Hi!  Welcome to MegaBall v4.0.  This is the first commercial release of
MegaBall!

MegaBall is now published by Intangible Assets Manufacturing .  Please
feel free to  contact us!

Please note that this game now comes with graphics modules for both
AGA-compatible and non-AGA Amigas!  So NO Amiga owner has an excuse
not to get this version!

  Quick Installation           2.  Rules of the game 

  A few good keys to know      4.  Music and TOOLTYPES 

  More boards, anyone?         6.  Author & Copyright 

  History                      8.  What to do with your modem 

This AmigaGuide document covers both the commercial and the
demo version of MegaBall, because they are almost identical.
Documentation for the Board Editor, which only comes with the
commercial version, is in BoardEd.guide .

Well don't just sit there.  Click on stuff!


There is finally an icon for installing MegaBall to your hard drive.  You
should be able to just click this icon (located right on the first disk)
and MegaBall will install itself.

(Currently we're having some trouble running MegaBall under Workbench 1.3.
If you can't get it to work, please read all of the directions and hints
below, and if that doesn't help,  contact us.
There may also be a problem with lowlevel.library under WB3.1, if so, just
rename it to lowlife.library and everything will be fine).

For those users who like the do-it-yourself approach, the old install
directions are here:

Installing MegaBall very easy.  For most users, you just drag the
"MegaBall4" drawer from disk 2 into your Games directory or wherever you
want it installed.  Then, open the new drawer on your HD and drag the other
icons from disks 1 and 3 into it.  If you had a previous version of
MegaBall installed on your system, the libraries and fonts are already in
place, and you are done!  Unlike previous versions of MegaBall, this one
likes to be run from a full Workbench, not a special boot disk.

Inside the drawer you will find the game's icon and a few other things.
You should see the graphics modules, "MegaBall4.Gfx.AGA" and
"MegaBall4.Gfx.non-AGA".  You can erase whichever of these graphics
modules does _not_ apply to your system.  Don't erase it from an original
copy of the registered disk of course (you should leave that disk write-
protected), but you can erase the un-needed gfx file from your hard drive.

 ** NOTE **  To use the AGA graphics module, you *MUST* have Workbench 3.0
    or higher!  I have heard about boards like "Retina" that provide
    "AGA emulation" on older Amigas under 2.0 or 2.1.  MegaBall will
    have to use the non-AGA graphics on these systems, because for
    AGA graphics, MegaBall requires some 3.0-only OS calls (from
    graphics.library and datatypes.library).  This should not affect
    any A1200 or A4000 owners (those machines use WB3.x).

 * If you have a system that needs mode promotion to deal with
    low-bandwidth displays, and you have trouble mode-promoting
MegaBall, try using the   MODEID  setting.

 * You can tell which graphics file has been loaded by looking at the
    multi-color "MegaBall" logo on the title screen.  If it just
    says "MegaBall," you are using old OCS/ECS graphics.  But, if it
    says "MegaBall AGA," you are using AGA.

 * If there is a disk error, low memory, file not found, or some such
    problem loading the AGA graphics, MegaBall may use non-AGA
    graphics instead (even on AGA machines).  If you have Workbench 3,
    check to make sure datatypes.library is working, by trying to
    display some IFF pictures in MultiView.

There are a few support files that go other places.  Under Workbench 3.x,
all of these files are optional.  Under WB 2.1 and below, one of them
(iff.library) is required.  To install these files, open a CLI or Shell
and CD to the appropriate directory (the MegaBall4 directory of the
shareware archive, or the root of the registered user's disk).

    All users type:
    COPY fonts/MegaBall.font FONTS:
        COPY fonts/MegaBall FONTS:MegaBall ALL

    Workbench 2.x and 1.x users also type:
        COPY libs/iff.library LIBS:

    Workbench 1.x users also type:
        COPY libs/req.library LIBS:

    (Note: if you have asl.library v36.x or lower, MegaBall will ignore
    it and try to use req.library instead.  This applies to people with
    very old versions of Workbench 2.0 (before 2.04).  These people
    should do the above COPY for req.library).

You should now be up and running!  To run the game, double-click the
"MegaBall" icon.  To run the Board Editor, double-click the "BoardEd"
icon.  What's that you say?  You don't have a Board Editor?  Perhaps
you should read   More boards, anyone? 

Most of you have probably read enough stuff about installation.  A few
of you, however, may wish to know   What system files does MegaBall use? 


This section of the DOCs is only for advanced Amiga users who like to
know what's cooking on their machines.  If you are trying to run
MegaBall from a minimal bootup, and it doesn't work, this section may
tell you why.  (But note that minimal bootup is NOT recommended).

If you are a novice Amiga user, SKIP THIS SECTION.

MegaBall (and the Board Editor) use a number of system files.  The files
they look for varies depending on what version of Workbench you are
running.

Under all versions of Workbench, MegaBall (and the editor) will look for
LIBS:diskfont.library.  If it finds that, it will look for MegaBall files
FONTS:MegaBall.font and FONTS:MegaBall/8.  If it gets those as well, it
will run with MegaBall's special font, that allows some funny marks and
generally looks rather cool.

MegaBall also looks for LIBS:icon.library, which it needs to decode the
  TOOLTYPES  array in it's icon.  The TOOLTYPES array holds information about
where the music is stored and various other settings and options.

Under Workbench 3.0 and above, MegaBall and the editor will look for
LIBS:datatypes.library.  MegaBall needs datatypes to decode its graphics
files (a function that is performed by LIBS:iff.library on older
Workbench systems).  DataTypes itself will look for a few files before
it can go to work.  It expects that LIBS: will be multi-assigned to
SYS:Classes, making available such files as:
    LIBS:DataTypes/picture.datatype
    LIBS:DataTypes/ilbm.datatype
The above two files are actually found in SYS:Classes/DataTypes, but
the WB 3.x startup-sequence does a multi-assign which makes them appear
to be in LIBS:.  ("assign LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD").
DataTypes also looks for some things in DEVS:
    DEVS:DataTypes/ILBM
    DEVS:DataTypes/ILBM.info

** Remember ** The above weirdness with multi-assign and so forth is
only for Workbench 3.x machines.  It is standard for those machines, so
you should NOT have to worry about any of it yourself.  If you bought a
machine with WB 3 already installed, or if you installed WB 3 with the
standard Commodore installer proceedure, then the above-mentioned
DataTypes system is already in place and ready to go.

Finally, if you are using WB 2.04 or higher, MegaBall will look for
LIBS:asl.library, to make the file requesters.  If you have WB 1.x,
MegaBall will use LIBS:req.library instead (req.library is included with
MegaBall).

Novice users:  I warned you!  But would you listen??

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK.  You all know how to play a ball & paddle game, right?  I don't have
to explain that you have a paddle and a ball and you must bounce the ball
into some blocks to score points, right?  And I certainly don't need to
mention that if you let the ball miss the paddle and drop off the screen
you will die, right?  And I also don't need to explain about how little
pieces can drift down from the blocks and if they touch your paddle they
can do anything from giving you free lives to blowing you up, depending
on the little pictures on the pieces as they are drifting down, right?
Good.  I was afraid I'd have to put a lengthy explanation here!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, sometimes the ball "sticks" to your paddle.  A small blue
force-field appears to hold the ball in place.  You can press a mouse
button to release it.  Also, if you get Lasers (one of the pieces),
you use the mouse button to fire them.  You may have Lasers and Catch
at the same time, and in this case, the same press of the mouse button
can both fire the lasers and release the ball.  Both the left and right
mouse buttons have the same effect.

    see also:
  A few good keys to know 
  Advanced tips for hot players 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you haven't played MegaBall yet, go to it!!  I describe a lot of
confusing stuff in here, point values, bonuses, etc., and it's easy for
the novice player to think it's all too complicated and walk away.  All
you need to know to start playing MegaBall is "Avoid the 'Kill' piece". 
After you get used to the game, come back here to get higher scores.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, so, you've been playing a while, and want to get better scores? 
Well, you came to the right place.

