path: root/Readme

This text is encoded in UTF-8.
NOTE: This is a pre-release version. That means:
-The program may crash. It may even cause data loss.
-The levels may be too hard.
-There may be strange behavior.
-The in-game music is included but won't be played. (See FAQ.txt)
-The code may not even compile!

BulletLabRemix II readme

Story
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE STORY OF THE COLOURS
Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel, all claimed that they
were the best the most important the most useful the favorite.
GREEN said:
「Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen
for grass and trees leaves. Without me all animals would die. Look over the
countryside and you will see that I am in the majority.」
BLUE interrupted...
「You only think about the earth but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water
that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky
gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace you would all be nothing.」
YELLOW chuckled:
「You are all so serious. I bring laughter gaiety and warmth into the world. The
sun is yellow, the moon is yellow and the stars are yellow. Every time you look at
a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun.」
ORANGE started next to blow her trumpet.
「I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce but I am precious, for I
serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of
carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes and pawpaws. I don't hang around all the time
but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one
gives another thought to any of you.」
RED could stand it no longer. He shouted out:
「I am the ruler of all of you - I am
blood - lifes blood I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight
for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me the earth would be as empty as
the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and
the poppy.」
PURPLE rose up to his full height. He was very tall and spoke with great pomp:
「I am the color of royalty and power. Kings chiefs and bishops have always chosen
me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me - they
listen and obey.」
Finally INDIGO spoke much more quietly than all the others but with just as much
determination:
「Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me but without me you
all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection twilight and deep water.
You need me for balance and contrast for prayer and inner peace.」
And so the colors went on boasting each convinced of his or her own superiority.
Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of
bright lightening - thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down
relentlessly. The colors crouched down in fear drawing close to one another for
comfort.
In the midst of the clamor rain began to speak:
「You foolish colors fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest.
Don't you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different?
Join hands with one another and come to me!」
Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands. The rain continued:
「From now on when it rains each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow
of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The rainbow is a sign of
hope for tomorrow. And so whenever a good rain washes the world and a rainbow
appears in the sky let us remember to appreciate one another.」
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that was about hundreds of thousand years ago.
After a catastrophic disaster, they found some of them were missing...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Generic Information
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My own comment on this game...
A "game" filled with the smell of mysterious science and imagination(3:2 approximately).
(I worked on it for almost 9 months, after all.)
Others comments...
-PIECE OF SHIT!!!
-The author must be suffering from serious mental problems.(I agree...)
-(literally translated from Chinese) Revenge on society...

Requirements & Recommends
Basic environment:
CPU: Atom 1.6GHz will even work.
RAM: 1GiB
GPU&VRAM: Not worse than Intel HD Graphics.
OS: Windows XP+ & DirectX9+ / Linux kernel 2.6+ & OpenGL 1.2+
Recommended environment:
GPU&VRAM: Very fast graphic rendering.
Sound: Ability to run OpenAL software version.

MORE Recommends...
-SERIOUSLY, NO Trypophobia!
-CheatEngine(skip levels, obtain more Clear Range's, and more...)
-Some editors or compilers(If you find this impossible and want to make it easier)
-(Additionally for the last one)Ability to read non human-readable code.
-Achromatopsia(<-strikethrough)

If, suddenly, you can't run it one day...
Remove blr.cfg (remember to backup your score.cfg first!) then restart the game.
It will ask you for initial settings.
If this can't solve your problem, read FAQ.TXT for more.

If you think something went wrong...
Go to FAQ.txt.

To Dear Windows Users
This game is developed and tested mostly under Linux. The official Windows version is also
built under Linux(awesome, isn't it?). It's only briefly tested.

Menus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main menu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Start                  Select a mode and start the game.
Highscores             View highscores(Currently out of maintenance)
Options                Settings and Options
About                  A dull credits list.
Exit                   Parents are coming!!

Game Modes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Classic
The game ends instantly if you get a collision. However you can choose
to continue...

This mode kills your time silently.

