
                                    Bubble Pop
                      (C) Copyright 1997,1999 Ed Federmeyer


Introduction:
-------------
This game is sort of like an 'Anti-Asteroids'.  Instead of running away from
the objects, your goal is to guide your ship into and pop as many bubbles as
possible within the time limit.


Installation:
-------------
You need a 486 DOS based (Windows is close enough!) computer, with VGA
graphics, and a SoundBlaster compatible sound card.  I'm not sure how much
memory you need, but if you have enough to run Windows, you probably have
enough to run this little game!  

Copy the files "BPOP.EXE", "BPOP.DAT", "CWSDPMI.EXE" and "README.TXT" to a
directory.  (I'd suggest C:\GAMES\BPOP, but thats just me!)

To run the game, just type "BPOP" at the DOS command prompt.


Playing the game:
-----------------
Use the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to rotate your ship.  Use the UP arrow
key to fire the engine, and the ship will move in the direction it's pointing.
Use the "Q" or "ESCAPE" key to quit the game.  Use the "P" key to pause, and
"ENTER" to continue the game after pausing.

You start the game with 3 ships.  If you don't clear an entire level, you lose
a ship and start that level over.  When you lose all your ships, the game is
over.  The current number of ships is displayed in the upper right-hand corner
of the screen.

You have a certain ammount of time to clear each level.  The time left to clear
the level counts down and is displayed in the upper-middle of the screen.
When it reaches "0", times up!

You score 50 points for popping big bubbles, and 100 points for popping little
bubbles.  When you clear a level, you get a 10 point bonus for each second
you had left.  Your score is displayed in the upper-left hand corner of the
screen.

The higher the level you achieve, the more bubbles will apear at the start!


Troubleshooting:
----------------
The game tries to use 640x400 graphics mode by default.  If the game fails
to run, or gives an error message about not being able to run at that
resolution, or runs *really* *really* slow, try running it at a lower
resolution.  Use the DOS command line:
bpop -lowres
This runs the game in 320x200 graphics mode, which should work on all VGA
systems, and even my slow old 33Mhz 486 can keep up for the most part.

I have seen a problem with my "Video-57P" Trident-TGUI9680 based video card
from Jaton Corp.  It's VESA 1.x implimentation seems to cause a problem
with this game.  If you get a windows popup window that says something like
"Program tried to execute an illegal instruction", try getting a copy of
UniVBE.  That fixed the problem for me.


Special thanks:
---------------
I downloaded this new 'C' compiler from the Internet called 'DJGPP version
2.01', by DJ Delorie, which is a port of the GNU 'C' compiler that runs under
DOS.  "WOW!" I said, as soon as I saw it, "this is _incredible_!".  Then I
downloaded this game programming library by Shawn Hargreaves called 'Allegro
2.2'.  I couldn't help myself from exclaiming "I can't _believe_ how
incredible this is!"  I'd like to thank the people responsible for both of
these wonderful tools!  I'd highly recommend them to anyone interested in
programming games to run under MS-DOS!


About the music:
----------------
If it sounds familiar, thats because it's some music I downloaded from the
Internet.  The opening theme is "Mission" by Rush.  The game music is
"Right Now" by Van Halen.  One day, I'll actually hook up with a musician
who can create custom music for me to use in my games!


Note: (Feb 13, 1999)
--------------------
The version you have has been updated in February 1999 by compiling with
DJGPP v2.02 and Allegro v3.1.  Still two really great packages!

I also added the ability to create screen dumps.  Pressing F12 during the
game will create a file called "dump.pcx".
