ReadMe for "Geometrical Shapes"
Apple II Version by Bill Buckels

Introduction

"Geometrical Shapes" is an Apple II program that was distributed in the early
1990's by Class Software in Winnnipeg, Canada in both an English and French
Version. It was intended for use as "CourseWare" in Canadian Classrooms for
teaching geometrical primitive recognition to Elementary School children.

The French Version of "Geometrical Shapes" is called "Figures geometriques".

History

"Geometrical Shapes" was originally developed for use on the IBM-PC by French
Canadian "CourseWare" developers Denis Coulombe and Robert Boivin on behalf of
Centre de recherche appliquée pour l'ordinateur (CRAPO) in the late 1980's and
marketed to schools across Canada as part of a six program set called
"Collection Les Petites espadrilles".

Note: Espadrilles are casual flat sandals originating from the Pyrenees. In
Quebec French, however, espadrille is the usual term for running shoes.

The Apple II version was written by Canadian Software Developer Bill Buckels on
the IBM-PC in the C programing language using the Manx Aztec C 6502
Cross-Compiler. It was completed in October 1991.

Bill did not have the source code for the IBM-PC version of the program and it
wouldn't have helped much anyway. The IBM-PC was a much more capable and
sophisticated platform than the Apple II, so producing "Geometrical Shapes"
for the Apple II required a complete rewrite "from the ground-up".

The Manx C compiler provided a rudimentary Graphics Library, but came nowhere
close to what Bill needed to complete "Geometrical Shapes" and the 3 other
programs in the "Collection Les Petites espadrilles" that he had undertaken to
write. So he set to work to create the graphics and the sound routines that
the Apple versions needed to behave as closely as possible to their IBM-PC
counterparts.

The IBM-PC graphics of the day that CRAPO used (4 Color CGA Mode) were vastly
different from Apple II graphics (which were a coarser resolution), and each
and every screen and graphics image needed to be redrawn, and reformatted for
the Apple II. Using the Graphics from the IBM-PC version as a starting point,
Bill developed his own Apple II graphics file formats and programmed his own
set of conversion tools which he ran on the IBM-PC to produce the Apple II
graphics after creating and editing these in IBM-PC format to suit the Apple
II display. He did this in conjunction with writing his Manx C graphics
library, since both tasks were complimentary. When the graphics images and
graphics and sound library routines were completed he moved forward to writing
the program.

Not only did the Apple II have less capable graphics than the IBM-PC; it also
ran more slowly with only 128K of memory, some of it unusable, and with slower
disk access and a smaller floppy disk size. To overcome all of this Bill broke
his Manx C Apple programs into small modules called "overlays" which ran in
very little memory, and he used the upper ram bank of the Apple II to store
his graphics libraries and other data to avoid loading from disk where
possible. Since the Manx C compiler translates its programs into machine
language which runs as quickly as can be on the Apple II, no optimization or
additional "tweaks" were required, except to script the game levels using
external scripts (also of Bill's design) which further saved on disk space and
program memory, and which avoided slow processor intensive operations that
would otherwise have been needed.

The finished result runs more slowly than its IBM-PC counterpart, but for all
practical purposes, "Geometrical Shapes" for the Apple II has all the same
functionality.

System Requirements

"Geometrical Shapes" requires an Apple IIe with 128K of memory and a floppy
disk. It runs under the PRODOS 8 Operating System.

It can also be run from a disk image file in an Apple II emulator. It has been
tested in Windows XP using Apple II Oasis and AppleWin, and probably works in
others.

Starting "Geometrical Shapes"

"Geometrical Shapes" comes with PRODOS 8 on the distribution disk so no PRODOS
Startup Disk is required. Put the "Geometrical Shapes" disk in the floppy
drive and boot the computer. After the program loads, follow the instructions.

If you are running "Geometrical Shapes" in an emulator, follow the same basic
steps.

If you are using the AppleWin emulator from Windows XP Explorer and have File
Associations set to use AppleWin to load disk images, just click on the disk
image.

If you are using Apple II Oasis select the disk image from the Apple II Disk
Manager and send to emulator by right clicking on the disk image.

Other emulators should be basically the same if they work with PRODOS 8 disk
images.

If you are using an Apple that boots from a hard disk and will run PRODOS 8
programs, just run GEOMETRY.SYSTEM on the "Geometrical Shapes" disk.

Note: If you need to restart "Geometrical Shapes", it will start more quickly
since the graphics are already loaded into the upper ram bank.

Keys and Navigation

The Arrow Keys are used to navigate the menus and to select choices during
activities (Game Play).

The [RETURN] Key or the Space Bar can be interchangeably used to enter
selections.

The Escape Key is used to return to the Main Menu and to Exit the program.

The Sound Toggle Key - [CTRL] S toggles the sound on or off at the Main Menu
or during any of the activities.

The AlphaNumeric Keyboard keys are used where required to enter information
during activities (Game Play) in all programs in the "Collection Les Petites
espadrilles" including "Geometrical Shapes".

A mouse is not supported.

Splash and Title Screens

When "Geometrical Shapes" starts, or when the Escape Key is pressed at the
Main Menu the Class Software Splash screen is displayed. Press [RETURN].

When the Title Screen displays press [RETURN] for the Main Menu or press the
Escape Key to exit the program.

Main Menu Screen

"Geometrical Shapes" has 3 Learning Activities (Games) which can be selected
from the Main Menu by moving the Penguin Cursor with the Arrow Keys to the
desired activity then started by pressing the [RETURN] Key.

Each Learning activity is a Game formatted as a series of geometrical puzzles.
The student provides the answers, and when all the puzzles in the series is
complete, the Student is presented with a musical reward. Activities followed
by musical rewards is the basic format of all the programs in the "Collection
Les Petites espadrilles".

The fourth Main Menu choice exits the Main Menu and returns to the Title
Screens. It is the equivalent of pressing the Escape Key.

Sound can be toggled on or off at the Main Menu or during any of the
activities by pressing [CTRL] S.

Activity 1: Maze 

There are 5 mazes in this series. The student must use the Arrow Keys to
navigate a geometrical shape through each maze.

A thermometer to the left of the screen indicates how many mazes have been
completed.

Activity 2: Skewers

At the bottom of the screen is an example skewer with geometrical shapes. The
student must recreate the skewer by selecting each shape in order and placing
it onto an empty skewer above the example. This is done by using the Arrow
Keys to move the Penguin Cursor over the desired shape in the menu of
available shapes at the top of the screen and pressing the [RETURN] Key to
"pick-up" the shape.

The student then has 2 choices; either to place the shape into the garbage can
on the right, or to place it on the empty skewer. The Arrow Keys are used to
move the shape to the desired location, and the [RETURN] Key is pressed to
"drop" the shape.

The Penguin takes a drink of water after each piece and when the glass is
empty, a faucet appears and fills the glass.

Activity 3: Tent Puzzle

The outline of a tent is displayed to the right of the screen. This is similar
to a jigsaw puzzle. The student must match each the tent pieces of geometrical
shapes on the left and bottom of the screen to the corresponding shape outline
contained within the tent.

There is no order of placement.

Any piece can be "picked-up" by using the Arrow Keys to move the Penguin
Cursor over the desired tent piece and pressing the [RETURN] Key.

The selected piece is then moved into place on the tent outline using the
Arrow Keys and "dropped" by pressing the [RETURN] Key.

End of ReadMe