ED's Screen Saver++ Vol. II Tropical Fish 1.9e(E)

Copyright© 1996-98 ED Software. All rights reserved.


  1. The Beginning…
  2. Requirements
  3. Installation
  4. Settings - Configure dialogue of ED's Tropical Fish
  5. Screen saver mode and wallpaper mode
  6. Pop-up menu (wallpaper mode)
  7. TfSetup.exe
  8. About Registration
    Internatinal postal money order & Online registration
  9. Copyright etc.
  10. Our works for ED's Tropical Fish
  11. Special thanks to...

Our Homepage http://plaza12.mbn.or.jp/~eds/index2.html
Mail to HAE01346@nifty.ne.jp


The beginning...

It all began on a hot day in August '96, after we brought guppies into our home. We had 3 pairs of Guppies which swam vigorously in the tank. After several days, however, we began to notice that they were beginning to turn white around their gills and mouth, and died one after another. Finally only one guppy male remained. We had not learned from what happened to the others, so we put 3 more pairs of guppies into the tank. They also died within in a few days.

Chlorine neutralizing agent(Tetra Contra Chlorine) has been inserted in the tank, therefore chlorine poisoning is not conceivable. Why had they died? The pH of water in the tank measured with pH meter(Tetra Test pH tropical) was 6-6.5 acid water. Tap water was becoming acid due to the drought season in summer. Since Guppies live in water with a weak alkali content, acid water of pH 6 has destroyed the mucous membrane and gills of guppies. Cause of death could very well be pH shock.

Therefore, we adjusted the water quality with pH adjustment medicine and mucous membrane protection medicine(Tetra Aqua Safe). We applied a 5-day period for making optimal water to the tank. We wanted to start the 3rd guppy breeding, so we went to a tropical fish shop to purchase more guppies. The lady in the tropical fish shop, having had several years of tropical fish breeding experience, advised us against buying them, because they died so easily.

In our research on Guppies, we discovered that Guppies thrive better with iodine in their water. The death rate of guppies in water is 30-40%, a high rate during 20 days(quoted from "Tetra How to breed guppies"). Therefore, Tetra Vital(Mineral, iodine) was added to the tank. After that, the condition of the guppies rapidly improved. And, finally our guppies began to reproduce, much to our delight.

(Now the guppies are reproducing very rapidly, and they are increasing too much. We now have so many, it is difficult to care for them. The water quality adjustment medicine of Tetra was very useful for us.)

We have learned a valuable lesson: it pays to take good care of your fish. (And health and vigor of fish is the most important. A good tropical fish shop should be chosen.)

We offer this software in honor of our Guppies that did not live.

Ultimate(?) screen saver of tropical fish!
A real image by simple bitmap file data.
You can easily make data of tropical fish, water plant, and accessories in tanks.

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Requirements

This software is for Windows 95 (& NT4.0). This software will not run in Windows 3.1.
There is the following restriction about NT4.0.


  1. When a background image is Desktop, in Windows95, the desktop (Wallpaper + desktop icons + desktop windows) becomes a background image. However, in NT4.0, only a wallpaper becomes a background image.
  2. The setting of the option that disregards a mouse movement does not work in NT. When a mouse is moved, screen saver terminates.
  3. The password that set up with system of NT4.0 is used as the password of screen saver. The password that set up screen sever is not used.

High color or true color screen mode. This screen saver works best with high color setting. It should be higher than 256 color in order to see the best results

Large memory is necessary. 2.5 times (-3 times) of the capacity that a memory uses for a screen display may be necessary. You will need at least 5MB of memory to run this program on 1024x768 dot, 16bit color display mode.

Powerful PC  is better. You may need a Pentium or powerful CPU and a good graphic board to run all the options effectively.
Even DX4 PC works good if graphic board is good (DX4 100MHz, memory 40MB, VISION 864). When setting is for 10 or more Guppies, it might be necessary to turn off the air pump and overlay modes.

If the sound function is installed, you can hear the comfortable sound of pump and water and can also play BGM sound (Midi).