Assessment Mode
You are the frog being boiled: all levels get harder as time goes.
You'll be brought to the next part if you had a collision.

Most levels are designed to be IMPOSSIBLE after the elapsed time have
exceeded a certain value.

Go for the highest score!

Free Play Mode
You'll never die! Enjoy!...

Command line options
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, it accept command line options! (And some of them may be very useful...)
You can override your settings with them if you can't start it after changing the settings.
However they may cause strange behavior or crashes. So use with caution.
Invalid parameters may cause unexpected behavior, (e.g. --start with inappropriate parameters)
they should be used for debug purpose. But if you use it for cheating, I'm not against it.
If it's run without arguments, the game will start normally.
Otherwise... see below.
--help			Print command line usage and exit.
--version		Print version and exit.
--start=x,y		Start free play mode directly from level x part y. The part must be valid.
--nosound		Forcibly use no sound.
--fullscreen=1/0	Forcibly use fullscreen/windowed. This will override your configuration.
--vidmode=0~4		Forcibly use specific video mode instead the one in the configuration.
	0		800x600 (native resolution)
	1		640x480
	2		960x720
	3		1024x768
	4		1280x960
--firststartup		Forcibly run first start up. This will reset the score file.
--fast			Fast mode. All levels are two times shorter.
--logfile=...		Use an alternate log file name instead of the default "BLRLOG.txt".
--nohideconsole		Do not hide console (Windows version only).

About the author
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Senseless(this word has multiple means...)
-Often know nothing to do next. If I accidently got it, I would do it at once.
(slowly, though)
-「The perfect balance of code length and efficiency 」
-One of those "who (like to) live on the edge". --according to Debian maintainers.
-Strange (as many people say)

This is my first(or second?) time making so big a project. So, this game is written
for a "framework" rather than the game itself. However, the "framework" seems to be
very incomplete till now. Everything is still code...(Maybe this is just the
"framework"?)

Well, one day textures may also become code... That is, all textures will be drawn
to the memory during the initialization...

"Black History"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This game first started as an simple hge&c++ rewrite of the original game "BulletLab".
For an unknown reason, it became bigger and bigger, the core of hge is even altered.
Several months or so after the creation of the project, BLRI(aka "The Creature of
Colour") released.

As BLRI was being finished, BLRII was forked from the code base of BLRI.
Several "testbed" version was created over the code base of BLRI.
Then the pre-release version created. Almost all original code from BLRI is removed.
Now it has reached a position that I've never expected...

Brief History
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The file ChangeLog contains the full history of this project.
Here's a list of milestones.

0.9.1-0_PR (r85)
Menu rewrite(still in progress).

0.9.0-1_PR (b79/r79)
Finish assessment mode.
Extend laser class.
Several modify and fix to HGE.

0.8.1-1_PR (b77)
Completing all levels for Classic Mode and Free Play Mode.
Switch to mingw-w64 for building Windows version.
Prepare for assessment mode.

0.7.3-0_PR (b73)
Completing level 7.
Lots and lots of fixes.
Laser revesion is now r5 and work perfectly.

0.6.2-2_PR (b52)
Level 6 is complete.
Supporting new music interfaces and added in-game music.

0.5.3-2_PR (b43)
Finishing level 5.
New clear range trigger method and fixes to clear range.

0.4.4-0_PRG (b37a)
Regression version from 0.5.2-0_PR (b37).
Released to public. Including the complete level 4, and some levels of Level 5.
Fixed two minor problems.

0.3.2-0_PR (b27)
Completing level 3.
Avoid hidden bullets.

0.2.9-2_PR (b22)
Completing level 2.
0.2.9-1_PR (b21) is released to public.

0.1.7-2_PR (b16)
Level 1 is finished.

TB130907 (b10)
Laser implementation rev 2.

TB130827 (b8)
Initial laser implementation.

TB130620~TB130818 (b1~b7)
New towers and new levels.

TB130610 (b0)
Creation of the Testbed version.