
                Documention for SpaceMaze (c) 1997,1998, 1999, 2001

                              
   ۰ ۰   ۰   ۰  ۰ ۰ ۰  ۰   ۰
           ۰    ۰            ۰  ۰       ۰ 
                            ۰  
       ۰ ۰       ۰           ۰  ۰   ۰
   ۰               ۰                     2
                                        
    
                       -[ the empire hikes back ]-

                       !!THE AUTO-UPGRADE VERSiON!!

                           Programming: elmo 
                   Level-desing: The Hoorinees and elmo
             Documentation : elmo (with help of The Hoorinees)                      


                             iNTRODUCTiON
                            ---

In the first grade, at school, me and my friends would turn on the old
XT computers in the studdy halls and play NIBBLES (tm) all the time...
Thiz is a textmode game where two snakes need to get 9 numbers in each
level. Picking up a number would increase the lenght of your snake and
would make it more difficult to handle.

I thought it was a neat game, it was very simple, but heaps of fun to do
with two players...!!!

Then, after a year, the old XT pc's disapeared along with NIBBLES.. then
I got the idea of writing my own game : SpaceMaze!

NB: SpaceMaze should be run in plain DOS, because the music routine does
    not work properly in windows.


                               THE GAME
                              ---

STORY:
------
Lets skip the story part... 


GOAL:
-----
The purpose of each level is to get all 10 diamonds in three minutes, and
ofcourse kill the opponent... This will drop the opponents score down to
zero, with no shield and just the standard GUN. Oh, and ofcourse to get a 
score as high as possible, so you can be THE ULTIMATE SPACEMAZTER. But it 
will take a while, believe me....!!!

POINTS:
-------
You get points for every diamond you collect. It works like this:

Diamonds - (diamonds left) * 100

so the first one is 10-9 = 1 * 100 = 100 points
the last one will be 10-0 = 10 * 100 = 1000 points

You get 50 points for hitting the opponent and for picking up a weapon.

OTHER:
------
Each weapon you collect holds 10 bullits. Each weapon has his own strength:

  WEAPON           CAUSED DAMAGE
 Gun                   5 %
 Single missile       15 %
 Double missile       25 %
 Laser-gun            30 %
 NUKE!                50 %

A shield protects you from 5 enemy bullits... but one mine is enough to
destroy your shield!

A medical kit increases your energy 20 %.

HINT: Look for secret walls.... they look a little darker!!!
      (You can fly right through them! Cool Huh!)

NB: This is definately a TWO PLAYER GAME! Playing it alone is lame.. Why do
    you think I inserted all the weapons? Dah!


                               CONTROLS
                              ---

Each of the players control a tiny space ship:


    PLAYER -1-                          PLAYER -2-
     (green)                             (purple)
        R             
                                       Arrows for
    D---G                            movements 
        
        F

  Fire = Q or U                 Fire = / or Ins(num pad 0)
BullitReset= A or J           BullitReset=  . or ". on NUMPAD"

The BullitReset option will clear all bullits you have floating around. Very
usefull if you shot in the wrong direction and want to wack the opponent. The
maximum amount of bullits flying around is ten bullits each...


                              LEVEL EDiTOR
                             ---

General editing
---------------
Pressing '2' in the main menu will bring you to the level editor... Here you
can create your very own levels, or modify existing ones (even the levels
used by the game!!!)

You start on the object bar. There you can choose an object with the arrow
keys, and select one with ENTER.

Now you are in the actual level... Pressing ENTER will place the object on
the spot you are on. You can do this several times with an object.

Press SPACE to select another object and ENTER to select it... etc.


Important
---------
The Load/Save and Exit options are only useable when you are on the
object bar!! (So 1st press SPACE when you are placing objects!)


Loading an existing level
-------------------------
Press 'L' to load a level, then enter the levels filename (without the .DAT
extension and no SPACES) and press ENTER. Now you can edit this level...


Saving a level
--------------
Press 'S' to save a level, then enter the levels filename (again without the
DAT extension and no SPACES).The game states the last level used by the game,
for example level41. When you save your level as level42, the level will be
used in the game (See section: AUTO-UPGRADEABLE VERSiON). Then enter you name
or handle. And finally enter the title for the level!! 

REMEMBER: If you specify a filename that already exists, the old file will
          be overwriten by the new one..!!


Play a home-made level
----------------------
You can play your own made level directly, by choosing main menu option 3,
and entering the filename of the level you want to play!!!



                           HiNTS FOR EDiTiNG
                          ---

 There can only be 2 teleports in one level (or none, ofcourse!).
 Don't make openings one space wide... make them wider... else the level is
  much to hard!!!     ^^^

  not like this:   But something like:        or just:

                                     
                                            
 ----->  ( this is    ---->  ( this is       ----->  ( this is
 |        to hard    |    much better      |       very easy
 |               |                 | 
 |                    |                      | 

>=ship
=wall

You'll see that I'm right when you ignore my advise, and play your home-made
level... You'll see!!! I know... I programmed it thiz way... ;)

                      
                          AUTO UPGRADEALBE VERSiON?
                         ---

Thiz version of SpaceMaze (version 3.0 and up) is AUTO-UPGRADEABLE!

