Assassins - Ultimate CD Games Collection 4/Assassins 4 (1999)(Weird Science).iso/docs/arcade/knockout_ii.doc

Text File | 1992-09-02 | 17KB | 455 lines

                           KNOCKOUT V2.0
 Instructions

 The idea of the game is to knock all the other players off the ever
 shrinking circle, and then drive off on the bridge.
 There are some variations on this theme included in this version :

 NORMAL - normal game, as described above.

 BALL - a ball is placed in the centre of the circle to be knocked into
 the players goals. There are only 4 players allowed in this game. A
 point is scored for getting a goal, and for knocking all the other players
 off. I'm afraid that the ball game is infested with bugs as of v2.x.

 TEAM - this game mode allows 4 teams of 2 players each to play.

 MAGNET - all the vehicles are made into magnets and are all attracted to
 each other.

 ELASTIC - pieces of elastic join pairs of vehicles together. Great for
 swinging them off the circle! (Best played with 2 or 4 vehicles, otherwise
 it's too crowded and jerky on slow Amigas) Use the friction control to set
 the strength of the elastic. It's best when set quite low.

 After a round, the scores will be shown. Each player has to press FIRE to
 continue on to the next game.

 Special Keys

 ESCAPE quits the current game and returns to the main menu. If you are in
 the middle of a round, the scores will be shown first.

 AMIGA+A will toggle between Knockout 2 and Workbench. Unless you have a
 pretty meaty machine, you won't be able to multitask very well as
 Knockout 2 takes most of the processor time.

 F10 pauses the game at its current state.

 Menu
 To move around the menu, use the arrow keys and return or the joystick.
 The options are :
 START - start the game.

 SOUND - toggles the amount of sound in the game, being either MUSIC,
 MUSIC+FX or FX. The music is loaded randomly from those in the Music
 directory.

 GAME TYPE - toggles the game type, being either NORMAL, BALL, TEAM, MAGNET
 or ELASTIC. Read the instructions for more on these playing modes.

 FRICTION - alters the amount of skiddyness. The smaller the bar, the more
 you'll skid around and the faster the game will be!

 CIRCLE SIZE - alters the size of the circle at the beginning of each game.
 The longer the bar, the larger the circle.

 FIRST TO - decides the number of wins before a winner is declared!
 Possible values are 5, 10, 20 and infinity (so you can play forever!)

 CONTROLS - chooses the control method for each player. Either one of the
 keyboard or joystick controls, CPU (for computer controlled) or OFF
 (to turn "off" the player).

 VEHICLE - chooses the vehicle for each player. Each vehicle has the same
 friction, responses etc.

 NAME - the name for each player. There is a limit for the length of the
 name - 16 pixels, for technical reasons. Sorry! Better stick to initials.

 SAVE SETUP - saves everything as defined above, to be automatically loaded
 when you next run Knockout 2.

 QUIT - quit Knockout 2 and return to Workbench.

 Important

 Giving each player a name above their vehicle is all well and good, but it
 takes CPU time. If you wish to have names, but only have an A1200 or
 A500/A600, then turn off a few of the other players or the game will
 become unstable and will probably crash at the first smash up in the
 middle of the circle.

 Music Editor
 Knockout 2 comes with 4 pieces of music pre-installed, but you are quite
 welcome to include your own. To do this, simply load up the "Music Editor"
 and select "Load/Add Music". From the file requestor, locate your MOD and
 select it. You will be asked if you wish to compress it (when used with
 Knockout 2), simply to save disk space and reduce loading time.
 The MOD will then be copied into the "Music" directory of Knockout 2.

 There are two other options, "Uncompress All Music" (so you can find any
 music you wish to delete) and "Compress All Music" (to compress any music
 you have previously uncompressed). FImp is used to compress the files.

 If you do delete any music files, be sure to make the remaining
 sequentially numbered by renaming them.

 As well as using the Vehicle Editor, you can make your own vehicles using
 the AMOS(Pro) object editor. Load the Vehicle/* files into it and create
 your own vehicle using them as a template.

