Psionopoly - User Guide - Installation ------------ To install Psionopoly, you must first copy over the necessary files. The files must be on either your Psion’s internal, or the A or B drives. If you want to use Psionopoly on a Series 3a, 3c or Siena, use the MONOP3A.OPA or if you are using a Series 3, use MONOP3.OPA. Either should be put in a \APP\ directory. The CHANCE.ODB, MONOP.ODB, CURSOR.PIC & MONOP.PIC files need to be in a \PSP\ directory. The PSPHELP.RSC file is optional, but if you don't install it then you won't be able to press help to find out how to play the game. The help function only works on a Series 3a or 3c. All of the information held in the help facility is availbile in this text file. Once the files are in place, you can press Psion+I from the system screen to select the OPA file to install it. Starting A Game --------------- You can start Psionopoly by selecting it's icon and pressing enter from the system screen in the usual way. Once started, Psionopoly should display a message saying 'Initialising'. You have to wait for a short while until the message disappears. Keys ---- Psion-N New game Psion-L Restore Psion-S Save Psion-R Roll Psion-B Buy houses Psion-H Sell Houses Psion-M Mortgage Properties Psion-U Un-mortgage Psion-T Trade properties Psion-V View Free Parking Psion-W Who's go it it? Psion-C Change Board Psion-I Tip Board Psion-A About Psion-X Exit ESC also exits. The cursor keys move the cursor. Psion-Up or Psion-Down scroll the player info. screen. Psion-Left or Psion-Right shows a diferent player's screen. Enter shows a card for the property under the cursor. Space will also roll the dice. Help shows these help screens. Beginning a new game -------------------- Press Psion-N to start a new game. A dialog should appear asking for the names of the players. Type them in and then press down after each one to move to the next spot. Press enter when you have done. Another dialog should be displayed asking what pieces the players want to be. Here, you can press up or down to select the different players and left or right to select the different pieces. Press enter to finish choosing. The next screen will show the options for the game. If you just press enter you will start with the 'official' rules. The money on free parking option decides whether you want money from Chance, Comm. Chest and taxes to go on the free parking space. The next option decides how much money you want to go on Free Parking to start with. Type in a number from 0 to 1500. The auction properties option decides whether properties will be auctioned when they are un-wanted. Properties ---------- The colours of the properties are represented by symbols in Psionopoly. So Park Lane and Mayfair both have '[[ ]]' for there symbol. The symbol for each property wraps around the name of the it Player Information Screen ------------------------- The place information screen stays on the right side of the screen permanantly. It shows what properties each player owns. The properties in italic are mortgaged. See the 'Keys' section to see the keys for the player info. screen. Rolling ------- To roll the dice, press Psion-R or Space. You should only do this after you have done any other options you want to, like buying houses. Otherwise you won't be able to do them until your next turn. Upon pressing the keys two dice should appear. Press any key to stop them. Your piece will now move along the board. Buying Properties ----------------- If you land on an un-owned property, you be asked if you want to buy it. Press Y to do so, or N to not. If you press Esc you will be able to look at the player information screens. From here, you can press Up or Down to scroll or left and right to look at other players' screens. Pressing Esc will bring you back to the descision screen. If you say no, and the option is enabled, you will have to auction the property to other players. Pressing menu on the option screen will allow you to do all things that will increase your money, like trading so you can build up enough money to buy the property. Auctioning ---------- Auctioning is an option under the new game facility. It is an 'official' rule but some people don't like to play with that option. If someone declines an offer to buy a property from the banker then an auction must be conducted. In Psionopoly, you just type in the end result. When the auction window is displayed, you can decide who is buying the property by highlighting that item with the up and down keys then pressing left and right to select the player. If you select the amount option then you can type in the amount of money the final person wants to pay for the property. Once you have done that, press S to accept the auction. While conducting the auction, players can press I to look at there player information screen. Once done, you can press up and down to scroll the player information screen or left and right to look at another players' screen. When you have finished, press ESC to go back to the auctioning window. At the auctioning window, you can press ESC to conduct no auction. Buying houses and hotels ------------------------ If you want to buy a house press Psion-B. Before you can buy houses or hotels you have to own all the properties of a street. When you press Psion-B a window appears asking you to type in the name of a property. If the cursor is over a property then then name of that property will be in the box as a shortcut. If you don't want the property shown, just type part of another property's name. The hightlighted name will automatically be removed. Having done that, you can press down to highlight the amount of houses option. Press the left or right keys to decide how many houses you want. Psionopoly treats hotels as 5 houses, so to add a hotel to a property that already has 3 houses on it, you have to add two houses. In the real game, you have to spread your houses out among the street. Psionopoly doesn't force you to do this but you should, otherwise it is cheating. Press enter when you have finished entering your options. The next window will ask you if the property it found was the one you wanted. If it is, press Y otherwise press N. Selling Houses and hotels ------------------------- To sell houses or hotels you must first press Psion-H. Once you have done that, a search window will appear. The name of the property under the cursor will be highlighted. If that is the property you want to remove houses from, just press