www.palmcrust.com 


Intelligent Frac (iFRAC)

For Nokia Series 60, Siemens SX1
and Nokia Communicator


User Manual


Version 2.2.2
Author  Michael Glickman
February, 2004





Table of Contents



Getting Started Rules Before You Start Playing... Playing Game Score Tables Configuration Registration

Getting Started

Introduction

Frac is a 3Dpacking (TETRIS-like) game where you just pack rectangularprisms having at least two ribs of same size. A completeboard layer (i.e. no spaces) is discarded, adding points to the scorewith a chance to see obscured board pieces. You can pick up scorefaster by:
The application can be operated by joystick or arrow keys, numericphone keys, or keyboard according to availability and yourpreferences.  It provides a variety of settings to get playinggame more comfortable.

History

FRAC was invented by Max Tegmark and Per Bergland, two young and talented Swedes who also calledthemselves Simsalabim Software . Thegame was apparently named after Mandelbrot fractal, used as thebackground for the original release for Mac in 1990, and later MS DOS(EGA 640x350x16).

I was very frustrated when my new computerhappened tobe too fast for FRAC, and felt a need to do something about that ...which could also be a nice present for Linux community. The 'newgeneration'of FRAC (named iFrac, or Intelligent FRAC) was releasedin 2000 for Linux svgalib and X11. It supported a range of screenresolutions and colour modes (4 to 32 bpp). Though it was not plannedoriginally,a Windows 95+ port of the game was released in 2001, which happenedto become a kind of Linux rep in Windows world.

This implementation is based on the Palm port of the game released in August 2002 which is in turn derived from Linux (1999) andWindows(2000) releases .  

Published with the permission from the original authors.

Symbian OS Releases.

2.2.2 (Feb 2004) :

2.2.1 (Nov 2003) :
2.2.0 (Nov 2003) :

2.1.0 (Oct 2003) :

2.0.0 (Aug 2003) :

Completely revised. The following features were added or modified:

1.1.1 (Dec 2002) :

1.1.0 (Dec 2002) :

1.0.0 (Oct 2002) :

Credits.

The background images were created using  xaos 1.22a real-time fractal zoomer/morpher by Jan Hubicka and Thomas Marsh  Additional image processing:   gimp 1.2.1by Spencer Kimbal , Peter Mattis and numerouscontributors.  The documentation was prepared using  Netscape7.0 composer  and  HTMLDOC  by Easy Software Products . All above development tools were running in GNU/Linux 2.4 .Unfortunately I can't tell same about Symbian developmenttools, which  shamelessly borrowed GCC and other GNU software,but didn't leave a chance of using their native system for development.

Special thanks to Mark Sloan(UK) and Enrico Binder (Estonia) for testing, bug reports, and extremely valuable comments.
 

Supported Devices: S60 vs S80

This manual is concerned with Symbian OS ports of  iFrac. Thefollowing platforms are currently supported:

The three versions are avaiable as separate packages.

Currently the only difference between Series 60 and Series 60 v2is that the later does not produce an  incompatibility warningwhen installed at a Nokia 6600 and other Series 60 v2 devices, thefore we won't differentiate between the two releaseshereafter. Abbreviations S60, and S80 are used for Series60 andSeries80 resp.

The application is also available for the following Java TM (J2ME) platforms (discussed in aseparate manual ):

Application Support

The application web page is:   htpp://ifrac.palmcrust.com/symb 
Send your feedback (comments, bug reports) to  Michael Glickman <palmcrust@yahoo.com>

Other links related to iFRAC:

Palm® and compatibles:
http://ifrac.palmcrust.com/palm
JavaTM(J2ME) devices:
http://ifrac.palmcrust.com/j2me
Linux TM , X11 and Windows:
http://ifrac.palmcrust.com/pc
More software products from us:    http://www.palmcrust.com

Rules

Speed Levels and LevelCount.

While a block is "in the air", it drifts down according tocurrent speed level.  Speed level is a number from 1 to 9 shown inthe top left or right corner of the screen. The time-out between twoconsecutive drifts varies from 2.5 sec on level 1 to 0.2 sec on level9. The speed level increments after a designated number of levels iscompleted, which for score below 10000is:
 
Level 1234
5
6
7
8
9
Layers
2
3
4
5
6
5
4
3
2

while number of layers is incremented by 1 with each 10000 of thescore.

