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Mah Jongg -V-G-A- Version 3.1 November, 1991 Program and Documentation Copyright 1988 - 1991 Ron Balewski Mah Jongg -V-G-A- is a User-Supported (Shareware) prooduct. It is freely available through User's Groups, Bulletin Boards, etc. You have the opportunity to try the game and see if it suits your needs. If you find that you enjoy and use this game, please send the requested contribution of $15.00 to: Ron Balewski 412 E. Ridge St. Nanticoke, PA 18634-2915 User-supported shareware can exist only as long as you, the users, will support it! TABLE OF CONTENTS: ------------------- FORWARD: A Message to current users .... 4 WHAT IS MAH JONG -V-G-A- ............... 5 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS .................. 4 THE GAME OF MAH JONGG .................. 6 The Tiles ......................... 6 The Suits ......................... 6 The Game Board .................... 6 Playing Mah Jongg ................. 7 Strategy .......................... 7 PLAYING MAH JONGG -V-G-A- .............. 8 The Basics ........................ 8 The Added Features ................ 9 Special ...................... 9 K submenu .................... 9 Messages ..................... 9 Restore ...................... 9 Quit ........................ 10 New Game .................... 10 Save ........................ 10 What's Left ................. 10 Back-up ..................... 11 Help ........................ 11 Done ........................ 13 Turning Off the Menu ........ 13 The Special Sub-Menu ............. 14 Background .................. 14 Info... ..................... 14 DOS Shell ................... 14 Sound ....................... 15 Timer ....................... 15 Keyboard Commands ................ 16 Load Tile Set ............... 16 Box Cursor Toggle ........... 16 Hall of Fame ................ 17 Book-Marks .................. 17 DOS Shell ................... 17 Stack Control Menu ............... 18 Peek ........................ 18 Rotate ...................... 18 Remove ...................... 18 - Page 2 - Command Line Options ............. 19 B ........................... 19 D ........................... 19 F ........................... 19 L ........................... 19 M ........................... 19 R ........................... 19 S ........................... 19 T ........................... 19 IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY ................. 20 TECHNICAL SUPPORT ..................... 20 BULLETIN BOARD ........................ 21 WHAT'S NEXT ........................... 21 SHARWEWARE ............................ 22 DISCLAIMER ............................ 22 PERMISSION TO COPY .................... 23 Appendix A: The Files ................ 24 Appendix B: The MIDI Sound Files ..... 25 Appendix B: THe ADLIB.CFG Adlib file . 28 Special thanks to Warren Storosko for his valuable assistance with this project. Many of Mah Jongg -V-G-A-'s special features are a direct result of his helpful suggestions. - Page 3 - FORWARD A message to current users As usual, there's a WHATSNEW.V31 text file listing all changes made to MJVGA since the last release. Not too many this time, though! I'd once again like to thank those who have registered the various versions of MJVGA (this is the sixth release already!). Your constant support and encouragement is what keeps me working on MJVGA. The bound manual that I mentioned in the last release still isn't ready -- and probably won't be unless a LOT more of you want it. To date, I've had at most four people express interest in it. It definitely wouldn't be worth my time for so few people -- I'd much rather spend the time programming! That MJ8514 version of Mah Jongg is almost ready. In fact, it's been in "public beta test" for several months now. All I have to do is get around to doing the documentation! The registration fee will be $25. Yes, I know that's a bit more than MJVGA costs. Part of the reason is that it'll be distributed on at least one high-density disk and maybe two. The rest is because, frankly, I think it's worth it! Registered MJVGA users can order a test copy of MJ8514 for my usual $3 handling fee. Others are on their own to find it! - Page 4 - WHAT IS MAH JONG -V-G-A-? Mah Jongg -V-G-A- is a high-tech simulation of the ancient Chinese game of Mah Jongg. Some historians date Mah Jongg back to the time of Confucius -- over 25 centuries ago! It's believed that sailors and fishermen played Mah Jongg as a diversion from the monotony of their long voyages. The game was originally played with cards, but eventually bone and bamboo tiles were substituted since these were less likely to be blown off the deck. Mah Jongg -V-G-A- recreates the beauty and addictive pleasure of Mah Jongg, but uses modern data processing techniques and high-resolution graphics instead of bamboo tiles. In an attempt to make this game as elegant and as enjoyable as possible, the author has used some of the most advanced features of today's state-of-the-art MS-DOS computers. Not all PC computers are able to run Mah Jongg -V-G-A-. But if yours can, prepare yourself for the meeting of the past and future!!! WHAT DO I NEED? Mah Jongg -V-G-A- will run on properly-equipped PC's and compatibles with 640k of memory. It should run with less, but I don't know the exact lower limit. A VGA graphics card and a Logitech-compatible mouse are also required. Certain convenience features require a three-button mouse. However, the game can be played