Amiga CD32 Gamer 7/CD32 Gamer - 1994 - Issue 07.iso/shareware/hot_air/ins.doc

Text File | 1994-11-16 | 8KB | 206 lines

Hot Air v0.5
Copyright (c) 1994, Joe Rumsey

This  is  a work in progress, there are still
bugs, and this documentation is not complete.
This  version is Freeware, you may distribute
it   so   long  as  no  profit  is  made.   A
reasonable   fee  for  disk  copying  may  be
charged.   There  is  no other version *YET*.
Eventually I hope to have a shareware version
with  all  the  bugs cleaned up and many more
levels.   So  far  however, this is IT.  It's
just been sitting around too long stagnating,
so I've released it as is.  Please report any
bugs  you  find,  and maybe I will eventually
get  it  finished for real.  For now, you can
send me money if you just feel like making me
happy,  but  you won't get anything back from
me  ;-)  However, if you send me a disk and a
SASE  I *will* send the disk back with a copy
of  all my other games.  This includes Mother
Lode,  Crazy  Pipes,  and Bomb Squad.  It may
include  more  than  that,  those  are  all I
guarantee it will have :-)

To  play  the  game, just double click on the
"Hot Air" icon.  To run it from a CLI window,
make  sure  you  are  in  the directory which
contains the data files and type "Air".  Note
that  while  it  does  take  over the Amiga's
display,  it  is  NOT  taking  over the whole
computer.    Tasks   you  have  running  will
continue  to  run,  and  when  you  quit  the
display will be restored.

This  being  an  early  version,  there's not
title  screen or options page.  Starting from
the  CLI  you can type "Air <level>" to start
on   that   level(the   default  is  1).   In
addition,  there are a few keyboard commands:
<ESC>  quits  immediately(actually,  the only
way  to  quit  right now;) n skip to the next
level  p  Pause:   while paused, the joystick
will  scroll  around  the  level  instead  of
controlling   your  man.   <  and  >  control
playing speed.

r  "R"eplay - will replay what you've done on
this  level.   Only way out of replay mode is
to  quit (ESC).  I Intend to use this to make
a demo mode.  If you think it's worth keeping
in the finished version, let me know.

To  control  the game, use a joystick in port
2.   Left/right  make  your  man  move(either
running  or  in midair) and pushing up causes
him  to jump.  The button will normally plant
a  bomb.   Planting  a  bomb  next to certain
objects  (left,  right,  above  or below, not
diagonally)  causes things to happen.  Yellow
striped  walls  will disappear, and crates of
TNT  will  explode the same way as bombs.  IE
if  a crate of TNT blows up next to more TNT,
it  sets off a chain reaction.  Explosions do
not hurt you at all.

Pressing  the  space bar will switch your man
to placing shields instead of planting bombs.
Shields will block balloons from passing, but
not  you.  A shield can be removed by blowing
a  bomb  up  on  top of it(known current bug:
shield image doesn't disappear).

So  what  do  you  do with bombs and shields?
The  object  of  the  game  is  to  guide the
balloons that are floating around to the exit
at  the  top  of  each  level.  The exit is a
circular   opening   with  4  flashing  green
lights.  Balloons naturally just drift slowly
upwards  until they run into something.  Most
things they run into will just make them stop
and bounce around.  They do bounce sideways a
little  bit,  so  they may "dribble" over the
edge  of  something blocking them.  There are
also fans which can blow the balloons around.
Fans, in defiance of physics, blow outward in
BOTH  directions.   Of course, they only blow
as far as there's a clear path.  Which is one
use   for  bombs:   to  clear  out  obstacles
blocking  a  fan  from  blowing  the balloons
somewhere useful.

If  a balloon RUNS INTO a fan, it pops.  This
is  bad.   On most levels you need to get ALL
of  the  balloons to the exit.  At the top of
the  screen you will see info on how many are
needed,  left,  etc.  The current version has
no  way  to restart a level when you find you
can't finish it.  This will be corrected, but
for now either die(the main type of "monster"
is a fireball that slides back and forth on a
platform.   Not present on every level...) or
press <ESC> which quits entirely, and restart
the game.

There   are   also   spikes  which  will  pop
balloons,  guide  them away from these.  Most
levels  are  set  up  to  let  you  guide the
balloons  just  by  clearing a path for them.
Sometimes you will have to move fast to clear
one path so that they don't go the wrong way.
An  option  on  most  levels  is  to use your
shields  to  contain  the  balloons somewhere
safe while you clear a path, then blow up the
shields.   There  are  gems  which  work like
keys:   grab  the  gem  first, then go to the
matching  lock(matching  colors) and run over
it.

There  are  other objects around, experiment!
Also,  the first level is a sort of tutorial.
Follow  the arrows around, and try to plant a
bomb  everywhere  you see an explosion.  This
will show you the basics.

As  I've  said,  this  version  isn't exactly
finished, and it does have bugs.  Some I know
about,  some I probably don't.  Please let me
know,  and  especially  tell  me anything you
think  would  improve  the  game  itself.  If
anyone's  interested in creating some levels,
I will consider sending you the level editor.
Otherwise,  I'm not sure if I'm going to make
it  available  or  not.   If/when I release a
shareware  version  of  the  game I'd like to
release  it with ~15 levels, and then include
20-30   more  with  the  registered  version.
That's  the main thing that's been keeping me
from  finishing  this.   It's  very difficult
coming  up  with  good  levels for this game.
Most  of  the  time they wind up either being
trivial or impossible.  I hope all the levels
I've included(aside from one or two which are
obviously  not  finished)  are  somewhere  in
between.

(About  the  shark on level 6:  YES I KNOW IT
SPLITS  IN  HALF!  You mean real sharks don't
do  that??   Oh  alright I'll fix it sometime
:-)

Ok,   enough   rambling,   play   the   game!
Questions,  comments, suggestions, hate mail,
other stuff should be sent to:

(preferred) InterNet:     [e-mail]
(not checked often)GEnie: J.RUMSEY
Snail  Mail:   (Not  likely to get a response
w/o email)

    Joe Rumsey
    3636 Watkins Dr.
    Riverside, CA 92507

Other Amiga games I've done:

Mother Lode
Crazy Pipes
Bomb Squad

And  if  you  happen  to  have  access to the
internet, and can run DNet, check out Netrek!
DNet and the DNet Netrek client are available
on  ocf.berkeley.edu in /pub/amiga.  Briefly,
netrek  is  a  16  player internet game based
loosely on star trek.  The game itself is not
my  invention, but I've been heavily involved
in  the  Amiga client.  (Hopefully we'll have
an  AmiTCP  version  soon...   I  don't  have
AmiTCP  installed  myself, but I'm working on
it.   Volunteers  to  do  the  conversion are
welcome  to  the  source.  In fact, anyone is
welcome  to  the source, just ask!) DNet is a
great  way  to  connect  to the internet even
apart  from  the  netrek  client.  If you can
connect  to  a  system  that gives you a Unix
shell   with   telnet/ftp   access,  you  can
probably  run  DNet.   Give  it  a  try!  The
latest  version is 2.40(there is a 2.42, only
needed  if  you  can't  get  the Unix side of
v2.40  to  compile.   This  applies mainly to
SysV systems).

As of this writing, the latest version of the
DNetrek  client  is  on  ocf.berkeley.edu  in
pub/amiga       with       the       filename
ntparadise.2.3p8.dnamiga.lha

Paradise  is  an extension of regular netrek,
but  this  client  works  equally  well  with
either.

    -Joe Rumsey
     July, 1994