Fast Break! Macintosh Manual
Table of Contents
Introduction
Quick Start Guide
Weekly Routine
Installation
SETUP
Main Menu
OWNER Owner Information
TRANS Transactions
QUERY Stats and Rosters
REPORTS
POST Updating Stats
FILE Exit from Program
Downloading Instructions
Weekly Backups
FBFIX
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
INTRODUCTION
This manual covers FAST BREAK! (FB) and FAST BREAK! Fantasy (FBF). Please read this manual before installing software for the first time. Please note the differences related to the installation of FAST BREAK! and FAST BREAK! Fantasy.FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy requires 10 files for successful operation:
- FAST BREAK! / FAST BREAK! FANTASY The main program.
- FBSETUP or FBFSETUP The system/new season installation program.
- FBFIX The data correction program.
- LEAGUE Contains all Team Owner information and player rosters.
- HOOPSTER Contains NBA player stats.
- INFO Contains other necessary program information.
- STATS Contains stats and weights for the league.
- FARM Contains Farm System/misc. information.
- TRANSC Contains transaction data.
The files LEAGUE, HOOPSTER, INFO, STATS, and FARM cannot be edited.
After running the application FBSETUP/FBFSETUP, check your folder for all these files. FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy will not run without all of these files.NOTE: There are only four files contained on the floppy disk FAST BREAK! or FAST BREAK! Fantasy, FBsetup, FBfix and the Info file. All other files are created when you run the FBsetup or FBFsetup program.
If at anytime you have a question on installation, please call technical support.
If you are already familiar with FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy, you can follow the steps listed below. This guide was developed for users to quickly get started each year. Should you have any problems or questions as you go along, the appropriate section of the manual has been listed to give you additional guidance. For new users, please start with the Installation.
1. Install FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy on your computer system (see "Installation").
2. Run FBSETUP or FBFSETUP (see "Setup"). Be careful to follow the correct directions for Expansion Leagues or Renewal Users.
3. Run FAST BREAK! or FAST BREAK! Fantasy (see "Main Menu").
4. Select Owner from the menu bar and enter your league's team and owner information (see "Owner Owner Information").
5. Return to the Main Menu and save your league information by selecting File and the option Save (see "File Exit from Program").
6. Exit the program by selecting File and the option Quit.
7. Create a backup of the league information (see "Weekly Backups").
8. Once Opening Day Rosters are available from Center Field Software, download the week 00 stat file and uncompress it the file HOOPSTER is ready (see "Downloading Instruction").
9. Run FAST BREAK! or FAST BREAK! Fantasy!.
a). If it's before your Draft Day, you can enter protected players or b). If it is after your Draft Day, enter all your drafted/ protected players/farm systems in (see "Transactions").
NOTE: Periodically as you do step 9, exit to the main menu and save using File/Save.
10. Once you have finished entering your rosters, enter the Report menu and print out your league rosters. DOUBLE CHECK to see that they are correct ! If there is a mistake after you post week 1 stats, you will need to use FBFIX to correct the error in stats. If you should find an error on a roster (a wrong player, that is), DO NOT TRADE the player to the correct team. Instead, from the Transaction menu, first release the player from the incorrect roster using Change Status. Then Claim the player onto the correct roster. This will leave a trail in the Transaction Log, but that is better than having the player on the wrong team's totals. (See IMPORTANT TRANSACTION INFORMATION).
11. When the rosters are correct for Draft Day, return to the main menu. Exit the program by selecting File then Save.
Also, at this time (when you have completed entering your drafted rosters), we suggest you make a special backup for week 00 that you do not overwrite. This will be important should you have a problem through the season and have to start over due to a hardware or other problem with your system. Having this special backup will allow you to redo your season without having to reenter your drafted rosters (and thus save you lots of time!). (See "Make a Backup")
12. You are now ready for week 01 's stats. However, before you process week 01, make a backup of your data files! (See "Weekly Backups"). To process each week's stats, follow the Weekly Routine for running FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy.Before you begin each week, make sure you have a complete backup of the previous week (see "Weekly Backups").
1. Download the current week's stat file, i.e. the file NBAMACnn.LZH, where nn is the week number (see "Downloading Instructions").
2. Decompress the stat file it contains HOOPSTER. (See "After Downloading Stats.)
3. Copy the HOOPSTER file into the directory containing your FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy files (if you did not download the weekly stat file to your FB directory).4. Run FAST BREAK! or FAST BREAK! Fantasy.
5 Enter remaining/forgotten transactions that took effect last week using Trans. If you made changes, you must save them by using File and Save. You will need to exit FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy and then make a backup copy of your league data before you continue.
