Death Match README (V1.1wb)


Run DTHMATCH /? for a list of commands.

Beta Test Version


     This version is a BETA TEST ONLY!  You may distribute this, as long as
no modifications are made to this or any file.  Please report any bug, however
small, to Matthew Mastracci at Fido: 1:134/40.  Thank you for testing this
software.  Please note any additional incompatibilities.

Known Incompatibilities:  (to date)


DESQview - It'll give you an 'Exception Error #13' when it tries to fade the
           screen to black.  I believe this has something to do with the 
           'REP OUTSB' command, but I've got to find a way around it.

MOUSE.COM - Logitech's MOUSE.COM loaded with the LVESA.OVL file does not work
(Logitech)  with Death Match.  It has something to do with an increased 
            resolution, but I'm not sure how to tell if it's loaded. 
            
Control keys


F1 - F10 : Speed (F1-Slow, F10-Fast)
P : Pause
ESC : Quit (from game or select screen)

Player 1

Q  W  E  Jump Left, Jump Up, Jump Right
A  S  D  Move Left, Stop, Move Right
Z  X  C  Roll Left, Duck, Roll Right
Y U      Attack 1, Attack 2

Player 2

7  8  9  Jump Left, Jump Up, Jump Right
4  5  6  Move Left, Stop, Move Right
1  2  3  Roll Left, Duck, Roll Right
[ ]      Attack 1, Attack 2

Moves


The moves are based on Player 2's keys when facing left.  6 4 [ means to press
6, then 4 and then '['.  Do not hold any of the direction keys down, you only
need to press them once!

Everyone:

2 8 - Superjump, 1 1/2 times as high as normal
[ - Regular attacks, two levels of power (weak/strong)
]

Bibble/Tribble:

6 4 [ - Slimeball (fast/weak or slow/powerful)
6 4 ]

6 2 4 ] - Helicoptor, Tribble's is upside down

Freeze/Heat:

6 4 [ - Knife/Fireball (fast/weak or slow/powerful)
6 4 ]

2 2 4 2 4 [ - Heal Other Person/Lightning (we won't tell you which is which!)
2 2 4 2 4 ]

The Invisible Man:

6 4 [ - Flying Dropkick
6 4 ]

2 4 ] - Warp

Sludge:

6 4 [ - Slime Fist (fast/weak or slow/powerful)
6 4 ]

2 2 [ - Warp

Some Info:


Team:  Matthew Mastracci and Mike Saroka
Project Start Date:  Sept 1992
Project End Date:  unknown (sometime soon)
Lines of code:  4,890 lines (pascal/assembly)
Code size:  64,016 bytes
Data size:  28,444 bytes
Cost:  $0.00 (minus the large cost of Coke, chips, junk food, etc...)
Deepest part of the ocean:  Challenger Deep
Largest waterfall:  Angel falls
Barney is not of this world
Rise up against the ill will of Barney

The Evolution of Death Match:


      It all started out one cold and stormy night, when two friends were
hunched over a black and white LCD sharp computer, having fun doing a text
based fight game.  Since they loved Street Fighter, they were always thinking
of things related to it.  An idea popped into their heads about a VGA game.
This game had about 12 characters, about 4" tall on a regular monitor, and
had animated backgrounds that jumped out and killed you.  Seeing reality, 
the two decided to start on a simple game, using vga.  
     
     After about a week, 20 sheets of expensive paper, a couple of six packs 
of coke and a worn-out mouse, a character was developed.  It was green, had
one eyestalk and a tounge in its mouth.  This character later evolved into 
Bibble.  Bibble was the only character that survived the various versions of
Death Match that were tried.  One character, the late Cyco, was lost to a hard
drive crash.  May its soul rest in peace.  Back to the story:  As I was saying
before, after a week, a simple program was developed which had a one frame
animated character slide back and forth across the screen.  The screen was 
pitch black of course, and there was only a back and forth control.

     This evolved slowly, adding jumps after another week of figuring out
sines and cosines and other trig stuff to make them monsters move.  Rolls
came shortly after, being only one frame too, they looked like puke.  One
boring night, one of the authors came up with the idea of four-frame 
animation, which is what most sprite-oriented video games use.  3 more poses
were drawn for the rolls and the walking and it then began to look pretty good.

     It took a whole month just to get these characters moving properly and
doing what they were supposed to do.  The next thing to do was to add attacks.
These were painstakingly drawn and precisly aligned with the existing sprites
to give a perfect illusion of smooth animation.  Unfortunatly, computers are
not that forgiving.  It took another month just to get Bibble fully 
operational.  

     Around December, 3 months into the project, Bibble was complete.  The
next thing to do was a nifty little power bar and stuff at the top of the
screen.  This was simple and only took a week or two.  After that, the authors
took a big step.  They added new charaters.  Each single pose was drawn in,
cut, pasted, rotated, shrunk, enlarged, mutilated and tweeked, until it was
perfect.  These would not get finished until the beginning of February.  Now
here's the part I neglected to mention before:  the authors were enrolled in
a computer competition at Mount Royal.  The contest is in May.  Right now it
is February.  A month went by without anything getting accomplished, except
for a couple of bug fixes here and there, and a little tweeking.  

     By this time the authors had decided to really get their $%# together and
began working their butts off to get some good ideas.  The one thing that had
escaped them the whole time was backgrounds.  Plain and simple.  The solution?
Add them.  It only took a week (surprisingly) to implement these and to get
a perfect final result.  That was it, the program was done.  The final bug
fixes were in at the end of April (cutting it close).  

     Date - May 29th, 1993.  Location - Mount Royal College, Calgary.  
Situation - Our two authors have found themselves at the computer competition,
wearing itchy cotton shirts bearing the Death Match logo and with a bright
and shiny backboard that kicked the other competitor's butts.  They had
everything, from a full color 3D flowchart to a nicely printed program listing.
All they needed now was luck.  The judges came and went, judging and hearing
the little speech and such twice.

     Time - Next day, 5:00 pm.  Location - Auditorium, where the prizes are
awarded.  The authors are now sitting in the audience, waiting and praying,
with their friends and parents next to them.  A couple of people show off 
their stuff to the crowd, with a good effect.  Slowly the suspence builds.
Finally, the awards.  And the winner is:  .. .. .. .. not us!  We claimed
third prize.  Maybe next year?

     Update:  Date - January 15th, 1994.  Almost a year after the competition,
the old Death Match files were exumed from the depths of the \TP directory.
Realizing that the first version was released without too much bug fixing,
the authors then put forth to eliminate all the little points that really
annoyed them and, surprisingly, succeeded (or at least to the point that any
program can be at).  The authors then added in some neat stuff like the demos
and scrolling stuff.  The program's code was also reduced about 1,000 lines 
or so and made much, much more efficient.

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