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                          O P E R A T I O N             
                        O V E R K I L L   I I           
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           ۺ      S P E C I A L      
           ۺ       N O T I C E       
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                   !!!!! IMPORTANT INFORMATION !!!!!!


   Last Release Notice:

     We are sorry to say that releases of Operation Overkill
     will be given to our ALPHA locations as much as Two Months
     in advance for testing. Alpha Releases of Operation Overkill
     will ONLY be available from INFOQUEST Bellevue and will
     have the extension of A instead of B in the file name.
     ALPHA release version will NOT work without an Alpha
     Registration code..so there is no need to try to download
     these files. This will allow us to pre-test the new release
     to create a more robust and bug free product for all the
     Overkillers.

     For the last year, Dustin and I have been developing this
     game to create what we have felt was a challenging game.
     We wanted to create a game with action, mystery and an
     element of surprise.  We are now close to reaching our goal.

     The final release testing involves a large amount of coding,
     bug testing, and changes.  The complicated changes I have
     imposed on the game may cause several game functions to
     operate incorrectly. To avoid the "my version has a bug,
     and the players are mad" syndrome, and to avoid constant
     releasing of quick bug fixes as in the past, we are now
     going to an ALPHA TEST STAGE of the Overkill II development.

     This is what this means:

     1) Registered Sysops remain registered to this point and
        will receive FREE upgrades to the 1.0 release when it
        is completed.  However, this also means that version
        .995B is the last release until such time (unless of
        course there is a MAJOR bug in this release).

     2) I have been searching for ALPHA TEST SIGHTS for the 1.0
        release, and have a few BBS's in mind.

     3) Total package cost will be $30 as of the 1.0 release.
        This price will be permanent and will include:

           Operation: Overkill II version 1.0
           Operation: Overkill II Editor
           Newsletter with updates and information

           (We foresee a tremendous amount of changes!)

     4) Since the 1.0 Release is a total package price and several
        people have registered the editor, we realize they have
        paid a total price of $35. To compensate for this difference,
        we have decided that those people who have registered the
        editor (out of goodness of their hearts) will get a "Sneak
        preview" Version of 1.0 before the 1.0 Final Release. This
        release will be available ONLY to those who have registered
        the editor up to the point of the start of Alpha Testing.
        This release will NOT be a completed version but will have
        additional features (some that may not work) and it will be
        their choice if they wish to run it on their BBS.

     5)  Registered Sysops will receive by mail the 1.0 release
         when it is ready for release.



                 [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
                 [[[[  ALPHA TEST INFORMATION ]]]]
                 [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]



     A total of twenty (20) Alpha Test sites will be selected
     from the entries already received and upcoming entries that
     are received before the 1.0A release.  *ONLY* Alpha Test
     sites will have copies of the 1.0A release and will be
     required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

     After these twenty sites are selected, no other sites will
     get advanced releases of Overkill II.  This testing may take
     several months.


     All alpha test sights will be required to do the following:

     1) Actively seek out and squash bugs/anomalies in OOII.
        (Crash it, crush it, and put it through the ringer!)

     2) Monitor the OOII ECHO for developmental discussions and
        to relay bug information.

     3) Head a team of test players to play the &$@*% out of
        the game.

     4) Give input for improvements of the game via the OOII Echo
        and possibly create menus, monsters, ect for the game.

     5) Each Alpha Test site will receive partial code of OOII
        to assist in the debugging of the game after the non
        disclosure form is signed.

     6) Further duties will be listed with the first alpha package
        you receive.


     ============ REQUIREMENTS FOR ALPHA TESTINGS ==============

     You can become an ALPHA TEST SIGHT in one of two ways:

     1) Be a fan of OOII and a programming guru.
     2) Be an OOII Nut with a large player base

     The first option is listed below:

     1) You must have advanced knowledge and experience in
        Turbo Pascal, C, C++ or assembly language programming.

