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D E F E K T R I S 9 4 D O C U M E N T A T I O N =================================================== CONTENTS (by line number) -------- 1 - Contacting the author (plus a little introduction).......36 1.1 - Getting the Source Code..............................67 2 - Installing and Running Defektris.........................77 3 - The Main Control Screen..................................130 4 - Playing the Game.........................................155 4.1 - Aim and Controls.................159 4.2 - Bonuses and Scoring..............246 5 - Viewing and saving high scores...........................304 6 - Creating Custom Levels...................................325 6.1 - The Main Editor Screen...........341 6.2 - The Edit Level Screen............412 1 - CONTACTING THE AUTHOR ------------------------- Defektris was programmed in assembler by Sam Baker, with music by Keith Baker and graphics by Sam Baker and Mike Duggan. It began in June 1993 when my Noughts and Crosses game failed and I decided to write something with less artificial intelligence in it - another falling blocks game. As the game progressed though it turned into more than just another version of a certain Russian puzzle game - it became a Russian puzzle game with bonuses and a level editor! Anyway, please contact me if you find any bugs or want to employ me as a programmer! I'm just a poor Computer Science student y'see. Please send any mail to: SamSoft, 100 Beauley Rd., Southville, Bristol, BS3 1QG. or e-mail me at university: csysb@scs.leeds.ac.uk E-mail replies guaranteed, snail-mail not! Defektris 94 is dedicated to my cats. 1.1 - Getting the Source Code ----------------------------- The source code for Defektris 94 is available from SamSoft and includes the raw graphics files and samples. It comes on two disks which are included in the price of ú10 (pound sterling). Just send me ú10 in a form that I can easily get deposited into my bank account along with your address. In return I will send the source code in a jiffy bag. 2 - INSTALLING AND RUNNING DEFEKTRIS ------------------------------------ Defektris must be distributed with the following files: Defektris (The program itself) Defektris.info (The program icon) DefektrisEditor.data (The level editor graphics) and Defektris.doc (This documentation file) Other optional files include: DefektrisHiScores (The highscore table) and also any files ending in the .dlv suffix meaning level data saved by the Defektris level editor. The DefektrisEditor.data file must be in the Defektris: volume. This can be done by putting the file in the root directory of a disk or volume called Defektris or by adding the following line to your startup-sequence: assign Defektris: <dirname> where <dirname> is the name of the directory where the data file is located. This is also the directory where high scores will be saved. To load and save Defektris level editor files the libs: directory must contain either asl.library (Kickstart 2 and above), or reqtools.library for any Amiga. Reqtools.library is copyright Nico Franτois, used with his kind permission. Defektris can be run from an AmigaDos Shell or CLI or from Workbench by double-clicking on its icon. When run Defektris will attempt to load the DefektrisEditor.data and DefektrisHiScores files from the Defektris: directory. When Defektris is loaded a file requester will appear. This can be used to load a Defektris custom level file (see below) ending in the suffix, .dlv. To carry on select a file and click on load/OK or just click on play without loading any levels. NOTE: If Defektris cannot find the DefektrisEditor.data file or if there is not enough memory available to load it and allocate other level editor memory then Defektris will still run but the file requesters will not appear and the Edit Levels and Custom buttons on the Defektris Control Screen will not operate (shown by a criss-cross pattern on the buttons). 3 - THE MAIN CONTROL SCREEN --------------------------- As soon as Defektris is loaded the intro will appear with some text for you to read if you're bored. The right mouse button can be used to move on to the next screen of text, otherwise it will change after a timeout. Pressing the left mouse button, fire or any key will end the intro taking you to the Defektris control screen. From here you can play three different game types, edit levels and view the high scores. All the options are represented by pretty buttons you can click on! Throughout such screens the joystick and mouse can be used to move the pointer and select options. The mouse is usually easiest, especially in the level editor. The keys are used in some parts for various things - in the control screen every button has a keyboard shortcut (underlined), that has the same effect as clicking on it. The title sequence can be viewed by clicking on its button. There are also instructions available by clicking on the (surprise surprise) Instructions button. The other options are documented in later sections. 