Perversi 1.0 February 3, 1997       
By Martin Hock (oxymoron@aimnet.com)
http://www.aimnet.com/~oxymoron/zshell.html

Ah, my third ZShell game.  Unlike my past two games, Insane Game and Meister
Mind, this one is aiming to get it right the first time.  There are not going
to be a lot of updates for this one because it is already Professional
Quality.  Of course, like all of my games, this one will be free.  However,
if you like the game, you must e-mail me so that I don't feel like everyone
hates me.  Lately a lot of people have been getting on my case.  (You know
who you are.)

Have you ever heard of the game Othello?  Its origins are largely unknown,
but generally the credit of "father of Othello" is given to Lewis Waterman,
an Englishman who created a game called Reversi in 1880.  The game was further
refined by Goro Hasegawa in 1971 into what we play today, but only two small
rules were changed from Waterman's original.  In honor of the perversion of
Waterman's game into the simplified Othello we play, I have decided to call
this game Perversi.  That and I like to name my games oddly.

Rules of Perversi (Remarkably similar to the rules of Othello):
Ok, you got this board.  It is 8 squares by 8 squares, see?  In the middle
are 2 black and 2 white circles.  Black moves first.  When you move, you gotta
"flank" your opponent.  What this means is that whenever you move, there has
to be Your Piece and then next to it an unbroken line of Opponent Pieces.  You
finish off the line by putting another one of Your Pieces at the end of it.
Then all of the opponent pieces in between both of yours turn into your color.
If you've never played, I'm sure that seems confusing.  The best way to see
how to play is to play against the Easy CPU and just play around until you
see how it works.  Just keep what I said in mind.  Don't worry, you can't make
a wrong move.  The calculator won't let you.
Some other rules to keep in mind:
* If you can't move, your opponent keeps moving until you can.  Conversely,
  if your opponent can't move, you keep moving until he can.
* If neither player can move, the game ends even if there are still blank
  spots.  The player with the most pieces as his color wins.
* The unbroken lines mentioned earlier go in 8 directions.  Up, down, left,
  right, and all four diagonals as well.
* You can flank more than one line at once.  Observe:
  o     o
   x   x
    x x
      <-- If you are o and you move right here, all of those x's change!

Special Features That I'm Proud Of:
* EasyMove.  You can either use the direction keys to navigate normally or
  plus and minus to cycle through the possible moves.
* Animations of the pieces.
* Save game.
* Two different views of the board to choose from.
* Many different combinations of opponents.  16 to be exact.


Keys:
Title Screen:
F2: Restore save game.  On a clean calculator, the built-in save game is just
a normal beginning game of Human vs Tough CPU.
Left and Right: Select one of the two players to modify.
Up and Down: Change what kind of player it is.  You can select Human, Easy
CPU, Medium CPU, or Tough CPU for either player.  This means that you can even
watch the calculator battle itself!
Exit: Go back to ZShell.

Within the game:
F1: Save game.
F2: Restore save game.
Left, Right, Up, and Down: Select a spot to move in.  If you may move in the
selected spot, the cursor is hollow; otherwise, it is filled.
Plus and Minus: Cycle through the moves that you may make.
2nd or Enter: Move into the selected spot.
More: Switch between screen views.  The default view is Full Screen, which is
good for normal playing.  The other view is War Room, which shows the board
on the left half of the screen and status information on the right side. When
the game ends or a player moves more than once in a row, the view
automatically switches to War Room to show you this information.
Exit: Go back to the Title Screen.

If you are playing the calculator versus itself, you may only use Exit and
More (screen switch).  You must hold down the button because the calculator
will only check for a keypress between moves.

Version History:
1.0 The original.

Special Thanks To:
* Lewis Waterman and Goro Hasegawa for the actual game concept.
* The creators of the TI-85 and ZShell.
* People who write cool stuff for the 85 and other calculators.
* People who send me e-mail.

All routines are MINE MINE ALL MINE.  So are the graphics.  So I don't have
anyone to thank for my code!  Yay!
