Jewel Quest® III

Developed by iWin, Inc.

Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved.

System Requirements:

- Windows 2000/XP/Vista

- 1GHz or faster processor

- 768MB RAM (1GB for Vista)

- 16MB video card (32-bit graphics)

- 80MB hard drive space

- Direct X7.0 or later

Credits:

Game and Level Designer:

Warren Schwader

Producers:

Peter Traugot

Warren Schwader

Lead Engineer:

Dwain Theobald

Engineers:

Alexey Stashin

Brad Taylor

Ruslan Kadyrov

Warren Schwader

Art by Present Creative LLC:

Zachary Present

Ben Sutherland

Peter Apgar

Charles Hailstones

Amir Salehi

James Larson

Music and Sound Effects:

Michael Scott

Story:

Esther Lee

Quality Assurance Lead:

Edison Dimaano

Special Thanks:

CJ Wolf, Andy Hieke, Jim Stern

Tips & Tactics:

Q: What is Tournament mode?

A: Tournament mode, also known as “Dueling Jewels,” automatically matches you up with players around the world that have a similar skill level to you. Both players will play the exact same board against each other to see who gets the higher score. If you win, your rating will go up and you will compete against people of higher skill level.

Q: Why can’t I connect to a Tournament Game?

A: In rare cases, our tournament server may be down. In this case you will be able to connect at a later time. However, connection problems are usually related to firewalls blocking the connection. Check your personal firewall and also ask your internet service provider to make sure they are not blocking this type of connection.

Q: What’s the best strategy to win in Tournament Mode?

A: In the end, the person who makes the hardest and best matches the quickest will win. But some rules of thumb:

- Try to match more than 3 jewels for bonus points.

- Try to achieve multiple matches with big cascade effects.

- Try to turn the board gold as soon as possible to enter the bonus round.

- When in the bonus round, match as many silver coins as possible to boost your score.

Q: How do ratings work in Tournament Mode?

A: Ratings are adjusted after every game, based on the ratings of your opponent. Your rating will go up depending on how good the person you beat was -- the better they are, the more it'll go up. If you lose, your rating will go down, also dependent upon how well matched the game was.

Q: What is the purpose of a rating in Tournament Mode?

A; Ratings are essential to matching players of similar skill levels in the Tournament mode, in order to create a level playing field. For example, if you have a rating of 1475, then you will usually be matched with players who are no more than 50 points higher or lower -- i.e. ranging from 1425 to 1525.

Q: How are ratings determined in Tournament Mode?

A: The rating system for all our games is inspired by the USCF (United States Chess Federation) formula. These rules might seem complicated at first, but they attempt to ensure fairness and accuracy.

Your initial rating, set before you play your first rated game, is 1500. Similar to the USCF, there are two classifications of players: provisional and experienced.

Provisional Players are those who played 10 or less matches in a specific game. Your rating will go up or down between 20 and 40 points, depending on how your rating relates to your opponent’s, and how many games you have played so far.

Experienced Players will get much more subtle and precise rating changes. The central concept is based on the player's Expected Result. For instance, when an excellent player plays a mediocre one, the expected result is that the excellent player will easily win. In other words, a player's expected result, which is a number between 0 and 1, is assigned based on the difference between all the competitors' ratings. Here's the exact formula, for those who are into such things:

Expected Result = 1/ (10 (-range/400) + 1)

Where range equals the difference between a player's rating and his opponent's ratings. The formula for getting the change in rating (also known as a rating delta) is:

Change In Rating = K * (result - expectedResult)

K is a constant. For players with rating lower then 2099, K = 32. For players with rating between 2100 and 2399, K = 24. For players with rating above or equals to 2400, K = 16. The expectedResult is calculated above. And the result is the actual result of the match, with 1.0 for the winner and 0.0 for the loser.

Troubleshooting:

Q: Why does Jewel Quest® III crash or fail to run?

A: Usually this is because your system does not meet the minimum requirements of Jewel Quest III.

1 - Make sure you have the minimum system requirements listed below:

Windows 2000/XP/Vista

800MHz or faster processor

512MB RAM (1GB for Vista)

16MB video card (32-bit graphics)

80MB hard drive space

Direct X7.0 or later

2 - Make sure that you have the most current video card drivers installed for your system and video card. To find the most current video card drivers, try running Windows Update which can be found under your "START" menu, or under "START > All Programs".

3 - Ensure you have the most current version of DirectX installed on your system. To get the most current version of DirectX, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx and follow the on-screen instructions. When you are prompted to SAVE/OPEN the file, choose OPEN and proceed through the installation. After you have installed DirectX, reboot your computer, then make sure you are connected to the Internet and try running the game again.

4 – It is possible that Hardware Acceleration is failing somehow. You can try to reduce the amount of Hardware Acceleration as follows: Open Display Properties by right-clicking on an open space on your desktop and then choosing Properties. Then click the Settings tab in the upper right, then click the Advanced… button near the lower right. Next, click on the Troubleshooting tab. Slide the Hardware acceleration slider all the way to the left. Click OK and then try running the game again. If the game now runs, you should repeat this operation and slide the slider one step higher each time trying to find the highest setting where the game still runs. You can also try to reduce the Colors bit-depth to 16-bit on the Display Properties, Settings tab.

If the above steps don’t resolve your issue, it’s possible that your computer may not have the correct configuration to run the game. The amount of memory, hard disk space or operating system you are running may prevent you from using your game correctly.

Here are a couple more things that you can try:

1 - Delete the following files in your Jewel Quest III folder. NOTE: Deleting these files will remove any saved player settings and locations that you previously earned as well as the player files.

game.cfg

players.cfge

all files that end with .plre and .plrb

Then try running the game again.

