All Copyrights Reserved isotope244 graphics (c) 2000 -------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to electrObalz! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The goal is simple, destroy all of the bricks in each level to proceed to the next level. Along the way you will recieve many different power items to help you. These are all listed on the next help page. The main element in electrObalz is Ether. Ether comes in two forms, red and blue, both of which are needed to electrically form an electrOball! Your space pad initiates an electrOball and then you can reflect the ball about the level to destroy many different types of bricks. After completing many levels and encountering many items and bricks, and only then will you have the experience to finish the epic adventure of electrObalz! Power Items =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1. Electrobalz 2. Power up pad 9. Make pad smaller 3. Power down pad 10. Multi ball 4. Power up ball 11. Random ball 5. Power down ball 12. Auto pad 6. Red Ether 13. 100 points 7. Blue Ether 14. 200 points 8. Make pad bigger 15. 500 points (for animated pictures of items, see the in game help) Controls =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The pad is controlled by using the arrow keys on the keyboard, or mouse movement, or a joypad if you have one attached. Create a new electrOball by pressing the Space Bar. You may have more then one ball at a time, but be warned that you only have a limited amount of Ether. Use the arrow keys, Enter key, and Escape key to navigate the menus. In the menus you can change game settings to better optimize the game to your specific computers speed. You can press the Delete key when selecting a saved game which will reset that saved game. There are 5 possible saved games. Key Comand ================================================== Left Arrow Move pad left Right Arrow Move pad right Spacebar Create ball Escape Exit out of game Delete Used to reset saved game Shift Hold down to increase gameplay speed F11 Switch from and to fullscreen mode P Pause and UnPause gameplay Level Editing =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Use the mouse to select different types of bricks and then click or click and drag in the grid area to create bricks. The left button creates bricks, and the right button removes them. The yellow outline indicates the recommended area for a basic level, but putting bricks outside the yellow line is fine, and necessary for more interesting and fun levels. Power items at the bottom of the editor have a number above them telling how many of each item will appear in the level when played. Power items appear in random order only when bricks are destroyed. All of your custom levels will be located in the levels/ directory. About =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- All game design, programming, sound editing, graphics, and level building are unique and the complete work of James Bryant (c) 2000. If you have any questions or comments, I can currently be reached at jbgraphics@kagi.com. Minimum System Requirements =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The game will run on: - 486DX 133 - 16MB System Memory - Graphics Card w/ 2MB - 5MB of disk space - Windows95 - DirectX 7 But for good gameplay have: - Pentium 233 - 32MB System Memory - Graphics Card w/ 4MB - 5MB of disk space - Windows95 - DirectX 7 Performance Problems and Fixes =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- If your having performance problems, then there are a couple things you can do to increase gameplay. 1) Make sure you have the latest DirectX drivers! (www.microsoft.com/directx) This will increase all of your games performance! 2) Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card! 3) Run the game in fullscreen mode by hitting F11 4) Turn off sparkles. Sparkles create a lot memory overhead and may fix jittery gameplay problems. 5) Change to a lower color depth, please note changing to 8 bit depth may take a while. This is because the game has to resample all graphics to a common color scheme. Disclaimer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE WHICH ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT WILL JAMES BRYANT OR ISOTOPE244 GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM POSSESSION, USE, OR MALFUNCTION OF THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCT. YOU AGREED TO THIS BY RUNNING THIS SOFTWARE. -------------------------------------------------------- All Copyrights Reserved isotope244 graphics (c) 2000