Software of the Month Club 1994 November

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Literati Lite Version 1.1 Copyright (c) 1994 Diana Gruber Windows conversion: Bob Provencher, Aesir Software, Inc. An MVP Software Production This document refers to two programs: Literati Lite, the freeware version of Literati, and Literati PLUS, the retail version of Literati. You may run Literati Lite for the purpose of evaluating the program. You may distribute it according to the terms of the license agreement. When you "register" Literati Lite, you will be sent a copy of Literati PLUS. The differences between Literati Lite and Literati PLUS are described below. Before I get into the details of program functionality, which is required by documentation critics, and hardly anybody else, let me answer the most commonly asked Literati question, so that anybody who is looking for this bit of information can satisify their curiosity and get back to playing Literati: Most Commonly Asked Literati Question _____________________________________ Q. Why does the computer get to cheat and use words like "aa", "ef", and "xu"? A. We have done our very best to generate a good word list for Literati! Many people have worked on the dictionary, most especially Shirley Jensen, who spent many hours looking up words in other dictionaries for spelling and meaning. Although we have tried to have a complete and accurate dictionary, experience has shown we will never be able to please everybody. That's why Literati PLUS gives you a method to edit and personalize the dictionary yourself. Knowing the legal two-letter words is the key to winning Literati. You must take advantage of the two-letter cross words to get the highest score. Here is a list of the two letter words in the Literati dictionary: aa ad ae ah ai am an ar as at aw ax ay ba be bi bo by da de do ef eh el em en er es et ex fa go ha he hi ho id if in is it jo ka la li lo ma me mi mu my na no nu od oe of oh om on op or os ow ox oy pa pe pi re si so ta ti to uh un up us ut we wo xi xu ya ye If you don't like any of these words (I don't like some of them), you can remove them from the dictionary. Use the DEDICT program to decompress the dictionary, then use any text editor to add or remove words. Be sure the words are in alphabetical order! When you have the dictionary just the way you want it, use ENDICT to "encrypt" the dictionary, that is, put it in a form that Literati can use. History of Literati ___________________ Literati is a Windows port of a DOS shareware game. Diana Gruber (me) wrote the original DOS program in 1990. In late 1993 it became clear there was a big demand for Windows games. Even inferior Windows games were selling like hotcakes. Personally, I am amazed at the popularity of Windows. Why did it catch on like it did? There are plenty of answers, but bottom line, Windows was a tidal wave and if I wanted to ride, I needed to grab a surf board. I needed a Windows game. Poking around on my hard disk, it seemed that this was the best game to port to Windows from DOS. It doesn't require high speed animation (something Windows does not do well); rather it is an intellectual game that requires sitting and thinking (something Windows is great at). I was lucky to run into Bob Provencher in the Gamers forum on CompuServe. Bob is an outstanding Windows programmer. Bob agreed to port the DOS game to Windows, but in the process, it became a different game. Bob changed the game board around, modernized the user interface, and added many new features. The game became so different from the DOS version, we gave it a different name. We called it "Literati". Literati, as defined in the dictionary, means persons of scholarly or literary attainments, intellectuals or member of the intelligensia. If you can play and beat Literati, that certainly describes you. Literati is not a "twitch" game. There is no shooting and dying, monsters, evil robots, Nazis, or lava pits. We leave those effects to Apogee and Id. Literati is for the person who is interested in more cerebral pursuits. Congratulations on choosing Literati on which to while away your computer gaming time! You have earned the right to feel righteously superior to anybody playing Doom. Hardware Requirements _____________________ Here is what you need to play Literati: You need some kind of a Windows 3.x compatible machine (80386+, etc) with a VGA card and a VGA or multisync monitor. A sound card is optional, and Literati will play background music which can be turned off. Literati was designed to work with a mouse, and it works best with a mouse. A keyboard-only mode is also supported. If you use the default dictionary, Literati should run without problems in 2M. f you use a larger dictionary, you may see a message: "Unable to allocate memory". If you have downloaded Literati and tried to run it, and you discovered that it will not run on your system, all I can say is I am sorry. This program will not be rewritten to work on your system. It is a Windows VGA game. Installing Literati ___________________ In general, to install Literati, all you have to do is copy all the files into the directory of your choice. You might find version 1.1 of Literati in the file LITLIT11.ZIP. Use the program PKUNZIP