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- wCrypto-King w
-
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- wVersion 1.3 w
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-
- by
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-
- wRobert Bromley w
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-
- September 5, 1993
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- TABLE OF CONTENTS
-
-
- 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................... 1
- 1.1 What are Cryptograms? ............................ 1
- 1.2 What is Crypto-King? ............................ 1
- 1.3 Feature Summary .................................. 1
- 1.4 Hardware Requirements ............................ 1
- 1.5 Software Requirements ............................ 1
- 1.6 Restrictions ..................................... 2
- 1.7 Copyright ........................................ 2
- 1.8 Starting Crypto-King ............................ 2
-
- 2 SHAREWARE .............................................. 2
-
- 3 HOW TO SOLVE A CRYPTOGRAM .............................. 3
-
- 4 THE SCREEN LAYOUT ...................................... 3
-
- 5 PLAYING CRYPTO-KING .................................... 4
- 5.1 Using the Keyboard ............................... 4
- 5.2 Using the Mouse .................................. 6
-
- 6 THE TRIED/WON INDICATORS ............................... 6
-
- 7 THE MENUS .............................................. 7
- 7.1 Project Menu ..................................... 7
- 7.1.1 New Game (F1) .............................. 7
- 7.1.2 Start This Game Over (F2) .................. 7
- 7.1.3 Enter Your Own (F3) ........................ 7
- 7.1.4 Quit <Esc> ................................. 7
- 7.2 Help Menu ........................................ 8
- 7.2.1 Frequency Table (F6) ....................... 8
- 7.2.2 Most Common Letters (F7) ................... 8
- 7.2.3 Most Common Words (F8) ..................... 8
- 7.2.4 Patterns (3 Letter) (F9) ................... 8
- 7.2.5 Patterns (4 Letter) (F10) .................. 8
- 7.2.6 Gimme a Hint! <Help> ....................... 8
- 7.2.7 I Give Up. Show Me!! (F5) .................. 8
- 7.3 About Menu ....................................... 8
- 7.3.1 The Program ................................. 8
- 7.3.2 Shareware ................................... 8
-
- 8 ADDITIONAL DATABASES ................................... 9
-
- 9 THE "SCRAMBLER" PROGRAM ................................ 9
-
- 10 INCLUDED FILES ......................................... 9
- 10.1 Registered Version .............................. 9
- 10.2 Distribution Version ............................ 9
-
- 11 GENERAL ................................................ 10
-
- 12 REVISION HISTORY ....................................... 10
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- w1 INTRODUCTION w
-
- 1.1 What are Cryptograms?
-
- Cryptograms are those strange looking groups of gibberish that you
- often see in newspapers and magazines, usually on the same page as the
- Crossword puzzles. They are essentially scrambled (or coded) messages
- that must be de-coded to be understood. This is done by substituting
- all occurances of an existing letter with a different letter. If the
- correct substitutions are made, the message becomes readable.
-
-
- 1.2 What is Crypto-King?
-
- Crypto-King (CK) is a program that allows you to solve Cryptograms
- more easily and more neatly. A coded message is randomly picked from
- a database of 100 such messages, and displayed on the screen. You
- select a letter you want to replace, and the letter you want to
- replace it with, and all letter substitutions are made automatically.
- If you decide you have substituted the wrong letter, you don't need
- an eraser. Just "give back" the letter, and choose another.
-
- Crypto-King was written in HiSoft BASIC Version 1.05, and compiled
- using the HiSoft BASIC Professional compiler.
-
-
- 1.3 Feature Summary
-
- Some of the features of Crypto-King are:
-
- - Complete Graphical User Interface.
- - All features may be accessed by either the keyboard or the mouse.
- - Help windows to assist you in making the right decisions.
- - Enter your own Cryptograms from within the program.
- - If things are really tough, CK will provide you with "Hints".
- - If things are desperate, CK will give you the solution.
- - Two English and two German (so far) 100 Cryptogram databases.
- - A "Scrambler" program that will allow you to easily scramble
- quotations, etc., and write them to a file. You can create your
- own Cryptogram databases.
- - Well-behaved in a multi-tasking environment.
-
-
- 1.4 Hardware Requirements
-
- There are no special hardware requirements for this program.
