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Don't forget to visit the official Bubble Puzzle Homepage at:

http://www.conmeg.de/BubblePuzzle/
* additional level * new versions * latest information * levelmaker place * frequently asked questions *

Put three or more bubbles of the same color together, and they will drop off. All bubbles hanging below them will drop down, too. The bubbles bounce off the sides, therefore you can "bank" a shot at a target. A level is completed when all bubbles are gone. The game is over when a bubble is fixed too low (Red Area).

The graphics in this game were created using ProMotion: http://www.cosmigo.com

Contents

introduction
about the game
levels
highscore
controls
system requirements
the "Conmeg Config Tool"
warranty / licence / disclaimer
troubleshooting

introduction

Welcome to Bubble Puzzle 97! This is the latest version of Bubble Puzzle. You say, You've seen a game like this before ? Uh... You're joking, aren't you? Perhaps, there could be some game that resembles Bubble-- which might be a little like Bubble Puzzle--but there is only one original... and now you've got it. Lucky You!

The game's main purpose was to test our routines, developed to create bigger games. It is the first of three projects, and started as our introductory works for the Windows 95/Direct-X platform. We thought this would make our former problems, inherent in a thousand different hardware configurations, obsolete; but we had to learn that there are many other problems compromising this advantage.

Nevertheless, Bubble comes out as freeware, too. You're free to copy it, play it, give it to your friends, but please mail us. Tell us how you like the game, who you are, where you found our Bubble Puzzle, your blood type, the maiden name of your mother, what TV channel you prefer, or anything you want. See--we will never be able to realize all our great ideas, but we want to know you--our "customers"--and strive for the things you want.

about the game

The goal of the game is quite simple. Put three or more bubbles (balls) of the same color together, and they will drop off the playing surface. OK, heard that quite often? Kind of Tetris-like you think? Sure, it sounds simple, but read ahead--or play it--before you judge it. You are in control of a 'cannon' that fires one of those bubbles into the playing field. The cannon can only be rotated to the left or to the right so that you have to aim carefully to hit the places you want to hit. As soon as the bubble collides, the cannon will be reloaded with the next one. If your misses don't drive you nuts, the sound effects will! You will have to admit, however, that the Bubble's facial expressions are adorable......

- A level is completed when no balls are left on the playing field.
- The game will be over when at least one bubble is positioned in the red zone at the bottom of the playing field.

There are some additional (and more important things) to know:

- The bubbles only stick to each other and to the top of the playing field. Therefore, you are able to play via the sides of the field. The bubble will bounce from it like pool balls.
- If three or more bubbles fall down, all bubbles hanging below them will drop down and disapear, too, so You can remove many bubbles from the screen with a single, well aimed, shot.
- In most of the levels, in the course of time, the top of the playing field drops down one one step. This could put tome bubbles under the red area, so that the game would be lost.
- In a few levels, the cannon moves from one side to the other. This movement cannot be influenced by the player. You just have to live with it.

levels

With Bubble Puzzle 97 our new Levelsystem is introduced. There are 50 default levels includes with it. If you play through all of them (ha ha!), you will be confronted with our well-known random levels from the DOS-version. Levels are textfiles "*.ini", positioned in the "level" directory. You can create your own levels using any text editor. Save them in the level directory, and they will be included and sorted by their stage number. For further information look at the "empty.ini" level.

For more infos about creating level visit the Bubble Puzzle Levelmaker page. Additionally you can find the more level on this page, created from other Bubble Puzzle players.
If you've created a good level,
send it to us and we'll publish it on our homepage, so all the other Bubble gamer all over the world can play your level!!!

Normally you begin each game on the first level, but you are also be able to play your "Personal Profile". If you do so, Bubble Puzzle always saves the highest level you reached and lets you begin each game right there.

To play a profile, just enter (or pick) its name in the starting dialogue. To play without any profile, leave the profile field empty.

You can also play Bubble Puzzle 97 like Bubble Puzzle for DOS. Just delete or rename the "level" directory.

highscore

The ten highest scores are saved in the high score record. If You reach a score which is worthy of being entered among the high scores, this is mentioned on the screen by a small number above your score. If your game score is high, you will be asked to enter your name to the high score table.

