The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/pc/softdox/pongkmbt.faq

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                              -----------------
                               PONG KOMBAT FAQ
                                  Version 3
                                27 April 1994

                                 Kevin Gowen
                               [e-mail]
                              -----------------

   Now, I don't expect to have to make too many versions of this here faq.
This faq covers all moves, fatalities, secret characters, and dip settings
for Pong Kombat 1.00. If you want to learn all this cool stuff on your
own, hit `N' or whatever now! Now, the FAQ.....

**********************************The Story**********************************

     Way way back in time, PONG was invented.  And it was
Good(tm).  The only real player in the game, white paddle,
enjoyed playing it, and played it well.

     Then, with the advent of color gaming systems, other paddles
emerged.  White, being the pompous holier-than-thou jerk he is,
got all uptight about this and left.

     He joined the Pong Lao cult, a group of paddle warriors
which held bi-annual tournaments and swap meets.  He eventually
toppled the Pong Lao leader, taking his throne (a mighty chair of
porcelain).  With the aid of his new friend, buddy, and bodyguard
Monolith, he rules over this years' tournament with an iron...
umm... well, paddles lack appendages, so just an iron.

     However, with new rainbow-colored paddles from all walks of
life and a few old rivals seeking some revenge entering the
tournament, he may have his hands full.  Hopefully he can turn a
few tricks and save his hide.  Odds are certainly in his favor,
but the forces of Good(tm) have you now.

     So don't screw up.

*******************Fatalities, Spamalities, and Moves************************

PONG KOMBAT SEKRETS (Oooh, how scary.)

  STAGE FATALITIES

On the Pit stage, hit DOWN-DOWN-DOWN-DOWN as your fatality to send the
opponent flying.

On the Toxic River stage, hit UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN as your fatality to dunk
them in acid.

  SPAMALITIES

Secret fatality move... BUTTON+BUTTON+BUTTON+UP.  Turns your opponent
into bratwurst.  MUST have a flawless victory to execute.

  PADDLE ABILITIES

Secret moves and fatalities for each paddle.

RED PADDLE
Paddle of shadows and eye-wrenching telportation tricks, Red Paddle zips here
and there kicking paddle butt for the movie cameras. None of his movies have
done well, and he's hoping to promote 'em with the title.
ZAPPER: Shadow Paddle (DUBB)
FATALITY: Harpoons victim, then rips victim in two, spew, spew. (DDDB)
ENDING: Red Paddle's victory is told in a zillion newspapers and news specials,
giving him the movie promotion he desires. He films Pong Kombat and its many
sequels, until a horrible stage accident renders him deformed. Now he acts as a
part time super-villain in Gotham City.

BLUE PADDLE
Master of the ancient art of altering time and space to suit his whimsy, this
paddle gets by on energy blasts, vortexes, and other neat looking special
effects. He's allergic to shellfish and likes telling bad puns.
ZAPPER: Phase Ball (BBBB)
FATALITY: Opponent paddle spirals down to the center of the screen, then goes
SPLUT!  (UBUB)
ENDING: After winning the tournament and defeating the somewhat nasty White
Paddle, Blue Paddle decides to market the tournament in computer-game format.
However, he loses his shirt, (if paddles wore shirts), when he makes the unwise
decision to make the game 486-specific requiring 4 megs of RAM and 25 megs disk
space. Now he works as a doorstop for Bill Gates.

YELLOW PADDLE
The twisty-wisty Yellow Paddle is an expert in all things sinusoidal, and just
loves to flaunt his skills in geometry and paddle-stomping. He desires the
prize because he has nothing better to do with his degree.
ZAPPER: Sine Wave (UDUD)
FATALITY: Dig Dug air pump explosion (DUDU)
ENDING: Yellow Paddle, now triumphant over all paddle-like objects, hocks his
trophy for ten dollars and buys a flask of whisky. He begins a drunken tailspin
into obsurity, and never resurfaces.

GREEN PADDLE
Master of the bow and arrow despite a lack of arms, Green Paddle is a
formidable archer. She (yeah, paddles *do* have genders) is hoping to use the
prize cup to store pencils in, and use the money to buy a soda.
ZAPPER: Arrow (UDUB)
FATALTY: Shoots an arrow which impales paddle on side of screen.  Blood. (DUDB)
ENDING: Green Paddle uses her trophy cup just as she wishes to--to store
pencils in. She retires from the Pong Kombat curcuit and becomes an award-
winning novelist, with a series about a female archer that retires and writes
award-winning fantasy novels about a female archer that retires and...etc.

PURPLE PADDLE
Originally a plate spinner, Purple Paddle now spins razor sharp discs of fury.
(Well, maybe not fury, but they are quite perturbed...) He desires the prize so
he can brag to everyone who said he'd be a nobody.
ZAPPER: Spinning Razor (UUUB)
FATALITY: Razor slides behind the paddle... paddle falls into two long
slices.  (BUUU)
ENDING: Purple Paddle, having defeated the others in a tournament of mortal
pong, decides to use his new title to take over the world. He enslaves humanity
and crushes every living thing in his path. Have a nice day.

***************************Secret Characters********************************

  SECRET CHARACTERS

There are two major secret characters in the game, Monolith, and Shifter.
Shifter gives no clues like Monolith does.

