Arkanoid Pinball Release Notes

Table Design by Ken Atherton (katherton2@home.com)

Testing performed on a PII-450 running Win98, a PIII-500 laptop running Win98SE 
and a 1.3GHz Athlon running WinXP.

Visual Pinball DF5 is recommended but table should work in Tech Beta 4 as well.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Version History

Version 0.7 - Play test

Changes	     - Sound samples from Arkanoid 1 and 2 added
	     - Minor rules tweaks & fixes

What Works   - Implementation is basically complete at this point.
	       Any future releases will be made only if bug fixes
	       are necessary or if I decided to add a multiplayer
	       mode.
What doesn't - Graphics still suck.  I'm open to suggestions.
	       No attract mode
	       One Player Only
	       No Tilt feature.  I've discovered during playtesting
	       that banging the table isn't that useful in this game,
	       so I decided to let the player nudge at will.
Known Issues - Ball falls off ramp occastionally.  This is apparently
	       a known issue with Visual Pinball

Version 0.5 - Play test

Changes	     - Some sounds added
	     - Some overlays and textures added (they still suck)
	     - Changed code that caused paddle to be unmovable until
	       hit by the ball when play started on the left table.
	       This should resolve some player irritation caused by
	       the ball falling off the ramp onto the left table
	       (see known issues).  Now the paddle becomes moveable
	       if the hidden kicker at the end of the ramp is hit,
	       the paddle itself is hit, or if a brick is hit.
	     - Much work has gone into balancing play.  0.3 had
	       serious playability problems that caused play on
	       the right table to be much more important than
	       the left table.  This reduced the Arkanoid theme
	       to a gimmick, which wasn't my intent.  Among the
	       changes:  completing a level is now worth 2000 points,
	       bricks hit now count toward target bonus, and target
	       bonus does not carry over from ball to ball unless
	       earned.  A side effect of this is that all
	       balls in play are now more equally important-- having 
	       a really great ball 1 doesn't skew your score as
	       much (it's more like a "bowling" effect-- doing great
	       on one ball will add to your score on the next ball, 
               but not ALL subsequent balls).  On the other hand, the 
	       game still rewards "getting into the zone"-- having 
	       one really good ball out of 5 can earn you a replay, 
	       even if it's ball 5!

What works   - All game logic is implemented
What doesn't - Sounds are place holders
	     - Graphics suck (sorry, this may not improve as I have 
	       no skill here)
	     - Attract mode not yet implemented
	     - One player only at this point
	     - Table cannot be tilted, although nudging is allowed (bang away, 
	       see if I care!)
Known issues - Ball sometimes falls off ramp and lands outside playfield
	       So far, I've never seen this cause a serious problem,
	       because it just drops back into the playfield and
	       play continues.  The one instance where you might have a 
	       problem is if the ball returns to play on the left side
	       of the field.  The paddle isn't enabled until one of
	       three things happens:  the paddle itself is hit by the ball,
	       the ball hits a brick, or the ball hits the hidden kicker at 
	       the end of the ramp.  If none of these things happens, the
	       ball will drain without you being able to do a darn thing
	       about it.  Fortunately, the player isn't really penalized in
	       this case, except at very high levels when the gate closes
	       after the ball is drained. 
	     - Load time is VERY VERY slow on a slow machine.  This
	       is probably due to the relatively large amount of scripting
	       used on this table.
	     - Earning the bonus hold on ball 5 doesn't do anything, unless
	       you also earn an extra ball.  I'm not sure if I'll fix this
	       but I probably should

Version 0.3 - Technology Test

What works   - Most game logic is implemented
What doesn't - No Sound
	     - Most textures are missing
	     - Attract mode not yet implemented
	     - One player only at this point
	     - Table cannot be tilted, although nudging is allowed (bang away, 
	       see if I care!)
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Table Notes

I've been interested in developing a game for visual pinball for some time,
but I had never done more than dabbling to see if I could implement a certain
feature with the tools available.  For example, I created a pachinko demo to
see if the ball movement off the pins could be handled well (it could).

At some point, I decided to see if I could implement a user control other than
a flipper with the current VP tools, and somehow I found myself playing with a
moveable wall device.  Eventually this turned into a table that looked a lot
like a mechanical version of Arkanoid.

After I had decided to make an Arkanoid table, my first thought was to remake
the game as closely as possible using simulated mechanical devices.  This 
didn't work too well due largely to the fact that VP wasn't designed to support
this sort of tomfoolery.  (This is, of course, not VP's fault.)

At the time, I hadn't seen Apocalypse's 7of9ball game which essentially 
recreates the same type of game I was working with, but takes a different
approach-- the 7of9 table tries to look as much like a videogame as possible,
and uses this design approach to solve some of the problems I had, such as
creating a continuously moveable paddle.  Setting the bottom of the paddles
below the table surface is particularly clever so that the paddle disappears
below the surface of the table when inactive.  I wish I'd thought of this
trick when I was creating this table.

Once I got over the idea of completely recreating Arkanoid, I got on with the
business of creating an interesting (hopefully) pinball machine.  

Some notes on the table design:

- A lot of the table operates using timers.  I suspect there might be some
weird (occasional) timing issues, but I haven't observed anything concrete.  
Let me know if you see something that detracts from play.

- Don't bother trying to read my scripting.  This table has almost 4000 lines
of code, which is about 3000 more than I expected.  Plus, it's implemented
as a bunch of state machines.  If you really want to know how something works,
send me an email.

