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                         '''
               a braindazzling puzzle and sorting game

	     (c) 2004/2005 by Simon Sunnyboy / Paradize
		    http://paradize.atari.org/
	     
   
  System requirements
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  * Atari STFM/STE/Falcon with atleast 1MB RAM
  * TOS in ROM
  * color display
  
  optional (if available on your machine):
  * joystick, jagpad
  * STE palette
  * Blitter
  * DMA sound

  The game was not tested with any multitasking OS. Before complaining
  that it does not work properly in Mint or Magic, please try with plain
  TOS as this is a ST game with Falcon compatibility, not a Falcon game.
    
  Distribution policy
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This game is FREEWARE and I want you to spread it. Please leave the
  distribution ZIP fully intact, do not change the docs or any single
  byte of the binary data.
  
  HOWEVER I REQUIRE THOSE WHO WANT TO INCLUDE IT ON MENU OR COMPACT 
  DISKS TO ASK ME FOR PERMISSION FIRST!
  		    
  Introduction
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Penta is a puzzle and sorting game for your Atari ST. It will keep your
  brain busy and is intended to make your mind feel like a 60s drug
  adventure.
  
  To load the game, simply doubleclick PENTA.PRG. Make sure the file
  PENTA.LNK is in the same directory. Writeenable your disk if you
  want to save the options and the highscore list to disk.
  ST(e) users should start the game from STLOW. it works from STMED but
  GEM will be fuckedup upon return.
  Falcon users can launch the game from any resolution, it will select
  and use STLOW automatically.
  
  Idea of the game
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Penta is a puzzle game that is played upon a game board consisting of
  25 tiles numbered from 1 to 25.
  At the begin the board is ordered as follows:
  
  1  2  3  4  5
  6  7  ...
  .
  .
  .
  21 22 23 24 25
  
  For each level or round of Penta, the computer scrambles the board by
  sliding either rows or columns of the board. Tiles that move beyond the
  edges of the board are inserted at the other side, e.q.:
  
  First row "1 2 3 4 5"  will become "5 1 2 3 4" when slided to the right.
  
  The computer uses a predefined amount of turns to make a real mess out
  of the board. Now it is your turn to return the board into the initial
  state by sliding rows and columns as well. Though make sure to finish 
  before all your turns are used.
    
  The Main Menu
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  After a short intro and credits sequence the mainmenu appears on screen.
  
  Move the cursor with the cursor keys, joystick or jagpad A. The latter two
  have to be activated first. Press SPACE, the fire button or button A on
  your jagpad to activate the selected option.
  
  Options are as follows:
  * start the game
  * show the highscores
  * toggle control mode (keyboard control will always work)
  * toggle audio mode (switches music on/off as well as optional digi sound
    effects)
  * quit the game (this will return you to the GEM desktop, it saves the
    options and the current highscores to the file PENTA.SCO in the current
    directory)

  Game mode selection
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Before you can start the game, you have to decide about game mode.
  Penta offers you the following game modes:
  
  * Challenge mode
  
    The computer will present you always the same game boards. Some sort of
    level mode if you want to. The amount of distortion increases with each
    board you manage to solve.
    
  * Daily new fun stuff
  
    You can select different starting difficulties. The boards will always
    be random.
    The special beginners mode gives you few distortions but a lot of turns 
    to be used. You cannot score in this mode. If you manage to solve the
    beginners board, the game continues on EASY level.
    
  You can go back to the main menu by pressing ESC.
    
  The game
  ~~~~~~~~
  Sort the game board back in order by sliding either rows or columns of
  tiles.
  Control the cursor via keyboard, joystick or jagpad. Press SPACE, the
  firebutton or jagpad button A to toggle the direction of the cursor.
  Steer to one of the short edges of the cursor to slide the row or
  column into that particular direction, steer to the long edges to move
  the cursor around.
  There is no timer running so think carefully before doing a turn.
  Your game is over when you either sorted the board into the winning
  order:
  
  1  2  3  4  5
  6  7  8  ...
  .
  21 22 23 24 25

  or you have used all of your turns. You'll win if you solve the board 
  with your last possible turn.
  You will get a scoring sheet when a board is finished either way.
  If you managed to solve the board, you will be able to continue your
  game on a yet more difficult game board.
  
  Scoring
  ~~~~~~~
  
