GameStar Special 2004 August

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============================ Hamsterball version 1.00R April 22, 2003 by Raptisoft http://www.raptisoft.com ============================ Thanks for downloading Hamsterball! We hope you enjoy the game! Version History 1.00 Initial Release! 1.50 Added extended mouse and keyboard configuration to options Small fixes to Odd Race and Master Race Incorporated BASS 2.0 libraries 2.00 Added multiplayer games, better error reporting, and some additional bug fixes. ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= - 1.0 Required Specs And Recommended Specs 1.1 Required Specs 1.2 Recommended Specs - 2.0 Troubleshooting/Compatibility 2.1 DirectX« 2.2 Resolution 2.3 Screen Color Depth 2.4 Safe Mode 2.5 Bug Reporting - 3.0 Instructions 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Controls 3.3 Game Selection 3.4 Unlocking Races 3.5 Party Games 3.6 Options 3.7 Save/Resume a Game 3.8 Pause - 4.0 Game Concepts 4.1 Tournament 4.2 Time Trial 4.3 Mirror Tournament 4.4 Obstacles and Enemies - 5.0 Scoring - 6.0 Registration - 7.0 Gameplay Tips - 8.0 Technical Support - 9.0 Credits - 10.0 Software Use Limitations And Limited License - 11.0 Copyright Information ======================================== 1.0 REQUIRED SPECS AND RECOMMENDED SPECS ======================================== 1.1 REQUIRED SPECS Hamsterball requires an IBM PC or 100% compatible computer, with a Pentium III 700 MHz or better processor. Your computer must have at least 32 megabytes of RAM. Operating System: you must be utilizing Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, or XP with DirectX« 8 or later to play Hamsterball on your system. Controls: a keyboard and a 100% Microsoft compatible mouse are required. A gamepad or joystick is optional. Sound: you must have a DirectX« certified sound card installed. Video: You must have a 100% DirectX« 8 compatible hardware accelerated video card. 1.2 RECOMMENDED SPECS Raptisoft recommends an IBM PC or 100% compatible computer, with a Pentium III 1 GHz or better processor and full updated drivers for your video card. =================================== 2.0 TROUBLESHOOTING / COMPATIBILITY =================================== For Updates To This List Go To www.raptisoft.com. 2.1 DirectX« Hamsterball requires you to have DirectX« 8 drivers or later installed. If you need the latest version of DirectX«, go to http://www.microsoft.com/directx. 2.2 Resolution Hamsterball can be played in 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 or 1280x1024 resolution. Game performance decreases greatly as the resolution is increased. For older computers, 640x480 is recommended. 2.3 Screen Color Depth Hamsterball can be played in 16-bit or 32-bit screen color depth. You may experience better game performance in 16-bit mode, which is recommended. 2.4 Safe Mode Some video cards are not 100% compatible with DirectX. This can cause graphical glitches, including but not restricted to, foggy screens, strange black areas, and stuttering. The game can be operated in Safe Mode, which will reduce the graphics quality, but increase the compatibility. 2.3 Bug Reporting Though we've tried to roll all the bugs out of Hamsterball, sometimes a bug or two slips through... If you experience bugs in Hamsterball, please first try to update your video card drivers. Many graphical bugs are solved simply by obtaining the latest drivers from your card manufacturer or Windows Update. If that doesn't fix the bug, and Safe Mode doesn't help, please visit www.raptisoft.com and follow the "Contact" link for information on how to report the bug to Raptisoft. ================ 3.0 INSTRUCTIONS ================ 3.1 INTRODUCTION Welcome to Hamsterball, the Rowdiest Rodent Racer of all time! Your job is to roll your Hamster from the race's start to the goal in the least amount of time! Long falls, dangerous enemies, and other hazards can cause your hamster to get dizzy, crack, or even go spinning off into space! There are two different game modes. The Tournament Game is a race against a countdown clock, while the Time Trial game is good for practicing, since you can never lose! In Hamsterball, you do not have lives. You can crack, smash, and all-around abuse your hamster as much as you want. Whenever you crash a hamster via a long fall or collision with an enemy, you will recieve a new hamster, materializing somewhere nearby. Your only true obstacle in Hamsterball is time. Since crashing or cracking a hamster takes up time, the less you crash