The Same Game

The Same Game

Remove blocks with the same pattern among

those displayed on the screen.

* The Same Game : documentation *

1) Legal dispositions

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This software is under the GNU General Public Licence. for more informations,

please read the COPYING file.

2) History

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I found this little game and I thought it was really funny. After discussing

with a friend, I learnt that the original version had been made by one of

his friends. The world is really small... So, I will put below the header

of the X-Window version, hence I'll cite the original authors:

SameGame for X Window (sxsame)

Copyleft 1994,1995 Software Kenkyu Academy

Original idea Eiji Fukumoto ([email protected])

Produced by Y.YONEYAMA

Special thanks Tetsu Satoh ([email protected]),

Yoh Asami ([email protected])

Unfortunately, I didn't understand the way they coded the game, so I rewrote

it from scratch. In fine, I got a code similar to theirs (because I understood

how to code the problem, I could understand better their code, because in

fact, we trued to solve the same problem !)

Then I saw that one of my functions was a bit too recursive for the Pilot

(2K for the stack !), so I had to think again this part of the program.

So my code is, I think, a bit more obfuscated than theirs, but fits better

the Pilot architecture. And then, I added a new game mode which didn't

exist in the original game.

3) Aim of the game

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The aim of the Same Game is to remove blocks with the same pattern among

those displayed on the screen. You can remove a block if its surface is

greater or equal to 2. Points are computed in the following way: S beeing

the block's surface, it gives you (S-2)^2 points.

In other words, blocks with a surface equal to 2 don't give you any points.

And the bigger the block, the higher points you'll get (in a square factor).

So you should try to create pieces with a big surface if you want to be in

the hiscore list.

To remove a piece, just point it with the pen. Cases above this piece will

then fall toward the bottom of the screen, so this may compose new pieces.

If you succed in clearing the WHOLE screen, you'll get a 1000 point bonus

added to your score.

This version of the game contains a new mode which didn't exist in the original

game : the Challenge mode. In this mode, the principle of the game is still

the same, but you have to tell, at the beginning of the game, which pattern

will give you points when you will remove pieces of that pattern. So you'll

have to succeed in determining which "color" will be the most valuable for

you, because the others won't give you any points... That's really more

difficult ;-)

At the beginning of the Challenge game, a little pattern with a horizontal

line, near of the score zone, will indicate you that you still haven't

choosen your Challenge.

In order to say which pattern you choose, when you begin a game in

Challenge mode, the first thing to do is to point with the pen a piece

made with this pattern. This won't remove it for this time. Then, you'll

see, near of the score zone, a little square filled with this pattern to

indicate that you have choosen your challenge, and eventually remind you

which pattern you have choosen if you have forgotten it or if you go back to

a game begun some time before.

Because it's more difficult to perform score comparable to those which

could be done in the original game mode, hiscores are not mixed between

the 2 game modes. Otherwise, because scores in Challenge mode are often higher

than scores in standard mode, they would never appear in the list !

If your score is good enought to figure in the hiscore list, you will be

asked to enter your name. In the other case, you won't be asked anything.

So, that's all.

4) Menus and functionnalities

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There are 6 items in the game's menu:

* New Game: to begin a new game in original mode. If a game was already

starded, it will be abandoned

* New Challenge : to begin a new game in Challenge mode. As for the standard

game mode, if a game was already starded, it will be abandoned

* Standard Hiscores: to see the 5 highest scores performed in standard mode

* Challenge Hiscores : to see the 5 highest scores performed in Challenge mode

* Rules: to display a little memo about the game's rules

* About: just to cite myself a little ;-)

The Same Game has a cool feature : it keeps the state of the current game.

That's to say, if you switch of application or turn off you Pilot while

playing, when you'll go back to the game, it will be in the same state you

left it. So you'll be able to continue your game.

So, I think it's all.

5) How to contact me

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For any comment, suggestion, bug report, ans so on, you can reach me by

email at: [email protected]

6) Technical note

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This game's identifier is 'SaMe', got by standard registration at

'http://palmpilot.3com.com/devzone/crid/cridsub.html'