Getting Connected

How to Connect to GCP

(c)1986 Games Computers Play, Inc.

April 10, 1986	                    Getting Connected

1. Making a Backup disk

Before you can use the GCP system, you must make a backup copy of side 1 of the GCP BOOT/LOS disk. You can then configure your backup copy for your modem and use it to connect to GCP.

To make a backup disk, place the BOOT disk in your disk drive, with the labeled side up and close the disk drive door. Then turn on your computer. Your computer will boot up into the ATARI DOS 2.5 menu (if you have BASIC in your computer, you will get the READY prompt instead; type DOS and press [Return] to get the DOS 2.5 menu).

Remove the Master BOOT disk from the drive and insert a blank floppy. Then pick DOS menu option P (FORMAT SINGLE) and press [Return]. It prompts you:

WHICH DRIVE TO FORMAT?

Type 1 and press [Return].

It then prompts:

TYPE “Y” TO FORMAT DISK 1

Make sure that you have a blank disk in the drive (NOT the Master GCP disk!!) and then type Y [Return].

The drive will spend a few seconds formatting your disk and then return with the select item prompt.

You now have a blank formatted disk. Now you are ready to make a backup copy of your Master BOOT disk.

Place your Master GCP BOOT disk back in the drive (label side up). Then pick menu option J (DUPLICATE DISK) and press [Return]. You will be prompted:

DUP DISK-SOURCE,DEST DRIVES?

Type 1,1 [Return]

You are prompted:

INSERT SOURCE DISK,TYPE RETURN

Make sure that the GCP Master BOOT disk is in the

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drive, with the door closed and type [Return). The drive will access for some time and then you will be prompted:

INSERT DESTINATION DISK,TYPE RETURN

Take the GCP Master BOOT disk out of the drive and put the blank disk that you formatted earlier in, then press [Return). The disk will access again, then you will be prompted:

INSERT SOURCE DISK,TYPE RETURN

Remove the backup disk from the drive and put the GCP Master BOOT disk back in (label side up). Close the disk drive door and press [Return]. This swapping of disks will continue until the entire GCP Master BOOT disk has been copied onto your backup disk, at which time you will see the prompt:

SELECT ITEM OR RETURN FOR MENU

You now have a backup copy of side 1 of your GCP Master BOOT disk. You should also make backups of side 2 of the GCP Master BOOT disk, and of both sides of your GCP Master CITY/GAME disk so that you can put your Master copies away in a safe place. If you are anxious to proceed, however, you can continue without making the backup copies right at the moment.

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 2. Configuring for your modem

In order for you to be able to use your modem to access GCP, you will have to create an AUTORUN.SYS file on your BOOT disk. Creating this file is very simple, because the correct file for each of the major Atari compatible modems is already supplied to you on the disk. All you have to do is to rename the file to be called AUTORUN.SYS. This section will explain how to do that.

To configure your backup copy of the BOOT disk (which we will refer to from now on just as the BOOT disk), make sure that your backup copy of the BOOT disk is in your disk drive. Then pick DOS menu option A. You will be prompted:

DIRECTORY--SEARCH SPEC,LIST FILE?

Just press [Return]. You will get a directory of the files on the BOOT disk. There will be 5 files on the disk that end in GCP. You will be renaming one of these files to be called AUTORUN.SYS.

To rename the file, pick DOS menu option E and press [Return]. You will see the prompt:

RENAME - GIVE OLD NAME,NEW

What you type here depends on what modem you are using. If you have an Atari 1030 or XM3O1, type:
A1030.GCP,AUTORUN.SYS and press [Return]

If you have an MPP l000c or MPP l000e modem, type:

MPP.GCP,AUTORUN.SYS and press [Return]

If you have a modem connected to one of the serial ports on an Atari 850 interface, type:

A850.GCP,AUTORUN.SYS and press [Return]

If you have a modem connected to an R-Verter, type:

RVERTER.GCP,AUTORUN.SYS and press [Return]

If you have anything else, just press [Break] to get back to the DOS 2.5 menu and refer to the section on

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Alternate Configurations at the end of this booklet for instructions on how to proceed.

You now have an AUTORUN.SYS file on your disk, which will allow you to connect to Games Computers Play. The next step will be to boot up your computer using this disk that you have created.

At this point, turn off your computer, modem and interface (if you have one).

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 3. GCP-Start Program

The purpose of the GCP-Start program is simply to connect your computer to the GCP central computer located in York, PA. This is done by using your modem to connect to the Tymnet data network, which is a world wide electronic data network that has over 500 local access points in the U.S. alone.

