Stunts Forum

Stunts - the Game => Stunts Related Programs => Topic started by: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 02:23:43 AM

Title: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 02:23:43 AM
Due to popular request in this forum I decided to publish the source code of my Stunts tools.

This archive contains the code for the latest versions:

TrackBlaster Pro 5.3
ScoreBlaster 7.2b
ScoreViewer 1.2
CarBlaster 3.2

Everyone may use, modify and redistribute the code and the graphics generated by the executables for any non-commercial use.
This code is provided as is, without any guarantee that it will perform in the desired way, and without any warranty against data loss or hardware destruction. ;)

To be honest, I think that any attempt to understand the logic may lead to severe despair. ::)
- Edit: Also for me, after almost 25 years.  ;D
So please try at your own risk, I will try to assist whenever my time permits.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Cas on June 02, 2021, 04:50:31 AM
Ah!  This is treasure!  Thank you so much for sharing it!  It's beautiful DOS-era code. I miss those times!
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on June 02, 2021, 08:17:36 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 02:23:43 AM
Due to popular request in this forum I decided to publish the source code of my Stunts tools.
I will try to assist whenever my time permits.

try to build with Turbo Pascal 7.01 - im 30 years older then the last time i've used turbo pascal :)

4 units missing

BGIDRIV.tpu
BGIFONT.tpu
pice.tpu
saygete.tpu

the BGI tpus are built by using the make file in C:\TP\EXAMPLES\BGI
(make info in C:\TP\EXAMPLES\BGI\BGILINK.PAS)

cd C:\TP\EXAMPLES\BGI
make -fBGIlink.mak


and then add the C:\TP\EXAMPLES\BGI folder to the unit-search path

but i can't find these two in the given source nor on the internet

pice.tpu
saygete.tpu

any idea?
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 09:55:23 AM
Well, as far as I remember the sayget*.tpu (with "e" suffix for english) is responsible for generating the dialog elements of the user interface, and the pic*.tpu could be somehow connected to graphics. They were included in the installation that I used for my study works, maybe as an optional package after installation. Unfortunately they are not on the hard drive where I found the source code, so I will take some time to dig them out from some other backup media. First I have to find this backup media in my collection of hard drives, DVDs, CDs and maybe also floppy discs. ::)

But have a look at this page: http://www.dcee.net/Files/Programm/Pascal/

At least you can find a sayget.arj file there, and the pic unit may be included in some other archive.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on June 02, 2021, 10:45:29 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 09:55:23 AM
At least you can find a sayget.arj file there, and the pic unit may be included in some other archive.

i've already tried that one but the unit does not export any function that you use in your code
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 02:43:52 PM
Ok, can you please give me an example of a function you are missing?
I could then search in my Turbo Pascal archive - as soon as I have found it.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on June 02, 2021, 03:25:01 PM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 02:43:52 PM
Ok, can you please give me an example of a function you are missing?
I could then search in my Turbo Pascal archive - as soon as I have found it.

these and more missing

[procedure] set_pickwindow_to(5 integer and a string parameter)
function pickfile(string parameter) string-result
[procedure] Set_Color_to(4 integer parameter)
[procedure] box(5 integer and a string parameter)
[procedure] Picture(string parameter)
[procedure] SayGet(some integer, some strings)

procedure/function is not 100% clear - could be all functions

search for
-ASCII (Pascal source code can't contain Unicode)
-case-insensitive (pascal does not differ between lower and upper case)
in *.pas and *.tpu (maybe your missing the source)

Tip: grepWin is a fast tool for searching
https://tools.stefankueng.com/grepWin.html
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 09:55:39 PM
I remember we had to add a package called "Topaz" to our Turbo Pascal installation, and there was something like "sayget4", but I also could not find any download so far.
Currently, I am away from home and cannot look into my backups. Will try to search again next week, unless you manage to find it until then.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on June 02, 2021, 11:06:46 PM
Topaz is a dbase database file access lib, i can hardly think of a need for that in your stunts tools, but maybe
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on June 03, 2021, 12:49:12 PM
Well, the tools didn't use db functions, but I think Topaz also provided some UI routines for text input/output.
Will have a look at it when I'm back home...
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: alanrotoi on June 05, 2021, 05:37:15 AM
Somebody should interview Mark Nailwood as Stunts pipsqueak legend and tool programmer. He's right here. Let's take the chance! :)
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on June 06, 2021, 10:20:43 PM
Of course, I take "pipsqueak legend" as a compliment! ;)

Well, it has been a very long time since I took part in contests, and when I tried to race on the default track some days ago (2 decades after my last official races), I saw that now even with replay handling I don't have any chance against current contestants without replay handling (according to the comments in the "Default" thread). ::)
But I am really planning to return to the contest race tracks - just for fun, and don't expect my times to be really challenging for you. ;)

At least it will be much easier for me to talk about my Stunts history than to return to my racing performance of the past - so feel free to ask. 8)
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: alanrotoi on June 07, 2021, 12:28:18 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 06, 2021, 10:20:43 PM
Of course, I take "pipsqueak legend" as a compliment! ;)

Oh! Haha The forum changes atomatically the word "r a c e r" to "pipsqueak". As far as I remember is a word used by an opponent in the game ;D
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Cas on June 07, 2021, 04:16:20 AM
It would be great to see you in Race For Kicks too, in case you'd like some OWOOT!
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on June 20, 2021, 08:43:43 PM
friendly reminder to find some turbo pascal units while polishing you backups :)
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on July 28, 2021, 10:28:23 AM
Sorry for the delay, I was distracted by some work in the world outside Stunts during the last weeks.

