PLEASE READ!!! Whats new for version .9b14 that I need to know about? ------------------------------------------------------ * VBA now has an icon compliments of Brian Ballweber. * binded input to source in real time game routines. (So you can't provide input for the computer player, etc) * Upgraded Showteam. Now again works with Prosel and is able to redirect I/O in Orca. * Fixed some bugs with VBAUtil. Cleaned up its GUI as well. * Fixed a ton more bugs with the game (see below) Whats new for version .9b13 that I need to know about? ------------------------------------------------------ * Added error handling to VBAUtil. * Added play by modem & network options (About time!) * Fixed grevious logic errors with the computer player. * Tried to fix the racing text bug again. * Fixed many more bugs with VBA. Whats new for version .8b12 that I need to know about? ------------------------------------------------------ * Did the last of the code overhaul and rewrote the coaches/point spread routines. Coaches are now stored in individual resources, making coach management much easier to handle. * Updated VBAUtils and created the 1994 update file which contains data for the years 1991-1994. The program is a collection of utilities for VBA users including the ability to reset the data, update the program with new years of data. * Fixed many bugs that came about from the overhaul in v.7 Whats new for version .7b11 that I need to know about? ------------------------------------------------------ * I got tired of looking at crappy 2 1/2 year old code so I spent a couple weeks rewritting the game. Its light years better now than it was before. I've cut out over 10,000 lines saving around 9k of code. I've made the assembly code much more supportive of the C code. In overhauling the code, I've fixed a bunch of memory trashing bugs as well. I've also made any errors use the exit call, making error trapping very stable. Basically, the game is now mean, lean, and ready for future changes! I still need to rewrite the coaches/spread code though, which is still a major mess. * I've updated the game with one rule change regarding the number of free throws taken when the player is fouled taking a three pointer. NBA rules changed last year from taking two free throws to three. VBA has been updated accordingly. * Showteam now has multi-year support as well as tab expansion added. It just keeps getting better and better! Whats new for version .7b10 that I need to know about? ------------------------------------------------------ * A memory trashing bug has been removed. Its been in the program since VBA .5b5, but it just was discovered now. I was trashing $3D bytes of memory past the recent action data file. * VBA now reloads the data at the end of the game when it goes to write the game data. This will prevent game data from being "lost" when two games are being ran at the same time. Before, the 2nd game to finish would write its "world" data to the resource forks which would remove the changes the first game added. Whats new for version .7b9 that I need to know about? ----------------------------------------------------- * Showteam has been overhauled. The SYS16 "mode of operation" now provides a list of teams, and a command line to enter the team you wish. Running showteam from a shell with no arguments will force the SYS16 mode of operation as well. * The scoreboard has been improved to what I think is a much niftier format. (Well, after looking at the old scoreboard for the last 8 years, I guess anything would be a welcome change of pace. :) * Instead of entering player names at the start of the game, all you have to do now is enter the number of the player. If you make a mistake, don't worry. VBA will ask you if your starters is correct before going on. * The dreaded penalty for control^Cing out of a game after registering your coaches has been added. Once you are registered, any premature ending of the game (even before the game has started) will cause BOTH coaches to lose 5 points of their point ratings. (oh no!) So whats the lession here? Don't do it! * Basic error handling has been added. While I expect to tweak it some more, the basic game (overlooking the annoying I/O blocking hangs) should be very stable now. Because of the complications of multiple users running VBA at the same time, there may be times when two people will try to write to VBA's resources. While one user will wait (for no longer than 50,000 open attempts), I need to fix the program so that both people will correctly update the data. (Right now, it just puts its own data into the resource, which could be incorrect.) Whats new for version .7b7 that I need to know about? ----------------------------------------------------- * Coaches and Point Ratings have been added. * Showteam's I/O redirection is now free of cursor control codes. So if you want to know more about a team's statistics, use showteam. * Multi-Year Data support added. - Data for years 1992,1993,1994 still need to be entered. * First version of VBA documentation written. Whats new for version .6b6 that I need to know about? ----------------------------------------------------- * A computer player has been added! So now you can have a real opponent to play with! It will pass, shoot, do player substitutions, call time outs, use pressure defense and try its durnest to win the game! All you have to do is select 1 from the method of play list. * Showteam has been written to support I/O redirection, but since it still outputs cursor control strings, the only thing you can do is redirect it to a file and cat it to the screen (provided it has the same emulation mode as when the program was ran) I will soon fix this so full I/O independance can be done (allowing you to print the data to the printer and such). Whats new for version .5b4 that I need to know about? ----------------------------------------------------- 1) Team/Player name expansion!!!! Yes! You can now type in part of the player/team name and get it to expand it either to the full extent or as far as the multiple matches will allow. To expand, press tab after typing in your subexpression. When jumping for the ball, it will expand the names for both sides, so be careful! 