
                                   WSPEED

                         Full freeware version 1.13

                        Copyright 1992, 2001 Bisqwit

The game idea

  This game wants to make you a better (faster)
  computer typer with less accidental typing errors.

  The mission is that you need to write all words you see scrolling
  on the screen. You can miss nine (9) words, before the game is over.
  All the time the game gives you information about your ten minute
  relative speed (10mrs), which is a good comparision value, how good
  are you in typing. The game tells you also a description of your
  typing speed, during the game. 

Hardware requirements

  Minimum system:
    386SX.
    EGA-compatible display card. (Actually I am not sure if
                                  CGA would be enough, too...)
    Poor keyboard (not recommended).
    Some conventional memory left (dunno what's the minimum)
    MS-DOS 5.0

  Recommended system:
    Pentium 100 or faster. (If you want much of words on screen
                            simultaneously, being able to be handled...)
    VGA-compatible display card. (Text mode does not require much.)
    Creative Sound Blaster AWE-64 with reverb 40% and chorus 30%.
    Good keyboard (you need to be able to type fastly with it).
    Some conventional memory left (still dunno what's the minimum)
    MS-DOS 7.x (also known as Windows 95/98).
 
Required files

  wspeed.exe   (The game program file itself)
  wspeed.c     (The game music file (not necessary if you
                want to use your own music file. Gosub
                "Music and sound" chapter for details.))
  wspeed.dat   (Finnish word library. Couple of other word
                library files is recommended. See chapter
                "Word library files".)
  intgen.exe   (Locatable in PATH. This has something to
                do with the game sound system. See
                chapter "Music and sound".)
  scorecom.exe (Locatable in path. This is required at the
                installation step and when joining score
                files. See chapter "Combining score files"
                for details.)
  wspeed.txt   (It is good if you don't lose this document.)

Generated files

  wspeed.rec (The game status and score file.
              Investigate it if you are a hacker.)

Supported additional files

  chmmr.*        (See chapter "Music and sound")
  wspeed.da[a-z] (Which means wspeed.daa,wspeed.dab,wspeed.dac,
                  wspeed.dad etc until wspeed.daz. These are word
                  library files. See chapter "Word library files".)

Usage and command line options

  You can start the game by simply starting the program.
  In DOS, you would just type wspeed and press enter.
  However, the game supports additional options which
  can be used to finetune the game.
  For example, wspeed -w40 -q0  makes the game a lot easier.

  Options:
   -c       Enables the same words to appear more than once on the screen
            at the same time. This option makes the game a lot easier.
            Very much easier. I did not invent a good way to grade the
            users of -c, so I renamed this option as "training mode
            option". When you use -c, you get no score. This may possibly
            change in future.
   -d       Dvorak mode. Translates

                 1234567890+`       1234567890+`
                  QWERTYUIOP^        ,.PYFGJRL<^
                  ASDFGHJKL'   to   OAEUIDHTNS-'
                  >ZXCVBNM;:_         QCKXBMWVZ    .

   -m file  Selects music file (see chapter "Music and sound").
   -q num   Specify difficulty level.
            Notice: Specifying zero (0) here may make you able to play
            the game forever. It would not be very self developing.
            Except zero, the smaller this number is, the more the game
            wants you to become better than you are yet. Built-in default
            for this option is 20. Range: 0..99.
   -w num   Initial brakes. Recommended value 3..50, built-in default 20.
            The smaller this number is, the faster the words move.
            Specifying a very small positive integer here is the
            same as using -d -option, but not. If you want head ache,
            try -dw1. I have played with -w10 and it is yet goodly
            playable, if you aren't very slow writer. Range: 0..999.
   -v       Less unverbose initialization
            Makes the game to tell you what it is doing in the very
            beginning - before you start playing. Use it if you are
            a hacker.

The start/beginning

  If you don't know yet how to start the program, gosub to the
  "usage and command line options" chapter.
  First the game asks you to select the word libraries which
  you want to use in your game. If you are Finnish, a good choice
  is "Suomi". If you are English, a good choice is "English".
  If you are a hacker, a good choice is "C/C++" or anything
  else. You can select any combinations of the dictionaries.

  After you have selected the word library files, the game
  asks you, which sound card do you have (in fact, it asks,
  which built-in sound card driver do you want to use).
  Answer the question by selecting the correct row with
  arrow keys, and press enter.

