- THE COVE -
__________ ________
/ /_ | ___ \_ . \
/\/ ___/ / | ___(___) | | /
\__. \ // |/ _ | | _/
/ : \/ /| | | _/
/_____ /\_____ / |_ ||_| |
\/ \/ \__/ \_|
_______________________ ______ _____ __ __
/ /__ __\_ . _)/ ___|/ \/ Y \
/\/ ___/ / | | | / \_ _) / : \_ \_
\__. \ / / | | : / / \ | _ / \ / /
/ : \ \ | | : // / __ / : / / X /
/_____ / \ _| |___: / ______/__/ /|__/ \/
\/ \/ \/ \/
H e A d Q u A r T e R s
------------------------
2 NoDeS RiNgDoWn!
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.__ .___ TAke A trIp To ThE WiLd N cRazy
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|___. \ |__/|____ \ | \.___/ .___/ |__/ | __/ | \ | \ \
| | \ | \ \ | \ \ | \ || | \__ | / | \ /
|________/__|____________/_____/___/______/___||___|\ /____/___|\___/
(____________________________________________________\__/__________[M]_)
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QUADRIGA presents:-
* The Game Background Designer *
(C)1993 Desmond King
Version 1.1
The Game Background Designer is Shareware please send £6.00(more if you wish) to the address
at the end of this file if you find this program useful.
Send it along with your name and address. In return you will receive
help with questions or problems you have concerning GBD.
You will also get the assembler source for the demo, if
you are new to assembly you may find it useful.
This version is complete, no missing bits or
annoying requesters popping up every few seconds.
GBD is freely distributable with following rules.
1. All files must be distributed together in their original form.
You may add matrix or blockscreen files etc. for loading
into GBD or add an Icon to the GBD file for running from workbench.
The following files should always be distributed together.
GBD.DOC this file
GBD.DEMO scrolling demo
BLOCKS.iff IFF picture containing blocks for demo
GBD.MATRIX demo matrix
GBD.MAP demo map
smallfont.Font programs font
smallfont (DIR)
GBD the program itself
2. GBD should not be included on any Coverdisk without my consent.
What is GBD?
------------
This is a program to help in the design of scrolling type
games. It allows a large play area to be designed from
blocks then saved as codes for your game program to rebuild.
To draw your play area in memory then scroll through it
is OK for small areas but what happens when you want to do
something like GODS with such a large play area?
If you design your background as a set of blocks and use
a code to represent the block, a large area can be build
by placing these codes into a matrix and using the code
as an index into your blocks when building the screen.
Run the GBD.Demo to see the kind of screen produced by GBD.
Use the joystick to scroll left, right, up and down.
The first thing you need to do before running GBD is to
copy the smallfont into your FONTS: directory, GBD will
not run without this.
design your background as a set of blocks, or use the
demo GBD.PIC untill you get used to the program.
Your blocks can be any height but must be 16 or 32 pixels
wide. When finished Save your screen as a 320x200 or 320x256
2-5 plane screen.
RUNNING GBD
-----------
Type GBD from the CLI or click on the programs Icon on the
Workbench screen.
Note. No Icon file has been supplied by me.
USING GBD
----------
Select the LOAD IFF gadget and load the GBD.IFFPIC file.
This loads the block screen saved as an IFF picture.
The LOAD BIN gadget will load a bitmap screen containing
blocks. This should be a 320x200 2-5 plane non-interleaved
file. Use the PREFS option to set the dimmensions before
selecting this.
When loaded press the space bar or select the PICK BLOCK
gadget.
The screen now displays the blocks with two cursors flashing,
The cursor under the pointer can be moved with the mouse
to select the block you want. Press the left mouse and you
are returned to the main screen with the selected block or
press space to cancel. The other cursor highlights the last
block used.
When returned to the matrix screen you can paste the block
in place by pressing the left mouse button and moving the
mouse.
The INFO panel at the bottom of the screen shows the cursor
position in the matrix, the Block Code which is the code
of the block under the cursor and the Map Code which will be
explained later.
Pressing the right mouse button selects the block under the
cursor and makes it the current block.
Now select the LOAD MATRIX gadget and load the GBD.Matrix
file. The screen will fill with a background build using
the blocks. You can scroll round the matrix using the scroll
gadgets or the cursor keys on the keyboard. Pressing both
mouse buttons will scroll a screen at a time.