with a Microsoft-compatible two-button mouse. I also recommend a secondary monochrome monitor. Mah Jongg -V-G-A- will use both the VGA and the monochrome monitors simultaneously to display the game board and statistics. While you don't NEED the monochrome display, I find it to be a useful part of the game. A fast processor isn't really necessary. While a fast machine and a fast graphics card will speed up tile removal somewhat, the game plays just fine on a standard turbo XT. - Page 5 - THE GAME OF MAH JONGG --------------------- THE TILES There are 42 different tiles used in Mah Jongg as follows: 27 Suit tiles (nine tiles in each of three suits), 3 Dragons, 4 Winds, 4 Seasons, and 4 Flowers. THE SUITS The Suit Of Dots - This suit goes back to the original sailor's version of Mah Jongg. The dots probably represent money. The Suit Of Bam - Bam stands for Bamboo. Because bamboo was used to make deadly spears, this suit is thought to represent power or victory. The Suit Of Crak - These are also called Characters or Actors. Crak may represent actual people or may simply be characters from the Chinese alphabet. The Dragons - In the Ancient Mah Jongg, each suit was associated with a Dragon as follows: White dragons - Suit Of Dots Red Dragons - Suit Of Bam Green Dragons - Suit Of Crak This association has no direct bearing on the current play of the game. The Winds - These tiles simply represent the four directions of the winds -- North, South, East, and West. The Flowers - The four flowers - Orchid, Plum, Mum, and Bamboo - were introduced by a medieval princess to add beauty and romance to the game. The Seasons - This is another direct representation -- this time of the seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. It is thought that the seasons were added to Mah Jongg by river gamblers. THE GAME BOARD Each game board consists of 144 tiles made up of four of each type of tile EXCEPT for the Seasons and Flowers of which there is one each. The tiles are laid out in a formation called a Dragon. The position of each tile in the dragon is completely random, making each dragon unique. Some are more formidable than others. Some are actually impossible to defeat. But all are challenging and exciting. - Page 6 - The tiles are placed in stacks ranging in height from one tile at the edge to five tiles at the center. The easiest way to understand the dragon is to see one. Run Mah Jongg -V-G-A-. The dragon you'll see will be a far better explanation than I can give. PLAYING MAH JONGG The object of Mah Jongg is simple -- remove all of the tiles by matching pairs. But there IS a catch. Only tiles which are "free" can be removed. A tile is considered "free" if there's nothing on top of it and if it can slide out to the left OR right. If tiles on both sides are stacked to the same height the tile is not "free" to be removed. Two tiles MUST be free and MUST be an exact match (exceptions later) before they can be removed from the dragon. Removal of mismatched tiles and removal of un-free tiles is not allowed. The exception: Since there is one each of the Seasons and the Flowers, these tiles cannot be matched identically. So any flower can match with any other flower. Likewise, any season can match with any other season. STRATEGY: During my countless hours of testing Mah Jongg -V-G-A-, I've found a few pieces of strategy that seem to help: --> Concentrate on removing the four tiles which are blocking the most moves - the top tile, the single tile on the left, and the two tiles on the right. --> Look for quadruples. If all four of a given tile are free, remove them all immediately. This will get them out of the way and won't cause problems later. --> Keep an eye out for doubles (two tiles free) of tiles with only two left (the monochrome screen helps here). These should also be removed immediately. --> Before removing two tiles of four remaining, be sure that no OBVIOUS harm (trapped tiles) will occur. --> Always check for triples. If you've found a pair with four remaining, see if any more are free. Then, take the two which will free up the most tiles. - Page 7 - PLAYING MAH JONGG -V-G-A- 3.1 ----------------------------- THE BASICS To start Mah Jongg -V-G-A-, just place the game disk into a drive, log onto that drive, and type MJVGA31 at the DOS prompt. After some disk activity, the opening screen will come up. A short time later, the title screen will fade and the dragon will be drawn. If you have a monochrome monitor connected to your computer, you should be sure that it's turned on. From here on, I'll assume that you're looking at both monitors. If you only have a VGA monitor, just ignore all references to the Monochrome. Tiles are removed by first selecting one, then selecting its mate. To select a tile, just point to it with the mouse and press the left mouse button. The tile will change color (and its listing on the monochrome will be highlighted) to show that it has been selected. You don't have to double-click to remove the tiles. When two tiles have been selected, they will (after validation) be removed. To de-select a tile, just click on it again. The tile and its listing will return to normal. If you click on a tile which is not free, a 'Tile Not Free" meessage will appear on the left side of the screen after which the offending tile will automatically be de-selected. Likewise, if you select two tiles wcich don't match, you'll see a "Tiles don't match" message after which both tiles will be de-selected These messages will remain