This file contains inportant information about

                          
                               
                              
                                      (MULTIX 2.06)
                                
                 2.06                   24th February, 1999
                          

          REVENGE OF THE SQUARES               
                          _ _
              by Marko Kavcic


                     CONTENTS
                     
              1. System requirements
              2. What is MULTIX?
	      3. What is new in MULTIX II?
              4. How to play the game?
              5. MULTIX commands
                 4.1. Main menu
                 4.2. Ingame commands
              6. Main screen
              7. Problems
              8. Next versions
              9. Credits


1. System requirements:
   
386 processor (486DXn or better recommended),
VGA card capable of resolution 320X200 in 256 colors,
DOS operating system (has no more problems with Windows 3.1/95).
Doesn't work under OS/2 or Windows NT.

2. What is MULTIX?
   
MULTIX is, as you might have guessed from the name itself, a game similar to
TETRIS and its derivative PENTIX. TETRIS was just too boring. It was too 
easy. You could play it for an infinite time and achieve an infinite result, 
especially if cheating with the TURBO key, and a little mistake caused the score
jumping from 32767 to -32768.
PENTIX and some TETRIS clones fixed these two mistakes. In TETRIS the
mistakes (creating a hole) could easily be repaired. In PENTIX it was a 
little bit harder. But for me it just wasn't enough. I am sure there must be 
lots of players with the same problem. This is the biggest reason I have created 
MULTIX and NUTTIX.
In TETRIS all the pieces were made of only four squares (tetra=four), in 
PENTIX they were made of one to five squares (penta=five, x indicates that 
there are also smaller ones). MULTIX includes all possible pieces made of up
to and including six squares so I should have called it HEXIX, but that just
sounds terrible. So I added a few even bigger pieces (made of seven, eight,
nine and ten squares) and named it MULTIX (multi=many). But it still wasn't 
enough. So I added another type of game in Multix II: ROC. It is called NUTTIX
and is almost impossible to play.
In MULTIX you can MIRROR the pieces vertically, not just rotate and move 
them, so there are only 60 pieces instead of 93 and it is a BIG help with
those huge asymmetric pieces you don't seem to be able to put anywhere 
TETRIS had 7 pieces (5 with mirror command), PENTIX 27 (22), MULTIX has 60
of them (93 without mirror command), NUTTIX has 75 (and will have even more 
in the future versions).
The pit has been extended to 36 X 16 squares (this was necessary because of
the bigger pieces used in MULTIX).You can also play TETRIS and PENTIX in
MULTIX, although they are NOT the same as originals because of the bigger 
pit and changed scoring. 
TETRIS and PENTIX were in text mode and the pieces jumped square by square.
MULTIX II. is in graphics mode and it features a smooth falling pixel by pixel. 
TETRIS used only about ten colors, MULTIX uses 256 and a fast palette 
rotation. The backgrounds are calculated using some functions of two 
variables (f(x,y)), represented by color. When the background moves, the 
effects are unbelievable (use the Background Gallery option in the main menu to
test your video card and monitor with these smoothly moving
backgrounds).

3. What is new in MULTIX II.?
   
MULTIX II features a new type of game called NUTTIX. This is even harder then
MULTIX. It uses all the pieces of MULTIX plus a few new weird ones.
The MIRROR command can now be disabled. The pieces can now be colored
individually and not only with the background patterns.
Main menu has been rebuilt and is now much nicer.
Graphics are now a little bit faster.
MULTIX II uses an asychronous timer and no longer measures time to calculate
delays. This made it possible to play through Windows, but alt+tab switching
still trashes the game screen.
The palette has been changed and is less eyestraining.
Version changes
2.04:
- Minor font bug fixed.
- Pause command ('P') added.          
2.06
- Full lines disappear in a more interesting manner.
- "MULTIX" written in the background has been replaced with the type of the
  current game.                  
- added "individual" coloring of the pieces (each square has a different color

4. How to play the game?
   
MULTIX is played very much like Tetris. You move, rotate and mirror the pieces
until they fit underneath (as well as possible) and then drop them as fast as
you can (the faster you can do that, more points you get). A full line of
squares (or more of them) is removed from the pit and higher squares fall down,
making space for the next pieces. The more lines you fill at the same time,
the more points you get. The piece in upright corner is the next piece. It moves
a little bit lower and to the middle, when the previous one is dropped. You can
still move, rotate and mirror the pieces for a small time after they have been
dropped. This enables not only drop&slide but also drop&rotate and drop&mirror.

5. MULTIX commands
   
5.1. Main menu:

- START GAME
  starts the game.
- TYPE OF GAME
  change the type of game (tetris/pentix/multix/nuttix).
- SPEED LEVEL
  changes the starting speed of the game (use left/right arrow).
- BACKGROUND COMPLEXITY
  changes the way the backgrounds are calculated.
  - Complex uses floating point operations to calculate 41 different
    backgrouds. Use this on a pentium, possibly on a 486DX4.
  - Disked reads one of five saved backgrounds from disk. This is very fast
    on any machine.
  - Simple uses simplified integer calculations and is much faster than
    complex, but the 9 different backgrounds are very simple.
- VERTICAL MIRROR
  is used to turn on and off the mirror command. Useful if you want to play
  the old-fashioned tetris or pentix
- PALETTE ROTATION
  turns on and off palette rotation. Use this if there is too much snow on
  your screen or your eyes hurt.
- SOUND
  turns on and off the beeper sounds.
- SQUARE COLORING
  tells the game whether to use individual colors for each square or for the
  whole piece or use the background pattern.
- HELP
  shows the commands used in the game and animates two of them.
- BACKGROUND GALLERY
  shows backgrounds until you press a key and wait a little bit.
- CREDITS
  shows you the credits.
- EXIT
  exits the game.

