If you are upgrading from an older version of Monkey Shines, please read the version history at the end of this document.
Introducing Bonzo
Bonzo is an adventuresome ape, and always seems to get into trouble. He's really done it this time, and wakes up after a heavy night on the jungle juice to find himself in a haunted house, with strange creatures all around. Can you get Bonzo back home to his family ?
Controlling Bonzo couldn't be simpler. Use the keyboard to move Bonzo left and right and to make Bonzo jump. The default keys are the arrow keys - use the left and right arrow keys to make Bonzo walk left and right, and the up arrow key to jump. You can customise these keys or use a joystick. See the section on 'joysticks' for some important information.
Bonzo is a pacifist, so he will have to rely on your skills to avoid his enemies (anything which moves and several things which don't!).
In order to get home, Bonzo has to pass through five different worlds. To complete a world, guide Bonzo to get all the red keys. Once you have these, an exit door will appear somewhere in the world. Hurry, because your bonus will be counting down... The blue keys will allow Bonzo to explore a bonus level. Get them all, find the door, and grab those extra points.
There is plenty of fruit to collect for even more points (get them all for a special bonus), and other objects which will help Bonzo in his quest.
The wing protects Bonzo from damage due to falling. Long falls cost Bonzo some of his energy, and when he loses all his energy, you lose a life.
The shield protects Bonzo from ALL enemies.
The lightning strike replenishes Bonzo's energy.
The x2, x3 and x4 increase the value of all fruit and keys collected.
These 'power-ups' only last for a short time, so make the most of them.
Bonzo's enemies
These are many and varied. Monkey Shines features over 100 animated enemies. If it moves, it's up to no good. There are some things which don't move but also kill Bonzo. These include bombs, light bulbs and pools of molten lava. There are a few others, which we are sure you will find!
Bonzo has a special dislike for bees, and the bees don't like Bonzo much either. Bee stings are not immediately fatal, but they will drain Bonzo of energy. Try to steer clear.
The legal stuff
Well, we might as well get this out of the way now.
Monkey Shines is shareware. It is not a free product. You may test Monkey Shines free of charge for up to 30 days. After that time you must either pay for Monkey Shines or delete it from your hard disk. To pay for Monkey Shines, print out and complete the document 'Monkey Shines Order Form' which should be in the Monkey Shines folder (if you don't have this document, contact us at the address below) and send it to Fantasoft with your payment (the address is given below). The registration fee is $20. You can pay by cash, check, money order and major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover). When you send us your payment we will send you a registration number which will personalise your copy of Monkey Shines and allow you to play all the levels (the unregistered game will only allow you to play the first world - about 40 levels) plus any you design yourselves.
We can accept checks in most foreign currencies. Just send a check for the equivalent of $20 U.S. See the document 'Monkey Shines Order Form' for a list of common exchange rates.
We encourage you to distribute Monkey Shines far and wide. However, you may ONLY distribute the unregistered version, and you must include ALL the files. You must NOT charge any money for distributing Monkey Shines. You may include Monkey Shines on your ftp site/web page as long as you do not charge per download, and you have all the original files in an unaltered state. You may not include Monkey Shines on a CD-ROM compilation* without the permission of Fantasoft LLC. Contact us at the address below for details. You may not distribute modified versions of the Monkey Shines application under any circumstances.
Since we are giving you access to the Monkey Shines Level Editor, you may distribute modified world files. However, these must be clearly labelled as such, and may not be bundled with the 'official' Monkey Shines distribution.
* CD-ROMS included free of charge with magazines are exempt from this.
Getting Started
Monkey Shines consists of 6 files. These are the 'Monkey Shines' application, and the world files 'Bonzo World 1', 'Bonzo World 2', 'Bonzo World 3', 'Bonzo World 4' and 'Bonzo World 5'. Ideally these files should all be in the same folder, but if the world files are on a CD ROM, they will still be found. There is also a 'Monkey Shines Level Editor' which is optional, and will allow you to create your own levels for Bonzo to explore.
Monkey Shines will run happily from a CD-ROM or other external disk. It creates a preferences file in your preferences folder (which is in your active system folder), so as long as this disk isn't locked, everything should be okay. However, we really recommend that you copy the Monkey Shines application to your hard disk before playing. It will load much faster. You will probably want to put all the world files in the same folder on your hard disk, but if you haven't got much disk space, you can install only the worlds you wish to play, or if you have Monkey Shines on a CD ROM, insert the CD and Monkey Shines will find the files. Since the CD ROM will not be accessed during the game, there should not be a performance hit. Basically, put things where you want them and leave Monkey Shines to worry about it.
