MultiTris v0.9 Documentation

In yet another saga of the continuing series of Tetris Spinoffs, Nathan
Mates presents: MultiTris. Instead of a certain fixed number of blocks
per piece, MultiTris generates each piece on the fly, allowing for
varied play that is never the same. In addition, two special pieces
serve to tantalize you.

If you want to try it, place the file "MultiTris" in your
*/System/Desk.Accs folder and reboot, or use a NDA installer to install
it. Then, select "MultiTris" from the Apple menu in any IIGS Desktop
application that supports NDAs.

Playing the Game When you first select MultiTris, you are presented
with an empty field, some help instructions, and the starting level.
Press open-apple-? for some further instructions, use the up/down
arrows to change the starting level, press "H" to view the high scores,
or press return to start a game.

The gameplay is fairly straightforward, following the tradition of the
tetris series: maneuver the falling pieces into complete rows, and
watch the completed rows disappear. The 2 special pieces can make or
break your game depending on how you use them. The first special piece
looks like just the corners of a regular piece, and that's what it is.
A row that it's in will never be removed, even if all of the other
spaces are filled by regular pieces. To make it easier on your nerves,
liquid pieces exist. Looking like 4 drops of liquid in a column, they
will fill in the holes where they are dropped, filling up the "problem
pieces" if they are dropped on them.

Keys: MultiTris is very accommodating in its taste for keys, as it
allows right-hand, left-hand, and numeric keypad input. The S, J, and 4
keys all move the current piece one column to the left (if possible);
the F, L and 6 keys move the piece right. The D, K and 5 keys rotate
the current piece 90 degrees counterclockwise. The E, I and 8 keys flip
the current piece from right to left. Space and 0 both drop the current
piece. In a game, the clear key on the keypad (also ctrl-x) will cancel
the current game.

To pause the game, click in another window. To continue the game, click
in MultiTris's window. This works most of the time, but once in a while
the game is stopped completely. This bug should be fixed by now, but
since it is so rare, if it does show up, tell me so I can really crunch
it.

High Scores: Should you be lucky enough to complete a game with a score
higher than your predecessors, you will have a chance to record your
name in the High Score list. Immediately after a game, a dialog box
will pop up, reminding you that this is a shareware program and that
you should send me money, disks, letters, or programs that you deem are
of equivalent value. You can type in your name, up to 19 characters.
MultiTris saves the high scores in a file in the System/Desk.Accs
folder of your boot disk. If MultiTris cannot find this disk when it is
first opened, it will create a new High Scores file with 10 scores of
50 (the starting score) and the names of the programmer and his
girlfriend. No error checking is done, so if you have only 1 3.5" disk,
make sure the boot disk is online when it is first opened and the
scores are saved, otherwise your achievements will be lost! I'll
probably put the scores and all in a resource in a bit. (I just got dox
on resources, etc.-- shows how far out in the boondocks I was!)

Pitfalls: MultiTris uses the Quickdraw Auxiliary toolset to draw its
graphics. To date, the only program I know that MultiTris won't work
with is Soundsmith. Other than that, MultiTris will work with all other
IIGS applications that support other NDAs.

This game was created by ripping code out of Power Grid (Yes, the more
complicated one was made first) and replacing what I thought was
necessary. This is still a highly experimental version; bugs probably
do exist. If you find a bug, please tell me, as I can then fix it for
everyone. A better version, with even better graphics, sounds, and bug
fixes should be available at about the end of January.

Copyright, etc:

MultiTris was conceptualized, written, produced, directed, and
programmed by Nathan Mates. Additional graphics by Jeremy Mates. Any
similarity to any type of game is purely a coincidence, and should be
ignored. Icons were initially drawn with IconED1.3 by Paul Elseth.
MultiTris was written in 100% 65816 Assembly Language using ORCA/M
assembler by Nathan Mates. This program can only be distributed at no
cost save the cost of disks and mailing. This program is shareware: if
you like it, send something, such as a letter, disks (blank or with
your programs on them), or MONEY!!!! to me so I know you're out there!

I warrant this software for nothing, and since college work comes
first, I may not be able to provide immediate technical support.

Nathan Mates

About the programmer:

Starting September 1992, I, Nathan Mates, will be a freshman at Caltech
university. As Caltech is a phenomenal university, it also costs a bit,
so any donations ($, Disks, other programs) to help defray the costs of
my time helping the Apple II community from within this prestigious
university.

My mailing address (good all year): Nathan Mates MSC #850, Caltech
Pasadena, CA 91126-0001

Apple II Infinitum!!!

(For those of you who don't know Latin, "Apple II Forever")