on-screen for a set period of time. However, you can cancel them early by clicking the left mouse button. The counter at the top-left of the VGA screen (and on the right side of the monochrome screen) will show how many tiles remain in the dragon. This is all you really need to know to play the game. But, there are some other features which make the play a lot more enjoyable. The menu of features can be found in the upper right section of the VGA display. I'll explain each of these features individually in a moment. But, to activate any one of them, just point to the desired feature with the mouse and click the left button. - Page 8 - THE ADDED FEATURES For convenience, I'll describe the features as they appear in the menu from top to bottom, starting with Special. SPECIAL ======= Selecting SPECIAL will open up a smaller sub-menu on the left side of the VGA screen. You shouldn't need these features too often, but they're nice to have just in case. I'll describe each of these special features in detail later on. K = Selecting the smaller K button on the right side of the SPECIAL button will open another pop-up menu. This menu contains a list of seldom-used features which, in past versions, were only accessable via the keyboard. You can now select them with this menu by left-presssing on K, dragging the mouse down until the option you want is hilighted, then releasing the left button. To close the menu without making a selection, just move the mouse cursor off of the menu without releasing the button. The menu will go away and you can then release the button without selecting anything. For a complete description of these features see the section on keyboard input later in this manual MESSAGES ARE ON / OFF ===================== This option controls whether or not the "Tile not free" and Tiles do not match" messages are printed. The messages are initially on. They can be toggled on / off by clicking on the box. When the messages are turned off, un-free tile selections are ignored and mis-matched selections are simply reset. Experienced players may prefer to turn off the messages to keep mis-clicks from slowing up the game with messages. RESTORE ======= Restore will load a game previously saved to disk. A window will open and you'll be asked to select a file name. If you hit this button accidentally, just cancel the restore by pressing clicking on ESC. - Page 9 - QUIT ==== Selecting Quit will clear both monitors and return you to the DOS prompt. NEW GAME ======== Clicking on New Game will start a new game of Mah Jongg. The VGA screen will clear and the computer will shuffle the tiles. Then a new dragon will be drawn. The New Game option can also be used to start the current game from the very beginning without having to use the BACK-UP command repeatedly. To re-start the current game, just hold down the right mouse button while clicking on the New Game button with the left. SAVE ==== The Save command is Restore's partner. You can save a current game to disk for later completion by clicking here. You'll be asked for a file name for the game. If you decide not to save the game, just press Return without typing anything. Either way, you'll be returned to the current game. WHAT'S LEFT =========== To see exactly what tiles are left in the dragon, just click here! The dragon will be replaced by a graphic depiction of exactly how many of which tiles are left. Very useful for determining tricky moves! To return to the game board, just click the RIGHT mouse button. To quickly find out how many of one type of tile are left, just high-light the desied tile before selecting What's Left. A message will appear on the left side of the screen telling exactly how many of the selected tile are left. Note that if you select a Season or Flower, the total number of Seasons / Flowers will be shown. Of course, monochrome users will seldom have to use this feature. All of this information (and much more) is constantly displayed on the monochrome monitor. - Page 10 - BACK-UP ======= Each time you click on Back-up, your last move will be taken back. Note that the tile(s) which are being returned to the board will be momentarily highlighted on the monochrome screen. This feature helps you to quickly return to "wherever I removed those such-and-such tiles." You can back-up all the way to the beginning of the game, if you like. HELP ==== Help is really it's own little sub-function. When you click on help, the machine will pause for a moment (it's looking for moves) and will then do one of two things. If no moves are left, you'll see a "No moves left" message on the left side of the screen. You're now free to start a new game, enter the game into the Hall of Fame (via the Done key), or back-up to try to get farther in this game (I often do this). If one or more moves is left, the message will tell you how many. The tiles for the first move will be highlighted on both monitors. Then, a small control panel with five buttons will appear on the left section of the VGA screen. To leave Help, click on Exit. To see the next move, just click on "Next". Click on "Previous" to display the previous move. When you've decided which move you'd like to take, you can execute it by first stepping to it with the Next / Previous buttons and then clicking on "Do It!" The help menu will disappear and your selected move will be executed. You can also "X-ray" the board to find which stacks a given type of tile is in regardless of whether or not it's buried. To start an X-ray, click