Bonzo World 1 = Spooked
Bonzo World 2 = Spaced Out
Bonzo World 3 = About the House
Bonzo World 4 = In the Drink
Bonzo World 5 = In the Swing
Now just double-click on the 'Monkey Shines' application, and you're on your way.
When you have configured Monkey Shines to your satisfaction (music and sound volume, key settings) click on 'New Game' to play. You will then have to choose the world you want to start on. Unregistered users can only play 'Spooked'. When you register (pay!), we will send you a code which will personalise your copy of Monkey Shines and allow you to play all the levels, as well as any levels you design yourself. Don't edit 'Bonzo World 1' unless you have registered - the game will not accept modified versions of this file.
Customising Keys
You can configure the keyboard settings for Monkey Shines to suit your own preferences. Simply click the 'Controls' button to show the key settings dialog. Click on the key you want to change (the name of the key will turn yellow). Then press the key you would like to assign to this function. It couldn't be simpler.
Special Keys
During the game, you can still use command-q to quit directly back to the finder. Command-a will abort the current game, while 'escape' will abort one life (useful if you get stuck on a level with no way to die). You can also quit (command-q) from the world selection screen, or abort by pressing 'escape'. To save embarrasment, don't assign
'command' to 'jump' and 'q' to 'left' - you won't have a very long game!
Pausing the Game
During the game, you can pause using the caps-lock key. This will allow you access to the menu bar and allow you access to the Finder and other applications.
Multiple Monitors
If you are lucky enough to have more than one monitor connected to your Mac, the first time you run Monkey Shines, it will ask you which monitor you want to play on. If you change your mind later, simply hold down the option key when launching the Monkey Shines application to choose again.
System Requirements
Monkey Shines requires a colour MacOS compatible computer (Apple Macintosh or clone) with a 68020 or higher processor and 5000K free RAM.
Monkey Shines is heavily optimised for 256 colours. It NEEDS a screen capable of displaying 640 x 480 pixels or more. If you have more than one screen, but only one is capable of 256 colours, this screen will be used without asking (see multiple monitors above). There is no way to run Monkey Shines in 16 greys (for example) if you have a 256 colour-capable screen attached (can't see why anyone would want to do this anyway!). If you do not have a screen capable of showing 256 colours, you will be forced to run Monkey Shines in QuickDraw mode (see below). For various reasons, running in QuickDraw mode with the screen in 8-bit colour is MUCH faster than with the screen in other depths. There isn't much we can do about this without producing separate versions of Monkey Shines optimised for each bit depth. We have no plans to do this (sorry).
Monkey Shines is PowerPC native, so you will get the optimal performance on all Macs. Monkey Shines requires that you be running at least System 7 (you aren't still running System 6 are you ?), and strongly recommends that you have Sound Manager 3.1 or higher installed (Sound Manager 3.2.1 is the current version). If you have only 8MB total RAM, you may need to disable some system extensions in order to make 5000K available for Monkey Shines. To do this, either use the 'Extensions Manager' control panel, or hold down the shift key at startup. Increasing the memory allocation to Monkey Shines makes very little difference, except on slower macs.
Performance Issues
Monkey Shines uses many techniques to get maximum performance from slower Macs. However, Macs with 68020 or 68030 processors (e.g. the LC, LCII, LCIII and their Performa equivalents) may struggle a little. By default the music is turned off on these machines. You may turn it on if you wish (use the menu bar, not the volume control slider), but we feel that the performance will be unacceptable.
Turning the music off using the menu bar is not the same as setting the volume to zero using the volume control. In order to see the performance gains, you MUST disable the music from the menu. Setting the sound volume to zero will cause sounds not to be played, and you will see a slight improvement in performance on slower machines.
On the slowest Macs, loading a world file or moving between screens in the interface can take quite a long time (often more than a minute to load the game data on an LC). Don't assume Monkey Shines has crashed! Just be a little patient. In order to make the actual game as fast as possible, we had to do a little more work while the level is loading - there are a lot of graphics to load, so give it a bit more time. It's worth it! The performance of the actual game will still be pretty good.
