MEMORY CHALLENGE 1 ================== Copyright © 1990 TTR Development, Inc. Welcome to Memory Challenge! Memory Challenge is an educational puzzle game designed to teach pattern recognition to children in an enjoyable manner. In the Match Game, your child (age 4 and up) will try to match the letters, numbers or words to solve the puzzle and reveal the picture underneath. The Amiga's voice synthesizer can be activated to say each letter, number or word as it is shown on the screen, as well as speak a sentence of encouragement when the child completes the puzzle. (The sentence is selected from a group of sentences which you can change to personalize the reward -- to say the child's name, for example.) An additional Puzzle Game is included, which can be played by itself or after the Match Game has been completed. A picture will be shown briefly on the screen, then cut into rectangles which are then mixed up on the screen. This is a jigsaw puzzle game with rectangular pieces. The puzzle is solved by continually selecting pieces and moving them to the correct locations, until the original picture is reconstructed. You can add your own pictures to the Images directory if you wish, or you can configure the game to use a different images directory. STARTING THE PROGRAM -------------------- Before you use the program, make a copy of the game disk. First verify that the game disk is write-protected (the tab in the corner of the disk is moved so that you can see through the hole). If you have two floppy disk drives, put the Memory Challenge 1 game disk in one drive and a non-write-protected floppy disk in the other. Two floppy disk icons will be displayed. Move the pointer over the MemChallenge1 icon, click and hold down the left mouse button, then move the pointer over the other disk icon and release the left mouse button. This will "drag" the MemChallenge1 icon over the other disk icon and start the copy process. If you have only one floppy disk drive, put the Memory Challenge 1 game disk in the drive, then select the "Duplicate" menu item from the Workbench menu, and follow the instructions. When the process is finished, click once on the "Copy of MemChallenge1" icon to select it, then select the "Rename" menu item from the Workbench menu. Click in the field containing the words "Copy of MemChallenge1", then use the arrow keys, backspace key and/or the Del key to remove the "Copy of ", so that the name of the copy is the same as the original. Then, use the copy as a "working" copy, and put the master disk away in a safe place, for use if anything should happen to the copy. Open the MemChallenge1 disk window by double-clicking on the MemChallenge1 disk icon. Start the program by double-clicking on the Memory Challenge 1 icon. When the program has loaded, you will see a title screen. Click with the left mouse button to start the game, or wait a few seconds. The Options screen will be displayed. THE OPTIONS SCREEN ------------------ In the Options screen, you will see three lists and several buttons. To select an option in a list, just click on it (move the pointer over the option, then press and release the left mouse button) to highlight it. If there are more options than can be displayed in the list at one time, use the arrows or the "slider" to scroll the options up or down. To select a button, just click on it. The Lists... In the Match Object list, you can select whether you want letters, numbers, words, or a combination of these as match objects in the Match Game. This list of match objects can be expanded with additional Memory Challenge data disks, available separately. The number of "squares" (rectangles) in each puzzle can also be selected from the Squares list, from 12 squares (arranged in 3 rows of 4 squares each) to 36 squares (6 squares per row X 6 rows). The selection here applies to both the Match Game and the Puzzle Game. The choices in the Game Type list determine which game you will be playing, the Match Game, the Puzzle Game, or the Match Game followed by the Puzzle Game. The Buttons... The "Sound On/Off" buttons are used to turn the Amiga voice synthesizer option on or off. (You can also turn the sound on or off in the actual game.) The current selection is indicated by which button is highlighted. You can configure the game to start with sound automatically enabled; see "Configuring The Game", below. The "Boxed Squares On/Off" buttons are used by the Puzzle game only. When the "On" button is selected (highlighted), boxes will be drawn around the puzzle pieces. This option is provided to help distinguish the individual puzzle pieces for some pictures. During the game, these boxes can be drawn or erased with the Boxes On/Off menu item under the Options menu, or you can use the Right-Amiga-B key combination (press the B key while holding down the Right-Amiga key) to toggle the box display. The "Configuring the Game" option (see below) allows you to select whether boxes are initially displayed. The Quit button will exit the game when selected. The Go button is the button that starts the chosen game. When this button is selected, the Memory Challenge program uses the selections you have made from the Options screen to set up a game to play. So make your selections, click and release the Go button, wait a moment while the puzzle is generated, then enjoy! The Option Screen's Menu Choices... Also on the Options screen are two menu items: "Screen To Back" and "About... and More". Press the right mouse button to display the menu bar, then move the pointer over the word "Options". This will display