winDetective v.1.0

Copyright © 1994 by Drazof Industries

Object of the Game

How to Play

Rules of the Game

Strategies for Winning

Using Notes

Game Options

Information and Shareware Registration


Object of the game

The object of the winDetective game is to be the first to discover who of six possible suspects, using which of six possible weapons, committed a murder in which of nine possible rooms.   In the enhanced registered version of the game, you have the option of including a motive as well.  You compete against three computer players, all three of which are also competing with each other.

The identity, method, place, and motive of the murder are randomly selected by the computer from a set of fact cards, at the start of a new game.  The remaining cards are distributed among the players.  Your hand of cards comprises your first clues.

You have a playing piece that you move around the board by dice throw.  You discover additional clues to the hidden facts by making a guess as to who, how, and where, each time your playing piece reaches one of the rooms.  The next player disproves your guess by revealing one of the facts, if possible.  If the next player does not hold any cards to show you, a fact must be revealed by the next of the remaining players in turn, if possible, until play has gone full circle.

When, by a process of checking off revealed cards and simple elimination, you think you know who did it, how, and where, you can make an accusation at the start of your next turn.  If you are correct, you win the game.


How to play

Click on Start Game on the main menu.  (If you have just finished a game, Start Game will be unavailable.  You should click on Setup, and then on New Game, first, and then, on the main menu, click on Start Game.)

A window will appear containing the fact cards that you have been dealt.  You can see it again any time during game play by selecting Setup from the main menu, and then See Hand.  The game board will be drawn or refreshed, and the buttons marked Throw Dice, Notes, and Done! become available.

If you click on Notes, a chart appears for recording which players hold specific fact cards, instances where a player is known for certain not to hold a fact card, and logs of the trio of possible who/how/where card holdings involved when one of the computer players shows a fact card to another computer player.  This information can help you solve the puzzle even if you are not shown many cards directly by other players.  If the Auto Record option under the Options selection in the main menu is checked, notes are filled in automatically whenever you are shown a card, when computer players show each other cards, and whenever a player passes on a card show because none of the facts in the guess match the cards held.  To make the game more challenging, you can turn the Auto Record off, and select occasions to make notes manually using the Record button in the information boxes displayed throughout the game.

To start game play, click on  Roll Dice.  This determines how many squares you can move in this turn.  A white cross appears on top of your player piece, which will remain visible as long as you have not used up all your allowed spaces.  Movement is vertical or horizontal only; diagonal moves are not permitted.  To move your piece, you can use the arrow keys, or double click on a square in the same horizontal or vertical row as your playing piece.  Your piece will move toward the square on which you double clicked as far as your allowed spaces will take you, or until the square is reached.  If you have spaces left, the white cross remains on your piece, and you can move it again, in the same or in a different direction.  Until the white cross disappears, you can undo moves by selecting Setup from the main menu, and then clicking on Undo Move.  This moves your piece back to its original position, and restores the full number of available spaces.

To move into a room, first move your playing piece to the space directly in front of a door.  Doors to rooms are represented by double-ended white arrows.  To move into the room, double click inside the room.  Movement from the doorstep space into the room counts as one space.  If you throw a double-12, you can move directly to any room on the board.  Simply double click on the desired room.

If you reach a room in any turn, you can make a guess.  Your guess can involve any character or weapon, but must include the room your playing piece is currently in.  To make a guess, click on the Suspect button at the bottom of the screen.  A window will appear containing a list of the characters, rooms, and weapons, each with a button.  The button for the room you are in will already be marked and cannot be changed.  If you have the Color Coding option turned on, the cards that you hold are displayed in blue, cards known to be held by other players are displayed in green, and cards that you have already determined to be part of the solution appear in red.  Once you have selected a character and weapon, the OK button becomes available.  Click on Cancel if you want to back out of your guess and return to the game board (you may want to do this if you want to check your Notes first).

The next player must now show you a fact card for one of the components of your guess; the suspect, the weapon, or the room.  A window will appear, either showing you the card that computer player has selected to reveal to you, or informing you that the player has no cards to show you.  In that case, the window will reappear, on behalf of the player after that, to either show you a card or pass to the final computer player.  If you have turned Auto Record off, you need to click on Record to make a note about any card shown or lack of cards to show.  Once you have been shown a card by any player, you are back on the main game board, and can either examine your Notes or end your turn by clicking on Done!.

