Game Killer/Game_Killer.bin/345.FIXES.DOC

Text File | 1991-04-28 | 16KB | 357 lines

SER
NUM                            PROBLEM & FIX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1029 - 9/30/89

       SYMPTOM:
          A couple people have reported that The Draftsman wouldn't
          recognize their VGA card, although MJVGA ran perfectly.
       PROBLEM:
          A real good question!  The source code for the VGA test is
          identical in both programs!
       SOLUTION:
          I re-compiled The Draftsman using the same memory model as
          MJVGA.  I also added an option which lets you attempt to run
          The Draftsman even if it doesn't see a VGA card.  The
          Draftsman has always worked fine on my system & on the systems
          that I test it on.  Therefore, I don't know if this fix will
          work or not.  If you should experience this problem, please
          let me know.


1055 - The "official" release of Version 2.1

       SYMPTOM
          Someone with a VGA card reported that neither MJVGA nor The
          Draftsman would recognize his card.
       PROBLEM
          I dunno....  Strange VGA card maybe???
       SOLUTION
          He tried the above-modified Draftsman and said it worked fine
          after selecting "try anyway."  MJVGA now includes this option.

       SYMPTOM
          If you select What's Left, then exit the What's Left screen by
          clicking the LEFT mouse button, the screen re-draws and either
          A) you return to the What's Left screen or B) you select some
          other menu item or tile.
       PROBLEM
          You're SUPPOSED to leave the What's Left screen by clicking
          the right mouse button, but in reality any button will get you
          out.  Using the left button, however, was putting a "left
          button click" message on the stack.  When the MJVGA game board
          returned, it saw this message & acted on it -- possibly taking
          you right back to What's Left.
       SOLUTION
          This was a simple one -- I just cleard the button stack after
          exiting the What's Left screen.

       SYMPTOM
          The computer locks up after the game board is displayed.
       PROBLEM
          This has only been reported once.  The fellow corrected the
          problem himself by running MJVGA with the "D" command line
          parameter to disable the monochrome display routines.  It
          seems that his computer didn't let MJVGA write to the "dead
          space" where a monochrome card should have been.  It usually
          doesn't matter -- if there's no monochrome card, the data
          just "falls into the bit bucket" and causes no harm.  But he's
          proven that in certain systems it DOES matter!
       SOLUTION
          Since the vast majority of people don't have dual monitor
          systems, I've changed the default from using the second
          monitor to NOT using the second monitor.  Now, if you wish to
          use two monitors, YOU MUST START MJVGA WITH THE "D" COMMAND
          LINE PARAMETER!!!!  This may inconvenience a few people, but
          will increase default compatibility to everyone.


1105 - 2/10/90    (Problem not fixed -- serial # indicates revision
                   of this document.)
       SYMPTOM
          Someone reported that the abbreviated HELP command didn't work
          properly.  The regular HELP menu appeared instead of just the
          number of moves left.
       PROBLEM
          MJVGA first checks the left mouse button to determine the
          command.  It then expects to see BOTH the left AND right
          buttons pressed if you want the shortened HELP screen.  If you
          release the left button before the computer can register that
          both are pressed, you'll get the standard HELP menu.
       SOLUTION
          I haven't fixed this one yet.  It will be fixed in the next
          release, though.  Until then, if you experience this, just
          hold down both buttons for a few extra moments to be sure that
          MJVGA sees them.  You shouldn't experience this unless you
          either have a slow machine or are a fast clicker.  I had to
          load down my 25 MHz machine with four background processes
          before it ran slow enough to let me see this problem.


1150 - 3/6/90

       SYMPTOM
          A couple people reported that they couldn't change "brush
          colors" in The Draftsman.  Clicking on the color squares did
          nothing.
       PROBLEM
          This problem seems unique to Logitech's new Series 9 serial
          mouse.  To date, all reports involved that mouse.  Moreover,
          the Series 9 Bus mouse works perfectly!  Only the serial mouse
          seems to cause this problem.  I traced the exact cause to a
          timing problem.  Briefly, I was asking the mouse which buttons
          were pressed before it knew.  Consequently, it was telling me
          that NO buttons were pressed!  My guess is that the bus
          mouse's hardware is faster than the serial mouse's for obvious
          reasons.  The bus mouse was therefore able to register the
          buttons faster than the serial mouse.
       SOLUTION
          The solution was easy once I found the cause.  I just execute
          a several-millisecond time delay before asking the mouse which
          buttons are pressed.  This seems to give the rodent ample time
          to organize it's thoughts, even on my fast machine.


