Instructions for Steward's Enquiry Design and Programming by Alistair Duncan PLEASE PAY THE REGISTRATION FEE OF £5 AS I AM TRYING TO MAKE SOME MONEY FOR UNIVERSITY. MY ADDRESS IS AT THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT. THANKS A LOT !! ALISTAIR ---XX--- THIS GAME REQUIRES 1 MEGABYTE TO RUN COMPATIBILITY I have tested this game on the following formats : KICKSTART 1.3 KICKSTART 2.04 KICKSTART 3.0 (i.e A1200,4000/30) DISCLAIMER (IMPORTANT READ THIS FIRST BEFORE USING PROGRAM!!) The author, ALISTAIR DUNCAN, accepts no responsibility for damage caused by this software through correct or incorrect use and will therefore not be liable to compensate for any such damage if caused. I do not know of any other game bearing the same or similar title if, however, the name `STEWARD'S ENQUIRY' has been used before in a game please send me some form of proof and I will gladly change it. The program code and documentation is `(C)1993 ALISTAIR DUNCAN & TIGER SOFTWARE' and it was written on the AMOS package which is `(C)1990 EUROPRESS PUBLICATIONS'. Phew! now that's over and done with I can explain the game. BACKGROUND Long ago (and I mean long ago) in those days when the 8 bit computers (BBC Micro, Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64) ruled the gaming world, there were a few games based around horse racing. On the Spectrum there was `Derby Day' and on the BBC there was the imaginatively titled `Horse Race'. Both of these games involved betting on little horses which would then run on a track and have you jumping up and down yelling at them to get a move on. I really liked these games and when I got an Amiga I set about trying to find an Amiga version of either of these games. Alas, I had no luck so one day I decided I would write one using AMOS. What you have on disk now is what I came up with and I hope you like it. STARTING PLAY After the title page you will be presented with a prompt asking you how many races you want. You can have any number from one (1) to twenty (20). The program will not progress any further until you enter a valid number. Once this has been done you will be asked for the number of players. The number of players can be from one (1) to eight (8). When you have entered a valid amount you can begin the game proper. BUYING A STABLE The stables screen is presented here. It is here that each player may purchase a stable for 1000 pounds (£). A player who purchases a stable therefore begins the betting with only £2000 as opposed to £3000. Purchasing a stable is not compulsory. The advantage of buying a stable is that if the stable you buy has the largest number of winners at the end of each game then you net a prize bonus of £5000. Also stable owners will occasionaly receive an income from their stables. Players are offered stables in numerical order. There is absolutely no advantage to be gained by being the first to purchase a stable. THE RANDOM EVENT SCREEN Before each race you may be presented with the random event screen. As the name implies there are some random events which can occur. Some helpful, some not but any of them can make a difference to the outcome of the game. BETTING ON A RACE It is here that all the most important information is shown : a) The number of the race and the total number of races selected in the format : Race number / Total number of races selected. b) A list of the horses, their numbers, their jacket colours and their odds. Each player will then be asked, in numerical order, which horse they wish to bet on (1-8) and how much out of their money they wish to bet on it. Obviously each player can only bet as much as they have got (Players who have gone bankrupt in previous races are excluded from the betting section). If a player makes an invalid entry the computer will wait for a valid one. More than one player can bet on the same horse and there is no place betting. When all the bets have been made the race will begin. THE RACE The race track will be shown with the horses on the starting line. The track is two screens long so you cannot see the finishing post. The horses are displayed in numerical order with number 1 at the top and 8 at the bottom. After a short delay the race will start. When one of the horses passes the finishing post the screen will fade to the results screen. THE STEWARD'S ENQUIRY SCREEN If at the end of the race two or more horses are judged to have reached the finishing line at the same time a steward's enquiry will take place. This basically means that the computer will decide, at random, which horse has been judged to have won. Furthermore the enquiry may decide that a jockey was maltreating his horse in these cases the jockey is assumed to be acting under the owner's instruction and therefore the owner will be penalised. THE RACE RESULTS SCREEN This screen displays the following : a) The name of the horse that won and on what odds. b) A list of players who were able to bet on the race and how much money they won or lost. When ready pressing a mouse button will continue. If all the races are not yet finished you will be returned to the betting screen. Alternatively you will end the game if either of the conditions below are met : a) All the races are finished b) All the players are bankrupt THE END OF THE GAME If the above (a) condition is true then the following happens : After the results screen for the last race you will be presented with a summary which displays how many races each stable has to its name. After that the owner of the stable that owns the most winners will be informed and awarded his/her £5000. Finally a summary board will be displayed showing the total amount each player has and the winner will be announced. If the above condition (b) is true then the following will happen : The game will immediately end with no winners. Regardless of which condition applies, pressing a mouse button will now start a new game. To quit back to Workbench / Amiga DOS at any time during the game press Ctrl-C. CUSTOMISING THE GAME Due to the way that this version of Stewards Enquiry has been written, you can invent your own horse names to be included in the game. There is an ASCII file held in the game's directory for each stable. Simply adding horse names to these files will allow them to be accessed by the game during play. The files are laid out as follows (One per line) END OF FILE for example : Daisy Chain Whiskey Bottle Grape Vine END OF FILE It is most important that the `END OF FILE' is written at the bottom just as it has been shown here (i.e UPPER CASE) otherwise the computer will not know where the end of the file is and this will cause the game to crash. I have supplied eight stable files but feel free to add to or alter these. It is important to note that no horse name may be longer than 15 characters (including spaces). SOME USELESS INFORMATION FOR TECHIE BOFFINS `Steward's Enquiry' was written on the following configuration : A4000/30 with 2 Meg memory (80 Megabyte Hard Disk) Commodore 1960 Multiscan Colour Monitor Software used : Deluxe Paint IV for the graphics AMOS Professional V2.00 for the code AMOS Professional Compiler for the stand alone code Textra by Mike Haas for this document file Any useful comments regarding this game my be sent to me at the following address : 113 Brook Street Soham Cambridgeshire CB7 5AE You can also e-mail me at university on : A.P.Duncan@herts.ac.uk Thanks for bothering to read this!