If you are in a room when your turn begins, you must leave the room and re-enter it on the next turn before you can make another guess in that room, unless another player's guess has moved your piece from somewhere else into the room.  At the start of the turn, your piece will be placed at the door of the room, with the white cross visible.  Movement from the room to the doorstep space outside the room counts as one space.  If you have left a room, but another player puts your piece back into the same room by making a guess, you are still not permitted a guess on that turn in that room, but leave and re-enter on the next turn.

During the turns for the computer players, you will see their playing pieces move from room to room, and windows displaying their guesses and the results.  These results windows are similar to the ones displayed for your own turn, but you will see the back of any card that is displayed, not the face.  In your notes, a log entry is made showing the three possibilities for this card.  If you already know the location of two of the fact cards in another player's guess, you can often determine the third.  You will not see dice throws for the computer players, but the rule of moving to any room on a double-12 applies to them as well.  Once in a while a computer player's piece will seem to move a bonus distance, but we assure you, the computer players do not cheat.

Sometimes you are required to show one of your cards to a computer player.  When this happens, a window will appear that displays your hand, and a pushbutton for each fact card in your hand.  Only buttons for cards that match components of the guess are available (the others appear dimmed), but you must click on one of these to continue.  Numbers corresponding to computer players who have already seen each card are displayed next to the pushbuttons, so that you can choose, if you like, to display cards already shown to other PC players preferentially.  If you do not hold any cards involved in the guess, a larger pushbutton bearing the legend, "No cards to show", is displayed instead.  You must click on it to end the turn.

To end a computer player's turn, click on Done!  The name of the current player is always displayed in the lower left corner of the screen.  At all times, even during computer players' turns, you can look at and work with your Notes.

Your playing piece is associated with one of the suspect characters.  You can choose which one, and also the color of the piece, by selecting Options from the main menu, and then clicking on Play Color, and making your selections in the list that appears.  During game play, whenever a character associated with a playing piece is included in a guess, that piece is moved to the room for that guess.  If your piece is involved in a guess and moved, you can make a guess in that room on your next turn.  However, if your piece was already in the room for the guess, you must leave and re-enter the room before you can make a guess there.  Occasionally, you may find your progress to a room you want to visit thwarted when the computer players persist in suspecting your character in rooms at the other side of the board.

Once you think you know who did it, where, and how, select the Accuse pushbutton at the start of your next turn.  A window similar to that used for a guess appears, but you must pick a room as well as a suspect and a weapon before you can choose OK.  Unlike the rule in making a guess, you do not have to be in the same room as the one you choose for your accusation.  If you have Color Coding turned on, the fact cards you have marked in your Notes as being part of the solution are highlighted in red. If you change your mind, choose Cancel to continue your turn in the usual way.  If you make an accusation and click on OK, a window will appear displaying the fact cards that make up the solution and informing you of your luck.  If you are correct, you win the game.  However, one of the computer players might beat you to it.


Rules of the Game

The winDetective game consists of a playing board with nine rooms, plus a set of fact cards representing six suspects, six weapons, and nine rooms corresponding to those displayed on the game board.  In the enhanced registered version, there are also six fact cards representing six motives.

At the start of play, one suspect, one weapon, and one room are removed from the card set and set aside as the solution to the puzzle.  The remaining fact cards are dealt to the players starting with the human player.  The human player and the first computer player (PC Player 2) receive five cards, the remaining two computer players receive four.  In the enhanced motives game,  the human player and PC players 2 and 3 receive six cards, and the final computer player receives five.

The human player throws the dice first, and play proceeds around the circle of computer players.  On each turn, a player may move by the number of spaces shown on the dice, vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally.  If enough spaces to move are available, a player may move into a room.  Movement from a doorstep space into the room counts as one space.  A dice roll of double-12 entitles the player to move directly to any room on the board.

A guess may be made in the room the player's piece is in, during the turn in which the piece is moved to the room.  After the turn is over, the player must move the piece out of and back into the room before it can be involved in a guess again.  If another player's guess on the character associated with the playing piece moves the piece into a room, the player may guess in that room instead of throwing the dice on the next turn.  However, if the piece was already in the room involved in the guess, the player may not guess in that room unless the piece is moved out and back in again first, or in other words, until two turns later.

In response to a guess, a player may see at most one fact card matching a component of the guess, shown by the first player around the circle to hold one that matches.  Cards shown in response to a guess are shown by the next player after the one making the guess in the same sequence as the turns, and if necessary continues around the circle in that order.

If a player holds any card involved in the guess of a preceding player, that card must be shown.  (This rule is enforced automatically by the computer, but can be broken with impunity by players of a somewhat similar parlor game.)

