+++ /dev/null
-
-Welcome to
-
- R O C K S ' N ' D I A M O N D S
- -----------------------------------
-
-A game for Unix/X11, DOS and Windows by Holger Schemel.
-DOS port based on code by Guido Schulz.
-(c) 1995-2000 by Holger Schemel.
-
-Introduction
-============
-This is a nice little game with color graphics and sound for your
-Unix system with color X11, DOS or Windows. You need an 8-bit color
-display or better.
-It will not work on black&white systems, and maybe not on gray scale
-systems.
-
-If you know the game "Boulderdash" (Commodore C64) or "Emerald Mine"
-(Amiga) or "Supaplex" (PC), you know what "ROCKS'N'DIAMONDS" is about.
-
-
-Getting started
-===============
-Just 'cd' to the directory 'rocksndiamonds-*' (Unix, Windows) or 'rocks-*'
-(DOS) and type 'rocksndiamonds' (Linux, Windows) or 'rocks' (DOS)!
-This works only on Linux, DOS and Windows systems, because the included
-binary was compiled for Linux (i386/glibc) (if you have the Unix package)
-and DOS or Windows (if you have the DOS or Windows package).
-If you have another Unix system like HPUX, NetBSD or Solaris, you first have
-to type 'make' to compile it. See the file 'INSTALL' for details.
-This may be needed on Linux systems, too, depending on your kernel version,
-your libc version, your binary format, your processor, your karma, ...
-
-(The included Linux binary was compiled on a glibc 2.x system based on
-a 2.2.x Linux kernel and XFree86 4.0.x libraries.)
-
-
-The Menues
-==========
-You can see eight blue circles on the left side of the eight green menu
-texts; these are buttons to activate the menu commands by simply clicking
-on them with a mouse. The button will then change to red.
-(You can control the menues over the keyboard or joystick, too. Just use
-the arrow keys and the 'Return' or 'Enter' key or, if you use a joystick,
-the appropriate direction and the fire button.)
-
-The menu 'name' / 'team'
-------------------------
-When you start the game the first time, your login name will appear in
-the 'NAME:' field. If you want to use a different name for playing, for
-example a funny player name or a name for cheating, you can click on the
-button and enter a new name.
-
-This menu will show the text 'team' instead of 'name' if you activated
-the team (local multiplayer) mode in the setup menu. See below.
-
-The menu 'level'
------------------
-Choose any level from the current level series you want. The former
-'handicap' limitation in choosing levels has been removed because of
-beeing annoying.
-
-If the level number is red, you have choosen a 'ready' level series (which
-is read-only and cannot be modified by the level editor); if it is yellow
-you have choosen a 'user' level series (which is writable and can be changed
-by the builf-in level editor). See below for using the level editor.
-
-To choose new level series, click on the button on the left and choose
-the new level series. Scroll the page up and down with the blue arrow
-buttons if there are more level series than would fit on the screen.
-
-Hall of fame
-------------
-Click on this button to see a list of the best players of this level.
-Click again to go back to the main menu.
-
-Level creator
--------------
-This brings you to the level editor, if you have switched to a 'yellow'
-(writable) level series.
-
-Info screen
------------
-This screen shows you all elements which appear in the game and presents
-you the background music loops which you can listen to while playing the
-levels (not available on all systems).
-
-Start game
-----------
-This will start the game. The game will be automatically recorded 'on tape'
-if you have choosen this from the setup menu (see below). If you haven't
-choosen auto-recording level, but want to record this certain game, press
-the 'record' button on the level tape recorder to start game and recording.
-
-Setup
------
-To change some things in the game, use the setup menu.
-You can enable/disable "Sound" (enables/disables _all_ sounds in
-the game), "Sound loops" (only useful on Linux systems), "Game music"
-(can always be enabled on very fast systems [exception: you don't
-like it], on slower systems it will take some percent of CPU time
-which will slow things down a bit) and "Toons", which will forbid/
-permit the little animated toons.
-
-Forget about the setup options "Buffered Gfx" and "Fading" -- they
-have no effect at the moment and will probably disappear in future
-versions of the game. (Double-buffering is now always activated, because
-systems are fast enough now compared to 1995, when the last version of the
-game was released. Especially soft-scrolling needs the double-buffering.