MegaBall has a rather complex scoring mechanism, but In My Opinion a fair
one.  The basic philosophy behind it all is "don't be greedy."  Do you
know when to catch a "Kill", or avoid a "Next board"?  Do you know why
some people get past more boards, but still score fewer points, than
others?  This section tells all!

I'll start off with the most basic functions of the scoring mechanism.

   You get points for each brick you hit with the ball or lasers.  The
    number of points you get depends only on the speed of the ball.
    The ball's initial speed makes bricks worth 5 points apiece.  The
    more time the ball spends away from the paddle, the faster the
    ball will travel.  Points-per-brick increases with this speed,
    one point at a time.  Note that bricks which require more than
    one hit give points more than once!  The only exception is
    gold bricks (the ones you can't destroy), which never give out
    any points or pieces when hit.

   Any brick (even gold) caught in the blast of an Exploding Brick will
    give only 4 points, regardless of the ball's speed.  So, it's
    usually best to try to hit the bricks with the ball or lasers,
    rather then blowing them up.  This is especially true of the
    many-hit gray bricks (but they're so annoying, you might want
    to blow them up anyway).  Gold bricks should be blown up whenever
    possible, as otherwise they're worthless.  Note that in MegaBall4,
    there are three new types of exploders:  Blue Growers,
    Gold Poofers, and Green Slime.  All three give out 4-point
    increments per brick when "exploding".  So, you have an incentive
    to let green slime fill your screen.

   Once all non-gold bricks are removed from the board, you move on to
    the next board, with a 100-point bonus.  This is the biggest
    bonus MegaBall gives for any single action.

   Catching ANY MegaBall piece is worth 10 points.  Right off the bat,
    you have an incentive to catch any piece that comes down.
    10 points may not sound like much, but MegaBall doesn't hand out
    points in big lump sums.  Take what you can get, unless it will
    cost you more than 10 points down the road.

Next comes a list of the MegaBall "pieces" (shown on the title screen). 
Almost ALL of the MegaBall pieces are good in certain situations and bad
in others.  If you want to catch the right ones at the right times, you
need to think fast.  I'm hoping that a few of these descriptions will
suprise even the most experienced players.

   Slow ball
    This piece, in addition to slowing down the ball, will get rid
    of any effects from a "Gravity ball" or "Magnetism" piece.
    The slowdown usually takes 4 points off the points-per-brick
    value.  However, the ball has a minimum speed, so bricks can't
    be worth less than 3 points each.  Slow does not have a
    specific timeout, where the ball "jumps" back to its original
    speed.  Instead, the ball simply continues to get faster over
    time at the same rate it did before.  The points-per-brick
    value goes right along with it.
    In spite of the cost, I almost always collect this useful piece,
    especially if the ball is moving too fast for comfort.

   Kill (you)
    This piece does just that.  Some people claim that the "Kill"
    piece is unfair because there are times when it prevents you
    from reaching the ball.  However, most of these situations are
    preventable, if you aim the ball away from where a kill is coming
    down.  And in the few times when you couldn't have forseen the
    problem, what do you do?  Dropping the ball isn't worth squat.
    So, you catch the kill and get your 10 points!

   Next board
    This piece is actually worth 50 points.  It moves you right along
    to the next board.  But before you grab it, think about this:
    The bonus for finishing off a board (ie, without "Next board")
    is 100 points.  If you catch a "Next board", then in addition to
    missing 100 points, you will also be missing out on the point
    values of all the remaining bricks on that board.  A fair trade
    for 50 points?  Not unless the board you're on is threatening you
    with a lot of gold bricks, Quicksand, Gravity, etc.  You did read
    the part above about "don't be greedy," right?

   Get a life
    This piece was originally called "Free Life".  But, as a former
    roommate pointed out to me, that's a misnomer.  It's not free!
    It will take away Catch, Lasers, and Brickthrough.  On the bright
    side, it also gets rid of Quicksand, Gravity ball, and Magnetism.
    And of course, it gives you 10 points and a new life.  Is it
    worth it?  Depends on which of the above six pieces are affecting
    you, how much gold is in your way, and so on.  The bottom line
    is, would losing your powers now cost you the life being offered?
    If so, stay away.  Otherwise, grab it before it disappears.
    Think fast!  ;-)  Did I also mention, "don't be greedy"??

   Lasers
    This piece gives you the ability to fire lasers at the bricks
    above, just by pressing either mouse button.  Even if you already
    had Lasers, catching this piece again still gives you 10 points.
    This makes it one of the few pieces that you can always grab for
    without thinking about anything except whether you would drop the
    ball in the process.

   Expand paddle
    This piece is tricky.  Your paddle has a total of four different
    sizes.  You start on size #2.  This piece takes you to the next
    higher size from whatever size you are currently on.  Size #3
    is a good size (my favorite), but size #4 (the largest) is
    downright dangerous.  At size #4, you are wider than half the
    screen!  This makes aiming a real pain.  Also you can't avoid
    pieces that come down the middle!  But, if you are already at
    size #4, and another "Expand paddle" comes your way, what do you
    do?  You guessed it, grab the 10 points.  Then watch for the
    "Diet Pill" to make you smaller.

   Gravity ball
    This piece creates an odd effect.  The vertical speed component
    of the ball is overridden with the ball's Y-position.  Translated
    into English, that basically means that the ball travels much
    faster near the bottom of the screen.  It doesn't travel in a
    straight line; it curves down as if under the influence of...
    gravity!!  This piece also cancels out the effects of Magnetism.
    The only time I collect it is when I'm suffering from Magnetism.
    This piece can be turned off by "Magnetism" (not recommended),
    "Slow", or "Get a life".

   Brickthrough
    This piece makes your ball *and lasers* not notice that any
    bricks are in the way.  They just pass right through, destroying
    any non-gold bricks in the process.  This piece, like Lasers,
    is almost always good to collect.

   Catch ball
    This piece allows you to "catch" the ball, with a small blue
    force-field.  You can release it with a press of either mouse
    button.  This piece, like Lasers and Brickthrough, is good to
    catch anytime it wouldn't cause you to drop the ball.  Also,
    this piece adds its powers to those of Lasers and/or
    Brickthrough.  A combination of all three is one of the most
    powerful weapons in the game.

   Zap Gold (previously known as "Remove Indestruct")
    This piece does a lot of nice things for you.  It gets those
    pesky gold bricks off the screen.  It also turns one-hit-gold
    bricks into normal green bricks.  It makes invisible 2-hit bricks
    become visible 1-hit bricks.  It even makes 2, 3, and 4-hit gray
    bricks into 1-hit gray bricks.  But in the process of removing
    all those potential hits, you lose all those potential points!
    If you have a few grays or invisibles, this can add up to more
    than 10 points in a hurry.  But would fighting all that gold
    have cost you a life?  Think fast, and I'm not going to say what
    else.

   New Quicksand
    This piece became "New" back in version 2.1, and the name stuck.
    It gives you the same effect as "Catch", but there's a catch: it
    also does something evil to your board every time you catch the
    ball.  All the bricks on the board sink down one square, until
    the lowest one touches bottom.  As of MegaBall v2.1, when the
    lowest one hits bottom, the others start to collapse and pile up
    around it.  As of MegaBall v3.0, if a one-hit-gold brick has
    a brick above it and no way to move down, it becomes a normal
    green brick.  This prevents a pile of one-hit-golds from building
    up and wrecking your game.  With all the bricks piled up against
    the bottom of the board, only an inch or so from your paddle,
    game play can get a bit hairy.  Whether or not you should get
    this piece depends a lot on how badly you need "Catch".  This
    piece can also be used to disarm a particularly nasty board,
    by squashing all the gold bricks at the bottom.

