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THINK.DOC
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Text File
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1995-12-01
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7KB
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140 lines
TOMMY'S THINK TANK (C) COPYRIGHT 1995 BY TOMMY'S TOYS
P. O. BOX 11261, DENVER, CO 80211 USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
CATALOG #TM-155-1A
INSTRUCTIONS:
HOW'S YOUR VOCABULARY? HOW FAST ARE YOUR NEURONS? GIVE YOUR BRAIN A WORKOUT
REGULARLY WITH TOMMY'S THINK TANK, AN EASY-TO-LEARN BUT CHALLENGING AND EXCITING
LONG-TERM CHALLENGE ON YOUR PC.
THIS TOY IS BASED ON A COMPUTERIZED DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN WORDS LIKE YOU MIGHT
FIND IN A SCRABBLE GAME, BUT IT IS NOT SCRABBLE (ALTHOUGH PLAYING IT REGULARLY
MIGHT MAKE YOU A BETTER SCRABBLE PLAYER). THE DICTIONARY SIZE IS LIMITED, BUT
QUITE LARGE (100,000+ WORDS, 2-15 LETTERS PER WORD, NO PUNCTUATION OR BLANK
CHARACTERS ALLOWED). (DIRTY WORDS ARE A MATTER OF TASTE, BUT AUTOMATICALLY
TAKEN CARE OF BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T USE ANY THE COMPUTER WON'T HAVE TO ADMIT IT
RECOGNIZES THEM, AND VICE VERSA -- HA HA).
*NOTE* DUE TO THE HUGE SIZE (1.8 MEGABYTES) OF THE 100,000+ WORD DICTIONARY
IN THE FILE THINK.DAT, WE ALSO PROVIDE A SMALLER (50,000+ WORD) DICTIONARY
(0.9 MEGABYTES) IN THE FILE THINKS.DAT. YOU MAY DELETE IT FROM YOUR HARD DISK
IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH SPACE TO USE THE LARGER DICTIONARY, ELSE DELETE THE LARGER
DICTIONARY INSTEAD. *UNREGISTERED SHAREWARE USERS: WE INCLUDE ONLY THE SMALLER
DICTIONARY THINKS.DAT ANYWAY (HA HA).*
THE GAME IS TO LAY LETTERS -- GIVEN YOU BY THE COMPUTER ONE AT A TIME FROM A
"SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED" LETTER BAG -- DOWN IN A GRID OF 17 ROWS AND 18 COLUMNS,
TRYING TO FORM WORDS OF 2-15 LETTERS EITHER UP-DOWN OR ACROSS (LEFT-RIGHT).
THE LETTER BAG CONSISTS OF 10 COMPLETE ALPHABETS (A...Z), WITH 5 CONSONANTS
(NEVER THE Y) RANDOMLY REPLACED BY THE VOWELS AEIOU, GIVING 2 SETS OF VOWELS
TO WORK WITH IN EACH. THERE ARE 260 TOTAL LETTERS IN THE LETTER BAG.
UNLIKE OTHER SIMILAR GAMES, HOWEVER, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUILD ADJACENT TO
EXISTING LETTERS EACH TIME BUT CAN PUT LETTERS ANYWHERE ON THE GRID YOU WANT.
SINCE THERE ARE 17 X 18 OR 306 GRID SQUARES AND 26 X 10 OR 260 LETTERS TO
PLAY MAXIMUM, YOU COULD EASILY USE EVERY LETTER AND SCORE NOTHING!
THE COMPUTER'S DICTIONARY ALONE DECIDES WHAT WORDS ARE LEGAL AND WHAT AREN'T,
PERIOD; THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN "TEACH" IT A "NEW WORD" AND HAVE IT PLACE IT
IN ITS DICTIONARY. IN COMPENSATION, THOUGH, YOU CAN CONSULT THE COMPUTER'S
DICTIONARY AT WILL BEFORE YOU LAY DOWN YOUR LETTER, BUT REMEMBER THE CLOCK
KEEPS RUNNING, SO THOSE WHO PLAY TOMMY'S THINK TANK AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL HAVE
AN ADVANTAGE (SNEAKY WAY TO GET SHAREWARE USERS TO REGISTER, WE KNOW, HA HA).
PLAY:
USE THE ARROW KEYS ON THE NUMERIC KEYPAD TO PLACE THE CURRENT LETTER BAG LETTER
ON THE GRID, THEN HIT THE SPACEBAR TO REGISTER IT. THE COMPUTER THEN CHECKS
THE CLUMP OF LETTERS CONNECTED TO THAT LETTER ON THE GRID FOR A WORD OR WORDS
AND SCORES IT/THEM FOR YOU AUTOMATICALLY. TO CONSULT THE COMPUTER'S DICTIONARY
AT ANY TIME, YOU JUST TYPE THE WORD IN AT THE KEYBOARD AND IT WILL TELL YOU
"OK" OR "NOT OK".
GAME TIME LIMIT:
AFTER 30 MINUTES (1800 SECONDS) THE GAME ENDS EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T USED UP ALL
YOUR 260 LETTERS.
