Contents
Seahaven Towers v2.5 Help Contents

Seahaven Towers v2.5

By Cary Farrier

Published by Laser Point, a software publisher that specializes in shareware software.

Copyright  1994-1995 Cary Farrier.  All Rights Reserved.

Registration and Upgrading

How to Register Seahaven Towers

Seahaven Towers Registration Form

CompuServe Shareware Registration Forum

Upgrade Policy

Playing the Game

How To Play Seahaven Towers

Features of the Game

Using the Menus

Tips and Tricks!

General Information

About Seahaven Towers

About the Author

Other Versions of Seahaven Towers

For Help on Help, Press F1


How to Register Seahaven Towers

Seahaven Towers costs $15 (US).  Registered users of Seahaven Towers receive a fully functional version of the game, allowing full undo/redo, and full autoplay.

California residents please add 8.25% sales tax ($1.24) for each copy ordered.

For all orders, make sure to tell us your serial number!  You can find out your serial number by going to the Game menu and choosing Register Seahaven Towers. Without this serial number, we cannot give you your password to register the game!

When you have registered Seahaven, you will receive a password.  From the Game menu, choose Register Seahaven Towers, enter your password, and press OK.

Toll Free Ordering (United States Only)

Visa and MasterCard orders may be placed by calling 1-800-894-6758.

Electronic Mail Registration

Visa and MasterCard orders may be placed via electronic mail by sending the following information to orders@laserpoint.com

- card type (Visa or MasterCard)

- card account number

- card expiration date

- name of card holder

- shipping address

- game serial number (see the really big red letters above)

If you would like to encrypt your mail messages to Laser Point using PGP, please email us and ask us for a public key to use for encryption.

For more information on PGP (what it is, how to use it) please read the World Wide Web pages located at http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pgp-form.html.  Please do not contact Laser Point for information or support for PGP.

Postal Mail Registration

Click here to go to the registration form.

CompuServe Registration

Some users may find it convenient to register via the Shareware Registration forum on CompuServe.

To use the Shareware Registration forum, type GO SWREG and register product id 3998.  After you register, SEND YOUR SERIAL NUMBER TO ACCOUNT 75501,60 so that Laser Point can send you a password!  Your CompuServe account will be billed directly by CompuServe, Laser Point will receive notification of your registration, and will send a password out to you right away!


Registration Form
Seahaven Towers v2.5 Registration Form

Please print this topic and fill it out.

Name	_________________________________________________________

Street Address	_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

City	_________________________________________________________

State/Province	_________________________________________________________

Zip/Postal Code	_________________________________________________________

Country	_________________________________________________________

Electronic Mail Address	___________________________________________________

Telephone	________________________________________________________________

Serial Number	_________________________________________________________

Payment Type (circle)	Visa	MasterCard	Check	 Cash

Visa/MasterCard Number 	___________________________________________________

Expiration Date	____________

Quantity	_______

Unit Cost	$15.00

CA Residents add $1.24 sales tax for each unit ordered

CA Sales Tax	_______

Total	_______

Only checks drawn on US Banks in US Funds are accepted.  Please make checks payable to Laser Point, and mail to:

Laser Point

Seahaven Towers Orders

P.O. Box 2378

Watsonville, CA 95077

U.S.A.


Upgrade Policy

You can upgrade Seahaven Towers to the latest version simply by downloading the latest release from your favorite online service, or by getting a copy from someone.  Your serial number will be the same for each upgrade, so the password you receive when you register will unlock the features of the new version automatically.


How To Play Seahaven Towers

The Goal of Seahaven Towers

The goal of Seahaven Towers is to rearrange the cards into the four suits, and move them up to the home spaces in the order Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and finally King.

Along the way, the game will help you out by automatically moving cards to the home spaces as they become available.  Until you register and receive a password, the game will only move cards Ace through 6 for you.  Once you register, all of the cards will be moved for you.

The Home Spaces

There are four home spaces, two in the upper left corner and two in the upper right corner of the game window.  The goal of the game is to move all of the cards to these spaces in the correct order.

The Move Spaces

At the top-center of your window are four move spaces.  You can place a single card in each space for temporary holding while you are playing the game.  But be warned!  Once you move a card into one of these spaces, you can only move it back down if you place it on the correct card, which brings us to...

Moving the Cards

This sounds hard at first, but dont worry!  Youll get the hang of it pretty fast.  The game will tell you why a move could not be made if you keep an eye on the status bar at the bottom of the application window.

You can move from one to five cards at a time, but heres the catch:  the cards you are moving must all be in order, and there must be enough empty move spaces.  Enough empty move spaces means that to move five cards at one time, you need to have four empty move spaces.  To move four cards, you must have three empty move spaces, and so on.  To move only one card, you dont need to have any empty move spaces.

When placing cards, you can only place a card on top of its next higher card in the suit, i.e. a 9 of clubs can only be placed on the 10 of clubs.  The exception to this is that when you are moving a King, you can place it in an empty area of the playing field.

As a matter of fact, what you want to do is clear up one of the columns of cards (so that it is empty), and then move a King there so you can begin building your suits in the correct order.


Features of the Game

Seahaven Towers for Microsoft Windows has a number of features.

Game Numbers.  Every game has a game number, and you can tell your friends a game number so that they can play the same games as you, and you can play games they tell you about.

Autoplay.  Cards that can be moved to the home spaces will be automatically moved for you.  Autoplay will often catch moves that are easily missed, and removes the tedium of having to move every card by hand.  This feature can be toggled on/off.

Until you register only half of the cards will be automatically moved, the rest must be moved by hand.

