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- User's Guide For:
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- BALLOON SPELLER
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- (c) 1989 by KIDware
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- Portions (c) 1988 by Microsoft Corp.
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- KIDware
- 1380 156th NE, Suite H2
- Bellevue, WA 98007
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- (206) 725-4859
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 2
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- BALLOON SPELLER
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- BALLOON SPELLER is a program for home or school. You can play
- three different spelling games using lists of words you input or
- any of the 70 built-in lists. In each game, you move a hot air
- balloon around the screen picking up the letters you need. In
- "Word Flash," the word to be spelled is flashed to you and then
- you spell the word. In "Word Jumble," the letters of the word
- are scattered around -- you pick them up in proper order. And,
- in "Word Guess," you guess the letters in the word to be spelled
- (a Hangman type game).
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- COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS AND INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
-
- To use BALLOON SPELLER, you need an IBM compatible computer with
- at least 256K of memory, at least one floppy disk drive, DOS 2.0
- (or higher), and color or monochrome graphics. Before using the
- program, you must do two things: install the program on your
- disk, then configure the program to your particular system.
- Depending on the number and types of disk drives you have,
- follow the given instructions for installing the programs.
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- INSTALLATION ON SINGLE FLOPPY DRIVE SYSTEM:
-
- Working with a single drive system can be tricky. Please pay
- close attention to instructions provided.
-
-
- 1. Place DOS disk in drive A and start system.
- 2. You first need to format a disk and put a copy of
- the operating system on it. Type: FORMAT A:/S
- 3. Replace DOS disk with blank disk and follow
- instructions provided by computer.
- 4. When formatting is complete, replace blank disk with
- BALLOON SPELLER disk and type: COPY A:*.* B: This
- will allow you to copy the files from the BALLOON
- SPELLER disk (referred to by DOS as disk A) to your
- newly formatted disk (referred to by DOS as disk
- B). Follow instructions provided by computer.
- 5. Installation is now complete. Put the original copy
- of the BALLOON SPELLER disk in a safe place; you
- will always use your copy. Now, place that copy of
- the program in drive A and proceed to configuration
- instructions.
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 3
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- INSTALLATION ON DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE SYSTEM:
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- Pay close attention to instructions provided.
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- 1. Place DOS disk in drive A and blank disk in drive B;
- start system.
- 2. You first need to format a disk and put a copy of
- the operating system on it. Type: FORMAT B:/S
- 3. Replace DOS disk in drive A with BALLOON SPELLER
- disk. Type: COPY A:*.* B: This will allow you to
- copy the files from the BALLOON SPELLER disk in
- drive A to your newly formatted disk in drive B.
- 4. Installation is now complete. Put the original copy
- of the BALLOON SPELLER disk in a safe place; you
- will always use your copy. Now, place that copy of
- the program in drive A and proceed to configuration
- instructions.
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- INSTALLATION ON HARD DISK SYSTEM:
-
- Pay close attention to instructions provided.
-
-
- 1. Start system.
- 2. You first need to create a directory for the
- programs. At C: prompt, type: MKDIR C:\SPELL\
- This creates a directory named SPELL on your hard
- disk (you may use another name if you want). Now,
- move to that directory by typing: CD C:\SPELL\
- 3. Place BALLOON SPELLER disk in floppy drive A. Type:
- COPY A:*.* C: This will allow you to copy the files
- from the BALLOON SPELLER disk to your hard disk.
- 4. Installation is now complete. Put the original copy
- of the BALLOON SPELLER disk in a safe place.
- Proceed to configuration instructions.
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 4
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- CONFIGURATION INSTRUCTIONS:
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- To configure the program to your system, place your copy of the
- program disk in drive A (or go to directory C:\SPELL\ on a hard
- disk) and type: BSCON
-
- You will be asked two (or three) questions; answer accordingly.
