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- 1 - WORD CHALLENGE V1.1 Copyright (c)1991 by Rick Pedley Coffee Mug Software QUICK START ~~~~~~~~~~~ For those who don't read manuals, here's how to get going quickly: 1. Boot DOS from floppy or hard disk and insert the Word Challenge diskette. 2. At the prompt, type A: and press Enter (if you're using a different drive, enter the correct letter in place of 'A'). 3. At the prompt, type WC and press Enter. 4. At the Setup screen, use the Tab and left/right arrow keys or the mouse to select games, timers, etc. and select 'CONTINUE' when done. 5. Play Word Challenge. If you need more information on game rules and scoring, exit to the Setup screen and select 'Read Docs' or 'Print Docs', which brings up this file. Introduction to Word Challenge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Word Challenge is an educational word game for one or two players that actually combines four games in one. The four games include two old classics, Hangman and Anagrams; a combined Vocabulary and Spelling game; and Trackword. An easy-to-use Setup screen allows you to structure play any way you wish. On a particular occasion you may wish to play just one of the four games, or any combination of the four. Play proceeds in 'rounds', moving from one game to the next. Each game, Vocab- ulary & Spelling, Hangman, Anagrams, and Trackword draws words from its own 3,000 word file. A total of 12,000 words is used in the four games. In the Vocabulary & Spelling game, a permanent record is kept of your progress, so that every time you play, new words must be mastered (defined AND spelled correctly) until all 3,000 words have been completed. Your name is then entered in a 'Hall of Fame' (so a teacher can see who has finished, for example). When playing Hangman, Anagrams, or Trackword no word is repeated in a game until every word in the file has been used. Each game has its own time clock which may be disabled or set from twenty seconds to five minutes. Keyboard or mouse may be used. Sound may be turned on or off anytime during a game. - 2 - The Shareware Version ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The shareware version is completely functional except there are 200 words per game file instead of 3,000 and it does not include the Vocabulary & Spelling editor program. The commer- cial version is distributed on one 3.5" 720K disk or on two 5.25" 360K disks and comes with a printed manual. Each commer- cial copy bears the owner's name on the title screen (where it currently says 'This is the shareware version...'); otherwise the program is unprotected and you are encouraged to make back- ups for your personal use. Also, please feel free to make cop- ies of the shareware version and give them to friends. To Order Word Challenge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The commercial version of Word Challenge may be licensed by an individual/teacher, a school, or a school board. The licen- see may make an unlimited number of copies of both software and documentation for use in his or her own classes in the case of a teacher license, for use throughout a school in the case of a school license, or for use in several schools in the case of a school board license. Notice on the order form that four orig- inal copies accompany a school license and twenty originals are supplied with a board license. To order Word Challenge, select 'Order Form' from the Setup screen. Payment may be made by check or money order. Hardware Requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Word Challenge runs on any IBM PC or compatible with 512K of memory and CGA, and looks best on a color monitor. A mouse can be used but is not essential. The game can be run from one floppy drive or can be installed and run from a hard disk. At this writing Word Challenge is not network compatible but can be modified accordingly if there is any demand for this feature. Getting Started ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first thing you should do is make at least one copy of the program disk(s), and then put the originals away in a safe place. Always use a copy, never the original. To copy a disk, type at the prompt: diskcopy a: a: (press Enter) You will then be prompted to insert the source (original) and target (blank) until the copy is completed. - 3 - Hard Disk Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Insert the floppy disk into drive A: or B: and log on to that drive by typing A: (or B:) and pressing Enter. 2. Type INSTALL and press Enter. To have the program files installed to hard drive volume C: in subdirectory \WC, just press Enter or Y at the prompt or type N and enter another drive and subdirectory. 3. If you are installing the 2-disk 5 1/4" set, you'll be prompted to insert the V&S DATA disk when the program disk has been installed. 