IMPORTANT NOTES

Welcome to BRIDGE CREW and the world of co-operative computer assisted 
science fiction roleplaying.

When configured with an appropriate number of terminals or PC's BRIDGE 
CREW can provide many hours of fun for a group of players. The 
atmosphere of the bridge of a combat vessel can be created and the 
roleplaying and tactical aspects of the game will flourish. We at 
Mithril Software hope you will take the time to learn the commands and 
put the effort into cabling terminals and PCs. BRIDGE CREW is lots of 
fun and is best enjoyed with a group of friends.

Please do not run this program with only one terminal attached and a 
crew of one. If run configured like this it is an inferior 2 
dimensional flight simulator. However, GM's will occasionally use it 
like this for scenario development.

A good configuration for BRIDGE CREW is: 3 or more terminals attached 
to the main Bridge Crew computer and a captain without a terminal. All 
players need to view the main PC console. With this configuration it 
becomes a Bridge with a 'BRIDGE CREW' in the live roleplay sense of 
the word.

We hope that you will enjoy this shareware release of BRIDGE CREW (TM)

REGARDS 

Robert Cox and Patricia Crowther




IMPORTANT NOTES

In making this release we have thought about the following points and 
have taken the following positions.

1. Licencing.

LICENCE

This licence applies to BRIDGE CREW version sw1.12 and all associated files and 
material distributed by Mithril Software.

This software is protected by copyright law and by international 
copyright treaty.

You assume responsibility for the selection of the programs to achieve 
your intended results, and for the installation, use and results 
obtained from the program. Mithril Software is not responsible for any 
damages caused by the use of this software.

Mithril Software provides these programs and scenarios and licenses 
their use as follows:

You may:

a.	Copy and distribute this version (sw1.12) of BRIDGE CREW to 
whoever will take it.

b.	Use this software for private use. This includes such use as may 
be made by a private gaming group.

c.	Display this program at a seminar, conference, or convention 
publicly, provided you are not receiving reward for doing so. (i.e. 
you are not getting paid or charging for the privilege).

d.	Use the supplied terminal emulators VT100.exe and BCTERM.EXE and 
associated programs and files on up to four PCs provided they are 
connected to a machine running BRIDGE CREW version sw1.12.

e.	Change the medium on which it is distributed or distribute it 
electronically.


You may not:

a.	Charge EXCESSIVE copying fees for the copying of this software.

b.	Package the software in a way that infers to consumers that they 
are purchasing a registered version of the software.

c.	Change the software or any associated files.

d.	Use or demonstrate this program at any convention, seminar, 
party, meeting or other public or private event if as a result of this 
demonstration you receive any kind of reward or payment without the 
permission of Mithril Software.

e.	Accept or receive reward for the use of the software, without 
the permission of Mithril Software.

f.	Use the software in a manner for which it is not intended.

g.	Use the software if a corporation you represent or are employed 
by will receive payment or reward as a result, without the permission 
of Mithril Software.

TERM

	The licence is effective until terminated.  You may terminate it 
at any other time by destroying the program, data and scenario files 
and all copies as well as any printed material.

	There is no time limit on this licence provided you keep within 
the terms and conditions listed above you may use this software for as 
long as you like.

WARRANTY

	This version sw1.12 comes without any warranty at all.

	While the authors have taken all reasonable care in the 
production of the software, they do not accept responsibility for any 
loss caused directly or indirectly by use of this software.

SUPPORT

	This version sw1.12 comes without any official support at all.

	David Readman has offered to answer questions and provide some 
limited support for this version on the INTERNET but makes it clear 
that Registered Customers come first. his internet address is : 
JAGUAR@SUBURBIA.APANA.ORG.AU

REQUEST FROM THE AUTHORS

	If you use this version of BRIDGE CREW for an extended period of 
time then it would be polite to consider (and act upon) getting a 
registered version. The registered version is superior in many ways 
and comes with printed manuals. It is constantly being updated in all 
probability by the time you read this it will have a new batch of 
features not found in sw1.12.