You can increase level before completing required number oflayers, by entering Next Level command. Though this does notaffect your score immediately, you will pick up score faster, becausethe remaining layers are completed at a higher speed level thuscontributing more to the score.

After completing layers at level 9 the applications rolls back tostarting level giving you a chance to relax..

As opposed to speed level, level count is a plain number thatalways goes up, e.g. level count 10 refers to speed level 1. after arollover, count 19 refers to speed level 1 after two rollovers. Levelcount is shown in Top Scores.

Scoring.

Maximum Score.

The maximum score is 999999 .Game terminates if your score is over it. Hopefully this will neverhappen :=)

Score for a landed block.

Every landed (dropped or rested) block adds to score a value shown asBonus. The bonus starts from 20, and decrements with any down drift,while being unaffected by a move down as a result of Down command.

Score for completed layers.

At speed level 1:
 
Layers:
1
2
3
4
Points:
100
300
600
1000


For higher speed levels the above numbers are multiplied by a factor:
 

Level 2345
6
7
8
9
Factor
1.125
1.25
1.375
1.5
1.625
1.75
1.875
2

100 points are added to score with each rollover.  

Bonus for a non-empty board

If a game starts with a non-empty board, you get an initial bonusdepending on the number of "dirty" layers:
 
Layers 1234
5
6
7
8
Bonus
500
1000
1750
3500
4500
6000
8000
10000

Before You Start Playing...

Key Names

The following key names are used in the manual:
Screen buttons
Two keys located just below the screen onSeries 60 phones. Standard Nokia applications typically mark leftscreen button as Options , and right screen button as Back. Here the buttons are used in a  different context.
Communicator has four screen buttons located to the right from thescreen numbered from top to bottom: topmost is button 1, lowest isbutton 4.
Arrows Keys Left,  Right, Upand Down  (Communicator,  3650),  or joystickmovement (7650),
OK
3650 and SX1: a key located in the centre ofarrow keypad
7650: pressing joystick down
S80:  Enter key
Numeric keys (S60)
Keys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9, 0
Phone keys (S60) Numeric keys , * and #.
Send
A key with a green handset picture
Shift
A key marked as Shift (Communicator),  ABC (7650), pencil picture (3650), or a thick up arrow(SX1) normally used for changing letter case, though this applicationnot always uses it this way.
Clear
(Backspace)
A key marked as  C ona phone pad or Backspace (<-) on a keyboard, normally usedfor deleting the last entered character.
Application keys
A key used for temporary leaving theapplication ("escape to system") . It looks like a recycle sign onSeries 60 keypads,  End (akey with red handset picture)works similarly. With Communicator device use key bottom screen key.

Main and Other Menus

You start the application with the Main Menu. when youcan:
 
Start Gamethis is what you are most often after
Start Demolet the computer play itself
Top Scoresview local top scores and score submissiondetails
Configurationconfigure game options, customise keys, orregister the application
Informationview help and other information
Quityou might consider that option as well ...occasionally  :=)
To select an option press a phone key with the optionnumber. Alternatively use Up and Down keys (also Buttons 2 and 3 withS80)  to highlight an option, and then  press Left / Topscreen button, or OK to select it.

Right/Bottom screen button quits the application.Shift or Space is used for turning background music off and on.

Other menus (e.g . Configuration, Information indices)work similarly,  while Right/Bottom button doesn't quit theapplication, but reverts to the Main Menu

Preferences (Settings, Key Assignment)

A Preference Screen ( Settings, Key Assignment) is a list of items whereeach  may have one of several predefined values.

As in case of menus, select an item using Up and Down, or entering anitem number, then use Left and Right keys to modifythe value of selected item. You can modify several items and then pressOK, or Left/Top  button  (labeled  Accept)  toactivate  new values. Alternatively you can press Bottom/Rightscreen button (labeled Cancel) to discard all changes 
Other keys:
Clear or Menu - set all values to default.The values won't be accepted untill you press Accept button
Send or Space  -turn background music off/on

Entering Text

You need to enter text at the following screens
Music Files screen 
New Top Score
Registration screen
Use Up and Down keys to select an item to edit. For the edited itema space appears as underline. Use Left and Right arrows to changecurrent position in the edited text. Clear / Backspace is used fordeleting last character.

If the edited text is case-insensitive, you can enter only capitalletters (e.g. registration code) or only small letters (e.g. music filename) Otherwise  you can change letter case using  Shift (alldevices) ,  CapsLock (keyboard) , or  [#] (phone pad).

