
    PaRTiTioN SeCToR 0.85

    By Andrew R. Gillett aka Arganoid (arganoid@fatal-design.com)
    Based on Masterblaster by Alexander Ivanof
    Written using DJGPP and Allegro



-= iNTRoDuCTioN =-

Partition Sector is a Bomberman-style game which supports up to five players
on the same PC. It is based on a 1995 Amiga game called Masterblaster, which
at the time was one of the best multiplayer games in existence. It contains
all the features from Masterblaster, and adds extra powerups, improved
special effects, and a high level of customizability.

See the end of this file for shareware/distribution/legal stuff.


-= HaRDWaRe / SoFTWaRe ReQuiReMeNTS =-

To play PSector, you should have at least a low-end Pentium with a PCI
video card. Ideally, your video card should support VESA 2.0 or better.
If it doesn't, you may get very poor performance. You can find out whether
you have VESA 2.0 or not by looking at the contents of the psector.log file
after you have run the game. If you don't have VESA 2 or 3, and aren't
happy with the performance, you can download a program called Display Doctor
which may help you - the web page address is at the bottom of this file.
You can improve performance by switching to 256 (8 bit) colour mode - see
the Configuration section of this file for more information. You can test
your frame rate by starting the game with the command line psector /diag

For sound, you should ideally have a Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32/64 - those
are the most compatible cards. Older cards may or may not work okay - with
a couple of exceptions, they need to be Sound Blaster compatible. Some newer
sound cards, including the Sound Blaster Live, may not work.

PSector is a DOS game. It should run okay under Windows 95 or 98; if it
doesn't, try running in MS-DOS mode. It will not work with Windows NT.
I intend to make a Windows version eventually, but I don't know when this
will be done. It could be just a few months from now (August 1999), or it
could be as much as a year.

Users with Celeron/Pentium Pro/Pentium II processors or better may be able
to improve the graphical performance of the game by using a utility called
FASTVID. In some cases, it can double the frame rate. You can download it
from the web site http://www.fastgraphics.com/



-= GaMePLaY =-

Most of the gameplay is pretty self-explanatory. Walk your player around
the arena, drop bombs, collect bonuses which sometimes come from destroyed
walls. After a certain amount of time, 'shrinking' will begin. The walls
will close in, killing everyone in their path.

Here is a list describing what each bonus does:

BOMB - allows you to drop an additional bomb at once. If you collect a lot
       of these, you can lay a very long line of bombs.

RANGE - increases the range of explosions from your bombs. Also increases
        the length of the flame if you have a flamethrower.

GHOST - allows you to walk through walls. While you have ghost, you cannot
        be killed. Shortly after shrinking starts, you will lose your Ghost -
        make sure you're not standing on a wall when this happens. You can
        bring yourself out of Ghost by pressing Fire. Unless you have
        Timebomb or Controller, this will also cause you to drop a bomb. If
        you have a shield and pick up a ghost, you will lose the shield - the
        two are mutually exclusive.

SHIELD - Makes you invulnerable. Any event which normally would kill you will
         instead take away your shield. If you have a shield and pick up a
         ghost, you will lose the shield. If you have a shield and pick up
         another shield, there is no additional effect.

CASH - You can spend this on powerups in the shop before each level.
       Note that the controls in the shop (and the main menu) are always the
       arrow keys and Return to select.

TIMEBOMB - When you have timebomb, you can only ever have one bomb on the
           screen at once. However, you have total control over when that
           bomb explodes. Instead of pressing fire, hold it down. The bomb
           will explode when you let go. Be careful not to just press the
           fire button and let go immediately, as you would when dropping
           a normal bomb - you will kill yourself.

