MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
· If you find any inaccurate translation in a language file, please report the problem to me !!
· When the Hall of Fame panel is activated, your latest highscore is written in italic -- this way you can find it faster. The italics are removed when you select another game.
· "Malus" is the opposite of "Bonus". It's the time added to your score when you click on Hint or Shuffle. It's included in the final time shown on the left column... If you want to know exactly how much time you needed to complete a board, without the malus, you just need to subtract this value from the overall time...
· If, like me, you love the music composed by Miguel Samiez for Kyodai (he's truly one of the future great French composers, in my humble opinion), you can purchase on my website his Kyodai Original Soundtrack album, entitled Light & Shadow.
· Mahjongg Master 1 & 2 are products based on early versions of Kyodai Mahjongg. The first one is based on v3.01, the second one is based on v6.21. They are available from eGames, Inc. but please note that I'm NOT providing support for these, and you are NOT entitled to a Kyodai license (or any free upgrade) when you purchase a copy of this software.
HOW TO USE THE TWO-PLAYER MODE
The Solitaire game, curiously, can be played with a friend. You can access this options by clicking on the "Two Players" button in the Game Selector.
A window appears. You must choose whether you want to start an offline or online game. An offline game will be played on a single computer by two users. An online game will be played on a TCP/IP network, that is, either on a LAN (Local Area Network) or on the Internet.
Offline game :
30-second Turns : Every player can play for 30 seconds. The score represents the number of pairs a player has removed. After the delay is over, the game switches to the other player. The winner is the player who has removed the highest number of pairs when the board is emptied.
Quick Turns : The players can remove one pair, then the game switches to the opponent. Needless to say, it's not a very practical way to play in offline mode. Unfortunately, it was the only mode available in Kyodai before the online mode was added. The score represents the time spent by each player to remove the pairs. The winner is the player who has the lowest score when the board is emptied.
Online game :
30-second Turns : Same as for the Offline game.
Quick Turns : Same as for the Offline game.
Deathmatch : Both players can remove pairs from the board at the same time... The winner is the player who has removed the highest number of pairs when the board is emptied. Please note that it's not recommended to play this game on the Internet or a slow network, because there are no guarantees that the pair you've just removed hasn't been removed in the same time by your opponent, thus creating possible board conflicts. I've done my best to fix these problems on the fly, and I hope they won't actually appear.
How to start an Online game :
- If you're going to be the host : first, choose a game-type, and click on "Host Game". Make sure the current Solitaire layout is the one you actually want to play.
- If you're going to be the client : Type in the name of the host computer in the "Host Address" edit box, and click on "Join Game". If you're on a LAN, chances are that you can just type in the name of the host computer (for example, "johncomputer"). If you're on the Internet, you'll probably have to type in an IP address, in the 255.255.255.255 form. There are a lot of programs that allow you to find out your own IP address (for example, under Windows 98, click on Start, Run, type in "winipcfg", and press Enter). You can send your IP address by e-mail to a friend who can then join a game on your computer. If you need more help on this, there are a lot of websites that discuss online gaming. Please don't e-mail me about this.
DirectX SUPPORT IN KYODAI
In order to be able to play Kyodai, you need to have DirectX 7.0 (or later) installed on your machine. If you don't have it, get it from the Microsoft website (www.microsoft.com/directx).
A 3D card is strongly recommended to play Kyodai in 3D. A simple Voodoo will bring you at least 30 fps, while a G400 will bring you over 120 fps. If you don't have any accelerator, no matter how powerful your PC is, the game will be nearly unplayable... About 1 to 2 frames per second in software mode. I'm sorry for all of you who have a slow machine... A good video card doesn't cost much anymore...
COLOR DEPTHS SUPPORTED BY KYODAI
This is simple : with my current configuration, only the 16-bit color depth mode works perfectly.
- 8-bit mode doesn't work at all.
- 24-bit mode works in 2D (although the Ghost mode is a bit slow), but doesn't work in 3D.
- 32-bit mode works in 3D, but has problems with 2D (the Ghost mode doesn't work).
VIDEO CARD COMPATIBILITY IN 3D MODE
The DirectX version of Kyodai was developped and tested on several video cards, to ensure maximum compatibility with most video cards on the market.
Here are the cards I've been using, with several comments.
- Intel i740 - Can be played in hardware since Kyodai 11.00 beta 3. Runs at about 30-50fps. The shadow issues have been fixed since v11.56.
- NVidia TNT2 - Runs perfectly, at about 100-120fps. Great card.
- NVidia GeForce - Runs even better. The best possible card for playing Kyodai, as of October 2000.
