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What is Bricklayer for Windows ?
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Bricklayer for Windows is a port of Steve Chamberlin's popular fast-paced
falling blocks game for the Macintosh.  The Macintosh version was honorably 
mentioned in the 1993 MacUser Shareware Awards, and favorably reviewed in 
numerous books and magazines.  Guaranteed to get you addicted, Bricklayer 
for Windows features beautiful 256-color artwork, an original music 
soundtrack, terrific sound effects, and more.  Systems which are not 
256-color or sound-capable are also supported.

Version 1.7 adds the ability to select alternate music files, allows 
registered users to remove the registration information box, adds
an option to have a "pit graphic" in the game window, and fixes a 
problem with saving preferences.

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Contents
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- System Requirements
- Background Music
- Comments, Suggestions, Bug Reports: Contacting the author
- Registration [Register by mail or directly through CompuServe]
- Controls
- New Features in v1.5
- New Features in v1.6
- New Features in v1.7
- Bonus Disk Set

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System Requirements
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Bricklayer has been beta tested on i386, i486, and Pentium systems with
4-8MB of memory.  It has reportedly worked under OS/2 and Windows NT
although it has not been thoroughly tested under those operating systems.
The memory requirements may be quite steep because Bricklayer needs to load 
close to 1MB of music files.  To enjoy the background music and sound 
effects, you will need to have a sound card with wave playing ability 
supported by Windows (such as Microsoft Sound System, or Creative Labs 
Sound Blaster).  

* If you cannot make Bricklayer even start up, try creating a file called 
  BRICKLYR.INI in your WINDOWS directory and putting the following lines 
  there:
                [Settings]
                LoadMusic=0

  This will force Bricklayer to ignore the music and sound settings and
  not load any music files.  You will be able to play, but will have no
  music or sound effects.

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Background Music
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This version of Bricklayer, 1.70, uses the Microsoft WAVEMIX.DLL sound 
mixing library.  You may notice that the background music has stopped 
playing after six or seven minutes (in rare instances, even less) of 
continuous music.  If this occurs, press the <TAB> key to restart the 
music.

For those systems which are not sound capable, unselecting the "Load Music"
check box in the preferences dialog will prevent Bricklayer from loading 
the music and sound files, decreasing load time and memory requirements.

The music BLM modules are Copyright Opinicus Microtechnologies, and may be
freely distributed only as part of the Bricklayer for Windows game for use
by the Bricklayer executable.  See the distribution information for more 
details.

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Comments, Suggestions, Bug Reports
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I look forward to hearing from you.  If you encounter problems while
playing Bricklayer, I would appreciate any information that you can 
provide, such as your system configuration and a detailed description 
of the problem.

Suggestions for improvements are also very welcome.

Contact me at the address listed below, or send email to:
America Online: Yevg
Internet:       yevg@aol.com 
CompuServe:     76101,2317

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Registration
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Bricklayer is $10 shareware (free for those people who've paid for previous 
versions).  If you enjoy and play Bricklayer, PLEASE send in the $10 
shareware fee.  It is not very much compared to the cost of a commercial 
game, and it motivates me to keep improving Bricklayer as well as to work on 
new games.  If you play, please pay.  Upgrades to new versions of Bricklayer 
are always free for registered users.  Those who register will also be kept 
informed of new version releases, as well as the releases of any new 
products.  

Registered users receive a registration code which allows use of a larger
variety of background and piece graphics, and removes "unregistered" notices
in the game window and About box.  Registered users may also oreder the
Bonus Disk Set (described in a separate section below).

To register Bricklayer, please either
* send a US$10 check payable to Yevgeny Gurevich to the address listed
  below.  If you live outside of the U.S., please send an international
  money order (preferred) or cash, since checks drawn on foreign banks
  are sometimes difficult to clear.
OR
* use the CompuServe SWREG feature to electronically register.
  GO SWREG in CompuServe.  The id of Bricklayer is #4732.
  You will be emailed the registration code directly.

Site licenses are available. 

