
                                SAM SPADE GAME

                                  Version 1.1

                      Documentation Updated: May 3, 1988


               Copyright (C) 1985,2008 by Robert C. Sanborn Jr.
                           Sanborn Software Systems
                               402 East 43rd St.
                         Indianapolis, Indiana  46205
                          robert@sanbornsoftware.com


    CONTENTS                                              PAGE
    -------------------------                             ----

    INDEX:   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

    INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

    REGISTRATION INFO  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

    FUTURE CASES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

    PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

    TIPS AND SHORTCUTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

    FUTURE PLANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

    PROGRAM CHANGES FROM VERSION 1.0A  . . . . . . . . . . . 6

    FOR TANDY USERS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7


























                                    page i



    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 1.



    INTRODUCTION:



    The Sam Spade game is a detective game whereby you the player become
    Sam Spade, the cheap private detective.  Your mission is to solve a
    case by visiting a number of places around town as shown by the map
    displayed on your screen.  You are given a set amount of money and have
    a certain amount of time to solve the case.


                                 PLEASE NOTE:


    Sam Spade Game is a copyrighted product of Robert C. Sanborn Jr. and
    Sanborn Software Systems and is NOT for public distribution.   Please
    read the license agreement.  Versions of Sam Spade 1.1 and above are
    only distributed to people like you that have registered by sending in
    the $25.  Please do not give out this version.  Version 1.0 and below
    are the only versions that may be distributed freely to encourage
    people to look at the game.


    The following pages describe the documentation to the game.  It will
    include the information in the screens when you ask for directions as
    you play the game, and will also include tips and short cuts to speed
    up the game so you don't have to wait for the program to scroll through
    and display the messages that you get.


    At the end of the documentation will be the changes to Sam Spade that
    will describe the differences between this new version and the older
    pre-release version that has been distributed.





    REGISTRATION INFO:


    Registration fees received for Sam Spade are now good for one year from
    date of receipt.  Any warranty updates, program modifications, and God
    forbid, corrections to problems will be sent to you at no charge during
    this period.


    FUTURE CASES:

    Future Cases will be made available from time to time as I put them
    together from the many cases received and those I dream up.   If you
    are interested in more, then they will be available in groups of ten
    for the sum of $15 to cover postage and handling and a small sum for my
    own efforts.  If you are interested in writing your own, see the
    documentation on building your own cases.  I would be very interested
    to include your efforts in the next package.




    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 2.



    PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION:

    Before I forget, take a look at the TIPS & SHORTCUTS section.


    WELCOME To the sleazy world of the Private Detective.  In your case,
    the cheap private detective.  You Bunky, are Sam Spade, the not so
    famous Private Eye.  Your client list reads like a who's who of nobody.
    It could be a house wife looking for her two timing husband or `Three
    Fingered ' Louie looking for his missing bag man.  You don't really
    care because you're in this dirty business only for the cash (ethics
    and principles don't pay the rent or buy booze) so you booze) so you
    couldn't care less who hires you.

    What will happen is this:

    Someone will come in or phone you at your office with a problem or
    other small detail that they would like for you to take care of in a
    certain amount of time.  Naturally they will give you an advance to
    cover your expenses while on the case and will pay you well for your
    troubles when you finish the job.  And that is the one little detail,
    you don't get paid if you don't finish the job ON TIME !

    Soon, on the screen, a map of your part of town will appear. Depending
    on the case, you will have to travel around the city looking for clues
    or whatever it is your client wants.

    Here the advance money comes in handy as you can use it to pay for cab
    fare to get around, possible bribes for your really low life friends
    (bail money for the ones in jail) and any other incidentals that you
    private eyes need money for.


    Remember, you only have a set amount of time to crack this case.

    As you go around looking for clues or packages, you will receive a
    short clue or a request for information from you concerning this case.
    If it is a clue, remember to jot it down as I will not be leaving it up
    on the screen forever for you. If it is a question, then please answer
    them as simply as possible as my vocabulary is rather small.  (Don't be
    suprised.)

    When the game starts, and as you leave each location, I will be asking
    you where you would like to go.  You must answer with the exact
    location's name as it appears on the screen. For example, say you want
    to go to the Pool Room.  All you have to enter is:  GOTO THE POOL ROOM
    If you can answer a question with a simple Yes or No, please do so.

    Don't forget that I will be keeping track of the time and for you to
    crack this case, you must be back at your office to tell your client.










    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 3.



    PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION: (cont.)


    When you return to your office, I will ask you for your solution to
    this case. (and please again, keep it simple. I will be looking for
    certain keywords).  If you give me the wrong answer I will give you the
    opportunity to go back out again if you have enough time.  You can also
    give up but Sam is no wimp.


    Final Details:

    You will need to provide your own pencil and notepaper as when  I give
    you clues, I will not keep them on the screen forever.  (Really, Sam
    can't afford a personal secretary.)  At the end of each trip someplace,
    I will let you know how much  time left in this case.  Here you have a
    choice,  To travel  you can either take a cab or walk.  If you walk, it
    will  take time.  A Cab costs money.  It takes roughly 45 minutes to
    walk across town, much less though in a cab.


    Be sure to watch your cash.  I would really hate to see you get
    roughed up because you couldn't pay a bribe or cab fare !!

