Universal Hint System Help File
Golden Fleece [72337,2611]
  (Creator of the UHS)

I'm sure that most of you have seen something about the Universal Hint System
(UHS for short) or some .UHS files floating around in the LIBraries.  And I've
always assumed that most people would understand what the UHS is.  UHINTS.TXT
(found in LIB 1) doesn't have any information that the average person would
care about since it was mainly written for programmers.  So it finally occured
to me, after all of this time, that it was time to put up a help file telling
people exactly what the UHS is.

Basically, every major computer (Amiga, Apple II's, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST,
Commodore 64/128, IBM, and Macintosh) has two different UHS programs (or will
eventually).  All programs for the UHS are found in LIBrary 1.  The first
program is the reader.  The reader takes any of the .UHS files (found in the
appropriate libraries, for example, UHS files for adventure games go in LIB 2)
and reads them like a hint book.  All UHS files can be read on all computers.
I should point out that all of the UHS files are encrypted and CANNOT be read
without a UHS reader.

Although the readers vary from computer to computer, all begin by taking a
file and giving you a choice of topics (usually areas in the game, though not
always).  You then choose one of the topics and a list of possible questions
that fall under that topic are presented.  From there, you choose a question.
Then, one by one, you are given clues to answer your question.  At any time,
you may stop reading these clues, in case you don't want to spoil the game by
getting more help than you need.

Considering how short of a time that it takes to download both the reader and
the average file, compared to the time it takes to post messages to have just
one question answered on the message boards, I think you will find that the
UHS is a much cheaper way to get hints.

If you decide you would like to return the favor and create your own UHS
files, the second program, the writer, will aid you.  The writers take a
simple outline and will do everything that needs to be done to turn the
outline into a UHS file.  Two things should be said about writing files:
  1) Please check with me before beginning a file.  Just because a certain
file hasn't been uploaded doesn't mean that someone else hasn't been putting a
lot of work into writing one.
  2) When you upload a UHS file, upload it as a binary file and with a .UHS
extender to identify it.

There is also another file you may want to take a look at, UHSLST.TXT (also in
LIB 1).  It lists all of the different UHS programs, as well as the authors on
each computer and all existing and planned UHS files.  This is not completely
current, so if you want to do a file, do not take the absence of that game
from the list to mean no one is doing the file.

Programs for the UHS may also be found by typing BRO /KEY:UHS [name of your
computer] at the LIB 1 ! prompt.  For example, if you have an IBM-compatible,
you would type BRO /KEY:UHS IBM to find the reader and writer for IBM.  I do
not suggest including either READER or WRITER in the keywords, since not all
programs include them.

If you have any questions that I have not explained, please leave me a
message.
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