Bookworm (Windows, Mac OS X)

Bookworm
Developer: PopCap Games Publisher: PopCap Games Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X Released in US: February 25, 2003 This game has unused code. This game has debugging material. This game has revisional differences.

Bookworm is an endless word-based game from PopCap, similar to Scrabble but in its own style.

RSRC File

A Bookworm.rsrc file in the game folder on Mac does not even mention Bookworm in any way, but instead mentions Bejeweled 2, a title that wasn't even known until a year after.

Revision List

To do: Find 1.00 and 1.01 to document.

• 1.00 = Initial release!
• 1.01 = New tiles, bug fixes.
• 1.02 = Bug fixes.
• 1.03 = Bug fixes.
• 1.0.5 = Bug fixes.
• 1.13 = Windows Vista Compliance.

Multiple revisions were pushed. Steam got 1.13 and PopCap's old downloads CDN got 1.00-1.03, while PopCap's final CDN version got 1.13 for all installers. 1.0.5 is exclusive for Mac.

1.02 (Old installer, PopCap.com, 2003)

• The object in the top right corner of the Hall of Fame backdrop was removed. This change is inconsistent across newer releases, reverting this change or sticking with it. The following releases have kept it, PopCap.com (v1.0.2, 2003) PopCap.com (v1.0.3, 2004), PopCap.com (v1.13, 2004), PopCap.com (v1.13, 2007) and PopCap.com (v1.13, 2008).

Old:

New:

1.13 (2007, PopCap.com)

• The game's executable was recompiled, having support for loading from a main.pak file, excluding reading a packed music directory, the developers never packaged the game assets since of this change so this wasn't shown off. This change was carried on in later versions.

1.13 (Final, PopCap.com)

• The trademark over the game logo in the game's menu backdrop texture was removed.
• The texture of the game logo on the title screen was redone.
• The size of the PopCap logo on the game's title backdrop texture was shortened.

Command-Line Parameters

The game's executable mentions developer command lines for starting the game, it's not friendly with commands using spaces so use = instead, starting from this method forces the game to act like it's in "Trial" mode. These are:

• -play: Plays popcap.dmo if it's present, if not present, an error is shown. -demofile can also be used to choose the name and location of the file.
• -recnum: Records demos with Popcap.dmo and Popcap#.dmo if that's taken on every boot.
• -playnum: Plays demos with Popcap.dmo and Popcap#.dmo from -recnum if that's taken on every boot.
• -record: Records a demo named Popcap.dmo and saves after shutdown of the game.
• -demofile: Specifies filename for recorded demos.
• -crash: Crashes the game immediately with an Access Violation error.
• -screensaver: Makes the game act like it's a screensaver, any movement or key presses will immediately force close the game.
• -changedir: Changes game installation directory, for the current boot.
• -version: Shows the product name, version, build number and build date with a popup instead of starting the game.

Debug Commands

To do: There may be more.

Pressing CTRL-ALT-D will play a sound (c:\windows\media\Windows XP Menu Command.wav) to indicate debug key input is enabled, allowing options of typing unique keys for debugging displays or mechanisms, another use will disable it.

• F2 - Start/Stop perf timing.

• F3 - Toggle FPS display.
• Shift F3 - Toggle FPS/mouse coordinate display.

• F8 - Show current Video Stats (mostly used to see if 3D acceleration is currently on).
• Shift F8 - Toggle 3D acceleration.

• F11 - Take screenshot (goes into the ProgramData/OEM/Bookworm/_screenshots) directory.
• Shift F11 - Dump all program images in memory to the ProgramData/OEM/Bookworm/_dump directory.