Black & White Player Selector
Version 1.00; Sunday, April 22, 2001.
Copyright  2001 by J. Edward Sanchez. All rights reserved.


Introduction
------------

Black & White Player Selector (BWS for short) is an add-on utility for the game
Black & White from Lionhead Studios. It allows you to select a player profile
to use *before* starting Black & White, thereby bypassing the mandatory (and
very time-consuming) "auto-load, auto-save, auto-load" sequence that the game
normally imposes when you want to switch players at startup.


Installation
------------

To install BWS, unzip BWS.EXE from BWS100.ZIP into your Black & White
installation folder. Then make a copy of your Black & White shortcut, and
modify it so that it points to BWS.EXE instead of RUNBLACK.EXE.


Usage
-----

When you run BWS by starting the new shortcut that you created during the
installation procedure, you are presented with a list of all of the available
player profiles. To help you identify the players at a glance, each player name
is displayed along with its corresponding player symbol. Custom player symbols
(SYMBOLn.BMP) are fully supported.

Select a player with the keyboard or mouse, then click OK. (Alternatively,
simply double-click your selection.) BWS will update the Black & White settings
to use your selected player, and then it will launch Black & White. If you want
to update the current player setting without playing the game, uncheck the
"Play Black & White now" option before clicking OK.


Command-line Parameters
-----------------------

BWS fully supports Black & White command-line parameters (such as
/FORCEINETCONN and /NOINETCONN). Simply use the desired command-line
parameters with BWS.EXE just as you would with RUNBLACK.EXE. For example, if
the Target box for your original Black & White shortcut is:

  "d:\some\path\runblack.exe" /FORCEINETCONN

then your new shortcut should look like this:

  "d:\some\path\bws.exe" /FORCEINETCONN

where "d:\some\path" is your Black & White installation folder.


Uninstalling
------------

To uninstall BWS from your computer, delete BWS.EXE and the shortcut you
created during the installation procedure. That's it! BWS does not create any
configuration files or registry entries, so removal is simple and clean.


Release Notes
-------------

1.00.001: Sunday, April 22, 2001 (initial release)

 - tested with Black & White version 1.00 (current version at time of
   release)
 - supports a maximum of 1,000 player profiles
 - no known issues


Coming Soon
-----------

A full-featured utility for selectively backing up and restoring your Black &
White creatures, player options, and saved games into a single compact and
convenient file.


Disclaimers and Legal Information
---------------------------------

BWS is freeware. It may by used and distrubuted freely, but only in its
original archived form (BWS100.ZIP). The program and its accopanying
documentation and supporting files are not to be modified, disassembled, or
reverse-engineered in any way.

Although considerable effort was spent in testing BWS, it may nevertheless
contain bugs. Use it entirely at your own risk. There are no warranties express
or implied. The author cannot be held liable for any damage caused, directly or
indirectly, by the program or its accompanying documentation and supporting
files.

If you have any comments, bug reports, or suggestions regarding BWS,
please don't hesitate to contact the author by e-mail at the following address:

  softarts@lightlink.com

BWS and its author are in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Lionhead
Studios Ltd., the developer of Black & White.

Lionhead and the Lionhead logo are trademarks of Lionhead Studios Ltd.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