Once your modem is connected to Tymnet, you must tell Tymnet that you want to talk to the GCP central computer. This is done by issuing a few simple commands to Tymnet. The GCP-Start program makes this easy to do, through the steps described below.

When you connect to GCP, the GCP-Start program will then load the program that you will be using while in the GCP City. This program is called the GCP-Term program.

 3.1 Loading GCP-Start

Your BOOT disk, with the AUTORUN.SYS file you have created, is a self booting disk. Turn your computer OFF, then turn on your disk drive, modem and interface (if you have an interface). Now place the BOOT disk in the disk drive, make sure that you do not have a cartridge in your computer and turn the computer on.

The disk drive will access your disk for a few moments, and the GCP-Start Menu will appear on your screen. This is how you will boot up every time you want to call GCP.

 3.2 GCP-Start Menu

The menu displays all the selections that you can make in the GCP-Start program. Exactly which selections are available to you depends on the type of modem you have. In the explanations below, you can safely ignore the description of any item that is not in the menu on your screen.

Any time that you have a problem, you can press the

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OPTION key to stop what you are doing and return to this menu.

For your first time through, you will probably want to dial from the keyboard (if your modem has autodial capability). After you are a little more familiar with the GCP-Start program you will want to read the section on Saved Phone Numbers. Advanced users will want to read the section on Auto—connect.

3.2.1 Your selection ?

This prompt requests that you enter a selection from the menu. To select a menu item, press the letter or number that is in inverse video in the item that you want. You do not need to press [Return].

3.2.2 Baud Rate changes

If you have a modem which is capable of 1200 baud (baud is a measure of modem speed), you can talk to it at 1200 baud by pressing B while at the GCP-Start Menu. Pressing B again will take the modem speed back to 300 baud.

This selection is not available (and will not appear in the menu) for the Atari l030/XM3O1 and MPP 1000 modems.

3.2.3 Dialing from the Keyboard

The easiest way to get connected to GCP is to dial the phone number from the keyboard.

NOTE: this will only work if you have a modem capable of dialing the phone. The Atari XM3O1 and Atari 1030 have this capability, as does the MPP 1000 series and Hayes compatible modems.

If you have one of the modems mentioned above, just press K and the program will prompt you for the phone number to enter with one of these prompts:

Dial: ________________ (Atari l030/XM3O1 or MPP 1000)

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Dial:	ATDT__________ (other modems)

You can type in your local Tymnet access number (from the supplied sheet of local access numbers) and press [Return]. If you make a mistake typing in the number, you can delete characters with the [Delete] key, or clear out the entire number by pressing [Shift] and [Delete] at the same time.

After you press [Return], the modem will dial the phone. For an Atari l030/XM3O1 or MPP 1000 modem, it will first dial the number, then wait for carrier, then the GCP-Start program will drop into “Terminal mode”. Other modems will go directly into “Terminal mode”.

The beginning “ATDT” that is supplied for modems other than the Atari 1030/XM3O1 or MPP 1000 will tell Hayes compatible modems to dial the phone and to use “touch tone”. If you do not have a touch tone phone, you can use the [Delete] key to delete the last “T”, so that your modem will dial manually. If your modem is not Hayes compatible, you will have delete the “ATDT” with the [Delete] key and type the proper control codes to get your modem to dial.

3.2.3.1 Connecting to GCP

Once in Terminal mode, you will see the following message from Tymnet appear on your screen (if you are using a 1200 baud modem, the message may be garbled, or appears as all ‘x’s):

please type your terminal identifier:

At this point, type A (without pressing [Return]). Tymnet will come back with:

please log in:

It is asking you for the name of the company to connect to, and the password to use. Do not type your name and password! Instead, you should type the logon name and password of GCP (this information is shown below).

There are two CAUTIONs you should be aware of: first, you cannot correct what you type here. If you type something wrong, press the [Esc] key and you will get the “please log in:” prompt again so that you can

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retype the line.

Second, the word “PLAY” will NOT appear on your screen when you type it. Do not be alarmed.

Ok, now type the following line, and press [Return].

GAM-COM;PLAY

There may be a brief pause, then you will get a message that says:

P n online

(where ‘n’ is a number, like 4 or 7). This means that you are connected to the GCP central computer. You are now ready to load in the GCP—Term program.

This is the last point that you can back out of what you are doing by pressing OPTION. Once you proceed to the next step, you can only stop by turning off your computer.

