RocketBowl Readme

Welcome to RocketBowl, the utopian sport of the future! If you have any questions about the game, or problems running it on your system, please consult the sections below. We hope you enjoy your experience with RocketBowl, and we invite you to check out other fine titles from Large Animal Games at www.largeanimal.com.

Contents

Overview
Aiming and Throwing
Switching Views
Rocket Boosts
Curve
Wild Shots
Buying New Balls
Dollar Pins and Power Ups
Challenges and Tournaments
Mini-Striker
Scoring
About Large Animal Games
About the Torque Game Engine
Troubleshooting (Problems and Questions)

Overview
Welcome to the 1958 Kalamazoo World’s Fair, where the biggest news is the all-new RocketBowl Pavilion! Now you too can play the utopian leisure sport of the future. Bowl over amazing contoured terrains, use new-and-improved rocket-powered bowling balls, and experience 7 futuristic courses…today!

Aiming and Throwing
To aim the ball, click on the center of the screen and hold the button down while moving the mouse left or right. Try to line up your aiming arrow with the arrow hovering above the pins. To throw the ball, click “Set Power” to start the power meter, then click the “Launch” button to release the ball. The “Set Power” and “Launch” buttons will be in the same place, so you don’t need to move your mouse when throwing the ball. Try to release the ball when the meter is completely full.

Switching Views
Often, it can be useful to look at the course from a bird’s eye view. Click the “Switch View” button to try it out. From the top view you can aim and shoot just like in the normal view. Click the “Switch View” button a second time to return to your original view.

RocketBoosts
Some balls feature powerful RocketBoosts you can use to steer your ball. To use a RocketBoost, click one of the green boost arrows to send your ball in that direction. The number in between the arrows tells you how many boosts you can use on each throw. The best balls have vertical RocketBoosts that will send your ball flying through the air. To use a vertical RocketBoost, click the arrow pointing up. Use the vertical boosts to get over obstacles.

Curve
Some balls can curve around obstacles and terrain. To adjust the curve, click the arrow buttons below the power meter. You will see a curve preview appear in your curve indicator. Different types of balls have different types of curves. Some balls have a “hook” curve, while others have a “smooth” curve. Experiment and see which one you like best!

Wild Shots
You can bowl at any set of pins you want to, not just the ones in your frame. You can make a “Wild Shot” by hitting pins that aren’t in your frame. The points scored from Wild Shots are added to the frame they belong to. You can also knock down pins that are still standing if you’ve missed them on an earlier frame.Buying New Ball
Once you have enough money, you can buy a more powerful ball. Some of the more powerful balls in RocketBowl feature Curves, Horizontal RocketBoosts, and Vertical RocketBoosts. To buy a new ball, click the Bowling Bag button. Clicking the Bowling Bag button will take you to the RocketBowl Shop. Here you can buy a new ball, sell a ball you already own, and check out the specs on all of the balls in the game.

Dollar Pins and Coins
Each RocketBowl course features a number of Dollar Pins. These are green pins that award you a dollar each time you knock them down. If you miss a dollar pin, try to get it on a Wild Shot! Also, in most RocketBowl levels are special $5 coins. You are rewarded with five dollars if you hit them. Keep an eye out for these coins to further fatten your wallet.

Challenges and Tournaments
Want to take on a local pro for cash? Then click the Challenge button from the Course Selection Screen. You can meet your opponent, and find out what he or she has to say. Earn money on the game by wagering cash against your opponent and by hitting Dollar Pins and Cash Power Ups.

Tournaments are official RocketBowl sanctioned events where the best RocketBowlers in the area compete for a sweet cash prize. Each tournament has an entry fee, and all tournament entrants must first score at least 100 on the course where the tournament takes place. Place first, second or third in a tournament and walk home with cold, hard cash.

Mini-Striker
At the end of every Freeplay round, you have the option of earning some extra cash by playing a Mini-Striker Round. You have 30 seconds to knock down as many 3-pin sets as you can. Wager up to 10 dollars on the round, but bet carefully! If you bet too high and don’t score enough strikes, you could end up losing money.

Scoring
RocketBowl is scored exactly like regular bowling, with two exceptions: 1) you get three balls per frame instead of two; and 2) you can throw the ball at other pinsets to get 'Wild Shots'. If you hit pins, that throw won't count towards your three balls on that frame. It's like a free throw!

Generally, you will get one point for every pin you knock down. The exception to this rule is strikes and spares. A strike is scored when you knock down all 10 pins on your first shot. If you score a strike, you earn 10 points plus the number of pins you knock down on your next two shots. A spare is scored when you knock down all 10 pins on your second or third shot. If you score a spare, you earn 10 points plus the number of pins you knock down on your next shot.

About Large Animal Games
Our mission at Large Animal is to make games that are easy to learn but offer deep, rich gameplay. We want our games to be fun for all sorts of players, even those who don't really think of themselves as gamers.

