*******************************************************************************

   !!! WORK IN PROGRESS !!! TESTING COPY !!! PLEASE DO NOT REDESTRIBUTE !!!

*******************************************************************************

                       -------------------------------

                          RIPtel Visual Telnet (tm)

                            Version 3.1.2-patched

                       -------------------------------

            Copyright (c) 1996-97  TeleGrafix Communications, Inc.
                             All Rights Reserved

                        (Unofficial Patched Release)

INSTALLATION
------------

Unzip RIPTEL.zip to your windows profile/home or C:\ as RIPtel\ and run 
RIPtel.exe

The inner package is portable and should run correctly from any location as-is.
The user's Downloads directory is used by default for uploads/downloads.


1.0 - WHAT THIS IS
------------------

RIPtel Visual Telnet(tm) is a graphical BBS terminal.  It speaks Telnet and
renders RIPscrip(tm), TeleGrafix's Remote Imaging Protocol, so a host can draw
pictures, buttons and mouse-aware screens instead of sending plain text.

RIPtel was commercial software, sold in 1997 as a 60-day evaluation.
TeleGrafix Communications, Inc. has long since ceased operations and the
product has been abandoned for decades.

This is an unofficial patched build.  The evaluation expiry and the
registration checks have been removed, and it has been brought up to date for
modern Windows and for today's much larger, higher-resolution displays.  It is
not affiliated with, supported by, or endorsed by TeleGrafix.


2.0 - REQUIREMENTS
------------------

Windows 7 or later, or Wine.  No serial number is needed and the program does
not expire.

The smooth graphics scaling does more work on every redraw than the 1997
original did.  Roughly a 2012-or-newer PC is recommended; on much older
hardware it may feel sluggish.


3.0 - WHAT WAS CHANGED
----------------------

The short list.  A full technical account of every change is in PATCH.TXT.

 - No registration and no expiry.  The program never asks for a serial number
   and will not stop working after 60 days.

 - Runs on modern Windows and on Wine, including high-DPI displays and display
   scaling settings such as 125% or 150%.

 - Opens in an ordinary resizable window instead of taking over the whole
   screen, and keeps the picture's correct 4:3 shape at any size.  Press
   Alt+Enter to switch to full screen and back.

 - RIP artwork is scaled smoothly to whatever size the window is, so it stays
   clean on a large monitor instead of turning into blocks.

 - Drawing is much faster, and the wipe and slide effects between menus are
   timed deliberately rather than running as fast as the machine allows.

 - The text terminal is a full 80x25 rather than 80x24, with the correct
   IBM/DOS (CP437) character set, and the BBS is told the real window size.

 - A bug in the original's Telnet negotiation is fixed.  It could cause a host
   to silently ignore everything RIPtel said after connecting.

 - The bundled demonstration phone book, which listed BBSs that have been gone
   for decades, has been emptied.


4.0 - LICENSE
-------------

See license.txt for the terms this build is distributed under.
license.original.txt is the original TeleGrafix agreement, retained for
reference.


5.0 - MORE INFORMATION
----------------------

A fuller readme, including known problems and acknowledgements, is installed
alongside the program, together with PATCH.TXT.

This version was patched from the original distribution files by the BBS.land
organization on GitHub <https://github.com/bbs-land/>

Newer builds, when there are any, are published at:

    https://github.com/bbs-land/riptel-reconstructed/releases

Bugs can be reported at:

    https://github.com/bbs-land/riptel-reconstructed/issues

Please include the exact version of RIPtel, the edition of Windows or Wine you
are running under, the type of computer (including video hardware), and any
other detail you can.  The more information there is, the easier a bug is to
pinpoint.