on "X-ray" in the help menu. A tile will be shown in the upper left section of the screen. Use the previous / next buttons to step to the tile that you want to find. Then, click on SHOOT to turn on the X-ray machine. All stacks will grow dark and begin to flicker except for the stacks containing the chosen tile. They will be highlighted. You'll also notice an irritating high-pitched sound coming from the PC's built-in X-ray machine. It's sometimes difficult to interpret this X-ray, depending on the tile set. Heavily-painted tiles are impervious to X-rays and can give false readings. But, the readings are usually quite helpful. And with practice, you'll get better at reading the X-ray. After all, your family physician went to school for countless years to learn to read them! One last thing -- the X-ray will tell you which stack a tile is in, but NOT how deeply it;s buried! If it's on top, you'll see it. But if it's buried, you'll just have to dig or use Peek! - Page 11 - To turn off the X-ray machine, just click any mouse button. You can then select another tile with the previous / next buttons or return the game by clicking on Exit. If you high-light a tile before clicking on Help, you'll be shown only moves which use the selected tile value. For example: If you select the One of Dots and then click on Help, all One of Dots moves will be shown. If no moves are possible using the selected tile, you will be so informed. The help system is automatically exited when you select Do It! to keep you from playing the entire game from within the Help menu. After all, we've got to give the Dragon a fighting chance!! Some people have told me that they like to play MJVGA on their own without help, but would like a quick way to find out if there are any moves left. You can do precisely that by holding down the right mouse button while you click on help. All you'll see is a message on the left side of the screen which tells you how many moves (if any) are left. The message will disappear after three seconds, or you can cancel it by clicking the LEFT mouse button. You'll be on your own to find the moves! ATTENTION THREE-BUTTON MOUSE USERS: This feature is for you! When you're in the HELP sub-function, you can step through the moves by using the center and right mouse buttons. Pressing the center button is just like clicking on PREVIOUS. The right button is a short-cut for clicking on NEXT. You can select EXIT by pressing the center & right buttons at the same time. (These Previous / Next / Exit mouse button shortcuts will also work from within the X-ray menu.) There is no short-cut for Do It or Shoot! That'd make the HELP function too convenient! There is also a short-cut to entering the Help menu available to you. Just click the center button! If you click the center button while holding down the right, you'll be put into the abbreviated help mode described above. This short-cut can also be turned off in case you find yourself accidentally hitting the center button & entering Help when you don't want to. The C key or (or choosing 'Center Button' from the 'K' menu) will toggle the short-cut on & off. A 'C' on the command line will start the game with the short-cut turned off. - Page 12 - DONE ==== Done is a combination of Quit and New Game, but has some added features as well. When you select DONE, your score for the game will be calculated and, if you've made the Hall of Fame, you'll be asked to enter your name. Either way, your score & the Hall of Fame will be displayed. You'll then be given the option of quitting or starting a new game. Note that QUIT and NEW GAME don't evaluate the game for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. You could use these if you're not interested in the Hall of Fame or if the game has gone so badly that you don't want the embarrassment of being told that your score was thousands of points higher than what's needed for HOF entry. TURNING OFF THE MENU ==================== The entire features menu can be removed from the gameboard by clicking on the upper "MAH JONGG -V-G-A-" title. When the menu is removed, all menu operations are disabled except for "HELP", which can still be accessed via the center mouse button. To return the menu and restore its operations, just click in the title area again. What's the reason for this feature? None, except for aesthetics. Someone suggested that the board might look nicer if the menu could be removed. I tried it and found out that he was right. The board looks MUCH nicer when you don't have to stare at that ugly menu! - Page 13 - THE SPECIAL SUB-MENU I'll now describe the functions available in the SPECIAL sub-menu in the order of their appearance: BACKGND ======= This feature will let you TEMPORARILY change the background color of the board. When you select BACKGrouND, another small window will open. You'll see three bar-graphs labeled Red, Blue, and Green. You can raise or lower the content of any color by clicking on its UP or DOWN button. The color will increase or derease one "notch" for each click. Holding down the center button while clicking will increase or decrease the color value by 10 "notches" with each click. When you've got the color set to what you want, just click the right mouse button to return to the game. Note that this color change is temporary. When you quit the game, the color will be lost. The next time you run MJVGA, the default color will be used. If you wish to change the background color permanently, you must use The