 Vehicle Editor
 To make your own vehicles for Knockout 2, load the "Vehicle Editor", and
 select "Grab Vehicle From IFF Screen". From the file requestor, select
 the screen containing the vehicle graphics. The screen must be of the
 following format :

 The screen must only have 4 colours, with colour 1 being black, colour 2
 being any colour (the colour of the vehicle) and colour 3 being anything
 (but don't use it).

 You have to draw 32 rotations for the vehicle, starting with it pointing
 straight down and going through each of the angles anti-clockwise. If it
 really matters, the angle that they rotate by each time is 11.25 degrees.

 The size of the vehicle can be no more than 16 pixels across and down.

 Each angle of the vehicle must be placed horizontally, every 16 pixels.
 You may loop down on to the next line if you run out of space.

 For an example of a vehicle screen, look at Example_Vehicle.iff.

 "Delete A Vehicle" will delete the vehicle number that you select from
 the file requestor.

 "View All Vehicles" will display all the vehicles with their numbers
 beside them. Click a mouse button to end.

 If you create any good vehicles that aren't various parts of the human
 anatomy, then feel free to send them to me at [e-mail] and,
 if you wish, I'll include them in the next version.

 Customising Samples

 Should you not like the current sound effects in Knockout, or you want to
 add your personal touch, then you should approve of this feature. :)

 If you look in the Samples directory you'll see a few files. These are the
 various samples used in Knockout that you can alter.

 "Crash" is the sample played when the vehicles collide.

 "Falling" is the sample for when a vehicle falls off the edge.

 "Win" is the sample played when someone wins a game.

 "Fight" is the sample played at the beginning of each game.

 As well as these samples, there are a few other ones in the "Storage"
 directory. These are alternative samples that you might like to try by
 copying/renaming them as necessary.

 Amiga Setups

 Knockout 2 does it's best to configure itself to your particular Amiga
 setup. Here is a list of configurations made :

 KS1.3 Amigas - will get as far as the intro and crash. UPGRADE!

 A500/A600 with 1Mb - 5 players on screen.

 A500/A600 with fast mem - 6 players on screen.

 A1200 with 2Mb / A500/A600 with 020+ accelerator - 8 players on screen.

 A1200 with fast mem - 8 players on screen, with no names restrictions.

 NTSC - can't have maximum circle size, and the title screen is snipped
 slightly.

 1Mb?

 If you only have 1Mb of memory, then you may be recieving "Out of Memory"
 error messages. Knockout 2 does it's best to handle low memory sitations,
 by closing Workbench deleting the menu music, skipping the intro, etc,but
 there is only so much it can do. If you are running it from Workbench,
 then try loading it from "No Startup-Sequence" in the boot menu.
 Also, try deleting a vehicle or two (leave at least one though!) and don't
 attach names. For PAL users, putting your Amiga into NTSC mode will save
 some memory.

 Credits
 Programming and Graphics by Ben Wyatt, [e-mail]
 (Sorry about the sheer crapness of the graphics)

 FImp (used for compression) by P. Struijk and A. Brouver.

 Samples taken off the Internet and BBSs, and kindly donated by
 W. Allan Hudgins and David Filskov. Thanks!

 Music came pre-installed on my HD with no documentation, but through
 reading the sample names, I have deduced the music was done by :

 Game music :

   1. Acidbat2 by ?

   2. Addiction by Hyponosis/Futura

   3. Drain Your Brain by Slaze of Definance (Daniel Celion)

   4. Dunk Fix by Vacum
 Intro music :

   Hassua Vai Ei by Stargazer/Sonic (been shortened slightly)

 Menu music :

   Calm by D-luxe/Equinox

 If I am wrong about any of these, let me know so I can credit them for
 their excellent music in the next release.

 This program has been developed using AMOSPro+Compiler
 (the best programming package ever), Deluxe Paint 4 and AF's Real 3D
 Classic. Thanks to Chris Hodges for the AMCAF extension, which I've used
 extensively.

 Greetings and thanks to...

 Richard Freeman - Thanks for beta-testing and all the ideas!

 Guillaume Serge - Thanks for your support and ideas! :)

 Pietro Ghizzoni - The GUI Extension is great! Keep developing!

