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TrainBall tm
Shareware Version
Start The Program
Copy all of the files on the distribution disk to your hard
disk or to a working floppy disk. TBALL must be run from the
directory in which it is located. You cannot put that directory
in the PATH command and run the program from other directories.
Type TBALL [enter] to start the program.
Set Up
Press "C" (without the quotes) at the Main Menu for Color
setup. If you have a color interface card then so indicate when
asked and select foreground and background colors for the track
and for each of three trains.
If you have a monochrome system, then so indicate when
asked. If you have a monochrome system you will be allowed to
set "colors" as either bright white and black or black and bright
white as the foreground and background colors for the track and
the trains. Because you may move this program from computer to
computer, the first time you want to set colors in a session the
program will ask you what kind of a machine you have.
I suggest you use light foreground on dark background for
the tracks and dark foreground on light background for the
trains. For some unknown (to me) reason you cannot set a dark
foreground color on a light background. Dark Blue on Yellow does
not seem to work.
Screen Layouts
A file called TBALL.TRK is included with the program. You
can select it with "S" for Screen on the Main Menu and edit it or
you can press "S" and start your own pinball screen layout under
any name you choose. The program MUST find a file called
TBALL.TRK on the disk in order to run properly. It must also
find the files: TBALL.SW1, TBALL.SW2, TBALL.RT, TBALLA.CAR,
TBALLB.CAR and TBALLC.CAR. All are provided with the disk.
More on editing in a minute.
Car Selection
To change the order of your trains or to design new trains,
you select "E" -- Edit Trains from the Main Menu.
You can select "C" on the Car submenu and Create more .CAR
files. The program will crash if the files: TBALLA.CAR,
TBALLB.CAR and TBALLC.CAR are not found on the logged disk/direc
tory. These files are provided with the program.
To select the order of the trains, that is to make a dif
ferent train the first train, you press "S" on the Car submenu to
order the trains. The program comes with three trains:
TBALLA.CAR, TBALLB.CAR and TBALLC.CAR which by default are the
first, second and third trains.
If you edit the cars on a train, you must next re-select
the order of the trains to load the edited train from disk to
memory.
Play The Game
Press "P" on the Main Menu to Play the game. You will be
asked for the screen layout you want to use. Enter the file
name from the list displayed WITHOUT the .TRK part, and press
ENTER. Train 1 or "A" will immediately begin running.
Train Controls
"2" starts train B running
"3" starts train C running
No more than three trains will run at any one time.
F3 speeds up ALL trains
F4 slows down ALL train
F (Faster) Speeds up only the selected train
S (Slower) Slows down only the selected train
D (Display) Turns the selected train letter Display on and off
N (Noise) Turns Sound off and on
R (Reverse) Reverses the direction of the selected train
L (Loose) Turns one of the trains "loose". The loose
train will randomly change direction. These
random changes will occur about once every 30
movements for that train.
SPACE BAR Fires a missle from the selected train
Train Controls
The arrow keys affect only the selected train. The letter
of the selected train is shown on the lower left hand cor
ner of the screen.
The A train is the initially selected train. If you want
to change the direction of the B train, then press "B"
before pressing the arrow keys. The same for the C train,
i.e. press "C" first. Any selected train will remain
active as the selected train until a different letter is
pressed. F(ast) and S(low) work on the selected train as
does R(everse). SPACE BAR fires a missle from the selected
train. The missile will travel 40 spaces before dying.
You can only have one missile active at a time.
The display in the lower left corner of the screen shows
two things: which train is the selected train and if
there is a "Loose" train. If train B is selected and there
is no loose train, you will see: B . If train C is the
selected train and there is a loose train, then you will
see: C L.
Pressing "R" "reverses" the direction of the selected
train. Warning: R works like the "stopper" track charac
ter. It will only work when the train is moving up or down
or right or left. It won't work if the train is on a diag
onal.