Draftsman. INFO... ======= Selecting INFO... simply displays the game title, a copyright notice, a shareware notice, and the author's name & address. This isn't necessary, but it's nice to have just in case the program gets separated from its .DOC file. To return to the game, click the RIGHT mouse button. DOS SHELL ========= This feature will let you drop to DOS without losing your current game (and without having to save it). I added this feature because I always seem to get important business phone calls requiring access to a file on my PC during a game of Mah Jongg! To return to the game, just type EXIT at the DOS prompt. NOTE: As with any shell-to-DOS, you MUST NOT run any TSR-type programs from within this shell! Doing so could crash the system!! If you choose to run a TSR from here, don't say I didn't warn you!!! - Page 14 - SOUND ===== This button simply toggles the sound on and off. With the sound turned off, you won't hear all the various beeps, clicks, buzzes, and bloops. TIMER ===== The Timer button toggles the timer display off and on. The timer will continue to keep time, even if the display is turned off. Selecting any item on the Special sub-menu will automatically close the sub-menu. If you'd like to exit the sub-menu without making a selection, just press the right mouse button. - Page 15 - KEYBOARD COMMANDS There are several features which are accessable by either pressing a key on the keyboard or using the <K>eyboard drop-down menu as described above. The on-screen menus were getting just too darn crowded, so the new features seem to be "overflowing" onto the keyboard and it's (new) associated drop-down menu. LOAD TILE SET ============= You can load in an alternate tile set at any time by tapping the "L" key. A list of available tile sets will be shown, along with a scroll bar if you have enough sets. To choose a tile set, just scroll thru the list with the scroll bar (you DO know how to use a scroll bar, don't you??) and click on the desired tile set. The four small buttons on the bottom are for special "actions" as follows: Enter - Selects the highlighted tile if you made a selection via the keyboard (arrow keys will move a hilite bar up or down, while page-up / page-down will move the scroll bar). ESC - Exits the tile selector without choosing another tile set. Move - Allows you to move the tile selection window (although I can't see why you'd want to!!) Opt - Allows you to change either the sort (alphabetic or date) or the drive / directory. For example, to load tiles from the A drive, you'd select Opt, then select PATH from the pop-up menu (you can move this little thing, too, by clicking on the top title bar), then typing A:\ at the "new path" prompt. You MUST end all entered paths with a backslash!!! If you don't, you'll get an error message!!! CURSOR BOX TOGGLE ================= MJVGA supports an alternate "box" cursor in addition to the standard mouse pointer. When the box cursor is turned on, a thin box will be drawn around a tile when it's being "pointed to" by the mouse cursor. Some people seem to like this feature, while others don't. It does make tile selection a bit more accurate, but can be quite distracting. If you like the box, use it -- if not, don't. It can be turned on & off by tapping the "B" key. Note that when the box cursor is active, the mouse arrow will NOT disappear -- they'll both be visible. - Page 16 - HALL OF FAME ============ MJVGA maintains a "Hall of Fame" for high scorers. Whenever you win a game or choose "Done" and if your score is one of the top ten, you'll be asked to enter your name into the hall of fame. The hall of fame honor roll can be called up at any time by pressing the "H" key. Click any mouse button to return to the game. The "Hall of Fame" file can also be edited with the included editing utility. For details, please see the utilities manual. BOOK-MARKS ========== MJVGA will store up to five "book-marks" which will allow you to easily back up to a given point in the game. To save a position in one of the book-marks, just type <SHIFT-1> thru <SHIFT-5> for book-marks 1 thru 5. To back up to a bookmark, just type it''s number. MJVGA will then back up move-by-move (just as if you repeatedly clicked on back-up) until it gets to the marked spot. Please note that these book-marks are NOT currently saved with the game when you select SAVE GAME. DOS SHELL ========= You can now easily get to the DOS shell by hitting <CTRL> - D at any time. Someone suggested adding a "boss key" feature, and I decided that getting you to an innocent-looking DOS prompt quickly would probably be enough to save your job. So, here it is! As with the menu-selected DOS shell, you just type EXIT to return to the game. Center Mouse Button Switch ========================== MJVGA31 now includes a "mouse klutz" option which will turn off the center-button 'help' short-cut for those who tend to accidentally hit this button. The 'C' key (or its corresponding entry in the 'K' submenu) will toggle the center-button 'Help' short-cut on & off. Automatic "No Moves Left" Sensing ================================= MJVGA will, by default, pop up a "No moves left" messge whenever you make the last available moe. This automatic warning can be toggled on & off with the 'I' key. Pause ===== When Pause is selected, MJVGA will clear the screen, display a little graphics gizmo, and pause the timer. This is perfect for when the phone rings at the most inopportune time! - Page 17 - STACK CONTROL MENU To get the stack control