***** Shogun Tiles v2.12 *****
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Copyright (C) 1999 The Creative Assembly Ltd., Dreamtime Interactive Entertainment P/L
and Electronic Arts.
All content and images are the sole property of Dreamtime Interactive Entertainment P/L
and may not be used without express permission.
This program is freeware and is not for commercial sale or resale.
This program may be freely distributed.
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Coding, graphics and documentation by Nick Tresadern
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INTRODUCTION
------------
This is based on the old Oriental tiles game,'Shanghai',
but featuring graphics from the computer game 'Shogun: Total War',
developed by the Creative Assembly, produced by Dreamtime Interactive
and published and distributed by Electronic Arts.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-------------------
This version has been tested to work under Windows 98, Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000.
You need to have your display set up for at least 1024x768 resolution in a high-colour mode (e.g. 12-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit) in order to
be able to view the whole playing area. Shogun Tiles now requires just under 2Mb of hard drive space.
INSTALLATION
------------
If you are upgrading from an earlier version of ShogunTiles,remember to backup your hiscore files before extracting the contents of the zip,
as the highscore files in the zip file will be the default empty ones.
To install ShogunTiles, make a directory called ShogunTiles then unzip the contents of ShogunTiles.zip into this directory.
Executing the file 'ShogunTiles_v2_12.exe' will start the game.
In the zip file, there are 20 text files that will be used as the default highscore tables.
If you want to store them somewhere else, e.g. on a LAN so that other people can share the same highscore files,
copy all these files to a shared directory on the destination machine.
AIM OF THE GAME
---------------
The game features a layout of tiles, in stacks of up to 4 high,
in varying layouts. The tiles have a picture on them and there are 4
tiles of each picture, making 120 tiles in all. The aim of the game is
to remove the tiles in pairs by matching one tile with another sharing
the same picture.
Sounds simple? Well, there are limitations on which tiles you can remove.
For a start, the tile must have, to its immediate left or right, a blank
space, or a lower stack. By removing pairs of tiles, you can gain access
to the tiles underneath, as well as other ones which may have been 'boxed in'.
If you clear all 120 tiles, then you win. If you get stuck and cannot match any
more pairs up, then you must start again with a different board by clicking one
of the 3 'new board' buttons on the bottom right of the screen.
INTERFACE
---------
To select a pair of tiles, click on one of the tiles. If it is a valid tile at the end of a horizontal row,
a grey border should appear over the tile, then you can select the 2nd tile of the same pattern and the 2 tiles
will disappear and reveal any tiles that are underneath.
If no grey border appears when you click on the first tile, then it is quite likely that it is not in a position
to be removed, so check that it doesn't have a stack of tiles of the same height to its left and right. When playing
very quickly, you might be clicking the tiles so fast that ShogunTiles misses one of your clicks, so if a tile didn't
become selected and is in a valid position, give it another click and it should become selected.
The panel in the top right of the screen shows the best 5 hiscores achieved on that particular board. Some boards
are easier to complete quickly than others, as they have more valid pairs available right from the beginning. If the
top entry in the highscore table shows 0 tiles left, then someone has cleared that board so for you to beat that
highscore, you also have to clear the board but in a faster time. If you clear the board and take the same amount of
time doing so as the top entry in the highscore table, then you get 2nd position. You have to beat the top score by
a full second to attain the new top score.
If the current board has been cleared, the highscore will be shown in red, rather than the default black.
The tiles left indicator shows you how many tiles you have left. Obviously it'll always be an even number, and you're
aiming to get this down to zero.
The player name box is next, showing your name. This is editable from within the game, so if someone else wants
to have a go, you don't need to shut down ShogunTiles and edit the config file - just type the new name in, and this
name will be used if a highscore is attained. Note that once ShogunTiles is closed down, when it is reopened it will
default back to the name that is in the config file, so if you want to change it permanently, then you need to alter
the config file to reflect this.
There is a button that initially shows 'Turn music off'. This is to switch off music (its on by default), and once
selected, the button will say 'Turn music on' which is to switch the music on again. Upon starting to run ShogunTiles,
If the midi file called 'Tiles1.mid' isn't in the same directory, it doesn't display this button, as it would have
no use.
