PiFrac User Manual v 1.0.1
Contents
1. 3 1 2 3 Pause and between games Refer to Qut of game section 3 1 3 HANDERA 330 JOG WHEEL Available with specail HandEra 330 release JogWheel is used out of games Rotation in most cases is equivalent to pressing Up and Down keys pressing Jog Wheel accepts changes pressing Auxiliary Button discards changes 3 2 Stylus Game can be controlled with a stylus pen using a control pad located on the bottom right bottom left on the flipped version corner of the screen You can move current block horizontally in one of eight directions or turn it in either direction Additional operations E LOWER Mm PAUSE H DROP m NEXT LEVEL You can also use the following Graffiti Strokes case insensitive P PAUSE QorT TERMINATE GAME 3 1 Bottom Keys and Jog Wheel PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 3 2 1 SPECIAL CASES 3 2 1 1 Demo mode Only two operations are available O TERMINATE NEXT LEVEL 3 2 1 2 Board scan Tap anywhere to stop scanning board after completing layer s This does not give you bonus points 3 2 1 3 Pause and between games Refer to Qut of game section 3 3 Appearance While you are playing or watch demo you see play board score board next block and control pad On the standard version the play board is located on the left other controls are on the right while on the flipped version is vice versa The score board shows Full number of completed layers since start of the game Score current scor2. line then H2 and H3 to modify corresponding value Select Accept H4 on standard Key autorepeat rate version to accept the new settings or Discard H1 on standard version to cancel all 3 4 Out of game 10 PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 changes 3 4 1 6 Help Help operations are Bottom Description Key P H1 Show the parent page i e the page from where from where you came to the current page H2 Up oro page up Down Scroll page down Show top help page Main Help Index The button is inactive if top Top H3 ie page is either current or the parent of current page gt H4 Show the recently visited link from the current page Link A green highlighted on a monochrome screen area represents a link Tap it to open the corresponding page Sorry this can be done by keys Deleting Help Help text is separated from the main data and can be deleted This will save save about 24K storage on your Palm To delete Help text select Remove Help Data from the Main Help Index You can reinstall help by reloading PiFrac_He lp file on your Palm 3 4 Out of game 11 4 Registration 4 1 Where and how You can purchase the product for 12 95 US or equivalent from http www palmgear com USD http www pdassi de Euro FYI This is the introductory price and may change in future While registering the product you will have to quote the user name The application normally uses HotSync user na
3. Scorer If you reached a top score you can either discard the result or save it in the local data base to be seen later in Top Scorers form Before saving the score you may change scorer name Use Up and Down keys or Graffiti strokes to change the letter in highlighted position 3 4 Out of game PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 To move the highlighting either tap the required position or use H2 and H3 keys Keys H1 and H4 implement Discard and Accept functions 3 4 1 2 World Wide Score If your score is at least 6000 this value may change in future and not less than 1 5 the original score in case of a non empty board at start you are given a code for submitting your result to the World Wide Score Table In order to succeed the result should be among 30 world top scores You don t need to be a registered user for score submission Wireless submission is not supported as yet however the details can be stored as a memo so that you can view them later in MemoPad a standard PalmOS component If you select Discard the memo is not stored however if you remember the code you can still submit the result go to the application web page see Support and follow the instructions in World Wide Score Table section Be aware that score submission code is case sensitive i e A and a are different A recorded memo also includes the full submission URL for your score Just open the URL in an Internet browser where you might wish to en
