Category : A Collection of Games for DOS and Windows
Archive   : EG9403E.ZIP
Filename : EGAINT.MAN

NAME
egaint - Enhanced graphics aint

SYNOPSIS
egaint [cmp]

DESCRIPTION
Egaint represents an IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter-specific
implementation of and complete replacement for aint. While providing
a very high degree of compatibility with its predecessor, egaint also
features several improvements, including a greater level of
compatibility with TETRIS, the Russian pioneer of the falling shape
genre of computer games.

MACHINE REQUIREMENTS
Egaint 0.94 was developed and tested solely on a Toshiba T5100
Personal Portable Computer; this means that I had a 16 Mhz 80386, an
EGA with 256K RAM, and MS-DOS 3.3 in mind during development. It is
highly recommended that at least an 80286 be present when egaint is
run (though you could probably make due without one); in addition, the
VGA is supported (though I cannot personally attest to this).

OBJECT
If you've played egaint before (or aint, TETRIS, NYET, Son of TETRIS,
or any of the related games), you can skip this part.

But for those of you who are new to this genre of computer games, the
object of egaint is to create solid rows across the twenty-four unit
high, ten unit wide playing field (solid in the sense that there are
no holes) by both moving and rotating the shapes which fall from the
top of the playing field towards the bottom. Once a solid row is
created, egaint will clear it from the screen, allowing everything
above it to fall into its place. However, if the shapes pile up and
reach the top of the playing field, the game will end (but your
addiction won't--at least for a while it shouldn't).

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
Egaint accepts one option which will allow the user to specify what
sort of display device will be used:

c An IBM Enhanced Color Display (or any compatible device capable
of displaying sixteen distinctive attributes at one time) will be
used.

m An IBM ECD-compatible device capable of displaying only two
distinctive attributes at one time (i.e., "black" and "white")
will be used.

p An IBM ECD-compatible device capable of displaying only four
distinctive attributes at one time (namely, the gas plasma
display of Toshiba T5100 Portable Personal Computer, which can
only show "bright orange," "medium-bright orange," "medium-dark
orange," and "dark orange") will be used.

GAME OPTIONS
Once inside egaint, a game options screen (after, of course, the title
screen). A brief summary of the available options (and their preset
values) follows.

Tournament Game (No)
There are two hundred and fifty-six possible tournament games
built into egaint; each tournament game will play exactly the
same each time it is invoked, making them ideal vehicle for


competitions between two players. Note that all conditions must
be identical for the games to be identical (i.e., the same
initial level, the same initial height, the same version of
egaint, etc.)

Tournament Game Number (0)
This option allows you to choose which particular game (out of
the two-hundred and fifty-six possible) you wish to play (they
range from zero to two-hundred and fifty-five).

Initial Level (5)
Where one is the easiest (slowest) and eleven is the hardest
(fastest).

Initial Height (0)
Specifies how high (in blocks) an area should be filled with
randomly placed blocks (ranges from one to twelve). And, as an
improvement upon aint, egaint offers hidden (or invisible)
blocks, which may be set by incrementing the height past twelve.

Show Next (Yes)
Toggles whether or not the next piece to be put into play should
be displayed in a window in the upper-left corner of the screen.

Show Shadow (No)
This is still being worked on; the idea behind this is to have a
"shadow" cast upon the area beneath the falling shape (which
should, in theory, result in less placement errors).

Extended Shapes (Classic)
Egaint builds upon aint by offering four sets of shapes:

Classic
the seven basic shapes

Easy
the Classic set plus an assortment of smaller shapes

Medium
the Classic and Easy sets plus some moderately awkward shapes

Hard
all of the above sets plus larger, more difficult shapes

Block Style (varies)
There are four styles of blocks which you can choose from:

New
A style introduced in egaint 0.93.01 as part of the title
screen, it was found appealing enough to eventually replace the
original style (though that was later brought back).

Classic
The original style which was, as mentioned above, abandoned
(but later restored).

Pumped Full of Drugs
A random style which was created (out of boredom) after the New
style was added (did I here someone mention featuritis?); this
apt moniker was lifted directly from the not-so-apt title of a
very lethargic concert videotape.


Barbed Wire Kisses
Another random style which represents what Pumped Full of Drugs
was supposed to be; its namesake was lifted from an album title
by a quartet whose musical style is (in my opinion) represented
by this block style.

Arpeggiator
A style which was implemented right after the next block style
was implemented; it is named after a song by a pseudo-New Age
guitarist.