enter. Otherwise you have to type in the name or part of the name of the property you want. Press enter when you have done that. If you have a hotel on the property that you typed in, then a window will ask whether you want to remove it. Press Y to do so, or N to not. If you do so, you will get half the price you paid for the hotel, and half the price of the four houses, as you do in the real game. If the property had houses on it, then a window will be displayed asking how many houses you want to remove. Press left and right to select the number, enter to accept or ESC to cancel. Mortgaging Properties --------------------- To mortgage a property, press Psion-M. Having done so, a search window will be shown. If there was a property under the cursor then the name of it will be highlighted in the window. Press enter if you want to mortgage that property or type in the name, or part of the name, of the property you want to mortgage. Press enter when you have done. A confirmation window will then appear. Press Y to mortgage the property or N to not. Un-Mortgaging properties ------------------------ To un-mortgage a property, press Psion-U. If the property you want is un-mortgaged, just press enter when the search window comes up. Otherwise type in the name or part of the name of the property you want. Press enter when you have done so. After you do that, a window will be shown asking you if you are sure. It will also show you how much un-mortgageing that particular property costs. Press Y to un-mortgage it, or N to not. If you press N, the search window will be displayed again. Trading Properties ------------------ To trade a property, you first have to press Psion-T. A window should appear called 'Trade'. In this window you have to select the buyer, seller and what you want to trade for (money or another property). Select these with the cursor keys in the usual way. Press enter when you have selected your options. Having done so, a window should be displayed asking you to 'enter a search string'. Here should type in the name (or part of the name) of the property you want to trade. So if you wanted to swap Old Kent Rd you could just type 'old'. If you have chosen to trade two properties then another search string window will appear for the other property. Type it in in the same way as before. If you instead chose to swap for money then you will be asked how much money you want to pay. Just type it in and press enter. The properties will then be swapped or sold. Special Trading --------------- Here is two ways to do more complicated trading: - To give things away for free, sell them for œ0. - To swap two properties for one property, give one away for free then swap the others. - To give people money, buy a property off of them and make them give it back for free. Add Player ---------- You can use this function to add a player to the your game. This function is only supposed to be used if you have been playing a game for a while and somebody decides they want to join in. You can decide how much money to give them and what un-owned properties you want to give them. When you have selected this option, a window will appear for you to type in the name of the new player, then press down and type in the amount of money for him/her then complete the process with the enter key. After that, a window will appear for you to select what piece you want to be. You can also change the other pieces here if you wish. The next window will ask you to type in the name or part of the name of a property to give to the new player. This property must'nt be owned already. When you are finished giving properties, press Esc. View free parking ----------------- If you press Psion-V, you will be told how much money is on the free parking space. Who's go is it -------------- If you press Psion-W, you will be told whose turn it is. Changing the board ------------------ This is a special option. On my web site (http://www.mag-net.co.uk/~martinr/neil/board.html) there is a document about this. Tipping the board up -------------------- Only do this option if you want to end your game. It is just for fun and is completly pointless. If you want to do it, press Psion-I. You will be asked if you are sure. Press Y to continue, or N to not. After that, sit back and enjoy. Cheating -------- It is quite easy to cheat in Psionopoly because you can trade behind peoples backs and you don't have to spread your houses out. I think this makes it more like the real game, where you can try and get away with it. So I won't change any of that. There is also another secret keypres cheat, try to find it if you want. Jump to Player -------------- Selecting this option will ove the cursor over where the current player is. You can shortcut to it by using Psion-J. Refresh Info Screen ------------------- This option will redraw the player information screen so it has up to date information. Sound On/Off ------------ This option will allow you to turn the sound off. It only affects the beeps when your player is moving after you roll the die. If you turn the sound off then save your game, when you load it again the sound will still be off. Show Jail Cards --------------- If you select this function then you will be shown how many 'get out of jail free' cards each player has. About ----- This option will display information about Psionopoly and it will tell you that I wrote it. Extra ----- Psionopoly was mostly written in my summer holidays and other spare time I had. The program is totally free to anyone who wants it as long as they don't modify it in any way. If you have noticed the change board option under the special menu on Psionopoly, you may be wondering what it does. It allows you to change the board, piece, houses and hotels to suit a specific theme just by loading one PIC file. A document is availible on my web site about this at: http://www.mag-net.co.uk/~martinr/neil/psion.html The 'Thanks To...' bit ---------------------- Who? What? Marc Warne Being head of Alpha and advertising my game. Paul Roberts For drawing the pieces and giving me some suggestions for options. James Dewhurst For playtesting and giving some suggestions. John Boyce For writing JBData which helped to make the ODB files used in Psionopoly. Mark Jones For playtesting and suggesting options. Tom Stainthorpe For giving me a few suggestions. Martin Roberts For helping a very little bit with the code, giving me a few suggestions and loaning me his Siena to test the Siena mode.