By An Ly (v1.02)

Hello and welcome to Blocks+!

Blocks+

is essentially the sequel to Blocks, a logic/puzzle game. The object of each level is to maneuver Audrey (or An) and collect all of the tokens.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, easy for the first few levels. However, later on in the game you will come across other objects which will make life difficult. You will have to use these appropriately in order to complete the levels.

THE OBJECTS

| This is my Audrey. She is the main character in the game and is controlled via the arrow keys. Move Audrey to manipulate objects and collect the tokens.
| This is Audrey's sidekick, An (pronounced Arn). An appears later on in the game and is needed to help Audrey out in order to complete the level. In single player mode, hold down the spacebar to move An. The A,W,S,D keys are used to move An in two player mode.
| This is a token. Simply walk Audrey or An over these to collect. You must collect all of them to complete the level.
| This is a solid wall. You cannot walk past, push, blow up etc. these walls.
| This is a box. You can push these to a limited degree. ie. only if there is a free space in the loctaion where you wish to push it.
| This is a fall box. These work the same as normal boxes except they are influenced by gravity. Note that you cannot push this box upwards.
| Fall squares. These are slightly off coloured squares and when walked on (and walked off) will cause a solid wall to form.
| Monsters . There are a few varieties but they all move in predictable patterns.
| Black bombs . These can be thought of as fragile boxes which can be pushed around in the same manner. However, if one of these is pushed into a solid wall or another box it will explode, blowing up all boxes and bombs in the vicinity.
| Purple bombs . Very similar to the black bombs but DO NOT explode when pushed against objects. They are set off by nearby explosions or lasers.
| Lasers kill Audrey (and An) on contact. However, they can be stopped by solid walls, boxes, doors and deflected by mirrors. Note that lasers cause bombs of both types to explode on contact.
| Mirrors deflect the laser beams in the corresponding directions.
| Flips turn the screen "upside down".
| There are three different coloured doors which can be opened via the three different coloured switches.
| These switches are pressure sensitive. That is, to be activated you must either walk on or push objects onto them. Note that monsters also set off these switches. If there are more than one of the same colour, all of them must be activated before the corresponding door(s) opens.

- NOTE
: There are many different motifs (ie. backgrounds) which contain different graphics for each of the objects above. However, I have tried to keep the general shape of the objects consistent between motifs.

THE EDITOR

The aim of the design of the editor was to eliminate the need for a help file. But just in case its not so clear, here are...

THE BASICS

- The left mouse button is used to place the selected item on the map. The selected item is that with the white surrounding box on the bottom of the screen.
- To select a different item, just left click on it. The two grey arrows on the left and right of the bottom on the screen scroll the items in the corresponding directions.
- The right mouse button is used to delete items on the map.
- For a level to be valid, you need at least one token and Audrey to be placed.

HOTKEYS

1 | Solid
2 | Box
3 | Falling Box
4 | Token
5 | Black bomb
6 | Purple bomb
7 | Monster 1
8 | Monster 2
9 | Audrey
0 | An
F | Fall squares
I,J,K,L,O | Lasers
R | Flip screen
backspace, del | Erase
/ | Positive mirror
\ | Negative mirror
Q, W, E | Doors
A, S, D | Switches
+, - | Change level by 1
PgUp, PgDn | Change level by 10
F2 | Save Maps
F3 | Load Maps
F9 | Test Run
Ctrl+ Ins | Copy map to buffer
Shift + Ins | Paste map from buffer
Arrow keys | Scroll map
Alt + X | Exit Editor

FAQ

Q. My PC crashes to dos with a "sigsev" error when I run Blocks+! What could be the problem?

A. Blocks+ fails to detect some sound cards and so crashes when this is the case. The only 'solution' is to disable sound which leads to the next question….however, you should check for updates on the Amateur Game Programming website which may solve some problems.

Q. How do I disable sound in Blocks+?

A. Instead of typing in: "blocks2.exe" to run from dos, type "blocks2.exe -nosound" (without quotes) to disable all sound effects and music. Typing in "blocks2.exe -nomusic" (without quotes) will disable the music only.

