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Easy MEMO

Advanced manual

Update on December, 2004

How create a game set
     1. What is a game set
     2. What is a card
     3. Picture on the backs of the cards
     4. Cards list format
     5. Background of the game
     6. Game Sounds
     7. Game set structure
     8. Scenarios
Setup file - EasyMEMOry.ini
     1. File Structure
     2. Tag list  Update
     3. Default file values  Update
     4. More ini files

New in this version  Update


How create a game set

1. What is a game set

A game set is a custom concentration game for Easy MEMO. When you create a game set, players can play with it as a new concentration game. You can customize lot of things:

You can customize all of that and you have to create a Cards.dat and a Games.dat text files (see below the format of these files). You can also customize only just the Pictures of the cards and the Back of the cards and you don't need a Cards.dat or a Games.dat text files, just your pictures (see below What is a card and Back of the cards).

Most important: Creating a game set starts with creating a subfolder with the name of your choice in the EasyMemory/Planches folder. Then you have to put into this new subfolder all you need for your new game set.


2. What is a card

A card can be a picture only or a picture with:

In the first case you just have to collect pictures, resize them in similar sizes and put them in your sufolder. In the second case you have to collect pictures and sounds (if you want) put them in your subfolder and create the Cards.dat file (see below).

You can create a game set of completely different cards (a house, a plane, a boat...) or use a theme (country flags, celebrities, famous paintings...). You should have enough cards to allow players to play with a lot of cards on the screen even in high resolution (1024*768 or higher) and to play different games without the same picture coming back too often.

Correct format for pictures is jpg or gif (with uses of transparency)

Correct format for sounds is sun format (.au file with 8khz and Mu-Law 8bit subformat)


3. Picture on the backs of the cards

You have to create the picture for the back of your cards with the same size as the biggest of your pictures.

If you don't want to create a Games.dat file you must use the gif format and name is : z_dos.gif. Otherwise, you can use gif or jpg format and name it as you want (the name must begin with z_, see Games.dat format below).


4. Cards list format

Cards must be described in a text file named Cards.dat. You can create it with notepad.

The first line of this file must be "STRUCT_VERSION=500". Then you add a line for each card. Structure of the line is:

[ID]=[Pict];[Sound];[later];[Game text];[later];[End text];[later]

There should not be any space around = and ; signs.

[ID] Unique identifier for this card.
[Pict] Filename of the picture of the card (jpg or gif format).
It can not begins with z_
[Sound] Filename of the sound of the card. The sound is played when the card is displayed. (.au file with 8khz and Mu-Law 8bit subformat)
[Game text] Comment text displayed at the bottom of the window during the game when the player clicks on a card displayed on the screen.
[End text] Comment text displayed at the bottom of the window at the end of the game when the player click on a card displayed on the screen.
[later]Not used in Easy MEMO v5.00 - Future uses.

Sample from Cries of the animals Cards.dat:


5. Background of the game

You can add a background picture to your game set. Your cards will be displayed on a pretty background of your choice instead of the default wood background.

You have to choose the type of your background : mosaic picture or unique picture. Then find or create the background picture file. You must rename it as z_Background.jpg and move it into your game set subfolder. Then you just have to add the following properties in your Games.dat file. (see properties table below)


6. Game Sounds

You can add specific sounds for your game set. Players will hear your sounds and not the default sounds when they will play with your game set. You can add the 3 sounds or only 1 or 2.

The 3 possible sounds are:

To add a sound, find or create it in Sun format (.au 8khz and Mu-Law 8bit subformat) and put the .au file in the folder of the game set. Then add the good properties (game_SoundOK, game_SoundBad or game_SoundEnd) with sound filename in the Games.dat file.


7. Game set structure

Game set must be describe in a text file named Games.dat. You can create it with notepad.

The first line of this file must be "STRUCT_VERSION=500". Then you add a line for each properties. Structure of the line is:

[property name]=[property value]

There should not be any space before or after =. Game set properties are listed in the following table (be careful, there are case sensitives). All of them begins with game_. In Games.dat file you can have other lines beginnings with figure, there are scenarios lines. (see below for scenario structure)

