Rules
Easy, very easy. You have to drive a ball through a level which is composed of rectangular platforms and rectangular... holes! You can use 5 functions to control the ball, which is, by the way, an ugly ball with big huge squary pixels.
- Go right
- Go left
- Accelerate
- Brake
- Jump
And you will definitely need to jump if you want to go to the end of the level. If you fall in a hole, my nasty program takes you 64 platforms back. So it is not a good idea to fall in a hole, for you waste precious time doing this. This is a shame, for the goal of any (good) babal-player is to end the level as fast as possible.
That's it!
How to install it
To play Babal you'll need:
- An HP48 S, SX, G or GX. The game is twice faster on a G/GX than on an S/SX, and it's not really surprising.
- And/or a HP48 emulator. It's easy to find but you'll still need to be the owner of an HP48 to get the ROM image which is required by any emulator. I've seen babal emulated on a PC, it works well but it's really too fast.
So if you have a HP48 it is time for you to download Babal on your PC (or mac maybe...), unzip it and transfer the .lib file on your HP48. Place the object "library 1033: Babal 2.0" on the HP48's stack and type 0 STO then ON-C. The game is now available in the Library menu.
How to use it
If you press the Babal directory key in the Library menu you'll get the following menu:
- Babal: runs the game, which can be stopped by pressing ON.
- Score: tells you how great you are.
- Setup: you enter the setup menu. Let's have fun with those little options:
- Reset: sets all scores to 0 and options to default.
- About: you get to read a (very) shorter version of this file.
Here is a description of the setup menu:
The +s=n and -s=n keys
Hey, what's that?
Do not panic, these keys are here to help you set the sensitivity of the keys during the game. The greater the number is, the more sensitive the keys will be.
The bnc key
Allows you to toggle Bounce mode. In this mode the ball bounces. It is barely playable but a friend asked me to create this function. I think it was quite a weird idea...
The inv key
White becomes black and black becomes white, that's all that it is about.
The keys key
Allows you to redefine the keyboard. Default settings are arrows to move the ball and enter key to jump. The program will ask you to enter your new keys one after the other.