MFC40.DLL is necessary, because this software was made with Visual C++ 4.1 with MFC. If you are running Windows 95, and if you are using Microsoft software , there is probably MFC40.DLL in Windows 95 System folder of your PC. If there is not a MFC40.DLL , you might try outside sources such as personal computer magazines.

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Installation

1 Decompress all files in EDSTFISH.ZIP to a proper folder. Archiver may create a new folder, Edstfish.

2 Execute TFSETUP.EXE file from the explorer. Display property-Screen saver. When clicking the configure button, configure dialogue of "ED's Tropical Fish" shows.

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Settings - Configure dialogue of ED's Tropical Fish

1 Sound Sampled sound of a pump and water is on
2 BGM MIDI file is played
3 Air pump Bubbles are displayed
4 Swinging water plants The water plants designated with TFD file is swinging right and left
The above 3 and 4 options diminishes both CPU power and the drawing capability. You may want to turn them off when animation processing of the screen saver is slow.
5 Cover  floor with sand Sand is spread to the bottom of the tank
6 Perspective Accessories in the tank are arranged under as coming in the front
7 Display drawing time Time(msec) for drawing each scenes is displayed under the right
8 Ignore mouse Screen saver is not terminated by mouse moving. This option is disregarded in NT4.0. Check when using wallpaper mode
9 Click to WP(wallpaper) mode Screen saver becomes a wallpaper mode when clicking the mouse right button. When you can not access a task bar, click the mouse left button. If this option is not checked, a click makes screen saver terminate
10 Power saving during WP mode Options of "Air pump" and "Swinging water plants", consumes a great deal of CPU power, and becomes ineffective during wallpaper mode
11 Silent in WP mode An effect sound and BGM are turned off during wallpaper mode or iconic mode.
12 preview off(Display property) A sample preview in screen saver tag of display property is suspended. Delay is much shorter when checked
13 Setting of a background Desktop A desktop image is used as the background of the tank.
  BMP file An image file is displayed over the background of the tank
  Tiling Image file is displayed in a tile state with original size
  Painting Color setting dialogue is displayed. Select desired color for background.
  When a background is designated with TFD file, this setting is disregarded
14 Overlay (processing) Accessories When not checked, all accessories are arranged to a background face
  Tropical fish When not checked, overlay processing between each tropical fish is not done
  If animation processing is slow. take these options off
15 Fish Choose number of fish between 1 & 50(50 being highest total) in a scroll bar.  If number of fish is designated in TFD file, this value is disregarded.
16 Bubbles Decide number(10-100) of bubbles in a scroll bar. 10-20 may be best choice. Decrease this number when animation processing is slow.
17 Drawing time(msec) Decide interval for drawing time(msec). A redrawing time may not be designated time if the performance of your PC is not enough. Default value is 50msec.
18 Black Out When designated time(min) passes, display screen becomes black. Let's set it up if your monitor has no power-saving function.
Buttons
19 Edit TFD File If having registered TFD file making software(ED's Tropical fish, Aquarium Maker( EDSTFAMK.EXE) and having the EDSTFAMK.EXE file in the same folder as TFD file exists, this button can be effective. Execute EDSTFAMK.EXE to edit a TFD file.
20 TFD File... Use this button to change the TFD file(Tropical Fish Data file)
TFD file:File of a text form that designated tropical fish and the water plant arrangement inside the tank
21 Background BMP File... Push this button to change BMP file to use as background
22 MIDI File... Push this button to change MIDI file.
23 OK Changed settings are recorded and software finishes
24 Cancel Software finishes, without recording changed settings
25 Change password... Change password to terminate screen saver. Set up when you do not want your PC , file and etc. seen by others. This setting becomes effective when the protection by password is checked with screen saver property in Windows 95
26 Version... Version information dialogue is shown
27 Shareware registration... Use this button to insert password for registration that is sent by E-mail after shareware registration. After correct password is inserted, this button automatically disappears
28 Redraw Push redraw button, which changes saver to the new settings

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Screen saver mode and wallpaper mode

This software in screen saver mode works as usual screen saver. Other than this, software in wallpaper mode works in background.

Important!