** See REGFORM.TXT for a detailed pricing schedule **

Yevgeny Gurevich
Vanilla-Extract Software
129 Franklin Street #112
Cambridge, MA 02139

America Online: Yevg
Internet:       yevg@aol.com 
CompuServe:     76101,2317

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Controls
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Keyboard control is customizable with the [Change Keys...] Options menu 
item.  The numeric keypad keys are active as control keys in addition to 
any user-selectable settings.  The default user-selectable keyboard 
settings are the 'j', 'k', and 'l' keys for left, rotate, and right 
motion, and the spacebar for the drop.  The 'a' key controls the push.
On the numeric keypad, the 4, 5, 6, and 0 act the same as the 
j, k, l, and space.

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New Features in v1.50
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Version 1.50 of Bricklayer for Windows introduces event recording, a
computer player feature, and support for external background modules.

* Event recording allows you to record your own games for future playback.
  To record your game, check the [Record] Event Recording menu item.
  The games that you play will then be recorded.  Only the last game played 
  is stored in the event buffer.  You can replay that game, using the 
  [Replay] Event Recording menu item, or save it to disk for future loading 
  and replay - using the [Save Event] and [Read Event] File menu items, 
  respectively.

* The computer player options in the file menu let the computer play a
  game on its own.  The fast player thinks quickly but is not as good
  at playing the game as the slower and smarter player, which uses the
  Next Piece for lookahead.  On fast systems like i486DX2-66's, the smart
  player is faster than the dumb player on an i486SX-33.

  >> For programmers:
     I may release a programming interface and guidelines to allow 
     you to write your own Bricklayer players in the form of DLLs.
     Please write me if you are interested.

  >> Background module support has been revamped for v1.6 (see below).

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New Features in v1.60
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* Version 1.60 of Bricklayer has support for external piece and background 
  graphics modules.  These features have been moved to the Preferences 
  dialog box, where users can select to use an external file (other than 
  DEFAULT.BLB and DEFAULT.BLP) for background and piece graphics, 
  respectively.  Two alternate piece graphic files are provided 
  (PLAIN.BLP and SPHERE.BLP).  An alternate backgrounds file is provided 
  (TONES.BLB).

  >> Please contact me if you want to request custom piece or background
     graphics, wish to have your own included in future distributions, or
     would like to distribute compatible modules on your own.

* Starting with this version, the game identifies unregistered copies with 
  an "UNREGISTERED" printed in the window caption.  Once a registration code 
  is entered, the game is identified as a registered version.

* You can now opt to play the game with double-size blocks (selected in the
  Preferences dialog box).  Double-size blocks are especially convenient when
  you have a high-resolution display.  It's also easier for the kids to play.
  You can switch between modes at any point in the game.

* Continuous background music is more stable.  On most systems the music
  can now play virtually without limit.

* An incompatibility with PC Tools Desktop for Windows has been fixed.

* The BRICKLYR.HLP Windows Help file has replaced the more rudimentary
  on-line documentation.  Pressing F1 will bring it up.

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New Features in v1.70
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* Version 1.70 of Bricklayer has support for external music modules.  
  The default music file is DEFAULT.BLM.  Another short music file is
  provided to give unregistered users a feel for how easy it is to
  interchange music modules (WAGNER3T.BLM).  Other music files are 
  available for registered users from a separate Bonus Disk Set
  (described in a separate section below).

  >> Please contact me if you want to request custom music files, wish
     to have your own included in future distributions, or would like to 
     distribute compatible modules on your own.

* The ability to display "pit" graphics has been added.  Pit graphics are
  256-color bitmaps which adorn the ordinarily black bit in the main game
  board.  By default, the feature to display pit graphics is turned off to
  improve overall game performance.  Go to the preferences dialog box and
  check off "Show Pit Graphic" to enable this feature.  You may interchange
  pit graphic files just like background graphics files.  Two graphic files 
  are provided in the shareware distribution: DEFAULT.BLG and VALLEY.BLG.

* A bug in saving the alternate piece and background graphics preferences on
  program exit has been fixed.

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Bonus Disk Set
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A Bonus Disk Set is available for purchase by registered users of Bricklayer
(it may also be purchased at the time of registeration) for the price of
$10.00.  You will receive 4 disks full of original music compositions,
background graphics, piece graphics, and pit graphics.
The latest version of Bricklayer is included in the distribution.
See REGFORM.TXT for a complete pricing schedule.



