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TBAG - Tampa Bay Amiga Group's Disk of the Month #53 (1991)(Merlin's Software - Amiganuts United)(PD).zip
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1991-01-20
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4KB
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90 lines
Popup V1.0
A simple Breakout-style game for the Amiga
This software is SHAREWARE
Author
Michael S. Booth (booth@ccad.uiowa.edu)
Description:
I have recently noticed an interesting phenomenon. When downloading files
to my computer, I find myself staring blankly at the 'bytes transferred'
status line rattling off its progress. I have also found I can do this for
an appallingly long time. Perhaps I could create something to keep myself
occupied during this process?
The result is 'popup'. The game itself is not terribly exciting, as it is
a simple version of the ancient arcade game 'breakout'. However, this version
has a few interesting features. One of which is the very low CPU time this
game uses. It is driven by a timer, and spends most of its time asleep. When it
does wake up, its task is relatively simple and doesn't seem to affect my
download transfer rates (which are roughly 1200 bytes per second on my UDS
9600 baud MNP 5 modem). Secondly, the game will pop up on whatever the currently
active screen happens to be, including (especially) a telecommunications
program's screen.
Features:
As mentioned previously, this game was designed to use as little CPU as
possible, so that it may coexist peacefully with a download.
Secondly, the game is contained in a small intuition window which will pop up
on whatever screen has the current focus. This means a user can play popup on
the screen owned by the telecommunications program doing the download. No more
swapping screens back and forth to check the download's progress.
NOTE: As of this release, the best way to pop this game up on another screen
is to issue a 'wait 5' command to the CLI, and before that command is
finished, type 'popup' and hit return. Then swap to the screen you want
the game to come up on, and attach the pointer focus to it by clicking
the left mouse button. After the five seconds are up, 'popup' will be
run, and it will popup on the desired screen.
When the mouse pointer is moved out of the popup window, the game
automatically pauses, and will only resume when the pointer is back inside the
window, and a key is pressed.
The paddle acts as did the paddle in the original game as far a ricochets go,
the ball speeds up appropriately, and the ball/brick collisions are very
accurate.
Fully commented Lattice C source code is also available (see below).
Controls:
<Escape Key> Quit Popup
<Right Amiga> Move paddle left
<Right Shift> Move paddle right
The right amiga and shift keys were chosen as they are non-repeating.
Scoring:
Bricks in the lowest level are worth the least (1), and bricks in the
highest level are worth the most (4). The initial speed of the ball increases
(up to a maximum speed) each new screen.
A free ball is awarded every 500 points.
Source Code:
The source code for this software is approximately 700 line of cleanly written,
fully commented Lattice C code, and covers many aspects of Amiga game programming.
It may help to answer many questions for the aspiring game programmer. Topics
found in the software include:
Event-driven programming.
Simple animation techniques.
Software collision detection and handling.
Using Intuition and graphics library routines.
Various C programming techniques, including defining and using structure and
derived data types, using the static keyword for data hiding, etc.
Source and object code can be obtained on disk by sending $15.00 and a return
address to:
Popup Source Code
210 6th Street #D3
Coralville, IA 52241