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Burning-News Memory
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(c) 2007 by Thomas Raab alias Raabinator
http://www.raabinator.de.vu

This is my entry for the TINS'07 game programming contest.

TINS is an annual contest in which entrants have to write a game in just 
72 hours from scratch.
There are some common rules and some special rules which are announced
at the start of the competition.

Additional rules for this contest:
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1. genre rule #43 
   theme: garbage

   trash cans
   - one on the back of each card
   - one that is a quit button (in the lower right)
   sewer pipes
   - decorate the player info area
   - decorate the message windows
   rumpled paper
   - the cards are made of rumpled paper
   other things
   - the background of my title (upper right) is made
     of a checker plate found on nearly every garbage car

2. artistical rule #54 
   news events: use current news events
   
   On the front of the cards are some news headlines (from 31.mrz.2007)
   You have to find two cards with the same headline.

3. technical rule #61
   smoke effects

   Where fire is, there is smoke. See next rule.


4. technical rule #35
   must use flame fx (such as in exflame.c) or explosion fx

   If you find two matching cards the cards burn away from the top
   to the bottom.
   The fire goes over into clouds of smoke.
   Smoke and fire are generated on the fly (no pre-rendered gfx in a file or so)


Compilation:
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I used a windows (XP) computer and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express.
Because I'm not familiar with makefiles there is none.
I didn't use compiler specivic commands, so it should be portable to other
C++ compilers.
No platform specivic commands just standard c and c++, so i think it should
also compile on Linux or Mac systems. I can't test because a don't have one.

used libraries (besides the runtimes):
- allegro
- fblend

reused code:
- adapted the fire-fx code from the allegro example in exflame.c
  everyone has this, so i think it complies to the rules


How to play:
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It is a simple memory game, for two players.
Players have to find two cards with matching news headlines.
If a player opens cards that don't match, the cards keep open for two seconds
and are then closed again. Now the next player has his chance.
If two card match, the cards are burned away and the player gets a point.
If all cards are removed, the winner is the one with the most found pairs,
or both if equal pairs.
The game is completely controlled via the mouse. Message windows disappear
when you click with the mouse.
The game can be left anytime with the 'Quit' button, the trashcan in the
lower right corner.

command line options:
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fps          : shows the frames per second in the upper left corner
vsync        : syncronize screen update with vertical refresh
doublebuffer : uses double buffers (page flipping) instead of a memory
               backbuffer. Don't use this. Gets very slow when fblend performs
fastexit     : leave anytime by pressing Escape button
cheat        : for small-brained, shows the indexes of the cards


used ressouces:
---------------

music & sound:
There is no music and no sound. I think a card game doesn't need this.

gfx:
most selfmade except:
- trashcan on the cards: WindowsXP icon
- pipes: out of a free tileset from http://reinerstileset.4players.de
- backgrounds: brushes from Gimp2.2 and Micrografx Picture Publisher
- quit-trashcan: don't know, found on my harddrive


Notes:
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The game was made on a WindowsXP machine with an AMD Thunderbird 1400MHz,
512MB Ram and a NVIDIA GForce 2 GTS graphic card.
I used 1280x1024x32 and 1280x1024x16 as desktop resolution.
It runs fine here. I don't know how it runs on other machines.
I'm also not responsible for any data loss or damage when using this game.
Use it on your own risk!

I will place links to sources and binaries on
www.raabinator.de.vu/tins07.html



Greetings
Thomas Raab
alias Raabinator
www.raabinator.de.vu

