Giddy3 last updated:
23rd June 2002: Fixed noise in sound routine problem (I hope).
Better late than never..
====================== Legal Type Stuff ========================
Giddy3 is freely distributable as long as it isn't altered in
any way and no charge is made for it.
Credits:- Design, Code, Graphics and Sound FX by Phil Ruston.
The music modules used within the game were taken from the
public domain. Full credit to their original authors:
Aea1 - Jogeir Liljedahl. Area2 - Sami Saarnio.
Area3-5 / Completion - Daniel Johansson. Title tune - Lee Bevin.
You run this game at your own risk - no responsibility for
any damage to hardware or software can be taken by the author.
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>>>>>>>>> Website: http://www.giddy3.ndo.co.uk <<<<<<<<<
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To run in a correct and proper manner, Giddy3 Requires:
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* A PC with a CPU of around 200mhz upwards
* Reasonable 2D performance from video card (most PCI/AGP cards).
* Soundblaster legacy compatible sound card (if sound is required).
* About 580k of DOS memory.
* 1Meg of disk space - woo!
* Windows or DOS to run it from.
* 1 Human game player with crossed fingers :)
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Installing: Simply unzip the Giddy3.zip file to a convenient folder
anywhere on your harddrive. From Windows, run the game from the
Start/Run box by browsing to wherever you unzipped the game and
click on giddy3.exe - ie: the program file, not the icon :) See
FAQ to make a Windows desktop shortcut. You can of course just
run it from Windows Explorer or DOS.
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*** The Game ***
----------------
Oh no! The world is under attack from robot stompers from beyond the
clouds. As Giddy - the No.1 egg-shaped super hero with unfeasibly large
hands - its up to you to save the day! Apparently, this involves
exploring some oddly connected scenes populated by wibbly characters
to find items that when used correctly, make things happen (generally
toward said "saving the day" objective).
Gameplay:
---------
Trundle about the place avoiding the enemies, if you wander past
something interesting, a flashing lightbulb will appear - you can
then press the "Clue" key for some advice if you need it. If you've
collected something that you think is appropriate for the situation,
press the "Inventory" key and cycle through the stuff you're
carrying ("left" and "right"), then press either "Jump" or
"Inventory" again to try it out. Remember you have to be near
enough to the problem (look for the aforementioned lightbulb) for
an item to work, if indeed its going to.
As well as puzzle-solving objects, items of energy-replenishing food
are dotted about the game, which can be useful as the wildlife can be
none too friendly (you cant kill 'em - what d'ya think this is,
Resident Evil?:) As you may notice, your energy level is depicted by
stars next to Giddy in the top-left area of the screen.
Redefinable game Keys:
----------------------
Q: Move Left - W: Move Right - P: Jump - Enter: Clue - Space: Inventory
To redefine the keys, type "Giddy3 -k" at the command prompt / windows
RUN box (browse to find the file). Your chosen key preferences will be
stored for future wibbling sessions. (A standard 4 button gamepad can
also be used, but see the technical section for info.)
Fixed game keys:
----------------
F11: Cycles sound options (FX only, Music only, Both, Toggle Filter*)
F12: Toggles pause mode.
ESC: During pause mode, ESC quits to title screen, and quits to
DOS/Windows at all other times.
(* The filter is a software routine that removes roughness in the
sound but adds cottonwooliness (tm). Employ as your preference dictates.)
Any secrets?
------------
Yep! Namely extra lives and a hidden mini-demo. Find them do!
Common issues / questions
-------------------------
Q. Blocky innit?
A. Aye, it is a tad if you have anything bigger than a 15" monitor.
I recommend trying one of the other video modes, running the
game thus: "giddy3 -v5" or "giddy3 -v15" gives pleasing results
on my 17" monitor. The game will remember the last mode you set.
Q. How do I make a Giddy3 icon on my Windows desktop?
A. After the first time you run and quit the game (say from Explorer
or the Start/Run box) Windows should generate a .PIF (program
information file) for Giddy3. All you then need do is right click
anywhere on the desktop, select "New Shortcut", browse to the
location of the Giddy3 folder and click the Giddy3 icon.
