WinNibbles V2.0

The Lost Levels

Copyright © 1996,1997 Tyler Dauwalder

General

Introduction

New in Version 2.0

How and Why to Register

How To Contact Me

Legal Stuff

The Game

Quick Start

Controls

Options

Menus

Level Editor

Overview

Playing Levels You Create

Options

Tools

Menus


Introduction

The Story

WinNibbles is a Windows version of a game that shipped with MS-DOS 5.0, Nibbles.  The object of the game is to guide your snake through the level, eating up all the flashing PowerBlocks that appear. Each time you eat a PowerBlock, your snake grows longer and another PowerBlock appears somewhere else in the level. Once you eat nine PowerBlocks, you pass the level. The trouble is, the snake you control doesn't know how to stop, so you must keep him out of harm's way as he moves through the level with reckless abandon. If your snake ever crashes into any part of the level or any snake (including himself), he loses a life. This becomes increasingly harder as you eat more and more PowerBlocks, as your snake gets longer and longer each time. If you run out of lives, the game is over.

Miscellaneous

WinNibbles was written in Borland Delphi 1.0, and as far as I know achieves comparable speed results on Windows 95 and Windows 3.x.  If you have a 486/66 or better, speed should not be concern, and you may even have to slow the game down a bit in the Options dialog. I tried very hard to get this game to run as fast as it could, but I know it's not perfect, and there is still some noticeable decrease in speed on animated levels with lots going on. Just as a note, WinNibbles, for reasons unknown to me, will not display the title screen when running Windows with Large Fonts. The game itself still runs, you just don't get the pretty picture when you're not playing. As soon as I can figure out a way to fix this, I'll issue an upgrade.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to contact me.


Quick Start

Starting a Game

To start a new game, Choose Game|New on the menu bar. A dialog will appear, asking how many players you wish to have, one, two, or three, and which level to start on. Choose the number of players you want to have and which level you want to start on, then click OK. The screen will go black as the first level loads, then the level will fade in (256 color displays) or just appear (hi-color and true-color displays.) Then the game begins.

Ending Your Game

To end the current game, choose Game|Stop to bring you back to the main screen, or Game|Exit to stop the game and exit WinNibbles.


How To Contact Me

I can be contacted one of two ways:

By e-mail at:

dauwaldt@televar.com

or by postal mail at:

Tyler Dauwalder

401 Angford Drive

Ellensburg, WA 98926


Legal Stuff

WinNibbles  Copyright © 1996,1997 Tyler Dauwalder,  All Rights Reserved.

Warranty / Disclaimer:

WinNibbles is provided as is with no warranty, expressed or implied.  Any use of this product by you is done so at your own risk.  The author of this product will not be held liable for ANY damages incurred through the use or inability to use this product.  The shareware version of WinNibbles may be distributed freely, although I would appreciate being contacted if it is going to be included on any CD's or the like.

A Note to all:

Feel free to give a copy of WinNibbles Shareware to all your friend, neighbors, realtives, employees, bosses, acquaintances, and so on. You may not, however, distribute a copy of the Registered version of WinNibbles, or the registration code.


Asks for the number of players in the game and which level to start on, then starts a new game.


Loads a previously saved game.


Saves the current game. Saving your game saves the number of players in the game, the level you are on, and how many lives each player has. To load a saved game, choose Open from the Game menu.


Saves the current game under a different filename.


Options

There are three pages in the options dialog:

Game Options

Level Editor Options

Miscellaneous Options


Stops the current game and returns you the main screen.


Exits WinNibbles, even if there is a game in progress (remember to save first).


Displays this help file.


Displays a dialog that allows you to register your copy of WinNibbles by typing in the registration code.

How and Why To Register


Displays the WinNibbles About Box.


Controls

Controlling your snake is fairly simple. The snake can move in one of four directions: Up, Down, Left, or Right. To change its direction, just press the corresponding key on the keyboard:

Player 1:

Up:	Up Arrow

Down:	Down Arrow

Right:	Right Arrow

Left:	Left Arrow

Player 2:

Up:	I

Down:	K

Right:	L

Left:	J

Player 3:

Up:	W

Down:	S

Right:	D

Left:	A

To pause the game, press the spacebar.


How and Why To Register

Well, it's simple. The shareware version doesn't have all the features that the registered does. The shareware version only lets you play 20 of the 100 levels included in WinNibbles, only gives you five lives per game, and doesn't let you save files you edit in the level editor.

Registering lets you play all 100 levels, gives you 25 lives per game, and lets you save levels you create or edit in the Level Editor. You don't have to register to play the first 20 levels over and over, just to get the extra stuff.

Registration is just $10.00 US per license, sent to me at the address below. If you live in the USA, there is no shipping charge. Shipping anywhere else is $1.50 US. It's best to send a check or money order; don't send cash unless you have to. If you include an e-mail address when you register, I'll e-mail you the registration code right away. If you don't have an e-mail address, you'll be sent the registration code by postal mail. Entering the registration code unlocks all of WinNibbles's features.  (To enter the code, choose "Register..." from the "Help" menu. Enter the code in the dialog that appears.)

You can run the program ORDER.EXE, which will gather all the necessary information about you and print out a ready-made order form, or you can just include your name, address, e-mail address, etc. when you mail your registration.

The address to mail everything to is:

Tyler Dauwalder

401 Angford  Drive

Ellensburg, WA, 98926

USA

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.


