Documentation for FAIRWAY v2.0 for the Series 3a ================================================ This game is shareware, so please share it with other Psion-owning friends! Quick Installation ------------------ (to get you up and running, but you do *need* to read the rest of this file as soon as possible!) Install by putting FAIRWAY.OPA into an APP directory (any device will do) and FAIRWAY1.OPO, FAIRWAY3.OPO, FAIRWAY6.OPO, FAIRWAY1.PIC, FAIRWAY2.PIC and the WVE files into a \FAIRWAY subdirectory beneath the aforementioned \APP directory. Thus \APP\FAIRWAY.OPA and \APP\FAIRWAY\FAIRWAY1.OPO and \APP\FAIRWAY\FAIRWAY3.OPO and \APP\FAIRWAY\FAIRWAY6.OPO and \APP\FAIRWAY\FAIRWAY1.PIC and \APP\FAIRWAY\FAIRWAY2.PIC and \APP\FAIRWAY\CHEER2.WVE and \APP\FAIRWAY\CLAP22.WVE and \APP\FAIRWAY\MISS1.WVE and \APP\FAIRWAY\SWING1.WVE and then install the OPA in the normal time-honoured Psion 3 manner ... ================ Main documentation follows =========================== FAIR20.ZIP Copyright 1993, UK, Steve Litchfield, 8 Grove Farm, Mytchett, Surrey GU16 6AQ Registration fee: œ12 or œ6 for registered FAIRWAY 1.0 users Please send a cheque. If you live outside the UK, convert to either US $ or french ff, and send cash. Released as shareware. The shareware version is fully functioning in every way, with the nuisance factor being the rather frequent interruption of various nag screens, encouraging you to play fair, play the game, and support fledgling authors like myself by sending in some money. I will then issue you with a personalised key-code, which you can type into FAIRWAY from the Psion-R screen, and which will disable all the nag-screens and display your name every time the program is booted. This will ease your guilt factor, and speed up the gameplay considerably! *NOTE* I have observed with other Psion Series 3/3a programs, that registration of shareware is often hampered by the need to re-install the registered version on-top of the shareware version. On a flash SSD, this is a *major* hassle! (Even PITCH & PUTT operated in this way) Rest assured, FAIRWAY simply generates a small registration file in your M:\OPD directory called FAIRWAY.REG, and everything else stays the same. *No* re-installation is required. *NOTE2* The registration codes for FAIRWAY 2.0 are deliberately different than those for v1.0, so I'm afraid you can't just ask to register v1.0 and use the code for v2.0 !! For existing registered users of v1.0, a code can be obtained for v2.0 for 6 UK pounds. Sounds fair to me!! This program will ONLY run on the Series 3a. All temporary files, player stats files (*.FWS), menu settings (FAIRWAY.SET), and saved games (FAIRWAY.SAV) are stored in small files in your M:\OPD directory. This is because I for one am fed up with every program needing its own directory, and am quite happy to see programs sharing a general OPD area. Introduction ------------ FAIRWAY is an ambitious attempt to simulate a 'full' golf game on a handheld computer. For those readers familiar with the operation of Games pack PITCH, the improvements for FAIRWAY 1.0 were, in no particular order: 18 holes, 20 computer players, 16 clubs, 5 ball lies, bouncing and rolling of clubbed shots, player stats, save/restore facility, better 3D effects, overswing facility etc , and a whole lot besides. The improvements for v2.0 (for the 3a) are: better hole design/features, digitised trees, sampled sound, proper swing animation, better presentation etc etc Gameplay -------- Fairway takes you onto the professional tournament circuit, where you can pit your skills against a variety of dubiously named computer controlled opponents. You have 16 clubs (SupaDrive, 3 woods, 9 irons, 2 wedges and putter) and they are selected automatically, though you can change the automatic selection with the up/down arrow keys, or even turn automatic selection off altogether. The current club, and its expected hitting distance (including rolling, and without 'overswing') are shown inside the power bar. There are three modes of play. Practice, where you play on your own and where your performance isn't recorded in the statistics file, 1-Player, where you play in a tournament against the aforementioned 20 computer players, and finally 2-player, where you can play against a friend within the tournament environment. It is not possible to change mode half-way through a round/tournament, so you have to decide right at the start of each game how you want to play! Note that the playing order of the various opponents remains the same throughout the game, with your good self taking up the rear, i.e. playing last, so that you know exactly what you have to do! I hope this doesn't disappoint fans of 'real' golf too much! Each hole is randomly generated for this particular tournament, at the time of playing, so you'll never play the same tournament course twice! (The actual sequence of par ratings remains the same, but the hole lengths and contents will always be different.) Difficulty ---------- Because you are pitted against 20 computer opponents of varying skills, there is no need to have a changeable difficulty setting for the game, as whatever your individual skill, you should find yourself somewhere in the 'pack', and your challenge will be to gradually move up the leaderboard, and eventually start winning. The game is tuned such that you should find winning a tournament a real challenge even when you've been playing FAIRWAY for a while! Hazards ------- There are the usual golf hazards of trees (which can block your shot, unless you squirt the ball out under them, or deliberately play with an extravagant hook or slice to go round them) and light rough, rough, long grass and bunkers (in which you'll need to hit harder than normal, to varying degrees). Also, there is