    Other Hints and Caveats:

    Be careful when talking to your `friends'.  They do hang out in dark
    alleys and are low lifes.  Also, just like in life, you might not get
    the right clue when you visit a place. In fact, you may have to go back
    a second and a THIRD time to get the right clue.  The story won't
    always be the same each time you go someplace, and uh, Sam, be careful
    down by the pier.




























    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 4.



    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:


    As you probably have already gathered, there is a change to the name of
    the case files.  They will now be called SAMCS1.FIL

    Old cases will work with the new version of Sam Spade providing they
    match the criteria set down in the document titled SAMBUILD.TXT and
    conform to the case building outline.  All you will need to do with
    them is just rename them to SAMCSx.FIL where the little "x" is a number
    representing the new case number.


    The files that you will find in this new package are:


    SAMSP11.ZIP              The complete Package of Version 1.1
                             Please keep it all together.

    SAMSP11.TXT              This documentation file.


    SAMBUILD.TXT             Building your own cases.
                             The tips and techniques to do it yourself.

    README.TXT               An introductory text file.
                             Should be read first for additional info.

    SAMSP11.EXE              The New Sam Spade Game.


    SAMCS1.FIL               The first case file.
                             The original case.

    SAMCS2.FIL               The Second Case file.
                             new cases.

    SAMCSx.FIL               And Additional cases.

    SAMSPAGR.TXT             The License agreement, This tells you what we
                             prefer you NOT to do with this program.



        Sam Spade was written in Basic on an IBM PC and compiled using
    Microsoft's QuickBasic Compiler.












    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 5.



    TIPS AND SHORT CUTS:

    ===>  Space Bar Speedup:

         When you are playing the game, whenever a message is displayed on
         the screen, it has a preset time limit.  The initial start up
         screens will be displayed for 15 to 20 seconds.  When the case is
         given, you have 60 seconds to read it.  During the game when
         looking at clues and going places, when a clue is displayed it
         will be shown for 20 seconds, if a "no clue" message is shown, it
         will be shown for 5 seconds.  Usually the time is needed to read
         and understand the clue and to also jot down some notes but if you
         have seen it or don't need the extra time, just hit the space bar
         and the game will move on to the next task.


    ===>  Yes or No:

         When you need to answer a question with a yes or no answer, Sam
         Spade will recognize any of the following:

         For yes:    YES     Y       y
         For no:     NO      N       n


    ===>  What Next Sam ?

         At this request, You must go someplace on the board and look for
         clues to your problem or case.  Even though the game implies more,
         at this point all you can do is go somewhere.  The way it works,
         is that the game will look for the Keyword "GO" whether its in
         capitals or not it will then look beyond the GO or GOTO or GO TO
         THE, and then look for the name of the place you want to go.  In
         fact, it only looks for the first four letters of the place you
         want to go, so for a short cut, you can enter:

             GO MUSE

         and the program will recognize that you want to go to the museum.
         The same works for all other places.


    ===>  Walk or Cab

         When you go somewhere, you currently have the option of taking a
         cab or walking.  You can quicken the pace by just entering a W or
         C and the program will understand what you want to do and send you
         on your merry way.












    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 6.



    FUTURE PLANS:

    As you can imagine, there are a lot of things that can be done with Sam
    Spade in the way of future enhancements.  The following are a couple of
    ideas that have been bounced around.  Whether they get into future
    releases of Sam Spade will depend upon the response to the game and how
    well its received.


    1.  Allow the player to do more than go someplace.  Sam did have a
        telephone, even on his paultry budget.  The original plans give Sam
        the ability to Look and Ask.

    2.  Develop a plan for incorporating games supplied by other players.

    3.  Put together a rating system for games and then hold competitions.

    4.  Since the clues may not tell the truth always, put in a way of
        having Sam offer a little bribe to get better information.

    5.  Have a way of giving Sam more money and time if he gets part of the
        solutions to the more complex cases.


    As always I am interested in your comments and suggestions.




    PROGRAM CHANGES FROM VERSION 1.0A:

    The following changes to Sam Spade were made for Version 1.1:

    1.  Correct screen jump when going back to look for more clues from
        Sam's Office.

    2.  Loosen up the restrictions on keyword input for additional cases.

    3.  Change to case file structure to allow more games.

    4.  Remove the share ware screen information (Since you already paid.)

    5.  Modify the code to allow faster compilation.

















    SAM SPADE GAME
    DOCUMENTATION
    Page 7.



    FOR TANDY USERS:

    There are several people who have written and called with an error on
    running Sam Spade on their Tandy 2000 computers.  The error is:

             CANNOT RUN AS CHILD OF BASIC


    The Patch I got from Tandy in Fort Worth Texas actually modifies no
    physical program or file on your PC (as far as I can tell) but modifies
    the DOS area.  (I could be wrong as I am not that technically oriented)
    So far, everyone I have heard from says it works.


    MS DOS 2.1 on Tandy 2000
    "Cannot Run as Child of Basic" error.
    From Tandy Languages Div. (817-338-2392)
    Patch the hard disk.



    First, create a file called PATCH


                     COPY CON PATCH
                     E 50:F 0
                     Q
                     <F6>
                     DEBUG < PATCH


    where <F6> means hit the F6 key.



    If you are unfamiliar with debug and what it does or what the first
    line means, I would suggest you get help.



















    --------------------- SAM SPADE DOCUMENTATION END -------------------
