Bonzo is an adventuresome ape, and always seems to get into trouble. He's really done it this time, and wakes up after a heavy night on the jungle juice to find himself in a haunted house, with strange creatures all around. Can you get Bonzo back home to his family ?
Controlling Bonzo couldn't be simpler. Use the keyboard to move Bonzo left and right and to make Bonzo jump. The default keys are the arrow keys - use the left and right arrow keys to make Bonzo walk left and right, and the up arrow key to jump. You can customise these keys or use a joystick. See the section on 'joysticks' for some important information.
Bonzo is a pacifist, so he will have to rely on your skills to avoid his enemies (anything which moves and several things which don't!).
In order to get home, Bonzo has to pass through five different worlds. To complete a world, guide Bonzo to get all the red keys. Once you have these, an exit door will appear somewhere in the world. Hurry, because your bonus will be counting down... The blue keys will allow Bonzo to explore a bonus level. Get them all, find the door, and grab those extra points.
There is plenty of fruit to collect for even more points (get them all for a special bonus), and other objects which will help Bonzo in his quest.
The wing protects Bonzo from damage due to falling. Long falls cost Bonzo some of his energy, and when he loses all his energy, you lose a life.
The shield protects Bonzo from ALL enemies.
The lightning strike replenishes Bonzo's energy.
The x2, x3 and x4 increase the value of all fruit and keys collected.
These 'power-ups' only last for a short time, so make the most of them.
Bonzo's enemies
These are many and varied. Monkey Shines features over 100 animated enemies. If it moves, it's up to no good. There are some things which don't move but also kill Bonzo. These include bombs, light bulbs and pools of molten lava. There are a few others, which we are sure you will find!
Bonzo has a special dislike for bees, and the bees don't like Bonzo much either. Bee stings are not immediately fatal, but they will drain Bonzo of energy. Try to steer clear.
The legal stuff
Well, we might as well get this out of the way now.
Monkey Shines is shareware. It is not a free product. You may test Monkey Shines free of charge for up to 30 days. After that time you must either pay for Monkey Shines or delete it from your hard disk. To pay for Monkey Shines, print out and complete the document 'Monkey Shines Order Form' which should be in the Monkey Shines folder (if you don't have this document, contact us at the address below) and send it to Fantasoft with your payment (the address is given below). The registration fee is $20. You can pay by cash, check, money order and major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover). When you send us your payment we will send you a registration number which will personalise your copy of Monkey Shines and allow you to play all the levels (the unregistered game will only allow you to play the first world - about 40 levels) plus any you design yourselves.
We can accept checks in most foreign currencies. Just send a check for the equivalent of $20 U.S. See the document 'Monkey Shines Order Form' for a list of common exchange rates.
We encourage you to distribute Monkey Shines far and wide. However, you may ONLY distribute the unregistered version, and you must include ALL the files. You must NOT charge any money for distributing Monkey Shines. You may include Monkey Shines on your ftp site/web page as long as you do not charge per download, and you have all the original files in an unaltered state. You may not include Monkey Shines on a CD-ROM compilation* without the permission of Fantasoft LLC. Contact us at the address below for details. You may not distribute modified versions of the Monkey Shines application under any circumstances.
Since we are giving you access to the Monkey Shines Level Editor, you may distribute modified world files. However, these must be clearly labelled as such, and may not be bundled with the 'official' Monkey Shines distribution.
* CD-ROMS included free of charge with magazines are exempt from this.
Getting Started
Monkey Shines consists of 6 files. These are the 'Monkey Shines' application, and the world files 'Bonzo World 1', 'Bonzo World 2', 'Bonzo World 3', 'Bonzo World 4' and 'Bonzo World 5'. In order for Monkey Shines to function properly, these files should all be in the same folder. There is also a 'Monkey Shines Level Editor' which is optional, and will allow you to create your own levels for Bonzo to explore.
Monkey Shines should be copied to your hard disk before playing. If you haven't got much disk space, you can install only the worlds you wish to play.
