Web Site

Easy MEMO

Advanced manual

Update on September, 2007

How to create a game set  Update
     1. What is a game set
     2. What is a card
     3. Picture on the back of the cards
     4. Cards list format
     5. Skin of the game
     6. Game Sounds
     7. Game set structure
     8. Scenarios
Setup file - EasyMEMOry.ini
     1. File Structure
     2. Tag list  Update
     3. Default file values  Update
     4. More ini files

Appendices
     1. Font List
     2. HTML Tag List
    
New in this version  Update


How to create a game set  Update

1. What is a game set

A game set is a custom concentration game for Easy MEMO. When you create a game set, players can play with it as a new concentration game. You can customize many things:

It is very easy to customize the pictures on the cards and the picture on the back of the cards. Just add your own photos and start playing. But if you want to customize other aspects of the game, you will need to create two text files : Cards.txt and Games.txt. (See below)

Very important: In order to create a game set, you must create a sub-folder with the name of your choice, and place it in the EasyMemory/Planches folder. This is where you will place the files for your customized game set.

TIP

You can create your own game set, with only a sub-folder and a picture collection.

If you want customize it more, such as a background picture, help text, etc, you have to create Games.txt and Cards.txt files. All parameters are listed below.

The easiest way to do that is using GamesBuilder the free tool provided with Easy MEMO Pro.



2. What is a card

A card can be a picture alone or a picture with:

If all you want to do is add your own pictures to the game, just choose your pictures, reduce them all to the same size, then place them into your sub-folder.

If you want to add sounds, text or comments, you will have to create a Cards.txt file (Cards.dat in earlier release) in addition to adding your pictures.

You can create a game set of completely different cards (a house, a plane, a boat...) or use a theme (country flags, celebrities, famous paintings...). You should have enough cards to allow players to play with a lot of cards on the screen even in high resolution (1024*768 or higher) and to play different games without the same picture coming back too often.

Correct format for pictures is jpg or gif (with uses of transparency)

Correct format for sounds is sun format (.au file with 8khz and Mu-Law 8bit sub-format)

The help comments displayed with cards (during the game or at the end) are displayed at the bottom of the window in the freeware release (text format). With shareware release, you can also display this text in html format on the left of the Easy MEMO Pro window or on a floating popup window. See [Game text] and [End text] in Cards list format.


3. Picture on the back of the cards

The picture for the back of your cards must be the same size as your largest picture.

If you don't want to create a Games.txt file you must use the gif format and name it: z_dos.gif. Otherwise, you can use gif or jpg format and name it as you want (the name must begin with z_, see Games.txt format below).


4. Cards list format

Cards must be described in a text file named Cards.txt. You can create it with Notepad.

The first line of this file must be "STRUCT_VERSION=610". Then you add a line for each card. Structure of the line is:

[ID]=[Pict];[Sound];[Card text];[Game text];[later];[End text];[later]

There should not be any space around the = and ; signs.

Sample from Cries of the animals Cards.txt:

REMEMBER

You can create your own game set, with only a sub-folder and a picture collection.

If you want customize it more, like background picture, help text... create Games.txt and Cards.txt files, all parameters are listed here.

The easiest way to do that is using GamesBuilder the free tool provided with Easy MEMO Pro.



[ID] Unique identifier for this card.
[Pict] Filename of the picture of the card (jpg or gif format).
It can not begin with z_
[Sound] Filename of the sound of the card. The sound is played when the card is displayed. (.au file with 8khz and Mu-Law 8bit sub-format)
[Card text] Text displayed above card picture using CardFont property in your scenario or game set properties (see Game set structure and Scenarios). (Html tags allowed, see complete list in Appendices/HTML Tag List)
[Game text] Comment text displayed during the game when the player clicks on a card displayed on the screen. See below game_TextMode in Game set structure to select how to display this text. (Html tags allowed, see complete list in Appendices/HTML Tag List)
[End text] Comment text displayed at the end of the game when the player clicks on a card displayed on the screen. See below game_EndTextMode in Game set structure to select how to display this text. (Html tags allowed, see complete list in Appendices/HTML Tag List)
[later]Not used in Easy MEMO v6.10 - Future uses.