2) New desktop application that will handle various utilities for VBA. Right now, it only resets the data for the 1991 season. In the future it will handle updating vba with new season data (when it becomes available) as well as adding/removing coaches among other things. You probably don't need to run it for now, but its good to know that its there. PLEASE NOTE : THERE IS ABSOLUTLY NO ERROR CHECKING DONE!!! So please don't try to do something wrong to try and crash the program because IT WILL!!! and I don't know what it will do! :) Don't worry, it won't trash your hard drive though! :) 3) ShowTeam application. You can use this to find out the statistics for a given team. (i.e. how well the players shoot, what their rebound rate is etc.) Right now, there is only one version for the shell. and it takes arguments. Like VBA, the exe supports total I/O independance so you can use it from remote like VBA. I _do_ need to fix it so you can redirect the I/O though... :) What do those numbers mean anyways? FG% & FT% The inital chance of a player making a field goal and free throw. This is before defenses are taken into account which could improve or reduce one's field goal chance. RRate The player's rebound rate. The higher, the better chance the player has of getting a rebound. Will reduce by 1 with every foul he gets. ARate The player's assist rate. As before, the higher, the better the chance the player can find someone open. FRate The player's frequency rate. (Aka Pig Rate) The higher the value, the greater the chance of that player getting the ball. Could be a mixed blessing. A hot and greedy player will be a boon, while a cold and greedy player will be a curse. Some simple, easy rules to live by: Keys: ----- To Quit NBA: Press ^C Home Team (team on left) Visitor Team (team on right) * Numeric Keypad recommended * z) pass inside 1) pass inside x) shoot 2 pointer 2) shoot 2 pointer c) shoot 3 pointer 3) shoot 3 pointer a) player sub* 4) player sub* s) time out** 5) time out** d) pressure defense*** 6) pressure defense*** * : can only be done when the clock is stopped ** : can only be done either when: a) you have the ball or b) the clock is stopped (see #8 below) *** : can only be done while other team has the ball. Some rules of game: (These may change at any time! :) ------------------- 1) Players have a 15% less chance of making a shot while he is not open. 2) Players have a 50% less chance of making a 3 point shot. 3) Players lose rebounding agressiveness with each accumulated foul. 4) Chances of winning a jump ball depends on the rebound rate of the player. a higher rebounding rate has a better chance of winning than a low rebounding rate. 5) The player who gets an offensive board is considered open. 6) Three consecutive inside passes will result in a three second violation. 7) The higher the assist rate of a person, the better his chance of finding someone open (duh!) 8) When the clock is running, a ? will appear under the current quarter. if it is stopped, a * will appear under the current quarter. 9) While Pressure Defense may force an easy turnover, it may also cause an easy layup or even worse... a foul. 10) To get out of player substitutions, press return when entering a name. Revison History (I know, the time difference between .2 and .3 is really bad) --------------- 5/17/92 o Basic NBA game shell is finished. Version .2b0 2/12/93 o NBA's I/O routines are rewritten to support Version .3b1 character device independance in GNO. o Termcap support added for terminal emulation. o Output in some areas is buffered for speed. o Fixed some problems with non-GNO enviorments. 2/21/93 o Fixed a problem with the text tools under GNO. Version .4b2 o Made the NBA quit call a bit more Orca shell happy. o Fixed crash caused by players fouling out. o Problems with unupdated time out stats fixed. 05/20/93 o Buffering limited in non-gno enviorments due to Version .4b3 strange problems with the console driver. o Fixed annoying problem with I/O redirection in GNO. o Team defenses added into game play. o Fixed Player input routines for the 3rd time. o "Removing Player Fouled from Game" bug removed. o Added game scores on the TO screen. o Fixed incorrect quarter scores on the TO screen. o Cleaned up some game texts. o Fixed minor problems with the clock. o NBA changed to VBA to avoid any expensive lawsuits. 08/05/93 o VBA Utilities desktop application written. Version .5b4 o ShowTeam application written. o VBA's data now stored in resources. o Added Tab expansion to readline input routine. o Many pre-game and post-game routines finished. o Better random number generator routines added. o Improved floating point (fixed manth) accuracy. o More text output buffering to increase speed. o Fixed some problems with offensive fouls. o Fixed jump ball winner tapping it to himself bug. o Fixed more incorrect data on TO Screen (again). o Fixed problem with clock running out after a stopped clock situation. o Bypassed bug with termcap's vt100 emulation. 