Feat Engine.pkg In order to Calculate a certain Frequently-Used Formula in Adventure Entertainments. ‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹What in Blazes‹? Watch your language! Ladies of Quality are Present. Else I shall be Forced to Thrash you. In an Adventure Entertainment using Castle Falkenstein rules, one Situation that occurs Frequently is the ³Feat Performance,² in which a Dramatic Character with certain Abilities decides whether He or She may adequately perform a certain Task. As an Example, the secret agent Randall Featheringstone attempts to jump from his Gyrocopter to the Black Aerozeppelin manned by Pietr Rassandro, a Villain. High winds make it an Exceptionally difficult feat, and the Host will further hinder Randall by drawing a card from the Deck. But our man is a Great Athlete, and further has the Ace of Clubs in his Fortune Hand! He plays itŠ the Host's card is RevealedŠ Does Mr. Featheringstone catch the struts of the Airship? Or does he plummet to a Certain Death on the rocky shores of Dover? Your new Babbage Feat Engine can tell you! I shall now Drop the Pseudo-Victorian Style for reasons of Legibility; and also because it is Annoying in large Doses. ‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹Installing You can install this package using the Newton Connection Utility, the Newton Backup Utility, or another package utility (such as LunaTech Research's PDA Package Downloader). Feat Engine works and has been tested under NOS 1.3, NOS 2.0, and NOS 2.1. It's simple enough so that no performance degradation is noted with the older machines like the MP100. Hey, if you have one of those, why not leave it out on the table for your players to use? Feat Engine adds nothing to your System soup. Once you scrub it out or remove it using the Memory panel, it departs cleanly and quietly. It may be stored on a RAM card without difficulty. ‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹Using the package After installation, tap on the Feat Engine icon. The window will pop up; it's a floater, so you can drag it around if you like. This is mostly for MP2000 and eMate users. On other systems it sort of dominates the screen. The package will work in any orientation, but for130 and older MessagePads, Portrait is the only way you'll get it completely on-screen. There are three main areas in the display: The Character's Ability, The Feat's Difficulty, and The Result. There's also an Info button on the status bar, all the way at the bottom. This follows Thorsten Lange's protocol for i++, which is recommended sincerely for any owner of an OS2.0 or later Newton. The Info button will have an option to display the ³About² box. The Character's Ability is meant for just that. The Feat's Difficulty can be either that or another Character's Ability score, if they're competing. The levels of Ability (or Difficulty) are as listed in the rules; tap on the appropriate one. To the right of the Ability buttons is a space where the cards played may be registered. You can either tap the top or bottom of the number's square to increase it or decrease it (similar to setting an appointment's time in the Dates application), or you can use the ³Add² button. This will pop up a list of card values that might be played. If several are played together, you may either use this button several times or add them up in your head and merely add the result. The ³Reset² button will set the Card Value to zero. The Result immediately displays the level of success or failure when anything in the display changes. ‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹Shareware fee Nothing! Nada! Zilch! For one thing, the audience is limited; I may already know every Castle Falkenstein player that uses a Newton. For another, this was a remarkably easy program to write. It worked (almost) properly the first time I ran it, and that's rare. I do ask that you send me a postcard or an eMail message commenting on it. If you've downloaded this out of curiosity, there's another step. Please visit the Castle Falkenstein page of my website (URL below) and read the information about the game‹ it'll take you only a couple of minutes. Does it sound good? I sure hope so! Now follow the link to R. Talsorian Games, which publishes it. You can order the rulebook there. Better game stores and bookstores may also have it, but don't count on it. This game is for mature, intelligent gamers, and most of the hobby is not aimed at people like us, alas. For the very lazy or those who don't have Web access, eMail me and I'll send you the relevant information. ‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹Distribution This package may be distributed freely, as long as [] this ReadMe file is included and [2] no fee is charged for its distribution. Online services which charge a reasonable hourly rate but do not charge for downloads may place it in their libraries. Distributors of CD-ROMs and other software libraries may include it if prior permission is given; write to the author for details. The author has also released a number of other small but useful pieces of shareware and freeware. They're uploaded regularly to the usual sites. I can be reached at Saint John Morrison PO Box 7352 Philadelphia PA 19101 email web ftp ‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹Copyrights Although Feat Engine may be copied and distributed freely, I retain the copyright on it; it is ©1997 St. John Morrison. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple Logo and Newton are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. MessagePad is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. This product includes material derived from Castle Falkenstein, a product of R. Talsorian Games Inc. Castle Falkenstein is © 1994 and  R. Talsorian Games Inc. R. Talsorian Games does not endorse this product or its use. Reviewed and permitted under R. Talsorian Games legal use guidelines.