1234 - 6/1/90  The "official" release of MJVGA version 2.2

       SYMPTOM
          See the write-up for S/N 1105.
       PROBLEM
          See the write-up for S/N 1105.
       SOLUTION
          I've changed the mouse-check routine so that you'll get the
          abbreviated help whether or not the left button is still down.
          I have a suspicion, though that this problem may have been
          caused (at least in part) by the Logitech Series 9 serial
          mouse problem described above.  If you should still experience
          this, PLEASE be sure to tell me whether you have that
          particular rodent or not.



1355 - 7/21/90

       *  NOTICE  *
          This release is the first to be compiled with Borland's new
          Turbo C++ compiler.  The compiler is supposed to be compatible
          with all software written with Turbo C 2.0 which is what I've
          been using.  But my efforts to even get MJVGA22 to compile and
          link under C++ have led me to believe otherwise!  I did get it
          to work, though, so the differences aren't insurmountable.

          I've already noticed one performance difference in MJVGA
          compiled on the two compilers.  The sound from the C++
          compiled file seems "choppy" compared to the same thing
          (almost!) compiled under C 2.0.  I may be wrong, but I think
          C++ does some form of "multitasking" to get & dispatch
          messages to the objects.  This "stealing" of CPU time would
          account for the choppiness.  If anyone has a better
          explanation, (or a way to overcome it), please let me know.

          I've finally added the long-promised fix to let the "L" tile
          set loader access more than 24 tile sets.  Actually, I HAD to
          because I now have more than 24 of them!  It's still not done
          in graphics mode (although I AM planning to), but at least
          it's better than it was.

          I've also added a built-in registration form printer.
          Pressing CTRL R at any time during the game will print a
          registration form to printer port LPT1.  See manual for
          complete details.


       SYMPTOM
          Only the first thirteen tile sets can be accessed via the "L"
          command with a Microsoft mouse, although a Logitech mouse can
          access the maximum of 24.
       PROBLEM
          When the screen goes into text mode, the Logitech mouse
          remains in the 640x480 mode while the Microsoft mouse
          switches to 640x200. (I don't know what others do.) To
          approximate the screen line, I was >>4'ing the Y coordinate
          from the mouse.  Unfortunately, since the Microsoft mouse was
          only returning a maximum value of 199, the largest line number
          possible was 13!
       SOLUTION
          This was simple enough!  I just changed the shift from four
          places to three.  Problem solved!


1404 - 9/1/90

       SYMPTOM
          If you remove a tile pair, select a tile which was just freed,
          back up a move, then select a match to the tile just selected,
          they'll both go away -- even the one that's no longer free!!
       PROBLEM
          A selected tile is verified only before highlighting it, not
          before actually removing it.  So, the tile was verified as
          being OK and later removed without further verification.
       SOLUTION
          I actually had code in place to solve this problem, but just
          forgot to call it!  Whenever a menu item is selectd, I SHOULD
          de-select any tile that's been selected.  I forgot to include
          the call when BACK-UP is selected.  All I had to do was insert
          that call and the problem was solved.
          Many thanks to Erik Brooks for discovering this strange
          problem!

       SYMPTOM
          The 'T' key is used to bring up the list of tile sets available.
       PROBLEM
          This in itself isn't a problem -- but the manual says you
          should use the 'L' key to load tile sets!!!  OOOPS!  I GOOFED!!!
       SOLUTION
          I could have changed the manual, but I decided to change the
          program to accept 'L' instead of 'T'.  Why?  Because the 'L' is
          used on the command line to load a tile set and I thought I should
          use the same letter in both places to try to standardize things a
          bit.


1487 - 12/1/90   The official release of MJVGA version 3.0  (a month
                 earlier than I expected, believe it or not!)

      *  NOTICE  *
         There have been a lot of subtle changes to MJVGA for this
         version, so I probably caused more bugs than I fixed.  If you
         find anything strange, please let me know!

      SYMPTOM
         If you somehow work the dragon from left to right & have only
         the two left-center tiles remaining, the inner of the two is
         still not consideed "free".
      PROBLEM
         I never thought anyone could get to that tile from the other
         end, so I never bothered to declare it free if the two tiles
         that it's blocking are removed.  But, of course, someone has
         proven me wrong!  Actually, TWO PEOPLE have already gone
         through the game that way & have found the problem!
      SOLUTION
         This one wasn't too bad.  I just added logic to free the
         afflicted tile when the two to its left are  removed.