Property Value Description
game_TitleUS
Needed
Text English title for the game set.
game_TitleFR
Needed
Text French title for the game set.
game_Author Text Your name, it will appear in the About this set window.
game_Email Email Your email address, so the users of your game set can email you (About this set window)
game_Website URL Your website url, so the users of your game set can visit your homepage (About this set window)
game_Version Text Version number of your game set, you can also add the date.
game_SoundOK .au filename Filename of the sound you will hear each time you succeed in getting a group of matching cards (eg OK.au)
game_SoundBad .au filename Filename of the sound you will hear each time you complete a group with non matching cards (eg Bad.au)
game_SoundEnd .au filename Filename of the sound you will hear when you have find all groups of cards (eg End.au)
game_BackCard .gif or .jpg filename Filename of the picture displayed on the back of your cards.
game_Level 1 to 5 This is to indicate if your game set is a very specialized game set (value 5) or a general game set (value 1).
A game set with very different pictures (tree, animal, house...) will be very general and take the value 1.
A game set with very similar pictures (like different Persian cats) will be very specialized and take the value 5.
game_BackgroundAlignH
Needed for background
MOSAIC / LEFT / CENTER / RIGHT Choose MOSAIC if you want your picture displayed on all the background in a mosaic mode. Otherwise choose the horizontal alignment for your picture.
Of course, if you don't add a background picture, you don't have to add this property.
game_BackgroundAlignV MOSAIC / TOP / CENTER / BOTTOM With this property you can choose the vertical alignment of your picture.
CENTER by default. Used only if the game_BackgroundAlignH is not MOSAIC.
game_BackgroundColor
Needed for background
red,green,blue
with each of the 3 values between 0 and 255
Useful if you add a picture with an alignment different from MOSAIC. You can have the rest of the screen of the same color as the sky of your picture for example.
Use the RGB value for your color. (ex: game_BackgroundColor=255,0,0 for red color).
game_BackgroundLight 0 to 255 In dialog box with text (like About Set...), the text can be difficult to read on your background. Also you can solarize your background in this kind of dialog box. Try different values until the text becomes readable.

game_BackgroundColor Tip: If your screen, or the screen of someone playing with your game set, is not in real color (24 bits or higher), you can have a little difference between the color of the sky of your picture and the color of the background around your picture. To solve it, setup your screen in 256 or 16 bits colors, start Easy MEMO with your game set, make a hard copy of the screen, paste it in a picture software (like paintshop pro) and look at the rgb value used for your sky and your background. Then use the same value for your sky and the game_BackgroundColor property.


Sample from Cries of the animals Games.dat (without scenario lines):

Blank lines for Games.dat (without scenario lines):


8. Scenarios

With scenarios you can create sub games of your game set or even other kind of game. For example with Cries of the Animals there are sound cards and silent cards. So we have scenarios with only silent cards and others with both.

You can create as many scenarios as you want. All you have to do is use the following properties and preface each one with the scenario number. Scenario number must starts to 1 and you don't let gap number between scenarios.

A scenario must be defined for a language, a range of difficulty and a kind of game. Structure for a scenario line is:

[Nb]_[Property]=[Value];[Value2];...

There should not be any space around _ = and ; signs.

[Nb] Scenario number from 1. No gap between number.
[Property] See property table below.
[Value] Property value (see below)
[Value2] Some properties needed several values (see below)

Property Value
Value2
Description
Title Text Scenario title
Lang US / FR Scenario language. You can play with it only if you choose correct language in File/Language menu.
Level 1 to 5 This is to indicate if your scenario is very specialized (value 5) or general (value 1).
A scenario with very different pictures (tree, animal, house...) will be very general and take the value 1.
A scenario with very similar pictures (like differents persian cats) will be very specialized and take the value 5.
Begin 0 Future uses
Text Description of your scenario game. Displayed at the beginning of the game.
Diff 2 to 5 Difficulty minimum of your scenario. If you enter 3, players can't play your scenario with a difficulty of 2. Be careful, it depends also on your group's size (cf below).
2 to 5 Difficulty maximum of your scenario. If you enter 3, players can't play your scenario with a difficulty of 4 or 5. Be careful, it depends also of your groups size (cf below).
Type Identical / Different Kinds of games. With "Identical" players have to match identical cards and with "Different" players have to match different cards (like a picture and a sound).

After defining scenario properties you have to define groups of your scenario. A group is a set of cards matching each other. Groups is mandatory for "Different" mode. If you don't define Groups for an "Identical" scenario, all cards will be available. You need as many group lines as groups. Structure of a group line:

[Nb]_GR_[Group line]=[Card ID];[Card ID];...

There should not be any space around _ = and ; signs.

[Nb] Scenario number from 1. No gap between number.
[Group line] Group line number from 1 (restart from 1 for each scenario. No gap between number.
[Card ID] [ID] of the card as define in Cards.dat above.

For a scenario Identical you can have only one [card ID] by group line.

For a scenario Different, each group line must have at least as many [card ID] as Difficulty maximum of your scenario.


