----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DROPSESSION DOCUMENTATION Version Sep. 1997 Eriban Software ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** HOW TO CONTACT US *** Address: Eriban Software Schoterlandseweg 76 8414LX Nieuwehorne Netherlands Email: lastdawn@dds.nl and lastdawn@geocities.com (be sure to send your mail to both addresses) URL: http://huizen.dds.nl/~lastdawn/dropsess.htm *** CONTENTS *** 1. Dropsession 2. The puzzle 2.1. A short description 2.2. The actions in a nutshell 2.3. Exceptional situations 3. How to use the Dropsession program? 3.1. Starting up the game 3.1.1. How do I get the game running? 3.1.2. Choosing the set of puzzles 3.1.3. Oops, the screen looks slightly messed up. What now? 3.2. Playing the puzzles 3.2.1. How to start puzzling? 3.2.2. Solving the puzzles 3.2.3. What if I solved a puzzle? 3.3. Moving around between the puzzles 3.3.1. What about the puzzle codes? 3.3.2. Start off where you left 3.3.3. What if I am stuck? 3.3.4. Help, the puzzles code are starting to look weird! Is it a bug? 3.3.5. Solving the puzzles you once skipped 3.3.6. What to do when I solved a skipped puzzle? 3.4. Replaying, loading and saving your moves 3.4.1. Watch out. All your moves will be logged! 3.4.2. Replaying your moves 3.4.3. Can I continue puzzling from anywhere within a replay? 3.4.4. Is there a backward function when replaying? 3.4.5. Saving your moves 3.4.6. Loading your moves 4. Trouble shooting 4.1. The screen looks messed up, you see all kind of weird characters 5. The freeware edition 5.1. Features 5.2. Requirements 6. The registered edition 6.1. Features 6.2. Requirements 6.3. Future plans 6.4. Why register? 6.5. How to register? 7. Contact us 8. Support the environment 9. Frequently asked questions 10. Major thanx 11. Legal stuff 11.1. Disclaimer 11.2. Distribution 11.2.1. Freeware edition 11.2.2. Registered edition 1. Dropsession We are proud to present to you : Dropsession, a new and exciting puzzle game. Those of you who are not afraid of a little bit of puzzling will be pleased with it, we think... The idea behind the Dropsession puzzles is simple yet very powerful. The difficulty of the puzzles ranges from easy to very hard. Even puzzles looking extremely simple can turn out to be far from easy. Solving the puzzles will often prove to be a real challenge. You will need to plan ahead, you will have to build temporary constructions which will be removed later on, you will have to decide where to start etc. Anyway, so we are very exited about the puzzles and the Dropsession program. Why don't you find out if you are? Just play the game! But be sure to read the documentation first. 2. The puzzle 2.1. A short description The goal of each puzzle is to build a given figure on a two dimensional board. You will have a restricted set of pieces for each puzzle. Pieces which are on the board are subject to a forcefield. This forcefield can be orientated in one of two directions (these two directions are 90 degrees apart). The forcefield will drop pieces as far as possible (until they are obstructed by a border of the board or by other pieces). However, the forcefield will never rotate the pieces. So the orientation of each piece stays fixed. You are able to switch the direction of the forcefield. The forcefield is the only way to move the pieces on the board. The board has two entrances which you use to insert pieces on the board. Which entrance you can use is determined by the active direction of the forcefield. You pick a piece that is still available and position it as you wish in front of the entrance. You then insert the piece. Once the piece is on the board, the forcefield will cause it to drop as far as possible in the direction of the forcefield. Often you are given more pieces than are necessary to form the figure. These extra pieces can be used during the construction of the figure. At the end of the puzzle they have to be off the board again. The board has two exits which can be used to remove pieces from the board. If you open the exits the forcefield may cause pieces to leave the board through one of the exits. The exits then close. You can use the pieces which left the board again later on. 2.2. The actions in a nutshell To summarize the above. The three actions you have at your disposal to solve the puzzle are: - Switch the forcefield to the other direction. - Insert a piece on the board through the active entrance. - Remove pieces from the board by opening the exits. Sounds simple, huh? How could these puzzles ever be hard? Well, they can. They really can. Play a couple of the puzzles if you don't believe us. 2.3. Exceptional situations The above description is not yet complete. There are still two exceptional situations: (1) If you drop a