In the config file there is a line for specifying whether you want to default to music on or off when you run
ShogunTiles - set it to 1 for music on, and 0 for music off. If the music doesn't play, then open MediaPlayer in
Windows and open the 'Tiles1.mid' file and run it. If there is still no sound, then check your volume settings for
midi files. If MediaPlayer can't play midi files, then ShogunTiles won't, as ShogunTiles uses MediaPlayer to play
the tune. As of v2.11, when the midi file has finished playing, it should automatically repeat.
There are 3 buttons for choosing to start a new board. Bear in mind that if you haven't cleared the board
completely, and there are still valid matches available, the timer will still be ticking away so you always have
the chance to continue with it if you suddenly spot another pair of tiles. If you do clear the board, the timer
will stop automatically, giving you a chance to compare your time with the ones in the highscore table before
starting a new board. The same goes if you run out of valid matching tiles - the timer stops, and a message will
pop up telling you that you can go no further with that board.
The three 'new board' buttons are as follows..
The first button,'Retry this board' sets up the same layout again for you, although the patterns on the tiles
will be rearranged. The second button 'Choose random board' will choose another layout from the choice of 20.
The third button will choose whatever board layout is displayed in the spinner to the right of the button. This
allows you to jump to whichever board you feel like tackling next.
Strategies
----------
Shogun Tiles is based on both strategy and luck. It is quite possible, due
to the random nature of deciding where the tiles go when creating the board,
that some boards will be impossible. On the other hand, strategy plays a part
because if you match the wrong tiles in the wrong order, you can get stuck on
a board that would have been possible if you'd played differently.
Part of the strategy is to quickly glance over your board when you start a
game, and look out for a few things that will tell you whether its likely to be
a difficult, or impossible, board. Boards which have 2 similar tiles next to
each other in a row, while boxed in from the left and right by several tiles
should ring alarm bells, because if you pair off the other 2 tiles of this
pattern, then you would need to remove all the tiles from the left AND right
of the boxed-in 2 to get rid of them, so if you see 2 tiles of the same pattern
next to each other, try to get rid of the tiles to either the left or right and
try to pair of this now-available tile with another tile of the same pattern that
isn't boxed in.
When you click on a valid tile, the panel to the right will display that tile
along with a number showing how many of that pattern are left somewhere on the
board. The idea is that if all 4 tiles are remaining, you have to decide which pairs
to match, whereas if only 2 are remaining, then you have no choice but to match
those 2 with each other. Ideally, if you can remove all 4 of a pattern in one go
(match one pair then the other immediately after) then do so, as you can be reassured
that you won't end up getting stuck on tiles of that pattern that can't be paired
off (e.g. only 2 tiles left, one on top of the other - an irksome way to nearly
complete the board)
Another thing to watch out for are boards which have all 4 instances of a
picture all in a straight line on the same level, because to clear these 4,
you need to match the outside ones with each other in order to get to the 2
tiles on the inside. If for any reason you can't get to both the outside tiles,
you'll be stuck and have to give up. Boards which feature 3 of the same picture
next to 3 of another picture are impossible, and you should just move on to another
board.
For these reasons, you have to be careful when choosing which tiles to pair off.
If you have a row which is only 2 tiles long and only 1 tile high, then save
those tiles, as they are both valid tiles on the end of a row, and are not denying
you access to any other tile, therefore you should keep these until you need them,
as you can get at them any time you like.
Finally, there is no Undo button, so think carefully before clicking on the second
tile, but the clock is ticking so don't waste time either.
Customisable tile sets
----------------------
The tiles used in Shogun Tiles are all taken from the supplied bitmap,
'tileset1_1024.bmp'. If you wish to create your own tile sets, you should simply
alter this bitmap and overwrite the previous tileset1_1024.bmp with your new image.
The only things to watch out for are that the background (transparent) colour
must be full magenta - RGB(255,0,255), and that the tiles at the top must take up the same
amount of room as on the supplied bitmap, so don't try to make bigger tiles than
the ones supplied. The bitmap is in 24bit resolution. Later versions of Shogun Tiles
may allow the user to keep a variety of tilesets in the directory and swap between
them from within the game.
