Kickle

O    O                        O     O
                   o           o                  o            o
 
                  o             .               .               o
                                                               
                    .                  .____.        _______   .
 ._______________________.___________  |    |__   .__\__.   \  ____.___________.
 |     __     /   ___    |    __    /__|___ __/___|__ _ |  \ \|    |     __    |
 |    |_/    /    \_|    |    |/   /   ___/ |     __//  |___\      |    |_/    |
 |    ______/|___________|____|\_______|__________|_____|    \_____|_____      |
 |____|                                                              /_________|
                                      F O R                 .____.
       .________________________ _____________._____________|    |__
       |     __     /   __     /_\     __     |    ____/____)    __/______
       |    |_/    /    |/    /   \    \_|    |    __/ |    |    |_/     /
   .   |    ______/_____|\_________\__________|    |   |____|___________/    .
       |____|                                 |____|
  o                       .                              .                    o
            
   o                    o         P R E S E N T S          o                 o
                     
         O        O                KICKLE [AOS4]                 O       O



                         PORTED BY .................... SPOT
                         SUPPLIED BY .................. SPOT
                         TYPE ......................... GAME
                         REQUIRES ..... ALLEGRO 1.1 OR LATER


-  -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -  -

Kickle 0.81 README
------------------



1 Contact
2 About
3 Compiling
4 Playing
5 Default Controls
6 Configuring
7 Changelog



1 CONTACT
---------

Kickle was written in 2004 by Drew Willcoxon.
Contact me at username drew (member ID 4485) on allegro.cc, 
http://www.cs.uga.edu/~adw/, or dripfeed()uga.edu.



2 ABOUT
-------

Kickle is a remake of the game Kickle Cubicle by Irem for the NES.
This version uses graphics taken straight from that game, but these are
used only as placeholders for this early version.  I hope to enlist an
artist soon to get some original graphics.  The level designs are also
taken from Kickle Cubicle.  Again, these are placeholders.

This is a work in progress.



3 COMPILING
-----------

Kickle is written in C.
The game-programming library Allegro, version 4.0.3, is used.
Get Allegro and support from http://alleg.sourceforge.net and 
http://www.allegro.cc.

A Windows binary is included in this distribution.  In addition, sourcecode 
is provided, along with two makefiles, one for Windows, and one for Linux.

Use Makefile.win for Windows compilation and Makefile.unix for Linux 
compilation.  Run make from the game's base directory, the directory with
the makefiles.  From the command prompt, make -f Makefile.* , where * is
win or unix.

I'm not running Linux, so I'm not 100% sure that that makefile is error-free.
The sourcecode itself relies on only the C standard library, aside from 
Allegro, so there shouldn't be any problems compiling on Linux.  But again,
I don't have access to Linux, so I can't say that there will definitely be
no problems.

If you do try to compile on Linux (or any other system), please let me know 
how it goes.



4 PLAYING
---------

You control Kickle, a snowman.  On each level, you've got to collect all the
red bags for some reason or another.  After all the bags are collected, you
move on to the next level.  This version has 17 levels.

The problem is that the bags, and much of the areas of the levels, are 
separated from each other by water.

But luckily, Kickle has two powers at his disposal.

He can freeze (most) baddies with his ice breath.  One particular baddie,
a round, blue one which you encounter from the first level, turns into an
ice cube when frozen.  Kickle can kick these ice cubes around by standing
next to the cube and breathing again.  When a cube hits the water, it
becomes new ice.  Thus, you can build bridges to new areas by freezing these
blue baddies and then kicking them into the water.

Kickle can also build an ice pillar.  The main point of these pillars is to
stop a kicked ice cube.  You can build a pillar on the same row or column
as an ice cube, then kick the cube into the pillar.  You can then kick the
cube in a different direction.  Using pillars you can also protect Kickle from
baddies.  Kickle can only build pillars on ice tiles.

Kickle can freeze most other types of baddies as well, but when they are 
kicked, they shatter.

When you move Kickle from one tile to another, Kickle will balk -- return to
the tile from which he was moving -- if you take your finger off the
movement key very quickly after starting the move.  You can use balking to 
change Kickle's direction without moving from the current tile.  
Alternatively, you can use the "spin" button to keep Kickle absolutely 
stationary while changing direction.



5 DEFAULT CONTROLS
------------------

Action:         Key:

up              up
down            down
left            left
right           right
ice breath      left Alt
ice pillar      left Ctrl
spin            Z



6 CONFIGURING
-------------

The file kickle.cfg is Kickle's configuration file.  Most of the configurations
here can be set via the options menu in the game, but some cannot (balk 
tolerance, for example).  You can edit this file manually.  Explanations are
provided within the file.



7 CHANGELOG
-----------

20 July 2004    0.81
        - Fixed bug which caused a seg fault when user attempted to freeze the
spiny
          baddie.  (Thanks to Angelo Mottola) 

10 July 2004    0.8
        - First version.