KIND : GAME
MACHINE : FALCON ONLY
STATUS : PLEASUREWARE : doesn't mean you've to pay by giving me
pleasure, but you may send me something if it pleases U.
SBM v1.03 (02/09/1997)
=====================
I. Introduction
II. The game
III. Controls
IV. The most important
V. The greetings
I. Introduction
---------------
Do you know Bomberman? You don't?! Hey, you're missing
something! A really entertaining game, a real fun when played with
friends. I discovered this game on PC (shame on me, but that's all
they had in the University!), played it a lot, lost a lot (at the
beginning only :-), and enjoyed it a lot. I then competed on the NEC
version at the Crystal Summer Convention 2 (1993!), and I there dis-
covered new bonuses such as kick and punch. I already had the idea of
converting it on the Falcon then, but I had no time. Then, after
playing hours and hours with the PC version (again at University,
you must admit it's a lot funnier than programming in Smalltalk or
in Lisp ;) against friends, I decided to convert it. I simply HAD to
do it! I know several new versions have been developed by Hudson soft,
but I still think the oldie's the best one (without punch & kick, say).
II. The game
------------
A) What is it?
With this version, you can play from two to six players. The
aim of the game is to stay alive. To be the last survivor. You
control one little guy with either the keyboard, the joystick or the
joypad. You move between walls, which can be separated into two main
categories : destructibles and undestructibles ones. You must dig
your way by burning destructible walls with your bombs. Bombs? I
said bombs? Yes, you've got a certain amount of bombs at the
beginning of each level, and this number can be increased by
getting bomb bonuses. When you put a bomb, you must escape
quickly, because after a short time, it'll explode. The length of
the explosion depends on the number of flame bonuses you got. These
bonuses appear sometimes after you blasted a wall. Be the fastest to
get them ! But beware of maluses (though they may be fun! ;-) The
wonderful idea of the game (I can say it's wonderful, it's not an
idea of mine :o) is the following : if a bomb is touched by a flame,
it explodes right away, even if it wasn't ready to! By placing bombs
the right way, you may encircle your opponent and kill him happily...
Other bonuses are :
The Speed : Looking like a roller-skate, it'll increase your speed.
Very interesting when you wanna get a bonus before your opponent.
The Kick : with that, you can kick bombs instead of being blocked by
them. A kicked bomb may be stopped where you want : with experience,
you'll be able to block your friends into dead-ends...Except if
they've got the Punch!
The Punch : another great bonus, which allow you to punch into a
bomb, making it jump over two squares of the level. But, if it's
destination square isn't empty, it'll bounce until it finds one!
And, be careful, it can wrap around the screen too!
The Remote : certainly the ugliest bonus ever. You can decide when
your bomb explode. Believe me, it's horrible...for others
B) Levels
There are five levels at that time
Level 1 : kind of a classic one. You begin with one bomb, flames
at length two, no speed, no bonus. Good hunt!
Level 2 : Everyone's at full equipment, in the center of the screen.
Believe me, it's certainly the shortest but the funniest fights
you'll play!
Level 3 : Everyone's at full boost too, but in the corners of the
screen. I put it because I read it exists in the original version.
But I may be wrong.
Level 4 : The Bomberman level. Full speed, but neither kick nor
punch bonuses. I put it here because I find it allows more
strategical rounds...You'll compare yourselves with level 1.
Level 5 : The 'Follow the arrow' level. Arrows are drawn on the
ground. If a kicked bomb passes on one, it will then follow the
direction of the arrow. It may gives explosives results !
Other levels should come.
III. Controls
You may use the keyboard, the joysticks, or the joypads to
play. Let's use the word controller : with your controller, you can
move your guy, makes it put, kick, stop or even punch bombs. How?
Very simple. To do a dragon punch, do : down, down-right, right and
then press any of the punch button...errr! Wait a minute! You're not
in the good game! Sorry. To move your guy, simply choose one direction
with your controller. Not too hard to understand, uh? To drop a bomb,
here again, it's very simple : just press fire. Now, it's becoming
more complex, be very concentrated. When you kick one bomb (by just
walking towards it), it'll slide on the floor, until it hits an
obstacle : a bomerman, a wall, a bomb, etc. But you may want to stop
it at a precise place : press the stop button. To punch a bomb, stop
near it, face turned towards it, and press the punch button.
Keyboard control :
The keys used are the following :
First keyboard control :
[X] & [V] : Left & Right
[D] & [C] : Up & Down
[Alternate] : Drop bomb
Above [Alt] key (<> key on azerty keyboard) : Remote control of the bombs
Left [Shift] key : Punch
[Control] : Stop a kicked bomb
Second keyboard control :
Cursor keys to move
Right [Shift] : Drop bomb
First key on the left of right [Shift] key (+= on azerty keyboard) :
Remote control of the bombs
Second key on the left of right [Shift] key : Punch
Third key on the left of [Shift] key : Stop a kicked bomb
Joystick control :
The use of the unique fire button needs time to learn.
Normal mode : press fire, drop a bomb.
