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Loadstar 128 16
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q16.d81
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t.crypto boot
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2022-08-28
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D O C T O R C R Y P T O
by Paul McAleer
You've seen them in newspapers and puzzle books -- paragraphs that look
like someone has thrown the letters up in the air and let them fall where
they may. Sometimes they're quotations by famous people and called
"Cryptoquotes"; sometimes they're short little jokes called "Cryptoquips".
The idea is that you are to figure out the letter substitution code that the
puzzlemaker used and come up with the quote or quip.
DOCTOR CRYPTO is a program that has dozens of quotes built in for you
to solve. They are chosen randomly so you always find new ones each time
you play, and since the letter substitution scheme is different for every
one, even if you encountered a quote a second time, you probably wouldn't
recognize it.
If you've ever tried your hand at solving Cryptograms (the generic name
for this type of puzzle) you probably found yourself doing a lot of erasing.
You also spent some time finding all of the instances of a certain letter
when you feel you have a letter's code figured out. Well, these two
annoying time-wasters are not a part of DOCTOR CRYPTO. Thanks to your
tireless, egoless C-128, all erasing and letter substituting is done for
you, leaving your mind free for the true challenge of Cryptograms: solving
the dang thing.
DOCTOR CRYPTO for the C-128 was based on a C-64 version by Fender
Tucker, who wrote it when he was a starving artist, years before he clawed
his way to the top of the LOADSTAR Tower. It not only allows you to solve
dozens of cryptograms, it has an editor so you can enter quotes (or quips)
of your own for your friends to solve. You don't have to crypticize your
quote (that is, make the letter substitutions); all you have to do is enter
the quote in plain English. The program will store it on disk in English
and crypticize it just before it's picked for someone to solve.
In case you are new to Cryptograms, here's what they are in a nutshell.
A quote, such as "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL" is displayed. However, each
letter of the alphabet has been substituted for by another letter so the
puzzle you see looks like
XRR'W QKRR BDXB KMPW QKRR
Most quotes are followed by the speaker's name, which is also crypticized.
Note that the same substitute letter is always used for all instances of a
letter in a Cryptogram. In the above, R is substituted for L everytime
there is an L. R is not substituted for any other letter. A letter cannot
be substituted for itself. Punctuation marks are not crypticized.
Most solvers write in the correct letters above the quote and that's
the way DOCTOR CRYPTO works. As you fill in letters, the words become more
clear and if you've guessed wisely, you'll eventually be able to make all of
the letter substitutions.
HINTS: Veteran cryptologists look for certain letter combinations to fill in
first. In the example above the combination BDXB is a 90% sure giveaway for
THAT. A four-letter word that begins and ends with the same letter is
almost always THAT. If the word is one letter long, then it's either A or
I, right? Many solvers like to find the most famous of all three-letter
words, THE. Letters that occur most often in the English language are E, T,
A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L, U and so on. Of course, in a small sample of
letters like the ones used in a Cryptogram, this may not be of much use.
Remember that the rules of grammar are usually followed in a quote worthy of
being remembered. Verb follows subject, object follows verb, etc.
Now that you are an expert on cryptography, here are the specifics of
the program.
THE MAIN MENU
-------------
After loading the CRYPTO BOOT file, you'll be presented with a menu of
five options, which are:
SOLVE A CRYPTO
WRITE A CRYPTO
LOAD CRYPTOS
INSTRUCTIONS
QUIT TO LOADSTAR
Use the CRSR UP/DOWN keys to move the highlight, and RETURN to select.
You may also change the tile to suit your tastes by pressing T.
IMPORTANT NOTE! DOCTOR CRYPTO requires the disk to remain in the drive. A
lot of reading/writing is going on, and taking it out could crash the
program. The program should run from whichever disk drive it was booted
from, 8 through 16.
SOLVE A CRYPTO
--------------
This is the main game. After selecting SOLVE, you'll have the option
of using the default files (DC.QUOTES 1 to 4), using your own file, or
aborting. If you choose to use your own file, a file MUST have been loaded.
If none was loaded, you'll be taken to LOAD CRYPTOS, and SOLVE must be
re-selected from the main menu after the load.
Once the computer selects and crypticizes a file, you'll be presented
with two windows. On the left are your options. On the right is the
cryptogram you are to solve, double-spaced. The cursor will be over the
first letter in the first row. The reason for the double-spacing is that
you will be entering your solution for the quote directly above each line of
the crypticized quote. For input, you can use any of the 26 letters of the
alphabet. HOME, RETURN, and the CRSRs work, but note that RETURN does NOT
enter your input as your final answer. CLR (or F6) will clear your ENTIRE
answer, so be careful and don't hit it when you don't want to. Of course,
if you find yourself way off track after entering a bunch of letters,
hitting CLR lets you start over from scratch, which is probably the best
thing to do.
While editing, you can also choose one of the function key options.
F1 - STOP CLOCK: This will stop DOCTOR CRYPTO's Flimex timer. It can't be
restarted after it's stopped (that would be cheating!!) The clock is just
in case you want to get competitive. The times aren't saved.
F3 - SEE SOLUTION: Lets you see the solution. You'll be asked if you're
sure.
F5 - CHECK SOLUTION: This will check your guess against the answer. If
you're correct, you'll have the option of solving another.
F7 - NEW CRYPTO: This is the easy way out; it will let you load in a new
crypto. You will have to confirm this.
F2 - QUIT: Quit to the main menu. You'll have to confirm this.
F4 - LETTER HINT: Gives you a chance to reveal the letter underneath the
cursor. Cost is 20 seconds, and you must confirm.
WRITE A CRYPTO
--------------
DOCTOR CRYPTO also includes a cryptogram editor. While editing you
WON'T see your message in cryptogram form; instead, you edit it as normal
English text.
After choosing to WRITE, you can either use the file in memory or start
a new file. If you choose "file in memory" and there IS no file in memory,
the program will abort to the main menu. If you choose to begin a new file
you'll be prompted for a filename.
The editor is similar in appearance to the SOLVE option. Your crypto
can be up to 5 lines long, 38 characters each line. Editing is done
line-by-line. Two options are available to you, and these can ONLY be
entered on a line by themselves!
* - END THIS CRYPTO: This option should be used if you don't need all 5
lines. DOCTOR CRYPTO will automatically advance to the next crypto if your
crypto is 5 lines or it encounters an *.
ESC - SAVE + EXIT: You should press ESC only on a new (blank) input
screen. Each file can have up to ten cryptos. If you enter ten, the file
is automatically saved as soon as you enter the tenth one. After the file
has been saved, you go back to the main menu.
LOAD CRYPTOS
------------
Use this option to retrieve your file from disk. Note that the file
MUST start with "DC.", which DOCTOR CRYPTO adds while editing. Also, this
option doesn't really LOAD the crypto; instead it assigns the filename to be
"your own file," as it's called, in SOLVE mode. To solve the cryptos, you
still have to choose SOLVE CRYPTOS from the main menu.
The directory of the current disk might scroll if it's long enough.
Press RUN/STOP to halt the scrolling and choose your file. Only DC. files
are displayed, and only those DC. files can be loaded as crypto files.
INSTRUCTIONS
------------
Offers a one screen run-down of these instructions.
QUIT TO L