Softdisk PC 109/sdpc109.zip/ELEMENTS/MANUAL.TXT

Text File | 1995-08-27 | 15KB | 318 lines

                      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                      *    Quid Pro Quo Software      *
                      *     153 Moreuilwood Blvd      *
                      *         Petawawa, ON          *
                      *            CANADA             *
                      *            K8H 1A7            *
                      *                               *
                      *      Voice [phone]      *
                      *       FAX [phone]       *
                      *     CompuServe 75537,116      *
                      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

            (C) 1995, Quid Pro Quo Software, All Rights Reserved

                             Table of Contents

    About Quid Pro Quo Software
    System Requirements
    Comments
    Support
    Files
    Disclaimer
    General Instructions for the Board Game
       Playing the Game
       Setup Options
       Categories Included
    Fact Page/Class Room
    Maps/Periodic Table
    Acknowledgements
    Sound Blaster Support


-*  About Quid Pro Quo Software *-

     Quid Pro Quo Software produces high quality educational and
trivia programs.  All of these programs have VGA graphics,
optional mouse support, Sound Blaster card support and a very
easy user interface.  This file contains information about our
programs that you may find useful.  This file is a general file
that contains information about all of our programs, therefore,
there may be parts that do not pertain to the program you are
using.  For more information on our other products see the file
called QPQ_CAT.TXT or contact us at the above address/numbers.

     Our programs contain up to three different parts, each of
which are described below.  The first part, which all programs
have, is a board game that allows one to four players to take
part in an exciting trivia game.  Players attempt to answer true
and false or multiple choice questions.  The first player to
successfully answer correctly in five different categories wins.

     The second part is the Fact Page or Class Room.  Entering
this area allows you to scroll through the information about that
program's theme.  For instance in Presidential Primer the Fact
Page displays a card for each President listing a number of
important facts about him.  Both Stating the Facts and Only in
Canada contain a page for each province or state that includes a
map of the country highlighting the province or state as well as
its flag.  You may search for information using a different
search keys.

     Some of the programs have a third part.  For instance both
Stating the Facts and Only in Canada include an electronic atlas
that may be used to display facts or used to test your knowledge
of the country.  It's Elementary includes an electronic Periodic
Table that is excellent for studying for school tests or just
retrieving information about the elements.

-*  System Requirements *-

     This game is designed to be played on IBM PC or true
compatible equipped with a VGA monitor.  A mouse is not required;
however, it is recommended.  The Sound Blaster card is supported;
if properly installed you will hear quality FM music throughout
the game. (See Sound Blaster Support, below, for more details)

-*  Commercial Version  *-

     This is a commercial version.  That means that you have paid
for this copy of the game (or you are illegally using the
program).  You are allowed to make a copy for backup purposes but
you may not make copies for friends.  If you require more copies
please contact the vendor from which you purchased this copy.  If
the vendor is unable to provide you with additional copies please
contact Quid Pro Quo Software for more copies.

-*  Comments  *-

     We enjoy receiving comments, good or bad, about our
programs. If you have any suggestions or ideas for improving
these games please contact us.  We will answer all letters
received.

     Our programs are tested on a variety of computer systems.
We spent an incredible amount of time making sure that the
programs are well designed and enjoyable to play.  If you
discover any problems please write to us with a description of
what happened.  Please include a description of your computer as
well as a copy of your config.sys and autoexec.bat and the
version number of your operating system.

-*  Support *-

     Registered users are entitled to free lifetime support.  If
you encounter problems please contact Quid Pro Quo Software at
the above address.  All questions or problems will be responded
to in writing.

-*  Disclaimer  *-

     Quid Pro Quo Software's programs are sold 'as-is', without
any warranty as to  performance or any other warranties whether
expressed or implied.  Because of the many hardware and software
environments into which this program may be used, no warranty of
fitness for a particular purpose is offered.  The user must
assume the entire risk of using the program.  Any liability of
the seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or
the refund of the purchase price.

-*  General Instructions for Trivia Game  *-

     To begin the trivia game click on the "Board Game" button.
The game board will appear which is divided into two major areas
- the main board and the inner board area. The main board
consists of 22 squares, 20 of them are colored either red, blue,
green, yellow or magenta and represent regular squares and two
are special squares, there is a start square in the upper left
corner and roll again square in the lower right corner.  There
will be one to four colored game pieces on the start square.

    The inner board has four parts to it - the upper left segment
has a list of the current categories showing their color; the
upper right segment has a colored score token for each player;
the bottom right has a single die; and along the bottom are the
control buttons: Roll, SetUp, Instr, New and Quit.  Throughout
the game you may use either the mouse button as described above
or the keyboard.  When using the keyboard you must press the key
that corresponds to an underlined letter on the button.
Throughout these instruction we will describe operations with
mouse clicks, remember that you may also use the keyboard.

-*  Playing the Game  *-

    Player 1 begins the game by clicking the Roll box which
causes the die to roll.  Player 1's token will move that number
of spaces clockwise around the game board.  A question
corresponding to the color of the square which Player 1 landed on
will appear.  The name of the category will be typed on the top
of the colored card.  The card will contain a question followed
by possible answers and corresponding boxes (questions may be
either true/false or multiple choice - see SetUp for more
information).  Player 1 must try to select the correct answer.
If Player 1 is correct a color piece will be inserted into their
score token and they take another turn; an incorrect answer
places play to Player 2 and so on.  The current player is always
shown in Yellow in the score area.  The first player to collect
all five colored pieces is the winner.

