PC go! 1996 December

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This file is 'readme.doc' ---------------------------------------- Note: If reading this file from the Webfoot readme file viewer, use Cursor up / down to scroll or Page Up / Page Down to scroll fast ESCape, Enter, or Space to exit ---------------------------------------- Copyright 1996 Webfoot Technologies, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This program is shareware, or 'try before you buy'. It is NOT public domain. ---------------------------------------- What's in this file? I. TwinBlok Ordering Information II. TwinBlok Instructions SECTION I TwinBlok Ordering Information ---------------------------------------- 1. Why Register? 2. USA Orders 3. Germany/Switzerland/Austria 4. France 5. Scandinavia (also Finland/Iceland) 6. Australia and New Zealand 7. All Other Countries Orders 8. Other Webfoot Games 9. More About Webfoot Technologies 10. Legal Stuff ---------------------------------------- 1. Why Register? Even more great graphics, music, and sounds: 50 total 1-player levels 25 total 2-player levels (For a grand total of 75 levels) Printed manual with hints, tips, and secrets (manual may not be available in France) Complete, easy setup instructions and troubleshooting information Attractive package with high density disk Eligibility for TwinBlok Global High Score Hall of Fame ---------------------------------------- 2. USA Orders Toll Free (ORDERS ONLY!) 1-800-4WEBTEC (1-800-493-2832) Visa MasterCard Discover American Express Price: $29.95 Add Shipping and Handling: $4.00 Or, send a check, cashiers check, or money order to: Webfoot Technologies, Inc. P.O. Box 15 Lemont, IL 60439 FAX Orders to: 708-257-0942 IMPORTANT: After August 3, 1996 our area code changes, so call 630-257-0942 (Your FAX should contain: Card number, card holder's name, and expiration date.) Questions and Tech Support 708-257-1224 630-257-1224 After August 3, 1996! Or, fill out the form in the TwinBlok directory. It's named: ORDER.DOC Contact Webfoot on the Internet: Webfoot@msn.com ---------------------------------------- 3. Orders in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland Juergen Egeling Computer Waldstr. 49 76133 Karlsruhe Tel.: 0721 9 20 31 83 FAX : 0721 9 20 31 85 Preis DM 39.90 Vorauskasse: Plus DM 8.05 f. Porto und Verpackung Nachname Plus DM 14.50 Europ. Ausland: Nur Vorauskasse Euroscheck Plus DM 13.80 ---------------------------------------- 4. Scandinavia (Including Finland and Iceland) Twilight Zone Software P.O.Box 115 1712 GRAALUM NORWAY Price: 159,- NOK Plus handling and shipping: 29,- NOK We accept orders the following ways: 1. Bankgiro for Norwegian and Swedish customers. Norway: Account no. 1090.21.09973 Sweden: Bankgiro no. 5986-6970 2. VISA card by FAX to +47-69-141190. Your fax must contain: card number, card holder's name, expiration date, authorizing signature of the cardholder and the order-form. 3. VISA card by Mail. Send the same as above (2.) to TZS by mail. 4. Money Order or Cashiers check payable to Twilight Zone Software in either Norwegian kroner (NOK), or local currency. The order-form must always be included! ---------------------------------------- 5. France Vous pouvez vous procurer la version finale de TwinBlok avec ses 75 tableaux et de nouveaux graphismes contre un chèque de 99 Francs à l'adresse suivante: TLK GAMES BP 24 81150 Florentin France Tel: 63-78-82-28 ou le 63-53-26-37 Fax: 63-53-20-11 ---------------------------------------- 6. Australia and New Zealand Contact: Powerhouse Information and Support Service P.O. Box 213 Nundah Brisbane Ph 07 3 2606875 Fax 07 3 2606875 email spower@medeserv.com.au ---------------------------------------- 7. All Other Countries Orders All other foreign orders can be taken by Webfoot Technologies, Inc. US Dollars only, credit card and money orders only ... no checks. Add Shipping and Handling: $10.00 International Phone: 1-708-257-1224 1-630-257-1224 after August 3, 1996! International FAX Orders: 1-708-257-0942 1-630-257-0942 after August 3, 1996! (Your fax should contain: Card number, card holder's name, and expiration date.) ---------------------------------------- 8. Other Webfoot Games H2O A mind-teasing original. FORTY levels of graphics and mind jarring music. Guide falling droplets to a drainpipe at the bottom of the screen. You won't BELIEVE the smooth scrolling playfield! It's not as easy as it looks, either. Each level is a new puzzle. H2O runs under DOS and requires a standard VGA graphics card. Sound card is optional, strongly recommended. ---------------------------------------- D.R.O.D.: Deadly Rooms of Death A real 'killer.' More news in the obituary columns. (Evil laugh) In order to complete a level, Beethro must destroy all of the monsters and find the exit. When all nine levels have been cleared, Beethro will collect enough money from King Dugan to retire from the thankless dungeon extermination trade and open a restaurant. 