Hardcore B O M B E R B O Y (C) OverFlow 1996 Design, Programming, Sound Effects, Music, 3 Blocksets, Sprites, Manual - Tero Heikkinen (AKA Herra Hoo) Design, Title Screen, 3 Blocksets, Sprites, Icon, Logo, Manual - Pete Heikkinen (AKA Runelord) Playtesting - Herra Hoo, Runelord, R2 D2 and the rest of the OverFlow crew FOREWORD This game is PUBLIC DOMAIN, but you are not allowed to change the files in any way, except the user definable levels. You are not allowed to spread your own levels with this package which should include the following six files: Filename Length HCBomber 254608 (The main program file) HCBomber.Info 1270 (and icon) HCBomber.Title 23254 (Title screen) HCBomber.Usermaps 7999 (User definable maps) HCBomber.Doc 13583 (This file) HCBomber.Doc.Info 1302 (icon, default tool:sys/utilities/multiview) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS An KS1.3 1MB PAL Amiga compatible computer or above. All drives detected by the system are supported. However, the executable must be run from its native directory. No external libraries or fonts are required. Hardcore Bomberboy has been tested on a KS3.0 A1200HD (2MB Chip RAM), a KS3.1 A1200HD (2MB Chip RAM), a KS1.3 A500 (512KB Chip/512KB Fast RAM) and a KS2.0 A2000HD/25Mhz '030 (1MB Chip/9MB Fast RAM). The game slows down a bit when played on an A500 with four players. INTRODUCTION Hardcore Bomberboy is yet another version of the famous coin-op game, Bomberman. Your task is to kill all other players from a maze filled with blocks - both solid and destructable. Your primary weapon in this task are bombs. Bonuses, which are contained in the soft matter, can enhance your abilites to formidable extent. Then again, these bonuses are available to all players - up to four of them. You might wonder, why another Bomberman clone? There have been several games in this genre for Amiga; Dynablasters, Dynamite Warriors, Master Blaster, Blitz Bombers... I thought there was something good in all of them, yet something was lacking in every game. Or perhaps not quite lacking, rather having TOO MUCH everything! I think that a Bomberman clone should be kept simple, fast and furious. Emphasis on skill and not on luck. Hardcore Bomberboy looks and sounds great with absolutely frantic action and excellent playability, has a level editor, features no useless bonuses, works on KS 1.3+ and last but not least, it is totally free. MAIN MENU After viewing the intro screen you are presented with the main menu, divided into three windows. The topmost area shows the players, their number of victories and controls. Bottom left window shows you the Main Menu options and the bottom right shows you Level options. The menus are only controllable from keyboard. The keys that activate functions are highlighted. Player window: 1. Turn player one on/off 2. Turn player two on/off 3. Turn player three on/off 4. Turn player four on/off S. Switch character representation C. Clear victories Main Menu: E: Enter Map Editor I: Information screen F: Change Music/Sound FX Q: Quit game Press SPACE or Fire to Start game with selected options To the right of the Main Menu options are the Level Choice options. These are also controlled by pressing the relevant keys. From here you may select individual levels, or types of level for computer to choose. R: Random P: Random Pick O: One Level G: Generate + Pick U: Usermaps Random Computer generates a totally new random level for all matches. The quality of these maps may vary, but they should all be playable. Random Pick Computer picks for each match a random map from any of the 40 predefined maps in RAM. Generate + Pick Computer mixes both totally random levels and randomly picked pre-edited levels. One Level This option lets you pick an individual level from the 40 RAM maps. After pressing the O key, enter two digits into the prompt and the level is selected (Use always two digits, 01-09). This map is then used in any match from hereon until another level or level type is chosen. Maps from 01 to 20 are built-in maps (Uneditable) and maps from 21 to 40 are user maps (Editable). User Maps (On/Off) If you wish to include/exclude the 20 usermaps from random picks, select this option. The built-in maps are always in use. Levels are not excluded in the 'one level' mode. CONTROLS Maximum of four players may participate, of which two must use keyboard controls. To activate players in main menu, press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to turn a player