=============================================================
  THE PIT v4.17 FOR ATDT - INSTALL GUIDE
  Midas Touch Software door, packaged for the ATDT DOS door
  system. Multiline play, four nodes, ready to run.
=============================================================

WHAT THIS PACKAGE IS

  The Pit normally needs its own installer (INSTALL.BAT with
  PKUNZIP) and then a trip through CONTROL.EXE before it will
  run. That work is already done in this package. The archives
  are unpacked into their proper directories, and the game is
  configured for the ATDT door machine:

    - Fossil driver: Active (ATDT ships its own FOSSIL)
    - Baud rate: Auto-Detect, flow control Auto-Detect
    - Door file: DOOR.SYS, read from D:\
    - Display: ANSI only (no host graphics mode)
    - Music, sound effects, mouse, joystick: all off
    - Game time: 240 minute cap inside the game
    - MULTILINE play: four nodes, all attached to DEFAULT.CFG,
      network locking mode (the game record-locks through the
      board, so simultaneous callers never tear a file)

  So on ATDT this IS a drag and drop install. You only need
  CONTROL.EXE again if you want to change a setting.

INSTALLING

  1. Extract this zip. You get a folder named "pit".

  2. Upload the whole pit folder into the dosdoors folder of
     your ATDT install, so it sits at:

         /atdt/dosdoors/pit/
             dosdoor.json
             files/

     (If your board lives somewhere other than /atdt, use that
     root instead. The folder with dosdoor.json in it must sit
     directly inside dosdoors.)

  3. In the SysOp Console go to Settings, then Access, and make
     sure "DOS doors" is checked. A DOS Doors page appears in
     the console.

  4. On the DOS Doors page press "Scan dosdoors/ folder". The
     Pit registers. If the scan lists problems it names each
     one; fix and scan again.

  5. In Console, Menus: add an item to any menu with the
     DOSDOOR action and the argument:  pit

  6. Call the board and press the key. The first entry fetches
     the game to the caller's browser (about 2.5 MB, mostly the
     graphics data). It can take up to half a minute on the
     first visit and is fast after that. Then the FreeDOS
     machine boots and The Pit comes up.

FIRST ENTRY, WHAT A PLAYER SEES

  - "Please activate your GRAPHICS TERMINAL now" appears
    first. Players just press SPACE. (The graphics terminal is
    The Pit's own DOS-side viewer from 1995; browser callers
    play the ANSI game.)
  - New players answer a short setup: color monitor (Y), BBS
    music (N; ATDT filters ANSI music, so nothing is heard),
    menu type (E for Enhanced ANSI looks best), then a game
    alias and attack and losing phrases.
  - After that they land at the MAIN MENU: the Arena, shops,
    tavern, gambling, and the rest. Combat uses A to attack
    and the number keys 1-4 and 6-9 as compass directions;
    SPACE passes a move.
  - With more than one caller in the game, the ! entry on the
    MAIN MENU is the MULTILINE CHAT/ARENA: live chat between
    nodes, and live player versus player fights. C on the
    chat menu challenges another node; the challenged player
    gets an ACCEPT or DECLINE box on their screen and the
    fight runs live in the shared arena. Challenges time out
    after about half a minute, so answer promptly. The
    Challenge/View list on the main menu shows who is online
    and on which node, live.
  - Arena fights run at the speed of the board. Every combat
    turn is synced between the two players through the game
    drive, which cost about a millisecond on the office
    networks this game was written for in 1995. On a web
    host each sync is a real round trip, so multiline
    battles breathe slower than the rest of the game. That
    is normal and does not affect the outcome.
  - Hanging up mid game is safe. The Pit saves the battle in
    progress and resumes it on the next call. (The hangup
    penalty is configured OFF in this package.)

