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SOLITILE rev 3.0 September 22, 1991 Copyright 1989, 1990, 1991 by Everett Kaser All Rights Reserved All files listed at the bottom of this page are Copyrighted and may NOT be redistributed separately from the entire Solitile package, or other than as outlined on this page and in Sections I and II of this document. Solitile is a game of solitaire, played with "tiles". It derives from several similar games, such as "Shanghai", "Gunshy", and "Mahjongg", which are played with Mah-Jong tiles. Solitile plays the same game, but adds new starting layouts and the ability for the player to create new layouts and/or modify the layouts provided. It has, built-in, "westernized" pictures on the faces of the tiles, and can also use alternate tile-sets, and the program includes a tile editor so that the user may alter existing tile pictures or create entirely new sets. Solitile 3.0 can also read in and use tile sets created for use with Nels Anderson's Mahjongg game (of which there are hundreds available). Solitile is being distributed as Shareware. If you use the game for more than one week, you are expected to pay for its use by sending the registration fee of $15.00 (U.S. funds) to the author. For your convenience, the file REGISTER.DOC may be printed to obtain a regis- tration form. The author may be contacted at: US Mail: Everett Kaser Solitile 35405 Spruce St Albany, OR 97321 phone: Weekdays: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Pacific Time Weekends: 8:30am - 9:00pm (503) 928-5259 Compuserve: 70673,1547 internet: hplabs!hp-pcd!everett or everett%hpcvlx@hplabs.hp.com The game package, which MUST include the files listed below, may be freely copied and distributed. It's use is subject to the conditions outlined in this document in section II. Included files: SOLITILE.EXE ENCIRCLE.LYT NOTE: Additional disks of Solitile SOLITILE.DOC BEGINNER.LYT support files may be purchased separ- REGISTER.DOC BRIDGE .LYT ately. Each additional disk contains VENDOR .DOC STARSHIP.LYT some mixture of tile-sets (.STL), music SOLITILE.STL SUN .LYT files (.MUS), layouts (.LYT), and .GIF SHARON .STL VALLEY .LYT background pictures. See the file EAGLE .GIF FORUM .LYT REGISTER.DOC for a list of available FANTASIA.GIF PYRAMID .LYT disks or contact the author (see above) FURELISE.MUS TEMPLE .LYT for the latest information. HALLELUJ.MUS SPIDER .LYT WEDGES .LYT SOLITILE --- Table of Contents Section I. Definition of Shareware II. Disclaimer -- Agreement III. Installing and Starting the Program IV. Introduction to Solitile 3.0 V. Playing the Game VI. Game Menu Items VII. The MAIN Menu VIII. The FILE SELECTION Menu IX. The PLAYER SETUP Menu X. The EDITORS Menu XI. The LAYOUT Editor XII. The TILES Editor XIII. The FRAME PATTERNS Editor XIV. The BACKGROUND PATTERN Editor XV. Hints On Play XVI. Bugs and Versions XVII. Products Available From Everett Kaser Software I. DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to receiving an updated program with a printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permiss- ion before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's com- mercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. II. DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of SOLITILE must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "SOLITILE is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of SOLITILE." SOLITILE is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using SOLITILE and continue to use SOLITILE after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment as described on the first page of this document. The applicable registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of SOLITILE must register and pay for their copies of SOLITILE within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting Everett Kaser. Anyone distributing SOLITILE for any kind of remuneration must first contact Everett Kaser at the address above for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering SOLITILE immediately (However Everett Kaser must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of SOLITILE.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of SOLITILE along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the SOLITILE system. III. INSTALLING AND STARTING THE PROGRAM It is recommended that you install Solitile in it's own sub-directory on your hard disk (or on its own floppy disk if you have no hard disk), because the program has many support files, and placing them in their own sub-directory will keep them all together and keep your other disk directories from getting too cluttered. To create a sub-directory for Solitile, you might type one of the following commands: MKDIR \SOLITILE or MKDIR \GAMES\SOLITILE or MKDIR \BIN\GAMES\SOLITILE These are only examples, and you'll have to decide upon a sub-directory path that makes sense given the structure of YOUR hard disk. Once the sub-directory has been created, you're ready to install Solitile into that sub-directory. If you received the files on a floppy disk, as separate files, you would do something like: COPY A:\*.* C:\SOLITILE or COPY A:\*.* D:\GAMES\SOLITILE or COPY B:\*.