// BALANCE manual
// (c) Kingsoft 1993
// transcript & translation by -Chris
// See copy protection at end of this file
______ _ _ _ _____ ______
| ___ | /\ | | /\ | \ | | | ___| | ____|
| |___|| / \ | | / \ | \| | | | | |___
| ___ / /\ \ | | / /\ \ | | | | | ___|
| |___|| / /__\ \ | |___ / /__\ \ | |\ | | |___ | |____
|______| /_/ \_\ |_____| /_/ \_\ |_| \_| |_____| |______|
>> Your indispensable guide to the wonderful world of gravity <<
Concept & Design Thomas Kahabka
Programming Thmoas Kahabka
Graphics Harald Kuhn &
Thomas Gmelch
Music Matthias Steinwachs &
Thomas Kahabka
Project Lead Bernd K?hnast
A CYBERLOGIC production
"HEY D.J." - INSTALLING BALANCE
BALANCE can only be played from hard disk. The installation routine auto-
matically creates a directory called BALANCE. You can later start the
game from this directory. Make sure that your hard disk has at least 6 MB
free space before you begin the installation. To ensure a smooth instal-
lation, please follow these instructions:
- Put disk 1 in the floppy drive
- Change to this drive with the command "A:" or "B:" respectively
- Now type "INSTALL" followed by the source and target drive. Examp-
le: INSTALL A: C: installs the files from the disk in drive A: on
hard disk C:
- When the program prompts you, remove disk 1 and insert disk 2
- When the installation is finished, type "BALANCE" to start
HINT FOR THE OWNERS OF ROLAND-MPU-COMPATIBLE SOUND CARDS
If you use such a card (LAPC1 / SCC1) and its IO and / or interrupt set-
tings have been changed, start BALANCE with the command:
BALANCE /MPU:I/A
where I is the interrupt number and A the last figure of the I/O-address!
BALANCE /MPU:5/2
for instance means: interrupt 5 and I/O-address 332h.
No POWER TO VIRUSES!
BALANCE self-tests for program integrity on startup. It notices changes
in the program code by viruses, worms, trojans or other saboteurs and
aborts startup with an error message. You should immediately employ suit-
able countermeasures to clean your system. If you got rid of the virus,
it suffices to re-install BALANCE.
Tip: Write protection on your install disks cannot hurt!
PROGRAM CONFIGURATION
After the start of the program you find yourself in an extensive options
menu, which helps you adjust BALANCE to your personal preference. Your
choices will be saved and need not be made all over again e very time.
Highlight the options with the cursor keys and press space to activate
them. Brackets indicate activated options.
The setup menu gives you the following options:
RESOLUTION [BILDSCHIRMFORMAT]
Choose your graphics mode and resolution. The choices are:
EGA 640x350 pixels with 16 colors
VGA 640x480 pixels with 16 colors
Super VGA 800x600 pixels with 16 colors
ATTENTION:
Activate the option Super VGA only if you are certain that you have
a VGA card with the ET4000 chipset installed in your computer and
that your monitor supports this mode. We do not take any responsibi-
lity for damages. If in doubt, please contact your retailer.
SOUND
The choices are:
PC Speaker Adlib
Soundblaster Roland LAPC1
Roland SCC1 Roland LAPC1 & Soundblaster
Roland SCC1 & Soundblaster
A note concerning sound drivers:
The program comes with a file called SOUND.COM. It contains an Adlib
driver. SOUND.COM has to be executed prior to starting the game.
That applies to Soundblaster cards, too. With a correct installation
of your Soundblaster software (the folder SB must exist under this
name in the root directory and may not be named differently),
SOUND.COM loads CT-VOICE.DRV. That enables Soundblaster owners to
enjoy digital sound effects.