piece and it can not completely get on the board it will be rejected. (2) If you open an exit and a piece gets halfway but cannot completely leave the board you are not allowed to play any further. You will have to start again from the start or go back using the undo-function. Furthermore, for some puzzles you are not allowed to 'build to the entrance'. This means that when you rotate the forcefield, the area of the board under the current entrance has to be entirely empty if you want to insert a new piece. Otherwise the entrance will be closed making it impossible for you to insert a piece. In this way it is as if you have to solve the puzzle on a very large board. It is done to make the solutions for some puzzles a bit nicer (and harder!). You can find out if you are allowed to 'build to the entrance' by looking at the information for the puzzle. 3. How to use the Dropsession program? 3.1. Starting up the game 3.1.1. How do I get the game running? That's easy. Go to the directory where you put all the Dropsession files and type "DROPSESS" at the command prompt to start the game. In the registered edition you will then have to identify yourself by typing in your personal password (which you gave to us when you registered). After you have done so, you will end up in the main menu. 3.1.2. Choosing the set of puzzles The registered edition of Dropsession supports multiple puzzle sets (you can recognize files defining a puzzle set by their extension ".PUZ"). At this moment two puzzle files are issued with the registered edition. A new puzzle set (in the file DROPSESS.PUZ) and a puzzle set with familiar puzzles (in the file OLDIES.PUZ), these puzzles were already issued with the freeware edition. The first puzzle set is chosen by default. If you want to play puzzles from another puzzle set, give its name (without the extension) as a parameter. E.g. "DROPSESS OLDIES". 3.1.3. Oops, the screen looks slightly messed up. What now? To make playing Dropsession more attractive, we upgraded its exterior by using low-level DOS-functions to get a graphics-look in text-mode. However, sometimes this will not work, you will then see 'garbage' on your screen. See paragraph 4.1 to find out how to solve this problem. 3.2. Playing the puzzles 3.2.1. How to start puzzling? Simply choose 'Play puzzle' in the main menu. You will first see some information on the puzzle. When you have seen this information, you press a key and you can try to solve the puzzle. 3.2.2. Solving the puzzles The actions you can use to solve the puzzle, are given elsewhere in this document, see paragraph 2. You can find out which keys you have to use to perform these actions by pressing 'F1'. 3.2.3. What if I solved a puzzle? When you have solved a puzzle, amongst others you can save your solution if you want to (registered edition only, see 3.4.5) or you can replay your solution (registered edition only, see 3.4.2). Pressing a key that is not bound to an action will get you back to the main menu (in the registered edition you will have to confirm this when you haven't saved your solution yet). When you are in the main menu again, the next puzzle is waiting for you. Always write down the code for this new puzzle immediately (see paragraph 3.3). 3.3. Moving around between the puzzles 3.3.1. What about the puzzle codes? Each puzzle has its own unique set of codes. These codes enable you to go back to any puzzle where you have been before. 3.3.2. Start off where you left You can go to any puzzle where you have been before by using the 'Goto puzzle' command. Simply enter the number of the puzzle and its code. Then choose 'Play puzzle'. 3.3.3. What if I am stuck? It is possible that you are stuck at a certain puzzle. That you really have no idea how to solve it. Or that you're so extremely close to solving it, but just not close enough.... You can then skip that puzzle and go on with the next puzzle. Choose 'Skip puzzle' in the main menu. You are only allowed to skip up to a certain maximum number of puzzles (we think that number is two in the freeware edition and three in the registered edition. In fact, we're pretty sure of that...). 3.3.4. Help, the puzzles code are starting to look weird! Is it a bug? No, once you skipped a puzzle the puzzle codes will be a random-looking combination of characters and digits. This new code indicates that you skipped one or more puzzles. So if you restart Dropsession and use this code to go back to a puzzle where you have been before, the program will know how many puzzles you skipped up till then. 3.3.5. Solving the puzzles you once skipped Simply go to a puzzle you skipped once by using the 'Goto puzzle' command. Then try to solve this puzzle again. 