Q. What, no save game option?
A. We didn't have save game options when I were a lad.
Q. Its too hard innit?
A. Nahhh! :) Guard every energy point you have and dont go blundering
into things. Learn the optimum route to take - dont go anywhere
where you dont need to UNTIL you need to. Look out for hidden extra
lives (places you can reach that you might not think you can etc).
Q. I'm really stuck, is it impossible now?!
A. Well there are no situations you can get into that renders the
game impossible to complete. BTW: You can enter the Tardis without
any special objects, just jump in the door is open :)
Q. What's the completion code for?
A. Ah, originally (before the game became shareware) I intended to
do a Hall of Fame on the website and the code would be used to
verify the completion times. Not enough people registered to
inspire me to do it though.
Q. What happened to Giddy1 and 2?
A. They were released on the Amiga home computer in the early 1990's
(You can get them free from my website to run under an Amiga
emulator on the PC).
Q. What language is Giddy3 written in?
A. x86 Assembly Language for DOS. Why? Cus I like old-school machine
code, Not exactly the best environment for games these days but it
wouldn't have existed otherwise :)
Q. Will there be a Giddy4?
A. To be worthy it would have to be bigger and better than Giddy3
and this one took me 18months to make! So its a bit unlikely at
the moment.
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Phil's Tech Tips <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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PCs (being the hideous beasts that they are) usually necessitate a
load of tedious technical waffle in game documentation. Giddy3 is is
no exception BUT feel free to ignore it all if everything works from
the outset.
Giddy3 is a DOS-based game (IE: It doesnt use any fancy Windows or
DirectX type stuff) mainly because it doesnt need to, it doesnt even
use memory above the original 640k limit - bloatware this aint! Anyway,
as such its most stable when run from REAL MODE DOS* (IE: Select
"Restart in DOS mode" from Window's shutdown menu or Press F8
when system is booting and select DOS prompt only). HOWEVER, running
from DOS will require you have your Soundblaster DOS driver installed
if you want sound (normally a SET BLASTER line and soundcard
activation command your autoexec.bat file). So if you dont want to
be bothered with all this then just run it from Windows by clicking
on Giddy3.exe - Ive tested it more under Windows than DOS and it
seems fine to be honest (Just dont run anything at the same time
or expect it to multitask etc.)
* Real Mode DOS is not directly accessible on PCs with "Windows ME"
installed. You can still run Giddy3 in Real Mode DOS mode on such a
PC if you wish by using a boot disk to get to the "C:\" prompt (It
may need to be a DOS 6.22 boot disk so that you have enough free
DOS memory).
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Sound Related Issues:
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No sound:
---------
You need a Soundblaster compatible sound card with DOS drivers
(or legacy emulation enabled in the case of soundblaster PCI
128 and Diamond Monster MX300 to name but two).
"Cant find SET BLASTER environment variable" error occurs
---------------------------------------------------------
The SET BLASTER line tells DOS games where to find your sound card,
if its missing Giddy3 cant play sounds. The line will normally be
in the form "SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D3" (and possibly other characters)
and should be in your autoexec.bat file (root directory) and / or
your dosstart.bat file (windows directory). It should have been
installed by your sound card's DOS drivers.
"No Soundblaster hardware found" error occurs
---------------------------------------------
This can happen if you're running from a clean boot in Real Mode DOS
and the card hasn't been initialized. Normally there will be a small
program to do this, in the case of the soundblaster 128PCI its called
"SBINIT.COM" and is found in "Program files/creative/audio/dosdrv".
Note that this should run automatically if you "Restart in dos mode"
from Windows.
Diamond Monster Sound MX300 Soundcard
-------------------------------------
Make sure the Soundblaster Emulation is enabled in the hardware setup
utility. The sound emulation seems much better in Windows than DOS on
this card.
Some sound FX are "missing" when the both the fx and music are on.
