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Ognibene Pascal
Cit‚ Universitaire St Antoine
Chambre 1224
69 chemin de St Antoine
06200 Nice
France
E-mail : ognibene@eea.unice.fr
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* "TECHNOBALL" GAME DOCUMENTATION *
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Sum up of this documentation :
1) Advertising
2) How to install it
3) About Tecknoball
4) How to play
5) I want the full registered version !!
6) Little sounding
7) Technical notes
1) Advertising
First I apologise for my poor english...
The author denies any responsability for the dammages that could
result of the use of this program. You use it at your own risk.
As it seems to be politically correct to say this, and despite
the fact that it has no real scientific basis, I must warn you
that some people are very sensible to flashing lights, and so on, and
that playing for more than two hours with this game could lead to an
epilepsy crisis.
If you are especially nervous, take ??? before playing, you'll
need it. (haha).
2) Installation
Installing the two versions, demo and full version, is the same
procedure. Create a folder of any name (for example teknobal) on your
hard drive. You must have a free disk space of at least 3.5 megabytes
for the full version. Unpack in this folder the .ZIP archives of the
two floppy disks. All the files must lay on the same level of the
disk tree. All are needed : dont try to delete one of them, it won't
work anymore !
To launch the game just double-click on the "TEKNO.PRG" icon.
Useful note : the right video mode is automagically set. The game
needs a lot of free memory : about 3.3 megabytes. The best is to
launch first the Falcon with the "control" key hold down, and then to
launch the game.
If possible try to launch to game in RVB mode, because in VGA
there are sometimes slowdowns, especially in shoot'em'up parts. In
the other hand the game is easiest, make your choice...
The game should run on 32 and 40 Mhz accelerator boards, but I
haven't tested. If it works, no more slowdowns on VGA ! (please tell
me if it runs on "exotic" accelerator boards!)
I must say for PC users that this game WONT WORK on their
machines. It seems stupid, but who knows...
3) About Tecknoball
Tecknoball is a breakout game (yeai), in true-color (Aha),
running in one vbl (hooo), both on RGB and VGA monitors (Super!).
Nevertheless it has some features that you won't find in any other
breakout game:
-You can have NUMEROUS balls on screen at the same time. (try to
count them to see). Maybe it seems to be a gadget, but in some levels
it will be really useful...
-There's a whole bunch of options that i could describe. Yes I could,
but I think it's more funny for you to discover them by yourself.
-Sometimes bad dudes will come and try to crush you. The defense
technic, elegant and very strong, is described in the following
chapter.
-Every five levels, you will fall in a pure arcade sequence, with a
BIG boss to explode by any means. The game have thirty levels : there
are six zogloufs to kill.
-There are little girls, every five level too, that will apreciate
your performance. One more reason to keep in the competition !
-You'll be able to save a game (and also, to load it after!)
Now let's see ...
4) How to play
Like in every respectable breakout, you have a bat, and you can
move it from right to left, and maybe up and down, using the mouse.
Your goal in life, at least during the game, is to catch the ball
before it disappears of screen, and of course, to sweep the floor of
all these bricks. Some bricks are almost undestroyable, others are
invisibles. These two types of bricks do not need to be destroyed
to go on the next stage.
However if you destroy one of them, it will be counted as a
normal brick.
The direction that you can give to the ball depends of the bat
speed when you touch it.
Sometimes during the game the ball can be stucked somewhere. In
this case, try "ENTER" on the numpad, it should free it.
You can pause the game by pressing the F10 key. Fire to continue
the game. (left mouse button)
To eliminate the stranges things that will sometimes appear on
the screen, try a bomb (right button) if you have some, or blast it
with your laser (left button).
Of course you should avoid the boss's lasers, and use yours to
explode them.
In the "save screen", you just need to click with the left mouse
button on the desired choice. Only one save file is possible, so try
to use it sparingly.
Some options work with the left mouse button. As a rule if you
dont see any effect for an option, try to hold down the left button
and see the results...
Ok, let's go to the worst part:
5) I want the full registered version !!
Tecknoball is a shareware. The price is of 60 french francs.
