

This file is provided because the on-line help is not available when Tile
Fall is in "Siena mode" (the screen is too narrow to display the
information screens). The text contained within this file is exactly the
same as the on-line help available when playing on a Psion 3a or 3c.
Therefore, you do not need to read this here unless you are playing on a
Siena.


How To Play Tile Fall
=====================

The object of the game is to remove as many tiles from the playing area as
possible. Tiles are removed by moving the pointer over them (with the
cursor keys) and pressing Enter. All tiles of the same type that are
connected to the selected tile will be removed at the same time. You may
not remove a tile unless it joins with at least one tile of its type.

The main strategy of the game is to remove as many tiles in a single group
as you possibly can. The scoring system dramatically rewards you when you
remove large numbers of tiles at once. Small number of tiles will score
very little, if anything. See the section on scoring for full information
on the way the scoring system in Tile Fall works.

As tiles are removed, tiles above will fall down to fill the space left. If
you manage to remove all the tiles from a column, the tiles to the right
will be pushed over to join with the remaining tiles.

The game continues until there aren't any sets of 2 or more tiles of the
same type left in the game.



Tile Fall Scoring
=================

Tile Fall's scoring system may at first seem complicated, but it's really
quite easy..

Tile Fall first subtracts 2 from the number of tiles removed in a single
move. It then squares the result and adds it to your score. This means that
removing large groups of tiles will result in big changes to your score,
but small groups will score little or nothing, as shown below:


 Tiles removed    Score
        2            0
        3            1
        4            4
        5            9
       10           64
       20          324


As you can see, adding just a single tile to the number removed in one go
significantly increases the score gained from the tiles. So try to remove
as many tiles in one go as you can! Also note that removing a group of 2
tiles doesn't actually score any points at all. If you can avoid removing
groups of 2, then try to do so...

When the game is finished, some other adjustments are made to calculate
your final score. If there are any tiles left on the game board, the number
of tiles is subtracted from your score. If you managed to clear *all* the
tiles, you'll get a 1000 point bonus! Try to clear all the tiles if you
can.

Each combination of board size and number of tiles has its own high score
table, so there are 12 high score tables in total. This means you are
always competing against high scores with the same level of difficulty as
the game you are playing. All high scores are automatically saved to disk,
so you can see who has the highest Tile Fall scores of all your friends!

The high score file is saved in exactly the same format as the high score
file used by the Amiga version. You can copy your Amiga high score file to
the Psion to use with Psion Tile Fall, and vice versa. You can also use
Amiga Tile Fall to merge your Psion high score table with your existing
Amiga high scores, directly from the Psion disk. The filename for the high
score table is (on the internal drive): \OPD\TILEFALL.SCR



The Tile Fall Mailing List
==========================

Nick Waterman has kindly set up an internet mailing
list for the purpose of discussing Tile Fall and
exchanging high scores. If you are interested in
joining this mailing list, send an email to:

                          nick@cimio.co.uk

All sorts of information is also on his Tile Fall web page:

                  http://www.cimio.co.uk/~nick/tilefall/

