mirror-textfiles.com/apple/DOCUMENTATION/pcs.txt

Pinball Construction Set
========================
Written by Bill Budge


Symbol Reference Sheets:

ICON COMMANDS

To activate a command, touch it with the hand and press the joystick button
once.

Icon Name        use                                         See p.#
--------------------------------------------------------------------
hand             to drag parts onto and around the board       2
                 and to activate the other icons

arrow, scissors  to create and change solid shapes made        6
and hammer       with polygons (the parts on line 2 of the
                 parts box)

paintbrush and   to change the colour of the border and        4
colours          of polygons

play             to play one turn in a game under              2
                 construction

magnifier        to paint details, decorate the board and       4
                 create attractive game titles and signatures

world            to increase and decrease gravity, ball         8
                 speed and bounce, and bumper kick

AND gate         to set and change score values and sounds      8
                 for targets and for bonus conditions

disk             to save and load games (finished               3
                 and unfinished)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

PARTS BOX INVENTORY

Note.- The default values for sound and score are shown. To change
values, see p. 8. You can have as many as 128 parts on the board at once.

Part Name   Use/Behaviour                                       Sound Score
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
flippers    To put and keep the ball in play.                   -   -

ball        The only indispensable part in the game.            -   -

polygons    Used to make shapes with elasticity (bounce)        -   -
            instead of kick. The amount of elasticity can
            be set with the world icon.

bumpers     They "kick" the ball away, regardless of where      1   10
            they're hit. The amount of kick can be set with
            the world icon.

slingshot   They kick the ball away only on the long side       2   20
            and act like polygons on the other two sides.

kickers     They kick the ball away only on the ends and        3   30
            act like polygons on the sides.

launcher    To put the ball into play. Can be cocked by         -   -
            moving the joystick up and down.

drop target When all four segments have been hit and turned     5   50
            off, the whole target will turn on again.
            In a multiplayer game, target status is kept
            separately for each player.

ball hopper catches and holds the first two balls, turns        5   50
            all the balls loose when the third one conies in.
            In MAKE GAME or PLAY GAME, if a ball is caught,
            another ball is put in play (your turn is not
            over). In a multi-player game, status is kept
            separately for each player.

ball eater  Viciously vanishes the ball from the face of the    1   50
            cosmos. Next player, please.

spinner     Spins merrily when the ball passes through          1   10
            yielding points on every revolution.

magnet      Grabs at the ball, putting a twist into its         -   -
            movement.

lanes       Guideposts used to make pathways for the ball       -   -
            (see DEMO2).

gates       The one on the left will let the ball go through    -   -
            on the way up but not on the way down. The one
            on the right lets it go through from left to
            right but not from right to left.

rollover    Tallies a score when the ball passes over. If       4   40
            wired to a bonus, will turn on when hit and
            stay on until the bonus is earned or the game ends.

knife edge  Tallies a score when the ball bounces off.          5   50
target      Same bonus characteristics as rollover.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I N T R O D U C T I O N

Pinball Construction Set gives you complete control over the game of
pinball. You can quickly and easily move parts around, change the scores
and the sounds for all the targets, create bonuses to shoot for, decide how
heavy to make the ball and how fast and lively to make the game, even
reshape and repaint the board and the parts. There are 5 complete, ready to
play Demo games on your PCS disk. Each is a great place to start playing
plus a great place to look for ideas about how to build good pinball
games of your own. You build games by using a joystick-controlled hand. You
use it to drag parts from the parts box on to the board and to point to and
turn on the other powers at your PCS command. The chart to the left
describes which power goes with each of the symbols (called icons) and
there's a chart at the end of this guide describing each of the parts in
the parts box. In between is a tour of the full range of your PCS commands
along with some interesting things to think about while you play, change
and build pinball games. If you're already afraid you're going to die if
you have to read one more word without playing some pinball, look at the
"Basic Play" information on the left, then skip ahead to "Loading and
Playing a Demo Game" on the next page. (If you haven't already loaded the
disk into your computer, do so now. Start it up as you would any other
disk.)

BUILDING GAMES

The hand is used to build games by dragging parts onto and off of the
board. It's also used to activate the other commands.

The hand - which shows up in the upper left hand corner of the screen
whenever you first turn your PCS on - is one of the most powerful game
changing and constructing tools under your PCS command. You control the
hand with your joystick. Go ahead. Try it. Move the hand around the screen
to get a feel for how to make it go where you want.