Our original, downloadable games, such as AlphaQUEUE, Unipong, and RocketBowl, can be found at internet portals such as Yahoo Games, RealArcade, and Shockwave.com. We've also developed dozens of custom web-based games for clients like LEGO, Mattel, MTV, Discovery Kids, Berkeley Breathed, Girls Inc, and the New York Philharmonic. Visit our games page to play them.

Large Animal was founded in January of 2001 by partners Josh Welber and Wade Tinney, both graduates of the MFA program in interactive design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Since then, Josh and Wade have been lucky enough to build a team of incredibly talented and hard-working artists, programmers, musicians, and producers. With this team, we've made games of all types; puzzle games, celebrity name games, role-playing games, action games and word games. This fall, Large Animal will release our 37th game!

About the Torque Game Engine
The Torque Game Engine (TGE) is a full-featured AAA title engine with the latest in scripting, geometry, particle effects, animation and texturing, as well as award-winning multi-player networking code. For $100 per programmer, you get the source to the engine that powers Marble Blast, Orbz, Sierra's Tribes 2, and many other titles currently in development. Go to www.garagegames.com for more information.

Troubleshooting (Problems and Questions)

Listed below are some common questions and troubleshooting issues, as well as possible solutions or workarounds:

Problem: These graphics don’t look so great.
Solution: On the Options Screen, try changing the Visual Detail setting to
High or increasing the resolution to 1024x768. You can also turn on advanced video options like full-screen anti-aliasing, high quality MIP mapping, and anisotropic filtering. These options can be changed on the Windows control panel (under display). You may also have to update your display drivers (see Updating your Drivers , below).

You can try changing your Display Driver from OpenGL to Direct3D on the Options screen, however many people experience problems while running RocketBowl using Direct3D.

Problem: The game is choppy or running very slowly.
Solution: First, close all other applications that may be running in the background. To do this, hold down the control and alt keys, and then hit the delete key. You should see a list of programs. (Windows XP users will have to click the “Processes” tab). From the list of programs, select an item and then click END TASK. Do not close “Explorer” or “Systray” items (Windows XP users should not close items in the “SYSTEM,” LOCAL SERVICE,” or “NETWORK SERVICE” groups).

We also recommend clearing your computer of spyware. Spyware is software that may have been installed on your computer by advertisers without your knowledge. You can use programs like Adaware (available at http://www.lavasoft.de/) and SpyBot: Search & Destroy (available at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html) to get rid of spyware. If the game’s performance does not improve, consult the following problem:

Problem: I closed all other applications and got rid of my spyware, but the game is still running slowly.
Solution: Your machine may not be equipped to handle the medium or high graphics modes. Try selecting the low graphics mode from your options menu. Also, try reducing the resolution to 800x600 or 640x480. Finally, try running the game in Full Screen mode. You may also have to update your display drivers (see Updating your Drivers , below).

Problem: The game brings up a dialog saying it can't find a compatible display device.
Solution: Make sure the drivers for you graphics card are up to date (see below). RocketBowl requires an OpenGL or D3D compatible graphics accelerator.

Updating your Drivers:
A driver is a piece of software that tells your hardware what to do. RocketBowl's performance and functionality is tied to two specific pieces of hardware: your 3D Video Accelerator and your Sound Card. The video accelerator is responsible for drawing RocketBowl's graphics and sending them to the monitor, and the Sound Card is responsible for playing back the game's sound and music. It is very important that you update to the latest video and audio drivers before playing the game -- it will give you the best RocketBowling experience that you can get!

In order to update your driver, you first need to determine what brand video card you are using:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Control Panel.
4. Double-click the Display icon.
5. Click on the Settings tab, at the top of the window.
6. Click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
7. Click on the Advanced tab or the Information tab at the top of the window. Information on your hardware and software should be listed here.

Once you know which brand video card you are using, you can go to your manufacturer’s website to find updates for your drivers.

Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
ATI: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
Matrox: http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm
Intel: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp?iid=HPAGE+header_support_download&
S3: http://www.s3graphics.com/DRVVIEW.HTM
Hercules: http://us.hercules.com/support/index.php3
SiS: http://www.sis.com/support/ocis/

Problem: My audio sounds strange.
Solution: Some on-board sound processors have problems with RocketBowl. Try updating your audio drivers:

First, determine which audio card your computer is using:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Control Panel.
4. Double-click the Sounds and Audio icon.
5. Information on your hardware and software should be listed here.

Once you know which brand audio card you are using, you can go to your manufacturer’s website to find updates for your drivers. Use a search engine like google or yahoo to find your particular manufacturer’s website.

Problem: The ball and pin shadows look strange.Solution: Try medium or low quality graphics mode, and make sure that all of your video drivers are updated (see Updating your Drivers , above).

Problem: I have a problem other than the ones above.
Solution: Check the RocketBowl support forum at http://www.largeanimal.com/boards.