MAGIC SPELL INSTRUCTION GUIDE ** SHAREWARE ** When you run the program you will only be allowed to play a few rounds. After that, you will be required to enter a "MAGIC CODE" that can only be obtained from the author upon receipt of a $7.00 U.S. shareware payment. Each time you exit the program and run it again you can play it again another few times. Foreign orders should add the appropriate return postage for roughly a 500g package. You have an opportunity to print an order form from within the program. However, if you can't wait that long, send $7.00 to: T. Savino 2516 Scarlet Oak Ct Sarasota, FL 34232 I can be reached on GEnie for comments & suggestions through GEmail using [T.SAVINO] Thanks, for your support! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special arrangements have been made with Suzy B's Software so that anyone who registers MAGIC SPELL with me gets a $3 discount on a Suzy B's Soft- ware disk. Please see the accompanying file called READ_ME.TOO for further details. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Changes made in version 2.1 of MAGIC SPELL: ~ Previously the letters across the top that are used for making words may have had 2 or more occurrences. Because of a suggestion from a user this has been changed so that EACH LETTER APPEARS ONLY ONCE. ~ A bug has been nixed that prevented being able to add words 1 or 10 in the list. ~ A bug has been killed that caused bombs when holding down the left mouse button repeatedly on a word. ~ If starting a new dictionary the program may not be able to find a magic word. Previously the program would keep looking forever. Now, there is a limit of how long it will look. If it cannot find a word to use the player automatically gets the 1000 point bonus. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * New features of version 2.0 of MAGIC SPELL: ~ AN ADJUSTABLE TIMER has been added. Yes, if there never was enough time before you can now set the timed levels between 1 and 10 minutes. There's always a catch though! As you increase the time you pay a penalty in points off your score (there's no free lunch - I call it "Limbaugh's Law"). After you play the first round, click on the box in the upper right called ADJUST TIMERS to set the clocks for medium & hard levels. ~ MOVE UP AND DOWN through your typed in words by using the up & down arrow keys. Say your first word was "ACCESS" and when you get down to your 5th or 6th word you realize you could have put "ACCESSES" to make a longer word. Just use your UP arrow key to go to the first word and change it. Then, use your down arrow key or press the Return key to get back down. Be careful though. Once you have entered the 10th word you can't go back up - the game is over. This is great to be able to change your words huh?! But, there's a ... yup ... a catch to this too. If you don't get back to the bottom of your word list before the time runs out you lose all the words below the word you were on. ~ SETTINGS GET SAVED. If you like to stick with the same level all the time you no longer have to select it when starting anew. The timer settings (see above) get saved as well. ~ A SPLASH OF COLOR has been added for those of you using a color monitor. ~ A LOOPHOLE WAS PLUGGED. In previous versions it was possible to click on a correctly spelled word repeatedly and increase your score infinitely. Although I'm sure no one has attempted doing that but the temptation has been eliminated just in case. :~) ~ ANOTHER LOOPHOLE WAS PLUGGED. In previous versions you could enter the same word multiple times. You may no longer do that. The program now checks if you have the same word listed more than once in your 10 word list. ~ A MESSAGE NOW APPEARS if you attempt to click on a word that you did not get credit for because you didn't scroll back down in time. (See MOVE UP AND DOWN above) ~ THE VERSION NUMBER now appears in the alert box that is accessed when clicking on Magic Spell in the menu bar at the bottom. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * The previous version added these features to the original: ~ "Ask The Wizard" - After each round of play you have the option to ask which words you could have used with the available letters. Click on the "Ask The Wizard" box and you will be presented with a list of possible words (shown 10 words at a time). Then you can scroll through to the next 10 by clicking on "NEXT" or click on the letter box to start the list from the next letter from the letter list. ~ All graphics are now loaded when the program loads. This speeds up the visual effects a bit when playing. This isn't noticeable on hard drives but is on floppies. ~ No longer requires the file MSTITLEH.PI3 for the high resolution screen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ October 21, 1993 To get the program running just put everything into the same folder. There are over 50 files altogether including this text. They are: * MSPELL21.PRG - MAIN PROGRAM MSEDHI.PI3 - ST HIGH REZ EDITOR TITLE SCREEN MSEDMED.PI2 - ST MED REZ EDITOR TITLE SCREEN MSP_EDIT.PRG - THE DICTIONARY EDITOR PROGRAM MSTITLEH.PUT - ST HIGH REZ .PUT SCREEN MSTITLEM.PI2 - ST MED REZ MAIN PRG TITLE SCREEN MSWORDS.DAT - THE DICTIONARY DATA FILE - (You may re-name this file so that it does not get loaded. That would dramatically increase the time it would take to load when first running the program. But you lose the huge dictionary file. A new one will be created which only contains 