Readme.Txt


Introduction

Thank you for downloading Pikaball. I'm sure you'll enjoy playing this game as much as I did working on it. So have fun and please read the rest of this file to understand how to play and other useful info.

What is it?

If you've downloaded the original Pokemon Volleyball, you've probably figured how to play on your own and remember the game well. But that's a different game now, and this is my translated and improved version which I called "Pikaball." I'm sure you'll like my version much better, since it'll have my full future support and most importantly, it's much friendlier because I've translated all the menus to English for your better enjoyment. Let's look at all the other neat things in Pikaball that are different from the original:
  • Nice and high quality Pikachu icon.
  • Customizable background music: that's right, any music you want to play in the background within the game. That can be the various Pokemon themes or just some good ol' tunes. So how do you change it? good question, the answer lies in this readme, just be patient!
  • A frame counter: Yep, now by clicking "Framerate" you'll be able to see just how fast the game runs and when it slows down (I have the answer, btw, when you don't catch the Pokeball and it hits the ground, everything suddenly gets slower, don't trust me, check the counter!). It's not like you'll want to benchmark your system with Pikaball, but it's still a nice little gizmo to check out.
  • All menus translated: I know you figured out what they all do already, but having friendly English menus instead of weird lines and brackets (unless you know Japanese ;) warms thing up. And what if your little brother wants to play the game, 'bet he'll get confused with all the mess and you'll have to go and explain and all... But it's a thing of the past now!

How do you play?
This is a simple volleyball game, the object is to get the ball over the net. The ball in this case is a Pokeball, and not only can you hit it over the net, you can make it bounce from the border of the window, so watch out, you can have your own ball ruin your perfect score by landing in your area.

PLAYER 1
(right side of the court and "one player" mode default)
right and left arrow buttons: move right and left
up arrow button: jump
enter or N: hit (while jumping)
N+down: spike (while jumping)
N+left or right: dive left or right

PLAYER 2
D and F: move left and right
R: jump
Z: hit (while jumping)
Z+C: spike (while jumping)
Z+D or F: dive left or right

Music Requirements

To ensure that you enjoy the music, I really suggest using a wave table (the stuff that
makes midis sound like real instruments, not some electronic beeps and bleeps, which I even like sometime in the form of a music genre ;), and if it's not already built into your computer, you can get a nice program from Yamaha. Also, I really recommend having the latest version of DirectX (basically a set of drivers that make Windows 95/98 much more versatile) just to enjoy (Pikaball requires version 4+ but if you have Windows 98, don't worry) all the cool multimedia stuff out there. Get DirectX 7 here.

How do you change the background music?

Have you noticed the MIDI file "bgm02" in the Pikaball directory? That's the background music, and the one I put up is the American Pokemon TV show theme song. Pretty cool, eh? Now to change the BGM (that stands for BackGround Music, of course), just rename (click the file, wait a couple second, than click again and type in the name) any midi (rename your current one to something else) to "bgm02.mid" and you're all set. If you find good midi combinations, do send them to me, and maybe I'll post them on the site.

How did I do all this?

Well, let's see, I didn't have the source code, and the author's long gone (the original dates way back to 1997) so hopefully no one thinks I broke any rules. What I did is similar to how you can play Pokemon Gold/Silver in English. It's called hex editing, basically, I went through thousands of lines of boring little weird signs and symbols, outlined parts that stick out as things I needed to edit and replaced them with my own. But believe me, it's much more complicated than that. It took me half a day just to find the stupid About box! While searching through the code, I found the frame counter the author hid himself and made it possible for the game to call on an external MIDI (before, the song was built in) rather than the internal which was in the DirectSound format.

What's next?

I have many things planned for Pikaball, and I really need your comments and suggestions to do a good job! So please don't hesitate and email me. I'm also looking for a good artist to work with. That way, we can have much higher quality graphics and even different Pokemon to play as!! Well, er, then it wouldn't be Pikaball, but we'll talk about that later! Here's the list:

  • Better quality graphics: MUCH better! We're talking 2000 here not 1997 when half of you weren't even online (well, I could be wrong...). Things like antialised Pokemon (that is, smooth curvy body outlines), and the good shading we've all come to love, plus more colors, more effects, there's no end to the possibilities!!! hehehe.
  • Different sound effects for different Pokemon.
  • The splash screen completely translated with the help of my future artist (contact me, let's do lunch sometime ;)
  • Something you, the player might suggest.


Shoutouts!

Sachi Soft for the original Pikachu Ball, you started it all!! Eric of EAGB for your
support, Jshuey22 for your testing and kind words, Kenny Nelson for your professional criticism ;)

Known Bugs

  • If you have a Joystick plugged in, the game goes on automatic mode and doesn't let you play. Hitting enter just restarts it. If this doesn't happen to you, please email me.
  • I can't translate the title bar no matter how hard I try. If can help me out here, please do.
  • I can't get the icon to be more than 16 colors (actually, I can, but the icon can't have transparency), so that really limits the good tiny hicolor goodiness some people can make. I think if the original icon is 16 colors, you can't change it to a different format (like 256+colors). I need your help here too.
  • Any problems? Email me!

Requests

If you know Japanese and your system supports the character set, please tell me what the title bar says.

If you're a good artist and are willing to work with me on Pikaball for the kicks and public exposure on EAGB, please contact me.

Version History

  • 1.2^ This right here. Menus translated, improved about box, custom midi support frame counter, improved explorer properties, and of course a high quality cute lil' icon.
  • 1.1b* Same as above only limited dialogs translated.
  • 1.1a* Same as above only no frame counter and no custom midi support.
  • 1.0 Original version released three year ago by an unknown Japanese programmer.

* released only to a few people for testing
^ first public release