Spitfire 3.7

At a glance

Package

Spitfire 3.7, Mike Woltz, Buffalo Creek Software

Lines

Six on a fresh install, up to 255. Line 1 runs from SF and each other line from its own SF\NODE<n>, as Spitfire's manual asks. Proven: six.

Starting account

System Operator

Callers page you with

P at the main menu

Console keys

Answer, Break in and Leave: Alt and C (the package's chat key)

The board

What ATA set up. The package's own first boot (it creates its data files and interviews the SysOp), harvested so your install never sees it; the seed operator raised to level 100; the file area pointed at SF\FILES\ (its own first boot points both paths at the board directory); the two menu commands that shell out of Spitfire (the Door Section with no door menu, and the LAKOTA mail door, which needs archivers ATA does not carry) raised out of callers' reach at level 999; each line's directory and node record; and the machine's clock.

Spitfire will not run on a clock past 2024. It checks the date at start and refuses anything outside its own window. ATA moves the machine's clock back by whole 52-week steps, which keeps the weekday and the time of day exact, so on Spitfire the board's calendar reads about two years earlier and a couple of days off. Callers see that date on the board's screens.

The DOS page. "Spitfire, ready prompt" is the board's own waiting screen: ALT+S logs you on locally, ALT+Q is the quick local logon, F10 quits. ALT+M, ALT+Z, ALT+T, ALT+P, ALT+F and ALT+R take the modem off hook: never open them during a call. "Local logon only" boots without the modem at all. SFNODE, SFSYSTEM, SFUSERS, SFFILESA, SFDOOR, SFMNUEXT, SFPCKUSR, SFPCKMSG and SFTOPTEN are Spitfire's own utilities, one button each.

Making it your own. The screens callers see are the .BBS, .CLR and .RIP files in SF\DISPLAY, the menus are the .MNU files in SF, and the board's own settings live in SFSYSTEM.DAT (the SFSYSTEM button, or ALT+S then the Sysop menu). On more than one line, each SF\NODE<n> keeps its own copy of the menus and the node settings: change them there too.

Callers. ANSI is asked before the name; the name prompt takes a whole name. Spitfire capitalises passwords like names. Masked fields show a row of # for each digit. A caller back from a door is asked their password again (Spitfire's own rule). New members start at level 10.

Paging. Spitfire's page toggle (F3) starts off in every run of the program; ATA presses it once a call. With it off a caller reads the SFPAGED screen instead of ringing you.

Legend of the Red Dragon on Spitfire 3.7

The steps every board shares (getting LORD, LORDCFG, the wrapper batch) are in the door guide. This is what is particular to this board.

Drop file: DOOR.SYS, in each line's own system folder: D:\SF\ for line 1, D:\SF\NODE2\ for line 2, and so on. LORDCFG: (9) DOORSYS, path d:\sf\ for node 1, d:\sf\node2\ for node 2, and so on.

Batch: D:\SF\LORD.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
D:
CD \DOORS\LORD
CALL START.BAT %NODE%
CD \SF

The door menu. Spitfire's doors are lines in SFDOOR.MNU: a name, a comma, and a security test, door A first. Make it with the SFDOOR button on the DOS page, or as a text file:

Legend of the Red Dragon,SEC>=10

The Door Section. As installed, the main menu's Door Section (D) is raised to level 999, out of every caller's reach, because a door section with no doors would end the call. In SF\SFMAIN.MNU, the line for the Door Section ends with the security level and the identifier D:

D,<D>............. Door Section,,999,D

Lower the 999 to 10 (or your members' level).

Spitfire runs a door by exiting. It writes the drop file and quits with errorlevel 34 for door A (35 for door B, and so on), and the batch that started it runs the door and starts Spitfire again, which picks the caller back up. Line 1 starts from D:\SF\ATACALL.BAT. In it, replace the single line SPITFIRE %1 with:

:LOOP
SPITFIRE %1
IF ERRORLEVEL 35 GOTO END
IF ERRORLEVEL 34 GOTO DOOR_A
GOTO END
:DOOR_A
CALL D:\SF\LORD.BAT
D:
CD \SF
GOTO LOOP
:END

More than one line. Every line past the first runs from its own D:\SF\NODE<n> folder with its own copy of the menus and its own ATACALL.BAT. For each line: copy your SFDOOR.MNU and the changed SFMAIN.MNU into D:\SF\NODE<n>, and in that folder's ATACALL.BAT make the same change, with CD \SF\NODE<n> in place of CD \SF after the door.

How callers get there. D at the main menu for the Door Section, then the door. Spitfire asks a caller back from a door for their password again; that is Spitfire's own rule, and ATA checks it like a logon.