- 3Dfx Voodoo 1 & 2 - Supported since version 11.56, they run fine, from 30 to 100 fps in fullscreen mode. Kyodai intensively uses windowed rendering (combo boxes, dialog boxes, menus, etc), which aren't supported by these old video cards. But after a lot of work, patience and luck, I finally managed to add full support for Voodoo cards to Kyodai. Alleluia ! ^_^
- 3Dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI - Runs fine, at about 100-120 fps. I had a small problem with the board position being updated late (about one second later !) when I wasn't showing anything through the GDI.
- Matrox G400 32mb - My previous favorite card for development. It runs at 130fps (and it's not even a G400 Max) -- the latest drivers are really nice.
Other cards are supposed to work, too. If you have problems running Kyodai in 3D, make sure you have the latest video drivers available. If you have them, please contact your video card maker and tell them to fix their drivers !
MOVING THE 3D BOARD
You can move the 3D board on its X and Y axis by clicking on the right mouse button and dragging it. When you're satisfied with the position, just release the mouse. If you right-click without dragging the mouse, the popup submenu is called. Use the wheel (if you have a wheel mouse) to zoom the board. Press the Shift key while moving the wheel to rotate the board, or click on your wheel to switch between these two modes.
You can also use the keyboard to move the board. All of the functions can be accessed with the numeric keypad. Here are the commands :
- 4, 6 : Move left and right. Or right-click and grab left and right.
- 8, 2 : Move up and down Or right-click and grab up and down.
- 5 : Reset coordinates
- +, - : Zoom. You can also use your mouse wheel to zoom.
- /, * : Rotate left and right
USING THE LAYOUT EDITOR
First, select a layout you like and you want to base your work on. Then, click on [Edit Layout]. Or simply click on [Create Layout] to start with a blank board. A new toolbar will appear. To complete a layout, you have to place a maximum of 144 tiles on the board. Clicking with the right button on a tile will remove it. Clicking with left button will add a tile at the location of the "cursor-tile". You can always adjust your shot by right-clicking on the tile again and removing it. It may be a bit hard in the beginning, but you will quickly get used to the system. Keep your eye on the "Tiles left" counter. When it reaches zero, the board is full (144 tiles) and you can't add anything more. In order to make a layout playable, you have to make sure the number of tiles left is a multiple of 4 (like 64, 100, 112, ...). Of course, there's no fun in making a 4-tile layout, but you can do such a layout if you want.
Once your layout is finished, you can leave the editor with one of the three menu options : [Save] will save the layout under the current layout file name. Be careful not to erase another layout ! [Save as] will let you save the layout under a new name. [Try it] lets you play with the layout without having to save it. It's useful if you want to test the difficulty of a layout. You can then come back to the layout editor by clicking again on [Edit Layout]. The default extension for the layout files is ".lay". You can even choose a name for the layout by typing it in the upper-right edit box. This way, you can distribute your layouts by precising your name, the creation date, the name of your work, etc... Nice, isn't it ? Finally, you can cancel all your changes and come back to the game by clicking on [Exit]. Be aware that all your changes will be lost. Finally, you can move the layout around (left, right, top or bottom) with the menu. It allows you to center it as you like on the board.
Send me your creations, if I like them I'll include them on my site, with a credit for you.
NB : layouts with less than 144 tiles are not compatible with versions earlier than Kyodai 6.42. Please remember this when sending layouts to your friends.
Toolbar reference :
- Tiles : number of tiles in the current layout. You can use up to 144 tiles. The tile number has to be a multiple of 4.
- Free Tiles : number of free tiles in the current layout. You need to have at least two free tiles to be able to play your layout.
- Needed : number of tiles you'll need to add before you can save the layout (can range from none to three tiles).
- Layout Name : longer name of the layout. You can change it directly within the edit box. It can't be longer than 50 characters. That name will appear in the Layout Selector ("Full Name") and in the Status Bar when you start a new layout.
RULES ON CREATING A TILESET
Since Kyodai 8.0, the tileset format has changed in order to make it more flexible... You don't have to use masks anymore.
You can use any existing tileset as a a template for your new tileset. You can name it as you want. The supported formats are BMP and JPG. You can also use the size you want... If you want to have large tiles of 67x82, you can. You just need to resize the picture to (67*9)x(82*5) = (603x410), and start filling it with the tiles... It's so easy !
Here is the exact list of tiles for each line of nine tiles (from left to right) :
- Dots (or Circles) 1 to 9
- Bamboos 1 to 9
- Craks (or Wan, or Characters) 1 to 9
- Seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) and Winds (North, South, East, West)
- Flowers (Bamboo, Plum, Chrysanthemum, Orchid), Dragons (Black, White and Red), and a special "empty" tile used for Memory and the Layout Editor...
You can add your signature to the tileset in the lower-right part of the picture (this area is not used by Kyodai).
