Introduction Playing TIM Sending and Receiving Puzzles Creating a New Puzzle Database Working With Puzzle Databases

This is the documentation for the Palm OS® version of The Incredible Machine® (aka TIM). In order to play this game, you will require a handheld device running the Palm OS.

To install TIM onto your handheld device, you will need to add the file: TIM*.prc (where * is mono or color) to your next syncronization operation. Next, you'll need to add Puzzle_Pack.pdb files. Each "Puzzle Pack" takes up memory on your Palm^TM handheld, so keep an eye on how much memory you have left.

We’re going to keep this short and sweet, yet provide enough detail to get you on your way toward solving puzzles. We’ll also show you how to create puzzle collections for yourself. We’re not going to tell you how every puzzle object works. You’ll discover how each object works as you move along because that’s half the fun!

There are two versions of TIM for the Palm OS® that you can choose from: a color version and a monochrome version. The color version of TIM can be played on Palm^TM IIIc and Handspring^TM Visor^TM Prism handhelds only. A monochrome version of TIM is available for monochrome and gray-scale devices. The graphics routines have been optimized for each platform to make playing The Incredible Machine® as enjoyable as possible.

**NOTE: When installing the application to your Palm handheld, make sure you choose the correct version for your needs. They are located in "Color" & "Monochrome" folders, under the "Handheld" folder on the CD.

When The Incredible Machine® first starts up, the introduction screen appears, which is actually an animation of a puzzle that you’ll see in "Puzzle Pak 1". Tap on the screen, or select "Play" from the menu. If you have been working on solving a puzzle, or if you have been creating a new puzzle, the initial screen will not appear. Instead, TIM takes you directly to the gameboard. If you have been working on solving a puzzle, the goal of the puzzle will appear to remind you of what you need to do.

If TIM has never been installed on your Palm^TM handheld, a help dialog will appear when you leave the intro screen. We are trying to give first-time users some idea of how to use the puzzle list that will appear when the user plays the game for the very first time. This help screen is available at any time from the puzzle list by selecting "Help" from the "Options" menu. More detailed information is available by pressing the "i" icon in the upper right corner of the dialog.

The puzzle list shows the names of the puzzles in the current puzzle database. If you’re loading TIM for the first time, and you installed the "Tutorial Puzzles" database, your display will look like this: The name of the puzzle database appears in the upper right corner of the display. The first puzzle is selected, and can be played by pressing the "Play" button.

The Incredible Machine® displays the name and goal of the puzzle when a puzzle is selected for "Play". Read the goal of the puzzle carefully to determine what’s required for the puzzle to be considered "solved". In this case, we must activate a pulley (a small box that is pressure-sensitive). If a ball (or other object) lands on top of the pulley, the pulley will begin to rotate. Notice that most dialog boxes in TIM have a small icon in the upper right hand corner of the dialog (the "i" symbol). You can press on the "i" to get more information about the dialog.

The puzzle gameboard is divided into two areas: the playing area and the toolbar area. The playing area contains objects that are not moveable or selectable. These objects are the starting point of the puzzle. The toolbar area contains one or more objects that are to be added to the puzzle to accomplish the goal(s) of the puzzle. In this case, the toolbar contains one ball. If there were two balls available, the number below the ball would indicate "2". If there are more than three different types of objects available on the toolbar, you can press the left or right arrow icons to scroll other toolbar objects into view. There are two ways to move an object from the toolbar to the playing area: "drag" or "tap and drop". You can "drag" an object to the playing area by pressing on the object and moving the stylus, without lifting the stylus. You can also "tap" an object to select it, then tap anywhere in the playing area to drop the object into place.

