     For those who wish to play Tank Commander  over a network, there are
some additional considerations to keep in mind.  Network software for 
PCs traditionally requires a lot of the all-important conventional memory. 
However, it's possible to customize the "boot environment" that the 
network software uses.  When installing your network software, your machine's
AUTOEXEC.BAT file was probably modified to call a batch file called 
STARTNET.BAT.  Here's a typical STARTNET.BAT file in the \NWCLIENT directory 
that Novell's Personal Netware makes:

@ECHO OFF
SET NWLANGUAGE=ENGLISH
C:
CD C:\NWCLIENT
REM DPMS should be loaded before NWCACHE
DPMS
NWCACHE 7408 1024 /LEND=ON /DELAY=ON
LH SHARE /F:10240 /L:200
LH LSL
LH SMC8000
LH IPXODI
LH SERVER
VLM
LH STPIPX.COM
LH HRMIB.EXE
CD \
C:\NWCLIENT\NET LOGIN

     This file is fine for most office uses, but consumes far too much 
memory to run Tank Commander.  As a result, the following actions need to 
be taken:

     1)  First, MAKE a BACKUP of the STARTNET.BAT file!  This can be quickly 
done by going to the \NWCLIENT directory and typing 

        COPY STARTNET.BAT STARTNET.OLD

        In case something goes wrong while you're modifying STARTNET.BAT,
 you can restore it by typing 

        COPY STARTNET.OLD STARTNET.BAT

        
        At this point, you can begin modifying your STARTNET.BAT file to 
look like this:

@ECHO OFF
SET NWLANGUAGE=ENGLISH
C:
CD C:\NWCLIENT
rem ** DPMS should be loaded before NWCACHE
rem **DPMS
rem **LH SHARE /F:10240 /L:200

LH LSL
LH SMC8000
LH IPXODI

rem **LH SERVER
rem **LH STPIPX.COM
rem **LH HRMIB.EXE
CD \TANKGAME
rem **C:\NWCLIENT\NET LOGIN

     By typing "rem" in front of the lines containing utilities that Tank
 Commander won't need when running a network game, you'll save a LOT of 
memory.  ("rem" simply tells your computer to overlook any commands
on that line.  This can be used as a switch of sorts, allowing you
to enable and disable commands easily.)  This modification leaves
only the three necessary network drivers to run Tank Commander with,
and frees up as much memory as possible.

     Some people use other memory managers such as Quarterdeck's QEMM.  
In this case, it's likely that the STARTNET.BAT file looks like
this:  

@ECHO OFF
SET NWLANGUAGE=ENGLISH
C:
CD C:\NWCLIENT
REM DPMS should be loaded before NWCACHE
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 /RES=2112 /SQF DPMS
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 /LO NWCACHE 7408 1024 /LEND=ON /DELAY=ON
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 SHARE /F:10240 /L:200
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 /RES=5552 /SQF LSL
SMC8000
IPXODI
SERVER
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:0 /LO VLM
STPIPX.COM
HRMIB.EXE
CD \
rem C:\NWCLIENT\NET LOGIN

     A properly-modified STARTNET.BAT running Tank Commander under QEMM 
would look like this:

@ECHO OFF
SET NWLANGUAGE=ENGLISH
C:
CD C:\NWCLIENT
rem DPMS should be loaded before NWCACHE
rem C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 /RES=2112 /SQF DPMS
rem C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 /LO NWCACHE 7408 1024 /LEND=ON /DELAY=ON
rem C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 SHARE /F:10240 /L:200
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 /RES=5552 /SQF LSL
SMC8000
IPXODI
rem SERVER
rem C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:0 /LO VLM
rem STPIPX.COM
rem HRMIB.EXE
CD \TANKGAME
rem C:\NWCLIENT\NET LOGIN

     (These files have been proven to work and could easily be "cut and 
pasted" into your existing STARTNET.BAT files using most text
editors.)

     For those who aren't using Novell's IPX-protocol Netware line of 
software, the following tips should help when configuring their
network's boot environment:

        1)  If your network software has a "low memory usage" setting, 
enable it before running Tank Commander.

        2)  Disable any network "caching" features before running Tank 
Commander.

        3)  Disable the loading of any network utility with the exception
of any IPX drivers for the specific card you're using, LSL.COM (Link 
Support Layer software), the vendor-supplied driver for the specific
card you're using (such as SMC8000.COM), and the IPXODI.COM
software.  As you can see in the files above, our configuations only
needed the LSL, SMC8000 (the brand of card we used), and IPXODI
drivers to run Tank Commander on our systems.  If your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file has a PATH statement naming the directory of these necessary
network files you can simply call them straight from the
AUTOEXEC.BAT, instead of having a separate STARTNET.BAT.
