Handy Tips For Playing the APBA DOS Game
First off, let me provide the best tip first:
DO NOT RUN ANY OF THE DOSBALL APBA PROGRAMS AT THE SAME TIME.
In other words, when you finish picking your lineups with Draft,
close the program.
When you finish using the Game program, close it, preferably by
hitting the "Exit" command from the game menu.
I encourage everyone to use the Zipper program, but ONLY use it
when all the other programs are closed. I built in some important safeguards in
the zipper program, not the least of which is that it will make a backup of
your pfile folder in case anything should ever go wrong. But it can only work
its magic when the Game, Draft and Statmaster programs are CLOSED AND NOT
RUNNING.
Here is the preferred order of doing things when you are hosting a
series:
1. Double-click "Connect." Tell your opponent the
Partner ID and password so he can connect to your machine.
2. Once he is connected and can see your screen, run Draft. Pick
your lineups, and close the program. Give the Draft program a few seconds to
shut down completely before going to step 3.
3. Open the Game program and play your series. I would select
"Single Game" from the main menu and not "Series." After
each game, make sure to hit "U" for update on the end-game screen.
4. Once your series is finished and you are SURE that you have hit
"U" for update after the last game, hit "E" for exit from
the main menu. Give the Game program a few seconds to shut down completely before
going to step 5.
5. Double-click the Zipper program. You'll see a message appear
that your DOSBall pfile has been successfully zipped. Click "ok." You
will then see a .zip file called "Email_Me.zip" in the same folder
where you double-clicked the Zipper program.
6. Send the Email_Me.zip file to me. You DO NOT have to rename it.
When you send the file to me via email, please include the names of the two
teams who played the series and which one was the home team, i.e., the subject
field at the top of the email should look like this:
BHB @ MID
Typically, missing games happen because a manager has the Draft program or Statmaster open at the same time as the game.
Often, this happens when the draft program is opened quickly after closing the game because one of the managers has forgotten to put a particular player on his roster. Managers will often rush during that scenario. The manager makes the mistake of trying to close the game, open draft, close draft, and re-open the game as quickly as his fingers and his mouse will move - and that is a big mistake. If any of the programs are open for even a split second or two while the other program is running, you will corrupt the game data.
DON'T RUSH BETWEEN OPENING AND CLOSING DRAFT AND THE GAME. It's not a race, and it is better to wait literally two seconds between closing the programs than to have to hunt for missing games.
It's always a good idea to do a "one-1,000, two-1,000, three-1,000" count after closing any of the DOS programs and opening the next one.
GETTING AROUND IN THE
APBA DOS GAME
A DOS program is a different animal in today’s computer landscape. In order to make the APBA DOS game work, we run the program in an “emulator.” An emulator is basically software that enables a program written for another computer architecture to run on your machine.
In layman’s terms, it means the APBA game thinks it is running on floppy disk in 1985, when in fact it is running on your hard drive in 2013.
This works well, but it does require you to change your thinking a bit. The DOS window you see on your screen is not like a typical program window.
This guide will give you some handy tips for handling the eccentricities of running APBA DOS programs.
1.
CTRL-F10 is your best friend. Once your
mouse clicks inside a DOS window, either in Draft, Game, Statmaster, or the
Card Viewer, the emulation software “locks” you inside. It’s kind of like being
trapped in a time warp: you can’t escape from the window, because you’ve been
transported back to 1985. This can be frustrating if you are in the middle of a
game and you want to, say, write a text message on your desktop to your
opponent. The solution? Hit the
“CTRL” key and the “F10” key simultaneously. Your mouse will be free again and you can leave the DOS window. To
return to DOS, just put your mouse inside the window and click.
2.
Use your keyboard to get around. This
is particularly necessary when you connect to someone else’s computer, as
remote control software such as TeamViewer and Logmein does not do a good job
with mouse control in a DOS window. So your solution is to navigate using the
TAB, arrow, and function keys on your keyboard. For instance, in Draft, use the
TAB key to move between the various player windows, and once you reach the
window you want to be in, scroll through the players with the up and down arrow
keys on your keyboard. If you are not connected remotely (i.e., you are the
host,) you probably can use your mouse just fine.
3.
Window size too small? Ask the
commissioner. One unfortunate limitation in using a DOS emulator is that
the program window cannot be expanded in the typical manner, i.e., by grabbing
the corner of the window and stretching it across your screen. It’s locked. I
set up the game we use to run in a window size (800x600) that I think will be
fairly comfortable for everyone, but if your computer runs at a very high
resolution, you may find the program window is too small. If you want something
bigger, let me know and I’ll send you different .exe files that will run the
programs at higher resolutions (larger windows and larger letters, so it will
be easier to see.)
4.
Where’s my pfile? The pfile, or stat
file that contains the results of your most recent league series, is the life
blood of the league. It is what every host manager must send to the
commissioner after a series is played. You can find it in the folder marked
“pfile” in the program folder. Be careful with it. If you think you
accidentally deleted it or lost it before you’ve sent it to the commissioner, don’t
mess around. Call the commish and he’ll log on to your machine and hopefully
recover it. Don’t try and recover the
file yourself.