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ManiacBall
Version V1.4 (17.01.1997)
(C) Copyright 1996/97 by Peter Elzner
diamond productions
- Shareware -
------------------------------
Requirements & Installation
Copyright & Distribution
The Game
The Editor
The Editor on its own screen
History
How to register
How to contact the author
Credits
Check out the ManiacBall homepage at
http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/mball.html
Requirements
This game is written in an OS-friendly way, so it may not be as fast as a
common hardwarehack would be.
ManiacBall requires:
- Kickstart 2.0
- 1 MB of memory
- Harddisk
- ptreplay.library (included in the package)
- asl.library v38 (if you want to use the screenmode requester,
can be found on the Workbench Disk V2.1)
- MUI 3.x (if you want to use the Editor, MUI can be found on AmiNet)
recommended for ultimate joy:
- Kickstart 3.x
- a 68020 (or higher)
This program has beed successfully tested with Enforcer, Mungwall and
CodeWatcher.
ManiacBall runs fine on ECS, AGA and CyberGfx.
Installation
ManiacBall can be run directly out of its directory. To install
ManiacBall to (hard)disk, just copy the whole directoy (including all the
subdirectoys) to the destination volume.
You might want to change some of the options in the game, for example the
resoultion and the screenmode. This can be done in the Options Menu
in the game.
COPYRIGHT
DISTRIBUTION
DISCLAIMER
SHAREWARE
ManiacBall and the ManiacBall Leveleditor are copyrighted (C) 1996/97 by Peter Elzner.
That means that you are NOT ALLOWED to modify the programs and
documentations in any way. In particular, you MUST NOT remove the
documentation or any other file.
You are NOT ALLOWED to use this software or any part of it for any other
purpose than that one mentioned in this documentation, this also includes
any images and samples.
ManiacBall and the ManiacBall Leveleditor are SHAREWARE !
The ManiacBall package including the ManiacBall Leveleditor are
freely distributable. That means you are allowed to re-distribute these
packages as long as you follow these points:
- Any re-distribution has to include all files in this archive, without
any modifications. You are NOT ALLOWED to add or remove any files
to/from the archive.
- This package may be freely distributed via BBSs, InterNet/UseNet,
software libraries such as Fred Fish's and Aminet CD-ROM, and other
similar electronic channels. You MUST NOT include it on any disk that
is sold for more than 5 US Dollar (or an equivalent in other currencies).
- Disk magazines and services that charge extra for file transfers may
NOT distribute it without written permission by Peter Elzner !
You are NOT ALLOWED to distribute your keyfile in any way! It contains
yourpersonal data and may only be used by the user whose name is encrypted
into the file (should be you). This name is diplayed in the About
Requester.
If you include ManiacBall on a Disk-Mag, PD-library (or even CD-ROM)
I would be happy to receive a free copy.
By using this product, you accept FULL responsibility for any
damage or loss that might occur through its use or the inability to use
it. This program has beed successfully tested with tools like Enforcer,
Mungwall and CodeWatcher but the developer of the software can
NOT be held responsible.
This product is SHAREWARE. Free distributable only says that you do not have
to pay for copying or re-distributing the unregistered version of the
program. You are allowed to test this product for 30 days. If you like it
and decide to use the product regularly, please read the chapter
How to register and pay the shareware fee.
Welcome to ManiacBall
This game is based on the idea of Breakout, a classic arcade game of the
80s. The main goal is to remove every brick from the playfield by hitting
them with a ball. This ball bounces off every wall and to control it, you
have one or more paddles to modify the way, the ball moves.
The Titlemenu
You can select the options using the mouse or the keybaord.
The titlemenu of ManiacBall contains the following items:
* start game
warp to the first level of the current levelgroup
* enter playername
clicking here you can enter a new name. This name will be used for the
Highscorelists (see below). To save this name, use save options from
the options menu
* select new Levels
displays a list of all the available levelgroups
To get the same levelgroup at the next startup, use save options from
the options menu.
Each levelgroup contains 25 levels.
This Option is disabled in the unregistered version
* enter password
you can type in a password and enter the game at any level you like.
Note that the password consists of two digits representing the
levelnumber and the actual password. Example:
You have a level, saved as nr.5 with the password "test".
