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   LASER BALLS [v.1.0]
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Copyright 2002 by
Marco Chiesi
chiesi@libero.it
http://chiesi.cjb.net


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      INTRODUCTION
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Laser Balls is a funny deathmatch battle for up to four players,
either controlled by the user or by the computer. 
You drive a bouncing coloured ball into a sort of arena, and you
have to fight against other balls with your laser sword-gun. 
The game also provides a scripting engine, so you can write the
behaviours of the computer enemies.


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      HOW TO PLAY
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Simply move your ball around the screen, using UP and DOWN arrows to go 
back and forth, LEFT and RIGHT arrows to rotate and the fire key to
shoot to the enemies with your laser weapon, until only one ball survive.


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    ALLEGRO SPEEDHACK
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This game was written in a weekend for the Allegro Speedhack 2002 competition.
The rules were:
- The game should include at least 2 pages of the Allegro demo game
- The game should have a scrolling message somewhere within it
- The game should contain a Virtual Machine
- The game should glow with radiation inspired content

Visit http://www.allegro.cc/speedhack for more info.


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    COMPILING THE GAME
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You require the Allegro library version 4.0.1 in order to compile the game,
you can get it at http://alleg.sourceforge.net

To compile:
- Windows: Use the .dsp project file for MS Visual C++
- Dos    : Run make.bat
- Linux  : Run make.sh

Put the executable in the bin folder.

Otherwise you can get binary versions on my site http://chiesi.cjb.net


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 CREATE YOUR OPPONENT
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You can use .lb scripts to create computer opponents. Wath at the file cpu.lb for
an example. A better documentation about how to write the scripts is coming soon.


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 COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
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The game hase many command line options:

  -r, --resolution WIDTH HEIGHT   use a special resolution (in 8 bpp)
  -u, --update METHOD             select screen update method
  -f, --fps                       show fps informations
  -w, --window                    try to start the program in a window
  -s, --nosound                   do not install sounds
  -h, --help                      display this help and exit
      --version                   output version information and exit

Availale update methods are:
DOUBLE_BUFFER, PAGE_FLIP, RETRACE_FLIP, TRIPLE_BUFFER, DIRTY_RECTANGLE
The default is DIRTY_RECTANGLE


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        SETTINGS
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Once inside the game you will be able to modify the following options:

  - Enable / disable sound
  - Enable / disable background music
  - Change the control keys
  - Set up the players

To restore default settings you simply have to delete the file LaserBalls.cfg

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         CREDITS
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Thanks to:
- All the Allegro Community at allegro.cc
- Shawn Hargreaves for the Allegro demo game and for EGG
- David A. Capello for the utility ttf2pcx
- Fausto Predieri for helping me test the game
- Radiohead for the music

