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Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 1 WHEEL-OF-FORTUNE Program Documentation (Includes documentation for WHEEL2_0.PRG, WHSHELL.PRG, FILEEDIT.PRG, FILECODE.PRG,FILELIST.PRG and DELIMIT.PRG) WHEEL2_0.PRG (Game Program) INTRODUCTION This program was written as a simulation of the Wheel-Of-Fortune television game show. It was written (as were the accompanying programs) with the GFA BASIC Interpreter (which I love and admire and heartily recommend) and then compiled with the GFA BASIC Compiler. It follows the show closely, except, of course, you can't really win money and buy prizes! I hope you enjoy it. STARTING THE GAME The game is started by double-clicking on the WHEEL2_0.PRG name or icon on the desktop. (If you are using the WHSHELL.PRG shell program, you may either click on the "Play Wheel" box or simply hit the [Return] key.) The title page will appear showing the Wheel-Of-Fortune title and the program version number. Then the player information screen will appear. PLAYER NAMES Following the title, a screen requesting the number and names of the players will appear. There may be either 2 or 3 players. Enter the information as it is requested (Player names may be up to eight characters long). After you have entered all the information, you will be asked if it is correct. If you need to make a change, type N - if all is correct type Y. You will then be presented with the file screen. SELECT A FILE The "Choose A Puzzle File" screen contains a GEM file selector box listing the available puzzle files (which all have the .PUZ suffix). Click on the desired file. The same file will be used for all rounds of the current game, after which you will once again have the opportunity to specify the file you want to use. The Disk containing the chosen puzzle file MUST REMAIN IN ITS DRIVE during the game - otherwise an error will occur! Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 2 THE PLAY SCREEN After you select a puzzle file, the play screen will be drawn, consisting of the following: ROUND NUMBER - The round number is shown in the upper left portion of the screen. This will be either Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, or Tiebreaker. If 2 or all 3 of the players have the same dollar amount after 3 rounds, a tiebreaker round will automatically be called for between the tied players only. CURRENT ROUND SCORE - The player names and their totals for the current round are located below the round number. This is the amount which will be added to the player's total IF THEY SOLVE THE PUZZLE. All these amounts are reset to $0 at the beginning of each round. PLAYER TOTALS - The player names and their total accumulated winnings are located below the Current Round Scores. This is the total used to determine the game winner FREE SPINS - The small boxes to the right of the amounts in the Player Totals area (with the legend FS above them) contain the number of free spins the player has in reserve. The player will automatically be given the opportunity to use these at the appropriate times. CURRENT PLAYER / WHEEL INDICATOR - The small box below the Player Totals area contains the name of the player whose turn it currently is, and has a pointer to the wheel indicating the current dollar value or special selection. The first player is chosen at random before each game, and then rotates with each round. THE WHEEL - The wheel is located in the bottom left corner of the screen. Only 5 segments are visible at once, but the wheel actually has 24 segments. Each segment has a dollar value or a special selection such as FREE (free spin), $$$$ (the bonus amount shown in round 2), BKPT (Bankrupt - lose all your current amount) and LOSE (lose a turn). Each round has different amounts and special selections. THE PUZZLE BOARD - The puzzle board is located on the right side of the screen below the Wheel-Of-Fortune title. This is where the puzzles to be solved will appear. White squares indicate the location of the letters in the puzzle. CATEGORY BOX - Directly below the puzzle board is a box with the category of the current puzzle listed inside. This will change from puzzle to puzzle and with different file selections. JACKPOT - In Round 2, a Jackpot amount will appear below the category box. This is won by landing on the $$$$ section of the wheel. The amount is selected randomly at the beginning of each game. Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 3 MESSAGE BOX - The light blue box below the Category Box is the Message Box. During the play of the game, messages and instructions will be posted here. SOLVE PUZZLE - The Solve Puzzle box is on the left below the Message Box. Clicking the pointer in this box will take you to the Solve The Puzzle screen and you will be given a chance to do just that. This box will be in light print if it is not an available option. SPIN - Clicking the pointer inside this box spins the wheel (see TOUCH to see how the left and right buttons differ here). This box will be in light print if it is not an available option. BUY VOWEL - Clicking the pointer in this box will give you the chance to buy a vowel for $250. If you don't have that much, you will be told so. This box will be in light print if it is not an available option. LETTER BOARD - All letter choices are made here. Normally, the vowels are in light letters and cannot be selected. When BUY VOWEL is clicked, the vowels go dark and the consonants go light. Letters which