I've played with the bug with version 1.0 so that this version works better now on a MacII. MacII owners (not the IIcx though) still need to SET THE SCREEN TO 2 COLORS or 2 GRAYS (Control Panel : Monitors) Now, Pararena has been successfully tested on a Plus, SE, and IIcx, and a Mac II.
Multifinder? Well, I tried it under Multifinder and it barely ran okay. Occasionally the desktop would take control of the game (a sort of accidental Pause). Anyway, with this problem and those crazy screensavers kicking in, I added a manual screen refresh key. If for some reason you lose the background (the arena, stars, etc) while playing, just hit the 'R' or 'r' key. The screen is automatically redrawn (refreshed).
I would recommend you don't play under Multifinder and that you turn screensavers off. One of these days my programming skill will catch up and the games will not have any of these problems. (By the way, I realize that people who use Multifinder quite a bit often have their Macs set up to automatically boot up with Multifinder; don't you have problems with quite a number of applications? Also, can't you just boot up with the Finder and then double-click on Multifinder if you want to use Multifinder during that session?)
I also wanted to remind everyone of the COMMAND-KEY's used in the game. Once you begin a game, you will not be allowed to use your cursor in the menu bar. Therefore, to Pause a game, hit COMMAND-P; to End a game in session, hit COMMAND-E; and, of course, to Quit the program in session, use COMMAND-Q.
For those of you with large monitors, you'll appreciate that all the screens are centered in the game.
Additional changes to Pararena 1.1:
I've added a key ('f' or 'F') that will automatically Flush the screen while playing. I put it in to aid in debugging (sort of simulates a screensaver), and I thought I'd leave it because it's sort of fun to watch (remember, 'R' or 'r' will Redraw the screen for you).
I've also added a sort of hidden feature, but you wouldn't want to accidentally discover it. When you call up the high scores screen, you click the mouse to get rid of it - right? Well, if you click in the upper-left hand corner of the display screen (way up in the corner of the stars) you will CLEAR THE HIGH SCORES! Call up the Hi Scores... screen a second time to verfiy if you did it right. It's hard to do, but, then that's the idea (no one wants to clear the scores by accident).
The rest of the changes have primarily been cosmetic - lining the scores up into columns in the high score list, etc...
Finally:
This is a hard game to play. It's hard to get used to using the mouse button to catch and release the ball, and it's hard to stay in the arena. I would reccommend you try the Practice or Practice With Ball game before trying to challenge a computer opponent.
Who is the toughest opponent? Probably Heavy Otto because he has such a mass advantage.