-
-
- 1.5 Software Requirements
-
- CK assumes the presence of a normal libs: directory. Specifically,
- the following libraries are required:
-
- - diskfont.library
- - exec.library
- - graphics.library
- - intuition.library
-
- In addition, the database file "CK.db" must be in the
- Current Directory when CK is run.
-
- 1
-
-
-
-
- 1.6 Restrictions
-
- As of this version, CK will only load a Cryptogram of a maximum
- of 76 characters, on 2 lines of 38 characters each. Try a sample
- from the database provided to see how this looks.
-
-
- 1.7 Copyright
-
- Crypto-King is Copyright (1991) by Robert Bromley.
- All rights are retained by the author.
-
- This program is Shareware, and may be distributed free of charge.
- Nominal charges for copy media only are permitted.
-
-
- 1.8 Starting Crypto-King
-
- From the Workbench; just click on the icon.
-
- From the CLI; usage is: [Run] CK
-
- NOTE
- Refer to Section 1.5 - "Software Requirements".
-
-
-
- w2 SHAREWARE w
-
- Shareware is (usually) good software at reasonable prices. I hope
- you consider Crypto-King to be in this catagory. My previous programs
- were released as Freeware, but as I have invested 800 to 1000 hours
- in Crypto-King over the last 16 months, I decided to see if anyone
- thinks my efforts to be worthwhile.
-
- Therefore, if you think CK is worth it, I am requesting a Shareware
- contribution of $12.00.
-
- In return, I will send you a disk with a fully operating version of
- Crypto-King (Refer to Section 10 - "INCLUDED FILES"), the Scrambler
- program, (Refer to Section 9 - THE "SCRAMBLER" PROGRAM), and my
- undying gratitude, (not for the money so much as for knowing I'm not
- wasting my time).
-
- The address is:
-
- Robert Bromley
- 1168 Timber Lane
- Victoria, B.C.
- CANADA V8Y 1E4
-
- If you don't think CK is worth $12.00, you can send what you think it
- is worth. (I just hope it covers the cost of a disk and postage!).
- If you can't, or won't, send anything, well, God bless you, and I hope
- you enjoy it anyway.
-
- By the way, if anyone sends me a usable database for CK, created with
- the Scrambler program or any other means, I will be happy to refund
- their Shareware contribution.
-
-
- 2
-
-
-
-
- w3 HOW TO SOLVE A CRYPTOGRAM w
-
- This section is purely subjective. I'm sure many people have their
- own ideas of the best way to solve Cryptograms, and if you are an
- experienced Cryptogram player, feel free to skip this section.
-
- Rule number 1 is to always go for the easy words first.
- Rule number 2 is to look for words with recognizable patterns.
-
- The first thing I look for is a 1-letter word. In English, this word
- must either be an A or an I (or very occasionally, an O). In the
- majority of cases, it will be an A. (Check the "Most Common Words"
- item of the "Help" Menu to confirm this).
-
- If the first word of the Cryptogram is a 3-letter word, you will find
- that it is often THE, the most common word in the English language.
-
- Look for a 4-letter word with the pattern X__X. That is, with the
- first and last letters the same. There are less than 10 words that
- this can be in English, and it will usually be THAT.
- (Check the "Patterns (4 Letter)" item of the "Help" Menu).
-
- A 2-letter word beginning with T must be TO.
-
- Look for 2-letter (Digraph) or 3-letter (Trigraph) combinations that
- occur frequently in the Cryptogram. Then check the "Frequency Table"
- item of the "Help" Menu to find out what the most popular Digraphs and
- Trigraphs are in the English language. Some will fit, and some won't.
- If you actually study the Help windows, and become familiar with the
- patterns, you will find the solutions come much easier.
-
- If you just can't seem to get started, ask for a Hint!
-
-
-
- w4 THE SCREEN LAYOUT w
-
- CK will open on its own screen. At the top is the program Title.
-
- Below the Title is the Available Letters (or Upper) box. This box
- displays all the letters of the alphabet which you have not already
- selected. Once a letter has been selected to replace a letter in the
- Cryptogram, it cannot be used to replace a different letter, (unless
- you choose to "give it back" first. Refer to Section 5 - "PLAYING
- CRYPTO-KING").
