QUICK START: Press escape to quit this text viewer and load the game. Select "play the game" from the menu, press return to select the default password (TUTORIAL), and then use joystick or cursors to play. TEXT VIEWER: Use cursors or gadgets at base of screen to scroll. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Plasma Bubble by Francis Irving ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Plasma: A hot ionized material consisting of nuclei and electrons. It is sometimes regarded as the fourth state of matter and is the material present in the sun, most stars and fusion reactors. Bubble: A dome, esp. a transparent glass or plastic one. Plasma Bubble: A state-of-the-art transportation device where a red-hot charged gas provides both protection from the outside world, and at the same time supplies power through fusion reactions. The gas is kept in place by complex magnetic fields, which are highly unstable when they come into contact with metal. Any iron-based objects that land on it with sufficient force will devastate the balance, and cause an uncontrollable explosion. If the contact is more gentle then the discs will just roll off. The plasma can absorb earth-like filings and other detritus with no harm, and is capable of pushing objects in all directions, since the operator adjusts the magnetic fields to allow for this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The (somewhat dubious) story is that you've been given one of these machines and told to collect lots of glorious treasures (big diamonds, actually) over numerous locations. For some reason the survival of life as we know it is at stake unless you do this. Or you've been imprisoned by an evil alien. Or you're just after the money. Whatever, use your imagination. Anyway, all these treasures are trapped between two layers of glass. Most of the diamonds are stuck to the glass, whereas others can fall. You must, however, beware of the bizarre gravitaional fields, that can cause objects to roll off each other in mid air, with a curious preferance of going left. There are many other things scattered around you, that can fall, get pushed, move and generaly be manipulated in various ways. It's up to you to work out what they do - from the mysterious orange squares, the bubbles of plasma, the plants (who put them here? what are they for?), the various types of wall, the occult dolls that look identicle to you and the strange alien mines... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- When you start up, you will get a simple menu. Use the mouse, jostick, or cursors and return to select the option you want. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Play the Game You will be asked to enter a password. There will be a default password written below, to play that level simply press return. Levels are arranged in streams, and below you will find a list of all the passwords of the first level in each stream in the game. When you complete a level, you will get the password for the next level, and so on until you complete the stream. After a short screen to tell you about the level, the game screen proper will appear. You're the bloke in the middle, the one inside the bubble of plasma. Use the joystick or cursors keys to move him about. If you want to see a map (which may be non-existant, or progessive (showing only where you've been)) then press the joystick fire button, click the left mouse or prod Help, M, or Return. During map mode, press P for a printout. You'll need the correct printer drivers set up on your boot disk for this to work (an Epson printer driver is installed on the game disk). Pressing P or Space will pause the game. If you hold down the right mouse button, you can drag the diamonds remaining count about the screen to suit your own preferance. Float round and get all the diamonds, when this counter reaches zero you will have done the level. If you give up, or get trapped, prod escape. If you do this or die, then a menu will appear giving you the option of trying again or giving up. Remember, your main aim is to get diamonds. It's easy (trust me, it really is). If you can't do it, try again. Then think. Then think some more. If this doesn't work, then (as Paul Shirley said) think devious. Do something strange. Work out exactly how everything behaves. Look carefully at the map. Think lateraly. Get someone else to help you, two minds are better than one. Print out the map, and annotate it. Think of a new way of thinking, and think that. Persevere. If all else fails, then think again! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Number Stream Name First Level Notes of Password Levels ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tutorial TUTORIAL Really easy puzzles to get you going. 28 Starters TRAINING Full levels, still quite easy. 10 Sensible SENSIBLE Reasonable fun and interesting levels. 21 Expensive ROCKHARD Clear your schedule for a few weeks... 29 Cheap AAAARGH! Throw your computer out of the window. 17 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Over 100 levels! 