the better you'll do. 3.2 CONTROLS Hamsterball can be controlled with the mouse, trackball, keyboard, or joystick. To play with the mouse, push your mouse in the direction you want the hamster to run. The more you move the mouse, the faster your hamster will run in that direction. You can adjust the sensitivity of the mouse in the options menu. You can right-click at any time to bring up the menu. When playing with the mouse, you will not have control of the mouse for normal windows operations during play. To play with the trackball, just roll the ball in the direction you want the hamster to run. This is the recommended way to play Hamsterball! To play with the keyboard, simply press an arrow key and the hamster will run in that direction. Pressing ESC at any time will bring up the menu. To play with the joystick, press the joystick pad or lever in the direction you want the hamster to run. Both digital and analog sticks are supported. Pressing a joystick button at any time will bring up the menu. 3.3 GAME SELECTION When you first start Hamsterball, you'll see a menu with "Let's Play!" as an option. Select "Let's Play!" and you will be present with the game menu. The Game Menu will give you the choice of a tournament game, time trial games, or the mirror tournament game. Note that the mirror tournament is not available until you win a tournament at a set difficulty. When you select a tournament game, you will be asked to choose a difficulty. The Pipsqueak difficulty is good for beginners, but it will not unlock any of the races for Time Trial, and it will not unlock the Mirror Tournament if you win the tournament. Normal difficutly and Frenzied difficulty are for progressively better players, and will do full unlocking. 3.4 UNLOCKING RACES When you start Hamsterball, only three Time Trial races are available for play, and the mirror tournament is not available. By playing tournament games on Normal or Frenzied difficulty, you can unlock Time Trial races simply by reaching them in the tournament. You can unlock the Mirror Tournament by winning a Tournament at Normal or Frenzied difficulty. Similary, only three Rumble Arenas are available as well. To unlock Rumble Arenas, you need to find the secret unlock platform in the associated level. Unlock platforms are pieces of the race that won't appear unless you touch them. See the tips, below, for some hints to help you find the way to unlock the Rumble Arenas! Note: You can only unlock Arenas while playing a Tournament game! The unlock platforms will not even appear in any other kind of game. 3.5 Party Games Hamsterball contains several two-player "Party Games" that you can play with a friend! PARTY RACE Allows you to race one on one with a friend, in split-screen. A running score is kept of how many races each player won. Races are only available here if you have unlocked them in the single player tournament. To play a party game, you must select a human controller for player #1 and player #2. RODENT RUMBLE is a special battle mode. You face your opponent in a small arena, and the goal is to knock your opponent off the platform as many times as you can in two minutes. In Rodent Rumble, you must have at least two players as either human or computer. 3.6 OPTIONS You can access the options menu by selecting "options" from the menu. Resolution: Selection this option will cycle through the screen resolutions that are available for your graphics card. Higher resolutions will cause slower gameplay, and are recommended only for faster computers. Fullscreen: When fullscreen is selected, Hamsterball will resize itself to fill the entire screen. If unchecked, it will appear in a window of the selected resolution. Color Quality: Hamsterball can be played in 16-bit or 32-bit color quality. 32-bit color offers a better display, but causes performance to drop on older machines. Safe Mode: Some graphics cards that are not 100% DirectX compatible can still play Hamsterball if safe mode is turned on. Select this option to turn safe mode on or off. Sound Volume: Music Volume: Click and drag (or press left/right if you are navigating with the keyboard) the volume slider button to increase or decrease the sound and music volume in the game. Remap Keyboard Controls: You can adjust the keys that Hamsterball will use to control the hamster, and make selections. The action keys are simply the keys you press to make a menu selection. You can specify more than one, for convenience. Mouse Sensitivity: When playing with the mouse, you can adjust how much the hamster