Sir Bombalot

Rules & Pieces

Menus & Control

Network Play & ICQ Setup

FAQ & Trouble Shooting

Known Bugs

Customizing

Brought to you by Earth Gaming which is comprised of:

Kris Arndt	karn@nucleus.com

Renota Schöepp	renota@nucleus.com

Billy Besselink	redrummm@shaw.wave.ca

Web	: http://www.nucleus.com/~npl/

Mirror	: http://www.canadawired.com/~karn/

Email	: npl@nucleus.com

ICQ	: 16376770

Copyright © Earth Gaming 1999


Rules & Pieces

How to win:

•	Score any two pieces in the opponent’s goal squares

•	Eliminate all of the opponent’s pieces.

Stalemate occurs when you can no longer move a piece – e.g., your last piece is frozen by an freezer.

Coil

1)	Move in any direction as long as the square is empty

2)	Jump (like in checkers) red or blue pieces in one turn, but not both.

•	Note: you can not combine moves 1 & 2 (i.e. you can not jump than move like a king).

•	Enemy pieces jumped are destroyed, except for the bomb.

•	To end the turn after a jumping expedition, click the piece again.

Super Coil

•	Moves like a coil except it can jump blue and red pieces in one move.

•	To end the turn after a jumping expedition, click the piece again.

Trigger

•	Moves like a knight in chess, destination must be empty (one exception, see below)

•	Two triggers will kill pieces in the adjacent corners that they form

•	It can detonate an enemy bomb by moving onto the same square (when doing so it does not kill in the corners).

Illustration:

Pusher

•	Moves in any direction and pushes pieces in its way

•	Pieces pushed off the board or into their own goal are destroyed.

Mimic

•	Imitates the last enemy piece moved and remains the piece until it moves again

Bomb

•	Moves like a King in chess

•	Can detonate or move and detonate, this then destroys everything within a one square radius.

Freezer

•	Moves like a super coil, but can only jump once

•	Does not destroy jumped pieces

•	Freezes enemy pieces within a one square radius.

Other Notes

Once a piece has moved into the opponent’s goal, it is no longer active.  For example, a freezer no longer has any effect on other pieces.


Menus & Control

Use the arrow keys or hold down and drag the right mouse button to rotate the board.

Click on a piece to select and then click on the destination grid to move.

File Menu

Save              	Save game (does not work with networked games, yet)

Load                	Load game (see above)

Exit                 	Exit game.

Game Menu

New                 	Start a new game

End Game        	Stop the current game

Demo               	Demo mode (computer plays computer).

1 Player vs Comp	Play against the computer

2 Player Local	Play against yourself or another person locally

Network Play 	Play against another person via network

Red/White     	Play as the red pieces

Blue/Black    	Play as the blue pieces.

Options Menu

Sound             	Toggle sound effects

Music                	Toggle music

Grid Highlight	Toggle board grid highlighting

Set Name        	Set user name and password for multiplayer (password only for game server)

Piece Style       	Change the look of the playing pieces and board

A.I. Skill        	Choose the computer player difficulty level

Piece Style Sub Menu

Original        	Classic piece set

Funk             	Alternative piece set.

Block             	Block style piece set.

A.I. Skill Sub Menu

Easy            	Computer does not use coils or super coils to full advantage

Medium       	Computer does not use super coils to full advantage

Hard             	All out war!

Help

About...           	Information about the product

Help                 	This document


Network Play & ICQ Setup

Hopefully, the network dialog box is self-explanatory.

Chatting

In the game, hit <Enter> and then start typing.  Hit <Enter> again to send the message.

ICQ Setup

ICQ (http://www.icq.com/) is a wonderful, instant messaging system.  You can configure this game to launch from ICQ.

1. 	Click the Menu button in the ICQ Window

2. 	Click Preferences

3. 	Click the Internet Telephony/Games/Chat tab

4. 	Click the New External button

5. 	Fill out the form to resemble this:

6. 	Click OK

7. 	Click on the person’s name, in your ICQ list, that you want to play against and under the Internet Telephony/Games select Sir Bombalot.  Note: Your opponent must do the same.

For more help see this page, provided by ICQ.

http://www.icq.com/productsext.html


Frequently Asked Questions & Trouble Shooting

1.   Missing DPLAYX.DLL

2.   Could Not Create Scene!

3.   File Corrupted!

4.   Why did one of my pieces die for no reason?

5.   When I click on a piece it does not spin.

6.   ERROR: Connection failed (player already in game)

99. My problem is not here.

1.   Missing DPLAYX.DLL

Then you do not have Microsoft DirectX 5.0 or greater installed.  Contact Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com or the Sir Bombalot web page to get the package.

2.   Could Not Create Scene!

This happens when an object file (*.x) or some other necessary component can not be found.  Check the bomb.log file in the same directory as the executable; this file provides in depth information to what file is missing.

Another reason could be that the you have a DirectX version earlier than 5.0.  Again go to the Sir Bombalot web page to find the DX link.

3.   File Corrupted!

When you load a save game file, there is a rare chance that the file became corrupted by the operating system.  In that case, there is no solution.

4.  Why did one of my pieces die for no reason?

It may seem that out of the blue a piece fell for no reason. Usually, a mimic is the root of the mystery.  Mimics imitate the last piece moved when they move and then keep the properties until moved again.  So if a freezer moves and the opposing mimic moves, that piece will retain freezer like properties.  The same goes for every other piece.  Mimics disguised as triggers or bombs are especially dangerous.

5.   When I click on a piece it does not spin.

i.	It is not your turn.

ii.	Your piece is in the grips of an opponent’s freezer.

iii.	Your piece is in the opponent’s goal and is no longer accessible.

iv.	You are not clicking directly on the 3D piece.

v.	You are clicking on the 3D piece, but the click is not registered by Windows.  The solution is to hold down the left mouse button on the piece and wait for Windows to process the event.  This sometimes happens on slower computers.

vi.	The game is over.  Check the status bar to see who won.

6.   ERROR: Connection failed (player already in game)

i.	You have crashed out and tried to, immediately, log back in.  Wait a couple of minutes for our server to acknowledge your lack of presence.

ii.	Someone is using your account.

iii.	Someone has the same user name and password as you.  Our initial user name and password generator bases is output on your registration information.  There is a slim chance that two people will be given the same login data.  Your user name and password is delivered to us as well as to you.  We then parse the name and password, check it with our current database and verify to ensure it is unique.  If it isn’t we allocate a new user name and password and send that information to you, in the form of email.

99. My problem is not here!

If you experience what seems to be a bug then go to the patch fix page of this game.  If you can not find your bug then please submit it and we will have a fix within a week.


Customizing The Game

The game sounds and geometry have been designed to be open to the user.  You can create your own object files or music and sound effects to replace the ones supplied.  Simply, replace the files in the objects and/or sound directories with your own.


Known Bugs

We are not naïve nor insecure enough to admit that there might be bugs.  We will keep you updated on all happenings.  This area is to notify users on bugs in specific versions.  Current version bugs will be fixed immediately and patches made available.

Version 1.0

1. The computer player sometimes 'loses it'.  It will decide to stop playing at times when it should not.  I believe, that the computer simply no longer wants to play than it being a bug.

2. The computer player will, on occasion, take two turns or skip a turn.

3. The Game Server is programmed using DirectPlay by Microsoft.  The networking will be changed to compatible UNIX sockets, in future releases, to fix DirectPlay shortcomings.  Which means the current version of the Game Server is a work in progress and may have some problems.