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*                                                                             *
*   Game:   I Ball Clone       Type:    Amstrad CPC Emulator DSK File         *
*   Author: Odiesoft           Webpage: http://www.odiesoft.de                *
*   Size:   1 * 194816 Bytes   Date:    18. February 2003                     *
*   File:   Odiesoft Games - I Ball Clone (1990).dsk                          *
*                                                                             *
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Title: I Ball Clone
Year:  1990


When I started writing up the text for this game I figured out that I don't
remember the name of original Spectrum game which was the exemplar for my CPC
conversion. I thought it's name was "I, Ball", but when I looked up the game
with this name I found out that this was different from what I had in mind.

Well anyway, the Spectrum game I wanted to convert was a precursor to Lemmings.
In this game an air-filled ball was jumping through a horizontally scrolling
maze on the screen. The player had to move plates and floor tiles into the way
of the ball, so that it wouldn't fall off, land on sharp peaks, jump into a fire
or other obstacles.

I've read about that game in the famous German CPC computer games magazine ASM.
I've never actually seen the game, but reading the review was sufficient enough
to get me hooked on that idea. As far as I know there wasn't an official CPC
conversion of that game. When I started to do my own version there certainly
wasn't a CPC conversion available or announced.

Since the ball was supposed to hop step by step at regular intervals I figured
that using interrupts to do the scrolling would be a good idea. I thought that
this would leave more time for the painting of the ball and the hair cross that
the player can use to move the plates. Since I didn't use double buffering the
hair cross was flickering a lot every time the screen scrolled one step, but
this was slight enough to be bearable.

Besides a small program with which I could do test runs with the interupt
controlled scrolling, I wrote an editor to draw the map for the game.

While I'm writing these lines I still can't figure out why I discontinued this
program. I wasn't the best game I wrote, but I think it would have made up a
nice game for a cover tape of a CPC magazine or so. Well, maybe it was that the
scrolling wasn't really this smooth, or that the hair cross flickered a little
or that I was afraid that the game would become a lot slower as soon as I added
the ball. Or I just started a different project and forgot about this game. I
really don't remember.

So this idea is just another addition to the array of unfinished projects of
mine.


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*                                                                             *
* This program can be distributed freely and without the need of a written    *
* of a written permission by Odiesoft, as long as it is distributed free of   *
* charge!                                                                     *
*                                                                             *
* If you had to pay for this, you've been ripped off!                         *
*                                                                             *
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