********** ******* ********** ** ** ** ** > Jörg Sixt < ** ** ** ** > Tulpenstr. 2 < ********** ************* ********** > W-8424 Saal/Donau < ** ** ** ** > F.R.G. < ** ** ** ** ********** ** ** ********** S I C K A M I G A S O F T OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION Name : turboMCP.asm Usage : turboMCP Version : V13.76 (2nd release) Date : 09.-11.09.1990, 8.12.1990-02.04.1991 Author : Jörg Sixt File under : games Purpose : another implementation of TRON Features : - max. 4 human players - "Playing field - ED" Software : A68k V2.41 (Fish 314) Hardware : - programmed on an AMIGA 500, 1MB, Kick V1.2 - certainly it runs on every AMIGA with at least 512 KB and Kick 1.2/1.3 - Incompatibilty with future models is possible as the programme needs direct hardware access to the joystick registers & VHPOS Bugs : - doesn't use devices - can't check joystick 1 fire button when mouse is plugged in port 2 I. DISTRIBUTION AND OTHER JURIDICAL KNICK-KNACKS ================================================ THIS PROGRAMME IS FREEWARE!! This software may not be sold nor used as part of commercial products without the explicit permission of the author (hey,that's me!!). This material may be copied (don't forget the documentation) and used without the moral restraint of sending money (of course you can if you want) This programme may emerge on any PD-disk whose price doesn't exceed 5$/6DM. Of course a written permission countermands this restrictions. Anyway, you MUST leave my name in both programme and documentation file, except if you redo the code. Then, please, send me your improved versions. The author is not responsible for any damage that is caused by or while using this programme. (c) by Jörg Sixt worldwide in 1991. All rights reserved! II. THE STORY BEHIND... ======================= "We all know the cruelty in the world, the evil that is dogging our foot steps, the terrible things that happen to every one of us. You find them everywhere. Everywhere. Even on an AMIGA." Jörg Sixt programmer,s.a.s. I know, I know! You were just about starting the damned proggy hoping of an interesting application, a thrilling game or just something that's worth spending a few hours on. But at the same time those omnipresent fears flatter around your mind and destroy all your anticipations. Fears of the extraordinary terror of laziness and stupidity that origin from the minds of all those god-damned programmers: "What is it alike? The 563th version of Tetris? Perhaps with 6-player- simultan-mode and a 'shoot-em-up'-level. Or maybe it's again one of these Hack-like dungeon adventures! Surely f---ing difficult then, brutal (the poor monsters! Have such programmers no respect for godmade creatures? And what'll say Greenpeace?) and requiring 5 MB of chip-ram! Or even more terrible: one of these highly intelligent jump, pop and run games...." Thank God, I can soothe you. turboMCP is neither a Tetris-clone, nor a "slay all the monsters in this dungeon"-game, nor a PD-Bubble-Bobble. turboMCP is just the 1027th implementation of TRON. No! No! Stand by! Don't give up now! I know, there are billions of "cycle" versions in this part of the universe but nevertheless this version has some really unique features: - it has no computer rivals - up to 4 human players can play simultaneously - you can determine how your playing field will look like - savety pods implemented - fully written in assembly language - that means it's fast and small - it's not commercial, it's not shareware, it's for FREE NOTE: Actually the programme's length is about 8-9 Kbytes. I'm afraid the title graphic needs about 18-19 Kbytes. If you can't afford spending 19000 bytes (although my artistic efforts should be worth it!) delete the following lines from "MCP.asm" - INCLUDE "MCP.im" (at the very end of the file) - jsr DRAWIMAGE(a6) (in the "OpenScr"-subroutine) and re-assemble the code. III. HANDLING THE BASTARD ========================= 1. The MAIN MENU SCREEN ----------------------- After you've started turboMCP your first glimpses will fall onto an almost incredible startup screen which was meant to be the MAIN MENU SCREEN. Roughly speaking the MAIN MENU SCREEN consists of 16 gadgets. If here I use the word 'gadget' I have to add that those gadgets aren't the normal intuition gadgets you surely know from a lot of UTIL programmes. However the handling is quite simple. Just press the up/down/left/right/fire - buttons respectively keys of the four players and the cursor moves to the next gadget. Simple, eh? Player 1 uses joystick in port 1 up/down/left/right/fire red Player 2 uses joystick in port 2 up/down/left/right/fire blue (if you use joystick 2, remove the mouse from port 1. Otherwise it doesn't work. I don't know why) Player 3 uses the main keyboard E /X /S /D /SPACE green Player 4 uses the number pad 8 /2 /4 /6 /ENTER orange (Note: Colours and key-codes are