When you save a home-made level, the game states the last level used by the
game, for example: level41. If you save your level as level42, the game will
automaticly use thiz level in the game...

There can only be 99 levels, because a filename in DOS can only contain eight
characters (LEVEL99). If thiz iz a problem, contact me...

The AUTO-UPGRADE option also means that you can use up to 25 hsc-files of
your own hsc-files collection in Spacemaze. Just put the hsc-files in the
directorie MUSIC, and the game will automaticly use them!!!



                              CHEAT CODES
                             ---
                          
Don't look so suprised....Yeah, there are cheats for this game....
...only....I won't give it to you now....! To BAD huh??? It would not ....
improve the game play!! And besides, you would only..cheat...you lazy COW!

So you can try all the keys on your keyboard.....as we say in Dutch: "Tot je
erbij neervalt...!". Maybe I will give the cheats when the game....has like
99 levels......(I can hear you think, "YEAH SURE!", now!!!)....but that will
take a few.....YEARS!!!


                          TECHNICAL DETAiLS
                         ---

It's written in Turbo Pascal 7.0 and uses an EGA screen in 640x480 pixels..
Each object in the level is 10x10 and a level is 64x45 (x10). Thiz code does
not include assembler, because, as we say in Holland: "Daar heb ik geen kaas
van gegeten!". 

The levels are saved in text-files, just like the hiscore...
so hacking the game won't be a problem...? 

The BMP-files used are 320 x 200(h/v) and in 256 colors.


                        FiXED BUGS AND CHANGES
                       ---
 [symbols]
 + added
 - removed
 * changed/fixed
 > remark


I can't remember wich versions I made wich change... But who cares?

* newest change in year2002. mod routine replaced by hsc routine. now it
  works under Windows.. finally windows compatible.. :)

* "level save"routine fixed: Long name doesn't mess up the levels when saving.
* teleport fixed: own made level didn't allow teleports.
* time/diamonds ajusted: it was 20 diamonds in 2 minutes, now it's 10 diamonds
  in 3 minutes... Big change!
+ exploding mines: now you see the remains of the exploded mine.
+ exploding ships: when a ship blows up, you also see the remains.
* loading a NOT-existing level doesn't kick you back in DOS anymore.
+ starting positions of players are cleared at start, just in case.
* if you don't give the level a name... it is called NONAME.DAT.
+ cheat codes added!!! (email me if you want them :)
> there is one thing I can't seem to fix.. : The Nuke-bug... player one seems
  to get the NUKE spontaniously when not flying against one.. WEiRD!
+ Now it auto-detects new levels.. you can make the game as big as you like!
+ Now it auto-detects mod-files(music), so you can ad your own music!
* CTRL+BREAK is disabled during gameplay.
+ At the end of the game, the winner is stated... incl. gfx!
+ Game states level number when loading, ex: 3/34(level 3 of the 34 levels)
* It now plays the mod-list without RANDOM.. so if you put 25 different mods
  in the <MUSIC> directorie, it will loop after 25 songs... hmmm, not bad!
- F1 function removed: Thiz was for testing purposes only... It would kick
  you into OS, stating how many bullits each player had floating around..
  Thiz was the 1st bug YOost discovered... ;)
+ Cheatcode enabler added: No way you exidently find thiz one...
* Loadlevel in SpaceMaze 3.2 waz wrong... I ajusted some font heights and
  exidently screwed up my routine. Bug discovered by YOost.. thanx!
* Save/Load options in level-editor only visible when useable!
+ When HISCORE.LST in the directorie <HISCORE> is missing, a new one iz made!

BTW: The music uses conventional memory, so free up as much as possible...
     If you don't here sound then these things could be wrong:
      - The MOD-files in the MUSIC-dir are missing or corrupt;
      - You don't have enough conventional memory;
      - You euh... don't have a soundboard?

Most BUGS where discovered while The Hoorinees was Beta-testing the game. If
you discover a serious BUG, contact me!

email: elmar@cyberdude.com


                              OH YEAH!
                             ---

Oh, I almost forgot the legal stuff...
Well, here goes:

It's FREEWARE so,
It's FREE,
You can COPY it,
SPREAD it,
spread HOME-MADE levels,
DELETE it... ;^)
or whatever!

DON'T PAY FOR THIZ PEACE OF S... euh.. SOFTWARE!!!

Thanx!
 and have fun because,

   "YOU...., CAN BE A SPACEMAZTER TOO!"


                                           -[ elmo /x-pression ]-
                                            <elmar@cyberdude.com>