  The game begins then.

  You need to type everything there scrolls on the screen.
  Gosub the "the game idea" chapter for more information
  about what do you need to do in the game.

  If you want to know what do the acronyms and abbreviations
  in the below part of screen mean, press F1. The game pauses
  and it gives you help windows, which you can navigate through
  by pressing space when you have read one. After the last help
  window, the game continues.

  When your game is over, the score table window appears on your
  screen. You can write up your new record there by typing your
  name if the game gives you a chance.
  WSpeed grades you by how much correct words did you type and how fastly.
  The game keeps separate score tables for each different game setups.
  In the score table, the datetime is in mm.dd.yy hh:mm:ss format.

Music and sound (the air waves generated by your speakers)

  The game uses the MidiS3M subsystem, which I first developed
  for Warp's Joe & Jasper game, which can be downloaded from his
  home page, see chapter "Abbreviations and glossary".
  MidiS3M subsystem requires a 386sx processor.
  Due to that Intgen is required by this game, intgen.exe is
  distributed inside the game distribution packet.

  The "default" music file is contained in wspeed.c.
  You can also play any S3M files (Scream Tracker 3 modules),
  if they use only Adlib or have been midi-extended.
  You can download midi-extended s3m-files from
  the following address: http://bisqwit.stc.cx/mod/tcsmods/

  There is chmmr.s3m included in the package for testing and
  studying purposes. Chmmr theme is not composed by me, but
  it is a good melody anyway. I am using it as the background
  theme of Joe level editor.

Word library files

  You can make your new word library files.
  You can edit the existing word library files.
  The general format of word library file:
     First line contains the word library name.
     All other lines contain the words in the word library.
     The words are in lowercase (no capital letters).
     Empty lines can exist in dictionary files.
  All word library files have file name in the form
  wspeed.da#, where # is an alphabet between a-z.
  The dictionary files included within the
  distribution package are currently: abcdefgklnprstuwx
    
Hackers

  The executable file has not been protected from modifications.
  The score file has been protected from editing, but not
  from viewing. It has been designed to be easily viewed but
  still fastly accessed.

Known bugs

  Sometimes it appears that the game says the score file
  has invalid format. I am trying to solve the reason.
  If you meet this bug, please send your score file to
  me for investigation.

  Once it happened that after the score entry, when restarted
  the game, it started to scroll a long long word with no sense.
  If you meet this bug, please report it to me in as much detail
  as possible.
 
  In versions <1.03, wspeed.cpp was accidentally distributed
  inside the packet... Well, nobody is perfect :-)

  In version 1.08, the delay code was being reorganized.
  If your screen becomes red or light red or white in the game,
  then your computer is a bit too slow for the game. When this
  happens with computers faster than 386sx, please report it to
  Bisqwit. The lighter and the cleaner the color of the flashing
  screen, the slower your computer is. This does not happen with
  most computers, and is not a bug.

  The AWE32 driver ocassionally crashes. I'm clueless.
 
License

  The game used to be freeware.
  Now it is free software, distributed under the General Public License.

    WSpeed comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
    See the file 'COPYING' for more details.
    This is free software, and you are welcome
    to redistribute it under certain conditions.
  
  You don't need to pay anything to the author to play this.
  There is no trial period time limit. If you want to send money
  or good computer parts to the author, it does not guarantee a
  new version of the game being submitted to the net in next week,
  but it does increase the motivation of making more games :-)

  Modified versions may not be distributed by user without pointing
  it out in this document that the version is not the original. If
  I find out a modified version from the internet, I will add a
  checking routine to the game.

  The source codes of the game are separately being distributed
  at http://bisqwit.stc.cx/wspeed/ in ws_src.zip . It compiles
  with Borland C++ (at least it should).

Documentation

  You are reading it currently.
  The rest of the documentation of the game is available with
  the -? switch of WSpeed and with F1 key during game.

