i.b.Spider

an eddyware game

Meet i.b.Spider, International Spout-Climber Extraordinaire. Fearless. Determined. And often very, very wet. Are you bug enough to accompany i.b. through the twisting maze of the treacherous Sewers of Peril?

The following Topics are addressed in this Help File:

Game Play and Options

Installation and Troubleshooting

About the Author

© eddyware 2000

This game is freeware. You may play it and distribute it free of charge. It is not public domain. Refer to the included file Readme.txt for further details.

Feel free to contact me for assistance, comments, or suggestions.

-ed

eddyware@yahoo.com


GAME PLAY AND OPTIONS
i.b.Spider

an eddyware game

HOW TO PLAY

Conceptually, i.b.Spider is one of the simplest and oldest breeds of video game. The object is to maneuver i.b. the Spider through a maze to reach his destination while avoiding nasty water droplets intent on washing him out. At the beginning of each Level, i.b. starts at the bottom-right corner of the pipe-maze and must progress to the top-left corner. If he manages to do so, he progresses to the next level, which is just a little bit more difficult. The game continues until all three spiders have been soaked by the menacing water droplets wandering the maze. After successfully completing five levels, i.b. continues to the next level of difficulty and is given the opportunity to earn an extra life by catching flies in a Bonus Round.

CONTROLS

Use the arrow keys (not the numeric keypad) to maneuver i.b. through the pipes. Avoid the droplets. Use the PAUSE key to pause/unpause and use the ESCAPE key to abort the game.

BONUS ROUND

The Bonus Round is radically different from the rest of the game. The object is to swing back and forth (using the Right and Left arrow keys) and move up and down (using the Up and Down arrow keys) to try to grab as many flies as you can. Each time you grab a fly, you must bring it back to your web before setting out to catch another.  The upper right corner displays the number of flies you have left to catch in order to earn an extra life.

Avoid the BumbleBees. If you meet one of these, or if you haven’t caught your quota of flies before time runs out (indicated by the red bar at the top), the Bonus Round will end, along with your chances for an extra life.

OPTIONS

The Options Screen allows you to control various features of the game.

Difficulty Level controls how difficult the game will be. It ranges from rather easy to very VERY difficult.

Screen controls whether you want the game to run in a Window or Full Screen. Full Screen usually runs faster.

Sound allows you to choose the Sound Platform that works best on your system. DirectX sound is usually best. MCI Sound only allows one sound effect to be played at a time, resulting in some effects being dropped.

Music allows you to enable/disable the music.

Save Settings allows you to save the current Options to an INI file so that they will be remembered the next time you run the game.

HELPFUL HINTS

Here are some tidbits of advice that just might save your abdomen some day:

•	Patience is a virtue. Many spiders have been needlessly doused because of their recklessness.

•	You are always safe in the starting pipe. This can be a good place to collect your thoughts.

•	If you leave the maze through any pipe other than the start or finish, you will be immediately returned to the starting pipe. This can be annoying sometimes, but in a jam, it can save your life.

•	Don't sit and wait for a path to open up all the way to the finish. It may never happen, and if it does, it's just as likely to change before you can take advantage of it. Instead, take what you can get, a little at a time. But don't forget that this game is also about survival. Try to be where the water isn't.

•	Nothing happens without warning. Pay attention to your surroundings.

•	Take advantage of the rotating pipes. If you're in place when one starts to move, you can "catch a ride" with it. Sometimes this can take you somewhere you wouldn't have been able to reach for a while.

•	Watch for the patterns. This game isn't as random as it appears. A savvy spider will find that he is often able to predict enough of the behavior of the maze around him to avoid trouble.


INSTALLATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING
i.b.Spider

an eddyware game

INSTALLATION

As with all eddyware products, this game requires no installation. If you have copied the game to your computer, then it’s installed. If you delete it, then it’s uninstalled. It does not alter your Start Menu, Desktop, or System Registry in any way. If you instruct the game to save your options, it will create a simple INI file in the program directory. In the event of a fatal error, the program will also attempt to create an error log in the program directory. This game is “throwaway friendly,” meaning that if you delete the program directory, you need not worry about it leaving any unwanted residue on your system.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

I regret that I don’t have access to the kind of resources required to pin down exactly what this game requires in terms of processor speed or memory. The specifications listed here are largely conjecture and are not a guarantee that the game will work.

Minimum Requirements

•	Windows 95, 98, or NT 4. I have not had the opportunity to test it on Windows 2000.

