
                      ------------------------------------
                                 Paranoid v0.99.9
                      ------------------------------------
                      
                       Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Miran Amon
                                 March 23, 2004





______________________________________________________________________________
\____________________________________LEGAL____________________________________\

    
    #include <std_disclaimer.h> 
    
    "I do not accept responsibility for any effects, adverse or otherwise,
    that this code may have on you, your computer, your sanity, your dog, and
    anything else that you can think of. Use it at your own risk."
    
    This software is free. This means you are free to use it and distribute
    it as much as you like. You can not however modify it in any way, say it
    is your own work or charge money for it. The source code and all the game
    data with the exception of the music is owned by Miran Amon.


______________________________________________________________________________
\________________________________INTRODUCTION_________________________________\


    Paranoid is an Arkanoid clone with a very retro feel. The greenish arcady
    graphics at low resolution (200x160 emulated at 640x480) and with
    vertical scanlines, bleepy sound effects and chip music will take you
    back at least 15 years. This version comes with 40 levels of increasing
    difficulty and plenty of powerups.
    
    Note: this game is not yet complete. Most of the features are implemented
    and there aren't many bugs left so from the gameplay point of view the
    game is finished. The only think that is missing is some original music.
    This version comes with a handfull of chiptunes for my chiptune
    collection and were not made specially for this game. If you have some
    chip music that you think would fit well in this game or have the
    ability and will to make it then don't hesitate to contact me.


______________________________________________________________________________
\_________________________________FILE_LIST___________________________________\


    This package should contain these files:

        Paranoid.exe    - MS Windows executable (Windows version only)
        Paranoid.ini    - program configuration file
        info.txt        - short description of the package
        readme.txt      - this document
        src.zip         - the source code
        data\font.dat   - the font pack
        data\gfx.dat    - the graphics pack
        data\level.dat  - the efault level pack
        data\sounds.dat - the sound effects pack
        data\music.pls  - a WinAmp compatible playlist for music
        data\*.mod      - music
        data\*.xm       - more music


______________________________________________________________________________
\________________________________REQUIREMENTS_________________________________\


    Paranoid requires quite a fast computer despite it's 80's look as the
    low resolution and the arcady graphics need to be emulated at a higher
    resolution. These are the absolutely minimum requirements:
    
       - Pentium 2 @ 266 MHz (a 500MHz processor recommended)
       - 32MB RAM (more is better :)
       - a graphics card that can do 640x480 @ 8bpp
       - sound card is optional but highly recommended
       - Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP with DX7 or above or
       - a fairly recent distribution of Linux
       

______________________________________________________________________________
\_________________________________INSTALLING__________________________________\


    The installation process depends on your OS. If you have Windows simply
    unzip the package to any directory you want or run the installer. You can
    optionally make a shortcut on your desktop and/or the start menu.
    
    If you have Linux you need to compile the game yourself. For instructions
    on compiling see below.


______________________________________________________________________________
\_______________________________CONFIGURATION_________________________________\


    Paranoid can be configured from the game options menu, however if the
    game fails to run for some reason or if you're one of those people who
    like tweaking configuration files you can manually open and edit the
    Paranoid.ini file. You can change the following options:
    
    w = 640           - these control the resolution of the screen or
    h = 480             the size of the game window; you shouldn't
                        change this as the game was designed to run
                        at 640x480
    bpp = 8           - the colour depth; don't change this
    fullscreen = 1    - set to 0 if you want to run the game in a window
    refresh = 60      - the refresh rate of your monitor; the default is 60
                        Hz which should work on all monitors but you are
                        encouraged to increase this value if your monitor
                        supports it
    vsync = 0         - set this to 1 to enable vsync; if vsync is enabled
                        it will produce smoother graphics but may have the
                        exact opposite effect on some (slower) machines
    yield = 0         - set to 1 to make the game play nice with multitasking
                        operating systems; leave at 0 for best performance
    soundVolume = 32  - the volume of the sounds in the range [0, 255]
    musicVolume = 84  - the volume of the music
    screenWidth = 200 - width and height of the emulated screen; you shouldn't
    screenHeight = 160  change this as the game was designed to run at
                        200x160 emulated at 640x480
    updateMethod = 0  - selects the screen update method: 0 makes  the screen
                        look greenish with vertical scanlines, 1 emulates a
                        TV screen, 2 stretches the game screen to the actual
                        screen, any other value runs the game at the real
                        resolution. If you select update method 2 you can
                        change the resolution (w and h) to whatever you want,
                        if you select method 3 you can change the resolution
                        to something like 320x240 for example.
    fps = 50          - framerate of the game logic; don't change this
    unlimitedFPS = 0  - set to 1 if you don't want the graphics FPS be clipped
                        to the logic FPS; this is only usefull for testing
                        (benchmarking) a computer
    showFPS = 0       - set to 1 if you want to see the current FPS
    gfx =             - these are all aths to the game data; if you want
    levels =            you can change the graphics, sounds, music, font
    sounds =            or the level pack if you want
    music = 
    font =
    
    There may be other settings but you shouldn't touch them.


