  WInfocom version Beta 1.0 (August the 7th, 1994).

  Note (for lawyers): all trademarks used in this document or elsewhere in
  the distribution are trademarks of their respective owners, but you
  probably knew that already.

  WInfocom Beta version:

    This is a Beta version of the WInfocom interpeter - runs Infocom games
    from V1-V5 under Windows.

    WInfocom is a port of Mark Howell's ZIP interpeter V1.0 for Windows. All
    I did was write Windows functions to go with the rest of the interpeter.
    
    Mark Howell's address in the ZIP's readme file was
    howell_ma@movies.enet.dec.com, but since that was from October 1992, it
    might have changed. If Mark Howell himself can notify me of that issue,
    I would be very grateful.

    Disclaimer: no warranty (I like to be brief. This sums up all the tons of
    lines people are used to write in disclaimers). Since it's a Windows
    product, doubly so... (Microsoft is an illusion. Microsoft Windows
    doubly so...)

    Requirements: WInfocom requires Windows 3.0 or 3.1 (I have checked only
    on 3.1, though, but it SHOULD run on 3.0 too), and an Infocom (or
    compatible) game, basically, but also highly recommended are a mouse (for
    resizing, marking spots, etc.) and perhaps a SuperVGA card, as using
    WInfocom on normal VGA screens takes up almost the whole screen, leaving
    no place to put other (more useful...) windows. The best screen size, in
    my opinion, is 800x600, available on virtually any SuperVGA card, but I
    only have a 13" monitor. 21" monitor owners might object...

    Usage: just run the EXE file from Windows. It usually means you copy the
    EXE file somewhere on the hard disk, and then create a Windows item for
    it, but you can also run it directly from Run... in the File menu of
    Program Manager.
    After you run it, select an Infocom game file (TRINITY.DAT, for
    example), and have fun!
    Oh, if you have Windows 3.0, you should have the file COMMDLG.DLL
    somewhere where Windows can find it (in the Windows directory, or in the
    directory from which you started the game). Windows 3.1 has this file
    already, so nothing is required.
    If you want to run Beyond Zork, refer to the section "Running Beyond
    Zork with graphics".
	
    Please report any bug you find. State which game you were playing (I have
    almost all of them), and where it happened. If possible, include a script
    of your inventory and last moves, or just a save file (UUEncoded of
    course). Even if you don't find a bug, drop me a line if you like it (see
    the address below). If you want to, you can tell me what kind of computer
    you have, what version of Windows you have (I'm considering dropping
    support for Windows 3.0 due to general lack of interest. If you have any
    objection about that, let me know), what VGA card you have, and so on. It
    might not be so essential, but it's fun to know your target audience.
    
    Key combinations:
      - Ctrl-S controls the scrolling. There are two kinds of scrolling:
	Immediate scrolling and delayed scrolling. Immediate scrolling (the
	default) scrolls the screen whenever appropriate. Delayed scrolling
	only scrolls upon waiting for keys. This is useful for very slow
	computers, but looks quite ugly and it's hard to follow the text.
      - Ctrl-T switches between calculated line breaks (the default) and
	true line breaks. Normally, the program determines when to break the
	line by calculating the length of the line. When true line break is
	on, the program calls the standard GetTextExtent function that is
	more precise, but signifcantly slower. Some fonts don't get calculated
	right (yet), and so this feature should be turned on. The usual
	symptoms are text that is wrapped (chopped of) way before the end
	of the line, and strange gaps in the shown text. Sorry about that.
      - Ctrl-R redraws the screen, in case of a major bug screwing up the
	screen.
      - Ctrl-W and Ctrl-X scroll the screen up and down, respectively, for
	our mouseless friends.

    Mouse "Combinations":
      Since WInfocom uses a proportional font, maps and tables don't get
      aligned properly. In many cases (like the maps in Hollywood Hijinx),
      the game tells WInfocom to switch to a fixed-pitch font. However, some
      games don't do that (like Infidel), so to deal with it you can turn a 
      specific box of text on the screen to a fixed-piched font by clicking
      on the top left corner of that box while leaving the button down,
      moving the cursor to the bottom right corner and releasing the button.
      The box marked will now be in the status font.

    Typing:
      WInfocom features better input routines than the original Infocom
      games. Besides the standard Backspace, the user can also use the
      following keys:
	Left arrow, Right arrow - move the cursor.
	Home, End - move the cursor to the beginning and the end of the line.
	Del - erases the character under the cursor.
	Ins - switches between insertion mode and replace mode.
	Up and down - recall command history (older commands).

      Since newer games (V5, like Beyond Zork) can accept arrow keys, but
      they are reserved for WInfocom, enter arrow keys directed to the game
      while pressing Ctrl (e.g. Ctrl+Up). This is only required when typing
      a line (i.e. you don't need to press Ctrl in the hints menu). Note that
      the "Define function keys" menu in Beyond Zork (activated by typing
      DEFINE) is considered "typing a line", so Ctrl must be pressed with Up
      and Down while moving in that menu.