2. Edit a Level A full level editor is included to make your own screens. To edit a level you must know the password of that level, and the password of the next level. Make sure you know the next password of any levels you save after you've made them, or you won't be able to edit them again. To make a new level, type it's name in when asked for the password. The password is encrypted, and the resultant string used as the file name on the disk for that level. You can only edit it if you know it's passowrd. The default next password is "NONE". The main level editing screen will appear. A map view is a the top left. Note that some things look differant on the map, so you can distinguish between falling and none falling diamonds, see invisible walls and so forth. A bank of controls at the bottom left highlights one item. Click on it to select it, then draw on the map to put them down. Pressing the right mouse button selects another bank of icons. You can toggle back and forth between the two. The large graphic of the selected object, and it's name are printed towards the right hand side of the screen. The "you" graphics is your starting position, only one of these is allowed. The teleports are lettered A thro' Z. Press the appropriate key to select which one you want. Only two of each sort are allowed on each level. Monsterports use the same set of letters as teleports - if you have an A teleport then you can't have an A monsterport. Pressing space will toggle between empty squares and the item you were previously on. Note that only walls (which are indestructible) can be put round the outside of the level. This prevents anything entering or leaving. In the bottom right hand corner are a set of string gadgets. To alter them, click in the box round the text, and a cursor will appear. Use the keyboard to edit the string, and press return when you've done. This: The name and password of this level. If you change it then the "File:" name above will also alter. This is the string used to save any level with that name on disk. For example a level called LEVEL is saved with the file name "cRY>;.PLASMA". It is impossible (at least as far as I can see - if you find a way, then tell me) to convert file names into editor passwords. Next: The next password. This is printed when the level is completed, and should be the name of the next level in the level stream. Remember, you can only edit a level if you know it's next password, so don't forget what it is. Diamonds: The number of diamonds that they have to get. You can set this to zero, then play the level. The diamond count will then count upwards each time you get one, so you can see how many diamonds you need to get to complete the level, then you can set the diamond count to the correct value. Alternatively, enter the text "MAX" into this gadget, and the computer will count the total number of diamonds on the level, and set the number required to that. Down the right hand side of the screen, there is a bank of eleven gadgets. All of them except "Load" "Flip Y" and "Specials" can be selected by pressing a function key. It's usually easier just to click on them. Map On/Off/Half (F1): Select what sort of map the player gets. Test (F2): Play the level. You can also do this by pressing return, or the joystick fire button. When you die or press escape, you will be returned to the editor. Save (F3): Save the level, using the filename and password you put in the string gadgets below. Any previous level of this name will be saved over. Load: Load a new level to edit. After confirming this, you'll be asked for the password of the new level. The default has been changed to the next level of the level you were just editing, making it fairly easy to look through all the levels in a stream. You will, of course, need to know the next password of the level you've just loaded. Clear (F4): Wipe the level completely (but not off disk). Max Diam. (F5): Counts the number of diamonds on the level, just as when you type MAX into the diamond counter box. Delete (F6): Erase the level from the disk. Grav Down/Up/Off (F7): Clicking on this cycles through the type of gravity to use for this level. X Flip Y (F8): If you've "Get Area"d an area, you can reflect it horizontaly and verticaly, by clicking on the X or Y boxes. Exit (F9): Finish editing a level. Make sure you've saved it, and that you know the next password. Specials: This gives you a menu of special options, which are thus: a. Alter Author's Name: Your chance for glory. b. Change Level Directory: Same as in the options menu, which is detailed below. c. Splurge! Level: Splurg!ing (note the exclamation mark, it is an intrinsic part of the word, and should never be left out even when endings are added) is a new technique which can be applied to all media. Basicaly, you feed something into a program, and it uses information from that to create semi-random output of a similar nature. The original splurge! program dealt with text, and based it's output on which words can follow which in the input (send me a disk if you want a copy). In Plasma Bubble, this option will completely erase your level, and replace it with a splurg!ed one, based on your level. This can take some time to do, so be patient. The levels thus created are by no means guaranteed possible. It can be helpfull to play them to get interesting ideas, or just for the surprise & novelty. The level you have loaded before splurg!ing does affect the output a lot, so try differant levels. Draw / Box/Line / Fill / Get Area / Put Area (F10): Cycle through this, and it will alter your drawing mode. They behave thus... Draw: The standard, allowing you to paste single objects. Box/Line: Click in two places on the map, and a rectangle of the selected object is filled between them. Fill: A flood fill using the selected object. Get Area: Select this and click on two squares on the map, and that area will be stored. Put Area: You must have first "Get Area"d an area. This will paste it onto the map. You can first X or Y Flip the area using a gadget above. The area is kept until you get a new one, so you can copy bits