NAME egaint - Enhanced graphics aint SYNOPSIS egaint [cmp] DESCRIPTION Egaint represents an IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter-specific implementation of and complete replacement for aint. While providing a very high degree of compatibility with its predecessor, egaint also features several improvements, including a greater level of compatibility with TETRIS, the Russian pioneer of the falling shape genre of computer games. MACHINE REQUIREMENTS Egaint 0.93.05 was developed and tested solely on a Toshiba T5100 Personal Portable Computer; this means that I had a 16 Mhz 80386, an EGA with 256K RAM, and MS-DOS 3.3 in mind during development. It is highly recommended that at least an 80286 be present when egaint is run (though you could probably make due without one); in addition, I have heard rumors that the VGA is supported (though I cannot verify this). OBJECT If you've played egaint before (or aint, TETRIS, NYET, Son of TETRIS, or any of the related games), you can skip this part. But for those of you who are new to this genre of computer games, the object of egaint is to create solid rows across the twenty-four unit high, ten unit wide playing field (solid in the sense that there are no holes) by both moving and rotating the shapes which fall from the top of the playing field towards the bottom. Once a solid row is created, egaint will clear it from the screen, allowing everything above it to fall into its place. However, if the shapes pile up and reach the top of the playing field, the game will end (but your addiction won't--at least for a while it shouldn't). COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS Egaint accepts one option which will allow the user to specify what sort of display device will be used: c An IBM Enhanced Color Display (or any compatible device capable of displaying sixteen distinctive attributes at one time) will be used. m An IBM ECD-compatible device capable of displaying only two distinctive attributes at one time (i.e., "black" and "white") will be used. p An IBM ECD-compatible device capable of displaying only four distinctive attributes at one time (namely, the gas plasma display of Toshiba T5100 Portable Personal Computer, which can only show "bright orange," "medium-bright orange," "medium-dark orange," and "dark orange") will be used. GAME OPTIONS Once inside egaint, a game options screen (after, of course, the title screen). A brief summary of the available options (and their preset values) follows. Tournament Game (No) There are two hundred and fifty-six possible tournament games built into egaint; each tournament game will play exactly the same each time it is invoked, making them ideal vehicle for competitions between two players. Note that all conditions must be identical for the games to be identical (i.e., the same initial level, the same initial height, the same version of egaint, etc.) Tournament Game Number (0) This option allows you to choose which particular game (out of the two-hundred and fifty-six possible) you wish to play (they range from zero to two-hundred and fifty-five). Initial Level (5) Where one is the easiest (slowest) and ten is the hardest (fastest). Initial Height (0) Specifies how high (in blocks) an area should be filled with randomly placed blocks (ranges from one to twelve). And, as an improvement upon aint, egaint offers hidden (or invisible) blocks, which may be set by incrementing the height past twelve. Show Next (Yes) Toggles whether or not the next piece to be put into play should be displayed in a window in the upper-left corner of the screen. Show Shadow (No) This is still being worked on; the idea behind this is to have a "shadow" cast upon the area beneath the falling shape (which should, in theory, result in less placement errors). Extended Shapes (Classic) Egaint builds upon aint by offering four sets of shapes: Classic the seven basic shapes Easy the Classic set plus an assortment of smaller shapes Medium the Classic and Easy sets plus some moderately awkward shapes Hard all of the above sets plus larger, more difficult shapes Block Style (varies) There are four styles of blocks which you can choose from: New A style introduced in egaint 0.93.01 as part of the title screen, it was found appealing enough to eventually replace the original style (though that was later brought back). Classic The original style which was, as mentioned above, abandoned (but later restored). Pumped Full of Drugs A random style which was created (out of boredom) after the New style was added (did I here someone mention featuritis?); this apt moniker was lifted directly from the not-so-apt title of a very lethargic concert videotape. Really P.F.D. Another random style which represents a random combination of all of the above styles. KEY BINDINGS The essential key bindings are the same as for aint, though some additions have been made: J Moves the