Explore the World of Software 2: Kids, Adults, Educational

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Text File | 1986-07-04 | 18.1 KB | 318 lines

----------------------------------------------------------------- WORDPLAY (c) 1986 Jerry Schonewille version 1.01 July 3, 1986 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This program is shipped with the following four files WORDPLAY.COM WORDPLAY.000 WORDPLAY.DOC WORDPLAY.PUZ It may be that by the time you get this game additional files with the 'PUZ' extension are included. It is also possible that a file "WORDPLAY.PRM' is included. The latter is a parameter file that remembers how the game was set up the last time it was played. If it does not exist then the program will create it for you. Before you do anything else I suggest you make backup copies of these files. This game will run on the IBM-PC/XT/AT and true clones equiped with a color graphics card. BACKGROUND Like many of my friends, and apparently a lot of people across the country, I found myself becoming addicted to the "Wheel of Fortune" game on television. My addiction was related to solving the puzzles. Yes, I like watching Vanna White turn letters and I enjoy Pat Sajak's charm but I really didn't care who won the game and I certainly didn't care who won the ceramic Dalmatian. And how many people do you know who would spend $14,000 for a watch? Give me a break please! I just wanted to solve the puzzle's. To overcome these distractions I began video taping the show and watching it later so that I could fast forward through all but the puzzle solving. Having now reduced this game to it's basics , it occurred to me that it should be a simple thing to write a computer program to do the puzzles. Well, it wasn't that simple but that's what I did and that's what this is. Funny thing, now that I've written it I wish I could figure out how to get Vanna to turn the letters. THE PLAY If you're like me then you're probably tired of reading this "document file" at this point and want to jump in and start playing the game. I've attempted to write this game so you can do just that. Before you do however, please note that in adapting 'The Wheel of Fortune' to the computer there are some necessary variations should be aware of. You might want to read the 'Getting Started' section as well. o The focus of this game is puzzle solving rather than buying prizes. While you do accumulate points (dollars) in the style of the TV game you does not pause to spend it on prizes after solving a puzzle. Nor are there commercial breaks (except when you quit playing). Accordingly, there are no bonus rounds or other variations that show up when time runs out. Every time a puzzle is solved a new one shows up. o To maintain the spirit of competitiveness you have the option of setting up a game timer. I suggest you keep the timer off until you get the feel of the game. After that you can set it according to your skill, from an extremely fast 5 seconds per move to an anemic 45 seconds per move. o The TV show changes wheels after each game with progressively higher values and increasing risk of loosing your turn or going bankrupt. This game contains the three wheels as seen on the nighttime show and it selects the first one at the start of play. Whenever a puzzle is solved the next wheel is selected. After all three wheels have been used the first one is selected and the cycle repeats. o The wheel will spin continuously as long as you hold down the 'SPIN' button. Once you release the button, the wheel slow down and eventually come to a stop. If you are playing with the timer on, the wheel will slow down and stop by itself if you hold the 'spin' button down for more than 3 seconds. The timer will pause while the wheel is spinning. o Unlike the TV show where diction is important to solving the puzzle, your ability to spell is required to win here. Close doesn't count. You have to be exact. A former boss of mine once told me that if you can't fix it FEATURE it. The requirement that you have to be able to spell the puzzle as well as pronounce it is a great educational FEATURE. It doesn't matter if you mix upper and lower case letters and extraneous spaces before, after, or between words don't matter either. But you better get the letters right or you won't win. o Whenever you give a keyboard entry that is inappropriate to the particular situation the program will either ignore it or give you a friendly message and then patiently wait for you to do the right thing. Just keep trying until you get it right. That's how Pat would want it. Note however, that if the timer is turned on, the clock keeps ticking away. o You will eventually get tired of the puzzles I've supplied with this game and want to create your own. The reason the code for this program is twice as big as it should have been and took 4 weeks longer to write than planned is because I decided at the last minute to include a puzzle editor. Once having made that decision I was faced with a moral dilemma. To be effective I felt the editor should give you complete access to the puzzles. In doing so, it leaves itself open to abuse by those who are inclined to cheat. I finally reasoned that people who enjoy cheating probably wouldn't enjoy this game