Reflex

                          FutureSoft proudly presents



                                    REFLEX



                           ½ 1994 Ellis A. M. Breen


PROLOGUE
--------

Since time began symmetry has obsessed the world, a source of fascination to
many intellectuals, be they artists, scientists, mathematicians or
philosophers. The Ancient Greeks believed it to be an attribute of great
beauty, and sculpted figures and buildings either side of which was the
reflected image of the other. The symmetry of the orb is ubiquitous throughout
our Universe, in the stars, the planets, even in droplets of water.

Symmetry is a sign of the state of equilibrium, of balance, negative and
positive cancelling out. Many fascinating assumptions can be made using the
notion of symmetry. If all entities in an isolated system are symmetrical, and
the laws that govern these entities are also symmetrical, then the system must
remain symmetrical. It just depends on where you take your lines of symmetry.
And a system that is symmetrical, that is in equilibrium, has no overall
effect.

It is almost as if it is not there.

REFLEX
------

Somewhere in an alternative perception lived a cosmic waste collector.

He (for we shall refer to the being as He) would take pieces of waste from what
was known as 'The Colourflow' (a polite term for the equivelent of a sewage
outlet) and arrange them together in symmetrical configurations which, at the
very instant they were completed, would vanish from the Perception.

Pieces from The Colourflow would arrive regularly; in fact, as the nonal week
progressed life would become increasingly hectic, until eventually the
collector would collapse with exhaustion; then, he would be payed for the work
he had done. No-one ever reached the end of the week. After every five complex
(multicolour) Vanishings he achieved, it was felt more useful to move on to a
different site (simple one colour Vanishings were considered to require little
effort and were therefore not counted), and the remainder of the waste was
forgotten about, and so vanished.

Often others would observe the collector's fascinating occupation, and so
entertaining was it that every five or so complex Vanishings, they would give
him a gift. Sometimes it was a colour modifier, other times, a form modifier,
or a token that made everyone forget that one of the colours was present, and
so made that colour vanish, or one that made everyone forget about all the
colours, or, if work was getting hectic, a clone of himself to continue work if
he collapsed, to earn him some more money.

Whose Alternative Perception is this? It's yours; you ARE the Cosmic Waste
Collector.

HOW TO PLAY
-----------

You can run Reflex in two ways:

    1) From the Auto folder: Move all data files (including HISCORES.DAT) to
the root directory, create an auto folder (if you have not already) and put
REFLEX.PRG into the AUTO folder, making sure that it is the first to be run at
bootup time. Reflex can then simply be run by having the disk in the drive at
bootup (at power-on or after reset).

    2) From the Desktop: Make sure all the data files (including HISCORES.DAT)
are in the same directory as REFLEX.PRG and double click on the program file.

On running the program, the following sequence of events will occur:

    1) (Only if you have a half-meg ST) The title sequence will appear and a
sampled tune will play. Press any key to continue.

    2) A message will be displayed on the screen for about 20 seconds. 
This is not present in the registered version.

    3) The title sequence will appear. If you have more than half a megabyte of
memory a sampled tune will play, otherwise, a soundchip tune.

The program will go through all the credits, give information about
registration, how to play, and the high score table.

You can play using either joystick or mouse. Press fire on the joystick to play
using the joystick. Press the left mouse button to play using the mouse.

A large square with a picture in it, which we shall refer to as the board,
which is invisibly divided into a 12 x 12 grid, will be presented to you on the
left hand side of the screen. On the right hand of the screen is a panel which
displays, respectively (in reading order), the current and next shapes, your
score, the highest score, the number of tokens you have, which level you are
on, and which credits you have (if any).

You control a cursor with the relevant control device. You are given a shape
which, using the cursor, you can place on the square anywhere where all its
constituent squares fit on the invisible 12 x 12 grid (this is ensured by the
computer). Place the shape on the board using the following controls:

    Joystick: Hold down fire and push DOWN.
    Mouse   : Press left mouse button.

When you place the shape, the shading on it will change to show a small
indentation indicating that it has been placed on the board. This is to make it
easier to tell the difference between placed squares and squares which are part
of the current shape.

You can rotate the shape using the following controls:

    Joystick: Hold down fire and press LEFT to rotate anticlockwise, RIGHT for
clockwise.
    Mouse   : Press right mouse button to rotate clockwise.

At the bottom of the screen is the timer bar. This shows you how much time you
have left to place the shape. It empties from the right to the left. If the
timer empties completely, the game is over.

Once you drop the shape, the shape previously shown in the NEXT slot will be
now be displayed in the CURRENT slot and you will have to place this shape. The
NEXT slot will now be filled by a new shape.

You cannot drop a shape if any of its constituent squares overlap already
placed squares when you try to drop it.

The aim of the game is to make blocks of squares which are both horizontally
and vertically symmetrical and contain no empty squares. They must also be at
least one grid column wide and one grid row high. When this is done, the block
will self-destruct, increasing your score proportionally to the square of the
number of colours present in it. If the block has more than one colour in it
you will gain a token. When five tokens have been amassed the board will be
cleared and you will start again at zero tokens.

Occasionally you will encounter shapes made up of blocks with the letter 'S'
(for STEEL) embossed on them. This means that the constituent blocks are extra
hard to destroy and will only yield to the extra energy given by multicoloured
blocks exploding.

