Turnbull China Bikeride

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Text File | 1997-08-30 | 27KB | 665 lines

!Help for Bomb - Width 77 chars Tue 27th June 1995 Note: This is a Conversion from the Silicon Circus Amiga game BOMB. Version History -=============- v0.00 to 0.50 - Unreleased test versions. v0.51 - Not PD, alpha test. v0.60 - Not PD, Beta test. Tue 04th July 1995 - Happy Independence v0.61 - Not PD, Gamma test. Fri 11th August 1995 v0.99 - Not PD, Pre-release version Thu 11th January 1996 v1.00 - Not PD, Release Version. Sat 20th January 1996 v1.00 - Freeware release. Fri 09th February 1996 _____________________________________________________________________________ VISIONS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE Proudly Presents..... The Silicon Circus Game...... BBBBB OOOOOO M M BBBBB B B O O MM MM B B BBBBB O O M M M M BBBBB B B O O M M M M B B BBBBB . OOOOOO . M M M . BBBBB . Battle Of the Master Bombers. -=============================- Game Code by Owain Cole (of VOTI) Game Play by Matt Newton Lewis (of Silicon Circus) Intro -===- A couple of months ago, some of my Amiga using 'friends' decided that they were going to write a game. Which after several months, they duelly did. I had not even seen the game but I hadn't written anything decent in a few months so at Warwick Uni openday ('95) I said that what ever the game that they had written, I would like to do a conversion to the Acorn. After the laughter had died down, they decided to let me have a go. I produced some sample code and they gave me the go ahead. After about a week, I had ARM coded the game and you could play multi player games, using FSP for the grafix. After a few months, mine had a 1 player game and random moving robots too, which theirs didn't have. Another difference between mine and the Amiga version is that the characters have characteristics ie some go fast, some slow, some have more bombs at the start, some have more flames etc Back Ground -=========- Since I am not a literary genius, I cannot be bothered to write a detailed, funney account from the Dawn of Time to The Battle Of the Master Bombers. Suffice to say, after years of pratice in their own particular field of expertises, 8 fearsome warriors are gathered from the four corners of the earth to do battle. The winner will gain a title, a title so great, that it strikes fear into the hearts of grreat warriors around the world. The most feared fighter on earth: THE MASTER BOMBER. Game Intro -========- Ok, have you played Moon Quake, the 1/2 player game released on some magazine disc a couple of years ago? Well this is it but with major improvements. If you haven't then the plot is easy. You control a player and the aim of the game is to blow up all the other players using your bombs. unfortun8ly, you cannot get to the other people immedi8ly because there is a lot of rubble in the level. Some of which you can destroy (by blowing it up) some of which you cannot. The blocks you cannot blow up are arranged in a regular grid on the screen, so they are easily recognisable. You blow things up with your bombs which you drop, and then after a certain amount of time, they blow up, sending flames out North, south, east and west. If they touch rubble then the rubble blows up allowing you to move steadily towards one of the other players. Meanwhile, they are doing much the same! You cannot move through rubble, indestructible blocks or bombs (so be careful not to trap yourself!). At the start of the game, you start off with an amount of bombs, as set by the character you have picked (from 1 to 3 bombs at the start). Each bomb you lay has a certain power which is the distance the flames will travel before they disperse, again this is linked to the character you have picked (from 1 to 2 powered bombs at the start). Obviously, if one of the flames touches your player, then you die. If you blow up a bomb and one of its flames touches another player, they will die. Simple hey. Dead players are removed from the screen until all of the players bar 1 is dead. Then a brief summary of the game is given and all players are resurrected to play again. Tokens -====- Sometimes, if you blow up a bit of rubble, a token will appear. This is a red and yellow block which you can walk into. Each token has a symbol on it telling you what it does. A list of the tokens, the symbols on them and what they do is as follows. Symbol Name Action ----- ---- ------ Bomb - Extra Bomb. This gives you another bomb which means you can drop more than 1 bomb at a time. Flame - Extra Flame. This gives all your bombs 1 more power which means they will travel 1 more space before dispersing. Question Mark - Random. This randomly selects any of the tokens (apart from death). Plunger - Deton8. This deton8s all the bombs on the level, causing them all to explode simultaneously. (is that how you spell it?) 4 Arrows - Reverse Controls. The arrows are pointing in different directions by the way. Pretty obvious, but... This reverses your controls (ie up is down, left is right), for the duration of the game. If you pick up another reverse controls token, then your controls are reversed again back to normal, ie it toggles. 