OPTIONS
Here you may choose between:
A) 3D PLANE DISPLAY [3D-FL?CHENANZEIGE]
Control panel displays the playfield's slant
BALL DIRECTION DISPLAY [KUGELRICHTUNGSANZEIGE]
Control panel displays the direction of the ball's movement
- line length corresponds to the movement speed
B) LEVEL FIXED [LEVEL FEST]
The ball moves on the playfield
BALL FIXED [KUGEL FEST]
The playfield moves under the ball
C) BACKGROUNDS [HINTERGRUNDGRAFIK]
Displays background artworks during the game
BACKGROUNDS BLACK [HINTERGRUND SCHWARZ]
Turns backgrounds off - increases speed on slow machines
D) LIGHT REFLECTION ON [LICHTREFLEX AN]
Turn reflection of light beams on the ball on
LIGHT REFLECTION OFF [LICHTREFLEX AUS]
Turns the reflection off
E) SOUND EFFECTS ON [SOUNDEFFEKTE AN]
Activates sound effects
SOUND EFFECTS OFF [SOUNDEFFEKTE AUS]
Suppresses all game sounds
F) MUSIC ON [MUSIK AN]
Plays background music during the game
MUSIC OFF [MUSIK AUS]
Background music deactivated
When you have made your adjustments, press Return to start the ga-
me's introduction sequence. Pressing Return or the left mouse button
again takes you to the title screen of BALANCE...
LET'S ROLL - THE GAME MENU
The game menu appears when you press a key or mouse button on the title
screen. Activate the different game options with a click of the mouse or
by typing the first letter on the keyboard. The following options are
available:
OPTIONS
This submenu gives you several options for adjustment:
SOUND
If you have a sound card installed, this options turns the music on
and off. The same applies to sound effects, while these may also be
produced by the internal speaker.
SPEED [GESCHWINDIGKEIT]
This option adapts the game speed to your needs.
MOUSE SENSITIVITY [MAUSEMPFINDLICHKEIT]
This option sets the mouse sensitivity to a value between 1 and 100
(the standard is 60)
EXTRA
Some options of the extended setup can be changed during the game:
MOVEMENT [BEWEGT] Fixes the ball or the plane
DISPLAY [ANZEIGE] Ball or plane direction display
REFLECTION [LICHTREFLEX] Turn light reflections on / off
Pressing any other key or the left mouse button starts the game in the
first level.
THE COPY PROTECTION
The BALANCE disks are not copy protected. You may thus make a backup for
your private use and with regard to the copyright conditions. The program
includes a copy protection question that becomes active at an irregular
point in the early game. The program prompts you to enter an ID code. De-
termine this code with the two code disks in the appendix to this manual.
Do this as follows:
The question refers to either disk 0 or disk 1 and shows a combination of
six dots and dashes reminiscent of a morse code. Turn to the page with
the respective disk and put your finger to black point in the center.
Each of the six dots resp. dashes stands for part of the way to the rim
of the disk, where the dot represents a dotted line and the dash a con-
tinuous line. A partial line ends where it touches another line (not un-
like the principle behind some public transportation maps). At the peri-
phery of the disk are the code numbers that can always be reached from
the center in six steps.
And here's how it works in practice:
The required combination is: code for disk 1/ID --....
You turn to disk 1 and put your finger on the middle. Then you move along
the continuous line until it forks. Here you take the next continuous li-
ne up to the fork. That resolves the first two parts of the ID code. At
the third fork you take the dotted line and continue in that manner for
the last three code parts. At last you inevitably end up at the rim of
the disk on a number. In our example it is 79. Enter this number at the
prompt, and the game will continue. This may sound a little complicated
at first, but in practice it is very simple and a lot more effective that
the endless flipping through the manual to find a specific word.
Also, the developers of this game tend to see the copy protection not as
an arbitrary coercive measure, but as a test of aptitude for the game.
Who gets over this copy protection without fits of dizziness is truly
prepared for things to come...
Two establishments have to be made in this context:
- BALANCE does not have a cheat mode
- The Earth is flat
KEEP THE BALANCE RIGHT - THE GAME
Now you're ready for the brazen laws of Balance. In contrast to other
laws, these are downright simple:
1. Keep the ball on the playfield
2. Color the brown tiles
Sounds too easy? Well, try it! But do yourself a favor: please read this
manual to the end!
THE SCREEN
The screen is split in two parts. For one the game screen with the back-
ground artwork, second the control panel. The panel displays the most im-
portant information at a glance. To that end it uses the following ele-
ments:
- The clock: It starts running as soon as the first brown tile is co-
lored.
- The balls: They symbolize the number of remaining lives.
(The little L resp. K signifies the modes "level fixed"
as opposed to "ball fixed", by the way)
- The meter: Indicates the slant of the plane.
THE CONTROLS AND THE GAME
Very easy: As long as you do not move the mouse, nothing happens at all.