5. Skin of the game

You can add a background picture to your game set. Your cards will be displayed on a background of your choice instead of the default wood background.

You have to choose the type of your background: mosaic picture or unique picture. Then find or create the background picture file. You must rename the background picture z_Background.jpg and move it into your game set sub-folder. Then, add the following properties in your Games.txt file. (see properties table below, Games.dat in earlier release)

You can also change Easy MEMO buttons. You need 2 pictures (up and down) in gif or jpeg format in your game set sub-folder. Your pics need enough space for button labels (115x15 pixels). Add the game_Button property in your Games.txt file. (see properties table below)

Sample from Sweets Games.txt:
game_Button=z_bUp.gif;z_bDown.gif;70;11;1;1;FFFFFF


6. Game Sounds

You can add specific sounds for your game set. Players will hear your sounds and not the default sounds when they play with your game set. You can add 3 sounds or only 1 or 2.

The 3 possible sounds are:

To add a sound, find or create it in Sun format (.au 8khz and Mu-Law 8bit sub-format) then put the .au file in the folder of the game set. Then add the good properties (game_SoundOK, game_SoundBad or game_SoundEnd) with the sound filename in the Games.txt file.


7. Game set structure

A game set must be described in a text file named Games.txt. You can create it with any simple text editor, such as Notepad or TextEdit.

The first line of this file must be "STRUCT_VERSION=610". Then you add a line for each property. Structure of the line is:

[property name]=[property value];[value2];...

There should not be any space before or after the =. Game set properties are listed in the following table (be careful, they are case sensitives). All of them begin with game_. In the Games.txt file you can have other lines beginnings with figure, there are scenarios lines. (see below for scenario structure)

Some properties need more than one value, like CardFont, values are separated by a semi-colon.

REMEMBER

You can create your own game set, with only a sub-folder and a picture collection.

If you want customize it more, like background picture, help text... create Games.txt and Cards.txt files, all parameters are listed here.

The easiest way to do that is using GamesBuilder the free tool provided with Easy MEMO Pro.



