PIDEjCT - Portable Intellivision Development Environment jzintv Launcher
Windows port, Chronological Tour edition
Written by Michael Hayes
http://www.midnightblueinternational.com/pide.php
Date of last modification: April 21, 2025
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"What is this?"

This is a graphical application written in Python using Tkinter, which allows
you to select one of your Intellivision games and launch jzintv.  It was
designed for use with my Portable Intellivision Development Environment, the
documentation for which is available on my website.  Thanks to jenergy on
Atariage for helping to port this to Windows and for providing some of the
screenshots.

The Chronological Tour has all the games categorized by year or release and by
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What is included:

    readme.txt - what you are reading now
      play.bat - the script to launch PIDEjL
      temp.bat - a temporary script that is generated by PIDEjL
    pidejl.py  - the Python code for PIDEjL
    config.py  - a configuration file that you can tweak
   overlay.py  - part of a future enhancement
    jzintv.exe - the Intellivision emulator
   bin2rom.exe - a utility bundled with jzIntv to convert ROM images
   rom2bin.exe - a utility bundled with jzIntv to convert ROM images
   blueeye.png - application logo
   welcome.png - the dummy screenshot image that appears at start
  notfound.png - default image when a game is selected and no screenshot found
intycolors.cfg - an alternate Intellivision color scheme
  hackfile.cfg - the default keyboard hack file for jzintv
   veckeys.cfg - an alternate keyboard hack file for use with Vectron
  dbscript.txt - a script for the internal jzIntv debugger
ecs_tape_*.ecs - virtual Aquarius tape files generated by certain games
   bnjedit.bat - the script to launch my bundled Bump & Jump level editor
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"What do I need?"

- A computer running Windows 8 or higher
  - If you have Windows 7, you will need Service Pack 1.  Also, the highest
    version of Python supported by Windows 7 is 3.8.  PIDEjL should work fine
    with version 3.7 and up, but I make no guarantees for earlier versions.
- A 1080p display
  - The Chronological Tour was designed with 1920x1080-resolution displays in
    mind.  If your display resolution is lower than that, you will want to use
    PIDEjLW instead.
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Setup:

1. If you are reading this, then by now you've already imported the .zip file
   and extracted it, creating the folder C:\pidejl\ with all the files in it.
2. Put your Executive ROMs, Graphics ROMs, and optional ecs.bin files into the
   pidejl\ folder.  These are not provided.
3. Put all your ROM image files into the Games\ subfolder, unless you have
   them somewhere else already and plan on tweaking the config file later.
4. If you download the screenshots package, unzip it directly into the
   Screenshots\ subfolder.
5. Install Python:
   Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/
   Click on the Download button.
   Important!  When you open the file to begin installation, check the
   "Add Python to the path" box at the bottom of the screen, before proceeding.
6. Tweak the config file.
   a. Open C:\pidejl\config.py in your text editor.
   b. Do not delete any lines.  Just make changes as necessary.
   c. Change the paths as appropriate.
        i. Make sure there are two backslashes at the end of the path strings.
       ii. A copy of jzIntv is included, so the working path shall remain.
   d. If you want to change the defaults of such things as the window size and
      the border size, read the comment in the line just above each line.
   e. The global options are parameters that will probably remain the same for
      all games.  They can be overridden by individual game parameters, such as
      the replacement keyboard hack file for Vectron.  If you're trying to
      improve performance, try lowering the audiorate to 11025 for starters.
   f. Updating the game list is the next thing to do here.  Make sure you read
      the directions in the comments above before you proceed.
        i. The games will appear in the list in the order they are listed here.
       ii. Python is fussy about indentation.  Notice the separations between
           games within the same group, and between different game groups.  For
           example, the third entry for Las Vegas Roulette is the last entry in
           the Gaming Network, and the fourth entry for Auto Racing is the
           first entry in the Sports Network.
      iii. Each entry has the following fields:
           - "name" is the name of the game as it appears in the list.
           - "players" is the number of players.  Right away, you can see in
             the examples of Horse Racing and Auto Racing that sometimes a
             little explanation is needed here.
           - "description" is a full description of that game.  You can add as
             much text as you want here, because a scrollbar will appear in the
             Description pane if necessary.
           - "filename" is the ROM filename for that game.
           - "ecs" is set to 1 if that game supports the Entertainment Computer
             System (ECS), or 0 if it does not.
           - "intellivoice" is set to 1 if that game supports IntelliVoice, or
             0 if it does not.
           - "grom" can be set to 1 to utilize the newer Graphics ROM, found in
             late-model Intellivision "Super Pro System" consoles, or 0 for the
             standard Intellivision "system font".  I typically use the newer
             Graphics ROM for the INTV releases.
           - "gram" is set to 2 for the Tutorvision games, as well as any indie
             titles that take advantage of 4x Graphics RAM, such as Chippi and
             Little Man Computer.  Set it to 0 for everything else.  Setting it
             to 1 is for 2x Graphics RAM, found in modified Intellivision-II
             units.  I did that for FW Diagnostics only, for demo purposes.
           - Finally, "params" is for any game-specific jzIntv parameters:
             - Vectron uses this for the alternate Keyboard hackfile,
             - Certain ECS titles use this to specify the tape filename,
             - Indie games that use JLP use this to specify where to save JLP
               Flash data,
             - Chippi uses this to default to ECS keyboard controls, and to
               specify the path where the Chippi tape files are stored.
   g. Save and close.
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How to use:

