Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/games/stain.zip/SG.DOC

Text File | 1990-06-25 | 22KB | 328 lines

                          Licensing Stained Glass

       Stained Glass is distributed on a modified shareware basis that we like
to call "commissionware".  As usual, you are encouraged to make and give away
(not sell) as many copies of the game as you wish, provided that you include
all program and document files.  (SG.EXE, SG.DOC, and SGEDIT.EXE)
If you like Stained Glass and would like to lend your support to high-quality,
non-copy-protected, user-supported software, we ask that you send us twenty-
five U. S. dollars and a completed copy of the registration form printed below.
       In return for your money, we will send you the latest version of Stained
Glass, with the name you specify inserted as the licensed user.
        Here's the really neat part -- if a future user registers your copy of
Stained Glass, you will receive five dollars from us as commission.  Yes,
that's right -- WE will send YOU money!!
        Everybody wins -- we get our game out to the biggest possible audience,
you get to play it free of charge, and, if you feel like it, you can make money
the same way we do, by giving away software.
        Here's the form:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 =->  Stained Glass Registration Form  <-=                  |
|                                                                            |
| __________ Current Serial Number (the one that NOW appears during the game)|
|                                                                            |
| _____________________________________________________ Current Licensee Name|
|                                                                            |
|    In order to process your order, we MUST have your current serial number |
| and licensee name - we can't process the licensee's commission without it! |
|                                                                            |
|   In the blank below, please print the name you would like to appear as the|
|licensed user.  Please put one letter, number, space, or punctuation mark in|
|each box, using a maximum of thirty characters.  Please PROOFREAD this blank|
|carefully.                                                                  |
|                                                                            |
|       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+        |
|       | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |        |
|       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+        |
|                                                                            |
| _____________________________________________________ Your Name            |
|                                                                            |
| _____________________________________________________ Street Address       |
|                                                                            |
| _____________________________________________________ Suite or Apartment # |
|                                                                            |
| _____________________________________________________ City, State, and ZIP |
|                                                                            |
| ______________________ Phone number and best time to reach you, in case we |
| have any questions.  This and all other information you supply us will be  |
| held in the strictest confidence -- you won't wind up on any mailing list  |
| besides our own.                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        Please fill the form out completely -- not to be boring and repetitive,
but it is MOST IMPORTANT that we know the original serial number and licensee's
name, so that s/he gets his/her commission.  Send the form and your $25.00 to:

                        Kent Brewster
                        2152 Santa Cruz Avenue
                        Santa Clara, CA   (USA)
                        95051

        Sorry, but we are not yet in a position where we can offer credit card
services -- this could change, however, depending on how well we do.  For
telephone support, please call [phone].  Bear with us if we're not home;
we still have day jobs, unfortunately.




        Stained Glass Operating Instructions, last updated 6/30/90:

