17 Bit Software 2: Collection B

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Text File | 1999-12-26 | 13.8 KB | 336 lines

CrossMaze - Crossword puzzle game, Version 1.0a, created on 03/25/87 (C) COPYRIGHT 1992 by James Kevin Butts; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AMIGA VERSION ------------- Usage: Crossmaze [?] | [words] [[MAZE] maze] WINDOWS VERSION --------------- Usage: WIN CROSSMAZ License This material is © Copyright 1992 by James Kevin Butts -- All rights reserved. It may be distributed freely as long as the following restrictions are met: The distributor may charge a fee to recover distribution costs. The fee for diskette distribution should not be more than the cost to obtain the same diskette from Fred Fish. The distributor agrees to cease distributing the programs and data involved if requested to do so by the author(s). You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the program's executable code and documentation as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you publish only the original, unmodified program, with all copyright notices and disclaimers of warranty intact and including all the accompanying documentation, example files and anything else that came with the original. The author will not be liable for any damage arising from the failure of this program to perform as described, or any destruction of other programs or data residing on a system attempting to run the program. While I know of no damaging errors, the user of this program uses it at his or her own risk. This program is freely distributable but is also shareware. I only ask for $5 if you find you enjoy this game. As an alternative, groups of 10 or more people can purchase a group license for $2 per person. Suggest it to your local users group!!! If you have any comments, ideas what could or should be improved, bug reports or just like to chat a bit, please feel free to contact me at the following address. James Kevin Butts 2065 Sunlake BLVD #1408 Huntsville, AL 35824 AMIGA VERSION ------------- Included files : CrossMaze CrossMaze.info WORDS WORDS.info CrossMaze.DOC CrossMaze.DOC.info WINDOWS VERSION --------------- Included files : CrossMaz.exe WORDS CrossMaz.DOC FROM AMIGADOS ------------- The default word file is called "WORDS". The default save game file is called "Save-Maze". These are the all the legal commands : CROSSMAZE CROSSMAZE MAZE Save-Maze CROSSMAZE Words CROSSMAZE Words MAZE Save-Maze CROSSMAZE Words Save-Maze FROM AMIGA WORKBENCH -------------------- The CrossMaze icon specifies which file of words will be loaded using the tool type "WORDS=..." where ... is the name of the file of words. (Tool Types are entered from WorkBench through the Info command.) The CrossMaze icon is initially set to specify the default words file. So to run CrossMaze from the WorkBench simply double click on the CrossMaze icon. You may load a saved game by using extended selection without having to change the tool types in the CrossMaze icon. Simply press the shift key and click on the files you want to load into CrossMaze. Then double click on CrossMaze while still holding down the shift key. NOTE : CrossMaze will recognize a game file only if it is with its icon which specifies the tool type "FILETYPE=MAZE". NOTE : CrossMaze will recognize the word file only if it is with its icon which specifies the tool type "FILETYPE=WORDFILE". FROM WINDOWS ------------ Unlike the Amiga version, the Windows version does not have any parameters. The word file must always be called WORDS and a saved maze can be loaded from the menu. USAGE : WIN CROSSMAZ DESCRIPTION ----------- This program creates a maze of 10, 20, or 30 words between 8 and 10 letters in length. These words are presented to you in a list along with the maze. Your goal is to put all the words in the maze so that they all fit. The words do not HAVE to be placed back in the same way that CrossMaze built the maze (there may be more than one solution). This program makes heavy use of INTUITION. The possible menu options are : FILE START NEW GAME HELP SETTINGS TIMERS ---- -------------- ---- -------- ------ QUIT BEGIN NEW GAME FORFEIT TURN 10 WORDS NO TIMER ABOUT ... LOAD GAME BACKUP A MOVE 20 WORDS UP TIMER SAVE GAME START ME OFF 30 WORDS 30 SECONDS PRINT GAME START OVER SINGLE PLAYER 1 MINUTE SHOW SOLVED MAZE TWO PLAYERS 2 MINUTES INSTRUCTIONS EXTRA WORD 3 MINUTES 5 MINUTES To start a new game simply select the menu option. First you might want to set some options though. Under the SETTINGS menu you can set the size of the game and the number of players. The menu item EXTRA WORD will cause an extra word to be fixed during the two player game. On the Amiga version, after selecting BEGIN NEW GAME, two gadgets will appear : ABORT and RESTART. If the generation of the game bogs down push restart and if you change your mind about a playing a game you can always push abort. I have never seen it fail to make a maze within a few seconds on an Amiga 3000. On the Windows version, after selecting BEGIN NEW GAME, the program simply builds the game without presenting any option to abort. Wait for the maze to appear. During the game, your available moves are performed using the mouse and the menu commands in the HELP menu column. Because these commands work differently or are unavailable between single and two player mode, they will be explained separately. SINGLE PLAYER ------------- Once the maze appears, four menu items are of interest. START ME OFF will fill in the first word in the maze should you need help. START OVER will clear your maze should you decide you've screwed up. SHOW SOLVED MAZE will quell your curiosity if you decide to give up. BACKUP A MOVE will remove words in reverse order which you have inserted in the maze. (FORFEIT TURN is disabled in SINGLE PLAYER MODE) To place a word in the maze, first point at a word in one of the two word lists located on either side of the maze. Single click the left mouse button to select the word. You will notice in the box in the upper left corner that the length of the word is listed under SELECTED WORD. Next point at a slot in the maze and single click to select the slot. It will become highlighted. SELECTED