Programm XBLAST V1.1 
(C) by Oliver Vogel (e-mail: vogel@ikp.uni-koeln.de)
May 18th 1994
started August 1993

File: README


LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public Licences as published
by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2; or (at your option)
any later version

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be entertaining,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILTY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

AUTHOR

Oliver Vogel		
vogel@ikp.uni-koeln.de

INTRO

XBlast is a multi-player arcade game for X11R5/R6. The game can be played
with at least two players and up to four players. It was inspired by
the video/computer game Bomberman(Dynablaster), which was to my
knowledge first programmed for NEC's PC Engine/Turbo Grafx. Other
(commercial) versions of the original game exist for IBM-PC, Amiga,
NES, GameBoy and Super NES.


FEATURES
 o  2 to 4 players
 o  1 or 2 players per X-Server
 o  Ten different Levels
 o  X11R5 
 o  In this version only monochrome graphics, but grayscale and color
    X-Server are supported
 o  Resolution: 960x688
 o  needs ~200 kB (~280 kB with Backing Store) of X-Server Memory
 o  Compact binary ~180 kB with shared libaries ~350kB with static
    libaries.
 o  Small CPU usage 


HINT
For descriptions of commandline arguments read the manpage or
type xblast -?. If you start xblast without any option an
interactive setup of game parameters is started.

FILES

The XBlast package contains the following files:

 o  COPYING		- GNU Public License                
 o  INSTALL             - how to install xblast
 o  README              - this file
 o  Levels.HOW          - instruction to create your own levels
 o  Imakefile           - Imakefile for xmkmf
 o  block.c       	\
 o  const.h       	|
 o  expl.c	        |
 o  func.h        	|
 o  graphics.c   	|
 o  include.h        	|
 o  intro.c       	>- The source files
 o  main.c		|
 o  maze.c        	|
 o  mytypes.h		|
 o  patchlev.h	        |
 o  score.c 		|
 o  setup.c        	|
 o  sprite.c		/
 o  xblast.man          - Manpage
 o  xblast.tcl          - A Setup with X Interface (see below)


GAMEPLAY

The idea of the game is quite simple "There can be only one ...".  So
the aim is to blast away all the other players. You can set the number
of victorious matches required to win the total game with the `-v`
option.  Use your bombs to blast away the other players and certain
blocks (e.g. the ?-Blocks in the 1st level). Under some of these
blocks are extras, which increase the number of bombs you can drop
simultaneously (the bomb symbol) or increase the range of your bombs
(the flame symbol). In higher levels there are other extras like the
skull-symbol which infects the player with a random illness. These
illnesses heal after some time, but while infected the player can also
infect other players. Another extra is the star symbol which makes the
player invincible for some time.


CONTROL 

The number keys 2,4,6,8 (preferably on the number pad) are used to
control the first player of each X-server. If you press one of these
keys the player starts walking in this direction and stops only if
he/she hits an obstacle or the stop key 5 is pressed. In the latter
case the player stops in the middle of the next field. Furthermore you
can change the walking direction by using the direction keys.  If the
key 0 is pressed a bomb is dropped in the middle of the player's
actual field. Be careful not to drop the bomb to early, as you can
block your own way with it (bombs are always blocking the way).
If you have found a remote control (in "Running Man") press +
to ignite your bombs.

The second player of the X-Server uses the keys T, F, H, B/V to walk,
SPACE to bomb, G to stop and TAB for remote control. If only one
player uses an X-Server both controls will work for him.


TESTED PLATFORMS

I have tested the actual version program on the following computers

  o i486DX266-PC with Linux 1.0
  o DEC 5000/240 with Ultrix 4.2A
  o HP 9000-730S with HP-UX 9.01
  o Motorola MVME-147SA with LynxOS 2.1
  o Sun Sparc 2 with SunOS 4.1.3
  o Force Sparc 2CE with LynxOS 2.1

Furthermore older version were compiled by other persons on 
the following machines

  o DEC Alpha with OSF/1 Motif
  o SGI workstation IRIX Release 4.0.5 System V
  o IBM RS/6000 with AIX 3.2.4
  o Sparc 10/41 with Solaris 2.3 (using gcc)
  o PC with SCO Open Desktop 3.0 (using gcc)
  o Sun Sparc Classic with SunOS 4.1.3c
  o HP 9000-710 with HP-UX 9.01
  o PC 486DX2 with NetBSD 0.9


I hope it will run on all other computers with X11R5.  If you managed
to build the game on any other machine, please send me a short notice
to the E-Mail adress below.

CREATING YOUR OWN LEVELS

An instruction to create your own levels is given in the file
Levels.HOW

XBLAST SETUP

You have three possibilties when starting XBlast:
 
 o no commandline options and configuration via text interface
 o configuration via commandline options
 o NEW: tk/tcl script for a setup with  X Interface

To use the last one you need the Tcl and Tk script languages,
which are avaiable at ftp.x.org in /contrib. This script
is my first attempt in using tk/tcl, so there still
can be some bugs in it.  To use it you have to edit file 
xblast.tcl and change the following things

 o edit the path for the script interpreter "wish" in the first line
   of the script
 o edit the variable GAMEDIR to your xblast directory.

Then just type xblast.tcl and it should run.


WHATS NEW IN V1.1

 o  Filename are changed to less than 15 char
    (Required for X11R6 contrib)

 o  TWO new extra types:
   - kicking bombs
   - blast ALL bombs

 o  new shrinking feature for many levels
   - the level starts shrinking after half the game time
   - shrinking is more moderate than in Shrinking World

 o  extra conservation
   - when a player dies, his extras are distributed
     on the map

 o  bomb malfunction
   - sometimes a bomb will take longer to explode.

 o  bugfix of a timing bug, which appeared under Solaris 
    (this bugs makes the players run uncontrolable).


THE FUTURE

The following things are planned for the future version
(with absolutely NO WARRANTY that they will come):

 o  Full Color Support (not just only Black/White)
 o  Saving/Loading setups with xblast.tcl
 o  a better and more detailed guide howto build you own levels
 o  more levels with new extras, graphics and monsters?
 
But don't expect any large changes before spring 1994. 


BUGS

Known are the following:

 o  If the programm doesn't react to any keypress, move the mouse pointer
    outside the window and then inside again.

 o  With certain X-Servers the control via number-pad doesn't work.
    Try Num-Lock or  change your Xmodmap (This should be
    fixed by now).

If you find any other bugs, please report them to

E-MAIL: vogel@ikp.uni-koeln.de


CREDITS
 
SPECIAL UNIX CONSULTANT
Norbert Nicolay

BETA TESTERS
Eckhard Grah
Rodi Herzberg
Rolf Kuehn
Norbert Nicolay
Hajo Richter

SPECIAL THANX TO
 o Cameron Gregory(cameron@cs.jcu.edu.au) for converting my README
   into a manpage
 o Henrik W. Nielsen(hwn@cci.dk) for his bugfix for the number-pad control.
 o Jamie(be136@city.ac.uk) for his great idea of the extra, which
   detonate ALL bombs (in the Halloween level) 
 o Ian Jamison(ianj@melko.co.uk) for his bugfix of a timimg problem
   with gettimeofday under Solaris 

THANX
to all people, who send me an e-mail, that the programm runs on the their
machine or just that the enjoyed the game.