CONTROLLER - Controller is similar to timebomb, except that when the bomb
             is dropped, you take control of it in the same way that you
             normally walk around. You can roll the bomb all over the place.
             When you let go of fire, it will either turn back into a normal
             bomb (exploding after about a second), or explode instantly.
             This depends on the menu option, 'Controller Instantignition'.
             While you are controlling a bomb, you cannot move your player,
             so you may be vulnerable. As with timebomb, avoid killing
             yourself accidentally...

ROCKET LAUNCHER - Face the direction you want to fire a rocket, and fire.
                  This weapon can be very dangerous to the firer if used
                  incorrectly. Of course, it can also be very dangerous to
                  the enemy.
                  Like with controller, whether or not the rocket explodes
                  instantly or not depends on a menu option,
                  'rocket instantignition'.

FLAMETHROWER - The ultimate in destructive power, the flamethrower obilterates
               enemies with ease. It is also impossible to accidentally kill
               yourself with it.

STOP - Freezes all your enemies for two and a half seconds.

SNAIL - Halves the speed of all your enemies.

QUESTION - Gives a random bonus - Ghost, Shield, Stop or Fastignition.
           Fastignition causes your bombs to explode almost immediately
           after they are placed. It can be both a curse and a blessing.
           A curse because you may not be able to get away from the explosion
           area in time; a blessing because it can catch your enemies
           off-guard. You can tell when you have Fastignition from the
           high-pitch ping sound it makes when you pick it up.

SPEED - Makes you run faster.

SUPERMAN - Allows you to push walls and bombs. If you push a wall onto
           another player, he is killed.

ANNHILIATOR - Makes your explosions travel through walls - destroying them
              as they pass through. It leaves bonuses intact.

DEATH - Kills you if you walk into it.



-= MeNu oPTioNS =-

ENGAGE - Starts the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS - Self-explanatory.

WINS NEEDED - Number of rounds a player must win before the tournament ends.

SHRINKING - Switches shrinking on or off.

CONTROLLER INSTANTIGNITION - See description of Controller above.

ROCKET INSTANTIGNITION - See description of Rocket Launcher above.

SHOP - Switches the shop on or off.

START CASH - Sets the amount of cash each player is given at the start of
             the tournament.

CASH INJECTION - Sets the amount of cash each player is given at the start of
                 each round (except the first).

GRID BLOCKS - Switch this off to create a grid-less arena.

WALL DENSITY - 0% means there will be no walls. 100% means almost every
               square will have a wall.

BONUS DENSITY - 0% means there will be no bonuses. 100% means every wall will
                contain a bonus.

TIME BEFORE SHRINKING - Sets the amount of time that will pass before
                        shrinking starts.

SHRINK SPEED - Sets the speed at which the walls close in during shrinking.

INITIAL PLAYER SPEED - Expert players might want to change this to Slow, for
                       a more challenging game.

PLAYER CONTROLS - Allows you to view the control configurations. You cannot
                  edit the configurations - see below.

CREDITS/INFO - Shows the credits.

Press Escape to exit the game.



-= NoTeS =-

The keyboard setup screen only -shows- key configurations. You can't edit
the keys. The default key configs should be fine for most people. You may
be able to edit key configs in a later version (mail me if this is an
urgently required feature for you).

The fire button for keyset 5 displays as the wrong character in some
countries - the actual key is the one below ] and to the left of Return.
On UK keyboards, it is the hash and tilde key.

Joystick support has not been tested much, particularly multiple joysticks,
which haven't been tested at all. If you find any problems, let me know.