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This is not a bug. In order to fit a music module and the sound samples
in memory at the same time I had to discard some of the less important
sounds. Yes, I know you have probably have 256meg of RAM or whatever,
but this is a legacy DOS game innit? :)
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Graphics related issues
-----------------------
Game seems too fast
-------------------
Giddy 3 is tied to the refresh rate of the monitor to give a smooth
display update (60hz in the default ModeX mode). You may be using a
video mode with a higher refresh rate. Your Windows "desktop
properties", "settings", "advanced" may allow you to set your
chosen monitor resolution to 60hz.
Game runs too slow / occasion display jerkiness
-----------------------------------------------
If its the latter and you're running from Windows, it'll be Windows
doing things in the background instead of letting the game run
properly. The only solution if its really annoying is to run the
game from pure DOS ("restart in DOS mode" from the shut down
menu, or by pressing F8 when "Starting Windows" appears and then
selecting "Command Prompt Only" upon a re-boot.)
If the game runs really slowly all the time but the sound is fine,
your video card may be a bit slow. Try a different video mode, some
are faster than others at accepting writes to video memory (see below).
Voodoo3 - Intermittent pixel disruption near the top of the screen
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Excellently, Voodoo3 cards dont seem to like the default 320x240 "ModeX"
display mode too much. If you find the image disruption annoying, please
select an alternative video mode - see below.
Changing Giddy3's Video mode
----------------------------
From the command prompt type "Giddy3 -vxx" where xx is a number
between 0 and 16. If the chosen mode isnt available on your video
card you SHOULD receive a VESA error report (though a screenful
of corrupt graphics is possible too:) The chosen video mode will
be saved when you quit the game (unless you were given an error).
Personally, I find modes "5", "11" and "15" quite acceptible.
Mode: Base Resolution: Double Buffered: Scan Lines:
0 320x240 No No
1 "" " Yes No
2 400x300 No No
3 "" "" Yes No
4 640x480 No No
5 "" "" Yes No
6 "" "" No Yes
7 "" "" Yes Yes
8 800x600 No No
9 "" "" Yes No
10 "" "" No Yes
11 "" "" Yes Yes
12 1024x768 No No
13 "" "" Yes No
14 "" "" No Yes
15 "" "" Yes Yes
16 320x240 ModeX (default) Yes No
Video Mode Notes:
-----------------
Double Buffering: This removes tears and glitches in display.
Use it if it causes no new problems.
Scan Lines: Expands the visible image but skips alternate
horizontal lines. This gives the appearance of
running the game on a TV - with varying degrees
of success :) It looks better if you turn up
the brightness / contrast on your monitor.
Modes 0 - 3: These are pretty non-standard modes and may be
temperamental. They require a video card with a VESA2
BIOS and, on my PC at least, they seem to be
stuck at 75hz and cannot be set via the refresh
rate options under Windows. This causes the game to
run faster than it really should.
Modes 2 & 3: IE: modes based around the 400x300 resolution. Some
monitors get upset with this resolution, if the
display rolls and flickers, press ESC immediately
and choose a different resolution.
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Other misc issues
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Joystick doesnt work
--------------------
The game only supports a standard 4 button gamepad connected to a bog
basic Soundblaster sound card (IE: One with a 15-pin D connector). If
you've enabled joystick support by typing "Giddy3 -j1" at the command
line and your joystick doesnt work or does weird things, its not
compatible - sorry - disable it with "Giddy3 -j0" and use the keyboard.
You get a file load error
-------------------------
You've been fiddling with the files - re-install :)
"Not Enough DOS memory" error occurs
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Giddy3 needs about 580k of free conventional DOS memory. Windows
DOS will nearly always provide this much (Type "mem" at the command
prompt to see). If you're running from real DOS have drivers running
(EG: for CDROM, Zip Drive etc) you may not have enough. In this case
do a "Safe Mode Command prompt only" boot and then run the game
(create a batch file with your sound driver initialization lines if
you want sound). EG:
Text file: "Gogiddy.bat"
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1
C:\progra~1\creative\audio\dosdrv\sbinit.com
C:\games\giddy3\giddy3
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