Subject: VS Bomber, release 0.3

Stefan M. W. Sittler and Benjamin C. W. Sittler are proud to announce:

VS Bomber, release 0.3
A videogame bearing a slight resemblance to HudsonSoft's Bomberman

The next version of my prime waste of time is ready for your consumption,
if you choose to partake. The source and DOS (DJGPP+Allegro) binary at

http://www.nmt.edu/~bsittler/vs0_3.zip

includes some new features:
* there's a working 'poison' item with a marker sprite
* there's a non-working 'glove' item
* there are several renderers, switchable with the -R NUM command-line
  option (including a first attempt at a "rippling water" renderer)
* once again, the ZIP file is smaller than the previous version
  (only 235k this time, it would fit on a DSDD 5-1/4" floppy!)
* there's finally some documentation (in HTML and in ASCII w/ASCII-art)
* remote control bombs look different and act different (one blows up
  each time you activate your remote control)
* time bombs sorta work now
* there's a signature logo (sorta) if you run vs -L;
  it's a run-length-encoded string in the source file, since that
  makes vs.c smaller, and the decoder is like three lines anyhow
* on termination, the program configuration is printed in a form
  usable in the Allegro CFG file; copy'n'paste to make the last game's
  settings be the future defaults.
* there's a teaser for a piece of vaporware on exit :)

TESTING

I'd love it if you could let me know how (and whether) VS Bomber runs on
your system. I strive to write reasonably compatible programs, but
incompetence strikes where I least expect it...

X11 VERSION

Version 0.3 has been built and used successfully with XWinAlleg. The
auto-frameskipper code doesn't seem to work too well in X, though, so
you may need to specify a frameskip (see vs -h for how to do this.)

FAST & JERKY

The autoframeskipper has improved a bit since the last version, but
still has a few problems. You may need to specify a frameskip.

TO-DO

The glove isn't implemented yet. I'm considering parabolic paths of the
form

y = 1 - 0.444444 * x * x

and

y = 0.333333 - 1.333333 * x * x

for throw and bouncing bombs, respectively. I'll probably do it all in fixed
point, though.

I have been experimenting with reduced (2-color and 16-color) tilesets,
and the results are much better than I anticipated. If I can find (or
write) EGA/VGA code I should be able to support 640x480 or 640x400 on a
wide variety of ancient hardware. Whether these cards can actually keep up
with VS Bomber remains to be seen.

Victory, scoring, and level ending are definitely on the to-do list.

More run-time configurability would be a good thing...

Eventually, of course, an AI would be nice so you don't have to find a
friend to play against. TCL and SIOD look promising as AI scripting
languages. I have tried using SMOKE-16, but writing AIs in 16-bit RISC
asm is no fun...

--
"Benjamin C. W. Sittler" <bsittler@nmt.edu>
http://www.nmt.edu/~bsittler/