When you have finished designing your matrix, it can be saved
by selecting SAVE MATRIX.
The PREFS gadget brings up a requester for setting
the dimensions of the matrix and the blocks.
When you select OK the current matrix is lost so this
is better done BEFORE any work is done.
The matrix width and height can be upto 255 blocks.
The block size is the size of each block in pixels.
Depth is the number of planes used for the blocks.
CUT allows you select a block to copy into a buffer.
The cut block may be pasted at the current position
by pressing F1. The block remains in the buffer
untill another block is CUT.
FILL fills an area with the current block code.
CLEAR will clear the entire matrix to the current
block code
HELP some simple online help.
MAP changes to the Map editing screen....
MAP SCREEN
----------
When writting your game it could be usefull to have
a seperate map to determine where your character can
walk jump or even trigger attacks from monsters and
the like, so GBD also allows you to edit a map in
a similar way to the matrix.
The map is overlayed on the background so you can
place the codes exactly where you want them.
Click on the LOAD MAP gadget to load the demo map.
Each block will be outlined to show where a code has
been placed. Non outlined blocks are code 0 which
I have taken as marking no effect or just background.
Under the Load and Save gadgets are two arrows, these
are used to select which code you want to use.
The text you see is a description of what each code
means.
These descriptions are optional and are defined in an
ASCII file the same name as the map file but with a
.DES extension. When you load your map file, GBD
will search for a .DES file in the same directory,
if none is found then no descriptions are shown.
The format of the ASCII file is as follows:
000 background
001 path way
002 solid wall
.
.
.
019 bat attack
The codes can be in any order but must be 3 digits,
a space then text.
The OVERLAY gadget will toggle the display of
the codes. This is best turned off when scrolling
for speed.
On some gadgets a character is highlighted in yellow,
this shows the keyboard shortcut for this gadget.
OTHER STUFF
-----------
The Matrix file saved by GBD has the following form:
'GBD ' identifies file as GBD file
2 bytes matrix width
2 bytes matrix height
2 bytes block depth
2 bytes block width
2 bytes block height
upto 65025 bytes (255x255 matrix)
These are used by the program to setup correctly when
loading a matrix.
The matrix is stored in rows top to bottom. If your
matrix is 100 blocks wide then it would be stored as:
0 row 1
+100 bytes row 2
+200 bytes row 3
.
.
The Map file has no GBD header.
Please send registration fee, suggestions(only pleasant) and bug reports to...
D. KING.
68 FARNHAM STREET,
ORMEAU ROAD,
BELFAST BT7 2FN,
N. IRELAND.
If sending bug reports please let me know what equipment,memory
etc was connected and any Guru numbers.
- THE COVE -
__________ ________
/ /_ | ___ \_ . \
/\/ ___/ / | ___(___) | | /
\__. \ // |/ _ | | _/
/ : \/ /| | | _/
/_____ /\_____ / |_ ||_| |
\/ \/ \__/ \_|
_______________________ ______ _____ __ __
/ /__ __\_ . _)/ ___|/ \/ Y \
/\/ ___/ / | | | / \_ _) / : \_ \_
\__. \ / / | | : / / \ | _ / \ / /
/ : \ \ | | : // / __ / : / / X /
/_____ / \ _| |___: / ______/__/ /|__/ \/
\/ \/ \/ \/
H e A d Q u A r T e R s
------------------------
2 NoDeS RiNgDoWn!
(305)552-1192
THIS Bbs Is FaST
AmIgA AnD CoNsOlE
.__ .___ TAke A trIp To ThE WiLd N cRazy
._______________.__| \| |_______________________________________ .__
| ____/ . | | \ |__ _____/ _____/ . /. \ . \ .\| \
|___. \ |__/|____ \ | \.___/ .___/ |__/ | __/ | \ | \ \
| | \ | \ \ | \ \ | \ || | \__ | / | \ /
|________/__|____________/_____/___/______/___||___|\ /____/___|\___/
(____________________________________________________\__/__________[M]_)
INDEPENDANT BBS SITE! - 16.8 HST/ASL ONLINE - 130+ Megs - /X V2.XX
4 to 1 Ratio For Callers Who Join Now! Cool Users, 0-1 Amiga Warez!!
SysOps: Malcar - Terra-X/SR & XL
-=+ (916) 366 - 0592 +=-
2nd Node Coming Soon!!
Put Up 10 Megs In Your First Week Of Calling And Receive Disabled!