Bonzo World 1 = Spooked
Bonzo World 2 = Spaced Out
Bonzo World 3 = About the House
Bonzo World 4 = In the Drink
Bonzo World 5 = In the Swing
Now just double-click on the 'Monkey Shines' application, and you're on your way.
When you have configured Monkey Shines to your satisfaction (music and sound volume, key settings) click on 'New Game' to play. You will then have to choose the world you want to start on. Unregistered users can only play 'Spooked'. When you register (pay!), we will send you a code which will personalise your copy of Monkey Shines and allow you to play all the levels, as well as any levels you design yourself. Don't edit 'Bonzo World 1' unless you have registered - the game will not accept modified versions of this file.
Customising Keys
You can configure the keyboard settings for Monkey Shines to suit your own preferences. Simply click the 'Controls' button to show the key settings dialog. Click on the key you want to change (the name of the key will turn yellow). Then press the key you would like to assign to this function. It couldn't be simpler.
Special Keys
During the game, you can still use command-q to quit directly back to the finder. Command-a will abort the current game, while 'escape' will abort one life (useful if you get stuck on a level with no way to die). You can also quit (command-q) from the world selection screen, or abort by pressing 'escape'. To save embarrasment, don't assign
'command' to 'jump' and 'q' to 'left' - you won't have a very long game!
Pausing the Game
During the game, you can pause using the caps-lock key. This will allow you access to the menu bar and allow you access to the Finder and other applications.
Multiple Monitors
If you are fortunate enough to have more than one monitor connected to your Mac, the first time you run Monkey Shines, it will ask you which monitor you want to play on. If you change your mind later, simply hold down the option key when launching the Monkey Shines application to choose again.
System Requirements
Monkey Shines requires a colour MacOS compatible computer (Apple Macintosh or clone) with a 68020 or higher processor, 5000K free RAM and a screen capable of displaying 8-bit colour (256 colours) at a resolution of 640 x 480 or higher. In practise this means an LC or better with a 13" monitor. Monkey Shines is PowerPC native, so you will get the optimal performance on all Macs. Monkey Shines requires that you be running at least System 7 (you aren't still running System 6 are you ?), and strongly recommends that you have Sound Manager 3.1 or higher installed (Sound Manager 3.2.1 is the current version). If you have only 8MB total RAM, you may need to disable some system extensions in order to make 5000K available for Monkey Shines. To do this, either use the 'Extensions Manager' control panel, or hold down the shift key at startup. Increasing the memory allocation to Monkey Shines makes very little difference, except on slower macs.
The Menu Bar
Yup, we hide it from you. It's not like we don't trust you. In fact, if you click the mouse where the menu bar should be, you'll find it was there all along. Use the menu to disable the music, or to toggle the hiding of the desktop. It's your Mac, and we want you to decide.
Joysticks
Some joysticks (Flightstick Pro and Jetstick from CH Products, and the MacEnjoy and MacEnjoy Style from Fesh) support a programming interface which allows you to use these joysticks without configuring the key settings in your joystick's control panel. This means that you won't have to reconfigure your joystick every time you redefine the keys. Monkey Shines really is plug and play!
Performance Issues
Monkey Shines uses many techniques to get maximum performance from slower Macs. However, Macs with 68020 or 68030 processors (e.g. the LC, LCII, LCIII and their Performa equivalents) may struggle a little. By default the music is turned off on these machines. You may turn it on if you wish (use the menu bar, not the volume control slider), but we feel that the performance will be unacceptable.
Turning the music off using the menu bar is not the same as setting the volume to zero using the volume control. In order to see the performance gains, you MUST disable the music from the menu. Setting the sound volume to zero will cause sounds not to be played, and you will see a slight improvement in performance on slower machines.
On the slowest Macs, loading a world file or moving between screens in the interface can take quite a long time (often more than a minute to load the game data on an LC). Don't assume Monkey Shines has crashed! Just be a little patient. In order to make the actual game as fast as possible, we had to do a little more work while the level is loading - there are a lot of graphics to load, so give it a bit more time. It's worth it! The performance of the actual game will still be pretty good.
