PCC2 is a graphical application. If you have used the PCC2 Installer, it will have set up an icon for you. Otherwise, you will have to start it manually. Just starting it (double-click the program) will work, but by passing additional parameters, you can customize startup. Not counting options, The following possibilities exist:

  • pcc-v2
    (no player number and directory): start with a game chooser.
  • pcc-v2 -dir GAMEDIR
    start with a game chooser in the specified directory.
  • pcc-v2 PLAYER GAMEDIR
    (player number and one directory): play PLAYER in GAMEDIR. Take ship list from GAMEDIR, and if there is none, use defaults.
  • pcc-v2 PLAYER GAMEDIR ROOTDIR
    (player number and two directories): play PLAYER in GAMEDIR. Take ship list from GAMEDIR, and if there is none, from ROOTDIR.

You do not have to unpack your RST before playing. If you don't, PCC2 will read the RST directly, and produce a TRN directly. If you do unpack your turn, PCC2 will behave like a classic VGA Planets™ client and just modify .dat files; you will then have to run Maketurn separately.

To play registered, place a fizz.bin file created by your registered client in the game directory, just like you do with PCC 1.x.

pcc-v2 accepts all the common options and honors some environment variables.

The PCC2 Installer for Windows will make a Start Menu shortcut which will start PCC2 with a game selector, starting at your Winplan directory.