rocksndiamonds-2.0.0

[rocksndiamonds.git] / README

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