Description - Bricks -  PowerUps -  Monsters - Controls - Main Menu -  Options Menu - Hall of Fame - Registration

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Une version française est disponible, cliquez ici

System Requirements: Ababall is compatible with the following COLOR devices running Palm OS 3.5 or higher: Palm IIIc, Palm m505, Visor Prism, Sony PEG N700C and N710C and requires at least 585kb of free storage space on the device. Note: Ababall does not work on non-color devices. 

The goal in playing Ababall is very simple, destroy all the bricks on the screen in order to be able to go to the next level: the demo version only has 4 levels while the registered version has 32.

To get through all 32 levels you need to prevent the ball from falling off the bottom part of the screen, by using the paddle which you move so that the ball bounces off of it in the direction of the bricks.

There are different kinds of bricks in Ababall and some of them, once destroyed, can release a powerup.

On most levels, there are monsters which will make playing the game difficult.

Playing the game:

There are two ways to play Ababall. You can play the game alone, by trying to improve your own high score and by comparing it with the ones obtained by other players throughout the world, thanks to the "Internet High Score Code," or you can play with your friends in 2 player mode which alternates between players one after the other (turns alternate as one player dies).

If you leave the program with an unfinished game, the program automatically saves the game where you left off so that you can resume play the next time you enter the program.

When you destroy all the bricks of a level, the side gates at the bottom corners of the screen will open: you then simply move the paddle through one of the doors to exit the level.

Each time you start a new game, you will have 3 continues: when you lose all your lives in a game, if there are continues remaining, you will be able to continue the game at the point it was when you lost your last life.

You will find below the documentation of the game, allowing you to benefit fully from the experience of playing Ababall and  its possibilities.

Don't forget to visit often the official site of the game http://www.ababall.com in order to be informed of the latest news about it, reading or writing messages in the dedicated forum, or simply to know what is the current state of the best high scores by Ababall players from around the world!

There are several kinds of bricks :

- colored bricks, which are destroyed after being touched by the ball:

- gray brick, which needs to be touched twice to be destroyed :

- black brick, which can't be destroyed with the "normal" ball :

It is not necessary to destroy black bricks to be able to finish a level.

In some levels, you will also find special bricks :

- dynamite brick: when a ball touches this brick, there is an explosion and all the bricks around are destroyed, even the black ones.

- multiball brick: when a ball touches this brick, an additional ball will appear.
This brick can't be destroyed with a normal ball, so it is not necessary to destroy it to finish a level.

- recompose brick: when a ball touches this brick, all the bricks around which was destroyed are regenerated.
This brick can't be destroyed with a normal ball, so it is not necessary to destroy it to finish a level.

- warp brick: when a ball touches this brick, it is randomly teleported to another warp brick.
This brick can't be destroyed with a normal ball, so it is not necessary to destroy it to finish a level.

When you destroy a colored brick, it can release a powerup that you can catch with the paddle, before it goes off the bottom of the screen.

These powerups can be good or bad, depending on the powerup and the situation:

- slow ball powerup: makes the ball go slower.

- fast ball powerup: makes the ball go faster.

- 500 points powerup: when you catch it, your score is increased by 500 points,  in addition to the 100 points granted when any powerup is caught.

- big paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle becomes larger.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

- small paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle becomes smaller.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

-  magnetic paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle gets magnetized, meaning that the next time the ball hits the paddle, it will remain stuck to it, until you press the release button or after a timeout of 5 seconds (there are 5 green LED lights on the right side of the screen, one of these five lights will go off every five seconds when a timed powerup has been obtained).
This option allows you to aim the ball more easily at the bricks you want to destroy.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

-  gun paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle becomes a machine-gun, which means that it will shoot bullets each time you press the fire button: if the paddle size is small, there will be only 1 bullet, 2 for normal size and 3 on the big paddle.
These bullets can destroy the colored bricks and the monsters, but note that you will obtain less points for a target being destroyed by a bullet than for one destroyed with the ball.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

- surprise powerup: when this powerup is caught, the program chooses randomly one of the previous powerups (slow ball, fast ball, 500 points, big paddle, small paddle, magnetic paddle, gun paddle).