'I'll call it Beethro's Roasted Roach Grill!' D.R.O.D. runs under Windows and features detailed graphics and an awesome MIDI sound track. ---------------------------------------- Interpose Fulfilling the Webfoot promise of incredible graphics and music, Interpose is a stunningly fast scrolling action game. The action - and that DOES mean action! - takes place in space. Shoot 3D enemy ships while conserving energy and fire-power. Over 25 levels packed with great graphics, music, and animation. ---------------------------------------- Farocar A strategy game with 200 mind-bending levels. Includes 3 different choices of difficulty per level and a full level editor. ---------------------------------------- Tronic Another arcade classic brought to your home PC. Multiple levels of great VGA graphics, sound effects, and music. ---------------------------------------- Keep an eye out for other Webfoot games available through usual shareware channels. ---------------------------------------- 9. About Webfoot Technologies, Inc. If you have a great game you'd like published, or if you're an aspiring programmer, 3D renderer, artist, or musician who would like to work on some games, please contact us! Webfoot Technologies, Inc. P.O. Box 15 Lemont, IL 60439 1-708-257-1224 VOICE 1-708-257-0942 FAX IMPORTANT! After August 3, 1996 call 1-630-257-1224 VOICE 1-630-257-0942 FAX ---------------------------------------- 10. Legal Stuff Copyright 1996 Webfoot Technologies, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ---------------------------------------- SECTION II TwinBlok Instructions --------------------- Within this file: Cursor up / down to scroll or Page Up / Page Down to scroll fast ESCape, Enter, or Space returns to the TwinBlok menu. ---------------------------------------- System Requirements - 80386sx or higher - 1 Meg of memory - VGA graphics card Optional - Joystick or mouse - SoundBlaster, SB 16, SB Pro, PAS, PAS+, PAS 16, Gravis Ultrasound, Windows Sound System or Aria sound cards ---------------------------------------- The plot... Why save the universe? Better worry about saving your butt! The Time Spinners do not look kindly on failure. They'll yank your status, terminate your entity, and zap you into the netherest of the nether regions. Your journey begins when Executive Time Spinner (ol' T.S., you know) drops you ill-prepared and poorly armored into the fray, to fight off everything the Razerrians ...antiquated holdouts from the Snarr Sector... can drop, kick or throw at you. Blast through their defenses, traverse the 50 levels of time blocks they'll use to impede your travel. They'll tantalize you with pictures from your home planet, hurl you through space, instead of merely time, and dazzle you with nefarious patterns reminiscent of the arcades in the Neo-Draconian Sector in a celebrated age long past. If you need help, attempt the two-player screens with someone you like. Or hate. It's no cakewalk. Some of the time blocks are deceptive. So what if you fail? So what, indeed! ---------------------------------------- Before you start First, run SETUP in the TwinBlok directory! Remember, TwinBlok is a DOS program. To get going, run the TwinBlok SETUP program. This program assesses your system as you have it configured, and establishes your preferences for the game. Be sure you configure TwinBlok and your computer for maximum enjoyment. If your computer is an older one, you can still enjoy the game, but you might have to experiment a little with changing some of the options to lower the load on the system. TwinBlok will take whatever computer system you feed it, as far as is possible, and configure itself accordingly. If you don't get sound, or the mouse doesn't work, however, there's probably something about your computer's memory or other configuration that you need to deal with before running TwinBlok. For example, many people have multiple I/O cards such as serial ports, parallel ports, network boards, joystick ports, sound cards, CD-rom controllers, etc. All such devices appropriate one or more of the computer's 'interrupts' for themselves, and read from or write to specific locations in memory. If any of these conflict, your system will give trouble, plain and simple. You might not know anything is wrong, however, until you try to play music, accept input from the joystick and mouse, and perform awesome (ahem!) feats of graphics at the same time - like TwinBlok! Options ------- TwinBlok automatically turns off (puts a giant red 'X' through) any options which your computer hardware or its configuration