תקליטור אוסף משחקים 95 דור חדש במולטימדיה

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Text File | 1997-03-18 | 16.5 KB | 331 lines

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is Bricklayer for Windows ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bricklayer for Windows is a fast-paced falling blocks game. Guaranteed to get you addicted, Bricklayer for Windows features beautiful 256-color artwork, an original music soundtrack, terrific sound effects, and more. Systems which are not 256-color or sound-capable are also supported. Version 2.0 adds joystick support, ability to select entire directories of graphics modules, 2-player support, variations on the standard game (decay blocks and heavy blocks), larger and more detailed high-scores files, and ability to right-click on game objects to modify their properties. Version 2.1a includes support for varying-sized game boards, gives more control over keyboard control mappings, and fixes bugs in viewing high scores and performing registrations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - System Requirements - Background Music - Comments, Suggestions, Bug Reports: Contacting the author - Registration [Register by mail or directly through CompuServe] - Controls - New Features in v1.5 - New Features in v1.6 - New Features in v1.7 - New Features in v2.0 - New Features in v2.1a - Bonus Disk Set -------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bricklayer has been beta tested on i386, i486, and Pentium systems with 4-16MB of memory. It has reportedly worked under OS/2 and Windows NT although it has not been thoroughly tested under those operating systems. The memory requirements may be quite steep because Bricklayer needs to load close to 1MB of music files. To enjoy the background music and sound effects, you will need to have a sound card with wave playing ability supported by Windows (such as Microsoft Sound System, or Creative Labs Sound Blaster). * If you cannot make Bricklayer even start up, try creating a file called BRICKLYR.INI in your WINDOWS directory and putting the following lines there: [Settings] LoadMusic=0 This will force Bricklayer to ignore the music and sound settings and not load any music files. You will be able to play, but will have no music or sound effects. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Background Music -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This version of Bricklayer, 2.1a, uses the Microsoft WAVMIX16.DLL sound mixing library. You may notice that the background music has stopped playing after six or seven minutes (in rare instances, even less) of continuous music. If this occurs, press the <TAB> key to restart the music. For those systems which are not sound capable, unselecting the "Load Music" check box in the preferences dialog will prevent Bricklayer from loading the music and sound files, decreasing load time and memory requirements. The music BLM modules are Copyright Opinicus Microtechnologies, and may be freely distributed only as part of the Bricklayer for Windows game for use by the Bricklayer executable. See the distribution information for more details. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments, Suggestions, Bug Reports -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I look forward to hearing from you. If you encounter problems while playing Bricklayer, I would appreciate any information that you can provide, such as your system configuration and a detailed description of the problem. Suggestions for improvements are also very welcome. Contact me at the address listed below, or send email to: America Online: Yevg Internet: yevg@aol.com CompuServe: 76101,2317 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Registration -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bricklayer is $10 shareware (free for those people who've paid for previous versions). If you enjoy and play Bricklayer, PLEASE send in the $10 shareware fee. It is not very much compared to the cost of a commercial game, and it motivates me to keep improving Bricklayer as well as to work on new games. If you play, please pay. Upgrades to new versions of Bricklayer are always free for registered users. Those who register will also be kept informed of new version releases, as well as the releases of any new products. Registered users receive a registration code which allows use of a larger variety of background and piece graphics, and removes "unregistered" notices in the game window and About box. Registered users may also order the Bonus Disk Set (described in a separate section below). To register Bricklayer, please either * send a US$10 check payable to Yevgeny Gurevich to the address listed below. If you live outside of the U.S., please send an international money order (preferred) or cash, since checks drawn on foreign banks are sometimes difficult to clear. Please do NOT send Eurocheques, as they are more costly to process than their face value ($20.00 to process the $10.00 registration). OR * use the CompuServe SWREG feature to electronically register. GO SWREG in CompuServe. The id of Bricklayer is #4732. You will be emailed the registration code directly. Site licenses are available. ** See REGFORM.TXT for a detailed pricing schedule ** Yevgeny Gurevich Vanilla-Extract Software P.O. Box 391 Falls Church, VA 22040-0391 America Online: Yevg Internet: yevg@aol.com CompuServe: 76101,2317 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keyboard and joystick control is customizable with the [Change Controls...] Options menu item. Keyboard Settings: The numeric keypad keys are active as control keys in addition to any user-selectable settings. The default user-selectable keyboard settings are the 'j', 'k', and 'l' keys for left, rotate, and right motion, and the spacebar for the drop. The 'a' key controls the push. On the numeric keypad, the 4, 5, 6, and 0 act the same as the j, k, l, and space. Joystick Settings: Joystick controls may be selected and calibrated in this dialog box if the "Joystick" radio button is selected for either player. Usually, the joystick needs to be calibrated only once. Bricklayer saves calibration information for future games. Sometimes, due to joystick drift, you will need to recalibrate the joystick. Joystick controls are as follows: move the joystick left or right to move the game piece left or right. Move the joystick down to PUSH the piece down. Press Button 1 of the joystick to rotate the piece, and press Button 2 to DROP it. Two Players: The Controls dialog box allows users to specify controls for player 1 and player 2. In a two player game, each player uses their own individual keyboard mappings (or a joystick if that is the control selected for that player.) Both players may elect to use the same joystick, same keyboard mappings, one joystick and a keyboard, or two different keyboard mappings. In one player games, the "Player 1" controls are used for keyboard mappings and joystick selection. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features in v1.50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.50 of Bricklayer for Windows introduces event recording, a computer player feature, and support for external background modules. * Event recording allows you to record your own games for future playback. To record your game, check the [Record] Event Recording menu item. The games that you play will then be recorded. Only the last game played is stored in the event buffer. You can replay that game, using the [Replay] Event Recording menu item, or save it to disk for future loading and replay - using the [Save Event] and [Read Event] File menu items, respectively. * The computer player options in the file menu let the computer play a game on its own. The fast player thinks quickly but is not as good at playing the game as the slower and smarter player, which uses the Next Piece for lookahead. On fast systems like i486DX2-66's, the smart player is faster than the dumb player on an i486SX-33. >> For programmers: I may release a programming interface and guidelines to allow you to write your own Bricklayer players in the form of DLLs. Please write me if you are interested. >> Background module support has been revamped for v1.6 (see below). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features in v1.60 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 1.60 of Bricklayer has support for external piece and background graphics modules. These features have been moved to the Preferences dialog box, where users can select to use an external file (other than DEFAULT.BLB and DEFAULT.BLP) for background and piece graphics, respectively. Two alternate piece graphic files are provided (PLAIN.BLP and SPHERE.BLP). An alternate backgrounds file is provided (TONES.BLB). >> Please contact me if you want to request custom piece or background graphics, wish to have your own included in future distributions, or would like to distribute compatible modules on your own. * Starting with this version, the game identifies unregistered copies with an "UNREGISTERED" printed in the window caption. Once a registration code is entered, the game is identified as a registered version. * You can now opt to play the game with double-size blocks (selected in the Preferences dialog box). Double-size blocks are especially convenient when you have a high-resolution display. It's also easier for the kids to play. You can switch between modes at any point in the game. * Continuous background music is more stable. On most systems the music can now play virtually without limit. * An incompatibility with PC Tools Desktop for Windows has been fixed. * The BRICKLYR.HLP Windows Help file has replaced the more rudimentary on-line documentation. Pressing F1 will bring it up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features in v1.70 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 1.70 of Bricklayer has support for external music modules. The default music file is DEFAULT.BLM. Another short music file is provided to give unregistered users a feel for how easy it is to interchange music modules (WAGNER3T.BLM). Other music files are available for registered users from a separate Bonus Disk Set (described in a separate section below). >> Please contact me if you want to request custom music files, wish to have your own included in future distributions, or would like to distribute compatible modules on your own. * The ability to display "pit" graphics has been added. Pit graphics are 256-color bitmaps which adorn the ordinarily black bit in the main game board. By default, the feature to display pit graphics is turned off to improve overall game performance. Go to the preferences dialog box and check off "Show Pit Graphic" to enable this feature. You may interchange pit graphic files just like background graphics files. Two graphic files are provided in the shareware distribution: DEFAULT.BLG and VALLEY.BLG. * A bug in saving the alternate piece and background graphics preferences on program exit has been fixed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features in v2.0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- See the BRICKLYR.HLP help file for more detailed information on the new features in version 2.0. This is a short list of new features: * Two-Player mode Two players can compete against each other in the same game. The players alernate dropping pieces within the same game board. Scores are updated individually for each player, allowing competition for higher score. Controls may be modified on a per-player basis to allow both to share a keyboard, or one to play with joystick and the other with keyboard. Network play is NOT yet included, but is planned for future releases. * Play-Against-Computer mode Similar to the two-player mode, the play-against-computer mode allows a human player to compete against the computer. * Joystick support The joystick may now be used to control pieces. * Support for counter-clockwise rotation Pieces can now be rotated in both CW and CCW directions. The "Change Controls" dialog box allows you to specify keys for both. * Larger and more detailed high-scores. High scores now include the number of rows cleared, and the date of the game. They have also been expanded to list 15 names. There are now two high-scores tables: one for single-player games, and one for two-player games. * Variations on the traditional game: heavy blocks can push the blocks that they land on by one square, squashing an empty square. Decaying blocks are a sort of "rot" which cause blocks on the game board to start disappearing. * Interface improvements: Users can right-click on a background, pit graphic, or game piece to get a menu of available graphics modules that can be chosen. The entire DIRECTORY of modules can be chosen by selecting "Directory". If the "Randomize" menu item is also checked off, the modules in the directory are chosen at random. Otherwise, they are cycled in order (see next item). * Ability to select entire directories of modules Both from the preferences menu and from right-clicking on a game object, the user can elect to select an entire directory of modules instead of a single file. Bricklayer will then cycle through the available files in that directory. Pit graphics are changed once per level, while pieces and backgrounds are changed on a per-game basis. "Randomize" allows the user to specify that modules will be picket at random from the selected directory. * Multipit modules A new pit module file format is supported. In this format, a group of pit graphics is stored together. As the game progresses, new graphics start moving from the bottom of the game board, eventually replacing the existing graphic. The number rows being cleared controls the speed with which the graphics move. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features in v2.1a -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 2.1a improves on version 2.0 with the following features * Variable Block Size Instead of specifying normal or double-size blocks, you can now choose among 5 different sizes (normal, 25% larger, 50% larger, 75% larger, and double-size). Choosing larger block sizes will also scale up your game window. * New keys available for binding in control mappings You can now use the Numeric Keypad keys [0-9], the cursor keys, and the special insert/delete/home/end/pageup/pagedown keys when specifying keyboard control settings. Numeric keypad keys appear as <0> through <9> to distinguish them from the normal 0-9 keys. * Optimized color palette The color palette has been modified to allow more faithful reproduction of the background graphics. * Bug fixes Certain bugs in viewing high scores and performing registration have been fixed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bonus Disk Set -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Bonus Disk Set is available for purchase by registered users of Bricklayer (it may also be purchased at the time of registeration) for the price of $10.00. You will receive disks of music compositions, background graphics, piece graphics, and pit graphics. The latest version of Bricklayer is included in the distribution. See REGFORM.TXT for a complete pricing schedule.