █▓▒░    I n t r o d u c t i o n  !                 ....

Welcome in the new viewer for Imperial.  It's still on beta testing
but we thought it was good enough to replace the viewer of TNP (GRiP/AD
Viewer).  It does everything the "old" viewer was able to do and a lot
more, just in time for the new group!

Imperial  █▓▒░    F e a t u r e s  !                         ....

- Easy to use and read menu in VGA-text-mode (80x50);
- Description of every file in the pack with sufficient informations:
Filename, Title, Author and the type of file;
- Adjustable speed rate to display ANSIs;
- 2 selectable screen formats for ANSIs: 80x25 and 80x50;
- Automatic and forced adjustment for the screen format;
- Fully controlable menu bar;  [ Hello TNP! :> ]
- Scroll back ANSI display;
- Simple but cool screen saver! (Enabled after 3 minutes)

Imperial  █▓▒░    S u p p o r t   T y p e s                  ....

Only ANSIs (and ANSiANiM) in 80x25 and 80x50 are supported for now.
Note: filenames in the menu in red are absent in the current directory.

Imperial  █▓▒░    K e y s  !                                 ....

You can bypass the introduction by pressing any key.  When you are
in the menu, you can press:

F1: That is this HELP window... (ESC to return).
F3: Decreases the speed of the ANSIs being diplayed.
When the slowest speed is reached, the meter returns
to the fastest speed.
+: Increase the speed of ANSi display.
-: Decrease the speed of ANSi display.
F4: Choose between the following screen formats:
- [Text 80x25 ] Forced display of 80x25;
- [Text 80x50 ] Forced display of 80x50;
- [Use Default] Automatic display    (see the size column
under the bar of the selected ANSi to display)
F5: Change the current catalog.
Up/Down: Move the menu bar UP or DOWN one line.
PgUp/PgDn: Move the menu bar DOWN or UP one page.
Home/End: Move the menu bar to the top/bottom of it's limits.
Enter/Space: Show an ANSI file. [ Other file types will cause a BEEP ]
ESCape: Quit to DOS.

When an ANSI is displayed:

Up/Down/PgUp/PgDn/Home/End/Right/Left: Scroll the ANSI...
Any other key: Return to the viewer menu.

Imperial  █▓▒░    W h a t ' s   t h e   C a t a l o g  ?     ....

The name says it all: it's the catalog of the pack!  All files of
the pack are listed with the pack's title/month.

It's structure is very simple and it's only a text file.  The first
line MUST be "CoIMPVIEW001".  It's a signature to let the viewer reco-
gnize the catalog and it's version.  The following can be anything until
the first tag line.  A tag line is a line where the first character is a
star and it's labelling the begin or the end of a section of that file.

INFO part

The first tag of the catalog is: "*INFO".  The four following lines
after that tag MUST BE: the group's name, title (or number) of the pack,
the month and year of the release and a one-line General Catalog
Description (appears when you open another catalog (F5)).  Colors can be
set by using ^# where # is a number from 0 to 9 or a letter from A to F.
Dont use 1 in the first three lines because it's same color as the back-
ground!  For the fourth line, dont use the color 3.  If you don't under-
stand what these color codes represent: kill yourself.  :>

MENU part: Normal files

The second (and last) section of the catalog begins with the tag:
"*MENU" and terminates with: "*END".  Every line between those tags
contain the information about one file to be listed in the menu.  This
information is seperated by a comma:

- Filename and extension (or special command, see next sub-part...)
- Type of file for the program:
[ANS] ANSi 80x25       [A50] ANSi 80x50
[ANM] ANSiANiM 80x25   [A5M] ANSiANiM 80x50
- Author
- Title/Description
- Shown type of file in the menu
- Default screen size to be shown in the menu
- [Optionnal] For ZIP type files: filename and extension (with
parameter(s)) to run/play/view.

For example: The file ZOR-RASH.LIT, titled Rash Reflection, is a
litterature file by Zorlak, but in reality, it's an ANSI of the format
80x25.  The information line will be:

ZOR-RASH.LIT, ANS, Zorlak, Rash Reflection, LIT, 80x25

Notice there is no ' or " to limit the strings.  You CANNOT use any
comma (,) in ANY field of the line (of course!).  Every unused blanks
are trimed.  The following line will have exactly the same result of the
previous example: (it can be useful to align the fields in the file!)

ZOR-RASH.LIT, ANS, Zorlak      ,   Rash Reflection     ,LIT  , 80x25

MENU part: Special Commands

There's two special commands in the menu part you can use:

__Blank  : Simply add a blank line to the menu screen.
__Section: Write a section separator in the menu, the section
title is the second parameter.  For example:
"__Section, Litterature" will create a line as such
on the menu: "·───■─■-■ Litterature ■─■─■─────────────·"

Note

Note (finally) that you CANNOT add any comments between the tags
*MENU and *END and you can't change colors in the menu part either.

Imperial  █▓▒░    E x a m p l e   o f   a   C A T a l o g    ....

Here a simple but valid example of a catalog...

CoIMPVIEW001

Here is a comment!

*INFO
^F· ·I·m·p·e·r·i·a·l· ·
^ETitle unknown yet :(
^3April 1994 ^9(^3Pack #01^9)

This is another comment...

*MENU
__Section, Litterature
__Blank
ZOR-RASH.LIT, ANS, Zorlak, Rash Reflection, LIT, 80x25
*END

This is a final comment...

[EOF]

Imperial  █▓▒░    D i s t r i b u t i o n . . .              ....

The first public release of this viewer was in the Imperial's pack
of April 1994 (IMP0494.ZIP).  If your group wants to use this viewer, we
will be glad to help!  The only conditions to use this viewer in your
pack(s) are the two following:

- Every files of the viewer must be present.
The files needed are: IMPVIEW.EXE and IMPVIEW.NFO.

- Those files *MUST* BE 100% INTACT.
[ What? You dont like the Imperial Logos? :>
Hint: If you dont have a title for your pack, you can draw a
double-line font for the group name, even a three-line font! ]

If you can reach Never Land (514-963-9965, Imperial's CHQ) or Rash
Reflection (514-635-4043): call us to upload your pack!  Thanks for
supporting IMPerial Viewer!

Imperial  █▓▒░    F u t u r e  !                             ....

What do you think?  That viewer is not really complete...  Then we
can't garanty a precise future yet!  :>

Imperial  █▓▒░    C o n c l u s i o n  !                     ....

Thanks for choosing Imperial ;)

-- Coluche is the SysOp of Rash Reflection (514-635-4043)
-- Zorlak can be reached at that board too!