Front Page Sports:  Football Pro

This file contains additional information about the game that became 
available after the manual was printed.

Table of Contents
   I  Manual Installation Instructions
  II  MIDI-compatible Sound Cards
 III  FPSUPDAT Utility
  IV  Keeping a Play-by-Play Log
   V  Notes on Gameplay
         Quick time out method          
         The STOPCLOK play
         Situation numbers           
         Key ratings for Kickers
  VI  Notes on the Play, Game Plan & Coaching Profile Editors
        Naming conventions    
        The Specific play type
        Stock plans and profiles
        Directory limits
        Modifying stock profiles
 VII  Notes on League Play
        NFLPA92.LGE & NFLPA93.LGE  
        All-Pro selections
        Why are some players missing? 
        Interrupting Sim games
        How NFLPA ratings work     
        FastSims and saved games
VIII  Remote Leagues
  IX  Printers and Printer Support
   X  Troubleshooting - The FBCHECK Utility
  XI  SmartDrive & SCSI Drives with Double Buffering
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   I  Manual Installation Instructions
      
If you are experiencing problems with the Front Page Sports:  
Football Pro INSTALL program, the following instructions will allow 
you to manually copy the game to your hard disk drive.  

NOTE:  The following instructions should be used if prior 
installation attempts have not been successful.  Before using these 
instructions, try the following troubleshooting tips:  Create a 
Football Boot Disk first.  Start the INSTALL utility and choose the 
"Make bootable floppy disk" option.  After creating the Boot Disk, 
reboot your computer and run the Football Pro INSTALL program.  If 
the INSTALL program continues to fail, use these directions to 
manually copy the game to your computer's hard disk drive.

1) Check your hard disk drive to confirm that you have at least 12Mb 
(12288000 bytes) of disk space available 17Mb (17408000 bytes) or 
more if you are using a disk compression utility such as Stacker or 
DoubleSpace).  Run the "CHKDSK" utility to verify "bytes available 
on disk".
2) Create a DYNAMIX directory on your hard disk's root directory and 
a FBPRO subdirectory in that DYNAMIX directory.  To do this, follow 
the steps below:

MD DYNAMIX <ENTER>
CD DYNAMIX <ENTER>
MD FBPRO <ENTER>
CD FPPRO <ENTER>

3) Copy all the files from each disk into the \DYNAMIX\FBPRO 
subdirectory.  To do this, follow the steps below:

Insert Game Disk #1 into your A drive
Type: COPY A:*.* C:\DYNAMIX\FBPRO <ENTER>
Repeat the above steps for Game Disk #2, #3, and #4

NOTE: The above steps assume you are installing from your A: drive 
and installing to your C: drive.  Please substitute the appropriate 
drive letters and path if needed.

4) From the \DYNAMIX\FBPRO directory, type in the following 
commands:

MD TTM <ENTER>
MD STOCK <ENTER>
MD CUSTOM <ENTER>
MD BOOKS <ENTER>
MD LTAPES <ENTER>
MD XTAPES <ENTER>

5) Now type:

UNCHUNK RESOURCE.000 . <ENTER>  

NOTE:  Remember to include the space and a period between 000 and 
[ENTER].

6) Use UNCHUNK again on the remaining files by typing the following 
commands:

UNCHUNK RESOURCE.001 . <ENTER>
UNCHUNK RESOURCE.002 . <ENTER>
UNCHUNK RESOURCE.003 . <ENTER>

NOTE:  Remember to type the space and a period between the resource 
extension number and <ENTER>.

NOTE:  Be sure to UNCHUNK these resource files in numerical order.  
If you make a mistake, or if the UNCHUNKed files are in the wrong 
order, you will need to erase all of the files from the 
\DYNAMIX\FBPRO subdirectory and follow steps 2 through 5 again.  
Each command will take several minutes to complete.  Wait until the 
computer has completed each operation before typing the next line.

7) After all resource files have been UNCHUNKed, run the INSTALL 
program from the \DYNAMIX\FBPRO subdirectory by typing INSTALL 
<ENTER> at the FBPRO prompt.  Check to confirm that the sound and 
music settings are correct.  Choose "ACCEPT THESE CHOICES" from the 
options in the program.  Follow all other prompts as they appear.