Please refer yourself to the file 'register.doc' to see what's the
equivalent amount for your country.
This price includes the post fee and two HD disk,(over)filled
with packed data.
To get it just send me a letter ONLY at the address at the
beginning of this doc (ognibene Pascal), with the money. Please hide
it inside a strong sheet of paper...
If you have an internet acces, I can mail you the game, and it
will be quicker and less expensive for you.
If the solutions above dont fit you, you can send me a message by
E-mail (prefered) or snail-mail.
I wont dwell on the whole claptrap about shareware, moral
contract, and so on. I think you all know this, and that Atarians,
who are passionnated, can understand the use of a certain honesty.
(Let's give an exemple to PC users whose hard drive is often
overflowing of useless and, of course, cracked software...:-)
I've made a demonstration version with five levels + one boss, so
you can have a good idea of what is Tecknoball. Please spread it
widely.
If there is a good feedback for this game (that is, if I can get
some money), I will certainly start coding a new, more ambitious
game.
That's why I would like you to participate to a:
6) Little sounding
I would like to know what kind of games you want to see on the
Falcon. Here is a list but you can had anything else. You can fill it
with friends, and note the number of answers for every choice. The
last column is the price that you would think honnest for such a
shareware game.
Game type Nb of answers Honnest price
A Raiden like shoot'em | |
up with a smooth | |
animation | |
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A Xenon II like shoot | |
them up (more strategic)| |
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A Shadow of the beast | |
clone. | |
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A Mario clone. | |
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A Sonic clone. | |
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A UFO like game | |
(strategy) | |
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A wargame (which type) | |
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A Ishar like game | |
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A street fighter clone | |
other:
There's nothing in this list about 3d games, because I just dont
know anything about it. (it will change).
7)Technical notes
Some technicals notes that could interest someone.
-The whole game is coded in 68000 assembly language. It is 20800
lines long, plus generated code for the sprites. The code isnt
perfect, but I'm tired...
-The soundtrack rout have been coded by Laurent de Soras (Dumbo/big
noz) for the Graoumf Tracker, an EXCELLENT shareware tracker. It uses
the DSP, and the quality is 16 bits stereo at 50 khz of course.
-The musics uses from 4 to 8 voices, and the sound fxs use 6 voices.
So 14 voices of sound.
-The game runs in one vbl on any kind of monitor.howewer on VGA there
might be slowdowns in shoot'em'up parts. Slowndowns are one of the
easiest things to obtain on a standard Falcon. (sigh):-(
-Sprites collisions are made to pixel precision. They use the
blitter. To know more about this technic please see the HTC 3, by
EKO. (Patrice Mandin article)
-The generated code is based on routs first seen inside the french
mag 'ST magazine'.
About graphs:
All originals. Synth images made with POV 2.1. The manga pictures
are inspired of some japanese comics. I have drawn, scanned, etc.
About ziks:
Composed by ADS/Megabusters. Great, no?
About voices:
Rachel Foyer, an english friend, has made them. I dont give you
her adress, as she would be overflowed by thousand of (dirty)
letters.
About playability:
At the beginning it will seem easy. But in the last five levels it
is very hard! Personnaly I have finished the game and I still had
three lives. So dont give up, it is possible to finish the game, but
you have to do the -perfect- game at least up to the 15th level...
About adresses:
-Mine is at the top of this file.
-Laurent de Soras (Graoumf Tracker) : 92 avenue Albert 1er
92500 Rueil-Malmaison
France
-ADS/Megabusters : Deshayes Fabrice
7 chemin du Moulin
14130 Pont l'Evˆque
France
E-mail :
cdeshay@gamay-gw.iut.univ-lehavre.fr
-HTC 3/4 : Naibo Alexis
63 rue des cigognes
31520 Ramonville
France
NB : 50 megs to install the W(omiting system)indow 95! I just can't
believe it! In 40 megs I've installed a complete Linux distribution
with C++, and so on... Thanks Micros.ft. In fact I'm not concerned as
I don't have (and DONT want to have) a PC. But, Atarians, let's have
a minute of silence for all PC users, that ruin themselves for a
crappy system.
That's all folk ! |
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