4. When installation is complete, press Enter to run Word Challenge, or type N to return to DOS. Word Challenge Setup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One or Two Players ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Word Challenge can be played by one or two players. In two player mode, the player to reach or exceed 500 points wins the game (the second player always gets a last turn). If both play- ers have more than 500 points when the game is over, the player with the most points wins unless there is a tie. In single player mode, the game simply continues until he decides he's had enough. The player's 'score' is calculated as a percentage: (points scored / total possible points) x 100. Note that 'total possible points' doesn't include bonus points. To quit playing at any time, press Esc and select #2 or #3 from the menu that appears. Each turn is scored out of 20 points and a bonus of any- where between 3 and 10 is available depending on the game being played. If a game clock is running, the amount of time left at the end of a turn contributes part of the score on that turn. Sound Effects ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you prefer not to have arcade-like sound effects while playing, sound can be turned off at the Setup screen, or at any time during the game by pressing Alt-S. Personally, I've never been fond of anything emanating from the built-in PC speaker and the absence of sound doesn't detract from the game (what's that old saying -- you can't make a silk purse from a pig's ear?). - 4 - Game Selection ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Word Challenge is played in rounds, each round consisting of the games (and number of words per game) you have selected. Each game has a clock that can be switched off, or set from 20 to 300 seconds (5 minutes). Anagrams and Trackword tend to be the most difficult of the four games so allow a little more time for these if using clocks. If there are two players, the number of words per game is divided equally between them (this is why they increase by two's). The Vocabulary game can be played without the Spelling portion (for those detest spelling bees) but not vice versa; in other words you can select Vocabulary or Vocabulary AND Spell- ing, but not Spelling by itself. If both Vocabulary and Spelling are chosen, and only one person is playing, a 'record' file is created for that person to keep track of exactly which words in a 'V & S' file have been mastered. A word is mastered when both its meaning and spelling have been guessed correctly. In future sessions, only new words are presented until the entire file has been completed. More will be said about this later. Other Setup Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Along the top row on the Setup screen are some other useful items. To read this file on screen select 'Read Docs' or select 'Print Docs' to get a hard copy. 'Word List' allows you to examine the words in any of the data files on disk. (You can't however, print the files from here, unless you use the Print Screen key. The editor supplied with the commercial version can print the lists.) When a Vocabulary file is listed, the Hall of Fame for that file is searched, and the names of those who have completed the file are listed -- handy for teachers. The 'Order Form' option is self-explanatory. The commercial version dis- plays 'Run Editor' in this spot so the editor can be run direct- ly from the game (and vice versa). Saving The Setup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you're satisfied with the Setup, move the cursor to CONTINUE and press Enter. The setup is saved to disk and will be the default next time you play. If you are playing from a floppy drive, you're then asked if you want to save the same setup to another disk. This is intended mostly for teachers; if you are preparing a class set and want all students to play the same format, keep inserting disks and answer 'Yes'. The same setup will be saved to each disk. - 5 - Game Descriptions And Rules ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE: If you have the shareware version, substitute '200 word' wherever you see '3,000 word'. Vocabulary ~~~~~~~~~~ When Vocabulary game is played in single-player mode in conjunction with Spelling, you are asked to select a record file from the list associated with each word file. Select [New Player] if your name isn't on the list. Beside each name is the percentage of words that have been completed, that is, defined and correctly spelled. A word is selected at random from the 3,000 word file. In two-player mode words that have been used are 'flagged' and won't show up again during the game until the entire file has been used. In single-player mode, the same process is in effect unless Spelling has also been chosen. In that case, a word must be correctly defined AND correctly spelled before it is removed from the queue of eligible words. If either the definition is incorrect or the word is spelled incorrectly during the Spelling segment of the game, it will keep reappearing until you get both right. The word appears at the top of the screen along with its pronunciation. Below the word, four possible synonyms or definitions are listed, and you must select the correct one. In a case where there appear to be two correct answers, select the BEST answer. Care has been taken to eliminate the possibility of two correct answers, but there is an outside chance that one or two were overlooked. American spellings are used throughout, simply because in most cases they make more sense than their