Well, I had a look into some of my current external and backup HDDs, but was not able to find anything. Not really surprising, as I didn't do any Turbo Pascal development since the last changes of my Stunts tools almost a quarter of a century ago. :-\
Guess I will have to dig into my storage of old HDDs. Let's hope they are still working. ::)

Just found the adapter to connect them to USB. This shall be the work for my next evenings. Will let you know if I found anything (or not).
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on July 29, 2021, 07:59:04 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on July 28, 2021, 10:28:23 AM
Just found the adapter to connect them to USB. This shall be the work for my next evenings. Will let you know if I found anything (or not).

The force is strong in you, young Mark Nailwood ;)
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on July 29, 2021, 05:34:47 PM
Unfortunately, I cannot find the power supply for the external HDD adapter.  :-[  I'm now at my weekend house, which is currently under renovation, so some items have just been packed away somewhere. But in a few days I'll visit my apartment, and there I'll have another power adapter. Then may the force be with my old hard drives (that they are still working), and let's hope that they contain the needed code packages.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Cas on July 30, 2021, 03:08:34 AM
That reminds me of when I suddenly realised that I had to backup my old diskettes before it was too late. It was a big box and it took me some time. Some of them were indeed broken already; others responded after several attempt and in some cases, I had to apply "fixes" to partially downloaded files. But in the end, I recovered most of the information I had there :)
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Daniel3D on July 30, 2021, 08:23:52 AM
I had such moment in 2003. I uploaded everything that was important to me at that time.

It was, nothing more than, a site rip of JTK his stunts site.
Because at that moment it was te only stunts source know to me and I didn't want to lose it.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Mark Nailwood on August 27, 2021, 04:25:52 PM
Sorry for the (again) very long delay. I tried all my old hard drives, but was not able to locate the needed packages on any of them. Apparently I never installed the development environment after having migrated from my 486 I used during my studies of computer science to my first Pentium. I could not even find any floppy discs with the packages.
Strange that it is not possible to find it in some internet archives.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Cas on August 27, 2021, 11:46:20 PM
:(  That's sad. Yeah, in those times, things were so great as regards software that we wouldn't think our stuff would be so valuable in the future. I lost the first set of little programs I made when I started programming. Nobody thought they'd be wanted one day at that time. Now I'd like to see what my first steps were.
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: llm on August 31, 2021, 09:48:31 PM
Very sad, maybe it not to hard to replace the missing stuff, will have a look whats missing in detail
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Duplode on February 08, 2023, 04:50:04 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 09:55:39 PMI remember we had to add a package called "Topaz" to our Turbo Pascal installation, and there was something like "sayget4", but I also could not find any download so far.

Looks like it is Topaz indeed, Mark! The Topaz 4 manual available from this page (http://www.softsci.com/support/topaz/dos.htm) mentions all the functions @llm listed earlier, with the right parameters even. I couldn't find any trace of the library itself either, though the company that developed it might still be in business. Maybe I should try dropping them a line...
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Daniel3D on February 08, 2023, 09:08:09 AM
Quote from: Duplode on February 08, 2023, 04:50:04 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 09:55:39 PMI remember we had to add a package called "Topaz" to our Turbo Pascal installation, and there was something like "sayget4", but I also could not find any download so far.

Looks like it is Topaz indeed, Mark! The Topaz 4 manual available from this page (http://www.softsci.com/support/topaz/dos.htm) mentions all the functions @llm listed earlier, with the right parameters even. I couldn't find any trace of the library itself either, though the company that developed it might still be in business. Maybe I should try dropping them a line...
I found a trace at the village computer lab.
Dropped them a message. Maybe the are willing to help.
Link to their inventory  (https://www.vclab.de/software-inventory/topaz-3-0/#)
Title: Re: Source code for Stunts tools by The NAILWOOD Company
Post by: Daniel3D on February 09, 2023, 04:29:42 PM
Quote from: Daniel3D on February 08, 2023, 09:08:09 AM
Quote from: Duplode on February 08, 2023, 04:50:04 AM
Quote from: Mark Nailwood on June 02, 2021, 09:55:39 PMI remember we had to add a package called "Topaz" to our Turbo Pascal installation, and there was something like "sayget4", but I also could not find any download so far.

Looks like it is Topaz indeed, Mark! The Topaz 4 manual available from this page (http://www.softsci.com/support/topaz/dos.htm) mentions all the functions @llm listed earlier, with the right parameters even. I couldn't find any trace of the library itself either, though the company that developed it might still be in business. Maybe I should try dropping them a line...
I found a trace at the village computer lab.
Dropped them a message. Maybe the are willing to help.
Link to their inventory  (https://www.vclab.de/software-inventory/topaz-3-0/#)
They can't due to copyright. But they have it . So we're half way there..