To start at this level you have to type "05test"
Random mode: If you enter "00random" here, you can enter the random mode
which lets you play the levels of the group in a random order.
* view highscores
Press the left mouse button to get the next list, right button for the
previous list.
There is one Highscore list for each Level which only contains the five
best times. And there is a big Highscore list for each Levelgroup which
contains the ten best scores in this group.
Note: Solving an entire Levelgroup (finishing Level 25) will give you
11111 extra points for every life you have left.
A typical Highscore entry looks like this:
04 S Hawk 00021560
| | | |
| | | this is the score
| | this is the name
| S=single mode, T=team mode
the Level, the player lost his last life
** means that the player was playing in random mode
Highscores are saved automatically.
* options
This is the preferences menu:
* audio titlemenu
you can turn the music in the titlemenu on and off
if you want a different music, simply replace the file "mod.vogue" in
the sfx directory. Or turn off the music and use your favorite
mod-player to play a music in the background.
* audio game
you can select the music (same as in the titemenu), the sound-fx or
turn off sounds completly.
* resolution
LoRes is the standard 320x222 resolution with 32 colors.
HiRes is an improved 640x444 version of the game (32 colors).
* screenmode
select a new screenmode for the game.ManiacBall supports
ECS, for example PAL-LoRes and NTSC-LoRes (LoRes only)
AGA, for example PAL-LoRes, DBL-PAL-LoRes, NTSC, NTSC-LoRes (LoRes)
and PAL-HiRes-Interlaced, DBL-PAL-HiRes-Interlaced... (HiRes)
CyberGfx, use the standard 320x240 (LoRes) or 640x480 (HiRes)
screenmode. If you want the game to use the whole screen, you have to
define your own screenmodes with 320x222 (LoRes) and 640x444 (HiRes).
Important: You need asl.library v38 or higher (part of Workbench 2.1)
to successfully open the screenmode requester!
* play mode
single player controls all paddles,
in team mode player 1 controls the horizontal paddles, player 2 the
vertical ones (see below)
* control device player1 and player2
possible options are mouse1 (standard mouse), mouse2 (mouse in port2)
joy1 (joystick in mouse port), joy2 and keyboard (cursor keys and
space).
* ballspeed
set the default speed of the ball.
* save options will save all settings to disk, including name and
levegroup you selected in the main menu
* exit
will use the settings without saving them to disk
Note: If you have accidently saved the configs with a screenmode
you can't display, which means that you can't start the game any more,
simply delete the file ManiacBall.prefs in the ManiacBall directory.
* exit
leave the game and exit to workbench
One- and two-player mode
In one-player mode you control up to four paddles (each at one side of the
playfield) by moving the mouse in the appropriate direction. If you don't
want to use the standard mouse, you can select other control devices in
the options menu.
In two-player mode, the first player controls the horizontal
paddles (the ones that move from left to right), the second player
controls the vertical paddles. Please note that both players share one
score board and do not have seperate lives. This is a teammode, not a
dog-fight mode :-)
If you are not using the mouse to control the paddles, use the firebutton
or the spacebar to double the speed of the paddle.
Bricks
As said above, the main goal of the game is to remove all bricks from the
playfield. Well, not really every brick because there are four kinds of
bricks:
* standard bricks - they appear in the colors green, red, blue, yellow and
purple. Some of them are higher than others, you have to hit them two or
three times to remove them completely. Others will turn into extras (see
below) after getting hit by the ball.
* steel bricks - there are three types of steel bricks. The big and the
very big one can't be destroyed. But the special steel brick can (only!)
be destroyed by an explosion
* TNT - explodes in a 3x3 explosion when hit by a ball
One explosions can cause other TNTs to explode (chain reaction!)
* extras - some standard bricks turn into extras of various kinds. Before
we get to the different kinds of extras, let me explain this: Some
extras only effect one paddle at a time, this one is called the active
paddle. The active paddle is the one that touched the ball the last time
it bounced off a paddle. The active paddle is blue whereas the inactive
ones are grey. Here are the 20 different extras:
* score extras with 50, 100, 200 and 400 points
* forcefield (green border)
This creates a forcefield for the active paddle which lasts 10 seconds
* small and big paddle
decrease and increase the size of the active paddle
* laser
turns the active paddle into a powerfull lasercanon. Hitting a brick
with the laser is like hitting it with a ball without the bricks
turning into extras. Steel bricks are not affected by the laser.