menu, just point to a tile stack and press the RIGHT mouse button. Then, drag until your desired operation (all are explained below) is highlighted & release the button. To close the menu without making a selection, simply drag the mouse pointer off of the menu, which will then vanish. The stack control menu features three choices, as follows: PEEK ==== PEEK will allow you to see all the tiles in a stack, and what order they're in. Because this only helps you plan your strategy, but doesn't give away any moves, there are no Hall of Fame penalty points added to your score for accessing PEEK. The HOF will, however, keep track of how many times you used this feature. ROTATE ====== This command will "rotate" the stack - ie, all tiles will move up one position, except for the top tile which will move to the bottom. This is very much a desperation "cheat" maneuver and should be used sparingly. In fact, if you use this or the next REMOVE feature, your game will no longer be eligible for the Hall of Fame. You'll be so warned the first time you attempt either of these cheats within a game. One important problem with Rotate is that it can cause the Back-up feature to behave strangely. Back-up builds up one tile on the affected piles without checking them for validity, so if you back-up a rotated pile, you may get un-matched pairs coming back. I have no intention of fixing this problem, so don't even ask. If you're resorting to this to try to win, you don't deserve to back up! REMOVE ====== This feature is even more of a cheat than Rotate. You can remove ANY top tile, without regard for matching or being free. As I said above, using this feature will keep your game out of the Hall of Fame -- so use it only as a last resort!! - Page 18 - COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Mah Jongg -V-G-A- v3.1 will accept several different command line parameters as follows: A - Use an Adlib sound card for sound effects. B - Begin the game with the "box cursor" turned on C - Begin the game with the center mouse button 'Help' short-cut turned off. D - Enables the dual-monitor feature. MJVGA30 will NOT use a secondary monochrome monitor unless ordered to via the D parameter. Earlier releases used a second monitor by default. However, that caused compatibility problems on some systems without monochrome cards. F - Read PAL.CFG and all .TIL files from another disk or subdirectory. Some examples: f=a: <== This reads all files from drive A: f=E:\MJVGA\TILES2\ <== Reads tiles from E:\mjvga\tiles2 Note that all subdirectory references MUST be terminated with a backslash (as above). I'm not really sure how well this feature works with .TIS files. I added it back in version 2.0, when all tiles were in individual files, and haven't really used it much. So, be VERY careful when using this feature!! I - Start the game with teh No Moves Left auto-sense turned off L - Loads a particular tile set. For example, L10 would start the game with tile set V10.TIS. M - Begin the game with messages off R - Use a Roland MT-32 (or other MIDI sound module) to produce game sounds. See the appendix on customizing the midi sound file for your particular synth. S - Begin the game with sound off T - Begin the game with the timer display off Some of these options can be changed once the game is started. The command line settings simply control the position of these switches when the game starts. They let you set up the game to your liking without having to click on buttons once the game starts. The parameters must be single letters (except for the F parameter) separated by a space. They can be entered in any order. - Page 19 - IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY So far, I've come across only two problem that you may encounter. The main symptom of the first is the lack of a mouse pointer, although you will be able to highlight tiles with the left button. The problem is caused by an out-of-date mouse driver. MJVGA uses the 640x480 VGA graphics mode, and mouse drivers which were written before VGA became a standard simply don't know how to deal with the high-resolution graphics screen. I've heard about this problem with the Kraft Micro-Mouse, the Mouse Systems mouse, and the Logitech mouse. The solution is to simply get a newer mouse driver from the manufacturer of your mouse. I know for a fact that Logitech (which is what I use) and Mouse Systems have updated drivers available which will correct this problem. The second is characterized by garbage being drawn on the screen whenever a window closes. This is new starting with version 3.0. It's caused by MJVGA not having enough memory to store the underlying screen image. A single VGA screen image can require up to 150k to store. MJVGA will use either conventional memory or EMS 4.0 expanded memory, whichever is available. If you should run into this problem, you may be able to correct it by either freeing up some conventional memory or by making EMS memory available. TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you have any problem with MJVGA, please let me know. I'll be glad to do what I can to help you get it running. Of course, I can't guarantee that MJVGA will run on all systems! No software company can do that! But so far, I haven't heard of any major compatibility problems (except for the out-of-date mouse driver problem addressed above). So, chances are it'll run OK on your PC. My only request is that you enclose a SASE if you would like a reply. My policy has been (and always will be) that