Shell Game History
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Version 1.00 09-17-94
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Initial release of the Shell Game
Version 1.05 09-19-94
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First bug found! Returning players who lost all their money received
only $100 the next day, instead of $1,000. Fixed.
Fixed a minor bug in the graphics display. Players not in graphics mode
weren't seeing the same thing as those using graphics. Fixed.
Version 1.50 09-22-94
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Fairly large amount of code re-written. This was the first PPE I really
worked on, and a plate of spaghetti made more sense! I structured the
code, and eliminated a fair amount of unnecessary code....there were a lot
of redundancies. Thanks to suggestions from beta testers, I changed the
inputs for the game from choosing (P)lay or (Q)uit before each game to
the Shell number to wager on, or a 'Q' to quit. More user friendly, I
hope.
Still a few bugs to work out of the game, including a scoring glitch. If
there's more than one person with the same score, the first person gets
listed twice for the score. More bugs... :)
Version 2.00 12-15-94
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The first "official" release of the Shell Game. The bug with the scores
has been worked out....it's still not the way I want it to be, but it
*does* sort the scores properly now.
Version 2.10 12-31-94
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Made a minor change to the game. Previously, the entire screen would
redraw after each turn as the shells were being shuffled around. This
update corrects it so only a small portion of the screen redraws. Helps
callers at lower connect speeds avoid using all their time waiting for
screen redraws.
Version 2.20 1-1-95
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Found another bug. The monthly score maintenance worked fine until the
year changed, then it wouldn't recognize that a new month had begun.
Fixed.
Version 2.30 1-12-95
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Improved the score formatting for The Shell Game. In previous versions,
any scores were displayed without the commas for amounts of 1,000 and
over. This was fixed in this version to add commas to all the scores to
make it easier to read.
Version 2.40 1-22-95
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Changed the way the Shell Game was configured. Instead of having the
maximum plays and the multiplier being passed into the game via the command
line, the game will use an external .CFG file. This change is *only* in
the registered version, since the shareware version has both of these
parameters "hard coded" into the PPE.
Version 2.50 2-09-95
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Many sysops have bulletins that are updated with scores from selected games,
so the Shell Game has the added feature of an external score file, called
SHELGAME.SCO. Also added the "V" command from inside the game, so that the
a player see the scores while playing, instead of only being able to see
them after quitting the game.
Version 2.60 03-17-95
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Changed: Registered versions now use a registration number. Previously,
registered SysOps had to log onto Hare Mail BBS to compile and
download their registered versions. Now, they can grab the latest
version anywhere and just plug in their number.
Changed: The Shell Game previously used the PPL WAIT command, which accessed
the PCBText "Press Enter To Continue" entry. Since quite a few
sysops have replaced that entry with a PPE, I changed the game
to use it's own internal command. This saves a bit of memory from
having to load another PPE.
Added: The ability for registered SysOps to configure how much money new
players start with. See the SHELGAME.CFG file for more info.
Changed: The instructions for the Shell Game are now in an external file.
This should cut down on memory requirements a bit as well.
Changed: I had previously defined the variable in the Shell Game that
keeps track of a players score as an integer. Since my wife
reached a level of $1.7 billion dollars midway through the month
in the game (with a multiplier of only 4!), I changed that
variable to a real number. Hopefully, *this* won't get maxed out!
Changed: Now compiled with PPLC 3.10, so you must be running version
15.21+ to run the Shell Game.
Version 3.00 - 05-19-95
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Added: Major upgrade! The Shell Game now has the added ability to
allow players to make up the games they missed in the
registered version only.
Changed: The Shell Game now requires players to be in graphics mode. If
not, they're returned to the BBS before the game loads. The
reason for this becomes apparent when make up games are
enabled. Both ANSI and RIP are allowed graphics modes, even
though no RIP graphics are used in the game.
Added: A SCONVERT.PPE now accompanies version 3.00 of The Shell Game.
This is used to convert the old-style text format I was using
for storing the players information to the .DBF format. If
you've already got a copy of the game installed, you MUST
run this PPE if you want players scores to be preserved.
Changed: The format for the score output file has been changed. It
still contains the same information, but in a less "bland"
appearance. I hope. :)
Changed: The format of the .CFG file has changed slightly, to accomodate
make up games. You can see the new format in the sample .CFG
file enclosed with the archive.
