The first open-source, open-platform, freeware Java TradeWars 2002 helper is here!!!


I am proud to announce the open beta of J-TWAT, the Java Trade Wars Attack Terminal. The helper is up and ready for download at

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/j-twat/jtwat.zip

Check the end of this email for install instructions.

One stipulation I would like to make is that this is BETA software. Hammer and I have worked hard to bring the software as close to feature complete for the final release as possible, but there are still loose ends we are working to tie up. The in-game help system is only about half done, but there is good documentation at the J-TWAT site at http://www.goosemoose.com/~jtwat. There shouldn't be any major bugs as this version has gone through about a week of testing on goosemoose.com without any major problems...a couple known bugs though:

1) Before starting a script, its a good idea to hit '/' Most of the time this shouldn't matter, but there have been rare cases where the internal view of the game gets a little off.

2) Turn ANSI graphics ON and ANSI Animation (pictures, whatever) OFF. Also, your message format should be set to compact. (These can all be set using the personal settings menu by hitting C N at the main prompt.) There is a bug for some reason where you can't have short messages in non ANSI mode. Don't know why.

3) A recent problem has been that you might have problems if you run the program on the same computer as the TWGS you are connecting to. One person has seen this, but others have not.

This version is primarily for windows. However, in the limited testing that we've done on the UNIX/Linux side there have been various degrees of success, mainly due to the implementation of the JVM. Solaris and Linux, the officially Sun-supported JVMs should run alright. Let me know if you are tryign to run on a different platform (MacOS, etc) and are having problems.

Also, I've included an automatic update feature to handle bug fixes, etc. between releases. Right now this feature is mandatory. Please make sure you are online when you start up jtwat, so it can connect to the sourceforge.net sight and check for a newer version. Any update should only take a couple minutes at 28.8. These updates will probably happen once or twice a week.

If you are a sysop and are interested in running a web portal like the one at goosemoose.com

http://www.goosemoose.com/tradewars/connecttw.htm

please contact me. I have not included instructions to set up a portal because I currently have no distrobution system set up to get sysops the latest versions of the software. (If there is enough immediate interest, I will get something like that up and running)

I want to hear from YOU! If you use the helper, and like it/hate it/have suggestions/whatever, please tell me!!! Send email to badboy@goosemoose.com or dahammer2@hotmail.com. We want your feedback! Suggestions, feature requests, bugs, critiques, etc...I want to hear them!!! This helper will only get better with your input!

Oh, and we're always looking for people to help out! If this project interests you, don't hesitate to write me. There's plenty to do!

Ok, I've blabbed enough.

Have fun!

badboy

badboy@goosemoose.com
http://www.goosemoose.com/~jtwat

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Here's how to install J-TWAT:

#1. You need Java. Pretty much any modern version will do, but you need it. Download and install the latest Java Runtime (1.3) from

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/jre/

If you have a JDK version 1.1 or greater, that _should_ work. We've tried to make it 1.1 compatable since we want to run it on ebclients, but we might have forgotten a couple places. So just get 1.2 or greater.

#2. Create a directory called j-twat, jtwat, or whatever the hell you want somewhere on your computer.

#3. Download

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/j-twat/jtwat.zip

to that directory.

#4. Unzip it.

#5 Run jtwat.bat.

(on other systems the command in jtwat.bat is "java -cp .:jtwat.jar TWLaunch")