That's not the purpose of the game, though, so you should act. The seem-
ingly stable p lane proportionally follows your mouse movements. It is
strongly advised to move the mouse in a way that the ball does not shoot
over the borders of the playfield. That would equal a drop into the void
and the loss of a life. Much better is tilting the plane in a way that
the ball touches all the brown fields and colors them. If you manage to
do this trick, you may well give yourself a pat on the shoulder and ad-
vance to the next level.
THE BALANCING ACT AND ITS PITFALLS
If that were all, nobody would have had the idea to program such a game.
Expect some additional features that will make your life in the land of
gravity slightly bitter.
Time limit: As soon as your ball colors the first tile, the clock
starts ticking. You ought to color all the tiles before
the hand completes one full revolution, or else your ef-
fort was in vain and you have to start over.
Colored tiles: Some parts of the playfield are more colorful than others.
The reason is simply that these so-called action tiles
trigger certain functions that are not always pleasant.
Pink tiles are very instable. If the ball rolls over them once, they
crumble.
Yellow tiles are helpful - at least sometimes. They make the ball jump
to a target location that is not always apparent. Try and
find out!
Blue tiles are completely incalculable. They have the habit of
switching whole sections of the level on and off. A level
that looks totally unsolvable at first may turn out to be
very simple, while an easy stage may become an infernal
trip through one touch of such a tile.
White tiles accelerate. The ball rolls faster, faster, faster still
and... Be prepared though that after such an ice area a
section of sticky tiles may slow your ball down merci-
lessly.
Black tiles trigger the notorious blackout. One touch of such a dark
tile literally turns the lights off. This condition lasts
for a couple of seconds.
You will encounter other sweet nuisances such as rotating playfields in
the course of the game, but we won't give away too much...
During the game, the following keys are active:
P Pause. The game freezes while you phone your psychiatrist.
M Switches between "ball moves" and "playfield moves" modes.
ESC Quits the current level and returns to the main menu.
Have fun!
Copy Protection Codes:
Scheibe 0 / Disk 0 Scheibe 1 / Disk 1
------ 72 ...... 9 ------ 80 ...... 85
-----. 82 .....- 79 -----. 21 .....- 51
----.- 30 ....-. 63 ----.- 15 ....-. 11
----.. 73 ....-- 2 ----.. 1 ....-- 31
---.-- 68 ...-.. 68 ---.-- 99 ...-.. 99
---.-. 71 ...-.- 93 ---.-. 54 ...-.- 3
---..- 26 ...--. 23 ---..- 13 ...--. 24
---... 26 ...--- 57 ---... 19 ...--- 35
--.--- 21 ..-... 75 --.--- 80 ..-... 66
--.--. 47 ..-..- 57 --.--. 97 ..-..- 90
--.-.- 25 ..-.-. 92 --.-.- 11 ..-.-. 72
--.-.. 60 ..-.-- 36 --.-.. 6 ..-.-- 74
--..-- 86 ..--.. 9 --..-- 23 ..--.. 64
--..-. 89 ..--.- 0 --..-. 11 ..--.- 89
--...- 36 ..---. 99 --...- 51 ..---. 4
--.... 67 ..---- 43 --.... 79 ..---- 33
-.---- 69 .-.... 85 -.---- 73 .-.... 83
-.---. 37 .-...- 22 -.---. 54 .-...- 21
-.--.- 58 .-..-. 28 -.--.- 3 .-..-. 12
-.--.. 65 .-..-- 89 -.--.. 64 .-..-- 69
-.-.-- 16 .-.-.. 10 -.-.-- 41 .-.-.. 33
-.-.-. 49 .-.-.- 78 -.-.-. 51 .-.-.- 63
-.-..- 78 .-.--. 85 -.-..- 59 .-.--. 98
-.-... 54 .-.--- 89 -.-... 60 .-.--- 57
-..--- 66 .--... 81 -..--- 55 .--... 72
-..--. 30 .--..- 3 -..--. 51 .--..- 32
-..-.- 48 .--.-. 26 -..-.- 72 .--.-. 94
-..-.. 55 .--.-- 85 -..-.. 94 .--.-- 51
-...-- 72 .---.. 50 -...-- 19 .---.. 45
-...-. 80 .---.- 39 -...-. 56 .---.- 3
-....- 86 .----. 73 -....- 87 .----. 20
-..... 8 .----- 65 -..... 52 .----- 83
** END OF FILE **
