                 Ŀ
                   The MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000  
                    Automated Episode Guide v1.0w    
                        16 Bit Windows Version       
                 

                      Ŀ
                        What This Program Does  
                      

This is a full-featured Windows program that makes it easy to view info
on the popular Comedy Central TV show, Mystery Science Theater 3000.


                     Ŀ
                       How To Run This Program  
                     

There are two ways to run the MST3K A.E.G. in Windows 3.1 (Both of these
methods assume that you have already unarchived the .ZIP file into a
directory somewhere on your hard drive):

USING THE A.E.G. FROM THE WINDOWS FILE MANAGER:
-----------------------------------------------
Run the Windows 3.1 File Manager. Click on the hard drive icon of the
hard where the A.E.G. program executable currently resides. Click on
the folder/directory where the .EXE program is located. Find the small
icon that represents the .EXE and click on it.

USING THE A.E.G. FROM THE PROGRAM MANAGER RUN MENU:
---------------------------------------------------
Click on the FILE menu at the top of the screen in the Windows
Program Manager. A drop down menu will appear with several options.

Click on RUN (it should be the next-to-the-last item on this menu).

A dialogue box will appear on your screen with four buttons (OK,
Cancel, Browse & Help).

Use the BROWSE button to tell Windows where the A.E.G .EXE file is located
(You will get a BROWSE dialogue box where you can click on the various
directories and drives that you maintain on your computer - if you aren't
sure how to use this dialogue box, see the Windows documentation for more
information).

Once you have told Windows where to find the A.E.G. executable file, the
RUN dialogue box will have the path & filename in the COMMAND LINE text box.
Click the OK button. 

If you did everything correctly, the first window of the A.E.G. should appear
on your screen. For more info on the operation of this program, read the "How
To Use This Program" section which is elsewhere in this file.

USING THE A.E.G. FROM A PROGRAM MANAGER PROGRAM GROUP:
------------------------------------------------------
This is how to add the A.E.G. to an already existing Program Group on your
Windows desktop. If you'd rather put the new A.E.G. program icon in a seperate
program group, see the Windows documentation for details on creating a new
program group.

Click on the FILE menu at the top of the screen in the Windows Program
Manager. A drop down menu will appear with several options.

Click on NEW (it should be the first item on this menu).

A dialogue box named NEW PROGRAM OBJECT will appear on your screen with three
buttons (OK, Cancel & Help). The PROGRAM ITEM option is already selected.
Click the OK button.

A PROGRAM ITEM PROPERTIES dialogue box will appear on your screen with five
buttons (OK, Cancel, Browse, Change Icon & Help). It also has four empty text
boxes (Description, Command Line, Working Directory and Shortcut Key).

Use the BROWSE button to tell Windows where the A.E.G .EXE file is located
(You will get a BROWSE dialogue box where you can click on the various
directories and drives that you maintain on your computer - if you aren't
sure how to use this dialogue box, see the Windows documentation for more
information).

The A.E.G. program's drive path and filename should now be in the Command Line
text box. Two other options are available now, but they aren't required:

(1) You can type in a detailed description in the Description text box (if you
don't, Windows will use the whatever characters are on the left of the period
in the filename).

(2) You can also change the default icon of the program at this time (or any
other time in the future) by clicking on the Change Icon button. I've included
five icons linked into the executable of the A.E.G. program. If those aren't
to your liking, you can change them by using the Browse button on the Change
Icon dialogue box that is now on your screen.

Once you have the path & filename in the Command Line text box, hit the OK
button and the A.E.G icon should appear in the opened program group. If it
didn't, go back to the beginning of this section and make sure you've followed
all the steps correctly.

You may now click on the A.E.G.'s icon to start the program. See the "How
To Use This Program" section on how to use the program, once it's running.

USING THE A.E.G. FROM "MY COMPUTER" IN WINDOWS 95:
--------------------------------------------------
Open the "My Computer" folder and click on the icon of the hard drive where
the A.E.G. executable resides. Open the folder/directory that you have
stored the A.E.G. program(s). Click on the icon that represents the A.E.G.
.EXE file. (If you don't understand how to use folders, see the Windows 95
documentation for more information).

USING THE A.E.G. FROM THE EXPLORER IN WINDOWS 95:
-------------------------------------------------
Start the Explorer and click on the hard drive and then the folder/directory
where the A.E.G. executable currently resides. Click on the icon that
represents the A.E.G. .EXE. (If you don't understand how to use the Explorer
see the Windows 95 documentation for more information).

