Thank you for having a look at Maniac. I hope you'll enjoy the game! I've had such an entertaining and interesting time writing it that it's been worth the two years of on-and-off development!
The 'lite' version of Maniac is exactly the same as Maniac, except it doesn't have any music. This makes it smaller, and it also means that you don't need a very powerful Mac to play it (the full version prefers a 20MHz 68030 or better).
Please read the following notes before playing Maniac: they describe system requirements as well as information on paying your shareware fee.
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Required files
These are the files you require for Maniac lite to run:
Maniac lite 2.1.1
Maniac lite sounds
The "Maniac lite sounds" file must be placed in the same folder as the Maniac lite application, otherwise you won't get very far!
Shareware fee!
Please.
I've spent a long time working on this game, and I hope you will support my efforts by paying the shareware fee. Paying the fee will ensure you are a legal user of this and any future shareware versions of Maniac, and you will support my efforts in writing software for the Macintosh.
See further below for more information on payment and where to send it to.
System Requirements
Required:
• 68020 Mac or better
• System 7.0 or later
• 640x480 screen (or larger)
• 256 colours/grays (or more)
• 1900k of free memory
Recommended:
• 68030 Mac or better
• Sound Manager 3.0
Suggested:
• No heart conditions (in case the game's excitement gets the better of you)
• Strong desire to give copies of Maniac to all your friends
• Cash within easy reach (for paying the shareware fee)
Maniac is compatible with:
• Power Macs
• AV Macs
• Large screens / multiple screens
• 68040 caches
• Modern Memory Manager
• Virtual memory
• System 7.5
Paying the shareware fee and contacting the author
Paying the shareware fee gives you the deep satisfaction of having supported one programmer's efforts to provide entertaining Mac software! You'll be entitled to free updates to any future shareware versions of Maniac.
You can pay the shareware fee in any of the following ways:
By cash:
• 10 British pounds,
• $15 U.S. dollars, or
• $20 Canadian dollars
By cheque:
• 10 British pounds,
• $25 U.S. dollars, or
• $35 Canadian dollars, or
• equivalent of $25 U.S. dollars
Note the higher U.S. and Canadian fees: this is due to conversion fees charged by the bank. Make cheques payable to "Alex Metcalf".
Send money to the following address: this is also the address for sending suggestions, comments, bug reports, and other stuff:
Alex Metcalf
Ty Yfory
Llanfair Road
Lampeter
Dyfed, Wales
SA48 8JZ
United Kingdom
Other contact methods
I can also be contacted in any of the following ways:
Internet: alex@metcalf.demon.co.uk
UK Fax: ++(0)1570 45636
I read that internet mail account every week or so, so don't worry if you don't get an immediate reply!
Here are some notes on Maniac, in two sections. The first section contains points of interest on some of the technical features and game aspects of Maniac. The second section is a troubleshooting section which you can refer to if things "don't go as they should"...
Points of interest
• If Maniac doesn't appear to play at full speed (for example, the game slows down when sounds play), then try the following:
1) Switch off the 'dot sound' option in the preferences
2) Make sure that 'ManiacDraw' is chosen in the special options screen (see below)
3) Try using the 'two channels' option in the special options screen (see below)
4) Switch off extensions (hold down shift key when restarting your Mac)
5) Speak to your Mac. Studies have shown that computers respond well to comforting conversations. Love your Mac and it will love you.
• Holding down the Command key immediately after you open Maniac brings up a special options screen. Descriptions are given with each of the options. Basically, you shouldn't need to fiddle with these unless you have a special Mac configuration or wish to optimise the speed for a slower Mac.
• Sound Manager 3 is an Apple extension which requires System 7.1 or later (or a previous version of System 7 with the QuickTime extension). Low-end 68030 Macs (such as the LC, IIsi and IIvi) without this extension may have inferior quality sound in Maniac. Whatever Mac you have, Maniac takes advantage of Sound Manager 3 (if available) by improving the sound capabilities of the game which in turn makes the animation smoother.
The Sound Manager 3 extension is made by Apple, and may be available from your local Apple dealer, or perhaps from your favourite software source (such as ftp.austin.apple.com on the Internet). It's built into most recent Macs (AV Macs and Power Macs, for instance), and it's also part of System Update 2 or 3 from Apple. Don't let Apple charge you for it!
• In case any of you were wondering, the help sections in the game haven't changed since 2.0. All that information is correct, it's just that I haven't mentioned two features that much! Such is life.
The first is the bonus level: every two levels there is a bonus level where you have a short time to catch as many ghosts as you can. You get large amounts of points for each one caught, and an extra life for catching all four. Harder than it sounds, as you'll see...
The second is the bonus bar down the side. For every certain number of dots you eat the pointer on the bonus bar goes up. At any time you can press the bonus key (as defined in the Preferences section) to activate the bonus the pointer is pointing at. The higher the pointer, the better the bonus, the ultimate bonus being the mystery 'question mark' which is usually good but sometimes has side effects! Most of the bonuses are cryptically described in the help section.
How to avoid problems (or fix them if you get them!)
• If you attempt to play a game of Maniac (by pressing "N"), the "Get Ready" message appears and disappears, and then:
- Your Mac crashes, or
- The graphics come out completely wrong
Then your graphics card or monitor may be incompatible with Maniac's fast drawing code, ManiacDraw. Hold down the Command key immediately after opening Maniac until a dialog box appears. In this dialog box you can switch the "drawing mode" to QuickDraw, which should be compatible with your screen. However, Maniac may not play at full speed if using QuickDraw on a 68020 or 68030 Mac.
• Maniac assumes that your startup monitor ("Welcome to Mac" monitor) is the same monitor as your menu bar monitor. If you have changed this (by holding down the option key in the Monitors control panel) then Maniac may not hide the menu bar correctly. I'm working on it, don't worry...
• If you have one of those cool new multi-resolution monitors which you can switch "on the fly", I suggest you don't change resolutions when Maniac is open. The same goes for the Radius pivot: resist the temptation to swing it round in the middle of an exciting game. Maniac only checks the screen size once, and that's when it's opened. If you change the size, Maniac might try drawing Pac Man all over another program's memory. Remember Ghostbusters: "Crossing the streams would be bad."
• If Maniac doesn't work correctly, the first thing you should try is increasing its memory allocation. The minimum is 1900k; try increasing it to 2200k or so. If you still encounter problems, try restarting your Mac with extensions off (hold down shift key) and try again. If the problem doesn't appear then one of your extensions is incompatible with Maniac. Let me know if you find this: I haven't found any extensions (yet) which are incompatible.