to unzip it. If you need help with PKUNZIP, ask the sysop of the board where you downloaded Literati. Files Included in the Distribution __________________________________ LITERATI.TXT -- This documentation file. LITERATI.WRI -- This documentation file in Windows Write format. BALLAD2.MID -- Windows MIDI File. MINUET1.MID -- Windows MIDI File. STNDRD1.MID -- Windows MIDI File. COMMDLG.DLL -- MS Windows Common Dialog DLL for Windows 3.0 users. These files are in Literati Lite only: LITLITE.EXE -- Literati Lite program file. LITLITE.DCT -- Literati Lite dictionary. VENDOR.DOC -- Information for shareware vendors. LICENSE.DOC -- Literati license agreement. SYSOP.DOC -- Information about MVP distribution network. FILE_ID.DIZ -- BBS description. These files are in Literati PLUS only: LITPLUS.EXE -- Literati PLUS program file. LITPLUS.DCT -- Literati PLUS dictionary. LITERATI.HLP -- Windows HLP file for Literati. DEDICT.EXE -- Utility program for decompressing the dictionary ENDICT.EXE -- Utility program for compressing the dictionary When zipped for BBS distribution, the Literati Lite file name is: LITLIT11.ZIP -- For version 1.1 of Literati Lite. Revision History ________________ Version 1.10 4/23/94 first release of Literati and Literati PLUS. Version 1.11 6/23/94 fixed MIDI song titles. fixed scoring bugs. Version 1.14 8/19/94 workaround for generic SUPERVGA driver bug. fixed more scoring bugs. fixed tiles changing to blanks on Undo. fixed tile dragging from top row. Differences Between Literati Lite and Literati PLUS ___________________________________________________ Literati Lite (affectionately known as "Lit Lite") is the freeware version of Literati. It may be distributed through the usual shareware methods, as described in the LICENSE.DOC file. When you register Literati Lite, you will receive a copy of Literati PLUS. Literati PLUS has all the functionality of Literati Lite, plus it adds the following features: 1. More words in the dictionary. The freeware distribution was kept small by leaving the 7 and 8 letter words out of the Literati Lite dictionary. 2. Windows HLP file. Again, this was left out to keep the freeware distribution file small. 3. Ability to update the dictionary. Two utility programs, ENDICT.EXE and DEDICT.EXE make it easy to decompress and encode the Literati dictionary so that you can add your own words to it using your favorite text editor. 4. Reconfigurable board. Once you have conquered the default Literati board layout, you can try different layouts for more challenge and more fun! You can also change the colors. 5. Four additional music selections for a total of seven. In addition, when you register Literati, you will receive a printed manual from MVP Software, a FREE offer for their other programs, and you will be added to their mailing list and get information about other great games in the future. Literati PLUS is only $24.95 plus shipping. To order with a Master Card or Visa, from the US or Canada call 800-968-9684 24 hours a day. From anywhere else, or for technical support, call 616-245-8376. To fax your order, use the order form at the end of this document and fax it to 616-245-3204. For overseas orders, see the ORDER.FRM file for a list of authorized MVP representatives. Starting Literati _________________ There are two ways you can start playing Literati. The recommended method is to stop reading this documentation and start up the game and figure it out by trial and error. For those of you who prefer to read about a game before playing it, I will try to describe everything that happens in detail. Start up the game by typing LITLITE or LITPLUS from the File|Run menu of Program Manager or File Manager. After pressing return, wait patiently for a moment or two. Literati is loading the dictionary from disk. This takes a while because it is a pretty big dictionary. The Literati board will miraculously appear on the screen, and then it is immediately hidden by a popup window. There is an important question in this window. See Figure 1. It asks "Who wants to play Literati?" What it means is, how many players are going to play Literati? It is up to you to decide how many players are going to play. If you want to play solitaire Literati, select one player. If you want to play against your younger brother, select 2 players. If you want to play against the computer, you also select 2 players. If you want to watch the computer play against itself, select any number of players, but make them all computer players. Now you are probably asking yourself "huh? How do I make them all computer players?" Here is the answer: The next popup window lets you decide! See Figure 2. --------------------------------------- | | | Who wants to play Literati? | | | | | | ----------- ----------- | | | 1 | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | Player | | Players | | | ----------- ----------- | | | | | | ----------- ----------- | | | 3 | | 4 | | | | | | | | | | Players | | Players | | | ----------- ----------- | | | | | --------------------------------------- Figure 1. -------------------------------------- | | | Agreed. 