6. Post/update stats using Post (see "Post Updating Stats").
7. Print stat summary, team total and any other reports you plan to use for the week by using Reports (see "Reports").
8. Enter the transactions which take effect in the current week using Trans (see "Transactions").9. Print a transaction list, then updated rosters and free agent lists using Reports (see "Reports").
10. Save the new week's updates using File (see "FILE Exit from FAST BREAK!").
11. Make a backup copy of the league data after exiting FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy. (See "Weekly Backups")Following the above procedures will provide your league's owners with last week's stats and the current transaction list, rosters, and free agent list. Remember, a transaction entered after a post does not accumulate stats until the next post. Any mistakes can be corrected before posting the next week stats.
CFS strongly suggests you implement the following rule to your league: "An owner has until the next stats are done to verify that transactions were correctly entered onto their roster." Should an error be found, you will need to enter it before you post the new stats (see step 5 on the previous page) so that the stats will be correct. If you must make a correction after you post, you will need to run the FBFIX application (see "FBFIX".)
CFS strongly recommends you create a separate folder for each league you run. We also recommend that you make a backup disk.
Install one copy of the FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy folder from the disk on to your hard drive.
If you have more than one league, install each league from its separate disk.
On your working disk/folder, all the files listed on page 4 should now appear except for LEAGUE, TRANSC, STATS, HOOPSTER and FARM (which are created by FBSETUP or FBFSETUP). You are now ready to continue by running FBSETUP or FBFSETUP.
The application FBSETUP or FBFSETUP gets your league ready for the season. Expansion FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! FANTASY users need only run FBSETUP or FBFSETUP.
Renewal FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! FANTASY users should be aware that they may need to copy last season's LEAGUE and FARM files before running FBSETUP or FBFSETUP.
You will be asked three (3) questions when you begin the setup.
"Do you wish to start a new season?" YES is the standard answer. NO will exit FBSETUP or FBFSETUP.
"Do you wish to keep current owner information?" Expansion users should answer NO. Renewal users may answer YES only if they wish to keep all current owners AND they do not need to DELETE any teams (i.e. if you had 10 owners last year, and you have 10 or more this year, you may wish to answer yes and then correct any owner info in FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy. If you had 10 owners and now have 8, then you MUST ANSWER NO and reenter your owner information again.)"Do you wish to keep the current farm system information?" Expansion users should answer NO. Renewal users may answer YES only if they wish to keep all current farm system information.
Upon answering the initial questions, you need to add stat information.
To select a stat, type the correct weight to replace the 0.0 for each stat you need for your league. On selecting stat weights, the standard weight is 1.00. If your league uses a stat worth 1/2 value, use 0.5 as its weight; if your league uses a stat worth double, use 2.00, etc.When typing in weights remember to:
1. Click OK to save when you are finished. If you select Cancel all information previously entered will be deleted and the program will return you the main menu where you will need to start again with the setup questions.
2. To move between stat fields, you may either click the mouse to get to the correct field, or hit the Tab key to move the cursor to the next stat field.
3. Valid values for weights are 0.0 to 9.99 for FAST BREAK!, -100.0 to 100.0 for FAST BREAK! FANTASY.
4. Any stat weighted 0.0 will be ignored.
5. Double check your selections before you click OK.6. You may select at most 15 stats.
7. The stat categories we support are:
Points
Field Goal%
Free Throw%
Rebounds
Assists
Turnovers
Efficiency
3 PT FG
3 PT FG%
Blocked Shots
Minutes Played
Games
Off Rebounds
Points/Game
Points/Min
Rebound/Game
Steals
Free Throws
Assist/Turnover
Turnovers/Min
Defen. Rebounds
FT Made x FT
After you finish running FBSETUP or FBFSETUP, check to see that you have all the files listed. You should now be able launch FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy. The main menu bar will appear it may take a moment to load. The HOOPSTER file which is being loaded is a "dummy" file. It is an empty file required for FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy to run properly after installation. Do not enter any players onto team rosters until downloading the opening day rosters (week 00) or the first week statistics files.
There are two (2) options for Owner information.
VIEW and UPDATE Owner allows you to view and update if necessary a current owner's information.
CREATE Owner use Create Owner to begin the process of building individual teams. Create Owner designates where you store owner information. It does not add players.
Once a team is to be added/updated, the Owner Information Screen will appear. This screen has 13 input fields. Team Name is 25 characters, Team Owners are 20 characters each, Address is a three field set of 30 characters each, and there are four phone number fields at 15 characters each.The phone number fields do not necessarily have to contain numbers. You can use the phone number field for notes such as "Call Joe after 4pm".
