Chip Hitware 6 B/CHIP_HITWARE6_B.iso/gry/boulder/readme.txt

Text File | 1998-12-10 | 11KB | 258 lines

Welcome to DX-boulderdash
written by Stefan Verheyen
[e-mail]

Please visit the DX-boulderdash homepage at http://bewoner.dma.be/Boulder/ for:

- the latest release of DX-Boulderdash
- extra levels
- extra spritesets (under construction)
- more info


This is a Beta release, it contains still several small bugs and a lot will change
in the future.
It's not unthinkable DX-Boulder might crash from time to time.




Game controls:

Navigate thru the menu using your mouse, joystick or arrow keys and enter.

the game starts in pause mode: press any key to exit pause.
'p' to pause the game.

Arrow keys: control character .
Control + arrow Keys:    'Grab' an object .
Keep Control pressed a short time for placing a Dynamite (When you have one)
(or use your joystick)
(the joystick routine is rather rudimentary, so it's possible it won't work too well ...)

'Esc' to return to the menu.
'r' or 'q' to restart the level

when finished a level, press any key to start the next one (except escape).
when you die, press any key to restart the level (except escape).

press 'm' to display a full screen map of the level at current status.


If you want to skip levels, enter your name as 'Steffest' and you will be able to
select all levels.

If you are new to Boulderdash or if you want to see some object-specific levels,
try out the levels of the tutorial.map: It's a very good introduction to the different objects.
(levels supplied by R. Franzen and me)

Sound:
    if you want to hear backgroundmusic in the game:
    put your favorite module in the DX-Boulder directory and enable the module play in the options menu.

Thanks for testplaying !

All Bug-reports are more than welcome !!
if you send in a Bug-report, please specify your exact system setup.

    - What CPU you have
    - What version of windows you are running (+Service Packs)
    - What's your DirectX version
    - What's your graphics card (+ amount of memory);
    - What's the refreshrate of your monitor.



Send all comments and ideas to [e-mail]

Thanks in advance.



History


V. 0.41
    Disconnected DirectSound initialisation from Directdraw intialisation
    Added "Map" funcion: press "m" in a game to display a map of the level:
    works with all sprite-sizes,resolutions and level-sizes.
    Added new objects: tubes. (all kinds of shapes) these can be connected to
    form a pipeline. Little fellow can walk thru it (he's invisible while he's
    in the tubes offcourse)
    Rearranged keys + automatic restart/nextlevel
    Added new resolutions: 400x300 and 512x384
    Re-arranged the scrolling routine in the new (experimental)drawing routine.
    :a bit faster (but still some display bugs).
    rewrote the DirectX-component to also support a non DirectX drawing output
    (standard windows gdi) just for testing: this is REALLY slow!
    Added an internal module-player, making use of the excellent Midas digital
    sound system.
    Fixed Speedbug
    added lots of new objects: (most of them from DC2 by Peter Elzner):
    switchgates,conveyor belts,Landmines,timed gates
    Re-implemented animation-routines (supports speed,loops,links and repeatcounts)
    Expanded LevelMap-Format: included Description, Status, Last level detection, minimum Imagelib needed.
    Added "Advanced Graphics" option: this is an attempt to make the game less static-looking:
    Meaning: the dirt,stone walls and amoeba(slime) have all appropriate rough edges + some things are constantly animated.
    this is only in the big spritesets like EmeraldBIG.iml .
    Since this takes a lot of processing power, you can turn it off on slower machines.
    Fixed Scrolling bug, Fixed Rockbirth bug
    Added Imglib version check
    Expanded help
    Added objects help
    fixed scrolling bug in windowmode


V. 0.40
    Added joystick support.
    Re-added sound support (now with sound-card detection)
    If a sound card doesn't support DirectSound,it's not disabled automatically, though.
    fixed quicksand bug, Magicwall bug (oops), CoX and CoY bug.
    Started adding missing Boulderoid objects: added Expending Walls (Horizontal, vertical
    and both directions)
    Added independant Menu and Game screen resolutions.
    (super low game resolution of 320x240 is now supported: for slow computers, or for people
    looking for a better Amiga 500 look :-) )
    Also you don't have to restart the game anymore to switch resolutions: it's done on the fly.
     Added "moves" counter
    Added DirectX window-mode! Well, it's still experimental and a bit unstable, especially
    when switching to/from full screen.
    Fixed Amoeba bug

V. 0.39
    Added some more errorchecking (Dx-Boulder shouldn't crash anymore at initialising, even
    when all data files are missing)
    Added support for different screen resolutions
    Added speed-option
    Added Keyboard control for frontend and menu (some details still missing).
    Finally catched up with the MagicP spriteset: all objects are now (more or less) present.
    Changed game keys:     Press 'Esc' for return to menu
                Press 'q' to restart the level. If the level was completed,it will
                also return to the menu.
    Fixed little Yamcontent-bug.