3.3.6. What to do when I solved a skipped puzzle? When you solved a puzzle that you had once skipped, you will see that the puzzle code for the puzzle immediately following the skipped puzzle has changed. Write down this new code. The code has changed to reflect the new situation (for the number of puzzles you skipped up till then has decreased). However, if you have any codes for puzzles with a higher number, these should be changed as well. And uh,..... hmm.... that is where things get a bit complicated.... Sorry. Really. But don't fear, you do not have to solve all these puzzles for a second time. You use the 'Validate puzzle' command to avoid this. You will have to give the code for the next puzzle, and then you will receive the new code for that puzzle (write it down!). Work your way through all puzzles by validating them..... Ah well, that's not too hard after all, is it? 3.4. Replaying, loading and saving your moves (NB. The information in this paragraph is only valid for the registered edition) 3.4.1. Watch out. All your moves will be logged! But that's actually nothing to worry about. It will only make life easier for you. For it enables you to replay, save and load your moves and solutions. 3.4.2. Replaying your moves You can replay your moves at any moment. To do so, you first have to reset the puzzle by pressing 'F3'. This will restore the puzzle board and the pieces to their starting position. However, your moves will not be lost! You can review your moves and get back to the position where you were, by using the two replay-commands. When you want to take your time and get a close look of what you did, you use the step-replay command. Pressing 'F5' will replay one move at a time. You can also use the continuous-replay mode, start it by pressing 'F6'. When you don't interrupt it, this will show all your moves until the final move is reached. You can interrupt it by pressing any key. 3.4.3. Can I continue puzzling from anywhere within a replay? Yes, you can. Simply start puzzling from where you want to. But beware! As soon as you have executed a single move, it will be logged and thus erasing all your moves you hadn't replayed so far. Even undo won't help you then, because undo (just as redo) does not affect the logged moves. 3.4.4. Is there a backward function when replaying? Well, no and yes. No, because there isn't a command implemented to let you move backwards through your moves (for those of you interested in the reason: knowing the last move that was executed is often insufficient to derive the previous state of the puzzle. An implementation of the command would have been slow, or would have required a lot of memory). However, since the most recent puzzle states are stored, the undo-command can be used to backtrack through your moves. The number of moves you can go backward is limited by the undo-level (which is 20 in the registered edition). If you want to go back further, you will have to reset the puzzle and use the replay commands to get where you want to be. 3.4.5. Saving your moves You can save your moves at any time. Press 'F8' to get to the 'save moves'- dialog. For every puzzle there are six slots, each of these can be used to store a move series. Choose a slot using the arrow-keys and press 'Enter' to select the slot. You can then give a description for the move series. This which will help you to keep track of all the move series you saved. After you have given a description, you press 'Enter' once again and your moves will be saved. It might occur that you don't want to save your moves after all, or that you want to pick another slot. When you have to give a description, 'Esc' will get you back and you can choose another slot. You can then also press 'C' to cancel the 'save moves' command entirely. 3.4.6. Loading your moves Loading moves you once saved is straightforward. Pressing 'F7' will get you to the 'load moves'-dialog. You can pick which moves to load by using the arrow-keys. The descriptions will help you to pick the move series you want. When you press 'Enter' the moves will be loaded and the puzzle will be reset. You can then use the replay-commands to continue from anywhere in this (partial) solution. If you don't want to load moves after all, you can press 'C' to cancel the 'load moves' command. 