Canadian and British counterparts and any attempt toward simpli- fication of spelling in the English language is to be welcomed. Therefore COLOUR is spelled COLOR, CENTRE is spelled CENTER, and HONOUR is spelled HONOR. Several points should be stated here regarding the definit- ions. First, the 'definitions' I use in this game are hardly ever complete definitions as you would find in a dictionary, but rather synonyms or descriptive phrases. A true definition usu- ally contains much more information. Second, many words have more than one definition, whereas I have selected only one, the most common definition whenever possible. Third, a word may often be used in several ways, for example as a verb and as a noun (OBJECT, RUN, SWING) with the same spelling in all cases. In this game, a word represents only one part of speech. Togeth- er with the sentence that must be completed in Spelling by entering the correct word (if both games are selected), the goal is to provide the student with a sense of what the word means and how it is used in everyday writing and speech, rather than providing a rigorous definition. - 6 - Admittedly, many of the words featured in Vocabulary are not words you might use in everyday speech, but are words encountered regularly when reading newspapers, novels, and ref- erence materials. When we come across a word we don't know, and don't have a dictionary handy, we attempt to derive a meaning by reading the word in context with the words around it. Sometimes we come quite close to the true meaning, but all too often we are off the mark. The Vocabulary game attempts to improve your comprehension of written English by enabling you to recall many of the definitions you have learned. As well, because the pro- nunciation is given for every word, you'll be able to say each word to yourself as you read. Pronunciation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Capitalization indicates the syllables that are emphasized in each word. Words that have other pronunciations are listed in whole or in part after the first pronunciation. A word may actually be spoken much differently where you live, depending on the local accent. Where possible, the pronunciation of a word that is French or Spanish in origin is maintained, or is shown along with its anglicized counterpart. The sample words below demonstrate the system of pronunciation I have used in Word Challenge. Study these familiar words and their pronunciations, and I think you'll agree that they almost pronounce themselves: SCAPEGOAT (SKAYP-goht) GIRAFFE (juh-RAF) DAMAGE (DAM-ij) WRENCH (rensh) GARAGE (gah-RAJH) FATHER (FAH-thher) THIMBLE (THIM-bul) SIZED (syzd) HOURLY (OWR-lee) BEAUTIFUL (BYOO-tih-ful) BASEMENT (BAYS-m'nt) COURSE (kors) HOODWINK (HUD-wingk) TUBULAR (TYOO-byuh-ler, TOO-) PLEDGE (plej) PURLOIN (PER-loyn, per-LOYN) EXACT (eg-ZAKT) OXEN (OK-s'n) ACCEPT (ak-SEPT) DENTURE (DEN-cher) FURLOUGH (FER-loh) PURE (pyor) LIGHT (lyt) SHARE (shair) QUESTION (KWES-chun) AISLE (yl) ILLICIT (ih-LIS-it) CREAM (kreem) PHONY (FOH-nee) CLIMB (klym) BOOKWORM (BUK-werm) PRESENT (PREZ-'nt) SCIENCE (SY-'ns) EDITION (ee-DISH-un) THOUGHT (thawt) ROOM (room) Notice the pronunciation of ROOM is spelled the same as the word itself. Such words do not appear with a separate pronun- ciation when playing the game, unless they are polysyllabic ('Bathroom' will be shown as 'BATH-room' to indicate which syllable is emphasized). Scoring ~~~~~~~ If no clock is running, twenty points are awarded for a correct answer, zero points for an incorrect answer. A 'happy - 7 - face' indicates a correct choice. If you choose incorrectly, a sad face appears, and then the correct answer is indicated. Select 'Next Word' to move on (Alt-N if using the keyboard). If a clock is used, the number of points scored out of twenty is proportional to how much time is left. If you begin with forty seconds, and get the correct answer in twenty sec- onds, you score ten points. A bonus of three points is awarded if you get the correct answer in less than five seconds. Be- cause of the bonus a good player can have a score greater than 100%, but this will be difficult to accomplish with the clock running. At any time during a turn you can: 1. Press Esc or click on Esc with the mouse. This brings up a window that pauses the game and obscures the game screen. From here you can continue playing, exit to change the setup, or quit to DOS. 2. Give up, in which case you score no points. Click on 'I give up!' or press Alt-G. If you play Vocabulary and Spelling in single-player mode, a record of your progress through the word file is posted below the heading 'V&S Record:' on the game clock. The V&S record works like this: a point is awarded for guessing a word's def- inition correctly, and another point for spelling the word cor- rectly. Therefore, 400 points must be accumulated to complete a 200 word vocabulary file. A score of 52/400 for example, indi- cates that 26 words have been completed. When you are asked to select your record file on the Setup screen, this fraction is shown as a percentage beside your name -- 13% in this case. Spelling ~~~~~~~~ In Spelling, you must complete a sentence that contains one of the words you defined in