Turnbull China Bikeride/Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 2.iso/STUTTGART/FROMUTS/BLOXED/!Bloxed/!Help

Text File | 1993-01-14 | 12KB | 254 lines

!Bloxed - a Tetris variant (c) Steven Singer 1991-93
-----------------------------------------------------

This file last updated 14 Jan 1993.

!Bloxed  is  a  variation on Tetris. It has lots of extra features. Your best
bet is to load it up and watch the demo.

Quick precis, pieces fall from the top of a well. Each piece consists of four
(hence TETR-is) blocks stuck together. You can move the pieces left or right,
and  turn  them  to  position them as desired. You can also pull them down to
speed  up  placement. If you complete an entire row across the well, that row
is  removed,  and  the  lines  above  fall  down. The game ends when the pile
reaches  the  top  of the screen (OK, not quite accurate, but good enough for
simple instructions).

The  rate  at  which the pieces fall down accelerates as the game progresses.
The  rate  reaches a local maximum at level nine. At level ten it slows down,
and  then  gradually  speeds back up so that level eighteen is the same speed
as level nine, and level nineteen is a touch quicker. Then at level twenty it
slows  down  slightly,  then  it  speeds  back  up  over levels twenty-one to
twenty-three.  Leve l twenty-three is the same speed as level nineteen. Level
twenty-four  is  a touch faster. Levels twenty-five to twenty-nine follow the
same speeds  as  levels  twenty  to  twenty  four.  If  you  get  past  level
twenty-nine  it starts getting nasty. At level fifty it starts getting really
nasty.  Levels  ninety-nine  upwards are identical. If you can get past level
ninety-nine you're either cheating or some kind of genius.

The extra features are power blocks, line passing in two player mode, and the
nasty things at level thirty upwards :-).

Some  pieces  that  fall contain a power block one of 4 F S B 16. If the line
that   the power block is placed in is completed - either by that piece or by
another   later -  the power block is activated (if more than one power block
would be activated, only one is). The effects are as follows:

4)  (Four  Lines)  Removes  alternate  lines  from  the highest line with any
    pieces in, to a maximum of four lines.

F)  (Filler)  Produces  a little alien, which may be guided with the left and
    right  keys and encouraged to drop a block with the turn key. You can use
    it to complete partially finished lines.

S)  (Shooter)  Produces a satellite/gun, which may be controlled in a similar
    way to the alien, which can shoot blocks.

B)  (Bomb)  A  bomb appears which can be guided as it falls. When it lands on
    the  blocks, it explodes doing a fair amount of damage. (Hint, the damage
    may  look  variable,  but  it  isn' t.  Experimentation  should  help  in
    determining placement for maximum effect).

16) (16 ton weight) A 16 ton weight (a la cartoons and Monty Python) appears,
    it too can be  guided. When it lands, it removes 3 columns of bricks.

In   two  player mode, when either player completes more than one line with a
piece,  the lines removed (minus the piece just put in them), are sent across
to  the  other player, where they are inserted at the bottom of his/her well.
The piece the player was trying to position at that time gets vapourised.

This  game  is  really  meant  to be played two player. It's mean. Due to the
cunning  fact  that  player 1's keys lie near the '2' and player 2's near the
'2' on the numeric pad, both players can restart a game for revenge.

On  an  A5000,  I have sometimes noticed keyboard clash on the left and right
keys  of  player 1. Redefining them to 'Q' and 'W' cleared this. (I hope it's
keyboard clash, if not, my playing is worse than I thought).

Unfortunately,  I've  not added any music (does anyone want to write some ?).
My  suggestion  is  grab  the  nearest  tape  deck/hi-fi/CD  player  and play
something suitable.

One  final  hint,  when  using  a  filler,  consider the possibilities of not
removing all the lines. Remember, you can see what the next piece is.

Notes For 1 Meg Machines
------------------------

!Bloxed  should  just  about  run  on  a  1  Meg machine. I can only give the
standard  advice  if  you  have  trouble,  that is reboot your machine with a
CTRL-RESET  and  try  again, and if that fails to a CTRL-RESET whilst holding
down  the  '*'  key, this will bring you up in supervisor mode with a minimum
system,  then run !Bloxed from the command line (something like :0.!Bloxed to
run  of  floppy  or  :4.$.Games.!Bloxed  for  harddrive 4 with !Bloxed in the
directory Games SCSI users etc. may have to work out their own incantation).

History
-------

!Bloxed is based on an arcade game I played for a while called Bloxeed. This,
in  turn, was based on Tetris. If you don't know what Tetris is, which planet
have you been on ?

My  version  started as a one player C program, running under Unix, using the
curses  library, in 1990. I've still got it if anyone wants. I then ported it
to  BASIC  on  the  Archimedes in 1990-91 (this was before I bought my own, I
used a friend's). It was made 2 player. The resulting code was 'orrible. When
I  finally  bought  my  own Archimedes in October 1991, I re-wrote the entire
prgram  from scratch in Arm-code. This took me about 4 weeks (whilst still at
university).  Over  Christmas  1991, I added the front end. And in the little
spare  time  I  had  in Hilary term 1992 I added the backdrops, put the score
into  Arm code, and generally tidied up. There was then a pre-release version
released.  Over  the  Easter  Vacation,  I  added  some sound effects and the
configuration  screen.  Over the next summer, whilst between courses, I added
the  nasty  bits at levels 30+ and the high score tables. Then when I started
my  Ph.D. course in October 1992, I added the pause facility, and changed the
backdrops.  This  became  version  1.00  - the first official release. It was
distributed  at  the Archimedes User Show on the Sunday (I went down and gave
out  some  copies), it was posted to the Newcastle Info Server shortly after,
and made it into the January 1993 issue of Archimedes World.

