HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN SETS

This is not for the timid.  If you want to make your own opponents you should be very comfortable with your Macintosh, a graphics program, and be able to aquire the free program ResEdit.  (It's available on most on-line services).

As always, make a backup of any file you are attempting to modify before you start.

ResEdit allows you to modify the resources used by programs.  This is a potentially dangerous operation.  If you modify a program in the wrong way you may very well break that program.  However, if you make backups and only use ResEdit on unimportant copies then you should be okay. FreeVerse can not be held responsible for any problems you may encounter or cause using the program ResEdit from Apple Computer.  Use At Your Own Risk.

That said, play with ResEdit to figure out how it works.  Mostly, when you open a file you will be dealing with the two icons labled "PICT" and "SND ".  Double click on them to open them up and then play with the right hand menus to see what they do.  Each resource is individually numbered.  You can open each individual resource (like PICT#128 for example) and then cut and paste it into your favorite graphics program.  Cutting and Pasting is the main way you'll use to make changes to resources.  If you find yourself doing anything else you are probably doing too much.

•

The graphics, sounds and playing styles in Hearts Deluxe are kept in the player file. "ZAK-ROB-JEN" is the standard.  

•

The graphics in Hearts are layered; the deepest level is the empty 
 
      room.   PICT id 127

•

On top of the room it places the background window.  This can be either 
     PICT id 154, 153, 152, or 151.

•

On top of these two graphics is layered the three players in neutral poses.
      PICT id 144

The reason for this is so the background window can be behind the heads of the people at the table while still letting one switch in new backgrounds, or new people.

When modifying any of the above (using a graphics program and cutting and pasting),  be sure to keep the size of the enclosing rectangle the same.

TO MAKE YOUR OWN BACKGROUND WINDOWS,  
Copy and paste one of the backgrounds into a graphics program, modify it all you want (leaving the enclosing rectangle and the table edge as they are) then copy and paste it back into ResEdit. That's it!

ANIMATIONS:
The animations are usually 2 step (3 counting the neutral position).  
When modifying them you must also keep the size of the enclosing rectangle the same.

When you open the player file you will see a resource called "WIND"... Hearts uses the information in here to position the animated sequences.  So you may change the Top and Left coordinates of any of the labeled window resources to change the location of that animated picture.

PICT id 129 contains the "nugget" art.  These are all the pieces used to create the cards, draw the scoreboard, coffee cup, eye-movement etc.  When modifying this it's important to note that the game is grabbing small rectangles of art out of this picture -- if what you change is too big Hearts may not grab all of it, etc.  

MASKS:
In order to draw a graphic on top of a background, the computer needs a mask which is a lot like a stencil.  For every animated graphic in HEARTS there needs to be a mask. To make them, in your graphics program, select the image with the lasso tool and then "fill" with black.  Cut and past the mask, or shadow, into the appropriate Hearts Pict resource.

TEXT:
The STR# resources contain the Telepathy comments and other comments.  These may be edited from within ResEdit.

SOUND:
The snd resource contain the sounds from HEARTS. If you have a microphone attached to your computer you may record replacement sounds and paste them in. Just be sure the resource # of your new sound equals the resource number of the comment you want to replace. (You will have to delete the original sound first -- so make a backup.)

If you find yourself using this information and are actually to the point where you'd like to go ahead a make a completely new set based on characters you've drawn or gathered, then please contact us.  We are always glad to help and we can probably make your task much easier.  At the very least we'll be your fan club!