* C:\BIN\GAMES\SOLITILE If the program came as an archive file of some sort (.ZIP, .ARC, .LZH, etc), you will need to copy the archive file into the sub-directory that you created (using the COPY command), then type something like: PKUNZIP SOLITILE.ZIP or LHARC x SOLITILE.LZH Once the program is installed, you can change to that sub-directory at any time and run the program, or you can specify the path to the SOLITILE sub-directory in your PATH environment variable (set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file), and then Solitile can be run from anywhere on your hard disk without first changing to the Solitile sub-directory. (If you do add SOLITILE to your PATH statement, remember that you will have to reboot your computer before the PATH actually gets modified.) The program has no optional arguments and is started by typing SOLITILE The program first generates the background (see Section XIV: The Background Editor), then draws the game screen. A copyright message is drawn in a panel over everything else, and it may be exited at any time by pressing a key or clicking a mouse button. The first time the program is run, the user will be prompted for a player name. This name must be from 1 to 8 characters long, and it may only contain valid DOS file name characters as it will be used to create a .PLY file for storing that player's statistics. Also, the first time the program is run, the HELP screens will be displayed. This will ONLY happen the first time the program is run. Thereafter, the HELP may be accessed via the main MENU. IV. INTRODUCTION TO SOLITILE 3.0 The set of tiles consist of 168 individual tiles. There are 42 different pictures on the faces of the tiles, with each picture appearing on four tiles. The object of the game is to remove all of the tiles from the board. Tiles are removed in matching pairs. For a tile to be removable, it must not have any other tiles on top of it, and it must have either its entire right side exposed, or its entire left side. "Exposed" means that there is not another tile on the same level and laying immediately against it. A few definitions of terms: LAYOUT: the starting pattern or arrangement of tiles, disregarding the faces of the tiles. This simply tells the program where to place tiles when starting a game, but not WHICH tiles to put in any given place. Layouts are stored individually in disk files, so there can be many, many different possible layouts. There are 12 layouts provided with the game. You may add to, delete, and modify these layouts. Each layout may contain anywhere from 4 to 168 tiles, in multiples of 4 (ie, 4, 8, 12,...160, 164, 168). BOARD NUMBER: a number between 0 and 65535, which is used to control the placement of specific tiles in the starting layout. This number allows you to replay a specific game at will. The game normally starts any particular layout at Board 0. It keeps track of the last board you were playing, and when you solve a board, the Board number is automatically incremented. You may specify a new Board number at any time. MENU ITEMS: On the main game screen, any grey box around the side of the display that contains BLUE lettering is considered a MENU ITEM. This means that it can be activated by pointing to it with the mouse a clicking the LEFT mouse button, or by pressing the key corresponding to the first letter of the MENU ITEM's title. (ie, T for Tileset, L for Layout, M for Menu, etc.) At all other times, the MENU ITEMS are grouped together in one large grey panel, where each individual item can again be activated by clicking on it with the mouse or by pressing the key corresponding to its first letter. BUTTONS: the Left and Right Buttons refer to the buttons on your mouse. If you don't have a mouse, the HOME and PGUP keys on the numeric keypad of your keyboard perform the same functions. These two buttons are used to control the game action. The meaning of the two buttons is always shown in the upper right corner of the game display. V. PLAYING THE GAME To select the first tile of a pair to be removed, move the cursor onto the tile and press the LEFT BUTTON. This will cause that tile (if it's removable, ie. not blocked by other tiles) to be highlighted. Once you've selected the first tile of the pair, move the cursor to the second tile and, again, press the LEFT BUTTON. This will cause the second tile to be highlighted. At this point, pressing the LEFT BUTTON a third time will cause those two tiles to be removed, or pressing both BUTTONs together will de-select the two tiles. If VERIFY mode is not on, then the two tiles will be removed immediately that you click on the second one, without requiring the third verific- ation click. If the BLINK mode is set, then the highlighted tiles will blink, revealing the tiles beneath them. See Section xxx Player Configuration. A shortcut for selecting the second tile is to use the RIGHT BUTTON. First, select the first tile using the LEFT BUTTON. Then, pressing the RIGHT BUTTON will cause the computer to search for a removable matching tile. If one is found, it will be highlighted. Once both tiles are highlighted, pressing the RIGHT BUTTON again will cause the computer to look for a different tile to use as the matching tile. The RIGHT BUTTON can be used repeatedly to cycle through all possible matches for the first tile you selected. When using this method to select the second tile, VERIFY mode has no effect, and the third verification click is required, since you may want to use the RIGHT BUTTON to cycle through several possible matches. If you're having trouble finding a matching pair of removable tiles, or if you want to see all of the pairs that are currently removable, press the RIGHT BUTTON before selecting a tile. This will cause the computer to search for all matching tiles that are removable. It will highlight them, one set at a time. To cycle through the sets of removable tiles, repeat pressing the RIGHT BUTTON until a message appears informing you that there are no more matches. At any time during this "help cycle", pressing the LEFT BUTTON will abort the "help cycle". If VERIFY mode is off, there will be no message when you reach the end of the "help cycle", there will simply be no high- lighted tiles. As a general rule in Solitile 3, any pop-up menu may be escaped from by pressing the ESC key or by clicking the RIGHT BUTTON. VI. GAME MENU ITEMS Menu options available (and keystroke to