DX-Ball 2, Copyright 1998-2000 by Longbow Digital Arts.
By: Seumas McNally

Longbow Digital Arts Web Site:
  http://www.LongbowDigitalArts.com/

DX-Ball 2 Web Page:
  http://www.LongbowDigitalArts.com/dxball2.html


Be sure to drop by the web site to find other goodies
and how to get more board-packs!

Game Play:

Playing DX-Ball 2 is very simple.  Just use the mouse to move your
paddle back and forth along the bottom of the screen, bouncing the
balls back up into the field of bricks to break them.  Once they're
all broken you'll proceed to the next level.  Along the way you can
pick up random Power-Ups, some of which are good, others are bad,
and some may have good aspects and bad aspects.

If you think the game is too hard, try Kid-Mode (press the F4 key on
the Title Screen).  Don't mind the name, it's fun for grown ups too!

If on the other hand you find the game too easy, try going for a
mega high score!  You can get four times (4x) as many points while
you're using a Tiny Paddle (get a shrink paddle or a super-shrink),
a Tiny Ball, and a Fast Ball (grab the Fast Ball power up or just
wait a while and avoid Slow Ball like the plague).  You don't need
all three at once either, one or two will still give you more points
than normal.


In Game Music:

DX-Ball 2 now supports in-game music!  Just hit F5 on the title
screen or during the game (you can press it twice while playing to
select a different music module).  By default the only in-game
music is the three title screen songs, but you can add more by
going to our web site and downloading the DX-Ball 2 Music Pack
with a bunch of free tunes by SideWinder, or by downloading your
own favorite MOD, XM, or S3M format songs and placing them in
the DXBall2\InGameMods directory.  If you use songs with more
than 8 voices, you'll have to increase the music voice count
in the config.cfg file, and due to technical limitations, 32
voice songs aren't supported.


Troubleshooting:

If you're having trouble running the game, first make sure your
graphics card is capable of a 640x480x16-bit display by changing
your Windows desktop resolution to at least 16-bit or High Color
or 65536 color (please note, NOT "16 color").  Most other problems
are related to old or buggy display drivers.  Go to your video
card manufacturer's web site and download and install the latest
drivers for your graphics card, and then download and install the
latest version of Microsoft's DirectX.  One way to find it is to
search for "DirectX" on www.download.com.

If after installing the latest display drivers and the latest
DirectX you are still encountering problems, please send us a bug
report with as much detail on your system and the exact nature
of the problem as possible, and we'll try to help!

If you're an advanced user, be sure to check out the config.cfg
file in the DXBall2 directory (open it in Notepad, it's just a
text file).  It includes a number of specific configuration
options not accessible from inside the game itself.

Also see http://www.LongbowDigitalArts.com/support.html for a FAQ
and more technical support info.


DX-Ball 2 Credits:

Programming by Seumas McNally 1979-2000
 Seumas McNally died on March 21st, 2000 
after a 3 year battle with Hodgkin's disease.
http://www.gamedev.net/community/memorial/seumas/

Additional Graphics by Philippe McNally
 Email: saunter@longbowdigitalarts.com

Lead Board Design by Wendy McNally
 Email: wendy@longbowdigitalarts.com

Additional Sound and boards by Jim McNally
 Email: jim@longbowdigitalarts.com

Music by SideWinder (Eric Gieseke)
 Email: sidewind@txdirect.net


History:

Version 1.0, December 1998:
 Initial release.

Version 1.2, May 1999:
 - In game music.
 - Hot-seat Multi-Player support.
 - Improved fire effect.
 - White sparks from invisibles.
 - Better High Scores graphic.
 - Hotter looking Fire Ball.
 - Easier to miss Death Capsules.
 - Less time required to zap gold.
 - Board reached saved with High Score.
 - Major speed improvements.
 - Config file for advanced tweaks.
 - Half-Bright background mode.
 - Better documentation.

Version 1.25, July 2000:
 - Sound fix for Windows 2000
 - Memorial to Seumas


Additional:

Synthetic Audio Library (SEAL) Copyright 1995, 1996 Carlos Hasan.

Longbow(r) is a registered trademark of Longbow International
Corp. in the U.S.A.  Longbow International Corp. is not
affiliated with Longbow Digital Arts.