COPYRIGHT and TRADEMARKS

BRIDGE CREW is a trademark of Mithril Software.

This product is copyright Mithril Software 1994.


2. Design Concept.
The design objective of Bridge Crew is: "to produce an affordable game 
that allows a group of players to have fun roleplaying on the bridge 
of a starship in an imaginary universe". The selection of 'cheap' 
serial cards and daisy-chaining (rather than a NETWORK) was to keep 
costs down. Pricing is based upon a gaming group of six players 
splitting costs; when purchased like this BRIDGE CREW should work out 
to cost less than a full set of D&D manuals.

3. Changes to the software.
Please do not make changes to this software (i.e. hacking). We have 
not tried to protect against hackers and are relying upon the 
generally good nature of the majority of shareware users to remove 
from BBS's any hacked versions of this software. For registered users 
of the SCENARIO DESIGNER an additional program exists (called 
SWCONV.EXE) that will convert a six ship scenario (developed for the 
registered version of Bridge Crew) to the format required for 
distribution with the shareware BRIDGE CREW version (sw1.12). 
SWCONV.EXE is available for a small extra cost. Registered owners of 
the SCENARIO DESIGNER and SWCONV can release additional scenarios for 
use with the shareware version of BRIDGE CREW. Since this provides a 
legitimate way for people to change the scenarios supplied with the 
shareware version of BRIDGE CREW (sw1.12) there should be no need to 
HACK them.

4. Cost of registration.
We sell registered versions of BRIDGE CREW by mail order. The 
registered version licences 10 players (including 1 or 2 GMs)for NON 
COMMERCIAL USE.  If you think it is expensive then remember we are 
talking about licencing 10 users (try getting a 10 user licence for 
any software from a major vendor (e.g. Microsoft) for the price of 
BRIDGE CREW).Prices are:
Australia ($Aus), $130 + $10 Postage (print AUS.TXT)
Britain, (Pounds Sterling), 65 + 12 Postage (print BRITAIN.TXT) 
Canada, ($Can), $140 + $25 Postage (CANADA.TXT)
New Zealand ($NZ), $155 + $24 Postage (NZ.TXT)
USA ($USA), $99 + $20 Postage (USA.TXT)
Please print out the order form, fill it in, add a cheque in 
appropriate currency and send to:
Mithril Software Pty Ltd
PO BOX 225
KIPPAX 
ACT 2615
AUSTRALIA

Since we are in Australia we have to cover postage on our registered 
version (which with manuals and extras weighs in at 700gms). 
Unfortunately for most of the world postage is fairly expensive (about 
$26 Aus). We will ship within 24 hours (Normally the same day) of 
cheque clearance. We are very upset with Australian banks who won't 
let us take your orders by credit card or phone!

Note there are quite a few BRIDGE CREW products in addition to BRIDGE 
CREW software (e.g. the SCENARIO DESIGNER, Commercial Licence and 
Various Scenario Packs) see below for details.

5. Who is Mithril Software?
Mithril Software is a proprietary limited company owned by Robert Cox 
and Patricia Crowther. The other BRIDGE CREW contributors are friends 
or acquaintances of these two people. They are hobbyists and have 
developed BRIDGE CREW and support it in their spare (ha ha) time. 

6. Liability.
We accept no liability for the results you may get in using our 
software, especially consequential loss of any nature. It is your job 
to ensure that the software is suitable for your purpose. 

7. Contacting Mithril Software.
We have a FAX facility operating on 
Country code(61) Area code(6) Local number 254 6280
Don't forget the international access code.
Eg from NZ: 00 61 6 254 6280
The address of Mithril Software is:
PO BOX 225 KIPPAX ACT 2615 AUSTRALIA
You can contact our Internet Liaison Officer who is currently David 
Readman on JAGUAR@SUBURBIA.APANA.ORG.AU 
We actually live in Canberra, Australia but if you know our 
residential address, don't give it out, because we like a bit of 
privacy.