USING THE A.E.G. FROM A SHORTCUT UNDER WINDOWS 95:
--------------------------------------------------
Right click on the location you want a "shortcut" for this program to reside
(the desktop, or in a folder for example). A pop up menu will appear. Choose
NEW from the menu and move to the Create New Shortcut option from the sub-menu
that appears. A dialogue box will appear. Click the BROWSE button and specify
the location of the A.E.G. executable on your hard drive. Give the shortcut a
suitable name and the icon will change and be ready for use. Double click on
the icon to run. (If you don't understand how to create a shortcut, maneuver
the BROWSE/File dialogue box or any other operation under Windows 95, see the
Windows 95 documentation). For details on how to use the program after it's
running, keep reading...


                     Ŀ
                       How To Use This Program  
                     

When you first run the A.E.G., you will get a small window with a little
information about the program. There will be two buttons in this window (OK
and Cancel). If you click the Cancel button, the program will stop running
and you will be returned to where you were at before you started the program.
If you click the OK button, a larger window will appear on your screen. It
will have the title and version of the A.E.G. on the top border and four menu
titles directly underneath.

This window is the main viewing screen of the A.E.G. All episode & character
information from the program will be displayed within this window.

You choose options from the four menus on the menu bar in order to display
the various information contained in the A.E.G. The four menus are EXIT,
EPISODES, CHARACTERS and HELP. Each of these will contain at least one option
underneath (but probably more than one). Here's a rundown of each of the four
menu titles and the options that may appear beneath (I have paraphrased some
menu options because they may different depending on the specific A.E.G. that
you're running):

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Exit              Episodes        Characters      Help
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 | Clear Screen |  | Season 1 >|   | Name Here |   | Useless Help   |
 | Exit         |  | Season 2 >|   | Name Here |   | About Program  |
 +--------------+  | Season 3 >|   | Name Here |   | Shareware      |
                   | Season 4 >|   | Name Here |   | Disclaimer     |
                   +-----------+   +-----------+   | More Info      |
                                                   | Other SBI Prgs |
                                                   +----------------+

You will notice a couple of things (that I can't recreate here because this
is a plain ASCII text file). First, each menu option has *ONE* character
UNDERLINED. This is the KEYBOARD SHORTCUT for that given menu option (See
the section that follows about Keyboard Shortcuts). Second, the MENU OPTIONS
on the EPISODES drop down menu have little triangluar arrows pointing to the
RIGHT of each option (I used the > character to represent them on the above
diagram). These arrows mean that each option has ANOTHER sub-menu. You can
cascade these sub-menus by highlighting the menu option (it will automatically
pop up to the right of the drop down menu that you are currently using). You
can then move your mouse to the right in order to highlight the various
options on that sub-menu. Be sure to hold down the left mouse button until
you are on the sub-menu option that you want to choose! It takes a bit of
dexterity on the longer sub-menus. If that's too hard, read the section that
follows on Keyboard Shortcuts.

MENU OPTIONS:
To choose things off any of the four drop down menus, you simply move your
mouse down until the reversed/highlight is over the option that you want.

Here is a list of the "general" options that will appear on most of the
A.E.G. program drop down menus.

----------------
 Exit
----------------
| Clear Screen | <---   This option will clear the viewing screen.
| Exit         | <---   This option quits & exits the A.E.G.
+--------------+

-------------
 Episodes
-------------
| Season 1 >|    <---   These menu options will pop up a sub-menu to the
| Season 2 >|    <---   right of each option (notice the little arrow).
| Season 3 >|    <---   On the pop up sub-menu will be a list of the various
| Season 4 >|    <---   episodes of the TV show for that given season.
+-----------+

------------
 Characters
------------
| Name Here |    <---
| Name Here |    <---   These menu options will display information in the
| Name Here |    <---   view screen for the character listed.
| Name Here |    <---
+-----------+

-----------------
 Help
-----------------
| Useless Help  |<---   This will pop up a reminder on how to use the A.E.G.
| About Program |<---   Displays the title, version & programmer of the A.E.G.
| Shareware     |<---   A shareware reminder.
| Disclaimer    |<---   A disclaimer about the information in the A.E.G.
| Episode Info  |<---   Some further items on the episode information
| Other SBI Prgs|<---   A list of other Snake-Byte programs.
+---------------+