Now move the hand over so that the index finger touches one of the pinball
machine parts pictured just to the right of the empty game board -one of
the flippers maybe, in the top row, or one of the round bumpers in the
third one. Next, hold the button down on your joystick (either button will
work if your joystick has two buttons) and while you're holding it down,
"drag" the part out onto the board with your computer hand. When you want
to let go just release the button.

Drag a few more parts onto the board. Be sure to put both a left and a
right flipper toward the bottom in the centre (where flippers usually go),
and a ball somewhere near the top. If you're unsure what some of the parts
are, look in the Parts Inventory Guide at the end of this manual. If you
change your mind about a part just drag it off the board and let go.

When you're ready to put the ball in play, move your hand to the ball-and-
flipper picture in the middle of the column on the far right of the display
and press the joystick button once (don't hold it down this time). For
instructions on how to use your flippers and how to put the ball in play
again, study the reference card that came with your disk. Practice with
your flippers and with moving back and forth between "play" and "construct"

LOADING AND PLAYING A DEMO GAME

Your PCS disk comes with 5 ready to play games which you can play and
modify and play anew to your hearts content.

The pictures in the right hand column of the display are called icons. Move
the hand down now till it touches the disk icon (it's on the bottom) and
press the joystick button. When the new display is in place, move the hand
to the word LOAD and press the button again. Now type either DEMO 1, 2, 3,
4 or 5 (don't leave a space between DEMO and the number) and press Return.
When the words INSERT YOUR GAME DISK appear, press Return again. Once the
game has finished loading, put the hand on PLAY GAME, press the joystick
button and play to your heart's content - or at least until you're ready to
load a different game or try out some of the other PCS commands. Then press
the "return to the parts box" key (see the reference card) and either
repeat the loading steps or read on for more wonders still.

[The material on the next few pages uses DEMO1 often as an example. If this
is your first time through this guide, you will probably find it helpful to
load DEMO1 before reacting on.]

CHOOSING COLOURS

The paintbrush icon makes instantly changing the colour of the game board
border and the polygons as easy as pressing a button.

Activate the paintbrush (it's 4th from the top) then move it down to one of
the colours just beneath it and press the joystick button again. Now move
the paintbrush into the black area in DEMO1 and press the button once more.
Presto. Instant border colour change. And you can change the colour in the
other border piece and the large shape in the upper left just as easily.
Simply move the paintbrush inside each of them and press the button again.

If you try using the paintbrush to change the colour of the two slingshots
you'll discover that it doesn't work there. In fact, except for polygons
(the parts on line 2 of the parts box), the paintbrush icon has no effect
on ready made parts.

And what if you want a new colour for a ready made part? For that you need
the power in the magnifier icon, described in the next section.

PAINTING DETAILS

The magnifier icon lets you draw designs on the board, decorate parts and
create fancy titles and signatures to give your games more personality.

Activate the magnifier icon (it's just below the "play" one) and your hand
will turn into a paintbrush. Now take the brush up, and using it like a
hand, grab the small square in the upper left hand corner of the board and
drag it around. Pull it across one of the bumpers near the top of DEMO1
while watching the large square to the right of the board.

The image in the large square is 7 times the size of the one in the small
square. And whatever you do to the image in the large square is immediately
reflected in the image in the small one. Try it. First place the small
square on top of one of the bumpers. (There are three ways to move the
square around: drag it; move the paintbrush to where you'd like the square
to be and press the joystick button; put the paintbrush on an edge or
corner of the large square, then press the joystick button and hold it
down.)

Now place the paintbrush on one of the white rectangles in the large square
and press the joystick button. Press it again to bring back the rectangle
you just erased. Press it once more and this time hold it down and move the
paintbrush around in the large square, erasing rectangles as you go. Now
take the paintbrush down, use the joystick button to pick up a new colour,
go back into the large square and paint with the new colour by holding down
the joystick button as you move the paintbrush around.

Don't worry about messing up. If you don't like your new design you can
always drag the bumper off the board, erase the leftover paint smudge with
the magnifier paintbrush, then drag a new bumper on in its place. (Use QUIT
to get the parts box back. To learn how to take unusual advantage of paint
"Smudges" see Special Effects, page 12.).

