                 Ŀ
                   The Mystery Science Theater 3000  
                     Automated Episode Guide v1.2    
                     32 bit Extended DOS Version     
                 

                      Ŀ
                        What This Program Does  
                      

This is a full-featured DOS Text mode program that makes it easy to view info
on the popular syndicated TV show, Mystery Science Theater 3000.


                     Ŀ
                       How To Run This Program  
                     

From the DOS command line type the name of the .EXE executable. After a
brief intro screen, you will see a menu with various program options listed.


                     Ŀ
                       How To Use This Program  
                     

Use the cursor keys to move up and down the menu. Hit <ENTER> when you
are on the option you wish to choose. Some menus choices will bring up
another menu. The same rules apply to them, as well.

When you are on a screen of information, hit any key to go back to the
menu you were on when you chose that menu option.


           Ŀ
             The Harsh Reality of Trickle Down Economics  
           

This program took a lot of hard work to produce. Weeks of honing the
C/C++ code, typing in the data and proof-reading the screen output.
This all resulted in THOUSANDS of 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
            A Note To Fans Of This TV Show Outside The U.S.A.  
                    Who Want To Register This A.E.G.           
          

Because this TV Show is also popular overseas, a perplexing question 
came up recently from a person in the United Kingdom: How do I get the 
proper currency to register the A.E.G.? Well, John McCoy came up with a 
solution to this problem. His email message follows:

Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 21:31:21
Subject: Re: Yeah, I finally did it....
From: "John A. McCoy" <jamccoy@maurabrid.win-uk.net>

All I did was take my VISA card to a Bureau d'Echanges (currency exchange)
and say:

"I would like to buy <amount> US, American Dollars, please." It took a while
for the clerk to follow my intent, but I eventually got <currency amount> in
odd-looking money. I slipped both into an airmail envelope and added stamps,
and an address. Hopefully the correct address.

You don't need a card to buy currency, any Bx will take any currency and sell
you any other, and that day's rate for swapping is marked prominently.

The rate you buy dollars with sterling pounds is LESS than the rate you buy
pounds with dollars. And they charge a commision, but these rules and extras
are also made prominent. Have to be, by law.

John A. McCoy
email: jamccoy@maurabrid.win-uk.net


               Ŀ
                 The History of This DOS Text Program  
               

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

Version 1.0   -  First release version of this 32 bit DOS program.

Version 1.1   -  New feature: If the user specifies a MST3K episode number 
                 on the command line at run-time, the A.E.G. will go directly 
                 to that episode, and then exit back to M$/DOS. This is handy
                 for when you just want to quickly check on a certain episode.

                 Valid episode codes for this feature follow...
                 KTMA Era:     K01 - K22           Season One:    101 - 113
                 Season Two:   201 - 213           Season Three:  301 - 324
                 Season Four:  401 - 424           Season Five:   501 - 524
                 Season Six:   601 - 624           Season Seven:  700 - 706

Version 1.2   -  New feature: From the main menu, you can now choose a
                 Character Information option. All major MST3K characters
                 are featured in this section.

                 I've added a few "Easter eggs" to the program. See if you
                 can find any!

Version 1.3   -  This update features complete episode data through
                 the seventh season of MST3K! I also included info on
                 the syndicated MST Hour show!


                      Ŀ
                        Known Bugs & Problems  
                      

If you don't have ANSI enabled under DOS, the episode information is
displayed on the screen in white text, instead of the "light green" text
that I programmed. This has absolutely no ill effect (unless you're color
blind to white or green. Fix for the former, load ANSI.SYS. Fix for the
latter, unload ANSI.SYS <G>)


                    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.

The future of the DOS & OS/2 Text Mode A.E.G. programs are in doubt.
Keeping up with all the Windows & OS/2 P.M. versions is a full-time job,
so I will probably phase the DOS & OS/2 Text Mode versions out, eventually.

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 32 Bit OS/2
PM versions as well as 16 & 32 bit Windows versions.

(check at ftp.slinknet.com /pub/mst3k/snake):