Troubleshooting
Monkey Shines crashes
- it shouldn't ! Monkey Shines has been tested intensively on a whole range of Macs.
However, here are some things to look out for.
1. Are you running in 24 bit memory mode ? Open the 'Memory' control panel and make sure it is set to
'32 bit'. If you have a PowerPC mac, make sure the modern memory manager is turned on.
2. Are you using virtual memory or RAM Doubler ? Monkey Shines is compatible with virtual memory,
but may suffer from performance problems, especially on the slower Macs.
3. Do you have a system extension which is causing problems ? Try holding the shift key down when you
turn on your Mac in order to disable your system extensions. Then you can use Apple's 'Extension Manager'
to turn them back on one at a time until you find the culprit.
4. Finally, some users have observed problems with the music (crackling, etc.). These are invariably
cured by zapping your parameter RAM (hold down command-option-p-r on startup).
If you still can't get Monkey Shines to run properly, contact Fantasoft and we will try to help you. The address is at the bottom of this document.
Using Levels Designed by Other People
Monkey Shines includes a level editor so that you can design your own levels or modify ours. You will not be able to use modified levels until you have registered (paid for) Monkey Shines. To play a 3rd party world, simply click on 'other' in the world selection screen. This will then prompt you to find the world file using a standard 'open file' dialog. Third-party worlds can not be played in a specific order, since the game won't know which world to go to next. If you want to make your world file come second out of five, simply name it 'Bonzo World 2'.
Please note that the editor is classified as a 'public beta', which means it may still contain bugs. If you find a bug, please tell us so we can fix it. You are strongly advised to back up your levels regularly in case of crashes. The document 'Monkey Shines Editor Info' contains a description of the level file format and instructions on how to use the editor.
Getting the latest version of Monkey Shines
You can always get the latest version of Monkey Shines from Fantasoft. If you have world-wide-web access, point your browser at <http://www.outreach.com/fantasoft> to download it. We will also make sure the latest version is included on the info-mac ftp site <ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu> and related mirror sites. Finally, your favourite Mac magazine should have the most recent version on its cover CD. If not, tell us (and them!).
If all else fails, for a nominal charge we will mail you the latest version on disk. See the registration form for details.
A Final Note
We like to think that Monkey Shines is a high quality shareware product. This game has taken a lot of time to produce, and only by supporting shareware can we ensure the production of more games of this quality. Many companies are now distributing high quality software under the shareware scheme. It's good for all of us, because you get the chance to try the software before you pay, and we can keep our overheads down, and give you the software at a reasonable cost. If you want to see more high quality software for the Macintosh, please support shareware.
And if you don't like Monkey Shines, please feel free to tell us why!
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank many people who helped out during the creation of this game. First of all, Antionne Rosset for the 'Player Pro' libraries which play the music. Also, Guido Körber of Fesh for the 'JoyManager' libraries which make joystick use as simple as possible. Matt Slot wrote the fading routines. Thanks also to Ingemar Ragnemalm for the SAT libraries - Monkey Shines doesn't use SAT, but it got me started. I would also like to thank Alex Metcalf for various tips and advice, and David Lau for the delivery service!!!
Credit is also due to Metrowerks for producing the best development tools on the market.
Finally, thanks to the team of beta testers, led in no uncertain manner by Vern Jensen. A public apology is in order to Vern, Alex, Ville-Eemeli and Petteri for the many stupid bugs in the editor which cost them so much time. The rest of the crew (in no particular order) are Rose 'BamBam' Cooper, Steffan Davies, Eric Kornblum, Rich O'Brien, Alex Moratorio, Kjetil, Kevin Hendrickson, AstroNine, Jeff Robison, Eric Wohlstadter, Teddy Schatz, Jason R. Etheridge, John Forbes and Bill Greentree.
How to contact us
By mail:
Fantasoft, LLC
P.O. Box 14261
Madison
WI 53714-0261
U.S.A.
By phone/fax: (608) 222 8468
By email: fantasoft1@aol.com
Visit our world wide web pages: <http://www.outreach.com/fantasoft>