* slower and faster
decrease and increase the speed of the ball
* steel ball
the ball that hits this extra changes his color to yellow and from now
on, it will walk through every standard brick without bouncing back.
Note that this ball destroys bricks, they won't turn into extras.
* extra ball
The ball that hits this extras splits into two balls.
* extra life
* level warp
immediately warps you to the next stage
* super extra (S-sign)
this is a very special extra because randomly one of this will happen:
* increase size of all boards
* laser for all boards
* forcefield for all boards
* extra life
* extras with a letter
There are extras with a B, O, N, U or S on them. Collect them all to
get the mega bonus of 3000 points.
Keyboard control
Apart from the cursor-keys and the space-bar which can be used to control
the paddles via keybaord, these keys are active while the game is in
progress:
P will Pause the game
(Note:To turn off the pause mode, you have to activate the game window
(simply click with your mouse into it) and then press P again)
ECS you will lose all life (game over)
Shift-ESC you will lose one life
Welcome to the ManiacBall Leveditor
This programm is based on MUI which is © Stefan Stuntz.
You do not have to be a registerd user of MUI. MUI can be found on
Aminet/util/libs or on nearly every Amiga-PD CD-ROM. If you can't get
hold of MUI, send me an empty disk and I will give you
the latest version of MUI.
Running the Editor on its own screen
Note: The Editor supports online-help. This means that you can hold the
mouse-pointer over any button, wait a second and a help bubble will apear
displaying a short help-text.
The main window
* levelgroup
this group display the current levelgroup. Each Levelgroup can hold up
to 25 levels. All the following options like load- and save level will
use this levelgroup.
* the button next to the text-gadget will open a window where you can
choose on of the existing levelgroups.
* Create new group will open another window where you can enter a name
for the new group
* level
* Levelnumber indicates, which level will be loaded/saved when you
click on the appropriate buttons.
* Author
enter your name here, it will be displayed immediately before the
level starts
* Password
the password may be up to 7 chars long and must only contain letters
and digits. In the game, the levelnumber will be attached to this
password, see the game.
* Load
will load the current level with the selected levelnumber from the
selected levegroup
* Save
will save the current level with the selected levelnumber to the
selected levelgroup
This Option is disabled in the unregistered version
* Test
starts the ManiacBall game with the current level
This Option is disabled in the unregistered version
* 1/2player test
you can test in one- or two-player mode
* Edit
* Bricks
open the brick-window where you can place the bricks in the playfield
* Extras
open the extra-window to fill the playfield with extras
* Register
open the register window. You can enter your name and print the text or
save it to disk. Use this option if you want to register.
* Prefs
Opens the MUI preferences program. Here you can for example tell MUI to
open the Editor on its own screen .
* About
Display Version information about the ManiacBall Editor
* Quit
Leave the program
Important: The unregistered version of the game can only run the
25 included levels.
Edit Bricks
At the left side is a list with all available bricks. There's the empty
field and the three steel blocks. The standard bricks all exist in six
variations: standard, double, tripple, standard-dark, standard-light and
standard-border. The last item is the TNT brick.
A complete description of all extras can be found in the chapter game .
* invisible
when active, every brick you place into the playfield will be invisible
at startup time. It will get visible after the balls hits this brick the
first time. TNT can't be made invisible.
To the right is the actual playfield. The four possible paddles are
visible at the four sides of the playfield. If a paddle is active (see
set paddles, you can change it's size by dragging the edges around.
* Clear
will fill the entire playfield with the active entry
* UnDo
takes back the last move
* set paddles:
you can activate or deactivate every paddle and select its initial size
be sure that the active paddle, the one that holds the ball at the
beginning, is not deactivated
Edit Extras
To the left is the list with all available extras, the first item is the
empty field, to remove existing extras. You can only place extras at
highlighted fields in the playfield (the fields which hold a brick in
the brick window).
* UnDo
takes back the last move
* set random extras
in the extras window you can place extras at specific positions, they
will always apear at the same position every time you play the Level.
In this window, you can choose if you wan to place certain extras
randomly in the playfield. This will make the Levels more dynamic
because they are not always the same every time.