4. Trouble shooting 4.1. The screen looks messed up, you see all kind of weird characters In particular, the blue border at the bottom of the screen is filled with garbage and when you want to play a puzzle, the puzzle board, the puzzle pieces and the forcefield arrows look ugly. This may happen when you run Dropsession within Windows in a minimized DOS-window. Playing the game full-screen will probably solve the problem. Another reason might be that you use a DOS that is not fully compatible with standard MS-DOS. A simplistic solution to that problem is, run Dropsession in a DOS that is compatible... However, that may not always be that easy. But there is a way to completely get around the problem. You can turn of the 'fancy' look by running Dropsession in plain text-mode. To do so, you give "/NOFANCY" as an extra parameter when you start the game. E.g. "DROPSESS /NOFANCY". And if that still doesn't work out, you can always contact us. 5. The freeware edition 5.1. Features Some features of the freeware edition are: - 17 different puzzles. - A built in demo-mode. - Undo & redo function (only up to 2 levels). - You are allowed to skip a puzzle when you are stuck. - You can always go to any puzzle where you have been before. 5.2. Requirements The freeware edition is designed to run on almost any computer which runs MS-DOS. If your screen supports a 80x25 text-mode with at least sixteen colors there shouldn't be any problems to run the program. Or your computer should really, really be ancient... 6. The registered edition 6.1. Features The registered edition still has all the functionality the freeware edition has (see paragraph 5.1). However, extra features are: - Over 30 new puzzles (as we speak, new puzzles are being designed!). - Undo & redo up to 20 levels. - You will be able to replay your moves. - Save & load your (partial) solutions. You will be able to restart from anywhere in these solutions. 6.2. Requirements If the freeware edition runs on your computer, the registered edition should give no problems either. 6.3. Future plans Some things we have in mind to do in the near future: - More puzzles!!!! - A 256 color graphical edition. Ray tracing will be used to create a realistic board and pieces. You would puzzle with (for instance) marble pieces and a wooden board! This graphical edition is not yet available. However, as soon as 50 users have registered, it is guaranteed to be released! - Small improvements like defining your own keys. 6.4. Why register? Registering has the following advantages: - You will get more puzzles! - You will receive the registered edition of the program. The extra functionality will make solving the puzzles slightly easier and more fun! See paragraph 6.1 for the features of the registered edition. - You can join the Dropsession Puzzle Contest! You can read all about the money you can win and how to win it in the file CONTEST.TXT. - It only costs you 15 US dollar to register for life! You will then be able to get all future versions and all new puzzles for free. Be quick, when the registered package gets more comprehensive the registration fee will increase. So you will save money if you register now! - You will support the environment by registering! Part of the registration fee (10%) will go to the WWF (read on for more information) 6.5. How to register? Print out the file REGISTER.TXT, fill in the form and send it to us accompanied by your payment of the registration fee. You will find full details in the file itself. And it is even easier when you have access to the Internet. You can then pay the registration fee on-line using the service offered by ShareIt! (at this moment, you still have to send us the registration form though). 7. Contact us You can always contact us. You can find all the addresses you need at the top of this document. Contact us... - ... when you have questions or want to get more information. - ... when you experience problems when you try to run Dropsession. - ... when you want to give us your feedback. We would be very happy to receive any feedback on this program (we think it is an extremely cool program, but do feel the same way?...) - ... when you want to register. Check out the file REGISTER.TXT for more information. - ... when you have found a shorter or better solution for a certain puzzle. It can be that your solution takes less rotations or that you do not use all the pieces that are available (for instance, your solution for the Devilish Diamond leaves the small rectangle untouched. Which would be quite an achievement by the way). What's in it for you? Eternal fame: your name will be mentioned by the information of the puzzle. - ... when you have designed some neat puzzles and you don't mind that we use them. Eternal fame will be yours again: you will get your name mentioned by each of your puzzles which we use. Furthermore, when you give us several puzzles of a good quality, you can also expect a small reward in return. Don't hesitate to ask for more information when you're interested. - ... when you discovered a bug in Dropsession. We hope that this will never be the case. But it is possible since the source code of Dropsession has gotten pretty big (over 300k C++ code). - ... when you think there is another reason to contact us. 8. Support the environment Eriban