QuickDraw or not QuickDraw
Apple's graphics code for the MacOS is called 'QuickDraw'. In order to get the best performance, Monkey Shines doesn't normally use QuickDraw. Since this may be a problem with 3rd party video cards or future versions of the MacOS, we provide an option to use QuickDraw. Simply select the 'Use QuickDraw' menu option. This menu item will have a tick at the side of it if QuickDraw is enabled. All PowerPC Macs and some of the faster 68040 Macs will be fast enough to use QuickDraw. Slower Macs such as the LCII need all the help they can get, so you shouldn't use QuickDraw on these machines. The fast Monkey Shines graphics code obeys all the rules, so it is unlikely that you will have problems.
The Menu Bar
Yup, we hide it from you. It's not like we don't trust you. In fact, if you click the mouse where the menu bar should be, you'll find it was there all along. Use the menu to disable the music, turn the QuickDraw option on or off, or to toggle the hiding of the desktop. It's your Mac, and we want you to decide.
Joysticks
Joysticks made by CH Products (including the Flightstick Pro, Jetstick, F16 FighterStick and CH GamePad) support a programming interface (JoyManager) which allows you to use these joysticks without configuring the key settings in your joystick's control panel. This means that you won't have to reconfigure your joystick every time you redefine the keys. Monkey Shines really is plug and play! Other joysticks will need to be configured using the joystick's control panel. Check the instructions which came with your joystick to find out how to do this. Apple also support a similar programming interface (InputSprocket) which does the same for other joysticks. Monkey Shines does not support Input Sprocket at present, but probably will within the next couple of months. We will keep you posted.
Troubleshooting
1. Monkey Shines crashes
- it shouldn't ! Monkey Shines has been tested extensively on a whole range of Macs.
Versions prior to 1.1 had a bug in the music code. We hope this is now fixed, but since we can't reliably reproduce the crash, we can't be sure. If you still have problems, run through the steps below (and tell us so we know to keep looking).
First of all, look in your extensions folder (in your system folder) for a file called 'SoundLib'. If you find it, remove it. Honestly, you don't need it, and it is known to conflict with the music code.
If this fails, run through the following sequence.
i) Delete the preferences file (it is called 'Monkey Shines Preferences' and you will find it in the Preferences
folder inside your system folder) and high scores file (Bonzo Scores). These may get corrupted during
crashes, although with version 1.1 of Monkey Shines, this shouldn't be a problem.
ii) Zap the parameter RAM (PRAM) (hold down command-option-p-r on startup). This will force another
automatic restart. Hold down the shift key on startup this time to disable system extensions. See also
number 4 below.
iii) Run Monkey Shines.
At this point, Monkey Shines should run smoothly. If it crashes again when try to run it with your system extensions on, there is probably an extension conflict (see number 3 below).
Here are some other things to look out for. Remeber to delete your preferences file each time Monkey Shines crashes, just in case.
1. Are you running in 24 bit memory mode ? Open the 'Memory' control panel and make sure it is set to
'32 bit'. If you have a PowerPC mac, make sure the modern memory manager is turned on (newer systems
may not have a choice - if this is the case, you should be fine).
2. Are you using virtual memory or RAM Doubler ? Monkey Shines is compatible with virtual memory,
but may suffer from performance problems, especially on the slower Macs or those with not enough
physical RAM. Virtual memory is not a substitute for real RAM.
3. Do you have a system extension which is causing problems ? Try holding the shift key down when you
turn on your Mac in order to disable your system extensions. Then you can use Apple's 'Extension Manager'
to turn them back on one at a time until you find the culprit.
If you have tried everything and still can't get Monkey Shines to run properly, contact Fantasoft and we will try to help you. The address is at the bottom of this document. Please include as much detail as possible (e.g. type of mac, amount of RAM, version of system software, system extensions, etc.). Bug reports like 'it crashes, I hate you' aren't much help (we have had some like that, honest!).
Using Levels Designed by Other People
Monkey Shines includes a level editor so that you can design your own levels or modify ours. You will not be able to use modified levels until you have registered (paid for) Monkey Shines. To play a 3rd party world, simply click on 'other' in the world selection screen. This will then prompt you to find the world file using a standard 'open file' dialog. Third-party worlds can not be played in a specific order, since the game won't know which world to go to next. If you want to make your world file come second out of five, simply name it 'Bonzo World 2'.
