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- * HAPPYGAMES *
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- Copyright (C) 1987, Ruth Edwards Grove
- Portions Copyright 1982, '83, '84, '85, '86,
- Microsoft Corporation
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- All Rights Reserved
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- DEDICATION
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- These games are dedicated to my three wonderful (most of the
- time) children, Ryan, Risa, and Rustin, all of whom have
- inherited their mother's love for pushing buttons. They are
- my inspiration, my motivation, and my testing grounds for
- the programs that I write.
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- INFORMATION
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- HAPPYGAMES is marketed under the "Shareware" concept -- if you
- (or your children) enjoy these programs, and plan to use them from
- time to time, then please register your copy by sending a donation
- of $15.00 to:
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- Ruth E. Grove
- (HAPPYGAMES)
- Route 1 Box 273
- Somerville, TX 77879
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- In return, I will send you two labels, one with your serial number
- on it, and two "special" diskette jackets. (One for your original
- copy and one for your backup copy.)
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- Feel free to copy these programs and pass them along to your
- friends. The only requirements are:
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- 1) The copies must be distributed free of charge
- 2) The programs must not be altered in any way
- 3) All of the files on this disk must be included
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- The HAPPYGAMES were written on an IBM PCjr. (Yes, they DO still
- exist!) They should work on any IBM PC or compatible, with 256K or
- more, a color (CGA or EGA) monitor, and at least one joystick.
- (Two joysticks are required in order for two players to play the
- WIGGLEWORMS game.)
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- If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free
- to write to me at the address above. (I love to get mail!)
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- INSTRUCTIONS
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- To print a copy of this document, make sure your printer is
- ready, then enter the following command after the DOS prompt:
- "PRINTDOC". (Do not type the quotation marks.)
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- To play the games, simply type "HAPPY". An opening screen
- will be displayed. Press any key to go to the Menu. Six options
- are available on the menu, and they are described below.
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- COLOR SORT
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- Colorsort is the easiest of the three "sort" games on this
- disk. It displays a set of four colored shapes, and waits for the
- child to respond with one of the letters, A through D, associated
- with the four shapes. The object, as in all of the "sort" games on
- this disk, is to find the shape that is different from the rest.
- My reason for using the letters A-D rather than, for instance, the
- numbers 1-4 or the joystick was that I found with my children that
- it encourages them to try to find the right answer rather than
- just quickly running through all four answers to see which one was
- right. To further encourage this, I included a "scoring" system.
- For each right answer, the child is awarded a happy face. For each
- wrong answer, a happy face is removed. When the child accumulates
- five happy faces, he is rewarded with a short song, and the scoring
- starts over. This system seems to discourage guessing without
- being discouraging to the child.
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- SHAPE SORT
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- Shapesort is played just like colorsort, except that the
- four objects displayed are all the same color, but one is a different
- shape than the other three. It is a little harder than colorsort,
- because it takes the concept of "the same shape" a little farther.
- In shapesort, shapes can appear in several different orientations,
- but they are still regarded as the same shape. For example, a
- triangle might appear with its point down, or up, or to the right or
- left -- but it is still a triangle. The object is still to find the
- one that is a different shape from the others, and the same "scoring
- system" is used as in colorsort.
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- SUPER SORT
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- Supersort was actually the first of the "sort" programs.
- It wasn't until I had it up and running, and tried to play it for
- the first time, that I realized how difficult it really was. At
- first, I thought the logic equations I had written must have been
- incorrect, because sometimes there seemed to be two right answers
- for one group of objects. I had to go back to my own equations
- and work through them again to learn how to play the game! What I
- learned was that my approach to playing was wrong. I had been
- looking for one object that was different from the other three.
- Now there's nothing wrong with that, except that in supersort,
- there are situations where at first glance there seem to be two
- objects that are different. What you have to do is to "fine tune"
- your reasoning a little bit. It helps to think of the Sesame Street
- song that says something like "one of these things is not like the
- others; three of these things are kind of the same..." The key is
- KIND OF the same. In supersort, you have to use a "process of
- elimination" approach. First, find three things that have something
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- in common. Then you know that the remaining one is the one that is
- different. For example, you might have a combination like this:
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- RED SQUARE GREEN TRIANGLE BLUE SQUARE BLUE SQUARE
- A B C D
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- At first glance, it seems that there are two answers -- A and B.
- But using the "Sesame Street" approach, we can see that A, C, and
- D all have something in common -- they are all squares. So B is
- the correct answer. I would recommend not introducing your child to
- supersort until he or she has mastered colorsort and shapesort,
- almost to the point of being bored with them. Then he is ready to
- take his reasoning powers one step further! The scoring system is
- the same as in the other two games, but the songs are a little bit
- fancier, since it's a lot harder to get five happy faces in supersort!
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- WIGGLEWORMS
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- Though not an "Educational Game" in the sense of teaching
- letters, numbers, or shapes, WIGGLEWORMS is valuable in helping to
- develop hand-eye coordination. It is the only arcade-style,
- two-player game written for children that I know of -- after all,
- why should grownups have all the fun? It was inspired by my two
- older children's eternal battle over whose turn it was to "play the
- computer!" (Rustin is just now getting old enough to realize that he
- should get to play too -- so WIGGLEWORMS, at least in my household,
- is a temporary solution at best! Since I know of no way to connect
- three joysticks to the same computer, I guess the ultimate solution
- would be to buy another computer. Much as I like the sound of that,
- though, I fear it is a solution that lies far in the future for us!)
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- WIGGLEWORMS requires at least one joystick. For two
- players, two joysticks are necessary.
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- Before you run WIGGLEWORMS for the first time, you will need
- to align the joysticks (press "J" from the menu) in order for the
- program to work correctly. It is only neccessary to do this once,
- as the program will create a small data file on the disk, JSDATA,
- which contains the joystick information needed by the program. If
- you get new joysticks later on, just use the "J" option to save the
- new values. If you only have one joystick, follow the instructions for
- joystick `A', then press F1 and ENTER when prompted for joystick `B'
- (without doing anything to a joystick), and null values will be
- entered for `B'.
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- NOTE -- it is recommended that WIGGLEWORMS be played with
- the joysticks in the "free" mode -- that is, when released, the
- joystick does not spring back to the center, but remains where
- it is.
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- Once you have aligned your joysticks, you will be returned
- to the opening screen. This time, press "4", and the game will
- begin. The computer will ask how many players, 1 or 2 -- just enter
- the number, followed by "ENTER".
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- The object of the game is to get your worm to eat the most
- apples. Scores are kept in the upper corners of the screen, in
- colored boxes -- green for the green worm, and yellow for the yellow
- worm. The worm's head follows the movement of the joystick -- if
- you move the joystick, the worm will crawl in the direction that it
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- was moved, and his speed will correspond with the distance that the
- joystick was moved. If the joystick remains in one position, the
- worm will eventually come to a stop, and will appear as a green
- or yellow spot on the screen. This is just because of the way
- the program works in making the worm move about, and he will
- stretch out to his usual length as soon as the joystick is moved
- again.
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- To eat an apple, position your worm's head on an apple, and
- press the joystick button. When all 25 apples have been "eaten",
- a message will appear announcing the winner, and the game will
- start over. (This is to save poor Mom from running back and re-
- starting the game every few minutes!) To exit the game, simply
- press F10. WIGGLEWORMS is mildly competitive, but not too much
- commotion is made over the winner, so as not to discourage
- younger and less skillful players.
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