Taslking Mumbo Jumbo --------------------------------- Freeware Copyright 1993, David Becker Compuserve 73030,3562 GEnie D.Becker8 Talking Mumbo Jumbo is yet another of my word game offerings for the Atari ST. It will run on all platforms with a monochrome monitor and at least one meg of memory. Mumbo Jumbo is not an original idea. I play the word jumble puzzles in the local paper quite regularly. No doubt the newspapers use a similar program. When first run you will be greeted with the main screen and asked to enter your name. You will see a GEM drop down menu and three windows. The top window in labeled "Puzzle" and this is where the jumbled word will be displayed. The middle window called "Answer" is where you type in your guesses. The bottom window is where the high score history is diplayed. When run, Mumbo Jumbo automatically loads the dictionary file called MUMBO.DIC. This can actually be any text file as long as it is in the same directory as MUMBO.PRG. You can load another dictionary at any time by choosing the drop down menu or pressing Control-L Lets look at the first drop down menu titled "File". The first choice is "Word configuration". Give this menu a click or press Control-W on the keyboard. A new box will appear asking for the length of the word and the letters of the alphabet that the word will begin with. Words can be up to 12 letters in length (really hard) but no less than 3 (really easy). Click in the box, enter the length and press Return. You can also click on the alphabet letters at the bottom to select or de-select the letters you want the words to begin with. Click the right mouse button to exit this box. After choosing the word length, click "Choose a new word" from the drop down menu or press Control-C. Mumbo Jumbo immediatly searches the dictionary for a new word matching your criteria. It won't take very long (unless you've told it to search for only Z words twelve letters long! Hit Undo if it simply can't find any words). When the word has been chosen, it will quickly be jumbled and then diplayed within the top window. A real human voice announces each letter as it is displayed. Now the fun begins... Type your guess from the keyboard directly into the bottom window, one letter at a time. Backspace deletes the last letter and ESC clears your answer. There is no need to hit Return, if you type in the correct answer Mumbo Jumbo will recognize it and display the winners box. The voice will confirm each letter as you type it in. If you start getting fed up and simply can't guess the answer you can hit the Help key. You will be shown how many letters are placed correctly (this is cheating and I don't expect you to use Help unless you are stuck!). If you still can't figure it out (believe me, the dictionary contains some wild words!) then click the drop down menu called "Show me the answer!" or hit Control-S. You can also choose a new word at any time. You can choose a new player from the drop down menu or by hitting Control-N The menu heading "Print" contains two choices. The first is "Print out a puzzle page" and this option is neat. Mumbo Jumbo will compile 50 words based on the length and letters you have chosen and then print them onto a single page in a special way. The jumble will be listed on the left and the answer on the right, fold the page real fast after it prints and you will have a super deluxe puzzle tournament to take anywhere! You can also send the same listing to disk and then import it into your favorite word processor or desktop publisher. The "Voice" menu calls up a dialog box that lets you configure the voice. You can click to activate or deativate one of four options, turning the voice on or off. These will be saved when you quit the game. The high score history is constantly being updated and displayed at the bottom of the screen. These totals will also be saved when you quit Talking Mumbo Jumbo. Note: Canadian players will want to delete the file Z.SPL and then rename ZED.SPL to Z.SPL Now Talking Mumbo Jumbo sounds like a Canadian, eh.