fORCE ANSi ViEWER
                                     v1.6

   This is the doc for fORCE ViEW v1.6, written by Red Haze/fORC
E (Darren
   Hazelton) in November 1995, in South Australia. This viewer i
s written for
   the ansi group Force, so you can view their wicked ansi art. 
You can't
   look at any other groups' art unless you register.


   System Requirements:
   `~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

   Any 386 compatible computer with a standard VGA graphics card
. A sound card
   is nice, but optional. A monitor helps. A keyboard might also
 come in
   handy. (An extended keyboard is required.)

   Note: You can't run it under Windows 3.x, because it crashes.
 (Thanks to
         Midas.) :( I haven't tried it under any other multitask
ers yet.


   The [boring, long-winded] Instructions:
   `~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

   When you run FV, you can run it in one of two front ends, or 
have it
   completely command-line driven. The first time you run it, th
e Midas
   configuration screen will appear, where you tell it about you
r sound card
   if you have one, otherwise select 'no sound card'. The file M
IDAS.CFG will
   be created in the same directory where you put FV.EXE. Make s
ure you are
   realistic about the sampling rate you tell it to use, especia
lly on a 386
   with an SB16 - don't expect 44.1kHz 16bit stereo to work well
. (It may, but
   I doubt it.) :)

   If you want to run FV with the ability to play music disabled
, put "/N" as
   the first parameter.

   e.g. FV /N

   If you want to run FV by command line, just type in the file 
specifications
   after FV (and any switches used). Filenames without extension
s are assumed
   to be <filename>.*

   e.g. FV c:\ansi\* d:\force\somecool.ans

   FV will go through *.* in the c:\ansi directory, playing any 
S3Ms, MODs or
   MTMs which are in there, and showing you any other files as a
nsi text. Then
   it will show you that cool ansi in your d:\force directory. A
fter that, FV
   will quit to DOS (or whatever other OS you happen to run it u
nder.) If you
   want to view a S3M, MOD or MTM as text rather than hearing it
 as music
   (pretty stupid if you ask me) just use "/n" as the first para
meter.

   e.g. FV /n c:\ansi\* d:\force\somecool.ans

   While viewing all these files, press [ENTER] or [SPACE] to go
 to the next
   picture. [ESC] will quit FV to DOS immediately.

   Songs will load and immediately go on to the next file. This 
allows you to
   do things like:

   FV d:\happy.mod d:\happy.ans e:\sad.s3m e:\sad.ans

   This will have the effect that you will be able to look at th
e happy
   picture with happy background music, and the sad picture will
 have some
   other suitably sad music. I dunno if anyone will use this fea
ture, but its
   there if you want it.

   The other side of the coin is that if you have two songs in a
 row, the
   first one will load, but immediately get stopped to play the 
next one.
   However, if a song is the last in the queue FV will play the 
song FV until
   you press a key, then it will return to DOS.

   If you don't specify any files on the command line, FV will g
o into one of
   two "front end" modes, where you can navigate around the dire
ctory you ran
   it from. The default front end has new graphics, and also dis
plays file
   SAUCE descriptions. The parts of SAUCE which are shown are th
e Title
   followed by the Author. The old front end (as in FV versions 
before 1.5)
   doesn't try to load SAUCE's - this makes file list loading a 
lot quicker if
   there are lots of files in the directory, or if it is a slow 
drive (e.g.
   CDROM). It also displays files in 5 columns, and has the old 
title screen.
   You can use the old front end by using the switch "/F". This 
must come
   AFTER "/N" if you want to specify both.

   e.g. FV /F

   Note: "/F" is useless if you are using command line file spec
ifications.


   Functionally the only difference between them is that [LEFT]/
[RIGHT] arrows
   in the old front end move between columns, but in the new one
 [RIGHT] is
   the equivalent of [ENTER], and [LEFT] is the same as [ESC] wh
en you're
   viewing a file. I did this so you can do everything with the 
cursor keypad.

   Woohoo. :)

   Of course you will never want to quit FV, so quitting will ne
ver have a
   speed key. Maybe I'll change it from [ESC] to [CTRL][ALT][DEL
] one day...


   Keys:
   `~~~'

   [ENTER] in a front end will load a file, play a song, change 
the current
           directory or change drives, depending on what the cur
sor is on. In
           viewing mode, it will return to the front end if you 
are using one.
           If you are using command line file specifications it 
will load the
           next file in the list.

   [SPACE] is the same as [ENTER].

   [ESC] returns to the front end if you are using one and are v
iewing a file.
         Any other time it will quit FV, which is quite a useles
s feature. :)

   [F1] in a front end displays help, including a list of all th
e keys.
        [F1] or [ESC] returns to the front end.

   [F2] toggles the ANSi viewing screen mode between 25 and 50 l
ines. The
        current setting is displayed on the status bar in the fr
ont ends.

   [F3] in a front end allows you to select a new file extension
 filter
        (e.g. *.ANS). Press [ENTER] to accept what you have type
d in, or if
        you want to cancel it press [F3] or [ESC]. Wildcards may
 be used.

   [F4] in a front end displays info and greets. [F4] or [ESC] r
eturns to the
        front end.

   [HOME]/[END] jump to the top/bottom of the file list in a fro
nt end, or to
                the top/bottom of the file you are viewing.

   [PGUP]/[PGDN] move the cursor up/down the file list one page 
at a time in a
                 front end, or scroll quickly up/down if you are
 viewing a
                 file.

   [UP]/[DOWN] move the cursor up/down the file list one file at
 a time in a
               front end, or scroll up/down if you are viewing a
 file.

