Copyright: This file ® M & M Productions 1994


This file © M & M Productions 1994MISER.MHC001yesyesyesyesMiserMind Helpmiser


Table of Contents

MiserMind Help Contents

Playing MiserMind

Overview

Rules of the Game

How To ...

Starting, Saving, and Restoring the Game

Commands

Keyboard

Tips and Strategy

Making Guesses

Getting Hints and Giving Up

Game Menu Commands

Option Menu Commands

Using the Keyboard

Playing MiserMind

Shareware


Help file produced by  HELLLP!, a product of Guy Software, on 9/23/94 for HNC Software, Inc..

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MiserMind Help Contents

To learn how to user Help, select How to Use Help from the Help menu, or press F1.

Playing MiserMind

Overview

Rules of the Game

Playing MiserMind

How To ...

Starting, Saving, and Restoring the Game

Making Guesses

Getting Hints and Giving Up

Commands

Game Menu Commands

Option Menu Commands

Keyboard

Using the Keyboard

Tips and Strategy

Shareware

Shareware


Playing MiserMind

Overview

Rules of the Game

Playing MiserMind


Overview

The goal in MiserMind is to guess the pattern of coloured pegs selected by the computer (or another opponent).

To accomplish this you make guesses and use the hints provided for each guess to deduce the answer.

You can modify the game by changing the number of pegs, the number of colours used (including blanks), and by allowing multiple occurrences of colours (duplicates).


Rules of the Game

The only rules of MiserMind concern the scoring of guesses.  When evaluating your guess the computer gives:

- one black peg for each colour peg you have in the correct position

- one white peg for each colour peg that is in the puzzle but which you have placed in the wrong position.

In the event that either a black or a white peg could be given, the black one will be.

In regular rules, the order of the score pegs has absolutely no relationship to the order of the score pegs.  With Easy Scoring enabled, the  position of the score peg matches the position of the colour peg it corresponds to.  Note that enabling this option makes the game much easier.

Once a guess has been evaluated, you are not allowed to modify the row.  At no time can you place score pegs.

There is a practical limit to the number of guesses you may make; at this time it is 50.  However, if you have the patience to actually make more than 50 well-thought guesses, please send me a note and we will enhance this capability (personally, we cant last past 15 or so).

You can modify the number of pegs and the number of colours.

You can set the option to allow blanks in the puzzle.  Note that this does not restrict you to having blanks in your guesses (although doing so would be a waste of guess space).

You can set the option to allow multiple occurrences of colours (duplicates).  The guessing strategy for duplicates is  different than that for non-duplicates.


Playing MiserMind

We have tried to make it so that MiserMind is an easy game to play, leaving you with more concentration with which to solve the puzzle.

Set the options you would like. (see Rules of the Game).

If it's not already showing, you want to get the peg bin visible.  To do this select Options.PegBin.

Start a new game and build your first guess (see Making Guesses).  Remember, although you can put pegs anywhere on the board, you should build your guess in the current row (marked by the black row number).  After you have built your guess, click on the row number beside the row and MiserMind will tell you how you did.

Although the work area is not yet functional, there are a couple of tricks you can use to keep track of things.

- If you right-click on a colour in the peg bin, the colour will be removed -- this is a good way to mark colours you know are not in the puzzle.  You can put the colour back by right-clicking in the empty hole.

- Use the whole board to work things out.  we like to do 'what-if' scenarios in the unused rows of the board.

As you make guesses, you may find that not all of them fit on the screen.  Resizing MiserMind may allow more rows to be visible at once.  Or, you can easily scroll through the rows by clicking on the arrows above and below the row numbers (hold the mouse button down to quickly scroll -- double-click the arrows and hold to go even faster).


How To ...

Starting, Saving, and Restoring the Game

Making Guesses

Getting Hints and Giving Up


Starting, Saving, and Restoring the Game

To start a new game, select New Game from the Game menu.

Anytime you modify the game options (number of pegs, number of colours, blanks, duplicates), MiserMind will automatically generate a new puzzle, abandoning the current game.

MiserMind allows you to save and restore a game in progress.  Simply select Save Game from the Game menu to save the current game.  Restore Game from the Game menu restores the game.  Note that this never happens automatically.  If you save a game, make a couple of guesses and then quit, restoring the game will not have those additional guess you made after the save.


