g-mccann@gumby.cs.wisc.edu (Lester I. McCann) (02/09/88)
I bought Shanghai quite a long time ago, and I've enjoyed playing it. Recently, I discovered that in several situation, the "Show all moves" option will miss certain moves (most notably, it usually misses the situations in which all four matching tiles are free). The player can still remove these tiles, so it only affects play if you don't have a good grasp of the obvious :-). Since it has been a while since I bought it, I wrote Activision a letter in which I asked if they had a new version to which I could upgrade. After 5 weeks, I've received a coupon book from them, but no reply. Anyone know if there *is* a new version, and if there is, what I have to do to get it? Also, anyone have their current 800 number? The one in my documentation has been disconnected, and is therefore not very useful. Thanks for any and all help. (And my thanks to Brint for his efforts in getting the mailing list back up!) Lester McCann g-mccann@gumby.cs.wisc.edu
tribby@hpindda.HP.COM (David Tribby) (02/11/88)
g-mccann@gumby.cs.wisc.edu (Lester I. McCann) writes: > I bought Shanghai quite a long time ago, and I've enjoyed playing it. > Recently, I discovered that in several situation, the "Show all moves" > option will miss certain moves I too noticed this problem on the version I bought in December. My copy had a problem that was hard to miss: when I would win a game, the program would print a "Contact Activision--System Error xx" message and crash into the monitor. After experimenting, I found that moving the DRAGON1 and DRAGON2 files from /SHANGHAI to /SHANGHAI/SYSTEM solved the problem. Before playing around with files on the Shanghai disk, I made a copy of the disk via the desktop (not bit copying). The program worked fine, except it always produced the same pattern of tiles! When I tried to do an image copy of the Shanghai disk (via the Pascal Filer), I found it was copy protected. While experimenting, I occasionally was able to "Backup a Move" when there were no tiles removed. Shanghai stuck a couple of tiles on the screen in the middle. They would sometimes disappear during the course of the game, but return when the screen was redrawn after a dialog window. There problems are relatively minor, and I certainly enjoy playing the game. Dave Tribby tribby@hpda!hplabs.HP.COM
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (02/11/88)
In article <6230002@hpindda.HP.COM> tribby@hpindda.HP.COM (David Tribby) writes: >My copy had a problem that was hard to miss: when I would win a game, the >program would print a "Contact Activision--System Error xx" message and >crash into the monitor. After experimenting, I found that moving the DRAGON1 >and DRAGON2 files from /SHANGHAI to /SHANGHAI/SYSTEM solved the problem. Another "fix" is to simply start to OPEN a FILE then CANCEL, before you get to the end of the game. Maybe we all really SHOULD contact Activision. We could also complain about Shanghai not being able to operate properly on a hard disk.
scott@geowhiz.UUCP (Scott Kempf) (02/12/88)
In article <6230002@hpindda.HP.COM> tribby@hpindda.HP.COM (David Tribby) writes: >g-mccann@gumby.cs.wisc.edu (Lester I. McCann) writes: >> I bought Shanghai quite a long time ago, and I've enjoyed playing it. >> Recently, I discovered that in several situation, the "Show all moves" >> option will miss certain moves > >I too noticed this problem on the version I bought in December. > >My copy had a problem that was hard to miss: when I would win a game, the >program would print a "Contact Activision--System Error xx" message and >crash into the monitor. Sound like a poor sport to me. :-) Scott -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Scott Kempf Blue itself teaches us blue. -Bill Ranson MAIL: 1302 Rutledge St., Madison, WI 53703 PHONE: (608) 255-6205 (home) UUCP: {seismo, topaz, harvard, ihnp4}!uwvax!geowhiz!scott ARPA: geowhiz!scott@spool.wisc.edu PHONE: (608) 262-6154 (work) BITNET: scott%geowhiz.uucp%spool.wisc.edu@wiscvm.bitnet
jockc@killer.UUCP (Jock Cooper) (02/13/88)
In article <6230002@hpindda.HP.COM> tribby@hpindda.HP.COM (David Tribby) writes: > >Before playing around with files on the Shanghai disk, I made a copy of the >disk via the desktop (not bit copying). The program worked fine, except it >always produced the same pattern of tiles! When I tried to do an image copy >of the Shanghai disk (via the Pascal Filer), I found it was copy protected. > The patch for this is block $243 ( or sometimes $245 ) byte $E1- change from $F0 to $80. if byte $E1 of block $243 isn't an $F0, look at the blocks around $243, it should be in the area. (on my disk it was 245, but the person who gave me the patch said it was 243 on his...) This will allow you to play off your (non bit-copied) backup... jockc ihnp4!killer!jockc