2 players. Like this? | | | | | | ---------- --------- | | | Player 1 | | | | | | | | OK | | | | Human | | | | | ---------- --------- | | | | | | ---------- | | | Player 2 | | | | | | | | Computer | | | ---------- | | | | | -------------------------------------- Figure 2. At this point, you can use the mouse or the number keys to change any player from a human player to a computer player, or vice versa. For example, Player 1 always starts out as a human player. To make Player 1 a computer player, press the "1" key or move the mouse cursor to the Player 1 box and press the left button. When everything in this box is to your satisfaction, press <Enter> or click your mouse on the "OK" box. You are now ready to play Literati. Playing Literati ________________ To play Literati, you must choose letters from your tray and put them on the board to make a valid word. There is a cursor that looks like a little hand on the board. Use the mouse or the arrow keys to move the hand cursor around. To choose a letter from the tray, press that letter on the keyboard, or choose the letter with the mouse. Or you can use the number keys to choose the tile: 1 is the first tile, 2 is the second letter, etc. If you choose the blank tile, Literati will prompt you to tell it what letter the blank tile is supposed to represent. If you press a letter key that isn't in your rack, and you have a blank tile in your rack, Literati will assume you want the blank tile to represent that letter. You can unselect letters as easily as you selected them. When you have selected a position and a tile, press <Enter> to put the tile in the position. Pressing <Enter> without selecting a tile means you have come to the end of your word. Note: Pressing the right mouse button behaves the same as pressing <Enter>. Alternatively, you can select the tile first, then point to a square on the board with your mouse cursor and press the left mouse button. This will put the letter on the board without pressing <Enter>. After you have put a tile on the board, the hand cursor will try to move to another convenient spot. There is more than one way to get letters from the tray to the board, and I suggest you experiment until you find the method you are most comfortable with. Literati Rules ______________ Each player in turn must create one or more words consisting of 2 or more letters. The first word must intersect the center of the board, which is the square with the star in it. All other words must be created so that at least one tile is placed adjacent to a tile already on the board. All tiles must be placed in a straight line, either horizontally or vertically, and when added to tiles already on the board must form one complete word in this direction. Any perpendicular words formed by adjacent tiles must be complete and legal words. Blanks may be used as any letter, but once played their value can not be changed. Blanks are not worth any points. If you can't make a word, you have the option of exchanging some or all of your letters. If you choose to do this, you will get no points for your turn, and play will pass to the next player. The game is over when all the tiles have been exhausted, and at least one player has an empty rack, or no more words can be made, and each player passes his turn. Any tiles remaining in the rack will be counted against the player. The winner is the player with the highest score. Literati will determine the point value for words played and keep track of the score. A tile on a bonus square will result in a bonus of two or three times the value of the letter, or two or three times the value of the word. Using all 7 tiles in one turn earns a 50 point bonus. The Computer Player ___________________ You can choose to have one to 4 computer players. If all the players are computer players, Literati will play the whole game by itself. After the game is over, you can look at the board or the stats to see what happened. The computer player looks at each row and each column on the board and tries to make a legal move. It scans the entire dictionary once for each column and each row. It does this as fast as it can. If the computer player has a blank in the rack, it will take a little longer to look at each row and column. Skill Level ___________ The computer player has two skill levels: easy and hard. The easy skill level player has access to fewer words and makes slightly faster moves and usually generates lower scores. To change the skill level, select "F5 - Skill Level" from the main menu. See figure 3. --------------------------------------- | | | Player 1 skill level is hard. | | | | | | | | ----------- ----------- | | | | | | | | | Easy | | Hard | | | | | | | | | ----------- ----------- | | | | | --------------------------------------- Figure 3. Press "Alt-E" for easy, or click on the Easy box with your mouse cursor for the easy skill level. Press "Alt-H" or click the mouse on the Hard box for the hard skill level. The default skill level is hard. If all the players are computer players, Literati will prompt you for their skill levels at the beginning of the game. If at least one player is human, you can change any computer player skill level at any time during the game. Undo ____ Literati has an infinite Undo feature. You can undo every turn, all the way back to the first turn, including turns where you didn't make a word but you exchanged