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1992-09-02
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This is version 1.1 of the game, Checkers_au.
by Thomas F. Powell (Updated) 1st. Mar. 1997.
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ 'New Update Page'.
This version of the game is Giftware, and was created with Amos1.36
on an Amiga 2000HD. It is workable for both Pal. and Ntsc. modes
using Workbench 2.01+ and with 1 Meg+ of Ram. See (Installation).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
New Update Page.
A Short Introduction.
The Rules of the Game.
Preferences and more.
Installation
Credits.
Latest Update 1.1
After just recently reading an article in one of our Amiga
magazines, it appears I may have broken a few AMINET rules when uploading
the original game, under the name 'Am_Checkers' version 1.0.
Unfortunately in making amends I am forced to change the name of the
game. To make matters worse, some copies have already been spread far
and wide.
I now realize the full original name with the extension '.lha'
was more than 20 characters long (hence the name change). Next, the
short file was not correctly written (it is now), but mainly because I
had two (2) Workbench files in my 'Archive' and this is strictly a NO,
NO, (naughty, naughty). Because I felt this game needed speech and
because I knew the Amiga 1200 was sometimes sold without the
'narrator.device' and the 'translater.lib', I had included them as an
integral part of the program. Would you believe I didn't even put the
project in the right directory.
Far be it for me to start an international incident, but it was
also a little presumptuous of me in using 'American' in the title anyway.
Here in Australia we offen refer to the game by either its English name,
'Draughts' or the American name 'Checkers', and I'm not a 100% sure that
the rules are the same. Over all I felt a change of name was called for.
The '_au' is just a play on the 'Internet' address. Dare I mention here
a much different game called 'Chinese Checkers'. NO, better not!
I must apologize to all interested parties for allowing this
confusion.
This does of course mean to have speech you will need a copy of the:-
narrator.device. in your devs drawer and a copy of the:-
translator.lib. in the libs drawer.
I believe you can get these from any Public Domain Library.
So with the NEW name of 'Checkers_au', a NEW short readme, the
two offending files removed and using the game/board drawer, do I go
back to v1.0? I think NOT!
Checkers_au Version 1.1
and on with the show.....
No, I have NOT increased the computer's playing power as of
this version. , I will need a little more time and 'STUDY' for this
important process. However, I have added a bit more to the program, but
at the same time have also taken a bit away from it. I have remove the
two RULES buttons, you can now ONLY play to the Default rule settings. I
have also cleaned up a couple of small bugs.
Bill Murray of Oregon, USA, found a 'Phantom playing piece'
would suddenly appear under curtain circumstances. This occurred if you
happened to move a computer's man (by mistake, OR, on purpose), an
'illegal move' would be called and the man returned to its original
square. Unfortunately I forgot to reset an array variable correctly.
The pointer will now, NOT recognize a computer's man and you NOW cannot
move a computer piece even if you try. Thank you for that information
Bill, I'm sure, we have seen the last of our ghostly friend.
Max Headroom (not too sure where Max is from, and I think Max
wishes to stay incognito), felt the computer's moves were too slow. I
have dropped the speed of the move variable, from 100 to 50, (which
actually doubles the speed of movement). Also the centring of your man
(once mouse button released), has been speeded up by updating the
'Statistics' area, after the move has been fully made and NOT during it
(silly mistake). Game play speed can also be increased, if you turn off
the 'Say Next Move' buttons, Max, and thank you for your comments.
My friend Helmut Reichert of Melbourne found a bug when he
tried using the 'CONTINUE-MULTI JUMPS' button. Strange how these creepy
little creatures slither into a persons program, (it worked perfectly
well at one stage). I have certainly squashed this one as dead as a
door nail, after further investigation and due thought, have removed
the two extra rules buttons. The default play is now to (what I believe
to be), the international rules. Helmut also came up with the suggestion
of making Checkers_au a two player game. I thought why not, all I'd have
to do is change the graphics a little and alter some variables around.
It turned out to be a little more than that, but after about ten hours of
hard work, you now have an extra 'Computer/Opponent' button to play with.
See, 'Preferences'.
There were a few people who criticized the intellect of the
computer's playing moves. I must admit the game was never intended to be
played by any 'Grand Masters', mainly the younger set. However, I have
accepted the challenge and am now force feeding the 'DF0:' slot, in my
computer with multitude handfuls of fresh 'fish', hoping for some 'brain
gain' by the next version.
Thanks to all who found time to try out and comment on my
rendition of the game, of 'Checkers'.