activate them if you don't have a mouse) while playing the game are: (M) MENU This activates the MAIN MENU. See Section VII. (P) PAIRS This searches for any possible matching pairs and tells you how many are available. Similar to clicking the RIGHT BUTTON with no tiles selected, except that it only tells you the number of matches available WITHOUT showing you the matches. (U) UNDO This, uh..., un-does your previous moves (it replaces removed pairs in reverse order) letting you back up. (R) RETRY This re-starts the current game (same layout, same board number) from the beginning. Use this when you get stuck but want to give it another shot. (D) DOS This will attempt to "spawn" a copy of COMMAND.COM, without exiting the game. This allows you to get to the DOS COMMAND prompt without terminating your game. Possible reasons that it might not work is if you have insufficient memory to load the COMMAND interpreter on top of SOLITILE, or if the file COMMAND.COM can't be found by SOLITILE on your path. Once you've gone to the DOS prompt this way, you must issue the EXIT command to return to your SOLITILE game. (B) BOARD This allows you to select a new board number. Options provided are: (N) NEXT increments the board number (R) RANDOM selects a random board number (S) Specify allows you to specify the board (L) LAYOUT Brings up the FILE SELECTION MENU (see Section VIII) and allows you to select a new LAYOUT file. The selected layout will become the new default layout for the current player. All LAYOUT files have a file extension of .LYT. (T) TILESET Brings up the FILE SELECTION MENU (see Section VIII) and allows you to select a new TILESET file. The selected layout will become the new default tileset for the current player. All TILESET files have a file extension of .STL (Solitile style tilesets) or .TIL (Mahjongg style tilesets). The Tileset File Selection Menu does not automatically terminate, but rather it displays the selected tile set for your inspection, and allows you to select another or EXIT, accepting the displayed one. This allows you to "browse" through the various tilesets that you may have available to you. ( ) player name In the top center of the main game display is a box containing the current player's name. This box may be clicked upon with the mouse for a quick access to the Player Setup Menu (see section IX). There is no key- stroke for quick access to this menu. From the key- board, you must first bring up the Main Menu (with the M key), then select the Player Setup Menu. VII. THE MAIN MENU In the top portion of the MAIN Menu, there are these options: (G) GAME This returns you to Main Game Display, where you may continue playing your game. (H) HELP Displays the Help screens, which explain the basic game playing information. (S) SAVE GAME Saves the current game into a file with the current player's name and an extension of .SAV. (R) RESTORE GAME Restores the current player's previously SAVEd game. (P) PLAYER SETUP Brings up the Player Setup Menu (see Section IX). (E) EDITORS Brings up the Editors Menu (see Section X). (Q) QUIT TO DOS Exits the program. In the bottom portion of the MAIN Menu is information regarding the current player's performance with the current Layout. It shows the player's name, the current Layout name, and a window containing the list of Board numbers that the player has solved on the current Layout. Not all solved board numbers may fit in the window so scroll buttons are provided for use with a mouse, and the cursor keys and PgUp/PgDn keys may be used from the keyboard to scroll the list up/down. VIII. THE FILE SELECTION MENU The FILE SELECTION Menu is used at a number of different places in the game, to select the player, layout, tileset, music, and GIF files. In all situations, the FILE SELECTION Menu works the same. It provides a list of all SUB-DIRECTORIES, followed by a list of all available files with the appropriate file extension. These file extensions are: .PLY player files .LYT layout files .STL Solitile tile set files .TIL Nels Anderson's Mahjongg tile set files .MUS music files for Theme and Win music .GIF picture files for background picture From the keyboard, files or sub-directories may be chosen by using the cursor and PgUp/PgDn keys to highlight the desired item, then pressing the Enter (Return) key. In this way, you can navigate up and down the sub-directory tree, as well as load the desired file. The current PATH is always displayed immediately above the "files" window. With a mouse, the sub-directory or file may be selected by pointing at it with the mouse cursor and double-clicking the LEFT BUTTON. (If your double click is not quite quick enough, all that will happen is that the item you pointed to will become highlighted.) With the mouse you can also scroll the window and highlighted item up/down by clicking with the LEFT BUTTON upon the: DOUBLE UP ARROWS --- page up SINGLE UP ARROW --- move highlight bar up/scroll up SINGLE DOWN ARROW --- move highlight bar down/scroll down DOUBLE DOWN ARROW --- page down Other items that are available on the FILE SELECTION Menu are: (L) LOAD ----- Loads the currently highlighted item. (E) EXIT Exits the FILE SELECTION Menu (R) RENAME Lets you Rename the currently highlight item. (C) Copy Copies the currently highlighted item to another file. (D) DELETE Lets you Delete the currently highlighted file. IX. THE PLAYER SETUP MENU Each player may configure the game to his or her own preferred setup. This setup is then stored in the player's .PLY file, along with all of the solved board numbers for each layout that the player has tried. The current player's name is stored in the file SOLITILE.CFG. That name is then used to access the .PLY file for that player. The current player may be selected/changed from the PLAYER SETUP Menu: (P) PLAYER allows