-About fading from one screen to another with silly effects: Most players
-will probably deactivate it after a few minutes (see also "quick doors").)
-
-Enable "scroll delay" to avoid scrolling at each step, giving you an area
-where you can walk without scrolling until you get near enough to the screen
-border.
-
-Enable "soft scroll" for soft-scrolling. Looks nice, but may need a
-relatively fast graphics card. Systems from 1998 and later should be fast
-enough for enabling soft-scrolling.
-
-Enable "quick doors" if you are unpatient when switching between the
-several game screens where the doors have to be opened or closed. You will
-almost surely enable this if you design your own levels and therefore
-often switch between game and editor screens.
-
-Set "auto-record" to "on" if you want to automatically record each game
-by the built-in level tape recorder.
-
-For configuration of input devices like keyboard and joysticks, choose
-the sub-menu "input devices".
-
-"Exit" quits the setup menu without saving the changes, "Save and exit"
-will save and then return to the main menu.
-
-
-Input Devices (sub-menu of the setup menu)
-------------------------------------------
-
-"Player" lets you choose one of the four players.
-
-"Device" lets you choose the input device you want for this player;
-you can choose between the keyboard and one of the maximal four supported
-joysticks. (Normally you won't have more than two joysticks, but the Linux
-joystick driver supports more than two joysticks.)
-
-"Customize" / "Calibrate" lets you calibrate a joystick or customize the
-keyboard keys used for moving left, right, up and down, "snapping" fields
-without moving towards them and placing bombs. Just press the key you want
-to use for the specified action or press Return or Enter to stay with the
-already configured values.
-
-"Exit" brings you back to the setup screen.
-
-
-Quit
-----
-Exit the game.
-
-
-How To Play The Game
-====================
-When the game has started, you can see the playfield on the left side
-and a control field on the right side. The control field contains the
-following elements:
-
-Level indicator Tells you which level you are playing.
-
-Emeralds Shows you how many emeralds you still need
- to win the current level.
-
-Dynamite Shows you how many dynamite bombs you have.
-
-Keys Shows you which keys you have in your inventory.
-
-Score Shows the current score. In some levels there
- are some extra items giving extra score points.
-
-Time The seconds you have still left to play the level.
-
-Stop/Pause/Play Game controls to stop the game, pause it and go on
- playing. If the tape recorder is recording your
- game, it is stopping/pausing/playing as well.
-
-Music buttons The three music buttons can be used to control the
- background music loop, the 'looping' sounds and
- all other sounds. The little red light shows you
- if it is enabled or disabled.
-
-About the game itself: Of course you know Boulderdash, so you will know
-how to play the game. :)
-If not: You can move your playing figure with the configured keys (which
-will normally and by default be the arrow keys) or with a joystick.
-To 'snap' a field near you without moving to it, you
-can use the left fire button on your joystick (hold it down, move the
-stick to 'snap' the field, release the button) or the key you have
-configured for this action (by default one of the left modifier keys like
-'Shift' or 'Control').
-To place a piece of dynamite, use the right fire button on your joystick or
-use the key you have configured for this (by default one of the right modifier
-keys, but you can change all this to what you like).
-After placing the dynamite, better see to move away from this field...).
-
-Just try the levels from the 'tutorial' level serie to see what most
-of the elements do or have a look at the info screen!
-
-
-The Level Editor
-================
-To create your own levels, it's a good idea to start with your personal
-level series, which has been created automatically the first time you
-started the game (together with some configuration files). These personal
-files are stored in '~/.rocksndiamonds' on Unix systems and in 'userdata'
-in the current playing directory (which normally is the game directory)
-on DOS/Windows systems.
-
-The levels that come with the game are normally read-only, to avoid
-problems on multi user systems, but you can set them to 'writable' in
-the file 'levelinfo.conf' ('lvlinfo.cnf' on DOS systems) in each level
-directory.
-
-To edit a level, you can use all three mouse buttons to draw in the
-level window. Click into the elements field with one of the three buttons
-to remap it to the new element. Use the scrollbars, arrow buttons or
-cursor keys to scroll around in the level. Use the drawing functions by
-selecting them from the toolbox field or pressing the corresponding key
-(the key shortcuts for each gadget are displayed in the status line at
-the bottom of the window when the mouse pointer is over the gadget).