-
- Below that, is the Main (or Lower) box. This is where the scrambled
- Cryptogram is displayed. As you make your letter substitutions, the
- substituted letters are displayed above the letters they are being
- substituted for. Sounds like a lot of substituting, but that is what
- the game is all about. And CK will do it all for you automatically.
-
- Either the Upper or Lower box will always have a red border around it.
- This identifies the Active box, ie. the box that CK is expecting you
- to select something from.
-
- Below the Lower box is the Message box. This box will also tell you
- which of the Upper or Lower boxes is the Active box.
-
- The bottom of the screen is where Hints will be displayed,
- if they are requested.
- 3
-
-
-
-
- w5 PLAYING CRYPTO-KING w
-
- This section will be much more easily understood if CK is running on
- the screen in front of you as you read it.
-
-
- 5.1 Using the Keyboard
-
- OK, so all the necessary files and libraries are where they should be,
- and you have started CK. The screen appears, and the Message box
- tells you CK is "Finding a crypto-gram . . .". At this point, CK is
- searching the Current Directory for a file named "CK.db", which must
- be a file containing 100 scrambled Cryptograms and their solutions.
-
- After choosing one of the 100 at random, the Cryptogram is loaded and
- displayed, in white, in the Lower box, which will be the Active box
- with the red border around it. The Upper box will contain all 26
- letters, A to Z. The Message box will now request that you
- "Select a letter in the LOWER box to be replaced".
-
- Determine which of the scrambled letters you want to substitute first.
- IE., suppose the Lower box had:
-
- L P E J A U - N T W K T Y H K H B O A X H A T Y Q I W
-
- A U J Z H E , H W F O F I L H A T U W H Z A U U .
-
- First, we notice the 1-letter word H, and assume that this should
- actually be an A. Therefore:
-
- - Type H on the keyboard (upper or lower case).
- - The first occurance of the letter H will become cyan color, to
- indicate that this is the chosen letter, and the red border will
- shift to the Upper box to indicate that this box is now Active.
- The Message box will now read "Select a letter from the UPPER box
- to substitute".
- - Since we want to substitute an A for the H, type A.
- - The letter A will now disappear from the Upper box, and will appear,
- in yellow, above all of the 7 occurances of H in the Lower box.
- The red border shifts back to the Lower box, and the Message box
- again tells you to select from the Lower box.
-
- Next, we notice the combination A X H A, a 4-letter word with the
- first and last letters the same. This word is probably THAT. This is
- reinforced by the fact that the H already has an A above it. So:
-
- - The Lower box is Active; press A, the letter you want to replace.
- - The Upper box is now Active; press T, the letter you want to
- substitute for the A. Ts will appear above all of the As.
- - The Lower box is Active; press X.
- - The Upper box is Active; press H.
-
- Now, we have a 2-letter word beginning with T, which can only be TO.
- - The Lower box is Active; press U.
- OOPS! Darn! Pressed Y by mistake. No problem. Press the
- Cursor Down key. This will de-select the Y, and make the Lower box
- Active again.
- - The Lower box is Re-Activated; press U.
- - The Upper box is Active, press O, to replace all Us with Os.
-
-
- 4
-
-
-
-
- The Lower box will now show:
-
- T O - A A T H A T
-
- L P E J A U - N T W K T Y H K H B O A X H A T Y Q I W
-
-
- T O A , A A O A T O O .
-
- A U J Z H E , H W F O F I L H A T U W H Z A U U .
-
- Note that all of the punctuation is in place when the game starts.
-
- There is no guarantee that what we have done so far is all correct,
- but some mistakes are immediatly obvious. IE., suppose you thought
- the U in the first word might be an I, instead of an O, so you make
- the substitution. You would then notice that the last word is shown
- as a 3-letter word ending in II. This obviously cannot be, so you
- must "give back" all of the Is to the Upper box.
-
- To "give back" a letter, simply press the <Delete> key. The Lower
- box will become Active, if it wasn't already, and the Message box
- will show; "Select a letter in the LOWER box to give back". In this
- example, press I on the keyboard, and all of the Is will disappear
- from the Lower box, and the I will reappear in the Upper box, ready
- to be used again.