In wallpaper mode,

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Popup menu (wallpaper mode)

1 Feeding Food is scattered in the position of mouse cursor by clicking the left mouse button. If fish are hungry, they crowd to food
2 Make all fish hungry A hungry degree of all fish becomes 0%(very hungry status)
3 A hungry degree of fish Nothing occurs with a click. Mean hungry degree of fish is shown
4 Lighting With a click, lighting turned on and off(toggled)
5 Automatic lighting Use when you want lighting to turn on and off automatically. (Probably not too useful)
6 Screen saver mode If checked, this software works as usual screen saver
7 Wallpaper mode If checked, this software becomes the moving wallpaper. If it combines with proper launcher software, it may work good practically...we think.
8 Iconic mode If checked, It minimizes saver to task bar. Screen saver does not operate while minimized. Check this option when you do not want to execute screen save.
9 Configure... A screen saver configure dialogue is shown
10 Display drawing time Time(msec) for drawing is displayed under the right of screen. It becomes like an easy graphic bench mark test...
11 Exit Screen saver is terminated

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TfSetup.exe

TfSetup.exe is not only Setup program for ED's Tropical Fish but also  the  setting program of TFD File.

1 If you drag and drop a TFD file to this program(TfSetup.exe),
2 If you open a TFD file with this program(TfSetup.exe),

You can  promptly see the tank of the TFD File.

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About Registration

Restriction before registration
This software is a shareware. In order to use this software continually,you must register this screen saver.
A registration fee is 1500yen or US $12.00.
A trial use period is not limiting, however, erase all files if you choose not to use this software.
"This software is shareware. Please register this software." is displayed before registration. The "Edit TFD File" button is not effective until registration.

Please Register this screen saver by sending 1500 Yen ( US$ 12.00 ).
After receiving registration fee, we will send passwords that will erase the registration text and make the "Edit TFD File" button effective.

A remittance method is as follows.
The remittance by an international postal money order is possible. Remit 1500Yen (US $12.00). Please send remittance to:

HIDETAKA IIDA
103 Dooru Tsujii
8-16-1 Tsujii,
Himeji city, Hyogo Pref. 670-0083
JAPAN

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS AND NAME OF SOFTWARE (ED's Tropical Fish for E version).

Please direct e-mail to: HAE01346@nifty.ne.jp

Your name
E-mail address
Date of remittance
Name of software (ED's Tropical Fish for E version)

After confirmation of your payment, we will send E-mail with passwords to you.

  1. Password for EDSTFISH.scr that will erase the registration text.
  2. Password for EDSTFAMK.exe that will make the button effective.

The other method(Online registration) is here( http://plaza12.mbn.or.jp/~eds/pipenet.htm).

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Copyright etc.

The copyright of this software is in ED Software(HIDETAKA IIDA). About the reproduction or distribution to the other media or net other than personal distribution, we hope that you observe the following contents.

  1. Do not change constitution of contents.
  2. Give communication with E-mail to us( HAE01346@nifty.ne.jp) in advance.

About the production of data for this software
There is no restriction about distribution of TFD files or BMP data file of accessories or tropical fish that you made. If you make wonderful data, please distribute them on net and inform us ( HAE01346@nifty.ne.jp).

If any damage occurred by using this software, we do not take responsibility for the damage. Please understand that the user of Ed's Tropical Fish screensaver assumes the full risk of using this software.
Do not use this software if you do not agree with the above mentioned statements. 

For questions or comments about any bugs, an order, opinion, and so on, please direct E-mail to us ( HAE01346@nifty.ne.jp).

Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States of America and other countries.

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Our works for ED's Tropical Fish (all works are free soft $0)

Data files

  1. MONOSTAR.zip Monolith mini and stars
  2. CARDINAL.zip cardinal tetra, Driftwood and Moai.
    You can get more data files of ED's Tropical Fish here.

Utility software for making image data of accessories and tropical fish

  1. EDSTFDMK.zip ED's Tropical Fish Data Maker. If you want  your original fish to swim, use this software.
    You can get this file here.

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Special thanks to...

Finally, we thank you for reading this information.
We would consider it a kindness if you would modify sentences and E-mail to us. ( HAE01346@nifty.ne.jp).

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