4 - PLAYING THE GAME -------------------- 4.1 - Aim and Controls ---------------------- To begin a game click on the play button from the Control Screen. This will begin one of three types of game (selected on the Control Screen). In all of the games the aim is to navigate the falling blocks into positions that make full horizontal lines of blocks at the bottom of the screen. When this happens that line will disappear and another block will fall. The game ends when there is no room for any more blocks to fall or the Escape key is pressed. In some levels there is a distinct pattern in the background over which the blocks will fall. If the blocks cover this pattern a bonus is awarded and a nice noise hurtles out of your speakers! The points you are given depend on how efficiently you cover the pattern. i.e. if the pattern is made up of six squares and you cover it with exactly six squares of block then you get the maximum number of points. NOTE: To make some of the levels more challenging covering the bonus at the same time as filling a horizontal line does not give you the points. Also the bonus can only be scored once on each level. Some of the blocks that fall have special properties. These properties are ONLY activated when the special block is used to make a line. If a block falls with a bomb next to it then completing a line with that block will trigger a series of explosions filling (if there are any) holes in the pile of blocks already on the screen. A block may also have a letter next to it from the word BONUS. If so, making a line will add that letter to the Bonus display to the right of the screen. When all letters are lit a little face will tell you and points (3349 of them) will be added to your score. It is possible to fill a maximum of four horizontal lines without using the bomb. Manage the maximum four (or more with the bomb) and you will be congratulated for your 'TOP MOVE'. The score you get rises exponentially with the number of lines you get at once - in other words getting four lines at once scores more than getting four lines seperately. See the Scoring section below for details. The three game types available are: i) Levels This is the default selection. In this mode clicking on Play lets you play 80 default levels. In this mode the Lines counter display on the left of the screen shows how many more lines must be completed to progress to the next level. Each level may or may not have a bonus pattern to cover. If it does there will be holes in the blocks so the pattern can be seen through them. ii) Custom This game type is the same as Levels above except that the 80 default levels are replaced by either the levels that were loaded on startup, or if none were loaded, a single default level. iii) Arcade In this mode there is only one level and instead of a series of increasingly difficult levels, the single level gets faster the more lines you complete. In this case the Lines counter display shows how many lines have been completed during the current game. The blocks can be controlled using the joystick or keys as shown below: JOYSTICK: Left - Move block left. Right - Move block right. Down - Drop block quickly. Fire - Rotate block by 90 degrees. KEYS: Left Arrow Z or X - Move block left. Right Arrow . or / - Move block right. Down Arrow or Space - Drop block quickly. Up Arrow Shift Alt or Amiga - Rotate block by 90 degrees. Other functional keys are: P - Pause. M - Toggle Music/FX ESCAPE - Quit. 4.2 - Bonuses and Scoring ------------------------- When creating lines the most points are scored by: a) making more lines at once b) making the lines higher up the screen c) dropping the blocks faster When covering the bonus pattern the most points are scored by covering all the bonus squares but as few of the other squares as possible. SCORING FORMULAE: The score for completing lines is calculated as follows: The BASIC score for each line made in one move is LINENUMBER * 26 + 163 where LINENUMBER goes from one to the number of lines got together as each is evaluated. The following table shows the resultant scores: Lines Line Score Total Move Score 1: 163 163 2: 189 352 3: 215 567 4: 241 808 5: 267 1075 6: 293 1368 7: 319 1687 8: 345 2032 etc... The score is THEN multiplied by 20 and then divided by SPEEDDIV where: SPEEDDIV = (Number of slow moves)*2 + (Number of fast moves) and the moves referred to are the 8 line falling movements. The score for covering the bonus is calculated as: BONUS = 2*(Nth triangle number) where N is the number of UNcovered squares. The score for getting all the bonus letters is fixed at 3349. 