on / off. For example, if two players wish to use joysticks, turn on players One and Three (and ensure that Two and Four are de-selected). Player One : Joystick in Joystick port Player Two : Cursor keys + Right Shift to lay bombs Player Three : Joystick in Mouse port Player Four : Keyboard control Control : Up Left Shift : Down Left Alt : Left Left Amiga : Right Z : Lay bombs BONUS TOKENS There are seven different bonus tokens. They are revealed by destroying the soft matter between walls, and are picked up by walking over them. Any bonus effect works in conjunction with the others, so you can pick up Speed Up, Shield and Nuclear Gloves to a devastating effect... All bonuses affect only the player that picked it up. I found out that in other games all bonuses that affect other players are usually pretty unfair or even pointless. No-one could pay that much attention to other players' doings so as to see which bonus he is about to pick up. All these bonuses have been carefully tested to suit the gameplay. Most bonuses only work for few seconds, but as the pace of the game is really high, you can do a lot in those few seconds. 1. More Power (Two small bombs) This increases the radius of your bombs' explosion range by one, up to eight squares. These last to the end of the current match. After getting a couple of these it might become questionable whether further power bonuses are actually of help or hindrance, as it becomes more difficult to avoid explosions from your own bombs. 2. More Bombs (A flaming plus sign) Increases the amount of bombs you may plant at once, up to four bombs. These too last to the end of the current match. Four bombs might seem like small amount, but just try handling four full-powered bombs... Note that bombs caught in explosion area are also detonated, causing a chain reaction. 3. Speed Up (Double triangle right, as in Fast Forward buttons) Speeds up your character for a few seconds. 4. Shield (A shield with a small 'S' in it) Your character becomes invulnerable to any attacks for a couple of seconds. The character flickers when the bonus is functioning. 5. Slow down (triangle leftwards) Your character slows down for a while. The effect may be neutralized by picking up a Speed Up token (and vice versa). 6. Nuclear Gloves (A picture of fist) Player equipped with Nuclear Gloves may kill any player by merely touching them. The effect lasts for only a short while, and this is indicated by rapid flashing on the characters edges. The enemy is not killed if he is affected by the Shield Bonus or he himself has a Nuclear Glove bonus. Nuclear Gloves should not be confused with the Shield Bonus, as the Nuclear Glove gives no protection from explosions. In fact, it's very easy get killed yourself with Nuclear Gloves when trying too eagerly to waste your opponents by touching them. (This bonus seems to be a quite unique in this genre, at least I have never seen a Bomberman game to feature it). 7. Random Bonus (A question mark) This gives you any of the bonuses randomly, but never the 'More Bombs' or 'More Power', so as not to make it unclear which bonus you've had (and also not to make the game too boring!) LEVEL EDITOR Bomberman games rarely excel in having a level editor built-in, but HC Bomberboy has one. 40 maps + infinite random levels could be enough for almost anybody, but there could still be some unusual design you always wanted to try... Level editor is activated by pressing the 'E' key in main menu. The screen then shows the map and a row of icons. In top left corner the current map number is shown (21-40). You MUST use the mouse to edit the maps, although keyboard shortcuts may be used to activate options. The game uses the filename 'Usermaps' for your saved user maps. The file contains all the 20 editable maps. If you for some reason wish to save even more usermaps, you must rename the file or move it away and save another onto it. This is because I could not be bothered to make a complex file selection system. 20 levels should be enough as they tend not to be THAT much different. You don't have to save the maps in order to play them. Any alterations made to the maps stay as long as the game is not re-booted. Note also that there is no UNDO option. Icons and their keyboard shortcuts: ICON SHORTCUT FUNCTION Empty E - Draw empty blocks (ground) Tile Wall W - Draw wall (indestructible) Stone S - Draw soft matter (bonus containers) Tras...
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