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                                Watman                                    
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            http://virtual.es.fortunecity.com/realidadvirtual/135

  Original game: Jon Ritman, Bernie Drummond (Ocean)

  Coding: Kakarot      (kakarot@ole.com)
  GFX: The GGG         (the_ggg@picknowl.com.au)
  Sound: Russell Hoy   (rhoy@globalnet.co.uk)
  Support programming: System Halted    (shalted@yahoo.com)


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                                 Index                                    
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  * Conditions of use
  * Info about Watman
  * About the resolution
  * The Game
  * Options
  * Implementation notes
  * Configuration
  * Contributors
  * Other contributors
  * Greetings
  * TO DO list
  * Links
  * Contact the author


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                          Conditions of use                               
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  This program may not be sold other than the cost of the disk or
physical handling. The use of this program is entirely at the users
risk. In no event will the author be liable for any damages, including
any lost profits, lost savings, lost eyes or other incidental or
consequential damage arising out of the use of this program ,or for any
claim by any other party. This program is distributed without any warranty.

  You can redistribute this package freely ONLY IN THE SAME FORM as you have
received it with all files must be left unmodified and packed in the 
original compressed file(s).  I prefer you to distribute the original zip(s) 
from the web, but if you really CAN'T (you've lost it and can't download it 
again), you can pack your version but BE SURE to delete the .lck files in 
the misc/ directory.


  Oh, btw, I copied this legal stuff from a document I don't remember,
and modified it a little :). I hope the owner won't be worried for this
copypaste :).

 This program is e-mail-ware. So if you use it you've got to send me an
email. I'm totally sure 99.9% ppl won't send me that e-mail, but I don't want
it for anything special, just to receive feedback :) what do you think, 
what would you improve, how much close to the original one is it, 
if you like it or only a Hi!Iplayyourwatman message. Perhaps you think it's
stupid, but I'll feel nice for a minute :) The amount of e-mails received are
the only sign ppl is using your program and encourages you to keep remaking
games (not only me, nearly every "freeware" programmer acts like this).
 You can also send a mail to the contributors, I'm sure they'll like it too :)


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                              Info about Watman                           
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 The original game was done by Jon Ritman & Bernie Drummond, so I think they
retain the copyright (perhaps Ocean). Anyway, I don't think anybody is making
profit nowadays with Batman (the original game), so don't think about Watman
like his competitor: it's a tribute to one of my favourite games.
 In my opinion, remaking is nice to allow some people to know old (the good
ones) games without asking why those games where done only with 2 colors.
 It's nice to see my 10 years old cousin playing Klass of 99 or Manic Miner
instead of the boring Tomb Raider N (where N = too many, even when N=1!) :)

 Watman has been also a little challenge to me. I've been programming lots
of "games" since I had my first spectrum, but I have never finished one. What
I love about programming is making the hard part, while the final touches
are boring for me. But lots of (well... some) people has "forced" me to 
finish it... and I'm very happy about it :)


 Now for the tech info...

 Watman have been done using DJGPP + Allegro. First I used MIDAS but it sucks
if you've got to debug something, so later I started using JGMOD (which is 
really good)

 I don't really know how many time I've spent remaking it, perhaps a year, but
counting long periods which I did nothing... all I can say I've been playing 
and testing it a lot :)... perhaps too much ;). 

 It works OK in a P120... well, in my P120, so it means it should work nice 
at least on a 486 100 :( (d*mn motherboard...). In fact, Shalted reported 
to work nice in his 486 100 even under a 486sx33 emulator!! (aka windoze)
 The intro is awfully slow and works nice with a p300+ (sorry, no time to
make it better)

 Only an exe is suplied (BATMAN.EXE), is compiled with optimizations and 
should run faster than the debug version. You can download the debug version
from the web, and it's needed only if you're having problems with the 
release version. 
 I supply the two versions because I've not tested the optimized version too
much, so there's a chance it won't work as nicely as the debug version.
You'll see EXACTLY the same (except for the initial alert msg).

 By the way, if you're using DOS you'd better load smartdrv or startup will 
be really slow. 

 Don't ask me anything about Windoze 2000 or NT. If watman works with it, then 
nice! (well... not really ). If it doesn't work... then... two stones ;) or
install the hammer driver ;) ;) ;)

 A sound card is highly recomended. Without it some parts of the game may 
not work the right way.