Case settings are:
abc  - low case
Abc  - auto (S60)
ABC - upper case
As usually, with a phone pad (S60) you may needto press a key several times to get the letter you want, and a onesecond timeout is set before the input is accepted.  To get anumber,  you need to bypass the letters. Keys 0 and 1are used for additional characters (space, punctuation marks). Startingfrom v 2.0.0 the application accepts accented characters (e.g. ö, ç, ñ).  As opposed to majority ofother applications,  using accented characters with iFrac isoptional, since most of downloaded files (including music files) usestandard ASCII character set. This option applies to input only,therefore you can temporary enable accented characters  to enter aparticular name. Using accented characters is specified by Character Set option in Settings

Music Files screen

Music Files screen is used for entering musicfile names discussed in details in MusicFile Names section.

File names can be entered as text data. Since Symbian OS treats filenames as case insensitive, all file names are entered inlower case. With a phone pad, a percentage sign % needed for enteringspecial file names (%none , %continue,  %restart)can be entered by repetative pressing  1 key.

Each time when you select Music Files screen, the application collectsfile names, including special names, and all supported files in lookupdirectories (see Music_FileNames ). The list is then sorted alphabetically.

The following additional keys are used:
Phone pad (S60)
 Keyboard (S80 )
 Action
*
Shift+Tab
 or <
Previous File Name (in alphabetic order)
#
Tab  or  >
Next File Name (in alphabetic order)
OK
Enter
Resolve: replace entered patten with firstavailable  file name following it, see comments below.
Send
Ctrl
Test (playback) on / off.When test is ON, music icon is shown and current file is played. Theplayback automatically changes with getting to next line, or selectinganother file, or stops when special name is selected.
Resolve processes part of the namebefore (excluding) current cursor (highlighted) position. For example,assume the list on file names contains beachboys.mid followedby beatles.mid. If you enter beatles, you get beatles.midonly if current cursor is at l (beatles ),or further. If the cursor is at t (bea tles),only part 'bea'  is processed, therefore beachboys.midis retrieved as a closer match. We believe though this is oftenconvenient, because of no need to clear the rest of edited text. Asopposed to that,  Previous Name and Next Nameinstructions always process full name.

Information (Help)  Screens

Screen buttons:

Left / Top  button -  bring up next page
Buttons 2 and 3  - scroll  current text up / down
Right / Bottom  button -back to information index

Arrows:

Up / Down - scroll current text up / down
Left / Right - bring up previous / next page respectively

To scroll faster (up to 9 lines forward or back) use Send and Clear keys on a phone pad, or keep Shift button pressed with Up or Down on a keyboard.

Playing Game

Game screen appearence

Game screen contains the following fields:

Speed level  - top left (S60) or right (S80) corner.

DEMO  notice  if  the application plays by itself.Shown in yellow colour  innormal mode (back lights are permanent), and in greycolour in power saving mode (back lights turn off after 15 seconds ofno key presses), see Demo for more

Sound mode icon represents current sound mode

 
Normal Sound Effects


Annoying Sound Effects


Background Music
no icon

Sound is Off
Below sound icon there is a volume bar  that representscurrent sound volume.

In case sound is temporary disabled (with Sound off/on command), icon frame appears grey and volume bar is not shown.


Play board  and  Next block - leave that withoutcomments for now :)


Status information:

Score
Current score
LayersNumber of completed layers
BonusValue that will be added to score if the blockdrops right now (see Score for alanded block ).
BlocksTotal number of blocks processed from thestartof the game (excluding current).
Remain Number of layers to complete before the speedlevel advances automatically.
Place Place of the current score inthe local Top Score list (see Top Scorer).
Pauses (S80)Number of pauses ( includes using Pause modeand escapes to system).

Operating game

While playing a game the arrows and screen buttons andsome predefined keys are used as given by the following diagram: 
Series 60
 Series 80
Action / Default Action
Left screen button Screen Button 1Next Level

Screen Button 3
Finish game
Right screen buttonScreen Button 4
Pause
Arrows  Left, Right , Up, Down:Left, Right, Back, Forward  resp.

B or M
Sound off/on

N
Turn

However, most of the operation keys are now customised. Refer to Key Assignment  section for thedetails.