-
- So, looking at what we have solved above, we have a good start at
- solving the whole Cryptogram. The next step might be the 3-letter
- word following the comma. In this instance, the word is often THE,
- AND or BUT. Since the A is already in place, try AND.
-
- If you want some help in solving the Cryptogram, the Help windows are
- at your disposal. Pressing the Function keys F6 to F10 will display
- these windows. Refer to Section 7.2 - "Help Menu".
-
- If you get stuck at this point, and you cannot find the clue you need
- in the Help windows, you can ask for a Hint. CK will provide up to
- 3 Hints per game (except for Cryptograms manually entered yourself.
- Refer to Section 7.1.3 - "Enter Your Own"). To get a Hint, just press
- the <Help> key. A requester will pop up, and if you confirm your
- desire for a Hint, one will be provided, at the bottom of the screen,
- in the form of: Hint #1: L = C
-
- This means that the correct substitution of the Ls in the Lower box
- is with Cs. Make sure the Lower box is Active, (by pressing the
- Cursor Down key, if necessary), and press L. When the Upper box
- becomes Active, press C, and the substitution will be made.
-
- NOTE
- If you had previously substituted the Ls for some other letter,
- nothing will happen when you press L. You will first have to
- "give back" the letter over the Ls, using the <Delete> key.
-
- If, after all of your best efforts, you feel that you are unable to
- solve the Cryptogram, but you are curious of the solution, you can
- then use the F5 Function key. This will pop a requester asking you if
- you are Giving Up. Press "N" to Continue the game. If you press "Y"
- you will be shown the solution, and the game will be counted as
- Not Won, (a polite way of saying "Lost").
-
- 5
-
-
-
-
- You now have four options:
-
- 1. Press F1 to Start a New Game.
- 2. Press F2 to Start the Current Game Over.
- 3. Press F3 to Enter a Cryptogram of your own.
- 4. Press <Escape> to Quit Crypto-King.
-
-
- 5.2 Using the Mouse
-
- Crypto-King may also be played entirely with the mouse.
- Refer to Section 5.1 - "Using the Keyboard", for hints on game play.
- This section will discuss only the mechanics of using the mouse
- instead of the keyboard.
-
- First of all, the mouse selections must be fairly accurate to ensure
- that the correct letter is being selected. For this reason, CK comes
- equiped with a custom mouse pointer, which resembles a large red
- squarish "O". If the pointer surrounds the letter you want to select,
- you will have the right one. I have also found that if you have a
- mouse accelerator installed, it takes awhile to get used to making
- accurate selections. Turning down, or de-activating the accelerator
- may help. Or, there is always the keyboard.
-
- Using the mouse is very intuitive.
-
- When the Lower box is Active:
-
- Clicking on a white, previously unselected letter in the Cryptogram
- will select it, turn it a cyan color to show it is selected, and make
- the Upper box Active.
-
- Clicking on one of the yellow letters (part of the solution), will
- "give back" that letter to the Upper box. The Lower box remains
- Active.
-
- When the Upper box is Active:
-
- Clicking on a letter in the Upper box will cause that letter to be
- substituted for all occurances of the previously selected letter
- (now a cyan color), in the Lower box, and make the Lower box Active.
-
- Clicking in the Lower box will de-select the chosen (cyan) letter in
- the Lower box, and make the Lower box Active.
-
-
- That's pretty much all there is to it.
- Refer to Section 7 - "THE MENUS", for descriptions of getting Hints,
- Giving Up, Starting Over, etc.
-
-
-
- w6 THE TRIED/WON INDICATORS w
-
- CK keeps track of the number of games Tried, and Won. The score is
- updated after a New Game is started. When you start your second game,
- the Tried: indicator appears in the lower-left corner, showing
- Tried: 1. If the first Cryptogram was solved correctly, the Won:
- indicator in the lower-right corner will also show 1, otherwise 0.
-
-
- 6
-
-
-
-
- A game is not counted as Tried until you have selected 6 or more
- letters from the Upper box. This gives you the opportunity to
- "sample" a game before trying it. Selecting New Game after removing
- only 5 letters from the Upper box will start the new game without
- counting that game as either Tried or Lost. If you remove 4 letters,
- then select Start Game Over, the game will count as Tried after 2
- more letters are removed from the Upper box.
