tb1/README
Vince Weaver b8225aed5d v.2.9.11
2012-11-30 23:32:36 -05:00

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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
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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, 1Meg disk space
The game was originally written on a 386 33Mhz under DOS.
It has been tested to run fine on my 486 75Mhz laptop
w 12Mb ram and 8bpp display.
The game has not been verified to run on 64 bit or big-endian machines.
3.0 STARTING THE GAME
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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