The editor is no longer a beta version. We believe it to be perfectly stable. However, it may not always behave as you would expect for a good Mac program. If you have trouble, let us know what you think should be changed, and we will look into it. If you do manage to find a bug, please tell us so we can fix it. You are strongly advised to back up your levels regularly in case of crashes. The document 'Monkey Shines Editor Info' contains a description of the level file format and instructions on how to use the editor.
Getting the latest version of Monkey Shines
You can always get the latest version of Monkey Shines from Fantasoft. If you have world-wide-web access, point your browser at <http://www.fantasoft.com/> to download it. Your favourite Mac magazine should have the most recent version on its cover CD. If not, tell us (and them!) so we can arrange it.
If all else fails, for a nominal charge we will mail you the latest version on disk or CD. See the registration form for details.
A Final Note
We like to think that Monkey Shines is a high quality shareware product. This game has taken a lot of time to produce, and only by supporting shareware can we ensure the production of more games of this quality. Many companies are now distributing high quality software under the shareware scheme. It's good for all of us, because you get the chance to try the software before you pay, and we can keep our overheads down, and give you the software at a reasonable cost. If you want to see more high quality software for the Macintosh, please support shareware.
And if you don't like Monkey Shines, please feel free to tell us why!
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank many people who helped out during the creation of this game. First of all, Antione Rosset for the 'Player Pro' libraries which play the music. Also, Guido Körber of Fesh for the 'JoyManager' libraries which make joystick use as simple as possible. Matt Slot wrote the fading routines. Thanks also to Ingemar Ragnemalm for the SAT libraries - Monkey Shines doesn't use SAT, but it got me started. I would also like to thank Alex Metcalf for various tips and advice, and David Lau for the delivery service!!!
Credit is also due to Metrowerks for producing the best development tools on the market.
Finally, thanks to the team of beta testers, led in no uncertain manner by Vern Jensen. A public apology is in order to Vern, Alex, Ville-Eemeli and Petteri for the many stupid bugs in the editor which cost them so much time. The rest of the crew (in no particular order) are Rose 'BamBam' Cooper, Steffan Davies, Eric Kornblum, Rich O'Brien, Alex Moratorio, Kjetil, Kevin Hendrickson, AstroNine, Jeff Robison, Eric Wohlstadter, Teddy Schatz, Jason R. Etheridge, John Forbes and Bill Greentree.
Version History
1.0.0. Initial Release
1.0.1. Fixed the Fantasoft phone number in the registration dialog (oops!). This version was never publically released.
1.0.2. Better error checking in the music code to help us try to locate the problems some people were having.
1.0.3. Better handling of the 'world file not found' dialog. The application looks for the selected world file in the same folder, but if it isn't there, all mounted volumes (including CDs) are searched. High scores are now stored in the preferences file. This means that Monkey Shines doesn't have to create a file in its own folder, so it will run better from locked volumes (e.g. CDs). If you have a high scores file from an older version, the scores will be copied into the preferences file and the old high scores file deleted. World 2 had a bug which is now fixed.
1.1 Rewrote the entire graphics engine! The limitation whereby two sprites could not overlap is now gone (see older versions of the level editor manual for details). Added a QuickDraw compatibility option. As a result of this, Monkey Shines will now run as well as it can, even if you don't have a screen capable of 256 colours. Changed the paused screen to read 'Paused' instead of 'Time Out', since this was confusing some people. Fixed a bug with the error message warning. Updated the music libraries. Hopefully this will fix the problems people have had with the stability of the music (if not, we left the appropriate sections of the troubleshooting section in place.
1.1.1 Fixed a bug in the 'death by bee sting'. Quite a spectacular one actually!
1.1.2 Updated music code to version 4.5.8. Some people are still having trouble. If you are one of those people, look in your extensions folder (in your system folder) for a file called 'SoundLib'. If you find it, remove it. Honestly, you don't need it. Fixed a problem with one of the sprite animations (2 sets of frames vertical) which didn't work.
How to contact us
By mail:
Fantasoft, LLC
P.O. Box 14261
Madison
WI 53714-0261
U.S.A.
By phone/fax: (608) 222 8468
By email: fantasoft1@aol.com
Visit our world wide web pages: <http://www.fantasoft.com/>
