Galactic Empire ANSI repair and implementation

[Micromancer]

Anyone who has played Galactic Empire knows that random help files make your screen dim, some make the text bleed, and any number of assorted text output is inconsistent at best for display.

I spent the last week or so pouring over the mbmgemsg.msg and mbmgehlp.msg and have standardized the output for the most part. Now, almost all messages are preceeded by the correct ***<linebreak> which is universally colored bright white. Nearly all text (especially anything scanned or reported) has been colorized for easier reading. Every single help file now ends in a bright white code so no more random dim/bleeds.

<-[1;37m is bright white, and should now be in every spot right before your command prompt appears. Personally, I hate dim ANSI color. and I painted this with my own tastes in mind. Feel free to change any codes you see to suit your own. There is a WIKI article on the ANSI color codes.

If there is any interest in these two files I will be glad to place them on my own webspace for download. Once I get clearance for putting my dev bbs online I will place them at the BBS's webspace directly.

Would it be a problem to just go live with the BBS while I wait for Questman to contact me about licensing? I'm dying to get this thing rolling so I can play with two of my old school buddies.

Edit: I got the router configured to allow the BBS to accept http on port 80 and telnet on port 23. Both files are at the BBS webspace with a link to download. Waiting on the OK to release the IP.

[dspain]

Anyone who has played Galactic Empire knows that random help files make your screen dim, some make the text bleed, and any number of assorted text output is inconsistent at best for display.

I spent the last week or so pouring over the mbmgemsg.msg and mbmgehlp.msg and have standardized the output for the most part. Now, almost all messages are preceeded by the correct ***<linebreak> which is universally colored bright white. Nearly all text (especially anything scanned or reported) has been colorized for easier reading. Every single help file now ends in a bright white code so no more random dim/bleeds.

<-[1;37m is bright white, and should now be in every spot right before your command prompt appears. Personally, I hate dim ANSI color. and I painted this with my own tastes in mind. Feel free to change any codes you see to suit your own. There is a WIKI article on the ANSI color codes.

If there is any interest in these two files I will be glad to place them on my own webspace for download. Once I get clearance for putting my dev bbs online I will place them at the BBS's webspace directly.

Would it be a problem to just go live with the BBS while I wait for Questman to contact me about licensing? I'm dying to get this thing rolling so I can play with two of my old school buddies.

Edit: I got the router configured to allow the BBS to accept http on port 80 and telnet on port 23. Both files are at the BBS webspace with a link to download. Waiting on the OK to release the IP.

if you have activation codes then i would say YES, of course this is unofficial and i will tell you why.

basically you are an old customer putting your bbs back online, so you put it online, notify Elwynor you are back blah blah and go online.
if they see a problem they would email you saying to take it down for whatever reason.
and since Rick is generally open to getting all old owners back in business and he is really busy i dont see why he could mind you going online early.

also regarding GE, i been reworking a completely NT compatible version, any changes you want to see in the core or text output lemme know just start a new thread in the ArcticZone development forum.

[frcorey]

GE! they bring good things to life...

[dspain]

GE! they bring good things to life...

well so many changes occured in the core since mike's original release was soooo much easier to totally redo it than play with porting especially with the database stuff.

[Micromancer]

if you have activation codes then i would say YES, of course this is unofficial and i will tell you why.

basically you are an old customer putting your bbs back online, so you put it online, notify Elwynor you are back blah blah and go online.
if they see a problem they would email you saying to take it down for whatever reason.
and since Rick is generally open to getting all old owners back in business and he is really busy i dont see why he could mind you going online early.

I'm not an old owner, I'm an old designer friend of an old customer that wants to become a customer. I already have all the files, but I don't have a license or any claims to a license and I'd prefer to run a legal board.

also regarding GE, i been reworking a completely NT compatible version, any changes you want to see in the core or text output lemme know just start a new thread in the ArcticZone development forum.

