






                             MINDBUSTER

This is a computer implementation of the strategy game of MasterMind.  The
actual game of MasterMind is copyright (C) 1976 by Invicta Plastics (U.S.A.)
Ltd. and the word MASTERMIND is a registered trademark (R) of the same firm.
This computer implementation is copyright (C) 1990 by J. Richard VandeVelde,
Chicago, IL.

                          Index of Help Topics

                   1  Object of the Game
                   2  Scoring a Play
                   3  Examples of Scoring
                   4  Taking your Turn
                   5  Starting, Stopping and Visual Scoring
                   6  Setup Options
                   7  Mouse versus No Mouse
                   8  Miscellaneous




  Hit a number corresponding to your choice or one of the keys listed below









1. OBJECT OF THE GAME

The object of MindBuster is to guess a secret code consisting of colors. In
the computer version of the game these colors are shown as colored circles.
Officially, scoring is done by means of smaller black and white key pegs.
On the computer, these are represented by small black and white squares.

The standard game has 4 holes and a supply of Red, White, Blue, Green,
Yellow, and Black pegs.  Each move is scored, giving feedback on how close
the guess was to the hidden pattern.  One can view the game as a struggle
between the Maker of the code and the Breaker of the code.  In the solo
version, you try to break the code made by the PC.  In the duel form of the
game, the PC also tries to guess your code.  The game begins as follows:

(1)  The Maker creates a hidden code by choosing colors for the 4 holes.
(2)  The Breaker makes a guess by placing 4 colored pegs in the first row.
(3)  The Maker then responds with a score.  The score can give some clues as
     to how close or far a guess is from the hidden pattern.

If the computer is also playing against you, then the roles are reversed for
the next turn, play alternating between steps (2) and (3) until the pattern
is guessed or 10 guesses have been used.  The PC's guess is automatically
scored for you.  Repeated colors in patterns and guesses are allowed.  Empty
holes are allowed in guesses, but not in hidden patterns.








2. SCORING

A Score consists of 0 to 4 (5 in the expanded game) of the small black and
white pegs.  These pegs (or squares on the screen) have the following
significance:

(1) a BLACK square indicates that the Breaker has placed a correct color in
    the correct position (without any indication of which position it was.)

(2) a WHITE square indicates that there was a correct color played but in
    an incorrect position.

(3) NO square means a totally wrong color.

There is nothing about the placement of the squares to indicate which colors
are being referred to.  That is the challenge.  One of the small pegs simply
corresponds to one of the colors played.  If a given color is both an exact
hit and also a near miss, it is given a black peg, since the BLACK score
takes precedence over the WHITE.

After several guesses you can begin to deduce what colors might be in the
pattern, even if you don't know in which holes they are.  4 White squares
obviously means that you have all the correct colors but in all the wrong
holes.  4 Black and the game is over.  No squares at all would mean that the
colors used in the guess do not appear at all anywhere in the pattern.







3. SCORING EXAMPLES

If you are new to MindBuster, the scoring might be a bit strange.  Here are
a few examples.
                                                      ┌───┐
Suppose the hidden code is ===>  Red  Whi  Blu  Grn   │B W│  <- Score
    and that the guess was ===>  Whi  Yel  Blu  Blk   │   │
                                                      └───┘
This would receive a score of 1 BLACK peg (B) and 1 WHITE peg (W).  This
indicates that there was 1 color which was the right color in the right place
[Blu] and another which was the right color, but in the wrong place [Whi].

The following are some more examples.  (During the course of the game one can
see this method of scoring illustrated more graphically if you are playing
the duel form of the game, by clicking on the [SCORE] button.)

                        ┌───┐                               ┌───┐
    Red  Blu  Grn  Blk  │B  │           Yel  Blu  Yel  Blk  │B W│
    Whi  Yel  Grn  Grn  │   │           Red  Blk  Yel  Blu  │W  │
                        └───┘                               └───┘
                        ┌───┐
    Red  Whi  Grn  Grn  │B B│
    Grn  Whi  Red  Grn  │W W│
                        └───┘








4. TAKING YOUR TURN

(1) [Basic]  Move to the palette; click on a color; move to the board; click
on a hole.  When you select a color it is outlined and remains outlined
until another color is selected.  This allows you to repeat a color more
easily, since you merely have to click on another hole.

