Who Wants to be a Millionaire 1.2.6 Readme.txt ---------------------------------------------- Millionaire - by Thomas Grayston This softare may be freely distributed WITHOUT modification. Use this software at your own risk. No responsibility will be taken for loss of data etc etc... I recommend you thoroughly test out what you plan to do before you run millionaire in front of an audience! For more information: http://millionaire.scoretaker.com millionaire@scoretaker.com General: -------- Millionaire must be run in 1024x768 screen resolution. All questions are contained in questions.mdb. To edit, use MS Access 2000 or later. Options: -------- Background: Use Background picture or Solid Colour. A Solid Colour can be used in conjunction with some video capture devices. If the capture software uses a coloured mask, it can be run behind millionaire and show through. Category: Questions.mdb is divided into user defined categories. Here you can choose to use only 1 category, or randomly select the category for each question. Display Category: If ticked, the current category will be displayed on the main screen. Useful in conjunction with 'All Categories' Reset Used: When a question is selected during the course of the program, it is marked as 'used' so it isn't picked again on the next round. If you want to start fresh with all questions available, click 'Reset Used' to reset all questions to unused. Control Panel: -------------- Contains all controls for running millionaire. If you have a multiple monitor system, you can move the Control Panel onto the second monitor for the controller to see. All essential functions can be accessed through keyboard shortcuts with the main screen selected. One drawback of not seeing the Control Panel is that you can't tell whether the answer is correct or not until everyone does. Essentially, to run the program: 1. Click Next until the question and all options are displayed. 2. Once the contestant has 'locked in' an answer, click the appropriate option. The correct option will be highlighted in bold on the control panel once an option is locked in. 3. Click 'Correct?' 4. If correct, it will be highlighted in green on the main screen 5. Click Next. The amount just won is displayed 6. Click Next. Screen is cleared. Repeat from step 1. If an incorrect answer is selected, the correct answer is highlighted and the lose sound is played. Clicking Next displays the total amount won. The Level is reset to 1. Proceed from step 1 for the next round. At any question level, "Take the Money" can be used to bail out. The total amount won is displayed and the level is reset to 1. Once level 15 is answered correctly, the level is reset to 1, ready for another round. Panel: ------ At any time, you can click 'Show Panel' to display the levels and lifelines panel on the side of the screen. The Question should be hidden automatically if it is visible. I recommend only using this between questions (when screen is blank) or when a question is fully shown and the contestant is choosing an answer. Lifelines: ---------- When a question is fully shown, any of the three lifelines can be used in any order. -50:50 automatically knocks out 2 incorrect answers leaving one correct and one incorrect (hence a 50:50 chance) -Phone a friend starts the music and displays the counter for a few seconds before automatically starting to count down. -Ask the Audience plays the ask the audience sound. I recommend getting the audience to cheer for each option ("Let's hear it for A:Blue"). ie. The louder the cheer, the more likely it is to be correct. Keyboard shortcuts: ------------------- Even if you do have two monitors, keyboard shortcuts can be the easiest way to control most functions of millionaire. To use these shortcuts, the MAIN WINDOW MUST HAVE FOCUS. (not the control panel). To give the Main Window focus, click on it, or click "Show Main" on the control panel. N - Next (This controls the Next and Correct buttons on the control panel. ie use this after inputting a correct answer too) A,B,C,D - Lock in answer T - Take the money (Only use this when the question is displayed and no answer has been locked in) 5 - Activate 50:50 F - Activate Phone a Friend (Press F again to finish phone a friend before 30 secs is up) K - Activate asK the audience S - Stops all sound M - resumes current music P - Show Panel (with current level and available lifelines) Q - Show Question (for use after showing panel) L - Show Millionaire Logo (big) H - Hide the above 9 - Show Applause sign 0 - Hide Applause sign C - Show conTrol panel X - Exit Editing Questions.mdb --------------------- To edit the questions, or create more of your own, you'll need to know the basics of how to use Access 2000 (or higher). The 'Categories' Table ---------------------- All Questions are related to a category by specifying the CategoryID. To add a category, type a name for the new category under the Name field in the last row. A new CategoryID is automatically assigned. To add questions to a category, make note of the appropriate CategoryID. The 'Levels' Table ------------------ Specifies the names of the 15 levels of difficulty. By default they are related to $100 through to $1 Million, but you can use other things. For example: 1 lolly through to 15 lollies, as per Levels lolly. To use the Levels lolly set of levels, delete the Levels table and copy 'Levels lolly' as 'Levels'. (Use copy and paste on the edit menu) Millionaire is set on 15 levels. DO NOT DELETE OR ADD any records to the Levels table. The 'Questions' Table --------------------- Each question is in its own row. Here's what all the fields mean: ID: QuestionID, so millionaire can keep track of questions. CategoryID: The Category that this question is related to. LevelID: The Level of difficulty of this question. (as per the Levels table) Question: The text of the question. Option1,2,3,4: The four possible options. (corresponding to A,B,C,D) CorrectNo: The number of the correct option. OtherNoFor5050: The incorrect option which will be left after a 50:50. (ie CorrectNo and OtherNo.. are left, the other two options are taken out) Used: Used by millionaire to keep track of used questions. Good Luck! ---------- If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at millionaire@scortaker.com I'd love to hear how this program helps you! -Thomas Grayston Version History --------------- 1.2.6 (5-Aug-2004) Improvements: - Sound files recompressed into mp3 format. - Can choose any colour on the screen for background. Use this feature to select the mask colour on your video capture device. - Improved finishing of round sequence - On Losing, the winning amount is displayed (Safe Levels: Nothing, $1k or $32k) - New "Take the Money" option - displays winning amount and restarts - Only use this when the question is being displayed with nothing locked in - Use shortcut: T (Control panel is now C) - When an answer is incorrect, the incorrect answer text is coloured red 1.1 Improvements: - Category support added - Option to change background between image or magenta 1.0 Original Version