you to select or add a player. (E) EXIT exits the Player Setup Menu (G) GIF FILE lets you specify the .GIF file to be used as a back- ground for the current player. (T) THEME toggles the Theme music on and off. If done from the keyboard with the T key, also allows selection of the THEME music file. (R) REMOVE TILES toggles on and off the sound for removing tiles (U) UNDO toggles on and off the sound for undo-ing. (N) NO MOVES toggles on and off the sound for NO-MORE-MOVES (W) WIN toggles the Win music on/off. From the keyboard with the W key, also allows selection of the WIN music file. (B) BLINK toggles on/off "blinking tiles". When on, then during game play, selected tiles will "blink", alternately showing the tile beneath them and themselves as a neg- ative image. This may be considered cheating by some, so when BLINK is enabled, you'll be unable to select a tile unless it has a removable matching tile available. (V) VERIFY toggles on and off "verify tiles". When on, Solitile 3 will play much as previous versions of Solitile, where you first clicked on one tile to select it, then click- ed on a second tile to select it, then clicked a third time to remove those two selected tiles. With VERIFY off, the selected tiles will be removed automatically as soon as the second one is selected. However, when first selecting one tile, then using the RIGHT BUTTON to locate/highlight the second, a verifying click of the LEFT BUTTON is still required, as the computer's selected match may not be the one that you had in mind. When using a mouse, you may also click upon the items listed at the bottom of the PLAYER SETUP Menu: Player The current player's name GIF The current player's background picture file name. Theme The file name for the current player's Theme music, which gets played when the game first starts up (if the THEME sound is enabled). Win The file name for the current player's Win music, which gets played when a board is solved (if the WIN sound is enabled). Besides the "solved board numbers" and the above items, the additional things that are kept in the player's .PLY file are: the player's current LAYOUT (selected from main game display) the player's current TILESET (selected from main game display) the player's FRAME PATTERNS (created in the Frame Editor) the player's BACKGROUND PATTERN (created in Background Editor) X. THE EDITORS MENU The EDITORS Menu gives you access to the several "editors" available with Solitile 3: (L) LAYOUT Modify existing layouts or create new ones of your own. (See Section XI.) (T) TILES Modify existing tilesets or create new ones of your own. (See Section XII.) (F) FRAME PATTERNS allows the player to change the eight patterns used to draw the frame (or border) around the edge of the main game display. Any changes made to these patterns are reflected in the player's .PLY setup file. (B) BACKGROUND PATTERN allows the player to change the background pattern which is drawn on the display before the GIF image is drawn. Any changes made to this pattern is reflected in the player's .PLY setup file. (E) EXIT EDITORS returns you to the MAIN Menu. The TILES, FRAME, and BACKGROUND editors use a common bitmap editor, with some differences and embellishments. The rest of this section describes those portions of the bitmap editor that are common to all three editors. The bitmap editor four primary areas: The color palette The menu The zoom/pixel edit area The item selection area The item selection area is different for each area and is discussed in the appropriate section. The "cursor" may be moved from one area to another from the keyboard by using these keys: (F1) moves the cursor to the COLOR palette area (F2) moves the cursor to the ZOOM area (F3) moves the cursor to the item selection area In the top-left corner is the color palette of 16 colors. The current pen-color is outlined with a white-square. The current color may be selected by clicking the LEFT mouse button on the desired color square, or by first moving the "cursor" to the color palette area with the F1 key, and then using the cursor keys to select the desired color. In the center of the display is the ZOOM area. This displays an enlarged image of the item currently being edited. Many operations are possible upon this area, as discussed below. Down the left side of the display is the MENU area, the individual items of which are discussed in detail below. However, each MENU item may be activated by either pressing the key corresponding to the first letter of the item, or by clicking the LEFT mouse button once upon the item. Between the MENU and the ZOOM is the: Work Image --- the life-sized image of the item currently being edited in the ZOOM area. Shifter --- This allows you to shift the entire Work Image, or that portion of it that's been marked, left, right, up, or down. See below for how to mark an area. ScratBuf --- This is a temporary buffer to which you may copy all or the marked portion of the Work Image, either as a means of saving a copy while you experiment, or so that you can "paste" it back into the Work Image at another place. See below for how to mark an area. There are 4 basic types of "drawing" that may be done upon the ZOOM area: POINT, LINE, RECTANGLE, and OVAL. One of these is always selected, as is indicated by the blue highlight on the menu. The currently highlighted drawing method will determine exactly what will happen when you press the LEFT or RIGHT BUTTONs while on the ZOOM area. POINT: If the LEFT mouse button is pressed and released while holding the mouse still, a single pixel will be set to the currently selected color. If the LEFT mouse button is pressed and held down while the mouse is moved, all pixels over which the mouse cursor passes will be set to the current color. From the keyboard, you press and release