Property Value Description
game_TitleUS
Needed
Text English title for the game set.
game_TitleFR
Needed
Text French title for the game set.
game_Author Text Your name, as it will appear in the About this set window.
game_Email Email Your email address, so the users of your game set can email you (About this set window)
game_Website URL Your website url, so the users of your game set can visit your homepage (About this set window)
game_Version Text Version number of your game set, you can also add the date.
game_SoundOK .au filename Filename of the sound you will hear each time you succeed in choosing a group of matching cards (eg OK.au)
game_SoundBad .au filename Filename of the sound you will hear each time you choose a group with non matching cards (eg Bad.au)
game_SoundEnd .au filename Filename of the sound you will hear when you have found all groups of cards (eg End.au)
game_BackCard .gif or .jpg filename Filename of the picture displayed on the back of your cards.
game_Level 1 to 5 This is to indicate if your game set is a very specialized game set (value 5) or a general game set (value 1).
A game set with very different pictures (tree, animal, house...) will be very general and take the value 1.
A game set with very similar pictures (like different Persian cats) will be very specialized and take the value 5.
game_BackgroundAlignH
Needed for background
MOSAIC / LEFT / CENTER / RIGHT Choose MOSAIC if you want your picture displayed on all the background in a mosaic mode. Otherwise choose the horizontal alignment for your picture.
Of course, if you don't add a background picture, you don't have to add this property.
game_BackgroundAlignV MOSAIC / TOP / CENTER / BOTTOM With this property you can choose the vertical alignment of your picture.
CENTER by default. Use this property only if the game_BackgroundAlignH is not MOSAIC.
game_BackgroundColor
Needed for background
red,green,blue
with each of the 3 values between 0 and 255
Useful if you add a picture with an alignment different from MOSAIC. You can have the rest of the screen of the same color as the sky of your picture for example.
Use the RGB value for your color. (ex: game_BackgroundColor=255,0,0 for red color).
game_BackgroundLight 0 to 255 In the dialog box, like About Set..., text can be difficult to read over your background. You can also solarize your background in this kind of dialog box. Try different values until the text becomes readable.
game_CardFont Font used to display text above picture on cards
Font Name; see complete list in Appendices/Fonts
Font Size; Font size in pixel (sample: 10 for small text, 18 for normal text…50 for big text)
Font Color Font Color in html format (ie FF0000 for red color)
game_Button Create your own buttons instead of default Easy MEMO buttons.
Image Up Image displayed when the button is up (gif or jpeg format and starts with z_).
or Classic for standard buttons
or Light for grey buttons.
Image Down Image displayed when the button is down, ie when you click on it (gif or jpeg format and starts with z_)
For Classic buttons, put here the button color in html format.
Center X x center position for text. Default x= center of the picture.
Center Y y center position for text. Default y= center of the picture.
Delta X x offset to write button label when button is down.
Delta Y y offset to write button label when button is down.
Font Color Font Color in html format (ie FF0000 for red color)
Used by Image and Classic buttons.
game_TextMode Select the way the [Game Text] of the cards will be displayed during the game. In the freeware release, only the Bottom and None values are available.
Tip: TextMode can be defined here for all scenarios and/or re-defined at scenario level, see below Scenarios.
None /
Bottom /
Fixed /
Float
No text displayed.
Text displayed in text format at the bottom.
Text displayed in html format on the left.
Text displayed in html format on a popup window.
Width Width of the html area.
Height Height of the html area.
Background Background color of the html area in html format (ex FF0000 for red)
Font Name see complete list in Appendices/Fonts
Font Size Font size in pixel
Font Color Font Color in html format (ie FF0000 for red color)
game_EndTextMode Select the way the [End Text] of cards will be displayed at the end of the game. In freeware release, only the Bottom and None values are available.
See game_TextMode above for paramaters details.
Tip: EndTextMode can be defined here for all scenarios and/or re-defined at scenario level, see below Scenarios.
game_Plugin Select the final screen of the game (ie what happens when the player find all the pairs). In Easy MEMO v6.10 there is only one plugin: Image (available only in shareware release)
Plugin name "Image" unique value in v6.10.
This plugin displays a picture at the end of the game and displays a flashing text above.
Picture Picture filename (gif or jpeg format and starts with z_)
Align H Horizontal alignment for the picture. See game_BackgroundAlignH above.
Align V Vertical alignment for the picture. See game_BackgroundAlignV above.
Background Background color around the picture, html format (ex FF0000 for red)
Blink Blink speed in milli seconds. (0 for non flashing text)
Width Width of the final screen (in pixel)
Height Height of the final screen (in pixel)
Text Text written above picture (html tags allowed, see complete list in Appendices/HTML Tag List)
game_Toolbar This command allows you to change the default Easy Memory toolbar with your own pictures. All you have to do is create a picture with the 5 icons side to side: Players, General Options, Game Options, Game sets and help.
Default toolbar buttons picture is: Easy Memory default toolbar
Image Picture filename (gif or jpeg format and starts with z_)
Width Icon width (pixel)
Height icon Height (pixel)
Filler size Space between icons in the picture (pixel)
Margin Margin between icons in the toolbar (pixel)

game_BackgroundColor Tip: If your screen, or the screen of someone playing with your game set, is not in real color (24 bits or higher), there might be a little difference between the color of the sky of your picture and the color of the background around your picture. To solve this problem, set your screen to 256 colors or 16 bits colors, start Easy MEMO with your game set, make a hard copy of the screen, paste it in a picture software (like paintshop pro) and look at the rgb value used for your sky and your background. Then use the same value for your sky and the game_BackgroundColor property.


Sample from Cries of the animals Games.txt (without scenario lines):

Blank lines for Games.txt (without scenario lines):


8. Scenarios

With scenarios you can create sub games of your game set or even other kind of game. For example with Cries of the Animals there are sound cards and silent cards. So we have scenarios with only silent cards and others with both.

You can create as many scenarios as you want. All you have to do is use the following properties and preface each one with the scenario number. Scenario number must starts to 1 and you don't let gap number between scenarios.

A scenario must be defined for a language, a range of difficulty and a kind of game. Structure for a scenario line is:

[Nb]_[Property]=[Value];[Value2];...

There can not be any space around _ = and ; signs.

