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HISTORY.DOC
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1992-08-18
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┌─────────┐ Roger D Hamilton
┌─────┴───┐ │ (R) "CRAIGARD"
──│ │o │────────────────── Dalcataig
│ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of GLENMORISTON
│ │ │─┘ Shareware Inverness IV3 6YG
└───│ o │ Professionals United Kingdom
──────│ ║ │──────────────────── Telephone(UK): 0320 51282
└────╨────┘ MEMBER Telephone International:+44 320 51282
HISTORY OF DTQ
--------------
[ This file provides more information on my, probably eccentric,
approach to Shareware programming than the simple bald facts
necessary for distributors' catalogues. It may be of interest
to other budding programmers, however.]
THREES.EXE Compiled for Sinclair QL in March 1991, adjunct to Typing tutor.
No visible computer move. Simple variation of Pairs.
Large "script" characters designed for readability.
Cursor/Space key, Keyboard or Joystick operation.
DTQ.EXE Compiled for PC and based on THREES, Feb 1992. No version no.
Transition to PowerBASIC from Sinclair SuperBasic( Jan Jones &
Tony Tebby ) tedious. Graphics much clearer than previous
effort( very crude ), large characters included, icons now 72.
Managed to add viable, visible, computer move, hi-score table,
and other options; eg match pairs and quads, practise/play,
computer/player begins game, turnabout or matcher continues,
icon-view; also added, hopefully decorative and entertaining,
instructions routine, more "tolerable" than plain text.
Kept "concealed" computer move in for novelty effect.
Used cursor/keyboard moves without too much alteration to code -
just as well as unable, or unwilling, to reproduce it at will
without porting relevant code across almost verbatim; no 'stick.
Sent for review to ASP, accompanied by one documentation file.
OK'd by Nels Anderson. Also sent to a few distributors, as
update to some earlier efforts, these having been put out in the
vain hope of some feedback or "How am I doing ?" exchange; with
poor documentation and wrongly claiming Shareware status.
VERSION 1.00 Compiled May 1992. Explored colour range using tiling.
Improved icon depiction, which still looked primitive,
and corrected, as far as practicable, inaccuracies due to
scaling errors. Added player option to use 72 color spots
instead of icons, and cheat function; also install program.
Some minor modifications, mostly cosmetic, and a few tweaks.
Added Registration Reminder to end of instruction routine,
keeping well within ASP regulations here; meaning of
Registered version as averse to Distributed version dawns;
thought Registered ver. was one ASP got on mem. application !
Prompted by Bob Falk's template files, provided in Membership
Package sent from ASP, split the one documentation file into
9 separate files, keeping much to his wording; wouldn't have
had the nerve to make such demands, so hid under their skirts,
or should I say, shirts ?
Sent this one to Nelson Ford, running PsL's ASP mailing service.
Also sent to Gabriel Scientific Consultancy, for possible use
as magazine cover disk.
VERSION 1.1 June 1992
Further improvements to icons, some replacements, bringing their
total to 108; added numbers option (to icons and color spots);
improved INSTALL.EXE, reduced size, clearer; greatly improved
ORD-FORM.DOC( borrowed as template from Shooting Gallery disk !)
Sent as update to PsL to replace V1.00, now on general release,
and in their catalogue; to GSC who sent back V1.00 saying
"Still thinking about it"; nice thought !
AS BEFORE July 1992
Added this file. Having had a look at 5 "opposition" progs
in PsL, made efforts to improve program descriptions, pointing
out DTQ's superior features ?
Further improvements to INSTALL.EXE, checking free space on
destination drive and adding option to play game right away.
AS BEFORE August 1992
Discrepancy in INSTALL[ free space checking ] allowed for.
Discovered by chance that different sized disks ( with different
allocation unit sizes ) required more or less "byte room" EXTRA,
over and above the package size( 340 K ) to store package :-
SIZE CAPACITY EXTRA[Sub-directory] EXTRA[No sub-directory] AU-SIZE°
3½ 720K 7K 6K 1024
1.44Mb 4K 3K 512
5¼ 360K 7K 6K 1024
1.2Mb 4K 3K 512
20Mb HARD DISK 32K 28K 4096
(partitioned logical D to G) °Allocation unit size (bytes)
AS BEFORE August 1992
Received init. review of DTQ v1.0 from Public Brand Software IN.
Comments:
"Just takes too long to get into the game.
My hair changed from red to gray"
Sent v1.1 to PBS saying:-
" Reviewer M commented on the time it takes to get into the game;
here is a review of comparative timings I made.
[ From pressing Enter, with the name of the program at the DOS
prompt and the game on hard disk, the figures represent the time
elapsing, under BEST conditions for each game, to load, get
through all the menu choices and the game to start, with the
number of options ( pertaining to play ), and the time
taken to begin the next game, noted ]: -
TO START MENU CHOICES TO NEXT GAME
DTQ 1.1.........40 secs...............25...................5 secs
MEMICON.........28 secs................8..................23 secs
MATCH'EM........30 secs...............12..................47 secs
ANIMATE.........46 secs................8..................53 secs
CRAZY SHUFFLE...56 secs...............22..................19 secs
VGACONCENTR.....50 secs...............15..................30 secs
WHATISIT........56 secs...............19..................25 secs
If continuity and ease of making choices is taken into consideration,
some of the above figures, excepting DTQ, are optimistic ! "