current shape towards the left wall of the playing field. In addition, this key moves the cursor upward while in the game options screen. K Rotates the current shape in the right, or clockwise, direction. In addition, this key also toggles the selected option during the game options screen. L Moves the current shape towards the right wall of the playing field. In addition, this key moves the cursor downward while in the game options screen. I Rotates the current shape in the left, or counter-clockwise, direction. Space Bar Drops the current shape (and, as a result, relinquishes all user control of it). Escape When first hit, it pauses the game: if Escape is hit again while paused, it will abort the game; otherwise, play resumes. In addition, pressing this during the game options screen while exit you from the game and into the operating system. B Cycles the current block style through from New to Classic to Pumped Full of Drugs to Really P.F.D. and back to New, etc. N Toggles the Show Next setting. S Toggles the (non-functioning) Show Shadow setting. V Increments the current level (and cycles back to level one). X Cycles the current shape set through from Classic to Easy to Medium to Hard and back to Classic, etc. PLAYING FIELD SCREEN The playing field screen is divided into four components: Next window This window is located in the upper-left corner of the screen and displays, if Show Next is set, the next shape scheduled to come into play. Score window This window is located in the upper-right corner of the screen, directly opposite from the Next window, and consists of the following: Score The current number of points attained by the player. Value The point value (after all bonuses have been added; see SCORING for more information about this) of the current shape (i.e., the one falling). Level The current level of play (see ADVANCEMENT for more information about this) and the current shape set. Rows The total number of rows which have been cleared during this game. Playing Field This is represented by the narrow pit running the height of the screen. Key Bindings window These are the two windows on either side of the playing field at the bottom of the screen; they provide a quick summary of the recognized keys to press and their assigned functions. SCORING The scoring is not complicated: each shape has been given a value which was determined with the difficulty in placing and frequency of necessity being the governing factors. This value is first multiplied by your current level and then bonuses are added on; these bonuses are awarded for not using Show Next, not using Show Shadow, having an Initial Height, etc. In addition, to the points which you automatically get for each piece, you also get points for dropping pieces (the higher you drop, the more points you get) and for, naturally, clearing rows. Again, these points are multiplied by your current level and the above bonuses are then added in. Careful experimentation (or just looking at the source code) will allow you to determine the exact scoring algorithm. ADVANCEMENT In addition, egaint will automatically provide level advancement (and higher point values) for you after you clear a certain number of rows. The rule for this is: after you clear your "x"th row, if "x" is a multiple of ten, you will be advanced (if you are not at this or above this already) to the "n"th level, where "n" is "x" divided by ten. CONFIGURATION FILE Egaint will save the current options (upon exit to the operating system) in a file called EGAINT.RC; the format is pretty self- explanatory upon inspection (i.e., if you don't understand this, don't bother with it). If egaint cannot find its configuration file, it will create one with the above default options. HIGH SCORE FILE Egaint will save the top fifteen high scores (along with other information about those particular games) into a file called EGAINT.REC. Again, if egaint cannot find its high score file, it will create one (this means you can delete the high score file at any time). UNRESTRICTIONS Egaint is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 1, as published by the Free Software Foundation. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty whatsoever, without even the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the accompanying GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with egaint; see the file COPYING. If not, write to: Free Software Foundation, Inc. 675 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SHAREWARE This program is not public domain nor is it shareware (or freeware, or whateverware): note that I am not asking you to send me any fees or donations; also note that I have copyrighted this program. What does this mean? Well, if you really drastically feel the need to send someone money because you enjoy egaint, donate it to a worthy cause, like (I think this is the correct spelling) Bruce Ritter's