TV Show Name      DOS Filename    OS/2 Text      OS/2 PM    Win Filename
========================================================================
Mystery Science   MSTDOS##.ZIP  MSTOS2##.ZIP  MST_PM##.ZIP  MSTWIN##.ZIP
Theater 3000                                  Win32/Win95-->MSTW32##.ZIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The X-Files       XFLDOS##.ZIP  XFLOS2##.ZIP  XFL_PM##.ZIP  XFLWIN##.ZIP
                                              Win32/Win95-->XFLW32##.ZIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantum Leap      QLPDOS##.ZIP  QLPOS2##.ZIP  QLP_PM##.ZIP  QLPWIN##.ZIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Trek:        TNGDOS##.ZIP  TNGOS2##.ZIP  TNG_PM##.ZIP  TNGWIN##.ZIP
Next Generation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Trek:        TOSDOS##.ZIP  TOSOS2##.ZIP  TOS_PM##.ZIP  TOSWIN##.ZIP
Original Series
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deep Space 9      DS9DOS##.ZIP  DS9OS2##.ZIP  DS9_PM##.ZIP  DS9WIN##.ZIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Simpsons      SMPDOS##.ZIP  SMPOS2##.ZIP  SMP_PM##.ZIP  SMPWIN##.ZIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Babylon 5         BA5DOS##.ZIP  BA5OS2##.ZIP  BA5_PM##.ZIP  BA5WIN##.ZIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beavis and                                    BVS_PM##.ZIP  BVSWIN##.ZIP                                    BVS_PM##.ZIP  BVSWIN##.ZIP
Butt-Head                                     Win32/Win95-->BVSW32##.ZIP
========================================================================
Coming soon: 32 bit Win32s/Win95/WinNT versions of each of these programs!

*ALL* versions are available on the FTP site at ftp.slinknet.com,
which is where I release all Snake-Byte programs. The path is
            /pub/snake

You can also point your World Wide Web browser to the following URL:
http://www.slinknet.com/~wmorgan/snake.html

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
               The Snake-Byte File Distribution Network  
             

SnakeByte FDN is carried by all IFDC FileGate HUBs and SuperSites 
(Zones 1-6), and EXEC-PC BBS, as well as Planet Connect Satellite 
Systems, PageSat Satellite Systems, the FidoNet FileBone, and paonline.com. 
Files are also available via FidoNet File Request or first time download 
at 1:2320/38 (502-245-8117) or 1:2320/100 (502-245-1146), at V.Everything.

=========================================================================
                 International Sites for Snake-Byte FDN:
=========================================================================
     * International HUB/SuperSite Map *     IFDC FileGate Project <sm>
=========================================================================
=========================================================================
Zone 1       Main Site          USRobotics                  Skokie, Ill.
=========================================================================
                         * North American HUBS *
=========================================================================
1:270/101    George Peace       PageSat Satellite Systems   Harrisburg, PA
                                (FidoNet FileBone)
1:3615/50    Planet Connect     Satellite Systems
1:154/280    EXEC-PC BBS                                    Elm Grove, WI
1:124/7009   Lee Laird                                      Garland, TX
1:167/234    Patrick Dufresne                               Quebec, Canada
1:115/251    Tony Tang                                      Wilmette, ILL.
1:2320/38    Janis Kracht                                   Louisville, KY
1:272/44     Ted Delamare                                   Middletown NY
=========================================================================
                 * IFDC FileGate International SuperSites *
=========================================================================
Zone 2       United Kingdom SuperSite                       Fareham, UK
2:251/25     Graham Print - Fareham
=========================================================================
2:281/506    Ron Huiskes                                    Netherlands
             Mainland Europe SuperSite
=========================================================================
Zone 3       Ausralian SuperSite                            Essendon Victoria
3:50/99      Steven Lutrov
=========================================================================
Zone 4       South American SuperSite                       Bolivia,
4:823/1      Adolfo Justiniano								S.America
=========================================================================
Zone 5       South African SuperSite                        Port Elizabeth
5:7104/2     Henk Wolsink									S.Africa
=========================================================================
                      * Zone 6, Asian SuperSite *
=========================================================================
6:731/16  Bill English                                      Tokyo, Japan
=========================================================================
             

      Ŀ
        Other Programs Available From Snake-Byte Incorporated  
      

32 bit DOS, 32 bit OS/2 text mode, 32 bit OS/2 Presentation Manager &
16 bit Windows/Win95 versions of the DALLAS COWBOY FANATIC's Companion.
They're available from ftp.slinknet.com /pub/snake the filenames
CBYDOS##.ZIP (DOS) or CBYOS2##.ZIP (OS/2 text), CBYWIN##.ZIP
(Windows/Win95) or CBY_PM##.ZIP (OS/2 P.M.).


                       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.

Super Duper thanks go to Janis Kracht and the nice people at US Robotics
for giving me the oppurtunity to start up the Snake-Byte Incorporated
File Distribution Network!


               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 the data/info or ideas for future programs?
Lonely and just need a cyber-shoulder to cry on? Well, for all these
reasons except that last one there, you can contact me by one of the
following methods:

    Fidonet Netmail:               1:3819/128.103
    Fidonet Echos I Hang Out On:   MST3K, NFL & OS/2
    Internet email:                wmorgan@slinknet.com
                                   will.morgan@p103.f128.n3819.z1.fidonet.org
    US Snail Mail:                 (See Address in the Shareware Nag)

