Swoopª 1.0.0 Notes
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27 April 1995

by David Wareing & Ambrosia Software, Inc.

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If you like this software, check out the other software products we have to offer!  We have support forums on most of the major information services:

America Online:  While you are signed on AOL, choose "Keyword..." from the "GO TO" menu, type AMBROSIA and hit the return key.  You'll be taken to our forum, where you'll find a message base (for comments and questions) and a software library stocked with the latest versions of our software products. 

CompuServe: While you are signed on CompuServe, use GO word AMBROSIA to reach the Mac Vender D area, where Ambrosia Software, Inc. maintains a forum.  There you'll find a message base (for comments and questions), a software library stocked with the latest versions of our software products and a conference area for occasional live chats.

eWorld: While you are signed on eWorld, choose "Go to Shortcut" from the "PLACES" menu, type AMBROSIA and hit the return key.  You'll be taken to our forum, where you'll find a message base (for comments and questions) and a software library stocked with the latest versions of our software products. 

GEnie: Ambrosia's support area is in the Macintosh Product Support Round Table, located on page 606. To get there, while signed on and in terminal mode, type M606 at any GEnie prompt. Our message base can be found by choosing option 1 from the page 606 menu. This will take you to the message boards. The Ambrosia Section can be found by typing SET 4.  Our software library can be found by choosing option 3 from the page 606 menu. This will take you to the software libraries. Then choose option 8 to set the software library to Ambrosia's library, which is library 14.

Internet: Ambrosia Software's products can be found at the "mac.archive.umich.edu" or "sumex-aim.stanford.edu" FTP sites. Contact us for complete Internet paths to our products.

And last but not least, you can obtain disks from us for $5.00 to cover shipping & handling.  You may place your order by indicating the name of the program you are interested in and sending us a check via US mail, faxing us your credit card number & expiration date, sending us your credit card number & expiration date via electronic mail, or calling our 800 number order line: 800.231.1816.

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Answers to frequently asked questions:

     -- Swoop *requires* System 7.0 or later (yes, it loves System 7.5 and PowerMacs).  It also requires a 256 color/gray scale monitor that is 13" or larger (640x480 pixels or greater).

     -- To get the best performance, especially if the animation is jerky or the sound playback is "stuttered", try playing with Extensions off. (Restart your computer and hold down the shift key).  Swoop, like most other video games, needs to animate and play sounds without interruption. Running Virtual Memory on low memory machines can break up this happy state of affairs. If you must play with Virtual Memory on (and that includes such products as RAM Doubler), then it would be a good idea to quit any other applications before launching the game. 

     -- Certain video cards may cause the sound to break up during during fades.  This is because the video card drivers turn off interrupts while they are changing color table entries, and some video cards do not handle color table changes in an optimal manner.  Since interrupts are off while the video card is changing color table entries, the Sound Manager cannot service the sound chip quickly enough, and the sound breaks up.

     -- Swoop requires a minimum of 2300K free memory in order to play properly.  This will give you a basic "dom dum" soundtrack to listen to. If you want to listen to something more uplifting, give Swoop 2700K for techno music or 3600K for a dramatic soundtrack. The memory allocation can be changed via Swoop's "Get Info..." window from the Finder. You can set your music preference during the game by choosing the "MusicÉ" menu item from the "Options" menu. This will allow you to turn the music on or off. It will also let you choose another soundtrack to play, but because of some fuzzy and vague memory  and speed issues, the choice will only take effect after you quit out and relaunch Swoop *and* you have given Swoop enough memory for the selected music. If there isn't enough memory available for the chosen selection then Swoop will automagically select the next available choice.

     -- If you have a CD drive, here's how you can listen to CD music while playing the game:  Launch the "Apple CD Audio Player" (or your favourite CD player), and hit play. Launch Swoop and select "silence" in the Music dialog box (see above paragraph). Start a new game and the CD music will play uninterrupted as you battle the bugs. Note however, that setting up the CD for "shuffle play" or programming it will cause the music to cease after the first track has played. This is because the CD application itself needs to do a bit of work between tracks. Swoop doesn't give the application time to do this (for speed reasons, not because it hates other applications). Pausing Swoop every now and then will give the CD player time to do its job, but this is a tad distracting. A better idea is to just start the CD on normal play and let it alone.

     -- Swoop, being an environmentally friendly game, allows you to switch out to the Finder and other applications while playing a game. Press the space key at the game's main menu screen to show and hide the menubar. You can pause during the middle of a game by pressing the Caps Lock key, and this will display the menubar and the cursor.
Change the sound volume by hitting a key from 0 to 9 on the main keyboard (the keypad is reserved for player controls).


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Contact Information

     -- If you have any questions concerning Swoop, are interested in site licensing, or want information on our other products, please feel free to get in touch:

US Mail:
     Ambrosia Software, Inc.
     PO Box 23140
     Rochester, NY 14692

Voice:
     716.427.2577 (technical support)
     800.231.1816 (orders only)

Fax:
     716.475.9289

E-mail:
     America Online: AmbrosiaSW
          Compuserve: 74777,1147
                  eWorld: AmbrosiaSW
                    GEnie: AmbrosiaSW
                Internet: AmbrosiaSW@AOL.com

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Technical Notes:

     -- Swoop is written in Symantec's Think C 7.x.  It utilizes Ambrosia's 4 channel 22kHz Sound Tool for audio, Ambrosia's Monitor Tool for monitor selection and smooth fading, Ambrosia's Registration Tool for the shareware license code system, Ambrosia's Blit Tool for fast drawing, and Ambrosia's Widget Tool for miscellaneous functions.

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Change history:

Version 1.0.0 -- Initial release 27 April 95

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Dedication:

Swoop is written for every kid (regardless of the age) who ever dreamed of having a Galaxian (or even a Tempest, Asteroids or Scramble) in their bedroom.


Musical Credits:

Mucho thanks to the following artists for keeping me awake and relatively sane during all the long nights:  Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, R.E.M, Vangelis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eagles and Abba (heh!). 


Cinematica:

X-Files, Blade "Deckard was a replicant" Runner, Alien, Aliens, (Alien3 sucked), Forbidden Planet, House of Cards, To Play the King, Speed Racer, Prince Planet, H.R. Puff 'n Stuff (I have you now flute! Save me Jimmy!), Sigmund the Seamonster and Lost in Space (where *did* they keep their RV?).


