@database Soliton @master Soliton.guide @$VER: Soliton Documentation 1.31b (97-04-10) @author "Kai Nickel" @(c) "Copyright ©1997 Kai Nickel" @node "MAIN" "Table of Contents" @{b}S o l i t o n@{ub} Solitaire card game @{b}Introduction@{ub} @{" Description " link "DESCRIPTION" } @{" Installation " link "INSTALLATION"} @{" Author " link "AUTHOR" } @{b}Usage@{ub} @{" Main window " link "MAINWINDOW" } @{" Settings " link "SETTINGS" } @{" Create cardsets " link "CARDS" } @{b}Appendix@{ub} @{" History " link "HISTORY" } @{" Copyright " link "COPYRIGHT" } @{" MUI " link "MUI" } @endnode @node "DESCRIPTION" "Description" @{b}D e s c r i p t i o n@{ub} @{b}Features@{ub} Soliton is a Solitaire card game with the following features: * Cardsets are loaded via datatypes. You can also @{"make" link "CARDS"} them easily by yourself using any size or color depth you like. * System-friendly @{"MUI" link "MUI"} user interface, runs on workbench or any other screen. Works very fine on graphic cards, too. * Selectable background pattern. * Opaque drag'n'drop card movement. * Different game options, timer, statistics, move indicator. * Languages: English, Deutsch, Norsk, Francais, Italiano, Svenska * @{"Giftware" link "COPYRIGHT"}. @{b}Requirements@{ub} To play Soliton you need Kickstart 3.0 (or higher) and @{"MUI" link "MUI"} Version 3.6 (or higher). @endnode @node "INSTALLATION" "Installation" @{b}I n s t a l l a t i o n@{ub} @{b}Automatic@{ub} The best way to get Soliton installed is to start the script "Soliton-Install". Don't panic: No files will be copied into your system directories! @{b}By hand@{ub} If you do not like scripts or the Installer, just drag the "Soliton" drawer somewhere to your harddisk. Then take the "Soliton.guide" of your preferred language from "Soliton/Docs//" and move it to the "Soliton/" drawer so that it can be used for online help. @{b}Deinstall@{ub} To get rid of Soliton just delete the Soliton drawer. Thst's all. @endnode @node "AUTHOR" "Author" @{b}A u t h o r@{ub} Soliton was written by Kai Nickel @{b}Mail@{ub} Kai Nickel Herzogstrasse 29 67435 Neustadt Germany @{b}eMail@{ub} un7x@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de kai@rpsbbs.rlp.de @{b}WWW@{ub} http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~un7x Updates and a cardset gallery can be found on my homepage or in Aminet (game/think and game/data). @{b}Translation@{ub} All translations were done by the Amiga Translators Organisation @{b}ATO@{ub}. I would like to thank the following people for their work: Francais: Franck Aniere (Guide, Install) Francis Labrie (Catalog) Franck Routier (Proofreader) Svenska: Magnus Holmgren (Translator) Linus Silvander (Proofreader) Norsk: Audun Vaaler Italiano: Luca Nora (Translator) Roberto Patriarca (Proofreader) @endnode @node "MAINWINDOW" "Main window" @{b}M a i n w i n d o w@{ub} The window mainly consists of the playfield. Cards are moved by drag'n'drop: Click onto card, hold mousebutton pressed and release it over the destination field. @{b}Buttons@{ub} On the top or the left of the window is a button bar. The buttons belong to the most important menu items. To find out what they do, please look at the according menu item. The 'Move' button indicates a move possibility and executes it if you click. On the button bar is also a game timer that starts from zero every time you start a new game. It is running only while the Soliton window is active! The look of the button bar and the existence of the move indicator is @{"configurable" link "SETTINGS"}. @{b}Menu@{ub} The menu offers the following functions: Project New : Start new game Clean up : Automatically try to move all visible cards to their destinations. Undo : Make last move undone. About : Show Soliton information Help : Open online help like pressing HELP Statistics : Open game statistics window. Iconify : Close Soliton and put an icon on the workbench to wake Soliton up again. Quit : End Soliton. Profiles Here you can switch between different profiles. A profile is a combination of a cardset and a pattern. You can define profiles in the @{"settings" link "SETTINGS"} window. Settings Soliton : Open Soliton @{"settings" link "SETTINGS"} window. MUI : Open MUI settings for Soliton. @{b}Help@{ub} If you press the HELP-key you will get an online-help window containing this documentation. If you don't move the mouse pointer for a while, you will see a bubble