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Post by James M. Chambers on Apr 2, 2002 22:11:05 GMT -5
To all who play the wargame Pacific War (either the original by SSI or the remake by Matrix games), I am in the process of writing a Windows version of an editor for the game. I am almost done with it. Should be finished in a couple of weeks.
As far as I know, no one has written a Windows version of an editor for the game. Well I am. The reason is because I switched jobs and now do Windows programming (instead of Unix programming). So, in order to help me learn Windows programming (and the Win32 API), I decided to create a Windows based Pacific War Order of Battle editor. When finished, I would like to have a few people help me debug the program by testing it out. If anyone is interested, reply to this post please (with Keith's kind permission of course. It is his forum after all).
PS This note is specifically addressed to Barry B and Jim W who I know play the game (or at least used to).
James
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 2, 2002 23:01:48 GMT -5
No problem.
I'm not particularly interested in the game myself, so, I don't have it. Otherwise I'd help you out myself.
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Post by ksbearski on Apr 4, 2002 2:33:27 GMT -5
Jim-
You've got it! Will it work with the new 3.2 Matrix version? I suppose it will, since we'll only be editing dbases/spreadsheets, correct.
I'd be more than glad to test the program.
Barry
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Post by James M. Chambers on Apr 4, 2002 18:49:57 GMT -5
Barry,
Yes it should work, as long as Matrix Games does not change the way the order of battle files are organized. The editor will let you edit both the ob* data files (like obc41, obc42, and obmari), and the save game OB files (like savea, saveb, but not the ones with the file extensions).
The latest version of Pacific War that I have is 2.3. Is there a later version?
Also, the editor requires Windows 98 or later. I am using features of the Win32 API that are not fully supported in Windows 95.
James
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Post by ksbearski on Apr 4, 2002 23:42:21 GMT -5
James-
2.3 is the latest version, as far as I can tell. I'll be more than glad to help you debug your work.
Barry
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Post by Redbirdy on Apr 16, 2002 0:39:48 GMT -5
James,
I'd be more than happy to test it out as well! Barry got my head pulled out of EQ long enough to download the latest PW version and let me know about your planned editor. Lookin' forward to seeing it!
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Post by TankMeister on Apr 17, 2002 20:53:32 GMT -5
8) very cool indeed! 8) I still play this awesome game... I have all the 3.5" disks and a few MS-DOS editors too  I still enjoy the V4V battlesets (having my name put with the other Beta testers of Gold-Juno-Sword was and still is a pure joy!). -Ron 'bring 'em forth and Rally!' Belcher |
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Post by James M. Chambers on Apr 18, 2002 18:20:31 GMT -5
Well, the editor itself is pretty much finished. I now have to write the help system for the game so that users can get help on how to use the editor. The help system will be written to use the Windows Help engine like other Windows applications. Hopefully I will have everything done in a week or so.
James
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Post by ksbearski on Apr 28, 2002 23:39:12 GMT -5
James-
How's this coming?
Barry
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Post by James M. Chambers on Apr 29, 2002 19:37:43 GMT -5
Barry,
Pretty good. I had to change the editor a little bit. I am no longer going to write a help file using the Windows Help system. I don't have any good books on how to write a help file, and the documentation included with the Microsoft Help authoring tools (included with Visual Studio 6) is not that informative for someone who has no idea what to do. Instead, I am writing a User's Guide that will have the instructions on how to use the editor. The User's Guide will be a MS Word document and will be included with the editor. When I find some documents on how to write a help file, I will modify the editor to add in help (maybe for version 2.0). Anyway, I need to know if the User's Guide should be in Word 2000 format or Word 97 format.
James
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Post by ksbearski on Apr 29, 2002 22:24:39 GMT -5
James-
Either format is cool, I Have word 2000 at home and on my laptop. If nothing else, I can convert it using Staroffice 5.2, PCSuite601 or Openoffice.org productivity suites. I'm the total computer freak, in that I very rarely use help. Hell, it's kinda like being a shade tree mechanic, work on it 'til you figure it out. Actually, in the last year I have started to use the online help much more often and also actually read some manuals. I must be getting old and senile. It used to only take me one or two tries to figure something out.
Barry
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Post by Redbirdy on Apr 30, 2002 9:52:32 GMT -5
James,
Either format will work for me.
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Post by James M. Chambers on May 4, 2002 23:43:15 GMT -5
Well the editor and user's guide are finished and I am ready to have you guys test it out. The only problem is I don't think I can upload a file to this message board. I probably will have to email the editor to any one who wants to test it out. If any are interested, my email address is jmchambers@adelphia.net. Send me an email and I will reply with the editor as an attachment.
Both the editor and the user's guide are contained in a WinZip 8 zip archive. The archive is about 316 KB in size. The user's guide is in Word 2000 format.
James
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Post by ksbearski on May 4, 2002 23:51:54 GMT -5
James- Well done! my e-mail is b.budzowski@att.net. I look forward to tinkering with it. How's your new job panning out? No more work for the Blue Water Fellows? Barry  |
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Post by James M. Chambers on Jun 11, 2002 14:15:20 GMT -5
I probably should post that my email address has changed. The new address is chambersjm@adelphia.net.
I had to change my address because I was getting way too many spam messages, around 30 or more per day.
James
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