
Bong is a FreeWare game for BeOS,  by Gertjan van Ratingen

This is the first public release, version 1.01
(this fixes a small bug in V1.0, with the selection of joystickports)


Description

	Most of you will probably recognize it, as it's based on the old
	arcade classic PONG.

	This program was originally intended to be a joystick sample app.
	but somewhere on the way it has morphed itself into a pong clone.

	Weird.

	Anyway, this version can use two joysticks in both BeBox ports,
	or a splitter with two joysticks in either port.
	(I've made my own controls using slider-pots, see Remarks below)

	The program reads the values of the joysticks, and stores the minimum
	and maximum values to determine the active range of the stick.

	For the joystickless BeBoxers, there's keyboard support.



Usage

	Bong can be started like any other application by double-clicking
	it's icon.

	The main menu can be reached in the dock (in a next version I'll
	probably make it a pop-up menu).
	This menu lets you change Bong's settings. Just play around with it,
	and find out what each item does :)

	If you play using the keyboard, here's the controls:
	Left player: left Shift-key and Ctrl-key
	Right player: right Shift-key and Option-key (a.k.a. right Ctrl-key)

	Select "New Game" from the menu (or press command-N) to start
	a new game. Play ends if one of the players has scored 15 points.


Remarks

	- Topspin anyone? Bong looks at the movement of the bat, and adjusts
	  the angle of the ball if needed.

	- If you quit Bong, the current settings are saved to a file
	  (in /system/settings/Bong_prefs) for the next start of Bong.

	- Bong tries to read the audio-samples (bat.raw, over.raw, out.raw
	  and wall.raw) from the directory where the executable is started.
	  If a file cannot be read, Bong will use a beep instead.

	- Would you like to make your own sounds? The sampleformat is
	  8 bit signed, mono, 11025 Hz, raw (no header).

	- If you want a nice controller for this game, and you're
	  handy with a soldering iron, just do it like this:

	  For a "split joystick in port 1":

	             1
	                9     For a description of the ports, turn to
	             2        the Be User's Guide for DR8, page 194
	               10
	             3
	               11      +---+
	  +---+      4     GND |   |
	  |   | GND    12 -----+  +-+
	 +-+  +----- 5            | |
	 | |           13 ------->| |
	 | |<------- 6     Y0     | |
	 | |     Y0    14         +-+
	 +-+         7             |
	  |            15 ---------+
	  +--------- 8     +5v
	         +5v

	For "Jostick in ports 1 and 2" only connect the left pot
	(pins 5, 6 and 8) and make another cable the same way.

	Note: in this drawing, moving the slider "down" sends a higher
	      voltage to pin 6, and makes the bat move "up".
	      Remember that when using this setup ;-)


	You're welcome to send any comments to me by e-mail:

		gertjan@a1200.iaehv.nl  (home)
	or
		gj@codim.nl  (work)



Disclaimer

	Officially:
		Use it at your own risk!

	Practically:
		Enjoy the game, it probably won't ruin your BeBox.
		It only takes a small bit of your precious time ;-)