5.2. Ingame commands:

F1 - Help - All written in this section, animation of rotate and mirror command.
ESC - End game - Use in case of emergency or too many holes.
P - Pause the game.
S - Sound on/off
7 - Move left
8 - Rotate anticlockwise
9 - Move right
5 - Mirror vertically
0 or SPACE - Drop
3 - Speed up (level=level+1)
Num lock should be on if you want to play on the numeric keypad.

6. Main screen
   
This are the parts of the game screen:

                x           NEXT  x
                x     THIS        x
                x                 x
                x                 x
      LEVEL     x                 x     NUMBER OF LINES
                x                 x
                x                 x
                x                 x
                x                 x
      SCORE     x                 x     SQUARES DROPPED
                x   T    H    E   x
                x                 x
                x   P    I    T   x
                x x x x x x x x x x

7. Problems
   
- General
There should be no bigger problems with this game. It's been tested by me
and my friends quite thoroughly. It works perfectly on my machine
(486DX-40). It should work on a 386 (even 286).
- Windows
The game speed is no longer a problem under Windows(3.1/95). Just don't use the
alt+tab switching and you'll be OK.

Answers to common problems:
1. P: MULTIX II is too hard for me.
   A: MULTIX is really hard, but I don't think it is too much for a smart
      player like you. Just keep practising! If you just can't do it, try
      playing TETRIS or PENTIX. When you are really good at this, you can
      gradually start playing MULTIX. Use the new mirror command also in
      TETRIS and PENTIX, so you will be able to use it wisely in MULTIX,
      where it is a big help. Play on a lower level if you must. You can
      increase it later.
2. P: MULTIX II is too easy.
   A: I don't believe you. If you are playing TETRIS or PENTIX, this only
      means you should proceed to MULTIX. If you are really playing MULTIX
      and think it is too easy for you, then try NUTTIX or increasing the
      speed level. If it's still to easy, let me know. I'll consider a new
      version of the game.
3. P: There is too much snow on the screen.
   A: Turn the palette rotation off or buy yourself a
      better computer with a better graphics card and better monitor.
4. P: The background is drawn too slow.
   A: There are three types of background management:
      SIMPLE - calculates backgrounds without using the floating point
      operations and is much faster if you don't have a coprocessor,
      but the backgrounds are very simple (lines and so),
      COMPLEX - calculates background using floating point operations - use
      this if you have a fast computer with a coprocessor to see 40 different
      very complex backgrounds,
      DISKED - reads backgrounds from disk - there are only five nicest (by
      my opinion) backgrounds, but they can be displayed much faster - this
      was added in MULTIX 1.03.
5. P: MULTIX crashes with a message 'Runtime error 203 at xxxx:yyyy'.
   A1: You don't have enough lower (conventional, under 640K) memory. Free
       it up!
   A2: You played more than (amount of free conventional memory)/352 (around
       1000) times without exiting the program. Just don't do that. It is not
       good for your health anyway.

Please let me know if you have any other problem with MULTIX 2.06.

8. Next versions
   
The next versions of MULTIX will probably feature:
- more pieces (for all those who think only 60 is not enough),
- new backgrounds (maybe a custom background in PCX format),
- joystick and mouse support (only if you want it),
- some of your suggestions,
- score protection,
- multiplayer mode (match and cooperative)
Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 version will not be made. This version works OK
under those.
I might translate the entire game in Java someday.
Check my home page for the latest version of MULTIX and some other games.

9. Credits
   
                                    _ _
Idea, Programming & Design Marko Kavcic

Assembler programming: Mitja Krebelj

About the author:
I (Marko Kavcic) am a student of Computer sciences in Ljubljana, the capital
city of the beautiful independent Slovenia on the sunny side of the Alps in
the heart of Europe. I hated tetris, its ugly look and jumping pieces. So I
decided that TETRIS should die. In order to do this I created MULTIX.

You can and should support me in these ways :
- by playing the game,
- by reporting any bugs you encounter in the game to the author,
- by sending your opinions about the game (the best ones will be in the next
  version of this file with the next version of MULTIX),
- by sending me your suggestions and ideas about the future versions of
  MULTIX and any other game you would like me to make,
- by reporting any mistakes in this file (grammar and other),
- by leaving all the files unchanged and together,
- by copying, lending, uploading, downloading, distributing, redistributing,
  reredistributing, making spare copies,...(follow the previous instruction!)
- by NOT reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, creating
  derivatives, using parts of the program for a different purpose, taking out
  pictures or any similar doing,
- by sending me contributions,
- by drawing the two strange markings on the 'c'-s in my surname (as seen in
  the beginning and ending of the game) and pronouncing them as 'ch' in 'cheese',
- by including your name, address, type of computer, kind of problem (if any),
  version of MULTIX (this one should be 2.06), where you got MULTIX and any
  other important data in your e-mail or snail-mail messages.

addresses:

E-mail:

    Marko.Kavcic@campus.fri.uni-lj.si

Snail-mail:
             _ _
    Marko Kavcic
    Poljanska 17
    SI-1000 Ljubljana
    Slovenia
    Europe

Home page:

http://www.slosite.com/~markok/



What are you waiting for?

GO PLAY

MULTIX II: Revenge of the Squares!