Press the START key. There will be another pause while your computer and the GCP central computer talk. This ‘talking’ will show up on your computer as 2 or 3 lines of strange characters. You can ignore these.

Once your computer and the GCP computer agree on what they are doing, your disk drive will access and the GCP-Term program will be loaded.

You are done with Booting Up. Please get out your GCP City manual which will tell you what to do next. Make sure you have your logon name and password handy.

3.2.4 Saved Phone Numbers

Dialing from the keyboard is convenient, but it is not necessary to type the number into your computer every time you use the GCP-Start program. The program can remember up to 3 phone numbers.

When you are at the GCP—Start Menu, you can select which phone number by pressing 1, 2 or 3. You will see the prompt:

Edit or Dial?

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Type E to edit the number. The screen will put up a blank line (which may be partially filled in with “ATDT” for some modems). You can type in the phone number that you want the program to remember and press [Return). If you make a mistake typing in the number, you can delete characters with the [Delete) key, or clear out the entire number by pressing [Shift) and [Delete) at the same time.

You can also pick D to dial the number that you have selected. If you have changed any of the numbers, or the baud rate of your port, the screen will prompt you:

Save configuration to disk Y/N ?

Type Y to save the phone numbers to disk.

NOTE: this prompt will only appear after you have changed the phone numbers to be saved away. If you have not, the modem will immediately dial when you pressed D at the “Edit or Dial” prompt.

Once the modem has dialed the phone, you will be placed into “Terminal mode” and must log in to GCP through the Tymnet network. This procedure is detailed in the section above called “Connecting to GCP”. Please refer to that section once you have completed dialing.

3.2.5 Terminal mode

Terminal mode allows you to type on the keyboard and have it go to the modem directly. It is not available from the Menu for the Atari 1030 and XM3O1 modems because they must dial the phone before typing on the keyboard is meaningful.

For Hayes compatible modems, you can dial the phone from Terminal mode by using the Hayes dialing commands, such as ATD555-l212 to dial using rotary dialing or ATDT555-l2l2 to dial using pulse dialing.

For MPP modems, you can use Terminal mode when you dial the phone manually. When you do this, you should dial your closest Tymnet number, then press the SELECT key when you hear the phone ring. This will allow the modem to pick up the line when it detects the carrier.

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Once you are connected to Tymnet through your modem, you must follow the steps given above in the section on “Connecting to GCP”. Please refer to that section for what these steps are.

 3.2.6 Auto—connect

The ability of the GCP-Start program to save the phone numbers for later use makes it easier to call up GCP, but you will still have to go through the Tymnet prompts to get connected to GCP and then press START to boot in the GCP-Term program. The Auto-connect sequence allows you to automate this whole process.

To create an Auto—connect sequence, type A at the GCP-Start Menu. You will be prompted:

Edit or Do Auto?

Type E to edit the auto—connect sequence. The screen will display 3 blank lines where you can type your auto-connect sequence. A sample sequence for the Atari 1030 or XM3O1 is shown below. Type it in, substituting your Tymnet number for the phone number in the example. If you make a mistake, you can correct it with the [Delete) key.

|555—1212|[P]A[W:]GAM—COM;PLAY^M[WP][S)

When you are done typing it in, press [Return). The screen will clear and the Menu will reappear.

The equivalent sequence for MPP or Hayes compatible modems is shown below:

ATDT555-l2l2[WC)[P]A[W:)GAM-COM;PLAY^M[WP][S]

3.2.6.1 Using Auto-connect

After you have created an auto-connect sequence, you can execute it by selecting A at the Menu and D when prompted for “Edit or Do auto—connect?”.

The autoconnect sequence shown above will dial the phone, give the correct information to Tymnet to connect to GCP, then boot in the GCP-Term program.

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3.2.6.2 Auto—connect sequence format

The auto-connect sequence can be up to 119 characters long and can contain 5 types of information:

 1. A phone number for an Atari 1030 or XH3O1 modem, enclosed in ‘ ‘ characters.

2. Pause for 3 seconds (by entering [P] in your auto—connect sequence).

3. Wait for a certain character before continuing, such as [W:) to wait for a : before proceeding.

4. Simulate a press of the START function key (by entering [5] in your auto—connect sequence).

 5. Send a string of characters to the modem port. You can include control characters by typing ^ (press the [Shift] and * key simultaneously) and the ASCII equivalent of the key. For example, to send an ASCII carriage return, type

^M

To send a control C, type:

^C

The example auto—connect sequence shown before is

repeated below, along with an explanation:

|555—1212|[P]A[W:]GAM—COM;PLAY^M[WP][S]

The |555-1212| causes an Atari 1030 or XM3O1 to dial the number 555-1212 and wait for carrier to be detected. An HPP modem or Hayes compatible modem could accomplish the same thing by using ATDT555-1212 [WC] to dial the phone and wait for the CONNECT message to come back from the modem.