used when you are playing as well as when when you are chosing a gadget in the MAIN MENU or when you have a look at your actual scores. Remember both and you'll find your way through this jungle without any problems. At least I hope, you will) Maybe you wonder why all this has been programmed. (I mean the MAIN MENU SCREEN not the WHOLE PROGRAMME. The latter leads to a more philosophic problem and Socrates always said that Kant.....) Well, the MAIN MENU SCREEN with all its gaddies allows you to adjust the playing field on YOUR needs and desires! It's almost something like the preferencers on your Workbench disk. Here is a list of the gadgets: 1. Row : Choose input devices e.g. three humans want to play against each other they may activate "joystick 2", "Number pad" and "Keyboard" or "Joystick 1", "Joystick 2" and "Keyboard", etc. Choose the ones you like best! Border (on) When someone drives against the border of the field he...err... R.I.P. (off) When someone tries to drive out of the field he appears again on the other side PAL (off) This is to give all the U.S.-users a bad feeling about   their damned NTSC. (on) uses the whole PAL-screen. Explosion (on) A crash will always be followed by a explosion i.e. a ring of fire which burns everything around down. Any cycle inside the explosion will be killed. (off) The cycles have anti-fire motors. HighRes (on) The playing field will be a HIGHRES screen (off) The playing field will be a LOWRES screen Interlace (on) The playing field will be a INTERLACE screen (off) Now, guess my friend!! Speed ¹) 0-10 Speed justification: 10 = "break your neck"-level 0 = the "snail ralley"-level Boxes ¹) 0-99 number of boxes Stars ¹) 0-99 amount of stars Sav. Pods¹)0-9 Numbers of savety pods Play Action: Play the game Clear Action: Set scores to zero Quit Action: Should only be used in extreme emergency cases! ¹) increase values via pressing FIRE 2. The SCORE SCREEN ------------------- When activating "Play" the so-called SCORE SCREEN will appear. After every round it will show you the latest charts (not Madonna...) with your latest scores. But maybe you don't want my laboriously developped score system - you just want to know who has won the most games. No problem! turboMCP counts the games every player has won and prints them in the "victories" column. Despite of this extra service the order of the players in the charts depends on the main scores. But back to the game. If you want to continue/start the game press FIRE (i.e. , or joystick buttons). If you want to go back to the MAIN MENU SCREEN press . There you can change the preferences again without losing the scores. If you wish to begin a new game you simply click on the CLEAR-gadget. Now all the scores are deleted. 3. The GAME SCREEN ------------------ After pressing FIRE above, the computer build the combat field with the features you've adjusted. Immediatly after the beep (I had no gong, sorry!) the game starts: +----------------------------------+ | Joystick 1 Joystick 2 | | red blue | This are the | \/ \/ | starting positions | | of the cycles | /\ /\ | | green orange | | Keyboard Number Pad | +----------------------------------+ The rules of the game itself are very easy. Just drive along and watch out! Every crash with a wall, a box, a star or eventually the border of the field is absolutely and irretrievably deadly. (Live's hard, y'know) In dangerous situations press the FIRE button and you jump over 1 - 6 pixels. The game ends when all but one cycle are gone or when the key has been stroken. Then the SCORE SCREEN appears again. The game may go on. But there's a third possibility: running into a savety pod. A savety pod crash doesn't cost your live but restarts the round. That's particularly helpful in ticklish situations. But be careful!!! Only use it in extreme emergency cases: Only once a round a savety pod can save your life - a second time and you're crashing! (Note: This feature isn't new. I stole it from another PD game named "Cycle". But don't tell the author!!) IV. FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS ======================= - IFF-pictures as playing fields - computer rivals - more than 4 players - better input handling - playing field editor with more options and possibilities - save/load options for play fields - a WB gag version V. THE FAMEST LAST WORDS ======================== Greetings to Charlie Gibbs, Brian R. Anderson, Software-Distellery, Mike Mehrl, Leo Schwab, John Tobes Nr.???, Fred Fish & of course all people who hate me!! If you want to send me something neaty.... I need: money, more money, last version of a68k and blink, much more money, records, disks, lots and lots of money, that 250 MB harddisk or PCs (or an Atari ST - I've always dreamt of taking a hammer and....) Bugs, remarks, payements, briberies, improvements, better versions to: Jörg Sixt Tulpenstr. 2 W-8424 Saal/Donau F.R.G.