Now it's time to try it out.
Open C:\pidejl\ and run "play.bat".  A black command-line window will appear.

Another window will appear with gold panes on the sides, and dark brown panes
inside.  This is the actual front-end.  Within the two large inner panes, there
will be introductory text on the left, and a list of the Sports Network games
(for now) on the right.

First, let's try one of the bundled games.  All the way to the bottom right
corner is the Game Category, which is currently showing "-1980 Sports Network".
Click on that to bring up a list of all the other categories of games.  For
now, select the bottom item in the list, "IntyBASIC Contest 2024 - Tiny".

Notice that three changes just took place:
1. The Color Flash changed from blue to dark brown (this is where the Number of
   Players for a chosen game will be displayed),
2. The list of games changed,
3. The Description text changed, now about the new list of games.

Within this game list, try clicking on "Sheep It Up!"
If you had downloaded and installed the optional Screenshots file, you should
now see a screenshot of that game.  Either way, what you will also see is a
description of that game.
The controls in the System and Peripheral Options frames will adjust themselves
based on whether the game is identified to support ECS, IntelliVoice, and/or
World Book Tutorvision.

If you want to change the Display Options from their defaults, you may do so.
The change is only temporary.
Click on the Play button when ready.  It is all the way in the bottom left
corner of the window.  The launcher window will close and jzIntv will open.  To
quit a game, press F1.

When you finish playing, the launcher window will reappear.  You can choose
another game and play some more, or click on the Quit button.

The purpose of this Chronological Tour is to provide a history of the
Intellivision to those who might not have grown up with it, to have a greater
appreciation for the various games and innovations such as the Entertainment
Computer System.  I suggest you browse through each Game Category in order and
sample a game or two in each list.  I made the Sports Network the default
(which you can change at the bottom of the bottom of the config.py file) due to
the number of games in the Sports Network, but the Gaming Network is first in
the list because one of those games, Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, was the
original pack-in title.

Once you've made it to the end of the Chronological Tour, feel free to tweak
the config.py file some more.  At the very bottom is defaultgroup, where you
can change the index of the group that is displayed at startup from the Sports
Network to "Commercial Games (all)", for example.
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License Stuff

There is no license or warranty of any kind.  Like the rest of the files I make
available on my website as part of my Portable Intellivision Development
Environment, I offer this package as a tool, and not as a product.  You are
free to do anything you want with these files.  The only disclaimer is that the
standard keyboard hackfile is something I downloaded from intellivision.us and
modified for this environment.

With that said, jzIntv cannot be bundled with any package sold commercially, so
this package shall also remain free.  I myself do not charge money for it, and
nobody else is permitted to do so.
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EOF