Abbreviations and glossary

  10mrs        = Ten minute relative speed.
                 How many errorless letters (alphabets) are you able
                 to type in ten minutes.
  Num        = Number of alphabets.
                 How many correct letters did you type in the game.
  WSpeed       = Word Speed
                 This is probably the thing I was thinking when
                 I invented the name WSpeed.
  word library = File containing some words. See chapter "Limits".
  gpl, gnu     = See http://www.gnu.org/
  bug          = An insect.
                 In this document, it means a program error;
                 something the program does when it shouldn't.
  hacker       = Boy or girl, older or younger, who wants to know
                 how the things work and how to change them.
  gosub        = Go subroutine.
                 goto = Jump to and do there whatever
                 gosub = Jump to, do whatever and return back then.
  Zorlim       = See homepage: http://zorlim.fiiu.org/
  ztspeed      = See Zorlim.
  Warp         = See homepage: http://iki.fi/warp/
  Bisqwit      = See chapter "Author".
  scorecom     = See chapter "Combining score files".

Limits
  The fixed limit of number of word library files in this game is
  currently 21. The game refuses to start if there are more.
  This may probably change in future.

  The maximum number of score entries in a game model is fifty (50).
  If there are fifty and somebody makes a new record, the lowest
  score entry drops out. This may probably change in future.

  The number of different game models is 2 * 2 * 100 * 1000 * 2^21,
  which is 838860480000. Separate score record tables for each :)

  For limits of command line options, see
  chapter "Usage and command line options".

Combining score files

  There's a tool named ScoreCom combined in the package.
  It can be used to combine two score files into one.
  It is useful for example when you are upgrading your WSpeed
  to new version, and don't want to lose your old scores.
  When you have this game and your friend has it too, on separate
  computers, it would be nice to see the both results on the same
  screen. ScoreCom can be used to do it.
  Example:
    You copy your wspeed.rec (score file) to a diskette.
      copy wspeed.rec a:
    Then you take the diskette and go to visit your friend.
    You cd to wspeed directory there and do the following:
      scorecom a:wspeed.rec wspeed.rec
    Then, before finishing, you could do the following, just to
    be safe... (This program has not been widely tested yet):
      ren wspeed.rec wspeed.bak
    Then:
      ren wspeed.mix wspeed.rec
    Next, you copy the mixed score file to yourself,
      copy wspeed.rec a:
    and answer "yes" to possible question.
    When you are at home, you copy the wspeed.rec from the
    diskette back to your wspeed directory and now you both
    have the same score lists which have your both's scores.

    The score file is in text-only form.
    With this program and an easy converter you could make
    a WSpeed tournament in your local bbs, if you are a
    sysop. A bit like the style of vgaplanets.

  The source codes of ScoreCom are not being included with.

Release history

  1.0beta     2.1999   Initial release
  1.1beta              Public release
  1.2beta              Public release
  1.3beta              Public release
  1.4       2.2.1999   Public release
                       Added DOS word library
  1.5       3.2.1999   Public release
                       WWW page
  1.6       3.2.1999   Public release
                       Added Unix word library
  1.7       4.2.1999   Public release
                       Added Latin word library
                       The sound system was being optimized.
                       The internal sound data takes now less space.
  1.8       5.2.1999   Public release
                       Fixed the delay code - now the contrast
                       of the speed of game between slow and fast
                       computers should be smaller or not exist.
                       See chapter "Known bugs".
                       Increased the size of Suomi word
                       library, thanks to Matti Peltola.
  1.9      24.2.1999   Minor internal sound system reorganizings... etc.
  1.13     26.4.2001   Added Pokmon word library and Dvorak support.

Thanks to (see chapter "Abbreviations and glossary")

  Zorlim
  Matti Peltola
  Warp
  Toni Ucan

Author

  WSpeed has been written in Finland.
  It is a beautiful country in between of Sweden and Russia.
  WSpeed has been written by Bisqwit.
  He is a strange young man with some computer programming knowledge.

  The musics of WSpeed have been composed by Bisqwit.

  The dictionary files of WSpeed have been written by Bisqwit.
  Some words have been borrowed from different places.

  The 'first inventor' of the game idea was probably Zorlim.
  Somebody may see some similarities in this with his ztspeed...

  If you have any questions or want to give me feed-back about
  this game or about this manual (or my English) or about any
  other my releases, you may send it.
  My e-mail address is bisqwit@iki.fi.

  The newest version of wspeed can be downloaded from
  the following www directory:
        http://iki.fi/bisqwit/wspeed/

--
Bisqwit, 26.4.2001 19:455