MIN. WORD SIZE TOGGLE:
SINCE SOME PEOPLE PLAY BETTER IF THE 2-LETTER WORDS ARE BLOCKED-OUT OF THE
DICTIONARY, AND SOME DON'T, WE LET YOU TOGGLE THE MINIMUM WORD SIZE ANYTIME
YOU WANT FROM 2 TO 3 JUST BY HITTING FUNCTION KEY F3 ON YOUR KEYBOARD.
SCORING:
YOU ARE GIVEN ONE POINT FOR EACH LETTER SCORED IN A WORD, PLUS 1 EXTRA POINT
FOR EACH 5 LETTERS OR FRACTION THEREOF IN LENGTH. IN ADDITION, YOU SCORE DOUBLE
FOR EACH LETTER SCORED DURING THE FIRST 60 SECONDS OF PLAY. AND, IF YOU SCORE
TWO WORDS AT THE SAME TIME, YOUR SCORE IS THEN DOUBLED.
AFTER THE GAME ENDS, FOR EACH ALPHABET SCORED (COMPLETE SET OF A..Z), YOUR
TOTAL SCORE IS DOUBLED AGAIN! FINALLY, IF YOU DON'T USE UP ALL YOUR 260 BAG
LETTERS BEFORE THE GAME TIME LIMIT IS REACHED, AND HAVEN'T SCORED AT LEAST ONE
ALPHABET, YOU ARE PENALIZED 1 POINT FOR EACH 10 SECONDS OR FRACTION THEREOF
REMAINING.
NOTE:
IF YOU HAVE BUILT UP A WORD SUCH AS "JAC.RA.BI." AND WANT "JACKRABBIT" SCORED,
YOU HAVE TO LAY DOWN A K FIRST, THEN A B, THEN A T, ELSE OTHER SHORTER WORDS
GET SCORED INSTEAD. THAT'S WHY WE CALL IT THINK TANK!
GAME TYPES:
THERE ARE 3 BASIC GAME TYPES:
1. NULLO: AFTER A WORD IS SCORED IT IS IMMEDIATELY ERASED FROM THE GRID BY THE
COMPUTER.
2. STACKI: ONCE A WORD HAS BEEN SCORED, IT IS NOT ERASED, BUT YOU CAN STACK
A LETTER ON TOP OF A SCORED LETTER IF IT CAUSES A NEW WORD TO BE SCORED
UP-DOWN OR ACROSS IMMEDIATELY (BUT ONLY IF). (SCORED WORDS ARE NOT
SPECIALLY HILITED IN ANY WAY ON THE SCREEN; YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOU SCORED
THEM -- YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO THINK, REMEMBER? HA HA)
3. SUMMA: NO ERASE OF THE SCORED WORDS. THE GRID JUST KEEPS FILLING UP.
GAME MODES:
IN ADDITION TO THE 3 BASIC GAMES, YOU CAN CHOOSE THE FOLLOWING MODES AS ACTIVE
OR NOT ACTIVE INDEPENDENTLY: 1) BLOCKS 2) WEIGHTED GRID 3) CONTIGUOUS ONLY.
BLOCKS:
46 BLOCKS ARE RANDOMLY PLACED IN THE GRID BEFORE GAME START BY THE COMPUTER.
A BLOCK PREVENTS A LETTER FROM BEING PLACED THERE LATER.
WEIGHTED GRID:
THE COMPUTER ASSIGNS BONUS WEIGHTS TO 40 RANDOMLY-SELECTED GRID SQUARES, FROM
2 TO 4. A LETTER, WHEN SCORED, IS 2 TO 4 POINTS INSTEAD OF THE USUAL 1.
CONTIGUOUS ONLY:
AFTER THE FIRST LETTER IS LAID DOWN, EACH ADDITIONAL LETTER MUST TOUCH AT LEAST
ONE PRIOR LETTER IN THE UP-DOWN OR ACROSS DIRECTIONS, LIKE IN A CROSSWORDS
PUZZLE.
HIGH SCORE FILE:
YOU PLAY AGAINST A HIGH SCORE FILE. THE TOP 10 HIGH SCORES ARE KEPT FOR THE 3
BASIC GAMES AND THE 8 BASIC MODE COMBOS (24 IN ALL). IF YOU WISH TO ERASE THE
HIGH SCORES JUST ERASE THE FILE "THINK?.SCR", WHERE ? IS 1..9,A,B,C,...O.
--------------
FUNCTION KEYS:
--------------
F1 * SOUND EFFECTS TOGGLE
F3 * TOGGLE MIN WORD SIZE BETWEEN 2 AND 3
F5 DISPLAY THESE INSTRUCTIONS
F7 QUIT THE PROGRAM (WORK IS AUTOMATICALLY SAVED)
F10 (COLOR MONITORS ONLY) CHANGE THE SCREEN BORDER COLOR
*NOTE: THE LEGEND FOR A TOGGLE SWITCH INDICATES THE MODE THAT WILL BE ENTERED
BY PRESSING THE KEY, WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE MODE IN EFFECT AT THE TIME.
COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS:
S START UP WITH SOUND OFF
M FORCE MONO DISPLAY MODE
C FORCE COLOR DISPLAY MODE
EXAMPLE: >THINK MS
----------------------
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