        "Advanced" means:

        a) You understand complex data structures of programming,
           including Queues, Stacks, Link List, and Recursion.
        b) You have written or programmed extensively in one
           of the above languages (minimum of 2 years).
        c) You have a minimum of 2 years college experience
           in programming or equivelant educational background
           in the computer science field.
        d) You understand or have heard of the following concepts:

           (hashing, data abstraction, FIFO Queues, binary trees,
           B trees, heaps, stacks, pointers and the dangling
           referenence problem, post/pre/inorder traversal
           of binary trees, scoping rules, and precedence)

        c) Can you write the wildcard function without using built-
           in routines?  (Not required)

           FUNCTION Match(Instr : String80; OutStr : String80): BOOLEAN;

           or

           INT Match(char *instr, char *outstr)

           Description: Given string Instr which can contain
           wildcards (*,?), determine if string Outstr matchs
           the wildcard string.

           C*T*H matches CATCH CATCATCATHHH and CTH
                 but not ATCH CAT or CATCHED

     2) You must be an extremely avid player of the Operation Overkill
        game. "Avid" meaning that you can play using the Nessus maps
        and kill Overkill in less than one week. I have found these
        type of players to reach between level 5 and 7 on their first
        day of play.

        a) You must be an AVID player
        b) You must have a good player base to test operation overkill.
        c) You must be reliable and a creative individual.

     ALL ALPHA TESTERS must meet one of the two above criteria and
     the following:

     1) You must have an active interest in game playing.

     2) You must be a registered Sysop of Overkill II.

     3) Alpha Test sites will be selected by their programming
        experience and by the BBS system they operate.  We will
        attempt to have one alpha site on each BBS package that
        is being tested.

  Here is an example of current ALPHA Testers selected with reasoning:
  (Testers please don't take any of this information personally)

  For Option 1 :  Vince Laurent
                  I find Vince to be a strong programming person
                  with both the experience and the knowledge to do
                  proper testing of the program. I expect this type
                  of tester to find things that player sights will not
                  be able to locate like places where values overflow
                  because we are using INTEGER variables instead of
                  LONGINT or places where stack values are overflowing.
                  I expect less bugs from this type of tester but the
                  bugs will be of a more complex nature.

                  Expect about 5 total bugs and 10 total DCRS per week
                  of testing.

  For Option 2 :  Donna Murrell
                  Donna exceeds the AVID qualifications. Playing the
                  NESSUS maps were so easy, she had to modify them to
                  make them challenging(These are the maps included in
                  this package). Here system contains a game of OOII for
                  EACH map included and there are at least 10 players in
                  EACH of those games. I expect to receive game playing
                  suggestions on how to make the product a more
                  challenging, more exciting and prettier look with this
                  type of tester. I expect to find ways to cheat and
                  things that should be added in order for proper game
                  play.

                  Expect about 15 Bugs and 5 total DCRS per week of
                  testing.

  Combination 1 & 2:  Curtis Brown
                  Curtis has some programming experience and enjoys the
                  program. His play skills are not has honed as Donna
                  and his programming not as sharp as Vince, BUT I
                  expect this combination to result in the best testing
                  due to the diversity of both. Where Vinces bugs may
                  have been resolved because he does not call in as
                  often and where bugs that Donna list are not bugs but
                  intentional in design, bugs reported by Curtis will be
                  of the nature that "The package CAN NOT go out" with
                  them in it. He has found several situations that we
                  never thought to test which cause lock ups, run time
                  errors or game values going into the sky. Total bugs
                  reported was 26 in a three week period..but alot of
                  the bugs reported result in OOII being not playable.

   All THREE of these ALPHA Testers are valuable because :
   1) They report bugs and DCRS that are critical and would be found
      eventually by others.
   2) They call in and check for new changes and verify that their bugs
      were fixed. I expect one call MINIMUM every three days. And at
      that time, SOME bug or DCR should be reported.
   3) Since testing is a time critical thing, these problems MUST be
      found in the smallest amount of time available. A ALPHA tester
      that does not report bugs or who does not call in is not worth
      being on the testing list.
   4) They are reliable, creative, trustworthy people. If I say to test
      this and report anything wrong. I expect a report by the next day
      or two and that it would have been tested well.



