Immortal Pongbat

Pre-Release v0.2
http://pongbat.sourceforge.net

Written by:

• Mark Aikens
• Ben Lucas
• David Ludwig

Thank yous go out to:

• David Hirschfield, who created the game Mortal Pongbat, which was the inspiration for Immortal Pongbat.
• Matt Chisholm, for GPL'ing his Swiss Cheesed font, which is used throughout this game. See http://www.theory.org/~strthrwr/fonts/free/ for a list of his fonts!

WARNING

This is a pre-release version of Immortal Pongbat!
It is likely to have numerous flaws and is not guaranteed to work on your computer. Your help in finding these flaws would be greatly appreciated. To report a bug, visit http://pongbat.sourceforge.net/bugs.

About Immortal Pongbat

Immortal Pongbat is Pong taken to a new level! Two players use paddles to bounce balls across the screen, as was the case in the original Pong. That's where the similarities stop. In Immortal Pongbat:

• each player has a laser, which can be used to slice apart their opponents paddle.
• more than one ball can be on the screen at any one time. The last ball to slip by a player is the one that counts.
• paddles can be enhanced by powerups.
• balls can take on strange and dangerous traits.

System Requirements

These requirements are subject to change.

Processor	450MHz Pentium III or better
Display	640x480, 16 bit color or greater

Setup

When Immortal Pongbat is launched, the Main Menu will be displayed. It is navigated using the mouse.

To start a game, select "Play Game". Before the game starts, a few different options will be presented. If you only want to start a single player game, then select "Start Game". Otherwise, you may:

• choose your opponent. This can either be a human or computer player. If your opponent is the computer, you can also select its skill level.
• set the time limit.
• set the goal limit.

Playing

Playing Immortal Pongbat is like playing Pong, where you defend a goal using a paddle. The major difference in Immortal Pongbat is that multiple balls may be on the screen at any one time. (The original Pong would never have more than one.) If the last ball on the screen passes by your paddle, then your opponent gets a goal. The game ends when a player reaches the goal limit, or when time runs out.

Your paddle is equipped with a laser, which can cut holes in your opponent's paddle. Balls are able to pass through these holes, making them increasingly harder to hit.

At the start of a round, one or more balls will be placed onto the field. When you hit a ball, it's color will change to that of your paddle. This means that you 'own' the ball. When one of your balls hits a powerup, which are represented by small gray blocks, you'll receive that powerup. The powerup blocks are as follows:

	Laser - Increases your laser power.
	Invincibility - Makes your paddle invulnerable to damage for a short period of time.
	Health - Restores a paddle to full health.

Blocks can do other things besides giving out powerups. Some can change the ball's traits, such as it's speed or movement, while others can adjust the number of balls on the field. These blocks are as follows:

	Add Ball - Adds another ball to the field.
	Remove Ball - Destroys the ball, unless it is the last one on the field.
	Speedup - Increases the ball's speed.
	Slowdown - Decreases the ball's speed.
	Crack - Makes the ball go crazy!
	Bomb - Makes the ball explosive! A bomb ball will explode when it passes by a paddle. Avoid these explosions at all cost!

Default keys for the Blue paddle:

Default keys for the Red paddle:

Joystick Support

To test which joystick is associated with which paddle, press a button from within the "Game Options" screen, which is accessible by clicking on "Play Game" from the Main Menu. When a button is pressed, a pair of exclamation marks will appear behind the respective player's name ("Blue" or "Red".)

Please note that analog joysticks are not yet supported.