This documentation must be included with all copies of Solitaire. You may not give out copies of the game without the documentation. This game is free for all non-commercial use, so please feel free to pass it along to your friends. It may not be sold for profit without the author's written permission.
SHAREWARE NOTICE:
This program is Shareware, and if you decide to keep it, please send in a registration fee of $5. You'll help me put my wife through medical school! :-) You'll also ensure that I continue to write bigger and better games. To register, send a check or cash (in U.S. dollars, if at all possible) to the snail mail address at the end of this file. Thanks, and I hope you like the game!
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
This game requires System 7. As far as machines go, as long as your computer has color Quickdraw, you can play the game. It's a fair bet that if you don't have color, you don't have color Quickdraw -- with one exception. It will work on an SE/30 (which is what I have!) The SE/30 is the only B&W machine I know of that has color Quickdraw.
DOCUMENTATION:
This Read Me file does not pretend to be full documentation. For the documentation, see the on-line help within the program.
INTRODUCTION:
This particular game of Solitaire -- more commonly known as Gaps, among other names -- was inspired one day as I sat on the floor, going through the tedious process of dealing all 52 cards out in rows. I've always liked this game, but hated having to deal out all those cards and keep them in neat little rows. It suddenly struck me: why bother? Why not let my Mac do it for me? So, I sat down and started working. Now, here I am, with a finished product. (I believe it's pretty well debugged, but drop me a line if you find one I missed!)
THE GAME:
The game is a very simple one to learn, but a very hard one to win. You'll find instructions on how to play in the online help. Simply choose How to Play from the Help menu, and you'll learn all you need to know to play.
THE GRAPHICS:
Initially, the graphics in this game were to be black and white only. However, at the request of my testers, I went back and added a color option. (I had to make the color pictures at work! I was naughty. ;-) So, you can run this game in either color or black and white. If you want, you can throw away the unused resource file, as long as you don't distribute the program in that form. Of course, the program will choke (gracefully) if you try to switch to black and white and you threw out that resource file! One other thing about resource files -- don't rename them and expect the game to work. If you MUST rename them, you can edit the STR# resources in the program to make it work. STR# 129, items 2 and 3 hold the names of these files.
Some of the graphics used in the game, like the marbled background and the face card in the Version info box (although the color face card was colorized by me), were copied from various Hypercard clip art stacks. Other graphics, like the cards, and the deck of cards in the About box, were drawn by me.
THE SOUNDS:
All the sounds used were found on various Mac sound archives. I wish I could make my own sounds, but the SE/30 doesn't come equipped with a microphone port, and I can't afford to buy all the hardware I'd need.
HIGH SCORES:
If you can beat these high scores, let me know. In fact, if you can win in 0 shuffles, send me your time. I'll start a high score list and will list your name in future releases of the game if you make the list! (Assuming you registered the game, anyway...)
Jim Schwartz: 0 shuffles, 1:38
Thomas Reed: 0 shuffles, 3:14
Julie Goldberg: 0 shuffles, 3:14
Susan Cardot: 0 shuffles, 4:40
Pat D'Amore: 0 shuffles, 4:41
CREDITS:
I'd like to thank my wife, Nevada, for teaching me the game, for initially play testing it, and for giving me some invaluable suggestions that have made the game much nicer.
I'd also like to thank Steph and Jim Schwartz for all their help with the game. They were invaluable in tracking down the last (and worst) bug!
Lastly, I'd like to thank all of my other play testers. Thanks to Jason P. Chang, Michael D. Galloway, Scott Tooker, Harry A. Reinke, Gary Anderson, Steve Holden, Mark Eaton, Matthew J. McBride, and Geoffrey David Bourne. You've all been a great help, and many of you have contributed ideas that were incorporated into the final version, or will be incorporated in future versions. Without all of you, this game wouldn't be the same!
HOW TO CONTACT ME:
If you want to send me a message through e-mail, you can contact me at:
ThomasReed@aol.com
For registration purposes, or if you don't have access to e-mail, here's my snail mail address:
Thomas Reed
1912 McCausland
St. Louis, MO 63117
IF YOU REGISTER THE GAME, PLEASE SEND ME A NOTE TELLING ME YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS (IF YOU HAVE ONE), AND WHAT PROGRAM YOU'RE REGISTERING!
Hope you like the game, and good luck!
Also look for my other game, Valley of Peril, if you're into adventure games! It's freeware, so there's no charge! Also, look for Coffee Break, a utility that will force you to take periodic breaks. It's designed to take one step in preventing repetetive stress injuries.
