                    XBoing Version 1.5 - By Justin Kibell
                    -------------------------------------

                                23rd July 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
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! :-)

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 xboing1.5-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.


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

Really Special thanks to Arnaud Le Hors (lehors@sophia.inria.fr) for XPM lib.

Thanks for a few cool backgrounds found in Anthony's Icons V1.1
    Anthony Thyssen - anthony@cit.gu.edu.au

The comp.windows.x newsgroup netters for help over the past few years.

Playtesting, Ideas & Hints, Timewasting, Bug reports ...

	Michael Stone, Andrew Cassin, Iain Lim, Tim Liddelow, Peter Cupit
	Craig McNaughton, Chris Fu, David Kershaw, Geoff Lambourne


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. ;-)

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


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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Justin C. Kibell - email: jck@citri.edu.au     Phone: +61 3 282 2456
CATT, CITRI, 723 Swanston Street, 3053, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Systems Programmer - X11 Developer - Motif Head - Volunteer Rescuer - VICSES