Covenant Houses or to the above Free Software Foundation or whatever you deem appropriate. SOURCE CODE For this particular version, egaint 0.93.05, you can obtain the complete source code (which has compiled correctly under Turbo Pascal versions 4.0 and 5.5, so I assume, by interpolation, it will compile under 5.0) at either of the below bulletin board systems: Tom and Sue McDermet's The Odyssey A carrier of the SmartNet network Morris Plains, New Jersey (201) 984-6574 John Looker's Bandersnatch Phoenix Net #807/7 Basking Ridge, New Jersey (201) 766-3801 In addition, those of you with Internet access can reach me at the following address: erc@{mars,irss,inis}.njit.edu Please send any bug reports, modifications, or other assorted queries to the above address (if you can). Also, I will be returning to college sometime in mid-August, meaning that later versions of egaint may not be posted on the above bulletin boards (being that they will be quite long distance calls for me); the e-mail address, however, should remain valid. REVISION HISTORY aint 0.0 (19-Apr-89) The original, bare-bones version of aint, it represented a falling shape game, though not much else. Originally "thrown together" under the aegis of a wager. aint 0.1 (20-Apr-89) The first version of aint to adequately capture the concept of the genre it was trying to fit into (i.e., constructing rows) without possessing any really major bugs; it, in turn, lacked the "standard" features of generic computer games (scoring being one notable example). aint 0.2 (20-Apr-89) The alpha-test version of aint: the really major bugs that were later discovered were fixed and "standard features" like scoring and levels were added. aint 0.8 (21-Apr-89) The beta-test version of aint: pretty much rewritten, it used more reliable machine-independent timing functions and more realistic scoring functions while Show Next, Show Statistics, Initial Height, (a not particularly reliable implementation of) Tournament Games, a game options screen, and a true high score list were added. aint 0.9 (26-Apr-89) The pre-release version of aint: a bug which caused a fatal system crash at peculiar moments was fixed while "debug features" like Smart Bomb, Polymorph, and Nuke were added. This was the first version to be distributed (in a still quite limited and very lackadaisical fashion) beyond the initial test groups. egaint 0.9 (2-May-89) The initial version of egaint, it was written specifically for the graphics hardware which I had: EGAs with 256K RAM connected to gas plasma screens capable of displaying only four shades of orange. Originally conceived as a rewritten, portable aint (cough), it slowly (de-) evolved (due to laziness) into a hideously slow, flickery, EGA-only version. All the cheap bells and whistles present in aint (like the "debug features") were abandoned in favor of less tacky bells and whistles, like actually drawing the shapes in the Statistics window and not calling them funny names like "ell" and "lel." egaint 0.91 (2-Jun-89) A kludged version of egaint which provided support for more colors. egaint 0.92 (13-Jun-89) The "lost" egaint: conceived as an idea on paper, this was the ambitious start of a complete rewrite of egaint. This new version would add support for CGAs, bare-bone EGAs, HGCs, MCGAs, and VGAs. In addition, the "flagship" version of egaint for EGAs with 256K RAM (and VGAs) would employ video page switching (in an attempt to remove the flicker). Unfortunately, this version is still that, an idea on paper. egaint 0.91.99 (18-Jun-89) Being too lazy (and busy) to actually rewrite egaint at this point and time, this revision provided a bridge between versions and included specific improvements conceived with egaint 0.92. The most important was the test of video page switching in the title screen (which, after several almost hilarious attempts, turned out great). In addition, extended shapes were added (most of them quite ridiculous) and Show Statistics was removed because of this (there were too many damned shapes!). Minor fixes included the ability to use Escape as an editing key while entering high score names and the removal of the wilder block styles. egaint 0.92.01 (18-Jun-89) Since so many of egaint 0.92's planned improvements were being implemented (and since I didn't feel like using hexidecimal version numbers), the revision number was advanced to reflect "0.92" status. Shadowing, a feature seen in a UNIX implementation by Adam Margulies was begun (and latter scuttled). In addition, the use of Escape to pause, double Escape to quit was implemented, as was the ability to toggle options during game play. Finally, Initial Height blocks were given their own special, muted-color style (in order to distinguish them from "real" blocks). egaint 0.92.02 (18-Jun-89) This version added true shadowing (though extremely flickery). In addition, an attempt to use video page switching