Maximus 3.01 :: ATA BBS

At a glance

Package: Maximus 3.01, Scott J. Dudley (Lanius Corporation), under the GPL
Lines: Six on a fresh install, up to 255 (two hex digits in every per-node file name; nothing to set up per line). Proven: six.
Starting account: New Sysop
Callers page you with: Y (Yell) at the MAIN menu
Console keys: Answer: Alt and C. Break in: Alt and C. Leave: Esc.

The board

What ATA set up. The installed and compiled tree (Maximus's installer and compilers are DOS programs, run once and harvested), password encryption off so ATA can check passwords on the host, and the yell window (13:00 to 23:00 as shipped) opened to the whole day in every node's events file, so a caller can page you at any hour.

The DOS page. "Local logon" starts the Maximus console. "SILT" compiles the control files. Both set MAXIMUS=D:\MAX\MAX.PRM first, which every Maximus program wants.

Making it your own. The setup is the .CTL text files: MAX.CTL the system, ACCESS.CTL the privilege classes, MSGAREA.CTL and FILEAREA.CTL the areas, MENUS.CTL the menus. Edit them through your host's file manager, then run SILT. The caller-facing screens are the .MEC files in MISC; compile an edited one with MECCA MISC\NAME.MEC at the DOS prompt (after SET MAXIMUS=D:\MAX\MAX.PRM). If you ever recompile the language file with MAID, run SILT after it: Maximus refuses to start when the language file is newer than MAX.PRM.

Callers. Name, then a confirm "NAME [Y,n]?" that wants the letter and Enter, then the password. Passwords are compared case-blind with first letters up. The new-user questionnaire rejects any phone number containing 555-1212 (the package's own "asshole detector"). New members start at privilege 30. G)oodbye first offers "Leave a message [y,N]?".

Files. Downloads come from the file areas under MAX\FILE; uploads land in the area FILEAREA.CTL names (File\Uncheck as installed) for you to check.

Paging. Maximus lets a caller yell three times in a session; answering a page resets the count.

Things to know. Maximus logs a note at start that it wants a "Level 5" FOSSIL and runs fine on ATA's. It exits to DOS after each caller, which is how a line closes.

Legend of the Red Dragon on Maximus 3.01

The steps every board shares (getting LORD, LORDCFG, the wrapper batch) are in the door guide. This is what is particular to this board.

Drop file: DOOR.SYS, written by the package's own Misc\DoorSys display file into D:\MAX (each caller's own copy). LORDCFG: (9) DOORSYS, path d:\max\ on every line.

Batch: D:\MAX\DOORS\LORD.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
IF "%NODE%"=="" SET NODE=%1
D:
CD \DOORS\LORD
CALL START.BAT %NODE%
CD \MAX

The second line takes the line number from Maximus's own command line if a door shell ever arrives without ATA's NODE variable.

The menu entry. Maximus's door road is a display file that writes DOOR.SYS followed by an outside program on the same key. In MAX\MENUS.CTL, inside the Menu MAIN block, just above its End Menu line, add:

        Display_File    Misc\DoorSys            Demoted "Legend of the Red Dragon"
  NoDsp Xtern_Dos       D:\MAX\DOORS\LORD.BAT_%k Demoted "L"

Demoted is the privilege a caller needs (it admits new members); _ is a space in a Maximus control file; %k is the node number. Then press the SILT button on the DOS page to compile the menus.

How callers get there. L at the MAIN menu. Q in LORD returns them to it.