High Scores
-----------
When you have either cleared a board, or given up because there are no more
possible matches, then the number of tiles you have remaining (if any) are
written to a high-score file, so that you or other players can try to better
that score in future sessions. There are 16 highscore tables, one for each layout
as some layouts are easier than others. Only the best 5 scores will be retained
in the table.
Your name will be included in the highscore table, along with the
time you took to play that board. The time is stored in the event of a tie,
where you might have the same number of tiles left as one of the entries in
the highscore table, then the one which did it in the quickest time will get
the higher place in the table. This means that if you or someone else completes
a board, then you can still try to complete it in a faster time to achieve the
number 1 position in the table.
There is also a program called 'topoftables.exe' which, when run, will display the
person who holds the current 1st position of each of the 20 highscore tables, along
with their time taken, and the number of tiles left when they finished. This is useful
if several people are playing the game at once over a LAN, as each person can see how
many boards they are at the top of, and which of the other boards should be the next
one to attempt to conquer. Click 'Update' to get an update whenever you want the list
refreshed.
As a general indication of performance, if you clear a board in less than 1 and a half
minutes, then you've done very well. The highest time achieved by playtesters here is
1:19. I'm not sure if its physically possible to get scores of less than 1 minute, as you'd
have to clear on average 1 pair of tiles every second, but you could try it.
LAN support
-----------
Shogun Tiles was originally designed to be played on a single machine, but
it is now much more fun to store the highscore tables on a LAN, and to have lots
of people playing the game from their own machines and trying to out-do each other.
This encourages competition and increases the lifespan of the game, because just
when you achieve the number 1 slot for a particular board, you're aware that people
are trying to beat it, so you have to keep playing to stay at the top. Use the program
'topoftables.exe' to see when you have been knocked off the top slot for the various
boards.
Config file
-----------
The 'st_config.txt' file is to pass options to Shogun Tiles, such as the
player's name, and where the highscore tables are stored. Change the name in this
textfile to the name you want to use in the game (max 11 characters).
For the path to the highscore tables, if you want to allow other players to access the
highscore tables over a LAN, then you need to specify the full path to the highscore files,
by putting the path in the config file, directly under the line '# Location of global hi-scores
files', making sure that your path ends in a slash('\'), like this :-
\\Server\C:\ShogunTiles\
If you share your ShogunTiles directory (recommended), then you can just enter the
path like this..
\\Server\ShogunTiles\
If, when you start the game, you get an error message saying that the highscore table cannot be found, check that the path in your config file is valid, and that the directory that it points to contains all 20 highscore tables, and that they are all read/write enabled, particularly if you installed Shogun Tiles from a CD.
In Windows NT, you may need to log onto the highscore machine via 'Network Neighborhood' before ShogunTiles can connect to that machine, depending on how your LAN is set up.
Version modifications
---------------------
v2.12 : The 1280x1024 version is no more. Since both versions contained the graphics for both resolutions, scrapping
the larger version means that the file size/zip size for the smaller one has been reduced considerably, as well
as the code being a lot tidier, making it easier to make changes and add extra boards.
I think most people just play the 1024x768 version anyway.
The highscore table now highlights a score in red if the board was cleared, instead of the default black.
The font has been changed to Microsoft_Sans_Serif, rather than the original DatumSSK, as not many people had the Datum
font anyway, and its easier to make sure that the text fits in the boxes when using a standard font.
v2.11 : The midi file now repeats when it reaches the end.
There are now 20 boards instead of 16. 4 new boards for you to conquer!
A splash of colour has been added to the Top Of Tables program - if a board hasn't been started, the text appears blue,
if it hasn't been finished it appears black, and if it's been cleared it appears red. This should make it easier to
see which ones to target next.
There was something else I fixed, to do with selecting tiles, but I've forgotten what it was. >:(
v2.09 : The original version that got released on totalwar.com
Enjoy the game
Nick Tresadern (Graphic artist, The Creative Assembly).
Older versions:
ShogunTiles_v2_09_1280x1024.zip
ShogunTiles_v2_09_1024x768.zip
|
sliding_tiles_game.zip