   Dynamite
    This piece is new for version 3.0.  It looks for any Exploding
    Bricks that might be on the board.  If it finds any, it will
    place more Exploding Bricks around the existing ones (overwriting
    any non-exploding bricks that were there already).  This, of
    course, may cost you potential points from multi-hit bricks
    being overwritten with exploders.  Plus, it usually brings a
    large number of farther-away bricks into the blast range of the
    exploders (a very cool effect, sure, but remember that exploding
    a brick is only worth 4 points, whereas hitting it can be worth
    a lot more).  New for MegaBall4, this piece also affects the
    new Blue Growers the same way it does Exploders.  So it can
    actually add a lot of new blue bricks to the board.
    In spite of all this, I grab for any Dynamite that comes my
    way.  I just can't get enough o' them Explodin' Bricks!

   Diet Pill
    This piece is the opposite of "Expand paddle".  It just moves
    you down to the next lower size.  Very useful if you are size #4.
    VERY bad if you are size #2.  If you are size #1, you can't get
    any smaller, so might as well grab your 10 points from this
    piece.  You'll be dead soon anyway. ;-)

   Magnetism
    This piece is similar to "Gravity ball".  The technical
    description is the same, with the word "horizontal" substituted
    for "vertical".  In other words, as the ball gets near the bottom
    of the screen, it curves out to the side.  If you are in the
    right place, it looks like the ball was drawn to your paddle by
    a magnet.  Often, however, you will find yourself in the wrong
    place, in which case it looks like the ball was repulsed from
    your paddle by a magnet.  Soon after that, it will look like
    you died.  I usually avoid this piece unless I'm really cornered.
    This piece turns off the effects of "Gravity".  This piece can be
    turned off by "Gravity", "Slow", and "Get a life".

One last bit of advice here, on aiming the ball.  This may seem like a
rather basic subject to be in the advanced player's tips, but a lot of
people seem to have the wrong idea about how MegaBall figures out where
the ball is going to go.

First of all, forget about the laws of physics.  It has NOTHING TO DO
with the speed your paddle is travelling when you strike the ball. 
Really, it doesn't!!  Guess what, the angle your ball came in at doesn't
make one bit of difference either.  Some people don't believe me on this,
no matter how many times I say it.  Perhaps these people are forgetting
that I wrote this game myself.

The ball's angle is decided the moment it touches the paddle.  If the
ball touches any part of the left half of the paddle, MegaBall will plot
a course for it heading up and to the left.  Likewise, if it hits the
right half of the paddle, it will be aimed up and to the right.  If it
hit near the center of of the paddle, the angle will be a very steep one
(the ball goes up much faster than it goes left or right).  If it hit
near the edge of the paddle, it will reflect at a very shallow angle (the
ball goes left/right much faster than up).  There is a smooth range of
angles in between these two extremes.  If you are too small (size #1),
these angles will be all bunched up, and it's hard to get to the right
one.  If you are too big (size #4), these angles are so spread out that
it's hard to put the one you need in the right place on the screen.

* Remember *  If you see a bad piece starting to come down, aim the ball
    away from it!!  Then position yourself on whichever side of the
    bad piece you think the ball is more likely to come down on.
    A lot of people get caught on the wrong side, or in a situation
    where the ball and a "Kill" come down in the same place, and
    act like they couldn't have prevented that.  Not so!

If you change sizes - via Expand or Diet - your paddle will let go of
the ball.  This is because otherwise, the ball would appear to shoot off
in the wrong direction when you released it.  Remember, the reflection
angle is computed when the ball strikes the paddle, not when you press
the button to release a catch.

When it comes to the ball hitting bricks or the sides/top, MegaBall pays
a little bit more attention to the laws of physics.  Usually, the "angle
of incidence equals angle of reflection" rule applies, just like light
rays hitting a mirror.  Gold bricks, however, follow the less-known rule
"angle of incidence usually equals something pretty darned close to angle
of reflection".  Not many physicists are familiar with this rule.  It was
introduced in MegaBall v3.0 to help prevent infinite loops.

Well!  Now that you know how to make really high scores, I suppose you
want some funny marks to put on the score list or something.  The
following keys work when entering your name.  They ONLY show up properly
when you are using MegaBall.font, not Topaz.font!

CTRL-B : The classic symbol of a Ball and paddle.
CTRL-F : A "Frown" symbol, for low scores.
CTRL-R : Rolling eyes.  Not much better.
"@"    : A smilie-face.  Right-side up, not sideways :-)
"Del"  : An inverse smilie, for really high scores.
"*"    : A snowflake?  Maybe?  Or something.
CTRL-L : Love.  The prerequisite cheesy heart symbol.

Plus the usual array of funny marks and characters in the extended
character set.  Use your "SYS:Tools/KeyShow" utility to find the rest.


    The following keys ONLY work during the game:

Shift-Q : Eventually, you will have a game that gets off to a bad start
          and you want to abort.  So be sure to remember about the
          SHIFT-Q key which aborts your game.  In two-player mode, it
          only aborts the current player's game.  (If it aborted the other
player's game, he  or she might get pretty angry).
          (Also this key makes a really neat sound effect).

DEL     : This key kills the current life WITHOUT killing all the remaining
          lives like SHIFT-Q.  Also makes the really neat sound effect.

P or ESC: Pressing either P or the ESC key puts you in PAUSE MODE!  This
          is very useful!!  Press a mouse button to leave PAUSE MODE.

B       : Added as of version 2.0.  This is just like P and ESC except
          that it sends the MegaBall screen behind all other screens,
          making it somewhat easier to multitask.

M       : This key toggles in-game music on/off.  No effect on the music
          of the title screen or score screens.

?       : The question-mark key temporarily displays the name of the last
          piece of music MegaBall tried to load.  The upper-right of the
          screen may show an error code:
              N/A  = file not found.    MEM! = not enough CHIP mem.
              DISK = Disk error.        BAD! = Not a proper MOD0/MOD1.

Shift-S : This key toggles sprite/bob graphics for the ball.
see   Sprites and Bobs 

Shift-L : This key toggles sprite/bob graphics for the lasers.
see   Sprites and Bobs 

The CHEAT KEYS:  I'm not telling you!!  (There's a new one!)
(Actually, registered users get to know the CHEAT KEYS ).

    The following keys work on the title screen:

Shift-Q : Exit MegaBall.

L       : The L key will load a set of boards into MegaBall.  What's the
          matter?  You say it gives you a message instead of a file
requester?  Perhaps you should see   More boards, anyone? 

1       : This key, or a mouse button, begins a 1-Player game.

2       : This key begins a 2-Player game.

C       : This key works on the "Final scores" screen, the "High Scores"
          screen, and the Title screen.  It continues the previous game,
          but with score and lives reset.

And finally, the ESC key has one more function.  When a tune has a
"special ending" that plays when you complete a board, the ESC key
can abort it.  This only works AFTER the paddle was warped out and
the screen has faded to black.  If the tune is still going, and you
have no patience whatsoever, you can push ESC to abruptly end the tune.
Most tunes end quickly enough not to need this.


With any luck, novice users should be able to leave this alone and never
have to worry about it.  If you are having trouble seeing the ball or
the lasers, however, you might need to mess with this.