Kick mode : if you've kicked one or more bombs, then : each brief
pressing of the fire button stops a kicked bomb. Pressing the
button a bit longer allows you to drop a new bomb, without stopping
any.
Remote mode : the same as kick mode, just replace kick by remote in the
precious text. However, to allow simultaneous use of kick and remote,
I had to make one more important than the other one. I chose the kick.
It means that if you kick a bomb, and (e.g. in the 'Follow the arrow'
level) drop a remote bomb before the kicked one has stopped, the first
brief button press will stop the kicked bomb. The second one'll make
the first dropped remote bomb explode.
Anyway, the practice'll help you understand. But, prefer playing with
keyboard or joypad...
Joypad control :
The cross to move.
C button to drop bomb
B button to remote control
A button to punch
Option button to stop kicked bombs
After loading, you are in the front of a menu. You can move
the little bomb with your controller, except joystick 2 (to avoid
problems with the mouse, when it is connected instead of a
joystick). Up and down to choose a line, right, left and fire for
choices.
To change the number of players, move your controller (I mean,
press the right keys, or the cross of your pad, or move the stick,
don't move your controller itself. ;-) right or left.
To assign a player a controller, select the 'controllers' line,
select the controller under the player of your choice, and press
fire. Controllers will slide, repeat this until the good controller
is under the good player.
To select a level, move right or left on the 'level' line. The
background will display the level.
To start, go on start, and press fire.
To exit, go on the little door (what, it doesn't look like a
door?! >:-| ), and press fire.
IV. The most important
Well, this game is freeware. Of course, since it's copyrighted
Hudson Soft, I can't sell it. Eventhough I did everything in this
version, algorithms, graphics and code, I don't want to have some
problems. Never knows. But, it doesn't mean it didn't take me time
to do it. It took time. Hours and hours to think on how to do this
or that, to draw graphics, to code, debug, code again, debug again
more...That's why I would be happy to receive donations for this
work. In fact, I would be happy to receive money, whatever could be
the reason why you would send it! But I think this game deserves it.
Don't YOU think? If you don't, then don't play with it. If you do,
just send a donation (address below). The amount of the donation is
free, you may send me one million of dollars (or deutschmarks, pounds,
or even francs :), or two cents. However, I think a reasonnable amount
should be around 20$, 30DM, 100FF, and so on...
Don't forget that shareware or freeware is nearly the only way for
your computer to get some games.
I think share/freeware is the best way to get software : you
pay less, and all the money goes to the authors of the game. No loss.
V. The greetings
Mega thanks for those who donated, of course, but also, many
thanks for the pleasure I had receiving your letters. If money IS
important, the nice letters you all sent are what makes you feel
happy.
Greetings fly to :
Martin Lethaus : Hello! Thanks for all the (legal!) stuff you supplied
me. Do you like this new version?
Crac : Moon Speeder's very entertaining. I got Moon Games too. Nice effects!
Brainstorm : for the very good Assemble/Adebug kit.
Sven & Wilfried Behne : for NVDI, without which the previous
mentionned kit would be merely unusable ;-) !
Hans-Juergen Richstein : for Kobold 2. Too bad the gem desktop doesn't
use it like Gemini does ! (And I don't use Gemini :( )
Christoph Bartholme : for Idealist. It's really nice to have it to
print 5000 lines listings on a BJ200. It cuts the listing length by two!
Markus Gutschke : for Falcon Screen. I use a myself-modified version.
Stefan Radermacher : for the essential Selectric. Can anyone live
without it? I don't believe it!
Oliver Scheel : for Let'em Fly! I know he quit the Atari scene. But I think
I can say that so halfly did I :-(...
(All the progs previously named are completely essential to me.
I can't imagine living without'em, and that's why I thank all their
authors. Please, give us more of this good pieces of work! All these
progs (except Assemble/Adebug, of course) should be included in the
system. Why aren't they???)
EKO, Abstract, Digital Chaos, Griff, Aura, Avena, Adrenaline and all other demo
makers, that showed us what our computer could do.
You, for having read this until its end, and for soon donating...
How to donate :
The best way (which has worked perfectly till now), is to send
some money (better send tickets, hu...;-), well enclosed between two
sheets of paper. It's forbidden, but works perfectly. I think that's
it's forbidden only coz if your envelop has been opened and the money
has flown away, the post office doesn't want to have to pay you back.
So, hide your tickets well, so that they don't jump outside the
envelop when the plane is over a paradisiacal island!
Send your donation to:
Marc BOURLON
10, rue des Tanneries
F-75013 PARIS
FRANCE (or FRANKREICH, or ... ;)
You can also contact me by e-mail :
bourlon@gla.ecoledoc.ibp.fr
marc@mmania.com
but it's not the easiest way to send money =);o)
Last, but not least, if it doesn't work :
- try to boot your Falcon with pressed down, and then retry.
If it still doesn't work, see the following. But you should contact me
anyway, if it bugs.
- you've got e-mail access : contact me, tell me what happens, and
give me the details of your configuration hard & soft : TSR like NVDI
or 'worst', screen extensors, free memory, TOS version, kind of
monitor, and so on.