•	Pentium Processor 100+ MHz w/ 32 MB RAM. May have to run Full Screen to improve speed.

•	DirectX 3.0 or higher.

•	DirectX compatible graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution in 16-bit (High Color) color mode.

Recommended Requirements

•	Windows 98. Some of Win 98’s file-caching features speed up the music load times considerably.

•	Pentium II w/ 32 MB RAM.

•	DirectX 5.0 or higher.

•	DirectX compatible graphics and sound card.

TROUBLESHOOTING

It is a popular saying that “You get what you pay for.” Nowhere is this saying more accurate than in the realm of freeware. I wish it were within my capabilities to write a program that would work flawlessly on every system on the planet. Unfortunately, I only have a very limited amount of spare time to spend on this kind of thing and I know that my wife wishes I wouldn’t spend as much as I do now.

I have included a list of some of the more common problems I have noticed on the few systems on which this game has been tested.

Some of My Sound Options are Disabled

If some of your Sound Options (in the Options Screen) are disabled, this means that the program was either unable to find a Sound Device or an error occurred while initializing the Sound. Basically, it means that i.b.Spider will be unable to provide the specified type of sound.

I Hear the Sound Effects, But They Occur at the Wrong Time

On systems running DirectX version 3 (such as Windows NT systems), using DirectX sound often causes long delays before playing the sound effects. This is due to the fact that DirectSound version 3 is very slow and cannot handle the number of concurrent sounds in i.b.Spider. It is recommended that if you experience this problem, that you switch to using MCI Sound (on the Options Screen).

I Hear Some Sound Effects, But Not Others

If you are using MCI Sound (on the Options Screen), then you may notice that not all sound effects come through. This is due to the fact that MCI Sound can only play one sound effect at a time. Using this Sound Mode causes all background sound effects to be dropped and only the major sound effects will be played. Also, MCI Sound doesn’t give me the same control over volume as DirectX does, so some of the sound effects may not be played at the ideal volume.

I Experience Long Delays When Loading the Game

Some delay while loading the game is expected. Slower computers can expect even longer delays. However, if you are experiencing abnormally long delays this is probably due to the loading time required by the Music files. Disabling the Music (on the Options Screen) will likely speed things up dramatically.

The Game Runs, But it is Too Slow

Unfortunately, some computers will simply be too slow to effectively run this game. However, here are some things you can do to try and speed things up.

•	Try running in Full Screen Mode. This almost always runs faster than Windowed Mode.

•	Try disabling Music and Sound Effects for better performance.

•	Pace yourself by the Bonus Round. At the perfect speed, the Bonus Round time should expire at almost exactly the same time the music finishes (within one to two seconds). If you find that the music finishes well before time runs out, your system is not running the game at the speed it was intended.

The Game Runs, But I See Black or White Boxes Around Some Objects

This error has been observed on some systems. I haven’t yet been able to hunt down the exact cause, but so far it has only been observed when the game is running Full Screen. Switching to Windowed Mode may help.

The Game Crashes When I Try to Play It or The Game Suddenly Closes Without Explanation

I’m afraid there are too many things that could cause this for me to list them all here. Try disabling Sound and Music, and running the game in a Window (rather than Full Screen) for more stability. Also check the SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS section to verify that your system is able to run this game. In particular, make sure your system is capable of at least 640x480x16. You might also want to check to see if I have released a more recent version of the game than the one you are running.

If you experience problems running i.b.Spider and feel that I might be of assistance, you may contact me at eddyware@yahoo.com. I check this account infrequently, but I promise to look in to any problems sent my way, as my free time permits.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
i.b.Spider

an eddyware game

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This game is for my daughter, Casey. She’s a bit young to play it yet, but she loves the song. It was the quiet moments with her at bed-time singing this song over and over again that inspired the idea for this program.

Those of you who downloaded eddyware’s first publication, ED'S PIPES, are probably saying "Hey!  This looks like the same game!"  Well, no it's not!  This is entirely different and the fact that they both take place in a pipe maze is completely coincidental. OK, mostly coincidental.  Actually, when I first conceived of i.b.Spider I started thinking "Hey!  I have a bunch of pipe-maze graphics already put together from the last game I did!"  And, well, the idea just snowballed from there.

This is the first game I've ever written that I actually enjoy playing.

I hope you feel the same way.  (And if you don't, well, Hey! It was free!)