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

Text File | 1978-03-10 | 7KB | 148 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