will move relative to the mouse. High sensitivity will cause the hamster to respond faster than low sensitivity. Pause W/Right Mouse Button: Under normal circumstances, you can press the right mouse button to pause the game and access the menu at any time. If this causes problems during play, you can turn it off and use the ESC key to pause the game. 3.7 SAVE/RESUME A GAME When you play a tournament game, the game is saved whenever you return to the tournament screen or exit to the main menu. When you start a tournament game later, it will ask you if you want to resume your saved game. 3.8 PAUSE The game is paused whenever the menu is displayed. To display the menu during play, you can: o Right-click the mouse or trackball o Press ESC on the keyboard o Press any joystick button. The game will resume when you select "RESUME" on the menu. ================= 4.0 GAME CONCEPTS ================= There are two different game modes in Hamsterball, each with its own unique challenges and rewards. 4.1 TOURNAMENT The Tournament game is the basic Hamsterball game, and is the way you unlock Time Trial races and the Mirror Tournament. In Tournament games, you are given a pool of time. The object is to roll your Hamster through each course while you still have time in your time pool. The time pool will count down constantly during a race. When you win a course, the countdown will stop, and any time remaining in your time pool can be used in the next race. You can keep track of your progress on the tournament screen, where you can see what race you're on, a brief description of the race, and information on how much time you have left. At any time, you can roll back a race to correct mistakes, or try for a better time. However, rolling back the race will disqualify your from posting a high score when you win the tournament. You will lose the game after your time pool countdown reaches zero. After losing the game, you still have the option to roll back a race and possibly do better on a second try. Tournament games can be played at three difficulties: Pipsqueak: You get an extra five seconds to complete each race. All in-game enemies and moving obstacles have either been slowed down or removed. Good for practice, or for beginners. Tournaments played at Pipsqueak difficulty do not unlock Time Trial races or the Mirror Tournament. Normal: The default Hamsterball game. All the enemies are present, and 4.2 TIME TRIALS In Time Trial games, you may choose which race you want to challenge (note that races here are locked until you reach them in a Normal or Frenzied Tournament game). The goal in a Time Trial race is to beat the Target Time, which will net you a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Your medals will be displayed on the Time Trial race selection menu, next to the race name. You can also race to beat the Weasel's Time. The Weasel's time represents the time it takes to win the race using every sneaky trick in the book: cutting corners, slipping past obstacles, and generally winning it as fast as you can go. Beating the Weasel's Time gets you the coveted Golden Weasel commemorative figurine. When you replay a time trial race, a ghost image of your previous play will appear right on the course. This way, you can race yourself to the finish! (Note: The ghost will only appear when you play the same course two or more times in a row. Switching courses will cause the ghost to reset). 4.3 MIRROR TOURNAMENT When you've beaten a Tournament Game on Normal or Frenzied difficulty, you unlock the Mirror Tournament. The Mirror Tournament is the tournament as seen through a mirror, reversing the left and right sides of the screen. This unique challenge will test your true Hamsterball skills, as every obstacle, ramp, and pipe is reversed! 4.4 Obstacles and Enemies Each course in Hamsterball presents you with unique obstacles and enemies. Some are helpful, most are harmful. Here's what you can look forward to as you go a rollin': Long Falls: Long falls will shatter your hamsterball, causing you to restart safely somewhere nearby. Short Falls: Hamsterballs can survive short falls. But they'll make your hamster dizzy, and it'll be a little harder to control him for a few seconds. Pipes: Pipes are great for moving your hamster a long way vertically. When you see them, you can drop into them for a brief, safe trip further along the race. Bumpers: Whenever you touch a bumper, it'll light up and send your hamster spinning off at high speed! Bumpers can spend you spinning off a cliff, or can speed your progress through a course! 8-Balls: 8-Balls are your rolling competition. When you get near an 8-ball, it will zoom at you and attempt to knock your hamsterball away! Drawbridges: Lifting up and down, drawbridges require careful timing to cross! Spinnies: Spinny platforms twirl around, making it difficult to control your hamsterball. These are best avoided, or approached at high speed. Tarbabies: Tarbabies are to be avoided at all costs! Though they will not kill you, they stop you in your tracks, and then smear sticky tar on your hamsterball that will slow you down for a few seconds, even as you roll away! Catapults: Catapults can toss you over gaps and other obstacles that cannot be crossed. Mashing Maces: Don't get under these! Although you can touch them, when they come smashing down they can smash a nearby hamsterball to smithereens! Vacuums: Like pipes in reverse. Get underneath vacuums in order to be sucked up past cliffs that you couldn't otherwise climb. Speed Cylinders: When you touch a speed cylinder, it will turn on, spinning your hamster at up to 20,000 rpm! After a few seconds, your hamster will blast off at high speed, allowing you to climb hills or navigate obstacles that you otherwise couldn't. Bonk the Hammer: Bonk the Hammer will chase you, attempting to squash you flat. The only solution is to zig-zag, fast! Fanstorms: Fanstorms attempt to blow you off course with their mighty winds! When caught in a fanstorm, roll TOWARD the fan! Buzzblades: Buzzblades will not only destroy your hamsterball on touch, they'll actually cut away pieces of the course! When near these guys, think fast, because the ground might be falling out from under you! Oddballs: These little silver balls pop out of errant pipes and just roll away... they're not really a threat, except that navigating through dozens of rolling balls can be a bit difficult! Toobs: Like pipes, only transparent. Send your hamster into a toob for a twisty, crazy, rolling ride. Sawguys: These saws aren't as threatening as the Buzzblades. Touching a Sawguy only makes you dizzy, and that only if you touch the teeth. BlockDawgs: These irritating blockheads never show their faces! They just hunch underneath their little steel contraptions, waddling around, waiting to drop down right in front of you to block off your path! Wobbly Platforms: Some platforms aren't secured very well, and the weight of the hamsterball on them causes them to tip. You need to respond quickly to compensate! Mr. Beam: This gigantic magnifying glass tries to focus sunlight on your hamsterball, to get it hot enough to explode! Avoid him by zigzagging as fast as you can before your ball gets too hot! Starball: This ball really knows what it's doing, and it'll race you to the finish, getting in your way every time! =========== 5.0 SCORING =========== Scoring only exists in Tournament games. During Time Trial games, no score is kept, since the only objective is to beat the target time. You constantly score points while rolling. The faster you roll, the more you score. When you reach the goal, your remaining time is multipled by 100, and added to your score. Additionally, each tournament course has a "par" time associated with it. For beating the par time, you score 1000 points. There are also scoring modifiers that can be found in certain courses. When you score a bonus during a level, you will see the score hover over your hamsterball, indicating how many points you've scored. These include, but are not limited to: 2000 points for knocking an enemy 8-ball out of the race. 5000 points for making certain jumps. 500 points for smashing a mini 8-ball. You also score 100,000 bonus points when you win the entire tournament. At that time, you are also awarded extra "survival" points. The fewer hamsterballs you smash or lose during the game, the more survival points you score. When you play a tournament at Pipsqueak difficulty, all scoring is cut in half. When you play a tournament at Frenzied difficulty, all scoring is doubled. ================ 6.0 REGISTRATION ================ If you enjoy playing the Demo version of Hamsterball, sooner or later you'll need to register! You can register Hamsterball by visiting Real.com and following the registration process there! ================= 7.0 GAMEPLAY TIPS ================= General tips: o Zig-zagging is an important skill in Hamsterball. Practice switching your hamster's general direction at high speed as often as you can. This will become very useful in later levels! o The Weasel's Time can *always* be beaten. If it seems impossible, you may need to approach the race from a different perspective... such as jumping over a gap that you previously rolled around. o Most hazard areas of the game will restart you past the hazard if you're rolling fast enough. When facing a difficult hazard, try to pass at least half the hazard... that should be enough to restart you all the way past it if you do get destroyed in the meanwhile. o Because all controls are enabled all the time, you can alternate using them. If prefer the keyboard, but find a spot that's too hard to pass, try using the mouse just for that spot. If you use the mouse, but have trouble climbing a steep hill, use the keyboard to ease you over the top. o In the Up Race, you can get a time bonus by landing on the big red button near the goal. It takes some practice, but is worth it. o Similarly, in the expert race, there is a bell at the end of the giant ski-jump ramp. When making this jump, try to move the hamster to ring the bell for a time bonus! o When going down steep hills, try to keep your hamster moving slowly by running backwards up the hill. Otherwise, you'll build up too much momentum and lose control completely! Secret tips: In each Tournament level, there is a secret place that will unlock the Arena that goes with the level. Here's a few tips to help you get started finding them! o On the Dizzy Race, look for an inviting little gate in hostile territory. o On the Tower Race, don't take the jump... "Go the Other Way" o On the Up Race, you start at the bottom. So the secret is up. o On the Expert Race, look along the path of least resistance. o On the Odd Race, look where you can see the most oddness at once. o On the Toob Race, resist the temptation to take short cuts when your time is running low. o On the Wobbly Race, think beyond winning. o On the Sky Race, you require a leap of faith when the heat is on. And it will cost you. o On the Master Race you need good aim and poor judgement. ===================== 9.0 TECHNICAL SUPPORT ===================== If you are experiencing problems with Hamsterball, you can contact us at: support@raptisoft.com. If you can, including the following information along with a description of your problem will help us to help you! -Title Of Game (Hamsterball) -Computer Manufacturer -Operating System (Windows 95, Windows 98, Etc.) -CPU Type And Speed In MHz -Version of DirectX you have installed -Amount Of RAM -Sound Card Type And Settings (Address, IRQ, DMA) -Video Card -Mouse Driver And Version -A Copy Of The CONFIG.SYS And AUTOEXEC.BAT Files ============ 10.0 CREDITS ============ Hamsterball was created by Rapstisoft Games. Game Design: John Raptis Programming: Nick Raptis Level Design: John Raptis Gary Clair Physics: Paul Nettle Music: Skaven Creature Design: John Raptis Gary Clair Level Models: Steve Warner Rodent Models: John Hsia Play Balancing: Brady Wright Game Installer: Brian Fiete Thanks to all our beta testers and the folks at Dexterity.com for their feedback! ================================================= 11.0 SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE ================================================= GENERAL PRODUCT LICENSE. This Copy Of HAMSTERBALL (The "Software") Is Intended Solely For Your Personal Non-Commercial Home Entertainment Use. You May Not Decompile, Reverse Engineer, Or Disassemble The Software, Except As Permitted By Law. Raptisoft LLC And Its Licensors Retain All Right, Title And Interest In The Software Including All Intellectual Property Rights Embodied Therein And Derivatives Thereof. The Software, Including, Without Limitation, All Code, Data Structures, Characters, Images, Sounds, Text, Screens, Game Play, Derivative Works And All Other Elements Of The Software May Not Be Copied, Resold, Rented, Leased, Distributed (Electronically Or Otherwise), Used On A Pay-Per-Play, Coin-Op Or Other For-Charge Basis, Or For Any Commercial Purpose. Any Permissions Granted Herein Are Provided On A Temporary Basis And Can Be Withdrawn By Raptisoft, LLC At Any Time. All Rights Not Expressly Granted Are Reserved. ACCEPTANCE OF LICENSE TERMS. By Acquiring And Retaining This Software, You Assent To The Terms And Restrictions Of This Limited License. If You Do Not Accept The Terms Of This Limited License, Do Not Install or Use This Software. ========================== 12.0 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION =========================== HAMSTERBALL ⌐2002-2003 Raptisoft LLC. All Other Copyrights And Trademarks Are Property Of Their Respective Owners. All Rights Reserved.