 Chris Hodges - Greetings! ;-)))))))) Read your mail more often!

 Mads Dantoft - Thanks for sampling those samples! :)

 Semprini - Great book! :-)

 Fredrik Johansson - Thanks for your great ideas!

 Paul Hickman - Remove the Libs:Easylife.library! :)

 Pressman - Hope you get on-line again!

 Oliver Dibben - Why are you still using an Archimedes!?

 Michael Cox - Thanks for the AMOS Mailing List!

 Steve Bye - Thanks for everything! :)

 Michele Berionne - Hello!!! :-))

 Meni Berman - Thanks for telling me about the great reviews! :)

 Simon Carless - Thanks for the great reviews! :)

 Peter Jansson - Thanks for all your suggestions!

 I know I've forgotten loads of people. And I've lost the names of some of
 the people who have mailed me about the game. Sorry!

 Some of my other programs on Aminet

 Bounce in game/jump - a fun platform game where you control a bouncing
 ball.

 Blobs in game/2play - a not-so-great 2 player platform game.

 Borisball in game/demo - a F1 licenseware demo of the ultimate bat'n'ball
 game. Much more fun than Megaball

 3D Pro in gfx/3d - the best stereogram/magic eye picture generator in the
 world. The emphasis is on it being fun and easy to use, but it is also a
 very powerful program!

 Future attractions
 PACAC - the Point And Click Adventure Creator. With it you will be able to
 create your very own graphical adventures such as Monkey Island and
 Beneath a Steel Sky, with little more effort than a few mouse clicks!

 Dunablaster - the greatest bomberman game ever? Maybe... but probably not

 Rotting Corpses (working title) - a war game that's like Worms and DuneII
 but each player can move their characters simultaneously, so the action
 is real time.

 Dune2 in isometric - a clone of Dune2 with some extras (including water
 and built-to-order robots) and in isometric.

 Are you a good computer graphics artist?

 If you are, and would like to work on a game or two with me
 (probably a point'n'click adventure or the Dune2 clone), then get in
 contact. NOW! Please.

 Registering
 Knockout 2 is shareware. But being incredibly kind, I've given you the
 full version here. This is because I really can't be bothered to sort out
 a demo version, and send out full versions to where ever you live. I know
 I'm lazy, but I doubt you're complaining. Probably also means no-one will
 register.

 So what's to gain by registering? You know, all the usual stuff...
 Peace of mind. New versions sent to you directly (E-Mail only, I'm afraid)
 Encouraging a poor student (me) to program more great games and updates.

 The registration fee is a stupidly small 5 UK Pounds, 10 US Dollars,
 15 German DM or equivilant. Cash only please. None of this postal order/
 cheque/credit card crap, or I'll never speak to you again. Or, you can
 send me accelerator boards, SIMMs, any speed CD Rom drives or FPUs. :)
 Send notes in a non-see-through-able envelope to me at :

   167 Oak Street   Norwich   Norfolk   NR3 3AY   UNITED KINGDOM
 And thank you, in advance. (Don't forget to included your e-mail address
 if you want updates! You'd better include your snail-mail address just in
 case!)

 BUT, don't let the fact that you haven't registered distract you from
 e-mailing me your comments about the game. I won't hassle you to register
 as I like receiving e-mails almost as much as I like receiving money.

 Future Improvements
 These are a few ideas I have and people have suggested for possible
 inclusion in future versions of Knockout :

 I might add mines (as a sub game, like the Ball game), but I think it'd
 distract from the whole point of the game. If another player is coming
 towards you, to knock you off, you normally would try and drive out of the
 way possibly making the other player lose control and drive off.
 With mines, every time someone is coming towards you, you can just drop
 mines to stop them. The same problems apply to guns, missiles etc. I think
 they could ruin the game.

 Different properties of the different vehicles, like traction, speed,
 acceleration, etc.

 Possibility to play over the modem/null cable, or over the internet
(yeah, sure I will).

 Ability to alter the speed that the circle shrinks at.

 Different levels of CPU intelligence and characteristics.

