BreakOut v0.98B Documentation, Version 1.0B. Author: Jeroen Knoester Creation date: 04/03/1998 Contents: Version Info Terms of usage / liscense Installing BreakOut File info Credits & Acknowledgements Running BreakOut Playing BreakOut Removing BreakOut Contacting Power Programs An Amiga-Guide and HTML version of this documentation will be written one day. Version info: Version 0.98 Beta This version of BreakOut is not yet complete. Expect semi-regular updates. The following features are not implemented at all: - End of level monster. - End sequence and Intro sequence. The following features are only partially implemented: - Loading different level-packages. - Loading different gfx/sound 'sets'. - There are only 8 levels. Level 6 is way too hard. (nearly impossible, in fact. It will become level 45 or so in future versions. ) - Highscores are only saved, not loaded. The Following bugs are known: - There is a bug in the bounce routine, wich can cause a ball to get stuck. Press + to teleport the ball downwards. This is the first bug to be fixed, honest!! - Loading an unsuported file may crash the game. - Some of the credits are not positioned correctly. - A saved game does not remember the ball position. - The 'protect' bonus can last into the next level. - The 'reduce' bad-bonus does not work when your paddle is enlarged. Terms of usage / liscense: In the following disclaimer "The author" represents the main programmer on this product, in this case: Jeroen Knoester. In the following disclaimer "THE SOFTWARE" represents the software package BreakOut, including, but not limited to, the executable code, the documentation and any datafiles. The author makes no warranties, conditions or representations express or implied, with respect to THE SOFTWARE, its quality, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. THE SOFTWARE is provided "AS IS". In no event shall the author be liable for any special, indirect or conseqeuntial damages. BreakOut is free software, wich means: BreakOut can be used, copied, edited, remade, etc. As long as the original authors, package name and these terms are clearly mentioned in the documentation of the so-changed software. It also means that all source and datafiles are available for free and should have been included in this package. Remember, BreakOut is (C) 1995-1998 Jeroen Knoester / Power Programs. Now, Have fun! Installing Breakout: Installing Breakout is simple: just copy all the files to a directory on your harddisk. The easiest way to do this is by just dragging the disk icon onto your harddisk. A directory BreakOut will then be made automatically. File info: To avoid virus infection, The executable sizes will now be given: Main executable: Breakout - 99604 Bytes. Assembly Addena: Breakfast - 712 Bytes. Credits & Acknowledgements: The music used by Breakout on the title page and on the highscore list are from the 'Amiga Computing Weird Science Multimedia Toolkit'. In both cases an author was not supplied. If you wrote these bits of music and can prove it, We'll place you in the credits. Breakout was made & designed by the following people: Jeroen Knoester - Code, Graphics, Sound, Concept & Idea. Mark Janssen - Level design, beta-testing, debugging. Alex Lacle - Level design, beta-testing. Bart Ronteltap - Extra ideas and inovations. A special thank you goes to the following people: Chris Grijzen - For being my only external beta-tester. Jeroen Hogeveen - For giving constructive criticism. Mischa van Spronsen - For putting up with hours of breakout talk. Liesbeth Knoester - For putting up with me, her big brother. Henk Knoester - For finding (and solving!) a nasty bug. All my other friends - For believing that it actually worked, without ever seeing it! And all the Amiga users who sticked with PowerPrograms from 1995 till 1998, even though we never released a thing! Running Breakout: Running breakout is simple. Make sure there are no screen savers running and that you have at least 1 megabyte (maybe a bit more) of chip-ram available. If the commands assign,iconx and dir are available, the game will be started by double-clicking the breakout_start icon. The 'dir' command is used internally by breakout to see what level-packages there are, so make sure you have it in your c: directory. Playing breakout: Is simple. Use either the mouse or joystick. When the ball is stuck to the paddle, moving the joystick (mouse) up and down positions the ball on the paddle. There is a cheat mode with a number of cheats. There are also several special messages if the right phrase is entered into the highscore list. Some special keys: v : Version & memory information. Press a key to continue. p : Pauses the game. Esc : Exits to title / quits. Shift S : Saves the game. Shift L : Loads the game. Shift T : In case of the ball-bounce bug, press this to teleport the ball downwards. Bonuses: Yellow: P : 500-1000 Points. S : Speeds the game up one step. L : One extra Life. B : BreakOut!. You proceed to the next level. Blue: L : Laser-Beam. Press fire to shoot at the bricks! L+ : (This is a falling l with an animated plus) Faster Laser-Beam. P : Protects you from dying for approx. 10 seconds. S : Slows the game down one step. G : Glue. Allows you to catch the ball and aim before shooting. Press fire to release ball. B : BrickThrough. Your ball destroys all encountered bricks on touch. E : Enlarges the paddle by one step. Gray: R : Reduces the size of your paddle by one step. T : Teleports the ball towards the bottom of the screen. Removing Breakout: Breakout does not edit any system resources and does not alter any system files, nor has it any entry in the system environment. Breakout can be removed by simply deleting the directory in wich it was installed. Contacting Power Programs: You can e-mail Power Programs at: jeroen@infothuis.nl You can send snail-mail to: Power Programs, Madelieventuin 40 2724 PL, Zoetermeer Holland. Our homepage is at http://www.infothuis.nl/jeroen/ or at http://www.infothuis.nl/jeroen/PowerPrograms.html