Thank you for obtaining a copy of Fracas! A lot of time went into this project, so I hope it brings you some enjoyment. Instructions for the game are built-in; select the items under the "help" menu to learn the basics, and set the keys to whatever you prefer. When you're done, select "New Game" from the "File" menu to get going.
Important
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DO NOT ALLOCATE MORE MEMORY TO FRACAS THAN YOU HAVE AVAILABLE. Fracas needs a little bit of memory left over outside what's allocated to the System and to Fracas itself in order to play music, so I recommend running Fracas on a system with at least 6 megs of memory.
Optimization for your computer
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Fracas prefers Macintoshes with a 68040 chip in them or a Power Macintosh. If you're using a lower-end Macintosh, the game may not perform as well as you'd like. If this is the case, try the following things to make the game play faster:
• Be sure "fast animation" is enabled, if it doesn't cause problems for you.
• Uncheck the "high-quality music" item in the "options" menu. This will cause the music to not sound quite as nice, but it won't eat up as much of your computer's efforts. Personally, I can't tell the difference, but technically, it causes the music to play back at 11 kHz instead of 22 kHz.
• Switch to 16 colors or even black and white in your "Monitors" control panel.
• Disable the music via the "options" menu. Playing music in the background takes at least 25% of your computer's efforts. The music really adds to the game, however. Don't do this unless you have to.
System Requirements
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• 68030 microprocessor or better. I suppose it would work with an '020, but it would be ugly.
• At least a 640 by 480 screen (i.e., 13" monitor or a 500-series PowerBook) If there's enough interest, I might design levels to enable this game to work on smaller screens.
• System 7 or higher (again, if there's interest, I -could- make it work with System 6)
• Around 4 megs of free disk space
• Around 4 megs of free memory
Two Player Mode
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Fracas is, by default, a single-player game, but two players may play cooperatively or against each other as well (just make sure you both agree on how you're playing!) To play with two players, make sure the keys for players 1 and 2 are set to something you'll remember, and then check the "Two Player" option in the Options menu. After you complete your two player game (which will occur after both players have died,) the Two Player option will automatically be unchecked again. If you want to play another two player game, remember to check the two player option again first.
Use care when selecting the keys for a two player game. Remember that the mac's keyboard can only detect two non-modifier keys down at once, so it would be smart to be sure both players are using a modifier key (that is, shift, option, command, or control) as their fire key. Otherwise, one player could quite easily keep the other from moving, and that's not much fun. Another nice way to avoid this problem is to have one player use the mouse for control.
The bonus balloons act a bit differently in a two player game. If you run over a balloon that has your face on it, you will receive an extra life and some bonus points. If you run over a balloon with the other player's face on it, nothing will happen if the other player is still alive... but get this... if you run over this balloon and the other player is dead, it will bring him back to life! This works out kinda nice if you have two players of varying skill, and want to bring back a player that died early on just to be a nice guy.
Controls
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Don't you hate it when someone else was using your computer and changed all the keys on your favorite game? Well, at least Fracas has a way around this. If you have the controls set up just the way you like it (by using the items in the "options" menu), you can save the current control settings to a file by selecting "Save Control Set" under the FILE menu. Then, if somebody messes up your settings, just select "Open Control Set" to bring them back.
Note that you don't have to save your control set to prevent it from disappearing the next time you play. Fracas remembers what you last had the controls set to.
Recommended
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Get the Sound Manager 3.0 extension if you don't already have it. It will improve the game's performance.
Suggested Hardware
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• Stereo speakers
• Gravis Gamepad (you can play just fine with the keyboard or mouse, I just think the GamePad is really neat)
Registration
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If you enjoy this game, we'd really appreciate it if you send us the $15 registration fee. This game is the result of a lot of people's nights and weekends. Please take the time to click on the "Register!" button. We offer several methods of registration to make it as easy as possible, including two electronic means.
Registration will entitle you to a code to "unlock" the game; that is, all the annoying reminders to register will be gone. I'll also give you all of the secret cheat codes for the game as well.
This is my first effort at a Macintosh game, so I'm looking for suggestions and feedback before I begin another. Even if you don't think Fracas is worth $15, please let me know why it isn't. Send your comments to Iophiel on America Online, or to frank.kane@phcteam.com over the Internet. I also read the comp.sys.mac.games newsgroup if you care to post opinions there. Of course, I welcome positive comments as well : )
Credits
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This game would be nowhere near as cool as it is without the help of several people:
Kerri Willard was responsible for all of the artwork.
Brandon Franklin, a.k.a. CyberCerberus of Cerberus Development/PC Division, did a great job composing the music.
Ingemar Ragnemalm developed the Sprite Animation Toolkit, which I used to simplify the game's animation and sound handling. Many thanks to Ingemar for making such a great tool free to the shareware development community. If you're a developer interested in getting into Mac games, this makes it relatively painless.
Frank Seide developed the Sound Trecker, which I used to handle the music playback in the game. Many thanks for his cooperation. The Sound Trecker drivers are contained in the "ISTk" and "PSTk" resources of Fracas, and are copyrighted 1991-94 by Frank Seide.
Nikol Software provided the routine to handle the scrolling credits in the "about" box.
Please don't include Fracas in any commercially-distributed shareware compilations (online services excepted) without at least asking me first.
Reward
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Since you were a good doobie and read this entire thing, I'll tell you one of the hidden features in Fracas. Holding down the "j" and "b" keys while on the title screen will activate the "Secret JukeBox Mode," which will let you listen to music from any level of the game. If you register the game, I'll tell you the rest of the undocumented features!
