Bomb Billy

by Gary Lee


Bomb Billy is a great new version of an arcade classic. It also features a designer that enables you to create your own levels. To play, simply manoeuvre Billy around the screen whilst avoiding the aliens. Collect all 24 bombs to advance to the next screen!

Keys
<Return>
	Start game
Z
	Move left
X
	Move right
<Shift>
	Jump/Soar/Float
<Space>
	Speed up gotten screen
	Toggle high scores/title
<Esc>
	Quit game
<Ctrl>+<Esc>
	Quit to desktop

Use the Shift key to jump and also to soar right to the top of the screen by holding it down. The Shift key can also be used to stop Billy moving vertically.

Hints
To collect a series of horizontal bombs without the aid of a ledge to walk on, you must repeatedly press Shift to float. The faster you press the Shift key, the more efficiently you will float (this is a concept that many people just could not grasp when a version of this game was in the arcades all those years ago).

Copy the game to your hard disc, or put it on another floppy disc, to ensure that high scores are saved. To reset the high scores, manually delete the 'HiScores' data file inside the !BombBilly application directory.

Bombs and Firebombs
Bombs are worth 100pts and firebombs are worth 200pts. A firebomb, or lit bomb, appears as soon as the first bomb is collected: when a firebomb is collected, the next bomb in the predetermined sequence will light up. Therefore, by learning the bomb sequence for each level, you should pick up as many firebombs as you can and earn extra points and more (see below).

Furthermore, there are end-of-screen bonuses for picking up 20 or more firebombs on a level:

   *  20 firebombs earns 10,000pts
   *  21 firebombs earns 20,000pts
   *  22 firebombs earns 30,000pts
   *  23 firebombs earns 50,000pts

The indicator at the top right of the screen tells you how far away you are from these bonuses. It dims each time a non-firebomb is picked up while a firebomb is lit, and disappears altogether when the bonus is no longer possible.

These end-of-screen bonuses are the best route to mega-high scores of 1,000,000+.

Coins
The B coin appears every 5,000pts and collecting this causes the bonus score multiplier, displayed at the top of the screen, to be increased. All future scores obtained are multiplied by this value; it is reset at the beginning of each new level and new life.

The E coin appears after every 100 firebombs have been collected (a non-firebomb is worth half a firebomb). An extra man is awarded when picking up the E coin. If the E coin appears just as you pick up the last bomb, then better luck next time!

The P coin enables Billy to 'power up' and destroy the aliens. Keep an eye on the gauge at the top of the screen. This gauge widens as bombs are collected (more quickly for firebombs), and the P coin appears when it is at maximum width and its colours are rotating at double speed. This gauge is not reset at the beginning of a new level, so you could try to set it to almost maximum just before a difficult level, for example.

Screen mode
Bomb Billy can run in two different screen modes. By default it will run in a multisync mode on a Risc PC, but for other machines it will use MODE 13. Before running for the first time in multisync mode, you must append the contents of the file 'RPCMode' to the contents of your monitor definition file, which can be found in the directory:
Boot:Resources.Configure.Monitors

By holding down Space when double-clicking the !BombBilly icon, the choices of screen modes will be reversed, so Risc PC users can use MODE 13 if they wish. The default choice of mode can be changed by editing the game's !Run file and following the instructions in it.

Level designer
The level designer is extremely straightforward to use. After loading, you can hold down ? at any time to see the range of available keypresses.

When you save a set of levels for the first time, a new 'Levels' file is created, and this is what will be used when !BombBilly (or the designer) is next run. If no such file exists, then the default levels (held within the !RunImage file) will be used. Therefore, to revert to the default levels, just delete (or rename) the 'Levels' file.

 Copyright RISC User magazine 1998