______________________________________________________________________________
\__________________________________COMPILING__________________________________\


    The entire source code of the game is included in the package. If you want
    to compile the game yourself you will need a few items:
    
       - a recent version of the GNU C compiler (the Windows binary was
         compiled with gcc v3.2),
       - the Allegro game programming:   http://alleg.sourceforge.net/
       - DUMB:                           http://dumb.sourceforge.net/
       
    Once you have all that just unzip the package to any directory you want,
    edit the makefile to include the makefile for your system and run make.
    A binary will be created in the bin directory. I've included makefiles
    for the following systems/compilers:
    
       - MinGW32 (Windows):      makefile.mgw
       - DJGPP (DOS):            makefile.dj
       - Linux:                  makefile.linux

    The entire source code for the program is included in the package. If you
    want to compile it yourself though you will need a few libraries. First
    of all you will need Allegro. This version was successfully compiled
    with Allegro 4.0.3 and 4.1.12 WIP. I haven't tested any other version.

    If you have problems compiling just edit the makefile to match your
    system configuration.


______________________________________________________________________________
\___________________________________PLAYING___________________________________\


    Playing Paranoid is very simple. The object of the game is to to break
    all the breakable block in order to progress to the next level. You can
    break the bricks with either the ball(s) or by shooting them. You have
    to use the paddle to keep the balls from falling off the screen. If you
    loose the last ball, you loose life. The game is over once you've cleared
    all the levels or when you run out of lives, whichever comes first. For
    every brick that you break you get 100 points but there are also bonus
    points you can collect along the way.

    Here are the game controls:

       - arrow keys (left and right) - move the paddle
       - space - release the ball or shoot a bullet
       - 8 and 2 on the keypad - change the music volume
       - 9 and 3 on the keypad - change the sound volume
       - 4 and 6 on the keypad - browse through the playlist
       - 5 on the keypad - replay the current song
       - P - pause the game (ENTER to continue)
       - ESC - bring up the main menu
       - F - toggles FPS counting on and off
       - U - toggles unlimited FPS
       - V - toggles vsync
       - M - cycles through update methods
       - PrtScr - takes a screenshot
       
    The menus are navigated with the arrow keys (both left/right and up/down
    combinations work) and the ENTER key.
    
    To help you win the game some blocks will release powerups when they're
    destroyed. In order to take advantage of the powerups you have to
    collect them with your paddle before they fall off the screen. Be carefull
    though, some powerups are actually powerdowns and should be avoided.
    These are the powerups that are available:
    
       - minus sign - shrink the paddle
       - plus sign - grow the paddle
       - < sign - slow down all the balls that are in the air
       - > sign - make all the balls go faster
       - o - gives you an extra ball
       - v - makes the balls stick to the paddle (only 1 at a time)
       - $ - bonus points, the small $ gives you 250, the big one gives 2500
       - " - bullets; you can have up to three bullets at a time
       - heart - extra life
       

______________________________________________________________________________
\_______________________________KNOWN_PROBLEMS________________________________\


    The game still has a few bugs that I know of:

       - some songs won't play
       - some songs may even crash the game
       - the pls file must list files with absolute paths or paths that
         are relative to the executable (and not the pls file itself) in
         order to work
    
    If you find any bugs or other problems with the game don't hesitate to
    contact me (see below for contact information).


______________________________________________________________________________
\___________________________________CREDITS___________________________________\


    I would like to say thank you to the following people who made this
    game possible:
    
        - Shawn Hargreaves and everybody else who made or helped make the
          Allegro programming library,

        - Ben Davis for making the DUMB library,
    
        - the following composers whose excellent music I shamelessly put
          in this pack:
      
            4-mat/anarchy
            emax/trsi
            hydra/independant
            dreamer/pmc
            Jason/Silents
            hollywood/freestyle
            Stargazer/Sonik
            mel o'dee/shining
            Chris/Sardonyx
            mempheria/amc
            stalker/fyllecell303
         
        - evryone else who offered assistance and support either by
          reporting bugs, suggesting features, providing solutions
          to problems or in any other way helping develop this game.


______________________________________________________________________________
\________________________________CONTACT_INFO_________________________________\


    You can get the latest version of this game at my homepage:
    
        http://ferisrv5.uni-mb.si/~ma0747
        
    If you want to contact me for any reason you can reach me at this address:
    
        miran_amon@hotmail.com
        

______________________________________________________________________________
\_____________________________________EOF_____________________________________\