The Game of Buster
by Oliver Schn

The game "Breakout" has appeared in many guises on many computers, but not many variants are played with a mouse, and not many have the additional feature of being able to alter the angle of the bat. Buster is a mouse controlled version of "Breakout" that goes beyond the usual lateral movement of the bat, producing a game that is both challenging and simple in concept.

The rules are easy - simply try to keep the ball bouncing around, hitting as many blocks as you can. If you miss the ball, then you lose a life. Here is a summary of what to do.

- During the startup sequence or at the prompt you are required to enter the level to start on. Level 1 is the easiest, and is recommended for beginners, as it gives you time to think before the ball rushes at the bat.

- Since both the bat and the ball get centred before each round starts, it is suicidal to move the bat (i.e. the mouse) before first contact between the bat and ball.

- It may help to imagine that the mouse is connected to the upper end of the bat, so that a movement of the mouse up or down will move the bat respectively, a movement right will angle it down and a movement left will angle it up.

- By moving and angling your bat you simply have to "bust" all the blocks on the screen.

- To minimize the frustration of missing the ball too often, it might be a good policy to keep the bat quite still before impact. If you move to intercept the ball at a high speed you may well miss it.

- During each level the speed of the ball is constant and the angle it moves at depends entirely on the angle of your bat.

- To reset the High Score tables, delete the file BustHigh in the !Buster.BustStuff directory.

 RISC User 1992
