
Time Agent Bookkeeper, version 1.0

  This program is for use with the board game "Time Agent", published
by TimJim/Prism Games. There's a lot of bookkeeping involved in each
turn of "Time Agent", as technologies get turned on and off and the
players' RP and VP totals get modified accordingly. You can use this
program to make some of that bookkeeping easier.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

   2364 bytes to store prgmTIMEAGT
  ~5800 bytes of free memory to run
  -----
  ~8100 total bytes
   

USING THE BOOKKEEPER

  The TIMEAGT program is organized as a series of menus. The main
menu looks like this:

   1:CHANGE
   2:STANDINGS
   3:RED DISKS
   4:NEW GAME

  The first time you run prgmTIMEAGT during a game of "Time Agent",
select "NEW GAME" to set up the internal event list. The other
options will just print garbage or crash unless you do this first.

  Every time a player's action causes an event to flip, or a
technology to become connected or disconnected, select "CHANGE".
You'll see a series of sub-menus; select the zone of the changed
event, and then select the name of the event. (To make each menu fit
on a single screen, zone 5 shares a sub-menu with zone 3, and the
three Zytal-Buralti Wars are in a sub-sub-menu of their own.)

  (If you select the wrong sub-menu by mistake, the last option in
most of the menus is "<=", which takes you back to the top-level menu.
If you don't see that option, you can always flip whatever event is
first in the current sub-menu, and then flip it back immediately.)

  After you flip an event or technology, you'll see a screen that
looks like this:

   3  TURNED OFF
   BURALTI    45 49
   FIOLLI     27 22
   HUMAN      28 27
   ROO        24 25
   VENEB      18 43
   ZYTAL      20 9

The top line is a quick reminder whether you just turned the event
on (removed a red disk) or off (added a red disk). (The number at
the start of the top line is an index into the internal event list,
which you can ignore.) The other six lines display the new RP and VP
totals for each player race. Pressing "Enter" from this screen will
return you to the main menu.

  Pressing "2" at the main menu will show you the same screen,
with RP and VP column headers:

              RP VP
   BURALTI    45 49
   FIOLLI     27 22
   HUMAN      28 27
   ROO        24 25
   VENEB      18 43
   ZYTAL      20 9

  Pressing "3" at the main menu will show you exactly which events
and technologies should have red disks on them:

   RED DISKS ON
   BLACKHOLE
   FREE TRDR
   F. FIELDS

If more than 15 red disks are on the board, the program will show
the remaining events and technologies, i.e., everything without a
red disk on it:

   RED DISKS ON
   ALL BUT
   BLACKHOLE
   FREE TRDR
   F. FIELDS

  The output from this option may span up to three screens. If it spans
multiple screens, the output will pause every seven lines and wait
for you to press "Enter" before continuing.

  If no red disks are present (e.g., at the beginning of the game),
you'll see the ungrammatical but concise message

   RED DISKS ON

If every one of the events and technologies is covered by a red disk,
then the game is over and the Zytal have absolutely crushed everyone
else. However, in that case you'll see the similarly ungrammatical
message

   RED DISKS ON
   ALL BUT

  There is no "quit" option in the TIMEAGT program. When you're done
using it, press "On" to terminate the program. All your game data
will be kept in L1, L3, and L4 until you write over it. This means
that you can terminate TIMEAGT, turn off the calculator to save its
batteries, and then run TIMEAGT again to pick up the game where you
left off. (If you're resuming an old game, do not select "NEW GAME"
at the main menu, or your old game's data will be overwritten!)


BORING DETAILS

  This program is freeware; you can do whatever you like with it.
The makers of the "Time Agent" board game (Tom Lehmann et alia) are
totally unaffiliated with this calculator program; any mistakes in it
are my fault, not theirs. (TIMEAGT does incorporate the official
erratum adjusting the VP totals for R-B War #1.) If you find any
errors in this program, please let me know. My e-mail address is
available through www.ticalc.org, or elsewhere online.

  I can't help you find a copy of "Time Agent", sorry. As far as I
know, TimJim/Prism Games went out of business in the late '90s, and
so "Time Agent" is currently out of print. There are a fair number
of used copies for sale online.


Arthur O'Dwyer
3 June 2007
