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                                      beta1
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   N  t  d    &    c  o  o  l  s  p  o  t  
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INTRODUCTION
------------

Welcome to Pacman for mIRC, a supreme addon by Ntd and coolspot.  
Yes, it's only silly 80s Pacman, and above all meant to be fun.  
But at the same time, this addon is also surprising powerful, 
setting a new standard in mIRC games.  

 
INSTALLATION
------------

To install, unzip pacman.  You can place it where you like, but 
it is recommended to give it a separate directory to keep things 
nice and clean.  mirc\pacman\ would do nicely :)

Be sure to "use folder names"; hopefully you will then see some 
files in subdirectories \images\, \levels\, etc.

Load the game into mIRC as you would any other addon, like this:

  /load -rs <path>\pacman.mrc

Where <path> is the directory which you unzipped it to.  Answer 
"YES" when asked if you wish to let the script initialise.



STARTING PACMAN
---------------

To play Pacman, just type /pacman and you're away!  If you use the 
-nosound option, all sounds are turned off.  Alternatively, just use 
the menu added to your menubar popups.



PLAYING PACMAN
--------------


Well, if you don't already know how to play Pacman, what kind of 
freak are you? :)  But anyway...

The object of the game is to munch all the dots in the maze without 
getting eaten by the ghosts.  You move Pacman via the cursor keys.  
(The cursor keys work in such a way as left always mean go left on 
the screen, not like some games where it means Pacman turns left 
from whichever direction he is currently moving.)  There are no 
other control keys: nice and simple eh?

The ghosts, monsters, call em what you want, are your enemies.  
Meet Mr. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Green and Mr. Red.  Don't be too afraid 
of them - they're stupid :)  If you do get eaten, never fear because
you have three lives.

Some squares in the the levels are WARP (or 'teleport') squares.  
When you enter these squares, you reappear in another warp square.  
Usually these occur in pairs.

Some dots in the level are bigger than other dots.  When Pacman 
munches these, the ghosts go blue, and while the ghosts are blue, 
they cannot kill you.  They don't stay blue forever, though!  The 
higher level you are on, the shorter they stay blue.  Ordinarily 
they will stop being blue automatically, however, if you touch a 
ghost while it is blue, it must return to its "home" before it can 
stop being blue.  This can be a great way to make them stay harmless 
for longer!

Also appearing are fruits.  These are special bonuses which will give 
you more points.  However, they disappear if you don't reach them 
within a certain amount of time.  It's up to you whether you risk 
dashing for the bonuses while there are monsters about...


MAKING YOUR OWN LEVELS
----------------------

Pacman uses a powerful, flexible yet highly simple level file format.  
This enables you to create your own levels.  Because level files also 
contain information about which colours, bitmaps and sounds to use, 
they are also like "themes" or "skins".  Neat huh?

In future versions, we hope to code a GUI level editor so that anyone 
can make levels without any hard work.  For the purposes of the 
challenge edition, this just wasnt possible.  However, if you would 
like to read the file "techdoc.txt", it contains the information you 
will need to create levels by hand.


PACMAN SCRIPTING AND INTERNALS
------------------------------

For anyone out there interested in the internals of how Pacman works, 
perhaps other scripters who wish to hax0r Pacman to their their own 
tastes, or just learn something, we have supplied techdoc.txt. This 
contains all the script hardcore information you could ever want...
There is plenty of scope for writing "Pacman addons" (addons for an 
addon...lol), as we have already said, we intend to write a level 
editor and multiplayer, not to mention improving the AI, etc, etc...



YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...
--------------------

If you liked Pacman, it's a pretty sure bet you'd like Space 
Invaders, Ntd's first attempt at re-creating an arcade classic 
for mIRC.  Space Invaders is available from the Overdrive homepage 
(see below) or the usual quality script archives, mirc.net and 
pairc.com.  If you fancy a full script, why not try Overdrive by 
Ntd, with more features than you can shake a stick at.  The url:
http://www.flatworld.u-net.com/overdrive/



WEBSITE AND EMAIL
-----------------

Visit the Pacman website for news, updates, new levels and more.

 http://challenge.host.dyns.cx/

Email Ntd at ntd@mirc.net or coolspot at coolspot@houston.rr.com