-
- A game is counted as Won if the Congratulatory message appears in the
- Upper box. This indicates that your solution of the Cryptogram is
- the correct one. Naturally, the game is not counted as Won if the
- solution is there as a result of the Help Menu item, "I Give Up!!"
-
- Any game which you enter manually, using F3 or the Project Menu, is
- not counted as Tried, Won, or Lost.
-
-
-
- w7 THE MENUS w
-
- This section describes the operation of the Menus. The keyboard
- equivalents, where applicable, are also shown.
-
-
- 7.1 Project Menu
-
- 7.1.1 New Game (F1)
-
- A requester will appear asking if you really want to start a New Game.
- This will cause CK to re-search the Current Directory for the file
- "CK.db", and randomly pick another Cryptogram to display. The Tried
- and Won indicators are updated.
-
- 7.1.2 Start This Game Over (F2)
-
- A requester will appear aking if you really want to re-start.
- Re-starts the current game from the beginning. If 6 or more letters
- have been selected from the Upper box, the game is counted as Lost.
-
- 7.1.3 Enter Your Own (F3)
-
- You may see a Cryptogram in a newspaper or magazine, or have one you
- created yourself, that you want to play on CK. A window will open
- with 2 string requesters. Type in the Cryptogram, and it will be
- displayed as a regular game. Pressing <Esc>, or entering nothing in
- both requesters will abort this function. If you enter text and
- change your mind, Alternate-X will clear the requester. Bear in mind
- that the Cryptogram can be no longer than 76 characters (38 characters
- on each of 2 lines).
-
- Since CK cannot possibly know the correct solution to these manually
- entered Cryptograms, it cannot know if the game has been Won.
- Therefore, these games are not counted as Tried, Won, or Lost, and
- you will not be advised if the game is completed.
-
- 7.1.4 Quit <Esc>
-
- This does pretty much as you might expect. A requester will ask for
- confirmation before shutting down Crypto-King.
-
-
- 7
-
-
-
-
- 7.2 Help Menu
-
- 7.2.1 Frequency Table (F6)
-
- This opens a window displaying the following information:
-
- - The most common 2, 3, and 4-letter words in the English language.
- - The most common digraphs and trigraphs (2 or 3-letter combinations).
- - Possible double-letter combinations.
-
- 7.2.2 Most Common Letters (F7)
-
- This opens a window displaying the following information:
-
- - The most frequently used letters, in decreasing order of usage.
- - The most frequently used letters which start a word, in order.
- - The most frequently used letters which end a word, in order.
-
- 7.2.3 Most Common Words (F8)
-
- This opens a window displaying the most common 100 or so words in
- the English language, in decreasing order of common usage.
-
- 7.2.4 Patterns (3 Letter) (F9)
-
- This opens a window displaying common 3-letter words which contain
- 2 letters the same. They are shown in the form similar to: X_X
- This indicates the first and last letters of this word are the same,
- while the letter indicated by the underscore is a different letter.
-
- It also shows possible combinations of words containing apostrophes.
- This is very helpful, since there are not many of these combinations.
-
- 7.2.5 Patterns (4 Letter) (F10)
-
- As above, except showing 4-letter words with patterns.
-
- 7.2.6 Gimme a Hint <Help>
-
- There are 3 "Hints" available per game. A requester will inform you
- how many Hints you have remaining, and ask if you want another.
- Hints are shown at the bottom of the screen.
- Refer to Section 5.1 - "Using the Keyboard".
-
- 7.2.7 I Give Up. Show Me!! (F5)
-
- A requester will ask if you really want to Give Up. If you confirm
- by either pressing "Y" on the keyboard, or clicking on "Give Up",
- the solution will be displayed in the Lower box, and the game will be
- counted as Lost.
-
- 7.3 About Menu
-
- 7.3.1 The Program
-
- The usual "About" stuff.
-
- 7.3.2 Shareware
-
- Recaps some of the information in Section 2.