with information about the object under the mouse pointer. @endnode @node "SETTINGS" "Settings" @{b}S e t t i n g s@{ub} The program settings are divided into three pages: @{b}Gameplay@{ub} @{b}Open cards@{ub} Number of cards that should be turned around whenever you click the stack on the top left. The more the harder the game will be. @{b}Block moves@{ub} If active, you have to move the cards from the stacks all together as a single block. If not, you can take some of the cards and move them. The option makes the game harder. @{b}Auto open@{ub} Turn around the topmost card of a stack as soon as it becomes uncovered. This option does not affect the difficulty of the game. @{b}Auto open topleft@{ub} Make Soliton to uncover the first (1, 2 or 3) card(s) after turning around the "source" stack. This option does not affect the difficulty of the game. @{b}Indicate moves@{ub} Show the 'Move' button every time there is a move possi- bility. @{b}Appearance@{ub} @{b}Buttons@{ub} You can choose between the "Cool buttons" and the ugly "Standard buttons". The cool buttons look better, that's all there is to say about it. If you don't like any of them, you may also choose "No buttons" and use the menu instead. @{b}Fly speed@{ub} Speed of the cards when they are 'flying' to ther desti- nations, e.g. because you clicked on 'Clean up'. You may also select 'no amin' to make the cards immediately jump to the destination. @{b}Opaque cards@{ub} Show the 'full' card when moving it, instead of just a boring border. @{b}Beep@{ub} Use system display beep whenever an error occurs. @{b}Requester@{ub} Ask before starting a new game or quitting the program. @{b}Profiles@{ub} You can define up to 10 different profiles here. A profile is a combination of a cardset and a background pattern that can be selected in the profiles menu. All profiles are listed of the left. @{b}Profile@{ub} Name of the selected profile. @{b}Cardset@{ub} Soliton can load cardsets in two different formats: 1. All cards in one image file. Just select that file here. 2. Every card is in a seperate file in a common directory. In this case, please select that directory (but no file). You can easily create @{"your own cards" link "CARDS"}. @{b}Pattern@{ub} Background pattern of the playfield. You can use any image file you want. @endnode @node "CARDS" "Create cardsets" @{b}C r e a t e c a r d s e t s@{ub} @{b}Format@{ub} What you should know: * All cards of a cardset have to be rectangular and of the same size. If the cards are very big you will need a very big screen to play with them. Cards with the size of 80*120 will still fit on a 640*512 screen. * Depending on the window height Soliton always shows at least 1/9 of an overlapped card. So the value (K, Q, J, 10, ...) of the card should be placed readable in the first 9th part of the card - if possible. * You can use any color depth you like. Soliton will remap the cardset to the present display enviroment while loading. DO NOT USE HAM MODES, because they cannot be remapped to be shown on "normal" screen modes. * You can use every picture format that can be loaded with datatypes. Because not everybody has got all exotic data- types I believe IFF, JPEG or PNG to be the best choice. @{b}Files@{ub} Soliton can load cards in two different ways: * All cards are in one image file. They have to be next to each other in the way that is presented in the file "Cards_Default.iff". Save the whole picture exactly without border (e.g. as brush) because Soliton assumes the card size to be 1/14 of the picture width * 1/4 of the picture height. Advantage : Quite fast loading. Disadvantage: You have to remap all cards to one common color palette. * Each card is a seperate file in a common directory. The file names are expected to be just like this: "Back" for the backsides "Empty" for an empty card place "Clubs_A" for Ace of Clubs "Clubs_2" for Two of Clubs . . . "Clubs_K" for King of Clubs And just the same for: "Diamonds_#" "Hearts_#" "Spades_#" Advantage : Individual color palette for each card Disadvantage: Time consuming loading @{b}Publish@{ub} Of course you can publish your cards just as you like. I think Aminet/game/data is the best place for cardsets. Please don't forget to include a .readme file. H A V E F U N ! ! ! @endnode @node "HISTORY" "History" @{b}H i s t o r y@{ub} @{b}V1.31b@{ub} * Fixed possible crash/hit at startup. 