26 words.) MSREADME.TXT - THIS DOC FILE READ_ME.TOO - * Suzie B's Software offer * HISCORES.DAT - TOP 10 SCORES & PLAYERS - (You may delete this at any time to wipe out any old high scores. A new file will be created the first time you play again.) MSCONFIG.DAT - Your saved settings for Easy,Medium, or Hard and also your timer settings. (not included)MSWORDS.BAK - CREATED AFTER PLAYING THE FIRST TIME (BACKUP DICTIONARY FILE) xxxxxxx.PUT - TONS OF .PUT FILES REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS GRAPHICS -- The total size of all of these files is about 400k -- * A HARD DRIVE is STRONGLY recommended due to a lot of disk access. The alternative is to run it from a RAM disk. See your RAM disk instructions for how to use it. ** If you run from a RAM disk make sure you copy the file called MSWORDS.DAT & HISCORES.DAT to your master floppy disk when you are done playing. * Run the main program, MAGSPELL.PRG. in ST medium or ST high resolution. ==> You will see the title screen * Click the mouse or press Return. ==> You will see a box prompting you for the current date which you can change if it is not correct. * Use the + or - keys to increase or decrease the date or the usual Esc, then enter the date. ==> You will then see some information boxes which indicate basically that it is loading the data files, etc. * The program starts after you see "Ready, Set, Go". If you haven't played before you will start on the Medium level. You can press Return as soon as the game starts if you want to choose another level. Your settings will be saved when you exit the program and will begin with those settings the next time you play. ==> You may use each letter as many times as you want to. * Look at the letters in the upper left of the screen. Using those letters think of words you can make and type them in. The longer the word, the higher your score. Also the harder letters like X & Z give you more points just like in the game Scrabble. You can make up to 10 words or as many as you can up to 10. If you can't think of any more just press enter. Use each letter as many times as you need to. ==> The program will then grade your work (fun) and put a star next to the words that are currently in the dictionary. Then, the program will check to see if you got the secret word which it picked before you started the round. If you get the secret word you are awarded 1000 points. After grading your words the program asks you to click on words that ARE CORRECTLY SPELLED but are not yet in the dictionary. * Click on those words that are spelled correctly but do not have a star next to them. ==> These words will be added to the dictionary when you exit the program. Therefore, it is important to exit the program normally. Don't just turn the power off when you are done playing. (Although if you do the new words will be added the next time you exit in the normal way.) * Click on DONE when you are done. ==> The program will show you your score. If you make one of the best scores you will be prompted to enter your name. * Enter your name in the high score box. ==> The program then displays the top 10 players, the level (E , M, H), the score, and the date. * Click your mouse to exit the top 10 list. ==> You then are prompted to play again, quit, etc. MSP_EDIT.PRG - Allows you to edit any words that were mis-spelled. It allows you to delete words entered in error. And it lets you add a bunch of words to the dictionary - if you want to go through Webster's and add words for example. You don't have to worry about duplicate words because they get filtered out later. Also, it doesn't matter if you enter words as lower or upper case. The dictionary stores all words in upper case. HOW THE MAIN PROGRAM GETS LOADED: The program reads the whole dictionary file into an array. The array then gets sorted. Then, the file gets re-written to disk as it records the record numbers where words with the next letter of the alphabet begin. (e.g. apple,axe,axes,bake - the prg records that the b's start at record #4) - and it re-writes the array so that the array is now sorted just like the data file. This is so that when searching through the dictionary it is quicker to search (if the word is "help" it would only search from "hand - iambic"). As you click on words to be added they get put into a temporary file which gets merged to the dictionary when you exit the program. MISC: I tried to make the point system so that a child playing the "EASY LEVEL" would get around the same score as an adult playing the "MEDIUM" or "HARD" levels. That way everyone can have their name in the top 10 list. However, this is kind of hard to predict because two kids can have very different abilities just as two adults can. What sort of evolved was that I would help my daughter as she was trying. I would give her a word and she would try to spell it. If nothing else it causes the child to think and interact and also to practice. * MAGIC SPELL, MAGIC SPELL EDITOR, and all accompanying files are copyrighted 1993. Every effort was made to ensure that all programs and files execute flawlessly. However, there is no guarantee made or implied that they are perfect. The author cannot be held liable for any malfunction resulting in any "downtime" of hardware or software or from any accidental damage incurred by use of the software mentioned above. In other words, you use it at your own risk. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End of File...