the HOME key once to simulate the pressing of LEFT mouse button. This causes the program to enter "drawing" mode. You must then press and release the HOME key a second time in order to exit "drawing" mode, or to simulate the releasing of the LEFT mouse button. While in drawing mode, the cursor keys will move the drawing cursor (a pencil) about on the zoom area. LINE: Line drawing is VERY similar to Point drawing. The pixel that the cursor is on when the LEFT mouse button is pressed (or the first time the HOME key is pressed) becomes one end point for the line. As long as the LEFT mouse button is held down (or until the HOME key is pressed the second time) the location of the pencil cursor is the other endpoint of the line, and a non-destructive "rubber-band line" follows the cursor around, showing you what the image would look like if you were to exit drawing mode at that point. The line drawn in this mode is drawn using the current "linetype" (see below). RECTANGLE: Rectangle drawing is VERY similar to Line drawing. Instead of endpoints, you're specifying two diagonally-opposite corners of the rectangle. The rectangle is drawn using the current "fill mask" setting. If set to Outline, the rectangle is drawn with the current "linetype" and current color. If set to Solid the rectangle is solid filled with the current color. If set to Mask, the rectangle is drawn with the currently selected FillMask (see below) and current color. OVAL: Oval drawing is just like Rectangle, except that you're spec- ifying the center and a corner of a box which "bounds" the oval. Also, when drawing with Outline mode, the outline is always a solid line, it doesn't use the Linetype. SET LINETYPE: The linetype is a 16-bit (or 16-pixel) pattern which is used for drawing lines and outlined rectangles. Only those bits (pixels) that are ON (white) in the linetype will actually be plotted. Imagine that the linetype is overlaid on the line being drawn. The pixels covered by a "white" linetype pixel will be changed to the current pen color. The pixels covered by a "black" linetype pixel will retain their original color, unchanged. The linetype is used, starting with the left-most pixel (as viewed in the linetype menu) first, regardless of the direction in which the line is drawn. If the line is longer than 16 pixels, the linetype is used repeatedly until the whole line is done. The Linetype menu shows a zoom of the current linetype across the bottom of the menu window. Above the zoom are eight different linetypes. The program initializes these to eight possible linetypes, but you may edit any of them by selecting one of them (with the cursor keys or a click of the LEFT mouse button), then toggling the individual pixels of the linetype in the zoom area of the linetype window. If you want a different linetype from those provided, it is suggested that you don't edit the solid linetype, as you'll likely always want to have that one available. In the sub-window above the eight different linetypes is an example of a line drawn with the current linetype. You exit the linetype window by pressing the ESC key or by clicking the RIGHT mouse button. FILLMASK: The fillmask works similarly to the linetype, except that it is used as a pattern for filling a rectangular or oval area. The Fillmask menu allows you to chose OUTLINE, SOLID, or MASK. These options only apply to drawing rectangles and ovals. When drawing an OUTLINE rectangle, the current LINETYPE is used to draw the outlining lines. When drawing an OUTLINE oval, a solid line is always used. A MASK filled rectangle or oval is done much as a line is done with Linetype, in that the fillmask is applied repeatedly, both left-right and up-down, until the entire rectangle or oval is filled. Again, eight example fillmasks are provided, any of which may be modified to provide additional fillmasks. You exit the fillmask menu by pressing the ESC key or by clicking the RIGHT mouse button. The items in the next area of the Menu all act on the currently marked area (or the entire image if there is no marked area). You can mark an area by pointing to one corner of the area with the mouse, pressing and holding the RIGHT mouse button, moving the mouse to the other corner of the area to be marked, then releasing the RIGHT mouse button. You will notice that this leaves a black rectangular outline where the ZOOM grid normally is drawn. All pixels within this rectangle will be acted upon by COLOR REPLACE, HOR and VER FLIP, TO SCRATBUF, and FROM SCRATBUF. All pixels outside of the rectangle will remain unchanged. If no "mark" rectangle is visible, then the entire working image is operated upon. To set a Mark using the keyboard, move to one corner of the mark area, press and release the PgUp key, move to the other corner of the mark area, then press and release the PgUp key a second time. COLOR REPLACE: This allows you to replace all pixels of one particular color (within the marked area) with another color. You will be prompted first to select the color to be replaced, then for the color with which to replace it. The colors may be selected either from the color palette in the upper left corner, or by pointing to a specific pixel in the zoom area and clicking the LEFT mouse button (or pressing the HOME key). VER FLIP: This flips, or reverses, the marked area vertically, or top-to-bottom. HOR FLIP: This flips, or reverses, the marked area horizontally, or left-to-right. TO SCRATBUF: This copies the marked area into the ScratBuf, replac- ing anything that was previously there. This acts as a tempor- ary holding place, either as a backup while you experiment with the Work Image, so that you can restore the Work Image if you don't like your experiment, or it serves as a way of copying a part of the image to another area of the Work Image. In the