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Text File | 1992-07-31 | 16.6 KB | 293 lines

LazerChess v1.5 Copyright(c) 1992 Full Documentation Program written by: David Kujawski v1.1 Presented to the 1992 Microcomputer Fair (won 1st place in Alabama) INTRODUCTION: This game is a 2-player computer modification of the old-fashioned game of chess. Each standard playing piece is outfitted with a mirror, except for the King who has a laser, and depending upon the pieces current position and rotation, the laser will be reflected off of the mirror or destroy the piece. Most movements of the pieces are the same as standard chess, but the laser adds a completely different twist to the game. The object of the game is to destroy your opponent's King and, unlike chess, this can be done without any warning of "check". To actually complete the game the King must be destroyed and not just "mated". MAKING OF THE GAME: This program was started about one year before it's completion, but probably would only have taken three months to complete if it had been worked on continuously. CREDITS: (Thanks guys for all your help) Jason Pyatt - Moral Support/Alpha Testing John Harris ("Harris and Associates" Mobile, Al) - Marketing ideas Bruce Kujawski (Dad) - Efficient Alphabetizing idea PURPOSE: This game was designed for entry into the 1992 Microcomputer fair and for the enjoyment of it's future players. This program is also a demonstration of the fine art of modular programming. Most everything required for the running of the program was done from variables that were taken directly from the computer so as to allow the program to adapt to the computer and Not vice versa. THE GAME: The following few paragraphs will describe all of the features this program offers, and will tell you what keys will invoke them. SELECTING PLAYER'S NAMES: When the game loads up it will put you into a menu system, by which you can move the cursor around and invoke certain functions. To change a player's name, simply move the cursor to the appropriate line and press return. Type in the nake and press return again. If you make a mistake you can backspace and enter it in again. If you make a mistake after accepting the name you can move the cursor to the line again, press retrurn, and backspace over the wrong part. After you are finished selecting the players' names move the cursor to the "LET'S PLAY" line and press return to play/edit a game or move the cursor to the "BYE-BYE" line to quit LazerChess and go back to dos. UNDERSTANDING THE BOARD LAYOUT: Use the following grid system when reading about piece placement and movement: ------------------------------- Key: | R | Kn| B | Q | K | B | Kn| R | <-- 1 R : Rook |-------------------------------| Kn : Knight | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | <-- 2 B : Bishop |-------------------------------| Q : Queen | | | | | | | | | <-- 3 K : King |-------------------------------| P : Pawn | | | | | | | | | <-- 4 |-------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | <-- 5 |-------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | <-- 6 |-------------------------------| | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | <-- 7 |-------------------------------| | R | Kn| B | Q | K | B | Kn| R | <-- 8 ------------------------------- /-\ /-\ /-\ /-\ /-\ /-\ /-\ /-\ A B C D E F G H THE KING: (E8 and E1) The King is, undoubtedly, the most powerful and the most important piece. It is the most powerful piece because it is the only piece which can fire the all important laser. Depending on the piece's current rotation it will fire the laser in a different direction. The white bar on one side of the King is which direction the laser will come out of. Be CAREFUL when using the laser though. The King can be killed by a laser no matter where it hits him, so be careful of laser shots that reflect right back to the King. The King is the most important piece because he is the one that needs to be destroyed if the game is to have a winner. The king can capture a piece by landing on it. THE QUEEN: (D8 and D1) The Queen is the second most powerful piece in this game. Although she has no mirrors and can not reflect a laser been, she is made in a way that a laser beam will travel right through her (Not effecting her in the least). Just like in chess she can move in any direction as far as she likes (or until she is blocked by another piece.) She can capture a piece by just landing on it.. THE BISHOP: (C8, F8, C1, and F1) The Bishop is a very helpful piece if you are fighting a very intensive laser game. If a laser hits this piece in a white area, the laser beam splits (goes into two) and goes out the other two ends. If, however, the laser hits the piece on his non-white side, the piece will be destroyed. This piece moves only in diagonals any number of squares (or until barred by another piece). This piece can capture another piece by landing on it. THE