CHAOSCASTLE - Specific notes about the Amiga version INSTALLATION: No installation procedure is required. The game can be placed anywhere on a floopy- or harddisk if all files from the drawer "CCastle" are kept together. You can change the game's settings from the game itself using the corresponding menus. Amiga-specific settings can be modified with the 'tooltypes' (see below) To registered users: The file ChaosCastle.key should be placed in 'S:' or in 'L:', or in either 'KEYS:' or 'KEYFILES:' if one of these assigns exists. FAQ Q: The game seems to use a multisync mode which is not supported by my monitor (I get only flashy lines on the screen when starting the program). A: Look what files are in sys:devs/monitors. You should move every modes which are not supported by your monitor into sys:storage/monitors to prevent the game (as well as other programs) to use them. The program, when it starts, chooses the best screen mode available. As it uses a 320x240 display, it will choose a multisync mode (which has exactly this resolution) rather than PAL if one is present in sys:devs/monitors. An other solution is to add the tooltype 'AskScreenMode=Yes' (see below). Then the program will let you choose the screenmode before starting. Note: quit the program with [Right Amiga]-[Q]. Q: Why is the game so slow on CyberGfx ? A: The game makes a big use of offscreen-bitmaps. These are not cached in the graphic-card's memory with older version of CyberGfx. Look for the latest version of CyberGfx, or install Picasso96. Q: The program starts ok, but it immediatly goes on with the first level without I did anything. A: If you don't have a joystick pluged, try adding the tooltype 'JoyStick=No' (see below): on some Amiga-models, joystick buttons are detected as pressed if there is no joystick pluged. The same problem may happen if you have the lowlevel.library, but no CD32-like joypad. Q: The menu 'Settings/Misc...' does not work. A: It only works on kickstart 3.1 and later, but it only opens the tooltypes. With older kickstart, just open the tooltypes with the 'Icon/Information' menu from the Workbench. Q: The program crashes ! A: Some tooltypes may make the program to malfunction on some configurations. Try removing every tooltypes and restart the game. If this doesn't solve the problem, contact the author and give details about your config, the kind of crash, the condition under which it happens, etc. If I have enough time and informations, I'll try to solve the problem. I can be contacted by e-mail at: Nicky@GameBox.net But there is no waranty you'll get an answer. TOOLTYPES The following tooltypes are recognized by the program: (to add, remove or modify a tooltype, click on the program's icon and select the 'Information' menu from the Workbench) Warning: Some tooltypes requier advanced knowledge of the Amiga and can make the game to malfunction. If you aren't sure you understand the meaning of a tooltype, rather don't specify it: the program will then use the default value which is the safest. Tooltypes have the form =, where is usually Yes (actived) or No (unactived). o "Font": Allow you to choose the font used for the texts; the value must be a font name found in the FONTS: drawer. The program uses the sizes 8, 16 and 24 or multiple of them. If you change the language, it is sometimes required to use a font smaller than topaz, such as XEN, or else some text will be displayed partially out of the screen. Default: topaz.font (system font, located in the ROM) o "FontSize": Allow you to choose the font size for the menus and dialogs. If the size is too big, topaz 8 will be used instead. Default: 8 o "AskScreenMode": Allow you to choose the screen mode each time the program is started. Only modes which are close enough to the game's size are displayed (the game's size can be changed from the program itself). If the screen mode is smaller than the game's size, it will be opened in overscan. Default: No: the program choose the best mode available for the current game's size. o "CloseWorkbench": Try to close the Workbench screen before starting the game to save chip memory. Required in color mode with sounds if you have only 512k chip memory. Default: No o "AudioFilter": Activate or unactivate the audio filter. If the tooltype is specified without a value, the filter is actived under water and unactived otherwise. o "Headphones": Use an experimental trick which only works with headphones to generate stereo sounds. Default: No Note: Only work with kickstart V36 or greater o "SoundBoost": Allow you to specify the sound volume. 4 is full volume; with greater values, loudest sounds are forced to the maximum volume. o "Joystick": Specify whether a joystick should be used or not. On some Amigas, some buttons are detected as pressed when no joystick is pluged; in this case it is necessary to specify "Joystick=No" to prevent the program from interpreting these ghost values. Default: Yes o "bSmartRefresh": Open the main window in SmartRefresh mode instead of SimpleRefresh. Speed up refresh but use more memory. Default: No o "dSmartRefresh": Same as "bSmartRefresh" for the dialog boxes. Default: No o "TaskPriority": Change the task's priority. Default: The priority is not modified o "CustomMask": It has a different meaning whether the screen mode is native (OCS, ECS or AGA) or a graphic card one: Native mode: Yes -> use instead of BltBitMaskRastPort a custom function which is 2 or 3 times faster but uses the blitter directly. The function from graphics.library is