Tile Editor, it also serves as a way to move tiles from one place in the tile set to another (see Section XII). FROM SCRATBUF: This copies the ScratBuf contents to a location in the Work Image. A "moving" mark-like black rectangle appears in the Work Image area, which can be moved with the mouse or the cursor keys. This black outline shows the size of the area to be copied from the ScratBuf, and the location of where it will be written when HOME or the LEFT mouse button is pressed. The program remains in the this mode until the RIGHT mouse button or ESC is pressed. This allows easy copying of a small area from the ScratBuf to multiple locations in the Work Image without repeatedly clicking on the FROM SCRATBUF menu item. The last three items in the common menu are "control" functions: DISCARD CHANGES: This causes the program to discard any changes you've made to the Work Image, restoring it's original value. In the tile editor, this is only valid until you select another tile, or select GET, KEEP, MERGE, or AUTHOR. These actions cause the current Work Image to be copied back into the tile set, thus saving the changes you've made. BLANK WORK AREA: This has an editor-specific effect: in the Frame and Background pattern editors, this clears the Work Image to all black pixels; in the Tile Editor, this causes a blank, light-grey tile face to be put into the Work Image. EXIT EDITOR: This exits the editor back to the EDITORS Menu. The Shifter, located between the Menu, Zoom, Work Image, and ScratBuf, will shift/scroll a marked area in any of four directions. Just mark the area (if less than the entire Work Image) then click the LEFT mouse button on the desired direction on the shifter. The marked area will be shifted one pixel in that direction for each time that you click the mouse button. From the keyboard you turn NumLock on (by pressing and releasing the NumLock key) and then use the cursor keys to shift the marked area. When shifting is finished, turn NumLock off. For additional information (specific to each particular editor) see Sections XII, XIII, and XIV. If you design a LAYOUTs or TILESETs that you're particularly proud of, I'd like to see them. If you send me a disk with more than two new layouts (of YOUR creation) or a new tileset (created by YOU), I'll send you a Solitile accessory disk in return. (Mention which accessory disks you already have so I can be sure not to send one you already have.) I must warn you that designing good layouts that are challenging, but not overly difficult, is not as easy as you'd think! And good tilesets take a LOT of hard work!) XI. The LAYOUT Editor In the LAYOUT editor, you can add or delete tiles in the current layout or create an entirely new layout. When finished with your edits, you MUST have an exact multiple of 4 tiles in the layout (if you intend to save it), from 4 to 168 tiles. The LEFT BUTTON adds tiles, and the RIGHT BUTTON deletes them. The menu down the left side of the display contains these entries: (E) EXIT Exits the Layout Editor back to the Editors Menu. (N) NEW Clears the current layout display, making it ready for you to create a completely new layout. (O) OPEN Opens a .LYT layout file from disk. This reads in a previously existing layout so that you can edit it. (S) SAVE Saves the current state of the layout to a disk file. The layout MUST have a multiple of 4 tiles. You will be told how many tiles you must add or subtract to get the layout to a multiple of 4 (if it's not already). The name that you provide here is used both as the file name under which the layout is saved on disk AND as the name of the layout as displayed at the bottom of the game display. (A) AUTHOR NAME Let's you add your name to the layout you've created, so that it will appear at the bottom of the game disp- lay whenever someone plays the layout. The Layout Editor cursor is the size of a tile, but the upper-right corner is really the "active" part that you should pay attention to. The Layout Editor draws a grid on the background to indicated where tiles may be placed. The upper-right most pixel (or corner) of the cursor should be placed within the grid square where you want that corner of the tile to be placed. Tiles that are stacked on top of other tiles must have a solid layer of tiles beneath them. This means that you can't place one tile on the bottom, then place another tile on top of it but off to one side (unless there's another tile beside the first to provide support). XII. The TILES Editor See Section X for an explanation of the operation of the basic bitmap editor. In addition to the basic bitmap editor, the Tiles Editor provides an additional four menu items: (G) GET Gets, or loads, another tileset from disk. If the current tileset has been modified, you will be prompted to verify whether you wish to discard the changes. See Section VIII regarding the File Selection Menu. (K) KEEP Keeps, or stores, the current tileset to a disk file. You will be prompted for a file name. You should always use a file extension of .STL. The program will let you store the tileset to a filename with a differ- ent (or no) file extension, but it will first prompt you to verify that you really want to, since you won't be able to use the tileset without first exiting to DOS and renaming it to a .STL filename. DO NOT STORE tilesets to a filename with a .TIL extension. This extension is used by tilesets that are stored in the format used by Nels Anderson's Mahjongg game, and the internal format of .TIL files is totally different from that used by .STL files, and the Solitile Tile Editor only stores in .STL format (although it can read from the .TIL format). See below regarding use of .TIL files. (M) MERGE Allows you to merge individual tiles from one tileset into another. Can also be used simply to re-arrange