- multiball powerup : when this powerup is caught, your ball becomes 3 balls (you can have up to 5 balls on the screen at a time, the ball which splits into 3 is the one highest on the screen when the multiball powerup is caught).

- fireball  powerup: when this powerup is caught, your ball becomes a fireball: this is a very powerful ball and is capable of destroying many more bricks than the normal one ball can. It can destroy black bricks and also special bricks, and when it touches a colored brick, it also destroys the bricks on the left and right of the brink the fireball touched.
This power up has a very limited time duration, so make good use of it !

- sudden death powerup: if your paddle touches this powerup while it is falling, then you will loose one life!

- extra life powerup: when this powerup is caught, you will have gained an additional life. The number of remaining lives is displayed on the left side of the screen, with orange LED lights (5 LED lights can be displayed at one time, but the program handles up to 9 lives).

- reverse paddle powerup : when this powerup is caught, the movements of the paddle are reversed: if you move left, the paddle will go right, and vice-versa !
This powerup has a limited time duration and it's effect is canceled if you catch any powerup which effects the paddle.

- end of level powerup: when this powerup is caught, the side gates at the bottom corners of the screen will open, as if you destroyed all the bricks. This will allow you to exit the level (by moving the paddle through a door) if you want to. This decision can be made depending on your strategy: you may prefer to stay in the current level to score as much points as possible, or you can choose to exit immediately to increase your chances of going go as far as possible with the game.
If you die while the doors are open with this powerup, they will be closed when you reappear.

Each time you get one powerup, your score is increased by 100 points. Tip: This may cause you to catch a powerup even if it is a bad one (in this case your objective would be to get the highest possible score).

A picture of the powerup you just caught is displayed in the top center area of the screen for one second, which is cool if you don't remember which powerup it was, but even more useful with the surprise powerup.

Some of the powerups have a timed duration, like the small paddle, big paddle, magnetic paddle, gun paddle, reversed paddle and the fireball.
When you catch one of these powerups, you will see in the top center area of the screen a picture which will begin as green with a slow flickering and become red with a fast flickering as the time runs out. When the flickering ends, the powerup effect will be canceled and you will have a normal paddle if it was a paddle related powerup.

The fireball effect is also canceled at the end of its timeout or when you catch a paddle related powerup.

Some of the powerups are cumulative, for example the big paddle powerup and the magnetic paddle powerup can be an interesting combination. Or when you see that you are near to the end of the timed duration of a powerup, you may choose to take a powerup which is considered bad: for example you have a machine gun paddle and you know that it will end in a few seconds but you see that there is a small paddle powerup falling, you then have two choices, you can either let the machine gun paddle powerup terminate by itself, making your paddle normal, or you can try to catch the small paddle powerup and you will then have a small machine gun, but with the timeout starting at the beginning !

As you can see, you will often have to make some decisions, depending on your strategy and goal; playing as many levels as possible or trying to beat your own high score.

On most levels, you will see some monsters.

The purpose of the monsters is to disrupt your game. When the ball hits one monster, its trajectory is modified, which can cause you miss the ball and lose a life.
Here are just a few of the monsters you might encounter :

You will also sometimes find acid monsters : when they are on a brick of the same color that them, they destroy it.
If there are no more bricks under them, then they will fall: Avoid them or they will kill you!

When you are in the menus, you can change your selection with the up and down buttons and validate your choice with any of the 4 others buttons.
You can also use your stylus, by just taping on the choice you want to select.

In the game :

When you are in the game, the up and down buttons will pause the game.

You can move the paddle to the left by pressing the date book button and to the right by pressing the address book button.

The to do list button allows you to move the paddle very slowly and precisely, while you continue to control direction with the date book and address book buttons.