SLOT will indicate the length of the slot in the upper left corner of the screen. Now you can double click on either the selected slot or the selected word. The word from the word list will appear in the maze if it will fit. Actually an extra step was added above to explain the game clearly. Once you have selected the word with a single click, you may double click on a slot in the maze. Thus you will be selecting and inserting the word in the same step. Furthermore, you can single click on the slot first and then double click on a word from the word list. So the simple rule here is to make sure you have selected both a slot and a word before double clicking. To remove a word from the maze just double click on the slot. The game determines that there is a word already in the slot and reasons that you want to remove it rather than insert another on top of it! The word does not have to be selected in the word list first. In Single Player Mode, only two timer options are available : NO TIMER, and UP TIMER. NO TIMER will cause play without a timer. UP TIMER will cause a timer to be displayed that will present the elapsed time during this game. TWO PLAYER ---------- In two player mode only FORFEIT TURN and SHOW SOLVED MAZE are available. BACKUP A MOVE, START ME OFF, AND START OVER are disabled. Words are inserted and removed from the maze as described above. However, these actions are more complex because of the effects they have on your score! When the game starts, each player has an assigned color: BLUE or RED. Each player is assigned 5 words which are marked in his color in the word list. The remaining words in the word list are PURPLE indicating that they are not available to either player yet. Each player may only insert his own words in the maze. When a player inserts a word, he is assigned another word from the remaining PURPLE words. When there are no more PURPLE words, then the player receives no new word. When a player inserts one of his words in the maze, it is drawn in the maze using his color. If his word crosses one of his opponent's words then that word is changed to his color. A player will receive one point for each letter. He will also receive one point for each letter in words captured from his opponent. A player may remove one of his own words. If there are no more PURPLE words and the player has fewer than five words then the word is added back to the word list using his color. However, if the player already has five words but his opponent does not then his opponent will receive the word. If both players already have five words then the word is added back as PURPLE. This action will cost 20 points. A player may choose to remove a word owned by his opponent. If that word is in the correct position in the solution it remains in the maze as his opponent's word and the opponent will receive 10 points. If the word is not in the correct position in the solution it is removed from the maze and added to the word list and the challenger will receive 10 points. If there are no more PURPLE words and the challenger has fewer than five words then the word is added back to the word list using his color. However, if the challenger already has five words but his opponent does not then his opponent will receive the word. If both players already have five words then the word is added back as PURPLE. NOTE : In single player mode, there may be more than one solution... As long as you can fit all the words in, you win. However, in the two player mode, the computer determines the winner of a challenge by the one solution that it built to start the game. Each player is only allowed two forfeits during each game. Once they are used up, a player without an available place to put one of his words will have to remove one of his own words or challenge one of his opponent's. Once a player has placed all of his words in the maze, it will no longer be his turn again. His opponent will continue placing words in the maze until he also runs out. However, the last player may challenge one of his opponent's words and if the last player already has five words then the challenged word goes to his opponent. In this way, his opponent is back in the game. In two player mode, CrossMaze uses specific colors to indicate the availability of words and slots : MAZE COLORS LIST COLORS CONDITION COLOR CONDITION COLOR ------------- ----- ------------------ ----- BACKGROUND BLACK BACKGROUND BLACK NOT IN MAZE GREEN IN MAZE GREEN PLAYER 1 IN RED PLAYER 1 AVAILABLE RED PLAYER 2 IN BLUE PLAYER 2 AVAILABLE BLUE SELECTED WORD YELLOW SELECTED WORD YELLOW CROSSED IN PURPLE NOTE : definition of CROSSED IN - In maze, if a blue word and a red word cross each other then letter is marked as PURPLE indicating that both players may remove that letter. In Two Player Mode, all timer options are available except UP TIMER. NO TIMER will cause play without a timer. The remaining menu options indicate the amount of time allowed for each move in the game. If the time elapses then it becomes the other player's turn and he gains 10 points. COMMON COMMANDS --------------- You can save or load an old game. You may also print the maze and solution to the printer or to file. NOTE : the PRINT GAME menu option under Windows does not work in quite the standard way. A dialog box appears requesting a filename. CrossMaze will generate a file that looks something like this (except bigger) : [FORMFEED] [COMPRESSED MODE] [1/8th LINE SPACING] +-+ | | +-+ +-+ | | | | +-+-+-+-+ | | | | | +-+-+-+-+ | | +-+ [NORMAL MODE] [1/6th LINE SPACING] ANT ODD STUD [FORMFEED] A N O STUD D [NORMAL MODE] [1/6th LINE SPACING] ANT ODD STUD Where [...] is a printer command. They are hardcoded to the following Epson compatible commands : COMMAND ASCII HEX CODE ------- -------------- [FORMFEED] FORMFEED [COMPRESSED MODE] 0FH [NORMAL MODE] 12H [1/8th LINE SPACING] ESCAPE '0' [1/6th LINE SPACING] ESCAPE '2' For this file to work your printer must be Epson compatible. To print the maze after generating the file simply go to DOS and type COPY <filename> LPT1: where <filename> is the name of the file. That's about it!! The other commands are obvious. And there is the menu option "Instructions", of course. Have fun.