   [LEFT]/[RIGHT] in the old front end move the cursor between c
olumns. In the
                  new front end: [RIGHT] is the same as [ENTER] 
in the front
                  end, and [LEFT] is the same as [ESC] from the 
file viewing
                  screen.


   Error messages always get displayed so you can try to fix and
 problems you
   have with FV. Most potential problems are with Midas. If you 
have EMS, but
   none of it is free, you won't be able to play any songs, beca
use Midas
   doesn't bother trying to load them into conventional memory i
f EMS is
   detected. :( I could change that I guess, but it'd be too muc
h hassle...

   When FV is loading a file to view, it will show the percentag
e loaded so
   far. You can press [ESC] to stop loading and view the amount 
currently in
   memory.


   Greetz:
   `~~~~~'

   Anyway, I've already written too much for anyone to be bother
ed reading,
   so here come the greetz:

   Personal shouts go to...

        SpoonMan/fORCE/FTS   Huge bummer about the board. Speak 
to ya soon...

        Anubis/fORCE         Stop hassling me about VGA code!! I
 aint got no
                             time! ;) Oh, and thanks for the new
 title screen.

        Da Schemer           Go on, sell your O's & X's to Micro
$oft and make
                             a fortune...

        Pulse/PoP            Impulse Tracker rules! Pity you're 
in PoP... :)

        Griffin/FTS          Get ya board running - we need a HQ
. Perhaps I'll
                             get that demo working one day too..
.

        Pheon/FTS            Get that .XM player working.. and t
he diskmag..
                             and that 3D engine.. and don't forg
et to study ;)

        NetSlider/FTS        Are you still in FTS? :)

        Manladas Zarich/PoP  No, I'm not joining PoP! ...and whe
n's What?!
                             going to be released!?

        ChowderHead/PoP      MOOSES RULE!

        Taint/PoP            WHAT?!

        MikMak/HaRDCoDE '95  MikMod sucks! Playing 5 channels of
 music on my
                             P90 breaks up! 2.03 runs better tha
n 2.04...

        Petteri Kangaslampi  Thanks for writing Midas! Try to su
pport XM's.
        and Jarno Paananen


   Group greetings go to all fORCE, FTS, and PoP members.


   Disclaimer:
   `~~~~~~~~~'

   This program is guaranteed only to take up space on your comp
uter. Any
   extra functionality should be considered an extra bonus.


   Legal Stuff:
   `~~~~~~~~~~'

   This program cannot be altered in any way without the written
 permission
   of Darren Hazelton. No fees may be charged for fORCE ViEW exc
ept the
   nominal cost of distribution, unless other written arrangemen
ts have been
   made with me. You may copy fORCE ViEW as many times as you wa
nt, and
   distribute it as much as you want. By using fORCE ViEW you ar
e agreeing to
   these terms and conditions.


   Comments:
   `~~~~~~~'

   If you find any bugs, or have any comments or suggestions, se
nd them to:

       redhaze@student.adelaide.edu.au  or  Red Haze in BloodNET
.


   History:
   `~~~~~~'

   Improvements since fORCE ViEW v1.4:  () = Version it changed 
in.

   (1.5) Loads SAUCE file descriptions.
   (1.5) A new front end which displays the Title and Author in 
the SAUCE.
         Old front end retained, which doesn't load SAUCE -> qui
cker loading.
   (1.5) Stops loading the file at the first EOF character.
   (1.5) No more inbuilt song.
   (1.5) MOD/S3M/MTM playing thanks to Midas (changed from MikMo
d). Midas also
         supports more sound cards, is smaller, and runs faster 
than MikMod.
         Unfortunately no XM support yet. Midas is 386+ only too
. Darn. ;)
   (1.5) Songs play from command line file specifications.
   (1.5) Adds the ".." directory to network drives (Netware does
n't display a
         "." or ".." directory).
   (1.6) Filenames on command line without extension now have ".
*" appended
         (used to be ".ANS").
   (1.6) Fixed up flickering and most jerkiness while scrolling!
 Scrolling is
         now the same speed on all computers, even while music i
s playing.


   Improvements since fORCE ViEW v1.2:  () = Version it changed 
in.

   (1.3) Bugfix for fast computers, where the image got stuck at
 the bottom.
   (1.3) Improved file selection keyboard routines, sorted file 
list and
         added option to jump straight to the root directory.
   (1.4) S3M Playing! There is now a kewl song by oZoNE/fORCE wh
ich plays if
         you have a SB/GUS compatible sound card, and you can al
so play any
         other S3M files you want, if you have enough memory fre
e. FV uses
         MikMod by MikMad/HaRDCoDE '95.
   (1.3) Changed (hopefully improved) the scrolling acceleration
 parameters.
   (1.4) Probably some minor bugs which have been ironed out.


   Known Problems:
   `~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

   (Bugs? You gotta be kidding...)

   - Does not run under Windows 3.x at all. (Midas crashes) Use 
an older
     version if you need to run it under Windows.

   - The entire file will not load if there is not enough conven
tional memory.
     I may use EMS in later versions.


   Coming Soon (in future versions):
   `~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

   - VGA/SVGA support. Maybe GIF/RIP/JPG/etc loading also - who 
knows?

   - Controls on music volume - maybe even nice VU meters.

   - Tag files while in a front end.

   - Jump around file list in front end like Cubic Player does.


   Final Comments:
   `~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

   The file viewer has a hidden two-key combo for you to try. Ma
ybe it does
   something nice.. maybe it deletes your HDD. That's for me to 
know and you
   to find out. No more hints. :)

   Registration is not actually necessary to view other groups' 
art in case
   you hadn't worked that out by now. ;)

   Have fun looking at Force Pack #5, and I'll cya l8r.
SAUCE00Fview Docs                         Red Haze            fORCE               199511184

P#