 Automatic rotation of the vehicles in the Vehicle Editor. You'd only have
 to draw the vehicle pointing down, and the program would do all the rest.
 I tried a quick version of this, but the results looked very messy
 (like the DPaint rotate function). I have a few ideas of how to improve
 this though...

 Add a "Player n Has Won!" screen for the "First To" game.

 Extend the intro a bit. Maybe a 3D section.

 Add different graphics depending on the friction setting. Eg. Ice for low
 friction. Sand for high friction. Anyone fancy drawing these?

 Damaging vehicles. Have little health bars under the names. This could be
 a sub game, with walls around the edges -like Demolision Derby or Mangled
 Fenders.

 Clouds/fog, to partially cover the play area.

 Oil patches where you loose control.

 Having the men jump out of the cars just before they fall, and then run
 around waiting to be squashed. :)

 Random elastic joins.

 Choosing the team to be on in the Team game. Could be applied to Elastic
 mode as well.

 Race levels. Either like the intro, with the left falling away or a proper
 circuit.

 Sound effects editor. Maybe combining the three editors in to one.

 3D version. %-)

 If you have any good ideas, let me know. But don't suggest guns, powerups
 or shops! ;-)

 History
 Knockout 2.03 is uploaded on to the Internet on May 25th 1996.

 The infinitely dull history of Knockout :

 2.03 Customisable samples. Should now work with 1Mb, hopefully! Small
 changes made to intro.

 2.02 Speeded up scores screen. Fixed prefs saving bug. Changed colour of
 elastic so it's less flickery. Fixed sample squeaking bug (Thanks Chris!)
 Improved the AI of the CPU players slightly. Altered Magnet slightly.
 Removed demo game from beginning.

 2.01 Added Elastic and Magnet games.

 2.00 Added new menu system, team games, variable circle size, variable
 friction, different vehicles, play first to "n" wins, naming of the
 players, music, 8 sets of controls, vehicle editor, music editor, intro
 sequence. Reorganised the sprite bank to eliminate a few bugs and to make
 it more flexible. Made it so it did actually work on all Amiga set-ups,
 unlike the previous version! Improved CPU intelligence.
 Stopped vehicles from going on top of each other.

 1.02 Fixed a few bugs. Added a "Knockout_Easy" file, with less skidding.
 Added an option to turn cars "off". Made it work on less powerful Amigas
 restricting the number of cars.

 1.01 Added 4-player parallel port adapter, to make it 7 human players.
 Fixed a few bugs in the ball game. Rendered an intro screen.

 1.00 Written on the Amiga, but limited to 8 cars (for technical reasons),
 only 5 of which can only be human controlled. Added a ball game.
 Added a bridge for when a player wins.

 0.99 Test version written on the Acorn Archimedes computer, with 16
 simultaneous players. Very slow, and lots of keyboard control clashes,
 but very popular at school!

 Famous Moments
 Version 1.01 put on to AMIGA POWER's coverdisk on the APRIL 1996 issue.
 (I didn't send it to them!)

 Version 1.00 reviewed in AMIGA FORMAT in the FEBRUARY 1996 issue.
 Made PD Selection of the Month.

 Version 1.00 included on the AMIGA FORMAT subs disk (I've been told).

 Why are such out of date versions used??? Those versions are almost a
 year old! If you review/coverdisk mount Knockout, please check Aminet
 (Internet, not CD) for the newest version!

 Bugs

 The evil bugs of Knockout 2 :

 When the two people in the same team win, the bridge won't come down until
 there is one vehicle left on the circle. This is a pretty easy bug to fix,
 but I'd rather write about it here than actually fix it.

 The players sometimes "stick" to each other. This has happened in previous
 versions, except now it's less often and you won't go flying all over the
 screen.

 The players can sometimes go through the ball in the ball game.
 No idea why...

 Pressing Escape in the ball game crashes it.

 Wierd things happen at the beginning of the ball game.

 The ball game is infested with bugs. I'll fix it sometime, but I don't
 like the game much!

 In the Elastic game, it leaves little blue specks everywhere. I cleared
 it up a bit, but I've no idea what's causing it.

 Well, at least this list is getting shorter. Found any bugs which aren't
 listed here? Let me know!