Build a Guess
Making Guesses

To build a guess, you can simply grab pegs (one at a time) from the bin and place them in holes in the current row.

To facilitate guessing, there are a number of short-cuts you may use:

- If you double-click on a colour in the bin, a peg of that colour will be placed in the next available hole in the current row.

- If you double-click on a peg in an evaluated row, a peg of that colour will be placed in the same position in the current row.

- You can grab pegs from evaluated rows and use them in the current row (they will be copied from the evaluated row).

- If you hold down the Ctrl or Shift key when grabbing a peg from the current row, it will be copied and you may place it wherever you like.

- If you double-click on any peg in the current row (or any row past the current), it will be removed.  Likewise, anytime you grab a peg and drop it in an invalid area it will be removed.

Once you have built your guess, you can have it evaluated by clicking on the row number or by selecting Evaluate Guess from the Game menu.


Getting Hints and Giving Up

Even the most persistent puzzle master occasionally has a bad day.  If you need a hint, you can have MiserMind reveal pegs in the puzzle, or colours in the puzzle.

To see a random peg in the puzzle, select Game.Hint.Puzzle from the menu.  To see a particular peg in the puzzle, simply right-click on the peg you want to see.  If you reveal all of the pegs in the puzzle, MiserMind assumes you are giving up and ends the game.

To see a random colour in the puzzle, select Game.Hint.Colour from the menu.  There is no way to see if a particular colour is in the puzzle.

If you want to give up you can double-click anywhere in the puzzle or select Game.Hint.Give Up from the menu.  MiserMind will reveal all the pegs in the puzzle and end the game.


Commands

Game Menu Commands

Option Menu Commands


Game Menu Commands

New Game

This option starts a new game, generating a new puzzle.  If there is a game in progress, the board is cleared, and the peg bin is reset.

Hint

Give Up! does just what you'd expect:  the game is ended, revealing the puzzle.

Puzzle reveals one of the pegs in the puzzle.  The peg is selected randomly.  If you want to see a specific peg, use the mouse and right-click on the desired peg.  If you reveal the last peg in the puzzle, the game ends.

Colour removes a colour that is not in the puzzle from the peg bin.  If all the remaining colours are in the puzzle, this will do nothing.

Replay Game

This option restarts the game.  The board is cleared and the peg bin is reset.

Save Game

This option saves the current state of the game.  Only one game can be saved, so this will overwrite any previously saved game.

Restore Game

This option restores the saved game.

Evaluate Guess

This options causes MiserMind to evaluate the guess in the current row.  This is equivalent to clicking the row number.


Option Menu Commands

Peg Bin

This option toggles the peg bin .  If the peg bin is in your way when you are working on a puzzle, you can get rid of it by unchecking this option.  Note that without the peg bin you cant really start a new game.

Work Area

This option toggles the work area.  Many people (out of habit of the old plastic game) use the board itself as a work area.  Unfortunately, this area is still under construction.

Pegs

This option allows you to set the number of pegs in the puzzle, ranging from 4 to 8.  Modifying this value ends the current games and causes a new puzzle to be generated.

Colours

This option allows you to set the number of colours used in the puzzle, 6, 8, 10, or 12.  You can also specify whether blanks are allowed in the puzzle, and whether duplicates can be used in the puzzle.

Scoring

This option allows you to set the scoring method to either regular or easy.

Restore Defaults

Selecting this option sets the game options to 5 pegs, 8 colours, blanks okay, duplicates okay, and regular scoring.


Keyboard

Using the Keyboard


Using the Keyboard

At this time, there is no support for playing MiserMind with just a keyboard.  If you feel this is a terrible shortcoming, please send me a note to that effect and we will work on it.


Tips and Strategy

(This area under constructions)


Shareware

Shareware is a cool concept.  We won't die if you decide not to register our product, but by registering you encourage us and other (much more capable) developers to continue providing nifty products at reasonable prices.

MiserMind is a shareware product.  You may feel free to make copies of this program and pass them on to friends for their evaluation.  If you make use of this software you are expected to pay a registration fee ($5 suggested):

M & M Productions

5348 Aberdeen Street

San Diego, CA  92117-1503

If you have any suggestions on how to improve MiserMind, please feel free to drop us a note via snail mail at the above address or email at cis75515,245.