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ASCII text
— 4K bytes
— 2001-01-01
HI! Welcome to BALL! I know it's not the most original name, but
I made it up in a hurry and I never bothered to change it. I spent too
much time working on the game itself! But now, I'm releasing this into
the Public Domain! So SPREAD IT ALL AROUND, OK?! Wait! I haven't even
told you what it is yet! It's a clone of Arkanoid, sort of. BUT, before
you start groaning and moaning about how many cheap-o clones of Arkanoid
there are in the PD already, let me tell you that this is NOT a cheap-o
version. Why? Er... Um... Well, YOU play it, and YOU'LL find out for
yourself!
>>>> NOT YET!!!! <<<<
Before you play this, you MUST know these keys!:
SHIFT-Q : Eventually, you will have a game that gets off to a bad start
and you want to abort. So be sure to remember about the
SHIFT-Q key which aborts your game. In two-player mode, it
only aborts the current player's game.
DEL : Unfortunately, there will probably come a time when your ball
gets stuck in a loop that it can't bounce out of. You will
have to press the DEL key which kills your current life but
not your remaining ones (like SHIFT-Q).
P or ESC: Pressing either P or the ESC key puts you in PAUSE MODE! This
is very useful!! Press a mouse button to leave PAUSE MODE.
The CHEAT KEYS: I'm not telling you!!
>> BEFORE THE GAME: <<
At the Main Title Screen, you may press:
A mouse button to play a ONE-player game
The number 2 key to play a TWO-player game
SHIFT-Q to exit the program.
>> HOW TO PLAY THE GAME: <<
OK. You all know how to play an Arkanoid clone, right? I don't have to
explain that you have a paddle and a ball and you must bounce the ball
into some blocks to score points, right? And I certainly don't need to
mention that if you let the ball miss the paddle and drop off the screen
you will die, right? And I also don't need to explain about how little
bonuses can drift down from the blocks and if they touch your paddle they
can do anything from giving you free lives to blowing you up, depending
on the little pictures on the bonuses as they are drifting down, right?
Good. I was afraid I'd have to put a lengthy explanation here!
>> MOUSE CONTROLS DURING THE GAME: <<
Let's do this C= style!:
If you move the mouse left, your paddle moves left!
If you move the mouse right, your paddle moves right!!
For pin-out diagrams of the mouse port, check the Technical Reference
Section!!
Long live C= Instruction Manuals!!
By the way, sometimes the ball "sticks" to your paddle. A small blue
force-field appears to hold the ball in place. You can press a mouse
button to release it. Also, if you get Lasers (one of the bonuses),
you use the mouse button to fire them. You may have Lasers and Catch
at the same time, and in this case, the same press of the mouse button
can both fire the lasers and release the ball. Both the left and right
mouse buttons have the same effect. - -
O O
>> SOUND: << )
\_/
Awesome! Crank it up!! :-)
>> GURU ALERT: <<
OH NO!!!!!!!! Every now and then, this program will crash the computer!
I don't know why! I've been searching high and low for the cause of this
problem. Right now, I recommend re-booting after playing it.
IF ANYONE FINDS THE CAUSE OF THIS BUG, PLEASE TELL ME! Also tell me
if you find other bugs.
Various methods of communicating with me:
With BITNET/InterNet: ELM4@LEHIGH.BITNET
By phone: (215) 971-9409 ;Home phone in Wayne
By US mail: Ed Mackey Ed Mackey
440 Louella Ave. <-OR-> Box 123 Lehigh University
Wayne, PA 19087 Bethlehem, PA 18015
(Only send mail to the Lehigh address while school is in
session! I am class of '93)
>> MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUCTION IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD: <<
Have fun!
--Ed.