[Nb] Scenario number from 1. No gap between number.
[Property] See property table below.
[Value] Property value (see below)
[Value2] Some properties needed several values (see below)

Property Value
Value2
Description
Title Text Scenario title
Lang US / FR Scenario language. You can play with it only if you choose the correct language in the File/Language menu.
Level 1 to 5 This is to indicate if your scenario is very specialized (value 5) or general (value 1).
A scenario with very different pictures (tree, animal, house...) will be very general and take the value 1.
A scenario with very similar pictures (like different Persian cats) will be very specialized and take the value 5.
Begin 0 Future uses
Text Description of your scenario game. Displayed at the beginning of the game.
Diff 2 to 5 Difficulty minimum of your scenario. If you enter 3, players can't play your scenario with a difficulty of 2. Be careful, it depends also on your group's size (cf below).
2 to 5 Difficulty maximum of your scenario. If you enter 3, players can't play your scenario with a difficulty of 4 or 5. Be careful, it depends also of your groups size (cf below).
Type Identical / Different Kinds of games. With "Identical" players have to match identical cards. With "Different" players have to match different cards (like a picture and a sound).
CardFont Font used to display text above picture on cards when this scenario is played.
Font Name Font name, see complete list in Appendices/Fonts
Font Size Font size in pixel.
Font Color Font Color in html format (ie FF0000 for red color).
TextMode Select the way the [Game Text] of cards will be displayed during the game. In freeware release, only the Bottom and None values are available.
See game_TextMode in Game set structure above for paramaters details.
If TextMode is not defined for a scenario, the default game_TextMode of the game set (if any) is used.
EndTextMode Select the way the [End Text] of cards will be displayed at the end of the game. In freeware release, only the Bottom and None values are available.
See game_TextMode in Game set structure above for paramaters details.
If EndTextMode is not defined for a scenario, the default game_EndTextMode of the game set (if any) is used.

After defining scenario properties you have to define groups of your scenario. A group is a set of cards matching each other. Groups are mandatory for "Different" mode. If you don't define Groups for an "Identical" scenario, all cards will be available. You need as many group lines as groups. Structure of a group line:

[Nb]_GR_[Group line]=[Card ID];[Card ID];...

There should not be any space around _ = and ; signs.

[Nb] Scenario number from 1. No gap between number.
[Group line] Group line number from 1 (restart from 1 for each scenario. No gap between number.
[Card ID] [ID] of the card as define in Cards.txt above.

For a scenario Identical you can have only one [card ID] by group line.

For a scenario Different, each group line must have at least as many [card ID] as Difficulty maximum of your scenario.


Scenario example from Cries of the animals Games.txt:

Scenario blank lines for Games.txt:



Setup file - EasyMEMOry.ini

1. File Structure

This file is a text file, updated with notepad for example, which can contain different data. Structure of the line is:
[property name]=[property value];[value2];...

There should not be any space before or after the =. Properties are listed in the following table (be careful, these are case sensitive). The name of this file is EasyMEMOry.ini. It is in the Easy MEMO main folder

Tip for the PC users: If you installed Easy MEMO with the auto install file, the EasyMEMOry.ini file is available in the Start / Program / Easy MEMO menu.