Next to your name, Bubble Puzzle 97 saves a code which is influenced by the set of levels you played. If you ever enter some new levels, delete some out of the level directory, or change some existing levels, the code will change. Therefore you will be able to note whether another player got the highscore by playing a different (easier?) level set and crow if you have beaten him. Also if you intend to cheat a bit by altering the highscore.ini this is detected. Another easy way to gather some highscore is the trick named after 4 of our little fans, the Robert-Timothy-James-Patrick-Kohn trick: simply do not finish a level by eleminating the last bubble and make some extra points with the coming bubbles.

To reset the high score table just delete the highscore.ini file from the games directory.

controls

The game can either be controlled by keyboard or by mouse.

_Function____   _keyboard____   _mouse____ 
rotate left      [cursor left]   move to the left 
rotate right     [cursor right]  move to the right 
fire bubble      [ctrl]          click on mouse button 
pause game       [P]             --- 
quit game        [Esc]           --- 
name entry       [a]...[z]       --- 

system requirements

You need at least a P-90/SuperVGA system with Windows95 and DirectX 3.0 installed.

the 'Conmeg Config Tool'

This config tool creates a configuration file that is used by all games from Conmeg. The file will be saved as "c:\dxerrors.ini" with the hidden attribute set. This configuration includes basic settings like language and some special settings to improve the performance of our games.

warranty / license / disclaimer

Bubble Puzzle 97 is copyrighted 1997 by Conmeg Spielart. (Pape, Sander, Spittank, St÷rzel GbR)

You are hereby granted permission to freely distribute and use this program for personal use and entertainment. You may upload this program to electronic bulletin boards or the Internet. You are specifically prohibited from selling or charging or requesting any monetary amount for the distribution or use of Bubble Puzzle 97 or accompanying documentation. It may not be used for any commercial purposes without the prior express written permission of Conmeg Spielart. Bubble Puzzle 97 may not be distributed for use with any for-profit products (software, hardware, or other; including, but not limited to, commercial software, shareware, etc.) without the prior express written permission of Conmeg Spielart. There is no warranty of any kind; this software is provided on an "AS-IS" basis. The author of this software shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever that may result, directly or indirectly, from the use of this software or documentation. By owning a copy of and/or using Bubble Puzzle 97, you agree to all the above terms.

troubleshooting

Bubble Puzzle controls the hardware totally via DirectX. If any problems occur, which look like hardware problems, check your DirectX installation or look out for the newest version of your DirectX drivers.

For the most common problems we packed together a FAQ-file, you can find the latest version online. Here`s an extract of this file:

File DSOUND.DLL missing!

  Bubble Puzzle 97 is a DirectX game and therefore it is essential that you have installed DirectX properly before running BP 97. Be aware: Version 1.0 of BP 97 had some Problems with the current version 5 of DirectX. So you can download and install version 3 of DX (a few mBytes less than version 5) if you haven't done so yet, or get the latest version of BP97 which runs with DX3 or higher.

I've installed DirectX 5.0, but still have problems!

  You still might have the older version 1.0 of Bubble Puzzle 97, which has been compiled under DX3. When we tried to run BP 97 under DirectX 5.0 we were shocked by many new graphic bugs, but with the latest version of BP 97 most of them should be fixed!

Bubbles leaving trails / shadows on my screen

  When we started on developing Bubble Puzzle 97 we worked under DirectX3.0 and everything (almost everything ;) looked fine. After DirectX5.0 came out we had to realize, that those early releases of Bubble Puzzle cause some graphic errors under DirectX5.0. From release 1.1f on those problems should be fixed. The most recent version of Bubble Puzzle can always be found at our download area.

How do I write my own level ?

  It is indeed very simple... Stefan wrote an excellent tutorial on this topic, which can be found on the Level Designers' Page - and don't forget: you can send us new level and we will make them public on our homepage.

If there are any other problems, or problems you are not able to decide, whether it is hardware-based or not, don't be afraid to contact us via email: conmeg@conmeg.de.

known bugs

- If you switch back from another application, it lasts a long time before the playing field is restored (but the game continues!).

- The game doesn't work on some WinNT-platforms.


-- Oliver Pape, Frank Sander, Stefan Spittank, Marc St÷rzel | Conmeg Spielart
-- English Version updated and corrected by Nancy J. Belford, thank you Nancy!

visit our Homepage: http://www.conmeg.de
or mail us: conmeg@conmeg.de

Address:
Pape, Sander, Spittank, St÷rzel GbR
Am Huchtert 46
D-58456 Witten
-Germany-

Conmeg is a registered trademark of the Pape, Sander, Spittank, St÷rzel GbR
Windows 95, Windows NT and DirectX are trademarks owned by Microsoft (TM)
.