Default Series 60 key actions are choosen accoring to keypad type:7650 and 6600 have a 'traditional' rectangular keypad  (known asT9),  while 3650  place keys circularly, and  SX1locates keys at both sides of the screen (two-column keypad)

The default phone/letter key actions for  T9 (rectangular)  keypad  and  Communicator keyboard are:
1 Q Back-left
2 W Back
3 E Back-right
4 A Left5 S Turn Reverse
6 D Right
7 Z Fwd-left
8 X Forward
9 C Fwd-right
* Ctrl Turn 0   Menu Drop
# Space Down / Drop
Default phone key actions for 3650 (circular)keypad:

1 Turn
0 Down /Drop

2Back-left


9 Back-right
3 Left
* Back
# Forward
8 Right
4 Fwd-left


7 Fwd-right

5 TurnBack    
6 Drop

Default phonekey actions for SX1 (two-column) keypad:
1 TurnBack  
                    
6 Drop
2 Back   7 Forward
3 Back-left
8 Back-right
4 Left
9 Right
5 Fwd-left
0Fwd-right
* Turn
# Down /Drop


In Demo mode arrow keys and some command actions are used in a specialway. Refer to  Demo  section for thedetails

Board scan

After compleing a layer in non-Demo mode the application startsscanning board layers. Though it is your only chance to see the hiddenplaces, it is often annoying. You can stop scanning the board atany time by pressing either a screen button, or  one ofthe following keys:  Send ,OK,  [*],  [0],  [#] (Series 60),   Space,Enter,  Esc (Communicator).

Pause and Summary

You can pause a game by entering Pause command, orpressing  Right / Bottom screen button. As opposed to pressing anapplication key ("escape to system")  this doesn't leave theapplication,but brings you a pause screen where you can either terminate the game,ore resume it after a while.

Summary screen appears after a game terminates and  Summaryafter game is enabled in Settings

The following pages are shown:

Game status  information about current game and soundsettings:
Pause count  (includes using Pause mode and escapes tosystem)
Total duration of the game and "pure duration" - time spent on movingblocks
Average time spent on a block
Number of blocks: total and dropped
Total score and "pure score" (accumulated bonus) - score obtained forplacing blocks
Average bonus per block
Position of current score in the local score table
Current sound settings (can be modified - see below)
Block statistics:  number of blocks of each type appearedso far
Score table: top scores (before current game)
Current page changes in regular tile interval, while youcan also force changing page forward and backward

While opening Pause/Statistics screen, sound is suspended. Using Sound status action, you can set status toone of the following:
Suspended (S) - no sound while pausing, but resumed after leaving Pause mode.
Disabled (D)- no sound in Pause mode and after leaving it
Enabled - sound right now !

You can control pause mode using the following keys:

  S60 Key  
  S80 Key  
Action
Left
Go to previous display page.   
Right
Go to next display page
Up
Increase sound volume
Down
Reduce sound volume
[*]
TabSound mode
[#]
Space or Menu
Sound status
OK
Enter
Back to game (Pause only)
Send
Esc
Terminate game

Any key not listed in the above table and configured for Soundoff/on ,  Sound mode, Volume Up and VolumeDown operates in Pause according to its configuration ( Soundon/off  acts are Sound status).

New Top Score

If you reached a top score, you can either discard your result, orsave it in the Local Score Table, to be seen later in Top Scores screen. Before savingthe score, you may change scorer name.  Scorer name must benon-empty .

To save the new  top score, press Accept screen button,  alternatively press Discard screen button toavoidsaving your score.

Demo

Demo (demonstration) is a self play mode using arather silly logic (probably the only part that remained completetyunchanged since very first Linux release)  for placing blocks. Itmight be useful for someone who is completely new to the game, as wellas  good for presentation ... and testing. When a demo finishes(it happens more often then you might expect), a summary screen appears for few seconds (even if summary screen is disabled in Settings), andthen a new demostarts. You can get out of Demo mode by pressing Pause or Quit. Note that Pause command does not really pause ademo,  whereas you can always pause using "escape to system".

In Demo mode you obviously can't control current block, insteadyou can use arrow keys to control sound options:

Arrow key
Action
Left
Change sound mode
Right
Sound off / on
Up
Volume Up
Down
Volume Down
Turn and Turn Reverse commandsare used to toggle power saving mode. By default (permanentlights) back lights are always on, which is good for presentationbut flattens your batteries and is not healthy for the screen. If youwant to leave the application in Demo mode for a while, switch to powersaving mode by pressing a key assigned to Turn or TurnReverseaction - as a result of that DEMO notice changes colour from yellowto grey to indicate power saving, and theback lights turn off after no more that 15 seconds. To get back topermanent lights mode press the key again. 