8) Exit the INSTALL program and start the simulation.  If the game 
works correctly, delete all resource files (RESOURCE.000-003).  
Consult your DOS manual for information on how to accomplish this 
step if you need further assistance.

If you continue to experience any problems, or if you have any 
questions concerning any of the above steps, our technical support 
team will be more than happy to assist you.  See the Troubleshooting 
section of your manual for information on how to contact our 
technical support services.
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  II  MIDI-compatible Sound Cards

If you have a MIDI-compatible sound card, the INSTALL program will 
default to Roland support.  You must change this in order to get 
proper sound support for your card.
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 III  FPSUPDAT Utility

To use leagues and plays from the original Front Page Sports: 
Football with Football Pro, you must use the FPSUPDAT utility.    To 
do this, go to the directory to which you have installed Football 
Pro, and type:
 FPSUPDAT [Drive:][path]
If no drive or path is specified, all leagues and plays in the 
Football Pro directory will be updated.

If a drive is specified, but no path, all leagues and plays on the 
specified drive will be updated.  NOTE:  You must have a colon (:) 
after the drive letter.

If a path is specified, all leagues and plays in the specified 
directory AND its subdirectories will be updated.  We recommend that 
you update your game plans with the new 64 play format after you 
have updated your plays by going into the Game Plan Editor and 
building a new game plan from your updated plays.
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  IV  Keeping a Play-by-Play Log

An additional command line option has been added since the manual 
was printed.  Starting the program with HIKE -L will save a log of 
all the play-by-play information from the most recent game you play 
or sim.  This is simply the "before" and "after" text shown in the 
replays with the box scores inserted at half time and at the end of 
the game.  This log is in a text file called PLAY.LOG which you can 
view with any ASCII text editor.  The program will create this log 
when playing an Exhibition game, or when playing or simulating a 
League game (although not when Fast Siming a League game.).  In a 
full 15 minute quarter game, this file may grow to up to 80K or more 
so be sure you have enough hard disk room before you use this 
option.

If you save a game in progress, then resume the game later the log 
will be continued, IF you again start the program with the -L 
option.

This log file can contain only one game at a time.  Each time you 
start a new game, the log is overwritten.  To save multiple logs, 
simply rename the PLAY.LOG file to another name before you start 
your next game with the -L option.
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   V  Notes on Gameplay

You may also call a time out on the playcalling screen by pressing 
and holding button B then pressing button A.  This is a quick way to 
call a time out instead of clicking on the TIME OUT button.

The Coaching Profile situation number is listed both in the play-by-
play text that follows each play, and by the team name on the 
scoreboard of the playcalling screen.  This allows you to follow 
along on a print out of your profile, for example, to see how your 
coaching skills are working.

The STOPCLOK play has been added to each group of special teams 
plays to make it easier to find.

In addition to Strength (ST), Discipline (DI) is a very important 
rating for Kickers and Punters.  It affects their accuracy.
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  VI  Notes on the Play, Game Plan, and Coaching Profile Editors

Over 1,000 (one thousand!) stock plays are included in Football Pro.  
In general, the names of the plays give you clues to what kind of 
play it is as follows:

Some plays have names that use the following convention:
FxxyyTTT:  
F indicates that the formation has been "flipped";
xx is a two-letter code for the starting formation.  (See the 
formation list below.);
yy is the formation that the play shifts into.  Not all plays shift 
into a new formation.  If an F appears in front a play that shifts 
like this, BOTH formations are flipped;
TTT is a two or three letter code to indicate the play type.  For 
example, a Pass Short Right play would appear as PSR while a Run 
Middle would be RM.

Example:  FIF3WPSM is a Pass Short Middle play that starts in a 
flipped I-formation and shifts to a flipped triple wing.

Other plays use this convention:
FxxxxTTT#S:  F indicates the formation has been flipped;   xxxx is a 
code of up to four letters to indicate the formation.  If there is a 
shift, this is the formation the play shifts to;  TTT is the same as 
above;  # is the number of the play.  There may be as many as five 
or six plays of the same formation and type;  S indicates a shift.

Example:  FPSPLL2S is the second Pass Long Left play that shifts 
into a flipped pro-set formation.

