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              AND THE INVASION OF THE INANIMATE OBJECTS

                                by
              
                            Vince Weaver

Version 2.9.11
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Contents
--------
 1.0  COMPILING INSTRUCTIONS
 2.0  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
 3.0  STARTING THE GAME
 4.0  THE STORY
 5.0  GAME PLAY
 6.0  SAVING/LOADING GAMES
 7.0  HISTORY
 8.0  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 9.0  PRAISE/ACCOMPLISHMENTS


 1.0  Compiling Instructions
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, there is no "configure" file as of yet.

If you have a non-standard (ie non-Linux, or Linux w/o SDL/curses/SDL_mixer)
   you will have to edit the "Makefile.inc" file to match your config.
   
You need the SDL game development library, 1.1.4 or newer:
   http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.1.html   
   
You also need the "SDL_mixer library" from   
   http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/index.html   

To compile SDL_Mixer you need the smpeg library:
   http://www.lokigames.com/development/smpeg.php3

You also need a recent ncurses library, but that should come with
   your distribution hopefully.

Then a "make" should compile it.


 2.0  System Requirements
---------------------------------------------------------------------
      Reccommended Minimum:
           486 66Mhz/ 8MB Ram, 2Meg disk space
	   
      The game was originally written on a 386 33Mhz under DOS.
      
      Currently tested to work on the following targets:
         + Linux 2.4.x  K6-2+ 450Mhz  160MB RAM  (sdl/curses)
	 + Linux 2.2.x  486 75Mhz  12MB RAM  (sdl/curses)
	 + Solaris 7, SMP UltraSPARC   (curses)
      
 3.0  STARTING THE GAME
---------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   tb1 [-curses] [-double] [-fullscreen] [-nosound] [-version] [-?]
   
      [-curses] : sets the game to run in curses [that is, text] mode.
                  it is actually playable on a 80x25 screen! 
                  [Although you want color for best results].
                  It looks particularly nice in an Eterm with a
                  small font dragged across the whole screen.  You
                  want to become familiar with the menu-interface
                  before you try this though.

      [-double] : Double the size of the game on screen.  This
                  is good if you have a high-resolution monitor
                  and the 320x200 of TB1 is way too small.
		  It is, 4 times slower, however.
                  Also look into using the -fullscreen option.

      [-fullscreen] : Attempts to play the game fullscreen.  For
                  best results you probably want to use this in
                  conjunction to the -double option.
 
      [-nosound] : Start the game with no sound.

      [-help]   : Display the command line options


 4.0  THE STORY
---------------------------------------------------------------------

      To understand the game, pick the "Story" option off of the
      main menu.  This part of the game took a lot of time in
      itself, and is fun to read.

      The "Audio Error!" is not a real error.  I just saved myself
      the trouble of recording a voice-track for the game.  As many
      friends have said, "That's cheating!" but anyway unless I had
      a lot of time and a CD-ROM, it is not practical.

      Anyway in the story, any key will speed up most scenes, and
      escape will quit the whole thing.


  5.0  GAME PLAY
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
      To begin the game, select "NEW GAME" at the main menu.

      A little humorous movie will show; press <esc> to skip.

      The game itself is pretty simplistic as of yet.  Basically
      shoot the things coming at you.  The arrow keys manuever...
      the manuevering takes a little bit of practice to master.
      Space shoots.  You can shoot up to two missiles at once.
      "S" toggles sound.  "P" pauses.  If the game play is too fast,
      try the "+" and "-" keys to adjust.  Sorry, if it runs too
      slow at the onset, then your computer is too slow.

      The first level culminates with a "boss" character.  Read the
      story and see what happens.  The dialog will clue you into 
      what's happening.

      The second level is now totally finished.  Be sure to save 
      your games whenever you start a new level!

      Levels three and four are currently under development.  In
      level three, use the arrow keys to "walk" around.  The space
      bar will fire a weapon if you've picked one up.  To activate/
      pick up things, walk into them.

      Level four is similar to level two.  (Actually they are based
      on the same game engine).  They will be finished by version 2.5.

      An undocumented featue: when your score reaches a multiple of
      400 your shields are increased by one.