        Stained Glass requires a PC or clone, 256k RAM, one floppy disk drive,
and DOS version 2.1 or later.  The use of a color monitor and adapter is
strongly suggested but not required -- Stained Glass is playable (but not as
much fun) in monochrome.
        To play from the floppy disk, put your DOS boot disk into the floppy
drive and turn on the computer.  After the A> prompt appears, replace the DOS
disk with the Stained Glass disk and enter SG.  If you have a hard drive, we
suggest that you make a separate subdirectory, C:\SG\>, for instance, and copy
over all the files on the disk.  Once there, enter SG just as you would when
running from the floppy drive.
        Our title page should be up and running, with a bunch of different
colored rectangles jumping and flipping around the screen.  Press the space
bar to step through the demo.  The object of the game should become clear at
once:  clear the board of all panes except one, using as few moves as possible.
When you get tired of the demo -- it is kind of boring, after a while -- press
Esc to get on with the show.
        At this point, those of you who never read the instructions can put
them away and learn the game from playing around.  It really IS that simple.
        Okay.  The rest of you should now be looking at an entire boardful of
colored panes of glass.  Your score appears on the left, your options on the
right, and your instructions on the bottom.  Before you do anything else, you
might want to take a look at examples of legal moves, by pressing E.
        When you make a move in Stained Glass, three spaces on the board are
affected.  The first space goes black, as you pick up the pane of glass that
was sitting there and pass it over the second space.  The second space has the
color of the first space SUBTRACTED from it -- if you jump red over orange,
for instance, yellow is left in the middle.  The third space has the color of
the first space ADDED to it -- if red lands on blue, the result is violet.
        The only screwy, nonintuitive thing about this set of rules is this:
ANY primary color -- red, blue, or yellow -- jumping over ANY OTHER primary
color leaves a blank space.  We had to include this rule or the game would be
impossible to play.
        A legal move in Stained Glass can have elements of four categories:
        The first and simplest is that of any color jumping over itself and
landing on a blank space.  The first pane disappears.  The second pane also
disappears, because any color minus itself leaves an empty space.  The third
pane -- the blank spot -- becomes the color of the first.
        The second move category is that of any color jumping over itself and
landing on itself.  The first pane, as always, disappears.  The second pane
also goes away -- as in rule one, any color minus itself leaves a blank space.
The third pane STAYS THE SAME.  Red plus red equals red.
        The third move element is that of a primary color jumping over a
secondary color.  The primary color is subtracted from the secondary color,
leaving the result in the middle space.   If you jump a blue pane over a green
pane, the result is a yellow pane left in the middle.  To be a legal move, the
second pane must contain the color of the first -- you cannot, for instance,
jump a yellow pane over a violet pane, because violet contains no yellow.
        The fourth and last type of move is the combination of two primary
colors at the destination space.  You learned this stuff in kindergarten --
blue and yellow makes green, red and blue makes violet, and yellow and red
makes orange.  ONLY primary colors may combine at the destination space;
attempting to combine blue and orange, for instance, is an illegal move.
        The last two move elements can combine to provide complex results; if
you jump a red pane over an orange pane to land on a blue pane, the red pane
disappears, the orange pane turns yellow (orange minus red) and the blue pane
turns violet (blue plus red).
        After the game shows you all four possible move elements, the original
randomized screen will reappear.






        You are now ready to go.  To move, use the arrow keys to put the
cursor -- the solid white square -- on the pane you would like to move.  If
you can't move that pane, Stained Glass will make our patented "Thock!" error
noise and tell you that the pane has no legal moves.  Press any key to clear
the error message and continue.
        If you've chosen the wrong pane but haven't moved it yet, press Esc
to pick a different one.
        After you have chosen a piece that can move, Stained Glass will high-
light the chosen piece and cause all of the legal destination squares to flash.
To position the cursor over one of the possible moves, press the appropriate
arrow key.  You will notice that the cursor now moves in two-square increments;
we did this to minimize the number of keystrokes needed per move.  You will
also notice that the "help" options go away while you are picking your
destination; don't worry -- they will be right back after you complete your
move.  If you try to select a non-flashing pane, Stained Glass will just sit
there.  Again, if you want to move another pane, press Esc to abort the move.
        If you find you've made a mistake after your move is complete, press B
to back up one move.  Stained Glass keeps track of all your moves -- if you
wish, you can back up all the way to the beginning of the game.  You can even
back up past the point where you loaded a saved game.
        If you REALLY screw up, press R to rewind to the start of the same
game.  Stained Glass will rewind your original game to its starting point and
set both the move and backup counters to zero.
        If you are called to bed, work, or dinner and would like to save your
marriage, job, or game before turning off the computer, press S.  The Save
Game message will come up and ask you for a name (8 character maximum) for
your game.  The default name is MYGAME until you enter a different one; once
you start entering names during a game session, the last name you enter will be
the default that comes up next time you load or save a game.  If you try to
save a game under a name that already exists, Stained Glass will warn you and
ask whether you really want to do it.
        The default information above also goes for the Load option; to load
a previously saved game, press L and enter the name of the game.
        Stained Glass handles three types of disk I/O errors -- it was getting
way too big for anything more complicated. Handled errors are the Door Open
error (also triggered by a write-protected floppy), the Disk Full error, and
the Oh My God error, where your disk is too trashed to read or write.  Needless
to say, if you get any of these on your hard drive it is probably time to stop
playing games.  I/O errors should be the only time you ever hear the annoying
system beep -- if you ever get a cryptic "Error XX in program ZZ" message, we'd
like to hear about it.
        If you are playing this game where you will get fired, yelled at, or
beaten with rubber hoses if caught, remember the panic button.  When your boss,
teacher, or big brother goes by, press P to instantly zap out to Penix, our own
shallow mockery of DOS.  To return to Stained Glass from Penix, enter SG.  All
other commands, except for DIR and <Enter> alone, will result in the ever-
popular "Bad command or file name" message.
        The game ends when you run out of legal moves.  If you only have one
pane left on the board at this point, you win!  Congratulations.  You can save
your game here if you want.  Stained Glass will then start over.
        If, on the other hand, you have more than one tile left when you run
out of legal moves, Stained Glass will print a polite message informing you
that you are stuck.  From there, you can load a saved game, back up, rewind to
the beginning, start a new game, or quit.
        If you have more than one tile left, can't see any legal moves, and the
"Stuck" message isn't on the screen, press H for a hint.  Stained Glass will
run through all of your remaining moves, starting at the upper left corner and
going through each row, showing a different one each time you press H.  Press
any other key to return to the game.