   * Win situation: (board complete)
     - you'll earn 100 points for each turn left
     - earn 1000 points for solving (SOLUTION BONUS)
     
     one of the additional Bonus scores are possible:
     - earn 2500 points for using less turns than the ST used to mixed
       up the board first (EXPERT BONUS)
     - earn 5000 points for finishing the board with less then 3 turns
       left (CLOSE SOLUTION BONUS)
   
   * Loose situation: (board not complete)
     - earn 25 points for each tile that is in the right position
     
  You can go for the ultimate highscore, Penta will allow you to add your
  name to the highscore table if your score is good enough.
  Use the QUIT option in the main menu to save the highscores to disk.

  Known bugs
  ~~~~~~~~~~
  - The intro suffers a bit when your machine is lacking the Blitter.
  - The game will run ok if you launch it from a medium resolution desktop.
    But GEM will be completely fucked up upon return. I don't know what's
    wrong, my code uses XBIOS exclusively to control the video mode.
    ST users should run the game from a low resolution desktop.
  - Falcon users running the game from ST-LOW will experience a completely
    black screen upon return. Run from VGA and all is ok.
  - DMA digi sound is still a bit too loud on Falcon but it is acceptable
    now.
  - The highscore encryption is not that strong.
    
  Credits & Acknowledgments
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Game idea & GFABASIC code.......... Simon Sunnyboy / Paradize
  Graphics & valuable ideas.......... ST Survivor
  lots of great chip music........... 505 / Checkpoint
  Digi sound effects................. Simon Sunnyboy / Paradize
  Paradize splash screen............. Sh3 / Reservoir Gods
  SNDH @60HZ replay.................. Evil / DHS
  Jagpad & Falcon video init......... Swe / YesCrew
  DMA soundsystem init............... RA / Paradox
  
  Special thanks:
  - Cooper - thanks for your support and your willingness for uncounted 
    amounts of betatests as well as for your ideas for bugfixing!
    I hope Pooz will be next!
  - ST Survivor - Sebastien, I don't know what I would have done
    without your support and your willingness to do so nice graphics for me.
    It really feels great to see that stylish artwork can turn my GFABASIC 
    code into something really enjoyable! I can hardly express my feelings
    in English words. THANK YOU VERY MUCH is a lot less than appropriate.
  - 505 - thanks for your interest at Paracon 6 and your fast efforts with 
    the music. I really appreciate it and I hope this game is worth your 
    work!
  - Gwem - thanks for your interest and support and ofcourse the idea with
    the beginners mode.
  - RA / Paradox - Ralf, your instant willingness to help me debug my DMA
    problem was greatly appreciated! I hope you  enjoy this final product! 
    Also thanks for the whole lot of cool oldschool talk we both had at 
    Paracon!
  - Generic special greetings to anyone else at Paracon 6. It was a great 
    party and I really enjoyed it. It was great to meet you all and it 
    surely helped to make this game ready.
  
  More greetings can be found in the game intro so read them :)
  
  Last words
  ~~~~~~~~~~
  
  I worked on this game for well over a year. It was once planned for release
  at Outline 2004 but it just didn't happened. Things got a bit delayed when
  I lost my sources due to a harddisc crash so I had to start all over. Then
  other things got in the way (my studies to be precise) but in the mean time
  Penta developed into a quite nice project. I hope you enjoy this game the 
  same way as the development team did.
  
  And those of you who prefer more action oriented stuff, stay tuned for other
  upcoming game releases by Paradize.
  
  Contact
  ~~~~~~~
  
  Email............. Simon Sunnyboy / Paradize <marndt@asmsoftware.de>
  WWW............... http://paradize.atari.org/
  IRC............... #atariscne, #paradize
  
  Make sure to visit the Paradize website at http://paradize.atari.org/ and
  leave us a comment in our guestbook if you like the game.
  
  Cheers, stay cool and stay Atari!
  
  - Simon Sunnyboy signing off on the 8th of February in the year of the
    20th anniversary of the Atari ST, 2005