When an object is first moved from the toolbar to the playing area, or when an existing object in the playing area is selected by tapping on the object with the stylus, the object becomes "selected". When an object is selected, a rectangle appears around the object, and one or more icons appear around the edges of the selection rectangle. In our example, a ball has been moved from the toolbar to the playing area. The ball is selected, and a trashcan appears in the lower right hand corner of the selection box. Tapping on the trashcan icon will return the object to the toolbar. Dragging the object to the toolbar will also return the object to the toolbar. The object can be dragged to a new position in the playing area by pressing on the object and moving the stylus to a new location. Some objects can be "nudged" precisely into position by using the stylus in the Graffiti® writing area on your device. To nudge an object left, stroke the stylus to the left in the Graffiti area. To nudge an object right, stroke the stylus to the right in the Graffiti area. The only tricky direction is up. To nudge an object up, you must stroke the stylus up and down in the Graffiti area.

At any time, you can tap on the "Go!" button to activate the puzzle. When the puzzle is activated, all objects that can move begin to do whatever it is that they do. If the puzzle goal(s) are not accomplished, the puzzle will run until manually stopped by you. You can stop the puzzle at any time by pressing anywhere on the screen. While you are working on a puzzle, you may find it necessary to switch to another Palm^TM application. When you return to TIM, the gameboard area will appear exactly the way you left it. This feature allows you to work on a puzzle while being interrupted by "real" work!

If you arrange objects from the toolbar in such a way as to solve the goal(s) of the puzzle, a dialog will appear that allows you to replay the solution or continue to the next puzzle in the current database. If you tap the "Replay" button, your solution will be played again. If you tap the "Continue" button, you will be presented with the goal of the next puzzle. You may also tap on the screen during a replay, which will stop the puzzle.

There are many objects in The Incredible Machine® that interact with each other when placed near each other in the playing area of the gameboard. In our example, the pulley object interacts with the conveyor object. When the pulley is placed near the conveyor, a fan belt automatically appears that connects the pulleys of each object. If the pulley rotates, the fan belt will cause the conveyor to also rotate. If the pulley is moved too far from the conveyor, the fan belt will automatically be removed, which means the pulley will no longer "drive" the conveyor. Notice that when the pulley is selected, an "orientation" icon appears in the lower left corner of the selection rectangle. Tap the icon to cause the pulley to rotate in the opposite direction. Other objects have orientation icons. A flashlight, for example, can shine light to the left or right, depending on the orientation.

If the author of a puzzle database has specified that puzzles must be played sequentially, the puzzle list will indicate which puzzles have been solved by displaying a * to the left of the puzzle name. A puzzle with a * next to the name can be played at any time. Puzzles that do not have a * next to the name cannot be played until the previous puzzle has been solved.

If the author has specified that puzzles can be played in any order, the puzzle list will not display * next to the puzzle names, and any puzzle can be played at any time.

To select another puzzle database, tap on the database name in the upper right corner of the puzzle list. A dialog will appear that will list all TIM puzzle databases present on the device. Select a database from the list, and then press "Ok" to make the database active.

When a database is selected, information about the author of the database will appear in a dialog.

Help is available from the puzzle list display, as well as the gameboard display. Select "Help…" from the "Options" menu to get help for the current screen. Remember to press the "i" icon in the upper right corner of the help dialog for more detailed help and tips.

Beaming a TIM database must be done from within the TIM application. The TIM application must already be present on your friend’s Palm^TM handheld, but the application does not need to be running. Select "Beam" from the "Database" menu. The current database will be sent to the other device. To beam another database, tap on the database name in the upper right corner of the puzzle list. Select another database from the list to make the database the currently active database. Select "Beam" again from the "Database" menu.

If you wish to send a TIM puzzle database to a friend, and your friend in not within beaming distance (you live in Australia, she lives in Amsterdam), you may wish to e-mail the database. Here’s how to do it:

Using a recent version of the HotSync® software, perform a HotSync operation with your device. The HotSync process will put the TIM application and any TIM databases in a "Backup" folder of your user ID folder within the HotSync data folder. What? Ok, it’s not as bad as it sounds, but let’s look at a real example to clear up any confusion.