If a non-selected train hits your selected train, you
will see an "explosion". Any key will clear the screen and
restart the game. If your selected train hits the cars,
not the engine, of one of the other trains, then you will
blow up that train and will gain 50 points.
The Space Bar fires a missile from the selected train.
Each missile fired costs you 20 points. A train blown up
with a gains you 50 points. If the missile hits the
engine, the whole screen blows up.
ESC will freeze the screen and allow you to quit.
Edit A Track Layout
The arrow keys, backspace and delete keys work in the track
layout edit mode. The editing screen is always in overtype mode.
Be careful of the backspace and DEL keys. They will move the
line to the left and may skew the layout to the right of the
cursor. You can easily erase a character by putting the cursor
to the left of the character and pressing the space bar.
Control Y deletes an entire line.
F10 Saves and Exits when you are done editing
ESC Abandons changes without saving
Track Keys:
Key Pressed Symbol Created
���� | �
���� = �
���� + �
���� ( �
���� ) �
���� [ �
���� ] �
���� { � switc� track
���� } � switc� track
���� T � switc� track
����
���� J � switc� track
���� ! � revers� trai� direction
���� I � revers� trai� direction
���� ^ � revers� trai� direction
���� _ � revers� trai� direction
���� , = horizonta� overpass
���� . !! vertica� overpass
���� / /
���� \ \
���� X � Deat� Butto� -� Hi� i� an� trai�
���� explodes
���� � � Blac� Hol� -� Eat� th� train
���� � �� � �� switc� trac� �� randoml� controlled
���� > > switc� trac� -� randoml� controlled
���� A A switc� track -� randoml� controlled
���� V V switc� track -� randoml� controlled
���� � � trai� bounce� of� a� acut� angle
���� � � trai� bounce� of� a� acut� angle
���� � � trai� directio� change� a� oblique
���� angle
Switches are controlled by random settings. One moment a
train entering a < may go up, the next, it may go down.
You cannot predict what will happen when a train hits a
switch.
Use care when designing with slashes and back slashes:
\� will let the train follow the track right to left but
will go off the track left to right. To work properly in
both directions you will need: \ This will keep the
� �
train on the track both left to right and right to left.
In vertical situations, use something like this:
�
� \
You can build tunnels with strings of overpass characters.
For example: � !!!!!!!!!!� is a tunnel. Trains in a tunnel
cannot be hit from the side either by another train or by a
missle. A missile fired into the tunnel will blow up a train
inside. You get 5 points each time a train goes over or under and
overpass or underpass.
When a train hits a reverse train direction character
(Stoppers, e.g. FM), it will reverse its direction by 180
degrees. Note that these characters may only be used on horizon
tal and vertical tracks, not on diagonal tracks.
The above discussion also applies to the use of "R".
ERROR MESSAGE: If the train runs through a switch or get
stuck at a switch that means that your .SW1 and/or .SW2 files
have been trashed and filled with zeros. If there are no numbers
in the files telling the engine the correct direction for the
train to travel when the switch is encountered, the train will
run through the switch or stop at the switch. SOLUTION: Edit the
track file and change at least one character. The program will
note that the file has been changed and will rewrite new .SW1 and
.SW2 files automatically.
Editing Train Cars
You can have from one to seven cars on a train. You can
use either alpha-numeric characters or you can use ALT NUMBER ALT
to add high order graphics characters as cars. ALT 254 ALR is
nice. So is ALT 15 ALT. The shorter the train the faster it
runs and the harder it is to hit. The longer the train, the
higher the score. Note: to get the 254 character, hold down the
ALT key, while holding it down press 254 on the numeric keypad,
after you have pressed 254, THEN release the ALT key.
Freezing the Display
If you press ESC, the display will "freeze" and you will be
asked if you wish to abandon the current layout. To freeze the
display, just press ESC. If you next press "N" for "No", the
trains will resume where they left off. If you press "Y" for
"Yes", the screen will clear and you will be returned to the Main
Menu.