2. Tag list  Update

Tag name Values Description
Difficulty Range 2 to 5 Selects the difficulty in the Options / Difficulty menu.
DefaultSize integer Sets your favorite size for playing. It's the number of cards on the screen.
Preview Selects the preview mode for the Options / Preview menu.
NoneNo preview mode.
FastQuick mode.
SlowSlow mode.
Background Selects the background mode in the Options / Background menu.
None No pretty background, only light-gray.
StandardAlways a pretty wood background.
Set Uses the background provided with each game set.
Blink Selects the blink mode in the Options / Blink menu.
NoneCards will not blink when played.
FastCards will blink 2 times when played.
SlowCards will blink 4 times when played.
GameMode Selects the kind of game at startup. You can change it with Options/Game.
IdenticalYou play the classic concentration game by matching identical cards.
DifferentYou play advanced concentration game by matching different cards (like an animal and its cry).
VanishMode True / False Enable vanish mode, the pairs disappear when you find its, or when you complete a group of cards. (shareware release only)
SoundOK True / False Enable sound for good try.
SoundBad True / False Enable sound for bad try.
SoundEnd True / False Enable sound for end of game.
SetName _ALL_ or Text Choose the list of game sets for your default playlist (see Game sets part in User Manual). You have to use the folder name of each game set separated by comma (e.g. SetName=Felins_portraits,Disney,Mousez).
You can also use "_ALL_" for a random selection in all game sets available.
SetFilter True / False Restrict (if True) list of available game set to the list above (cf SetName).
ScenarioIdUS
ScenarioIdFR
Number Select scenario ID for each language.
PlayerType1
PlayerType2
PlayerType3
PlayerType4
Selects the type of each player.
None If this player doesn't play.
Human If this player is a human player.
Perfect If this player is a very clever computer player.
Advanced If this player is a clever computer player.
Beginner If this player is a beginner computer player.
FirstGameIf this player is a random computer player.
Teacher If this player is a teacher player. (Shareware only)
PlayerName1
PlayerName2
PlayerName3
PlayerName4
nothing or Text Chooses the name for each human player. If this tag is not set, the default name is used (language dependent, eg Player for English, Joueur for French).
BoutonPlayStop True / False Show (true) or Hide the Play/Stop buttons.
MenuPlayer,
MenuVanish,
MenuSound,
MenuBackground,
MenuBlink,
MenuPreview,
MenuGameOptions,
MenuGameSet,
MenuOptionG
True / False Show (true) or Hide these menus/options.
Button Create your own buttons instead of default Easy MEMO buttons. These buttons will be available for all game set you could download. See Skin of the game for more info and Game set structure/Button for parameters details.
Toolbar You can create your own toolbar and use it instead of default Easy Memo toolbar. This tool bar will be used for all game set you could create or download from internet. cf. Game set structure/Toolbar for all parameters details.
GoMode True / False Used for online licence. Allow you to replace estimate time left prompt when cards loaded by a count down: 5...4...3...2...1...GO !

Tip: Tag names are case sensitive, but values are not.
Tip: Look at User Manual for more information about options.


3. Default file  Update

Difficulty=2
DefaultSize=8
Preview=None
Background=Set
Blink=Fast
GameMode=Identical
VanishMode=True
SoundOK=True
SoundBad=True
SoundEnd=True
SetName=_ALL_
SetFilter=False
PlayerType1=Human
PlayerType2=None
PlayerType3=None
PlayerType4=None
BoutonPlayStop=True
MenuPlayer=True
MenuVanish=true
MenuOptionG=True
MenuSound=True
MenuBackground=True
MenuBlink=True
MenuPreview=True
MenuGameOptions=True
MenuGameSet=True
Button=z_ButtonUp.gif;z_ButtonDW.gif;64;8;2;2;FFFFFF
Toolbar=z_AllButtons.gif;37;37;0;2
GoMode=False


3. More ini files

Each user can have custom settings. You have to create more ini files, copy and modify GO_US.html page.

Here's what you have to do:
  1. Go in EasyMemory/Program/Pages folder
  2. Copy GO_US.html page in what you want (ex: GO_My.html)
  3. Open this copy with notepad
  4. Search the line with: <PARAM name="Lang" value="US">
  5. Add below the line: <PARAM name="iniFile" value="MyIni.ini"> (or what you want instead MyIni.ini)
  6. Go in EasyMemory folder
  7. Copy EasyMEMOry.ini file in MyIni.ini (or what you type above)
  8. Open this copy with Notepad or TextEdit and change what you want.
  9. Then create a shortcut for your new GO_My.html

Tip: With tags SetFilter and SetName (see above) in different ini files, you can create desktop shortcuts for your kids kids so they do not have access to all games sets on your computer.

Tip: You can also use the GameSet applet parameter, so Easy Memo will start with a specific game set. ex: <PARAM name="GameSet" value="Animals">



Appendices

1. Font List


2. HTML Tag List

Tag Attribute Description
B Bold text
BR Next line
CENTER horizontal center alignment
DIV align horizontal alignment: left,right or center
FONT face Font name, see above list
size Font size in pixel
color Font color, (eg #FF0000 for red color)
I Italicized style


New in this version  Update



(c) Bruno Berenguer