5 - VIEWING AND SAVING HIGH SCORES ---------------------------------- When you get a high score you get to enter your name. In the enter-your- name screen type your name with the keys or click on the buttons using the pointer. Clicking on the CLEAR button or pressing escape will clear the name and clicking on DONE or pressing return will exit. The High Scores can be viewed by clicking the obvious button from the Defektris Control Screen. The scores are loaded automatically if a file called DefektrisHiScores is found in the Defektris: directory. The Quit Options set of buttons on the Control Screen determines what happens to the high scores WHEN QUIT IS SELECTED - no file output occurs until the program exits. Abandon will leave the DefektrisHiScores file unmodified, Save will replace it with the current high scores, and Delete will remove the file if it exists. 6 - CREATING CUSTOM LEVELS -------------------------- Here comes the fun part - designing new levels to be used in Defektris! Level data is stored in files ending with .dlv that can store 15 levels. The levels are loaded via an ASL or reqtools file requester that appears on startup and edited from within Defektris. Modifications can be saved on exit via another file requester. NOTE: Changes can only be saved to disk when Defektris exits. Clicking save in the editor only saves the changes in memory. To save to disk you must also select Quit and then save the levels with the file requester. The levels you create or load can be played by selecting the Custom Game Type from the Defektris Control Screen and then clicking on play. 6.1 - The Main Editor Screen ---------------------------- The level editor is entered by clicking on Edit Levels from the Defektris Control Screen. NOTE: It is much easier to use the mouse as a control method rather than the joystick when editing levels. The screen displayed first shows all the 15 levels as a grid of icons (pictorial representations). Each icon has a level number and a 32 by 16 pattern. This is the background pattern used in the level enlarged, to remind the user which levels correspond to each icon. Each icon can be selected by clicking on it with the mouse or joystick pointer, but only one can be selected at one time. The arrow keys can also be used to select different levels. From here the levels can be edited individually, sorted into order and deleted. At the bottom of the screen is a panel of options. These are described from left to right and all but APPEND operate on the currently selected level (shown by a red box round the level number) : a) EDIT - This takes you into the Edit Level Screen, allowing you to modify the current selected level - see Section 6.2 below. If the selected icon is an Empty Level this option will not work - use DEFAULT or INSERT to fill the space with a default level to edit. b) INSERT - This inserts a Default level at the current position if there is an empty level anywhere after the currently selected one. This may shift levels forward to create a space in the current position. c) DEFAULT - This replaces the currently selected level with a default level - WARNING: This operation will delete the current level from memory forever! d) APPEND - This option finds the first empty level (if there is one), replaces it with a default level and selects it ready for editing. This is usually the most convenient way to add a new level. e) SWAP - This option is used to swap one level with another. To swap a pair of levels around select one of them, click on SWAP then click on the level you want to swap it with. Clicking on SWAP changes the mouse pointer to a SWAP pointer until the mouse (or fire) is clicked again. f) COPY - This operation will copy a level over another one. To copy an icon select it and then click on copy. The mouse pointer then changes to a COPY pointer and the next icon you click on will be replaced by the currently selected icon - WARNING: This operation will delete the level you copy over from memory forever! g) DELETE - Clicking on DELETE will delete the currently selected level from the list. THIS DATA CAN NOT BE RETRIEVED! h) SAVE & EXIT - This will return you to the Defektris Control Screen saving all modifications BUT ONLY TO MEMORY. To save to disk Quit must be selected and the file requester used to save the data. i) ABANDON & EXIT - This also returns you to the Defektris Control Screen but changes made to the levels will not be remembered. This means all changes (in the current edit only) will be lost forever. With these options the levels can be sorted into order changed in any way without altering the previous edit unless SAVE & EXIT is selected. If SAVE & EXIT IS selected then the changes are kept in memory and can be saved to disk when Quit is selected and the file requester appears. 