Vocabulary. The sentences appear in any order and do not necessarily correspond to the sequence in which they were presented in Vocabulary. The number of blanks (dashes) indicates the length of the word and is an aid in spel- ling it correctly. Notice that the nature of the Spelling game changes if a large number of words is played per round in Vocab- ulary, since now you must not only remember how to spell the words, but must remember what all the words are! This is not necessarily undesirable -- we can all benefit from better re- call. To focus more on spelling however, work with two to six words per round. To select a letter, either click on it or enter the letter directly with the keyboard. If you inadvertently type a non- alphabetic character, it will likely appear on screen. Read the section on the Word Challenge Editor for information on the use of non-alphabetic characters in your own word files. - 8 - In two-player mode, you will not necessarily get the same words to spell as you had to define in Vocabulary; you will un- doubtedly have to spell some of the other player's words, since they are selected at random. This means each player must pay attention at all times, and not only during his own turn! If no clock is used, twenty points are awarded for a cor- rect spelling and zero points for the wrong spelling. A three point bonus is awarded if you don't have to backspace and cor- rect an error. When all blanks have been filled, the 'Esc' key on screen changes to an 'Enter'. This is your cue to press (or click on) Enter to complete the turn. If a clock is used, the score out of twenty is proportional to the amount of time left on the clock. There is a three point bonus for not having to backspace to correct errors. When a word is misspelled, it goes back into the pool of words from which to select in the next round, even if the def- inition was correct. Only when both are correct, is a word taken out of the pool. When the correct word is displayed, the letters you got wrong are highlighted in pink. In some sentences, the word to be spelled ends in a suffix, or begins with a prefix. For example, if ---ED requires you to type in the word FIX, you need only type FIX. If you accident- ally type ED as well, the extra letters will just be ignored and there is no penalty. Hangman ~~~~~~~ Hangman words are anywhere from seven to eleven letters long. Some are everyday words, and many are not. The first and last letters are given and you must fill in the blanks. Note that a letter beginning or ending a word may also occur some- where in the middle, but is not automatically displayed, so the end letters may be entered as guesses. If the letter you type occurs more than once, all occurrences are shown. For each wrong guess, a part of the hangman is drawn. After six wrong guesses (head, torso, arms, and legs), you're hanged (not hung!). Once a letter has been used, correctly or incorrectly, it is removed from the on-screen keyboard display. That makes it easier to select the next letter from those remaining. Scoring ~~~~~~~ The maximum score is twenty points, with a healthy bonus of ten points for no wrong guesses. If a clock is used, your score is based on a combination of the proportion of time remaining and the number of wrong guesses you made. It's a balancing act; the faster you play (more points), the more mistakes you are - 10 - likely to make (fewer points). If no clock is used, the score is based solely on the number of wrong guesses. In either case, no points are scored if you are hanged. Anagrams ~~~~~~~~ The 3,000 word Anagrams file contains 1,000 five-letter words, 1,000 six-letter words, and 1,000 seven-letter words. Each word is selected randomly, so it's simply a matter of luck whether you draw an easy five-letter word, or get stuck with a more difficult seven-letter word. The letters are displayed in randomly scrambled order, and you must determine the actual word by rearranging the letters. All words have been carefully checked to ensure that one set of letters spells only one word. For example, EMIRUP is ineligible because the letters spell UMPIRE and IMPURE. Scoring ~~~~~~~ Each turn is worth twenty points, with a three point bonus for not having to backspace. If a clock is used, your score is determined by the proportion of time remaining. There are no points for a wrong answer or for giving up. Remember to press Enter when finished, or the clock will continue to tick away. If you select 'Hint?' (click on 'Hint?' or press Alt-H) the first letter of the word is given and your final score is cal- culated out of fifteen instead of twenty. Trackword ~~~~~~~~~ The Trackword file consists of 3,000 nine-letter words. A word is selected at random and scrambled as in Anagrams. Then the letters are arranged in a 3 x 3 tile pattern. You must build the word by connecting the tiles in the correct sequence. The tiles can be joined vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and no tile may be used twice. The examples below show the word EXPANSION in various configurations: E P N N I S P X E N S I A X O O N X A N O A E O N S I A P E N S I X P N Trace the letters to get an idea of the possible letter arrangements. When there are nine unique letters, 