An accusation may be made only at the beginning of a turn.  After the dice roll, movement,  and a guess, an accusation is not permitted in the same turn.  A player does not have to be in the same room as the subject of an accusation, and a player is allowed to make an accusation at the beginning of any turn, regardless of position on the board.

Once the human player has made an accusation, whether correct or incorrect, the game ends.  An incorrect computer player's accusation does not end the game, but that computer player becomes inactive, except for showing cards at the appropriate position in the players' circle.


Strategies for Winning

Several obvious strategies can be considered almost trivial.  As the object of the game is to determine the identity, method and place of the murder by elimination of all facts known to be in the hands of players, it is pointless to include in a guess a suspect and weapon already known to you to be in the hands of a specific computer player.  Also, as you move around the board, pick room destinations that you don't already know, or that are among your own card holdings.  You can often force useful information out of the other players by deliberately including in a guess cards that you hold yourself.

Pay attention to situations where no cards of a guess are held by another player, even when it is one of the computer players' turns, and the card showing is between two computer players.  It may take more than one guess sequence to reveal it, but when a specific card is held by none of the players, including yourself, it is part of the correct solution.  If you have Auto Record turned on, your notes will reflect such a situation automatically.

When you have to show a card to a computer player, you may have the choice of more than one card to show.  It is often to your advantage to show any card other than a room card, because the other player must return to that room after at least two turns to include it in a guess again, whereas characters and weapons can be included any time.  The program keeps track of which of the other players' cards in your hand have already been shown to, and you can try to show the same card to the same player again, if possible, thus wasting the other player's guess.  This does not happen in this program other than with room cards, but you might still want to show a card already shown to a different player, rather than one that has never been shown to another player before.

Finally, make use of the Notes.  When Auto Record is turned on, useful information is added for every guess made by the other players, whether it involves you showing cards or not.   Both the fact of a card not being held by a specific player, and a record of a trio of facts having been responded to with a card show by a specific player, are noted.  You can use these to determine holders of cards that you have neither guessed yourself nor been shown.  You can also use these notes to suggest guesses for your own turns that provide the most new information possible.


 Using Notes

The notes screen consists of three parts:

(1) a list of suspects, weapons, and locations, and, in the enhanced game, motives, and, if known, the number of the player holding the corresponding card;

(2) a checklist with a column for each player, indicating by a yellow square when the player holds the corresponding card, or by a black square when the player is known NOT to hold the corresponding card;

(3) a set of "guess columns", each of which may hold a player's number once in each of the suspects, weapons, or locations blocks, indicating possible player holdings, since the player by that number has shown one of those three cards to another player.  (In the motives mode in the registered version, the player will have shown one of four cards to another player.)

The following notes explain the short labels in the diagram:

(A)  If the holder of a fact card is known, its square in the column corresponding to the number of the player who holds it is highlighted in yellow.  When you start a new game, your own cards are indicated by yellow squares in column 1.  After you are shown a card by another player, the square for that card, in that player's row, is marked in yellow.

(B)  A black square indicates that the player corresponding to the column does NOT hold the card corresponding to the row.  When you start a new game, you will notice that in column 1, the squares for rows for fact cards you do not hold are blacked out, and so are the squares for cards you do hold, in the columns for the other three players.  After you are shown a card by another player, the card's square in that player's column becomes yellow, and the squares for that card for all the other players are blacked out.  You can also black out squares yourself in this area by clicking the left mouse button in the square.  Clicking a second time on any black square you have marked this way turns it white again.  Once you have clicked on OK, however, and then return to the Notes screen, you can no longer "undo" black squares.

(C)  The second guess column does not contain useful information for solving the puzzle.  You will notice that the column contains the number 2 for three card rows, but all corresponding squares in player 2's column are still white.  Player 2 has at some point shown a selection from this trio of fact cards to another player, but it could be any one of the three.  Until you have more information to eliminate the possibility of two of these cards being held by player 2, you cannot determine which, or how many, of this trio player 2 holds.

(D)  When squares for a fact card corresponding to all four players are blacked out, no one holds it.  It is part of the solution to the puzzle.  Instead of four black squares, a red bar indicates a card that is part of the solution.  Also, the name of the card is shown in red rather than black in the name column.

