Tournament Arkanoid =================== This is a version of the arcade game Tournament Arkanoid for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Tournament Arkanoid was released by Taito America and Romstar in January 1987, only in the US. It was essentially an update of Arkanoid, which was released in mid-1986, with one main difference: the 32 standard screen layouts were all new, with an emphasis on making it a more challenging game (gold and especially silver bricks were more plentiful, and bricks often appeared lower down the screen). There were two other differences: a new title screen, of course, and the 'Arkanoid' mothership that appears during the prologue changed colour from blue to red. Everything else was the same: the graphics, the music, the power-ups, and the final battle against Doh on round 33. As with the arcade game, the Spectrum version is an update the of original Arkanoid conversion, which was developed by Ocean Software and coded by Mike Lamb, with graphics by Ronnie Fowles and music by Mark Jones. It features a new title screen, the mothership is now red, and there are 32 different screen layouts which were created using Mark Alexander's 'Arkanoid Editor' utility. All of the screen layouts are based directly on those from the Tournament Arkanoid arcade game, although due to differences in the Spectrum's playing area size, which is both narrower (11 blocks wide instead of 13) and shorter (15 blocks deep instead of 18), many of the screens have had to be redesigned to some extent. This was done in a considered fashion, to ensure the screens were as close to the original designs as possible given the constraints of the Spectrum version. The overall difficulty level should be consistent with the arcade version - it is *meant* to be tough! Some changes have also been made to the power-ups. In the arcade version, the blocks which contain power-ups are predetermined, but the power-ups they drop are random (albeit some are more common than others). With Arkanoid Editor, you have to specify which power-up will be dropped - there is no 'random' setting - so it was a case of choosing a range of power-ups for each screen. Note that all screens will have a least one (L)aser, almost every screen has a (B)reak, and most screens have a (P)layer extra life. Again, some screens are pretty challenging but that was the goal of Tournament Arkanoid (to get kids to part with more quarters). Playing the game ---------------- It's a bat, ball 'n' wall game. You know the drill. Silver blocks need multiple hits to destroy, as follows: Rounds 01-08: 2 hits Rounds 09-17: 3 hits Rounds 18-24: 4 hits Rounds 25-32: 5 hits Gold blocks cannot be destroyed. Some blocks drop power-up capsules: (S)low: Slows down the speed of the ball, making it easier to position yourself. (C)atch: Enables you to catch the ball, so you can move to the desired position and then launch. (E)xpand: Expands the width of the Vaus craft, giving you more chance to deflect the ball. (D)isrupt: Disrupts the ball into three separate components, giving you three times the effect. (L)aser: Arms your Vaus with a laser allowing it to shoot bricks (except gold ones) and aliens. (B)reak: Breaks through a section of the right-hand wall giving you access to the next round. (P)layer: Awards you with an extra Vaus craft. Capsules will not appear if another capsule is already falling down the screen, or there is more than one ball in play. The alien lifeforms that appear at the top of the screen are not deadly but they will deflect your ball on contact. Controls on the Spectrum: Right: B to Space Left: Cap-Shift to V Fire: A to L Controls on a PC keyboard: Right: B to > Left: Z to V Fire: A to L and Enter It's also compatible with a Sinclair joystick (in port 1). This means you can also use 1 for left, 2 for right and 5 for fire. Cheats ------ The old high score cheat works. Get onto the high score table by scoring more than 25,000 points and enter your name as PBRAIN. Then when you start a new game, a message "PRESS SPACE TO CHEAT" will appear, which will begin you at the last round you reached. This cheat remains active unless you don't press Space on the cheat screen (after a short time you'll be returned to round 1). The original memory POKEs work too (taken from www.the-tipshop.co.uk). POKE 38377,1 - Activates PBRAIN cheat (as mentioned above) POKE 33787,0 - Infinite lives POKE 34618,0 - No aliens POKE 38893,1 - One hit kill on Doh (round 33) Compatibility notes ------------------- Tournament Arkanoid is based on the re-released version of Arkanoid rather than the original release which was incompatible with the Spectrum Plus 2A and Plus 3. This means that it will run fine on all models, including the Spectrum Next. Release history --------------- Version 1.0 - Initial/final release - October 18, 2022. Credits and acknowledgements ---------------------------- Screen layouts updated by Mart. Graphics updated and code rejigged (plus a thousand other things) by Jed. The new screen layouts were created using Arkanoid Editor by Mark Alexander. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/14708/ZX-Spectrum/Arkanoid_Editor Information about the arcade game was gathered using ArkEdit, an Arkanoid level editor for Windows. https://arcarc.xmission.com/Kits%20and%20Hacks/Arkanoid%20Editor/arkedit.html The existing graphics were edited using Spectrum Graphics Editor by Richard Jordan. http://retrospec.sgn.net/game/sge The new graphics were designed using ZX Paintbrush by Claus Jahn. http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/ZX-Paintbrush_2.6.4_Setup.zip The various file formats were created using ZX Blockeditor by Claus Jahn. https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/ZX-Blockeditor_Setup.zip