6.2 - The Edit Level Screen --------------------------- Clicking on EDIT from the Main Editor Screen will take you to the Edit Level Screen. Here the currently selected level is displayed as it appears in the game. but with a control panel added at the bottom of the screen. This is used to make modifications to the level. The attributes of a level that can be changed are listed below with details of how to change them: o Number of lines required to complete the level. This is changed by editing the three digit number to the left of the panel with LINES: written above it. This affects the difficulty of the level. o Speed of falling blocks. This is changed by editing the two digit number to the left of the panel with SPEED: written above it. The speed can vary between 1 (slow) and 35 (fast). o The Background Pattern. The 32 by 16 pixel pattern displayed in the background is enlarged in a box in the control panel. Here it can be edited using the pointer and fire or the left mouse button. Clicking on a square in the grid CHANGES the colour and all drawing done without releasing the button uses this initial colour, opposite to the colour clicked on initially. This allows deleting and drawing to be done with the same controls. While the pointer is WITHIN the pattern grid, pressing escape will clear the pattern. This saves deleting it manually. Changes can be seen in the main game screen immediately as they would look in the game. o The Bonus Pattern. The background bonus pattern gives the player points when covered. To enable a bonus pattern in the current level make sure the Shape Bonus button is marked ON. ON/OFF can be toggled by clicking the button. To enable editing of the bonus pattern the EDIT button must be toggled so that the text beside it reads BONUS. In this mode when the mouse pointer moves onto the game screen it turns into a bonus pattern square. It can then be used to draw a bonus pattern onto the box where the shapes fall. To view all of the box click on the down arrow near the middle of the panel until the game screen scrolls the box into view. When EDIT BONUS is selected and the pointer is over the box in the game screen, pressing escape will clear the Bonus pattern. o The Block Pattern. A pattern of blocks can be drawn that will appear at the start of the level. This generally makes the level harder with less space for wiggling the blocks around. To edit this pattern click on EDIT until EDIT PATTERN is displayed. Then moving the pointer off the panel turns it into a block that can be drawn onto the box in the game screen. Again patterns drawn here can be deleted by pressing escape while the pointer is over the box. o The Colour Palette. Under the Control group of buttons on the right of the panel is an Edit Palette button. Clicking on this replaces the panel with a colour editing panel described below. Clicking on DONE in the Palette Editor returns you to the main editor panel. Other buttons are: RESTORE - this restores the edited level to its state before any editing took place losing the current changes permanently. VIEW ALL - this button removes the editpanel from view so the whole screen can be seen. Pressing a key, fire or the left mouse button brings the panel back. DONE - this returns you to the Main Editor Screen saving the current changes IN MEMORY. Once you return to the Main Editor Screen the changes you just made can only be restored by clicking on ABANDON & EXIT in the Main Editor Screen, but this also restores all levels changed during the current edit - so make sure you want to keep the changes before clicking done in the Edit Level Screen. One good way of testing modifications is to copy the level into an empty space if available and then change one of the copies. The Palette Editor: In the Palette Editor there are 16 colours that can be edited using a set of three sliders. There is a horizontal slider for Red, one for Green and one for Blue. Using these each colour is selected from a palette of 4096. The sliders can be moved by clicking on a position from 0 to 15 across their length or by clicking on them, holding the mouse/fire button down and dragging the slider around to the desired value. The onscreen colour will change as the slider is moved around. The values (0 to 15) of the Red(R), Green(G) and Blue(B) sliders are shown to the right of the panel as they change. The sliders always act on one colour at a time. This colour is highlighted in the colour panel below the sliders. To select a different colour either click on the colour in the panel or click on it anywhere in the game screen area. A description of the currently selected colour is displayed at the bottom of the panel. Different areas of the screen can be viewed by clicking on the up and down arrow buttons - these scroll the game screen up and down. All changes made to the palette in the current use of the Palette Editor can be restored by clicking on the RESTORE button. When the palette edit is finished pressing DONE returns to the Edit Level Control Panel.