Formation codes:
     IF   I-formation               ST   Standup
     IS   I-slot                    OP, OPP
     NE   Near                      Opposite
     SG   Shotgun                   NB   Near blue
     PS   Pro-set                   3W   Triple wing
     SP   Spread                    DW   Double wing
     3WRI 3 WR, I-formation         

There are six types of stock Game Plans and Coaching Profiles.  The 
first three characters of a Plan or Profile name indicate offense 
(OFF) or defense (DEF).  The next two letters tell the type of Plan 
or Profile:

PA  Pass Aggressive       RA  Run Aggressive
PB  Pass Balanced         RB  Run Balanced
PC  Pass Conservative     RC  Run Conservative

The last character is a number.  For Game Plans, the number simply 
indicates which Plan it is - there are six plans of each type, 
numbered 1 to 6.  For example, the OFFRC5 is the Offensive Run 
Conservative #5 Plan.  For Profiles, it indicates for which half the 
Profile was designed.  For example:  the Profile OFFPA2 is an 
offensive Pass Aggressive Profile for the second half.  There is one 
Profile of each type for each half.

If you are looking at the STOCK directory from DOS, .PLN files are 
Plans and .PRF files are Profiles.

Should you decide that you do not like one of the stock Profiles 
(which are used by the computer teams), you may change it by 
creating a new one, then copying that new Profile to the STOCK 
directory and renaming it with the name of the Profile you wish to 
replace.  You should preserve the original stock profile to 
something like OFFPA1.OLD, then name your replacement profile 
OFFPA1.PRF.  Your replacement MUST use the same name, and MUST be in 
the STOCK directory or the game may not work properly.

When saving plays, the play type is determined by the radio button 
on the Save Play dialog box.  The play type determines how the play 
will be used by the Coaching Profile during a game.  Sometimes you 
may want to include a play in a Game Plan that you only want the 
profile to use in a very specific situation.  In this case, save the 
play using the Specific play type (which is not available to the 
Coaching Profile), then add the play to situations in which it 
should be used.

For example:  You design a play in which two receivers run routes 
right down the sidelines, and go out of bounds when they catch the 
ball.  You only want to use this play in a "hurry-up" offense type 
of situation, but NOT during "regular" time:  down by 4-7 points 
late in the half.  If you saved the play as a regular Pass type, it 
might be called at any point in the game.  Save it as a Specific 
play, then create a Profile that calls this play when you want to 
use it, such as only in the last 2 minutes on 3rd downs and 2-5 
yards to go when behind by 4-7.  

Directories in Football Pro can only display up to 512 files.  Any 
additional files in a directory will not be visible in any Load 
dialog box, although the files will still be there.  If are going to 
create more than 512 plays in the Play Editor you may wish to create 
subdirectories for the plays and spread your plays out there, such 
as \PASSLONG or \RUNLEFT, etc..
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 VII  Notes on League Play

We have included two single-season leagues with players who are 
members of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA).These leagues are 
NFLPA92 and NFLPA93.  These are single season leagues only, which 
means that once you have played through a full season with either of 
these leagues, the personnel on the teams may have changed as the 
teams made trades and signed free agents during the season.  

You may restore these leagues to their original default status by 
copying all the league files from Disk #1, which contains them in an 
uncompressed format.  For example, after playing through the entire 
season of the NFLPA93 league, you want to try it again.  First, 
delete the NFLPA93.* files from your Football Pro directory on your 
hard drive.  Then to copy the 1993 league to your hard drive, change 
to your Football Pro directory, insert Disk #1 in drive A:  and type 
COPY A:NLFPA93.*  [Enter]

You may also create a Career league, of course, and choose to fill 
it with the teams from one of the NFLPA leagues.  

If you compare the rosters of teams in the NFLPA93 league with those 
of teams in your favorite real-world professional league, you may 
notice some of the names of players have been changed in Football 
Pro., or that others are missing.  This is because some players are 
not available to license through the NFLPA and have their own 
special arrangements with the league.  Other players, such as 
unsigned rookie draftees are also not covered by the licensing 
agreement.  Our agreement does not permit us to use the names of 
players who are not NFLPA members.  Feel free to edit the names of 
any players.you wish.

Football Pro was sent into production shortly before the final 
rosters for the teams was set, so there may be slight variations in 
the real world league and Pro.  For the most parts, the rosters are 
as accurate as we could keep track of during the busy summer of free 
agency and trading.

How the NFLPA Ratings work in Football Pro:
We have assigned the players a subjective rating in each of the 8 
skill ratings.  We determined these ratings to approximate the 
performance of the real players with the way they should 
realistically act in Football Pro.  You could, for example, make the 
fastest man in the NFL a 99 on his SP rating, but it wouldn't be 
very realistic in Football Pro.  He might actually be rated around a 
91 or 92, which works best for the simulation.  You can, of course, 
edit him to be a 99 to see what happens...that is half the fun of 
the game!

Some ratings are relative, and some are absolute.  In general, you 
should use the ratings to compare players at the same position.  For 
example, a QB with an ST rating of 84 is not necessarily stronger 
than a DL rating of a 65.  QB's use their ST rating for passing, 
while DL's use their's for rushing and tackling. 

The ratings we assigned will approximate the players' performances 
during the 1992 year.  So, you will see Sterling Sharpe, Andre 
Rison, etc. as having some of the best HA and SP ratings in the 
league, Steve Young and Dan Marino as the best ST, IN, and DI, etc.

Keep in mind that Football is a team sport, though, and just because 
a QB has some of the best individual ratings, he may not be the 
league leader in many categories if his offensive linemen don't 
block well.  Also, since Football Pro gives you tremendous range in 
the coaching profile and game plans you call, you may not, of 
course, acheive exactly the same results as the players acheived in 
real life.  For example, some players who excel in the run and shoot 
offense may not get the same results in run-oriented offense.

As the coach, that is up to you to do!  Try to match the plays and 
profiles of your favorite team and coach, and see what kind of 
results you get with the players.  You can also try scenarios like 
"how many sacks would a team with Pat Swilling, Sam Mills, Junior 
Seau and Cortez Kennedy get..." or "Could Troy Aikman lead another 
team to the championship?  One without Emmitt Smith on it 
perhaps...?".

And, of course, you may edit the player ratings.  So if you don't 
agree with what is there, adjust them however you wish.  Ratings are 
the key to how the players perform, so experiment with them and see 
what results you get.

All-Pro Game
The All-Pro Game may be played at any time during the season (or 
even several times during the season).  It is an Exhibition game, 
which means that stats generated during an All-Pro game do not get 
added to the player's totals, and injuries in the game are not 
recorded.

The program selects players for each team in an All-Pro game on the 
basis of ratings and performance as reflected in the League Leaders 
list.  You may print the rosters out before the game.

If you are playing in a league with normal sims (as opposed to fast 
sims), you may quit (and save) a simulation in progress with the 
<ESC> key, just as if you were playing the game.

FastSims and saved games 
In fast sim leagues only, if you play part of a game, save it, then 
choose to simulate the rest of it the game will be restarted and 
fast-simmed as if the game had never been started.  After that game 
is resolved, you will need to go to the league schedule and press 
simulate to do the remaining games for that week.

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VIII  Remote Leagues

Remote leagues are very popular on some of the online information 
services, such as Prodigy, America OnLine, CompuServe, and GEnie.  
In a remote league, one user is the Commissioner, and other users 
play their games on their own machines all across the country.  We 
have added two command line options for use in remote leagues.  If 
you are the Commissioner, start the program with the command HIKE -
XC.  

This adds a button labelled "Commissioner" to the League Schedule 
screen.  Pressing this button generates a file called GAMExxyy.IN 
for each game in the current week's schedule.  "xx" is a two-digit 
number for the current week.  (For example, the first week would be 
01.)  "yy" is a two-digit number for the game.  The top game listed 
on the League Schedule screen is 01.  The last game listed (in a 18-
team league, for example, with nine games each week is 09.  A 
GAMExxyy.IN file should be sent to one of the users in each game.  
(In our office league, we send it to the user who is the HOME team.)  