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:
Each option on each menu (and the four menu titles on the menu bar) have
*ONE* character UNDERLINED. This represents the keyboard shortcut for THAT
given menu option. Most people prefer to use their mouse pointer to click
on the option, but these keyboard shortcuts perform the same actions as
the mouse. The way to "activate" the keyboard shortcut is to press the
<ALT> key on your keyboard (it should be a small key on either side of
your <SPACE BAR>). When you press the <ALT> key, you will notice that the
first menu title on the menu bar is highlighted in reverse colors (the
colors vary, depending on the color scheme that you run on your computer).
This means that the option that is highlighted is now activated and can
be chosen by pressing your <ENTER> key. For example, if you hit <ALT> and
the EXIT menu title is highlighted on the menu bar, if you were to hit
<ENTER> the menu beneath the EXIT title will drop down. You can use your
cursor arrow keys to move the reversed/highlighted area back and forth on
the menu bar (or up and down within a drop down menu).


           Ŀ
             The Harsh Reality of Trickle Down Economics  
           

This program took a lot of hard work to produce (Several weeks of honing
the Windows code and a week of entering the data and debugging and proof
reading the output). This all resulted in over 13,000 lines of C/C++ code!)

And, unfortunately, nothing in life is free. But this nifty little
program almost is! That's right -- you can clear your conscience and
assure that there'll be future updates to this program (as well as
other neato-frito programs from Snake-Byte Inc.) for the ridiculously
reasonable, almost-FREE sum of $5.00. How can we afford to let this
rare jewel of a program go for the piddly little amount of $5.00?!?!

Because, here at Snake-Byte Inc., we deal in VOLUME! VOLUME!! VOLUME!!!
We'll eat a bug to make a sale! Come on down to our Midnight Madness
sale and...Wait a minute. Wrong sales pitch. Sorry. Anyway, you get the
picture. <Insert normal shareware begging/pleading/demanding here>.

What do you get for your $5.00? That warm-tummy feeling of satisfaction
knowing you did the RIGHT thing. This program is in no way "Crippled". I
detest "CrippleWare" and decided early on that I wouldn't do that kind
of thing. So, there's no "registered version". What you have now is the
fully-functional program. It contains one little shareware notice option
on the Help menu (that you don't even have to look at if you don't want
to) and it shows that "nag" screen ONLY when you exit the program, so
it doesn't inconvenience you before or during the program's execution.
(And if that gets your shorts in a bunch, send me a 3.5 disk plus return
postage and the registration fee and I'll compile you a special version
sans nags!).

Here's where to send the cash/check/money order:

                              Will Morgan
                              2516 Wood St.
                              Texarkana, Tx   75503


               Ŀ
                 The History of This Windows Program  
               

Version 0.999 -  Beta version. Honed the mechanics of the program.

Version 1.0w  -  First release version of this 16 bit Windows program.


                      Ŀ
                        Known Bugs & Problems  
                      

There are no known bugs or problems.


                    Ŀ
                      Swatting Any Pesky Insects  
                    

If you encounter any problems with this program (either bugs in the actual
mechanics of the program, or misspellings and/or incorrect info in the various
episode data fields) please drop me a line at one of e-mail addresses in the
last section of this document. I will try and implement the fix in the next
version of the program that I release.


                     Ŀ
                       Big Plans For The Future  
                     

I will update this program if/when new episdes/seasons are completed. If
the show no longer exists on television, the only updating I can do is to
correct any misspellings and other errata. If you spot something that is
wrong, email me and I'll include the correction in the next version.

I'll probably add some printing routines so you can print out a brief
episode list, eps by season, a particular episode by itself or a full
blown, everthing-included EpGuide.

I want to add some global search routines.

I'd really like to add some multi-media stuff to the program, like
sound clips or maybe some pictures but I'll have to hone my chops as
a programmer, first <G>

A 32 bit OS/2 version of this program has already been released. If you
use OS/2, look for MSTOS2##.ZIP at finer MST3K FTP sites (clover.cleaf.com,
for example).

A 32 bit DOS version of this program has also been released. Look for
MSTDOS##.ZIP at finer MST3K FTP sites (clover.cleaf.com, for example).

If I *ever* learn how to program for the OS/2 Presentation Manager, I
may release a PM version of the Automated EpGuide.