- The best way I could find to increase the difficulty during play on the
left side of the table is to increase the slope of the table every time you
hit a brick.  Unfortunately, this has the side effect of making the table
play more like the old videogame "Circus" (the one with the little clowns
bouncing off a seesaw to hit balloons) rather than Arkanoid.  The current
table slope is shown on the bottom left side of the screen.

- The outer wall eleasticity is set higher than the VP default.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Rules of Play

The table does not uses any keys other than the standard VP keys.  If you have
not changed the defaults, here's how the to operate the table:

5 - insert coin
1 - start game
L Shift - Left Flipper; Move Paddle left
R Shift - Right Flipper; Move Paddle right
Z, / and SPACE - Nudge

A score of 75,000 points awards 1 replay.

A score of 110,000 points awards 1 replay.

Matching the last digit of your score against the number shown in the bricks at 
the game's end awards 1 replay.

5 balls per game.


* Playing the right side of the table *

When a ball is launched on the right side of the playfield either by using
the plunger to launch a new ball or by a ball returning from the left 
playfield, the "ball saver" is activated for 12 seconds.  If the ball leaves
play during this time, it will be returned to the launch lane without
penalty.

Play of the game is based on levels.  Levels are completed by clearing all
of the bricks on the left side of the table.

At the beginning of each level, the gate to the ramp that accesses the left
playfield is closed.  The gate is opened by hitting all of the lit "spinner" 
targets on the right playfield.  

After gate is opened, all "spinner" lights are re-lit.  Clearing all spinners
while the gate is open will also cause the "spinner" lights to be re-lit.

On lower levels, once the gate is opened, it stays open until the level is 
completed.

On higher levels, more spinners are initially lit (up to 15) and beginning 
with level 6, the gate closes and some spinners are reset every time the ball 
travels to the left playfield and returns to the right side.

Bumpers award 50 points.

Lit "spinner" targets award 50 points and adds 1 to target count for bonus
calculation.  Target count is reset to 0 at end of ball unless
"5x & hold bonus" award has been earned (see below).

Unlit "spinner" targets award 1 point.

Slingshots award 1 point.

Hitting rollover above yellow "spinner" target bank spots a "spinner" target.

HItting rollover in upper left corner scores 50 and lights letter in H-I-T.

Completing H-I-T scores 100 points and advances award.  Awards (in order) are 2x 
bonus, 3x bonus, 5x & hold bonus, extra ball, and light outlane special + 1000 points.  
Subsequent completions are awarded with 1000 points and lighting both outlane
special lights.

The hold bonus award causes the number of targets hit during play of a ball
be carried over to the next ball.  The number of levels completed always carries
over.

Only one extra ball is awarded per ball in play, but an extra ball can be
earned during the play of an extra ball.

A replay is awarded when the ball exits the playfield through a lit outlane.
No limits are imposed on the number of specials that can be earned in a
single game.

If the ball exits the playfield on the left side while the ball saver is not 
active, the ball in play is ended.  The bonus value is calculated and added
to the score, and the award lights are reset.

The bonus at the end of play is calculated as (LevelsComplete * 2000 +
TargetsHit * 50) * BonusMultiplier.


* Playing on the left side of the table *

The objective for the left side of the table is to hit all of the raised 
"brick" targets.

Hitting a raised brick target scores between 10 (for the bottom row) and 80 
points (for the top row), adds 1 to the target counter and raises the slope 
of the table by 1.

A ball exiting play on the left side of the table is relaunched without
penalty on the right side of the table.

Completing L-E-V-E-L targets drops all raised "brick" targets and completes
level.  Points are not awarded for "brick" targets dropped in this way.

Hitting top rollover above L-E-V-E-L target bank spots one L-E-V-E-L target.

Randomly, when a "brick" target is hit, an award light will begin travelling
down the playfield.  These award lights can be "caught" by moving the paddle
under the light when it reaches the bottom of the playfield. The award
received is based on the color of the light:

Red - Multiball award.  Two additional balls are launched  from the top of the 
playfield.

Yellow - Wide Paddle award.  The paddle triples in size for 10 seconds.

Orange - Slow award.  The table slope is returned to its minimum setting.

Completing level by dropping all "brick" targets awards level completion and
starts the next level.  The L-E-V-E-L targets are reset. The paddle is disabled 
and the ball is relaunched on the left side.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Tips and Tricks

-Use the table elasticity to your advantage.  A lot of balls that look like
they've left play can be saved.  This applies to both sides of the table.

-Under almost all circumstances, you should try to grab the red multiball
award light.  The additional ball start at the top of the table, and even if
you might lose the first ball, you will still have 2 balls in play.
Obviously, there are some important timing issues here, because if the first
ball drains before you catch the red light, you are out of luck.

-Second on the priority list are the yellow wide paddle award lights.  Once 
you have the wide paddle, you are virtually invinceable, and it's much easier 
to grab subsequent awards.

-Play is pretty well balanced such that you can earn a lot of points on either 
table, but the best strategy I've found is to shoot for H-I-T whenever the
ball comes to the right flipper and shoot the ramp (when it's open) with the 
left flipper.  If the gate is not yet open, ahigh velocity ball can often be 
"backflipped" off the left flipper to the H-I-T target.  You'll end up hitting 
tons of spinner targets anyway so you don't necessarily need to aim for them, 
and once the ball is on the left table, you've got some breathing room because 
you can't end the ball there.

-If you've hit a lot of targets during a certain ball, or if you've held over
a lot of targets from a previous ball, pumping up the bonus multiplier can
be even more important.