For example, if Philadelphia is visiting Green Bay in week number 2, 
send the GAME0207.IN file to the owner of Green Bay.  Send the other 
owner's their corresponding GAMExxyy.IN files, depending on who will 
actually play the game on their machine.  The remote user should 
copy that file to the directory to which Football Pro has been 
installed, then start the program with the HIKE -XP command.  After 
the game has been completed, the program will create a GAMExxyy.OUT 
file, which should be sent back to the Commissioner.

With the powerful Coaching Profile Editor, the Game Plan Editor, and 
the Play Editor, the visiting team can send a very good 
representation to the user hosting the game.  

When the Commissioner receives the GAMExxyy.OUT file, he must copy 
it into his Football Pro directory, then he can integrate it into 
the league data files with the command  UPSTATS -XC.

A few notes about running remote leagues:

We recommend that each remote user create a new league and modify 
one team in it for use in the remote league.  (You may also use a 
team from any existing league.)  When you have finished, send the 
league files to the Commissioner.  To copy the league files for a 
league named  MYLEAGUE to a floppy disk, go to the directory where 
the files are located and type:  COPY MYLEAGUE.* A:  

When the Commissioner receives all of the leagues from the remote 
users, he should create the remote league by selecting the 
appropriate teams from each of these leagues.  When the remote 
league is created, he should send these league files out to all 
remote users.

All remote users must keep the league files in the same directory on 
their hard drive as the Commissioner has it on his machine.  For 
example, if the Commissioner saves MYLEAGUE to a directory called 
\REMOTELG, all remote users must copy the files to \REMOTELG on 
their machines.

The Commissioner should keep the ownership for all teams owned by 
remote users as Human, with Computer Manager turned off.  The 
Commissioner will be entering all roster moves submitted by remote 
users.

If you are playing a game as a remote user, and your opponent 
(another remote user), sends you a Profile, Game Plan, or plays for 
his team to use in the game, these data files must be installed to 
the same directory on your hard drive as they are on his, or the 
program may not be able to find them.

You are playing a game, and quit (and save) in progress.  When you 
start the program to resume playing the game, you must use the 
command line option -XP to generate the GAMExxyy.OUT file.

When you (as the Commissioner) are using UPSTATS -XC to update the 
league, you must have a GAMExxyy.IN file for each GAMExxyy.OUT file 
you are using.

For help with this option, log on to your favorite BBS service and 
find a league to join.  Many of our beta testers are "locals" on the 
large networks and can direct you to a league to join, as well as 
giving you helpful hints about the game.

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  IX  Printers and Printer Support
When printing graphics characters in the Play Editor (when printing 
out your plays, for example), specific graphic drivers must be used 
by the computer.  Since almost every brand of printer uses its own 
driver, it is not possible for us to support all the different 
printers.  We have tested on several different models of printers 
and some have worked, while others have not.  

All the Epson and HP Laserjet printers we tried function correctly, 
as well as a variety of other 9-pin and 24-pin dot matrix printers.  
We did not test on Postscript printers, and had reports from beta 
testers that some ink jet printers had difficulty.  

Even if you can't get graphics printing, though, you should still be 
able to print out most of the statistics and menu screens, either 
directly to your printer, or to the "print.out" file using the "-f" 
option, since these are still just ASCII text files.


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   X  Troubleshooting:  The FBCHECK Utility
When you install Football Pro, a utility called FBCHECK is also put 
in the directory you installed to.  If you suspect the game did not 
install completely, or you may have some missing files, go the 
directory you installed to and type "FBCHECK".  If you get a message 
that says some files are missing or the wrong size, try to re-
install the game and then run FBCHECK again.  If you are still 
having problems, please see the manual for other troubleshooting 
tips, or contact Customer Support for help.

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  XI  SmartDrive, and SCSI Drives with Double Buffering
Some incompatibility problems may occur when using some versions of 
SmartDrive with SCSI Drives and double buffering.  This may be the 
problem if you are seeing graphic "garbage" on the screen and the 
program is running very slowly.  We recommend that you create a boot 
disk which does not use SmartDrive.  (See pages 83-86 of the manual 
for instructions on making boot disks.)

There are numerous versions of SmartDrive and other disk caching 
software available.  You may experience some loading problems with 
certain earlier versions of SmartDrive.  If you experience problems 
related to loading and saving, or extremely slow disk access during 
gameplay, try a later version of SmartDrive.
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