I couldn't stand it anymore. I had this... this NEED to play a breakout-type game on my Mac but to my despair, all I could find out there were old black and white versions. This would not do. I finally realized that if I wanted to play breakout on my Mac, I'd have to program it myself!
Instructions:
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Simple: Knock out the bricks and don't let the ball go off the bottom of the screen.
The multiplier is a cool thing (MULT:0 at the top of your screen). The more bricks you hit, the higher the multiplier counts. When the ball hits your paddle, your score is calculated and the multiplier is reset back to 0. It is possible for the ball to leave the paddle and come back with 30,000 or more accumulated points.
In 2-player mode, each player must complete an entire level before the other player gets a turn.
The ball does not respond to how hard you hit it with the paddle nor does it respond to "english". It does respond to angle: If you hit the ball on the center of the paddle, it will travel straight up and down. On the edges of the paddle you can achieve near horizontal motion. Sometimes, if you catch the ball on an upstroke, the ball will get caught on the paddle. Since each time the ball hits the paddle it picks up a little more speed, trapping the ball on the paddle would be unwise.
HINT: Operate the paddle slowly and gracefully. Quick jerky movements will cause you to loose the ball.
When you hit the Erase button in the high score list, all the scores disappear and the erase button changes to an "unerase" button. Hit that button and your scores come back. Once you hit the OK button, the state of the high score table is remembered.
Oh yeah. CLEAN YOUR MOUSE. This game can be intensely frustrating if you play it with a dirty mouse.
Version History:
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Version 1.0 April 4th, 1993
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Initial release version. The ball may still be jumpy on the 16Mhz Macs. I'll be refining the code over the next few months and hopefully this problem will go away.
I think I fixed a bug where the ball would sometimes stick to a wall and never let go.
Also, there may be a bug that causes the sounds to quit playing. I'll have that fixed after a little more debugging.
later that day....
Added the entire high score part. Smoothed out the jumpiness of the ball a little. The code may need some more refining though.
Version 1.0.1 April 5th 1993
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Fixed a bug that wouldn't log high scores if the table was completely empty.
Version 1.02 April 6th through April 20th 1993
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Added the "Get ready" thingy at the beginning of a level.
Took out the annoying SysBeep's when you get a high score.
Refined the sound code so it doesn't interfere with the drawing of the ball so much.
Corrected a cosmetic problem with some pixels in the score bar not getting drawn.
Added the sound menu. Game play is smoother with the sound turned off (Anyone know how to write custom sound drivers?)
Removed one of the 2 off screen Pixmaps. Now there's the main pixmap (the stuff you see on the screen) and 1 off screen Pixmap (where I do all my "behind the scenes" drawing). As a result of this, the game only requires 600K of memory instead of 1280K.
Corrected a problem with debris getting drawn off of the bottom of the game window (and onto the desktop). This was only visible for people with greater than 640x480 pixels.
Version 1.0.3
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Adjusted the rebound direction when the ball hits the paddle. It was a little bit off.
Version 2.0.0 June 19th, 1993
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Added color patterns to the background. This required the addition of one off screen PixMap. The application now requires 800K of ram to run.
The paddle can now be moved vertically.
Added a 21 character limit to the high score entry dialog.
Fixed a bug involving the sound suddenly shutting off and not coming back on.
Removed the "Sound" menu and added the "Options" menu.
Added the "Free Balls" pointer arrow. (Gotta get to level 10 to see it)
The ball drawing routine is a little more efficient now. I modified my Ci to optionally run at 16Mhz. This rather odd programming tool allows me to test software on slower computers without actually having one. If I can get a routine to run efficiently on a 16Mhz computer then it will surely fly on a faster machine. On 16Mhz macs the ball disappears near the top of the screen. Hopefully I'll have that problem fixed in the next release.
If you move the paddle all the way to the bottom of the screen and let the ball hit it, the collision detection for the ball turns off which effectively lets the ball travel through the bricks without making any disappear. This was originally a bug, but I thought it was kind of neat so I left it in. You can really freak out someone who is watching you play by exercising this little stunt. (I took this feature out in 2.0.ß1. If you have an opinion as to whether this "fluke" should remain in the game or not, let me know)
2.0.ß1 June 22nd, 1993
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Just fixed some real minor bugs. There is one particular LC that this program hangs on, even with extensions turned off. Let me know if you encounter a problem with the program hanging right after you select "New Game" and right before "Get Ready" appears on the screen. Until the source of this problem is fixed, I'm keeping the "ß" in the filename.
Late minute update:
I may have fixed the problem with the program hanging. I had a global variable named "width" and a local variable with the same name. On a call to "width=CharWidth((char)49);" , the compiler may have become confused as to which "width" to use. Of course I could be totally wrong and the problem may still be in the program. We'll just have to see. Keep me posted...
2.0.1ßß June 25th 1993
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Now the sound disappearing bug should be fixed!!!
If you warp levels, you can no longer enter a high score.
Made "Get Ready" stay on the screen for at least 70 ticks.
2.0.ß4 June 27th, 1993
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Worked out some more minor bugs.
Added the 2-player function
2.0.4 August 8th, 1993
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Fixed another bug--> You could choose "Hide MacBrickout" then "Resume MacBrickout" but the game window wouldn't be drawn. You'd end up with the ball and paddle being drawn on the desktop. Eew. Not good.
A lot of people complained that the game was too fast so I added a "slow" option for all of you beginners. Note, however, that the scoring is reduced in slow mode (so if you want to beat someone's high score, just play a few rounds in normal mode).
Shareware
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MacBrickout 2.0.4 is shareware. This document must be included with the MacBrickout 2.0.4 application. Any tendencies to alter this document and/or MacBrickout 2.0.4 without the permission of the author is strictly forbidden. Additionally, mass distribution of this software for profit without the author's permission is forbidden.
My programming efforts would be complemented if you sent me a small token of your gratitude. Even if it's just a dollar. Total shareware fees received as of August 8th, 1993 are : $0.00 .
Credits
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I'd like to thank Jeffrey Pohlmann for his excellent work on the water splash sequence.
If you need any kind of custom artwork done for your software, I highly recommend Jeffrey's services. He can also be reached at the below address and at the BBS listed below. His handle on the bbs is "Zaphod"
I would especially like to thank Bryan Harding for his outstanding beta testing skills as well as his informative programming hints. He has succeeded in pulling me out of much "quicksand" along the way and I don't believe this game would have come this far without his help.
I'd like to thank myself for getting a high score of 201,021. Just try and beat that!
Send all Correspondence to :
Carson Whitsett
author: MacBrickout 2.0
C/O Professional Sound and Music
4593 Mission Gorge Place
San Diego, CA 92120
if((user's sharware fee > $5) && (user included return address)
{
author sends thank you letter;
}
else
{
SysBeep(0);
}
The Macintosh Club of San Diego is an outstanding bulletin board service that I am a member of here in San Diego. You can Email me, "Melted Butter" at that board:
