INSTALLATION

Copy the Knockoffaly file from the distribution disk to your hard drive.  If it comes in  a self-extracting archive, all you need to do is double-click it.  If it is a stuffed file, you will need UnStuffit (free) to unpack it.  

SETTING UP HYPERCARD FOR COLOR

If you have run color stacks before you have probably already done this.  If not, you are in for a treat.  Here is what you do.  Click once (not twice) on your Hypercard or Hypercard Player application (not the Knockoffaly stacks.)  Then do a Get Info from the Finder’s File menu.  Set the preferred and minimum memory to 1500K.  This is usually  adequate.  Close the Get Info window. 

TESTING THE INSTALLATION

Double-click the Knockoffaly™ icon.  Tidy the messy stack of floppies on your desk while you wait for the spinning beach ball.  After the Hypercard pause that “refreshes”, you should see a trademark splash screen with a flashing black bar at the bottom.  This means that Knockoffaly™ has installed OK. If you fail to see the Splash, click the black bar anyway.  If you see the message “Unable to create offscreen buffers” it means you haven’t allocated Hypercard enough memory to display color, so please refer to the previous paragraph.  If everything seems OK, you can throw the compressed file in the trash.  Keep a copy on a floppy disk in case you ever trash your Knockoffaly™ files by accident.  

INCREASING THE BOARD SIZE

If you have a large monitor and would like the Knockoffaly™ board to be bigger, go to the Monitors control panel and decrease the resolution of your monitor.  This will cause a lower-res, but larger board to display on most large monitors.  

TROUBLESHOOTING

Knockoffaly™ is put together from a number of components, some of which were written quite some time ago.   Hypercard itself has some quirks which I can do nothing about.  I have had several people report that the game crashed, but be unable to duplicate the problem.  My advice:  (1) Give it more memory,  (2) Do not have other stacks or too many other applications running concurrently,   (3) disable extensions if you really care that much, (4) save your game frequently if it really gets exciting, and (5) keep your sense of humor and remember that it is just a game.    If the program crashes the same way every time,  then I want to know about it.  If you can’t duplicate it, I don’t, because whatever it is I won’t be able to find it, much less fix it.   If you should ever get the message “Unable to load requested PICT” it probably means that you have dragged your board files out of the boards folder.  Knockoffaly™ looks for boards there and nowhere else.  Sorry to impose my aesthetics on you but I just think the window looks neater that way.