8. Support.

David Readman has volunteered to give advice where possible on the 
INTERNET and can be contacted on JAGUAR@SUBURBIA.APANA.ORG.AU he 
advises that Registered Customers will have priority so shareware 
users will get only 'spare' time.

Shareware users should not disturb us at Mithril unless it is to seek 
information concerning the act of registration or information about 
the registered version.

Registered users can contact our Internet Liaison Officer (currently 
David Readman on JAGUAR@SUBURBIA.APANA.ORG.AU) for help and he will 
forward it to us at Mithril. We suspect this will have about a seven 
day turnaround.
We will answer any questions about BRIDGE CREW from registered users 
if such questions are mailed to us with a stamped self addressed 
envelope.

Upgrades to the registered version are reasonably cheap (1/2 the 
original cost for a major upgrade. 1/3 or 1/4 (depending of number of 
disks and documentation) the original cost for a minor upgrade. 
Postage is less as well) Details are shipped with the registered 
version.

We run a BBS in Australia that has extra scenarios and technical tips. 
How BBS support will operate in the USA, Europe and elsewhere is at 
this stage unclear. Registered users will be notified of arrangements, 
if any.

Upgrades to the shareware release will be done only when we feel like 
it (probably if we have a change of address, a major new release or 
the ability to take orders by credit card).

We hope to periodically issue a newsletter informing registered users 
(who want it) of new product, technical tips and ideas.

9. Commercial use and other licencing.
We sell a commercial licence for those who wish to charge for the use 
of their copy of BRIDGE CREW. We have found in Australia that at a 
gaming convention you can make about $100 to $120 per day from running 
BRIDGE CREW as a huckster. This licence is payable yearly and has the 
side benefit of allowing access to Beta release software.

Please ensure if you are paying for BRIDGE CREW at a convention, 
seminar or at a public place that the vendor is displaying a current 
MITHRIL SOFTWARE endorsed BRIDGE CREW COMMERCIAL USE LICENCE 
certificate. 
 
For the purpose of getting BRIDGE CREW translated into other languages 
or other operating systems/computers we are 'generally' happy to 
provide a source code licence. As bridge crew develops it will become 
more language independent, maybe even so far as to enable ships to be 
designed in completely alien languages!.

We are considering releasing an Object .OBJ or .LIB version (which 
will require the user to have Borland C v4). This will only be done if 
there is sufficient interest. (Read, "if it is profitable" - this will 
not be a cheap release) The version, if released, will call various 
user written routines at pre-determined times in the turn processing 
(e.g. when a is ship hit, on command syntax error, each turn for the 
player ship, each turn for a non-player ship, special events (e.g. 
helm hit) when missiles are moved etc.)

10. Authors royalties.
BRIDGE CREW is priced so that we can pay the contributing authors a 
royalty for their contribution. If you develop a good scenario, 
consider getting us to market it for you (if we think it's good). We 
pay a royalty well above the industry average (which is not hard to 
do!).

11. Are we planning to get rich from BRIDGE CREW?
Our best estimate is that we have saturated our market in the 
Australian city of Melbourne (3 million people) with 8 copies. On this 
basis the world market is 1 copy of BRIDGE CREW to about 0.5 million 
people. Given our almost complete lack of advertising, we will 
probably sell 400 to 500 copies world wide. Enough income to pursue a 
hobby level of development, but not enough to make us rich - probably 
not even enough to support a single full time programmer. 

12. The BC4000 project.
This is a project to produce an ULTIMATE version of BRIDGE CREW - we 
will need about 4000 sales of the registered version to fund it (Hence 
BC4000). It will involve a FULL TIME programming effort on the part of 
Mithril Software. We ask you, if you can afford it, to please buy the 
full registered version of BRIDGE CREW, because if enough people do, 
it will enable this project to proceed.  Then we can bring you some 
REALLY EXCITING BRIDGE CREW product. Registered users will of course 
be given a lower cost upgrade path to BC4000 when it is developed.

