Thanks to all those who sent in suggestions for improving Maniac. Version 2.1 is a big update, containing many improvements as suggested by users who have contacted me. In addition, there are a number of new features and a few bug fixes.
If you have ideas for improvement, found any bugs, or just want to write and say hello, get in touch! My contact address is in the "read me" file.
Version 2.1: user suggestions
• Lives! Yes, you now have three lives. If you hit a ghost, you keep going on the same level and with the same time. If you run out of time, you restart the level with a different word. The are extra lives at 100000, 250000, and 500000 points.
• Bonus level feature. Every 2 levels you get a bonus round, where you have a chance to get a free life (and loads of points) by catching the four fast ghosts within the short time limit. It ain't easy!
• You can now just touch the power pellets (in the corners of the board) to eat them, rather than have to run right over them.
• More words: Maniac now has 300 different words for the hangman game rather than the 130 of version 2.0. All words are four letters or more, and no words use more than 6 of the 12 letters. I think this is a good balance.
• More music formats supported! Maniac, thanks to Frank Seide's excellent Sound Trecker drivers, now supports MOD, MED, OctaMED, and Okalyzer music files in the "Maniac game music" folder. In addition, Maniac now supports music files using up to 32 channels of sound; however, playing music files with more than 4 channels of sound may slow down Maniac if you have a slower (68020 or 030) Mac. All the music included with Maniac uses 4 channels.
• If your Mac supports 16-bit CD quality sound, Maniac automatically plays the music at that quality.
• There's a slightly longer pause after you make a bad guess in the Hangman section: this should give you enough time to find where you are on the pac man board. Of course, if you remember where you were then you'll make your life a lot easier...
• Slightly quicker to end the game and end the level. The time to end the game shouldn't be so much of a problem now that you get 3 lives.
• Removed the border of the Maniac window (for monitors larger than 14") since the old one was too distracting.
• You can no longer pause the game to have extra time to look at the hangman word! If you pause the game, the picture switches to the Maniac logo.
• When you quit Maniac, the sound volume is restored to the level it was at when Maniac was opened.
Version 2.1: other improvements
• Maniac now features the super cool AudioManiac sound system code, which should improve the sound effects in the game:
The most noticable difference will be that you'll hear more of the sounds more of the time! The three channels of sound work on a priority system so you hear the important sounds when it matters (like the extra life sound). Sound Manager 3 users will see improvements in the speed of the game during sound playing. Finally, AV Mac users won't have that annoying pause when sounds start and stop.
• Maniac now has optimised Power Mac music code to provide even smoother game play and animation for Power Mac users.
• I've split the sounds up into two files, "Maniac sounds" and "Maniac music". This should simplify future versions in that existing users need only download the application. Also means that users can (if they so desire) make their own sound files.
• Added 'Screen sync' option. If you hold down the Command key when opening Maniac you get a dialog box where you can now, in addition to choosing the drawing mode, set the 'Screen sync' option. If you have a 68020 or 030 then turning this option off may significantly improve the smoothness and perhaps the speed of the animation, though perhaps at the expense of flicker-free graphics.
• Another option added for that "Command key" screen: you can choose whether Maniac plays with 2 or 3 channels of sound. If you have a slow-ish Mac which can't cope with 3 channels of sound, then this 2 channel option will make life easier!
• More music files! The music's turned out to be a big success, so I've included a few more files. I'll also be releasing collections of music for people to add to Maniac.
• The name of the music currently playing is now displayed at the bottom of the screen while playing a game. This should make it easier to decide while music files you like, so you can take your less favourite music files out of the music folder!
• The music can now be in normal stereo as apposed to Maniac's surround stereo mode. Not as good (cool) for headphones, but this makes the music distinctly stereophonic if you're using stereo speakers. This option is in the Preferences section.
• New level layouts! A few new level layouts, and a new layout for the bonus level.
• New sounds for ending the level, eating a ghost, and getting an extra life. Some people mentioned that finishing the word was an anticlimax: not any more!
• New option for having the dot sound on or off. If you don't have Sound Manager 3 you'll may want this option off because it may make the animation 'jerky'. However, Sound Manager 3 users can now have the dot sound, the music, and the sound effects all happily playing away!
• Improved ghosts so they hang around their home for a bit before coming out. More like the original pac man games.
• Speed bonus lasts a bit longer. Who says I'm not a nice guy? :-)
• Made unchosen hangman letters bigger and easier to read. This was high on my own list of priorities, but surprisingly no one else mentioned it.
• You now score points for getting a letter right.
• A few new graphics for the about screen and the game over message.
• 'Menu' screen is much quicker to update, especially if you're switching in and out of Maniac.
• On the menu screen, you can now 'do stuff', like starting a new game, even when the comments are scrolling in from the sides. I've also improved that animation so it looks (even) better.
• Removed lots of unnecessary code and a few unused sounds. This made it possible to add new sounds and features without pumping up the memory requirement.
• Optimised code in places. Notable speed improvements on the menu screen.
• More credit in the opening screen messages for the people who have helped make Maniac possible.
Version 2.1: Bug fixes
• Due to an oversight on my part, I was copying my graphics into Maniac in an incorrect format. All the graphics are now in the right format: this means that some parts of the game (the loading and the beginning of the game) are much faster, since no colour table conversion is being done. Also, it takes 200k off the application size! Everybody wins.
• Fixed bug where there were only 3 ghosts on level 5.
• Fixed bug where the last letter chosen on a level couldn't be your first letter choice on the next level.
• Hopefully fixed bug where the menu bar wasn't hidden on large monitors. I thought I'd fixed that one in 2.0!
• Made a change so that you eat the dot you start on. That really bothered me!
• Fixed small bug where you could sometimes see the token(s), or part of it/them, during the pause after retuning to the pac man game.
• Made a change so you should actually see the ghost before it kills you. This usually happened anyway, but if you tried to eat a ghost just as a power pellet was running out it could kill you while being invisible (from 'flashing'). Not very nice of it.