-= CoNFiGuRaTioN =-

When you first run it, PSector creates a file called psector.cfg. This
contains three settings - colourdepth, pageflip and sync. By default,
these are set to 16, 0 and 1 respectively.

colourdepth can be set to 8, 15, 16, 24 or 32 (although not all cards
support all depths). 8-bit colour is very ugly and should only be used if
the game runs too slowly, or there is not enough video memory to run in a
better colour depth. 16 is noticably (although only on the outer wall blocks)
better than 15. In most cases, 24 and 32 won't make much difference other
than reducing the frame rate. As well as editing the config file, you can
start up PSector in a different colour depth by using the /colourdepth x
command line switch. The new colour depth is saved to the config file.
You can also use the American spelling for this command line option,
i.e. /colordepth.

pageflip tells the game whether to use page flipping mode or double buffered
mode. It can be set to 0 (double buffered) or 1 (page flipping). Which of
these is best depends on your video card. You should try both to see what
performance you get. Some video cards can't handle page flipping mode
properly, on these cards you will see lots of nasty flickering. As with
colour depth, there is a command line switch, or in this case, two. /buffer
forces double buffered mode, /flip forces page flipping mode. The setting
is saved to the config file, as with /colourdepth.

sync is short for 'sync every frame'. It only applies to double buffered
mode. There probably isn't any point in switching this off. As with page
flipping, some cards don't support this properly. It usually won't make much
noticable difference.

You can tell psector to re-make the config file with the default settings
by typing psector /resetconfig

Type psector /? to see all the command line options.



-= WeB PaGeS To ViSiT =-

PSector homepage:    http://argnet.fatal-design.com/pilsbry/psector.htm
ARGanoid's homepage: http://argnet.fatal-design.com/
Diamond Productions: http://www.diamond-pro.com/
DJGPP:               http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
Allegro:             http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/
release-dates.co.uk: http://www.release-dates.co.uk/



-= HiSToRY =-

Partition Sector was originally written because there were no decent
Bomberman-style games for the PC. Development of the game started on the
9th of March 1998. I am writing these words on the 22nd of August 1999, and
the game is almost ready to be released. This is the first big project that
I have finished on the PC. For information on other games I have written or
am writing, go to http://argnet.fatal-design.com/pilsbry/



-= CReDiTS =-

Concept:                Based on Masterblaster by Alexander Ivanof

Programming:            Andrew R. Gillett aka Arganoid

Most graphics:          Arganoid

Most bonus graphics:    Andreas Ivanof

Bonus sounds for Annhiliatior,
Rocket Launcher and Flamethrower: Mark Sheeky

'Wimbaah' sound from Llamatron by Jeff Minter


Music credits (from what I can glean from the sample names of the .mods,
both of which are very old)

'Zoo':                  redribbon

'Deep Lard Seven':      echo/lsd


Written using DJGPP and Allegro (see web links above).


I would like to thank my arms and hands and fingers for allowing me to type
in the thousands of lines of program code for this game. I would also like
to thank my arse for allowing me to sit on it for such a long time, and
my digestive system for enabling me to survive using food as a power source.

I would not have been able to write this game if I had not known the meaning
of true love (sob). Strangely, this is sort of true, in a limited way, but
I won't go into that.



-= SHaReWaRe =-

Partition Sector is 'voluntary shareware'. This means that if you like it,
and play it a lot, you might want to send me some money (however much or
little as you like). But you don't have to.


My postal address, for those unfortunate enough not to have e-mail, is:

6 Duchy Close
Dorchester
Dorset
DT1 2EL
UNITED KINGDOM


-= DiSTRiBuTioN/LeGaL STuFF =-

This software may be freely copied, with the following conditions:

- You must not alter the software, or distribute it with any files (other
  than PSECTOR.LOG and PSECTOR.CFG) missing, or in any other altered form.
  (* - See below)

- You must not charge or receive donations for copies of the software without
  the express permission of the author.

- You must not distribute the game as part of another product (for example,
  a magazine cover CD) without the express permission of the author.


* - If you make a copy for someone, you should either delete the config file
    (PSECTOR.CFG) or run the game with the command line 'psector /resetconfig'
    to ensure that the configuration is reset to the default settings. You
    should also delete PSECTOR.LOG - this is recreated every time the game is
    run, and is meaningless if you move your version of it to someone else's
    PC. You won't do any harm by leaving it, but it is untidy.


Copyright 1999 Andrew R. Gillett