'S' in a circle - Shield. This makes you invulnerable for a short amount of time, (about 10-15 secs I think). What ever you do, you will not die! But watch out if the time runs out! Snail - Slow. This makes you run at a slower pace for a while. Running Man - Fast. This makes everybody else run at a slower pace for a while. Skull and Cross Bones - Death. This causes one of the bombs you are carrying to explode. If you do not have a shield, then you will die! (If you do, then you get an Extra Bomb for your trouble!) Lots of bombs in a row - Auto Lay. This means trouble! Basically, your fire button is stuck down which means that you lay bombs constantly until you can lay no more. If you get another autolay, then this cancels out the first one, ie it toggles like the reverse controls. Eye - Reveal. This reveals all the tokens on the level (removing any rubble they may be under). Ice Cream - Freeze. This freezes all the other players for a certain amount of time. Use this to your advantage!!!! Small bomb - Diddy Bombs. This reduces your bombs power to 1. Ie you have rubbish bombs. Characters -========- At start of game: Name Character Speed Bombs Flames CHO, Kije Ninja Fast 1 1 ATHTHTHA, Aththa Mexican Normal 1 2 SPARKS, Mitchell Life Guard Normal 2 1 Don Rich Tea Gangster Normal 2 1 COLLINS, Vincent Soldier Fast 1 1 SHMARKA, Rustam Wizard Slow 3 2 MAXWELL, Albert Under Taker Normal 1 2 FENN, Sherilyn Sherilyn Normal 2 1 When you start a game, you are given a choice as to who you wish 'to be' during the game. You must remember which character you are, although !BOMB often reminds you. All of the characters look different and you should have no trouble in finding your favourite after a while. Note that some of the characteristics are the same. In this case, it shouldn't really matter who you are out of the characters but still you may prefer one or the other. Controls -======- Now then, you may be asking, how did I fit 6 player's controls onto 1 keyboard. Good question, it was a bit of a close fit (and you do have an advantage if you are double jointed!). Note : You can use any of the controls on the menu system, but you must use your player's keys to select a player on the player selection screen. NB The controls are linked to what player number you are and not what character you control, ok! You can change which player has which keys from the Keys menu. Please note that you cannot have two players with the same keys, even if you are not going to use one of the players. There are enough keys to go around with at least 1 set over (3 if you have joysticks). The set controls are: Left Right Up Down Drop-Bomb Player 1 : Z X F C G Player 2 : 1 2 6 3 + - On keypad Player 3 : M , ; . ' Player 4 : ] \ Ins Del Home Player 5 : Cursors Enter - Sorry!!! Player 6 : F2 2 W Q S - Sideways orient8d Extra Set : - # 8 9 / - On keypad, Sideways If you press Crl-Escape at any time, then the game will exit. If you press Escape at any time, then the game will return to the main menu. Options -=====- Come on, these are obvious. Note limits on the number of blocks (170?) and you cannot have more tokens than there are blocks. Token Probabilities -=================- Very technical hey? Well, a bit slow, but obvious really. You can change the probabilities of all the tokens occurring by taking or adding %s to them. However, the percentages must add up to 100% and so you cannot change directly the probability of Extra bombs. What you must do is take the %s off or add them on to other tokens. The computer will automatically adjust the % prob of an extra bomb accordingly. Saving/Loading Options -====================- You can save and load up the number of blocks,number of tokens, all the game options, and the token probabilities by Selecting Save Options or Load Options. If you wish to go back to the default options. Then just delete the options file inside the !BOMB directory. Any error caused while saving or loading is trapped, so don't worry about anything like that. Playing a Game -============- When you select 'Play a Game' from the main menu, it will bring up another options screen. From which you can choose the exact type of game you wish to play, how many players you wish to play it and where you want to play it. The number of players is obvious, its how many characters you want playing. The Game type can either be 'Best of' or 'First to' which is rather obvious. Or it can be 'Attrition' which is explained below. To understand the 'No. Games' option, you must see what game type you have. If the number of games is 4 and the game type is 'Best of' then you will play 4 games and the player who won the most will win the tournament. If the game type is 'First to' then you will continue to play games until somebody has won 4 of them. Draws do not count as wins. Evil Robot Joeys -==============- The number of Joeys is how many randomly moving robot Joeys there are on the screen. The robots do not lay bombs, but if you come into contact with them , then you die! You can destroy them by blowing