New in Version 2.0

Level Editor

Now you can create your own levels with the built in Level Editor. This is the same editor that was used to create all 100 levels in the registered version of WinNibbles. It works much like a paint program, with single block, line, rectangle, and fill tools. For more information, click here.

More Drawing Modes

There are now four choices for drawing modes:

3D Blocked:

Levels are drawn to look like they are made out groups of 3D blocks. Players are drawn to look like they are one continuous 3D block.

3D Smooth:

Levels are drawn to look like they are continuous 3D blocks. Players are drawn the same as in 3D Blocked mode.

Light Flat:

Levels and players are drawn as flat rectangles, similar to the original Nibbles.

Dark Flat:

Levels and players are drawn as flat rectangles as in Light Flat mode, but with darker colors.

Flat modes are the fastest. 3D Smooth is the slowest. 3D Blocked is somewhere in between.

High Scores List

Whenever you finish a game (you either run out of lives or beat all 50 levels), you initials are added to the high scores list, assuming you're one of the top ten high scoring players. To view high scores, View|High Scores from the main menu.

50 NEW Levels

WinNibbles 2.0 includes 50 brand new levels, The Lost Levels. You can choose to play the 50 Lost Levels, the 50 original WinNibbles levels, or levels you create yourself from the Miscellaneous page in the Options Dialog.


Game Options

Difficulty

Changes how much your snake grows each time it eats a PowerBlock. Choices are:

Easy:

Grows very little

Medium:

Grows a decent amount

Hard:

Grows a lot.

Speed

Changes how fast the game runs. Ranges from 100 (fastest) to 0 (slowest).

Colors

Lets you change the color of the background and the levels and choose the drawing mode. There are nine different choices for the bakground color, 13 different choices for the level color, and four choices for the drawing mode. See What's new for information on the new drawing modes.


Level Editor Options

Colors

Lets you change the colors used in the Level Editor.

Miscellaneous

Fill across diagonals

If checked, fills will fill squares diagonally adjacent as well as those directly adjacent. If not checked, only squares directly adjacent will be filled.

Show Grid

Toggles the grid in the Level Editor.

Confirm overwrite on Save Level As

Asks for confirmation when you choose File|Save Level As.


Miscellaneous Options

Resolution

Changes the size of the WinNibbles window. The choices are:

Low:

Running Windows at 640x480 resolution or greater

Medium:

Running Windows at 800x600 resolution or greater

High:

Running Windows at 1024x768 resolution or greater

Sounds

Turns sounds on or off.

High Scores

Lets you turn the scrolling colors in the High Scores List on or off, and lets you clear the High Scores List.

Level File

Lets you choose the level file to use for the current game (this should really be in Game Options, but I ran out of room...). You can play the Lost Levels, the Original WinNibbles levels, or levels from a level file you create yourself.


Level Editor Overview

WinNibbles levels are in essence a two dimensional grid, 64 by 48. However, to facilitate animation, there are 12 layers to each level, each layer begin a separate 64 by 48 grid. When the level is played, the 12 layers are displayed in succession, creating an animated level. If all 12 layers are the same, the level looks static.

When editing a level, you use one of the available tools to create the structure of the level. Tools can be used to turn blocks on or off on the level. Your choices are.

Current Layer On:

Turns on the current layer only.

Current Layer Off:

Turns off the current layer only.

All Layers On:

Turns on all layers.

All Layers Off:

Turns off all layers.

You choose which layer you're working on with they layer combo box:

You choose which level you're working on with the level combo box:

Pressing the Play button gives you a preview of what your level will look like when played in WinNibbles:

.


Level Editor Menus

File

New

Open

Save

Save As

Save Level As

Return

Close

Edit

Cut

Cut All

Copy

Copy All

Paste

View

Options

Player Directions

Help

Contents

Register

About


Game Menus

Game

New

Open

Save

Save As

Stop

Exit

View

Options

High Scores

Level Editor

Help

Contents

Register

About


Shows the High Scores List.


Starts the Level Editor. For more information on editing your own levels, click here.


Level Editor Tools

Pencil:

Draws one block.

Line:

Draws a line of blocks.

Fill:

Fills a group of blocks.

Outline Rectangle:

Draws an outlined rectangle of blocks.

Filled Rectangle:

Draws a filled rectangle of blocks.

Selector:

Selects a rectangle of blocks for Copying or Cutting.

Player 1:

Sets the start position for player 1.

Player 2:

Sets the start position for player 2.

Player 3:

Sets the start position for player 3.


Creates a new level file.


Opens an existing level file.


Saves the current level file.


Saves the current level file to a different filename.


Saves the current level as a different level.


Returns to WinNibbles without closing the Level Editor.


Closes the Level Editor and returns to WinNibbles.


Copies the selected rectangle of blocks from the current layer to the clipboard.


Copies the selected rectangle of blocks from all layers to the clipboard.


Cuts the selected rectangle of blocks from the current layer to the clipboard.


Cuts the selected rectangle of blocks from all layers to the clipboard.


Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the current level.


Brings up a dialog that allows you to set the players' initial directions.


Playing Levels You Create

To play levels you create:

Click View|Options.

Click the Miscellaneous tab.

Click Other File.

Type the full path and filename of your level file in the text box below Other File

OR

Click Browse and select your level file.

Click OK.

Click Game|New to start the game.