Welcome to Smart Move. I've added a few tidbits to this file — suggestions I think may make the game a little more playable as well as the usual tidbits you'll find in other Read Me files. If you're not interested in any of this, just throw this file away. You don't really need to know any of this stuff to play Smart Move. You can figure it all out on your own.
Here is a summary of the topics you'll find below.
• Disclaimer
• Tips & Suggestions
• Help Me
• Contact Info
• Credits/Ads
• Version History
Disclaimer
I know that you won't agree with every answer that you see in Smart Move. Still, I've tried to be as accurate as possible. On the topic of State Nicknames alone, I used 3 references, none of which agreed. When possible, I went with the majority answer. In some cases admittedly I just made a wild guess. I'm open for changes on any of the answers if you've got a strong case one way or the other.
Tips & Suggestions
Running A Demo. If you'd like to get a feel for the game and Smart Move's capabilities in general, you should run a demo. (A side benefit of this is that you won't look too foolish to anyone who might be standing by when they see that you don't know where New Hampshire is.) To configure a demo, follow these steps...
1) From the Options & Topics screen, select the question format "US Map Only" (it demos better), the activity "Road Game, and all the sub-options associated with the Road Game activity. (The sub-options are all those items listed directly below the activity option.) Select the "Map Locations" topic, set the volume to a pleasing level, and turn on the Timer Sound.
2) From the Player Setup screen, activate two players, identify them as Macs, and set each of them to the Dragster Skill Level. (This ensures that they'll answer all questions correctly.) You can give them names if you want.
3) Return to the Main Menu and initiate a game by clicking on Texas. This will take you to the course selection screen. Cycle through the available courses by clicking on the arrow buttons, select one that suits you, and click on the Start button. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy.
On Your Own - Learning the States. Take it slowly at first. I suggest that you start by selecting the single topic "Map Locations" and the question format "US Map Only" to learn the physical location of states on the map. Learning these is a prerequisite to most other topics. As for skill levels, you'll probably have to settle on something by trial and error.
After you're comfortable that you know where most if not all of the states are, you may want to choose several topics at the same time. Increase them gradually while changing the question format to "US Map & Multiple Choice."
Skill Levels. blah blah blah. Mention projected game time.
During A Game. Don't be afraid to change option settings during a game. All you have to do is pause the game and the rest should be obvious. Smart Move was designed to mimic real life board game situations. There are very few things you can't change about your game after it's started. You can change game pieces; you can add or remove topics; you can change skill levels; you can even add or remove players. Experiment.
Learn & Practice Activities. Please Note: These activities were designed for use by one person at a time. Since there's no way to tell which player is actually involved in the activity, there's no way to tell what their skill level is. Because of this, the skill level designated for Player 1 will always apply in Learn and Practice modes. This is true whether or not Player 1 is even depicted as an active player. Unless you read it here, this will probably seem like a program bug when you encounter it. However, since it's now officially documented, it's a feature, not a bug. (grin)
Automatic Pilot. The Automatic Pilot feature was put in to save lazy human players the extreme agony of having to continually press the Go button to move from screen to screen. The problem with designing such a feature is knowing how long to delay between screens. Each player will be reading instructions and answers at a different rate and no doubt will want a different pace. You may see a timing option in a future version (no promises), but for the time being take comfort in the fact that you can override the long wait by just clicking on the Go button. (You'll see that the cursor changes from a player icon to an arrow icon as you move it over the button.) This is great if you have a mixture of players. The slower ones can take the default while the faster ones can click ahead. However, if you find that everyone is clicking ahead, you might as well just turn the stupid feature off.
You can click ahead for Mac players as well. However, even though the Roll button is also an automatic button for them, you are not allowed to roll for them.
Help Me
You can imagine how creating a single topic for Smart Move requires a bit of research. If you fool around much in Learn mode, you'll notice an occasional blank answer box as you click and/or drag across a state. It's not a bug. It's just that I couldn't find any relevant information for that state. If you can fill in a blank, I'd like to know about it.
Likewise, this material is subject to change and I expect it to. The demographics of states change over time. If you know of an answer that's out of date, please let me know. I consider misinformation to be just as bad as a program bug and I'll get it fixed. If you want me to make a change, please spell it out and cite your reference.
I'm always on the lookout for new topics. If you can think of one that applies to all states (well, at least a majority), let me know. If you can fill in the details, that's even better.
Contact Info
Where to reach me:
Compuserve: 70673,542
Internet: 70673.542@compuserve.com
Snail Mail: Ron Whatley
400 S. Dogwood Avenue
Broken Arrow, OK 74012
Credits/Ads
Though I designed some of Smart Move icons, game pieces, and art, I'm not an artist and I needed some help from a few guys that are. The following guys are immensely talanted at drawing icons and some even have icon art available in just about any category you can imagine. If you're interested in good desktop decoration, contact these guys for samples and support their shareware efforts as well:
Holleran Greenburger, e-mail: holleran@aol.com
Mark Archuleta, e-mail: slickhick@aol.com
Dominic Orlando, e-mail: dorlando@aol.com
Version History
1.0.2
Quiz file creator was changed to Quiz Edit and detatched from Smart Move.
Quiz files are recognized for registered users only.
1.0.1
StateSmart is now Smart Move.
Added aftergame thank you banner for registered users.
Changed smart question mode to reset individual topics as they are consumed.
Added class test (quiz) format logic. (which caused the game name change)
Changed some background art.
Changed timer speed for mac players to be consistent with player skill.