between levels. The screen will flash white if any errors occur, for example during disk access, or if you try to flip an Area when you haven't "Get Area"d one. If you make any levels (wether easy or hard, as long as they're possible), then I'd like you to send them to me. Put them on a blank disk, containing nothing else (none my own levels please, it's too confusing), along with all the passwords for them (please, give me them all). I'll integrate these into the next version of Plasma Bubble, credit you in the documentation, and leave your author's name on your levels. Then I'll copy Plasma Bubble back onto your disk (with your levels, and any other new ones, plus new features), and return it to you in the stamped adressed envelope that you also cunningly sent me. I can't return anything without an S.A.E., it would be too costly. Points to note when doing this: 1. You get the kudos and fame, and lots more puzzles. It's well worth the cost of two stamps (if unpackaged, disks can weigh only 20g). 2. I may disappear for vast tracts of time to University. You may not get your disk back for a while, until the holidays. Be patient, and remember that this delay will mean you get more levels in return, from all the other people that send me disks. 3. Please, don't give me impossible levels. If you do, then I'll give you impossbile levels, and see how you like it. 4. Use invisible walls sparingly. They are most useful to add aesthetic appeal to the outside of levels - effectively making the outer wall no longer square. 5. Try and make levels fun, or hard, but not cheap. The CHEAP level stream contains lots of cheap levels (they are relatively easy to make), and you can see how annoying they are. Any particularly cheap cheap levels are, of course, welcomed. Or if they're cheap in some new and cunning way. Then again, I could make a whole level stream out of the cheapest of cheapness, the invisible wall maze... 6. Cheap things include: Falling diamonds if only some fall, invisible walls, pushable walls that are hard to find (or impossible to push), single teleports. 7. "Expensive" things are many and numerous, these are the meat of Plasma Bubble, and require cunning and thought. Or luck. My address is down at the bottom of this file somewhere. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Options Menu. a. Centre the Display Use mouse to make frame and hence screen nestle snuggly in place. b. Change level directory. Type in the path of the place you want to save levels to. This is used throughout the rest of the game. It is best to use a directory, or you will find your disk splattered with files having bizarre names. c. Quit the Game. I still haven't worked out what this one does. d. Save Options. This writes a file called DEFAULT.LVL to the disk. It contains information on the default password, where the display is centred to, where abouts on the screen you keep your diamond count (a matter of much contention), and the level directory. When Plasma Bubble loads up, it looks for this file in the current directory or the directory PlasmaBubble:. This will give it the level directory, so it can find all the levels. e. Return to Main Menu. Self explanatory. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Trouble shooting When the game first loads up, it looks for the files PlasmaGraphics and PlasmaSounds in the current directory, if they're not there then it tries the directory PlasmaBubble:. If it can't find the graphics file, then you can't play the game. The other file isn't essential, but without it there are no sound effects. If you are lacking in chip memory, or just memory in general, then there may not be space to load the sounds in. You may still play the game, the atmosphere satisfactorily ruined. It is (I think) impossible to load the sound effect on a 512k machine, but one megabyte should be plenty. On old Amigas (wether chipset or OS I'm not sure) the diamond counter can behave oddly, this is because sprites don't work when a screen is above the top left corner of other screens. When centring the display, try keeping it as far to the right and down as possible. You might want to use preferances to centre the display up and left a bit, that should work. Teleporting doesn't look right on Kickstart 2.0 machines since the display takes longer to refresh (probably due to new features such as dragging screens sideways). It looks good on 1.3 machines though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits: Raymond Irving for the luscious graphics, they built up the whole character of the game. I asked him to draw some pictures for a scrolling puzzle game, and this is what he came up with. I mean, metallic drystone walls? A deranged mind. Andrew Brewood for lots of helpfull ideas of both objects to include, and of bugs to remove. He's also the chief level designer, so for many hours of torture you have him to thank. Iona: For inventing the plants. Sumika: For testing the tutorial levels, when she didn't really want to. Whoever invented Boulderdash: Without whom this would not have been possible. Level Designers: Francis Irving, Andrew Brewood, Alan Brewood, Robert West. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The above file was dated 27th September 1992, and included out of date contact information. If you have any comments about the game, then feel free to email me, francis@flourish.org. You might also like to look at my web page http://flourish.org. Francis Irving 4th May 1998 (email and web address updated 29th May 2000) -----------------------------------------------------------------------