Software is pretty concerned at the way the world and her natural environment is going. Therefore, we will give 10% of all revenues to the WNF, the Dutch organization of the WWF ("World Wide Fund for Nature" also known as the "World Wildlife Fund"). We feel that that's the least we can do. WWF's Mission: To reverse the destruction of the Earth's natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Get more information: WNF : http://www.wnf.nl/ WWF: http://www.panda.org/ 9. Frequently asked questions At the moment of writing this documentation, the first version of Dropsession has been released not too long ago. So far, there haven't been any questions (it seems like we did a good job!). But if you have any questions, ask us. You can visit our homepage, email us or write us. All the addresses you need are at the top of this document. For now, we fill this paragraph with some less serious, not so frequently asked questions (and answers). 1.1 Will there be a Windows version available in the near future? - Nah, think not. Eriban Software feels that they should not in any way help Bill and his friends in a monopolizing marketing position. 1.2 But does Eriban Software realize that this will mean that they throw away a good chance to make some extra money? - Yes, but making money is not everyone’s main goal in life. Some people have higher morals. 2.1 Is this product environmental friendly? - Yes. 2.2 Why? - First of all, no first multi-megaherz mega-memory hardware is required to run this piece of software. So you can refrain from buying the newest (even faster and better) computer model around. You can still use your old computer. You don't have to throw it away! This will effectively reduce the world's waste belt by one (still perfectly functioning) machine. 2.3 Oh, oops. But what if I already made the mistake of buying the latest computer model? - Those who did, can still save some precious energy by switching their power consuming piece of hardware from the high-speed mode to the rarely used but still useful low-speed mode. Try it! 2.4 That's indeed all very impressive. Is there more? - It's nothing compared to the above ;).... but it deserves to be mentioned anyway: 10% (or even more when things start to work out) of all received payments will be donated to the WWF. And that's a promise! 10. Major thanx An incredible bunch of thanx go out to Savatage, Blind Guardian and Pique Poque Poetry, without their inspiring music the creation of this program and the underlying ideas would be inconceivable. And that's no lie! Furthermore, thanx go also out to: Paul and Calslaan 7-2 for providing feedback and the NKC for publishing an article on Dropsession in their CFF magazine (puzzle lovers, we can highly recommend this magazine to you, contact us for more information when you're interested). 11. Legal stuff 11.1. Disclaimer WE PROVIDE DROPSESSION AS IS. WE WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM. IF YOU USE DROPSESSION, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. So, if for instance your wife wants to divorce you because you didn't spend enough time on her recently, your boss fires you because you played Dropsession at your work, your computer started to smoke because it had been on too long just because of that stupid little puzzle, your cat pees in your keyboard, a bug in Dropsession erases very important data on your harddrive, or anything else, we are simply not responsible. 11.2. Distribution 11.2.1. Freeware edition IMPORTANT: DISTRIBUTION OF THE FREEWARE PACKAGE OF DROPSESSION IS ONLY ALLOWED WHEN YOU KEEP THE PACKAGE IN ITS ENTIRETY. FURTHERMORE, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE FILES IN THE PACKAGE. As long as you keep the freeware package of Dropsession in its entirety and you don't charge any money for it, you are free to pass the package to your friends, colleagues or anyone else (the file ALLFILES.TXT gives the names and sizes of all the files in the Dropsession freeware package). Distributors of freeware or shareware software are also allowed to distribute the freeware package of Dropsession. In doing so you may charge no more than a nominal fee for duplication. Furthermore, Dropsession may only be distributed in its entirety (refer to the file ALLFILES.TXT). We would appreciate it when you would inform us when you use Dropsession. You can also contact us when you have any questions regarding the distribution of Dropsession. 11.2.2. Registered edition You are not allowed to distribute the registered package of Dropsession. Your registered edition of Dropsession is/will be protected by a personal password. It is your responsibility that this password stays personal. Ayreon - I hope one day, that man will understand, it's in his power to change his destiny