BreakOut v0.99 B Documentation, Version 1.0B.
Author:        Jeroen Knoester
Creation date: 09/06/1998

Contents:

    Version Info
    Terms of usage / liscense
    Installing BreakOut
    File info
    Credits & Acknowledgements
    Running BreakOut
    Playing BreakOut
    Removing BreakOut
    Contacting Power Programs

An Amiga-Guide and HTML version of this documentation will be
written one day.

Version info:

Version 0.99 Beta
This version of BreakOut is not yet complete. Expect semi-regular
updates.

The following features are not implemented at all:

-   End of level monster.
-   Intro sequence.

The following features are only partially implemented:

-   End sequence.
-   Loading different gfx/sound 'sets'.
-   There are only 15 levels. Level 15 is way too hard. (nearly
    impossible, in fact. It will become level 45 or so
    in future versions. )

The Following bugs are known:

-   There is a bug in the bounce routine, wich can cause a ball
    to get stuck. Press <shift>+<t> to teleport the ball
    downwards. This is the first bug to be fixed, honest!! *
-   Loading an unsuported file may crash the game.
-   Some of the credits are not positioned correctly.
-   A saved game does not remember the ball position.
-   A saved game does not remeber wich level package it came
    from.

* See history.txt
For further version info see history.txt. All changes are
recorded there.


Terms of usage / liscense:

In the following disclaimer "The author" represents the main
programmer on this product, in this case: Jeroen Knoester.

In the following disclaimer "THE SOFTWARE" represents the
software package BreakOut, including, but not limited to,
the executable code, the documentation and any datafiles.

    The author makes no warranties, conditions or representations express
    or implied, with respect to THE SOFTWARE, its quality, merchantability
    or fitness for any particular purpose. THE SOFTWARE is provided "AS IS".
    In no event shall the author be liable for any special, indirect or
    conseqeuntial damages.

BreakOut is free software, wich means:

BreakOut can be used, copied, edited, remade, etc. As long as the
original authors, package name and these terms are clearly mentioned
in the documentation of the so-changed software.

It also means that all source and datafiles are available for
free and should have been included in this package.

Remember, BreakOut is (C) 1995-1998 Jeroen Knoester / Power Programs.

Now, Have fun!


Installing Breakout:

Installing Breakout is simple: just copy all the files to a
directory on your harddisk. The easiest way to do this is by just
dragging the disk icon onto your harddisk. A directory BreakOut
will then be made automatically.


File info:

To avoid virus infection, The executable sizes will now be given:

Main executable:   Breakout  - 102024 Bytes.
Assembly Addena:   Breakfast - 712 Bytes.


Credits & Acknowledgements:

The music used by Breakout on the title page and on the highscore
list are from the 'Amiga Computing Weird Science Multimedia
Toolkit'. In both cases an author was not supplied. If you wrote
these bits of music and can prove it, We'll place you in the
credits.

Breakout was made & designed by the following people:

Jeroen Knoester - Code, Graphics, Sound, Concept & Idea.
Mark Janssen    - Level design, beta-testing, debugging.
Alex Lacle      - Level design, beta-testing.
Bart Ronteltap  - Extra ideas and inovations.

A special thank you goes to the following people:

Chris Grijzen        - For being my only external beta-tester.
Jeroen Hogeveen      - For giving constructive criticism.
Mischa van Spronsen  - For putting up with hours of breakout
                       talk.
Arnoud Ouwehand      - For offering various suggestions.
Liesbeth Knoester    - For putting up with me, her big brother.
Henk Knoester        - For finding (and solving!) a nasty bug.
All my other friends - For believing that it actually worked,
                       without ever seeing it!

And all the Amiga users who sticked with PowerPrograms from
1995 till 1998, even though we never released a thing!


Running Breakout:

Running breakout is simple. Make sure there are no screen savers
running and that you have at least 1 megabyte (maybe a bit more)
of chip-ram available. If the commands assign,iconx and dir are
available, the game will be started by double-clicking the
breakout_start icon.

The 'dir' command is used internally by breakout to see what
level-packages there are, so make sure you have it in your c:
directory.


Playing breakout:

Is simple. Use either the mouse or joystick. When the ball is
stuck to the paddle, moving the joystick (mouse) up and down
positions the ball on the paddle. There is a cheat mode with a
number of cheats. There are also several special messages if
the right phrase is entered into the highscore list.

Notes for PAL / NTSC:

BreakOut is a PAL game, wich as of version 0.99 B3 has support
for NTSC Amiga's. In NTSC mode, the game runs somewhat faster,
    but a number of (harmless) glitches will occur:

    - When starting the game, almost all newly displayed screens
      will appear to 'jump up' a few pixels. This is normal.
    - After dying once, the level redisplay code messes up the
      screen before to Get Ready text is displayed. This is
      harmless, but if I can find a fix, it will be changed.
    - The Paddle is displayed higher than usual and therefore
      the game is slightly harder ( The teleport 'bonus' is
      changed to reflect this )
    - All non-sprite GFX will either display to high or to low.
      The Sprites have their position altered to make sure the
      game plays normal, though.

If you own a NTSC amiga with KS2.04 or up, you may be able to get
the screen to display as PAL. ( you need to select PAL mode in
the early startup-screen as well as select a PAL monitor display.
If this does not work, you might try one of the various
'degraders' around, to get a PAL display. )

If you own a PAL amiga, but would like the game to speed up a
bit, you could try the above trick with NTSC replacing PAL.

In short, if at all possible, try to play BreakOut in PAL mode,
because the game is more balanced that way.


Breakout options:

There are several options in the option screen, most of them are
straightforward, but there are some wich need a bit of
explanation:

When you press F1 to clear the highscores,they are automatically
written to disk, so you can't undo it. The highscores will be
returned to their default settings, not an empty list.

Level packages can now be chosen. The directions refer to the
direction you need to push on your joystick. After you find the
level-package you want, press F5 to actually load it when
playing. This interface will probably change. The levels are
sorted on alphabeth.

Some special keys:

v       :   Version & memory information. Press a key to
            continue.
p       :   Pauses the game.
Esc     :   Exits to title / quits.
Shift S :   Saves the game.
Shift L :   Loads the game.
Shift T :   In case of the ball-bounce bug, press this to
            teleport the ball downwards.

Bonuses:

Yellow:
P   :   500-1000 Points.
S   :   Speeds the game up one step.
L   :   One extra Life.
B   :   BreakOut!. You proceed to the next level.

Blue:
L   :   Laser-Beam. Press fire to shoot at the bricks!
L+  :   (This is a falling l with an animated plus)
        Faster Laser-Beam.
P   :   Protects you from dying for approx. 10 seconds.
S   :   Slows the game down one step.
G   :   Glue. Allows you to catch the ball and aim before
        shooting. Press fire to release ball.
B   :   BrickThrough. Your ball destroys all encountered
        bricks on touch.
E   :   Enlarges the paddle by one step.

Gray:
R   :   Reduces the size of your paddle by one step.
T   :   Teleports the ball towards the bottom of the screen.

Removing Breakout:

Breakout does not edit any system resources and does not alter
any system files, nor has it any entry in the system environment.

Breakout can be removed by simply deleting the directory in wich
it was installed.

Contacting Power Programs:

You can e-mail Power Programs at: jeroen@infothuis.nl
You can send snail-mail to:

Power Programs,
Madelieventuin 40
2724 PL, Zoetermeer
Holland.

Our homepage is at http://www.infothuis.nl/jeroen/
          or at http://www.infothuis.nl/jeroen/PowerPrograms.html