* Check Level
checks if there is enough space for all the random extras
running the ManiacBall Leveleditor on its own screen
By default, the Editor opens its windows on the Workbench. This is ok
if your Workbench has enough colors but looks not very nice if you run
your WB with less than 32 colors. In this case, you should open a second
screen for ManiacBall, here's how to do it:
1) start the Editor, the main window apears on the Workbench
2) click on the Prefs button, the MUI preferences window pops up
3) In the list to the left, click on the item System
4) Click on Call Inspector in the Public Screen group,
the PSI (Public Screen Inspector) apears
5) Click on New to define a new screen, an (unnamed) screen
apears
6) Activate this (unnamed) screen in the list, then select Edit,
the "Edit Screen" window pops up
7) Enter a name for the Public Screen, for example "MBEDIT"
Enter a title for the Screen, for example "ManiacBall Editor"
8) Activate the Display group, a screenmode requester apears in
this group
9) Select the apropriate screenmode,
for example DBL-PAL:High Res Laced Flickerfree (if you have AGA)
or CVision: 8bit 800 x 600 (if you have a CyberVision)
Recommended: a screen with a size of at least 640x400
10) Select the depth.
Recommended: at least a depth of 6 (64 colors)
11) Leave the Edit Screen window by clicking on Ok.
12) Leave the PSI (Public Screen Inspector) by clicking on Save
13) Back to the MUI Preferences program:
Select the created screen by clicking on the pop-up button above the
call inspector button
14) Leave the Preferences program by clicking on Save.
That's it...
ManiacBall history:
V1.0 (20.10.1996)
- first public release for the Meeting Pearls 4 CD
V1.1 (24.10.1996)
- first AmiNet version
(Game)
- improved errorhandling
(startup-errors caused enforcer hits)
- improved screenmode handling
(program now does not quit immediately after failing to open a
screen with a specific screenmode)
- ManiacBall no longer displays any "volume is write protected"
requesters when run from CD
- fixed small bug with the ball changing his speed
(faster/slower extra)
- special steel bricks can now be destroyed by an explosion
- fixed bug with controlling the paddles in two-player mode
(Editor)
- changed prefs-filename to "ManiacEdit.prefs"
V1.2 (28.10.1996)
- fixed small bug with forcefield
- fixed bug in HiRes mode
(didn't work with AGA)
(reported by Peter Schulz)
- improved screenmode selection
V1.3 (03.11.1996)
- fixed small bug in game routine
- due to user request, the ball now speeds up automatically after
20 seconds if slower than normal
- the default ballspeed can now be set in the options menu
(suggested by Peter Schulz)
- fixed bug with mousebutton and mouse2
(reported by Troels Walsted Hansen)
- fixed bug with passwords
(words with 7 letters didn't work)
(reported by Antti Haljak)
- added random mode, type "00random" as password
(suggested by Dhomas Trenn)
V1.4 (17.01.1997)
(Game)
- Maniac.font will now be found in the program's dir and in FONTS:
- fixed small bug with steel and TNT
- you won't get passwords in random mode any more
(Editor)
- added italian catalog, thanks to Alessandro Basso (cralex@amiga.dei.unipd.it)
I spent a lot of work in ManiacBall so I think it's only fair to demand a
little reward if want to use my program on a regular basis.
After paying the shareware fee you will receive a keyfile and the latest
version of ManiacBall. Furthermore the registered version includes:
- you will now be able to use the Leveleditor to create your own
levels.
- you will get a bunch of new levels!
How to register
If you want to register, you can simply use the Register button
in the Leveleditor . Here you can print a registration
form, ready to put it in the envelope or to send it via E-Mail.
Or you can send me a short note including you full name, address (street,
city, country) and your E-Mail address if you want to get the keyfile via
E-Mail. I also would like to know where you got ManiacBall from (AmiNet,
Coverdisk, ...) and what you like/dislike. Feel free to mail me any
comments or send new levels if you are already a redistered user.
There are four ways to pay the money:
* Cash:
If you want to pay in cash, the Shareware fee is
25 DM (DEM German-Marks) or
20 $ (USD US-Dollars)
other currencies can not be accepted.
I don't think there will be any problems if you place the money in the
envelope in a way it can't be seen from the outside. There havn't been
any problems yet.