A Short Introduction To Checkers_au.
I learned to play this game when I was only a small boy.I have named it
'Checkers_au', only to distinguish it from the English game 'Draughts' a
version by Steve Hargreaves, (which I have already seen on the 'market').
Why the game is called 'Checkers' in one country and 'Draughts' in
another I cannot say, the play and rules are the same, as far as I can
find out. If anyone wishes to make a comment on the subject, I would only
be to happy to hear from them.
I have another game on CD, called Naughts and Crosses, and
have since found out there is also one with the same name around, should
have called mine, 'Tic_Tac_Toe'. The American name for the same game.
Checkers_au is played on the same type board as Chess, but you
only have two types of men, Pawns and Kings. It is what one might call,
'poor man's chess'. To give a game of logic like Checkers_au, the
intelligence it deserves, is a big challenge, but have learned a bit
from writing 'Naughts and Crosses'. I am no artist, so not only do you
get 'poor man's' chess, with 'poor man's intellect', you also get 'poor
man's graphics', (as Maxwell Smart would say, 'sorry about that.').
I nearly scramble my brains, wear out my typing fingers
(all two of them) and almost double my intake of nicotine, just so a
computer can beat me at a game. I must be stupid!
But, it's FUN, programming computers, isn't it??
The Rules as I know them.
(1). To Start, ALL Men are Pawns. The Computer or Opponent will
use the pawns at the TOP of the board and move or jump DOWN the board.
Your pawns are at the BOTTOM and move or jump UP the board. ALL pawns
can only move in the one direction.
(2). To be Crowned a King, a Pawn must either move or jump
onto a square in the last line at the opposite end of the board. Once
becoming a King, he may now move or jump in any diagonal direction
'UP' or 'DOWN', the board.
(3). Both the Computer's/Opponent's and your Men use only the
'DARK' coloured Squares. ONLY Diagonal moves and jumps are made. The
'LIGHT' squares are illegal, should you try to use one of them, (or any
other inappropriate spot), the computer will place your man back to its
previous square and say, 'No move'.
(4). A jump consists of physically jumping over the oppositions
pawn or king and landing in an empty square diagonally opposite. You
cannot make two jumps in a row with TWO different men, BUT, you CAN make
'CONTINUOUS', jumps with the SAME man.
(5). If there is a jump that can be made, then you MUST make that
jump. If you did not SEE the jump and move some other man, the computer
will reverse your move and point out the man you MUST jump.
(6). Your Pawn can make more than one jump at a time, but only UP
the board, if however, he becomes a King, he may continue jumping down
the board if there are jumps already there to be make.
(7) Both Pawns and Kings only move ONE square at a time, UNLESS
jumping and then only two squares.
(8). The game is over when You or the Opposition loses his last
man or cannot make another move or jump.
A stalemate may sometimes happen with both you and the
computer moving back and forth between two squares. Should this
happen I suggest you call it a draw and click on 'Another Game'.
One other thing, should the computer at any time, start moving
a man back and forth between the same two squares, when it is clearly
able to make other moves. It is up to you to pursue and kill off its
men and win the game. The computer is only marking time, waiting for
you to make a mistake.
All is fair in love and war!
A Little on Preferences and Other Things.
On starting the game, a preference screen(s) will appear.
You have a choice of having sound and/or background music and who will go
FIRST (See below). You also can change the colour of the pawns, (I know
the choice isn't great, but I only have 32 colours to play around with).
Needless to say, you cannot have both opponents the same colour, when the
red square becomes white the change has taken place. You can save these
choices by clicking on the 'Save' button. This will save all preferences
to a 'Pref_file', which is loaded upon starting up Checkers_au.
A NEW 'BUTTON' has been introduced with version 1.1. A
'Computer/Opponent' button, this allows you to play against either the
computer or a friend. To clean things up a bit, I have moved 'YOU' to
the LEFT hand side of the screen and the 'computer/opponent' to the
RIGHT. YOU still use the LOWER pawns and the computer/opponent the UPPER
pawns. When playing with a friend, you will have to share the MOUSE.
The graphical changes have been minor, so anyone who has been using
version 1.0, should not have any problems with this.
* FIRST * There are three (3) buttons on the 'Prefs' screen
under the heading 'First Move', they are, 'You', 'Com/Opp' and 'Random'.
If you click on 'Randon', either you or the computer/opponent, will be
the first to move. The initial default setting is 'RANDOM', but you can
alter this at absolutely any time. After the FIRST time you move a man,
these 'First Move' buttons are automatically reset to 'YOU', to reflect
the TRUE turn position during the game. If you alter them during a game,
you could give yourself or the computer more than one move in a row.
