Moose Pong Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, ---------- September 2007. +===========================================================+ | T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S | +===========================================================+ | * Introduction | * Mouse Controls | * Keyboard Controls | * The Future | * Known Bugs | * Reviews / Awards / CDs | * Freeware Information | * Warranty | * Amendment History | * Contacting the Program's Author +===========================================================+ Introduction : -------------- Moose Pong (pun intended !) - a game of PONG for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, etc. This program is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. See "Freeware Information" below. This is the first "PONG" game in the universe to feature 3 Stooges sound effects !!! PONG was the first mass marketed video arcade game - way back in 1972. So, it is only fitting that this was my first Delphi game !! Pong enables you to re-play this great game from the mid 1970's on your Windows PC. Moose Pong features : - Ability to play in a fully user-scalable window. - The ability to play Squash, Hockey (2 Player only), and Tennis (2 Player only). - Digitised sound effects - all sampled from my own voice !! (Including the 3 Stooges impersonations, serving "grunt", and the ball bounce sounds !!!). - 1 or 2 Player action. - Mouse or Keyboard control. - Ability to change the direction of the ball according to which part of your bat you hit it with !! - 4 bats (2 per player) in Hockey. - Some interesting features in the game. e.g. if you are serving in squash, you are always on the left, so that the other player can curve the ball before you can hit it to make up for your serving advantage !! I have also implemented bat deflections - great especially in Hockey ! Also, the ball sticks to the bat prior to serving. This is my FIRST game in Delphi ! Hopefully, many more to follow !! The ">>" symbol between the 2 scores is an arrow that indicates who's turn it is to hit the ball next. Note that in Squash, the player who is serving is always on the left. I did this to give the receiver the advantage of being able to curve the ball around the server's bat - making up for their serving advantage. Developed using 16-bit Delphi. Mouse Controls : ---------------- Moving the Mouse up and down moves your bat. Pressing the Left mouse button serves the ball - if it is your turn to serve. Keyboard Controls : ------------------- I like games with multiple options for keyboard controls, so here I have done a bit of an overkill. Any of the keys in these categories will work !! Bat UP : Any of QWERTYUIOP[] (i.e. top row of keyboard) Any of 789 (on the keypad - numlock on or off) Up Cursor Key Bat STOP : Any of ASDFGHJKL;' (i.e. middle row of keyboard) Any of 456 (on the keypad - numlock on or off) Left or Right Cursor Key Bat DOWN : Any of ZXCVBNM,./ (i.e. bottom row of keyboard) Any of 123 (on the keypad - numlock on or off) Down Cursor Key Serve : Any of : , , , Pause Game: or F1 : Reverse VERTICAL motion of ball. F2 : Reverse HORIZONTAL motion of ball. The keyboard controls are NOT case sensitive - so you don't need to worry about the Caps Lock. The ball direction change keys (F1 & F2) were used by me to test the program to make sure all ball bounces of all walls / bats, etc worked properly. I have left them in to enable you to have some fun and annoy your friends !! The Future : ------------ This is a very early version of the game, so it is pretty basic right now. But, many things can be done to improve this game in the future, such as : - Setup Screen - so that you can set your own ball speed, bat size, colours, ball size, score modifiers, etc. - Add in true scoring - so that Squash scores / rules are like in real Squash. Similarly for Tennis. - High Score table. - Add in extra ball / bounce randomness / speed control. - Add a computer opponent for 1 player action. - Joystick control. - Extend the game to play BREAKOUT as well. - Enable players to curve the ball while holding down a special curve key. - Add in 2 balls at once. - Extra sound effects. I love the 3 stooges, so I may add more of their sayings, or I could add other's - Jim Carey would be a good one or Yoda out of Star Wars !! - Network / Modem / Internet play. - Tokens that fall out of the ball or somewhere - like in Arkanoid - to increase your bat length, give you a laser on your bat to temporarily stun your opponent's bat, nuclear weapons to permanently take out your opponent, etc. - 4 player at once action - 1 on mouse, 1 or 2 on joystick(s), and 1 or 2 on keyboard !! - Level Designer - so that you can develop your own PONG tables, add obstacles, move walls, and do things like have a big goal and a big bat for one player, and a small goal and small bat for the other, etc. - etc. The list is almost endless !! Once you register this game, all future upgrades are FREE !! What upgrades I do depends on what sort of response I get to this game. If a few people register, then I will make improvements. If lots of people register, then I will make many improvements. (Even if people don't register, then I will still probably add more things - but this particular game won't get such a high priority as other things I am working on). Known Bugs : ------------ When 2 sounds are played at the same instant, very occasionaly (randomly) a short burst of static may come out of your sound card. I have noticed that this also happens on several commercial games that I own - such as Mortal Kombat 1 (by Acclaim) !! I have recreated the sound effects WAV file, and made the frequently occuring sounds much shorter, and run the game on its own in a small window for several hours, and this problem seems to have gone now. If anybody enounters this problem please let me know. Also, if anybody knows how to get around this problem (in Delphi !), please let me know. Reviews / Awards / CDs : ------------------------- None so far. Freeware Information : ----------------------- This is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. However, if you find the program useful, then please consider making a PayPal donation to support my efforts. (To make a donation, please run the program and select the "About" option under the Help menu, and then click the PayPal link on the "About" screen). Warranty : ---------- This software and the accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. The user assumes the entire risk of using this software. If you do find any faults with this program, email me and let me know. Amendment History : -------------------- Vers Date Description 1.0 01-Apr-97 First Public Release. 1.1 29-Apr-97 Remove code access FASTTIME.DLL - an fast timer I was experimenting with - a version with this experimental code was accidentally uploaded following a restore in late-Apr. Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this. 1.2 16-Jun-97 Save settings automatically on Windows 95 shutdown (Registered Users only). Start Minimised if set in Shortcut / settings (Registered Users only). Improve application startup - size and position form before user sees it. Add in Menu items for viewing my Shareware Catalog, the Readme file, and the Registration Form. 1.3 11-Jan-98 Fix a long standing but very elusive problem to do with "DateEncode" errors which occured on some machines under some conditions. Once I could replicate the error, it was reasonably straight forward to get a workaround for what was another bug in Delphi. (3,650 lines of code.) 1.4 17-Apr-2001 Add in support for "Big Fonts" and "Other Sized Fonts" - with these Windows resizes the windows automatically - but only sometimes and it doesn't always do it right, so now I make sure my main window is the right size before doing any scaling, etc. i.e. I make it fit the component(s) that extend the furthest right and furthest down the form. See the Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Pannel -> Display -> Settings Tab -> "Advanced" button -> "General" tab for your PC's settings in this area. Bring program up-to-date with my latest code libraries. (7,234 lines of code / comments.) 1.4b 20-Nov-2002 Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. (29,724 lines of code / comments.) 1.4f 3-Sep-2007 This program is now FREEWARE - see "Freeware Information" above. If this program was not downloaded from my Home Page, then it is possibly an old version. The latest version of this program is available from my WEB page - see below. Mike "Moose" O'Malley ____________________________________________________ Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996. WEB: http://move.to/moose ____________________________________________________