them up. They cannot move through bombs, rubble or tokens. The maximum number of robots is 10 on a level, but if you choose more robots than this then the robots will become faster, but there will only be the first digit's worth of robots. Sounds weird? not really. eg If you select 10 robots, there will be ten slow robots. If you select 11 robots, there will be 1 medium speed robot. If you select 15 robots, there will be 5 medium speed robots. If you select 20 robots, there will be 10 medium speed robots. If you select 21 robots, there will be 1 fast robot. If you select 30 robots, there will be 10 fast robots. Obvious hey! Attrition -=======- If you only have 1 player, then the game type automatically changes to 'Attrition'. But you can play attrition with as many players as you like. Basically, you start off the level with a certain amount of robots. The idea of the game is to remove all the rubble/tokens from the level, you will then go up a level. You may leave the robots if you wish but if you come into contact with them then you die. When any of the players playing attrition dies, the level is restarted again. Also, the 'No. Games' option changes to 'No. Goes' so you can choose how many lives you have to start with. When you finish a level, the number of robots increases. After there are 10 robots, their speed increases and they start from 1 robot again. There are 31 different levels (starting from level 0 to level 30). The number of robots corresponds to their speed too as shown in the table/examples above. Above level 30, the number and speed of the robots are the same however, it is very hard to consecutivly win at this level of difficulty. You may find that when you get good, it gets very boring playing the lower levels. If so then go onto about 15-30. When you can do those easily then try increasing the speed of the game! When you lose all your goes, the computer will tell you what level you got to, and then ask you whether you wish to play the same game again. If you do, then you will start off on the level you died on, with all your goes again. If you lose all your goes above level 30, then you will start off on level 30 again. If you manage to get up to (or past) level 40 then you will achieve the status of MASTER BOMBER. This is your ultim8 objective. The rest of the game is just to 'limber' you up! I may also (if I get round to it!) put in a special message (ie CHEAT etc) if you get that far. Please note that when you get above level 35, the token probabilities are set to their default. This should stop it from being too easy! Note that when you play attriation with more than 1 player, you will lose a go if any of the players die, ok! So don't try to kill each other! Game Speed -========- You can alter the speed that the actual game runs at by changing this variable. It goes from Psychotic to Very Slow if I remember correctly. Please note that the time on all aspects of the game is increased when you change this ie bombs count faster, shields run out quicker etc On slow machines, ie ARM2, the Psychotic, Ultra Fast and Fast speeds cause jerks in the game play. Sorry and tough, upgrade! Characteristics -=============- It has just been pointed out to me that the Fast characters have a distinct advantage over the slow. I do not think this is true! But never mind. People also complained that you could only have 2 fast players and the other person kept on loosing. Now I have built in a characteristic changer. You can give any of the characters any of the default characteristics. The menu is obvious but a little confusing. 1 tip is to know what you want your characters to have and go down the list searching through until you get what you want. If you get confused, just select default and start again. If you want to quickly make all the characters the same, then set Sherilyn's characteristics to the ones that you want, and then select 'Make all as Sherilyn'. Memory -====- Although I am not exactly sure how much memory the game takes up, I have set it to about 640K. You should easily be able to get this in a 1 meg machine. However, if the game has been compressed using arcfs or something, then you may not be able to. In that case, decompress the game onto [another disc/your hard drive] and run it from there. Notes 'n Stuff -============- This section is full of things which I couldn't be bothered to base an entire section on.... 1) You can skip through the intro (The bit with the spinning stars and fading text!) by pressing SPACE during the intro. Thanks to CMcE for sending me an anti-aliased version of the GOD picture. The original wasn't anti-aliased and looked a bit sad really! 2) You can quit the game at any time by pressing Crl-Escape. 3) Note that hammering escape during the intro will probabley cause !BOMB to quit, so don't do it, read (1) to see how to get through the intro. 4) If you wish to have no sound during the game at all (ie you don't want the music at the start.) then in the desktop, press F12 and type *audio off 5) All the code was written using !Zap by Dominic Symes (v1.20) 6) If you press escape at any time during the game, you will return to the main menu. (Apart from in the control menu since it must check that all players have different controls.) 