On-Line help for 'the last word'.  More detailed directions
are available in the accompanying manual.

'the last word' is a SHAREWARE product written by Gordon
Haff, a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals.  This product may be registered by sending
$15 to:
                    Gordon Haff
                Bit Masons Consulting
                3205 Windsor Ridge Dr.
                  Westboro MA 01581

Registration brings many benefits including new data files
with twice the number of questions, full product support, a
program to brand your sreial number into LWORD.EXE, so as
to bypass any registration reminders, and the knowledge that 
you have helped to support the Shareware marketing method.  
1. COMMAND LINE SWITCHES

The following switches are available for the command line.
Some of these switches duplicate menu or toggle switch
functions within the program.

     /?        Command-line help
     /ns       no sound
     /ad       turn on Adlib functions
     /bw       use BIOS-write functions
     /snow     use to avoid snow with some older CGA boards




2. HOT KEYS

Hot Keys are keys which can be pressed at (most) points in
the action to make various good things happen.

F1    -- Display this help file
Alt-X -- Quit (also called 'The Boss walked in key')
Alt-S -- Toggle Sound On/Off
Alt-P -- Display game parameter screen







3. OPENING MENU SETTINGS

INSTRUCTIONS    These instructions.
PLAYERS         Set the number of players, player name(s),
                and the typing time for each player.
SOUND           Toggle Sound On/Off.
ADLIB           Toggle Adlib support On/Off
LIT             Set whether literature category questions
                with both Authors and Titles asked for (i.e.
                most of the questions in Where?) require:
                  -- Author and Title to be given
                  -- Author or Title
                  -- Author only
                  -- Title only
GO              Go ahead and play
QUIT            Go get some work done
4. HOW TO PLAY

From the opening screen, you press 'G' or move the cursor to
'Go' to start play.  The other menu items are there to allow
you to change various game paramters.  You don't HAVE to
make any changes to these other items before you start
playing, but if you want your name in the high score file,
you should at least enter your name using the 'Players' menu
item.

From 'Go', you are presented with a screen of various game
settings, some of which are settable from the aforementioned
menu.  If you don't like what you see on this display, just
press <esc> to return to the main menu from which you can
make changes.  Hit anything else to get on with the game.

It's now time for the first player to select his bet and
category for the first round.

To select a category press 'A' through 'D'.  The category
selected BIASES the questions towards that category but not
all questions will be from the selected category.

The bet is selected through a standard menu (first letter or
cursor).  Each $100 of bet over $100 decreases question
answer time by 5 sseconds.

The player now has a chance to answer the question.
See "5. ANSWERING QUESTIONS".  Action continues in this
manner through 4 Rounds of 4 Questions each and Bonus Rounds
if earned.

5. ANSWERING QUESTIONS

The manual goes into considerably more detail on this topic
and any explanation is going to sound a great deal more
complicated than the reality, but here goes.

There are 3 types of questions: Exact Match, Inexact Match,
and Multiple Choice.









EXACT MATCH: A template is displayed which shows the exact
number of words and letters required.  Only one combination
of alphanumeric characters constitute an acceptable answer
(though the comparison algorithm allows minor deviations to
account for minor misspellings).

INEXACT MATCH: Take your best stab at the answer.  No
indication of length or type of answer is given.  Through a
pattern recognition algorithm, the computer will try to
match your answer to a list of acceptable responses.

MULTIPLE CHOICE: There are a few of these too.



6. CATEGORIES

'the last word' has four categories of questions.

WHY --    Basically what were the circumstances which caused
          this quote to be made.  Typical answers would be
          the name of a person or an easily described event
          of some sort.
WHO --    This one's a bit more straightforward.  Who said
          this?
WHERE --  The author/speaker and where the quote appeared.
          Most of the questions in this category are from
          books, poetry, etc.  A few are from films and
          such (in which case the "author" is the
          *character* who said the item in question).
WHAT --   Fill in the missing part(s) of the quotation.

7. SCORING


The scoring algorithms are as follows.

Correct answer = Correct points (100) + Bet + 3 x seconds
                 under 20 (plus typing time) taken to answer

Incorrect answer = -Bet






8. BONUS ROUNDS


The game parameter display shows both:

The number of points required to win the first bonus round
after the basic four rounds are played

The number of points required in each bonus round to win a
subsequent bonus round





                     -30-