The magnifier can also be used to paint in the area above the large square,
to the right of the board - a perfect place to use a fancy script to give
your pinball games names. (It's like the part of a real pinball machine-the
part called the "back glass" - where the score is kept.) For ideas about
how to decorate your boards and create fancy back glass designs, study the
other Demo games on your PCS disk, especially the higher numbered ones.

[If you get tired of constructing and want to play for a while, then come
back and pick up where you left off, follow the instructions for saving
your work on page 11.]

CREATING NEW SHAPES

The arrow, scissors and hammer icons let you start with ready made polygons
from the parts box to create the shapes and pathways you want in your
games.

One of the most powerful and spectacular PCS command sets makes use of the
arrow, scissors and hammer icons near the top of the icon column, and the
polygons. Use the hand to drag the square polygon onto the board. (You'll
notice that only the corners of the square actually come out onto the
playing surface.) Now get the regular paintbrush, pick up a colour with it,
place it in the centre of the square and press the joystick button. Presto,
a solid square.

You can use the arrow, hammer and scissors to reshape your square into more
interesting and useful forms. For instance, activate the arrow and then use
it to drag one of the corners of your square to a new location. Don't like
that shape? Drag another corner somewhere else. (You can also reshape your
game board border by dragging around the "corners" that show up in it when
you activate the arrow. Don't be afraid of mistakes. You can always go
back to the disk icon and reload the game.)

Tired of working with a shape with 4 corners? Go get the scissors, touch
them to a corner and press the joystick button to create an instant
triangle. Want more corners so you can make a shape with some curve to it?
Go get the hammer, put it between two "corners' and press the joystick
button. Repeat the process until you have enough "corners" to make the
shape you're interested in. (For fast shaping, use the hammer to move
"corners" as well as to add them.)

There's really only one rule: don't overlap or twist shapes. Doing so makes
the ball interact strangely with the shape and may interfere with the
wiring tools described in the Setting Sound and Score Values section on
page 8. Otherwise your imagination's your only limit. And remember, if
things should get out of hand, not to worry. Just drag the mess off the
board with the hand and start over with a new square.

The straight vertical lines and jagged diagonal ones next to the square in
the parts box are also polygons, just very skinny ones. Stretching one out
to make something like the long ball chute on DEMO1 can be tricky if you
forget that the line is a polygon, easy if you remember. Sometimes it's
easiest if you draw the line you want with the first corner you move. You
can then move the second corner out to the side as if you were making a
fatter shape, bring it up till it's level with its mate, and finally move
it back till the line's back to its original width.

SETTING GRAVITY, BOUNCE, KICK AND SPEED

A pinball player's dream, the world icon lets you change how heavy the ball
is, how fast it moves, and how much kick and bounce you have in your game.

Activating the world icon (just below the magnifier) causes the parts box
to be replaced with four gauges, each with its own marker. Using the hand
to drag markers up and down decreases and increases the force or condition
the scale represents. Try it. Move the gravity marker to the bottom of its
scale then select QUIT and go back and try out a ball. Can't get it in play
because it's too heavy? Reactivate the world icon, decrease gravity a
notch, then try again.

Do the same with the other settings trying them in different combinations.
Gravity determines how heavy the ball is; speed, how fast it moves; kick,
how strong the bumpers are and elasticity, how "bouncy" the sides, flippers
and any shapes you've fashioned are. Experiment until you find the
combination you want - the one that "feels" best or plays hardest, whatever
you like most at the moment, then use QUIT. And if you later change your
mind, just go in and set new values to suit your new mood or interest.

SETTING SOUND AND SCORE VALUES

The AND gate icon lets you decide on the score and sound for each target,
bumper, etc., and it lets you wire pieces together to create special bonuses
to aim for.

The AND gate icon is located just above the disk icon. To a computer
designer, an AND gate is an arrangement of switches that will let
electricity flow through only if all the switches in the gate are on. In
your PCS, the AND gate icon lets you hook targets together so that a bonus
is awarded only after all the targets have been hit and turned on. It also
lets you change the sound and score for each individual target, bumper,
etc. on the game board.

Activate the AND gate icon with DEMO1 loaded. Move the hand out onto the
new display, touch one of the bumpers and press the joystick button. The
sound you hear (sound no. 1, as the white square in the note list shows) is
made each time the ball hits the bumper. And, as the score list shows, each
ball strike scores 10 points.