The following key actions operate as usually in demo mode :  Next  level, Sound on/fff, Sound mode, Volume Up/Down, Quit . 

Score Tables

Local Score Table and Top Scoresscreen.

Local Store Table  keeps  10 best results for thecurrentdevice stored in local data base. To view Local Score Table, select TopScores from the Main Menu,

The following information is displayed:

S60:

Position - a number from 1 to 10
Name (max 3 characters)
Level count (see Speed Levelsand Level Count ).
Score
Date in the default format

S80:

Position - a number from 1 to 10
Name (max 30 characters )
Level count (see Speed Levelsand Level Count ).
Level-layers - starting level and number of "dirty" layers separated bya hyphen(-)
Score
Date in the default format

World-Wide Score Table andSubmission Detailsscreen

If your score is at least 10000, not less than 1.5 theoriginal score (in case you start the game with initial bonus, e.g.non-empty board at start), and among top 3 of your personal top scores(i.e. top scores stored on the current device), you are given a codefor submitting your result to the World-Wide Score Table. In order tosucceed, the result should be among 30 world top scores. You don't needto be a registered user for score submission.

The submission details (date, score and code) are stored in thelocal data base. To overview this information, select Top Scoresfrom the Main Menu, and then press  Submission Details (Left or Top) screen button. You can press the button again to get beckto Top Scores. Right or Botton screen button brings up Main Menu.

Starting from version 1.1.0, you can additionally store fullsubmission URL (host name, user name, score and code) outsideapplication data base . On S60 the URL is stored as a Notepad memo,while with S80 a link is placed on the Desk. When using full submissionURL, you don't need to type in the data, however you still have achance to disguise your name, or enter additional information (email,location, etc). As a disadvantage, you haveto spend time on deleting the memo, or link. Storing full submissionURL can be enabled, or disabled with WW info in Notepad,or WW submission links in Configuration / Settings.

Configuration

The Configuration menu item is available from  themain menu.

It provides the sub-menu having the following  items:


The features are discussed later in this chapter.

Settings

To settings select Configuration from the MainMenu, and then choose Settings.
Feature
Default
 Description
Starting speed 
1
 Enable starting game from a higher level  Alsoapplies to demo. If starting level ishigher than 1, the lower levels will also be skipped during arollover.  See  Speed Levels and LevelCount.   and  Scoring
Starting layers
0
 Enable starting game from a non-empty board. Also appliesto demo mode. See  Scoring
Summary after game
Enabled
 Whether on not to show Summary Screen after a game
Auto-repeat rate Normal How long a key has to be kept pressed, before its actionis repeated. Three rates are accepted: Slow (the longesttimeout), Normal and Fast. For Down/Dropaction, auto-repeat rate affects thetime a key needs to be kept pressed, before  the block isdropped
WW info in Notepad (S60)Enabled
Whether or not to store full submission URL as a Notepadmemo. See World Wide Score and SubmissionDetails  for more informations.
WW submission links (S80) Enabled
Whether or not to store full submission URL as a link onthe Desk. See World Wide Score andSubmission Details  for the details.
Sound mode
Normal
Off  great for playing at work :)
Normal
generate sound for the followingevents:  layer release,  new level, gameended, and new top score
Annoying 
in addition to "normal" events,generate sound for block drift down, block drop and blockstop.
Music
background music, no sound effects
Sound  volume
Average
Low
1/4 of maximum volume
Average
1/2 of maximum volume
High
1/2 of maximum volume
Extreme  
guess
Back light effects Enabled
If enabled, and your device has back lights, the screenwill flash while changing speed level.
Input device (S80)Auto If your device has a keyboard, you might pretend not havingit. This silly feature is left for purely nostalgic reasons and mightprobably go in the next edition. Available values:
Phone Keys
assume there are only numeric keys (inparticular, for entering a letter you need to press a key several times)
Keyboard
assume keyboard is present
Auto
check hardware for a keyboard, or assumekeyboard when a letter key is pressed
Character set (S60)
Standard
Standarduse standard ASCII characterset
Extended  
use standard ASCII and localcharacters (see Entering_Text)

Key Assignment

Functionality of customised keys can be set up using thefollowing screens:
Series 60:
        Configuration/Numeric Keys fornumeric keys
        Configuration/Other Keys for otherkeys:  [*], [#], OK, Send,Shift, Clear

Series 80:
        Configuration/Letter Keysfor left letter keys:  Q W E    A S D  Z X C
        Configuration/SpecialKeys  for   Esc, Tab, Ctrl, Shift, Space, Menu, Enter,Backspace.