  ========================================================================

     Answer the following questions as best you can on the
     application form.  It is not necessary that you answer
     them all to be an Alpha Test site:


     Define the following :

     Basics:
     ~~~~~~
     1) Scope :
     2) Data Abstraction :
     3) Recursion :
     4) What three conditions determine if a structure is a Heap?


     Efficiency:
     ~~~~~~~~~~
     5) Which is more efficient, MergeSort or QuickSort, and why?


     Logic:
     ~~~~~
     A professor had three students, each extremely bright, and he
     had to pick one to be his new assistant.  He brought them all
     into a room and said:

      "In this room there are three chairs, each facing towards the
       wall and each in a line so that the back chair sees the first
       two chairs and the second chair sees the front one and the
       very front chair sees no one.  Inside this box, I have three
       black hats and two white hats.  All hats are red on the bottom
       so each of you can not tell the color of the hat being worn."

     He then blind-folded the students and placed a hat on each of
     them.  Next, he put the students each in a chair and said:

      "You can now take off the blindfolds.  The first one to tell
       me the color of your hat shall become my new assistant."

     After fifteen minutes, the student in the very front chair, who
     could see no one, stood up and told the professor what color his
     hat was.  The professor smiled and kinged the student as the new
     assistant.
     
     6) What color was the hat, and how did he know?


     Creativity:
     ~~~~~~~~~~
     7) In your opinion, what would be the best way to store the
        maps in memory for OOII.  Please define its structure.

        (Note: The maps are 25 x 30)


     Problem Solving:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     A man has a wheel that is spinning so fast that he can not
     tell which direction it is rotating (clockwise or counter).
     He has been told that exactly half of each side of the wheel
     is painted a different color, one half white and one half black.
     He has purchased two sensors that detect black or white.

     8) At what angles along the edge of the wheel would you place
        the sensors to detect the colors?

     9) Write a short algorithm that uses these sensors and returns
        a value (clockwise or counterclockwise) of which direction
        the wheel is spinning?



     ======== THIS IS THE APPLICATION FORM FOR ALPHA TESTING =====
     ======== PLEASE PRINT AND MAIL TO THE ADDRESS BELOW     =====

     If you feel you qualify as an alpha tester for Overkill II,
     please fill out the following form and mail it to:

         Tom Hazel
         Application for Alpha Testing
         12720 NE 10th Place  APT: D302
         Bellevue, WA  98005

     If you feel that your programming skills are not good enough
     to qualify you as a tester, please try to answer the questions
     AND write a short reason to me - WHY you should be selected for
     testing.

     ALL ALPHA TESTERS who are selected go on a trial period and
     if they are selected but found NOT to be useful, they they
     will be dropped from testing. Sorry, testers who do not
     test...

     (Hand written or sloppy applications will be discarded)

     FULL NAME    : ___________________________________

     ADDRESS      : ___________________________________

                    ___________________________________

                    ___________________________________

     VOICE PHONE  : (   )____-_____ Ext:_______

     BBS NAME     : ___________________________________

     BBS TYPE     : ___________________________________

     EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND : _________________________

     __________________________________________________

     __________________________________________________

     __________________________________________________

     LANGUAGES KNOWN (Mark) : [ ] Pascal   [ ] C
                              [ ] Assembly [ ] Ada
                              [ ] C++      [ ] Other:_________

     NUMBER OF PLAYERS IN YOUR GAMES : _________

     NUMBER OF CURRENT GAMES RUNNING : _________

     SIZE OF YOUR HARD DISK IN MEGABYTES : _____

     MAXIMUM SPEED OF YOUR MODEM : ______________

     Answers to Questions above :

     1)

     2)

     3)

     4)


     5)





     6)





     7)




     8)




     9)