tiles within a tileset, by storing the current tileset to disk, then using that file as the source file for a Merge. That way the tiles you're Merging in are the same as the ones that you're Merging into, and you can select and copy tiles in such a way as to swap tiles in their positions. MERGE will first bring up the File Selection Menu, to allow you to choose the tileset that you want to Merge from. The tileset you select will be displayed on the upper left part of the display. You will then be prompted to select one of the those tiles from the MERGE set. Then, you'll be prompted to select the tile in the current set that you want to be replaced by the tile being Merged in. This is repeated until you press the ESC key or the RIGHT mouse button, at which point the Tile Edit display will be redrawn, and the program returns to normal Tile Edit mode. (A) AUTHOR Allows you to enter your name as the creator of the tileset, so that it will show in the TILESET box at the bottom-right of the main game display when this tileset is being used. An easy way to make a copy of one tile onto another, is to use the ScratBuf. Select the tile you wish to copy, by clicking on it with the LEFT mouse button (or pressing F3 to move to the Tiles area, then using the cursor keys to select it, then pressing F2 to move back to the zoom area). Once the desired tile is selected, activate TO SCRATBUF. This will make a copy of the tile in the ScratBuf. Now select the tile to which you wish to copy it. Then activate FROM SCRATBUF. This is an easy way to duplicate tiles that are only slightly different. If there are any open tiles in the tileset (tiles that haven't been created yet, or that you're not going to keep) this can also be used as a means of moving tiles around. The only reason for concern for where the tiles are positioned within the set are that it's easier to keep track of them while editing them (if they have any order-relationship with each other) and on layouts with less than 168 tiles, the last tiles are never used or seen during game play. For any given layout with N tiles only the first N/4 tiles from the tileset are used. The first tile in the tileset is the top-left most tile, the second, third, and fourth tiles are to the right of the first. The rest progress left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The last 14 tiles are across the bottom of the display. REGARDING .TIL FILES, THEIR USE, AND THEIR EDITING Nels Anderson sells a shareware game called Mahjongg which is very similar to Solitile. For some time, his game has included a tileset editor, allowing the user to create new tilesets. There are hundreds of tilesets available. They all have a filename extension of .TIL and Solitile 3 is able to read and use these tilesets. However: 1) Nels' Mahjongg game uses a different color palette from that used in Solitile. Many of the colors are the same (or very similar) and can be mapped to each other. However, there are two places where the Mahjongg color palette and the Solitile color palette differ so much that there is no good mapping. For this reason, when a .TIL file is loaded for use directly in a game, the color palette is set such that those two colors are good for the Mahjongg tilesets. When a .STL file is loaded, the color palette is set such that those two colors are good for the Solitile tilesets. A side effect of this is that the .GIF background image may not look as good when a .TIL set is used, since the .GIF colormap decoding is targeted at the .STL color palette. Therefore, if you wish to use a .TIL set for long, it is best to load it into the tile editor and modify it to use the Solitile color palette as described below. 2) In Mahjongg, there is one layout with exactly 144 tiles. There are 34 tiles that are each used four times, for a total of 136 tiles. There are an additional 8 tiles that are used once each, in two groups of four. Any two tiles within each group of four makes a matching removable pair. This gives a total of 42 physically different tiles. Because of this matching in the last two sets of four tiles, many of the tilesets created for use with Mahjongg have the exact same picture on all of the last four tiles, and another picture on all four of the next to last four tiles. When loaded into Solitile, this causes no problems on layouts with 144 tiles or less, but on layouts with more than 144 tiles, this causes there to be more than four tiles with the same picture, but not all of them are matchable with each other. To avoid this problem, you should load these tilesets into the tile editor, and create six new tiles in the last eight, so that there are 42 unique tile faces. Then, store this tileset back out to a .STL file. Because of the above potential problems, you may decide to convert a .TIL set into a .STL set. To aide in doing so, when a .TIL set is loaded into the Tile Editor, an additional menu box is provided at the bottom of the screen, that will allow you to toggle between the two different palettes. This allows you to see what a particular tile looks like with the Mahjongg palette, then change to the Solitile palette, decide what colors need to be replaced with a different color, and do so using the COLOR REPLACE function. Generally, there are only two colors that need to be modified, and then only on some of the tiles so the change-over process is not too difficult. Some of the better .TIL sets have already been converted to .STL sets, and are available from the author on additional accessory disks along with additional layouts, GIF images, and music files. See the file REGISTER.DOC for more information. Also, many .TIL sets are available from various bulletin boards and shareware disk vendors. An excellent collection of .TIL sets is available from: Public Brand Software PO Box 51315 