784 paths or 'tracks' are possible. Fortunately the rules of spelling immed- iately eliminate many of these paths and each set of nine let- ters spells just one word. Despite a five-point penalty, it - 11 - will often make sense to ask for a hint, especially if a game clock is running. Press Alt-H or click on 'Hint?' to see the first letter of the word. Select letters by clicking on them with the mouse, or by entering a tile's number, located in the upper left corner of each tile (the numbers are arranged in the same sequence as the numeric keypad, and Num Lock is automatically switched on for this game). There are a couple of things to watch for in this game. You can easily reach a 'dead end' where none of the remaining letters is adjacent to the letter you just used. If a letter isn't eligible, it won't light up when you click on it. To get out of a dead end, backspace as far as you want and try another route. In many words, a letter occurs more than once and at some point in the path you are building, two or more of the same letter may be available for the next link in the chain (look at the third arrangement of EXPANSION above, after the letter 'A'). Choose carefully or you'll find yourself unable to complete the word. Scoring ~~~~~~~ Each turn is scored out of twenty points with a bonus of three points if you don't have to backspace. The turn is scored out of fifteen if you ask for a hint. If a clock is used, the ratio of time left to the total amount determines your score. A wrong answer or giving up is worth zero points. The End of The Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In two-player mode, the game ends when one or both players reach or exceed 500 points. The player with the most points wins. The second player always has a last turn. The winner is then announced, at which time you can quit or play another game. In single-player mode, there is no competition as such, and you simply play as long as you like, the object being to earn as high a percentage as possible. If you complete all the words in a Vocabulary & Spelling file at some point during a game (and you are playing both Vocabulary and Spelling), your name is ent- ered permanently in the Hall of Fame and your record file is erased. The Word Challenge Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An editor program is supplied with the commercial version of Word Challenge along with detailed instructions on how to use it. With the editor you can create your own Vocabulary and - 12 - Spelling word files (as many as 200 words per file). The editor allows sentences and definitions to be three lines deep and sentences may contain characters above ASCII 127 (i.e. the 'graphics' characters in the upper half of the table), making the game suitable for math, science, and language courses where special symbols are needed. Also, words that are to be spelled may contain spaces (so scientific terms like 'vas deferens' and 'amino acid' can be used) as well as other non-alphabetic char- acters below ASCII 128. To preserve the integrity and original condition of the files supplied with the game, the Anagrams, Hangman, and Track- word files cannot be edited and neither can the Vocabulary files shipped with the shareware version and commercial version (WC-V00.WCT and WC-V01.WCT). Please do not attempt to edit these files with a word processor or text editor; a combination of data compression and checksumming by the program will cause the files to become corrupted if you try to change their con- tents. About The Author ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I live in Kingston, Ontario, and am in the midst of an uneasy transition from teaching high school to writing educat- ional software. Anyone who has gone through a similar career change can appreciate the struggle and uncertainty that accom- panies such a move. I am greatly indebted to my wife Carol for helping me to remain reasonably sane over the last three or four years (at least as sane as I've ever been). 91-01-08 Other Products From Coffee Mug Software ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Making The Grade ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A complete grading package for teachers including graphs, statistical measures, and various printed reports. Simple to learn, with online help. Similar versions available for IBM PC's and compatibles, and for 128K Apple II computers. Write for a free, functional demo version. $42 US, $49 Cdn. Word Challenge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A similar but not identical version of Word Challenge is available for the Apple II (without an editor or the Trackword game). Write for a free demo. - 13 - The Legal Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While every precaution has been taken to ensure the correctness of the software and its accompanying manual, Coffee Mug Software cannot assume any responsibility or liability for any damage or loss caused by the software. Coffee Mug Software reserves the right to make changes and improvements to the manual and software at any time without notice. It is the responsibility of the user to make the necessary backups for his/her data and program diskette. ___________________________