Scoring
Scoring takes several factors into account. They are:
1. The number of track characters in relation to the size
of the screen. The higher the ratio, the higher the score.
2. The number of trains running, two or three. There can
never be a score when one train is running because that could go
on forever. More trains, higher score.
3. The speed of the trains. The higher the speed, the
higher the score.
4. The number of times the train's direction is changed.
Changing direction while multiple trains are running increases
the chances of a crash. Thus, many switch changes increases the
score.
5. How long the trains have been running. There will be
no score until at least 1000 spaces have been covered by the
trains.
6. How many cars are on screen. Longer trains are more
easily crashed. The more cars, the higher the score.
7. Is there a Loose Train? If so, the score will be
higher.
All of the above factors are considered in the scoring
algorithm.
Note that if you just let the trains run, the score will
actually decrease. The number of times you change direction is
considered over time. As time goes on and the number of changes
does not increase, your score will decline. Also the program
rates the number of train movements over time. So, if you slow
down the train, the score may actually decrease. To get a high
score, you must continue to manipulate the trains and must not
reduce the speed.
Note that the disk comes with the file: TBALL.RT. This
file contains data written when the switches are charted. An .RT
file will be created automatically for every track file you
create. If the program does not find the .RT file, it will not
run. What if the file is not found? Solution: edit the track
layout and thus cause the program to create a new .RT file for
that edited layout.
Playing The Game
TrainBall
Trainball is similar to pinball. You set up bumpers and
other characters on screen and then run the train(s). The dif
ference is that in pinball you cannot control the ball, you can
only control how it bounces off of certain items. In TrainBall,
you do not control "flippers"; instead you can change the direc
tion of the train itself. The object of the game is to run sev
eral trains as long as possible, as fast a possible without let
ting another train crash into your train and without hitting a
death button or a black hole.
Maze
A variation on the game is to set up a maze with different
characters and try to negotiate the maze in the shortest time.
This becomes more difficult if you put black holes or death
buttons inside the maze or if you make the maze very narrow or
complicated. To score a maze, start a train running at the
right side of the screen where it will be out of the way or just
ignore the first train. You do this because you need to have at
least two trains running to get a score. Now start a second
train. When an initial score other than zero shows at the bottom
of the screen, start one of the trains into the maze. The player
who exits the maze with the Lowest score, that is the shortest
time and the fewest direction changes, wins.
For more action, place O's and/or *'s inside the maze so
that if the train hits one of them it will bounce off at a sharp
angle.
Shooting Galery
You can also try a variation of a shooting gallery game.
Set up a screen layout in which the trains bounce off all of the
"walls". Start two trains running. Press "F" for "Fast"
several times to make the selected train run much faster than the
other train. Now select the slow train. Try to shoot down the
fast train with missles from the slow train. Each missle costs
you 20 points. Each hit gains you 50 points. Remember, you
cannot hit a train in the engine with a missle or it will blow up
the screen and you will lose your score.
TrainSet
I have another program called TrainSet(tm) which I send to
registered TrainBall users. TrainSet allows you to set up a
"Lionel" (tm) train set on screen with switch tracks, tunnels,
etc. In TrainSet, the arrow keys are used to throw the switchs
directly in front of the selected train. Loose trains in Train
Set randomly reset the switches in front of them. In TrainSet,
trains must run on tracks. If they get off the track, the game
is over. There are no missiles in TrainSet. They are too easy
there, but you can ram other trains and gain points.
Registered users also get a version of TrainSet with a
little customization for EGA/VGA systems. It has additional
switch tracks and diagonal connectors.
Users who register TrainBall also receive TrainSet and EGA
TrainSet. Registration fee is $25.00. Please don't call with
questions about any of these programs. If you need to contact
me, write to me at:
David Alexander
2600 El Camino Real #506
Palo Alto, CA 94306