2 - If any other file is corrupted or missing, you will have to uninstall and reinstall the game.

Q: Why do I see a white window or screen when I launch Jewel Quest® III?

A: If you are unable to see the content of the first page when launching your game, this is typically caused by personal firewall software or by "Internet Zone" security settings that are set too high. Please perform the following steps to resolve the issue or see the next section.

1 - If prompted by your Firewall to allow internet access to Jewel Quest III, you must grant permission before the game will run.

2 - If your firewall doesn't ask for permission, you may need to turn off your firewall temporarily to allow Jewel Quest III to connect and run. This is only necessary to do before the game is purchased. Once the game is purchased, you will not be required to connect to the Internet to play the game.

***We strongly recommend that you re-enable your personal firewall software afterward! We must also remind you that disabling your personal firewall software is done at your own discretion, and we specifically disclaim any liability or claims for damage arising from your decision to disable the software.***

If these instructions fail then you may need to adjust your "Internet Zone." Continue on to these steps:

1 - Uninstall the trial using Add/Remove Programs located in your Control Panel or use the Uninstall program that is in the Jewel Quest III program group.

2 - Delete the game's installation file located in C:\Downloads or wherever you decided to save the file when you first downloaded it.

3 - Open the Internet Options applet located in your Control Panel. Then:

a) Adjust your "Auto-detection" settings: click on the "Connections" tab, then click LAN settings and clear any checkmark next to "Auto detect settings". (If you have a Proxy configured here, the program will not function properly. Try connecting directly to the Internet and not a proxy server.)

b) On the "General" tab: click "Settings" for "Temporary Internet Files" and change "Check for newer versions of stored pages" to "Every visit to the page" and click OK.

c) Next, select "Delete Files" for Temporary Internet Files and check "Delete all offline content" and click OK.

d) On the "Security" tab, change your "Internet Zone" settings to "Medium".

e) On the "Privacy" tab, change your settings to "Medium".

f) After making these changes, click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.

4 - RESTART the computer.

5 - Update your Microsoft operating system by visiting http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and following the on-screen instructions. Be sure to restart the system after installing updates. You may need to run Windows Update repeatedly to get all applicable updates for your system.

6 - Use the link from your email receipt to restart the download and begin installation.*** If the URL in your email receipt appears on more than one line, make sure you copy the entire value into the address bar of your web browser when attempting to download. ***

7 - Try starting the software and you should see a screen displaying HTML content that indicates it is "finalizing installation".

Q: Why does the game keeps asking me to BUY it even though I have already purchased it?

A: Sometimes when you change your computer’s hardware/software, the game may not recognize that you have already paid for it. You can reactivate it after a system reformat, hardware change or to use it on another computer free of charge and in just a few seconds. You should contact the distributor that you purchased the game from to request this. When you see the page that says BUY IT NOW, scroll down and look for the link that says Already Paid? -or- I Have Already Purchased This Product Before. Click on this link and follow the simple instructions.

Q: My trial period has expired. Can I extend it?

A: Unfortunately, trial periods cannot be extended. We apologize if you did not get an opportunity to fully experiment with Jewel Quest III before the expiration of your trial period. At this point, you must purchase the game to continue playing, or perhaps the game is available in an ad-supported free format.

Q: I am having Audio problems. What can I do?

A: There may be conflicts between DirectX and many older sound cards. Often, updating your sound card drivers will fix audio problems. Check with your manufacturer for the latest drivers.

Q: What is the High Detail Setting for?

A: Turning off the High Detail setting can help with the performance of the game on slower computers. Various features of the game that are not essential features are turned off so that the game play can use full processor power. You will notice that the game features change a little, but this should not affect your enjoyment of the game.

On faster computers, we recommend that you do not uncheck this setting, as you will not notice much of a benefit, if any.

Q: Why does Jewel Quest® III not update its screen properly when regaining focus from another window?

A: If you have a program running that uses video overlays, such as a TV application, you may see this problem. The solution is to either turn off the TV while playing Jewel Quest® III or live with this minor annoyance.

Generated Files:

There are a few files that are generated by the program. If you are having problems, sometimes deleting these files can help. These files are in the JewelQuest3 folders and end in .plre, .plrb, .cfge, and .cfgb. Alternately, files may be located in Documents and Settings/[your user name]/Application Data/iWin/JewelQuest3.

These files are safe to delete, but be aware that you will lose all of your players, locations, and game settings.

- To delete players, it is recommended that you use the interface provided in the Players button in the game.

- The “game.cfg” file (that appears after the game has run once) has settings that you may alter to tweak how the game works. To add a setting, carefully edit this file in a text editor and add the setting at the end of the file on a separate line. There should only be one setting per line and no spaces on the line. If you need to, you can always delete the “game.cfg” file and run the game to regenerate this file.

Here are the settings that can be added:

allowdoublebuffered=0

This setting will give better performance on low-end systems without having to turn off all of the features associated with the High Detail setting in the Options Button in the game.

audiobuffersize=3072

This setting may help if you hear crackling noises coming from the music or sound effects in the game. You may specify a higher number up to 4096, but the higher the number, the more lag time there will be between game events and the sound effects associated with them.

showhints=0

Some players consider the move hints to be distracting. This setting can be used so that they will not be seen, while still leaving High Detail on. This setting applies to al players.

showpoints=0

Some players consider the points that pop up in Tournament Mode to be distracting. This setting can be used so that they will not be seen, while still leaving High Detail on. This setting applies to al players.

Showdetailedtournamentstats

showdetailedtournamentstats=1

This setting allows you to see how long your current win streak is, and also how many of the 40 boards have been played. The numbers in parentheses to the right of the text for the Trophies indicate the current streaks.

To reset these values to their default values, either remove the individual lines or delete the “game.cfg” file.