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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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1991-04-06
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208 lines
Basic Intructions for Advanced "Master Mind" Games (by JYVA)
------------------------------------------------------------
All of the games in this package have the same objective: to deduce
a game-generated sequence in the least number of guesses possible.
This is done by:
o Entering a 'Guess'.
o Examining the 'Grade' given.
o Making 'Surmises' about what is true and not true.
o Repeating this process until the solution is found.
When the solution is found, a 'rating' is computed. This is based upon
the difficulty of the game chosen and the number of guesses made. The
higher the difficulty and the lower the guesses, the higher the rating.
Detailed explanations of all the game features follow, with a sample
game solution and deduction hints.
Entering a Guess
----------------
A Guess is a sequence which follows the rules of the game being played.
For instance, in the Color game, each character in the guess must be a
color listed in the color menu on the left side of the screen.
A guess must match the length of the solution. The length is chosen by
the player at the beginning of the Color and Alphabet games, but it is
preset at five for the JOTTO game. In JOTTO, the guess must also be a
5-letter word which is in the game's vocabulary.
A guess is entered without any spaces, commas, or other punctuation.
There is a maximum of 30 guesses allowed for any one solution.
Characters that have been used at least once in a guess receive a 'dot'
next to them on the menu to the left side of the screen so a player
may remember which ones have been tried.
Examining the Grade
-------------------
Once a guess has been entered, it is displayed in the guess table in the
center of the screen, and a Grade is given. The grade is a comparison
of the characters in the guess with the characters in the solution.
For the Color and Alphabet games, the grade consists of two parts:
o The number of characters that match anywhere in the solution.
o The number of characters that are also in the correct position.
In the JOTTO game, only the first grade is given.
Grading is done on a one-for-one basis. If there are two 'A's in the
solution and there is only one 'A' in the guess, the grade is only one.
Likewise, if there are two 'A's in the guess and there is only one 'A'
in the solution, the grade is again one. If there are two 'A's in both
the guess and the solution, then the grade will be two.
Making Surmises (in general)
----------------------------
Surmises are a way of marking what is known to be true or not true about
the characters in the solution. Surmises are not guesses and are not
graded. They are simply visual aids for finding the correct solution.
From the guesses and the grades given, it is possible to deduce that
characters are either 'In' the solution (somewhere) or 'Out' (not in at
all). These are marked using the ALT-I and ALT-O keys respectively.
On most color monitors, characters that are 'In' are displayed in blue,
while characters that are 'Out' turn dark gray in lower case.
When a guess receives a grade of zero, the game automatically Surmises
that all the characters in the guess are 'Out'.
ALT-U will revert any of these surmises to 'Unknown' status (black again).
Note that it is not valid to surmise a character 'In' or 'Out' that has
never been used in a guess (does not have a dot next to it in the menu).
Surmises and Workarea Use in the Color and Alphabet Games
---------------------------------------------------------
For the games which give a positional grade, there are positional surmises
available, and the Workarea on the right side of the screen reflects these
types of surmises.
When a character is surmised 'In', it is assumed that it may be in any
position, so it appears under all possible positions in the Workarea.
Once a position is known for a character, ALT-P may be used to surmise
the character 'In Position', giving the appropriate position number.
The character will move above the position in the workarea (erasing all
others that might have been in that position), and the character turns
to magenta in the guess table wherever it appears in the same position.
Alternately, a character may be surmised as being 'Not in Position' using
ALT-N. This will turn the character in that position of the workarea to
a dot. ALT-M, 'Maybe in Position', is used to revert both ALT-P and ALT-N
surmises, returning the character to its previous condition.
Surmises and Workarea Use in JOTTO
----------------------------------
Since JOTTO gives no positional grades, the Workarea is used a bit
differently than the other games.
When a letter is surmised 'In', it is assumed that it is 'In' only once
somewhere, and it appears in the workarea above the next unused position.
If all positions are in use, or the letter is already in the workarea,
then a relative position for the letter will be requested. Relative
positions may be swapped, using ALT-P, to help visualize the solution word.
Additionally, ALT-M may be used to surmise letters that are 'Maybe In'.
This allows the grouping of letters which have not been definitely
surmised 'In' but, of which, only one is correct. This includes letters
that are still in 'Unknown' status, duplicate letters, and those that have
never been guessed. Use ALT-M giving a common position for each in the
group. Use ALT-I to later confirm which one is correct, and use ALT-N
('Not in') to remove each from consideration.
Sample Game Solution
--------------------
Here is a Color game with only 4 positions, 4 colors, and no duplicates:
## GUESS GRADE Comments
-- ---- -- -- --------
1 RBYG 4 0 They all must be in somewhere; Use ALT-I
on all; Use ALT-N for each since none are
in position. Then rearrange the guess...
2 GYRB 4 1 One is now in position, which? Mix half with
something that has a known result (guess #1).
3 GYYG 2 1 We kept the one in position, so either G is in
1 or Y is in 2. Mix again to eliminate one.
4 GBYG 3 1 We kept the one in position again, so G must be
in 1 (use ALT-P). Then by guess #3, Y can't
in 2 or 3 (use ALT-N), so it must be 4 (ALT-P).
5 GRBY 4 4 By elimination (and the ALT-Ns from guess #1),
R must be in 2, and B must be in 3. Correct!
Deduction Hints
---------------
1) First, find the distribution of the characters that are in. Use all
the possible characters in just a few guesses, reusing them only within
the same guess. Count the resultant grades and stop if all are found.
Grades of zero are very useful during the subsequent elimination phase.
2) During eliminations, don't vary too many things at once. Confusing
results can be obtained. Either change a character or two at a time
or rearrange them, but don't do both in the same guess until a lot is
known about the solution. (JOTTO might be the exception on this.)
3) Watch out for the 'both or neither' rule. Consider the following:
GUESS GRADE Comment
----- ----- -------
BROWN 1 It might be natural to assume that either B, O, W, or
BLOWN 1 N is in, but in fact both R and L might be in instead.
Choosing a Game
---------------
Novices may wish to start with the Color game, since this allows more
options affecting the difficulty. The Color game is like the board games
of "Master Mind" (Invicta), except in this game, the player may choose
how many 'positions' to play. A game with three positions is easy. A
game with eight positions is more complex than any of the board games.
The player also chooses the number of colors that will be allowed in each
position, up to sixteen, with at least one for each position played.
For all games, an option is given for whether 'duplicate' characters will
be allowed in the solution or not. Duplicates increase complexity and
should not be tried until a player is well versed without them. Note that
allowing duplicates does not mean that there will always be duplicates.
The Alphabet game is the same as the Color game except that it works with
the 26 letters of the alphabet instead of colors. Again, the number of
positions in which to play, from three to eight, is chosen by the player.
Choosing a Game (continued)
---------------------------
JOTTO is a special game involving only 5-letter English words. Words
include plurals and a lot of commonly used American slang words, but they
do not include anything that is normally capitalized or hyphenated.
See any notes on the main Game Menu as to the range of words supported.
In this version, only reasonably familiar 5-letter words were selected
since any may become a solution. Future versions will provide a more
complete vocabulary for guesses only.
Choose the 'Support this Shareware' option on the Game Menu for more
information on new releases planned and how to become a registered user.
Enjoy the Game!