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DX-Ball v1.07 <Freely distributable> October 31st, 1996

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A DirectX video game for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0

Special Note:

Make sure you have DirectX 2 or greater along with the

most current DirectX video card drivers installed on your
machine before playing the game.

DirectX is Microsoft's new game SDK for the development of

high performance Windows games. If you do not have it
installed on your computer yet, check the Web for the 5 meg
downloadable version. It's the wave of the future; if you
don't have it by now, then you'll have it very soon.

Author: Michael P. Welch

3D Graphics: Seumas McNally

Special Thanks to Sarah Welch for board design.

Music and sound effects are from the public domain.

Legal Stuff:

DX-Ball is copyright (C) 1996 by Michael P. Welch.

You may copy and distribute the package through BBS and ftp
sites. Only the unmodified "zipped" file may be distributed
or copied.
You are prohibited from:
charging a fee or requesting donations for the package;
distributing/including the package in commercial products;
modifying the package.

The package may be distributed on CD-ROM in the case where ftp

sites issue CD-ROMs of their collections.

All trademarks/registered names acknowledged.

DX-Ball is provided as is, without warranty of any kind.

The author shall not be liable for damages of any kind. Use
of this software indicates you agree to this.
System Requirements:

-486 DX2/66 system with 8 megs of RAM (minimum)

-Windows 95 or NT 4.0 with DirectX 2 or higher
-1.5 megs of hard drive space

Game concept:

DX-Ball is a 'breakout' game based on the popular Amiga game Megaball

by Ed and Al Mackey. It attempts to take the best aspects
of Megaball and mixes them with a few fresh ideas. A great deal
of effort went into the game's "Amiga" look-and-feel.

( 60 frames per second animation, copper bars, sine scrollers,

boing balls, dot flags, snappy game play, etc... )

This game is kid-tested and mother-approved... don't be afraid to

show this one to your non-computer buddies. :)

Game rules:

Use your paddle to keep the ball(s) in the air. Dropping all the
balls in play will cause you to lose a paddle. When all the
paddles are lost, the game is over.

Break all the bricks on the screen to gain points and continue to
the next board. Catch blue bonuses for good options, red ones
for bad options, and grey ones for mixed blessings. See the title
screen of the game for a complete table of bonuses and their
function.

Use the left mouse button to release the ball from the paddle when
in grab mode.

When the 'shooting paddle' bonus is caught, click the left mouse
button to fire bullets at the bricks.

For you Amiga people:

I'm that joker who wrote Scorched Tanks for the Amiga. DX-Ball is
the first complete PC game I've written. STanks PC was on the way,
but I landed a cool job in Chicago. And yes, my wife is doing great!

Read the scroller for juicy details about the creation of the game.

Question or comments:
 I'll be fielding e-mail at:

MWELCH@NETWAVE.NET

I can't promise a personal response to everyone's mail, but I do have

a nifty form letter I'll send. It has info about how to use the
secret Level Editor, how to turn music on during the game, and maybe
a cheat or two... if you ask for them.

Feel free to send comments, suggestions, and bugs.

I wrote this game for the sole purpose of entertaining people.

DX-Ball free to the world. I only ask for proof that people enjoy
my work. There will be updates to DX-Ball based on the level of
interest... so here's your chance to make a difference to a lowly
game programmer.

Problems running DX-Ball:

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-If the ball jitters a lot during game play, then DX-Ball is in
compatibility mode. Check the intro screen for the reason for
this mode. Look under VIDEO CARD.

-Video Memory is Low: You have only 512k of video memory in

your system or another application is using it.
-Refresh Rate is Above 60mhz. This app is built to use
video cards that are timed to a 60 frames per second screen
update. Newer cards can go a lot faster, but the default
is 60mhz. If your card is too fast, look under DISPLAY in
the CONTROL PANEL for the refresh rate setting.
-No Hardware Acelleration: Your current DirectX video card
drivers do not support hardware acelleration. Either get newer
drivers from the manufacturer (web site) or upgrade your
system to a new card.

-Video Cards that I personally tested with DX-Ball:

S3 Trio32/64
Stealth 3D 2000 (Virge chip)
Matrox
Tseng ET4000W32P
Mach 32
Cirrus Logic CD-GD5430 0
Trident (no hardware)
Bali 64 (no hardware)