1579 - 12/25/90

      SYMPTOM
         EDITHOF doesn't seem to work -- the name field contains
         garbage.
      PROBLEM
         Here's the first problem caused by all my changes.  It seems I
         changed the HOF file, fixed EDITHOF to accept it, then changed
         the HOF file specifications again -- without fixing EDITHOF
         again!  So, EDITHOF was looking in the wrong place for the name
         -- and all it found was junk.
      SOLUTION
         All I had to do was get EDITHOF back "in sync" with MJVGA's HOF
         file.  It was a rather simple fix.

      SYMPTOM
         When the fancy new windows close, they don't restore the screen
         properly.
      PROBLEM
         I have no idea.  I've never seen this problem on any test
         machine.  Furthermore, it has only been reported by one person
         so far.  She said that her machine uses the Trident VGA
         chipset, so that may have something to do with it -- but I'm
         not sure.  If you experience this problem, please let me know
         EXACTLY what hardware & software (stuff loaded from your CONFIG
         & AUTOEXEC files) you're using.
      SOLUTION
         The problem hasn't been solved yet.  It's reported here only
         for documentation purposes.  If you happen to run into it,
         PLEASE LET ME KNOW because I've never seen it & can't correct
         it until I have some idea of what's happening here!


1637 - 1/20/91

      ADDITIONS
         Starting with this serial number, MJVGA30 will support the
         Adlib sound card.  See the What's New or .DOC file for complete
         details.  I also added auto-sensing to the No Moves Left
         message.  Again, see the manual or What's New file for complete
         details.

         Since these additions are rather trivial, I didn't think they
         were worth a new version number -- nor were they worth sitting
         on until the next release.  So, I just added them to the
         current release.


1704 - 2/21/91

      SYMPTOM
         When you cancel a message with the RIGHT mouse button (although
         you're supposed to use the LEFT), the PEEK/ROTATE/REMOVE menu
         may pop up.
      PROBLEM
         I never bothered clearing the right-button queue, since the
         left button is supposed to be used to cancel messages.
      SOLUTION
         I just clear the right-button queue along with the left-button
         queue whenever a message is cancelled.  Now you can use either
         button to cancel a message.

      SYMPTOM
         The QUIT verify box sometimes comes up & then quickly
         disappears
      PROBLEM
         Only one fellow reported this problem -- and I think his mouse
         button was "bouncing" (producing a double click) for some
         reason.
      SOLUTION
         Just to be safe, I inserted a slight time delay and a
         de-queueing call after the QUIT select and before the verify
         box.  This should cure the problem -- if indeed it IS a
         problem.  I couldn't duplicate it, so I won't say whether it's
         fixed or not.


1775 - 3/12/91

      SYMPTOM
        If you work the dragon in from the left to the two rightmost
        tiles excluding the the two "offset" ones, the tiles can't be
        selected -- you're told that the tiles aren't gree.
      PROBLEM
        To see if these tiles were free, the code just looked at the two
        offset tiles.  If they were gone, these tiles were considered to
        be "free", otherwise they were considered to be blocked.  I
        never bothered to check if they could be moved to the left.
      SOLUTION
        I wish they were all this easy.  I just added a check to the
        left.  One interesting note -- awhile back (see fixes for #1487)
        someone reported that they couldn't remove the inner "offset"
        tile to the left if the two "standard" tiles were removed.  That
        problem was valid and was fixed -- but they never should have
        gotten that far!  This problem should have surfaced first.  They
        should NOT have been able to remove the two rightmost "standard"
        tiles to the left to free up that inner "offset" tile.  I have
        no idea how they found that problem without running into this
        one!


1853 - 5/1/91

      SYMPTOM
        When you remove the last two tiles, you see the No Moves Left
        message before going to the congratulations screen.
      PROBLEM
        This isn't exactly a bug, because when there aren't any more
        tiles left, you really DON'T have any more moves.  However, it
        IS rather ridiculous to display at this point.
      SOLUTION
        They don't get much easier.  I just don't check for moves left
        if there are no tiles left.




 Note:  The listed serial number is the first which contains a
        fix.  All releases with later (ie larger) serial numbers will
        also contain the fix unless otherwise stated.