If you want to submit your tilesets, layouts or custom backgrounds, contact me by e-mail, but ONLY if the file is not bigger than 500kb (otherwise you'll have to ask for my authorization first). Also, remember to KEEP a copy of your tilesets in BMP format (24-bit color), even if you send me the file in JPG format.
You can download the latest tilesets, layouts and other files at http://kyodai.com/
REDISTRIBUTION OF KYODAI
You are allowed to distribute Kyodai (shareware unregistered version only) to anybody you want, on any support you want (e-mail, floppy disk, CD-Rom...), provided you don't charge anything for this AND you clearly mention it is NOT a free program and users have to purchase a license. You are NOT allowed to distribute a registered version of Kyodai.
If you represent a magazine, there's no need to ask me for permission to distribute my program on your CD-Roms. Just make sure you have the most recent version. However, I'd be glad if you sent me a copy of the issue(s) where you ship Kyodai. Please send it (or them) to my snail-mail address (send me an e-mail first to ask for it). If you are going to sell a CD-Rom compilation with Kyodai in it, you MUST contact me first and send me a copy when it's released (same address).
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
BEFORE YOU SEND ME ANY MAIL, please make sure your question is not already answered in my site ! You should check out my Troubleshooting page first (http://kyodai.com/kyotrouble.html), as well as the Latest News page for the latest bug fixes and additions to Kyodai. Also, searching through the help files in Kyodai itself (click on the Help button !) would be a good idea, especially if you've never read the files. Please note that I will NOT reply to e-mails that do not conform to these rules.
Also, make sure you are a registered user if you want to have a serious support discussion with me. Kyodai is a successful game and I receive up to 100 support e-mails every day. I am NOT willing to reply to everything anymore, since 95% of the e-mails do not conform to the rules.
If you are a registered user and want some help on another matter, don't forget to tell me your registration user name, password and date, so that I won't have to check it. I will give my priority to e-mails from people who already registered my products.
Finally, if you don't get an answer to your e-mail, first make sure the answer isn't in the Help files or Troubleshooting page. If it isn't, then submit your e-mail again if it's important for you.
In all cases, DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS if your file size is over 100kb. You must ask for permission before, otherwise you will not only never get an answer, but you will find yourself in my black list.
Now for the e-mail : support@kyodai.com
THE AUTHOR
Hi there. My name is René-Gilles Deberdt. My nickname, Naoki Haga, is based on the names of two Japanese comics' heroes (Naoki Murakami from Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari and Yasuyuki Haga from Fu-ta-ri). And no, I'm not a girl, I'm not Japanese, and as far as I know, I'm not a professional programmer. (If you're a company looking for talents... ;-))
I'm 25, living in France, near Lille. Now that's why my English is not perfect... My main passion is Japanese animation, but I also love TV/cinema/DVD and music in general. I used to work as a freelance journalist for several magazines, and as a Japanese comics & video translator for various French companies. But when the "manga wave" ended in 1996-97, I found myself without a job and had to start learning programming to make a living. Fortunately, I already had programming background as an Atari ST demo-coder in 1989~91. As of writing, Kyodai is my first and only project, and it's a full-time work for me. Thanks for your support, my dear registered users !
The games I play the most in Kyodai are the Traditional layout (yup ! ten times more than the other layouts), and the Hashira game... (pretending to be debugging it while I'm actually hooked on it... ;-)) My favorite games apart from Kyodai are Final Fantasy 7 and 8. I also love the LucasArts games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, and I occasionally play other puzzle/board/solitaire games.
MORE CREDITS
I'd like to thank again my friends for composing some wonderful original songs for me :
Tanguy Matioszek, who made Kyodai's first five songs (Gokuraku, Gisors, Kyodai, Ferral and Mayaku) and Shinden,
and Miguel Samiez, a great friend and composer, who made Night, Astral Dream, Kawaii, Timeless, Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Remix, The Sad Song and Endless.
Also, Spindizzy and Pow for providing most of the MOD digital songs.
Thanks to Zahara Medina for her wonderful Manga Girls, and Aurore Demilly for her beautiful geisha used in the game selector.
Finally, thanks to all of you who have contributed to make Kyodai Mahjongg what it is now !
Kyodai uses some very useful freeware components : DelphiX (by Hiroyuki Hori), QuadrupleD (SXLib unit only), SXMedia (by Dean Ellis, for MOD music support), MegaPanel (by Steve Flynn), TBigIniFile, TExplorerBox, TTileImage and TLanguage. I would like to thank their authors for creating them.
If you want to visit some personal pages and contact us....
Naoki Haga : http://kyodai.com/namida/ (Japanese animation encyclopedia ^_^)
Zahara Medina : http://www.swb.de/~zahara/ (Full of great pictures and manga translations ^_^)
Miguel Samiez : http://esteban99.free.fr/...
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