KNIGHT: (B8, G8, B1, and G1) The Knight is a special piece because of the way it moves. Just like in chess the Knight jumps forward three spaces and to the left (or right) one space. This move is a JUMP and the Knight can move to the desired spot regardless of what is in-between (Assuming that he is not trying to jump onto one of his own pieces). The laser will go completely through the hole in the middle of the Knight (if it hits the white), but will not go through the non- white side. This property allows the Knight to act as a kind-of gate. The Knight captures piece by landing on them. THE ROOK: (A8, H8, A1, and H1) The rook is also a n important piece because it changes the direction of the laser hitting it by 90 degrees. For example, if a laser hits the white reflector and is coming from the right, it will either go up or down (depending on the rotation of the rook). If the laser hits on a side other than where the white mirror is, the laser destroys this piece. The Rook moves either horizontally or vertically any amount of squares (as long as another piece doesn't block it's way. It captures pieces by landing on them. THE PAWN: (A7-H7 and A2-H2) The pawn isn't one of the most powerful pieces, but because there are so many of them, the pawns become very important. The pawns move either one square forward or, unlike chess, one square backwards in a straight line. The attack by moving diagonally one square and landing on a piece, but they can only move diagonally if there is a piece to attack there. The pawn CAN NOT attack by moving forward onto a piece. When the pawn is on rows 2 or 7, the pawn has a special feature that allows it to jump two spaces forward. If there is an enemy piece between the jump, the piece will be captured, but if there is a friendly piece in between the jump, the piece will be un-harmed. If a laser hits the pawn on the white mirror, the laser will be reflected right back the way it came (a 180 degree turn). This can prove VERY deadly for the King since the laser will always find it's way back to it's source... If, however, the laser hits the pawn on any other side, the pawn will be destroyed. MOVING PIECES: When it is your turn, and you wish to move a piece follow the following procedure: First, select the piece by using the cursor keys (or the mouse) and position the pointer on the piece you would like to move. Next press enter (or A, or the left mouse button) to accept your choice. Next move the pointer (by using the cursor keys or the mouse) and accept it's destination (by pressing Enter, A, or the left mouse button). Press Enter again to accept the move or press ESC to undo it. ROTATING PIECES: To rotate a piece simply position the pointer on the appropriate piece (by using the cursor keys or the mouse) and press R (or the right mouse button). after you have the correct rotation you can then move the piece by moving the pointer (with the cursor keys or the mouse) to the selected destination and pressing Enter, A, or the Left mouse button and if you like the move -accept- again or you can undo it by pressing ESC. FIRING THE KING'S LASER: To fire the King's laser just press "F" at any time during your turn, but be carefull because your turn will end after the laser is fired and a fired laser can NOT be undone. UNDO-ING A MOVE: To UNDO a move and/or rotation that doesn't "suit your fancy" press ESC BEFORE pressing return, A, or Left Mouse Button to change turns. WINNING GAME: The only way to REALLY win the game is by destroying (or capturing) your opponents King. When this happens the game will automatically end. QUITTING THE GAME: To quit the game without anyone really declared as winner simply press ALT.-Q. Use EXTREME care with this option for it will NOT prompt you for a "Are you sure?", it will simply end the game AS IS. F1 MENU: At any time during game play press F1 for a menu which will give you instant access to options such as: SAVE/LOAD/EDIT/QUIT/SOUND and HELP SCREEN. In the menu simply move the cursor around and press enter to accept on your choice. The menu also displays the key-command that could have been pressed to access the command while viewing the chess board and skip to help screen. SAVE OPTION: (ONLY FOR REGISTERED USERS) To save a game press ALT-S, or use the Help menu, and type in the first 8 characters of the filename you wish to save to. NOTICE: You can NOT type in an extension to change the default extension from .LZC to something. A directory listing is provided on this screen to view the FIRST 90 .LZC's in the directory. If there are move files then that, they can-not be viewed on the directory. If you type in a name that is already there the current game will OVERWRITE the old file. (Use with caution) LOAD OPTION: To load a game press ALT-L, or use the Help menu, and type in the first 8 characters of the filnam you wish to load. The extension for all LazerChess save files is .LZC and can NOT be changed (or