normally a wind blowing, with a special arrow showing its speed and direction (and an extra digital readout of its speed). If you are putting at the time, the arrow is used to show the break on the putt, i.e. the slope of the green and its size. Note that if the arrow is so short that you cannot distinguish its direction, then the wind/slope is probably not sufficient for you to worry about! The edges of the green are 'rougher' and will tend to slow your ball down, as with a real green. Hitting the ball ---------------- The method used to hit the ball is the same as you've probably used before on other computer golf games (e.g. PITCH & PUTT). There are cross-hairs to aim your shot and a 'power bar' (along the bottom of the screen when it's your turn to play) to control how hard you hit the ball. Using one of the FAIRWAY action keys (Tab, Delete, Space or Enter), use the '3-click' method, whereby you tap the key once to start the 'power bar' moving, once more to stop it rising and one last time to time your shot, by stopping the bar as close as possible to the timing mark shown. Timing your shot badly will result in hooking or slicing the ball, or in imparting spin if you are putting. Note that hitting the ball too hard when putting can cause the ball to jump over the hole, and not drop in. So you can't just blast the putt at 50 mph straight at the hole! Note that FAIRWAY allows for 'overswing'. Notice the thick bar a short distance from the left edge of the power bar. This is the 100% mark, and stopping the power bar on this mark will assure you of 100% power, to achieve the expected hitting distance for that club. If you allow the power bar to rise beyond the 100% mark, you will achieve more than 100% power, for extra distance, but at the expense of magnifying any timing error in your shot. In other words, if you hit your shot with 120% power, but manage to slice the ball as well, the slice will turn out far more extravagant than if you had hit with 100% power. Also, bear in mind that mistiming your shot also reduces the hitting power available, so you can see that overswing should be used only when absolutely necessary, and then with maximum precision on the timing line! FAIRWAY uses the laws of physics when it calculates ball motion, and was designed to give some of the feel of the real game. This has several effects. For example, when putting, notice that the markings on the power bar are not evenly spaced, and that although hitting the ball to half the maximum putting distance still needs the power bar to be taken up to the fifth graduation (ten graduations = full scale), this mark is nearer 75% of the on-screen maximum. This non-linearity is designed to represent what happens on a real putting green, with friction, inertia and so on. Getting help ------------ Pressing the Help key will usually bring up a help menu in the Psion style, with each help option typically having a sub-menu of its own. Feel free to browse around the help screens, the help information is fairly complete. Don't worry, because the game is very simple to play, especially so if you've played golf on a PC before. If you are doing particularly badly, the help menu will automatically appear, though you can get rid of it by pressing ESC, as usual. Menu options ------------ The Menu key gives you access to the overhead and ball lie views, to the scorecard so far, to the player statistics screen and to the setup menu. And of course there is an Exit option, by which you can terminate your game. You can also turn off (or on) automatic showing of the overhead view and the ball lie, and can also ask the computer whose shot it is and which shot they're currently playing. The auto-showing of the leaderboard and the auto-selection of clubs can also be customised. The save game option will save your current game (as at the start of the hole currently being played) to a specific file in the \OPD directory of your internal disk. This can only be restored when FAIRWAY is launched. This is designed to stop people cheating by a continual cycle of Save-play-restore on a 'difficult' hole. I know, 'cos I used to do this all the time myself, on PGA Tour Golf!! Each menu option has its own hot key, by which you can go straight to their function without going through the menus, e.g. Psion-X will take you straight to the "Exit: save game? (Y/N/C)" screen. Note that all the menu option settings will be retained from one game to the next. FAIRWAY uses a small file called FAIRWAY.SET to do this. Setup options ------------- The setup menu will appear at the beginning of every game, and allows you to control how the game should work. You can select the playing mode (Practice, 1-player, 2-player), your name and that of your human opponent (if any) and whether you want sound effects (On, Off). Notice that if you are registered, your name will automatically appear in the setup box the first time you play the game. ************************************************************************ Thankyou for playing FAIRWAY v2.0. Please play fair with shareware! Steve Litchfield, 8 Grove Farm, Mytchett, Surrey GU16 6AQ Telephone 44 (252) 515431 ************************************************************************ If you suspect that your copy of FAIRWAY has been 'hacked' or changed in some way, then please call me to let me know where you obtained the game from and to check the files sizes etc with me. Thanks! Note to hackers: Please don't try to hack this game. Although everything is possible, I have added extra security features to FAIRWAY to try and stop reverse translation and engineering. It really isn't worth it! Use your undoubted programming skills to write something of your own instead and make a positive contribution to the Psion software world!!