Click OK to save new information or changes; or click Cancel if you don't want to add or make any changes.
If you are starting a new season and have to enter the teams, use CREATE to input and VIEW & UPDATE to check the data entry. When each team has been entered, you can begin to enter rosters using the "Transactions" menu bar option.
NOTE: ONCE YOU create A TEAM, IT CANNOT BE DELETED unless you start over and reinstall FAST BREAK!!
The Transaction Menu (Trans) is where most of your weekly time will be spent. You can change a players attributes position, contract, salary and status; make trades, draft a free agent, claim a free agent, and check your farm system.
ENTERING YOUR ROSTERSYou will enter the rosters on or after Draft Day, using the Draft Free Agent/Free Agent Claim selection from the TRANS menu. The program will not record the initial draft as any transactions if you use the opening day roster file (Week 00) to build your roster.
You will repeat the following steps until you have completly drafted all players selected for each team on Draft Day.
Select all the players to be drafted from the list of available players - you can click on more than one player at a time. Then select the team they are going onto. When you are satisfied click OK. Then you can enter each player's position, salary, contract and status.
PLAYER ATTRIBUTES:1. Standard Positions
F, G, C
If your league doesn't use position requirements, you can use None.2. Contract A one (1) character field. Contracts are not mandatory so this field can remain blank. However, if you want to keep track of contract status', CFS recommends using the following method: a first year player (first year bid on or claimed) is an A, second year B, third year (option year in most leagues) C. If you sign a B player to a guaranteed contract after that B year, take the letters off the end of the alphabet. If you signed him to a two year guaranteed contract, he would become an X (since you really own him for three years the C year and the two guaranteed ones).
3. Salary salary is a five (5) character field used to contain the salary of the player. It is not mandatory to fill the field. The salary field can be used for various purposes.
4. Status players' status are Active, Reserved, Waived, and Released. Once a player is waived or released, he must be drafted as a free agent to become active on his old team or on any other team.
CAUTION: If a player is currently reserved and a team wants to activate him for the sole purpose of releasing/waiving him immediately; DO NOT reactivate him then release him. Treat this transaction as a RELEASE/WAIVE only! Failure to complete this transaction in this manner will lead to losing the accumulated stats for the player involved.To change a player attribute such as status, position, salary or contract:
1. Choose the Update Player menu selection from the Trans Menu.
2. Choose the team the player is currently on.
3. Select Player from the roster.
4. Change attribute(s).
When you are finished, click on OK to save changes. Click Cancel to exit at any time without saving changes.
IMPORTANT TRANSACTION posting INFORMATION!!Transaction dates are very important. The stats you receive will be a week behind what occurs in the NBA and you must coordinate the entry of your weekly transactions and the posting of weekly stats.
For example, the Fighting Bulldogs trade Slugger Bob for Fantastic Fish' Stealin' Eddie. They call the secretary with the trade and he/she passes the trade onto you to record. The trade was made during the week ending May 5. The Fighting Bulldogs will get Slugger Bob's stats until May 5 and so will the Fantastic Fish receive Stealin' Eddie's stats. The stats you will receive on May 6 will be for the week ending May 5.
YOU MUST POST THESE STATS received on May 6 BEFORE ENTERING THE TRADE!! You may enter the trade following the posting of stats for May 6 but before you post the stats for May 13.
If you have any questions concerning when you should enter transactions, please give CFS a call (see "Technical Support").
TRADESTo enter a trade, select "Trade" from the Trans menu. Then select the 2 teams that are doing the trade. At this point, all players on both teams, including farm systems will appear. Click on the players from each team that are being traded and click OK to consumate the trade.
The "Other" field in the trade screen gives you an opportunity to type in what the "other" trade is for. You are allotted 20 characters to type in what exactly you would like the transaction log to reflect. Examples are: "Swashbucks 4th pick", "Royals waiver move", or "Rag's Grandmother."
At any time, click Cancel to abort the trade.
VIEW & UPDATE FARM SYSTEMThe farm system is an area for you to enter any other pertinent information that your league would like to record. For example, various leagues may choose to record minor league players, number of waiver moves left, any of the next year's draft picks that have been traded, or any other piece of information.
After selecting View & Update Farm from the TRANS menu, you then select the team you wish to enter/change farm information for. The farm system will appear and you can record the information. Click OK to save the information, click Cancel to exit without saving.
The QUERY menu provides an on-screen view of Major League Player cumulative stats. It will show for any selected player both his cumulative stats ending the previous week and his cumulative stats ending the current week. This is helpful if you need to make a quick correction using FBFIX.