To change either score or sound, just point to the value you want and press
the joystick button. If you want no score and/or no sound, hold the
joystick button down and slide the marker off the bottom of the list. To
find out what the default values for the other targets are and to change
them if you like, touch each in turn and press the joystick button.
("Default value" is a useful computer term which means "what the value is
unless you do something to change it")

Bonuses are created by turning on AND gates with the hand and using the
screwdriver and pliers to connect and disconnect wires between targets and
the AND gate symbols. (As many as three targets can be attached to each
symbol.) Move the hand up now to the top AND gate symbol in DEMO1 and press
the joystick button. The wiring diagram you now see on the display means
"each time you turn on both of the bottom rollover targets, you get a bonus
of 10,000 points" To change matters so you get the bonus just for turning
on the left rollover, go get the pliers, touch them to the right target and
press the joystick button. To reconnect the wire, go get the screwdriver,
touch the right target and press the joystick button again.

None of the other AND gate symbols in DEMO1 come wired to any targets. For
some practice and a look at how bonus changes affect the scores you get,
try wiring up one or two of them and playing a little. You might, for
instance, connect gate 2 to the drop target and assign it a bonus of 5000
points which can be earned only by turning off all four of the target
segments. Or you could connect the three bumpers at the top so that hitting
all three produces a bonus of say 1000 points. And see what happens to
scores if you keep the same wiring patterns but change the value of each.

For some interesting bonus creating ideas, use the AND gate icon to explore
the wiring in the other 4 Demo games on your PCS disk, playing and changing
as you go, thinking all the while about what sorts of scoring patterns you
like best.

One final note. When you wire targets to an AND gate, they visibly turn on
when hit and stay on until their fellow targets are hit as well, or until
the game ends. In a multi-player game, each player's bonus target status is
kept separately, so no one gets to luck out by hitting the last target
after you had worked so hard to hit the first 2. And BonusX goes back to 1
at the end of every ball. (It never goes higher than 5 for any ball.)

THINKING ABOUT PINBALL

It doesn't take very many pinball games for most people to realise that
learning to control the flippers to keep the ball in play is very
important. Some keep playing long enough to learn to aim the ball in
addition to keeping it in play, so they can go for the highest bonuses and
avoid bad angles and traps. And pinball game designers keep that in mind
when they create new games. They look for ways to put good bonuses near
dangerous targets to challenge skilful players, all the while paying
attention to whatever will make the game attractive and exciting to the
eyes and ears.

Look, for instance, at DEMO3. As wired there's a high bonus for the rollover
targets at the top of the channel on the left. Try playing for awhile,
doing your best to use the right flipper to send the ball up that leftmost
channel to collect the big bonus. (If you've never learned to catch the
ball on your flippers so you can control it, find people who know how,
watch them play, then practice what you've seen.) It shouldn't take too
long to discover that if you miss the channel and hit the knife edge target
next to it, you lose the ball out the left side almost 100% of the time.
It's a pattern experienced pinball players will recognise instantly and
painfully, remembering all the quarters they spent learning to avoid "quick
out" traps on particular machines.

There are interesting points in the other Demo games as well. DEMO2 for
instance has a very clean and pretty design but a little play will uncover
places where the ball gets hung up, repeating the same pattern over and
over until you take action to end "play" and return to "construct" Finding
and getting rid of those traps provides a good chance to think about the
relationship between angles and good and bad arrangements of bumpers and
surfaces. And as you find other things you don't like in the Demo games -
like the gate the ball sometimes gets stuck in on DEMO1, or the target it
can get lodged behind on DEM03 - experiment with better placements and add
to your insight about what details to pay attention to in building your own
games.

The possibilities are endless. DEMO4 makes it easy to keep the ball in play
and produces high scores, an arrangement some players will love. Others
will hate it, preferring instead a simple, low scoring but challenging game
like DEMO1 because it has more flipper action in it. You can fashion
interesting shapes like the semi-circle in DEMO3, add features like the
ball hopper in that same game, create games within games like the little
one in the top left of DEMO2 and much more. For a good sourcebook of
pinball design ideas, look in your library or bookstore for "Pinball!" by
Roger C. Sharpe (Dutton paperback, 1977), and "Pinball Wizardry" by Robert
Polin and Michael Rain (Prentice-Hall, 1979). And keep your eyes open.
Arcade games haven't replaced all the pinball machines yet. You never know
when you might run across a terrific inspiration for a new game to build.