        Using the Stained Glass Game Editor:  As an aid to learning the game,
we have included an editor that will allow you to make up your own nonrandom
games.  To start it up, enter SGEDIT at the DOS "A>" or "C\SG\>" prompt.
With the editor you can either create your own game from scratch or load a
random game created by Stained Glass.  You cannot edit a game that is already
in progress -- if you did, you would lose the ability to retrace your steps
by backing up one move at a time.
        The editor is fairly simple.  To place a pane on the board, move the
cursor exactly as you would in the game, with the arrow keys, and press one
of the numbers from 1 to 6.  You can have a maximum of 12 panes of each color
on the board; your stock of each color will go up or down as you place and
replace panes.  If you want to remove a pane, set the cursor on it and press
the space bar.
        To save a game once you are done editing it, press S.  Just as in
Stained Glass, you must enter a game save name.  MYGAME is the default when
you enter the editor; as soon as you use a different name that name will become
the default.  To load a game for editing, press L.  The same rules for default
save names apply for load names.
        Once you are done editing your game, press Q to quit.  From the DOS
prompt you can then go into Stained Glass and play your game by loading it as
you would load any other saved game.
        We suggest that you first use the editor to create an end game, one
that has ten or so tiles of primary colors in the middle of the board, away
from the edges.  This should be a fairly easy game for a beginner to solve --
experiment with it several times, trying to reduce the number of moves you
need to solve it.  You will find that the most obvious way is not always the
most efficient, which brings us to:
        Strategy.  You will find that you can remove one, two, or four panes
with a single jump.  A primary color jumping to an empty space removes
a single pane.  A primary color jumping to itself removes two panes.  A
secondary color jumping to a blank space also removes two panes.  Finally, a
secondary color jumping over itself to itself -- three in a row -- removes
four panes. Obviously, the more times you jump three secondaries, the fewer
moves you will have to make.  Be careful, though -- it is quite easy to get
stuck.  We suggest that you follow the following basic strategy the first few times
you play with a full board:
        First, remove all secondary colors from the four corners of the board.
To do this, you should jump diagonally from the corner inwards into the board;
jumping up, down, or sideways onto the edges leaves you with another problem,
getting that secondary pane off of the edge.  Save your game when you get to
this point, in case you get stuck later.
        Second -- you saw this coming, right? -- get all the secondary colors
off of the edges.  Try to jump them inwards over themselves whenever possible;
as we said above, this will reduce your eventual move count.  If you have to,
however, jump them with primaries.  Continue to eliminate secondary colors and
work inwards toward the center of the board.  Save your game again.
        Third, when you are down to just a few primary colors in the center,
try to find the most efficient way to work your way down to one.  Remember that
you can recombine your primaries into secondary colors and take off four in one
move.  Be careful of diagonal jumps that leave a pane hanging way out in empty
space.  Also be careful that you don't wind up with several vertical rows that
cannot be rejoined.
        When you get down to a single pane, be SURE to save your game -- you'll
want to come back and look at it later.  Don't save it under "MYGAME"; you will
eventually muck up, overwrite it, and feel like slitting your wrists.  Believe
us; we speak from hard, cold, three-a.m. I-don't-believe-you-finally-did-it
experience.
        As of this writing, nobody has broken 71 moves on a randomly generated
screen.  The record for an artificial screen generated with the editor is 43,
done on a game that consisted of six uniform stripes of twelve tiles each.
        The record of 71 was set jointly by the author on the PC and by Nick
Schlott on the Mac II; we include the PC game on this disk as "KENTBEST".  If
you break 71, please save your game and send it to us for inclusion on the next
release.