Q. I hear no sound!!! How do I get the funky music and excellent sound effects to work?

A. Sometimes, the sound is just turned down low. Try putting the volume up in the menu in Blocks+ or try turning it up in your windows/dos settings. However, if this doesn't work, you could try putting in your autoexec.bat file

SET BLASTER=Axxx Ix Dx Hx Px

Where:

- Axxx - the base I/O address
- Ix - IRQ
- Dx - low DMA channel
- Hx - high DMA channel
- Pxxx - midi base I/O address

e.g.

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330

Refer to your soundcard manual for correct settings.

Q. Whats the point of logging in and logging out?

A. Blocks+ keeps track of which levels you have completed. Now, its pretty annoying when someone else plays your game and completes some levels for you while you're not there (or even worse, resets the levelset!). With different log ins, multiple users can play Blocks+ on the same computer.

Q. I'm sick of going into the menu to restart the level! Is there a quick way of doing this?

A. Yep, pressing F2 restarts the current level.

Q. How do I take back a move?

A. Use the backspace key while in the game.

Q. Can I take back more than one move?

A. I find that if I allow this, you tend to just run through the level without thinking things through first as you can always take a few steps backwards. This takes the mental challenge out of the game. Think of it as a way to promote using your brain. However, if you really must have this option,

e-mail me and I'll give you the cheat.

Q. How do I exit the game without going back to the main menu?

A. Press Ctrl + Alt + End. Note that this works anywhere in the game and if you use it while in the editor, it will NOT ask to if you want to save before you exit.

Q. How do the monsters know where to go?

A. The monsters move forward until they hit an object. If its possible to turn right, they will. If not, they will attempt to turn left. If this is also not possible, they will walk back in the direction they came.

Q. How come I skip past some levels?

A. Blocks+ remembers which levels you’ve completed and when you move on to the next level, it automatically skips the levels you’ve already completed. The completed levels are marked with a red arrow on the bottom right hand corner. To reset all levels to "never been completed", go into the in game menu (ESC while playing) and hit enter TWICE on the reset option.

Q. I've made some sick levels. How can I show the world I'm the most devious level designer?

A. I'd love to see any levels you've created. E-mail the file (it has extension *.map) to me at

anly@yifan.net and I'll put it up on the Amateur Game Programming website for everyone to download and enjoy.

Q. Man, this game (rules/sucks) ! How can I tell you how much of a (legend/loser) you are??

A. All questions, comments, whether it be praise or cirticism is welcome. E-mail me at

anly@yifan.net

Q. Where can I get updates for this game?

A. No updates are guaranteed past v1.02, but you can check at the

Amateur Game Programming website.

THANKS

Thanks go out to:

- My Audrey. Without her inspiration, this game (and my life) would never have come alive.
- DJ Delorie for DJGPP
- Shawn Hargreaves for Allegro
- Juan Gwan Foo for JGMOD
- YOU
for playing this game!

FREEWARE AGREEENT

This program is freeware. You may freely make copies and distribute this program but you are not to charge any money for it. You may modify the program if you wish but only distribute the original unmodified form of the program.

Although I have not heard anything about this program directly or indirectly affect any computer system, I will still take no responsibility for any changes that it may cause. Run this program at your own risk!

No fee is required but an e-mail from you with any comments or criticisms about Blocks+ or programming in general will be appreciated.

An Ly: anly@yifan.net

VERSION HISTORY

v0.90

- First release. Lots and LOTS of bugs!

v0.91

- Game now loads and starts (woohoo!)

- Fixed the control problems in v0.90

v0.915

- Fixed the walking through walls problem

- Mirrors and lasers work correctly

v0.99

- Added falling blocks and reverse tiles

- Added new levels
- Added hotkeys for editor
- Added new motifs
- Added remember completed levels
- Transparency effects fixed

v1.0 (2/2/2000)

- Log in and log out added

- Arrange in editor fixed
- Save in editor fixed

V1.01 (2/5/2000)

- Fixed problem with load/save menu in editor
- disable music and sound added

V1.02 (15/7/2000)

- Fixed bug with the -nosound, -nomusic options
- Fixed level design bug in blocks1.map, map 43

15/7/2000