To release a magnetized ball or to fire some bullets when you have the machine gun paddle, just press the memo pad button.

We recommend you use the stylus, which allows you much better control of the paddle: you just need to keep it down in the graffiti area and move it left or right.

To shoot with the pen or to release a magnetized ball, just release the stylus from the graffiti area and put it down again.

The touch screen of the Palm is very sensitive, you don't need to press hard with the stylus: use it gently to avoid striping the surface of the screen accidentally.

The way the ball bounces depends on where it touched the paddle and is explained in the following picture: as you can see, there are a lot of possible trajectories, which allows you very fine control of where you want the ball to go.

The GamePad as the Jog Dial are also handled, in the menus and in the game.

You can change your selection with the up and down buttons and validate your choice with any of the 4 other buttons.
You can also use the stylus, by just taping on the choice you want to select.

The various choices are :

- start a new game : select this choice if you want to start a new game.
Warning : if you have stopped a game in progress and, it will be lost since you will start on level 1.
If you intend to continue a previously stopped game in progress, just use the next choice.
- resume current game : select this choice if you want to continue a previously stopped game in progress.
If there is no previously stopped game in progress, a new game starts.
- hall of fame : select this choice to display the 10 best high scores and to see the Internet High Score Code.
- options : select this choice if you want to change any of the options.
- registration : select this choice to go to the screen allowing you to register the game.
- exit program : select this choice if you want to exit the program.

In this screen, you can change some settings.
Each choice has 2 states : on/off for example for the sound, or 1/2 for the number of players.
To change the state of one option, select it with the up and down buttons and then press any of the 4 other buttons, or you can just tap on it with the pen.

Option definitions:

- sound on / sound off: this option allows you to cut the sound effects off or to put them back on again.
The game uses the amplitude selected in the General menu of the system preferences of the Palm OS, relating to Game Sound.
So, if you don't hear any sound effect while the sound option is ON in the game, just change the value used in the system preferences for Game Sound.
- numbers of players 1/2 : this option allows you to choose the number of players for the game.
If you want to play Ababall with a friend, just choose number of players 2 and you will be able to play together, one at a time, the turn of a player ending when he looses one life.
- performances / compatibility : This option has been added to allow the game to run on future versions of Palm OS or on devices that didn't exist when the game was created.
The game display some very smooth animations, at a framerate of 50 frames per second on any color Palm OS device.
To be able to do that, the authors of the game have used some special technics which work perfectly on all the current devices, but which might not work on some new version of Palm OS or on some new device.
So, if you have a very new model of PalmPilot or a new release of Palm OS which is not yet supported by the program and you find that the game does not work correctly, just select the option compatibility.
In general, you don't need to change this option, unless you are having difficulty making the game work with your device.
So please leave this option on  performances, which is the default choice.

- return to main menu : select this choice to return to the main menu.

It also displays the Internet High Score Code of your best score (the one ranked at first position).

This code allows you to prove that you scored well and enables you to enter it on the official web site of the game ( http://www.ababall.com ) so you can compare your results with those of other players from all over the world.

Just click on OK to return to the main menu.

The next picture shows the screen you will see at the end of a game (Game Over), when your score is better than one of the 10 high scores :

It displays the ranking ( from 1 to 10 ), the score value, and also a keyboard.
Tap your pen on the keyboard to enter the name you want to associate with this score.
When you are done, tap OK.

When the game is not registered, you can try it in demo mode, which contains only 4 levels.
To register the game and play all 32 levels and to encourage the authors to make other awesome games for the Palm OS, just go to http://www.ababall.com .
You will then have to communicate the Device ID displayed by the program on the top of this screen and you will receive in return (once the payment will is validated) an Unlock Code that you will have to enter in this screen using the displayed keyboard and the stylus.

Once the unlock code is accepted, you will never have to enter it again and you will finally be able to discover the 32 available levels and other surprises contained in the game.

All the development team wish you lots of fun playing Ababall!