 There are some hidden screens on the game which were not in the original
game... but they're really hard to find. :) No clues will be given  ;)

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                           About the resolution                           
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 Watman was designed for a 320x200x16 bits display. But some cards do not
support that resolution, which is the one which the game looks best / goes
faster. You can change the bitdepth and resolution, but you've got to know
that:
* GFX won't look better in 1024x768 than in 320x200
* The game will go *SLOWER* because it has to blit a 320x200 bitmap into a
(put your resolution here) screen.

 This way you can use watman in other resolutions just in case your
video card does not support 320x200 hi/true color.
 It's been done so that you can change the screen size under Xwindows,
because if you're playing it at 320x200 you'll need an oculist soon...

 Some screens are not fixed to get a variable resolution, so perhaps you'll
see something small in a corner of your monitor...

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                                 The Game                                 
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 You're Batman and you've got to collect the 7 batcraft parts to rescue
Robin. Before, you'll have to get some items which can help you in your
task.
 That's a fast way to see it :)
 You can also see the file "WOS_info.txt" where explains the game a bit
better than me. It's been downloaded from the WOS (see the links section).

 The default control keys are:
 Up:           Q
 Down:         A
 Left:         O
 Right:        P
 Jump:         SPACE
 Carry:        ENTER
 Jump & Carry: M

 Pause:	       ESCAPE

 You can redefine them at the menu.

 The extra keys are:

 F2: Save game. (you lose a live, can't save when you have 0 lives)
 F5: F5 doesn't work now ;) Sorry, Guns.
 F12: Save snapshot (as tga).
 Ctrl+Alt+End: Terminate program.


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                                 Options                                  
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 The main option screen should show you some options. The first one should
allow you to start the game (you can choose old/new game if you grabbed a
savegame item).
 The keyboard options allows you to choose your keys. You can only choose
a key per function, instead the multiple choice in the original Batman.
You can also choose a key for jump+grab, to compensate the only (IMO) useful
function of choosing multiple keys.
 The sound option is the same as the original Batman, but I really recommend
to use the 'Nasty' option (because I've not tested Useful and Late at night
too much, specially the last one)
 Other options allows you to choose Low/High sensivity, Allow savegames
(using F2 while playing) and Original Framerate.
 Load game loads a game (or tries to)

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                         Implementation notes                             
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 Watman engine is slightly different from Batman. There are some screens that
can't be fully emulated without nasty tricks, but I've tryed to keep all of
them similar to the original ones. If you think a screen, a bunch of them
or all of them are not similar to the original, please I want to know it
This feedback is important to know what to change!!! Anyway, don't be too hard
with me... I'm only a little programmer... :(

There are some screens I'm not satisfied with. There are mainly 2 groups:

* Fails due to engine: You don't get the same response as original Batman
to some actions:
  61,73,93  ... and a lot more! :(

* GFX errors due to sorting algorytm.
  89,67,114
  They will be fixed once I rewrite the sorting function (which bores me a
    LOT!).

 I'll try to fix them, althought they will be hard to solve (if it would be
easy, I would have done it! )

 The worst thing in the game (IMO) is a object which tracks you all the
time (at 61 & 93). I've been a lot of time trying to emulate it as the
original Batman, but there are too many implementation differences between
the games to make it easy. This will remain this way unless I found a
solution (and I prefer writing other remakes that spend a whole day trying
to do it, sorry).
 Some other mobile objects are also too bad, specially those who supports on
random (or seems random) values to get their path (i.e. objects at screens 2
and 3). If anybody feels lucky, they can try other "ia" functions to emulate
the objects :). E-mail me if you want.

 The game was made with 320x200x15 bits, but at the last moment, I remembered
that this is not a standar resolution. Then I tried to use some other bitdepths.
Bitdepth 8,15,16,24 and 32 are supported (allegro ones). Use the 8 bit one
ONLY if none of the above works for you, or if it's too slow.


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                              Configuration                               
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The configuration file is BATMAN.7UP. 7UP is not what you think it is. 7 is
written 'set' in catalan, so I name it 7up :))) That's because I HATE
deleting *.cfg to delete MIDAS config and trash the real cfg file.
Well, you'll see: You're not using MIDAS right now. Yes, I know. :)

BATMAN.7UP is a text file where you can write these parameters:

RESOLUTION val1 val2    Resolution you want to use.
DEPTH val               Uses the specified Depth color (8,15,16,24 or 32).
			  If it can't be used you'll get a 'resolution
			  not supported'
LAMESTEREO bool         Use panning when plays sounds (can cause headache! :D)

bool stands for 0 or 1, being 0 false and 1 true.
There are more parameters, but they're debug-purpose only (and they're 
disabled).