-
- 8
-
-
-
-
- w8 ADDITIONAL DATABASES w
-
- The files "Alt.db" (Alternate), Deutsch1.db, and Deutsch2.db included
- in the Registered package, are 100 Cryptogram databases, just like
- "CK.db", except that the Cryptograms are all different. If you want
- to try some new Cryptograms, just rename CK.db as something else, then
- rename one of these as CK.db. That's it. The next time CK is Run,
- it will search the new database.
-
-
-
- w9 THE "SCRAMBLER" PROGRAM w
-
- I have written a companion program for Crypto-King called Scrambler.
- To Run it, click on the icon or, from the CLI enter: [Run] Scrambler
-
- A window opens with an explanatory message. Press any key.
-
- Scrambler is a very simple utility program to assist anyone who may
- want to create additional databases for CK. When Run, it merely asks
- you to input 1 or 2 lines of unscrambled text. It then scrambles that
- text into a Cryptogram, and with your concurrence, writes both
- versions to the sequential file "RAM:CKtemp.db". You may then rename
- the file, if you wish, and copy it to the same directory as CK.
- When you want to use this new database, just rename "CK.db" as
- something else, rename the new one as "CK.db", and you're all set.
-
- If "CK.db" is more than 400 lines long, the lines over 400 will never
- be accessed. If less than 400 lines long, an error will be generated
- sooner or later.
-
-
-
- w10 INCLUDED FILES w
-
- 10.1 Registered Version
-
- Registered users of Crypto-King will receive a disk containing
- the following files:
-
- - CK (+ icon) ; the program, (without the initial Shareware window).
- - CK.db and Alt.db (+ icons) ; two 100 Cryptogram databases.
- - Deutsch1.db and Deutsch2.db (+ icons) ; two 100 Cryptogram
- databases in the German language. These were sent to me by
- Werner Pasche, of Hamburg, Germany. (Thanks, Werner)!
- If more are created, they will be included.
- - Scrambler (+ icon) ; the database creator.
- - CK.doc (+ icon) ; this file.
-
-
- 10.2 Distribution Version
-
- This Distribution Version of Crypto-King is identical to the
- Registered Version, with the following exceptions:
-
- - There is only 1 database included (CK.db), containing 6 Cryptograms.
- - This version will not search a database larger than 6 Cryptograms,
- and has the opening Shareware message.
- - The Scrambler program has been omitted.
-
-
- 9
-
-
-
-
- w11 GENERAL w
-
- If you enjoy solving Cryptograms, as I do, I hope you enjoy this
- program. If you have any comments, suggestions, or criticisms,
- I would be more than happy to hear them.
-
- Also, if I have missed any English words in the Help windows
- "Patterns (3 Letter)" or "Patterns (4 Letter)", please let me know
- so that I can include them in future versions.
-
- If anyone is still puzzling over the sample Cryptogram above,
- the solution is:
-
- CRYPTO-KING IS A GAME THAT IS FUN TO PLAY, AND EDUCATIONAL TOO.
-
-
-
- w12 REVISION HISTORY w
-
- Version 0.1: Internal
-
- - Basic program. Works pretty well.
-
- Version 0.2: Internal
-
- - Added Help windows. Program now sometimes crashes when a
- Help window is called. Too often.
- - Highlight the selected letter in the Lower box.
- - Bug fixes.
-
- Version 0.3: Internal
-
- - Re-wrote structure to change the way Cryptograms are handled
- in memory. Program is no longer crashing.
-
- Version 0.4: Internal
-
- - Added the custom pointer.
- - Added "Gimme a Hint".
- - Many more bug fixes.
-
- Version 0.5: Internal
-
- - Added the Tried: and Won: indicators.
- - Added the option to play from the keyboard.
- - Improved the routine for picking a random Cryptogram.
-
- Version 1.0: First Release, December 1991
-
- Version 1.1: 72300 bytes Released July, 1992
-
- - Fixed a problem that could cause the Cryptogram to stop
- loading if the RMB was pressed.
-
- Version 1.2: Internal
-
- Version 1.3: 73800 bytes Released September, 1993
-
- - The font loading routine was crashing on some machines. Fixed.
- - A Cryptogram will now not be re-loaded until all others in the
- database have been loaded.
- 10
-