(c) Christian Phringer 1998 
visit my homepage http://linz.orf.at/gast/puehringerc

REPORT BUGS, SUGGESTIONS,.. to PuehringerC@gmx.net

BOMBERMAN for Windows 95 1.8
bomber.zip

INSTALLATION
To install the game just extract the bomber.zip file. If you have directx (3 or higher) installed (that's very probably  because it's included with newer windows 95 versions and nearly every commercial game) you can now start the bomber.exe. If you haven't you can find direct e.g. http://www.microsoft.com/directx 
The game doesn't do any changes to registry/windows directory/... So you can uninstall the game just by deleting the program files.

GAME PLAY
The object of this multiplayer game is to kill your opponents by dropping bombs. You also need to drop bombs to clear your path throughout the maze. Blocks, you blow up, can also include different extras which e.g. increase the length of the explosions. 

MENU SETTINGS
You can setup following options in the menu which appears after starting the game:
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: how many players take part in the game (2-4). There is no single player mode in Bomberman now. So you have to find someone who wants to play against you
GAME TYPE: you can either play a deathmatch game where you have to kill your opponents or a capture the flag game in which you have to steal the flag of your opponent and to carry it to your own flag. (if your opponent is already carrying your flag you have to kill him before you can win the game)
Both types can be played in single and in team mode. In team mode the first two players play against the other player(s). If only two players take part in a game it doesn't make a difference choosing single or team mode.
WINS: How many games you need to win before you win the match.
NUMBER OF EXTRAS: The probability that a extra is hidden under a block you can blow up.
DESEASES: If activated under some blocks skulls are hidden which infect players with different deseases.
NUMBER OF BOMBS: how many bombs from one player can be dropped the same time. This number can be increased during a game by picking up the bomb extra
LENGTH OF EXPLOSION: how far a explosion reaches. The length can be increase by picking up the fire ball extra.
TIME TILL FIRE: the time how long bombs are laying in the maze before the explode. This time can be affected by the skull extra.
TIME: if this time is exceeded the game ends as a draw game.
GRAPHIC SET: this option just changes which graphic set is used for the blocks
NEW BLOCKS: Decides whether and how fast new blocks appear during a game
LEVEL: Choose the level you want to play. If this option is RANDOM the levels are chosen randomly.
You can change settings using the cursor keys.
To proceed to next menu press the enter key.

The menu which is appearing next determines which input device is used for each player. If it's not possible to choose joystick you have to install the joystick device using the control panel.

KEYS DURING GAMEPLAY:
to show the keys you need to control your character press f1. the first 4 keys are used to move in the 4 directions, the next one is used to drop a bomb, and the last one to fire up a bomb if you have the remote control extra.

F1: Help
F2/Escape: Go back to the main menu
F3: Pause
F4: Display debugging info (e.g. Frame rate)
F5: recalculate the speed of the players. (use this if the players go very slow (or fast) after starting the game.
F6: change the language (german/english). Normally the game should choose the correct language automatically.
+,-: increase/decrease the speed of the game.
ESCAPE, ALT+F4: exit the game

EXTRAS:
Following extras can be hidden under blocks you blow up. You can take them by walking over them:
FIREBALL: Increase the length of your bomb's explosions by one field.
BOMB: Increase the number of bombs you can drop the same time.
SPEED UP: Increase the speed of your player.
REMOTE CONTROL: you can fire your bombs using the fire key. (press f1 to display keyboard settings)
KICK BOMB: you can kick bombs away by walking over them,
SKULL: infects you with a desease. If you are infected you can infected other players by walking over them. The effect only lasts for 10 seconds.


FAQ

1.Errormessage: dsound.dll not found ,or ddraw.dll not, or the game just crashes if it's started!
To run the game you need Microsoft's Directx (at least version 3) which is included with windows 98, recent windows 95 releases and with nearly any commercial game. If you haven't directx installed you can find it on most gamemagazine's cd-roms and at http://www.microsoft.com/directx.
If that doesn't help you can also try installing new versions of your hardware device drivers. Just look at manufacturers homepages.

