

                        Countdown Game Puzzle Solver
                        ============================


Documentation for !CountDown application version 3.02 (21-Mar-1994).

Issue: 3.02 (21-Mar-1994), replaces:    0.10     13-Feb-1991
                                        1.00     23-Feb-1991
                                        1.00/R   21-Jun-1991
                                        2.00     29-Jul-1991
                                        2.00/R   31-Jul-1992
                                        3.00     04-Apr-1994
Author: David J Ruck

Copyright  DEEJ Technology PLC 1991-1997

This program is FREEWARE not Public Domain, the author retains full
copyright. It may be distributed freely as long as all files are supplied in
unaltered condition, and no charge is made except for the minimal cost of
media and postage / distribution.
 

Introduction
============

!CountDown was written to take on and win against the long running Channel 4
TV program Countdown (shown at 4:30pm weekdays, most of the year). This was
necessary as the programmers brain just wasnt up to the job without
assistance from the Archimedes.

!CountDown will enable both numbers and letters games from the TV program to
be solved. When played alongside contestants on the show it should enable
the user to win the vast majority of games.



Using !Countdown
================

Double click on the !CountDown application to install its icon on the
iconbar. Clicking on its icon will bring up a Countdown Numbers and a
Countdown Letters window, the iconbar menu can be used to bring up the
windows individually.


Countdown Letters
-
The idea of the Countdown letters game is to find the longest possible word
that can be made from a selection of nine vowels and consonants. The words
found must be in the Oxford Concise Dictionary and obey the scrabble rules -
no proper nouns, etc. It can also be used to solve the nine letter
conundrum.

A Countdown Letters window consists of boxes in which to type the chosen
vowels and consonants, buttons to control the search, boxes showing how it
is progressing, and a scrollable window for the words that are found.

Blue boxes              Click the mouse over the left-most blue box and a
                        caret (thin red line where keyboard input will go)
                        will appear, a chosen vowel or consonant can then be
                        typed, the caret will automatically move to the next
                        box. Upper or lower case may be used. The up and
                        down cursor keys can be used to move between boxes,
                        pressing RETURN in the right-most box starts the
search.

Go                      Clicking Go starts the search if all the letters
                        have been entered. Any blank boxes will be
                        highlighted with a ? and the search will not start.

                        The program begins by seeing if the letters will
                        make any nine letter words, as these are the most
                        valuable, then the eights down to the fives. Words
                        less than five letters are not tried, because it is
                        almost impossible not to find a five letter word
                        from a random selection of vowels and consonants.

                        Whilst searching the Go button will change to Pause,
                        allowing the searched to be temporarily paused.
                        Whilst paused the button will show Continue,
                        pressing it will continue from where it was paused. 

Clear                   This button will clear all the boxes and abandon a
                        search if in progress, it can be used to tidy up the
                        display before a new game.

Vowel & Consonant       When not playing along with the show, these buttons
                        can be used to pick vowels and consonants at random.
                        The letter will be placed in the box the caret is
                        in, or the left most box if it is in another window.
                        The caret will then move to the next box. Go can be
                        pressed when all the letters are chosen.

Time                    Shows the time elapsed during the search, not
                        including any time during which the search was
                        stopped.

Checked                 This box shows the number of words compared so far.
                        The built in !Countdown dictionary contains 59161
                        words. The time taken to try all the words will
                        depend on the processing speed of your machine, the
                        screen mode in use, what other applications are
                        running, and what storage medium the !CountDown
                        application was run from.

                        Even an old ARM2 machine (in low bandwidth mode
                        such as 12) can usually try all words in under 10
                        seconds from a hard disc or RAM disc, or under 20
                        seconds from a floppy disc.

Nines, Eights, Sevens,  These boxes give a count of the number of words
Sixes, Fives            found with the corresponding number of letters.

The Word window         Words which are found are placed in the sub window
                        surrounded by a green border. The window can be
                        scrolled up and down using the scroll bar.

                        During the search the words found will be added to
                        the window causing it to scroll if a lot are found.
                        After the search has completed it automatically
                        scrolls back to the top to reveal the best words
                        found, hopefully some with nine letters.