Watman uses some swap files, which are located where the environment variable
TEMP is pointing to. If it doesn't exists, the swap files will be created
at the current directory.

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                                Contributors                              
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 I've got to give lots of thanks to the next ones:

 The GGG: Without him the Watman remake wouldn't look as nice as it does.
   His gfx are awesome as you'll see once you start it, and Watman probably 
   wouldn't have reached this final version without him.
 the_ggg@picknowl.com.au 
 
 Russell Hoy: The same as GGG applied to music :). He also made me work a 
   bit more with the map editor and other editors which later were 
   really useful, and I hope they'll be for other projects. :)
 rhoy@globalnet.co.uk 

 System Halted & Vincent: Testing front, always disturbing the programmer ;).
   Thanks to shalted too for the 'alfa' version and for a funny night trying to
   discover the datafile format (which was at the end of the document we
   didn't check :D)
 (System Halted) shalted@yahoo.com

 Lots of people who sent me any e-mail about the project... or about something
   else ;)


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                           Other contributors                             
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 I'd like to give a 'thanks' to two more persons:

 Joan Rac (Nobita): He was the one who introduced me into manga, and the 
 author of the intro song. I knew him inside an old BBS a long time ago.
 If anybody knows anything about him (his mail should be nice) I would like
 to talk him again, but first I should find him! :) He used to live in Sabadell.

 Jordi Domenech: MegaHardClub president :) this sounds old and nice :)
 He did the intro fonts a long long time ago, for another game project.
 Just the same as above... if anybody knows his mail, I'd really like to 
 talk with him again :)

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                                 Greetings                                
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 * Family & Friends 
     ( Guns, Max, Green, Aleix, Shak, David, Edu, Day, Thass, JKL, Obi, 
       Marius, Klauz, Hlod-wig, Maral, Reb, Triki, Joel, Gabi, Jordi, Pep, 
       Xavi, and lots of people I'm forgetting now but I disturbed during 
       my life... :D)
 * All the remakers arround the world!
 * People at #spectrum (Rache, Robe_inie, chiastic, raulg, ...)
 * People at #tekken (Jin-, Splatman, Capitan_A, Seki, Som_Guan, Evil_Ryu,
      tysan, ...)

 * Jon Ritman & Bernie Drummond for making Batman
 * Sir Clive Sinclair ( you know why! :D )
 * Anybody who did a game which liked me :)


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                               TO DO list                                 
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 For the next (and last) version:

   * Songs during game.
   * I'll try change the fonts.
   * End-of-game sequence  (something better than 'GAME OVER')
        (savegames will be compatible so you can save just before ending!) 
      ( The end-of-game only if Jin- finishes the game :D )
   * Any bug that could appear (tested with a K7, P120, P200MMX and 486 100
     without any problems) shhh.. ;)
    
   When will it be released?? I don't know! :) 

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                                   Links                                  
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 Contributor pages:
  The GGG retrofitting center: 
      http://mx3.xoom.com/_XMCM/the_ggg/retrofit/
  Russell Hoy's exolon remake:
      http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rhoy/

 Tools links:
  Allegro, the game programming library:
      http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro
  JGMOD:
      http://

 Remakes links:
  Remakes:
      http://remakes.wax.nu/
  Retrospec:
      http://www.retrospec.co.uk/
  YS3:
      http://www.ys3.co.uk/
  Antonio Giner's remake: La abadia del crimen
      http://www.terra.es/personal/angigon/

  Spectrum emulation links:
  WOS:
      http://www.void.jump.org 
  R80:
      http://www.chaosite.com/r80/
  Spectrum Power
      http://go.to/spectrumpower

 Spectrum magazines:
  The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll years:
      http://www.ysrnry.co.uk
  Microhobby project:
      http://www.geocities.com/microhobby_project/
      

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                           Contact the author                             
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 kakarot@ole.com should be useful.
 I'm now working as a Java programmer somewhere in the Universe.

 Of course, if you have a nice game programmer job for me call me now! :)
I don't want to waste my live programming Java... Perhaps Watman is not the
best example about what can I do, so wait for my next remake ;)


Kak.  13/07/2000
