User's Manual

BrailleNote Apex QT User Guide
19-435
19.7 Single Key Mode.
Games also use a mode of interacting with you that is slightly different from the standard way in
which you type commands and then allow the game to provide feedback. This is usually only used
in a small section of the game, or to provide you with a menu based help and information system.
However, some games may use this mode continuously.
Single key mode can occur at any time and some games use it as their primary input device. In
general, this mode is mainly used to provide a menu based help system. In this mode you press a
key, and instead of going to the command input area, the key will be acted on immediately, that is,
without you needing to press ENTER. This can be quite confusing when it first happens to you. If
you type a letter and hear a response straight away, press READ with S. This provides you with
status information from one or more lines on the screen. You can use the standard reading keys to
read everything the game presents to you.
A good example of this situation can be found in the supplied game "Bears Night Out". If you load
this game and then HELP, you will hear: "How to play, a few helpful hints". To repeat the help
message, either press SPACE or the character "A". If you now press READ with S you will hear a
lot more information. For example, for "A Bear's Night Out", you will hear: "A Bear's night out
help menu. N = Next subject, P = previous, RETURN = read subject, Q = resume game. Greater
than How to Play. The scoring system ... etc"
What you are reading is all the information on the status screen. Firstly the title of the game - "A
Bear's Night Out". Secondly, a series of relevant single keys and what action they will perform, N =
next subject, P = previous, return = read subject and Q = resume game. Finally you will hear a
series of menu items, the first of which has a > (greater than) symbol next to it. This indicates that
the currently selected menu item is active. If we press N then the second item, "the scoring system",
will become the active menu item and will be spoken. Press READ with S again to repeat all the
information that was previously presented. The difference is that this time the greater than symbol
will be next to the second menu option. To access the information for that menu item, press
ENTER. You can then press Q to return to the menu and press Q again to get back to the game.
In some games (those not supplied), this mode of operation is used as part of the game itself, not
just for help and hints. They can also contain menus within menus and may take some time to
explore. The N, P, ENTER and Q keys will work. Alternatively, you can usually rely on capturing
and reading the status line to find out specific single keys to press that are relevant to the game.
Note: The moves you type are not stored in the move history and you are therefore unable to review
what you did to cause the game to react in a certain way.