And explanation of UltraSoft's Online BBS Sound Effects.
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It has come to our attention that some users of UltraSoft Games, (all of
which include considerable Online Sound Effects), may not fully understand
what this is or how it works. No problem.. It is a fairly new addition to
Online Gaming and this document will endeavor to explain the concept.

Online Sound, sometimes called ANSI Music, (though we have no idea why, 
since it has nothing to do with the ANSI Driver), is not something that 
is included in most BBS Door Games, much like the UltraSoft Animation
concept. It is a real plus to any Online Door, IF the caller can process
it, but it takes a special terminal program to do so.

If a Terminal Program does not support Online Sound, and it is still 
enabled inside a game, the caller will see what appears to be "junk" on
their screen.  i.e. [MB01T255L124GP45O>AP34] etc, often followed by a 
musical symbol. This is NOT line noise. It is Online Sound that the 
Terminal Program cannot process or isn't processing. In this case they 
must simply disable Sound from the Menu of the Game.

The two Terminal Programs at present that process Online Sound, are QModem
and TeleMate, both fine and very advanced programs. If you or your callers
are not using one of these, we highly recommend them.

The Makers of FXTerm, (of ROBOBoard fame), also tell UltraSoft that they 
are "working on" the concept of Online Sound for FXTerm. We commend them 
for recognizing the advancements being made in this area and the possible
future addition of Online Sound to their Terminal Package, FXTerm. Rumor 
also has it that the popular Telix Terminal Program will feature online 
sound in future releases.

All of UltraSoft's Action Online Games provide the /L feature as a Parameter
to run the games locally without installing them into a BBS System first..
This is for the sake of full Game Evaluation, before a Sysop commits to an
INSTALL, which in some cases can be more than interesting. UltraSoft, of
course, greatly simplifies this process with our EZ-INSTALL Utilities..

When you are running an UltraSoft Game locally with the /L parameter, OR 
locally, after BBS installation, and select Sound ON, you will hear a lot 
of sound effects throughout the games. This can be somewhat distorted 
locally if run under some Multi-Tasking environments, because of time 
slicing, But never fear, this is not the case from the remote side, when a 
caller is online. In any case, though the UltraSoft Games are silent on the
Sysop end while a caller is online, the caller is hearing the same sound 
effects that the Sysop heard, when running the games in Local mode. This is
assuming that the caller has Sound Turned ON and has a compatible Terminal
Program, as discussed above.

At UltraSoft, we feel that Online Sound/Music is a BIG addition to the 
excitement of playing a DoorGame, and hope more and more products begin
to feature this. So take advantage if you can, and please advise your 
callers accordingly.. We hope this helps to clear up any confusion..

=UltraSoft





