Is fRaBs legal?

To the best of my knowledge, yes.

When will the next version of fRaBs released?

Whenever I have the free time to make a coherent and stable build
with enough new features over the existing version.

How do I use the level editor?

From the DOS command line, type "abuse -edit" (without the quotes).

Rather than make a Windows shortcut, I often use the Windows Run
menu and make various Abuse command sequences.

How do I change the screen resolution?

This is another command line tab. "abuse -size xxx yyy"

You can go crazy with this. '640 400', '800 600', even '1280 1024'.
Note that Abuse's built-in lighting effects only work at the default
game resolution, '320 200'.

How do I configure sound?

As with many old DOS games, there is a file, setup.exe, which has a
sound card configuration. Just let it auto-detect your sound card and
you should be fine. If the autodetect crashes, then select a sound
card manually, with the default settings that it gives you. If that
doesn't work then dig up your soundcard manual.

Windows has a System Information utility that you can use to find your
sound card's settings. It is located in the Start menu, under
Accessories/System Tools.

Why doesn't fRaBs have working music?

I don't know how the HMI file format works, and I assumed the old
songs were copy-righted so I removed them from the distribution. I
like Abuse without music personally. Make sure that you don't configure
music when you run setup.exe. Someday I may compose music for fRaBs...

I saw the Pong addon. Can you make other games with the Abuse engine?

Yup, you can go crazy with this too. To this date there have been
checkers, chess, connect4, and more that have been done with the Abuse
engine. I have a few other projects in store, if you check the updates
section closely. Abuse has a built-in LISP interpreter, and almost every
aspect of the game is customizable somehow.

Why isn't there Pong documentation here?

I figure that I may add documentation for the addons when they are nice
and finished. They will probably be tacked on to the single player and
deathmatch pages when it is necessary. There are also text files in each
addon directory with some various notes.

Can I chat during a Deathmatch game?

Yes. Press 'c' and make sure your mouse pointer is inside the little chat
window while you are talking. Move the mouse out of the chat window and
press 'c' again to close the window.

How do I (insert engine function here)?

The level editing page has a full list of command-line options. Some
work, but some don't. Experiment a little. If you have any problems,
my email is ready.

What is Satan Paint, and how do I use it?

I have no goddamn idea. I hate Satan Paint. It is such a pain in the
ass to work with. If I ever get good with that lousy piece of shit, I
will write a detailed tutorial.

Satan Paint is used to make artwork for Abuse. You can view artwork
and animations, which are stored in SPE format files. One SPE file can
hold many pictures.

What is this Death Ray? Was it in the original version of Abuse?

Here's the history of this weapon... Crack Dot Com was going to include
it in the full version of Abuse but they scrapped the idea due to lack
of time. Fast forward from 1995 to 1997... I found the gun art and
unused weapon items in the Abuse source files. I made some LISP that
enabled the items and the gun itself, but  the gun didn't act differently
than the laser rifle. It was pretty nifty, but pretty useless too.

Fast forward from 1997 to 2000... a few months ago Profound was working
on adding weapon AI to Abuse for his Twisted Minds addon and being the
talented guy he is, he turned the unused weapon art and whatnot into a
brand new, different weapon. Actually it's more akin to the BFG from
Doom than it is to any Death Ray. But the name stuck, and now, 5 years
too late, Abuse has it's Death Ray. ;-)

How many fRaBs ports are there?

You could make fRaBs for any OS that Abuse was ported to. There is
Ed Snible's Linux version with better support for X11 and the addition
of preliminary TCP/IP support to the Abuse engine. Also, Jonathan Clark
is currently making an updated version of Abuse for Windows with some
cool new features such as TCP/IP and possibly a JAVA interpreter. It
will also presumably add support for high-resolution lighting.

I haven't talked to Ed in a long time, so I'm not sure if he still has
his Linux version available online.

As far as I know, there are three Linux Abuse ports, ports for BeOS,
MacOS, DOS, QNX, SGI, Solaris, and even a Windows port.

What was Team Firestorm?

Ooh, a history question. Team Firestorm was founded by me and a guy from
Australia. Eventually lots of people joined, and we made levels and other
addons for Abuse for about a year and a half. The Aliens Abuse project
was part of Team Firestorm as was an unfinished 20-level replacement for
Abuse called 'Death Domain'. fRaBs is kind of a spiritual successor to
Death Domain in a way. TF died around mid-1998 when we all got tired of
Abuse and just stopped.

Can you use the Boss Ants in fRaBs?

Good question. The Boss Ants were the final boss in the original
registered version of Abuse and I tried implementing them into the
editor to no real success. The original boss teleported around and I
couldn't reproduce that in the editor without making the game crash. I
made a lame version that didn't teleport but it was pretty pointless,
and I lost the code. However, there is a guy on the Abuse forum that
says he has a working Boss Ant in his forthcoming 'Armageddon' addon.

Does fRaBs have any warranties/guarantees/whatnot?

Nope. It's free, and it's fun, and if it does something bad to your
computer, it probably isn't my fault.

Justin Cassidy
messiah15@dog.com