in the actual game play was attempted and quickly abandoned. egaint 0.93.01 (24-Jun-89) The actual rewrite of egaint began with this version: however, due to laziness (again), it turned into a half-rewrite, half- recopy. On the other hand, all of the code which was rewritten turned out to be the only code which needed to be rewritten (at least in my opinion). A more elegant video page switching scheme was implemented throughout the entire program, causing a noticeable performance degradation in the title and game over screens but (mysteriously) not in the actual game play itself. Shadowing code was, at the very last moment, commented out due to an inability to conceive of an elegant (or at least efficient) manner of implementation. Also, code was added that allowed the user to determine which shape set was currently in use. In addition, the "New" block style was introduced, though not for game play, but rather for the title and game over screens. Finally, the playing field screen was modified: the Score window was moved over to the upper-right corner, and the Key Bindings window asexually reproduced into two. egaint 0.93.02 (25-Jun-89) This version consisted mainly of cosmetic improvements; the most notable was the addition of the "New" block style as an alternative to the "Old" (later renamed "Classic") block style. Also, the Score window was now updated after each toggle, making it less confusing. Finally, the game over code was removed because the "New" block style was now being used within the game play. egaint 0.93.03 (25-Jun-89) The pre-release version of egaint: it added minor features, like the "Pumped Full of Drugs" and "Really P.F.D." block styles, a new game over screen, a completely re-implemented extended shape set, the ability to rotate shapes the other direction (the I key; another improvement from Adam Margulies), and the "Value" entry in the Score window. Finally, the high score file format was changed to note which version (out of the seemingly hundreds) was played for each score. This version also featured pre-release documentation, a hastily put-together mishmash of old aint documents modified for the egaint context. Distribution of egaint began with this version; a rudimentary serial number system (to allow the author, just for curiosity, to track the distribution path of a specific copy) was implemented. Unfortunately, distribution was limited to only bulletin board systems which were non-toll calls from Morris Plains. egaint 0.93.04 (30-Jun-89) A private maintenance revision of egaint, it tuned down the scoring and changed the name of the "Old" block style to "Classic." egaint 0.93.04x (7-Jul-89) This revision of egaint was the first to be compiled under Turbo Pascal 5.5 and marked the removal of the serial number system (in anticipation for the distribution of source code, which would render any sort of tracking useless). egaint 0.93.05 (13-Jul-89) The first release of egaint to fully comply with the GNU General Public License (though it and aint had been previously distributed without source code under terms and conditions set up by the Free Software Foundation), it provided for a configuration file and a name change (from "New More Order" to the author's real identity). In addition, the documentation was rewritten into a UNIX "man"-like format. aint 0.90.01 (13-Jun-89) A fix-up of aint for inclusion in the egaint 0.93.05 package, it added some cosmetic improvements to the title/game options screen and reset the initial values for some variables; note that there are (major) scoring differences between egaint 0.93.05 and aint 0.90.01. STILL TO COME Realistically, there still is a long way to go before the "whole" version of egaint 1 can be released; the following are only a few of the improvements which must be implemented before that release can become a reality: + Support (via different versions, like cgaint, hgaint, mcgaint, etc.) for different graphics cards, including EGAs with only 64K RAM. + An elegant (or at least efficient) implementation of Show Shadow. + More efficient code, allowing egaint to be run on slower machines without noticeable performance degradation. + Placement of code into separate modules, allowing for easier maintenance. + Microsoft Mouse support. In addition, the following ideas are being considered: + Background screens: I've been considering loading .GIF screens onto the background so that users aren't forced to gaze at low- resolution caricatures of Russian life. + A different game premise (if you ask me, I'm kind of sick of the falling shape genre of computer games). CREDITS Borland International's BGI (Borland Graphics Interface, I believe) system was used for the graphics and font libraries of egaint. SEE ALSO TETRIS, NYET, Son of TETRIS Project (SOT), etc. TRADEMARKS All brand and product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Whew! Copyright (C) 1989 Eric Ng