Hello there!

Welcome to a short 'Skullitaire' introduction!

If you are playing the full version WITHOUT having registered:

        register now...

        Okay, but promise you'll do that after reading this message!
        (We need the money cause our programmers haven't been fed for
        quite a while and they are getting really dangerous then...)


So...

This introduction will help you do get along with Skullitaire and its editor
very fast. Let's start with


THE MENU

Here you have the pointer (the skull with a burning candle on top). Moving
the pointer with your mouse across the menu you will discover that there
are several places where you receive messages (like: start game). Press the
mouse button and see what happens then... (astounding, isn't it?)

These are the possible choices in the MENU:

> START GAME:

- after clicking here you will get into the CHOOSE GRAVEYARD MENU.
  Here you can choose between three graveyards with three difficulty-
  levels and you can (by clicking on the name-line) select a custom
  level (built on the editor) and play it by clicking on THE CUSTOM
  LEVELS (watch the bottom of the screen where you will get helpful
  messages all the time while being in any menu)

> OPTIONS:

- on this screen you will see several tombstones named 'on' and
  'off' and some words next to them.
  This is the place where you can make the game more comfortable for, 
  if you want to... (or need to...)

  SOUND: choose if you want to listen to SFX or to eternal silence....

  TIME : choose if you want to see the used time while playing

  AUTO-: choose if you want the options you're just dealing with will be
  SAVE   saved or not after leaving this menu

  SCENES: choose if you want to watch the skeletons in action or
          skip the funny animations...
  
  leave: exit this menu and go back to THE MENU

> HIGHSCORES:

- here you can see the best ratings for each graveyard (first: skeleton, 
  time needed)
  With NEXT you can see the list for the next level or graveyard.
  OKAY will take you back to THE MENU.

- if you want to create a NEW HIGHSCORE LIST just delete the scully.hi file
  that can be found in the skullitaire directory. Skullitaire will create
  a new one when being started afterwards. (for all newcomers to DOS: the
  command del scully.hi should do it...)


> EDITOR:

- With the EDITOR you can design your own graveyards!!!!

  The whole process is split into two parts:

  PART ONE - placing the graves and skeletons

  You start with a green meadow. At the top of the screen you can see several
  menu topics.

  ABORT will get you out of the editor into THE MENU.

  LOAD will allow you to load already built custom levels and to re-edit them.

  SAVE will save the actual graveyard

  NEXT will take you to PART TWO - placing of bushes and walls


  But first you will have to place some graves and skeletons. Place your
  pointer somewhere and click once with the left mouse button: an empty 
  grave will appear. If you do this a second time on the same spot, you 
  will put a skeleton into that grave. Pressing the right button you will 
  undo that status.
  If you think you have placed enough graves and skeletons you can choose
  NEXT or SAVE and the program will test your graveyard. If there are any
  single graves or any empty graves or something like that, you will be
  instructed by the tutor (Don't worry, he'll stay on the screen.)
  After having finished this part you can SAVE or go to PART TWO with NEXT

  PART TWO - placing of bushes and walls

  Now you can do something for the design of your own graveyard. You will
  see that your mouse pointer looks rather strange now... it's a BUSH!!!
  Well, with the left mouse button you can place that bush anywhere you want
  (but you better not plant it onto the graves for obvious reasons...).
  With the right mouse button you can change the type of bush or wall you
  wish to place AND you can (by holding the right button) get into
  the menu at the top of the screen. Move it onto one of the topics and 
  release the button to make your choice.

  Here you can see two new choices now:

  PREV - go back two PART ONE

  DELETE - if you choose this one you can delete the already placed bushes
           and walls easily by pointing on them with the left mouse button.

> OLD FELLOW:

- this guy wants to tell you something about his fellow undeads...

> QUIT:

- leave SKULLITAIRE


THE RULES FOR SKULLITAIRE are very simple. Just try to leave only one
skeleton on the screen. The skeletons only move to another grave if there
is a fellow on their way to be thrown out of his grave...
Choose a skeleton with the left mouse button. (the yellow square means
'chosen') Then choose the grave you want the skeleton to move to (the 
possible choices, if there are any, will be marked by a grey square) and 
watch the skeleton, well, "remove" the skeleton in the grave it passes.
When there are no more moves possible the computer will count the skeletons
you left and the time you needed for this and if you are good enough, you
may write your name into the highscore list.

We hope you have fun (and register...) while playing SKULLITAIRE!
We enjoyed making it for you.


- SCRIPTORIUM, 09/04/1995



By the way: If you have some problems getting Skullitaire started, 
            the "scully.faq" file should help you.