The Countdown Conundrum The program can usually solve the conundrum (nine
                        letter anagram at the end of the show). faster than
                        the contestants, the limiting factor being the time
                        taken to type in the letters from the TV screen.

The dictionary          !CountDown has a 59161 word dictionary stored in a
                        very compact form on disc which is searched when Go
                        is pressed, the dictionary consists of;

                                14221   nine letter words
                                14928   eight letter words
                                13855   seven letter words
                                 9987  six letter words
                                 6170  five letter words


Countdown Numbers
-
The idea of the numbers game is to reach a target number in 30 seconds,
using up to six randomly chosen numbers and a combination of addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division. The target number is in the range
101 to 999, and the other numbers are in the range 1-10 or are 25,50,75 or
100.

The Countdown numbers window consists of various boxes to enter the numbers,
show the calculation and results and buttons to start and stop the process
of looking for a solution.

Blue numbers            Clicking on the blue boxes places a caret in the
                        box, and enables a number to be typed in. When
                        playing along with the TV show, the 6 numbers chosen
                        by the contestants from four rows of face down
                        cards, should be entered into these boxes.

                        If there is a number in a box already it can be
                        deleted using the DELETE or COPY keys. Pressing
                        RETURN will move the caret to the box to the right,
                        and from the right-most box up to the target window.
                        The up and down cursor keys can be used to move the
                        caret between boxes.

The target number       The target number (which is randomly chosen by Cecil
                        the Countdown computer) should be entered into the
                        red box. Pressing RETURN from the last blue box will
                        automatically place the caret in the target box,
                        pressing RETURN from here will start the
                        calculation.

Go                      Clicking over this button will start the search for
                        a solution to the puzzle. If any of the boxes have
                        not been filled or are disallowed values, ??? will
                        be placed in the offending box(es).

                        The calculation to find a solution will continue
                        until the first solution is found, in which case it
                        stops, or until all the possible combinations which
                        the program can try are exhausted, in which case the
                        closest solution will be given.

                        During the calculation the Go button will change to
                        Pause, allowing the calculation to be temporarily
                        paused, the closest solution found so far is
                        displayed in the green box, it will automatically
                        pause when the exact solution is found. Whilst
                        paused the button will show Continue, pressing it
                        will continue from where it was paused. 

Clear                   This button will clear all the boxes and abandon a
                        calculation if in progress, it can be used to tidy
                        up the display before a new game.

Small num & Large Num   If the TV programme does not happen to be on,
                        numbers can be chosen at random using these buttons.

                        A large number (25, 75 or 100) or small number
                        (1-10) will be placed in the blue box containing the
                        caret, or the left most one if it is in another
                        window. Pressing either button when the caret is in
                        the target box, the target is chosen from the range
                        101 to 999. The calculation can be started using the
                        Go button.

Time                    This box shows the time taken during calculation,
                        not including any time for stoppages.

Combs                   This indicates the number of combinations tried to
                        find the solution. The program can try over
                        1,000,000 combinations of the six numbers and
                        arithmetic operators before giving up.

                        The time taken to try all combinations will depend
                        on the processing speed of your machine, the screen
                        mode in use and what other applications are running.
                        A lightly loaded ARM2 machine in Mode 12 can usually
                        try all combinations in just over 40 seconds, most
                        solutions are usually found in under 10 seconds.

Nearest                 While the calculation is in process this box shows
                        the nearest result found so far, or the target if a
                        solution has been found.

Solution                The exact solution or the nearest that could be
                        found is shown in the large green box, with the
                        numbers and operators used shown as a sum.

The algorithm           A simple brute force algorithm is used trying all
                        the combinations of numbers and operators, starting
                        with two numbers and working up to using all six. 

                        Divisions are checked to see that only whole numbers
                        are produced. 

                        Combinations of parentheses are not used for speed
                        reasons, which is why it is sometimes possible to
                        find a solution that this program cant - but only
                        rarely.



Other puzzle solvers
====================

Luckily I dont watch any other game shows, although theres always the
Krypton Factor assault course...!


End of !Help
	