   Basic Summary of Keyboard Commands:

      ARROWS Manuever
      SPACE  Fires
      <ESC>  Exits
      P      Pauses
      S      Toggles sound on/off
      +      Slows down game speed
      -      Increases game speed
      F1     Shows help message
      F2     Saves the Game (see "SAVING/LOADING GAMES")


 6.0  SAVING/ LOADING GAMES
---------------------------------------------------------------------
      You can save games.  However the only part that is saved is
      how you begin the level.  Therefore there is no real purpose
      to saving your game until you reach level two.

      This might seem annoying, but at this point it is the only
      practical way to implement saved games.
      
 
 7.0  HISTORY
---------------------------------------------------------------------

      Ever since I have had a computer, starting with an Apple IIe
      I've always been attempting to write video games.
      
      Starting around the beginning of high school I actually started
      creating ones that were actuallys semi-fun to play.  The first
      was "s3fight", a space game in CGA mode in gwbasic.  Then I
      moved on to QBASIC.  And then to Turbo Pascal.  I wrote a game
      called "Under Water Trouble" which was a submarine game
      using the .BGI interface.  It never ran fast enough [though it
      is great fun on a modern machine].  My next game was a 
      "spacewars" clone, but it too ran a bit too slow, as well as
      another game AITAS [Adventures in Time and Space]
      
      About this time, in 1993, I was an exchange student in 
      Hildesheim, Germany.  And the nice people there showed be
      Turbo Pascal 6.0 [which had in-line assembly] and a series
      of text files called the PCGPE [PC Game Programmer Encyclopedia].
      
      With this new found source of Pascal graphics routines, I started
      modifying the "flying toaster" demo to instead draw a spaceship.
      And thus was born TB1.
      
      From the look of the game you can see it is heavily modified after
      early-90s share-ware games.  I wrote some of the ugliest 
      Pascal and ix86 assembly you ever saw.  But it usually worked.
      
      During this time I hadn't found the internet yet.  I was still
      hanging out at local BBS's.  But then, my Dad got an e-mail account
      and with it access to lynx, and I found the WWW.  I found
      a Pascal SoundBlaster library written by Ethan Brodsky, who was
      close to my age, and suddenly TB1 had sound.  By the time I graduated
      from high schoool in 1996 the game is much as you see it now
      [levels 1-3].
      
      Unfortunately, once I got to college things changed.  I finally
      got my own computer, and gradually I used Linux more and more.
      Despite my initial work on the Free Pascal Compiler, I became
      convinced the C was the one true language, and Linux the one
      true platform.  Working on TB1 under dosemu was a pain, 
      and development stopped.
      
      In 1998 I gradually ported the game to GGI, but the interface
      was ever-changing, and again I ran out of time.
      
      But finally, in the year 2000, I decided that I would port tb1
      so I could play w it under linux.  And so I have.  And 
      hopefully I will finish all 10 levels, and people will play 
      it for ages to come ;)
        

 8.0  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
---------------------------------------------------------------------

    The following are for the DOS version.  I'll add linux ones later.

      I would like to thank many people who helped on this project.

      Ethan Brodsky for his excelent sound blaster routines.
      Get them at http://www.pobox.com/~ebrodsky/smix/smix.html
      There would be no sound blaster sound without them.

      The authors of PCGPE.  This program started out as a
      "flying toaster" demonstration from the Asphixia
      VGA tutorials.  I gradually replaced most of their code,
      but I still use their putpixel, waitretrace, setmcga and
      settext routines.

      I would also like to thank all my friends who have supported
      me, especially Gus Thompson, because she went to Spain and
      gave me time to work on this.  Also Marie Prosser for
      inspiration, and she also went away for three weeks
      allowing me to work on this.  Thanks to Nick Attanasio 
      who actually plays this game a lot, and whose comments 
      have hastened work on level 3.


 9.0  PRAISE/ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF TOM BOMBEM
___________________________________________________________________

     Supposedly it will be on one of Pacific Hi-Tech's
     "Gamehead" CD's.  We'll see.

     A German book company has offered to put it in a CD included
     with a Shareware Games book.

     Now Praise:


        "I just like it when it says 'Ahhh... Mr. Bombem.'"
                           ----Greg Grabowski, Bel Air, MD

        "It's simplicity reminded me of the early computer
         shooters... Kind of nostalgic... But the nice
         side [is] the very clever cinematic text."
                           ---->> Delance <<

        "The game is well designed but does not fit
         our current product line." 
                           ----Apogee Software Productions


Remember:  Watch for the newest version of Tom Bombem... and have fun.

           Vince Weaver         27 October 2000 20:05:59 EDT