Undo/Redo.  You can undo your moves all the way back to the start of the game, and then redo your moves back to where your game is currently at.  At any point in using undo/redo, you can decide to continue playing the game at the current position.  This feature is a real life saver, I doubt many people could win a game without it.

Until you register you can only undo/redo the last three moves.

Sound Effects.  Unique sound effects for many of the game actions.  For those of you who dont find them entertaining, they can be toggled on/off.

Different Card Backs.  You can choose your card back from a number of selections.  Keep an eye on the Seahaven card back, it will change depending on the time of day that you start the game!

Status Bar.  The status bar at the bottom of the window will tell you why a move could not be made.  This is very helpful when you are learning to play the game.

Scoring History.  The history of your wins and losses is kept for you, as are the percentages of the number of games won/lost.  You can clear your score history when things start to look too bad.

Multiple Games at One Time.  You can play more than one game at a time.  This is great for when you are sharing the game with someone else, or when you want to put aside a really tough game for a while.

Two Sizes of Card Decks.  There are two card decks available, one for smaller screens and one for larger screens.  The large card deck can only be used in resolutions of 800x600 or above.


Using the Menus

Game

New Game (Random Deck)

This will cause a new game to be created, and the deck will be shuffled at random.  The new game will have a game number in the title bar of its window, so if you want to tell someone else about this particular game you can.

New Game (by Number)

Brings up a window asking you for the number of a game you wish to play.  If someone wants to share a good game number with you, this is how you play that game.

Abort this Game

Aborts the current game.  This will add a loss to your score history!

Start Game Over

Starts the current game over.  Until you register, you cant do this!  Once you register, I suggest that you clear your score history...

Show Score History

Clear Score History

Register Seahaven Towers

Exit

These items do exactly as you would expect.

Actions

Undo Move

Redo Move

Undo and Redo your moves!

Options

Auto Play

Toggles the Auto Play game feature.  Only turn this off if you are a pro!

Auto Play Animation

Turns off the animation of cards during autoplay, good for slower computers.

Sound

Turns sound on/off.

Won Games

Keep Until Exit

Keeps games you have won open until you exit the program, at which time they will be removed.  This is useful if you would like to study your moves after you have won.

Auto Close

Get rid of the game as soon as you beat it!

Close and Begin New

This one is for the hardcore users:  close the game you just won, and open a new one right away!  The action never stops!

Small Deck

Large Deck

Choose between using the small deck or the large deck.

Select Card Back

Seahaven

Traditional 1

Traditional 2

Marbles

Bubbles

Choose the card back.  Keep an eye on the Seahaven card back, it will change depending on the time of day you start the game!


Tips and Tricks!

You should always try to get your Aces to the home spaces as soon as possible.

Dont build up a big sequence (i.e. more than 4 or 5) of cards in a column because you wont be able to move them without enough empty move spaces.  If you build up a sequence of 6 or more cards, you will never be able to move them!

Always register shareware that you use!  It is only through your support that good software will be made available at good prices!  Remember, shareware is not free.

Use undo/redo.  Sometimes you can back your way out of a dead-end situation.


About Seahaven Towers

Many of my users have complained that this game is addictive, and should be regulated by the DEA (the American Drug Enforcement Agency)!  I have found it to be just as addictive, and I have known one person that managed to win over 700 games in a row, although that was accomplished by a "feature" in the Macintosh version that I consider cheating.

I can't take credit for inventing Seahaven Towers, I'm just another addict.  I became addicted to the Macintosh version written by Art Cabral around 1988, and that is why I eventually wrote this version for Microsoft Windows.  Now, though, it seems that I may have cured my addiction to the game by writing it.

My version of Seahaven Towers has been featured in the San Jose Mercury News (June 5, 1994), and on the Windows User Magazine (United Kingdom) Cover Disk (December, 1994).

Click here to find out about other versions of Seahaven Towers.


Other Versions of Seahaven Towers

Macintosh

The original version of Seahaven Towers was written by Art Cabral, of Longwood Associates.  This version is available just about everywhere, and you can contact Art Cabral and Longwood Associates at the following address:

Longwood Associates

P.O. Box 2162

Sunnyvale, CA 94087

OS/2

In addition to the Macintosh and Windows versions of Seahaven Towers, there is also a version available for OS/2 users written by J. Daniel Kulp.  You can reach Daniel Kulp by the following means:

J. Daniel Kulp

2257 Fillmore Avenue

Deltona, FL 32725

CompuServe ID: 75052,1436


About the Author

I write software for a living, and have been in the industry since 1988 here in the Silicon Valley (San Jose, California).

I wrote this game because I was addicted to the version written by Art Cabral for the Macintosh, and also as an exercise to learn the Visual C++/MFC development environment.


Laser Point

Laser Point is a software publishing company that specializes in publishing shareware software.  We offer competitive royalties, as well as a toll free 800 ordering line that accepts Visa and MasterCard orders.  We even operate an anonymous ftp site, ftp.laserpoint.com.

We aggressively market our products, we dont just sit back and take orders.  We promote the products in our catalog via direct mailings to users groups, special interest groups, and users who have purchased shareware in the past.

In addition to actively marketing software, we take care of the order processing and disk duplication, so that you can concentrate on developing software.  If you are tired of supporting your existing products, or you would like to publish a future product through Laser Point, please contact us, or look at our World Wide Web pages!

Laser Point

P.O. Box 2378

Watsonville, CA5077

USA

408-722-6894

Fax: 408-722-6895

Internet: info@laserpoint.com

http://www.laserpoint.com