Screen Saver Wars by Mark Butler 
 
The first in a planned series of "Screen Savers Worth 
Looking At" 
 
This program has been released into the public domain and 
may not sold for profit. 
 
CONTENTS:
  SSWAR.SCR         the screen saver file
  README.TXT        This doc file
  ANIBUTON.VBX      animation control for Visual Basic
  THREED.VBX        3-d control for Visual Basic

Additional file required (not included)
  VBRUN300.DLL      standard Visual Basic DLL


ABOUT THIS PROGRAM:

Screen Saver Wars came about after I purchased the 
Terminator Screen Saver, at the time I was thinking how 
great the modules were and then I realized after I had 
looked at them for 10 minutes or so I was bored and moved on 
to the next module. I tried After Dark and got the same 
result, both companies have gone for the "lots of little 
modules" approach. What I wanted to do was create a screen 
saver with enough meat in it that you would still be 
interested in looking at it weeks later. The result is in 
your hands, I hope that it is successful. 
 
Screen Saver Wars is a screen saver that shows the epic 
battles between the Green Army and the Red Army. The battles 
take place all through history and fantasy as well as in 
exotic locations. The format is the same, each Army starts 
with one base. The bases generate a new army every X turns. 
There are several neural bases, these may be conquered and 
their production turned to creating new armies. The winner 
is the Army that captures all the bases. 
 
The program features 10 sets of graphics and a "Random" 
option. You do not see all the graphics each time from a 
set, so it is possible to go for days/weeks and then see a 
new graphic. The Armies uses different strategies and 
production philosophies to win, which is randomly generated 
each game. See if you can figure out what they are using! 
 
I have plans to create several more "Screen Savers Worth 
Looking At" in the Public Domain, the next one should be 
really great! Then I was thinking of turning back and 
creating Shareware versions of these programs. The Shareware 
versions would support 256 colors, sound, and additional 
features. We'll see if I ever get there. 
 
INSTALLATION: 
 
The Screen Saver Wars is a standard Windows screen saver. It is 
saved as a .SCR file. After you have PKUNZIP'ed the files ,copy the 
SSWAR.SCR file to the Windows directory, and the two .VBX files to
the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. 
 
Note: There are different versions of the .VBX files in existance,
      check the dates on the files and make sure you ae using the
      latest ones.

In Windows, start the Control Panel, then go into Desktop, then 
scroll down the list of screen savers, at the bottom should 
be "War!". If it is not there then the program was copied to 
the wrong directory. 
 
After selecting "War!" then push the "Setup" button. 
Although this is not needed (the program defaults are random 
graphics and medium speed), it will allow you to specify how 
you want it to run. There are two options: Graphics Set, 
this determines which set of graphics the program will use, 
at the bottom is a "random" option. The other is the Speed 
setting, this determines the delay between moves and how 
many explosion flashes during a battle. After the settings 
are selected a small SSWAR.INI file is created in the 
Windows directory to retain the information. 
 
REMINDER: Don't forget to turn off any other screen saver 
(like After Dark) or they will interfere with each other. 
 
DESIGNERS NOTES:

I tried putting sound into the program, but I never 
could come up with a combination of sounds that did not 
grate on your nerves sitting next to the monitor for an 
hour. So I took out the  sound stuff, perhaps next time...

DISCLAIMER:

Although I have tried the program out on several systems with
different configurations I cannot guarantee it will function
on your particular computer. Furthermore, although I have made
a significant effort to eliminate any problems with the
software I cannot be held responsible for anything it does to
your computer.

