Welcome to

   M I R R O R M A G I C   I I
   ---------------------------

A game for Unix/X11 by Holger Schemel, (c) 1995 by Holger Schemel.


Introduction
============
This is a nice little game with color graphics and sound for your
Unix system with color X11. You need an 8-Bit color display or better.
It is not recommended on black&white systems, and maybe not on gray
scale systems.

It was first released as "Mirror Magic" in the year 1989 on the Amiga
(with ports on other computer systems). As the Amiga is a bit outdated
now, I decided to port it to Unix systems.


Getting started
===============
Just 'cd' to the 'mirrormagic' directory and type 'mirrormagic'!
This works only on Linux boxes, because the included binary was
compiled for Linux systems. If you have another Unix system like
HPUX, NetBSD or SUN, you first have to type 'make' to compile it.
This may be needed on Linux systems, too, if you have an older
system (kernel, libraries, ...).


The Menues
==========
You can see eight blue circles on the left side of the eight green menu
texts; these are buttons to activate the menu commands by simply clicking
on them with the left mouse button. The button will then change to red.

The menu 'name'
---------------
First, you have to choose a player name. Just click on the button for the
'name' menu. The screen will change and offer 10 player names to choose
from. At the first time, they will all be 'no name'. Choose the last
entry 'enter new name', choose one of the 'no name' fields and type in
your name. It will then appear as the actual player's name on the main
screen.

If you choose a certain special name, you will be in a cheat mode where
you can choose all levels without playing the lower levels before... :)

The menue 'level'
-----------------
If you have played some levels of this game, you can choose the already
played levels at any time, but you cannot choose the higher levels. This
means, you can choose levels from level 0 to the highest level that you
have ever won. This is known as your 'handicap'.

To choose a level, click on the two buttons on the left or right hand of
the level field. If you click on the button left of the text 'level',
the level field will switch to '50' or, if >=50, back to '00'. This is
because the levels '50' to '99' are empty, but you can build your own
mirrormagic levels with the built-in level editor.

Hall of fame
------------
Click on this button to see a list of the best players of this level.
Click again to go back to the main menu.

Level creator
-------------
This brings you to the level editor, if you have switched to level 50
or higher, which are empty and can be filled by yourself. See below.

Info screen
-----------
This screen shows you all elements which appear in the 50 levels.
Click again to go back to the main menu.

Start game
----------
This will start the game.

One/Two player(s)
-----------------
Disabled in the Unix version of this game.
In the Amiga version, there is a two player option, where two players
can solve a level simultaneously. While Unix systems normally have only
one pointer device (mouse), this cannot be used. (I think it wouldn't
be much fun for a second player to assist with the keyboard, anyway.)

Quit
----
Exit the game.


How To Play The Game
====================
When the game has started, you can see the playfield on the left side
and a control field on the right side. The control field contains the
following elements:

Level indicator		Tells you what level you are playing.

Spell counter		Shows you how many 'spells' you still need
			to win the current level.

Score counter		Shows the current score. In some levels there
			are some extra items giving extra score points.

Sounds On/Off		The two buttons (red and green) left and right
			of the 'stop' button can be used to disable /
			enable sound effects. On slower systems (and a
			486DX33 with Soundblaster _is_ a slower system)
			it can increase the game speed to turn off sound
			effects, although it is much more fun to have
			them enabled when it doesn't eats up to much speed.

			(Note: On a stock Amiga 500 (with MC68000, 7 MHz)
			from the year 1987, on which this game originally
			was developed, the graphics, the sound and the
			overall gameplay was _much_ more smooth than on
			a 486DX/33 with accelerated Cirrus 5426 graphics and
			a Soundblaster Pro. The Amiga version had some
			additionally background music and, yes, it all ran
			in multitasking with AmigaOS. But you may have a
			Pentium100 anyway. Just a note.)

Stop button		Click here to stop the current game. You are
			asked if you really want to...

Fuel (blue)		Shows you how many time is left to finish the
			current level ('magic energy').

Heat (red)		Shows you if the magic beam is overheated. If
			this reaches the top, the game is over.

On the left side you can see the playfield itself. Your task is to get
all the 'magic kettles' which contain 'magic spell ingredients'. To get
them, you have to hit them with the 'magic beam' that starts from the
magician. The gnomes (with red hats) each have a rotatable mirror which
can be rotated by clicking with the left or right mouse button, so you
can reflect the 'magic beam' to another direction. If you have gotten
all the 'magic kettles' (the ones with the color cycling, if you play
at an X server with read/write colors), the 'magic door' opens and you
only have to direct the 'magic beam' to this door to end the game. If
you have some time left you will get a time bonus and see your placement
in the hall of fame.

To complicate the game, the following levels will contain more and more
of some strange elements to help you in the level or to make it harder.

You can see them all on the 'info screen' from the main menu. Just try
out what they do when you see them in a new level - you will quickly
find it out... :)

The Level Editor
================
To build your own levels, just choose a level number between 50 and 99
and then choose 'level creator' from the main menu. You then will see
all available elements on the right side. Just choose the element you
want to place from the right and place it on the left side. All three
mouse buttons are mapped to draw in the playfield, the middle or the
right one erases the filed under the mouse button - I have forgotten
which one, just try it out! ;)

'clear' clears the level, 'exit' saves it after a confirmation.


Some key shortcuts
==================
There are some key shortcuts worth mentioned:
(They can be pressed while in the main menu only)

s,S	Toggle sound effects

t,T	Toggle toons. You may want to disable the toons that
	sometimes appear on the screen if you have slow graphics.

These switches are enabled by default. Other defaults can be choosen
in the Makefile.


And Now Have Fun!
=================
Have fun playing the game, building new levels and breaking all high
scores! ;)

If you have any comments, problems, suggestions, donations, flames,
send them to

	aeglos@valinor.owl.de

or Snail Mail

	Holger Schemel
	Sennehof 28
	33659 Bielefeld
	GERMANY

Have fun,
		Holger
