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Text File | 1996-12-02 | 11.6 KB | 268 lines

Roxie's Reading Fish Copyright (C) LatticeWork Software, 1995 REQUIREMENTS Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 versions available VGA mouse Windows-supported sound card hard drive INSTALLATION FOR WINDOWS 95 To install Roxie's Reading Fish, place DISK 1 in your drive. Click on the "Start" button and move the mouse up to "Settings" and then select "Control Panel." Double-click on "Add/Remove Programs" and click on the "Install" button. Click "Next" and Windows 95 will find the install program Then click "Finish." - The program will ask for the destination path. For the default pathname of C:\LATTICE\READFISH, just press <ENTER>. To install the program in a different subdirectory, or on a different drive, type the path name as in the following example: C:\READING - the installation program will then create the directory, and copy files from the floppy disk or directory. NOTE: Install will exit with an ERROR message if any of the necessary files on the installation disk or directory have been erased. - Once the files have been copied, install will place the program in Start Menu Programs. To start the program click on the "Start" button and move the cursor up to "Programs" and over and down to "LatticeWork Software" and over to "Roxie's Reading Fish." INSTALLATION FOR WINDOWS 3.1 To install Roxie's Reading Fish, from the Windows Program Manager, select "Run..." from the "File" menu. Select "Browse..." Then select the directory or disk where your unzipped program files exist (e.g., if you downloaded this program from CompuServe, select c:\cserve\download, or if the files are on a disk on the a: or b: drive, click on the down arrow next to Drives: and select a: or b: ). Select install.exe, and click on OK. - The program will ask for the destination path. For the default pathname of C:\READFISH, just press <ENTER>. On some systems, installing the program to the same directory where the unzipped files already are, will cause a problem installing or running the program. If this occurs, install to a different directory. To install the program in a different subdirectory, or on a different drive, type the path name as in the following example: C:\READING - the installation program will then create the directory, and copy files from the floppy disk or directory. NOTE: Install will exit with an ERROR message if any of the necessary files on the installation disk or directory have been erased. - Once the files have been copied, install will create the program group and program item. Double-click on the program item to start the program. UNINSTALLING YOUR PROGRAM To uninstall Roxie's Reading Fish, follow the directions in the file uninstal.txt. INTRODUCTION Roxie's Reading Fish is a very intuitive, and easy-to-use program. Children can, with no help or supervision, learn to play the game just by clicking on various areas on the screen. ROXIE'S HINTS The mouse cursor will change depending on the action which can be taken at that position. When the cursor is over the HELP button, or over Roxie, it changes to a large question mark. Clicking on Roxie will cause Roxie to explain the current game status. Clicking on the HELP button, allows access to the on-line help screen. When the cursor is over the draw deck in the center of the screen, or over one of the player's cards on the bottom of the screen, it changes to a hand holding a card. And, when the cursor is over the STOP button on the bottom right of the screen, the cursor changes to a STOP sign, showing how to exit the program. Clicking on a word card with the RIGHT mouse button will cause Roxie to say the name of the word on that card. GETTING STARTED The program will display a dialog box asking for the child's name, the reading level, and the level of difficutly. The reading levels are: o Pre-First Grade o Early First Grade o Late First Grade o Early Second Grade o Late Second Grade o New Words The three levels of difficulty are: o Easy o Medium o Hard Roxie plays an increasingly better game in the Medium and Hard levels. A NOTE ABOUT THE WORDS There are over two hundred high frequency words available in Roxie's Reading Fish. These words were chosen with the aid of reading specialists in early elementary education. When a Reading level is chosen ONE of a set of twenty-one words is randomly chosen from that Reading level, and those voice files are all read into memory. For each game, seven of those words are randomly chosen for the cards. When subsequent games are played under the same reading level, seven new randomly selected words are chosen from that same list of words. Some may be the same as the ones in the previous games, and some may be different. However, seven words will be chosen from that same list of twenty-one words until either 1) the game is exited, and re-started or 2) a different reading level is chosen from the Help screen. Eventually, all of the words will be used in the game, and learned by your child while they play Roxie's Reading Fish. ENTER NEW USER WORDS In the ordered version of Roxie's Reading Fish, there is the option to create your own words for Roxie and your child to play "Go Fish" with, greatly extending the program's word list. Select words your child is having difficulty with, or the next set of words he or she would like to learn to read, and enter them in Roxie's database. One hundred lists of words may be saved in all. The words may be a maximum of 8 characters in order to fit inside the playing