When you print a report, you will be given 4 options as to what can be done with it. You may select more than one option at a time.
- Printer - send the report to the currently selected printer. Also, use this option for faxing.
- File - save the report as a text file.
- Screen - view the report on the screen.
- WWW - saves the report as an HTML file.
TO PRINT (for printer or fax modem):
All reports print to the currently selected printer in the Chooser.
If you wish to print reports to a fax driver, be sure you set your current printer to the fax driver via the Chooser. Consult your fax software manual for more information on how to fax.
If you save a report as a text file or send by email, be sure you use a monospaced font such as Courier or Courier New in order to achieve "good looking" report when importing into a word processing program. We recommend Courier New at 8 or 9 point. Also we recommend that you set your left and right margin small (at most 0.25 inches).
A Summary of the Reports...
Cumulative Stat Summary and Weekly Stat Summary These two reports rank each team, first in an overall rating and second in each separate category. The cumulative report is for the entire season, whereas the weekly report is only for the past week. On the cumulative report you can add a message to the bottom of the listing which will print on all pages. Note: once you enter a transaction for the week, the Weekly Stat Summary report is incorrect. Be sure you print it before doing any transactions after a post.
Team Totals This printout lists each player that has contributed to the team (both cumulative and current week's stats) totals. This report prints a team per page.
Rotisserie Team Totals (FAST BREAK! ONLY) This report is similar to Team Totals except it prints only the Rotisserie stats that your league uses for each player. This is useful for leagues that use categories whose stat categories do not print out on the Team Totals report.
Raw Team Stats Breakdown This report prints the composite and current week's team total stats for each team on one report.
League Rosters Roster list shows the Active, Reserved, and Farm players for each team in a handy format. Six teams are printed per page.
Free Agent List This printout tells you who is not on a roster and gives their cumulative stats. Only players who are not on fantasy rosters and played in the NBA in the past week show on the list. Be careful, traded or disabled players may still show up on the list.
Reserved Player Stat List This report lists all players who are reserved on fantasy rosters. For each player, composite (year-to-date) and current week stats are printed. This report is handy for discussing trades on reserved players who you have not owned for an entire season. Also this report can be used to determine if any players have been reactived by their NBA team and subsequently need to be reactivated by their fantasy team.
Transaction Form is a special report that prints a form designed to help secretaries keep up with transactions.
Current Week Transaction List and YTD Transaction List shows who made transactions. You can print out the current week's or the entire year-to-date's (YTD) transactions.
Draft Day List lists the NBA rosters. Can also be used for various purposes including drafting.
Owner Mailing Labels prints owner addresses onto a 6 or 9 line (1 or 1.5 inch) mailing label. The format assumes the labels will be one label wide (it will not work on laser printer labels, only on dot-matrix printer labels).
Select POST from the main menu bar. FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy will ask if you have all transactions entered. If so, click YES, else click on NO. If you click YES, a bell will chime and a screen stating that stats have been posted will appear.
You cannot post twice for the same week! The program will inform you that stats have already been posted.
Under the FILE selection, there are three selections Save, Change Print Location, and Quit.
Save selecting SAVE will save the League and Farm files. Any changes made in these files will be reflected in the next use of Fast Break!/ Fast Break! Fantasy.
Quit Quit exits Fast Break!/Fast Break! Fantasy. Before you quit Fast Break!/Fast Break! Fantasy, you are asked if you wish to SAVE.
Internet
For Internet downloading you will need to have access to the Internet. Access can be either from a dedicated link (such as your office or school may have); an online service such as AOL, Compuserve, or Prodigy; or through an Internet provider such as Netcom. You have two options on how you can download your files. You can either do this through FTP or via the WWW.Via FTP
The address of our site is ftp.cfld.com please note that lower case IS important.
Depending how you FTP to our site, you will either be prompted for a user name or your FTP client will ask for it. Your user name and password can be found on your welcome letter. You will need to go to the appropriate sport and section (i.e. AL, NL, NBA, etc.). Then do a "GET" on the file. (Please make sure that your client is set for binary files download.) If this setting is not set correctly you will NOT be able to use the files you download! After downloading is completed, refer to the section that instructs you on how to decompress the files.Via WWW
The address of our WWW site is www.cfld.com again, please note that lower case IS important.When you get to our main page click on the "Click here to download stats and user information". You will then see the "User Menu". You will have several choices choose the one that says "statistics download". Choose the type of stats for your software and league. A list of files for downloading is next. Click on the one that you need. You will be asked for a user name and password. These can be found on your welcome letter. After you enter this information the file will start downloading. (You may be asked what the computer should do with this type of file. You should choose the "save" option.) Upon completion of download, refer to the section in the manual that instructs you how to decompress your file.