  TO FIGHT MONOLITH

Monolith lives...
A ridiculously old half rock half plastic-thing, Monolith remains undefeated
since the dawn of time in the art of Pong Kombat. He hides in cheap shareware
games and trains monkeys in his spare time.

He speaks of a few clues, but here's the whole story... every now and then
on a missed ball, Nick Steele pops out and goes 'WHOOPSIE!'.  If he does
this on the Portal stage, press DOWN and your BUTTON.  You must press
these AFTER!!!! the speech clip finishes... there is a split second timing
type thing.  There will be an evil laugh, and Nick will vanish.  At the
end of the match, win or lose, the last person to down+button to Nick
gets to fight Monolith.  There is a one in ten chance of Nick showing
on a lost ball.

Monolith almost never misses a shot, and has large, fast-moving stars
as weapons.  He is relatively hard to kill.

  TO FIGHT SHIFTER

I smell the stench of meat...
I smell my summoning in my sewer home...
You dare to summon me?!
Meet your doom...for I am SHIFTER!

On the Throne Room stage, execute a SPAMALITY.  Spamalities are the
sequence BUTTON, BUTTON, BUTTON, UP after the announcer yells 'FINISH
HIM!'.  There will not be a siren, but the screen will clear and
your opponent is turned into two slabs of luncheon meat.  Notice that
the tablecloth is the same pattern as the toilet bowl water.

(NOTE: Spamalities REQUIRE a flawless victory, or else nothing will
 happen.)

Shifter blends into his background and NEVER misses a shot.  His weapons
are extremely hard to see, fly quite fast, and quite often.  He is
insanely hard to kill, but if you're good enough to get a spamality,
you're probably close enough...

   SECRET CHARACTER CLUES

CNIK NDA ONDW NDA NOTTUB                Nick and Down and Button
TRPOLA OT ONOMTLHI                      Portal to Monolith
RTFEIHS SSTXIE                          Shifter Exists
PID HSWTIC                              Dip Switch
PMASLAITY                               Spamality
EEHRW SI KEEZ DERCCTHTHNULU?            Where Is Zeke Thunderclutch?
Nick knows me
I always win
Find me
I am Monolith
You will die
****************************DIP Switches*************************************

   TO ACCESS DIP MODE

Type `pongkomb DIP' to start the game.  If you have a frame-rate change
already stacked on the parameter line, use `pongkomb speed x DIP'.
Alter the switches with up and down on the keypad.  Left and right selects
a switch, and space leaves the screen.  Switch flips aren't saved after
you quit Pong Kombat. You can also access the dip switches by typing
`pongkomb JAM'. This will cause the opening screen to say `Pong Jam', as well
as cause Nick to say `Boom shaka laka!' instead of the usual `Whoopsie!'.

   DIP SWITCHES and what they do.

1-comic advert on/off    (default: off)
  Turns on and off the ad for FWLS Komiks and short stories.  I installed
  the feature back when it looked like Komik would be out before Pong
  Kombat.  No release date is set due to a NASTY bug.

2-fatality check on/off  (default: on)
  Turns the blood on or off, except for Purple's weapon, which is drawn-in.
  I had to install this to qualify Pong Kombat as a school project.
  Kids, violence is evil.  Bad!  Bad!  Stomp out violence!  Kill all
  violent people!  Maim!  Dest... umm.  But I digress.

3-taunts on/off          (default: on)
  Shut Monolith up by clicking this to OFF.  He can be annoying.

4-extra credits on/off   (default: off)
  Flipping this on adds some more scanned photos of the staff that worked
  on the game to the end of the credits.  Credits are shown after White
  Paddle's demise.

5-white first on/off      (default: off)
  Turning this switch on will fast-forward the tournament mode right to
  white paddle.  I used this to test the ending sequence.

**************************Cool Stuff From Stefan*****************************

And now, some words from Stefan on registration...

As a registered player, you get the benefit of :

 - Five dollars off your next game at Putt-Putt.  However, you may have to
   scream and shout and douse yourself in gasoline first to convince them,
   as this is a limited time offer.
 - No Red Lobster discount, but you get all the Red Lobster cheese garlic
   rolls you can eat!  Mmmm!
 - Notification when version 2.0 is released, with sound fixes and more
   of what you love best : CARNAGE!

Also, there is the secret handshake you can use to identify other registered
Pong Kombatants.  Take your index finger and wiggle it around the shaker's
pinky finger.  Then insert your middle finger between the shaker's second
and fourth finger, then plug your thumb up the shaker's anus and say
`GREEN PADDLE IS A BABE!'.

PROPOSALS ON 2.0.

  Not much is definite on 2.0, except that it WILL be made, and WILL have better
sound code.  Also, White Paddle's animation death will be tweaked back into
working order.
  Other ideas on the table.
  - Plaid Paddle
  - TOTALLY redone graphics - zones, sprites, the works
  - BGR effects for sound
  - CARNAGE AND BLOOD flies on weapon impact.

THERE IS NO RELEASE DATE.  It will definitely be done before the end of the
school year, though (June 6th for us at APCS class)

*****************************Special Thanks to********************************

Stefan [e-mail]
Liu [e-mail]
Josh [e-mail]
Flavio "Blanka" [e-mail]
Mac [e-mail]
Sean [e-mail]
Scott A. [e-mail]