MegaBall can use two different types of graphics for the ball and lasers.
There are little graphics called "hardware sprites" that are good at
appearing in front of other graphics without messing them up (the mouse
pointer is a sprite).  The advantage of these is speed, so they should be
used on older or slower systems.  However, on some of the newer systems,
things like overscan and mode promotion can interfere with the display of
higher-numbered sprites.  So, in MegaBall 3.0, the ball and lasers can
now appear as "normal" graphics moved by the blitter (I'm going to call
them "Bobs" for Blitter OBjectS).  This takes more time, but on fast
Amigas (especially AGA machines) the results are much cleaner and more
stable.

Here's how the various MegaBall graphics perform on different systems.

          |   Old 7 MHz Amiga     |  AGA Amiga (or better)
----------+-----------------------+-------------------------
Sprites   |     Looks fine.       |Wrong colors, unstable, or invisible.
----------+-----------------------+-------------------------
Bobs      |Flickers and breaks up.|      Looks fine.
----------+-----------------------+-------------------------

The ball and lasers can be toggled between sprites and bobs.  Use
whichever one looks better on your system!

The ball's graphics can be changed by Shift-S during the game.  The laser
graphics are changed with Shift-L during the game.  The game gets their
initial settings from the BALLBOB and LASERBOBS   TOOLTYPES .


MegaBall now keeps many of it's settings and parameters inside the
game's Workbench icon.  This is done with the use of TOOLTYPES (The
Amiga's standard way of passing parameters to a Workbench program).

 * NOVICE USERS: *  These TOOLTYPES are already set up for you.  You
shouldn't change them unless you know what you're doing.

To view MegaBall's TOOLTYPES, do a SINGLE-click on the MegaBall game
icon, and select "Info" or "Information" from the Workbench menus.  If
you're confused about how to edit them, check your Amiga's manual.  If
MegaBall can't find one that it wants, it will use an internal default
(The defaults for each one are listed with the descriptions below).

Some of MegaBall's TOOLTYPES are "booleans".  The Booleans will accept
"ON", "YES", and "1" for the positive response, and "OFF", "NO", and "0"
for the negative response.  Use whichever looks nice.

Here are the "Boolean" TOOLTYPES that MegaBall currently uses:

MUSIC=ON or MUSIC=OFF.  This controls ONLY the music during the game,
     from the "TUNExx=" TOOLTYPES.  It has no effect on other music
     (from TITLE, HIGH, DEAD, PAUSE, or LIFE TOOLTYPES).
     The music can also be turned on or off during any game by pressing
     the "M" key.  Defaults to ON.

RANDOM=YES or RANDOM=NO.  This tells MegaBall to randomize the order of
     the songs played during the game.  Defaults to YES.

BALLBOB=YES or BALLBOB=NO.  Select YES for a bob or NO for a sprite.
     Defaults to YES under WB 2.x and above, and defaults to NO under
WB 1.x.  See   Sprites and Bobs .

LASERBOBS=YES or LASERBOBS=NO.  This is similar to BALLBOB, but affects
     the lasers instead of the ball.  The defaults are different:  It
     defaults to YES under WB 3.x and above, and defaults to NO under
WB 2.x and below.  See   Sprites and Bobs .

There is also a special   MODEID  TOOLTYPE.

Here are some other TOOLTYPES that MegaBall will recognize.  The
following ones each take the filename of a piece of music as a
parameter.  This piece of music MUST be MED or OctaMED music, (both
MOD0 and MOD1 accepted), and no more than 4 voices.  Look, folx, this
is a game, not a mod player.  Someday maybe I'll add support for
 EdPlayer, but not soon.

TITLE=filename  The MegaBall title tune.
     Defaults to MB_Music/Title4.tune

HIGH=filename   The MegaBall high score tune.  Should begin with the
     sound of an explosion.  Defaults to MB_Music/HighScore4.tune

DEAD=filename   The MegaBall game over tune.  Should begin with the
     sound of an explosion.  Defaults to MB_Music/GameOver4.tune

PAUSE=filename  This is so silly, I'm not sure why it's here.  One day
     I had this...uh... "idea" for a tune to play every once in a while
     when you paused your game.  I didn't really expect Al to write this
     tune, but he did.  So, I put the tune in.  Every time you pause
     your game, there is a one-in-five chance it will play this
     silliness.  (Defaults to no "pause" tune).

To specify that there should be no tune for one of these, just erase
everything AFTER the "=" sign on that line.  Example: If a whole line in
your TOOLTYPES reads "TITLE=", it means there is no title tune.  Don't
make more than one entry for TITLE or any other tune.

The above four tunes, and the "LIFE" tune below, may all get pre-loaded
at the start of the game, if you have enough memory.  Pre-loaded tunes
usually hang out in FAST ram.  When the game needs to play one, it will
make a temporary copy of just that one in CHIP ram.  Tunes that don't get
pre-loaded will try to load-on-demand like the "TUNExx=" in-game tunes
(below).  Load-on-demand tunes always load into CHIP ram because they
need to play immediately.

The following tooltypes accept the same sort of filename input as the
ones above, but with an optional 3-character prefix to the filename. 
The first character can be a "4" or a "3".  "4" means this is a normal
4-voice tune (the default).  "3" means that this tune only uses the
upper three voices.  Voice 0 is then used for sound effects, providing
sound and music at the same time during the game.  The second character
of the prefix can be "F" or "E".  "F" means this tune should fade away
when the player completes a board (the default).  "E" means this tune
has a special ending (in position 1) that will play on all 4 voices
(even if this is a "3" tune) when the player completes a board.  The
third character of the prefix is a separator bar ("|", produced by
shift-backslash on most Amiga keyboards).  It is there for visual
clarity.

The coolest tunes are the "3E|" tunes, which give you both sound effects
and music, and play a little fanfare when you complete a board.

LIFE=options|filename  This "Extra Life" tune plays when (if?) you
     reach 20000 points (or a multiple of that: 40000, 60000, etc).
     The tune should of course be a happy-sounding one, maybe starting
     with some applause, as the player has just earned an extra life.
     Defaults to 3E|MB_Music/ExtraLife.tune

TUNEnumber=options|filename  This is the big one.  It is the list
     of all in-game music available.  There are no defaults for this.
     MegaBall first looks for "TUNE1=", then "TUNE2=", then "TUNE3=",
     and so on, up to "TUNE65535=" or until it can't find any more
     tunes.  It will use these tunes as in-game music (if MUSIC=ON).
     The tunes will normally be played in random order.  If you set
     RANDOM=OFF, the tunes will play in order by number (which may
     be different from the order they appear in the TOOLTYPES array).
     REMEMBER: If MegaBall can't find "TUNE12=", it's not even going
     to look for a "TUNE13=" or a "TUNE14=".  All of your tunes must
     be numbered sequentially with no duplicate numbers.

Granted, this is not the most user-friendly interface.  Just remember
that I'm the one who has to set this up; your copy should already be
configured and ready to go.  If I get some free time (yeah right), I
will make a utility to handle MegaBall's TOOLTYPES in an easier and
more powerful way.

  Note to MOD authors 


The MODEID   TOOLTYPE  is recognized by both MegaBall and the Board
Editor.  Remember, if you want to use the same MODEID for both programs,
you must put it in both of their icons!  This setting is meaningless
under Workbench 1.2/1.3, so it is ignored by those systems.

If the MODEID TOOLTYPE is not found, MegaBall uses the standard display
on the default monitor type.  This is the default, and HIGHLY recommended.

If you have special graphics hardware or a special monitor, you may need
to change MODEID.  Some systems can't do a standard lo-res display (15KHz
or whatever) because the video is only setup to do high-bandwidth
displays or has a special monitor with strange requirements etc.  See if
MegaBall runs on your system before you start changing MODEID.

