Jaap's Psion II Page

This is the manual for the Games Organiser by Harvester Information Systems. Many of its pages contain cartoon drawings, and to fully appreciate it a full scan of the manual is available:

The Games Organiser Manual (7.25MB pdf)

This webpage contains most of the text of the manual, though some parts have been slightly rearranged into a more logical order.


THE GAMES ORGANISER

FOR
THE PSION ORGANISER II


Warranty, Disclaimer and Copyright:

Ho hum, the tedious bit.

This Handbook and the Programs to which it refers are the copyright of Harvester Information Systems Ltd.
© 1987. All rights reserved.

12 months warranty is given by Harvester Information Systems Ltd with regard to the program and its performance being substantially in accordance with this accompanying handbook.

No liability is accepted for loss or consequential loss from operator misuse or any defect or failure of the program howsoever arising.

Harvester Information Systems Ltd. reserve the right to make alterations and improvements to the product.


Before you enter the kingdom of games, you must set the scene for your ultimate takeover.
Switch the organiser on and press the 'MODE' key. The order "Insert Item" will appear before you and in the line below the cursor will flash repeatedly.
Tap in the letters "GAMES" then swiftly press the "EXE"cute key to send the message to Control..... "GAMES" will appear on the screen.
Press "EXE"cute to see the instruction panel containing "SMASH", "MUSIC", "EYE", "BATTLE".
Call up S for "SMASH", M for "MUSIC", E for "EYE", B for "BATTLE", and settle back in command.....
... You become our superhero - Captain Harvester in person!
To give any command, in any game, simply press the first letter of the order you choose.


Let the games begin!!

SMASH 1. Number Smash 2. Letter Smash 3. Keyboard Smash MUSIC 4. Musical Memory 5. Organiser Organ 6. Music File BATTLE SHIPS 7. One Player 8. Two Players 9. Kamikaze DECISION 10. The All Seeing Eye


HOW TO PLAY

SMASH

The future of the earth is in your hands Captain Harvester. You must SMASH the wave after wave of enemy aliens craftily disguised as keyboard characters.

You choose either Noise or Mute.
Then you choose from Letters, Numbers, Everything.
And then one player or two players.
Then single or double targets.
And then the level of difficulty from 1-8.
Then you go get the aliens!

"Gosh, I hope the captain can save the Earth!!"


MUSIC

One thing about the mighty Wurlitzer Organ that limited its appeal was its lack of portability and the fact that it didn't have a built in diary. There is now an alternative ... and where the Wurlitzer was found wanting the Organiser II does have a diary ... and alarms too!

Harmonization is easy on the Organiser Organ - the more Organisers in your group the greater the fun!

M for MUSIC at the Games Menu gives you

ORGAN FILE MEMORY

O lets you play the Organiser Organ.
First set the warble the way that you like to hear notes played - type any number from 35-99.
Wait for it to set up and then play using keys 1-8.
Press MODE and or to change octaves from Low to Mid to High.
Press shift for sharps.
Hold the keys down a little longer for longer notes . . . and take it away Professor!
F lets you store a temporary file containing a short tune and then play it back.
Set the warble and play your tune exactly as you would after selecting Organ.
When you have finished your tune press F.
Replay by pressing R.
M tests your memory.
A note will play and will be displayed on screen.
You press the appropriate key to copy.
And then two notes will play and you copy both.
And then three notes ...
And then four ...
And then five ...
And then ...
See how far you can keep up!
(if you don't want to hear the note pressing M when you enter Memory will Mute the sound).

PUZZLER is the same - but backwards

You know that you're the best... You won a scholarship to the royal school of music and were the top pupil. You were introduced to Mickey Spectrum, producer of The Beastlies, who said that you were great. You toured in support of The Crash on their sellout world tour 84-85 and again 86-87 but fame and fortune have so far eluded you... ...until now. You're invited to a party at Mickey Spectrum's stately Spectrum Manor and there, in front of all his guests... Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner... Madonna... Elton... Elkie ... you have your chance to show them what you can do. And what instrument do you choose... None other than the Organiser Organ of course!


BATTLE SHIPS

Your helmsman, Eric, doesn't think that you can do it - show Eric and the world that you can!

You, Captain Harvester, are in command of your fleet.
There's thick fog, helicopters cannot fly.
Your radar is out of action.
You can only give orders by giving coordinates on the plan of battle.
Choose 1 or 2 players.
Choose whether you want Kamikaze.
Your grid of play is 10 x 10.
Coordinates are A-J from East to West, 1-9 from North to South.

