Does anyone have Thunder Cat V3.30 BBS door game from TopSoft working on their BBS? I got it from the BBSFiles.com collection on most BBS files section. I am having a hard time getting it run. I loved playing this game. It was my first BBS door on my RBBS system in 1990. I get the editor to run in Dos but tcat.exe cannot open the .ctl file no matter which way I configure it. Any help would be appreciated.
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080
Madison,NC
problem fixed. it was in the door.sys file. I used a ruler and went down all 52 lines of the door sys file based on door.sys on the synchronet wiki which shows what each line is for and valid ranges for some of them. In my case it was line 42 out of range for Tcat v3.30 42 is time credit in minutes. I used cvtdrsys.exe to go in and change that line to 0 each time the door is run. I use a batch file for each node. In tcat i made a node directory for each instance loaded tcat/node1 node2, etc. copied cvtdrsys.exe into each node and have the original door.sys generated by sbbs copied into that node and modified by cvtdrsys. at the end of play the modified door.sys is deleted and the user is returned to the BBS. It works real good. I had help from CJ and Fzf. I knew I had to change something in the door.sys file but did not know about cvtdrsys.exe to do it. Thank you very much!
Re: Thunder cat V3.30 door game
By: Rixter to All on Tue Oct 15 2024 08:35 am
Thank you for the detailed analysis. I wonder, does cvtdrsys allow converting to a 31-line door.sys file and if so, does that also solve the problem with the door game?
The original door.sys file format was only 31 lines (not 52 as is common today) and I've been pondering making the 31-line version a configuration option for doors in SCFG. It'd be nice to solve this (kind of) problem without requiring 3rd party tools and batch files, if we can.
--
digital man (rob)
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It works with the 52 lines letting you change each line. I cannot find any reference to reducing it to 31 lines. It was 4 of us between synchronet, fsx net and Tom Swartz on facebook helping me narrow it down. I like to study things line by line and I compared a door.sys that worked with my bbs since the one my system generated did not work and then compared each line until I found the difference. The door.sys line by line explanation on the synchronet wiki helped me find it very quickly thereafter. Thank you for all the detailed notes on the wiki. Have a good night.
problem fixed. it was in the door.sys file. I used a ruler and went down all 52 lines of the door sys file based on door.sys on the synchronet wiki which shows what each line is for and valid ranges for some of them. In my case it was line 42 out of range for Tcat v3.30 42 is time credit in minutes. I used cvtdrsys.exe to go in and change that line to 0 each time the door is run. I use a batch file for each node. In tcat i made a node
If anyone else is interested in this cvtdrsys.exe program, I found it in this archive here: https://vert.synchro.net/files/BBS.Archives/DoorConverters/cvtdoor.zip
Re: Thunder cat V3.30 door game
By: Digital Man to Rixter on Tue Oct 15 2024 10:14 pm
If anyone else is interested in this cvtdrsys.exe program, I found it in this archive here: https://vert.synchro.net/files/BBS.Archives/DoorConverters/cvtdoor.zip
That would have been handy back in the day, I wonder why that wasn't more prevelant or even built into systems.
That would have been handy back in the day, I wonder why that wasn't more prevelant or even built into systems.
cvtdrsys modifies a door.sys file created by another program (e.g. a BBS program). *nix sysops could do the modifications with some creative awk and sed commands. Not sure how you would "build that into" a system. If the original program knew it needed different values in the door.sys file, it'd just write those values instead of whatever problematic value it was writing before - no need for "conversion" (or what I would call "modification") in-flight. I suppose a BBS program could allow every line/value of every supported drop file type to be configurable in some way, but that seems like
problem fixed. it was in the door.sys file. I used a ruler and went down all 52 lines of the door sys file based on door.sys on the synchronet wiki which shows what each line is for and valid ranges for some of them. In my case it was line 42 out of range for Tcat v3.30 42 is time credit in
cvtdrsys modifies a door.sys file created by another program (e.g. a BBS program). *nix sysops could do the modifications with some creative awk and sed commands. Not sure how you would "build that into" a system. If the original program knew it needed different values in the door.sys file, it'd just write those values instead of whatever problematic value it was writing before - no need for "conversion" (or what I would call "modification") in-flight. I suppose a BBS program could allow every line/value of every supported drop file type to be configurable in some way, but that seems like pretty unnecessary complexity and flexibility.
Re: Thunder cat V3.30 door game
By: Rixter to All on Tue Oct 15 2024 08:35 am
If you don't mind me asking, what value was on line 42 of the door.sys file created by Synchronet?
I know v3.20a (still in development) latches this value (the number of minutes in the user's minute bank) at 32767, but earlier versions of Synchronet could have huge numbers in this field. That could have just been the issue, which was already fixed.
--
digital man (rob)
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Re: Thunder cat V3.30 door game
By: Rixter to All on Tue Oct 15 2024 08:35 am
If you don't mind me asking, what value was on line 42 of the door.sys file created by Synchronet?
I know v3.20a (still in development) latches this value (the number of minutes in the user's minute bank) at 32767, but earlier versions of Synchronet could have huge numbers in this field. That could have just been the issue, which was already fixed.
a wild number 4294967295, maximum value can only be 32767. Found it on the door.sys synchronet wiki page.
In my case it was line 42 out of range for Tcat v3.30
42 is time credit in minutes.
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