T-LightZ
Develop your observation and concentration skills!

Version 1.1.1  
February,  2004
Michael Glicklman <palmcrust@yahoo.com>



Content



Introduction Running the application Registration

Links

Introduction

Objective.

How observative you are ?
For how long can you keep concentration ?

This game is extremely simple and very addictive as well:  watch the lights flashing and all you need is to notice the colour (position on a monochrome screen) of the last flashing light.  Since the number of flashes is random, you have to be concentrated all the time while the lights flash.

You can play with the computer, or invite your friend for a three-player game (two humans and the computer). The application allows to customize speed and some other parameters. It stores settings and total score.

The application used to be known as T-Lights. The name was changed to avoid confusion with a PC application having same name, but nothing else in common with the current one.

History:

1.0.0   December 2002  (original release)
1.0.1   May 2003   (renamed to T-LightZ)
1.1.0   August  2003  (revised and enhanced:  appearence, sound, configuration, bugs fix)
1.1.1   February 2004 (separate release for Nokia 6600)

The application is available in the following releases:

Nokia 6600 (Symbian)
A native Symbian OS application designed  for Series 60 v2 devices (Nokia 6600).

Series 60 (Symbian)
A native Symbian OS application designed for Series 60 devices  (Noaki 3650, 7650, Siemens SX1, etc).
TLightZ_S30
For Nokia 6310i and other models with less than 50K memory for a midlet. Has limited functionality.
TLightZ_S40
For Nokia Series 40 and recent Nokia Series 30 (50K+ memory for a midlet).
Keeps back lights and automatically adapts to screen size and colour model, use tone sound 
TLightZ_SMN
For Siemens J2ME devices. Keeps back lights and adapts to screen size and colour model, uses wave sound where available. If  doesn't work for you use generic release.
TLightZ_MM
For MMAPI compatible devices. Adapts to screen size and colour model, uses wave sound
TLightZ
Any J2ME device with available screen size 80x54 or more and 50+ memory for a midlet.. Adapts to screen size and colour model.

Single human (1H) and two human (2H)  modes. Scoring.

The game allows one or two human players,  later refereed as single human(1H) and two human(2H) modes..

A human player scores  1 point for each correct choice.  The computer never bids, but scores 1 point if none of players succeeded.

If same bid is allowed for 2H mode (see Rules ), both human players can succeed, in which case each scores 0.5 points.

Match and match statistics.

A match consists of a nominated number of games. The number of games in a match is specified in Rules .  A match ends prematurely if the winner is established (i.e. others can't catch up). In a two-human mode, computer score is ignored if Computer w/2H is disabled in  Rules    In a two-human mode the order of bid changes with each game, and between matches as long as player names  remain unchanged.

 The application keeps total score  for 1H matches: matches won  by human and computer, number of draws.  Total score is shown before starting a  match in single-human mode.

Running the application

Main screen and menu options.

The application starts with main screen, where you can select different menu options and start a match.

In a 1H mode you can see total score which is stored in the data base and updated after each completed match:
Human:     <score>
Computer:  <score>
Draw:      <score>
You can clear total score (set all values to 0) by selecting Reset Score from the options menu (works for a registered copy).

To switch to 2H mode, select Two Humans from the options(bottom) menu. In a 2H mode you will see either
 < Player-1 name>
              vs
< Player-2 name>
or
< Player-1 name>
          <Player-2 name>
                      <Computer-name>
depending on whether computer participates or does not participate as a full-featured player (see Rules for details).

To enter player names, select Who Plays menu option.  For reverting to 1H mode, select One Human.

To start the match press FIRE button or  [5] phone key.  FIRE is often associated with Send button (a green button with the picture of handset off-hook), but some devices have a special button for FIRE, like joystick press (Nokia 7650), or centre of arrow pad (Nokia 3650).  Symbian OS release uses joystick/OK press as FIRE, while Send is used to bring up Rules.

Here is the summary of menu options for the main screen:

1H mode
Two Humans  - switch to the two-human mode
Reset Score - set all total score values to 0
2H mode
One Human  - switch to the single-human mode
Who Plays  - set human player names
Both modes
Start  -  start match (FIRE or [5] has same action)
Rules  -  customize game rules (see Rules)
Help  -  hints (where available)
About  - general information about T-Light
Exit  - quit the application

Bidding.

