                    GAME-MAKER Owner's Manual UPDATE

                             April 2, 1992


This document describes new features, additional instructions, and any
corrections that have come to our attention.

NEW FEATURES

1.  Control  of  screen  scrolling.    Using  the  Integrator, you can
control the direction that  the  screen  will scroll for each scene in
your game.  Normally the  screen  will  screen will scroll in all four
directions, but for each scene in a game you can turn off scrolling in
one or more directions. 

2.  See section 4.7, Sound Designer.  Sound #2 is listed in a table as
the  sound  Game-Maker  makes  when  the character loses  hit  points.
Change the table to read "Monster Dies".  When  hit  points  are lost,
Game-Maker  will  make  the  sound  you designate in Character Maker's
Injured  Sequence.   Thus you can now have Game-Maker make sounds  for
both  when  the  character  dies  and  when  it  is injured (loses hit
points).

3.  Special  Counters.   The five special counters (they are described
in section 4.2.3.2) can  not  be decremented past zero, although their
initial value can be negative.    Using  the special counters, you can
force the character to contact one  or more specific background blocks
before it can cause a change to  another  block.    For example:  upon
contact by a character, a block showing a key could  increment Special
Counter #1 by one,  and  a  solid block showing a door could decrement
the same counter by one before changing to an open door block.  If the
special  counter's  initial  value  was  zero,  until  the  counter is
incremented by the 'key', the door will not change on contact  to  the
picture of the open door.  
     
4.   Function Key F8.  This function key turns on and  turns  off  the
Joystick.   Please  update  the  table  in  section 3.0 of the owner's
manual.  The  joystick  is  off at the start of a game, press F8 after
starting a game to enable it.

5.  You may create a monster that doesn't  have  any  monster  picture
blocks  associated with it.  Of course the monster will  be  invisible
and  harmless.  Section 6.2 paragraph 2 describes the use of  a  clear
block to create repetitive one way monsters;  but it is far  better to
use  a  monster  with  no  picture  block  as  much less processing is
required.

6.  Various Super VGA boards behave differently, even if they have the
same super VGA chip set  on  them.    Game-Maker usually automatically
determines the type of board.   If  the  video  breaks  up and doesn't
scroll  while  playing  a  game, you can  assume  your  board  is  not
automatically  handled  by  Game-Maker.    (See chapter seven  in  the
Owner's Manual).  You may be able to play  games even if your board is
not  supported.    To  do  so, go to the \GM\  subdirectory  and  type
'PLAYGAME xxxxx' where xxxxx is the name of the video chip set on your
board.    Valid  names  are:    TSENG3000,  TSENG4000,  ATI,  TRIDENT,
PARADISE.  If you are  running  a 'transferred' game, type the name of
the game followed by the chip  set  name  (Game_Name  xxxx) to run the
game. 

7.    Users  tell  us you can run  Game-Maker  within  the  MS-Windows
environment as a full screen DOS window, however we  have  not  tested
this capability extensively.
 

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Restoring Games.

Function key F5 saves a game in  progress, and F6 restores the game at
the exact point where it was saved.   Once  a game has been saved, you
may restore the game anytime during play.  If  you've  saved  the game
and  then quit, you may restore by first starting the  game  from  the
beginning, and then by pressing F6 at any time.

2.  Here's a few more techniques for having characters shoot.  
        
  a.  Using Character Maker, you can set a single character sequence 
      to shoot once each frame, resulting in multiple identical or 
      different monsters shooting from the character for each stroke of
      the key or joystick button.  If you have shooting alternate with
      frames in the sequence that move the character in new directions,
      then the monsters will shoot in each of the directions.

  b.  For monsters that are shot from characters, it's usually best to 
      have the monster blocks not have solid sides.


3.  Joystick Controls.   When assigning joystick controls to character
sequences, be careful to  select  exactly what controls you want.  For
example, to move left choose  'left'  and  'no  buttons'.    To shoot,
choose just one button.  For  a  left  jump,  you might want to choose
'left' AND 'button 2'(both must be active for the jump to work).  

4.  Helpful Hint:  Many games  use the numeric keypad.  These keys are
interpreted  differently  by Game-Maker depending upon whether NumLock
is on or off.  Be sure and put the keypad in the mode that matches the
game.


OWNER'S MANUAL CORRECTIONS

1.   Section 4.2.3, table.  Change "0 to 9999"  to  "-9999  to  9999".
Section 4.2.3.2,  paragraph  3.    Change the sentence "All repetition
counts go from a low of 0 to..." to "a low of -9999 to...".

2.  Section  4.3.4,  paragraph  5.    Cross  out  the second and third
sentences that start with  "Draw  this  sequence...".   Add:  "Objects
must NOT have solid sides."

3.    Section  4.3.5,  paragraph  2.    Change  "The  maximum  initial
repetition count is 254" to "is 32766".  

4.  Section 4.4.4.3.  Add:    "Monsters that move in a pattern can now
be stopped by or pass through solid  blocks,  your  choice  on  a  per
monster basis."


BUGS

1.    The  TRANSFER  utility  forgets  to  transfer  any  image  files
associated with a game.  The game still runs, but it won't display the
initial or final 'backdrop' images.  You can transfer them yourself as
follows:  first, create a subdirectory called \GIF on the floppy or in
the game's new subdirectory.  Then COPY the backdrop  files  that  you
named  in  the  initial and final scenes of your game  into  this  new
subdirectory.    The  backdrop  files are named as you specified, with
extensions of  .BKD  and are located in the GM\GIF subdirectory.  Next
copy the .GIF files that the backdrop files point to (that is, the GIF
files that you used  when  you  created  the  backdrop)  into  the new
subdirectory.  The MS-DOS commands you will probably use are 

        MKDIR GIF
        COPY C:\GM\GIF\name.BKD  A:\GIF\*.*
        COPY C:\GM\GIF\name.GIF  A:\GIF\*.*
  