Originally, the next 12 keys were simply labelled F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, F11 and F12.
Today, many keyboards have additional uses, and a key labelled 'fn' exists in the lower left-hand corner.
On some computers, such as the Hewlett-Packard Envy, the primary use of the keys are for keyboard enhancements, such as brightness, dimming ... keyboard back lighting, etc.
That means that to use the keys for the original design purpose, one must press the 'fn' key along with the desired function key.
Individual programs have their own use for many of the Function Keys, but several keys have been commonly used for the same purpose, as F1 for 'help'.
The table below show the uses for the game of Gruntz.
This is the shortcut version of using the Status Column menu item SAVE GAME.
A dialogue box pops up, giving 10 different slots in which the SAVE may be placed.
Three different options are presented:
- Save ... Saves the current status of the game. (duh).
- Info ... see a thumbnail of the SAVE slot contents.
- Delete ... clears the slot for reuse.
Click on 'yes' and your game is SAVEd at that point.
A dialogue box pops up, displaying 10 different slots in which games have been SAVEd.
Three different options are presented:
- Load ... Restores the previously SAVEd status of the game.
- Info ... see a thumbnail of the SAVE slot contents.
- Delete ... clears the slot for reuse.
Playing on a Windows 10 equipped computer, using compatability mode and/or dgVoodoo, you may not be able to use the Gruntz status column to do a "SAVE GAME", so this or F2 may be your solution.
Fortunately, F5 will remove most of the restrictions from a 640X480 pixel display.
First time, a dialogue box pops up, giving 10 different slots in which the SAVE may be placed.
Selecting one allows you to enter a (descriptive(?)) name, and clicking on 'save' will bring up another dialogue box (if the selection has been used previously) asking if you are sure.
Click on 'yes' and your game is SAVEd at that point.
After the first time, pressing F5 will do a "quick save" into the same previously used slot.
Clicking on the 'SAVE GAME' Gruntz menu item also allows you to select a slot in which to do your SAVE (perhaps a different slot), which will be the one used the next time F5 is pressed.
If you are using more than one save slot for your game, and you wish to go back further in your play, you must use F3 or the "LOAD GAME" menu item located in the Gruntz status column.
That would bring up the slot dialogue box, allowing you to choose how far back you wish to go.
The image is saved into the folder in which the Gruntz.exe (Gruntz game engine) is located, named Gruntz0001 (the first time an image is saved) and incremented by 1 for each subsequent screen image saved.
I organize Gruntz Custom Levelz under Hintz/Custom/Designer/Level and use my paint program to convert the image to JPG (my preference, PNG is another good choice) and SAVE it into the appropriate folder named the same as the WWD name(.jpg) along with all of the other information supporting the puzzle.
That paint program is then used to create a ThumbNail 32 pixels in the largest dimension proportionately re-sized (for speed of display ... I could just specify the dimensions to display of the full
size image).
.Opens a window where you may type in a cheat code.
I seldom play in this Gruntz option.