MAGIC SPELL INSTRUCTION GUIDE ** SHAREWARE ** When you run the program you will only be allowed to play a few rounds. After that, you will be required to enter a "MAGIC CODE" that can only be obtained from the author upon receipt of a $7.00 U.S. shareware payment. Each time you exit the program and run it again you can play it again another few times. Foreign orders should add the appropriate return postage for roughly a 500g package. You have an opportunity to print an order form from within the program. However, if you can't wait that long, send $7.00 to: T. Savino 2516 Scarlet Oak Ct Sarasota, FL 34232 I can be reached on GEnie for comments & suggestions through GEmail using [T.SAVINO] Thanks, for your support! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * New features since the last version: ~ "Ask The Wizard" - After each round of play you have the option to ask which words you could have used with the available letters. Click on the "Ask The Wizard" box and you will be presented with a list of possible words (shown 10 words at a time). Then you can scroll through to the next 10 by clicking on "NEXT" or click on the letter box to start the list from the next letter from the letter list. ~ All graphics are now loaded when the program loads. This speeds up the visual effects a bit when playing. This isn't noticeable on hard drives but is on floppies. You really need to get yourself a hard drive - this is 1993! ~ No longer requires the file MSTITLEH.PI3 for the high resolution screen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ September 6, 1993 To get the program running just put everything into the same folder. There are about 56 files altogether including this text. They are: * MAGSPELL.PRG - MAIN PROGRAM MSEDHI.PI3 - ST HIGH REZ EDITOR TITLE SCREEN MSEDMED.PI2 - ST MED REZ EDITOR TITLE SCREEN MSP_EDIT.PRG - THE DICTIONARY EDITOR PROGRAM MSTITLEH.PUT - ST HIGH REZ .PUT SCREEN MSTITLEM.PI2 - ST MED REZ MAIN PRG TITLE SCREEN MSWORDS.DAT - THE DICTIONARY DATA FILE MSREADME.TXT - THIS DOC FILE HISCORES.DAT - TOP 10 SCORES & PLAYERS - (You may delete this at any time to wipe out any old high scores. A new) file will be created the first time you play again.) (not included)MSWORDS.BAK - CREATED AFTER PLAYING THE FIRST TIME BACKUP DICTIONARY FILE xxxxxxx.PUT - TONS OF .PUT FILES REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS GRAPHICS -- The total size of all of these files is about 400k -- * A HARD DRIVE is STRONGLY recommended due to a lot of disk access. The alternative is to run it from a RAM disk. See your RAM disk instructions for how to use it. ** If you run from a RAM disk make sure you copy the file called MSWORDS.DAT & HISCORES.DAT to your master floppy disk when you are done playing. * Run the main program, MAGSPELL.PRG. in ST medium or ST high resolution. ==> You will see the title screen * Click the mouse or press Return. ==> You will see a box prompting you for the current date which you can change if it is not correct. * Use the + or - keys to increase or decrease the date or the usual Esc, then enter the date. ==> You will then see some information boxes which indicate basically that it is loading the data files, etc. Then you will see an Alert box asking if you want to choose Easy, Medium, or Hard. * Choose Easy, Medium, or Hard - You will then have a few seconds to put your fingers on the keyboard and then the game begins. Easy has no timer and the most letters to choose from. Medium has less letters and a timer. Hard has even less letters and the same timer. ==> You may use each letter as many times as you want to. * Look at the letters in the upper left of the screen. Using those letters think of words you can make and type them in. The longer the word, the higher your score. Also the harder letters like X & Z give you more points just like in the game Scrabble. You can make up to 10 words or as many as you can. If you can't think of any more just press enter. Use each letter as many times as you need to. ==> The program will then grade your work (fun) and put a star next to the words that are currently in the dictionary. Then, the program will check to see if you got the secret word which it picked before you started the round. If you get the secret word you are awarded 1000 points. After grading your words the program asks you to click on words that ARE CORRECTLY SPELLED but are not yet in the dictionary. * Click on those words that are spelled correctly but do not have a star next to them. ==> These words will be added to the dictionary when you exit the program. Therefore, it is important to exit the program normally. Don't just turn the power off when you are done playing. (Although if you do the new words will be added the next time you exit in the normal way.) * Click on DONE when you are done. ==> The program will show you your score. If you make one of the best scores you will be prompted to enter your name. * Enter your name in the high score box. ==> The program then displays the top 10 players, the level (E , M, H), the score, and the date. * Click your mouse to exit the top 10 list. ==> You then are prompted to play again, quit, etc. MSP_EDIT.PRG - Allows you to edit any words that were mis-spelled. It allows you to delete words entered in error. And it lets you add a bunch of words to the dictionary - if you want to go through Webster's and add words for example. You don't have to worry about duplicate words because they get filtered out later. Also, it doesn't matter if you enter words as lower or upper case. The dictionary stores all words in upper case. HOW THE MAIN PROGRAM GETS LOADED: The program reads the whole dictionary file into an array. The array then gets sorted. Then, the file gets re-written to disk as it records the record numbers where words with the next letter of the alphabet begin. (e.g. apple,axe,axes,bake - the prg records that the b's start at record #4) - and it re-writes the array so that the array is now sorted just like the data file. This is so that when searching through the dictionary it is quicker to search (if the word is "help" it would only search from "hand - iambic"). As you click on words to be added they get put into a temporary file which gets merged to the dictionary when you exit the program. MISC: I tried to make the point system so that a child playing the "EASY LEVEL" would get around the same score as an adult playing the "MEDIUM" or "HARD" levels. That way everyone can have their name in the top 10 list. However, this is kind of hard to predict because two kids can have very different abilities just as two adults can. What sort of evolved was that I would help my daughter as she was trying. I would give her a word and she would try to spell it. If nothing else it causes the child to think and interact and also to practice. * MAGIC SPELL, MAGIC SPELL EDITOR, and all accompanying files are copyrighted 1993. Every effort was made to ensure that all programs and files execute flawlessly. However, there is no guarantee made or implied that they are perfect. The author cannot be held liable for any malfunction resulting in any "downtime" of hardware or software or from any accidental damage incurred by use of the software mentioned above. In other words, you use it at your own risk. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~