                    XBoing Version 1.6 - By Justin Kibell
                    -------------------------------------

                              6th August 1993

Description
-----------

XBoing is a simple blockout type game where you have a paddle which you use to
bounce a ball around the game area blowing up blocks with the ball. You win by
obtaining points for each block destroyed and each level completed. The person
with the highest score wins.

XBoing was started like many other projects to learn Xlib better. I had the 
XPM library and was already using it in a Motif application. I thought that it
would be cool to have nice colour pictures/animations in an Xlib game. So I 
did. Without the XPM library I would be still playing with the colours I think.

Please read the manual page as the manual has some important game play 
information. Now I have warned you so don't complain if something doesn't 
seem to be correct or that another breakout game did it like that or this. :-)


Requirements
------------

The XPM library. Version 2.3 upwards tested. 3.2g is fine. Not tested below 2.3
Suggest you use 3.2g which is available everywhere now. 

A COLOUR X display. I may fix it to use other visuals later. ie: grey. mono

An ansi or non-ansi compiler. Ansi is better, try gcc.
A decent GRUNT box to run XBoing. No network travel if possible! :-)

Also note that if you are on a Sun machine the xnews server is not the
quickest and you may experience delays in the game due to its heavy use
of pixmaps etc. I suggest playing it with the MIT X Server - hassle I know
if you use other Sun software that requires news etc.

Note: It will always be a bit slower on a network so playing on the host
	  machine will give the best results. I have tuned the game for my
	  SparcStation 2 and it runs very fast. I cannot test the game on
	  other machines other the some Xterms and SGI Indigo's.  Disclamier.


Where do I get it from
----------------------

Via anonymous ftp from export.lcs.mit.edu.au in the contrib directory. 
The most recent version is xboing1.6-tar.Z. It may appear on other mirrors
that mirror export or whatever.

Please do not try to obtain it from my own machine. export is quicker.
The game is NOT kept in the ftp account on my machine so don't try please.


Installation/Building game
--------------------------

Please read the file called INSTALL. It is important to read this file.
Don't forget to get the XPM library and compile it up first!


Usage
-----

The game does have command line options so check them out. 'xboing -help'

The colourmap is taken over as I need all the colours. Sorry but thats the
problem with only 256 colourmap entries. I cannot see a problem with this.

The colourmap is released afterwards and should return you to your lovely
colour scheme. If it doesn't please let me know.


Developement
------------

Xboing was developed on a SparcStation 2 with 48meg memory and a 19" colour
display using the MIT X11R5 X server, Motif Window Manager. I used x11ups
for debugging - excellent tool - well done. Sunos 4.1.2 sun4c. Compiled using
gcc with warnings on and also tested using the Sun cc compiler (non ansi).

Reference books: All of O'Reilly Series, X & Motif Quick reference guide
Graphics: Titles done on Amiga using Deluxe Paint IV, converted using pbmplus
		  tools and xpm image touch ups with "pixmap".
Sounds:	  Mainly from sounds.sdus.edu and also from other places.


Special Thanks
--------------

Really Special thanks to Arnaud Le Hors (lehors@sophia.inria.fr) for the
wonderful XPM library and for making it free :-).

Thanks for a some cool backgrounds found in Anthony's Icons V1.3 (new ones!)
    Anthony Thyssen - anthony@cit.gu.edu.au

The comp.windows.x newsgroup netters for help over the past few years. See
the CHANGES doco for inline lisitings of the helpers.

Thankyou to all those who have contributed. Especially the beta testers here
at CATT. It's hard to do any work around here!

	Michael Stone, Andrew Cassin, Iain Lim, Tim Liddelow, Peter Cupit
	Craig McNaughton, Chris Fu, David Kershaw, Geoff Lambourne
	Paul McGregor, my 3 cats ...


Patches to XBoing
-----------------

Patches are great and welcomed. Please do as others have and either send them
to me or post them to news. Please do NOT place them on export.lcs.mit.edu and
make it look like I put it there. I got heaps of mail saying a certain patch
didn't work and I didn't even know it existed. I think it is common courtesy
to send me some email about what is going on etc.

Also - you can do whatever you like at your own site but don't send a patch
that changes the flag on the presentation screen. :-)


Suggestions/Bug fixes
---------------------

I have had many suggestions and bug fixes. I cannot list all the names of the
people who have helped as it would be a big list and I wouldn't want to
leave anyone out. Thankyou to all those who have mailed - you know. ;-)

See the CHANGES doco for more info.


Grovel Bit
----------

If anyone is feeling really generous or kind they can send money, equipment,
cars, travel vouchers or anything for that matter to my humble self and I 
will be very happy. ;-) If that's all a bit much then a friendly email will
do fine. Hope you have fun bouncing your balls. Stay cool.

Surface Mail: 1/17 Albert Rd, North Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia, 3113

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Justin C. Kibell - email: jck@citri.edu.au     Phone: +61 3 282 2456
CITRI - CATT - Australia - Melbourne - Victoria - 723 Swanston St, Carlton
Systems Programmer - X11 Developer - Motif Head - Volunteer Rescuer - VICSES
