[ Sparky was an early incarnation of the Palace that worked as a "parasite" on Internet IRC - I distributed this very briefly in to some folks on IRC in order to test it. this is the readme file that came with it For many months, early versions of the Palace client were called "sparky", a name which was attached to the smiley face. - jbum ] Sparky Interim Document What is Sparky? ============== Sparky is a graphical chat system that works either on an AppleTalk network or on the Internet, using an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server. You and the other users appear as a "smiley face" on a 3D background. You can move around, change your face in a few different ways, and add various props such as eyeglasses, funny hats and martinis. This is an early alpha version of sparky, and has many features yet to be added. You have been warned! How do I use the Appletalk Version? ================================ The AppleTalk option requires a special server called "The Palace" which I have not released. If you are interested in getting a copy of the AppleTalk Sparky Server, let know by e-mail. How do I use the IRC version? ========================== The IRC version works either in Serial or TCP/IP mode (these options are available on the File menu). In both cases, you provide the hostname and port# of your favorite IRC server, and it attempts to get connected. The serial version assumes you are using a unix dial-up system and are already logged on. It issues a "telnet " command to get connected. You can select the port and baud rate, but not much else. Assuming you get successfully connected to an IRC server, you should issue a /JOIN command to join your favorite channel. Once you do this, you should see a number of "smiley heads" appear on the main window. At this point, you can switch to the main window. How do I see the background picture? ================================= If there is a PICT file whose name matches the current channel name available in the same directory as sparky, the picture will be diplayed in the background. These pictures should (ideally) be 512 x 348, 8-bit system palette. How do I see people's names? ========================== To see the names of the other users, hold down the Cmd and Option keys simultaneously. How do I talk? ============= You can talk by typing in the box at the bottom of the window. When people talk, the text appears as word balloons. To make a "thought" balloon, precede the text with a colon (:). How do I move? ============== To move to a different part of the room, click where you want to go. Depending on the amount of lag, there will be some delay before your face actually moves there, since sparky waits for confirmation from the server. How do I send a private message? ============================== To send a private message, target the person you want to send it to by clicking on them first. You should see a "target" message on the status line. Private messages appear in italics. How do I stop sending private messages? ===================================== If you want to stop sending private messages, click on yourself, or the black border which surrounds the room. How do I go out the door? ====================== In later versions of sparky, you will be able to click on "doors" and "stairs" to change rooms (channels). How come everybody's eyes are shut? ================================= Many faces will appear with closed eyes, indicating that the other users aren't using sparky. If the eyes are open, the other user may be using sparky, and can "see" you. These people will be able to see your movements and the changes you make to your face. Some of the more common facial expressions such as happy :) and sad :( are also broadcast to non-sparky users as smileys. How do I change my face? ======================= The numeric keypad is used to change your appearence. The various number keys will change your facial expression, while the "-" and "+" keys on the keypad will change your color. The "*" key on the keypad will bring up a menu of "props", which you can select from. You may have up to 3 props. To get rid of your props, hit the "*" again. How do I change the faces / props? =============================== The faces and props are stored as color icons (cicn resources) in sparky's resource fork. Although you can change these, it is recommended that you don't, so that others will see the same images you do. How does sparky work on IRC? =========================== All your appearance changes will be seen by other sparky users. The special messages that are used to communicate this information are sent privately to other sparky users (with one exception, described below), so they won't disturb the normal IRC users on the channel. However, whenever you /join a channel, sparky will send publicly the message "fac 5", to let the other sparkys know that a new sparky user has joined the channel. The other sparkys will repond privately, to identify themselves. How do I get IRC feature XYZ to work? ================================== Although sparky uses the IRC server, it is NOT a replacement for a full-featured IRC client (like Homer or IRCII). It is an (admittedly primitive) graphical MUD that happens to use IRC servers for communications. Many features that work well on an IRC client don't translate well to sparky, and vice versa. For example, on sparky,you should stay on only one channel at a time, to maintain the illusion of occupying a single room. (When you /join a channel, you automatically /leave your current channel). Also, most system messages are not displayed in the main window. I have intentionally ignored many IRC-specific features such as operators, channel flags etc, and will probably continue to do so for some time. Sparky is meant to provide an ALTERNATE experience to IRC. In the future I will be concentrating on providing cool NEW features, such as graphical objects that you can script and manipulate, agents and games, rather than supporting the existing IRC stuff. Still to come: Working Doors (these work on the AppleTalk version, but not on IRC). More Art. Graphical Objects with Scripts. Plug-In Code Agents Games - Jim Bumgardner jbum@netcom.com