

	--------------------
	BOMBJACK README FILE
	--------------------

The arcade game "BombJack" is (C) Copyright 1984 by TEHKAN LTD.
This emulator was written by Jakob Frandsen (jfrandsen@ite.dk) in 1996/97.
(C) Copyright 1996/97 by Jakob Frandsen. All rights reserved for the
emulator program.


	-------
	VERSION
	-------

This is version 1.1 of the BombJack emulator (Minor update). To upgrade the
game, simply copy all the files from this archive on top of the original
files. This version will run standalone if you can supply DOS4GW.EXE
yourself. However, the first release "BOMBJACK.ZIP" will still be available
from http://www.unicate.com/marc/bombjack.htm.


	--------------------------
	CHANGES SINCE LAST VERSION
	--------------------------

 - I have fixed the bug causing the "bird" to fly away from Bomb Jack instead
   of towards him. If you don't want a technical explanation on this, step to
   the next paragraph now :) The behavior of the SIGN BIT after a BIT-
   instruction is undocumented in all the books, I have on the Z80. However,
   the BOMBJACK code is dependent on this behavior (I think the authors
   accidentally wrote JP P instead of JP Z after the BIT-test). Anyway, I
   changed the behavior to that of the JP Z instruction (concerning the
   SIGN BIT), and that was that! Took a long time to trace this bug.

 - I believe that the bug sometimes causing the "B" to appear a little
   before every 5000 points is fixed (along with the fix mentioned above).

 - I have done some general optimizing.

 - A lot of people wrote me and asked me why there're only 2 lives to begin
   with. Well, the number of lives can be set from 2-6 by DIP switches and
   I have now changed it to 3 lives (like it usually is in the arcade
   machines).


	-------------------
	SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
	-------------------

 - PC
 - DOS (or Windows 95 (TM))
 - Fast 486 or Pentium (TM) (recommended)
 - VGA card (Fast PCI card recommended)
 - 4MB RAM

This game is definately best when it runs every frame (60Hz). For this you
will probably need at least a Pentium (TM) and a fast VGA-card.

If the game does not function right, (monsters weird, controls weak,
whatever), you can try to specify a numbered parameter to the exe-file.
You can use numbers from 1-10, the higher the number, the more time the
computer will spend emulating Z80 code (rather than drawing on the screen).
Default is 1. Experiment, if the game does not behave right.


	----------------------
	HOW DO I GET TO PLAY??
	----------------------

You will need the ROM images from the arcade machine. There are 16 ROMs,
all sized 8192 bytes except number 2, 3, 4, and 5. Once you have obtained
the ROMs, copy all 16 to this directory (where the executable file is),
rename the ROMs, so that they are called:

	bj-01.bin
	bj-02.bin
	bj-03.bin
	bj-04.bin
	bj-05.bin
	bj-06.bin
	bj-07.bin
	bj-08.bin
	bj-09.bin
	bj-10.bin
	bj-11.bin
	bj-12.bin
	bj-13.bin
	bj-14.bin
	bj-15.bin
	bj-16.bin

I cannot supply the ROMs and please don't e-mail me for them, they
are copyrighted by TEHKAN LTD.


	---------------------------
	INGAME CONTROL AND COMMENTS
	---------------------------

When the game starts, it will do a ROM and a RAM test. The ROM tests will
always fail, which is because I patch the Z80-code at startup-time. The
reason for this is that it makes the emulation of some hardware registers
faster. Don't mind this, though. At this point, you can press FIRE (which
is SPACE or CTRL) to pass the test and move on. After the ROM/RAM test, a
grid filling the screen will appear, don't mind this, just press SPACE or
CTRL again to get to the real game. Once there, you can use the following
keys to play:

	C	Credit (like inserting a coin). You must inserts coin(s)
		to play.

	F1	One player button.

	F2	Two player button.

	ARROW-
	KEYS	Steer BombJack (use also left and right to write hiscore)

	SPACE/
	CTRL	JUMP/"BREAK IN MID-AIR", select button when writing hiscore)

	ESC	Quit the game.


	----------------
	JOYSTICK SUPPORT
	----------------

There is a special way, you can get to play with a real joystick in this
game. Simply make a cable from a 9 pin male to a 25 pin male (from an AMIGA/
C64 joystick to a parallel connector). The pin assignment follows (I take
NO responsibility for any damage you might cause to your hardware by making
this cable):

JOYSTICK			PARALLEL PORT

pin 1 ------------------------- pin 10
pin 2 ------------------------- pin 12
pin 3 ------------------------- pin 13
pin 4 ------------------------- pin 15
pin 6 ------------------------- pin 11
pin 8 ------------------------- pin 18 (GND)

You enable this control by adding a '1' parameter when starting the game
after the framerate parameter (example: BOMBJACK.EXE 1 1).

NOTE: This will only work on LPT1 (port 378h).

If you write "2" as the second parameter instead of "1", the joystick controls
will be rotated 90 degrees. For Arcade joysticks, this will rotate the fire
button clockwise by 90 degrees so that the joystick will become almost like
a real arcade joystick in a real arcade machine. I use this option personally,
and my BombJack hiscore increased as I did so, because the game gets easier to
play. My personal hiscore is now 1037210 points (starting with 2 lives).


	------------------
	LATER IMPROVEMENTS
	------------------

1)	Sound support. I've got the sound working on my own computer, but
	I'm not completely satisfied with the sound quality. Expect a
	release soon, though.

2)	DIP switch selection (a menu-interface). This is so boring to
	program, so I havn't made it yet. :)

3)	Option for saving hiscores to disk and reloading them.


	----------------
	ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
	----------------

 - Thanks to Marc Charron (marc@unicate.com) for hosting my emulator.

 - Thanks to Thomas Scherrer and to Thomas Brask Jorgensen for lending me
   books on the Z80 processor and an EPROM-reader.

 - Thanks to Steffen Elmstrom for supplying me with a joystick->parallel-
   cable.

 - Thanks to Thomas Skellund for helping me with miscellanous tests. (This
   guy has the highest BombJack score, I have ever seen (over 16000000!!!))

 - Thanks to Niels Krogh Mortensen for letting me play his arcade BombJack
   for years.

 - And, well, thanks to anyone, I might have forgotton.


	----------------------
	TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK
	----------------------

Please e-mail me if you have comments, suggestions, or questions. My e-mail
address is jfrandsen@ite.dk.