- The first question asks you if you have color graphics (press 1)
- or Hercules monochrome graphics (press 2). If you have both,
- press 1 and use color graphics, because the monochrome graphics
- simulator will not work properly when both color and monochrome
- graphics cards are installed. The second question asks if you
- have a single floppy system (press 1), a dual floppy system
- (press 2), or a hard drive system (press 3). If you answer dual
- floppy system (2), you will then be asked which letter
- designates the drive you will be storing your spelling lists on
- (press A, B, C, D, or E).
-
- Once the program is installed and configured, you can run it.
- Please note if you ever change your system configuration, you
- should rerun the configuration program.
-
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- PROGRAM RUNNING INSTRUCTIONS:
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- Running the program is simple. If you are using floppy drives,
- place your copy of the program disk in a drive. If using a hard
- disk, move to the proper directory by typing: CD:\SPELL\ Type
- BS and press <Enter>. The program will begin running after a
- few seconds of loading some needed files. Once the title screen
- appears, press any key to continue. (If the title screen is
- unreadable, rerun the configuration program making sure you
- answer the question concerning graphics correctly.)
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 5
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- SPELLING LIST EDITOR MENU:
-
- The first screen to appear is the list editor menu. You have
- five choices:
-
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- 1. Input new word list: choose this option to input a
- new list. The use of the list editor is quite
- straightforward. All instructions are provided in
- the program. The cursor control keys move you
- around the list, the <Enter> key moves you from word
- to word, the <Space> bar deletes characters in a
- forward direction, the <Backspace> key deletes in
- the reverse direction, and the slash key (/) ends
- the editing session. Once the list is input, you
- may save it on disk or print it out. Note when
- saving a list, the list name must begin with a
- letter and be no more than 8 characters long.
-
- 2. Edit current word list: choose this option to
- change/save/print the list currently being used by
- the program. You can add new words or delete old
- ones. To delete a word simply blank it out using
- the space bar or backspace key. The program will
- close up any gaps left in the list. To add a word,
- type it in a blank space or type over an unwanted
- word.
-
- 3. Read user list from disk: choose this option to
- read in a list you have previously saved using the
- list editor. The files you have stored (maximum of
- 54 files per disk) will be listed. Use the cursor
- keys to point to the file you which to read in, then
- press <Enter>. Once read in, you may
- edit/save/print that list.
-
- 4. Use built-in list: choose this option to use one of
- the 70 built-in spelling lists. There are 10 lists
- for each grade level from K to 6. The program will
- first ask which grade level (K,1,2,3,4,5,6) and then
- which particular list (1-10). Once read in, you may
- view or print that list. You may not edit the built-
- in spelling lists.
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- 5. Go to Game Selection Menu: choose this option to
- select a game to play. You may only choose this
- option if a word list has been input or selected.
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 6
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- The final option from the list editor menu is stopping the
- program (press 0); select this option when you no longer want to
- use the program. Once your spelling list is selected and ready,
- you will proceed to the game selection menu.
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- GAME SELECTION MENU:
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- You may choose from three different games. In each game, every
- word on the spelling list will be used (unless you stop the game
- before completing the list). Also, in each game, you maneuver a
- hot air balloon around the screen picking up the desired
- letters. The cursor control keys are used to move the balloon.
- Once the letter you want is in the balloon's basket, press
- <Enter> to pick it up. To stop any of the games, simply press
- the S key. These instructions are also printed on each game
- screen.
-
- The three games that can be played are:
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- 1. Word Flash: In this game, you first flash the word
- to be spelled by pressing the <Space> bar. You must
- then pick up, in proper order, the letters to spell
- the word. If you make a mistake and pick up a
- letter out of order, an 'uh-oh' is heard. You are
- allowed three mistakes before you are given the
- proper spelling. If you need help, you may press
- the <Space> bar to flash the word again. But note
- each additional flash counts as one mistake.
-
- 2. Word Jumble: Here, the letters to spell the word
- are scattered about. You must spell the word by
- picking up the letters in proper order. Incorrect
- letters count as one mistake. The word may be
- flashed by pressing the <Space> bar, but each flash
- counts as one mistake. You are allowed a maximum of
- three mistakes per word.
-
- 3. Word Guess: A game like Hangman. You guess at
- letters in the word. If your guess is correct, the
- letters are shown in their proper position. If your
- guess is incorrect, you continue. If you make more
- than five mistakes, the proper spelling will be
- given to you.