CHANGING GAME SETTINGS LATER

  All of The Pit's own tools run in the door maintenance
  machine, on the live game drive:

  1. Console, DOS Doors, then Maintenance next to The Pit.
  2. Type the tool name as the command and press Boot:

         CONTROL      settings, node config, game resets
         PEDIT        player editor
         PITEDIT      weapons, enemies, magic, game data
         PBULL        top ten bulletin generator

  3. The machine's screen and keyboard are yours. In CONTROL,
     use the arrow keys and Enter, and Escape backs out of any
     menu. Settings save when you pick "Save Config File
     as..." and choose DEFAULT.CFG.

  Notes for CONTROL on the maintenance machine:
  - The pickers open with the CURRENT value highlighted, so
    move relative to it, not from the top of the list.
  - "Reset THE PIT", then "Reset Entire Game" wipes all
    players and restarts the game world. "Reset Player Node
    List" fixes a stuck node claim after a crash.

  Do not change these, they are what make the game work on the
  ATDT machine: Fossil Active, door file DOOR.SYS with path
  D:\, and Display ANSI Graphics Only set to YES.

TIME LIMITS

  Two limits apply and the smaller one wins: the "minutes"
  value in dosdoor.json (120 as shipped, the board side daily
  allowance) and The Pit's own Maximum Time Per Day (240 as
  shipped). Raise the manifest minutes if you want longer
  sessions; The Pit's cap leaves room up to 240.

MULTILINE PLAY

  This package ships with multiline ON: four nodes, matching
  max_nodes 4 in dosdoor.json. The Pit's own docs say
  multiline needs DOS SHARE loaded; that turns out to be true
  only for local drives. On the ATDT machine the game drive
  is a network drive, DOS routes record locks to the board,
  and The Pit locks and plays multiline happily (its load
  screen notes "Network Not Detected" and carries on; the
  message is harmless).

  This was verified with two live machines on one board
  before delivery: both callers visible in the player list
  with live node numbers, cross node chat arriving in about
  five seconds, a challenge handshake in both directions, and
  a live player versus player arena fight, with every record
  lock arbitrated through the board.

  To change the node count: raise or lower max_nodes in
  dosdoor.json (the board side seat cap), and if you raise it
  past four, also open CONTROL in the maintenance machine,
  set "Edit Number of Nodes" to match, and attach DEFAULT.CFG
  to each new node under "Edit Node Configuration".

REGISTRATION

  This is the demo version: characters can reach level 8. The
  full game (level 500) needed a registration code from Midas
  Touch Software, whose order form from 1996 is long dead.
  ORDER.FRM ships in the original archive for history's sake.

FILES IN THE GAME DIRECTORY

  files/               the game, exactly as DOS sees D:\
                       (the door runs as PIT /NODE=%NODE%;
                       ATDT fills in each caller's node)
    PIT.EXE            the game
    CONTROL.EXE        the configuration station
    PEDIT.EXE, PITEDIT.EXE, PBULL.EXE, PITSTAT.EXE,
    PITBUILD.EXE       sysop tools
    CONFIG\            pit configuration files (DEFAULT.CFG
                       carries the ATDT settings)
    GAME\DEFAULT.PIT   the game data set
    BATTLE\            arena battles in progress
    *.NDF              graphics data (kept for completeness)
    PITNODE.LST, MLTNODE.LST, CHATNODE.LST
                       node and chat state
  dosdoor.json         the ATDT manifest for this door

  Player files (PLAYER.DAT, PLAYER.LST, RANK.DAT, TODAY.LOG)
  are created by the game on first play. Live state lives in
  data/doorstore/dos/pit/ on the server after the first entry;
  the files/ folder itself is never written.

TESTED

  This package was verified end to end on the ATDT door
  machine before delivery: CONTROL configuration written
  through the network drive, game boot from DOOR.SYS with the
  ATDT FOSSIL, the full new player flow, arena combat with
  damage in both directions, battle resume after a dropped
  session, the sysop throw out key, and a clean exit with all
  player files written. Multiline was then proven with two
  machines on one board: live player lists, five second cross
  node chat, the challenge handshake both ways, and a live
  player versus player arena fight, all record locks running
  through the board. Memory used by the game: 311 KB of the
  machine's 605 KB free.