We believe that BRIDGE CREW is worth pursuing because it is such fun. 
This can only be done slowly at the moment because of the part time 
nature of the programming and development effort and the lack of a 
good artist who can put in time for free.

SO! - We have started the BC4000 project which has the following 
objectives:

. To sell 4000 registered copies of BRIDGE CREW in a 1 year period.

This will allow us to:

. Enable Rob Cox to quit his job and code the next version of BRIDGE 
CREW full time for 1 year.
. Employ an artist for about 10 weeks to produce a fair amount of 
professional
  graphic art for the next version.
. Fund the development of the 'Windows 95 / Chicago port' using 
development
  tools and high performance PC's.

With all of this effort we should produce a version of BRIDGE CREW 
with the following features:
. The ability to run up to 6 player ships with a main screen for each 
one (driven through 16 serial ports or even a network?).
. Optional 2D or 3D universe and ship tactical graphics.
. Better graphics and artwork (read, "much better")!
. Jamming of weapon systems and communications (ECM).
. Weapon frequencies. 
. Shield leakage i.e. small amounts of damage getting through raised 
shields.
. Tractor beams and a few other weapon systems.
. Better energy distribution options - e.g. re-routing power by 
allocation rather
  than by switching things off.
. Larger universe 10,000,000 by 10,000,000 by 10,000,000.
. Better non player crews - e.g. more intelligent.
. All (read most) existing BRIDGE CREW features maintained.
. Functions combined with the weapons they control rather than 
  functions being separate.
. Boarding options.
. Improved scan and analyse options.
. Point defence weapon systems (the ability to shoot down some 
missiles).
. Ability to run on 486/dx66 machines with all features or to run on a 
486/33
  with reduced features or more slowly. 
. Better handling of stars and missiles, with the ability to scan them 
etc.  
. Foreign language support via easy to edit conversion files allowing 
each ship
  to use a different language, if possible.
 
13. Warranty

For the registered version of BRIDGE CREW we warrant that the Media is 
free of defects for the period of 30 days from the date of purchase 
and will replace or refund at our option any faulty product. We can 
not guarantee that the software will operate exactly as specified in 
the manuals and literature but we do our best to provide Bug Free 
software and up to date documentation.

We do regular virus checks on all products that we release and on our 
development systems.

14. Multi-port cards.
To really get the most out of BRIDGE CREW it is best run with a multi-
port card in your PC. This enables a large number of terminals (CREW 
and GM's). In Australia and New Zealand we can supply a competitively 
priced 4 or 8 port card. However, postage rates mean that in Europe, 
Canada and the USA (and elsewhere) locally sourced cards are probably 
cheaper. If you feel you must purchase a multi port card from us then 
contact us for a price. If not I suggest you read the section How 
Bridge crew handles multi port cards in GM.DOC and seek a local source 
for a suitable multi-port card. 

15 How did we come to our prices?
Because it is important to us to make a profit we have elected to sell 
Bridge Crew at a price which allows us to make enough profit from 4000 
sales to support the development of the ultimate version of BRIDGE 
CREW. We calculated this price in Australian Dollars, got the exchange 
rates, added an allowance for future currency fluctuations (we are 
confident we can maintain prices quoted in the currencies quoted, 
until 1 July 1996). We have done the right thing by our customers in 
releasing a very fun shareware release with only minor loss of 
functionality. We ask that you do the right thing by us and Register 
as soon as you can.



Mithril Software Product Line

The following products are currently available from Mithril 
Software:

BRIDGE CREW - Full Registered Version (Current 
release is 1.12)

Supplied with full printed manuals, the registered version 
has the ability to run scenarios of up to 40 ships.  The GM 
can save the scenarios at any time.  It comes with an 
imaginary universe called the Federation of Independent 
Planets (a Nato like alliance).  This universe has:

Rules for character advancement and campaign play.
12 training scenarios (to prepare the crews)
Four campaign scenarios.
One shakedown cruise scenario.
Two base scenarios for you to be creative with.
28 different ship, starbase and planet classes (as 
opposed to 12 in the shareware version).

