KZacman User Manual

KZacman is a maze game similar to Pacman written for the K Desktop Environment using the QT and KDE libraries. It has been tested under the Beta 4 release of KDE and should be considered stable.

I release it under an open source code license. If you like this program, send me a postcard from your hometown :-).

Sandro Sigala
Viale De Gasperi, 8
25041 Darfo Boario Terme
Brescia, Italy

How to play

The only keys you need to use are the four arrow keys. The objective of the game is to collect all the points and find the exit of the maze (that is at the bottom right corner of the maze). The monsters that you may meet during the game can only be killed using the potions found in the maze. The monsters/potions ratio is equal to 2, so you must kill at least two monsters with one potion.

The objects of the game
Object	Name	Description
	Zacman	Zacman not after using a potion
	Zacman	Zacman after using a potion
	Monster	You might kill them using the potions
	Point	You must collect all the points before exiting
	Potion	Use this to kill the monsters

The four skills
Skill level	Number of monsters	Number of potions	Number of points
Beginner	4	2	25
Intermediate	8	4	50
Advanced	12	6	75
Expert	16	8	100

Where to find the sources

The main FTP site is ftp.vix.com, where you can find the latest sources of this program plus the sources of other programs written by me. The other available FTP site is KDE main site ftp.kde.org, or any other mirror.

License

/****************************************************************
Copyright (c) 1998 Sandro Sigala <ssigala@globalnet.it>.
All rights reserved.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software
and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby
granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all
copies and that both that the copyright notice and this
permission notice and warranty disclaimer appear in supporting
documentation, and that the name of the author not be used in
advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the
software without specific, written prior permission.

The author disclaim all warranties with regard to this
software, including all implied warranties of merchantability
and fitness.  In no event shall the author be liable for any
special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages
whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether
in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action,
arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of
this software.
****************************************************************/

Credits

George Russell <george.russell@clara.net> for feature suggestions.

Changes

Changes from version 0.3 to version 1.0

Updated the configure files synchronizing with the kexample example of KDE SDK package.
As a consequence of the above change, the source files are renamed from .cc to .cpp.
Changed the start and end arrows sprites.
Changed the Zacman sprites.
Changed the maze layout.
Added monsters.
Added the potion object.
Removed the useless X and Y coordinates from the status bar.
Added sounds (the KDE interface is inadequate, though).
Added the High Score board.
Added balloon messages.

Changes from version 0.2 to version 0.3

Added automatic save and load of user options.

Changes from version 0.1 to version 0.2

Modified the background image.
Fixed bug in the pause menu entry handling code.
Fixed bug in the points positioning code; the game cannot ever finish with this bug!

To Do

The KDE audio interface is inadequate for complex sound applications like games. Need to find a best method for playing sounds.
Make the High Score board global, not local (this requires making the score data globally writable).
Add keys redefinition support.
Comment the source code with kdoc.
Rewrite this documentation with the KDE SGML tools.
Internationalization.

Send comments to Sandro Sigala <ssigala@globalnet.it>