Short:    Very original simultaneous 0-8 player game
Author:   Ben Wyatt (bwyatt@paston.co.uk)
Uploader: Ben Wyatt (bwyatt@paston.co.uk)
Type:     game/2play
Replaces: game/2play/Knock*ut.lha
Version:  2.02

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      __  __   __   __   ______   _____   __  __   ______   __  __   _____
     / /_/ /  /  | / /  / __  /  / ___/  / /_/ /  / __  /  / / / /  /_  _/
    /   __/  / , |/ /  / / / /  / /     /   __/  / / / /  / / / /    / /    
   / /\ \   / /| ' /  / /_/ /  / /__   / /\ \   / /_/ /  / /_/ /    / /
  /_/  \_\ /_/ |__/  /_____/  /____/  /_/  \_\ /_____/  /_____/    /_/   v2.02

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Instructions
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The idea of the game is to knock all the other players off the ever shrinking
circle, and then drive off on the bridge.

There are some variations on this theme included in this version :

   NORMAL - normal game, as described above.

   BALL - a ball is placed in the centre of the circle to be knocked into the
          players goals. There are only 4 players allowed in this game. A
          point is scored for getting a goal, and for knocking all the other
          players off.

   TEAM - this game mode allows 4 teams of 2 players each to play.

   MAGNET - all the vehicles are made into magnets and are all attracted to
            each other.

   ELASTIC - pieces of elastic join pairs of vehicles together. Great for
             swinging them off the circle! (Best played with 4 or 6 vehicles,
             otherwise it's too crowded)


Configurations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Knockout 2 does it's best to configure itself to your particular Amiga setup.
Here is a list of configurations made :

KS1.3 Amigas - will get as far as the intro and crash. UPGRADE!

A500/A600 with 1Mb - 5 players on screen.

A500/A600 with fast mem - 6 players on screen.

A1200 with 2Mb / A500/A600 with 020+ accelerator - 8 players on screen.

A1200 with fast mem - 8 players on screen, with no names restrictions.

NTSC - can't have maximum circle size, and the title screen is snipped
       slightly.

History
~~~~~~~
Knockout 2.02 is released on to the internet on May 5th 1996. This version
has been lying dormant on my HD waiting for me to do some work on it for
about a month so I just decided to upload it even though there's nothing
much new.

The extremely boring history of Knockout :

2.02 Speeded up scores screen. Fixed prefs saving bug. Changed colour of
     elastic so it's less flickery. Fixed sample squeaking bug (Thanks
     Chris!). Improved the AI of the CPU players slightly. Altered Magnet
     slightly. Removed demo game from beginning.

2.01 Added Elastic and Magnet games.

2.00 Added new menu system, team games, variable circle size, variable
     friction, different vehicles, play first to "n" wins, naming of the
     players, music, 8 sets of controls, vehicle editor, music editor, intro
     sequence. Reorganised the sprite bank to eliminate a few bugs and to
     make it more flexible. Made it so it did actually work on all Amiga
     set-ups, unlike the previous version! Improved CPU intelligence. Stopped
     vehicles from going on top of each other.

1.02 Fixed a few bugs. Added a "Knockout_Easy" file, with less skidding.
     Added an option to turn cars "off". Made it work on less powerful
     Amigas, restricting the number of cars.

1.01 Added 4-player parallel port adapter, to make it 7 human players. Fixed
     a few bugs in the ball game. Rendered an intro screen.

1.00 Written on the Amiga, but limited to 8 cars (for technical reasons),
     only 5 of which can only be human controlled. Added a ball game. Added
     a bridge for when a player wins.

0.99 Test version written on the Acorn Archimedes computer, with 16
     simultaneous players. Very slow, and lots of keyboard control clashes,
     but very popular at school!

Famous Moments
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Version 1.01 put on to AMIGA POWER's coverdisk on the APRIL 1996 issue. (I
didn't send it to them!)

Version 1.00 reviewed in AMIGA FORMAT in the FEBRUARY 1996 issue. Made PD
Selection of the Month.

Version 1.00 included on the AMIGA FORMAT subs disk (I've been told).

Why are such out of date versions used??? Those versions are both about a
year old!