97-04-10 * Fixed possible deadlock with drag'n'drop. * Statistics window remembers position now. * Updated translation: Svenska. * Fixes standard design move button. * Disabled 'flying card' by default. The feature seems to be buggy and crashes on some machines. Please read "readme.1st" for details! * Added graphics hardware check in About window and compiled without optimizations for debugging purposes. * Move indicator disappears completely when disabled. @{b}V1.30@{ub} * Move indicator button 97-03-09 * "Cool buttons" ;-) on the left side of the window. * Cards 'fly' to their destinations. * Cardset-pattern-profiles selectable via menu. * Fixed bug with dragged cards trashing display. * Opaque cards switch has been ignored sometimes. * Display beep and 'Auto turn topleft' can be disabled. * Fixed 'Help' menu item. * ImageFX scripts to convert cardsets to Soltion format. * Fixed cleanup bug when auto open was switched off. * Rules bugfix : A on 2 now allowed (quite useless anyway), but no more K on A. Ability to move cards back from the four destination stacks. * Optional are-you-sure-requesters before 'New game' and 'Quit'. * New languages @{b}V1.20@{ub} * Timer 97-02-18 * Statistics window * Support of the V43-Datatypes for more than 256 colors. * Increased rendering speed on screens with more than 256 colors (especially on CyberGraphics systems). * New catalogs: Francais, Svenska * Improved default cardset a bit. * Drag point could jump away when dragging cards very fast. * Reworked install script. @{b}V1.10@{ub} * Implemented UnDo. 97-02-08 * Optional opaque card movement. * Drag'n'drop begins when you move the mouse, not before. Right mouse-button aborts drag'n'drop. * Size of covered cards depending on windows height. * Automatic turn-around of topmost cards can be switched off now. * Cosmetics in some requesters and settings window. New icon. * New games were immediately cleaned up sometimes. Oops. * Internally: KaiLib ;-) @{b}V1.00@{ub} * First version 97-02-01 @endnode @node "COPYRIGHT" "Copyright" @{b}C o p y r i g h t@{ub} Soliton is copyright ©1997 by Kai Nickel. Soliton is GIFTWARE. You are allowed to play it and copy it as long as you don't have commercial interests. The original-archive must remain complete and unchanged when you copy Soliton. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you like the program you are asked to send a small gift to the @{"author" link "author"}. Don't know what? Well, just put some money in a letter... :-) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Explicit permission to publish Soliton is given to the Meeting-Pearls and the Aminet CD series. The author cannot guarantee the correct function of Soliton and cannot be made responsible for any negative consequences that may result from the use of Soliton. Soliton uses the @{"MUI-system" link "MUI"} by Stefan Stuntz. @{"Translations" link "AUTHOR"} were done by ATO. @endnode @node "MUI" "MUI" @{b}M U I@{ub} This application uses MUI - MagicUserInterface (c) Copyright 1993-97 by Stefan Stuntz MUI is a system to generate and maintain graphical user interfaces. With the aid of a preferences program, the user of an application has the ability to customize the outfit according to his personal taste. MUI is distributed as shareware. To obtain a complete package containing lots of examples and more information about registration please look for a file called "muiXXusr.lha" (XX means the latest version number) on your local bulletin boards or on public domain disks. If you want to register directly, feel free to send DM 30.- or US$ 20.- to Stefan Stuntz Eduard-Spranger-Straße 7 80935 München GERMANY @{b}MUI in Soliton@{ub} Soliton needs MUI 3.6 or higher to be installed. You are allowed to use MUI @{b}without@{ub} registering for it - but when you register you can take advantage of some extended functions in the MUI preferences. It is very recommended to read the MUI documentation carefully - especially of the MUI preferences. Despite that I would like to show you in the following list @{i}some@{ui} advantages of MUI-programs that could be useful using Soliton: If you want Soliton to work on an own @{b}screen@{ub}, then you can do this with the MUI prefs for Soliton. Windows of MUI applications are @{b}resizeable@{ub} and completely @{b}fontsensitive@{ub}. MUI applications may be @{b}iconified@{ub} at every time with an extra-gadget in the windows title bar. @endnode