doesn't support, in the 'Setup' menu from within the game. The following discussion will help you figure out what is missing or configured incorrectly. To listen to the music, you need to have special 'EMS' memory enabled in your computer. This is accomplished by editing your 'CONFIG.SYS' file - which is loaded by the computer on startup. There are many ways to add EMS to your computer's bootup configuration, but you can't add it after the computer is booted - it must be done during the CONFIG.SYS startup procedure, which is the first thing that happens when you turn on the computer. So, if you have to add EMS to your computer, you must reboot before you'll hear the music. Your CONFIG.SYS file should contain a line that looks like this: device=c:\dos\emm386.exe RAM The last word 'RAM' is the important one. You can add this line by yourself on most computers, but some computers will hang if there other parameters aren't also included. If you have trouble adding this command, you can use a program named MEMMAKER, which will automatically add this line, along with a bunch of other parameters, relocating TSR and device drivers that can live in high memory. This way you have the required EMS, plus more free conventional memory. In short, this is the easy way for most computers. If you are using Qualitas Software or Quaterdeck memory managers, the EMM386 stuff doesn't apply to you. The equivalents are 386MAX and QEMM386 respectively. Both products come with an install program, with which you just select EMS, or set EMS to 'YES'. Windows 95(TM) -------------- If you are running Windows 95, you will add EMS in a different way. First, you modify CONFIG.SYS by first choosing the 'Run' option from the Start Menu, and typing 'sysedit'. Note that on systems running Windows 95, EMS will most probably be located in a different directory than 'C:\DOS\'. Most likely, you will find the new EMM386.EXE in 'C:\Windows\Command\'. However, this may vary depending on your specific computer's setup. Refer to Microsoft's Window 95 documentation for additional instructions on loading the EMS driver. Sounds and music ---------------- The following sound cards are supported: Gravis Ultrasound (TM) SoundBlaster (TM) SoundBlaster Pro (TM) SoundBlaster 16 (TM) ProAudio Spectrum (TM) ProAudio Spectrum Plus (TM) ProAudio Spectrum 16 (TM) Windows Sound System (TM) Aria sound card (TM) TwinBlok's incredible music requires, of course, a sound card and the previously discussed EMS memory. Here are some additional pointers for getting the most out of some specific sound cards. If you're using a Pro Audio Spectrum family sound card, be sure you have the card's driver specified in the CONFIG.SYS file. It's best if you can set the card's DMA channel to a 16-bit DMA (5, 6, 7). The sound will work with an 8-bit DMA channel, but it won't sound as good. Okay, okay, it'll sound really awful. Sixteen-bit sound requires a 16-bit DMA channel, so there. With all sound cards, including Sound Blasters, it's better to have environment strings defined in the AUTOEXEC.BAT. The reason is that on some systems, the hardware detection process can fail or hang, and when it does, you're stuck. The string definition should look something like: BLASTER=AHHH IX DX TX That one's for the Sound Blaster family. Gravis UltraSound would look something like: ULTRASND=XXX,X,X,X,X (Where the 'X' represents some number that belongs in this position.) Any sound card not mentioned in the SETUP program might still work, but the users must set it up to emulate Sound Blaster or some other card mentioned in the SETUP program. Defaults -------- All this is dreadfully confusing, isn't it? Okay, the best thing to try first is to take all the defaults. If your system is fairly vanilla, then TwinBlok will detect everything and present its opinions for your approval during the setup process. Simple. If it doesn't work, then dig into the manuals, using this information as a guide for where to look. The most common problem is multiple cards overlapping use of DMA channels and interrupts. Mouse, Joystick, Keyboard ------------------------- TwinBlok automatically detects most mice, joystick, and sound card configurations. Just use the Setup menu to select from the available options. An 'X' means the option is not available. If you see a big red 'X' over hardware that you really do have in your system, check your hardware configuration and installation. If 'mouse' is not listed as an available option when you run the program, the problem is probably that you should load your mouse driver before starting TwinBlok. Many computers depend on Windows to implement the mouse driver, and the driver isn't available to DOS applications when run that way. Most computers have a directory named 'MOUSE' or