Let’s say my HotSync software is installed on my laptop at C:\Palm. When I perform a HotSync operation on my Palm^TM for the very first time, the HotSync software created a user folder for my data. The user folder name is automatically generated using a combination of my last and first name. My user data is stored under the folder C:\Palm\SmithJ. Applications and/or databases that are not handled by a specific desktop HotSync conduit of some sort are stored in a "Backup" folder. My "Backup" folder is located at C:\Palm\SmithJ\Backup. My "Backup" folder contains TIMmono.prc and Tutorial_Puzzles.pdb, among other things. If I want to e-mail a copy of the tutorial puzzles to a friend, I just send an e-mail with the files "attached" to the e-mail.

If a TIM database author has produced a puzzle database that has the registration option set, a specified number of puzzles will be playable as a "demo" of the database. After the demo puzzles have been played, a dialog will appear that indicates that the database is shareware. Purchase the database to receive a registration code for the puzzles. Once you have received your registration code, select "Register Database…" from the "Database" menu. Enter the registration code exactly is it appears from your software distributor.

Check the TIM web site at http://www.theincrediblemachine.net/ now and then for new puzzle packs. New puzzle packs can be installed on your Palm OS® handheld just as you installed the puzzle packs that came with the game. You may load as many puzzle packs as the memory on your device permits.

Puzzles in The Incredible Machine® are organized as puzzle databases, with each puzzle database containing a collection of individual puzzles. We will create a small puzzle database to illustrate the process of creating a new puzzle database.

To create a new database, select "New…" from the "Database" menu. A dialog will appear that will contain the name of the current database. Replace the name with any desired database name. For our example, we will create a puzzle database called "My Puzzles". Press "Ok" to create the database on the device.

Notice that the name of our new database, "My Puzzles", appears in the upper right corner of the puzzle list display. A new puzzle database is created with a single puzzle, "<new puzzle>". The puzzle is an empty puzzle, containing no objects, and simply serves as a starting point for our puzzle collection.

We will start our puzzle collection by editing the "<new puzzle>" entry to create our first puzzle. Select "Edit" from the "Puzzle" menu.

The puzzle editor looks just like the puzzle gameboard that we saw earlier. The "Edit" menus are slightly different than the "Play" menus, and there are tiny little arrows next to the object quantities on the toolbar. As you can see, our puzzle is not very challenging at this point. Let’s make it a little more exciting by building a working mechanism.

Every puzzle starts out in life as a working mechanism. Drag objects from the toolbar to build a complete mechanism of some kind. In this example, we will drop a ball on a pulley, which activates a conveyor, which drops a ball on another pulley. We can test the mechanism by tapping the "Go!" button at any point during the design of our mechanism. Some objects can be "nudged" precisely into position by using the stylus in the Graffiti® writing area on your device. To nudge an object left, stroke the stylus to the left in the Graffiti area. To nudge an object right, stroke the stylus to the right in the Graffiti area. The only tricky direction is up. To nudge an object up, you must stroke the stylus up and down in the Graffiti area.

To convert a mechanism to a puzzle, we must define the goal of the mechanism. Notice that most objects have a "G" icon that is visible when the object is selected. The "G" icon indicates whether the object is part of the goal of the puzzle. The goal of our mechanism is to activate the pulley on lower right hand portion of the mechanism. Tap the "G" icon to make the pulley part of the goal. For this mechanism, there is only one goal, so we are done with the mechanism. Tap on the "Go!" button to activate the mechanism. When The Incredible Machine® determines that all goals have been satisfied, a dialog will appear that indicates that fact. Tap the "Continue" button to continue editing the puzzle. To see all objects that have been "goal-enabled", select "Show Goal Enabled Objs" from the Puzzle menu. All objects that have been selected to participate in the puzzle goal will be displayed with a flashing box around them.

To convert a mechanism into a puzzle, we must delete one or more objects from the mechanism. As we delete an object from the playing area, we tap on the quantity arrow under the object on the toolbar to INCREASE the number of objects that will be available to the player. In our example, we have deleted the pulley object and the conveyor object. We have set the number of pulleys and the number of conveyors available to "1". When the puzzle is played, the toolbar will contain one pulley and one conveyor. Since all other objects on the toolbar have a "0" for the quantity, they will not appear on the toolbar when the puzzle is played. Notice that we did NOT remove the pulley that had the goal set ("G" icon). Objects that have the goal set must remain on the playing area. If the object is returned to the toolbar, the object will not participate in the puzzle goal. Now, we could have removed the balls from the playing area, instead of removing the pulley and conveyor. If we had done that, however, the player could simply position a single ball over the existing pulley on the playing area, and the goal of the puzzle would be accomplished, even though the mechanism was not re-created by the player. The secret to building a good puzzle is to ensure that your original mechanism must be re-created to solve the puzzle. Experimentation will teach you a great deal about building good puzzles.

