WELCOME TO THE GAME BALLS! ========================== Version 1.24, Dec 29, 2002 By Dan Pronovost Copyright 1999, DeepNet Technologies web: www.deepnettech.com e-mail: info@deepnettech.com 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 this program right now at: Registration: www.deepnettech.com/balls.html 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 info@deepnettech.com. CHANGE HISTORY Dec. 29, 02: - Minor speed optimizations. May 5, 2000: - Fixed several issues with Balls! running on the Palm OS 3.5 (colour Palm Pilots). 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.