The [P] causes the program to wait for 3 seconds to give Tymnet a chance to request the terminal identifier.

The A is sent to Tymnet to tell it what kind of terminal you are using.

The [W:] waits for the : in the Tymnet “please log in:” prompt.

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The GAM-COM;PLAY^M tells Tymnet that you want to log into GCP.

The [WP] waits for the P in the “P 3 is online” message from GCP.

The [S] presses the START key to boot in the GCP-Term program.

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 4. Alternative Configurations

The GCP software is compatible with any software which abides by the standard definitions and OS calls. GCP supplies pre-configured files for the most popular modems, but you can also use it with other modems, other DOSes and sundry other equipment, such as Ramdisks.

 4.1	Alternate Serial Interfaces and Modems

To use the GCP software with a serial interface or modem other that the ones supplied, you must create an AUTORUN.SYS file combining the AUTORUN.SYS file of your modem/interface and the BOOT.GCP program supplied on the GCP BOOT disk.

You do this by copying the AUTORUN.SYS file which you got with your modem/interface to your backup copy of the GCP BOOT disk. You can do this by booting up DOS 2.5 (supplied on the GCP BOOT disk) and using menu option 0 (duplicate file).

Next, you must append the file BOOT.GCP to your AUTORUN.SYS file on the backup GCP BOOT disk. You do this by using the C (copy file) option on the DOS 2.5 menu. When it prompts:

COPY--FROM, TO?

Type:

BOOT.GCP,AUTORUN.SYS/A

You should then be able to boot up your backup disk and proceed as if you had any other modem/interface.

 4.2 Alternate DOS

You do not have to use Atari DOS 2.5 with the GCP software. If you have another DOS which you prefer (for example, if you have a DOS which supports high capacity drives), you can copy the files off the GCP disks and onto a disk formatted by your favorite DOS.

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This is especially useful if you have double density drives. You can copy two of the GCP disks onto one of your higher capacity disks.

There is one caution to keep in mind: when connected to GCP, all the disks which you use MUST be in the same DOS and density. So if you want to download files from GCP, you must have a disk formatted in the same density and DOS that is on your backup BOOT disk.

 4.3 Multiple Drives

GCP also allows you to use more than one disk drive while online. Multiple drives allow you to reduce the amount of disk swapping while connected to GCP.

Once you are connected to GCP, you can use the SET-DRIVE terminal command to tell GCP that you are using more than one drive. (See the GCP City manual for more information on terminal commands).

 4.4 Ramdisks

Ramdisks are also supported by GCP. They are very helpful in using the service because reduce the time to needed to access the files on disk.

To use a ramdisk, you must boot up into DOS using a disk that contains the RAMDISK.COM file. Then delete the MEM.SAV file from the ramdisk and copy all the files from the GCP disk or disks that you want to access into your ramdisk.

NOTE: you should copy ALL the files from a given GCP disk into your Ramdisk. If you copy only some of the files, you can easily lock up your computer while online.

The ramdisk on a 13OXE is cannot hold as much as an Atari disk. Therefore, you will not be able to place the entire CITY disk into the 13OXE ramdisk. There is still a way to get the benefit of the Ramdisk.

Make another backup of the City Disk and label it “GCP City 13OXE Ramdisk version”. Then delete the following files from it:

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TOPOST.*	FPOST.*	UPDATE.*	FUPDT.*

Copy all the remaining files into the 13OXE ramdisk. This will give you enough space in the ramdisk, but you will not be able to get into or out of the PostOffice or Update unless you put the CITY disk back in drive 1 and issue a SETDRIVE 1 CITY command.

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Acknowledgements: GCP would like to thank the following people for their contributions to the software contained on the GCP disks:

Russ Wetmore and Joe Miller of Star Systems Software, for the modem handler for the Atari l030/XM3O1 modem which is contained in the A1030.GCP file.

Rick Hunter and Jim Dillow for the modem handler for the MPP modem which is contained in the MPP.GCP file.

Clinton Parker for developing the ACTION! language which much of the GCP software is written in. ACTION! is a trademark of Action Computer Services. Portions of this software are copyright 1984, A.C.S.

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