(E)  In the third guess column, the "who" and "how" cards for the trio indicated by the number 4s are blacked out.  One card is held by player 1, the other is part of the solution.  When player 4 showed one of this trio of cards, it can only be the remaining possibility, the "where" card.  To mark this card by a yellow square in the proper column, double click the mouse in the column containing the 4, for the "where" area.  You can click anywhere in the area of the card you want to mark in yellow this way, as long as you are in the correct column for the guess trio, and in the row area of the card type, in this example, the "where" rows.

(F)  In the first column, the "where" card indicated by the number 3 is already marked in yellow, the "how" card is part of the solution, but the "who" card square is still white.  Player 3 has shown one of this trio of cards, and it most likely is the "where" card already marked in yellow.  It could be the "who" card but you cannot be sure, so this information is not really useful any longer for solving the puzzle.  To eliminate a guess column that is no longer needed, click once on the "X" button underneath the column.  The "X" will turn gray.  If you exit from the notes screen by clicking OK and then return to the notes, the column will no longer appear.  If you exit by clicking Cancel, all changes to the notes you made, including removal of columns, are undone.

In general, about the Notes screen:

Control of the notes screen is entirely through the mouse.  Much of the information is filled in by the program as play proceeds, in response to actions during the various players' turns.  You can add to this information yourself.

If you know for certain that a certain player does not hold a certain card, move the mouse cursor to the white square corresponding to the card in that player's column and click the left button once.  The square will turn black.  If you change your mind, click on the square again to change it back to white.  (Squares that are already shown in black remain so, and cannot be clicked on to turn white.)

To use the sets of possible suspects, weapons, or rooms shown by other players to find out solutions to the puzzle, examine what you have in the checklist column for each part of the possibility guess.  If, for example, the guess column shows that Player 3 has shown either Suspect 1, Weapon 4, or Room 2 during a turn, but you know from looking at the checklist that you hold the card for Suspect 1 yourself, and you already know that Player 4 has Weapon 4,  then Player 3 must have shown the one remaining card, that for Room 2, during the turn.  You can mark Room 2 as belonging to Player 3 by moving the mouse cursor into the guess column for that turn, in the rooms area, and clicking the left button twice.

Any item in the guess columns can be entered into the checklist column as a known card holding (a yellow square) by clicking the left button twice in its card type area in the guess column.  If the checklist column contains an already definitely-known holder for the card indicated in the guess column, double-clicking will have no effect.

Underneath the guess columns is a row of small gray pushbuttons marked "X", one for each column that is filled in.  If the column is no longer of any use to you in figuring out the solution to the puzzle, click on the X pushbutton.  The X will turn to gray, and the column will be removed from the display next time you look at your notes.  If a game goes on for a long time, the notes screen can fill up.  The program can hold far more guesses in memory than can be displayed in the notes screen, so that eliminating unneeded guess columns when the screen fills up will not only be less confusing but might bring newer columns into view that you might otherwise miss.

When you have finished working on your notes, click once on the OK pushbutton to return to the game screen.  All changes you made will be kept.  If you think you made a mistake, click on the Cancel button to restore the notes to the way they were.


Game Options

Selecting the Options choice from the Setup menu displays an option editing screen.  The play options available are:

Player Name

The first time you run the program, the human player is simply designated "Human".  If you want to personalize the screen, you can enter your name, or any code name you want to play under, in this space, up to 16 characters.  A score record will be created for you, which will keep track of your wins, losses, and incorrect guesses, at each of the three play levels.  You can see this score record by selecting the Scores choice from the File menu.  The program can store multiple score records for different players.  To play under another name that has already been stored in the program's score record, click the button to the right of the name field to see the list, and click on the list to select a new one.

Computer Players

The three computer players have been named for three famous computers in film and literature, HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey; Deep Thought from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Brainiac, Superman's green humanoid robot nemesis back in the 60's.  You can edit these names to anything else you like, up to 16 characters in length.

Card Set

Alternative card sets for winDetective may be available on your favorite BBS.  These, unzipped, will have the extension .wdt.  If you download any, place the .wdt files in the same directory as your game files.  The new files will automatically be included in the list of available card sets that you see in the options screen.  To choose one, click on its name in the list and then click on OK.  When you are back on the game screen, the board tiles, room cards, and player pieces will change to reflect your new choice.  When you play the next game, the names of suspects, weapons, and rooms in the Suspect/Accusation screens, and the cards you see in response to your guesses, will also have changed.

Play Level

You can play winDetective at Novice, Intermediate, or Expert levels.  At Novice level, the computer players simply record what cards they are shown directly, or told directly what another player does not hold, but they ignore activities and card showings of other players.  At Intermediate level, the computer players make note of cards other players admit they don't hold, during card shows not involving themselves.  At Expert level, the computer players also record guess possibilities of suspect, weapon or room, each time other players show cards, and analyze them at the start of each of their turns.

