(c) Christian Pühringer 1998 visit my homepage http://linz.orf.at/gast/puehringerc REPORT BUGS, SUGGESTIONS,.. to PuehringerC@gmx.net BOMBERMAN for Windows 95 1.81 bomber.zip INSTALLATION To install the game just extract the bomber.zip file. If you have directx (3 or higher) installed (that's very probably because it's included with newer windows 95 versions and nearly every commercial game) you can now start the bomber.exe. If you haven't you can find direct e.g. http://www.microsoft.com/directx The game doesn't do any changes to registry/windows directory/... So you can uninstall the game just by deleting the program files. GAME PLAY The object of this multiplayer game is to kill your opponents by dropping bombs. You also need to drop bombs to clear your path throughout the maze. Blocks, you blow up, can also include different extras which e.g. increase the length of the explosions. MENU SETTINGS You can setup following options in the menu which appears after starting the game: NUMBER OF PLAYERS: how many players take part in the game (2-4). There is no single player mode in Bomberman now. So you have to find someone who wants to play against you GAME TYPE: you can either play a deathmatch game where you have to kill your opponents or a capture the flag game in which you have to steal the flag of your opponent and to carry it to your own flag. (if your opponent is already carrying your flag you have to kill him before you can win the game) Both types can be played in single and in team mode. In team mode the first two players play against the other player(s). If only two players take part in a game it doesn't make a difference choosing single or team mode. WINS: How many games you need to win before you win the match. NUMBER OF EXTRAS: The probability that a extra is hidden under a block you can blow up. diseaSES: If activated under some blocks skulls are hidden which infect players with different diseases. NUMBER OF BOMBS: how many bombs from one player can be dropped the same time. This number can be increased during a game by picking up the bomb extra LENGTH OF EXPLOSION: how far a explosion reaches. The length can be increase by picking up the fire ball extra. TIME TILL FIRE: the time how long bombs are laying in the maze before the explode. This time can be affected by the skull extra. TIME: if this time is exceeded the game ends as a draw game. GRAPHIC SET: this option just changes which graphic set is used for the blocks NEW BLOCKS: Decides whether and how fast new blocks appear during a game LEVEL: Choose the level you want to play. If this option is RANDOM the levels are chosen randomly. You can change settings using the cursor keys. To proceed to next menu press the enter key. The menu which is appearing next determines which input device is used for each player. If it's not possible to choose joystick you have to install the joystick device using the control panel. KEYS DURING GAMEPLAY: to show the keys you need to control your character press f1. the first 4 keys are used to move in the 4 directions, the next one is used to drop a bomb, and the last one to fire up a bomb if you have the remote control extra. F1: Help F2/Escape: Go back to the main menu F3: Pause F4: Display debugging info (e.g. Frame rate) F5: recalculate the speed of the players. (use this if the players go very slow (or fast) after starting the game. F6: change the language (german/english). Normally the game should choose the correct language automatically. +,-: increase/decrease the speed of the game. ESCAPE, ALT+F4: exit the game EXTRAS: Following extras can be hidden under blocks you blow up. You can take them by walking over them: FIREBALL: Increase the length of your bomb's explosions by one field. BOMB: Increase the number of bombs you can drop the same time. SPEED UP: Increase the speed of your player. REMOTE CONTROL: you can fire your bombs using the fire key. (press f1 to display keyboard settings) KICK BOMB: you can kick bombs away by walking over them, SKULL: infects you with a disease. If you are infected you can infected other players by walking over them. The effect only lasts for 10 seconds. FAQ 1.Errormessage: dsound.dll not found ,or ddraw.dll not, or the game just crashes if it's started! To run the game you need Microsoft's Directx (at least version 3) which is included with windows 98, recent windows 95 releases and with nearly any commercial game. If you haven't directx installed you can find it on most gamemagazine's cd-roms and at http://www.microsoft.com/directx. If that doesn't help you can also try installing new versions of your hardware device drivers. Just look at manufacturers homepages. 2. The game isn't running fast or smoothly enough. There are some reasons for this: 1. adjust the gamespeed using the + and - keys. 2. You are running applications in the background which uses a lot of cpu-power. So bomberman is slowed down. You can either close this applications or you can enable realtime mode in bomberman by pressing f7 while playing. 