Blox Arcade is designed to be easily customized in the following areas:
1) Music
Formats recognized: MIDI files and QuickTime Movies
How: drag-and-drop files into the "Music" folder.
Note: You must have the "QuickTime™ Musical Instruments" extension to play MIDI files. It comes with QuickTime and is pre-installed on all new machines. It is free from Apple.
2) Backgrounds
Formats recognized: PICT, compressed PICT (JPEG), and TETRIS MAX
How: drag-and-drop files into the "Backgrounds" folder.
Notes: If you don't want your PICT scaled, make sure it is 288 (horizontal) by 384 (vertical) pixels.
3) Game pieces
Formats recognized: BLOX and TETRIS MAX
How: selecting the files from within Blox Arcade.
CUSTOMIZING MUSIC OR BACKGROUNDS
Blox Arcade uses the same mechanism for running through music and background files for each level of play. So for this example, we will assume that we are interested in modifying the music soundtrack (if you'd like to modify the backgrounds, follow these same instructions but use the folder titled "Backgrounds" instead).
At the start of level one, Blox Arcade selects the first alphabetically ordered file name from the folder titled "Music." After each completed level, Blox Arcade selects the next alphabetically ordered file name. When Blox Arcade has run through all the files in the "Music" folder, it starts with the first file again.
If you want to change the order of how the music is played, rename the individual files so that they are alphabetically in the order you'd like to hear them.
If you don't want to hear a particular piece of music, drag it out of the "Music" folder.
If you have a piece of music that you'd like to listen to while playing, drop that file into the "Music" folder.
CUSTOMIZING GAME PIECES
If you have a file in BLOX ARCADE or TETRIS MAX pieces format, simply select "Set Pieces..." under the "Options" menu in Blox Arcade and select your file.
If you'd like to make your own game pieces, copy one of the distributed BLOX ARCADE pieces files (e.g. "Neon") and edit your copied file with Apple's RedEdit application. Blox Arcade expects 'cicn' resources 128 to 155 to exist and remain in the order shown. Each group of four 'cicn' resources (e.g. 128 to 131) defines one piece, starting at its rotation when it comes into play and following through one full counter-clockwise rotation. This may sound complicated, but it should be self-explanatory when you edit and view the file. The 'cicn' resources are 48x48 square pixels in the Macintosh 256-color system palette. Feel free to change the masks, but they must remain in their original "rectangular" boundaries.
TETRIS MAX NOTES
Tetris Max background files have 10 backgrounds in each file. If Blox Arcade opens these files, it will run through all ten backgrounds before moving to the next file in the "Backgrounds" folder (as described above).
Tetris Max is an excellent and extremely popular tetris game by Steve Chamberlin (Opinicus). For gamers hooked on his wonderful game's graphics, Blox Arcade can read its Backgrounds and Pieces files.
