============================================================================== WinTris v1.00 by Gothmog / Spicelab - documentation - ============================================================================== Another Tetris? What for? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I got the idea to write an own Tetris clone when I found myself disappointed of SizeTris. The idea behind SizeTris, to write a size flexible multitasking Tetris, was really good, but I felt disgusted by the presentation. So I wrote my own one, offering the following features (and more): - Multitasking: play WT while making backups or packing data or whatever else - Kickstart 2.0+ 3D-Look - Flexible field and tile size - Preferences Window - Prefs, sizes and window positions may be saved to disk - Special graphics adaption for non-interlace mode - Saveable scorelist - Complete game status displayed in a separate window - Auto-pause when window is inactive; useful while making backups etc. In fact, I don't know whether there is a better Workbench Tetris clone or not. ============================================================================== Installing WinTris ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Just pull the WinTris Drawer to wherever you want. Then you must install "reqtools.library" to your libs: directory (if you really don't have it yet). That's all. ============================================================================== Configuring WinTris ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Sizing the window: You may change the window size by using the size gadget in the right bottom corner in order to change the amount of horizontal and/or vertical rows. Minimum is 4*4, maximum is 35*25 rows. After releasing the size gadget the program will calculate how many rows there will be room for in the changed window. Then it reduces the size to adapt the window to the current brick size, unless there is no need to do so. NOTE: The original Tetris size is 10*20 (I guess so), this is the default. * Prefs/BrickSize: This is the size of a single brick. (No kidding! :-) * Prefs/TaskPri: Here you may vary the task priority of WinTris. Since it is a multitasking program, this is quite useful. A high TaskPri will make WinTris run smoothly in almost every situation. A low TaskPri will give more CPU time to other tasks, for instance backup programs or packers. A value of 0 is reasonable in most cases. * Prefs/Interlace: WinTris was originally designed for interlace usage. If you deactivate it, the vertical brick size will be divided by 2, so that the bricks will appear square in normal HiRes mode. (Sorry, no adaption for "Next" display yet!) * Prefs/FallingTiles, Prefs/DroppedTiles: allows you to specify the colour of each falling and dropped tiles * Prefs/HelpLines: I couldn't find an advantage in this, just check it out! * Menu/Load Config: will load and use a previously saved prefs file. * Menu/Save Config: will save the current configuration to (hard)disk. It will automatically be loaded on next startup. * Menu/Default Config: restores the original configuration. * Menu/Reset Scorelist: will reset the high score list to its original state (and ask you before). * Menu/Clear Scorelist: will remove ALL names and scores from the high score table. If you really want to start playing with an initial highscore of 0 ... ============================================================================== Playing WinTris ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WinTris is (at the moment) entirely keyboard-controlled: Start the game by pressing , , or left mousebutton. A) Cursor Keys (simple) B) Number Pad (recommended) -------- -------- -------- -------- | rotate | |4 rotate|5 rotate|6 rotate| | left | | left | left | right | -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- | <- | drop | -> | |1 move |2 move |3 move | | left | tile | right | | left | down | right | -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- |0 | | drop tile | ----------------- * To pause the game, simply deactivate the WinTris game window. Some multitasking programs automatically activate their own window when they have finished working; for example some backup programs do so when they want to have new disks to eat. In such cases WinTris will immediately freeze and wait until you reactivate its game window. Cunning, eh? * The level will be raised every 20 lines you complete. There are 8 levels (0-7). The first few may appear a bit boring to skilled players, but this is the chance to collect points (by achieving lots of "quad's"). Later on you'll be happy every time you complete a single line! * No Tetris docs here, I guess everyone knows what it's about. If you don't, just check out the game, you'll soon get into it. ============================================================================== Known bugs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NONE, of course! :-) ============================================================================== Plans for the future ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Joystick support: didn't quite make it into this version. * Better graphics: How about different patterns for each kind of tile and/or MagicWB support? * Serial link mode: play WinTris against each other. * German doc's: Tut mir leid, als Zivi hat man nun mal nicht so viel Zeit... NOTE: Most of these plans are still far away from realisation, but if you are interested in WinTris (and especially new versions of it), why not write me a postcard (or letter) and tell me what you think about it and what should be changed? The Address can be found below and in WinTris itself. ============================================================================== Copying WinTris ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WinTris is FreeWare, that means you may copy it wherever you want, you may even use it 24 hours a day (but not longer :-) ... The only thing you should notice is that WinTris may only be copied unmodified and in connection with its complete drawer. Everyone should have the right to decide which files to keep or to delete. And Everyone should be able to read this documentation! So it's just fair to keep everything together. If you find any bugs or have any messages to get rid of, write to the following address. I don't oblige you to send money, but if you send me 10,- DM you may be sure that you will be one of the first persons to receive a disk with a new version of WinTris (I suppose there will be several ones). Answer guaranteed!!! Write to (yes, WRITE! No e-mail, just s-nail!): Harald Lenz Edmund-Husserl-Str. 29 51377 Leverkusen Germany ============================================================================== A few wise words ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'm sure that Commodore's death was mainly their own fault, but everyone of us should have learned his lesson as well by now! It's just fun to be legal! ============================================================================== Thanks to: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * SAS Institute Inc. for SAS-C v6.5 * Nico François for the great ReqTools Package :-) Cool work, man! I haven't registered yet, so I had to use the old ReqTools 1.0 includes. Sorry, I haven't earned a single penny with my programming yet, so I simply can't afford paying $25 for the developer kit. * Jaba Development for GadToolsBox v2.0b (Note: GTB is fine for designing GUIs, but I prefered writing my own code.) ============================================================================== Program History ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ b: minor bug fixed c: minor change f: minor new feature B: major bug fixed C: major change F: major new feature ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ v1.0ß: - Initial release (first test phase). Hope there are no more bugs left. v1.00: b Score measure and level 8 speed were optimized. Now it's possible to beat the HiScore. (Yoooh, I got 7158!) b Graphics were placed wrong on BackDrop WB. Works fine now. b Fixed a neglectable timing problem concerning status refresh. f Status window now opens after game window. This is useful if you want it to overlap the game window's titlebar after restarting WT. c Optimized graphics routine; should be a bit faster now. f Added "Clear Scores" option, menu was redesigned. f Now also the game borders are affected by the Interlace gadget. Looks much better in non-interlaced mode than before. c Redesigned status window, removed leading zeroes. f Added score scrambler to keep lamers from "zapping" the file. c Removed slowest level; it was really tooo slow. Changed number of lines/level from 25 to 20. Again new score measure. (Thanx to Obiwan for these hints!) b Menu entry "Quit" didn't work. What a silly bug! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Compiled: 10-Oct-94