Installation and First Run


Windows

  • Download the Game to a place where you usualy download all your files.
  • Double Click on the Bomberclone-0.11.9.exe file and select the folder to where you want to put the game files.
  • To start the game, go into the game folder and double click on the Bomberclone.exe file.

Linux - Binary as tar.bz2-file

  • Download the binary file (bomberclone-0.11.9.i386.tar.bz2).
  • Go into the directory where you want to have the game. Untar the binary file and then go into the bomberclone directory.
    tar xjf bomberclone-0.11.9.i386.tar.bz2 
    cd bomberclone-0.11.9 
    		
  • start the game with
    ./bomberclone 
    	

Linux - Source

  • Download the source file (bomberclone-0.11.9.tgr.bz2) The data file (bomberclone-data-0.7.tar.bz2) is with and after version 0.10.0 not anymore needed.
  • Go into the directory where you want to have the game. Untar the source file and then go into the bomberclone directory.
    • run the configure script and compile the game with make
      ./configure
      make
      		
    • start the game and have fun.
      src/bomberclone
      		

Mac OS X

  • Run configure in the bomberclone-x.xx.x directory to check whether you have all needed stuff installed:
      	./configure
      
  • An error about the missing SDL-mixer-libraries is acceptable and normal, so just ignore it!
  • Now go to the "src" directory and open up Makefile.OSX in your favorite text-editor (e.g. vi/pico)
    	cd src
    	vi Makefile.OSX
      
  • and uncomment the two lines
    	#SDLMIXER_LIBS=-lSDL_mixer^M
    	#SDLMIXER_FLAGS=-DHAVE_SDL_MIXER^M
      
  • to enable sound/music support (You have to have installed the SDL-mixer to successfully compile bomberclone with sound!)
  • After having enabled sound support, save Makefile.OSX and finally compile the game:
    	make -f Makefile.OSX
      
  • If everything went right, you just successfully compiled bomberclone under OS X ! Congratulations ! :)
  • If something went wrong :

      Try to identify what went wrong Like under linux (see the linux section) you'll need the default development stuff (aclocal, autoheader, autoconf, automake) which all are part of the "Apple developer tools" that can be found on your Jaguar install-disc or the ADC-website.

      You'll also need SDL libraries to complete the building process (./configure will tell you, if you have no, or a wrong version of SDL installed). To install missing / update existing SDL libraries it would be the best to use "fink":

      		fink install sdl-shlibs
      fink install sdl-mixer-shlibs
      Just run configure again to check whether you now have installed all the stuff you need.

      Everything okay ? Well, then just continue with editing Makefile.OSX and compile the game!

  • To run the game, just call bomberclone in the src directory:
    	./bomberclone
      
How To Play

The goal of the game is to be the last one, who is alive. You can drop bombs which will explode after a certain time and destroy everything in horizontal and vertical direction. So you can remove stones or kill other players. But take care. Don't kill yourself otherwise the game will be over for you.

During the game you will find diffrenent powerups to raise your skills. If you are running faster than your opponent and you have many bombs, you can catch him within lots of bombs and he has no chance to escape.

Your will get points for every player you have killed. If you win the game, you can earn additional points depending on how many players played the game.

Powerups

The Fire powerup gives your bombs more range. Maximum Range is 10.

After picking up the Bomb item you can put one more bomb on the field. Maximum are 12 Bombs.

After you collect this powerup you will walk a little bit faster.

Specials

You can trigger the explosion of all your bombs by pressing the Special Use key. Warning don't wait to long or your bombs will explode anyway.

Push your and other bombs around the maze. But be carefull that the bomb is not going to explode.

Lay a row of bombs in one direction to trap some players. To use this special, hold the Special use key and the direction key where you want to drop the row.

Skull

After collecting this skull you get an illness and your player may do strange things. You can add one illness to another and every illness have his own timeout.



Multiplayer Game
Start a Game

With this menu point you can always start a multiplayer game. If you want to set a limit of players for the game you will have to do this before you start the server. You can select this in the Multiplayer Option Menu.