7) The joystick key options area only selectable if you have the "Joystick" module loaded up. Eg if you have an A3010 then you will be able to select joysticks. Please note that I haven't really tested the joystick interface. It worked using my friends joystick on my A3010. It may only be digital joystick compatible. If you are not sure, then shove your stick in and give it a go! (Sounds a bit rude.) It works with MegaDrive Joypads too, (Use 'B' for fire). So get get Gaming. 8) (RISCOS3) In order to stop the screen blanker from blanking the screen while you are playing, the screen blanker is disabled during the actual game itself. (Ie not in the menu system) However, when it is enabled, it will have the default (configured) blank time. This is the only way I could think of doing it without setting it to some blank time that you may not want.. OK! No Mouse? -=======- If your mouse has gone kaput and you cannot click on the BOMB icon to run the game, then you can still run it from the command line and it will automatically enter the game. Problems -======- As far as I know, there are no massize bugs in the game. It has worked on my A3010 for ages now without crashing or anything. Should it not load, then try the following: Make sure the speaker is configured on. Make sure audio is on. (QTM crashes sometimes if the above is not done. This is out of my hands, sorry!) Try not letting any applications boot, ie hold down Left-Crtl all the time until you load the game. Make sure that you have more than 160K screen memory and 640K next slot free. Sometimes the memory allocation doesn't work. Again, I'm not sure why! Hmm, thats about it. If it still doesn't work, then buy an A3010 ok! BOMB has been run on the following computers, so if it doesn't work on yours then tell me: RiscPC600 A7000 A5000 A4000 A3010 A3000 A4 RiscPC -====- The game works on the RiscPC with no software problems, however because Acorn have (in their wisdom?) decided to use a normal PC keyboard, key lock occurs. Due to the poor design of this lower grade equipment, it will not allow certain key presses to be used at the same time. In effect, you can lock the other players out. Keys to avoid are the ones on the key pad as they seem to be the worst offenders. Sorry about this, but there is nothing I can do to make them work. You can see this effect on other comercial games too and so unless somebody can come up with a solution, then sorry. This key lock doesn't seem to happen on the other computers. Also, since you have a stupidly fast processor, some things may happen a little faster than normal. I am informed by Chris that the VS spins round FTL, I may change this though; So if it doesn't, don't pannic! Amiga Version -===========- Since this is obviously an Amiga conversion, I have had to keep most of the original Amiga documentation. It is in this Text Directory. I have removed any of the stuff about registration so as not to confuse you. Also please note that it is just there for interest and so should not be taken as the guide for the Acorn version. The CharsInfo file contains small background details for the characters and can be read if you are bored. Also, note that I only ported across the character descriptions after doing the coding so where the pin points to on the map may not be where it says it should in the documentation. If you need to contact somebody on the Amiga crew, please write to Matt at the below address. Also if you want a copy of the Amiga shareware version then write to Matt. Matt Newton-Lewis, Foley House, Old Swinford School, Old Swinford, Stourbridge, W. Mids England DY8 1QX This address is only valid up to June 1996. After that, try directory enquiries. He lives near Chichester. Note: Matt has an Amiga, so no Acorn formatted discs or high density PC ones either if you are going to send a disc. If you require something back from Matt, then send enough money to cover postage from where ever you are, and a disc if neccessary, again make sure it is the right format, or just unformatted if you cannot be bothered. PC Version -========- There are plans afoot (how do you spell that?) to make a PC version and infact, I am reliably informed, work has already started. If you wish to enquire about a PC version, then please feel free to contact Matt at the above address. Credits.... -=========- All Acorn Game Code, Misc Compression systems !Screens, Huffman Mod, Packer Mod: © Owain Cole of VOTI 1996, Animation Compression/Display, AVSDelta Module, Dodgy Slabbing, AND small font: © Chris Wymark of VOTI 1996, Music: © Jake (not PD), Additional grafix by: Colin McEwan (Anti Aliasing the God Picture words), Ben Preece (Silicon Circus Logo) Original SC Game Team: Alex Daltas - Grafix Ben Preece - Grafix Jon Bright - Code Matt Newton Lewis - Production, Admin, Jake - Music Queue The Music Player Module: © 1993/4/5 Phoenix/QUANTUM, FastSpr Module: © A.Southgate 1994, Sound Modules Produced using !Sonor by VT Big hi's to: -==========- Colin