After downloading statsAfter you have downloaded your weekly stat file, do the following to get that week's stats ready for FAST BREAK!
1. Copy the file you downloaded to the folder/directing that FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy is in.
2. To uncompress the hoopster file, run the MacLHA application that accompanied FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy. From its file menu, select open and choose the file you downloaded. A window will appear listing the hoopster file. Click on each file and then the extract button. If you are asked to replaced the existing hoopster file, answer "replace". Note: if you are asked to "smart replace", do not choose it always choose "replace". To quit MacLHA hit command-Q. Now you are ready to run FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy for the new week and resume with Weekly Routine step 4.
As with any software product, FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy is not immune to glitches. CFS strongly recommends you make a backup of all files each week.
CFS has found for best results, keep a set of at least 3 floppy disks to use for backups. The first time you create your league, backup the files to disk 1. The next week, backup to disk 2. The third week, backup to disk 3. Now you have 3 weeks worth of backups, one for week 1, one for week 2, and one for week 3 (the current week). For week 4, reuse the disk you used for week 1. For week 5, reuse the disk for week 2. You will always at least three weeks of backup using this method.
Make sure FAST BREAK!/FAST BREAK! Fantasy is not running when you execute any backup or restore.
Whether you use a hard drive or floppies, please make a weekly floppy backup. CFS has heard many horror stories of hard drives crashing. We want you to be able to restore as quickly as possible if such a tragedy were to occur. There is no "quick fix" to a system or disk crash. Without a backup, we cannot help you restore your league to action quickly. You are responsible, to yourself and to the other league owners, to implement and do a routine backup.
If you do not do any type of backup, CFS cannot help you quickly recover from a crash or file failure. It is up to you to ensure the safety of your data for your league.
FBFIX is a program that allows you to edit the stats for an individual player on a given team. The stats affected are the stats that player earned FOR the team, not the player's actual cumulative stats. Use this program sparingly, if at all. This program should be the last resort to a problem with stat numbers. The primary use of FBFIX is to update a trade or transaction that was entered at the incorrect time.
Be sure your rosters are correct before using FBFIX. FBFIX will only change the stats for a player on a fantasy roster, not make transactions. Use FAST BREAK! to make any roster changes before you use FBFIX.
To use this program, click FBFIX. The program will present a title screen while it is loading the files. Once the file information has been loaded, you will be given the opportunity to pick a team. Choose the team and appropriate player.
Clicking on the Cancel button will exit you from that player without making changes to his stats.
The next window lists the player's stats FOR THE TEAM. These stats can be edited. This allows you to change the player's earned stats.
Make sure you type the correct numbers over the original numbers so that the numbers you want for that stat are showing.
Clicking OK saves the data to your computer's RAM. Properly exiting the program will save the data to the file.
IMPORTANT!!!
Before using FBFIX, please know what the player's stats SHOULD be. Compute how many field goals (for example) he should have, THEN use FBFIX to update the information. If you have any questions, please call CFS (see "Technical Support").
This program is very powerful. It can change the course of an entire season with a few keystrokes. FBFIX is a very useful utility. Use it only when necessary.
Should you run into problems while running our software products, Center Field Software (CFS) asks that you follow these steps to successful technical support.
1. Double check the various user manuals for the GRAND SLAM! software, for your modem and its software and/or your computer. It has been CFS experience that most problems can be quickly answered by referring to the manual.
2. Should you still have a problem or question, CFS has two ways to reach technical support. You can send us e-mail detailing the problem from our internet site by using the Technical Support e-mail form (which is the preferred method) OR by calling 304-487-1019 during CFS office hours (which are posted on our internet site). If you send a message via e-mail, a reply will usually be sent within 24 hours. Please be sure to list the following information in any message you leave, or have it handy when you call. IBM/Compatible computer users please note the version of windows you are using; Macintosh users should note the system version you are using, along with the configuration of your computer (amount of memory, browser software used, type of printer, and any other info that might be helpful in resolving your problem).
3. When calling, please be near your computer. It significantly helps us deliver better tech support when you are located at the computer and we can walk you through any necessary steps.
4. Technical support may be arranged for a time outside of our office hours. Arrangements must be made with the CFS support staff during office hours. There will be a $15 minimum charge for off-hours technical support.
5. Be sure you have a recent backup handy. If you do not have a backup, you may have set up your league from scratch. Please make frequent backups!!
Copyright (c) 1988-2000 Center Field Software