LazerChess will NOT recognize the file) The directory listing on this screen, also, will only display the first 90 .LZC files in the current directory, but you may enter in the name of any .LZC file residing in the LazerChess directory and it will (if it is there and it is valid) be loaded. EDIT OPTION: (ONLY FOR REGISTERED USERS) This screen allows making/setting up of your own personal game (which can be save with the SAVE option... Only a few things to remember here: TO CHANGE A PIECE (on the board) to something different: Simply click (Left mouse button or Enter) on the square to change and then click on the selection to change it too(located on either side of the playing board) TO ERASE A PIECE click on the piece to erase and then click on any blank square to the left or right of the playing board. You can JUST rotate a piece by hitting the rotate key (or right mouse button) while over the piece and then (after you are satisfied) accepting it. A piece can be moved from the playing BOARD to the playing BOARD, but only if the second square selected is blank... Notice that the numbers on the side screen indicate how many, and what kind, of piece CAN (but don't have to be) put on the board... BOTH KINGS MUST BE ON THE BOARD after you are done setting up your screen, and only two kings (one of each color) can be posisitioned. To change the current player accept in the upper right hand box that is filled solid with a color. The color of the box is the current player's color. SOUND OFF/ON switch: This will turn ON/OFF the error beeping that occurs when bad moves/commands are entered in. Use this option only if you have a headache or something or it is late at night and you don't want to wake everyone since a beep is the only notification that you get of a bad move/command. DOS SHELL option: This allows you to play with Dos in the middle of a LazerChess game... NOTICE: LazerChess takes up a reasonable amount of memory (and so does the sound driver - If you have a Sound Blaster) so some program will NOT run, but this is a good option if you get a phone call or something and you NEED to go to you MEMO program to write a message and don't want to Quit your game (but you COULD just save it and load it when you come back - If you are registered) DISCLAIMER (and the such): First, and foremost, by using this game I am in no way help responsible for any damage that might become of your system thru the use of or attempted use of LazerChess v1.5. I am also not help responsible for any changes that could have been made by different people and distributed under this title and my name. Also... All items mentioned within this program are trademarks of their respective companies and are, therfore, granted all rights, responsibilities, and priviliges thereby incompassed... NOTICE: This product is Copyrighted and all rights and privileges are withheld by the author. The registered version may not be copied and distributed under penelty of law, but the unregistered version may be distributed freely (and is encouraged to be!) To determine whether or not this copy of the game is legal, please look on any Menu screen for the Un/registered statement... COMMAND SUMMARY CHART: Enter, A, Left button : Accept current piece/selection Space, R, Right button : Rotate currently selected piece ESC, U, Both buttons (for a two button mouse or...) Middle button : Undo current selection and rotation F : Fire King's laser. (Can NOT be undone) Cursor keys : Move pointer around F1 : Access the Help menu Alt S : Save current game Alt L : Load new game Alt E : Edit games board (make your own board setup) Alt B : Turn error sound/beeping off/on *N/A* : MODEM (Possibly in later versions) Alt D : Shell to Dos (while Lazerchess is still running) Alt Q : Quit game REGISTERED USERS GET... When you register LAZER-CHESS (buy printing out the file LAZORDER.TXT, filling it out, and sending it in with your $20 check) you will be able to have the following: SAVE ROUTINE (save you game or edited setup for loading later) EDIT ROUTINE (Make you own board layout/setup) MESSAGE FROM AUTHOR: I hope that you enjoy LazerChess and that (if you haven't) you register after the trial period of 10 days. I you encounter any problems with this program please send me a statement telling what happened (use the address in the LAZORDER.TXT file)... Wishing you many hours of fun: David Kujawski Version differences: 1.0 -- It was JUST chess (no options) WON 1ST PLACE STATE ALABAMA MICROCOMPUTER FAIR 1992 1.1 -- Network version of v1.0; licensed to Austin High School 1.5 -- Neat features added like: Save/Load/Sound/Dos Shell/Online Help/Online Help Menu/Edit Setup Planned inhancements: (If response is good)-No promises this: 2.0 -- Added Sound support(sound cards)/MODEM support/True NETWORK support And maybe even: (but let's see how v1.5 goes first)-No promises on this either: 3.0 -- WINDOWS 3.1 support with MULTIMEDIA sound for sound cards.