PONG: Battle Royal
README File
Version 1.7
4-3-2000

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	This is the first major game Budfish Software has ever released to the general public. Budfish Software's first creation was Warrace. It was an on-line battle program. It didn't do to well. On the other hand, we have high hopes for PONG: Battle Royal. 
	PONG: Battle Royal was first created around October of 1999. A hard drive crash caused me to lose everything. So I pulled myself together and started over. The original had three ship types. Human, Arkan, and the Glods. The graphics where not very detailed, and the game play was VERY flickery. In the new one; there are five different ship types. Human, Arkan, Glods, Cybots, and Kanans. Each one has a very detailed ship with their own speed, attacks, and missiles. 
	
	Kyle Smith
	Bud_the_Fish@Juno.com
	http://lightning.prohosting.com/~budfish/

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Disclaimer
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	I assume no responsibility for any harm that comes from using the software contained in this package to you, your computer, or anything relating to your existence.  No warranty is provided or implied with this software.  This software is provided as is.
  

Content
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I. System Requirements
II. Instructions
III. Game Control
IV. Game Features
V. Credits
VI. Trouble Shooting
VII. What's New
VIII. What's To Come

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I. Requirements

These are the minimal system requirement to run PONG: Battle Royal:
386-50Mhz
4Mb RAM
3 1/4 floppy drive

MS-DOS, PC-DOS, etc.
Windows 3.1x or better


II. Instructions

     The object of PONG: Battle Royal is relatively simple. Try to either blow up the other ship using your ship's bullets and missiles, or get the ball past the other ship. You get a point for destroying the other ship, and you get a point for getting the ball past the other ship too. Another little feature is the fact that you can hit the ball with one of your missiles. The ball will then turn into projectile that does a lot of damage. 


III. Game Control

The LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys direct your ship around. 
The UP arrow key will fire your ship's bullets. 
The DOWN arrow key will fire a single missile.
The ESC key will bring you to the QUIT screen.

You can fire up to five bullets at a time, and only one missile.
Remember ... Even in the future, technology doesn't always work. Pressing to many keys will cause your ship to start flying off in some direction. Just tap any of the keys again to stop it.

IV. Game Features

Start A New Game-	This will allow you to pick a ship and begin playing the game
Options-		This will bring you to the Options menu. There you can adjust from
			various features of the game.
     Game Speed- 	This adjusts the game speed. It doesn't work very will. All it does is
			make all the images move just a little bit further.
     Enemy Skill-	This changes how well the enemy ship plays the game. From a
			calculator to neural networks. Neural Networks are the hardest.
     Bonuses-		This changes whether or not bonuses appear during the game.
     Starting Rockets-	This adjust the maximum amount of rockets you can have.
     VSync-		This changes whether or not the game goes in sync with the video
			refresh. It slows down the game, but reduces flicker

Instructions-		This will show you how to control your ship.
About-			This will show you various credits.
High Score-		This displays the high scores list.
Quit-			Uhhhh ... I can't quite remember what this one does.

V. Credits

All programming and graphics where created by Kyle Smith.

Phillip Jay Cohen for his Outline Font routine

ZomCoder for his MyPutint routines

Various little tips and hits come from the following:
QBasic.com, Neozones, Neobasic, GeoShock, and many others.

I also want to thank my friends for the moral support.


VI. Trouble Shooting

Q. It keeps giving me a UNEXPECTED ERROR- Unable to locate required file
A. Make sure you have extracted all files into the same directory. One or more of the files is missing.

Q. Why does the program crash when I choose something from the main menu?
A. I don't know.  But that doesn't usually happen very often.

Q. The game is so incredibly slow. How do I speed it up?
A. You can turn off VSync in the options menu, and increase the game speed. It will cause flicker.

Q. The game is to flickery. I can't even see the top two inches of the screen.
A. Turn on the VSync in the options menu. This will slow down the game, but will almost totally
eliminate the flicker.

If you have any other problems or find a bug, please e-mail me at Bud_the_Fish@Juno.com with your question or bug report.  I will do my best to answer any questions.

As for the bug reports, send me as much as you know about the bug. Yelling about how it just doesn't work won't help me or you.


VII. What's New

Version 1.7
Increase the game speed
Eliminated the last bit of flicker from the game
Added the Bonuses to the menu
Finished of the Project

Version 1.6
Removed ALL flicker
Changed a few graphics
Added a new intro
Added a scrolling star field

Version 1.5
Packed all sprites into one large file
Changed the Instructions screen
Modified a few of the graphics
Made a new Intro screen
Removed almost all Flicker (Very little left)
Added some fun new features
Updated the menus
Added one more cheat
Added shields to the ships
Updated this file
Added a story plot
Said "Wow! This is a big update!"

Version 1.4
Modified a little of the code
Fixed a bug with the ball contact
Updated the Instruction screen

Version 1.3
Updated Keyboard Routines
Added the High Scores chart
Improved speed
Updated the Title Screen

Version 1.2r2
Updated Keyboard Routines
Changed a little here and there

Version 1.2
Added an Instruction screen
Added the VSync option in the Options menu
Removed the Faster, Fastest game speeds
Changed the About screen


VIII. What's To Come?

Nothing. This is the last version.

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Kyle Smith
12-24-1999
*Merry Christmas*



