Far Out! AlphaWorld Teleport

WebPage teleport is here! And so are the instructions on setting it up and using it to its fullest advantage.

Getting Started
Getting Fancy
Getting Really Fancy
Take a Tour of AlphaWorld that uses Web-page teleport. Updated March 2, 1996
The AlphaWorld Atlas has a handy teleporter that lets you type in your desired destination and zip to it.

Getting Started

You just want to get Webpage teleport set up. So all you need to do is tell your Web browser how to handle it. Instructions are given here for NetScape 2.0, but should be applicable to almost any browser; if you'd like to put specific instructions in here for your Web browser, just E-mail me, and I'll be sure to put them in here.

NetScape 2.0

From the Options menu, select General Preferences....
Click on the Helpers tab.
Click on the New button, in the right-center of the dialog box.
In the dialog box that comes up, type application for the MIME type, and x-alphaworld for the MIME sub-type
In the Extensions input box, type .aw,.AW
In the Application input box, type the full-path filename of the AWORLD.EXE file, or use the browse button to select the AWORLD.EXE via dialog box.
Click on OK.
From the Options menu, select Save Options.

MicroSoft Internet Explorer

From the View menu, select Options.
Click on the File Types tab.
Click on the New Type... button.
In Description, put AlphaWorld
In Associated extensions, put aw,AW
In the Content Type, put application/x-alphaworld
In the Default Extension, make sure it has ".aw" in.
Uncheck Confirm open after download
Click on New... in the actions section.
In the Action, put Open.
In the Application, put the full-path filename to AWORLD.EXE. For example, since I installed AlphaWorld in C:\Local Stuff\AWORLD, I'd put "C:\Local Stuff\AWORLD\AWORLD.EXE".
Click on Close
If you want, select the icon.
Click on Close to exit the Options dialog.

That's it! Your Web browser is all set to handle web page teleport.

Getting Fancy

Now that you've set up your browser to handle web page teleport, perhaps you want to learn a few more tricks.

Parachuting to a Location Other Than Ground Zero

Using Window's NOTEPAD or another ASCII text editor, create a new file. In the file, put the line "teleport xxxxxD xxxxxD xA x", indicating the location you want to parachute to on startup. For example, "teleport 200S 100E 3A 0" would teleport you to 200 south, 100 east, facing north, with an altitude of 3. Save this file in your AlphaWorld directory (or another directory of your choosing, and exit NOTEPAD.

Windows 3.1

Go to Program Manager, and select New from the File menu. In the Description, put the description of the location. In the Command box, put the full-path filename of your AlphaWorld program, followed by a space, followed by a full-path filename of the file you just saved in NOTEPAD. For example, since I have installed AlphaWorld in the C:\CAMP\AWORLD directory, and I saved the teleport instructions in the file C:\CAMP\AWORLD\HOME.AW, I would enter

C:\CAMP\AWORLD\AWORLD.EXE C:\CAMP\AWORLD\HOME.AW

In the Working Directory, enter the directory in which AlphaWorld is installed, i.e. C:\CAMP\AWORLD

Windows '95

Right click on the desktop(the green background by default, or whatever wallpaper you have). Now choose New, and then SHORTCUT. You will be prompted for a command line. In this box put the full-path filename of your AlphaWorld program, followed by a space, followed by a full-path filename of the file you just saved in NOTEPAD. For example, since I installed AlphaWorld in the C:\CAMP\AWORLD directory, and I saved the teleport instruction file in C:\CAMP\AWORLD\HOME.AW, I would enter

C:\CAMP\AWORLD\AWORLD.EXE C:\CAMP\AWORLD\HOME.AW

Now choose NEXT, and then FINISH. This will place the shortcut on the desktop, ready to be run or moved to somewhere more convenient.

Thanks to Bo Wood for these instructions on doing it with Windows '95.

That's it, you can now parachute to any location simply by using the icon you just created.

Getting Really Fancy

For all you Web-heads and techies out there, here's the low-down on Webpage teleport:

The MIME type for AlphaWorld is defined to be "application/x-alphaworld". The contents of this file are currently allowed to be only a teleport instruction in the form "teleport XXXD XXXD XXXa XXX", where "XX..." is a number, "D" is either "N" for north, "S" for south, "E" for east, or "W" for west. The first two parameters determine the location, the third the altitude, and the fourth the direction faced. If no location is given, no teleport is made. If no altitude is given, it is assumed to be the current altitude. If no direction is given, it is assumed to be "0" (north). Note that the east/west directions are reversed from the standard compass headings:

      0
      N
      |
90 W--+--E 270
      |
      S
     180

If you want to tell your web server to make all files ending in "aw" as AlphaWorld instruction files, edit its mime.types file, or in the NCSA server, edit 'conf/srm.conf' and add a line 'AddType application/x-alphaworld .aw'. Then restart the server.

CGI's should output the text 'Content-type: application/x-alphaworld' followed by two newlines, then the teleport instruction.

The fact that the files have the word 'teleport' as the first part of the line indicates that Worlds may be planning to add other ways for Web-based applications to interact with the AlphaWorld software; stay tuned for details.