Fun & Games 2 (Canada)

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Fun & Games 2 (Canada) / Fun & Games CD-ROM (Canada).bin / games / disk187 / mjvga20.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1989-08-09 | 29.6 KB | 977 lines

Mah Jongg -V-G-A- Version 2.0 Program and Documentation Copyright 1988, 1989 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 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 The Special Sub-Menu ............. 11 Background .................. 11 Info... ..................... 11 DOS Shell ................... 11 Sound ....................... 11 Timer ....................... 12 Command Line Options ............. 12 IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY ................. 13 TECHNICAL SUPPORT ..................... 13 OFFICIAL BULLETIN BOARD ............... 13 WHAT'S NEXT ........................... 14 SHARWEWARE ............................ 14 DISCLAIMER ............................ 15 PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE .............. 15 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, to Mark Hook and Rick & jami Chism for "beta testing" MJVGA Version 2.0. - Page 2 - FORWARD A message to users of Version 1.1 This new release of Mah Jongg -V-G-A- is dedicated to those who have registered & supported my first release -- Version 1.1. Your many comments were extremely helpful. In fact, many of the new features were implemented at your suggestion. Your praise and encouragement have given me the motivation to add even more bells and whistles to MJVGA. Please take a moment to read the documentation. There are a lot of "hidden" features in this release. They aren't mentioned on the screen menus for the sake of simplicity, but they ARE there! To help those of you who have read the manual for v1.1 and don't want to read the whole thing again, I'm also enclosing a file called NEW.DOC. This will outline all of the enhancements added since v1.1 without covering any of the v1.1 functions. If you haven't read the manual from v1.1, please read the main manual! It DOES have information which is not found in NEW.DOC! You'll also find a completely new program called The Draftsman (DRAFTSMN.EXE). This program will let you change any of the tiles -- or even completely design your own personal tile set! The manual for The Draftsman can be found in it's own .DOC file. Please read it! The Draftsman's functions aren't always obvious! - 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- 2.0 ----------------------------- THE BASICS To start Mah Jongg -V-G-A-, just place the game disk into a drive, log onto that drive, and type MJVGA20 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 four buttons will appear on the bottom 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. 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! 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. There is no short-cut for Do It! 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. - Page 10 - 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!!! 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. - Page 11 - 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. COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Mah Jongg -V-G-A- v2.0 will accept five different command line options -- S, T, M, F, and D. The purpose of each is as follows: S - Begin the game with sound off T - Begin the game with the timer display off M - Begin the game with messages off D - Disables the dual-monitor feature. No data will be written to the monochrome monitor. Normally this feature can be ignored -- even if you don't have a monochrome monitor connected. However, if you're multi-tasking your computer (under DESQview, for example) and using the monochrome monitor as a second DOS environment, you won't want MJVGA to use that screen. 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. - Page 12 - 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. 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 If you'd prefer, you can contact me through The Party Line BBS in Mountaintop, Pennsylvania at (717) 868-5433. Just send E-Mail to User #408. The latest version of MJVGA will always be available for downloading here. The file name will reflect the version number. For example, MJVGA20 represents version 2.0. There's also a ton of other PD / Shareware available here, along with a bunch of local & national message bases. If you're into BBSing, you've got to check this board out! The Party Line runs 300 - 9600 baud with a USR dual-standard modem and is in operation 24 hours/day. I'd like to thank Jami Chism, the sysop of The Party Line, for permission to use her board as the "official" Mah Jongg -V-G-A- BBS. Thanks, Jami!! - Page 13 - WHAT'S NEXT At this point, I don't really know what else is coming! I still like the idea of alternate tile sets. That's why I created The Draftsman. If you put together a tile set that you're proud of, please send me a copy! I'd like to put together an entire disk of alternate tile sets. So, if you do send a tile set, please let me know if I can include it on a disk of tile sets. You will, of course, be given credit for it! Here's an added incentive to try and get this off the ground. I'll send a disk full of tile sets (whenever I accumulate them) to anyone who sends me their original tile set with permission to include it on the disk. Please note: Simple modifications to the current tile set will NOT qualify as a new alternate tile set. The set must be totally new and original. I've seem Mah Jongg tile sets on other machines based on themes such as computer tiles (floppy disks, printers, CPU's, etc.) and patriotic tiles (stars, stripes, red, white, and blue, etc). If this catches on, I'll modify MJVGA to make it easier to load alternate tile sets -- possibly from the command line. 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 numbers 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 - Page 14 - 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 15 - Appendix A The .ICN 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 .ICN files are related to the images as follows: V00.ICN == Bamboo 1 thru thru V08.ICN == Bamboo 9 V09.ICN == Dots 1 thru thru V17.ICN == Dots 9 V18.ICN == Crak 1 thru thru V26.ICN == Crak 9 V27.ICN == North V28.ICN == East V29.ICN == South V30.ICN == West V31.ICN == Dragon C V32.ICN == Dragon P V33.ICN == Dragon F V34.ICN == Sprint V35.ICN == Summer V36.ICN == Autumn V37.ICN == Winter V38.ICN == Orchid V39.ICN == Plum V40.ICN == Mum V41.ICN == Bamboo V42.ICN == Reserved -- Internal use V43.ICN == 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!!! - Page 16 -