Auto Record

If you turn Auto Record on, indicated by an X in the box next to the words in the option screen, all cards shown to you, all cards that other players admit they don't hold, and all possibilities of card showings made by other players, are recorded in your notes.  The Record pushbutton in the card-showing screens is grayed out and disabled.  If you do not turn Auto Record on, the Record pushbutton in the card-showing screens becomes active, and you must click on it each time to make a note.

Color Coding

If you turn Color Coding on, the lists of who, how and where choices that you see in the Suspect and Accuse windows are displayed in colors:  fact cards that you hold yourself are in blue, cards that you know are held by one of the computer players are in green, and cards that you have determined are part of the solution are in red.  Any fact cards that you have not been shown and do not know the location for remain displayed in black.  When you start the game, only cards that you hold yourself will be shown color-coded, in blue.  As you are shown cards by other players, or after you record locations of cards you have guessed in your notes, the color coding in the Suspect and Accuse windows will reflect what you have discovered.

Motives

In unregistered copies of the game, this option is not available, and displays in gray in the options screen.  If you have a registered copy, turning Motives on allows you to play the enhanced game, with six Motives facts added to the suspects, weapons, and rooms involved in the game.  The rules are the same as for the standard version, except that all guesses and the final accusation have four, rather than three, components.

Marker Color

Your marker is always the one that starts at the top left of the playing screen.  You can choose the color of this marker from one of red, blue, green, or yellow.  The remaining player pieces are assigned the rest of the colors.

Marker Character

You can choose which of the six suspect characters your piece is associated with.  You must choose one of the six.  During play, whenever the associated suspect is included in a guess, your piece is automatically moved to the room involved in the guess.  The reason this choice is provided is that you might have a favorite card set, and, within that set, a favorite character.

Other options available from the main menu include:

Scores

The scores screen presents a list of players' names and their win/loss records.  If you click on one of the names to highlight it, you can either reset that name's scores to zero, or delete the name from the player list altogether.  Select Done! right away to leave the names and scores unchanged.

View Card Set

If you choose View Card Set from the Help menu, you are presented with a further choice of Suspects, Weapons, Motives, or Locations.  If you pick one of these, you will see the full set of six or nine cards in the currently loaded set for that category.  Even though the Motives option is not available in the unregistered version of the game, you can still see the Motives cards in the currently loaded set with this menu option.


Shareware Registration
Information and Shareware Registration

Credits

Head Honcho	S.F.Claughton

Code Jockey	V. VanAsperen

Artist	Taral Wayne

Internet:   simon.claughton@canrem.com

Please let us know your comments, bug reports, or suggestions for future versions.  Under consideration are an upgrade using Visual C++ with toolbar and 3D effects, a two-player version that can be played over a modem or on two computers connected by cable, 256-color graphics ... time and interest permitting.

Registration and License Information

This program is shareware.  What this means is that you are free to try it out for a period of 30 days, after which, if you continue to use it, you must register your copy with Drazof Industries.  Registered users will receive a disk with the latest version of the game plus an additional library file that allows play of the enhanced "motives" game.

The registration fee is U.S. $15 or Canadian $20 per copy.  Please pay by check or preferably, money order, made out to S.F. Claughton, at

Drazof Industries

PO Box 460, Port Credit Postal Station

Mississauga, Ontario    L5G 4M1

Canada

The registration fee of $15 U.S./$20 Cdn allows the use of the program on one computer at a time.  Multiple installations of one registered copy are allowed only if there is no possibility of the program being used on more than one of the machines at a time.  In other words, treat the software like a book.

You may freely redistribute the shareware version of the game to friends or upload to BBS systems; in fact we encourage it.  However, the registered version of the game, including the additional motives library file, must not be redistributed.

WinDetective is Copyright © 1994 by Drazof Industries, S.F.Claughton & V.VanAsperen.

The StarShip card set included with the game is Copyright © 1994 by Taral Wayne.

Other alternate card sets may be copyrighted by their creators.

Disclaimers

The WINDETECTIVE game and all files in the archive WDETCT10.ZIP are supplied "as is", with no express or implied warranties as to performance or fitness for any purpose.  Drazof Industries and the authors of this game assume no liability for losses or damages, direct, consequential or incidental, that may result from the use of the program.  The user must assume the entire risk of using this program.