something similar which contains the driver - usually available by typing the command: MOUSE or something similar ('MMOUSE' on some systems). You'll have to refer to your system's documentation if you do not know where your mouse driver lives. If you have a joystick plugged into a joystick port, TwinBlok will detect it. Joystick ports are usually available on most sound cards. Some systems will have more than one joystick port, and these ports may conflict with one another, causing problems with TwinBlok and other games. Be careful about system interrupt and DMA channel conflicts!! These are the most common problems. If all else fails, you can always play TwinBlok with the keyboard. Use the 'A' and 'Z' keys for player 1's controls, and if in team-player mode, player 2 can use the semi-colon and comma keys. Windows(TM) ----------- TwinBlok will run under Windows(TM) 3.x and Windows 95(TM), but you won't get sounds and music. If you'd like to hear sound, you MUST shut down Windows 3.x or Windows 95(TM) and run TWINBLOK.EXE from DOS!!! A .PIF file is provided so you can simply double-click an icon to start TwinBlok from the Windows interface, if you prefer. This icon will cause Windows(TM) to shut down, re-start your system, and run TwinBlok in DOS mode, so you'll hear all the great sound effects and music. ---------------------------------------- Everything set up? Now for... TWINBLOK GAME PLAY (Finally!) The blocks No use rapping on and on about an old favorite game, but the basic plot is: BLAST IT! When you hit the blocks, they explode, disappear, change your launchpad into something more (or less!) functional, or alter the 'ball' in some beneficial - or nefarious - way. The worst of these is the dreaded smiley. The smileys don't do anything. The ball metamorphoses into a cute, fluffy, and USELESS tennis-ball-like blob, and won't work on any of the blocks until it turns back into a blue piece. Some of the blocks put a nasty spin on the ball, and there's a magnetic block that does exactly what you'd like it NOT to do. You can also add spin to the ball by striking it on the move - just like with table tennis. The longer the ball is in play, the faster it moves, and the less time you have to hit it. Some effects are controlled by a timer, and will revert to their previous state if you can outlast the time clock. Strategies Each level in TwinBlok is a puzzle. Every level has been tested (by bleary- eyed zombies) for winability. It IS possible to complete all the levels. Before you launch the ball in any level, take a look at how the blocks are arranged. Sometimes it might be more beneficial to concentrate on one area to break through into the 'back forty' of the level's blocks. Sometimes, it's better to blast head-on into the blocks. Two-player mode To enjoy TwinBlok with a friend, go to the Setup screen and select the inputs you wish to use. They do not need to be identical. In Two-player mode, saves (and losses), and multiple-ball episodes, are twice as much fun, and it's only half as difficult to win. You can also play two-player mode with one person! Just select the SAME input device for both players in the setup menu. ---------------------------------------- The Credits Programming Krister Karlsson Graphics Dana Dominiak Music and Sound Effects Jason Brotherton Additional Coding Pascal Pochol Additional Art Robert J. Dominiak Music System DSMI by Otto Chrons (C) Virtual Visions Game Design Krister Karlsson Publications Editor Jay A. Gross ANSI Artist Jon Shiring Produced and Directed by Dana Dominiak Germany/Switzerland/Austria Distribution Juergen Egeling Computer Scandinavian Distribution Morten Eriksen, Twilight Zone Software French Distribution Jean-Michel Martin, TLK Games Australia/New Zealand Sheridan Power, Powerhouse Information and Support Service Marketing Brian Smolik Mike Speyer Martha Hauck Beta Testers Dan Wright Erik Hermanssen Thierry (Thierryierier) Grenier Special Thanks To: Christine Chan Jonas Lewinsson Debra Osborn Pierre Maloka Bonnie Smolik Brendan Larson James A. Stephens Susan Dominiak Jim Renz Erin and Doug Dominiak Peep the Bird All people who are not politicians The Toxic Zombies ---------------------------------------- Try this popular demosite: ftp.cdrom.com /demos Look for the Toxic Zombie's demo 'UNDEAD' as well as some Twilight Zone demos ---------------------------------------- This program is shareware, or 'try before you buy'. It is NOT public domain. TwinBlok(TM) is a trademark of Webfoot Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the properties of their owners. Copyright 1996 Webfoot Technologies, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ---------------------------------------- If using the Webfoot readme viewer, Hit ESCape to return to the main menu.