McEwan (Echelon Software), Chris Wymark (formally Aard'vark Software, now in VOTI), Dave and Sue at the Data File, and anybody else who has ever heard of me. (I've just noticed that Colin has said 'hi' to me in the Help file of !GreyThunder on a DataFile PD disc, so I thought I may as well say Hi to him!) (And Chris is just a ... No really, hi Chris, Wibble!) Hi to all the people down at Bath/Bristol ie Ray, Rhys and all the other people who went to the party at Rhys' house and Alex too, cos she didn't. Also hi to anybody at Old Swinford, especially in Dudley house! (I may as well mention at least some of you ... Boz, Chris, Ears, Burner, Sham?, Russell, Ian 'Fezza' Borkwell, Buzz, Ed, Coz, Jon B and the rest of the lower 6th etc). And all the people who frequent my Computer Studies Lessons ie Niv, Dime, Alex (of Amiga fame), Matt (of Amiga fame), Maz, Shaf, Stu, Evsey, and two other people whose names I dare not type for fear of retribution from the rest of the class. And anybody else who I really should have said hello to. (Hmm, bit of a cop out really.) Ok, here's a few more of you: Hi's to Guy, Maz (oops I've got you twice), Ben, Angus, Churchy, Mike, Cabbs, Dermot, Lynfel... and every one else too. Visions of the Impossible (VOTI) -=======================- Visions of the impossible is looking for good programmers, grafix artists and musicians to join, so if you think you're up to it, then write to me or Chris at the below addressss. Or any food, money, polos, fan mail, complaints [well no actually], comments, blobs, anti depressants, plastic toys, caravan holidays in the outback (I've used that one before I think?), light houses, Frosties, Curtains, 486DX chips, insides of GameBoys, MegaDrive cartridges cos both Chris 'n Me have one, Amobae, rubber computers, dodgy rubix puzzels or even solutions to the big silver 6 by 2 thing, Red Dwarf videos, Discs full of useful things and not programs to read/alter the contents of my CMOS or silly little clocks, eg Swiss army knife for the desktop etc, signed photographs of Kelly LeBrock, Silly quotes that can be included at the start of code that we write, eg 'Any given program when running properly is obselete.', automatic lawn mowers or volunteers to do the lawn for Chris (cos he's too lazy), Pistachio Nuts, Garfield Books, a couple of cr8s of something with more than 8½% alcohol that doesn't taste like ditch water, Riot Shields (for the desktop), aniseed balls (to attract the dogs away from Chris' room, cos they smell [. The dogs that is]), ideas for programs, JP150 ink refils, pink fluffy dinosaurs, Evil green smelling things, dodgy videos of the next few films out, a mode which is 320 by 512, hi res, 256 cols which would be very useful so that I could expand my mode 13 games so they look nice on a hi res monitor, a new hard drive for Chris [about 2Gig would surfice for some time before he filled it up AGAIN], a detailed account of the numbers which will appear in the national lottery for the next 6 months, a large pile of gold, several strange red blobs from alpha-centuri, and a partridge in a pear tree, a ton of horse manure (sent in individual brown paper bags with no return address and no stamp, to CMcE), and all of my posters 'cos somebody has nicked them all from my room, And anything else of value to me, eg comments, drink etc to.... Owain Cole, Or Chris Wymark, Shieling, Even.. Hinakura, Fleet Lane, GreyField Rd, Twyning, High Littleton, Tewkesbury, Bristol, Glos, Avon, GL20 6DG BS18 5XX DoB 13/1/78 <- Wierd -> DoB 10/1/78 01684 294325 ???? Dunno/ Can't be arsed to look it up Or Even.. Nathan Atkinson, 2 Moor Park, Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham, TS16 9HB DoB 4/7/78 You may have to wait for a reply if you write during term time since I wont be home much, but Chris will probably be a lot faster (however, I wouldn't write to Chris even if ...... sounds of screaming as Chris decapit8s Owain!!!!). BTW, don't use red crayon to write with as it doesn't give a very good impression. OK! Live long and prosper..... You could try to e-mail Nathan at (Until June 1999): n.a.atkinson@durham.ac.uk PS If you run the code or the keys file, you can have a look at my cool green dither. ß-) PPS I hope you liked my 3D star bank intro. It took me some time to write. All the stars are actually 3D positions being rot8d in real time about a central axis! Fun hey! ;-) Disclaimer -========- You use this copy of !BOMB entirely at your own risk. You cannot hold me, Owain Cole, any of the writers of any code included in this application, or any of the original Silicon Circus team responsible for any loss caused, directly or indirectly, through the use or misuse of this application. For information regarding the copyright of this application ie whether you can copy it or not, please read the file called ©Notice in the text directory. If you have RiscOS2 and this flashed past too quick, then UPGRADE NOW. RiscOS3 is a bit slow but it thrashes the pants of RiscOS2. _____________________________________________________________________________ Web page at: http://www.rodean.demon.co.uk/index.html