always used with a graphic card. Graphic card: Yes -> try to put masks (single-plane bitmaps) and the TmpRas in the graphic card's memory; save some chip memory but may cause problems with some graphic cards. Default: Native mode: Yes; Graphic card: No o "DoubleBuffer": Force or prevent usage of graphic double-buffering. Default: Yes if the screen mode allow it. AUTOBOOT INSTALL A script named 'InstallAutoboot' can be found in the 'CCastle' drawer. This script will allow you to install the game on a floppy-disk and to start the game directly by booting this floppy. The following steps are necessary: (1) Boot from a standard Workbench disk or from a fully installed hard disk. If you are a registered user of ChaosCastle, boot from the disk containing the keyfile. Format a floppy-disk and name it 'CCastle'. (2) Workbench 1.2 - 1.3 users: Open a Cli / Shell. Enlarge the window to cover the entire screen. Type 'cd ', where is the directory containing the file 'InstallAutoboot'. Type 'execute InstallAutoboot', and go to step (4) (3) Workbench 2.0 or greater: Double-click on the 'InstallAutoboot' icon, and go to step (4) (4) The script will display the above explanations and ask you if you want to continue. Type 'y' and to start the installation, or 'n' and to abort it. Insert the requested floppy-disks whenever they are asked for. At the end of the install, the script will ask you to put the 'CCastle' disk (the one you have formatted in step (1)) in the drive DF0: (internal drive) to install the bootblock. It is important to do it because the script will install the bootblock of the disk in drive DF0 without checking if the correct disk has been inserted (this is a limitation of the 'install' command, sorry). When you have inserted 'CCastle' in DF0, type 'y' and . Type 'n' and to skip this part, but then you'll have to install the bootblock manually. Press to close the window when the script has finished. IMPLEMENTATION NOTES The Amiga version of ChaosCastle has been edited, tested, compiled and linked with the Modula-2 development system M2Amiga 4.3. Additionally, the program has been tested successfully with Mungwall, Cyberguard and IOTorture. Amigas tested are: A500, 1.3 & 2.1 OCS, 68000, 2.5MB ram (1MB chip); A2000, 3.1 OCS, 68060, 32MB ram (512k chip); A4000, 3.0 AGA + picasso 4, 68040, 80MB ram (2MB chip). ChaosCastle has been programmed in such a way it can easily be ported to other platforms such as MacOS, TOS, Linux, etc. This also meen that some Amiga very-specific stuff are usually not used (eg. Arexx) and that it will not always follow the 'Amiga User Interface Style Guide'. I apologize for this. Implementation notes: Timings Handled through timer.device Input Handled through intuition.library, keyboard.device and gameport.device. The lowlevel.library is used if it is present and allow you to use every buttons (instead of two) of a CD32 gamepad. Note: The lowlevel.library is part of the Workbench V40 but it seems to work even on kickstart V37 (2.1). If you do not have a CD32 gamepad, I suggest you play with the keyboard because one button is not enough for ChaosCastle. Graphics Handled through intuition.library and graphics.library. Graphic cards are supported through the new 3.0 functions of graphics.library. The program will not try to open specific library such as cybergfx or picasso96. The program may use old functions to allow 1.3 and 2.x compatibility. The program always play in a separate screen. Diskfont.library is used to handle custom fonts if it is present. The animations use a lot of offscreen-bitmaps; if you use cybergfx, make sure you have the latest version which handle them much faster than earlier versions. Double buffering is handled, when available, through the new graphics.library 3.0 calls, or else through intuition with 1.3 and 2.x. Sounds Handled through audio.device. The program will make as if there was no limitation on the number of channels so that more than 4 channels may be used with a future revision of audio.device. The program tries to allocate an audio channel (or two in stereo mode) for every single sound; thus sounds are shared with any other program which doesn't lock the channels or set them to a high priority. ChaosCastle uses priorities between 0 and 16. Windows and dialogs Handled through intuition.library. Gadtools or MUI are not used. The program uses its own layout function which is far enough for a game program where dialog windows are not important. The asl.library is used to request files or screen modes if it is present; otherwise, a simple prompt in a window is used. Files Handled through dos.library. Xpkmaster.library is used if it is present so the data files can be compressed. Note: the program may hit the hardware only if: o The tooltype "CustomMask" is not set to "No". o The tooltype "AudioFilter" is specified. Otherwise it fully uses OS-calls. KNOWN BUGS o If there is few memory available, it may happen that a big-sized font is removed from the memory just before a refresh and texts may then appear in the wrong size. This problem also occurs if you specify a nonexistant font in the tooltypes. o With kickstart 1.3 or older, alphanumeric keys doesn't respond well if the program is heavy loaded. You should use the function keys as weapon's keys instead. o I should really try to write smaller documentation files. The today's trend being not to read documentations exceeding one page... No, really, are you still reading ? It's time to try the game now ! Mother Alien is waiting you !