A word from the programmer
==========================

There was a game years ago on the Atari ST called Stone Age which I've spent
many hours playing. (On other platforms, different variants of that game were
known as Boulderdash, Digger and some others.) Unfortunately, I had to retire
my old ST a while ago and couldn't find a decent version of the game for the
Windows platform.

This is where being a software engineer comes handy. You need it, you write
it yourself. Using Borland's Delphi, more than a worthy successor to Turbo
Pascal, it was a piece of cake and a nice opportunity to try some features of
that language.

The game became much more popular than I ever expected. In the first forty
weeks Mr. Matt had almost forty thousand downloads from my page, without
any advertising! Interestingly enough, almost 40% of the players (these
from whom I've heard at least) are women. I know of grandmothers hooked on
the game and registering it for their grandchildren  - at least that's what
they say :-)

I still do not know who invented the original game; all traces indicate a
German programmer in the late Seventies or early Eighties. I just took the
original rules, enhanced them just a little, and wrote the game program the
way I would like to play it. (Well, the feedback from the users was also
very helpful!)

Playing the game is simple: you are Mr.Matt, digging through a cave, eating
apples (carrots, hamburgers, pumpkins) and avoiding falling stones. There
is a Help file attached, but you can just start playing, and in five minutes
you will get the hang of it.

Some of the initial levels are simple enough for a ten-year old to complete,
some others require quite a lot of thinking and planning. Simple does not
mean trivial. And yes, Victoria, all levels are passable.

Mr.Matt is shareware without a time limit or nagging screens. Without
registering you can play the seven games (35 levels) included with the
program. When you register, you will be able to design and edit your own
games and to play additional games for Mr.Matt which are from time to time
posted on the Web: currently about 40 extra game files are available and
the number is still growing. Registration is valid for all future versions
of the game.

So here is Mr.Matt. I hope you will enjoy the program.


About myself
============

A physicist by education, for 16 years I taught physics and computer
science at University of Lodz, Poland, at the same time doing research
work in cosmic ray physics. In 1984 I found myself in the States and
started working in the software industry. As an employee of Hughes/STX I
developed the mathematical algorithms of Conflict Prediction used in the
U.S. oceanic Air Traffic Control system. A few years later I joined
a small company in Maryland, where I am the Chief Scientist, doubling up
as a software engineer and dealing mostly with mathematical aspects of
aircraft kinematics. Currently we are working on two air traffic control
systems: one for Great Britain and one for Trinidad.

In my free time I am an amateur photographer, a homegrown expert on Bach
music and computer hobbyist. I wrote a number of shareware programs in
applied math and navigation, of which most popular is Kalkulator, a quite
advanced numerical math tool for scientists, engineers and students.


Updates and upgrades
====================

New versions of Mr. Matt are posted periodically on the Web:

   http://www.freeflight.com/wrotniak/works.html

where you can also find additional game files (playable with the registered
version) and a Mr. Matt hint page.


