Three's is a puzzle game in which you line up different icons into rows or columns. Be careful though, once a group of icons is in a line they can't be moved. Note to people with earlier versions: You will need to distory the preference fill and the high score file. I changed the format of the data and if you play with the old files Three's will most likely crash.
Playing:
You are first shown a dialog asking for a playing size. The smallest is 4, but the largest is only limited by the number of icons in the set or the size of your screen.
To move an icon, simply click on it. If it isn't in a line and is next to the blank space, it will move.
The icons can be changed at any time from the Icon set menu. Icon set are files containing a 'cicn' resource in the "Three's Icon Sets" folder. (Where before they were stored inside the appication.) See 'Adding and Changing Icon Sets' to find out how to add or change icon sets.
You can also set a few things in the Preferences, as shown below.
The Prefernece window:
There are three thing that can be changed here.
1) If the choose size window is show when you start Three's or if You see the playing window at the default size.
2) The default baord size.
3) Where the Highscore file is kept, in the app folder or in the Preference folder.
Adding and Changing Icon Sets:
To add or change Icon Sets, you will need a resource editor. I use ResEdit and so these instuctions are writen for it.
First you need a collection of icons that you want to use. You will need at least 5 different. Remember, more icons bigger sizes :) All icons need to be stored as type 'cicn'. The 'cicn' resource has places for both color and B&W icons, make sure you fill in both so B&W users can see whats going on.
The cicn's HAVE to be number consecutively starting a 128 and have no jumps in the numbering sequence.
The file's name is the name of the icon set. The needs a Type of 'icõn' (The õ is made by pressing option-"n", and then "o") and a creator of 'The?'.
If you think your set is exspesally cool, send it to me. If I agree, I'll include it with future versions of Three's. And of coures give you credit.
Quick Note About Files:
Just a quick reminder that I changed all the file formats. So make sure you put all the old ones into the trash! If you don't, you just might crash!
About the new highscores:
When I gave Three's the abillity for nearly unlimited playing sizes, I ran into the problem of keeping highscores. I felt that I couldn't not include these scores. And to add more groups of scores for each possible size was unrealistic. I really wanted to keep the highscore idea in Three's, so I had to come up with a way of making scores equal. This is what I came up with (with help form my brother, Matt)
score% is your score which is compared with other scores and determins your place on the highscore list.
moves% is the nuber of moves it took you to finish.
undos% is the number of times you used the Undo command.
size% is the size of the playing board.
(all values are initgers)
After playing many different sizes many times by many people and recording their scores and averaging them. We(me and my brother) figured that the cube of the playing size was about the average number of moves. So taking that and dividing your total move by it, we come up with a number ( accually a percentage of how close you were to average) that is as close as I can come to an equal and fair way of comparing a game at size 4 to a game at size 8.
If someone finds a better way of calculating a fair score, please tell me.
Version History:
1.0.0 Original release
1.1.0 Added a much demanded high score list.
1.2.0 Added two more board sizes. Didn’t contain the high score list. Never released.
1.3.0 Added the high score list back. Never released.
1.4.0 Changed high score list so that now there are separate lists for each board also added a cool background.
1.4.1 Fixed “File not found” problem that occurred when high score list was read before it was created.
1.5.0 Rearranged and added some menu items. Added multiple icon sets. Made it so you can add your own icon sets with ResEdit.
1.6.0 Added a Undo feature.
1.6.1 Fixed problem with move counter not properly resting when the New or New Board menu items were used.
1.7.0 Added a prefs dialog with a few options. Also add a confirm dialog to the “Clear Highscores” command. Also remembers where the window was, and what icon set was choosen.
1.7.1 Fix counting bug that occurred when you clicked on an icon that didn't have an empty space next to it and wasn't in a line.
1.7.2 Fixed bug where icons dissappeared in B&W mode.
2.0.0 Like major changes happed here.
-Made it so there could be larger playing sizes. Current limit 10x10 (This is due to the way my current complier sets up arrays and I am working on making the array total dynamic.)
-Put Icon Sets into seperate files.
-Changed color background, so it worked with all sizes.
-Added save game feature.
-Remade the highscore list to work for many sizes.
-Reworked preferences to work with new sizes.
2.1.0 Fixed bug with window drawing.
-also a "close window" menu item was added.
-once again remembers the last icon set used.
-bug fix for open game. If the saved game needs more icons than current set, an error is returned. (instead of just opening it.)
2.1.1 More bugs fixed.
-Fixed ocasonal bug where black or white squares would appear under the icons.
-Fixed glich where you could open a game that needed more icons than it got.
-Fixed preference if you would be asked for a game size on startup. It now works.
2.1.2 another bug fix
-Fix glich where you could type in sizes larger than possible, and get them.
◊Disclaimer
I can't imagin Three's causing any damage, but you’re using it at your own risk. As an independent software developer, I can’t make any warranties on it.
All online services and bulletin boards may make it available to their users at no charge other than the normal connection fees.
All non-profit user groups may distribute it at no charge.
All magazines may publish it on floppy disk without asking me first, as long as I get a copy of the issue containing my software.
All CD-ROM shareware collections and CD-ROM magazines may include it without my prior consent, as long as I get either a copy of the CD-ROM or an offer to buy the CD-ROM at a discounted price.
All redistribution companies such as Educorp may distribute it, as long as I get a copy of each media containing my software and a catalog of the company’s offerings (where applicable).
Where I am:
If you would like to register Three's, inform me about bugs, or have some suggestions. I can be reached by these methods.
Snail mail:
Mike Tilstra
RR2 Box162A
Luverne, MN 56156-9589 USA
e-mail:
tils0007@gold.tc.umn.edu
Three's is $5 shareware. Try to have it in USA currency, if you can't get US dollars, make sure that when I cash it in it will be as close as possible to $5 as possible.
Thanks to:
Matt Tilstra, my brother for being so good at math, and quick at seeing patterns in numbers.
Sven Guckes, for finding bugs and giving suggestions.
David Hay, for making ArrowCDEF, that make the board size choozing much more Mac.