Be warned that some keys (Ctrl, Shift) do not generateauto-repeat events and are not recommended to be used for blockmovement,  Down/Drop,  or another action that depends onauto-repeat.


The following tables lists actions  that can be assigned to anycustomised key. For the default key assignment refer to  Operating_gamesection.

Key action
Description
Not used
No use - no comments
Back-Left,  Back, Back-Right,
Left, Right, 
Forward-Left, Forward, Forward-Right
Move current block horizontally in specifieddirection. If a diagonal move cannot be implemented, the block willmove along a non-blocked subdirection if available, e.g. Back-Left acts as Left if back movement is impossible but the way leftis open,  or as  Back in the opposite situation.
Turn,  Turn Reverse
Turn current block in one of two possibledirections:  if block dimensions are v1 x v2 x v3, you can geteither v2 x v3 x v1, or  v3 x v1 x v2 depending on the choosendirection. Note that since at least two of v1, v2, v3 are same, thereare no more than 3 possible orientations (determined by position of theodd value in the triplet).
Down
Move current block down without decerementingbonus (see Scorefor a landed block)
Drop
Drop current block - this will add currentbonus to the score and bring up next block
Down/Drop
A short-time press is equivalent to Down , if pressed for longer (causing auto-repeat) acts as  Drop.
Pause
Pause a game, where you can check status,control sound mode and volume. While in pause mode you can eitherterminate the game, or continue after a while.
Quit
Terminate the game
Sound off/on
Temporary disable or re-enable sound. Thisdoes not affect settings.
Sound mode
For sound mode optionsrefer to Settings.
Volume Up/Down
Increase/decrease volume (with roll over). Forvolume values refer to Settings.

Music File Names

To play background music set soundmode  to music in Configuration/Settings.  iFrac doesn't come with music files: you need to suply your own,but only ones you like the best :)

Files names are entered and stored without apath. Apart for an obvious convenience for users who have a vagueidea of what a path is, this approach has another (probably moreimportant advantage): you can freely copy a file from phone memory toyour memory card, or to another appropriate directory without need tomodify the music file configuration. As a disadvantage, your shouldavoid having same file name in different locations.

You can set a file for each speed level, Main Menu and other non-gamescreen, New Top Score screen. Music is automatically resumed after a 3second time-out.. In the game you can turn music on and off usingSound off/on command.

Instead of a real file name, you can enter a special file name, startedwith % (actually you don't need to code the whole name, just one letterafter % will do) . The following special names are accepted:
Special Name
 Description    
%continue
Just leave it as it is. Music (if any) willgo on *
This allows splitting same music file between several consecutivelayers.
%none
Stop music if needed, don't playanything
%restart
Start playing last file (if any)from beginning *
* Starting fromversion 2.1.0 processing of special names for a higher starting levelis a slightly more complex. When you start a game with level more than1 and file name for the starting level is %continue or %restart, the application looks backward to find the file (or silence) thatwould be played for that level, in case of starting from level 1.

 For example, suppose the following file names are specified:
Intro: MusicIntro.mid
Lev1:  Music1.mid
Lev2:  %continue
Lev3:  %continue
If a game starts from level 3,  version2.1.0  plays  Music1.mid,  while  version 2.0.0 continues playing  MusicIntro.mid.

MIDI format is a definite advantage, unless your device has problemsplaying it. Other Symbian OS standard audio formats (like amr, or wav)are also supported, but may overload the system, therefore are notrecommended. To enable music files, simply copy them to Sound Filesdirectory onyour memory card, or phone memory. With 3650 / SX1 you may find moreapporpriate to use Digital subdirectory of Sound Files instead. Alsoyou might prefer to create a separate subdirectory of Sound Files namedNiFrac to be used exclusively by this application.   
Entering file names is discussed in Music_Files_screen  section.

If you are familiar with Symbian OS file system, this is the listof  lookup directories in the order of preference:
\Sounds\NiFrac
\Nokia\Sounds\NiFrac
\Sounds\Digital
\Nokia\Sounds\Digital
\Sounds
\Nokia\Sounds
\System\Sounds\Digital
\System\Sounds
According to Symbian OS design (whether or not we like it),for each path drive C: is processed first, then all additional storage(including memory cards), and finally ROM drive.

