                  FIRE BOARD Version 1.0 - by Avishay Yagoda
                  ------------------------------------------

Contents:

1.introduction and playing keys
2.the main menu
3.blocks descriptions
4.Inline level editor
5.copyright and notes


1.introduction and playing keys
-------------------------------

Fire Board is a one player plaform game with levels which are made of 32x20
blocks.
Each block effect somehow the skateboarder you're playing.
The goal of the game is reaching the exit block (up-right going arrow).
There are 5 keys that you can press while playing:

From now and on, the skateboarder= SBer. O.K?

up ->   1) jumps at the hight of jump charged by pressing down.
        2) makes you repress the down button to charge another jump,
           unless you're on fire (explenation at fire block description).

down -> 1) ducks and charges jump hight, till certain level.
           if you let go of the down key, the charging will have no effect
           on jumping hight. press up WHILE pressing down to let the
           the charging kick in.
        2) lets you go through semi full blocks (see description).
        3) teleports. (explenation at teleport blocks description).

left -> 1) if SBer is already going left, it will speed up the movement
           to a certain rate.
        2) if you're not moving SBer will start moving to the left.
        3) if you're going right, it'll slow the movement rate.

right -> same things as left, just reversed.

esc -> quits to the main menu.


2.the main menu
---------------

There are 5 options in the main menu, and a 4 letter password above them all.
You can breeze through the options with A and Z keys, or press the option
number. pressing esc will automaticly light the quit option.
these are the options:
1)Start game with the above password:
  does exactly what it says, if the password
  is blank or incorrect, it will considered as 'strt' (level 1).
2)Start game with another password:
  lets you enter a different password than the current one and plays
  the level the password belong to.
3)Load External level:
  lets you insert a level file name (up to 8 characters) and plays it.
4)Level Editor:
  runs the level editor. to learn how to use the level editor, see
  "4. Inline level editor"
5)Quit:
  returns to dos (duh);


3.blocks descriptions
---------------------

Now, here are the descriptions of all the 25 blocks in Fire Board
the letter at the beginning of each description is its editor-key
(see 4. InLine Level Editor).
DES=description
ACT=action, what the block does.

a:
DES: blank,space,nothing,air.
ACT: nothing, doesn't resrict your movement.

b:
DES: full block.
ACT: SBer can stand on it and bump into it,simplest block around.

c:
DES: slope from top-right to bottom-left.
ACT: doesn't allow SBer to jump while sliding it, increases the speed
     to the left.

d:
DES: slope from top-left to bottom-right.
ACT: doesn't allow SBer to jump while sliding it, increases the speed
     to the right.

e:
DES: checkered flag
ACT: SBer starting position is set on it.

f:
DES: exit
ACT: set the current password to the next one, goes to main menu.

g:
DES: semi-full block
ACT: makes you duck when passing it, if you don't bend while trying to enter
     it, or passing in it, you won't be able to move. if you are bending when
     you try to pass through, no speed reset will be done.

h:
DES: fully charged spikes.
ACT: only visible in edit mode, stepping on it will discarge the spikes into
     half out position.

i:
DES: half out spikes
ACT: stepping on it will pull the spikes more out to killer spikes state.

j:
DES: killer spikes
ACT: touching it will kill you.

k:
DES: blood splat.
ACT: harmless, does nothing, use in order to mark things or write something.

l,n,p:
DES: yellow,green,blue buttons (l n p in this order).
ACT: touching it will open all doors in the screen that match the button
     color. open means 'make it air-like'.

m,o,q:
DES: yellow,green,blue doors.
ACT: act as full blocks until the right key is pressed (touched).

r:
DES: fire.
ACT: this is long:
     makes SBer jump when you touch it (it burns his ass, you know).
     turns SBer into 'on fire' state. when you're on fire, you don't have
     to let go and repress the down key to charge the jump hight after
     jumping. 
     when SBer is on the fire block, the jump hight charging top-limit
     is higher, so let SBer to jump on the fire and press down without
     letting go. if you release the down key, all the charging you made
     is zeroed. or fire effect disappears about 3 seconds after you last
     touched a fire block.

s:
DES: teleporter
ACT: pressing down while SBer is in it will teleport SBer to the next
     teleporter in reading english order (scan from the left to the right,
     then go to the next line, if no teleporters found till the end of the
     screen reached, starts to scan from top-left).

t,v,x:
DES: yellow,green,blue hidden door jumpers.
ACT: visible only in edit mode, stepping on it will make all hidden doors
     at the jumper color to become normal doors (opened by buttons).

u,w,y:
DES: yellow,green,blue hidden doors.
ACT: visible only in edit mode, act as air until SBer steps on a jumper
     with the same color as the hidden door. when he does, the hidden door
     becomes a normal door. 

4.Inline level editor
---------------------

Choosing the 4th option in the main menu will bring you to the level editor.
In here you use THE MOUSE to point a block, and the keyboard to put block
at the cursor position.

* pressing ?(shift+/) or / will pop up the blocks glassory.

* press 'a' to 'y' to put a block at the cursor position (caps lock off).

* click the LEFT mouse button and drag to mark an area and copy it to the
  clipboard. press '=' to paste from clipboard to the current cursor.
  drag the mouse only to the right and down directions, other will cancel.

* click the RIGHT mouse button and drag to mark an area and clear it
  (just like pressing 'a' on each of the block marked).

* click the MIDDLE mouse button or press esc to pop up the edit menu.

Edit Menu:

press the number next to the options to activate it. other keys will cancel.
1. save level:
   enter the filename to save into with NO extentions (max 8 characters).
2. load level:
   enter the filename to load from with NO extentions (max 8 characters).
3. New level:
   clear all the blocks in the level.
4. Quit:
   go back to main menu.


5. copyrights and notes
-----------------------                                     

SBer has some special interactions with some of the blocks, such as jamming
the board into a full block to stop a falling. use these stuff for you own
good, because some of the level are made for those things.

keep capslock OFF when running the game.

If you want to play it under win95 then do it in full screen
(not in a window)

blocks h,u,w, and y can be spotted in playing mode, but i won't tell you
how ;) find out by yourself (not so hard to do).

there are special moves, but they do nothing but look good.

if you make any good level, send them to me.

Fire Board was written by Avishay Yagoda, AKA Pyros.
My E-mail is yagoda@netvision.net.il
