The point of AMFLAM is simple: you must get all 16
island flags into the outside grid squares. That
is all there is to it. You lose if you can't do it.
Here's how it works: There are 78 flags in the
deck. Sixteen of them are flags of island countries.
These flags must be placed in the outside sixteen
grid squares. Other flags may go anywhere.
A game goes like this: The deck is shuffled,
then you may fill the grid by clicking on the deck
to turn up flags, and then clicking in a grid
square. Once the grid is full, you may remove any
combinations of two or more flags whose countries
touch each other. For example: Canada, the US, and
Mexico. You don't have to remove ALL such groups,
but you may pick and choose. Then you fill and discard
again, etc., till the dealin's done.
While discarding, note that selected flags have
the yellow "SEL" light lit. When you hit DISCARD,
all the flags with "SEL" lit are discarded. Also,
there are "cheat" modes. If you click DISCARD with
no flags selected, or with one flag selected, matching
flags are lit up. You may toss these or unselect them
with the RIGHT mouse button (or the ESC or BACKSPACE
keys, if you don't have a mouse).
There are eight million ways to lose at AMFLAM, so
watch it. You lose if you turn up an island flag but
there are no island squares open. You lose if you fill
the grid but there's no way to eliminate any flags.
And you lose if there's an "orphaned" non-island flag
in an island square. For example: Canada only touches
the US. If Canada is in an island square and the US
has been eliminated, there's no way you'll ever get
rid of Canada. You lose. The ONLY way to win is to
get an island flag into every island square.
But cheer up: there's a bunch of ways to help
even the odds. Here in the help system, you can pick
the buttons (from the main menu) that let you look at
all the flags and the touching countries. You can
also use ID MODE on the playscreen, or play with the
EZ RULE. Both of these options help make AMFLAM
easier. Check out Options and Features from the main
help menu for more info.
Have fun. And remember, if you're using a mouse,
then the LEFT button does things and the RIGHT button
undoes things. If you're using a keyboard, then the
RETURN key does things and ESC or BACKSPACE undoes
things. Remember that and you'll do fine.
If you are using a mouse, then you select items
with the LEFT button and undo things with the RIGHT
button. Not everything can be undone, but most
things can. If you are using the keyboard to play,
then you select things with RETURN and unselect with
ESC or BACKSPACE. It's quite simple. Also, in
keyboard play, the first letter of a command often
will invoke it. For instance, "B" for BOSS.
Mouse users: You can control mouse sensitivity
by selecting MOUSE from the playscreen. The settings
you pick will be remembered by the game in the
future. Also, if you don't want to use the mouse at
all, just start the game by entering "amflam -n".
Remember: you don't "drag" flags in AMFLAM. You
click on the deck to turn up flags, then you click
on a grid square. And you can "undo" with RIGHT
button or ESC or BACKSPACE to put a flag back on the
deck if you made a mistake. But don't try to "drag"
the flag to a square. It don't work that way.
SOUND: Turns sound on and off. AMFLAM will
remember this setting. If you turn sound off and
quit AMFLAM, sound will be off when you start it
again. To make SURE sound is off when you start
the game, type "amflam -s". Useful for the first
time you install AMFLAM on your computer at work!
PLAYERS: AMFLAM keeps track of the win-loss
records of up to 10 players. From the PLAYERS
screen you can review the records, pick a player to
use, and, if you want, clear a player's records and
give a new name.
BOSS: Puts up a fake DOS screen. This is NOT a
true DOS shell. You can type "exit" to get back to
your game, or "abort" to quit immediately.
MOUSE: Mouse users can permanently adjust the
speed of the mouse pointer.
ID MODE: In ID MODE, every flag you click on
has its country info displayed in the ID window.
Hitting ID MODE again, or the RIGHT button, or
ESC or BACKSPACE (in keyboard play), will get you
out of ID MODE.
EZ RULE: If EZ RULE is on, then the name of the
country is overlaid on any displayed flag.
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