You have a powerful fleet at your disposal, 4 nuclear powered Thrust class submarines, 3 heavily armed Psion class destroyers, 2 Olympus engined cruisers and the flagship of the fleet, the Battleship, the Harvester Warrior. Your opponent, either player 2 or the computer, has a fleet made up in exactly the same way.

Your task is to lay down your ships within the battle area grid in places which you think are unlikely to be spotted by your opponent. When you have finished your opponent does the same on his grid.

Remember that the radar is not working for you or your opponent so you have to use your judgement and guess where the enemy ships are. You take it in turns to fire on your opponent by selecting a square in the grid and FIRE! If it's a hit you will know.

Each ship occupies a certain number of grid squares, 4 squares for a battleship, 3 for a destroyer, cruisers 2 and submarines 1. You have a fixed number of ships to begin with, 4 submarines, 3 cruisers, 2 destroyers and 1 battleship.

Before you can begin you must first 'lay down' your fleet by choosing the grid square on which you want the bow (sharp end) of the ship to be and then the heading (which direction the bow is pointing in). If you have 'laid down' a Destroyer, for instance, in grid square F6 heading East then grid squares F4, F5 and F6 will all be target squares containing parts of that destroyer. If any of those target squares is hit by your opponent then a hit is registered to your opponent, when all the squares are hit then HIT AND SUNK is recorded. The battle is over when one player has destroyed all of the opposing fleet. Your aim by moving round the Battle area with the arrow keys to select a target square and then fire by pressing "F".

If you choose Kamikaze, an uncontrollable Kamikaze bomber will wreak havoc by flying across the battlefield and bombing everything in his path - when this happens there is nothing anyone can do . . . except wait and count the cost when he's disappeared. But who knows when he will return?!

Go to it ... and win!

You radar is out of action ... you've got to seek and destroy the enemy before he sinks all of your ships. Is your best guess good enough? Will you save your fleet? Are you the Superhero or will your opponent win? . . . Watch out for the Kamikaze, he doesn't care who he sinks. Remember, one shot will sink a sub, 2 sink a cruiser and 3 sinks a destroyer. But it takes 4 shots to sink a BATTLESHIP!


DECISION

You've tried it all . . . played situations by the book, used every minute of past experiences to solve a problem, tried tackling it every way. You've asked for advice and it's been conflicting. Some agree with your hunch, others see the solution another way. A lot is depending on this: security, prosperity, business - the entire future. What do you do? There's nowhere else to turn to, no-one has all the right answers anymore - even governments can't get it right. The only thing to do, the only possible solution, the only way to reach a decision is to ... is to call up the DECISION MAKER! The All Seeing Eye!

Recovered by the legendary Captain "Dr. Potter I Presume" Harvester from a secret temple and worshipped by the last tribe of the Resinagro Indians from Silicon Valley, the "All Seeing Eye" can help you make up your mind. Once you have called up "EYE" you come under its control - follow the decision maker's orders - as far as you dare!


And now for something completely different ...

Did you know that Harvester Information Systems develop all sorts of programs and systems for the Psion Organiser II and its corporate derivative, the P250?

Well, we do.

Some of our best sellers are:

The Finger Organiser - A typing tutorial for the Psion Organiser II. Saves time. Fun too!

The Letter Organiser - Pocket Word Processor.

The Informed Organiser - 'Smartest' address book yet and Toolkit for datapak and file management.

The Data Organiser - Create and manipulate data files for everything you need, quickly and easily. Many powerful functions.

The Harvester Superchip - The Letter, Data and Informed Organisers programs all on one Superchip for maximum convenience.

You may not require all three programs on the Superchip initially so you might only want to buy say, the Informed Organiser to begin with. If you then decide to UPGRADE to the Superchip we have an upgrade scheme whereby you return the appropriate Harvester program pack(s) you wish to exchange for a Superchip together with the cost of the additional programs and we will send you a SUPERCHIP. Fair, isn't it?

We also produce the S.A.M.S. Staff Attendance Monitoring System, an indispensable resource management tool giving over 16,000 different reports to tell you who is doing what, where and when - and the cost of it all. And it's all based around staff simply 'swiping in' and 'swiping out' of work with a SAMS identity card. Easy.

Financial Services Act 1986? Certainly. We have a compliance kit.

Professional Fee earners? Solicitors, Accountants and the rest of us who are dependant upon time sheets - Harvesters P.F.E. System could be your solution. "As ye sow, ye shall reap" as they say.

We distribute worldwide. If you liked our Games you'll love our systems! We are always developing something new so get on our mailing list and become a Friend of Harvester.