anyway. I won't try to stop them. Should you be basically honest but in a moment of weakness jump into the editor that's Ok. In doing so however, you will find that when you return to the game everything will have been reset just as if you just started playing from scratch. GETTING STARTED The files WORDPLAY.COM, WORDPLAY.000, and WORDPLAY.PRM (if it exists) must be in the same directory. The puzzle file(s) - those with the '.PUZ' filename extension - may be in any directory, though you will probably want to keep these in that same directory as well. To start the game type WORDPLAY. After a short pause, the length of which will depend upon whether the program files are on floppy disk, hard disk, or RAM disk, you'll see and hear a little message announcing who wrote the program, followed a few second later by a program information screen. When you're done reading that, or if you already read it before, just press any key to go into the setup screen. If you are a fast reader, there may be a slight delay before the setup screen appears after you press a key. The reason is that the program is busy at work in the background creating some of the game screens you will see later on. The setup screen will show you what the current default values are and allow you to change them before proceeding. As will be the case for all screens in this game, there is an information line at the bottom that informs you of your options and what keys you need to press. In most cases, the defaults will have been set by you in a previous session (the program remembers what you did last time and stores the information in the WORDPLAY.PRM file) and there is no need to change them. From this screen you can turn the sound effects ON or OFF, set the duration of the timer - or turn it OFF, set the number of players and their names, define the disk and directory where the puzzle file(s) is located, enter the editor, or play the game. THE GAME As you jump into the game several things happen, and they happen quickly. The game screen appears, the wheel is spun to get it ready for action, and a player is selected to start the game. You might be overwhelmed by all this the first time you see it so lets review, slowly, the individual elements of the game screen. The upper left hand corner contains what I call the 'prompt window'. If somehow Pat Sajak could have been programmed into this a game he would appear in this prompt window. The type of things that you would normally expect Pat to say will appear in this window. Play the game for a while and you'll see what I mean. The top bar of the prompt window informs you of how many puzzles are in the current puzzle file and how many are available for use. The game selects a puzzle at random, and once it is solved that particular puzzle is marked. It won't be used again until all the puzzles in the file have been solved. At that point all the marks are removed. The prompt window also keeps track of elapsed time if you have the timer turned on. To the right of the 'prompt window' are the player boards. There will be one, two, or three of these depending on how many players are playing the game. The board corresponding to the active player (the player who's turn it is) will be highlighted by a unique color (red in the current release). Each player board is divided in two sections, the top half showing the player name and his/her total account, the bottom half showing the account for the current game. Whenever you are awarded a 'free-spin', that information is shown above your player board. Below the prompt window and player boards is the puzzle board itself. Each letter in the puzzle is represented by a black box which is filled in as you guess the letters. The lower right hand corner of the puzzle board show what type of puzzle is being played. To the right of all this is the 'wheel'. It's just like the wheel you see on TV except that instead of having a top view, you get an end view. You'll quickly become accustomed to this perspective. There are pointers near the top of the wheel corresponding to the number of players. Whenever you spin the wheel the ending square will be highlighted. As with all screens,the bottom contains a help line. During the course of play this line will keep you informed of your options for each situation. As you begin choosing letters a line just above the puzzle board will keep you informed about which letters have been chosen so far. You can quit the game any time by pressing the <ESC> key. This will place you back to the setup screen. From here you can re- enter the game but remember that doing so is just like starting from scratch. THE EDITOR It is possible that by the time you got this program it may include other puzzle files. The editor imbedded in the program allows you to create your own puzzle files. If you're proud of that file you can, and in fact are encouraged, to give a copy of it to the next person - just as you are encouraged to pass this program along to others. The editor will automatically assign the filename extension of '.PUZ' to any puzzle file that you create and the program will read/load any puzzle file created by the editor. To my way of thinking, the more '.PUZ' files the better. You enter the editor from the setup screen by pressing <F5>. With the editor you can add, change or delete puzzles, you can reformat them (change the way they appear on the puzzle board) and you can create you own puzzle files. As with the game itself, I intended for the editor to be self-explanatory. While on the one hand I'm pleased with its power, its friendliness and intuitiveness leaves something to be desired. I have decided to release it in its present form because without feedback from you (i.e. 