V. 0.38
    Fixed Time Score. (now fully BD4 compatible)
    Fixed Game.rec error checking (a bit): You can now play back BD4 recorded
    game files, but since the engines are still not quite compatible, your
    game probably wont replay the same.
    Replay routine rewritten. (who said Ascii files were easier then Binary ??)
    Fixed diamond collect bug: when you grabbed a diamond and took the empty
    space right after, you got double score. (also for Keys-Dynamite-emerald)
    Fixed Scroll Bug: Scrolling was not automatically reset after a game (Oops).
    The levels are all shifted down 1: so the first level is level 0 instead of 1.
    Added Recording and playback file select Dialog.
    Ha! The Drand48 is functioning !! : very good news !
    chain reactions are not right yet  ....
    Changed Yam code (to BD4 routine)
    Added SpriteSet and LevelMap File Requesters. (very basic)
    Found a little inconsistancy in the Rock Fall routine (not the last one I should think)
    (under investigation and under construction)
    Fixed some display bugs.
    Hiscore and Playerlist are now saved encrypted.

V. 0.37 release 2

    (It is not called V0.38 because I haven't fixed any bugs yet)
    Added missing Supaplex objects :
    Snik Snaks, Electrons, Utility Disks, SupaBomb, Traps, Gravity Ports.
    Changed random-number routines (Finally found Drand48, but not fully functioning yet).
    The animation-frame file format needs changing :
    2 bytes a frame + an editor frame needs to be included.
    Added Level-names in the level format, but they don't show yet.
    (set to default: "Level X")


V. 0.37
    First Beta release (only the player, not the editor)

    changed Bug and Ship Code (now different codes for different directions: Needed frame-room
    for turn animations).
    Yams eat Blue Diamonds now
    Keys and dynamite made zappable.
    Game.rec checking seems broken   hmm...  : don't delete this file !!!
    (also don't delete opt.bdi)
    Disabled some problem causing routines: Backdrop, Transparancy, sound.

V. 0.36
    redesigned Frontend

    Added Acid (splashes when something falls into Acid yet to do)
    Added different start directions for Bugs, ships and Yams (Finally) (Yams under construction)
    Added Gray doors (Finally)
    Added different players
    Basic navigation in Highscore and Player tables
    Added some Error Checking (mostly for file integrity, but still very limited)
    Changed the recordingfile format: it was necesary to include the full Levelmap name,
    So: it's no longer BD4 compatible (I should fix that)


    Started decoding Diamond caves compressed levelformat : see DC-Format.txt
    Maybe I should put the level conversion routines in the game itself instead of only in the
    Level Editor.



V.0.35
    OK: Have to rewrite the game a lot for Wil's BD4 compatiblilty: the goal is to achieve a
    100 % compatibility so you can exchange and playback recorded games. Also the score should
    be compatible. Things Changed:
    - Objects reacts faster when falling down. This is much better: better feel and better action
    - Falling objects tumble different
    - Bombs retimed: actually now I have to have another supaplex-style bomb ...
    Animation map is extended (Level format should also be extended ...)
    Added some things of Emerald mines/Bd4: Robots (aliens)
                        Quicksand
                        Keys and doors
    Added record and playback of games.
    Added HighScore Tables

    the palette handling of DGC-image library editor is horrible: Started to write a Sprite-editor.
    current features:     - DGC Image library compatible
                - can import BMP and IFF (not limited to 256 colors)
                - simple edit functions (under contruction)
                - can import Sprite Maps (under contruction)
                - Palette rearange functions (under construction) (very important)


V.0.34

    Got a pretty good working Boulderdash and Supaplex Game now:
    Still some miner tweaks (see to do).
    Gravity option in Supaplex can be expanded even further to form an entire
    platform game (Magic Pockets Spriteset)
    But this requires some major adjustments in the program structure:
    An option is needed to control the main charactar either tile-based
    (like Boulderdash) or not (platform games like Donkey Kong etc etc etc).
    Very interesting Idea !! (but actually hard to implement: extra collision detection)
    But indeed: the levelformat has to be adjusted: 256 different object codes are
    not enough: 2 bytes (65536 object codes) should be sufficient,
    but you would need a pretty fast computer to check them all (allthough a lot
    are dependable on settings like Gravity, tile based and a lot of 'Background'
    objects don't require checking).
    Peter Broadribb's proposal for a BDCFF is pretty good, it only lacks multiple layer
    support. (If I only could contact him ...)
    Also the Animation Map needs extension.







Ideas
    - light sources (like torches): in 256 color mode this requires a small palette
      like 16 or 32 (Most bitmap brother games are in 16: Wauw !!) so you can draw
      a sprite in a ligther or darker palette. Before starting the game, each sprite has
      to be copied and remapped to a darker palette a few times.

    - Multiple layers would indeed be nice (and for true platform games necesary)
      (The background can be in high color I presume)
      Maybe some Amiga-like copper effects would be nice