Indianapolis, IN 46251 1-800-426-3475 XIII. The FRAME PATTERNS Editor See Section X for detailed information regarding the bitmap editor. The Frame Patterns are used to build the frame, or outline, or border, around the Background Pattern on the main game display. There are eight Frame Patterns, four corners and four sides. A sample is shown to the right of the zoom area, with the Background and Frame patterns, and the eight Frame Patterns are displayed individually around the sample. Select an individual pattern for editing by click- ing on it with the LEFT mouse button, or from the keyboard use the F3 key to move the cursor to the sample area, then use the cursor keys to select an individual pattern; once selected, use F2 to move the cursor back to the zoom area. The Frame Patterns are automatically saved in the players setup file. XIV. The BACKGROUND PATTERN Editor See Section X for detailed information regarding the bitmap editor. The Background Pattern is drawn on the display before anything else. Each player may have their own background pattern, different from each others. This pattern is automatically saved in the players setup file. XV. HINTS ON PLAY If you're having trouble solving boards, try playing the same BOARD over several times. Many people will run out of moves on a board, then select BOARD/RANDOM or NEXT, starting all over on a completely new one. Instead, you should select RETRY. You've already played the board at least once, and gotten stuck, so you'll remember where some of the hidden tiles were, and which parts of the board you got stuck on. You can use your knowledge of where hidden tiles are to get to them sooner, and you can use your knowledge of where you previously got stuck to work towards those areas first, or from a different direction. Occasionally when I'm playing the game I will solve a board on the first try, but more often than not, I have to replay a board at least once or twice before solving it. Some of the tougher boards, I've worked on for four or five hours before solving. And remember, SOME of the boards are impossible (but not more than 25% to 30% on most layouts)! Part of the fun of the game is trying to decide (or prove) that a board is possible or not. After you play the game for a while with this strategy, you'll learn to very quickly spot the likely difficult spots in a board, and to work towards them early in the game. Another thing to try, is when you get stuck with no more moves, "UNDO" some moves until you get to a "decision point", a place where you removed the first pair of a particular tile. Then, try taking a different pairing of that tile, which will release for play a different set of other tiles (sometimes). XVI. BUGS AND VERSIONS There have been a few scattered reports of problems with certain combinations of a mouse (mouse driver) and the display, where moving the cursor with the mouse leaves garbage in its wake. This trashes the display and makes the game unplayable. I've not duplicated this, but have made changes to this version that I think should fix the problem. If your system still exhibits this problem, please let me know. Known bugs: 1) In the layout editor, it is sometimes possible to add a tile on the same level and to the left of another tile, such that the left-most tile is half-way into the right-most tile. As a workaround, just delete the offending tile, and try it again. ==== CHANGES IN RELEASE 3.0 ==== Release 3.0 of Solitile is an almost complete re-write of the game, and the number of new features is extensive. The major changes include: 1) New user interface 2) Background and Frame patterns (and editors) and a .GIF image 3) A Tile Editor and loadable tilesets 4) Layouts stored separately in files 5) Layouts with anywhere from 4 to 168 tiles (rather than just 144). 6) Music and sound 7) Blinking selected tiles 8) Removed REPLAY function; replaced with simple list of solved boards 9) Multiple player setups/win lists XVII. PRODUCTS AVAILABLE FROM EVERETT KASER SOFTWARE Solitile 3.0 --- A game of solitaire, played with tiles. The object of the game is to remove all of the tiles from the pile, following a small number of rules. Includes a layout editor and a tileset editor. $15.00 Requires EGA or VGA and 380K free memory. Sherlock 1.1 --- The computer scrambles the locations of 36 items, then provides you with sufficient clues to determine their exact locations. Challenging game of logic with rich graphics display. Includes an image editor and one extra set of 36 block images. $15.00 Requires EGA or VGA and a Microsoft compatible mouse. Snarf 2.03 --- Snarf is an arcade style game of mazes, treasures, First-Aid stations, locks and keys, teleports, and of course those nasty, sneaky, sniveling Snarfs. The game currently contains 39 different levels, and includes a level editor so the user can create new levels. $15.00 Requires EGA or VGA. Solitile Accessory Disks are $5.00 each: Disk #1 --- Contains: 3 tilesets: MAHJONG, BATH, and TOOLS 5 layouts: MAYAMASK, ZIGZAG, PLANE, BIDIR, and PI 9 music files: ENTERTAINER, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING, MUSIC BOX DANCER, ROSES, BLUE DANUBE, LOVE STORY, GODFATHER, A VERY GOOD YEAR 13 GIF files: space walking astronaut, Marylin Monroe, Bulldog, Star Trek Enterprise, cartoon charact- ers, etc. Disk #2 --- Contains: 5 tilesets: STAMPS, BASEBALL, CANDY, WINTILE1, BODY 5 layouts: JAILBRAK,10HIDING,FLATCAT,SPRAYER,SQUARFAC 9 music files: SOUND OF SILENCE, THOSE WERE THE DAYS, BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, CABARET, GEORGY GIRL, KING OF THE ROAD, MOON RIVER, RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD, WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE 21 GIF files: space shuttle take-off, King Tut, a cheetah's face, cartoon characters, etc. End of SOLITILE.DOC