(2) [Random]  Click on the [RANDOM] button for a randomly generated choice.
There is no guarantee that this is a smart guess, but it is a valid one.
Once this is done, any or all of the colors can be changed by overriding
them with the Basic selection method.

(3) [Previous Row]  Once the game is under way, you can move to cursor to any
of your previous guesses and click on that row.  The colors there will be
duplicated in the current active row.  You would then most likely want to
change one or more of them with the Basic selection method.

When you are satisfied with your selection click on [OK]  .

The program will not allow you to hit [OK] if you have not chosen colors for
all of the holes.  This is to avoid inadvertently hitting [OK] before it is
intended.  The [NO PEG] 'color' allows you to get around this, should you
wish to take a guess without a full complement of holes filled with actual
colors.








5. STARTING, STOPPING and Visual SCORE

The right side of the screen has three buttons which are used to start and
stop games, as well as to leave the program.  Their use is fairly obvious.

[START]   Clicking on this button initiates a new game.

[STOP]    Clicking on this button cancels a game in progress.

[EXIT]    Clicking on this button will cause the program to cease
          and get you back to DOS.

Also on the right-hand side of the screen is a scoreboard which keeps a tally
of your wins and your losses.  Periodically, messages will also appear on the
right.

On the left-hand side there is a [SCORE] button.  This gives you a concrete
picture of how the last score was computed for the PC's guess.  It does not
function when you are playing solo (since the only way to show you how the
score was obtained would be to show you the answer!)












6. SETUP OPTIONS

One of the buttons on the left-hand side of the screen is labelled [SETUP].
It can be used before you start a game or series of games to modify the
standard defaults.  The standard game is

               4 Holes         6 Colors        Duel

Clicking on [SETUP] allows you to modify these setting by clicking on the
buttons along the bottom of the screen.  Your options include:

     Holes: 4 or 5      Colors:  6, 7, or 8     Type:  Solo or Duel.

In the solo version, you simply keep trying to guess the computer's pattern.
In the duel version, you do that and also you supply a pattern which the PC
will try to guess first.

If you are playing the duel version, and if the number of colors is 7 or 8,
there may be a slight pause while the computer is thinking about a guess.  To
indicate this an advisory message may briefly appear.  This is natural.

By the way, the computer will NOT cheat.  It uses an algorithm to try to
eliminating possibilities on the basis of previous guesses.









7. MOUSE versus NO MOUSE

The program is designed to be used with a Mouse.  It can, however, be played
without one.  It is written in such a way that if it detects that no Mouse
is present, it allows the cursor to be moved by using the arrow keys (and
the Home, PgUp, End, and PgDn keys for diagonal movements).  Playing the
game without a Mouse is not as fast nor as convenient, but it can be done.
As an aid to rodent-less users, the program is designed to provide two
speeds for the cursor.  If one uses the arrow keys, then movement is in the
given direction.  However, if one holds down the SHIFT key AT THE SAME TIME,
the movement is in larger-sized increments.  Thus SHIFT+arrow can be used to
move the cursor across a larger area more easily.  The placement of the
buttons and the default positions of the cursor have been designed to
try to minimize the amount of movement required.

If you in fact do have a mouse attached, but wish to run without it
(weird!), then you can do so by invoking the program with a parameter of  N
on the command line (N for No Mouse).  Thus to run without a mouse if you
had one you would invoke the program as MINDBUST N  [Return].  Purists can
also use either of the following forms: MINDBUST /N or MINDBUST -N .

The use of the  N  parameter is NOT necessary if you do not have a Mouse
(although it does no harm).









8. MISCELLANEOUS

The program is written to be run on a computer with an EGA or a VGA color
monitor.  It should test for this and not run otherwise.  A future version may
try to replace the colors with patterns so that it can be run on monochrome
graphics monitors.

The program is written in Turbo Pascal 5.5.

This version of MINDBUSTER is Shareware.  That means we depend on your
honesty to support its developer.  Registered contributors will be rewarded
with info about enhancements and the like and receive them FREE.  Suggested
support is $10.00

Future enhancements will probably include re-programming the whole thing to
take advantage of the Objects ability of Turbo Pascal 5.5   Source code is
available to contributors for a nominal fee.  Contact:

                  Richard VandeVelde
                  Department of Mathematics
                  Loyola University
                  6525 N Sheridan Road
                  Chicago, IL  60626
                  (312) 274-3000
<End of Help>