     You may change the options by selecting SetUp (See Setup
Options below).  New starts a new game, Instr provides on-line
instructions and Quit ends the game.

-*  Setup Options  *-

     By clicking on the SetUp button you may change the
categories, choose the question type, toggle sound on or off,
select the number of players, save the setting to disk or alter
the players' names.

     The current sound setting and type are indicated by a small
red arrow beside the appropriate button.  To change the setting
just click on the button.  The current number of players is shown
by the number of game tokens on the board.  To change the number
click on the button under Number of Players.

     There are a number of ways to change the question
categories.  If you wish to change individual categories click on
the button beside that category.  A new screen will appear
listing the possible categories.  Click on the letter button
which corresponds to the category you wish to select.  You may
also use the Prev and Next button to page through other pages of
categories.

    You may select All which will go through the above process
for each of the five colors or select ? and the computer will
randomly select five new categories.

    Clicking on the Players button will bring up a box that
allows you to type in the names of each of the players.  The
names must be 12 letters or less.

     Clicking on Disk will save the number of players, their
names, the sound setting and question type to disk.  The settings
will be used when the game is started in the future.

     These Setup options may also be invoked when starting the
game by adding parameters to the game title.  To start a game
with specific features add the following words or letters after
the GameName at the DOS prompt:

      to have sound                    Sound  or S
      to have no sound                 Off    or O
      to have true/false questions     True   or T
      to have multiple choice          Multi  or M
      for 1 player game                1
      for 2 player game                2
      for 3 player game                3
      for 4 player game                4

      For example, to start a game with no sound, using
true/false questions for 2 players type:

      GameName S T 2    or    GameName Sound True 2

GameName must be replaced by the name of .exe/.bat file that
starts the program.  Please note this is only available when
starting from the DOS prompt and not from Neon Publishing's
start-up menu.

-*  Categories Included  *-

     When you select a category a maximum of 50 questions from
that question file are loaded into that color and used for a
game.  When a game token lands on a colored square the computer
randomly selects a question from that category.  However, the
computer will not repeat questions in a game until each question
has been asked once.  For categories that have more than 50
questions the computer randomly selects 50 questions to be
loaded.

-*  Class Room/Fact Page *-

     The Class Room and Fact Page are very similar, although the
instruction here are for the Class Room they also apply to the
Fact Pages.  To start the Class Room click on the "Class Room"
button.   The Class Room is a database of information.  You may
scroll through the information using the "<- Prev" and "Next ->"
buttons or return to the main menu by clicking the "Quit" button.
There are also three buttons that may be used to search for key
facts.  When using the search buttons be sure to spell correctly!


-*  Maps *-

    To start using the map click on the "Map" button.  When the
map appears you will be asked which mode you wish to be in. The
three choices are State/Province Facts, Guess Capital or Guess
Province/State. Once you choose a mode you may then click on a
province/state with the mouse.  If you are in Facts mode a card
will appear with facts about the province/state.  If you choose
Guess Capital or Province/State a dialog box will appear and you
must type in the province or capital name (spelled correctly of
course).  If you click on one of the gray dots you will find out
information about the city (Only in Canada only).  When you are
done simply click the "Quit" button.  At any time you may click
on the buttons to change modes in Only in Canada or "Setup" in
Stating the Facts.

-*  Acknowledgements  *-

     This program uses an excellent utility called TPPCX
developed by  Mark D. Rafn.  For more information contact:


          Mark D. Rafn
          Rt1 Box 138A
          Two Harbours, MN
          55616

     The artwork for these programs was developed using
CorelDraw! 4 from Corel Corporation.  As well some of the clipart
contained in the programs is from CorelDraw! 4's fantastic
clipart collection.  For more information about this outstanding
package contact Corel Corporation at [phone].

     Some of the music contained in this program has been
discovered in the Public Domain bearing no copyright or ownership
markings.  To the best of our knowledge this is for free use,
please contact Quid Pro Quo Software if you have information
about its ownership.

-*  Sound Blaster Support  *-

     If you have a Sound Blaster card properly installed on your
computer these programs will play high quality music through
external speakers or headphones.  When the program begins it
checks to see if a Sound Blaster card is detected.  If one is
detected you will be asked if you wish to use it.

     The music support is provided by using a driver called
SBFMDRV.COM which is shipped as part of Sound Blaster card.  This
driver must be properly installed using the INST-DRV that came
with your Sound Blaster card.  If your do not have it properly
installed one of two things may happen.  First (and most likely)
the program will not recognize the Sound Blaster card and will
not play the music.  Second if the driver (SBFMDRV) is found but
it is not properly installed the program will attempt to play
music and the program will crash.

     If you have a properly installed Sound Blaster card and you
are not asked if you want to use it they are several things that
you may try.  Check your autoexec.bat file to see if you have set
the  environment for your Sound Blaster.  You should see a line
that looks like SET SOUND = C:\SBPRO, if it is not there add the
line and replace C:\SBPRO with the directory name where the file
SBFMDRV.COM is found.  Refer to your DOS manual if you are not
sure how to do this.  The other thing you may do is manually
start the driver by moving to the directory where SBFMDRV.COM is
found and type SBFMDRV.

     If you choose to start the programs from the DOS prompt it
is very important that you use the .bat files provided.  If you
start the programs directly (using .exe) the SBFMDRV will remain
in your memory when the program ends.  It only uses about 5K of
conventional memory but may place itself in memory in such a
manner that severely reduces the maximum size of other programs.
Using the batch files (.bat) eliminates this concern.