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- You can return to the List Editor Menu screen from the Game
- Selection Menu by pressing 4 and the program can be stopped by
- pressing 0.
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 7
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- Once you have finished playing a game (either by trying all
- words in the list or stopping the game), your score will be
- given to you and a list of the words you had trouble with will
- be provided. At this point, you will be returned to the Game
- Selection Menu.
-
- HIDDEN MENU OPTION:
-
- Realizing this program will usually be used by unattended
- children, we have added an option that should prevent any
- accidental or intentional stopping of the program or changing of
- the spelling lists; it is the Hidden Menu option. The Hidden
- Menu option works with the Game Selection Menu only. What the
- option does is turns off the ability to stop the program
- (pressing 0) and the ability to return to the List Editor Menu
- (pressing 4). The option is turned off or on by pressing <Ctrl>-
- H while in the Game Selection Menu. Notice that when the option
- is on, only one of the three games can be selected and the
- message "HM On" appears at the lower right hand corner of the
- screen. When the option is off, the Menu appears as normal.
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- GENERAL COMMENTS:
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- Some other things to be aware of concerning the program:
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- 1. When saving spelling lists on disk, please make sure the disk
- you want to save the list on is in the proper drive and the
- drive is ready. The program contains some error trapping
- routines, but at times erratic behavior occurs when trying to
- read/write from/to a disk drive that is not properly ready.
- 2. Similarly, when printing your list, make sure the printer is
- on-line and ready before starting the print option.
- 3. If you need to abruptly stop the program at some point,
- pressing <Ctrl>-Break will accomplish this. Note this will
- take you completely out of the program, so make sure you have
- saved any lists you may have input. This option is disabled
- when using the hidden menu option described above.
- 4. Note there are no provisions in the program for deleting
- unwanted spelling lists. This was done for a purpose--we did
- not want children to have the ability to accidentally erase a
- needed list. To delete a file, you must use the DOS ERASE
- command (refer to your DOS manual). Spelling lists are
- stored with the name you have given it, plus a .BSL
- extension. So if you want to erase a file named LIST1 from
- the disk in drive A:, you would type ERASE A:LIST1.BSL at the
- DOS prompt.
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 8
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- WARRANTY INFORMATION:
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- The BALLOON SPELLER program has been written with care, but
- there still may be bugs and problems. If you find any such
- problems, please let us know. We cannot guarantee the program
- is completely error free. We do guarantee it will load and
- run. If, within one year of purchase, the programs fail to load
- and run, simply return the original disk to us (postpaid) for
- quick replacement.
-
- This warranty only applies to manufacturing defects. No further
- guarantees are expressed or implied. Also note that copying
- this disk, other than for personal archival purposes, is
- strictly prohibited by US and world copyright laws.
-
- For further information or help, contact us at:
-
- KIDware
- 1380 156th NE, Suite H2
- Bellevue, WA 98007
-
- (206) 725-4859
-
-
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- BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 9
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- BALLOON SPELLER ORDER FORM
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- The commercial version of BALLOON SPELLER includes provisions
- for spelling lists of up to 20 words, has 70 built-in spelling
- lists, has printed documentation, and sells for just $11.95
- ($12.95 for 3.5" disk). Purchasing the commercial version also
- keeps you informed of future program updates and new program
- releases. If you use the shareware version of BALLOON SPELLER
- and like it, we ask that you purchase the commercial version.
- Thank You!
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- Name ___________________________________________________________
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- Address ________________________________________________________
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- City _________________________ State _________ Zip _____________
-
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- Send _____ copies of the commercial version of KIDware's BALLOON
- SPELLER program to the above address. The purchase price is
- $11.95 (5.25" disk) or $12.95 (3.5" disk). (WA residents, add
- 8.1% sales tax.)
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- Payment Method:
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- _______ Check
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- _______ Money Order
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- _______ VISA/MasterCard
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- Card Number _________________________________ Exp. Date _______
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- Signature _____________________________________________________