    Options:
      Choosing the Options menu item opens up a dialog box that lets you
      change various parameters in WInfocom.
      The current ones are:
	1. Immediate scrolling (see above). Effective henceforth.
	2. True break (see above). Effective henceforth.
	3. Screen top. The screen top is where the text begins relative to
	   the top left corner of the client area (the main area of the
	   window). It is usually (3,0) meaning the text begins 3 pixels
	   right of the window. Effective immediately.
	4. Right margin. This is the number of pixels WInfocom leaves to the
	   right of the text. The text is wrapped (split into two lines) in
	   case the length of the text _and_ the margin exceeds the window.
	   Effective henceforth.
	5. Select text font. This presents a dialog that allows you to select
	   the new font presented in the main text area. Effective
	   immediately.
	6. Select status font. This presents a dialog that allows selection of
	   the font in the status line/window. Effective immediately.
	7. Render boldface. This switches between rendering the boldface
	   attribute and ignoring it. Rendering it makes writing text
	   slightly slower. Also, you can't choose a bold-faced font when
	   this option is selected (even if you do, it won't come out
	   bold-faced). Note that some fonts, such as System (on my system, at
	   least), are radically different when bold-faced, and in that case,
	   WInfocom can't turn off bold-facing automatically, and you have to
	   turn it off yourself. Effective immediately.
	8. Translate box/arrow/German characters. Some games (Beyond Zork, for
	   instance) use non-standard characters. These characters are not
	   usually available under Windows, and so are translated to similiar
	   characters from the standard set. Box characters are translated
	   to these characters: "+|-#=". Arrow characters are translated to
	   these one: "^v<>". German characters are translated like "Ae" (for
	   a umlaut). Effective henceforth.
	9. Reverse Up and Down. Certain Infocom-like games (specificaly,
	   Graham Nelson's games like "Curses") seem to have confused Up and
	   Down, treating the key Up as Down and vice versa. Checking this
	   option will reverse the meaning of Up and Down to deal with this
	   problem. Effective immediately.
       10. Stop clock when not active. Checking this option will cause the
	   clock to be stopped in timed games like "Border Zone" when the
	   WInfocom window is no longer active (for example, you switched to
	   another window). This is good because it allows you to do other
	   work without worrying about the game running, but is somewhat
	   unfair as it gives you more time to think which you are not
	   supposed to have. Effective immediately.

    Running Beyond Zork with graphics:
      To play Beyond Zork with graphics (map, etc.), you will have to install
      a special Windows font file. It is not included in here as I'm not sure
      whether it's copyrighted. However, a tool is included to easily create
      the font file from the data file (thus solving the copyright problem,
      because you can't have the font without having the data file). Note
      that the data file must be the IBM PC version, since only that version
      has the font in it.
      To create the font file, use the supplied utility MAKEFONT. It accepts
      two parameters, the first being the Beyond Zork data file, and the
      second is the name of the created font file. For example, on my system
      I might type:
	MAKEFONT \INFOCOM\BEYONDZO.DAT \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RUNES.FON

      which creates a file called RUNES.FON. Note that the data file isn't
      checked to be Beyond Zork. If it's not, however, the font created will
      be pure junk.

      After creating the font, run Windows and open up the Control Panel.
      Choose the Font applet, and from there choose "Add...". Now, move to 
      the directory where the font file is. Inside the box above that shows
      the fonts in that directory, you should see a font called "Beyond Zork
      Runes". Select it and choose Ok twice, and from now on the font is
      installed and Beyond Zork run under WInfocom will show the map and
      graphics.
      
      If you wish to remove the font, run Control Panel, choose the Fonts
      applet, choose the Beyond Zork Runes font, and select Remove. Choose
      Yes and then OK.

      When running Beyond Zork, it is best to use a small status font and
      keep the "Variable Height" option (see above) on. Otherwise `gaps'
      might appear in the graphics.

    Known bugs: (don't bother report the following bugs:)
      - The Open menu doesn't do anything yet.
      - Doesn't free all memory and resources. This is especially noticable
	if you exist the game by closing it directly or thru the File menu,
	instead of typing "quit".
      - The screen top option doesn't fully work yet. Moving the screen top
	right works fine, but moving it down causes some problems with the
	scroll bar.
      - Games that create their own status window sometimes don't clear the
	whole status window when creating. This is because WInfocom makes the
	program think the screen width is 80 characters (to provide a
	reasonable screen width), while the length of a line will very often
	be more. Therefore programs that erase the window by just blanking it
	don't always erase it whole.
      - Some more I can't think of right now.

    Future plans:
      - History for the screen (i.e. recalling previous messages).
      - More attributes (underline, etc).
      - Fancy save and restore (with dialogs).
      - Creating a differently sized Beyond Zork font.
      - Fix the problem associated with "True Breaking" (see above), removing
	the need for that option.

    Distribution: I didn't find any copyright notice inside Mark Howell's
    original interpeter, but since it came complete with the full source code
    I assume it is public domain. This product, anyway, is Freeware, which
    means you can copy it and use it freely, and distribute it AS A WHOLE,
    but I reserve the copyright. Maybe someday I'll release the Windows-part
    source and it'll be public domain, but right now the source is too messy,
    and of no use.

    The files in this distribution (if you pass it along be sure to include
    all the files):
      WINFOCOM.EXE       The main .EXE file.
      MAKEFONT.COM       Extract the graphic font from Beyond Zork.
      COMMDLG.DLL        Required for Windows 3.0 users.
      README             This file.
      TECHNICL           Technical notes for the interested user.
      HISTORY            Changes made to WInfocom over time.
      QUESTION           Some questions for anyone who can help me.

		    Ido Razon
		    E-mail: /dev/null (no Internet connection at the moment),
			   use my brother's: s2566657@techst02.technion.ac.il,
			   and state in the Subject: line it's for me.
			   The response might be delayed by more than a week.
		    Snail-mail: Nah, never mind.

		    Share and enjoy!