To pick a new MODEID, use the tiny "MBModeID" program, which should be
included with your copy of MegaBall.  This program requires asl.library
v38 or higher (v38 comes with Workbench 2.1).  It brings up a screenmode
requester.  Pick a mode that will give you a nice 320x200 display, one
you know will work on your particular system.  MBModeID will print out a
line like:
    MODEID=xxxxxxxx

Where the X's are a bunch of hex digits.  Copy these digits EXACTLY as
you see them to the MODEID   TOOLTYPE  of MegaBall and the editor.

(Programmers: The digits form a 32-bit number that is fed to OpenScreen()
with the SA_DisplayID tag).

MBModeID likes to screen out modes that it does not think are appropriate
to MegaBall.  It can't screen all of the bad ones out, so be careful.  If
you think that MBModeID is screening out a mode you need, run it from the
CLI or Shell like this:
    MBModeID ALL

Specifying "ALL" tells MBModeID not to screen out any attributes.  It
will still screen out modes that don't do at least 32 colors.  This gives
you a far bigger selection of screen modes, and a much higher chance of
picking one that won't work.  :-)

Be careful!  No sanity checking is done by MegaBall on the MODEID that
you typed in.  It gets passed directly to the OS.  The OS does some
sanity checking, and if it finds a problem, MegaBall won't be able to
open a screen.  

This is just one of about twenty different things that could prevent
MegaBall from opening a screen.  Unfortunately, MegaBall reacts to any
failure of screen opening simply by trying the other graphics file, and
if that also fails, bringing up the message:

    "Error: Can't load graphics!  See docs..."


Here is some info that might be helpful to anyone wanting to write their
own music for MegaBall:

If you compose or write music for the Amiga, you might want to put some
of your tunes into MegaBall.  If you write with OctaMED, this should be
no problem, but remember not to use more than 4 voices (the 5-8 voice
player is not in MegaBall bacause it would take too much CPU time away
from the game).  If you write with ProTracker, you can get a demo
version of OctaMED that will convert your tunes (I told you already,
MegaBall is a GAME, not a mod player).  Most of the tunes you have
already written are probably "4F|" type tunes.

The best type of MegaBall tune, however, is a "3E|" type tune.  To make
a tune that can use the "3E|" TOOLTYPES option, you must follow some
simple rules:

1.  Don't use voice 0 (the left-most track).  Only use voices 1, 2,
    and 3.  Sound effects from the game will be in voice 0.
2.  The beginning of your tune ("position 0") should at some point
    use the $B02 command to jump to position 2 (skipping position 1).
3.  The end of your tune should have a nice loop back to somewhere
    near the start.  You don't want the user to notice this loop
    if possible.
4.  The second position (position 1) should contain a little fanfare
    or something to bring your tune to a quick finish.  This "ending"
    will be played when the user finishes a MegaBall board.  It must
    be fully contained in a single position/pattern.  However, unlike
    all the other positions/patterns, this one gets to use all four
    voices.  It should end with the effect $FFE (stop music).
    Don't take too long or the user will get bored and hit ESC.
5.  Test your tune in MegaBall, and then upload it to local BBSs and
    send it to FTP sites.

Er, well, actually, rule #5 is not _technically_ a requirement for
making a MegaBall tune.  But it would be very nice of you to do it! ;-)


If you bought the commercial version of MegaBall from  IAM  or one of its
distributors, then you should already have the full version of MegaBall.
In this case there should be many  boards on disk.

BUT, if you have no "Load" feature, no board editor, and a desire to play
more than just 20 demo boards, then    check this out! 


OK, here's the deal.  It's the commercial version of MegaBall4, published
by Intangible Assets Manufacturing , and here's what's on it:

   The commercial version of MegaBall.  Works just like the demo
    version, but has a "Load" feature that allows you to load new sets
    of boards into it.  Does not have the annoying message asking you
    to register.  Hard-drive installable, multitasking, NOT copy protected.

   The latest and greatest MegaBall Board Editor.  This amazing program
    makes designing boards easier than using a paint program!  Challenge
    your friends, create a masterpiece, or just edit out those really
    annoying gold bricks from your least favorite board.  MegaBall will
    keep a separate high score list for each set of boards you make.
    Hard-drive installable, multitasking, NOT copy protected.

   Several hundred pre-made boards for you to explore.  They are
    divided into different sets of varying complexity and skill
    (so that the high scores from different skill levels don't mix).

   MUSIC DISK.  This disk is full of Al Mackey's music.  Al wrote these
    tunes specifically for MegaBall.  All of the songs meet the special
    requirements of MegaBall's in-game music (they all let you hear sound
    effects while the music is playing, without degrading the music).
    These songs are all original works, and most will NOT be freely
    distributed.  Load them onto your hard drive, and let MegaBall play
    them for you during the game.  A little fanfare plays when you complete
    a board (different for each tune!).

   Free demo of AFS.  Ami-FileSafe is a system for significantly improving
    your disk performance, and almost preventing the chance of corrupted
    disks caused by power failures.

Sound interesting?    CONTACT US! 


On the commercial version of MegaBall, you will find a number of board sets
to load with the "L" key from the title screen, including:

   MB40.bds
    These are the built-in boards, so you can see them in the editor.

   abc.bds
    Some boards for kids.

   b's 32.bds
    Betty Mackey's challenging and colorful MegaBall4 boards.
    Email:  B.MACKEY1@genie.geis.com

   Sue'sStory.bds
    Sue Rankin's excellent collection of MegaBall4 boards.  Sue
    recently graduated the Moore College of Art and is job hunting.
    She can be reached by email:
        Susan.Rankin@f929.n273.z1.fidonet.org

  original_boards
    A sub-directory with many board sets from early versions of
    MegaBall.

  boards_from_3.0
    Another subdirectory, with board sets from MegaBall 3.0.  This
    version of MegaBall introduced the EXPLODING BRICKS, and generated
    by far the most devious and facinating boards ever seen in a
    ball & paddle type game.


In this directory you will find files made with version 2.1 or lower of
MegaBall.  Not many bricks were available back then, but some interesting
board sets appeared none the less:

   TheOriginal.bds
    The original default board set from MegaBall 1.0 (through 2.0).

   MB21.bds
    The default board set from MegaBall 2.1.

   Dena.bds, Doris.bds, and Doris2.bds
    The Ballards sent us these from Maine.  Thanks Doris and Dena!!!!

   Grixti.bds
    Bill Grixti sent us these from Canada.

   Easy.bds, MediumHard.bds, Advanced.bds, Nasty.bds
    Various skill levels available in early MegaBall versions.

Hit "retrace" to go back.


This directory has board files from MegaBall 3.0, when some of the most
interesting and challenging boards were created.  MegaBall 3.0 was also
known as "MegaBall AGA", although it didn't require AGA.  As a result, many
of these board sets have "AGA" as part of the name, but none of them
require actual AGA graphics to work.  (They might look better in AGA
graphics, of course... ;-)

   MB30.bds
    The default board set from MegaBall 3.0

   Dea1.bds, Dea2.bds, DJMB.bds
    More excellent boards from Dena and Doris Ballard in Maine.

   Bill Grixti.bds, Amy Grixti.bds, Beth Grixti.bds
    Some nice work by Bill Grixti and his daughters in Canada.

   JST.bds
    Boards by Jan Thomas in Canada.

   sueboards1.bds
    Sue Rankin's first MegaBall contribution.  A true artist.

   Eds.AGA.bds
    My own odd collection of boards.  I'm not an artist. :-)

   GeneralGFX.bds
    Some very creative boards by David Putzier in Texas.

  gourmet.bds

  underwater.bds

   Artwork.bds
    An assortment of pure-artwork boards by various authors.

   BOOM.BDS
    Everyone's FAVORITE exploding board fun!!  VERY easy, this is a
    good one for first-time players, and for kids.