'user- supported') I'm not sure how to go about making it better. It is fully functional however, and with some practice you will be able to master it. SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW The puzzle file name itself (without the .PUZ extension) is limited to 8 characters, a restriction imposed by MS-DOS/PC-DOS, not me. The editor automatically assigns the '.PUZ' extension so you do not need to include it in your filename - if you do it is ignored anyway. To insure the integrity and consistency of this game I request that you name your files anything you want, given the restrictions, but leave the file WORDPLAY for me. This is release 1.00 of WORDPLAY and as much as I've tried, it would be foolish to assume that it is bug-free. Those of you ever involved with having to "debug" a program know that step one is to duplicate the sequence of events that caused the bug and step two is to eliminate the variables. It is for this reason that I request you do not modify WORDPLAY.PUZ. Feel free however, to copy this file under a different name and do with it what you want. The editor will not allow you to save the puzzle file WORDPLAY. Those of you who are clever will find ways to circumvent this precaution but please bear in mind my reasons for asking you to not do so. About the puzzle files themselves, each can store up to 250 puzzles. At the start of play the entire puzzle file is loaded into memory and one of the puzzle's is randomly selected. When that puzzle is solved, it is marked and will not be selected again. Another puzzle is then selected at random and the cycle repeats itself. When you quit the game, the puzzle file is updated (written to) to indicate which puzzles have been used since it was loaded. For this reason make sure that if your puzzles are stored on a floppy that the floppy is in the drive when you end the game. Eventually, all the puzzles will have been used and when that happens, all the puzzles will be automatically cleared and made available for use. You can also clear all puzzles from within the editor should you so desire. The parameter file WORDPLAY.PRM is created or updated when you quit the game. As a result, whenever you start off a new session of WORDPLAY, you will "default" to the same environment that existed the last time you played. The same comments about keeping the floppy in the drive when you quit apply here. It is possible to keep your puzzle file(s) in a different directory or even a different disk drive from the disk\directory containing WORDPLAY.COM. Being a hard disk user I always want to see programs offer that flexibility and I put it into all the programs I write. For this game however, there is probably is no need to take advantage of this feature and it can cause confusion. I suggest you keep the puzzle(s) and program in the same directory. The program defaults to looking for puzzle files in the same disk drive and directory from which you started the game. If you want to restore this mode after having changed it then go into the setup screen and press <F5>. In the next menu select either <F1> (change disk) or <F2> (change directory) and then just press <ENTER> when prompted. I COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THEM It has occurred to me that the development of this program would not have been possible if it were not for a few things, circumstances, and people. I would like to acknowledge them. My computer, a ZENITH-151 PC Clone running under MS-DOS 2.11 equipped with 10 Mb hard disk, one 5 1/4" floppy, 640K RAM, color Graphics card, and Hayes 1200 Baud Modem. A steady workhorse and flawless performer. State of the art just a few years ago, rapidly becoming obsolescent. Isn't that the way with computers. The software, Borland's Turbo Pascal version 3.0. The best software value ever and a powerful program development tool for the PC. I would not have attempted this program nor completed it without TURBO. If you are still programming in BASIC then you are inflicting needless pain upon yourself. No, I'm not a Borland employee or stockholder, just a testimonial from a satisfied customer - though I did long for an incremental compiler once the source code got beyond 2000 lines. My good friends Amrish Patel, Paul Hock, and Randy Proal who took the time to give me unbiased views, suggestions and encouragement from the early stages of development to the final debugging state. I want to single out Randy for both his subtle perspective and painstaking detail that went into his analysis and suggestions. I suspect I won't be getting that $10.00 from him. A long time acquaintance Jim DeRosa who turned me on years ago to the underground world of telecommunications and the evolving public domain software concept. Merv Griffin, Pat Sajak, and Vanna White - for obvious reasons.