2. The game isn't running fast or smoothly enough.
There are some reasons for this:
 1. adjust the gamespeed using the + and - keys. 
 2. You are running applications in the background which uses a lot of cpu-power. So bomberman is slowed down. You can    either close this applications or you can enable realtime mode in bomberman by pressing f7 while playing. 
 3. Your computer is to slow (it should run on a 486-DX2).
 4. Your have only 512kb or less videomemory. Bomberman uses pageflipping in 640x480x8bit mode. So it would need at least             600 kb to run. However if you have less vram directx is emulating a video page in systemmemory by copying systemmemory             to videomemory each time the graphics is updated. This works okay on newer computer but is incredible slow on older                             machines.	

3. The game runs to fast or the screen is flickering
If only the background is flickering (sometimes occurs if you are switching to other applications) press f5 to redraw it. Flicker of sprites and to high speed of the game (did you try decreasing speed using the - keys) is caused by buggy graphic device drivers. So try downloading a new version at your graphics card manufacturers homepage.


CHANGING KEYBOARD SETTINGS
you can change the keyboard setting with the program setkeys. It is a DOS-Program to keep size small. Please do only use
alphanumerical keys, cursorkeys, control, tab, backspace, enter, alt in you keysettings. If the game crashes after changing 
keysettings delete the bomber.key file, start setkeys.exe and choose the option 5 and close it by entering 0.

REVISION HISTORY

Version 1.8 (29.9.1998)
New Leveleditor (possibility to set starting points of players) (coded by stefan phriner pstefan@gmx.net)
New levels
New deseases: Invincibility, walk through blocks
enhanced statistics
Minor bugfixes


Version 1.7 (13.7.1998)
Match statistics (distance covered, kills, ...)
option so that the grapic set is chosen randomly
options are saved to the disk and are reloaded during startup of the game
escape now exits to main menu
some minor changes

Version 1.61 (6.5.1998)
IMPORTANT: BUG FIXED: Version 1.6 had the following bug: Everytime when there was the kickbomb extra on the playfield a error was written to the bomber.log file. Because this is done as often as the screen is redrawn, the file will grow very large. So if you have ever used 1.6 please delete the bomber.log file which you find in the directory in which bomberman was installed.
Some other little changes are done to the kickbomb extra. So you can pick up extra now by kicking your bombs over them and bombs can also explode during the are kicked away.

Version 1.6 (4.5.1998)
New Extra: kick away bombs: you can kick bombs away by walking over them
Better explosion-animation
You can increase the speed higher up (use + key)

Version 1.56 (26.4.1998)
Leveleditor is now included in Bomber.exe (either start editor.bat or bomber.exe editor) to decrease size.

Version 1.55 (6.4.1998)

in default the level is chosen randomly
it is now possible to define the keys
some new levels
logfile (please send it(bomber.log) to me if you have problems running the game)
Some bugfixes

version 1.5 (30.3 1998)
Blocks can apear during a game
capture the flag mode
different levels
leveleditor

version 1.3 (15.3 1998)
now during a game new blocks can appear if this feature is activated in the menu
menu graphics are improved
the language (german/english) is now set automatically. (if this causes a wrong language setting
you can either create a bomber.ini and write the following lines in it

[BOMBERMAN]
language=0

(if you set language=1 then the german version is executed)
or you can change the language during a game by pressing F6 (this only works in the game itself not in the menu screen
However the menutexts are affected)
the size of the game was decreased

version 1.2 (4.3 1998)
In three and four player deathmatch mode players are now coloured in different colours
Some graphics changes
Size of bomberman.exe decreased

version 1.1 (25.2.1998)

New extra: length of explosions is increased to 12
New deseases: explosions go throughout destructable blocks.
4 different graphic sets
In two player mode the second player is an alien now
New keyboardsetting for player 3 and 4
Bugs fixed
remote trigger and speed up extra is now only to pick up one time per player
Players aren't hurt by explosions as easy as before

Version 1.0 (16.2.1996)


this game is freeware. you can give it to everyone you want but if you want to publish it
on a website or a CD-ROM you have to ask me for permission (PuehringerC@gmx.net)
You are welcome to mail me bug reports or suggestions.

To run this game you must have Direct X 3 or higher installed. If you haven't (not 
very probably, because it is included in nearly every commercial game) you can find it in the internet(http://www.microsoft.com/directx),
or on most of the CD-ROMs of computer game magazines.


You can find further information to the game, the complete SOURCE CODE, the documentation(German only) (source code and
documentation not available at the moment)
and links to some game developing web sites on my internet site http://linz.orf.at/gast/puehringerc.