Custom Sound Effects

Now you can also have custom sound effects (SFX), thoughyou mightfind it less convenient then music files specification.

Currently  .wav  is the only supported format for SFXfiles,  and file names are predefined:
File Name
Description
ifr_down.wav
Block drifts down after a timeout
ifr_drop.wav
Block is dropped with Drop command
ifr_fall.wav
Block stops (can't move down)
ifr_flash.wav
Flashing completed layers before release
ifr_level.wav
New speed level
ifr_ended.wav
Game ended
ifr_newScore.wav
New top score
You don't need to provide all custom files:the apllication will use its own sound effect, if a corresponding userfile is unavailable. It is recommended to avoid using files withduration longer than 0.2 sec as ifr_down.wav, or longer than0.4 sec as   ifr_drop.wav ifr_fall.wav or ifr_flash.wav.

As in case of music, you can place an SFX file in any directory usedfor storing  .wav files (i.e. Sound Files,  or its Digitalsubdirectory) in phone memory, or memory card, however there areadditional requirements:
If you add / remove a custom SFX file, you need to restart theapplication to activate the changes.

Registration screen

To bring up registration screen select Configuration/ Register . Same screen appears after an unregistered copystarts.

The registration screen allows entering registration details: user nameand registration code.   The registration is discussed in Registration chapter.Refer to Entering Text sectionfor details regarding entering text. Press left screen button to savethe registration details, or right screen buttonto postpone the registration.

A registered copy does show registration screen at start, while Configuration / Register brings up an information window with User Name,Registration Date, and related links..

Registration

Advantages of Registration

We would be happy to make iFrac free of charge(and get rid of this annoying section in the manual), but unfortunatelyour financial situation depends much on it :). Even though it isn'tfree, we believe our prices are cheap and affordable.

As mentioned in the introduction the conditions for an unregistereduser are now different. The application will always roll over fromlevel 9 to starting level, ... but you need to reach level 9 first :=)

When a game starts, and unregistered versionselects a number between staring speed level and 9 (i.e. the last level number) as cut-off level . Once the game speed level getsover the cut-off level, the game terminates. You might be lucky enoughto get 9 as the cutt-off level in which case the game will neverterminate prematurely !

If you read the above lines carefully, you havenoticed that your chance to get 9 as the cut-off level increases withstarting speed level. In particular if you start from speed level 9 ...well, as you probably guessed, this "breach" is deliberate and meant tocomfort someone who might argue that new conditions are tighter thanprevious: now you have a back way, while you didn't have any before. Bythe way,  you still can submit your World Wide score without needto register !

The registered copy skips registration screen atstart, shows Licensed to<username> and does not show UNREGISTEREDduring a game.

And the last ( but definitely not least) :
If you are comfortable with a unregistered copy, you mayalso consider registration, to support our effort in creating firstclass software for Palm and mobile phones running  alternativeplatforms, and in particular encourage further iFrac development.

Where and how.

You can purchase the product from the following sites:
http://www.softwaremarket.nokia.com 
http://www.handango.com
http://www.mobile2day.de
http://www.smartsam.de
While registering the product, you will have toquote the user name . This name will appear as Licenced to name. You will be  given a code (referred to as registrationcode),  that you will have to enter along with the user name(see Register ). The registration code forthe given user name is valid for all future releases of the application..

The code consists of 12 capital letters or number. It may include letters O and I , butnever numbers 0 or 1. To enter the registration code,select Configuration from the mainmenu, then choose Register sub-item.You will have to restart the application to activate the registration code.  

If you purchased version 1 ...

The registration code code for version 1 isincompatible, however ...

If your version 2 copy is registered for version1, itwill still operate as a registered copy, as long as you don't set SoundModeto Music, while when Sound Mode is Music, it will work as ununregistered copy. You can always change Sound Mode to Music, ornon-Music using Settings screen so that theapplication will change its behaviour accrodingly, but you can't changeSound Mode from non-Music to Music during a game.

In order to upgrade from v1 to v2 for a discountedprice send us an email and quote  your user name and current (v1-compatible) registration code. Once you get a new code, set Sound Modeto Music (so that the copy becomes unregistered) and enter registrationdetails in the usual way.