If/when I get a newer version of my compiler that supports Win95, I may
release a Windows 95 version of this program. I have tested both the 32
bit DOS version and this 16 bit Windows version under Windows 95 and they
both work great!

A WinNT version? Not likely, I don't have WinNT on my hard drive and have
no plans to put it there.

A MAC version? Even more doubtful, since I don't own a Mac & don't know
anyone who does.

A Unix version? Doubtful.

An Amiga version? Doubtful. I've had several Amiga users offer to port
the A.E.G.'s over to the Amiga, but since both the OS/2 & DOS versions
are pretty system-specific (read: heavily laced with non-portable non-ANSI
routines), I doubt if they could be ported.

A Pet, Vic20 C64, C128, Timex Sinclair, TI or CoCo version? Jeeeez!
It's the 90s, people!!! Isn't it about time you upgraded your computer?

Other A.E.G.'s? Yes, TV Buffs and Couch Potatoes! I plan on releasing a
series of A.E.G.'s for various TV shows based on this A.E.G. "engine".

Here are the shows that currently have A.E.G.'s available in both 32 bit
DOS & OS/2 versions:

TV Show Name                     DOS Filename    OS/2 Filename  Win Filename
============================================================================
Mystery Science Theater 3000     MSTDOS##.ZIP    MSTOS2##.ZIP   MSTWIN##.ZIP
The X-Files                      XFLDOS##.ZIP    XFLOS2##.ZIP   XFLWIN##.ZIP
Quantum Leap                     QLPDOS##.ZIP    QLPOS2##.ZIP   Coming Soon
Star Trek: The Next Generation   TNGDOS##.ZIP    TNGOS2##.ZIP   Coming Soon
Star Trek: The Original Series   TOSDOS##.ZIP    TOSOS2##.ZIP   Coming Soon
Star Trek: Deep Space 9          DS9DOS##.ZIP    DS9OS2##.ZIP   Coming Soon
The Simpsons                     SMPDOS##.ZIP    SMPOS2##.ZIP   Coming Soon
Babylon 5                        BA5DOS##.ZIP    BA5OS2##.ZIP   Coming Soon
=============================================================================
If you're interested in seeing an A.E.G. for your favorite show, contact me
via one of the methods described below. Production of other A.E.G.'s depend
on the availability of information about the show (via Internet) and whether
or not the show's info translates well to a single screen in the A.E.G.


      Ŀ
        Other Programs Available From Snake-Byte Incorporated  
      

32 Bit DOS & 32 Bit OS/2 versions of the DALLAS COWBOY FANATIC's Companion.
It's available from clover.cleaf.com /pub/mst3k/snake-byte/NON-MST3K with
the filenames CBYDOS##.ZIP (DOS) or CBYOS2##.ZIP (OS/2). A Windows version
will be released soon.


                       Ŀ
                         Gratitude Department  
                       

Extra special thanks to Frank Miller, my C programming guru. If it weren't
for Frank, I probably would've given up on C programming within the first
few days. He has helped me solve many of my seemingly endless beginner's
problems.

Thanks to Matthew Duhan who maintains the various MST3K FAQs & EpGuides.
I used a lot of the info on the earlier seasons from the EpGuide. Also
in the information department, I'd like to thank Stephen Manfred, Robert
Bukowski & Jeff Wisniewski for shedding further light on the fabled KTMA
era episodes. Luckily, I found their messages on r.a.t.m. in time to do
a bit of updating to the KTMA data structures before releasing the first
version of the A.E.G. Robert also gave me some information on four movies
that I couldn't find in any of my ancient Maltin guids. Chad Gould sent
me some info on those four movies, as well.

Super-Duper thanks with a ram chip on top to the Best Brains for producing
the funniest show on TV! Now, hire me to work on a MST3K CD!


               Ŀ
                Contacting the Author of This Program  
               

Want to thank me for such a fantastic program? Bitch me out for wasting
your download time & hard drive space? Suggest future additions to this
program, corrections on host segments & movie data or ideas for new MST3K
programs? Lonely & just need a cyber-shoulder to cry on? Well, for all
these reasons except that last one there, you can contact me at one of the
following email addresses:

               Fidonet   1:3819/128.103
               Internet  wmorgan@clover.cleaf.com
                         will.morgan@p103.f128.n3819.z1.fidonet.org

                   Ŀ
                     KEEP CIRCULATING THE TAPES!  
                   