letters. If you accidently put a letter in the wrong square, you can use Undo to correct your mistakes. If you are playing against the computer, and you select Undo, Literati will undo 2 or more moves, depending on how many computer players there are. Otherwise, you would only undo the computer player's turn and not your own turn. And then the computer player would take a turn and you would be right back where you were. Literati Tiles ______________ Select Literati Tiles (F6) to move the tiles around in your rack. Some people find this helps them think of words. If you have some tiles on the board when you select Literati Tiles, they will go back in the rack. If you want to organize the tiles on the board to try to find words, go ahead and do that. You can rearrange the letters, then press "Undo" or "Scramble Tiles" to put them back in the rack. There is no penalty for experimenting and changing your mind. The Score Board _______________ The score board is located in the lower right corner of the board. The value of the last word made is listed to the right of the player who made it. The total score of each player is listed on the line below the player's name. View Stats __________ Use the mouse or the function key to select "View Stats" and you will see game statistics, including what tiles have been played so far, what words were made, and how many points each turn was worth. The number of tiles remaining is also displayed. You can view the stats at any time during your turn without interrupting the progress of the game. See figure 4. Notice that blank letters are displayed in upper case. In this example, Player 1 made the word "dog" using the blank letter to represent a "g". Since this was the first word of the game, he got double word points for a total of 10. His opponent then built on this word using the letters o,n, and e to form the word "gone". To scroll the list up and down, use the arrow keys or click the mouse on the "scroll up" and "scroll down" boxes. Press the down arrow to scroll up, and press the up arrow to scroll down. Press <Enter> or click the mouse on "Okay" when you are done looking at the stats. -------------------------------------- | | | Player Letters Word Points | | | | 1 doG doG 10 | | 2 one gone 3 | | | | | | | | | | -------- | | | | | | | Okay | | | | | | | -------- | | | | Tiles left: 80 | -------------------------------------- Figure 4. Saving Games ____________ Use the GAME|SAVE menu option to save a Literati game. Give the game a name. You can restart the game later by using the GAME|OPEN menu option. The Dictionary ______________ The default dictionary contains approximately 15,000 words. When you make a word, Literati will look in the dictionary to see if your word is in there. If it doesn't find your word in there, it will ask you if it is a real word, and if you say it is a real word, Literati will believe you. When Literati makes a word, it consults the dictionary and tries to find a good word to put on the board. The word search algorithm is very sophisticated, making Literati hard to beat! Questions and Hints ___________________ Since we have released shareware programs before, I have become accustomed to the kinds of questions people ask. I have tried to anticipate some of your questions and answer them here. Q. Wouldn't it be better to have a really big dictionary? A. That is a matter of personal preference. A big dictionary will slow the program down, and it will make the game harder to beat. Q. My sound card does not work properly with Literati. Why? A. It sounds like a Windows problem. I suggest you call Microsoft. --- Q. Come on! I want technical support. A. We are happy to provide technical support if you have a problem with Literati itself, but we cannot help you with Windows problems. I am very sorry, but we can only offer very limited technical support on Literati. Windows is too technical and there are too many things that can go wrong, most of which have nothing to do with Literati. If you have the "try before you buy" version of Literati, and it does not work, don't register it! Only send money to MVP if Literati works on your system. If you registered Literati PLUS with MVP software, and it doesn't work for you, MVP will refund the registration amount, less a shipping charge. If you bought Literati PLUS from somewhere else, you may be able to return it if you can not make it work on your system. We have done everything we can to test Literati and make it compatible with all the various computers, mice, video cards and sound cards. Honestly, we have tried to make Literati work on as many computers as possible! --- Q. Okay, but what if Microsoft releases a new version of Windows? Are you going to upgrade Literati? A. That's possible. Currently Literati is designed to run on Windows version 3.X. If you have a different version of Windows, try running Literati. If it does not run, contact MVP for upgrade information. I am not going to promise that we will upgrade Literati in the future. It depends on how much support we get from our users, and what other projects we are working on. --- Q. Does the computer player ever exchange letters? A. Yes. If Literati can't make a word, it will exchange between 3 and 7 tiles. --- Q. How does it