I will NOT reply to letters from non-registered users unless they include a SASE. I really don't think it's fair to expect registered users to (literally) pay the expenses of technical support for non-registered users. However, I will definitely reply as long as you cover the costs by sending a SASE. I can now be reached on BIX, if you'd rather send E-Mail. My username is "rbalewski". I'm usually on a couple times a week, so you should get a prompt reply. - Page 20 - BULLETIN BOARD The Party Line is still in Texas, so there's still no MJVGA tech support BBS. I've been planning to put up my own board, but I don't know when that'll happen. WHAT'S NEXT I'm still looking for more tile sets. I'm now offering TWO (oh, boy!) tile set disks to anyone who contributes a tile set to the collection. So far, I have at least five disks worth. Thank you to all who contributed! I really don't know what new features (if any) will be added to MJVGA from here. It does just about everything I can think of. If you have any suggestions, send them in -- I need them! - Page 21 - SHAREWARE Please remember that this game is NOT public domain. It is shareware! If you play and enjoy this game regularly, you are urged to send the registration fee of $15.00 (or any amount that you see fit). Remember, shareware will only be around as long as YOU support the concept! When registering, please include the version and serial number from the copy of MJVGA that you have. All registered users will receive the next update free-of-charge. However, if I don't know what you've got, I may send you a duplicate copy! If you'd prefer to register with a simple fill-in-the-blanks form, you can print a registration / order form by pressing CTRL R while running Mah Jongg -V-G-A-. The form will print to printer port LPT1, so be sure the printer is turned on and selected. The order form also includes check-boxes to order various tile set library and Mah Jongg -V-G-A- utility disks (all public domain) for $3 per disk. Please note that I will send these disks ONLY to registered MJVGA users. If you wish to order any of them but are not a registered user, you MUST include the $15 registration fee with your order. All extra disk orders from unregistered users WILL BE DISCARDED!!!! Whether or not you choose to register, I'd like to hear your comments and suggestions on Mah Jongg -V-G-A-. If you'd like a reply, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All comments and contributions can be sent to: Ron Balewski 412 E. Ridge St. Nanticoke, PA 18634-2915 DISCLAIMER In no event shall the Author be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this program, even if the Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. - Page 22 - PERMISSION TO COPY Individuals, clubs, and other organizations are granted permission by the author to freely copy and distribute this program and documentation as long as: 1. There is no charge for the software or documentation. However, you may charge a service fee for disk duplication and distribution, as long as such fee is not more than $5.00. 2. Club members are informed of the user-supported (shareware) concept and are encouraged to support it with their donations. 3. The program or its documentation are not modified in any way. 4. All files are distributed together on the same diskette (if possible). No file may be deleted. ATTENTION SHAREWARE VENDORS: ============================ You have my permission to distribute this copy of MJVGA as long as you don't charge more than $5 for the disk. However, please don't ask me to send you an updated copy at my expense, because I won't! After all, you're the guy making money on MJVGA (probably more than I am) by selling copies. The least you can do is cover my expense of sending you a copy. Unless your request is accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed return mailer & a blank formatted disk (or a $3 check), your request for a freebie WILL GO DIRECTLY INTO THE CIRCULAR FILE!!! THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS!!! If you are considerate enough to cover my costs, though, I will definitely send you a fresh, new copy of MJVGA. Be sure to send your request on your company letterhead, since I WILL NOT send copies to the general public! Only registered users & shareware distributors will qualify to get disks directly from me. Again, NO EXCEPTIONS!!! - Page 23 - Appendix A The .TIL and .TIS files If you'd like to give some newly-created tile to a friend, you've got to know which file to give him! That's the purpose of this Appendix! The .TIL files are related to the images as follows: V00.TIL == Bamboo 1 thru thru V08.TIL == Bamboo 9 V09.TIL == Dots 1 thru thru V17.TIL == Dots 9 V18.TIL == Crak 1 thru thru V26.TIL == Crak 9 V27.TIL == North V28.TIL == East V29.TIL == South V30.TIL == West V31.TIL == Dragon C V32.TIL == Dragon P V33.TIL == Dragon F V34.TIL == Spring V35.TIL == Summer V36.TIL == Autumn V37.TIL == Winter V38.TIL == Orchid V39.TIL == Plum V40.TIL == Mum V41.TIL == Bamboo V42.TIL == Reserved -- Internal use V43.TIL == Reserved -- Internal use PAL.CFG == Color configuration file (changeable with The Paint Shop section of The Draftsman) If you customize a complete set of tiles and save them to a separate diskette, BE SURE to include an EXACT COPY of V42.TIL and V43.TIL. Without these files on the same disk & subdirectory as PAL.CFG and the other .TIL files, MJVGA will refuse to load!!! Also note that these files are not (at present) user-changeable!!! The .TIS (tileset) file is new to MJVGA21 and later. It consists of all the above tiles saved as one large file. A collection of .TIL files can be assembled into one .TIS file with the PAKTIL utility. The UPPAKTIL utility will do the opposite -- break a .TIS file apart into 44 .TIL files and one PAL.CFG file. Note that The Draftsman REQUIRES .TIL and PAL.CFG files to operate. It WILL NOT work on a .TIS file. Before using The Draftsman, you MUST use UNPAKTIL to disassemble the thile set that you want to change. - Page 24 - Appendix B MIDI, MJVGA30, and the MJMIDI.SND file MJVGA31 comes pre-configured to use the Roland MT-32 sound module along with a MIDI interface card (the all-in-one Roland board should work, too). All you have to do is add an R to the command line to tell MJVGA that the MIDI hardware is there & you want it used. If you have another synth/sound module, you may have to do some work to be able to use it. MJVGA gets its sound program from a file named MJMIDI.SND, which is really a collection of small, sequential programs which MJVGA will execute whenever some sound is called for. There are also other .SND files on the disk, such as MT32.SND. Generally, the file name will give you a clue as to which synth the file's for.. ie, MT32.SND is for the Roland MT-32, D110.SND is for the Roland D-110, etc. Initially, MJMIDI.SND and MT32.SND are identical -- meaning MJVGA30 is configured for the MT-32. To configure it for another available syth, just type: COPY <desired file name> MJMIDI.SND For example, to set MJVGA30 to use the Kawai MS710, you would enter: COPY MS710.SND MJMIDI.SND If your synth isn't one of the few that I've pre-configured, you'll have to write your own configuration file. It's not as hard as you might think, though. The fact that you're experienced enough to have a MIDI PC means you should have no trouble at all. First, print out a copy of MT32.SND or MJMIDI.SND. I'll refer to this listing as I describe the details of the .SND file. It's a standard text file, so any printer will work. There are currently 9 sound routines. Each sound routine is preceeded by a *n line, where n is the number of the routine. The text following the *n is a comment and will be ignored. In the MT32 listing, it will tell you when each sound is called and what instrument I'm using. For example, sound routine *1 produces the "tick" sound that's heard every time a tile is selected or de-selected. The other sound routines are similarly named. The lines between *n lines make up the actual MIDI program. The left-most digit is an op-code (I'll give you a complete list shortly). The remaining numbers are parameters such as delay times, MIDI channels, MIDI patches, or whatever a particular code needs to do it's thing. - Page 25 - The complete language syntax is as follows: 1 p1 p2 Send patch change command p1 = MIDI channel p2 = patch number 2 p1 p2 p3 Send note-on command p1 = MIDI channel p2 = note p3 = velocity (0 - 127) 3 p1 p2 Send note off command (Actually a note-on with velocity of 0) p1 = MIDI channel p2 = note 4 p1 Delay p1 milliseconds p1 = # of milliseconds to delay 5 p1 Turn all notes off by sending all notes a note-on with 0 velocity p1 = MIDI channel 6 p1 Turn on a random note at a velocity of 127 p1 = MIDI channel There you have it -- the complete configuration language. You can probably figure out the rest from here, but I'll analyze a couple lines of code for you just to be sure. The first line of code under section *1 reads: 1 2 120 This means transmit a patch change message on MIDI channel 2 to change to patch #120. The second line of *1 reads: 2 2 60 127 This means send Note-on command on MIDI channel 2 for note 60 with a key velocity of 127. As I said earlier, the comments by each *n program section will tell you what each section is used for and what sound I'm currently using for that effect. The simplest way for you to customize this file is to just change the patch commands to point to something on your synth that's similar to what I'm using, then change the MIDI channels, if necessary, to some that your synth can use. You can get really creative, though. For example, you might want a brass fanfare every time you match two tiles. - Page 26 - There are only two things to watch for. First, a given sound routine can have no more than 50 steps. Second, and more important, is the fact that these sounds are NOT background sounds. When the sound is being generated, that's all the PC can do. You don't go on with the game until the sound's over. So, if you program a 10-minute fanfare whenever you match tiles, you'll have to wait ten minutes before you can continue playing. So be careful!!! - Page 27 - The ADLIB.CFG file The sound configurations for the Adlib card are stored in this file. Each sound (there are 5 different ones) has a list of 28 numbers in the ADLIB.CFG file. The starting number of each sound is commented as to which sound it is. The numbers are in sequential order as they'd appear in the standard Adlib header. I won't go into details of how to program the Adlib synthesizer -- this isn't the place for such a discussion. But once you learn what the parameters do, you'll be able to customize MJVGA30's sounds. Following the five sound parameter groups are several note indicators. This number controls the pitch of the sound. For example, to make the tile select tick higher, you'd increase the value of the number labeled "tile select note." Again, I won't go into details about Adlib programming. - Page 28 -