                      PinPin 1.5

This is a complete version of the PinPin game (V1.5)
by Kees Moerman, Februari 2002 - Februari 2003 (c).


1. The game
2. Installation, removal and system requirements
3. Having problems?
4. Multi-language support
5. Copyright
6. History


1. The game
===========

Pinpin is a children's game (the name is based on the Dutch word for
Penguin: 'Pinguin'). The goal of the game is to bring the baby penguins
safely home, by playing the father or mother penguin figure. This is a
non-violent game, no shooting, killing, and so on. Also, the player can
not 'die', but you can loose points through various kinds of dangers.
Age: I would guess 5 years and up. First time pLaying time is about 45
minutes for a 9-year old.

It is an arcade-like game, where you control PinPin using the cursor
keys to walk and swim hies/her way through the North Pole land scape.
Find the babies, and bring them to the home iglo. Don't swim too fast,
the babies are still small, and can not swim as fast as PinPin. Loose
them, and they'll swim back to where you picked them up.

The first level contains a lot of help messages.

Control:
--------

For control of PinPin, you only need the arrow keys as explained in the
first level, but some more functions are available:

F1      Basic help screen
F4, F5  volume of muziek down/up
F6, F7  volume of effects down/up
F8      hiscore list
Esc     stop the game (confirm by 'y')
Space   remove help texts from the screen


Remark:
-------

If you like the game, let me know (email to moerman@iaehv.nl). If I got
sufficient replies, I might add more levels.


2. Installation, removal and system requirements
================================================

Windows: To install this program, run the pinpin15_install.exe program
which is a simple, standard Windows installer program. It will install
the PinPin files in the selected directory (by default 'C:\Program
Files\Pinpin' for Windows version). It will also optionally create short
cuts on the desktop and/or in Start/Programs/pinpin.

Don't forget to un-check the Dutch version, if you only can read English!

Removing the game can be done via the standard Windows add/remove
programs in the configuration panel, or by running uninstall.exe in the
pinpin directory.

Dos: No nice installer program (does not work under DOS), unzip the zip
archive for example in C:\Pinpin as with the below commands (assuming
pinpin15dos_install.zip is placed in the download directory):

cd \
mkdir pinpin
cd pinpin
unzip \download\pinpin15dos_install.zip

and start using C:\Pinpin\pinpin. Removal is a matter of just deleting
this directory (no files are placed elsewhere).

Command line options when running from a command prompt:
    -w will run in windowed mode (Windows version only)
    -s same as s key (see control description)
    -v same as v key (see control description)

Requirements:
-------------
Windows: This is a Windows program, tested on Windows '95 and Windows
ME. The program needs DirectX 7 or higher, and so will not run on NT
versions of Windows (except for Windows 2000 or newer?).

DOS: You need to have an 32-bit extender (a so-called DPMI server) to
run 32-bit programs like Pinpin. In a DOS-box under Windows, this is
taken care of by the windows kernel. When running in a stand-alone DOS
machine, this is not the case, and you might need to use the (included)
freeware CWSDPMI server (also available via DJGPP
(http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/).

For official release versions, try http://home.hccnet.nl/Kees.Moerman
although at the time of this writing, no release is put there yet.


3. Having problems?
===================

In case of problems, please give me an email with a description of the
problem, and of your computer configuration. Also, please include the
generated file 'pinpin.log' as this might help me in tracking down the
problem. Thanks!

In case of slow systems, try disabling some features:
- the 's' key will disable the snow (command-line option '-s')
- the 'v' key will disable the fish (command-line option '-v')
You can get an indication of speed by pressing the F12 key; on the top
line of the display there will be some info with fps being the number
of frames displayed per second. This should be above 20 for smooth
operation.

Konwn problem: when during game play, you switch to an other
application, Pinpin not always known how to continue and will shut
itself down after some time. Sorry, I'l still investigating this
problem.


4. Multi-language support
=========================

The program is written to support multiple languages. The default
(build-in) language is Dutch. In order to switch to an other language, a
help file in that language called 'help.txt' should be available in the
pinpin directory. Supplied is an English version 'help_en.txt', by
renaming this to 'help.txt' Pinpin will appear in English. For other
languages, someone has to take the trouble to translate the supplied
English help file. Any volunteers?


5. Copyright
============

Copyright (c) 2002 Kees Moerman

This software is the property of Kees Moerman which specifically grants
the user the right to use and distribute this software provided this
entire notice is included in all copies of any software which is or
includes a copy of this software and in all copies of the supporting
documentation for such software. All other rights (especially using part
of graphics or other artistic materials) are reserved by Kees Moerman.

THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, THE AUTHOR DOES NOT MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION OR
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR
ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


6. History
==========

1.0 First published version
1.1 Bug fix: on systems with a video card with 2 Mb or less memory, the
    game will not request memory correctly and the program will not run.
    Thanks to Robin Burrows for reporting this bug.
1.2 Switch to 8-bit for speed, -s/-v options for further speed on slow
    systems, DOS version made.
1.3 Multi-language support, improvements on details, Multi-threading.
1.4 Can enter name when improving hi-score. Babies swim back when
    swimming too fast. Smaller improvements.
1.5 Used new Allegro game library (4.0.3)
    New CLWP library 1.3
    New animals and other decorations, 3 new levels.


7. Thanks
=========
  
And I would like to thanks the following people:
- The makers of the Dev_C++ development tools
- The makers of the Allegro game library
- Robin Burrows for Mappy, the level editor
- Lars Kindermann for 'Music in the Numbers'


Kees Moerman.
E-mail: moerman@iaehv.nl
http://home.hccnet.nl/Kees.Moerman

