Paragon for Windows
PlaceBall for Windows

Introduction

On a table of smooth, green felt, a blue sphere enters a maze of caroms and redirections in search of prizes and sinkholes. If its entrance point has been chosen well, a seemingly endless maze of collisions and redirections will lead to a sinkhole and maybe even some prizes. Bad choices lead to one thing: certain death!

Getting Started

After starting PlaceBall, an about dialog will pop up providing information about the program and Softdisk Publishing. This about dialog will never pop up again when you run PlaceBall but will always be available from the menu. After exiting this dialog, go to the menu under Game Menu to start a new game.

How to Play PlaceBall

The Game Menu

The Options Menu

The Help Menu


The Game Menu

NEW GAME

Starts a new game from the beginning of the first level.

END GAME

Ends the current game without leaving the program.

RESTART LEVEL

Allows you to restart the current level from the beginning. Use this option when you feel a level has become unsolvable. Just like when you die, restarting a level resets your scores back to the value it started the level at.

OPEN SAVED GAME

Allows you to open a previously saved game for continued play. Games are always saved from the beginning of the level. Even if you save with a level almost finished, you will still have to start at the beginning of that level when that game is opened.

SAVE GAME

Saves the current game to disk to be resumed at a later time.

EXIT

Leaves the program.


The Options Menu

SOUND

Used to enable and disable the playing of sounds during the program.

MUSIC

Used to enable and disable the playing of background music during the program.

SHOW SECRET WORD

This game is designed to display a Secret Word when you finish all levels playing on CHALLENGE difficulty. If you've already seen the Secret Word or just don't care, this option allows you to disable it from popping up every time you finish the last level.

DIFFICULTY

There are two difficulties that affect game play. STANDARD requires you to hit all sink holes to exit a level. CHALLENGE requires hitting all sinkholes and all of the prizes on the level. In addition, it provides scoring double that of STANDARD and even a secret word when every level has been completed.

SPHERE SPEED

Allows you to alter how fast the sphere moves around the maze. This option does not affect scoring and is only available for personal preference.

SHOW HIGH SCORES

Used to display and/or reset the current high scores list.


The Help Menu

CONTENTS

Allows the viewing of this help text.

HELP ON HELP

Allows you to view help on how to use Windows help.

ABOUT PLACEBALL

Allows the viewing of information about the creative talents behind this progam, the program's warranty information and information about Softdisk Publishing. Among this information is technical support phone numbers, mailing addresses and other products and services Softdisk offers. This information will be displayed automatically the first time you run PlaceBall after which this option will be the only way to view it.

ABOUT PLACEBALL LEVELS

Allows the viewing of information about the creative talents behind individual PlaceBall levels.


Prizes

PlaceBall levels include three type of prizes: hamburgers, bananas and apples. They increase your score on all difficulties but must be grabbed on CHALLENGE difficulty in order to complete the level.


Sinkholes

Sinkholes are the main objective of any PlaceBall level, and all must be hit regardless of the difficulty setting.


Hazzards
Hazards

PlaceBall levels include two types of hazards: bombs (shown here) and launchers.


Flippers

Your spheres bounce around being redirected by walls and flippers. Flippers will flip over when struck. I guess that's why they're called flippers!


Lanchers
Launchers

Launchers are used to get spheres into play and then they become just another hazard.


Easter Egg

In the world of computer programming, Easter Egg refers to an element of a program that is usually hidden to the user. The programmer puts it there for any number of reasons such as testing, stress removal, vanity or just to be plain goofy. Many times, Easter Eggs are hard to find by the user, requiring that a specific thing or sequence of things be done. Since you had the dilligence to actually read the instructions for PlaceBall, I'll let you in on a secret: there is an Easter Egg in this game. I could have used it to show my picture or initials, but I'd rather put on my dancin' shoes.

To see PlaceBall's Easter Egg, you need only start a game and wait six minutes in which you do nothing. Any key presses or mouse clicks will start the six minute timer over. If you don't have six minutes, make sure that the CAPS LOCK is off, the NUM LOCK is on and the SCROLL LOCK is on. Next, type MER and you're set. Now, every time you double click the right mouse button, the Easter Egg will show itself. It ought to be good for a laugh or two even if it has nothing at all to do with the game itself!


How to Play Paragon
How to Play PlaceBall

You start each level of PlaceBall with a number of lives with which you must complete the level. This is accomplished by launching spheres into the maze and hitting prizes and sinkholes. In CHALLENGE difficulty, you must hit all prizes and sinkholes, but in STANDARD difficulty, you only have to hit all the sinkholes. In addition, you must avoid bombs.

Spheres are put into play with launchers, but once the sphere is moving launchers become as deadly as bombs. Once launched, spheres bounce around the maze rebounding off of walls and flippers until a sinkhole or hazard is hit. For the most part, hazards are to be avoided at all costs, but you may notice some levels provide more lives than sinkholes. Sometimes you must sacrifice a life in order to get a bomb out of the way or alter the way some flippers are facing.

Since you only launch spheres, controlling PlaceBall is fairly easy. You can launch spheres by clicking on launchers with the left mouse button. The ball will begin moving in the direction the arrow is pointing. You'll also notice an arrow is blinking. This is the current launcher and will be used to launch a sphere if you hit ENTER or SPACE. To change the current launcher with the keyboard use the arrow keys or TAB.

Scoring is also fairly straightforward. In STANDARD difficulty, you get 1000 points for completing a level, 250 points for hitting a sinkhole, 100 points for hitting a prize, 10 points for hitting a flipper and 5 points for hitting a wall. CHALLENGE difficulty doubles these scores. Remember, you get points for hitting walls and flippers. This is because there may be various solutions to each level, some being more complex than others. The more you bounce around, the better your score!