decide which tiles to exchange? A. It's random. --- Q. After I make a turn, that little hand moves around on the board above and below the word, and to the left and right. What is it doing? A. It is calculating cross checks and cross points, in preparation for the next word. It may seem a little slow, but it actually speeds up the program. --- Q. Sometimes the computer player comes up with a word right away, and sometimes it takes a long time. Why? A. There is probably a blank in your computer's rack. If there is a blank, it takes a little longer to choose a word. Also, as the board gets fuller, there are more positions to consider, so it takes longer. --- Q. Literati thinks "aa" is a word. I never heard of an aa. What is it? A. According to my dictionary, aa is rough, cindery lava. Ai is a three-toed sloth and xu is a monetary unit of Viet Nam. I never heard of those words before either. --- Q. But Literati made a word that I can't find in any dictionary! That's cheating! Why did it do that? A. Really? You can edit that word out of the Literati PLUS dictionary, so that's a good reason to register <grin>. Seriously, not all dictionaries are complete. --- Q. Does Literati take factors into consideration when choosing a word other than the point value of the word, such as defensive strategy, preserving good letters for future moves, and using all the letters at the end of the game? A. No. If you want to beat Literati, try using defensive strategy. --- Q. I made a word that isn't a real word, and Literati challenged me on it, and when I admitted it wasn't a real word, it put all my letters back in the rack. Then it gave me another chance to make a word. Aren't I supposed to lose my turn if I get challenged? A. Literati knows you didn't really mean to put those tiles where you put them, and it gives you another chance to put them where you meant to put them. If you think you deserve to lose your turn for getting challenged, I suggest you select "F2 - Pass" and voluntarily give up your turn. --- Q. I don't like these colors. How can I change them? A. Use the preferences menu to change the board colors and the background colors, or press CTRL-A. This feature only works in Literati PLUS. Q. Why does this program run so slow? A. It runs fast enough on my '486! Seriously, when you design a program like this, you have to make trade-offs. There is a faster crossword algorithm, which was described in the May 1988 issue of Communications of the ACM. I chose not to use that algorithm because it uses too much memory. The algorithm I developed is slower, but it has advantages: Literati will run in less than 2M, and it is quite simple to encode and decode the dictionary, thus making user-installed dictionaries possible. You can make Literati run faster by selecting the "Easy" skill level, or by installing a smaller dictionary. Q. I want to call you at home late at night and ask you why Literati doesn't run on my PS/2 model 30. What is your phone number? A. You're kidding, right? --- The authors of this program are members of STAR. Literati PLUS Order Form Name ________________________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________ City _______________________________ State ______ ZIP _______________ Country (if outside USA) ____________________________________________ CIRCLE FD DISK SIZE: 5-1/4" (HD) -or- 3-1/2" IMPORTANT! Price of Literati PLUS $24.95 Shipping and Handling (US) 3.00 Shipping and Handling (Canada) 4.00 Shipping and Handling (all other countries) 5.00 Michigan residents add sales tax 1.50 ------ Make check payable to "MVP Software" Total enclosed: $ Master Card/Visa information (credit card orders only) Card number __________________________________________ Expiration number ____________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOLUNTARY QUESTIONS: Please help us determine what features you would like ==================== in future products. Circle what type of equipment you have: 8088 286 386 486 Pentium Circle the speed of your computer(Mhz): 12 16 20 25 33 40 50 66 ____ Circle any that apply: Joystick Mouse Modem_______ SVGA card____________ (speed) (type) Sound Capability: Adlib Sound Blaster SB Pro SB 16 SB AWE32 Pro Audio Spectrum PC speaker only Other _______________________________ Where did you get Literati/LITE? Friend CompuServe AOL Prodigy Ryan's Bar Channel 1 Invention Factory WorldNet Exec-PC Sound Advice Shareware Distributor (name): _________________________________________ Are you a game player? Please answer the following questions about what you like and don't like in computer games. Approx # of commercial games owned: ____ #Registered shareware games: ____ Circle preference: Beautiful Graphics -OR- Game Complexity Circle preference: Solo against computer -OR- Modem 2-Player Circle preference: Strategy Action Simulation Other_________ Long term game playability: Few Levels w/ hard difficulty Lotsa Levels --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send this order form and your check for $24.95 plus shipping to: MVP Software, 1035 Dallas S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49507-1407 US or Canada 24-hour order line: 800-968-9684. Fax: 616-245-3204. Tech support, information, or overseas order lined: 616-245-8376.