-
-About the drawing functions: If you know the good old "Deluxe Paint" from
-the Amiga, you will have no problems with the drawing functions -- even
-the key shortcuts are mostly the same. If not, just try them out and you
-will see what happens. ;-)
-
-Some notes: Most drawing functions have different behaviour when different
-mouse buttons are pressed in the drawing area; normally, the left mouse
-button is the 'foreground button' and the middle and right buttons are
-some sort of 'background buttons', often with relation to the chosen
-element mappings on this buttons.
-
-The '?' button brings you to the 'Element settings' page, where you can
-see some information about the element and how many of them are included
-in the current level. The contents of elements with content (some amoeba
-and the Yam Yam (also know as cruncher) can have content) can be edited
-by 'sticking' the page with the corresponding button on their page.
-Yam Yam's can have up to eight content areas.
-
-The 'undo' button gives you the chance to undo up to 10 drawing operations.
-The 'info' button brings you to the 'Level/Editor settings' page.
-The 'save' button asks you to save the current level.
-The 'clear' button clears the drawing area without asking.
-The 'test' button lets you play your new level directly from the editor.
-The 'exit' button asks you to exit the editor (if there are unsaved changes).
-
-In the 'Editor settings' section, you can give your level a new name
-and type in your name which will be displayed as the level's author.
-(On Unix systems, your login name will be taken as default.)
-Then you can modify the level playfield size there, the available time
-(set this to zero to get unlimited time for this level), the score you
-get for each 10 seconds time that are left when reaching the exit, and
-last but not least you can enter the number of emeralds the player has
-to collect before the exit door opens.
-
-Another new button is the 'double speed' button that lets the player move
-twice as fast as normally from start; the effect is the same as collecting
-a speed pill during the game.
-
-In the 'Editor settings' section, you can make some modifications to the
-behaviour of the 'random element placement' button (the dice): Choose if
-the number you can enter means how many percent of the whole level are
-filled with the element chosen as the random element, or if it should mean
-the exact number of elements to be placed in the level field.
-With the 'restrict' button on the left side you can force the random function
-not to overwrite level elements other than the element chosen in the content
-field on the right side.
-
-
-The Tape Recorder
-=================
-You can use the tape recorder to record games and play tapes of previously
-played games. Just use them like a normal video recorder.
-
-Recording a game on tape:
--------------------------
-If you have enabled "auto-record", every game will automatically be recorded,
-so you just have to press "start game". Pressing the 'record' button on the
-tape recorder will start game and record it in any case.
-
-Saving a game tape:
--------------------
-To save a tape to the tape file corresponding to the level (that means
-that you can only save one tape file for each level), just press the
-'eject' button (the very left button). Then you will be prompted if
-you really want to replace the old tape (if an old tape exists).
-
-Playing a tape:
----------------
-Just press 'play' and then either 'play' or 'pause'.
-
-While recording or playing, you can press 'pause' to stop the recording
-or the playing of the tape and continue by pressing 'pause' again.
-You can use either the tape recorder buttons or the game control buttons
-for this purpose.
-
-If you want to continue a previously recorded game, press 'pause' while
-playing, then 'record' to switch from 'paused playing' to 'paused recording'
-and then continue the game by pressing 'record' or 'pause'. If you want
-to fast-forward the tape to get faster to the point where you want to
-continue playing, press 'play' again while already playing, therefore
-activating 'fast forward' playing mode. Press again the 'play' button
-to enter a special playing mode: 'pause before end' will stop a few seconds
-before the end of the tape (which will in most cases stop a few seconds
-before you get killed in the previous playing recorded on that tape) --
-after the automatic stop (which enters the 'pause' mode) you can continue
-the game as described above.
-
-
-And Now Have Fun!
-=================
-Have fun playing the game, building new levels and breaking all high
-scores! :-)
-
-If you have designed new levels, mail them to me to include them in the
-next version (which will be released much earlier than again after three
-years like this version... ;-)
-
-If you have any comments, problems, suggestions, donations, flames,
-send them to
-
- info@artsoft.org
-
-or Snail Mail to
-
- Holger Schemel
- Detmolder Strasse 189
- 33604 Bielefeld
- GERMANY
-
-Have fun,
- Holger
projects / rocksndiamonds.git / commitdiff