The only changes I would like to see is colorized messages. Once I can go live, you'll be able to see the difference, and boy howdy does it ruin you from playing anywhere that hasn't done this.

[Micromancer]

Anyone wishing to download the ANSI updated .msg files for GE3.2e is welcome to head over to http://68.119.111.155/ and download them.

If you aren't sure if you want or need them, feel free to telnet in, create an account, and look around. This IP is sure to change over time, and as this is a temporary posting - I do not plan on updating the IP address here once my cable modem resets. At least not until Questman issues a reg code for me anyway.

He gracious allowed me to put the board up for my buddy and I to play and make these available for everyone that wanted them, so please download and enjoy!

Be warned though. If you do decide to actually try and play - the game settings are slightly different than stock. Gold is wimped by quite a bit, everything is exceptionally expensive and there are two ships that don't achieve warp instantly. This means you are planet food if you don't rotate away from the planets. On the upside, men, food, and troops weigh 25% of stock weight so populating planets IS easier once you can get some money rolling in.

This is an advanced game intended for people that know how to fight AND colonize planets.

[frcorey]

Anyone wishing to download the ANSI updated .msg files for GE3.2e is welcome to head over to http://68.119.111.155/ and download them.

If you aren't sure if you want or need them, feel free to telnet in, create an account, and look around. This IP is sure to change over time, and as this is a temporary posting - I do not plan on updating the IP address here once my cable modem resets. At least not until Questman issues a reg code for me anyway.

He gracious allowed me to put the board up for my buddy and I to play and make these available for everyone that wanted them, so please download and enjoy!

Be warned though. If you do decide to actually try and play - the game settings are slightly different than stock. Gold is wimped by quite a bit, everything is exceptionally expensive and there are two ships that don't achieve warp instantly. This means you are planet food if you don't rotate away from the planets. On the upside, men, food, and troops weigh 25% of stock weight so populating planets IS easier once you can get some money rolling in.

This is an advanced game intended for people that know how to fight AND colonize planets.

I tryed to get them. but I can't wait 20 mins for each file.
2 blind monkeys with a crayon would be faster.

[Micromancer]

Anyone wishing to download the ANSI updated .msg files for GE3.2e is welcome to head over to http://68.119.111.155/ and download them.

If you aren't sure if you want or need them, feel free to telnet in, create an account, and look around. This IP is sure to change over time, and as this is a temporary posting - I do not plan on updating the IP address here once my cable modem resets. At least not until Questman issues a reg code for me anyway.

He gracious allowed me to put the board up for my buddy and I to play and make these available for everyone that wanted them, so please download and enjoy!

Be warned though. If you do decide to actually try and play - the game settings are slightly different than stock. Gold is wimped by quite a bit, everything is exceptionally expensive and there are two ships that don't achieve warp instantly. This means you are planet food if you don't rotate away from the planets. On the upside, men, food, and troops weigh 25% of stock weight so populating planets IS easier once you can get some money rolling in.

This is an advanced game intended for people that know how to fight AND colonize planets.

I tryed to get them. but I can't wait 20 mins for each file.
2 blind monkeys with a crayon would be faster.

Perhaps you can ask those monkeys to troubleshoot your internet connection settings or something. I received them in seconds from a completely external network.

You can also try to get them from http://www.acecomputers-tn.com/mbmge/mbmgehlp.txt or http://www.acecomputers-tn.com/mbmge/mbmgemsg.txt but beyond that I don't quite know what to tell you. Good luck though. To use these files, you'll need to rename them so the extention is .msg not .txt

[Micromancer]

My IP has changed since we changed to Lighttube and got rid of Charter. Does everyone who had interest in the fixed ANSI problem .msg files for GE 3.2e get their copies? If so, did you try them? Any feedback would be awesome

Places I can play in color would rock as well - as it is I am playing at RetroBBS in B/W as it's the only game I've found with any hint of active players and would love to meet more people still playing this game.


I know you are out there!