Now that the puzzle mechanism has been defined, it’s time to give the puzzle a name and goal description.

1. Select "Edit Puzzle Name…" from the "Puzzle" menu.
2. Enter a short description of the puzzle.
3. This description will appear in the puzzle list.
4. Select "Edit Puzzle Goal…" from the "Puzzle" menu. Enter a description of the puzzle goal. If your puzzle has two or more goals, don’t forget to mention all goals.
5. Your puzzle is now ready to try in "Play" mode from the puzzle list.
6. Try the puzzle to make sure your solution works. Also, try to solve the puzzle be arranging the objects in other ways. Try to eliminate simple shortcuts to solving your puzzle.

When you’re building your collection of puzzles, it is often helpful to begin the next puzzle by using the previous puzzle as a starting point. To help with that activity, the "Puzzle" menu has several "clipboard" type functions that are available to manipulate puzzles in the puzzle list. Use "Cut" to remove the selected puzzle from the list and place it on the clipboard. Use "Copy" to put a copy of the selected puzzle on the clipboard. Use "Paste" to paste the clipboard puzzle ahead of the selected puzzle. Use "Replicate" to perform a copy plus paste operation. The replication function duplicates the current puzzle and leaves a copy of the puzzle on the clipboard. Use "Delete" to delete a puzzle without disturbing the contents of the clipboard. Finally, use "New" to create a new puzzle at the end of the puzzle list. The puzzle editor is automatically launched as a result of "New".

Once you have completed your puzzle collection, it’s time to enter your author information and database information.

Select "Edit Author Info…" from the "Options" menu. Enter your name, company name, or other information to describe yourself. The author information is displayed every time the user selects your database from the list of puzzle databases.

Select "Edit Database Info…" from the "Options" menu. The Database Info dialog appears. Select the "Force sequential play" option to force the user to play or puzzles in sequence, from first to last. If you have created a series of puzzles that build upon each other, you probably want to force the user to play them in order. If your puzzles are of random layout and complexity, then this option should probably be disabled.

Select "Reg code required after…" option to enable only a certain number of puzzles to be played before requiring the user to get a registration code from you, the author. The number in the "demo puzzles" field indicates how many puzzles you want to make available for free, as a "demo" of your puzzle database. Even with the registration code, the user will not be allowed edit/cut/copy/paste access to your database. You should select this option if you plan to make your database available as shareware on any web sites offering Palm^TM software. When the user downloads your database, he will have access to the number of puzzles that you have specified. After that, the user will need to purchase the database from their favorite Palm web site. If the web site does not support automatic generation of custom registration codes, the site will e-mail the user information to you. You will need the user’s HotSync® ID to generate a registration code. You can email the registration code to the user, and the user will enter the registration code to gain access to the puzzles in your database.

If you choose to disable this option, the user will have access to play all puzzles in your database. The user will also have edit/cut/copy/paste access to all puzzles in your database. If that’s fine with you, it’s fine with us.

If the "Reg code required after…" option is enabled for your database, the user will need a registration code to unlock the puzzles in your database. Make sure that your database is the current database. From the puzzle list, select "Edit Puzzle" from the "Puzzle" menu. From the gameboard, select "Calculate Reg Code…" from the "Options" menu to enter a user’s HotSync® ID. Enter the HotSync ID exactly as sent to you by the user or Web site where the user purchased your database. Tap the "OK" button to view the registration code.

The registration code is generated based on the user’s HotSync ID, the name of your puzzle database, and the number of puzzles in your database. As an example, for "My Puzzles", which contains only one puzzle, the registration code for "John Smith" is 431464.