the menu items. Select a menu item by moving the pointer over the item and releasing the button. "Screen To Back", when selected, pushes the Memory Challenge program behind the Workbench screen. To return to the game, use the Workbench Screen-To-Back gadget at the upper right of the screen. Choosing "About... and More" takes you to the Information screen (see below). PLAYING THE MATCH GAME ---------------------- If the Match Game (or Match/Puzzle Game) was highlighted when you clicked on the Go button, a Timer pointer will be displayed. Soon the Match Game screen will appear, with 3 to 6 rows of 4 to 6 rectangles ("squares"), depending on the "Squares" setting (see the Options screen). Each square hides a match object. This match object could be a letter, or a number, or a word, depending on the selection made on the Options screen. By "clicking on a square" (moving the pointer over the square, then clicking and releasing the left mouse button), you reveal this match object. Click on another square to reveal another. If the two objects match, a portion of a picture will be shown. If the objects do not match, the original squares will again be displayed. The goal: Match each object with its twin to display the picture underneath. When all the objects have been matched, the picture will flash different colors to indicate that the game has been completed. If sounds are enabled, a reward sentence will also be spoken. The Match Game's Menu Choices... There are menus, "Project" and "Options". The "Project" menu allows you to play another game ("New Challenge"), return to the Options screen to change a setting ("Choose Different Game"), send the game screen behind Workbench ("Screen To Back"), or exit the game ("Quit"). Use the method described above in the discussion on the Options Screen's Menu Choices to select a menu item. Most menu items have keyboard equivalents called short-cut keys. You can select these items by pressing the indicated short-cut key while holding down the Right-Amiga key. You can enable or disable the synthesized voice by selecting the "Sound On/Off" menu item under the Options menu (short cut key: Right-Amiga-S). This menu item is a "toggle": if sounds are enabled, selecting this item disables sounds; if sounds are disabled, select this item to enable them. When the sounds are on, each letter, number, or word will be spoken as it is revealed. In addition, a randomly-selected reward sentence will be spoken when the game is completed. Also under the Options menu, the "Show and Pause..." menu item has five sub-items, "1 Second" through "5 Seconds". These sub-items are used to select the number of seconds of delay after the second match object is revealed (if it doesn't match), before both objects are hidden again. Short cut keys: Right-Amiga-1 through Right-Amiga-5. The remaining two menu items apply only to the Puzzle Game. PLAYING THE PUZZLE GAME ----------------------- If the "Match/Puzzle" option is selected from the Game Type list on the Options screen, then the Match Game will be played until completed, but the color (and optional sound) reward will not be presented at this time. Instead, the Puzzle Game will begin. If the "Puzzle Only" option is selected, the Puzzle Game will begin immediately. A picture will be shown intact for a few seconds (the time can be increased by selecting a larger "Show and Pause" delay value). This picture will then be "cut up" into several puzzle pieces and redisplayed in a scrambled fashion. The number of puzzle pieces is determined by the Squares setting on the Options screen. The object here is to pick up and move each piece into its proper position. To pick up a piece, move the mouse pointer over the desired piece, then click and release the left mouse button. The piece will now follow the pointer, so you can move it over the screen to see if it "fits" in another spot. Click and release the left mouse button to drop the piece. The chosen piece will swap places with the one underneath it. When all the pieces are in their proper places, a reward will be presented. The Puzzle Game's Menu Selections... The "Project" menu is the same for both the Match Game and the Puzzle Game. The "Sound On/Off" menu item under the Options menu does not affect the Puzzle Game except at the end. If the puzzle is solved and sounds are enabled, a randomly-selected reward sentence will be spoken. You can change these sentences on the Edit Rewards screen, discussed later. The "Show and Pause..." menu item has sub-items that determine how long the picture is shown intact before the puzzle pieces are scrambled. The "Boxes On/Off" toggles the display of boxes around the puzzle pieces. If the boxes are shown, this menu item will erase them; if they are not shown, this item will show them. Short cut key: Right-Amiga-B. The "Help On/Off" toggles the Puzzle Help Mode. When this mode is enabled, the selected puzzle piece's correct position will be highlighted when the piece is not being moved across the screen. This may prove useful to young children, or when the puzzle pieces are very similar to one another. Short cut key: Right-Amiga-H. THE INFORMATION SCREEN ---------------------- This screen has three buttons: "Program Setup", "Edit Rewards", and "Return", in addition to information about the Memory Challenge program. Click on the "Return" button to return to the Options screen. Click on the "Edit Rewards" button to bring up the Rewards editor. Click on the "Program Setup" button if you wish to change some of the Memory Challenge defaults, or if you wish to install the