   Intermediate.bds, Tricky.bds, Nasty.AGA.bds
    More skill levels for MegaBall.

Hit "retrace" to go back.

Short: 50 food boards for MegaBall 3.0

Gourmet Boards

50 boards for Megaball 3.0 and up.

Created by Betty Mackey and Sue Rankin
Released May 22, 1994

Greetings, food fans.  Here are fifty Megaball boards to
fulfill edible fantasies.  With luck you'll be too engrossed
in the game to make a break for the refrigerator!

In case you can't quite make out the art, the boards are:
 1.  chile pepper
 2.  birthday cake
 3.  ice cream cake
 4.  pistachio ice cream cone
 5.  bosc pears
 6.  bread and honey
 7.  ice cream sundae
 8.  fried egg
 9.  hamburger (exploding)
10.  fruit basket
11.  candy cane
12.  corn on the cob
13.  yellow cake
14.  eggplant
15.  champagne
16.  chicken drumstick
17.  orange juice
18.  french fried potatoes
19.  tomato sauce
20.  pizza
21.  bagel
22.  swiss cheese
23.  a forkful of pasta
24.  cookie
25.  bowl of rice
26.  jar of olives
27.  taco
28.  pickle
29.  hard boiled egg
30.  green jello
31.  milk
32.  salad
33.  candy kiss
34.  shrimp
35.  banana
36.  pumpkin
37.  cherries
38.  french bread
39.  cake roll
40.  grapefruit
41.  lime soda
42.  frosted donut
43.  vegetables
44.  apple
45.  Easter basket
46.  teapot
47.  carrot
48.  lemonade
49.  sandwich 
50.  watermelon

Thanks to all the people who have bought MegaBall so far.
Happy playing! 

Betty Mackey (b.mackey1@genie.geis.com)


Hit "retrace" to go back.


underwater.bds

An update to the original.  The update was released in early '94.

Hello, everyone!  Megaball fans always like to play new boards, so here's
my latest contribution for you, the complete set of "underwater boards."  My
earlier contributions include being the mother of Ed and Al Mackey, creators
of Megaball and Edplayer shareware, and cooking a lot of pizza.  I've also
made more than my share of "nasty" boards.

If you like scenes from the seas such as seahorses, sea turtles, manatees,
kissing gouramis, triggerfish, shrimp, and mud puppies, give these a try.
The underwater boards are somewhat realistic, if anything painted with
Megaball blocks can be called realistic, but very playable, with lots
of exploding blocks.  The Megaball 3.0 users got about half of them with
their original disk (I wasn't finished yet!!).  Like all boards, they work
with both AGA and non AGA Amigas.

Board List:
 1. jellyfish
 2. clam
 3. kissing gourami
 4. mud puppy
 5. saltwater tropical fish
 6. goldfish
 7. sea turtle
 8. black molly
 9. angel fish
10. shark
11. octopus
12. imaginary fish
13. crab
14. manatee
15. goldfish
16. zebra fish
17. yellow submarine (as in "we all lived in a...")
18. hatchet fish
19. sword tail
20. pumpkinseed fish
21. little fish, imaginary
22. seahorse (Hippocampus hippocamus)
23. imaginary fish
24. snail
25. starfish
26. imaginary fish
27. triggerfish
28. eel (Anguilla anguilla)
29. killer whale
30. school of fish
31. tropical fish
32. hatching sea turtles make for the sea 
33. Haliclona mediterranea (related to sponges)
34. king herring
35. flounder
36. sea star
37. frog
38. green fish
39. shrimp
40. stingray (Manta birostris)
41. squid
42. flying fish
43. tadpole
44. snail
45. a very hungry fish, and its prey
46. peltaster
47. amoeba
48. coral
49. pumpkinseed fish feeding near white coral
50. I ought to make you guess, but I'd better tell you -- it's supposed
    to be a seagull perched on a piling in the bay.  But I only had room
    for the feet. 

Thanks again, Megaball users, for your continued enthusiasm and support for
Ed and Al's shareware projects.  I hope you'll enjoy these boards, and also
make your own sets with the board editor, and upload them.
Happy new year and happy gaming!

Betty Mackey (b.mackey1@genie.geis.com)

Hit "retrace" to go back.


There are many ways to get in touch with us.

            **** WORLD-WIDE WEB PAGES (on the Internet) ****

For more information, see IAM's World-Wide Web pages at
    http://www.iam.comhttp://www.iam.com

Also don't miss my personal home page:
    http://www.early.com/~emackey/http://www.early.com/~emackey/

                    **** INTERNET EMAIL ****

If you can't reach the Web, but you do have Internet email, at least get
the latest info sheet from IAM's Email bot by sending a message to
    info@iam.com

To order, send email to
    sales@iam.com

For non-sales-related questions and comments about MegaBall and related
software, send email to
    mb@iam.com

              **** MORE CONVENTIONAL MEANS ****

You can also contact  IAM  directly:
    Intangible Assets Manufacturing
    828 Ormond Avenue
    Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604
    USA

The phone lines are for orders only, please:
    Voice: +1 610 853 4406
    Fax:   +1 610 853 3733

If you have a modem and are into BBSs, call   Somerton .
It's not related to IAM, but it's still a cool place and is my official
customer support BBS for MegaBall, for people who can't reach us via the
Internet.


EdPlayer is a music player I wrote a long time ago.

Does that answer your question? :)


    Some legal stuff for MegaBall4:

MegaBall 4.0, the MegaBall Board Editor, the MegaBall Graphics Files,
the MegaBall and Board Editor documentation files, and the MegaBall
Music files are all copyright 1991-1995 by Ed Mackey, all rights
reserved.

The commercial version of MegaBall4 is published by
Intangible Assets Manufacturing, and is distributed through IAM's
network of dealers and resellers.

The "demo" version of MegaBall, which does not have the ability to
load board sets, may be distributed under the terms given in the scroll
text, shown here:

    ...It is freely distributable, as long as it remains unmodified,
    and stays with its documentation, graphics files, and other support
    files.  Spread it via BBSs, PD disks, Fish Disks, DevWare disks,
    CD-ROMs, online services, and any other way imaginable, as long as
    all files are present and unmodified.  Dealers are specifically
    invited to bundle this version with Amigas and Video Toasters they
    sell.

The "files" mentioned above are:  MegaBall.guide, MegaBall4.Gfx.AGA,
MegaBall4.Gfx.non-AGA, fonts/MegaBall.font, fonts/MegaBall/8,
MB_Music/Title4.tune, and any related ".info" files.  These files should
stay with the "demo" version of MegaBall when it is distributed. 
The two library files "iff.library" and "req.library" may also travel
with it.

    Some legal stuff for AmigaGuide:

AmigaGuide, AmigaGuide.info, amigaguide.library, WDisplay, WDisplay.info
(c) Copyright 1992 Commodore-Amiga, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
Reproduced and distributed under license from Commodore.

AMIGAGUIDE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE;
NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE.  ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.  NO LIABILITY
OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED.    

    Some legal stuff, QUOTED directly from the OctaMED Pro V4 readme:

 The OctaMED player routines and player libraries may be freely used and    
 distributed with both commercial and non-commercial programs. No           
 permission is required for distributing them.                              

    And some credits of my own:

All programming in "MegaBall" and "BoardEd" except the music routines:
    Ed Mackey

Most graphics and all music:
    Al Mackey

For the full list of greetings and thanks, you can read the infamous
"scroll text" on the title screen of the game.  A lot of great people
are mentioned in there!