The Maps and Tilesets you can select in the Playerselection Screen by pressing on F5. Wait until someone joined your game and make sure, that at last two player are selected. To start the game press F4.

Join a Game

Joining a game have got very simple, since we have the BCMServ (BomberCloneMasterServer). You will automatically get a list from the BCMServ by going into the Join Menu. You can join one of the games there or just enter a address to a running game.

Multiplayer Options

Gamename

Set the name of the Game.

MaxPlayers

Maximum number of Player who can join the game. Default: 8

Network

Select the IP Version you want to use. You can choose between IPv4 and IPv6. This option is only supported on Linux and only if you have IPv6 Configured. Default: IPv4

UDP Port

UDP Port which you want to use. Default: 11000

Notify Masterserver

With this option, the game will send some data about the game to the BCMServ. If this option is on you will get a updated list of running games from the BCMServ every time you want to join a game.

If you start a own network game, BomberClone will send some informations as number of players and gamename to the BCMServ to keep the list up to date. Default: On

MasterServer

The Address of the BCMServ. Default: x.yz.to:11000

Broadcasted Chat

Enable this if you want to see messaged which are send to the BCMServ. And if you want that your Chat in the game will be send to the BCMServ. This is the only way to talk to other people whio are in diffrent games.Default: OFF

Firewall

You need to set this, only if you are behind a router or firewall and you know this makes sometimes problems. Default: Off

What is the BomberCloneMasterServer

The BomberCloneMasterServer will hold a list of all active running multiplayergames. Other player can so easy join a running game by selecting the game from join menu.

Problems and the Firewall Option

If you are behind a firewall or a router and you expire some diffcults within the game with more as two players. You may enable the Firewall option. With this Option set on you are only able to join a game.

Tilesets
How to use Tilesets

If you want to use diffrent tilesets you have to make sure you put the files into the data/tileset directory. To use this new tileset you will have to select it in the map option menu or just hope the the random selection will pick it. BomberClone will only look into the tileset-directory for the tilesets and nowhere else.

How to create own tilesets

For creating own tilesets you need to have only a simple painting program like MSPaint or Gimp and some good hand to do it. (I only made the classic one) The best is you look into the data/tileset directory and look how the others are made. I'll just put on here some facts and tips about the tilesets.

  • Frame block size is 64x64 pixels. (block.bmp, stone.bmp) or 64x96 pixels (block96.bmp and stone96.bmp, supported in version 0.9.10). BomberClone always looks first for the block.bmp file and then for the block96.bmp file. The same is with the stone.bmp file.
  • The Background size can be 64x64pixels, 128x128pixels, 192x192pixels and so on. Just make sure the width and the hight of the background are the same and they can be divided by 64.
  • Sounds are even tileset specific so you can create your own sound for your tileset.
  • Every file that can't be found in your tileset will be loaded from the default tileset, so you don't need to create every file on your own.
  • Share your own tilesets with others (i.e. send them to me steffen@bomberclone.de and i will put it on the webpage first and later add them to the Data-Package with the next release).
  • BomberClone will not send the tileset-data (BMP files) to the others only the name of the tileset-directory. If someone don't have the tileset he will use the default tileset in the game.
Maps
How to create your own Maps

In this game, you can use your own maps and play them with your friends. And only the one who starts the game will need to have this map installed.

The mapfile will look like this:

% Some Informations about the map
% and who made the map
%
###########
#@@@@@@@@@#
#@#@#@#@#@#
#@@@@@@@@@#
#@#@###@#@#
#@@@###@@@#
#@#@###@#@#
#@@@@@@@@@#
#@#@#@#@#@#
#@@@@@@@@@#
###########
bombs=5
fire=5
shoes=5
mixed=5
death=10
sp_trigger=2
sp_row=2
sp_push=2
I think i don't need to ducument this sample file. Only that every mapline will have to start with an # in the begin of each line. Below this maplines are some values about what will put how much in the game.