A game you may have been waiting for:
It's... erm... kinda... erm... similar to another... um... game.
It doesn't have the little dragons.
But oh well. It's Bubble Crack, nonetheless.
Anyway. Keys are simple. Left/Right Arrow keys to move the turret, space to
fire, ESC to quit the game, C to cheat (go on to the next level), P to pause
the game until you hit another key (no visible indication that you've done so),
'+' adds a penalty ball (the balls your opponent sends you in two-player mode).
You need to run MSETUP.EXE first, to set up for your sound card, once.
Then run BUSTMOVE to play the game.
Command-Line Arguments:
-P<1-4> Selects the port for 2-player serial/modem mode
-B<012> Selects the speed for 2-player serial/modem mode
0 = 2400 baud, 1=9600, 2=19200
Both -P and -B must be specified on both ends of 2-player game
-T Sets target practice mode, where balls which would be sent
to your opponent in 2-player mode come back to you.
-S Includes "special" balls in the firing line, described below.
-A<Arena #> Starts the game at arena #, rather than arena 0
In general, if you haven't already figured it out, you play the game by
shooting balls into the arena. When your ball completes a set of 3 balls of the
same color, all balls in that group of same-colored balls disappear.
Try it a little, it makes sense.
After the same-colored balls disappear, any unsupported balls disappear as
well. The top row of balls is always supported, other balls are supported
only if there is a path of connected balls between them and the top row.
Again, this will make sense after you see it.
The top wall drops one notch after every 6 balls you fire. At such time as
the arena balls cross the bottom arena line (nominally red), you lose. If you
clear all of the balls out of the arena first, you win and go on to the next
level.
If you do not fire a ball within 10 seconds, the computer will fire it for you,
regardless of where it's aimed.
Scoring:
You get 10 points per popped ball in the original triad.
The score for each unsupported ball increases based on the number of balls
popped. The first extra ball is only 10 points, 2nd is 50, you get the picture.
Popping large numbers of unsupported balls is the fastest way to high scores.
If you clear a level in under 60 seconds, you get a bonus based on the number
of seconds left that maxes out at 50,000 points.
Special Balls:
If you use the -s command line switch, special balls are enabled. Every once
in a while, one will show up on the firing line. Here's what they do:
1) Bomb - Matches colors with it's neighbors. Any ball it is actually in
contact with disappears, as well as any balls they are touching of the
same color. Can do a _lot_ of damage in the right place. Does not affect
block balls. Disappears if it hits the top of the arena.
2) Lightning Bolt - Removes all balls from the arena which are the same color
as the ball it actually hits. The only way (besides removing their supports)
to destroy block balls. Disappears if it hits the top of the arena.
3) Friendly ball - Looks kinda like a colorful bullseye. Turns the same
color as the ball it hits, may complete any set. Warning: Will
become a block if what it's shot at is a block. Becomes a randomly colored
ball if it hits the top of the arena without hitting another ball.
4) Block Ball - The other funny looking ball. This is not beneficial. When you
fire it, it gets positioned the same way as usual but the only way to
remove it is to remove its supports - You cannot pop these except with a
lightning bolt. If it hits the top of the arena, it becomes a
randomly colored normal ball.
Music:
The game will play the first .MOD file in the directory, over and over and
over. Included with the package is TECHNOLO.MOD by axel of brainstorm, 1992.
This guy rocks, and the music is some of the best I've heard.
But if for some bizarre reason you _don't_ like it, just delete it and put
in another .MOD file.
If anyone can point me to decent versions of the Axel-F theme, In the Hall of
the Mountain King and the Moonlight Sonata in .MOD format, or a .CMF to .MOD
converter, I'd appreciate it a lot.
New Levels:
There is no level editor, but new levels are fairly simple to create.
Arenas are simple text files, named arena[#].dat sequentially.
Set yourself up a grid like so in your favorite text editor:
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,00,00,00,00,00
That's 8 across on the long rows, up to 10 rows down (But that gets almost
impossible unless it's a "trick-shot" level. Generally, 6 rows is a _lot_)
Now, go replace the 0s with a ball color.
There are 8 "normal" ball colors, they get shuffled before each level, so you
can't really say "blue", "green", "red" or whatnot.
But here's the list:
0 = No ball in this position
1-8 = Ball color n
9 = Random Ball Color
10 = Random Ball Color, different than any neighboring ball's color
11-18 = Random Ball Color, except NOT color n-10
-1 = Block Ball
-2 = Lightning Bolt Ball
-3 = Bomb Ball
-4 = Friendly Ball
All of the special balls act like block balls when edited into an arena, just
different images on them. NOTE: Don't put a block ball on the top row of the
arena or it becomes _impossible_ to win.
This software is levelware. If you're a bubble crack addict, have time on your
hands or whatever and like this game, please send levels to one of the
following addresses:
Simple enough? Have fun. Send new arenas, suggestions, whatever to:
Internet:
bcrack@mavenry.altcit.eskimo.com
Alternate Citadel Network
Bubble Crack @ The Mavenry, Seattle
