Balls

A unique puzzle game that pits your balls against the walls!

WELCOME TO THE GAME BALLS!

==========================

Version 1.22, Oct. 30, 1999

By Dan Pronovost

Copyright 1999, DeepNet Technologies

www.golden.net/~deepnet

[email protected]

A unique puzzle game that pits your balls against the walls!

HOW TO INSTALL BALLS!

Simply unzip the 'balls.prc' file and hot sync it to your

Palm Computing(TM) device (Pro, PalmIII, PalmIIIx, PalmV, PalmVII).

Make sure you uninstall any previous version of Balls! before

installing a new version.

HOW TO REGISTER BALLS!

Registration costs only $5 (US) and can be done on-line

with a secure credit card transaction. The registration

code is sent to you immediately by e-mail. You can

register at either of these fine sites (search for "Balls!"):

Palm Central:

- www.palmcentral.com

PalmPilotGear HQ:

- www.pilotgear.com

- 1-800-741-9070 (US/Canada)

- 1-817-640-6558 (direct line)

- $2 transaction fee for phone orders

By registering, you get unlimited access to all

levels, free updates, and support. Please register and make

a struggling shareware author happier!

Make sure you specify your hotsync id when you

purchase your registration: a temporary static

registration code is sent to you immediately, and

DeepNet Technologies will send you a permanent

registration code based on your hotsync id

within a couple days.

HOW TO PLAY BALLS!

The object of the game is to change the direction of the walls

in the playing field such that each ball will traverse the court

and reach the other side. The court is made up of a number of

balls (depending on the level of play) that are placed along the

edge, and a playing area. The diagonal lines in the playing

area are walls, and the squares are holes. The four icons in the

corners are shortcuts for common menu items.

You may test the playing field at anytime with no penalty.

Choose 'Test board' from the 'Board' menu, or click on the

icon in the lower left corner of the court. The court is tested as

all the balls move around playing area. When a ball hits a

wall, it bounces 90 degrees to the side. When a ball hits a hole

or the edge of the court, it stops. Balls are not affected by each

other: they pass freely through each other.

Before you test the board, you will want to tap on some of the

walls to change their diagonal orientation. The object of the

game is to set the orientation of some of the walls such that all

of the balls move to the other side of the court from where

they started, without hitting any holes. When you tap on a

wall, it will switch its orientation and become thick: this lets

you know that you've changed this wall. If you tap twice

quickly on a wall, it will switch from a thin diagonal line to a

think line, and vice versa (this is useful if the orientation of a

wall is correct, but you want to mark it as used).

WHATS NEW IN THIS VERSION

- release 1.2: dynamic registration codes (no new game features).

- release 1.1: pause/stop board test, new 'Insane' level.

- release 1.0: first release to the general public.

COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC.

I'd love to hear what you think of Balls! Please send your

feedback to [email protected].

CHANGE HISTORY

Oct. 30, 1999:

- fixed a bug in the 'best time' calculation. The time

did not represent the 'real time' used to solve the puzzle.

Testing the board added unreasonable amounts of time.

- Added 'Insane' level to Best Times dialog.

- Fixed bug where you could enter a Best Time into a higher

level by solving a lower level and re-testing the solved puzzle.

Sept 22, 1999:

- fixed a small bug where hotsync ids with accented characters

code cause a crash.

Aug. 29, 99:

- Moved to dynamic registration codes, instead of static

registration codes. The new codes are based on the hot sync id.

A temporary static registration code is sent out when you

register, and DeepNet Technologies e-mails out a new code

keyed to the hot sync id.

Aug 15, 99:

- changed the default level to 'Easy', rather than 'Fair'.

- Add the ability to pause during the test of a board. Simply

tap on the board to pause the test; tap again to continue. Tap

on the lower right 'Stop' icon during a test stop it and reset.

- The harder levels (Challenging to Extreme) are a little bit harder now.

- Added a new level: Insane. 7 balls, more holes. Very hard!

- fixed some minor bugs.

June 22, 99:

- added 'hours' to best times, where necessary.

- better registration checking.