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 Documentation to BIG MAMA v 2.0-250302                                      
                                                                              
                  A game written by Michael Wendl, brought to you by Skylum. 
ͼ



DISTRIBUTING

    This game is freeware, anybody may (and should) play it. Therefore, you are
    encouraged  to  distribute  this  game  (in it's original form) like crazy.
    Upload to every website and bbs you know,  give a copy to all your friends,
    etc... However, this game may not be included in a compilation or any other
    kind  of  commercial  package  without  the permission from the author. See
    contact near the end of this document.



DISCLAIMER
                  
    I do not accept responsibility for any effects,  adverse or otherwise, that
    this software may have on you, your computer, your sanity, or anything else
    that you can think of.  Use it at your own risk.  I  have,  however,  never
    experienced any trouble with it.



INSTALLATION

    At the moment there are binaries for Linux and DOS available.  All you have
    to do to try your luck versus one of the three Big Mamas is  to  decompress
    the .tar.gz file (linux version) or the .zip file (DOS version) and execute
    the application file game directly from shell or from a shell console.  

    The  hardware drivers  unfortunately needs root privileges for linux. Sorry
    about that.


    You are able to use the following shell options:

    - "-nointro"
    - "-cheat"
    - "-cycledelay x"
    - "-help"
    - "-version"

    Try the help option to get more detailed information.


    This application was tested under following environments with the described
    results:
    
    - linux shell        - no conflicts
    - x-windows kde      - no conflicts
    - x-windows gnome    - several conflicts with some task bar plug-ins
    - MS DOS / Windows9x - no conflicts
    - Windows 2000       - no conflicts 



HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

    - Pentium
    - 8 MB RAM
    - VGA-card/display
    - SB compatible soundcard (optional)



CONTROLS

    Default keys are as follows:

    - Action   SPACE
    - Left     LEFT ARROW 
    - Right    RIGHT ARROW 
    - Up       UP ARROW
    - Down     DOWN ARROW
    - Quit     ESC



PLAYING

    This game is nothing else then an  individual variant  of  "sinking boats".
    You got three ships (1 cell) and two isles (5 cells) to defend.    It isn't
    possible to set an object neighbored vertically or horizontally next to an
    other one. Use this information for your attack strategy too.

    I think, that the rest of the game will speak for itself.  Only one fact is
    still to say, the highest score may be 100 points.



AUTHORS & CONTACT

    This software is coded and designed  by  Michael Wendl.  I  also  drew  the 
    graphics.

    If you have  comments,  bug reports,  or just want to ask something you can 
    contact me by e-mail. You can also visit me on the web.

    E-Mail: michi@skylum.at

    http://www.skylum.at


SPECIAL THANKS

    I would like to thank the following people:

    Shawn Hargreavers for Allegro
    Andreas Dilger for the Tux Logo, I took from his homepage




DEVELOPMENT NOTES


TODO:
- help function
- samples
- menu: help, highscore, new game
- game options: number of isles and ships, playing on time

KNOWN BUGS:
- none

ACCOMPLISHED TODOS:
- backspace for input of player name, as well as code optimization
- shell parameters for cheating, intro, cycledelay, help, version
- take own saved devices into calculation of highscore
- put portrait of big mama onto screen
- images for map decoration

FOUND BUGS:
- highscore list won't be written to file
- a new highscore is put over all previous entries
- if e.g. a ship is set on cell 20 (on border) - cell 21 will get locked,
  which is nonsense
  that means that the borders aren't acknowledged - except the border to the
  second map


API

Please look at the header files. They're very well commented.



EOF