**NOTE: You must not change the name of your database, or the number of puzzles it contains, after you have made the database available to others. The "Calculate Reg Code…" will generate a code based on the database in your device. If your user has a different version of your database, the generated registration code will not work for them. You can edit any of the puzzles in your database to correct problems that users might find, but do not change the name or quantity of puzzles in your database. After you make a database available to others as shareware, you really should isolate a "gold" version of the database. When a user needs a registration code, use the "gold" version to generate the code.

You might be wondering at this point why YOU are allowed to play or edit your database without entering a registration code based on your name. TIM automatically calculates and enters your "author" registration code into the database header of your database. TIM can then identify your device as the author of the database. The author of the database is always allowed access to the database. This means, however, that the database is tied to your HotSync ID on your device. If you were to change your HotSync ID on your device, or beam the database to another device, you will not be allowed to edit the database.

The objects that "move" in The Incredible Machine® use highly simplified physics math models to control their behavior, especially when it comes to free motion, as in the case of bouncing balls, falling rockets and candles, etc. If you play The Incredible Machine long enough, you will occasionally see some strange behavior between two moving objects. There’s not much we can do about it now, because existing puzzle databases rely on specific math models that are in place, bugs and all. If we make any significant changes in the physics models for the existing objects, we run the risk of breaking our puzzles and those that you might be working on. We did the best job we could at flushing out the really obvious problems, but eventually, we had to ship the product. Now that it’s shipped, we can concentrate on getting some cool puzzle packs out there to go with the game. That brings us to what we really wanted to say: we don’t create puzzles that exploit strange behavior of some object. We think that would be bad form. We hope that you will adopt a similar philosophy when designing your puzzle creations.

The "Database" menu supports manipulation of puzzle databases. Databases can be created, renamed, deleted, beamed, registered, replicated, and reset.

Any modification of any kind to a puzzle database will be picked up on the next HotSync® operation. The databases are stored in the "Backup" folder of your user ID in the HotSync software folder structure. Be careful about deleting puzzle databases in TIM. The next time you perform a HotSync operation, the database will also be deleted from the "Backup" directory. With recent versions of the HotSync software, the deleted database is copied to the "Archive" folder by the HotSync manager. The moral: MAKE BACKUP COPIES OF DATABASES!

Use "New…" to create a new database. The new database will become the currently active database. You must choose a name that does not conflict with another database.

Use "Rename…" to change the name of the current database. You must choose a name that does not conflict with another database.

Use "Replicate…" to make a complete copy of the currently active database. A dialog will prompt to confirm that you really want to make a copy of the database. The name for the new database will automatically generated using a numbered suffix on the original name.

Use "Delete…" to remove a database from the device completely. As the dialog suggests, the delete is permanent. There is no "undo" to recover from deleting a database accidentally. The next time you perform a HotSync® operation, the database will also be deleted from the HotSync "Backup" folder. With recent versions of the HotSync software, the deleted database is copied to the "Archive" folder by the HotSync manager. The moral: MAKE BACKUP COPIES OF DATABASES!

Use "Reset…" to force all puzzles to be solved from the beginning. If the database author has specified that the puzzles can be played in any order, this function has no practical effect.

We have been creating puzzle databases for a while now, and we think we can give you a general outline for a process that works nicely:

1. Create a database with a name like "My Puzzles (Solutions)", with completely working mechanisms.
2. Don’t make puzzles out of the mechanisms until the database is complete.
3. Replicate the database. This will produce a database called "My Puzzles (Solutions) 2".
4. Rename the database "My Puzzles".
5. For each puzzle in "My Puzzles", decide which objects to delete from the playing area.
6. When an object is deleted from the playing area, INCREASE the quantity available for the object (the little arrows under the object on the toolbar).
7. When you have converted all mechanisms to puzzles, you end up with a "puzzles" database and a "puzzle solutions" database. Believe it, or not, sometimes you just can’t remember the solution to a puzzle, and can be very frustrating spending time to solve it again.

We hope you enjoy the Palm OS® version of The Incredible Machine® as much as we do!