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Mah Jongg -V-G-A- Version 2.2 June, 1990 Program and Documentation Copyright 1988 - 1990 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 v1.1 users ....... 3 WHAT IS MAH JONG -V-G-A- ............... 4 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS .................. 4 THE GAME OF MAH JONGG .................. 5 The Tiles ......................... 5 The Suits ......................... 5 The Game Board .................... 5 Playing Mah Jongg ................. 6 Strategy .......................... 6 PLAYING MAH JONGG -V-G-A- .............. 7 The Basics ........................ 7 The Added Features ................ 8 Special ...................... 8 Messages ..................... 8 Restore ...................... 8 Quit ......................... 8 New Game ..................... 8 Save ......................... 9 What's Left .................. 9 Back-up ...................... 9 Help ......................... 9 Turning Off the Menu .........11 The Special Sub-Menu ............. 12 Background .................. 12 Info... ..................... 12 DOS Shell ................... 12 Sound ....................... 13 Timer ....................... 13 Keyboard Commands ................ 13 Load Tile Set ............... 13 Box Cursor Toggle ........... 13 Hall of Fame ................ 14 Book-Marks .................. 14 Command Line Options ............. 14 IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY ................. 15 TECHNICAL SUPPORT ..................... 15 WHAT'S NEXT ........................... 16 SHARWEWARE ............................ 17 DISCLAIMER ............................ 17 PERMISSION TO COPY .................... 17 Appendix A: The Files ................ 18 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. Thanks, also, Rick & Jami Chism for "beta testing" MJVGA. - Page 2 - FORWARD A message to current users With this release, I've deleted the NEW.V20 and NEW.V21 files. There is a new NEW.V22 file, though, which outlines what's been added to this release. If you're using MJVGA21, you'll just have to read this file. If you're using something earlier, you should at least browse through this entire manual. I'd once again like to thank those who have registered the various versions of MJVGA (this is the fourth release already!). Your constant support and encouragement is what keeps me working on MJVGA. I'd now like your opinion on something. Many shareware authors offer for sale to their users a laser-printed, bound version of their manual. Since most future updates to MJVGA will be simply to make what's there a bit better (there probably aren't many new features to add), this may be a good time for me to introduce such a book. I'd sell it only to registered users for whatever printing, binding, and shiping charges would be. The master would be done on a laser or ink-jet printer at 300 DPI, then high-quality copies would be made for distribution. I'd probably have it bound with one of those plastic binders resembling a spiral-bound notebook. The cover would be whatever price would allow -- hopefully at least clear plastic with a nice cover page beneath it. Before I go through this much trouble, though, I'd like to know if anyone would want one. I'd also like your opinions on the printing & binding method, book size (standard 8.5 x 11 or something different), and how much you'd be willing to pay for it. If it'd cost more than most people would pay, it'd be a wasted effort. Likewise, if you're willing to pay a few dollars more, I may be able to put together something a bit nicer. Some other thoughts -- How about personalizing it? Or including a message to someone & a bound-in floppy disk holder so you can give a personalized registered version of Mah Jongg -V-G-A-to someone as a present? All thoughts and ideas are welcome! - Page 3 - 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 512k 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 4 - 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 5 - 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 6 - PLAYING MAH JONGG -V-G-A- 2.2 ----------------------------- THE BASICS To start Mah Jongg -V-G-A-, just place the game disk into a drive, log onto that drive, and type MJVGA22 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. 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 7 - 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. 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 type a file name. If you hit this button accidentally, just cancel the restore by pressing Return without typing a file name. 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 title screen will appear while the computer shuffles the tiles. Then, the title screen will fade and 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. - Page 8 - 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. 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 or back-up to try to correct errors in this one (I often do this). - Page 9 - 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! 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. You'll be on your own to find the moves! - Page 10 - 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. 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 11 - 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 12 - 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. KEYBOARD COMMANDS There are several features which are accessable only by pressing a key on the keyboard. The menus were getting just too darn crowded, so the new features seem to be "overflowing" onto the keyboard! 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. To select a set, use the mouse to move the highlight bar to the desired set, then click the left mouse button. The tile sets which you choose from must be located in the MJVGA subdirectory. There is also a 24-set limit with this version. You can choose from only the first 24 tile set files that MJVGA finds. I hope to have this limitation removed in a future version -- I was just too lazy to re-program it for this release. 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 13 - HALL OF FAME ============ MJVGA maintains a "Hall of Fame" for winners. Whenever you win a game, if your time is one of the top ten, you'll be asked to enter your name into the hallof 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. COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Mah Jongg -V-G-A- v2.2 will accept five different command line options -- S, T, M, F, and D. The purpose of each is as follows: B - Begin the game with the "box cursor" turned on S - Begin the game with sound off T - Begin the game with the timer display off M - Begin the game with messages off D - Enables the dual-monitor feature. MJVGA21 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. - Page 14 - F - Read PAL.CFG and all .ICN 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). Any of these options (except for re-enabling the monochrome monitor) can be changed once the game is started. These options 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. IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY So far, I've come across only one problem that you may encounter. The main symptom 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. 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. - Page 15 - 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. BULLETIN BOARD Jami, the Sys-Op from The Party Line BBS which has been serving as my techincal support board, has moved to Texas. So, there is no longer a MJVGA support board. I haven't yet decided whether I should put up my own BBS or just do without a tech support board. Jami will have a BBS operating in Texas, and I plan to send her all MJVGA updates and tilesets. So, you should still be able to get the latest version there. For her Texas BBS number, please look for a file called BBS.NUM on one of the disks. I don't have it yet, so can't include it in this document. WHAT'S NEXT I'm still looking for more tile sets. My offer to send a disk full of tile sets (when available) to anyone who contributes an original set to the collection is still valid. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten enough sets to fill a disk yet! So, keep drawing! 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! I'm also looking for a new project. If you know of any games similar to Mah Jongg or Solitaire that need to be computerized, please let me know. - Page 16 - 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! 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. 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. - Page 17 - 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.ICN and V43,ICN. Without these files on the same disk & subdirectory as PAL.CFG and the other .ICN 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 18 -