This might be contrived as 'Cheating', and you could be heavily fined for
such an act!
If for some reason you are interrupted somewhere through a
game and would like to continue it later on, just click on the 'Save
Game' button. If a 'Game_file' is not present it will be made for you.
Then on starting Checkers_au next time, just click on 'Load Game' when
the Pref. screen shows. The game will be set up exactly as you left it,
even the length of the playing time. Saving a game will REPLACE the
previously saved game.
A game can really only be saved with 'You to Start', but if
you click on the 'com/opp to start' button before you 'Load Game', the
computer/opponent will begin first. This means you could play the Finish
of a game either way, as many time as you like.
You can see the Pref. screen at any time, by moving the
pointer to the Top Right hand corner of the screen, over my name (who
doesn't like their name in lights), a pref. button will appear, click on
it to see preferences. To remove the pref. screen just click on 'Done'.
There are two (2) buttons, one on each side of the board that
you may use to stop the computer saying 'who's turn' it is, they also
stop it saying 'you have another jump' and 'you have a king'. These
buttons are also saved with the 'Pref_file'. Even with these buttons
'OFF', you still have a VISUAL indication of who's turn it is.
The last two (2) other buttons, (QUIT and ANOTHER GAME), you
can figure out for yourself.
Both the 'Pref_file' and the 'Game_file' are stored in the
Checkers1.1 directory with all the other files.
The 'Statistics' section at the bottom of the playing screen
just gives various bits of info that you can easily recognize. This
section does NOT appear in the 'NTSC' version of the game, due to the
structure of the NTSC Mode (only 200 lines seen on the Monitor, as
opposed to 256 lines for the 'PAL' Mode).
One last thing, you make a Move or Jump by moving the Pointer
over the man you wish to play, and while holding down the Left mouse
button, moving it to the square of your choice, then letting go of the
mouse button. I think doing it this way involves the player more into
the game than other methods.
How To Install This Game.
Installing Checkers_au is as simple as simple, so have not
bothered to write an installation program. All files come in a
Directory (drawer), named Checkers1.1. The files that should be there
are:
Checkers_au.guide....The amigaguide you are now reading.
Checkers_au..........The game it-self.
Checkers_au.Readme...The On-line Short file.
Pref_file............The 'your saved' preference file.
Game_file............The 'Save a game' file.
a Pics Drawer..........Holding:-
Checkers.pic.........The Main Board Screen picture.
Pref1.pic............The (top) Preference Screen picture.
Pref2.pic............The (bottom) " " " .
a Fonts Drawer..........Holding:-
two different fonts inside it.
A few files I know, but ALL of these files MUST be kept
together inside the Checkers1.1 directory! So how do we install?
COPY the CHECKERS1.1 DIRECTORY to ANY HARD or FLOPPY DISK DEVICE:
You may put the 'Checkers1.1 Directory' in a Drawer, or, in a
Drawer within a Drawer, as DEEP as you like.
I told you it was simple. Open the Checkers1.1 drawer, double
click the Checkers_au icon, and you are away!
*** NOTES for the Amos Programmer ***
The Amiga 1200 model was sometimes sold without the:-
'Translator.lib' library installed in the 'Sys:Libs' drawer.
'Narrator.device' device " " " 'Sys:Devs' drawer.
to have speech you must have these files.
For the 2000HD machine, I could 'Spack' all the pictures and
save them with the program (like I did the Bobs), before I compiled it.
But have found out, Amos prefers to 'Load' the pictures as simple IFF
files when used on an Amiga 1200 computer.
If for some reason the program will not run using its
specified needs, get in touch with me, I'm sure we can work something
out.
We Must Have Credits
The Intro and background music are the same tune which I picked
from my PD collection. Unfortunately I do not have the composers name
but would like to thank him for his nice rendition. Seeing as the rest
of the work is mine, I must take full responsibility for any Bugs that
may appear, forthwith to be known as (Powellus Consilicus).
If you enjoy playing this game, and seeing as I think I may
have done my brain some damage writing it, you might like to send me
a 'Get Well' card.
As I am not on-line YET, please be patient to any received or
transmitted replies. All electronic mail correspondence should go to my
friend, Helmut Reichert of address:-
'helmutr@connexus.apana.org.au'
who's help I appreciate greatly.
Thomas F. Powell
33 Homer Ave
Croydon 3136
Australia