Please read this   contact information !  Thanks.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER IN PLAIN ENGLISH: Yeah, we made MegaBall4. So what?
We're not responsible or anything.  We don't provide any warranty
whatsoever, and MegaBall4 is only sold as-is.  If your computer melts down
into a pile of slag, if you fall over convulsing with epileptic fits, if
you have to pay a surgeon to remove your eyeballs from your monitor, or
anything else bad happens, it's your problem, not ours.  Don't use
MegaBall4 if you don't want to, or if something bad might happen if you
do. Even if we knew something bad could happen, its not our fault. By
using MegaBall4, you agree to have fun and leave us alone. This is a legal
disclaimer, so don't even try to sue us for anything. Besides, our lawyer
is bigger than your lawyer.


Version 4.0 note:  10/24/95

Way cool!!  Our very first commercial release of a video game!

This release was due out September 30, but was delayed due to a number of
minor setbacks and schedule conflicts, including the author getting his
wisdom teeth removed (OUCH, I tell you).

MegaBall has had a bumpy ride since the last version.  For a while we were
planning a CD32 version of it, but the the CD32 fell out from underneath
us.  Then I got a full-time job.  Then Dale Larson contacted us again,
offering to make a commercial product out of MegaBall.

We knew that to go commercial, the improvements to this version had better
be something spectacular...

Some of the new features are:
* Double the number of bricks.  There are now a total of 72 bricks in the
  game, and some of the new ones have extravagant features described below.
* Gold Poofers added.  These golden, glowing bricks will set off a chain
  reaction of explosions in a line of traditional, unbreakable gold bricks!
* Blue Growers added.  These look like MegaBall 3.0's exploding bricks,
  except that they are blue, not red.  And oh yes, when they explode, they
  leave behind a pile of traditional blue bricks.  Ouch.
* Green Slime added.  This stuff grows and grows, until it tries to grow
  over top of some other brick.  At that point, the slime explodes into
  copies of that brick.  Of course the brick in question can't be gold.
  So gold, one-hit gold, and locking bricks (below) can be used to contain
  the slime, for a while.  If the ball hits unexploded slime, the slime
  will explode into nothing.  Sometimes you want this, other times not.
* Locking bricks added.  These bricks look like gold bricks, but with
  a colored dot in the center.  They act just like gold bricks too, until
  you hit an unlocking brick of the matching color.
* Unlocking bricks added.  They look like a colored brick with a gold dot
  in the center.  They come in red, green, and blue.  When you hit an
  unlocking brick, all of the locking bricks of matching color will
  disappear.  If you *explode* an unlocking brick, the locking bricks will
  remain!  (You don't need to clear the locking bricks to move to the next
  board, only the unlocking bricks.  When starting a new life or new board,
  the game will automatically remove any locking bricks that don't have
  matching unlocking bricks).
* New music for the title, high score, and death tune has been written.
* Lots and lots of new boards, to show off the power of the new bricks.
* A bunch of CD32-specific code was added to the game and not removed.
  If you have the CD32's lowlevel.library and a CD32 controller, you can
  play with the controller in port 2.  Use left/right or forward/reverse.
  Red is fire, Green and Yellow are turbo and slow movement.  The Play
  button acts as pause during the game, and as the "continue" key after
  a game is over.
* If you have the CD32's cd.device and a compatible CD-ROM drive, you can
  listen to your favorite audio CD's (or sound tracks from CD32 game CDs)
  in the drive while playing MegaBall.  MegaBall will automatically play
  any CD-Audio tracks it finds during the game.  Pressing "M" once will
  shut off the music as always; pressing it again starts the music from
  the next track (in case you get bored with a track).  Feel free to change
  CD's without warning during the game.  MegaBall will cope. ;-)
* Yet another cheat key.  What, you didn't have enough already?
* Found teeny tiny bug in OctaMED 4 playback routine.  An extra "-" sign
  in the source code would mess up a pointer and sometimes cause an
  enforcer hit.  Fixed it, no big deal.

In spite of the CD32 features, no CD-ROM based version of MegaBall has
yet been made.  But feel free to buy the floppy-based, hard drive
installable version.  :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 3.0 note:   11/22/93
  A whole lot of stuff is new and improved in this version.  Many thanks
go to my registered MegaBall users.  Their past contributions gave me an
A3000, that could run Workbench 3.x and let me write code for AGA
machines. These contributions also gave Al a new musical synthesizer and
an A1200, so he could write some awesome music and design some
spectacular graphics.

Below is the impressive list of improvements to MegaBall that resulted
from this.  Without the continued support of our registered users,
upgrades on this scale would just not be possible.  Thanks people!!

Some of the new features:
* Graphics redesigned - now supports both AGA and pre-AGA machines!
  (Looks much better on AGA machines, of course).
* Music completely re-written.  The old NoiseTracker code has been
  thrown out, replaced by the OctaMED Pro player.  Al has written many
  new tunes to make use of it.
* Documentation re-written.  It's more readable, more informative,
  and it's all in two AmigaGuide hypertexts!
* Customizable music - Put your own OctaMED MODs into MegaBall!
* Continuous music (optional) - no need to wait for a "Music" piece.
* Ability to play Music and sound effects at the SAME TIME.
* Ability to have "special endings" on songs, that give you a little
  musical fanfare when you finish a board.
* Music loading between screens.  No need for all the music to be in
  memory at once.  Certain key tunes may be pre-loaded if memory permits.
* Special "Extra Life" tune plays when you reach 20000 points.
* Invisible ball bug - Fixed FOR THE LAST TIME.  In previous versions of
  MegaBall, the ball was a hardware sprite (for speed).  Hardware sprites
  do not always show up properly under all configurations, especially
  newer machines like AGA.  So, I killed them.  The ball is now a blitter
  object (like most other MegaBall graphics) on the new machines but can
  still be a sprite on the old (slow?) machines.
* The lasers can now be blitter objects too.  This means that -NONE- of
  MegaBall's graphics depend on sprites!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* There are now * 24 * new colors of MegaBall bricks, on both AGA and
  non-AGA systems.  MegaBall boards look MUCH more colorful now!
* There is a new type of brick:  An EXPLODING brick!  You hit it, and
  it destroys the bricks around it.  Put many exploding bricks in a row
  for a chain reaction!
* There is a new piece.  The "Dynamite" piece makes a cluster of
  exploding bricks grow larger!  This replaces the "Music" piece.
* The function of the "Music" piece (to turn in-game music on and off)
  has been replaced by the "M" key on the keyboard.  More convienient.
* Many settings and options can now be saved in MegaBall's icon's
  TOOLTYPES, changeable with Workbench's "Info" or "Information" menu
  items.
* MegaBall now supports a user-settable "MODEID" ToolType that allows it
  to appear on strange screen formats, to support the many different
  types of monitors.  Read the docs before you use it!!
* A tiny new program, "MBModeID", helps even a novice user to pick a
  reasonable setting for the MODEID ToolType.  (Requires Workbench 2.1
  of course.  Older systems don't have to worry about MODEID!)
* Imagery of several pieces reworked to be much more visible.
* "Remove Indestruct" renamed to "Zap Gold".  Easier name, same action.
* Gold bricks can deflect the ball at slightly imperfect angles.  This
  keeps the ball from getting jammed in an infinite loop.
* ASL file requesters added to both the game and Board Editor.
* Background "graphics pages" removed.
* On AGA systems, the fades are 24-bit now.  So smooth, you'll think
  you're watching TV and someone in the studio said "Fade to black!"
* "Jump-to-any-board" feature finally added.
* Board Editor upgraded to use MegaBall.font, and have the "NewLook"
  window borders under 2.x/3.x.  Looks very nice now.
* Board Editor now uses the same graphics modules as the game, so it
  will show your board in its true colors and appearance.
* The game will automatically "skip over" any board that is completely
  blank.  No need to fill out all 50 boards of a set.  No need to create
  your boards in order, either.
* Board Editor now starts up with 50 blank boards.  The "default" board
  set has been moved to a separate file (currently MB30.BDS).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 2.1 note:   9/20/92
  This is the first version of MegaBall to be released since I got my
new Amiga 3000.  I have to thank a few hundred registered users of
previous versions of MegaBall for helping me afford this new
hardware.  I have improved some parts of the MegaBall game to
work better on the 3000, without losing 1.3 compatability.
Here they are:
* Invisible ball finally fixed.
* Music code modified -- should not skip notes on fast machines now.
* Board Editor no longer messes up the display with too-large fonts
  under WB 2.0.
* The ball still jitters a bit under 2.0 sometimes.  Try removing
  commodities and other things from the input stream.  Unfortunately
  there is no way I can really fix this for MegaBall.  Games I make
  in the future will have NO hardware sprites, you can be sure.
* Paddle crashing through wall bug during overscan fixed.  However, there
  is also a "bug" where on systems that used to have the paddle-thru-wall
  bug, clicking the left mouse button too far to the right would pause
  the game.  This is because intuition is letting you click outside the
  screen -- MegaBall gets a message that the user has started using
  some other program, so it pauses.
  This is likely to happen if you have an overscanned WB 1.3 screen,
  or if your overscanned WB 2.x screen is visible somewhere.  It is
  just the way the OS works.  If it happens to you, then don't use
  the left mouse button!  The right mouse button and the left mouse
  button have precicely the same functions in MegaBall.  So if the
  left is causing the game to pause at unwanted moments, use the right!
* A certain form of cheating (without using the cheat keys) has been
  brought to my attention.  Some people would pause the game as the
  ball was coming down, think about where it was going to land,
  position the mouse pointer over that spot, and continue the game.
  These people are in for a suprise.
* The paddle is a bit more responsive this version.  I tried to
  accellerate it just a bit, without losing that MegaBall "feel."
* The default board set has changed.  There are 50 new boards!
* Quicksand has changed.  Muhahahha.
* Because of the above two changes, the name of the high score file
  has changed from MegaBall.scores to MegaBall2.scores.  This will
  have the effect of reseting most people's high score list for the
  default board set.  The original boards can be found in a file
  in the Boards subdir called "TheOriginal.BDS".  If you want to put
  your old high score list on this file, you should open a CLI,
  and type something like the following:

    cd dh0:games/megaball     ;or wherever you have MegaBall installed
    copy MegaBall.scores Boards/TheOriginal.BDS.scr

  A lot of people asked me how to reset a high score list.  All you
  have to do is delete or rename whatever file contains the scores.
  All MegaBall score files are compatible; the format has not
  changed.
* Funny colors in top-left corner fixed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 2.00 note:
* Now with full file requesters via the req.library!
  Special thanks also go to Ron Schlosser for sending me a disk with the
  req.library and its programmer's documentation, making custom board files
  MUCH easier to load.  Probably only registered users will ever need this,
  because only they can make custom boards.  So the game can run just fine
  with or without this library.  You just get a stupid filename entering
  mechanism without the req.library.
* SHOW-THRU BALL FIXED.  The ball used to show through to all screens
  when multitasking.  Not any more...
* PAUSE & SEND TO BACK.  The ESC and P keys have always been pause keys,
  but now there is a third:  The B key not only pauses the game, but sends
  the game screen to the back.  This is useful for WB 1.3 users who cannot
  flip through all the screens like you can with WB 2.0 or with a neat
  program called Flip2 (by Timm Martin and Mike Monaco).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 1.20 note:  CHIP BARRIER BROKEN!!!  YEAH!!!!
Four out of five songs can now be loaded on any 1 Meg machine (I think).
All five songs can now be loaded on a machine with 512K CHIP RAM and
MORE than 512K of FAST RAM.  But if you only have 512K of CHIP, try not
to multitask very much...  MegaBall still takes LOTS of CHIP...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.1x never existed for some reason.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 1.01 note:  I fixed a bug in the sound effect routine that caused
MegaBall to sometimes crash the computer by writing to low memory.
Thanx to Alex Matulich for helping me find and stomp this bug!
NOTHING else has changed, i.e., no new buttons or features since the
first MegaBall release.
                                          --Ed.


                ****   ACHTUNG! Alles Lookenspeepers!   ****

          Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und
          mittengrabben.  Ist easy schnappen der springenwork,
          blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken.  Ist
          nicht feur gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.  Das rubbernecken
          sichtseeren keepen das cotton-pickenen hans in das pockets
          muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.


Yeah, you heard me.

I hope this doesn't sound like my ego is running wild, but MegaBall seems
to have this appeal that transcends race, age, and gender.

I'm not making this up!  Over the past two years, I've gotten literally
hundreds of letters about this.  Men write to me to complain that their
wives, who used to be afraid to touch a computer, now can't stop playing,
and they had to get another Amiga.  Women write to me, and say something
like, "My daughter and I are hopelessly addicted to your game.  Our cat
is slowly starving to death."  A number of times I have even seen "My
grandchildren are addicted to your game, and so am I."

Judging just from the mail bag, I would say the effective age range of
MegaBall players is from about 4 years old all the way up to grandparents
in retirement who don't usually mention their age.  I would estimate that
about 40%-50% of those letters mentioned female players.  My Mom says
that female MegaBall players "need to unite" and not be ashamed of their
addiction.

What does all of this mean?  I don't know.  But it gives me a smile
when I read news articles about the executives at the company that makes
"Killer Ninja Street-fighter Assassin Hit Squad", who always wonder why
their games only appeal to adolecent males of a narrow age group.


Thanks to different and incompatible versions of AmigaGuide, only one of
the following to logos will look correct on your system.

Older AmigaGuides (and plaintext viewers) will show this logo properly:
 _______   _______    _    _    _______  _______  _______  _______   __      3
(_______  /       \  / \  / \  |____    |_______)    |    /       \ |  \   |
 _______) \_______/ /   \/   \ |_______ |    \       |    \_______/ |   \__|

 O  N  L  I  N  E    I  N  F  O  R  M  A  T  I  O  N    S  Y  S  T  E  M  S

 Lines 1-7: (215) 464-6775 ( 2400 .22b)  Line 8 : (215) 464-7931 ( 9600 .32 )
 Line    9: (215) 464-8192 (14400 .32b)  Line 10: (215) 464-4461 (14400 .32b)

While newer AmigaGuides will only show this one properly:
 _______   _______    _    _    _______  _______  _______  _______   __      3
(_______  /       \  / \  / \  |____    |_______)    |    /       \ |  \   |
 _______) \_______/ /   \/   \ |_______ |    \       |    \_______/ |   \__|

 O  N  L  I  N  E    I  N  F  O  R  M  A  T  I  O  N    S  Y  S  T  E  M  S

 Lines 1-7: (215) 464-6775 ( 2400 .22b)  Line 8 : (215) 464-7931 ( 9600 .32 )
 Line    9: (215) 464-8192 (14400 .32b)  Line 10: (215) 464-4461 (14400 .32b)

I love standards.  We have so many to choose from...

Anyway.  Somerton is a cool BBS where many of us who helped design and
play MegaBall like to hang out.  It has online chat areas (both message
bases and live teleconference areas), online games (including a version of
CircleMUD that I gave a complete makeover to last year), FidoNet access,
file areas, and all kinds of neat stuff.

If calling from outside the USA, you have to use the countrycode:
    +1 215 464 6775  for 2400 baud,
    +1 215 464 8192  for 14400 baud and so on.

Check it out!

(Of course there are  other ways to contact us).



% Exported with AmigaGuide WinViewer (AGWViewer) by Stone Oakvalley Studios - v1.39 (20 Jul 2020) from: MegaBall4.guide %
