Quick Index: Teams | Leagues | Managers | Postseason
You Are Here > smileyleague.org > Gameplay Instructions
SMILEY Instructions for Gameplay and File Handling
(largely pirated from the 20thCBRL Constitution)

Game files & results from each series you play should be zipped and sent to the league as a whole, using the SmileyList. Owners will be able to quickly see the results of their home games in this manner. The instructions for importing League Files pertain ONLY to files posted on the web page each week, NOT to results mailed by various owners. Owners do NOT need to import any files other than the official ones which are posted to the web page.

League Files

Immediately after the draft, and before any games are played, owners will create a Computer Manager (a.k.a. “HAL”) for their team. We play our own road games; HAL manages your team during home games. It is assumed that owners know how to create a Computer Manager, but please don't hesitate to ask for help if you are not familiar with the process. You should generate and send a new Computer Manager for each week of the season.

When exporting your Computer Manager, assign it a name in the following manner: XXXYYWW, where:

XXX is your team’s 3 character code (see below for codes),
YY is the last two digits of the year being played, and
WW is the week about to be played. For example, the Cubs' computer manager for Week 1 of 1968 will be called CHN6801.

At the end of the draft, and on every Sunday throughout the season, it will be announced to the league (via the SmileyList, and also a note on the web page) that the next week's files are ready. Results will be due back by the following Sunday morning. Game results not received by the deadline will be played at the League Office, and penalties may be assigned. If you will be unable to play your games in a given week, please let the Commissioners know ahead of time, so they can play the games. No penalties are assigned in this situation, but owners should play their own games whenever possible.

The roster files will be zipped into a file called YYWWRO.ZIP, where YY is the last two digits of the year being played, and WW is the week about to be played (RO = rosters). For example, the first batch of roster files will be zipped into a file called 6801RO.ZIP. Similarly, stat files will be zipped into a file called YYWWST.ZIP, where YY is the last two digits of the year being played, and WW is the week about to be played (ST = stats). The first batch of stat files will be zipped into a file called 6801ST.ZIP.

These files will be zipped together (so that only one download from the web page is required) and posted on the web page as YYWW.ZIP (e.g., 6801.ZIP for the week 1 files).

Download the zipped file, and unzip the RO file into your ROSTERS folder, and unzip the ST file into your STATS folder. Once unzipped to the proper locations, the files for the current week will be in place and ready to be used.

Gameplay Options

These options will be set at the League Office every week, and should not need to be changed. However, please check to ensure that they are properly set prior to playing any games.

Under Options/Rules:

Under Options/Lineups And Usage:

Under Options/Game Preferences:

Under Options/Autoplay:

Playing a Road Series

Within each Week, there will generally be one Home and one Road series per team, and each owner plays ONLY his ROAD series. Before you begin playing your road series:

You should not use Autoplay. Do not re-play any games once they are completed, do not stop a game midway and start over, and do not use the Delete Last play option (in other words, needless to say, no cheating).

After a game is over, choose Get Boxscore. On the next screen, choose Get Boxscore, PAC and Scoresheet. SAVE the game at this point. You will be asked to give the game a file name. Do so in the following manner: XXXYYYzz, where XXX is the visiting team's 3 character code, YYY is the home team's 3 character code, and zz is the game number. When we reach 3-digit game numbers, simply drop the leading 1.

The 3 character codes for each team are the ones used by the game:

Atlanta Braves: ATN
Chicago Cubs: CHN
Cincinnati Reds: CIN
Los Angeles Dodgers: LAN
Montreal Expos: MON
New York Mets: NYN
Pittsburgh Pirates: PIN
San Diego Padres: SDN
San Francisco Giants: SFN
St. Louis Cardinals: SLN

Baltimore Orioles: BAA
Boston Red Sox: BOA
Chicago White Sox: CHA
Detroit Tigers: DEA
Kansas City Royals: KCA
Milwaukee Brewers: MLA
Minnesota Twins: MNA
New York Yankees: NYA
Oakland A's: OAA
Texas Rangers: TEA
For example, the file name for a Mets at Tigers game played on day 27 would be: NYNDEA27. Minnesota at Atlanta on day 151 would be: MNAATN51 (drop the first 1). After supplying the correct file name, choose End Game. Play each road game in the same manner.

Sending Results to the League

After a series is complete, send the results to the SmileyList. If you have more than one road series during a week, do not wait until all series are complete to send results.

There will be two files (one for the home team and one for the road team) in the EXPORT folder for each game you play. If you cleaned out this folder prior to the series, the only files in the folder will be ones pertaining to the series you just played. The boxscores will be in the PRINT/1968SL folder along with the PBP files. Zip all files for a single series into one file, which should be called XXXYYYzz, where XXX is the visiting team's 3 character code, YYY is the home team's 3 character code, and zz is the day of the FIRST game of the series.

For example, if Pittsburgh is at San Francisco on days 125, 126 & 127, the results should be zipped into a file called PINSFN25.ZIP (drop the leading 1 from the day when necessary).

You may send Computer Manager updates in the same ZIP file along with the results, or you may send it separately.

Protests

Owners should review the games played by their opponents to ensure that no mistakes have been made. In order to stick to our schedule, barring a serious error by the road manager, the results of games will likely stand. As stated above, if results are not reported on time, the games in question will be simmed at the league office and penalties may be assigned to late owners.

In instances where the road manager has made a serious error, a protest may be upheld, and the game(s) will be replayed at the League Office. Note that "mistakes" and "errors" are not to be confused with CHEATING, which will not be tolerated. It is anticipated that cheating will not be a problem in this league.

Quick Index: Teams | Leagues | Managers | Postseason