SAVING AND LOADING YOUR WORK

Activating the disk icon (on the bottom) gives you the power to load and
play the five Demo games that come on your PCS disk. It also lets you use
one of your own disks to save games you're working on and games you've
finished so you can play them whenever you like. And finally it lets you
use a "Make Game" command to create game disks your friends can use even if
they don't have a PCS disk of their Own. (Of course, once they've seen
yours, they'll probably want one.)

To load or save a game, activate the disk icon, point to the command you
want and press the joystick button, use your keyboard to type in the game's
name, then press Return. If you're loading a Demo game, ignore the INSERT
YOUR GAME DISK message and press Return again. Otherwise do as the message
says first. (Note: Don't forget that blank disks must be initialized - by
following the instructions that came with your disk drive - before they are
used for the first time.)

If you want to play the game you loaded, activate the "Play Game" command,
reinsert the PCS disk when the prompt tells you to and press Return once
more. If instead you want to work on the game, press the "return to parts
box" key.

Games saved with the "Save" command take up very little space on your disk
- you can get more than 40 to a side. On the other hand, games saved with
"Make Game" take up more than 10 times as much room because all the program
instructions that simulate the ball and its interactions with the game
board and parts must be saved as well.

One word of advice. Even when you use the "Make Game" command, it's a good
idea to use "Save" as well to save a template for your game. Then if you
later find a glitch or want to change a target value, etc., you need only
reload your template with your PCS disk, make your changes, then use "Make
Game" to remake the game under its original name. (For additional
information about MAKE GAME, see the reference card.)

SPECIAL EFFECTS - PINBALL GAMES FOR COMPUTERS ONLY

Some of the game effects you can create with your PCS could never exist in
the world outside your display screen. For instance you can revive your
interest in a game you've mastered simply by changing the world settings to
make the ball play heavier, faster, etc. Or you can quickly rewire targets
to reward players for aiming the ball in new directions.

Here's a definite first from PCS. The games you build with MAKE GAME or
PLAY GAME are 5 ball (or 5 'turn') games for up to four players. Real
pinball machines give you just one ball each turn, but computer pinball can
give you as many as you want. Just design the game with more than one ball
on the playfield and you will get the extra balls every turn.

For still more spectacular effects, try the following. Load a demo game
then get a ball and put it on the playing surface above one of the bumpers.
Next get the magnifier and remove all the paint from the bumper. Now put
the ball in play. Surprised to discover that the bumper's still there even
though the paint's gone? For an even bigger surprise, get the parts box
back and try to drag the invisible bumper off the board. Now put the ball
in play again. This time, even though it looks like the bumper's there, the
ball falls right through.

Invisible ball caters, ball eaters that only you know are fake - the
possibilities are fiendishly plentiful. Got other ideas? Terrific. just
drag what you need onto the board and try them out. Maybe the most
wonderful thing of all about PCS is that you can always drag the failures
off the board into never never land and start over. Happy creating.


Notice

Electronic Arts reserves the right to make improvements in the product
described in this manual at any time and without notice.

This manual is copyrighted, all rights are reserved. No part of this manual
may be copied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium
or machine readable form without the prior written consent of Electronic
Arts. Copyright (c) 1983 Electronic Arts, 2755 Campus Drive, San Mateo,
California 94403.

Electronic Arts makes no warranties, either express or implied, with
respect to this manual or with respect to the software described in this
manual, its quality, performance, merchantability or fitness for any
particular purpose. The programs are provided "as is" Electronic Arts makes
certain limited warranties with regard to defective recording media. Please
see the Electronic Arts limited warranty enclosed with this product.
Software (c) 1983 Bill Budge.

This User's Guide was written by David Grady and designed by Steinhilber,
Deutsch and Gard.Manual design and writing (c) Copyright 1983 Electronic
Arts. Software (c) Copyright 1983 Bill Budge.


Dedication: I would like to thank Pete Rowe and Ted Cohn for providing the
BUGBYTER debugger and numerous assembler/editors, Andy Hertzfeld and
Burrell Smith for ideas and encouragement, and Jim Nitchals for helping. -
Bill Budge


[Extra Notes]

Instructions scanned and believed to be complete. Ignore page references in
text as they don't apply! Reference card not included. No icon pictures 
included in tables either, sorry.