have been selected are highlighted in reverse video - if you choose one of these you will lose that turn. TOUCH - The box labeled TOUCH works as an indicator in conjunction with the SPIN box. Clicking the left mouse button while the mouse pointer is in the SPIN box will cause a random spin of the wheel - and the word RANDOM will appear in this box. The right mouse button serves to control how hard the wheel is spun - as the right button is held down (while the pointer is within the SPIN box) a red indicator begins in the scale between SOFT and HARD. The indicator (which moves rather quickly) will continue to descend as long as the right button is depressed. When it is released, the wheel will spin an amount determined (within about 4 segments) by the force indicated. EXCEPT - to reflect accurately the vagaries of human abilities and the Adrenalin rush of a TV appearance - once in a while (there is 1 chance in 5) you "slip", and the wheel will spin randomly. This will be shown by an OOPS! in the touch box - after all, nobody's perfect! PLAYING THE GAME The player selected to go first will see their name in the CURRENT PLAYER box. They should then click on SPIN using either the left or right mouse buttons as described in the TOUCH description above. The wheel will spin and then stop on either a dollar amount or one of the special sections described in THE WHEEL above. The player will then either select a letter or see the result of a special selection in the message area (and their score!). They will continue to spin as long as the letters selected appear in the puzzle (and they don't bankrupt or lose a turn). Each letter selected will be revealed (all occurrences), and the amount on the wheel will be added to their CURRENT ROUND SCORE as each letter is revealed. While it is their turn they may also select BUY A VOWEL or SOLVE PUZZLE. If they buy a vowel, $250 will be deducted from their CURRENT ROUND SCORE and all occurrences of the vowel will be Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 4 revealed. Play will rotate among the players until one player is ready to SOLVE PUZZLE. The display will then change to the SOLVE THE PUZZLE screen. SOLVE THE PUZZLE - This screen is used to guess the puzzle. The PUZZLE BOARD is shown and the player must input the indicated (by a "?") letter from the keyboard (mouse input is disabled here). You must be VERY CAREFUL here - you only get one chance at each letter (there is NO backspace!). SPELLING COUNTS - if you misspell a word you have made an incorrect guess. After all letters are input you will be told if you are right or wrong. The display will then return to the PLAY SCREEN. If you are right, the amount shown in the CURRENT ROUND box will be added to your score in the PLAYER TOTALS box (the other players get zip!). Play will then proceed to the next round. IF you are wrong, you have just lost your turn and the next player then proceeds with their regular turn (UNLESS you have a FREE SPIN - you will then be asked if you want to use it.) Play proceeds in this manner until the third round is completed. If there is a tie, a TIEBREAKER round or rounds will be played until there is a clear winner. IF YOU GET STUCK - If you can't solve the puzzle, there is a way to move on. Try to solve the puzzle 3 times (this gives each player a chance). You will then be asked if you want the solution revealed. BE SURE, because no one will be awarded any money for the round if this option is chosen. The puzzle will be shown and play will resume with the next round. BIG WINNER - The Big Winner screen appears after the third round is completed. This screen shows the player totals and who won the most. Pressing any key moves the Big Winner on to the BONUS ROUND. BONUS ROUND - The Bonus Round screen appears, showing a new puzzle board and puzzle, with the Big Winner being given the chance (with appropriate fanfare) to win $25,000. The familiar letter board will then appear, and the player is asked to select (using the mouse) 5 consonants and 1 vowel. After these selections are made, any matching letters will be revealed. The player then has 15 seconds to begin typing in the answer (using the keyboard)- a countdown is started which will terminate with the first keystroke or 0 - whichever comes first. If the solution is typed in correctly, $25,000 is added to the Big Winner's score. If time runs out or the solution is incorrect, the correct answer is shown (with appropriate condolences). Play is then over and the screen shows the FINAL STANDINGS. Pressing any key will the give you the option of a hardcopy printout of the game's scores (assuming you have a printer hooked up). The default is NO hardcopy, which may be chosen with [Return]. The display then goes to the: ALL TIME BIG MONEY WINNERS - This screen lists the top ten high scores. These are stored on disk, so the same disk should be in the drive each time you reach this point. Pressing any key gives you the same hardcopy option as in the FINAL STANDINGS screen. ANOTHER GAME? - Allows you to play another game. You will be given the choice of SAME or DIFFERENT players and puzzle files. Choosing NO returns you to either the desktop or to the WHSHELL program if it is on the disk in drive A. Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 5 WHSHELL.PRG (Operating Shell for the Wheel-Of-Fortune program family) INTRODUCTION The WHSHELL.PRG program is a simple shell program from which you can access the various programs associated with the Wheel-Of- Fortune game - ie: the file editor (FILEEDIT.PRG), the file encoder (FILECODE.PRG), the file lister (FILELIST.PRG), or the main game program (WHEEL2_0.PRG). The program DELIMIT.PRG is not accessible from WHSHELL.PRG - it must be run from the desktop. USING WHSHELL.PRG For proper use, all of the programs should be on the disk in drive A - this is where WHSHELL and the other programs look. Running the WHSHELL program from the desktop presents a simple menu with 5 choices: FILE EDIT, FILE CODE, FILE LIST, PLAY WHEEL, and EXIT. Clicking on your choice will run the desired program. When you finish with the program, it will return you to the WHSHELL menu, from which you can then make another selection. The default menu item is PLAY WHEEL - to select it you can simply press [Return]. Choosing EXIT from the menu will return you to the desktop. FILEEDIT.PRG (Puzzle File Editor for the Wheel-Of-Fortune program family) INTRODUCTION FILEEDIT is a simple file editor for the Wheel-Of-Fortune game program. It operates as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for both creating and editing puzzle files. The files it creates are not encoded (you use FILECODE for that) so that they are easy to review, proofread and edit. Using FILEEDIT After running FILEEDIT from either the shell or the desktop, you will be asked (via a GEM file selector box) to select a file to edit. All non-encoded files will have the extension .PZ (this is what the file coder program will look for). You can either select an already existing file to edit or add puzzles, or you can enter a new file name for a brand new puzzle file. (You don't have to type in the ".PZ" extension - it will be added automatically). After making the file selection, you will move to the edit screen. Here you will see a puzzle board ready for puzzle entry, brief instructions for command key use, the name of the file you are Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 6 working on and the number of the puzzle currently being edited. To enter a new puzzle, use the cursor (arrow) keys or space bar to move the cursor to the place you wish to enter text and begin entering your puzzle. The words of the puzzle will appear during the game in the same locations you place them here, so use a little artistic judgement to achieve a nice balance. The Backspace key moves the cursor back a space and deletes the letter under it. The Delete key deletes the letter under the cursor without moving the cursor. You can enter only the letters A-Z and the punctuation marks " - " (dash) and " ' " (apostrophe). After you have the puzzle the way you want it, press the [F10] function key. A cursor will appear in the category box below the puzzle board. Enter the appropriate category here (you are limited to 12 letters in the category) and press [Return] when you are finished. It is not necessary to capitalize the category - this is done automatically. FILEEDIT will then write the puzzle to disk and move on to the next puzzle to be entered or edited. You can stop entering puzzles at any time - you don't have to enter all 104 at one sitting. The editor will pick up where you leave off when you choose the file again later. [F5] will end the edit session and return you to WHSHELL if it is on disk A, or to the desktop. TO EDIT AN EXISTING PUZZLE - Instead of entering a puzzle, you can press the [F1] function key. This will then bring up a prompt for the number of the puzzle you want to edit (this is the number you see in the upper left corner of the edit screen, or the puzzle number shown in the output from FILELIST.PRG). Enter the puzzle number and press [Return]. The desired puzzle will then be offered for edit. When it's the way you want it, press [F10] and proceed to edit the category (if the category is ok, just press [Return]). To change anything in the category, you first will need to delete either the incorrect letters or the blank spaces - if you hear a bell, the category already has the maximum 12 characters entered. Press [Return] when you are finished and the editor will then continue as described above. FILE SIZE - Each puzzle file contains 104 puzzles (6784 bytes) when complete. Any file to be encoded and used with the game program MUST have all 104 puzzles. If you are not sure if you've entered all the puzzles yet, either look at the file size from the desktop (it should show 6784 bytes) or select the file from within FILEEDIT.PRG (if the file is full, the puzzle shown will be number 104). You are encouraged to use your imagination in creating the puzzle files. Having all of the puzzles relating to a central theme makes for a tasty type of trivia puzzle. Giving more specific category descriptions can make easier puzzles for the younger set. You can also create a very educational game using the information to be learned as the puzzle material. X-Rated puzzles for the adult players can be interesting. Most important - have a good time with it! NOTE: Extra care should be devoted in making sure that the puzzles are spelled correctly - it is VERY frustrating to try to solve an incorrectly spelled puzzle (as it says under the SOLVE THE PUZZLE topic, SPELLING COUNTS!) Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 7 FILECODE.PRG (Puzzle File Encoder for the Wheel-Of-Fortune program family) INTRODUCTION FILECODE is used to encode the .PZ files created with FILEEDIT into .PUZ files suitable for use with the Wheel-Of-Fortune game program. This coding is done to prevent the casual user from browsing through the file, giving them a very unfair advantage during game play! USING FILECODE Before running FILECODE, you must have a complete (104 puzzle/6784 byte) puzzle file ready - you can't encode a partial file. After running FILECODE from either the shell program or the desktop, you will be presented with a GEM file selector box asking you to choose the unencoded file (*.PZ). After this choice is made a new file selector box will appear prompting you for the coded file name (*.PUZ) and giving as a default the old file name with the new extension. If that is acceptable, simply press return. Otherwise, enter the new name. You will then be asked for a file descriptor. This is a maximum of 12 characters of your choice that will be displayed after the file is selected in versions 2.0 and higher of the Wheel-Of-Fortune game program. If you do not want to enter anything here, just press [Return]. The file will then be encoded and you will be asked if you want to do another. Either select yes and repeat the above procedure, or choose no and be returned to either the shell or the desktop. FILELIST.PRG (Puzzle File Lister for the Wheel-Of-Fortune program family) INTRODUCTION FILELIST is a simple program that will list the puzzles and categories of a *.PZ file to a printer, removing the excess spaces in the process. This gives you an easy to read list for checking the file for spelling, duplications and incorrect categories. It is presumed that your layout of the puzzle in the puzzle board is already the way you want it. It also gives the puzzle number so that you can go directly to it using the FILEEDIT program. It is not necessary for you to have entered all 104 puzzles - however many puzzles you have entered will be listed. The space-stripping routine is fairly dumb, so some of the puzzles may still have an extra space or two, but all in all, they are much easier to read and correct this way. Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 8 USING FILELIST After running the program from the shell or desktop you will see the familiar GEM file selector box, prompting you for a *.PZ file selection. After making your choice, you will be asked if the printer is ready. If it is, the list will be printed and you will be returned to the shell or desktop. DELIMIT.PRG (Delimited file creator for the Wheel-Of-Fortune program family) INTRODUCTION This file is included in the event you would like to use your favorite database program to keep track of your puzzle files. I move all of mine into ZOOMRACKS II (by Quickview Systems - 146 Main Street - Los Altos, CA 94022 - (415) 965-0327 - I like it very much!). This lets me sort and alphabetize and in general get a better look at the finished file. Most other database programs will read a delimited file as well. USING DELIMIT As with most of the other programs the file must be complete (104 puzzles) for the program to work. DELIMIT must be run from the desktop as I felt most people would use it infrequently. After double-clicking you will see a GEM file selector box. Choose the desired "*.PZ" extension file (there is no reason to convert an encoded file!) and then the new delimited file name (.DTA is suggested as an extension). DELIMIT will then write to disk the delimited data. Each record has two fields, the category first and then the puzzle. This program uses the same blank stripping routine as FILELIST, with the same occasional extra blank. If you're a perfectionist, you can edit them out after you load them into your database program. DELIMIT also writes 20 extra large blank records onto the end of the file to make sure that ZOOMRACKS reads all of the data (this is one of the few bugs in the ZOOMRACKS program - it likes to get to the end of a disk sector when it's reading a delimited file). Simply delete these extra records after reading them into the database program. Wheel-Of-Fortune version 2.0 Page - 9 IN CLOSING I hope you enjoy playing Wheel-Of-Fortune ala ATARI ST. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions for improvement you might have. I can be contacted on GENIE (as R.PYLE) or on DELPHI (as CHILIDOG), or you can write to: Robert H. Pyle P.O. Box 947 Weimar, Texas 78962 Remember - writing computer games is a time consuming undertaking - and the Shareware concept makes it possible for you to preview the program thoroughly. So - if you enjoy playing the game, a reasonable donation ($10 or so) will help a poor programmer keep providing you with quality software and support at a cost far below comparable commercial packages. !SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS! AND Keep on Spinnin' Bob Pyle NOTE AND CAVEAT: There are a couple of puzzle file editors in the public domain that were written without my consultation - and as a result, they have caused some of the PD puzzle files circulating to contain "illegal" characters - ie: punctuation marks or other characters that are not allowed or used in the original game. I have modified Wheel 2.0 to accept these so that the files can be used, but I don't like it! I also have no control over the low quality and occasional incorrectly spelled words of some (not all!) of the puzzle files out there - programmers (and others) are notorious for their lack of language skills. If you find a good file, let the author and others know that you like it. If you find a poor one, let the author know that they need to devote more time to making sure that their ignorance and/or lack of care is not made public!