Scenario example from Cries of the animals Games.dat:

Scenario blank lines for Games.dat:



Setup file - EasyMEMOry.ini

1. File Structure

This file is a text file, updated with notepad for example, which can contain different data. Each line contains a piece of data in 3 parts :

There must not be any spaces between these 3 parts. The name of this file is EasyMEMOry.ini. It is in the Easy MEMO main folder

Tip for the PC user: If you installed Easy MEMO with the auto install file, the EasyMEMOry.ini file is available in the Start / Program / Easy MEMO menu.


2. Tag list  Update

Tag name Values Description
Difficulty Range 2 to 5 Selects the difficulty in the Options / Difficulty menu.
DefaultSize integer Sets your favourite size for playing. It's the number of cards on the screen.
Preview Selects the preview mode for the Options / Preview menu.
NoneNo preview mode.
FastQuick mode.
SlowSlow mode.
Background Selects the background mode in the Options / Background menu.
None No pretty background, only lightgray.
StandardAlways a pretty wood background.
Set Uses the background provided with each game set.
Blink Selects the blink mode in the Options / Blink menu.
NoneCards will not blink when played.
FastCards will blink 2 times when played.
SlowCards will blink 4 times when played.
GameMode Selects the kind of game at startup. You can change it with Options/Game.
IdenticalYou play classic concentration game by matching identical cards.
DifferentYou play advanced concentration game by matching different cards (like an animal and its cry).
VanishMode True / False Enable vanish mode, the pairs disappear when you find its, or when you complete a group of cards. (shareware release only)
SoundOK True / False Enable sound for good try.
SoundBad True / False Enable sound for bad try.
SoundEnd True / False Enable sound for end of game.
SetName _ALL_ or Text Choose the list of game sets for your default playlist. You have to use the folder name of each game set separated by comma (e.g. SetName=Felins_portraits,Disney,Mousez).
You can also use "_ALL_" for a random selection in all game sets available.
SetFilter True / False Restrict (if True) list of available game set to the list above (cf SetName).
ScenarioIdUS
ScenarioIdFR
Number Select scenario ID for each language.
PlayerType1
PlayerType2
PlayerType3
PlayerType4
Selects the type of each player.
None If this player dosn't play.
Human If this player is a human player.
Perfect If this player is a very clever computer player.
Advanced If this player is a clever computer player.
Beginner If this player is a beginner computer player.
FirstGameIf this player is a random computer player.
Teacher If this player is a teacher player. (Shareware only)
PlayerName1
PlayerName2
PlayerName3
PlayerName4
nothing or Text Chooses the name for each human player. If this tag is not set, the default name is used (language dependent, eg Player for English, Joueur for French).
BoutonPlayStop True / False Show (true) or Hide the Play/Stop buttons.
MenuPlayer,
MenuVanish,
MenuSound,
MenuBackground,
MenuBlink,
MenuPreview,
MenuGameOptions,
MenuGameSet,
MenuOptionG
True / False Show (true) or Hide these menus/options.

Tip: Tag names are case sensitive, but values are not case sensitive.
Tip: Look at User Manual for more information about options.


3. Default file  Update

Difficulty=2
DefaultSize=8
Preview=None
Background=Set
Blink=Fast
GameMode=Identical
VanishMode=True
SoundOK=True
SoundBad=True
SoundEnd=True
SetName=_ALL_
SetFilter=False
PlayerType1=Human
PlayerType2=None
PlayerType3=None
PlayerType4=None
BoutonPlayStop=True
MenuPlayer=True
MenuVanish=true
MenuOptionG=True
MenuSound=True
MenuBackground=True
MenuBlink=True
MenuPreview=True
MenuGameOptions=True
MenuGameSet=True


3. More ini files

You can have custom settings by users. You have to create more ini files, copy and modify GO_US.html page.

What have you to do:
  1. Go in EasyMemory/Program/Pages folder
  2. Copy GO_US.html page in what you want (ex: GO_My.html)
  3. Open this copy with notepad
  4. Search the line with: <PARAM name="Lang" value="US">
  5. Add below the line: <PARAM name="iniFile" value="MyIni.ini"> (or what you want instead MyIni.ini)
  6. Go in EasyMemory folder
  7. Copy EasyMEMOry.ini file in MyIni.ini (or what you type above)
  8. Open this copy with notepad and change what you want
  9. Then create a shortcut for your new GO_My.html

Tip: With tags SetFilter and SetName (see above) in different ini files, you can create desktop shortcuts for your kids as they can play with only some game sets and not all game sets installed on your computer.



New in this version  Update



(c) Bruno Berenguer