3/27/94 o Fixed problems with the player input routine again Version .6b5 o Fixed some memory trashing termcap calls. Includes fixing vt100 termcap 'problem' above. o Console driver calls restored for !GNO enviorments o Internal code rewritten for performance/growth. o Text buffering is completed. o Recompiled C routines with Orca/C 2.0.1 4/21/94 o Computer Player added! Version .6b6 o ShowTeam's I/O made redirectable. o Added some termcap entries for the console driver. 9/21/94 o External Modem support started. Version .7b7 o ShowTeam's output made 100% I/O device independant. o Coaches and Point Ratings added. (What a bitch!) o Computer player updated for Coaches. o Multi-Year data support added. o First draft of documentation written. o Tweaked routines to handle game flags better. o Teams fouling out now lose the game. o Tim's readline routine made termcap compliant. o Made Showteam run as a S16 application. 9/28/94 o Hope that the new mods to Getkeypress work (again). Version .7b8 o Fixed bug with computer's jumpball decision making o Fixed bug with switching players at the line after a player substitution (again) o Get backspace character from termcap now. 11/04/94 o Gutted Showteam. Version .7b9 o Fixed wrong team getting points during foul shooting. o Basic error handling added. o Added whammy for prematurely ending game with coaches. o Revamped the whole "scoreboard". o Eliminated over 7,000 lines of buffering code. o Changed how entering starters is done. o Modifed how tab expansion works. o Tweaked Computer player's scoring function. 11/07/94 o Fixed a memory trashing bug (yay!) Version .7b10 o Rewrote data update routines for multi-users. o Started to use exit call for error handling. o Corrected League Standings data. 12/02/94 o Overhauled VBA code for speed/size improvement. Version .7b11 o Fixed a memory trashing bug with printScoreboard o Fixed a memory trashing bug with printTimeOut o Fixed an off by one bug with random # gen. o Fixed a defenses not being added in bug. o Fixed problems with VBA not saving data. o Fixed rounding error with BufferFixed. o Fixed pass counter not being reset after a turnover. o Fixed "racing text" during fouls bug. (I hope!) o Fixed stealer getting turnover bug. o Added error handling routines. o Added starter selection to start of 3rd quarter. o Added tab expansion to ShowTeam. o Added multi-year support to ShowTeam. o Made VBA's ASM routines fully C compliant. o Updated VBA to new 1994 NBA rules. 12/22/94 o Rewrote Coach/Point Spread routines. Version .8b12 o Coaches now stored in individual resources. o Rewrote and completed VBAUtil. o Created 1994 update file with 1991-1994 league data. o Fixed some bugs with the computer player. o Fixed team name placement in scoreboard bug. o Fixed a bug with random team selection. o Fixed playertable creation bug in getStarters. o Fixed incorrect table building in printRoster. o Fixed a bug with tab expansion. o Added tab expansion to point spread screen. o Added System 6.0 check. o Tried to fix "racing text" bug again. 01/27/95 o Added external modem support. Version .9b13 o Added GNO TTY support. o Added GNO IPC support. o Added GNO TCP/IP support. o Fixed a potential bug with inputting a year. o Fixed a stack trashing bug with UpdateTopCoaches. o Fixed a bug in the creation of PlayerTable. o Fixed location of Y/N in "coach is busy" routine. o Fixed serious flaws with the computer player. o Fixed a bug regarding multiple subs. o Fixed team defenses to work again. o Rewrote I/O handling routines for new devices. o Rewrote how the computer player's I/O is done. o Optimized VBA's C code. 03/31/95 o Fixed Showteam to work with Prosel. Version .9b14 o Fixed output bug with VBA configuration. o Fixed control codes to turn cursor on/off. o Fixed SCCInput call in Modem Manager. o Fixed a bug with computer player substitutions. o Fixed a bug with computer player table generators. o Fixed bug where the game tables were too small. o Fixed off by one problems with game's tables. o Fixed incorrect team FT% displayed in Time Out. o Fixed some bugs with overtime games. o Fixed some incorrect seasonal data. o Fixed a bug with assists and passing. o Fixed major problems with the communication layer. o Fixed "racing text" bug for good (I hope...) o Fixed input lossage due to input to source bind. o Fixed numpasses not being reset after shot. o Fixed Computer Player's shot selection. o Fixed ^C and ^Z trapping. o Added Synch message to clock routines. o Added error trapping to the initTermcap routine. o Added I/O redirection to showteam in Orca. o Added assists into game rules and equations. o Added input to souce binding in clock routines. o Added I/O flushing to prevent "late" called plays. o Added One sub call per clock stopped situtation. o Added nifty icon provided by Brian Ballweber. o Tweaked Computer's decision making. o Tweaked FG% modification after shot. o Tweaked chances of committing a foul. o Cleaned up some output situtations. o Improved efficency of communication layer. o Wrote 2nd draft of the documentation. ??/??/?? o Fixed bug with termcap's tgetent. Version 1.0b? o Gaming rules and equations finalized for v1.0. o Final Beta Testing o Documentation finished.