For about every five multicoloured blocks a symbol, representing a credit, will
appear on the board. If you place the current shape in such a way that one of
its constituent squares overlaps it when you drop it, it will appear on the
panel on the right in the credits slot to show that you now have a credit which
can be used at any time - if you do not, it will disappear immediately. To use
a credit, simply click on the relevant symbol. The symbol will then disappear,
showing that you cannot use it again.

These are the different credits that can be acquired:

    1) Shape-changer. This allows you to cycle through all the different shapes
available by pressing fire or the left mouse button while the cursor is over
the panel. Click on the board to resume play with the transformed shape.

    2) Colour-changer. This does the same as the shape-changer except it alters
the colour.

    3) One-colour bomb. This allows you to destroy all squares of a particular
colour on the board. Simply click on a square of the relevant colour.

    All of credits 1) to 3) stop the timer while active.

    4) All-colours bomb. This just blasts the whole board.

    5) Extra life. If you're having trouble on the higher levels, this will
give you an extra chance if your time runs out.

You can have as many of each credit as you can collect. If you have more than
the six credits which the credit slot has space for, the credit slot will show
all the DIFFERENT credits you have but not ALL the credits, although it will
show as many of each different credit as possible.

After a certain number of blocks having been destroyed, you will progress to
the next level. This means more colours, less time, and more 'Steel' shapes.
Also on certain levels the background picture will change.

There are various keyboard operations you can perform:

    F8  - Abort game
    F9  - Pause
    F10 - Music on/off (also SFX off/on on STFM)

When the game ends, if you have a score higher than any of the ten scores
recorded in the HISCORES.DAT file, the high score table will appear with a
space left for your name. Type your name in here (up to 20 characters) and make
sure the disk is write-enabled before pressing . If you have typed
nothing, the computer will type in "ANONYMOUS" for you instead. The high score
table will now be saved off as HISCORES.DAT for posterity. If the disk is
write-protected this will cause the program to go into its exiting procedure.

The screen will now fade to black and the title sequence will restart.

Have fun!

PROGRAMMING INFORMATION
-----------------------
The SoundTracker routines originated from Audio Sculpture but had to be altered
to assemble correctly in Devpac 2. The initialisation sequence uses the Crack
Art depack routines. The STFM sample player is Playback, an interrupt-driven
sample player which appeared on an early issue of ST Format. On the STE, DMA
sound is used. The chip music player is from EdSynth by Chris Horton and is
installed on the Vsync interrupt (sorry 60Hz-ers!).

The main code for Reflex was written in GFA Basic V3.5 and compiled and linked
using the GFA Basic V3.5 Compiler. However the actual game runs at 50 frames
per second/60 frames per seconds on 60Hz TVs (to achieve this speed I had to
write machine code blitting routines). Imagine what could have been done had
the whole game been written in C and pure assembler, as my next game will!
(That's if I decide to produce it - see below.)

REFLEX IS SHAREWARE
-------------------

So register!

(Send a cheque or P.O. for 5 pounds sterling to the address below)

By doing so you will also be supporting future ST and Atari programs -
see below.

I can be contacted as:

	Ellis Breen
	4 Caroline Court
	South Park Avenue
	Norwich
	NR4 7EJ


I have some excellent original ideas for ST products to come and an increasing
expertise in executing such ideas. This is a tester. Only if this proves to be
worthwhile will I go ahead and pursue these ideas.

Here are a few examples of these ideas:

1) Working title: TUBIS

The player is presented with a scrolling network of nodes linked (or possibly
not linked) with tubes at all angles, all of which can be broken or reclosed.
From one end of the level a pipe feeds in a fluid which flows through the nodes
and tubes to all the other nodes. The player controls a walking character who
walks along the top of these nodes and tubes and must stop saboteurs who also
walk along these tubes and nodes and who try to stop the fluid reaching the
other end of the level. This is done by breaking tubes to make the saboteurs
fall down to the bottom of the level where they drown.

2) Working title: ST SOUND MODULE

A software implementation of a Midi sound module which plays samples as
instruments. Type of output can be chosen, from STE DMA, STFM YM1429, MV16 or
to a file (also eventually Falcon '030 sound output using DSP and 8-channel
16-bit stereo DMA and also allowing sound synthesis and digital effects), as
can quality of sound (6.25KHz, 12.5KHz, 25KHz, 50KHz on STE, any frequency up
to whatever processor speed will allow on the others). You can have as many
channels as processor time will allow at the chosen frequency. Midi commands
are taken from the Midi In port or (possibly) trapped from the BIOS output
vector to allow running on a single ST - this may have to be at lower quality
than the former option. In other words, this will make the most amazing sound
you will ever hear out of an Atari!

3) Working title: PIXEL PERFECT

What it says. The first ever ST art package with REAL drawing facilities - a
heavyweight designed to produce commercial quality (i.e. Bitmap Brother style)
graphics quickly, with a smooth user interface. Draw pictures of any width x
any height x any number of bitplanes x any number of frames of animation. Full
source based anti-aliasing (i.e. really uses all the colours available) and
image downgrading abilities (e.g. from 24-bit GIF to 16 colour ST picture)
using dithering with user definable deviance from hue, intensity and velocity.
A true 'memory-based' art package as opposed to all the existing 'screen-based'
utilities. Fully GEM, with animation facilities switchable between front window
only and all windows.

4) Working title: ROAD

My most ambitious idea yet. A road movie as a game, with music, 3D graphics,
sampled sound effects, artificial intelligence and atmosphere!


Please contact me and tell me which interests you most if you wish.



Ellis Breen, August 15th, 1994.