4. happen 2 2 0 2 Score for a landed block Every landed dropped or rested block adds to score a value shown as Bonus on the score board The bonus starts from 20 and decrements with any down drift while being unaffected by a move down as a result of LOWER command 2 2 0 3 Score for completed layers At speed level 1 Layers 1 8 100 300 60m too For higher speed levels the above numbers are multiplied by a factor 1 75 1 875 2 Rules PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 100 points are added to score with each rollover 2 2 0 4 Bonus for a non empty board If a game starts with a non empty board you get an initial bonus depending on the number of dirty layers 2 2 0 5 Penalty for pauses Starting from 4th pause the penalty is computed as PauseCount 3 x1000 2 2 Scoring 3 Operating the Application 3 1 Bottom Keys and Jog Wheel This documentation uses the following notation for six bottom hard keys Up H1 H2 H3 H4 Down Down Keys H1 H4 are also known as Date Book Address Book To Do and Memo resp Within the game the keys operate as the following standard version Key Operation Key Operation H1 LOWER H4 TURN H2 LEFT H3 RIGHT Up BACK Down FRONT Keys H1 H3 Up and Down move falling block horizontally You can use key combinations by pressing two keys simultaneously for moving a block in a horizontal diagonal direction e g H2 Down move FRONT LEFT HA key rota
5. Palm I Frac PiFrac User Manual Version 1 0 1 Prepared by Michael Glickman 7 August 2002 PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 Content MA svessssc onse 1 LT IMFO GUCTION das coda PAIE CAITIE 1 1 2 USO Vi iaa 1 TIMO WO DU na ei Bs 2 A 2 010 O RN E ATEA TE 2 LS What rs new with Oe tt tesa devs A ads Shc O e a ts a 2 Di RUM A NN 3 2 1 Speed Levels and Level Count iniciado Es E NNER 3 PAE AO S ds 3 3 Operating the A ppliCatiOMscsecscasisescesisessesscosessedsasveecsesscssavacsonces saeesiesdseescesonsesvesessashs condsossesdoadesbedssseasdsesesossosee 5 31 Bottom Keys and Jos Welt cnt rr Heda ce She bea A a ban a ba 5 ES E RR RN 6 ADPIC A oia 7 3A Out Ob ME A ai 7 O A 12 Ae Le Were and MO da o lidia lech 12 1 Getting Started 1 1 Introduction Frac is a 3D packing i e TETRIS like game where you just pack rectangular prisms having at least two reebs of same size A complete board layer i e no spaces is discarded adding points to the score with a chance to see obscured board pieces You can pick up score faster by Dropping a block before it rests Completing several layers at once Switching to next speed before the game rules force you to 4 Starting game with dirty board See Speed levels and_Scoring for the detailed rule description The application can be operated either with bottom keys or with_stylus It provides a variety of settings to get playing game more comfortable The application is availab
6. an lt palmcrust yahoo com gt Please check_Known bugs before reporting a bug 1 5 What is new with 1 0 1 Fixed minor bugs Added Handera support 1 3 Known bugs 2 Rules 2 1 Speed Levels and Level Count While a block is in the air it drifts down according to current speed level Speed level is a number from 1 to 9 shown in the top corner of the screen opposite to score board The time out between two consecutive drifts varies from 2 5 sec on level 1 to 0 2 sec on level 9 The speed level increments after a designated number of levels is completed which for score below 10000 is while number of layers is incremented by 1 with each 10000 of the score A registered copy rolls over speed level from 9 back to starting level while an unregistered copy never leaves level 9 once it is reached You can increase level before completing required number of layers by entering LEVEL command Though this does not affect your score immediately you will pick up score faster because the remaining layers are completed at a higher speed level thus contributing more to the score As opposed to speed level level count is a plain number that always goes up e g level count 10 refers to speed level 1 after a rollover count 19 refers to speed level 1 after two rollovers Level count is shown in Top Scores 2 2 Scoring 2 2 0 1 Maximum Score The maximum score is 999999 Game terminates if your score is over it Hopefully this will never
7. e Ronis number of points scored if current block is dropped right now see_Score for a landed block A number in upper left upper right on flipped version corner shows_speed level A notice below the board shows DEMO in demo mode where n is the number of pauses you can have without loosing zen points See_Pause blank no more free pauses 3 4 Out of game The following forms are available apart from the game 3 2 Stylus PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 Game startup Top Scores Top scorer World wide score Pause Tally Settings Help 3 4 1 Game startup Top Scores This screen contains top 10 scores for the current unit Each score line shows 4 place 4 short name initials score 4 starting level layers 4 date The form presents a six item menu About Help Settings As the names suggest Demo See how Palm can do it Exit Exit to Application Launcher Continue Resume last game New Start anew game Instead of tapping buttons you can use bottom hard keys located in a similar position H1 the bottom left action Demo for standard version New for leftmost flipped version H2 or H3 Exit or Continue H4 the bottom right action New for standard version Demo for rightmost flipped version To select a top action About Settings Help you simply hold Up key while pressing the corresponding key Up H2 top right action About on standard New on flipped etc 3 4 1 1 Top