Memory Challenge application on a hard disk device. THE EDIT REWARDS SCREEN ----------------------- This screen shows the reward sentences used when sounds are enabled and either the Match Game or the Puzzle game is completed. One of these sentences is randomly spoken by the Amiga's voice synthesizer. To change a sentence (for example, to add your child's name) or to add sentences, just click inside the editor window where you wish to make the change, then type on the keyboard. Make sure to press return at the end of each sentence that you add (only one sentence per line can be spoken). There must be ONLY ONE blank line in the file, at the end. (The cursor should only go as far as the beginning of the line below the last sentence.) The "Save" button will save the changed Rewards file back to disk. (Note: Do not save a modified file on the original Memory Challenge game disk. Use your working copy or hard disk.) The "Exit" button will return you to the Options screen. If you have made changes but have not saved them, they will only be in effect during the current session of Memory Challenge. CONFIGURING THE GAME -------------------- Clicking on the "Program Setup" button in the Information screen takes you to the Install/Configure utility. Here you can change certain characteristics of the program to make those characteristics the default. Please note that no changes are saved to disk until you select the "Configure the Program" button. For example, you can select whether you wish the game sounds to be on or off when the program is started. Just click on the "On" or "Off" button as desired. The selected button will highlight. You can also set the default for boxes drawn around the pieces in the Puzzle Game. If you select "On", each time you begin a new Puzzle Game, the boxes will be drawn. (You can turn them on or off [draw or erase them] in the game itself; see Playing the Puzzle Game, above.) The "Show and Pause Delay" option has a couple of arrow buttons, one down-arrow and one up-arrow. Use these buttons to decrease or increase the pause time in the Match Game between the showing of the second match object and the covering of both objects (if they don't match). This pause time also affects the intact-picture display time in the Puzzle Game; the higher the value, the longer the pause. Click on "Configure the Program" button to save your changes. This will modify the Memory Challenge 1 icon's tool types. (You can see these tool types with the Info menu item under the Workbench menu.) NOTE: If you do not select this "Configure the Program" button, any changes you have made will only apply to the current session of Memory Challenge. Clicking on the "Install on Hard Disk" button will take you to the Memory Challenge 1 Hard Disk Installer; see "Installing on Hard Disk", in the next section. Click on the window's Close gadget (in the upper left corner of the window) to exit back to the Options screen. ADDING PICTURES TO MEMORY CHALLENGE ----------------------------------- You can add your own IFF pictures (including HAM pictures) to the Memory Challenge "Images" directory if you wish. Each Memory Challenge game randomly selects one of these pictures. Or, if you have a special directory on a hard disk that already contains your pictures, you can move the Memory Challenge pictures to that directory, then add the following tool type via the Info menu item on the Workbench menu: ImagesDir = "Images:" Substitute the pathname to your images directory for Images:. The quotes are required. BE SURE TO PRESS THE RETURN KEY after you have typed in the new tool type. Note: HAM pictures have a tendency to smear (the fringe effect) when cut up into little pieces in the Puzzle Game. When HAM pictures are displayed, the boxes may contribute to the problem. If this is the case, just turn off the boxes. Once the picture is correctly "assembled", this smearing effect will disappear. INSTALLING ON HARD DISK ----------------------- If you have selected the "Install on Hard Disk" button in the Install/Configure utility, the Memory Challenge 1 Hard Disk Installer window will appear. In the left-hand list is a group of mounted volumes. Select the volume on which you wish to install Memory Challenge 1. If there is enough room on the disk to install the application, you will be presented with a list of subdirectories on the right. You can select the "Proceed" button to install the Memory Challenge 1 application in its own directory on the hard drive in the root directory, or select one of the subdirectories. When you have reached the subdirectory in which you want the MemChallenge1 directory, click on the "Proceed" button. The installation will commence by creating the MemChallenge1 directory on your hard disk, then the necessary application files will be copied to it. You can select the "Cancel" button at any time prior to selecting the "Proceed" button, which will take you back one level to the Install/Configure window. Or you can click on the window's Close gadget in the upper left to return to the Options screen. When installation is complete, a message will be displayed. It is recommended that you exit the program and find the MemChallenge1 directory on the hard disk you selected. Then double-click on the MemChallenge1 directory icon to open it, then on the Memory Challenge 1 icon to begin the program from the hard disk. If you wish to delete the Memory Challenge 1 application from your hard disk volume for any reason, find and single-click on the MemChallenge1 directory icon, then select "Discard" from the Workbench menu.