Bidding starts as soon as the lights stop flashing.

Current bid is indicated with a flashing arrow. Use UP and DOWN,   to place the arrow agains the light position you wish to select, and press FIRE or 5 button to accept the bid. After bidding is complete the light is revealed.

In 2H mode the order of bid changes from game to game, and human players are interchanged before starting a new match.

Rules.

To activate Rules screen, select Rules menu option from the main screen. For a unregistered copy this works as a demo: you can modify the values, but can't activate them. Therefore the default values are the only ones available for unregistered users. Default values are shown in bold.

Use UP and DOWN, or  [2] and  [8]  keys  to select an option you wish to modify.  Then use LEFT and RIGHT, or [4] and [6] keys to modify the value. You can also use [*] and [#] to reduce/increase value by 10 (this is convenient for big ranges, like Flashes Max/Min)  Select Accept menu item to activate new values (registered version only), or Cancel to discard the changes.

You can retrieve the default values at any time by pressing  [0] key (Send key for Symbian OS release) , or selecting Default menu item if available (those won't be active untill Accept is selected) .

The following game options can be set up.
Same bid:
No Way,  or  Alow
Computer w/2H: (*)
No  or Yes
Games/match
from 4 to 20
Speed:
Slowest, Slow, Average, Fast, Fastest
Min flashes:
from 5 to 500, default 30
Max flashes:
from 5 to 500,  default 220
Extend last:
No or Yes
Sound  volume
from 0 to 9, default 2


Description:

Same bid:  affects 2H mode only. If same bid is not allowed, second bidder can't replicate a choice made by the first bidder, thus each game will have a winner (that can be a computer in case both bidders fail).

Computer w/2H: Whether the computer is considered as a full-featured player. If "No", the computer score does not affect the match winner, in particular the computer cannot win a match, and a match cannot end prematurely, unless a human winner is established.

Games/match: maximum number of games per match.  A match finishes earlier, if no one can catch up with the leader in the remaining games.

Speed: affects the duration of each flash. Be aware that the slower is speed, the longer is the game, which requiers more patience. You  can work it out by reducing Max flashes, if available.

Min flashes: and Max flashes - the actual number of flashes is a random value between Min.flashes and   Max.flashes. In particular, if Min.flashes = Max.flashes, the number of flashed is predefined.

Extend last: if enabled, the last flash will appear for a slightly longer time  then others.

Sound volume: a number from 0 to 9:   0  - disable sound,  1 -soft sound,  ...  9 - loud sound.

Who plays.

This form allows to set up player names in 2H mode. This does not affect names in single-human mode, so that the form is available only if you are about to start a match in 2H mode.

You can set names to default by pressing  [0]  key ( Send key for Symbian OS release) , or selecting Default menu item (whichever is available).

While selecting Accept to activate new names, you reset the order of bid, so that first player will be the first bidder in the next match.

Back lights keep turning off ?

Some devices use a power saving feature where back lights turn off after no key was pressed in a particular period (usually 15 seconds). Nokia and Siemens releases of T-LightZ by default will attempt (where possible) keeping back lights on with default intensity 50% for Nokia.  

You can disable  back light control for a Siemens device, by adding / editing the following parameter in JAD file:
Keep-Back-Lights: No
For a Nokia J2ME device you can use the following line in JAD to control back light intensity:
Back-Light-Intensity: xx
Where xx is either "No", or a number from 0 to 100.  Value "No" or 0 disable back light control.

Nokia Series 60 devices usually do not allow controlling back lights with  J2ME.  Use Symbian OS version where back light control is always enabled.

Registration

This should be event simpler than playing the game :=)

The advantages of a registered copy:
The application can be purchased from one of the following sites:
www.handandgo.com
www.softwaremarket.nokia.com
Please, specify the user name - this name will appear as
 Licensed to
             <your name>
on the bottom of Main screen in the place where you currently see UNREGISTERED.

You will receive the code that should be enetered along with the user name in the Registration form. Once you select "Register" and the code is validated, the application will quit. Restart the application and enjoy.

Links

Here are the links related to Palmcrust, T-LightZ, and myself.

Web:
http://www.palmcrust.com
http://tlightz.palmcrust.com

Support:
palmcrust@yahoo.com  (Michael Glickman)