        Our users speak out: commonly asked questions about Stained Glass...

        Q: Arrgh!  I can't get that stupid orange pane out of the corner!  How
do I do it without lousing up the whole game? -- B. R., Boston
        A: Dealing with secondary colors in the corners of the board is hard
because you can't jump over them.  You have to somehow get a pane of the same
color over there next to the corner and jump from the corner inward, either by
combining two primaries or jumping a secondary onto the right spot.  When you
get there, try to jump from the corner diagonally towards the center of the
board and not out onto the edge.
        Q: Why does it say there are 108 panes left when anybody can see that
there are 6 rows of 12, or 72? -- T. C., Taiwan
        A: Secondary colors (green, orange, and violet) are really two panes,
one on top of the other.  There are 36 panes in primary colors plus 72 panes
that are stacked on top of each other, for a grand total of 108.
        Q: Why does it say that I removed 4 panes with my last move -- that's
not possible, is it? -- A. A. B., Mountain View
        A: Yes, it's possible.  No, this is not a dumb question.  Again,
secondary colors are really two panes stacked on top of each other -- when you
jump an orange over another orange to land on a third orange, you remove two
orange panes, which are each made up of one red and one yellow, for a total of
four.
        Q: Why isn't there a separate, spiffier version of Stained Glass for
EGA, VGA, and MCGA adapters? -- J. B., Poughkeepsie
        A: We chose to get the game out in a form that everybody with 256k and
an adapter that can display the IBM extended character set could immediately
run and enjoy.  We don't know about you, but we are PLENTY TIRED of being
teased by games that can only be "truly enjoyed" on a 386 with an 80-meg hard
drive and a VGA monitor -- and come in a box with an airbrushed Amiga screen
print on the front cover.  Okay, end of speech.  If we get enough requests like
yours, we will consider going into higher-resolution graphics; right now, we
believe that the game is playable and enjoyable the way it is.
        Q: Why can't I use my mouse? -- S. J., Cupertino
        A: Please, be patient.  Mouse support will be forthcoming in future
versions.  (Notice that we are NOT specifying a release date!)  Don't be
surprised, however, if you don't like using a mouse to run Stained Glass.  The
programmer -- one of those old-school keyboard fascists who types at 90 wpm --
found that he hated using the mouse to run the otherwise extremely spiffy Mac
II conversion programmed by our good buddy Nick Schlott.  Incidentally, if
you'd like the Mac II version, send 25 U. S. dollars to Nick Schlott at 1016
East El Camino Real, #227, Sunnyvale, CA, 94087.
        Q: It says somebody's name (not mine) as the "Licensed User".  Can I
play without worrying about the Software Police at my door? -- P. P., Santa Fe
        A: Go ahead and play.  Stained Glass is shareware with a twist -- the
licensed user gets $5.00 of the $25.00 that you send in as your registration
fee.  If you send in your registration fee, we will send you your own copy of
the game, with your name entered as the registered user.  If you then make and
give away duplicates of your copy, and someone else sends in a registration
fee, we will send you, the licensed user, the $5.00 commission.
        Q: What if I can beat your 71-move score?  Do I win a prize?  How about
a week in the Bahamas? -- B. R., Reno
        A: Hah!  Who do you think we are, Activision?  Get serious.  We will,
however, include your game as the all time greatest on our next release.  Just
think:  finally, you have a chance -- maybe the only one you'll ever get -- to
BE THE BEST IN THE WORLD at something!  Isn't that enough?
        Q: Who is Annalisa, anyway? -- M. D., Ocho Rios
        A: She was the programmer's daughter, to whom he dedicates this effort.
He wishes he could have known her a little bit longer.