| Hangman 99 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General | |
| Author | Thomas Vee |
| Type | Puzzle |
| Version | 2 |
| License | Freeware |
| System | DMG |
| Last Updated | 1999/06/09 |
| Links | |
| Download | |
| Website | |
Guess the missing letters game for the Game Boy.
Currently, Hangman has a dictionary of 13,545 words (no plurals, names, gerunds or past tenses).
User guide
Game types
These are the three game types:
In 20 TIMES SCORE, you have 20 tries to achieve the highest possible average SCORE. Choose word lengths (6 to 10 letters) and their frequencies for each try. The game's summary screen appears after the game. The numbers on screen include Game, Stats, Score, and Lives.
In FREE PLAY, you set word length range, play continuously until it's time to go out and watch Comet Halley. Aim for the highest total POINTS. During gameplay, on-screen numbers include Game, Stats, and Lives. (Note: You can't exit a FREE PLAY game; reloading the ROM starts a new round.)
In BEST POINTS, like FREE PLAY but you pick the number of rounds to play, aiming for the highest average POINTS. You can set this number (1 or more); below 1, it's INF or RND (5 to 30 games). On completion, a summary screen appears, with different versions depending on game type. On-screen during BEST POINTS: Game, Stats, and Lives numbers.
Scoring
POINTS represent your rewards for word guesses, penalties for failures. They accumulate until game end. Factors include word length, lives used, duplicate letters.
SCORE is a normalised version of POINTS, only used for the 20 TIMES SCORE game. It takes the number of POINTS you have at a given time in one of your 20 tries and adds to it a bonus for the number of words you have managed to guess that far.
If you can win all 20 games with 6-letter words only, without any miss when you chose letters and no duplicate letters in any of the words used, you will get the maximum average SCORE of 140.
In a balanced-word length 20 TIMES SCORE game (i.e. 4 words for each word length), the above conditions return a maximum SCORE of 114.
If you can win all 20 games using only 10-letter words with 4 lost lives and 3 duplicate letters for each word guessed, you will get an average SCORE of about 50.
If you manage to lose all 20 games, you will end up with an average SCORE between -20 and -38.
Interface
When trying to guess a word, a number of indexes will appear on the screen, depending on the type of game you play.
- Game - Current attempt number; end-game number if fixed tries, '??' for random tries.
- Stats - Display of your game progress, including POINTS, wins, and losses.
- Score (20 TIMES SCORE game only) - Average SCORE and average POINTS.
- Lives - Remaining guess attempts.
Summary screen
When the game is over, the summary screen appears. Here is the meaning of the items on it (those showing for 20 TIMES SCORE games only, appear with a '*' on their left):
- Games: Total games played.
- Won - Total games won, breakdown of cheats if applicable (normal wins + cheat wins).
- Lost - Total games lost, breakdown of cheats if applicable (normal misses + cheat misses).
- Points - Cumulative POINTS across all games.
- Highest - Highest POINTS achieved in a single word guess.
- Lowest - Lowest POINTS obtained for a single word guess.
- Average - Overall POINTS average (POINTS / number of games).
- Win Avg - POINTS average considering wins only (POINTS / wins).
- Score - Average SCORE (POINTS + guess bonuses / number of games).
- Cheat - Indicates cheat usage - 'No', 'Lose only', or 'Yes' for win cheat.
- Rank - A classification reflecting your performance, including Cheater if applicable.
Extras
Gameplay tips:
- Opt for shorter words in fixed tries mode for more POINTS, higher SCORES, and better averages. Compare results under similar conditions.
- Guessing words under 7 letters grants an extra life due to their difficulty.
Game cheats:
- Press Start while guessing for instant win/miss; Select simulates all lives lost.
- Instant wins/losses are tracked but noted at the end.
- Win cheat in fixed tries mode results in "Cheater" rank; lose cheat doesn't affect ranking.
FAQ
Q. The SCORE turns negative after 32,000.
Because POINTS are kept in a 16-bit variable.
Try to play less than, say, 500 games in one go. It will do good both to your eyesight and to my reputation as a programmer. Or lose more often.
Q. When the SCORE average goes higher than 127, it turns negative.
SCORE average is assumed to always be less than 127 and handled accordingly by the program.
Stop using the winning cheat and play again. You might get a negative SCORE the normal way.
Q. I am at game no 934 and Gameboy appears to have slowed down.
The algorithm for choosing an unused word is simple and slow. If you only play with 10-letter words, there will be about 1,500 of them scattered in the 13,000 word memory. If you have already used half of the 10-letter ones, the program will be looking for one of the remaining 750 out of 13,000 words (that's one out of 20).
Because of the random choice of words, you might have to wait a bit (1-10 seconds) until that valid one in the 20 is found. This certainly isn't noticeable until you have reached at least 200 games.
Q. I am playing in FREE PLAY mode and I want to return to the game type menu.
Keep playing until a power failure occurs. When power is restored, the Gameboy will reset and the game will display the main screen followed by the game type menu. You can now choose a new game.
Controls
D-Pad - Cursor
A - Choose letter
Select - Lose game
Start - Win game
Select - Instructions
Screenshots