Changes to give version 1.01

Fixed bug - 'Missing ENDIF' in key definition procedure (thanks Pelago).
Allow saving of configuration (thanks everybody).
Allow centring of screen in one player mode (thanks Robert).
Fixed bug that caused shooter not to fire occasionally (thanks everybody).
Fixed bug that caused filled blocks to change colour on transfer (thanks me).
Added  auto  repeat  on the left and right keys (deliberately not on the turn
      key - I found this dodgy), configurable repeat rate (thanks everybody).
!Help file - Notes for 1 Meg Users, About The Author and Thanks added.
Trimmed comments and tightened some code to keep in 512k wimp slot.
Fixed obscure bug in filler (thanks pelago).

Public Domain Notice And Acknowledgements
-----------------------------------------

Unless otherwise noted, all the code and sprites are copyright Steven Singer.
The  bomb sprite, bares more than a passing resemblance to the RISCOS 3 error
sprite  :-),   and  I suspect the Calvin and Hobbes picture is copyright Bill
Watterson  (but  seeing  as I got it through the public domain I felt free to
use it).

Most  pictures  used  in the backdrops were acquired as GIFs by anonymous ftp
from  wuarchive.wustl.edu.  The  exceptions  were the one with the helices on
and  the  sunset,  which  were  both part of the PVray 0.5ß distribution. The
helix  picture (ntreal)  was  created  by  Drew Wells, and the sunset picture
(sunsethf) was created by Douglas Muir. All pictures were converted to RISCOS
sprites  using ChangeFSI (by Robert Hamilton and Roger Wilson) and Translator
(by  John  Kortink).  They  were  then  compressed  using  a  routine I wrote
specially for this program (based on the LZW algorithm).

The  sound  effects  (before  I played with them), came by anonymous ftp from
terminator.cc.umich.edu

This software is Shareware and may be freely copied, as long as the following
conditions are met:

a) This notice is distributed unchanged with every copy
b) Any  changes  released  should first be mailed to the author at one of the
   addresses given below, and not distributed until permission is given.
c) No  charge  (excluding  possibly a minimal copying charge) is made for the
   software by the distributor.

Although  I've stated this software is shareware, don't feel guilty about not
sending me any money. I don't expect it. I'd much rather receive suggestions.
Or you can buy me a drink if you see me (see below).

This software is provided 'as is', with no guarantee of its  suitability  for
any purpose. NO WARRANTY IS GIVEN!

I  accept  no  responsibility for loss of friends when playing !Bloxed in two
player mode :-).

If  you  do change the code at all, please let me know, as I refuse to try to
support other  people's modifications unless I have been told about them, and
I will probably be interested.

Thanks
------

Thanks to the following people:

Robin  Watts,  for use of his Arc before I got mine, for teaching me ARM code
for  letting  me  take  over  his room to program in when I was living out of
college  and  for  giving  me  cups of tea whilst I was in there, for writing
!Larger  (get a copy, you know it makes sense) and most of all for beating me
(occasionally).

The  Archimedes  User  Group in Oxford for play testing, suggestions and help
with distribution.

Robert Archbold (aka Orbital Productions) for suggestions.

John  Veness  (aka  Pelago)  for suggestions and for spotting the bug no one
else had seen.

Matthew Newton for suggestions.

Miscellaneous
-------------

If  anyone  has any ideas on improvements or new features for !Bloxed, please
get in touch with me (for example, would people be interested in a background
disk  formatter  which  formats disks while you're playing ? - this is a real
suggestion).

Ideas  for  new  power  blocks must be exceptional to be included. Simplicity
counts as well.

I would appreciate improved sprites/backdrops/sound effects/music, being sent
to  me  at  the addresses below. The programs to convert sprites to backdrops
and  pieces,  and  to make the voice modules are available from me by request
for people who wish to play with them.

I  hope  to supply alternate backdrop files (possible with particular themes)
later.

About The Author
----------------

I  am currently  studying for a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at the University of
Surrey.  Most of this game was written while I was an undergraduate at Oxford
University  (studying physics). I am 21 years old. If you ever want to buy me
a drink, make it a Drambuie.

Contact
-------

I can be contacted at the following addresses :

House 55
University Court
University Of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey
GU2 5XH

Telephone (out of work hours): [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

My home address is :

8 Parkhill Drive
Whitefield
Manchester
M25 7PD

Telephone: [phone]

Only use this address if all else fails.

                                    -----

Unix is a trademark of AT&T Laboratories (I think).
GIF is a trademark of Compuserve, Incorporated, an H&R Block Company.
Tetris and Bloxeed may be trademarks, but I can't attribute them.
Drambuie is a trademark of the Drambuie Liqueur Company, Edinburgh.
ARM, Archimedes, A5000 etc. are trademarks of the usual people.

(Yes I think giving trademarks is over the top as well).

If this file zoomed past at high speed, load !Edit, then try again.