SCENARIO DESIGNER

This is a suite of programs that allows you to design your 
own ship classes, zones, star systems, and ship shapes.  
Most of the listed ship statistics are modifiable.  The 
product includes basic reporting tools to enable you to 
document your scenarios.  Also included is a quick scenario 
generator for those times when you just want to play combats 
that involve unusual combinations of ship vs. ship.

THE VERSA MISSION

This is a suite of scenarios that is designed to be run in a 
competition environment.  Originally tested at an Australian 
roleplay convention in 1993, this is a mainly combat 
oriented scenario designed for novice users.  It can also be 
used to build a campaign in the FIP universe.  For those who 
wish to run Bridge Crew in a competition, it includes rules 
for scoring.

SWCONV

A program that converts BRIDGE CREW (registered version) 
scenarios into scenarios compatible with the shareware 
evaluation (this) version.  The scenarios to be converted 
can contain up to six ships.  You can use this to distribute 
a six ship demo version of a universe or scenario you have 
designed with the SCENARIO DESIGNER.

SHAREWARE SCENARIO IDEAS PACK

A series of seven forty-ship scenarios; three based on 
PUB2.SAV through PUB10.SAV  and four based on the FIP 
universe with the Cook, Ross, Hall, Readman, Boffo, Nichols 
and other ships familiar to Shareware version users. The 
objective of this pack is to immediately allow shareware 
users to play in the FIP universe and to allow adventures in 
the FIP universe using ships common with the shareware 
version. These scenarios are provided with a list of 
adventure ideas, but are not ready-to-play campaign 
scenarios. 

YEARLY LICENCE FOR THE RIGHT TO RUN BRIDGE CREW FOR 
PROFIT

A special licence that allows Bridge Crew to be run in a 
commercial environment for the purpose of making a profit.  
For example, presentation of Bridge Crew at a convention where 
players are charged a fee which results in the organiser or 
Bridge Crew owner making a profit.

Products under Development

The following products are under development at this time:

BCPANEL

An advanced PC terminal emulator allowing the creation of 
colourful graphic panels control panels on an IBM compatible 
PC with a CGA, EGA, or VGA graphics card.  This will give the 
user/GM the ability to design control panels suitable for a 
specific function or ship class, with push buttons, coloured 
bit-map objects, squares, circles, text of various fonts and 
other graphic objects.  The panels will recognise specific 
Bridge Crew messages and react accordingly.  Allowing a 
visually pleasing customisable interface to be created, it is 
designed to improve the live roleplay aspects of the game, 
though the prototype has shown that it will allow Bridge Crew 
to be run with smaller crews, as players find it easier to use 
than typed commands.  Because BCPANEL makes use of the mouse, 
it will not allow daisy-chaining and this means it is only 
suitable for use at the end of a daisy-chain or with a multi 
port card.

LIGHT BOX

This will probably be released as a kit of electronic 
components and a printed circuit board. This device attaches 
to a printer port, and with a modified BCTERM allows a light 
to reflect the current condition colour of the players 
starship.  For example, when the players' ship goes to 
condition red, it activates the red light bulb.  It also 
flashes a light if the ship is hit, adding to the 'atmosphere' 
during live roleplay sessions.  Future versions of BCTERM will 
support additional lighting effects using up to eight lights.  

BRIDGE CREW - Full Registered Version (Next release 
v1.13)

This product will probably be ready by the time you read this; 
it will have fixed a few bugs and will introduce several new 
commands to support better live roleplay, most notably the 
addition of a Medical Officer.  Other improvements will 
include:
*	Internal correspondence from a function within the ship.
*	The concept of Wounded casualties and a Medical Officer, 
rather than the dead or alive model currently available. 
*	Alternate main display colour schemes to assist with using 
the 'Creative Labs Video Coder' on the main display driving 
a large television.

