Microsoft Power Point
PBEM Kit

It's sitting right there on your office computer! So why not use it to play Totaler Krieg!?

This Play-By-EMail kit uses (and requires you to have) the ubiquitous Microsoft Power Point as found in Microsoft Office that's probably on your computer right now.

This Power Point Play TK! With Us kit arrives from the UK courtesy of Darren Kilfara.

To really see the graphics in all their glory, click on each picture to view it as a full size screen shot. (They're great.)

To download Darren's Power Point Play TK! With Us kit, click here. Updated 28 February 2000

To download his instructions for using it (formatted in Power Point, of course!), click here. Updated 28 February 2000.

To send Darren an email, click here.

Here's a posting from Darren from the Totaler Krieg! message boards on ConsimWorld:

Thanks to all (esp. Alan, on the website) for the kind words about my PowerPoint files. I think it should work on a Mac, *if* you can get someone to save it into that format for you (which I think means they have to have a Mac with the ability to read PC files). I seem to recall having worked with PPT files which I could read on both a PC and a Mac, but I'm afraid I'm not really knowledgeable about how said files got from one format to the other.

If there are people who actually want to use PPT to play the game (as opposed to just ogling the pretty components), I'd be happy to write a brief instruction manual of sorts. Minuses to using PPT as a game vehicle include:

• the files tend to be on the biggish side (not a problem if you've got the kind of computer I do at work, but...);
• you can't watch one move at a time run through the system as you can with more sophisticated PBEM-specific software; and
• the process of flipping counters over is somewhat intricate (a combination of "Ungroup", "Send to Back" and "Regroup" commands) if you're not used to using PPT.

There are pluses, of course, starting with my own personal reason for coming up with PPT files in the first place: I can use them at work without anyone batting an eye (not least because as a graphics designer of sorts, I get paid to fiddle around with PowerPoint!), including the software police who periodically check our computers for foreign .exe files. :) Other reasons that I like using PPT for PBEM:

• You can resize the map to whatever increment you want, and scrolling is quite easy;
• Obviously, the graphics can be made-to-order as you want them, whether that means adding and subtracting country borders manually instead of using Ceded Border and Reich Annex markers (etc.) - watch the map come alive! - or diagramming plans with all sorts of boxes and arrows drawn on top of the map;
• Because the map is in the Slide Master and only the pieces are in the main slide area, there is a minimal increase in file size as you create additional slides. This lets me create multiple slides representing the situation after each phase of the turn that I can scroll through and keep as a record of the game. More importantly, for planning purposes it is easy to copy the same slide several times, formulate different plans on each slide and then easily compare the differences in each (This was for me essential when playing A3R; whether or not it proves to be as necessary for me in TK remains to be seen);
• The "undo" (Ctrl-Z) feature of all MS applications comes in very handy. I set my PPT parameters to allow me a maximum of 150 undos in a row, giving me a maximum of flexibility in taking moves back or replaying moves to myself with the "redo" feature (Ctrl-Y) after a bunch of undos;
• It's very easy to print map situations on a printer - especially when done in color, I very much enjoy studying map positions during my Tube ride home after work; and
• Of course, if you have MS Office on your computer already, you probably have PowerPoint already. Once you learn how to use my files, you'll be that much closer to knowing how to use PPT for any other other purposes you might have!

Cheers, Darren