cards. First, using Window's Accessory "Sound Recorder" or another similar program, record a set of twenty-one words to be used as a word list. Save these words under the VOICES directory in your program directory. If you used the default when installing Roxie's Reading Fish, the correct directory is: C:\READFISH\VOICES. The sound file names must be the same as those entered in the Enter New Words dialog box, and must have a file extension of "wav" For example, if one of your new words is "fireman" then the sound file must be called "fireman.wav" and the complete pathname for the file will be: C:\READFISH\VOICES\FIREMAN.WAV Be sure that there are no blank spaces at the beginning or end of the wav files. If there are blank spaces at the beginning of the wav file, Roxie's mouth will start to move before the voice is heard. If there are blank spaces at the end of the wav file, this may interfere with the syncronization of Roxie's next spoken phrase. Then, in the program, click on the Help button at the bottom left of the screen, and select the "Enter New Words" option. Enter a descriptive label and a set of twenty-one words to add to the list. A partial list of fewer than twenty-one words may be entered into the database, but these words may not be used in play until there is a complete list of 21. MODIFY EXISTING USER WORDS Once the words are entered, they may be modified, and even changed to a completely new set of words. To modify a word list, click on the Help button at the lower left part of the screen, and select "Modify existing user words." Click on the description of the word list that you wish to modify. When a list is selected, the words in that list will appear on the screen. Edit the words you wish to change. Then, either click "OK" or click on another list to be modified. Click "OK" when you are finished. DELETE A WORD LIST Select the word list you would like to delete from the database. When the list is selected, the words from that word list will be displayed on the screen. Click "OK" to delete that list of words, or click "Cancel" to cancel the delete. PLAYING THE GAME The goal is to get the largest number of books consisting of four of the same cards. (Actually the goal is to learn to read the words, but don't tell your child that!) Your child's and Roxie's cards are on the screen, with a draw deck in between them. Roxie will tell your child what the next move is. For example, at the beginning of the game, Roxie says "Your turn." A good reminder to your child will be to tell him or her that if they are stuck, simply click on Roxie's face, and Roxie will tell them what's going on. For most children, this is not necessary, because they will be trying different things, clicking on different areas of the screen and discovering what works and what doesn't. That will make the game more fascinating for them since THEY are the ones who are in charge and are running things. A more unusual activity that the child is not likely to just "happen" on is to click on a word card with the RIGHT mouse button. This will cause Roxie to say the name of that card. Telling them about this can be helpful. At the beginning of every game, the child is first. They will click on a card to ask Roxie if she has any of those words. If so, the cards will be given to the child; otherwise, Roxie will say a variation of "Go Fish!" In this case, the child should click on the draw deck, and a card is placed in their hand. If they drew what they asked for, it is still their turn. If they did not draw what they asked for, it is Roxie's turn, and Roxie will ask for a card. If you child has that card, he or she should click on it. Don't worry, they cannot make a mistake. If the child clicks on the wrong card, or on the draw deck, when they have the card that Roxie wants, Roxie will gently correct them. Play continues until all of the cards in the draw deck are played, and Roxie announces a winner. The child is then asked if she or he wishes to play again. If the child or Roxie completes a book of four cards with the same word, that book is placed onto their respective discard piles on the table. If this causes either player to run out of cards, one is automatically chosen for them and play passes to the other player. CHANGE LEVEL Click on the HELP button, and choose "Change Level" if you wish to change either the reading level or the playing skill level. HELP Click on the "HELP" button for the on-line help, or to change levels. SUPPORT The following support of Roxie's Reading Fish is provided. LatticeWork Software will answer questions and fix serious bugs during a one-year period after ordering. For problems involving specific hardware or software environment or feature, LatticeWork Software may choose not to modify the program. In that case, if a problem is reported within three months after ordering, then LatticeWork Software will refund the user's order price. You may contact LatticeWork Software at the following addresses: 1) LatticeWork Software P.O. Box 362 Lafayette Hill, PA 19444 2) By way of America Online mail to LatticeWrk 3) By way of CompuServe Mail 74453,2112 DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT LIMITED WARRANTY LATTICEWORK SOFTWARE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER LATTICEWORK SOFTWARE NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THIS SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH SOFTWARE, EVEN IF LATTICEWORK SOFTWARE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR CLAIMS. THE PERSON USING THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE.