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.RR L-----!----!------!--!----!----!----!----!----!----!------------R .ls 1 TrainBall tm Shareware Version Start The Program Copy all of the files on the distribution disk to your hard disk or to a working floppy disk. TBALL must be run from the directory in which it is located. You cannot put that directory in the PATH command and run the program from other directories. Type TBALL [enter] to start the program. Set Up Press "C" (without the quotes) at the Main Menu for Color setup. If you have a color interface card then so indicate when asked and select foreground and background colors for the track and for each of three trains. If you have a monochrome system, then so indicate when asked. If you have a monochrome system you will be allowed to set "colors" as either bright white and black or black and bright white as the foreground and background colors for the track and the trains. Because you may move this program from computer to computer, the first time you want to set colors in a session the program will ask you what kind of a machine you have. I suggest you use light foreground on dark background for the tracks and dark foreground on light background for the trains. For some unknown (to me) reason you cannot set a dark foreground color on a light background. Dark Blue on Yellow does not seem to work. Screen Layouts A file called TBALL.TRK is included with the program. You can select it with "S" for Screen on the Main Menu and edit it or you can press "S" and start your own pinball screen layout under any name you choose. The program MUST find a file called TBALL.TRK on the disk in order to run properly. It must also find the files: TBALL.SW1, TBALL.SW2, TBALL.RT, TBALLA.CAR, TBALLB.CAR and TBALLC.CAR. All are provided with the disk. More on editing in a minute. Car Selection To change the order of your trains or to design new trains, you select "E" -- Edit Trains from the Main Menu. You can select "C" on the Car submenu and Create more .CAR files. The program will crash if the files: TBALLA.CAR, TBALLB.CAR and TBALLC.CAR are not found on the logged disk/direc tory. These files are provided with the program. To select the order of the trains, that is to make a dif ferent train the first train, you press "S" on the Car submenu to order the trains. The program comes with three trains: TBALLA.CAR, TBALLB.CAR and TBALLC.CAR which by default are the first, second and third trains. If you edit the cars on a train, you must next re-select the order of the trains to load the edited train from disk to memory. Play The Game Press "P" on the Main Menu to Play the game. You will be asked for the screen layout you want to use. Enter the file name from the list displayed WITHOUT the .TRK part, and press ENTER. Train 1 or "A" will immediately begin running. Train Controls "2" starts train B running "3" starts train C running No more than three trains will run at any one time. F3 speeds up ALL trains F4 slows down ALL train F (Faster) Speeds up only the selected train S (Slower) Slows down only the selected train D (Display) Turns the selected train letter Display on and off N (Noise) Turns Sound off and on R (Reverse) Reverses the direction of the selected train L (Loose) Turns one of the trains "loose". The loose train will randomly change direction. These random changes will occur about once every 30 movements for that train. SPACE BAR Fires a missle from the selected train Train Controls The arrow keys affect only the selected train. The letter of the selected train is shown on the lower left hand cor ner of the screen. The A train is the initially selected train. If you want to change the direction of the B train, then press "B" before pressing the arrow keys. The same for the C train, i.e. press "C" first. Any selected train will remain active as the selected train until a different letter is pressed. F(ast) and S(low) work on the selected train as does R(everse). SPACE BAR fires a missle from the selected train. The missile will travel 40 spaces before dying. You can only have one missile active at a time. The display in the lower left corner of the screen shows two things: which train is the selected train and if there is a "Loose" train. If train B is selected and there is no loose train, you will see: B . If train C is the selected train and there is a loose train, then you will see: C L. Pressing "R" "reverses" the direction of the selected train. Warning: R works like the "stopper" track charac ter. It will only work when the train is moving up or down or right or left. It won't work if the train is on a diag onal. If a non-selected train hits your selected train, you will see an "explosion". Any key will clear the screen and restart the game. If your selected train hits the cars, not the engine, of one of the other trains, then you will blow up that train and will gain 50 points. The Space Bar fires a missile from the selected train. Each missile fired costs you 20 points. A train blown up with a gains you 50 points. If the missile hits the engine, the whole screen blows up. ESC will freeze the screen and allow you to quit. Edit A Track Layout The arrow keys, backspace and delete keys work in the track layout edit mode. The editing screen is always in overtype mode. Be careful of the backspace and DEL keys. They will move the line to the left and may skew the layout to the right of the cursor. You can easily erase a character by putting the cursor to the left of the character and pressing the space bar. Control Y deletes an entire line. F10 Saves and Exits when you are done editing ESC Abandons changes without saving Track Keys: Key Pressed Symbol Created áááá | ║ áááá = ═ áááá + ╬ áááá ( ╔ áááá ) ╗ áááá [ ╚ áááá ] ╝ áááá { ╣ switcΦ track áááá } ╠ switcΦ track áááá T ╦ switcΦ track áááá áááá J ╩ switcΦ track áááá ! ╞ reversσ traiε direction áááá I ╡ reversσ traiε direction áááá ^ ╥ reversσ traiε direction áááá _ ╨ reversσ traiε direction áááá , = horizonta∞ overpass áááá . !! vertica∞ overpass áááá / / áááá \ \ áááá X ╪ DeatΦ Buttoε -¡ Hi⌠ i⌠ anΣ traiε áááá explodes áááá └ └ Blacδ Holσ -¡ Eat≤ thσ train áááá ╝ áá ╝ áá switcΦ tracδ ¡¡ randoml∙ controlled áááá > > switcΦ tracδ -¡ randoml∙ controlled áááá A A switcΦ track -¡ randoml∙ controlled áááá V V switcΦ track -¡ randoml∙ controlled áááá ╧ ╧ traiε bounce≤ ofµ a⌠ acutσ angle áááá ¬ ¬ traiε bounce≤ ofµ a⌠ acutσ angle áááá ú ú traiε directioε change≤ a⌠ oblique áááá angle Switches are controlled by random settings. One moment a train entering a < may go up, the next, it may go down. You cannot predict what will happen when a train hits a switch. Use care when designing with slashes and back slashes: \═ will let the train follow the track right to left but will go off the track left to right. To work properly in both directions you will need: \ This will keep the ╚═ train on the track both left to right and right to left. In vertical situations, use something like this: ║ ╚\ You can build tunnels with strings of overpass characters. For example: ═!!!!!!!!!!═ is a tunnel. Trains in a tunnel cannot be hit from the side either by another train or by a missle. A missile fired into the tunnel will blow up a train inside. You get 5 points each time a train goes over or under and overpass or underpass. When a train hits a reverse train direction character (Stoppers, e.g. FM), it will reverse its direction by 180 degrees. Note that these characters may only be used on horizon tal and vertical tracks, not on diagonal tracks. The above discussion also applies to the use of "R". ERROR MESSAGE: If the train runs through a switch or get stuck at a switch that means that your .SW1 and/or .SW2 files have been trashed and filled with zeros. If there are no numbers in the files telling the engine the correct direction for the train to travel when the switch is encountered, the train will run through the switch or stop at the switch. SOLUTION: Edit the track file and change at least one character. The program will note that the file has been changed and will rewrite new .SW1 and .SW2 files automatically. Editing Train Cars You can have from one to seven cars on a train. You can use either alpha-numeric characters or you can use ALT NUMBER ALT to add high order graphics characters as cars. ALT 254 ALR is nice. So is ALT 15 ALT. The shorter the train the faster it runs and the harder it is to hit. The longer the train, the higher the score. Note: to get the 254 character, hold down the ALT key, while holding it down press 254 on the numeric keypad, after you have pressed 254, THEN release the ALT key. Freezing the Display If you press ESC, the display will "freeze" and you will be asked if you wish to abandon the current layout. To freeze the display, just press ESC. If you next press "N" for "No", the trains will resume where they left off. If you press "Y" for "Yes", the screen will clear and you will be returned to the Main Menu. Scoring Scoring takes several factors into account. They are: 1. The number of track characters in relation to the size of the screen. The higher the ratio, the higher the score. 2. The number of trains running, two or three. There can never be a score when one train is running because that could go on forever. More trains, higher score. 3. The speed of the trains. The higher the speed, the higher the score. 4. The number of times the train's direction is changed. Changing direction while multiple trains are running increases the chances of a crash. Thus, many switch changes increases the score. 5. How long the trains have been running. There will be no score until at least 1000 spaces have been covered by the trains. 6. How many cars are on screen. Longer trains are more easily crashed. The more cars, the higher the score. 7. Is there a Loose Train? If so, the score will be higher. All of the above factors are considered in the scoring algorithm. Note that if you just let the trains run, the score will actually decrease. The number of times you change direction is considered over time. As time goes on and the number of changes does not increase, your score will decline. Also the program rates the number of train movements over time. So, if you slow down the train, the score may actually decrease. To get a high score, you must continue to manipulate the trains and must not reduce the speed. Note that the disk comes with the file: TBALL.RT. This file contains data written when the switches are charted. An .RT file will be created automatically for every track file you create. If the program does not find the .RT file, it will not run. What if the file is not found? Solution: edit the track layout and thus cause the program to create a new .RT file for that edited layout. Playing The Game TrainBall Trainball is similar to pinball. You set up bumpers and other characters on screen and then run the train(s). The dif ference is that in pinball you cannot control the ball, you can only control how it bounces off of certain items. In TrainBall, you do not control "flippers"; instead you can change the direc tion of the train itself. The object of the game is to run sev eral trains as long as possible, as fast a possible without let ting another train crash into your train and without hitting a death button or a black hole. Maze A variation on the game is to set up a maze with different characters and try to negotiate the maze in the shortest time. This becomes more difficult if you put black holes or death buttons inside the maze or if you make the maze very narrow or complicated. To score a maze, start a train running at the right side of the screen where it will be out of the way or just ignore the first train. You do this because you need to have at least two trains running to get a score. Now start a second train. When an initial score other than zero shows at the bottom of the screen, start one of the trains into the maze. The player who exits the maze with the Lowest score, that is the shortest time and the fewest direction changes, wins. For more action, place O's and/or *'s inside the maze so that if the train hits one of them it will bounce off at a sharp angle. Shooting Galery You can also try a variation of a shooting gallery game. Set up a screen layout in which the trains bounce off all of the "walls". Start two trains running. Press "F" for "Fast" several times to make the selected train run much faster than the other train. Now select the slow train. Try to shoot down the fast train with missles from the slow train. Each missle costs you 20 points. Each hit gains you 50 points. Remember, you cannot hit a train in the engine with a missle or it will blow up the screen and you will lose your score. TrainSet I have another program called TrainSet(tm) which I send to registered TrainBall users. TrainSet allows you to set up a "Lionel" (tm) train set on screen with switch tracks, tunnels, etc. In TrainSet, the arrow keys are used to throw the switchs directly in front of the selected train. Loose trains in Train Set randomly reset the switches in front of them. In TrainSet, trains must run on tracks. If they get off the track, the game is over. There are no missiles in TrainSet. They are too easy there, but you can ram other trains and gain points. Registered users also get a version of TrainSet with a little customization for EGA/VGA systems. It has additional switch tracks and diagonal connectors. Users who register TrainBall also receive TrainSet and EGA TrainSet. Registration fee is $25.00. Please don't call with questions about any of these programs. If you need to contact me, write to me at: David Alexander 2600 El Camino Real #506 Palo Alto, CA 94306