* Eurocheques or money orders:
Send me a cheque for 25 DM, other currencies can no be accepted. Ask at
your local bank if you don't know how to pay in foreign currencies.
(Postal-) Money orders in DEM (German-Marks) are also welcome.
* Foreign cheques
If you live outside of Europe and can't pay in DM, send a foreign cheque
for 25 US$ or the equivalent amount in any your currency.
* Bank transfer:
You can transfer 25 DM to my bank-account:
Peter Elzner
Commerzbank Letmathe
account: 642 5000 104
BLZ: 445 400 22
* Don't forget to include your full Name, so *
* I'm able to see who transfered the money! *
Please note that I'm waiting until the money has arrived until I'm
shipping away the registered version.
How to get your keyfile:
* Snail-Mail:
This consists of one DD-disks including your keyfile as well as the
latest version of ManiacBall and the ManiacBall Editor and a bunch of
new Levels.
* E-Mail:
If you want to get your keyfile via E-Mail, please send the filled-out
registration text (see Editor but don't forget to include
your full address because I it will be used to personify your keyfile.
Getting your keyfile via E-Mail takes a few days, via snail-mail may take
up to four weeks (usually one or two).
How to get updates
Updates and new Levels will be published through AmiNet. You will also
find links to the latest version and to all the available levels on the
ManiacBall webpage at http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/mball.html.
Announcments of new versions will be made in "comp.sys.amiga.games" and
"/Z-Netz/Rechner/Amiga/Spiele".
If you don't have access to either of these possibilitys, you can send a
letter to me , including
* an empty disk and an international reply-coupon
(available at your local post office)
or
* the amount of 3DM or 3US$ in cash.
You will then get the latest version of ManiacBall, and all the new levels
created so far. Note that you will need the registered version of
ManiacBall to play other levels than the 25 Levels included in the
distribution.
Orders without disk and/or p&p-money can't be fulfilled!
If you have any comments, new ideas or found any bugs, feel free to write.
My Address:
Peter Elzner
Grudene 6a
D-58644 Iserlohn
Germany
E-Mail:
elzner@magic.ping.de
World Wide Web:
http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/index.html (my personal homepage)
http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/mball.html (the ManiacBall homepage)
Phone-number:
02374/84425 (Germany)
++49 2374 84425
PGP-key:
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If you are a registerd user, feel free to send me your Levels. I will
release them on AmiNet and include them in future releases.
greetings to all the people who helped to create ManiacBall by testing the
program or simply by creating great tools that helped me develope
ManiacBall:
Dietmar Eilert (for his excellent GoldEd)
Peter Froehlich (for his VBIServer.mod)
Stefan Stuntz (for his great MUI)
Jürgen Beck (betatesting)
Oliver Fox (betatesting :-)
Alessandro Basso (for the italian catalog)
and to everybody I forgot...
This game was written in AmigaOberon on an
A3000/28 14MB Kick3.1 CyberVision64
diamond productions is part of neXus.
http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/dp.html
Available Amiga production from diamond productions include:
* Diamond Caves : the ultimate Emerald clone
The idea of Boulder Dash with lots of new extras, enemies and a great
Leveleditor
http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/dc.html
* Diamond Caves II : Emerald Mine - the next generation
Still under construction, DC² will be even better and bigger than
Diamond Caves I.
http://www.ping.de/sites/magic/dc2.html
Other Amiga games from neXus:
* MasterBlaster : the ultimate Dynablaster clone
five player madness - bomb away everything (and everyone) that stands
in your way and collect lots of usefull extras.
Also available for MS-DOS.
This application uses
MUI - MagicUserInterface
(c) Copyright 1993-96 by Stefan Stuntz
MUI is a system to generate and maintain graphical user interfaces. With
the aid of a preferences program, the user of an application has the
ability to customize the outfit according to his personal taste.
MUI is distributed as shareware. To obtain a complete package containing
lots of examples and more information about registration please look for
a file called "muiXXusr.lha" (XX means the latest version number) on
your local bulletin boards or on public domain disks.
If you want to register directly, feel free to send
DM 30.- or US$ 20.-
to
Stefan Stuntz
Eduard-Spranger-Straße 7
80935 München
GERMANY