                                    MASTER

                                      by

                              Richard F. Parker

                                      for

                          Thunderhead Software, Inc.


MASTER is a takeoff on the Milton Bradley game of MasterMind, but with
less colors and purely random goals.  This game is for one player only.
The computer selects the goals. You must guess the goal in less than 11
turns by making a guess, looking at the scores, and making a (hopeful-
ly) better guess.

This software includes the C source code, which was compiled using MIX
Software's POWER C compiler, and is fairly self-contained.  I am not
submitting this to the public domain, but I am offering it as an exam-
ple of how some programmers write code.

This software is distributed as freeware/shareware.  We are not asking
for 'registration fees', or 'contributions', or 'donations', etc.  We
are asking that if you distribute it, distribute the WHOLE archive:
catalog and credits included.  After all, some effort was put into this
software, and the least that users can do is give credit where credit
is due.

If you like this program, take a little time and examine our commercial
catalog: we have programs of higher quality for sale, and many more on
the way.  We are even starting to consciously make some of our software
'Voice/Speech friendly', for those users with synthesizer attachments.

TO RUN THIS GAME: you MUST have an ANSI driver.  It could be NANSI,
ZANSI, or ANSI.sys, but those screen-color codes must be in place for
this program to run.  After all, you are guessing COLORS.

TO PLAY: simply run the program.  No parameters are needed or wanted.
Just type 'master' and press enter/return.  Your screen will turn blue,
with a game box in the middle.

If, instead, you get a paragraph of numbers and letters, you are not
running ansi.  Control break or ^C out of the game, and check your
config.sys file (it should be in the root directory of your boot disk).
Config.sys must contain a line that says 'device=ansi.sys', or nansi.sys,
or zansi.sys.  If that line does not exist, add it and reboot.  (Make
sure that a copy of ansi.sys is in your root directory on the boot disk).
Then run the game again.

At the top of the game box, you will see four question marks.  These
represent the colors you must guess.  There are always four.  They may
be all one color, or any combination of colors.  You goal is, within
ten moves, to guess what the combination is, in the proper order.

Make a guess, giving the LETTER that is CAPITALIZED for each color:
Black is 'b', bLue is 'l', et cetera.  The computer will then give you
a score, based on the accuracy of your guess.  The score will consist
of black and white dots to the right of your guess.

        A black dot means that one color is right, in the correct place.
        A white dot means that one color is right, in the wrong place.

Obviously, then, the goal is to get 4 black dots.  Here's the catch:
The DOTS ARE NOT IN THE ORDER OF YOUR GUESS.  They tell you something is
right (or close), but they don't tell you which exact piece is right.
You have to deduce that for yourself.  You only have 10 guesses, so think
carefully before making guesses.  Here are some sample scores:

        Goal: BBYY    Guess: YBYB   Score: BBWW

        Two guesses, 2 and 3, are right color, right place.
        Two guesses, 1 and 4, are right color, wrong place.
        Scores always show black first.

        Goal: BBYY    Guess: GGLL   Score: <nothing>

        Goal: BBYY    Guess: BBBY   Score: BBB

        There is no indication of WHICH position is wrong...use logic.

The goal should change every time you play...the randomizer is based on
WHEN you start the game (in seconds).  If your games are getting too
similar, check your system clock from DOS with the DATE and TIME comm-
ands.

I hope you enjoy the game as much as I have.  To me, that is the defi-
nition of an effective programmer.