3. Your computer is to slow (it should run on a 486-DX2). 4. Your have only 512kb or less videomemory. Bomberman uses pageflipping in 640x480x8bit mode. So it would need at least 600 kb to run. However if you have less vram directx is emulating a video page in systemmemory by copying systemmemory to videomemory each time the graphics is updated. This works okay on newer computer but is incredible slow on older machines. 3. The game runs to fast or the screen is flickering If only the background is flickering (sometimes occurs if you are switching to other applications) press f5 to redraw it. Flicker of sprites and to high speed of the game (did you try decreasing speed using the - keys) is caused by buggy graphic device drivers. So try downloading a new version at your graphics card manufacturers homepage. CHANGING KEYBOARD SETTINGS you can change the keyboard setting with the program setkeys. It is a DOS-Program to keep size small. Please do only use alphanumerical keys, cursorkeys, control, tab, backspace, enter, alt in you keysettings. If the game crashes after changing keysettings delete the bomber.key file, start setkeys.exe and choose the option 5 and close it by entering 0. REVISION HISTORY Version 1.81 (7.8.1999) Website URL changed to http://bomberman.ics.at (the old url (http://linz.orf.at/gast/puehringerc) is still accesible) (updated 23.8.99: url changed back to linz.orf.at/gast/puehringerc because ics.at doesn't provide free webspace any more) Minor bugfixes Version 1.8 (29.9.1998) New Leveleditor (possibility to set starting points of players) (coded by stefan pühriner pstefan@gmx.net) New levels New diseases: Invincibility, walk through blocks enhanced statistics Minor bugfixes Version 1.7 (13.7.1998) Match statistics (distance covered, kills, ...) option so that the grapic set is chosen randomly options are saved to the disk and are reloaded during startup of the game escape now exits to main menu some minor changes Version 1.61 (6.5.1998) IMPORTANT: BUG FIXED: Version 1.6 had the following bug: Everytime when there was the kickbomb extra on the playfield a error was written to the bomber.log file. Because this is done as often as the screen is redrawn, the file will grow very large. So if you have ever used 1.6 please delete the bomber.log file which you find in the directory in which bomberman was installed. Some other little changes are done to the kickbomb extra. So you can pick up extra now by kicking your bombs over them and bombs can also explode during the are kicked away. Version 1.6 (4.5.1998) New Extra: kick away bombs: you can kick bombs away by walking over them Better explosion-animation You can increase the speed higher up (use + key) Version 1.56 (26.4.1998) Leveleditor is now included in Bomber.exe (either start editor.bat or bomber.exe editor) to decrease size. Version 1.55 (6.4.1998) in default the level is chosen randomly it is now possible to define the keys some new levels logfile (please send it(bomber.log) to me if you have problems running the game) Some bugfixes version 1.5 (30.3 1998) Blocks can apear during a game capture the flag mode different levels leveleditor version 1.3 (15.3 1998) now during a game new blocks can appear if this feature is activated in the menu menu graphics are improved the language (german/english) is now set automatically. (if this causes a wrong language setting you can either create a bomber.ini and write the following lines in it [BOMBERMAN] language=0 (if you set language=1 then the german version is executed) or you can change the language during a game by pressing F6 (this only works in the game itself not in the menu screen However the menutexts are affected) the size of the game was decreased version 1.2 (4.3 1998) In three and four player deathmatch mode players are now coloured in different colours Some graphics changes Size of bomberman.exe decreased version 1.1 (25.2.1998) New extra: length of explosions is increased to 12 New diseases: explosions go throughout destructable blocks. 4 different graphic sets In two player mode the second player is an alien now New keyboardsetting for player 3 and 4 Bugs fixed remote trigger and speed up extra is now only to pick up one time per player Players aren't hurt by explosions as easy as before Version 1.0 (16.2.1998) this game is freeware. you can give it to everyone you want but if you want to publish it on a website or a CD-ROM you have to ask me for permission (PuehringerC@gmx.net) You are welcome to mail me bug reports or suggestions. To run this game you must have Direct X 3 or higher installed. If you haven't (not very probably, because it is included in nearly every commercial game) you can find it in the internet(http://www.microsoft.com/directx), or on most of the CD-ROMs of computer game magazines. You can find further information to the game, the complete SOURCE CODE, the documentation(German only) (source code and documentation not available at the moment) and links to some game developing web sites on my internet site http://linz.orf.at/gast/puehringerc.