Elephant Stone
Another random style which was implemented due to another fit
of boredom; it is named after a current favorite song by yet
another English quartet.

Really P.F.D.
Another random style which represents a random combination of
all of the above styles.

KEY BINDINGS
The essential key bindings are the same as for aint, though some
additions have been made:

J Moves the current shape towards the left wall of the playing
field. In addition, this key moves the cursor upward while in
the game options screen.

K Rotates the current shape in the right, or clockwise, direction.
In addition, this key also toggles the selected option during the
game options screen.

L Moves the current shape towards the right wall of the playing
field. In addition, this key moves the cursor downward while in
the game options screen.

I Rotates the current shape in the left, or counter-clockwise,
direction.

Space Bar
Drops the current shape (and, as a result, relinquishes all user
control of it).

Escape
When first hit, it pauses the game: if Escape is hit again while
paused, it will abort the game; otherwise, play resumes. In
addition, pressing this during the game options screen while exit
you from the game and into the operating system.

B Cycles the current block style through from New to Classic to
Pumped Full of Drugs to Really P.F.D. and back to New, etc.

N Toggles the Show Next setting.

S Toggles the (non-functioning) Show Shadow setting.

V Increments the current level (and cycles back to level one).

X Cycles the current shape set through from Classic to Easy to
Medium to Hard and back to Classic, etc.

^S Toggles the (almost non-existent) sound effects.


PLAYING FIELD SCREEN
The playing field screen is divided into four components:

Next window
This window is located in the upper-left corner of the screen and
displays, if Show Next is set, the next shape scheduled to come
into play.

Score window
This window is located in the upper-right corner of the screen,
directly opposite from the Next window, and consists of the
following:

Score
The current number of points attained by the player.

Value
The point value (after all bonuses have been added; see SCORING
for more information about this) of the current shape (i.e.,
the one falling).

Level
The current level of play (see ADVANCEMENT for more information
about this) and the current shape set.

Rows
The total number of rows which have been cleared during this
game.

Playing Field
This is represented by the narrow pit running the height of the
screen.

Key Bindings window
These are the two windows on either side of the playing field at
the bottom of the screen; they provide a quick summary of the
recognized keys to press and their assigned functions.

SCORING
The scoring is not complicated: each shape has been given a value
which was determined with the difficulty in placing and frequency of
necessity being the governing factors. This value is first multiplied
by your current level and then bonuses are added on; these bonuses are
awarded for not using Show Next, not using Show Shadow, having an
Initial Height, etc.

In addition, to the points which you automatically get for each piece,
you also get points for dropping pieces (the higher you drop, the more
points you get) and for, naturally, clearing rows. Again, these
points are multiplied by your current level and the above bonuses are
then added in.

Careful experimentation (or just looking at the source code) will
allow you to determine the exact scoring algorithm.

ADVANCEMENT
In addition, egaint will automatically provide level advancement (and
higher point values) for you after you clear a certain number of rows.

The rule for this is: after you clear your "x"th row, if "x" is a
multiple of ten, you will be advanced (if you are not at this or above
this already) to the "n"th level, where "n" is "x-1" divided by ten.


However, you will only be automatically advanced to the highest
(eleventh) level after clearing 200 rows.

CONFIGURATION FILE
Egaint will save the current options (upon exit to the operating
system) in a file called EGAINT.RC; the format is pretty self-
explanatory upon inspection (i.e., if you don't understand this, don't
bother with it).

If egaint cannot find its configuration file, it will create one with
the above default options.

NOTE: The title screen can be avoided if one adds the line "title=No"
to the configuration file; this cannot be toggled automatically.

HIGH SCORE FILE
Egaint will save the top fifteen high scores (along with other
information about those particular games) into a file called
EGAINT.REC.

Again, if egaint cannot find its high score file, it will create one
(this means you can delete the high score file at any time).

UNRESTRICTIONS
Egaint is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
without any warranty whatsoever, without even the implied warranties
of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the
accompanying GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; see the file COPYING. If not, write to:

Free Software Foundation, Inc.
675 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SHAREWARE
This program is neither public domain nor is it shareware (or
freeware, or whateverware): note that I am not asking you to send me
any fees or donations; also note that I have copyrighted this program.

What does this mean? Well, if you really drastically feel the need to
send someone money because you enjoy egaint, donate it to a worthy
cause, like the American Red Cross.

SOURCE CODE
For information on obtaining the full Turbo Pascal source code and/or
the latest version, consult the included file GETTING.