8. eases where there is not way relax at all If you are comfortable with a unregistered copy you may also consider registration to support our effort in creating first class software for PDA and mobile phones and encourage further PiFrac development 4 Registration 12
9. ings The following custom features can be set up Default Description Enable starting game from a higher level Also applies to demo If 1 starting level is higher than 1 the lower levels will also be skipped during a rollover See Speed Levels and Level Count and Scoring Starting dirty Enable starting game from a non empty board Also applies to layers demo See Scoring creia ON Whether on not to show_Tally after a a game If ON the application will automatically resume an interrupted ON game if any at start If OFF you can resume the game by selecting Continue option from the Game startup menu Auto resume If you don t use key combinations see Bottom Keys you might wish to disable them and make using bottom keys safer If ON keeping LOWER key pressed long enough produces DROP Since DROP is a frequent operation you can find it convenient however to move a block several steps down you have to press and release LOWER several times If OFF auto repeated LOWER can be used for moving a block several steps down while a combined key must be used for DROP see Bottom Keys for details How long a bottom key has to be kept pressed before its action is NORM repeated Three rates are accepted SLOW the longest timeout NORM and FAST Operating settings You can change settings by tapping a button surrounding the value which is not marked as inactive If you prefer using keys use Up and Down to highlight a
10. le in standard and flipped versions If you are left handed you might find flipped version to be more convenient in use It can be downloaded from the application web site We keep the World wide score table for the top scores all over the world A special edition is available for Handera 330 1 2 History FRAC was invented by Max Tegmark and Per Bergland two young and talented Sweeds who also called themselves Simsalabim Software The game was apparently named after Mandelbrot fractal used as the background for the original release for Mac in 1990 and later MS DOS EGA 640x350x16 I was very frustrated when my new computer happened to be too fast for FRAC and felt a need to do something about that which could also be a nice present for Linux community The new generation of FRAC named ifrac or Intelligent FRAC was released in 2000 for Linux svgalib and X11 It supported a range of screen resolutions and colour modes 4 to 32 bpp Though it was not planned originally after numerous emails including ones from Max and Per I released a Windows 95 port of the game 2001 which happened to become a kind of Linux rep in Windows world Porting ifrac to Palm was an enjoyable and challenging task The code was about 80 rewritten To emphasize the long game history I decided to make it fully backward compatible up to PalmOS 1 which wasn t really easy I had to give up sound in hope I can return to this one day with a fa
11. me in case the name cannot be obtained from HotSync a random user name is generated You can find current user name from the Registration form To bring up the Registration form start PiFrac goto About page and tap Registration button After the registration you get a registration code which needs to be entered The registration code is valid for all future releases of the application and any Palm unit having same user name The registration code is case INsensitive A letter for the current highlighted position is specified by tapping a letter button or using bottom keys Up and Down To change current position just tap the new one or use H2 and H3 bottom keys When the code is ready to be processed select Register H4 on standard version You will have to restart the application to active the new code Select Cancel H1 on standard version to postpone the registration 4 2 Advantage of registration As you can see PiFrac is void of nag screens or other deliberately annoying features There is only one advantage you get after the registration with an unregistered copy you find yourself trapped at level 9 once you reached this level you can t leave it As opposed to that with a registered copy you only need to complete few layers on level 9 to rollover back to starting level and relax As a matter of fact the rollover feature was introduced with PiFrac while some players feel quite comfortable with previous FRAC rel
12. ster CPU and a better sound support than is provided by Palm nowadays 1 Getting Started PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 Taking into account that Palm is typically used without keyboard or joypad I made the conditions more relaxed and changed the scoring system to encourage skipping levels or starting with a non empty board I believe that those innovations made the game even more addictive than it was This edition is released with the permission from the original authors The final Draft 12 release of PalmOS eventually brought up the long awaited specifications for wave sound however the PalmOS 5 simulation is available on brr Windows only Hopefully the Linux release of PalmOS emulator with 5 0 support wouldn t take long to wait 1 3 Known bugs 1 When the tower is tall enough top elements might appear distorted Unfortunately by far we can t find a neat way around it 2 With PalmOS pre 3 0 pauses via Launcher or POWER key might not be processed correctly This is related to the known old PalmOS design drawback 3 With PalmOS 3 3 4bpp support is provided for the background image but not for the blocks Please tell us if you believe it to be crucial 1 4 Support The application web page is htpp palmcrust tripod com PiFrac where you can download the latest standard or flipped version of the application read the manual online Send your feedback comments bug reports to Michael Glickm
13. ter some optional details and press Submit Score button 3 4 1 3 Pause You get to Pause screen by selecting Pause command in the game see Bottom Keys and Stylus A pause is also assumed when you go to the Application Launcher or turn power off more precisely set Palm to sleep You don t get penalty for first three pauses 1000 points score penalty is given for the 4th pause then penalty grows by 1000 points with every new pause The pause screen shows 4 pause count 4 current score 4 position in the top score table corresponding to current score 4 penalty value pure game duration You can use lt and gt to show_Tally or Top Score Table Alternatively you can use bottom keys Up H1 same as lt Up H4 same as gt Other menu items are Button Bottom Key Description Terminate H1 quit the game the score is processed as usually Exit H3 exit the application 3 4 Out of game PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 Continue H4 return to game For the flipped version keys H1 and H4 are swapped 3 4 1 4 Tally This screen appears after a game unless disabled in Settings It shows counts for each block type and other stats duration total block count score number of full layers You can also also watch tally from Pause A tally brought up after game is seen for 20 sec 4 sec in Demo mode If impatient just press any key or tap anywhere on screen to get it disappear 3 4 1 5 Sett
14. tes falling block while H1 key moves the block down By lowering a block before the timeout you can avoid loosing bonus points see Score for a landed block More often you will wish to drop current block and get a new one To do this just just press H1 key for a bit longer This requires Drop on Down auto repeat feature to be enabled in Settings Alternatively you can use H1 H4 key combination which works in all casesHere is the full list of H1 combinations To use them press H1 first and while keeping H1 down press the second key in the opposite way the combination may be misinterpreted Key Combination H1 H4 DROP H1 Up PAUSE H1 Down NEXT LEVEL Operation 3 1 1 Hints 1 To prevent a block from being dropped accidentally next block doesn t appear before you release all keys Don t forget to take your fingers off the keys after DROP You also have to release all keys before you can enter PAUSE screen 3 Operating the Application PiFrac User Manual v 1 0 1 2 On the flipped version keys H1 and H4 are swapped In particular H1 combinations become H4 combinations 3 1 2 SPECIAL CASES 3 1 2 1 Demo mode Only two operations are available in demo mode swapped on the flipped version Ke Demo Ke Demo aey Operation Bey Operation H1 NEXT LEVEL H4 TERMINATE 3 1 2 2 Board scan You can stop scanning the board after completing layer s by pressing either H1 or H4 This doesn t give you bonus points
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