Kickoo's Breakout documentation

Requirements - Instructions - Bricks - Powerups - Monsters - Controls - Main menu - Registration

Requirements :

This game can only be used on Palm OS devices capable of displaying a resolution of 320x320 16 bpp (65K colors) and having at least 600 Kb of free storage space on the device.

Instructions :

The goal in playing Kickoo's Breakout is very simple: destroy all the bricks on the screen in order to advance to the next level.
The demo version only has 2 levels while the registered version has 36.

To get through all 36 levels you need to prevent the ball from falling off of the bottom part of the screen by moving the paddle causing the ball to bounce off of t in the direction of the bricks.

There are different kinds of bricks in Kickoo's Breakout and some of them, once destroyed, can release a powerup.

On most levels, there are monsters which will make playing the game difficult.

Playing the game:

If you leave the program with an unfinished game, the program automatically saves the game where you left off so that you can resume play the next time you enter the program.

When you destroy all of the bricks in a level, the side gates at the bottom corners of the screen will open. You then simply move the paddle through one of the doors to exit the level.

Each time you start a new game, you will have 3 continues. When you lose all your lives in a game, if there are continues remaining, you will be able to continue the game at the point it was when you lost your last life.

You can try to improve your own high score but you can also compare it with the ones obtained by other players throughout the world, thanks to the "Internet High Score Code".

You will find below the documentation of the game, allowing you to benefit fully from the experience of playing Kickoo's Breakout and its possibilities.

Don't forget to visit often Kickoo's website in order to be informed of the latest news about our games, reading or writing messages in the dedicated forums, or simply to know what is the current state of the best high scores by Kickoo's Breakout players from around the world !

Bricks :

There are several kinds of bricks :

- colored bricks, which are destroyed after being touched by the ball;

- grey bricks, which needs to be touched twice to be destroyed; and

- black bricks, which can't be destroyed with the "normal" ball.

It is not necessary to destroy black bricks to be able to finish a level.

In some levels, you will also find special bricks :

- dynamite bricks : when a ball hits a dynamite brick, there is an explosion and all the bricks around are destroyed, even the black ones.

- multiball bricks : when a ball hits a multiball brick, an additional ball will appear.
Multiball bricks can't be destroyed with a normal ball, so it is not necessary to destroy them to finish a level.

- recompose bricks : when a ball hits a recompose brick, all the bricks around which was destroyed are regenerated.
Recompose bricks can't be destroyed with a normal ball, so it is not necessary to destroy them to finish a level.

- warp bricks : when a ball hits a warp brick, the ball is randomly teleported to another warp brick.
Warp bricks can't be destroyed with a normal ball, so it is not necessary to destroy them to finish a level.

Powerups :

When you destroy a colored brick, it can release a powerup that you can catch with the paddle before it goes off the bottom of the screen.
These powerups can be good or bad, depending on the powerup and the situation:

- slow ball powerup: makes the ball go slower.

- fast ball powerup: makes the ball go faster.

- 500 points powerup: when you catch it, your score is increased by 500 points, in addition to the 100 points granted when any powerup is caught.

- big paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle becomes larger.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

- small paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle becomes smaller.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

- magnetic paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle gets magnetized, meaning that it will remain stuck to it the next time the ball hits the paddle, until you press the "release" button or after a timeout of 5 seconds.
There are 5 green LED lights on the right side of the screen, one of these five lights will go off every second while a ball is magnetized on the paddle.
This option allows you to aim the ball more easily at the bricks you want to destroy.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

- gun paddle powerup: when this powerup is caught, your paddle becomes a machine-gun, which means that it will shoot bullets each time you press the fire button.
If the paddle size is small, there will be only 1 bullet, 2 bullets for normal size and 3 bullets on the big paddle.
These bullets can destroy the colored bricks and the monsters, but note that you will obtain less points for a target being destroyed by a bullet than for one destroyed with the ball.
This powerup has a limited duration and cancels the effects of the fireball.

- surprise powerup: when this powerup is caught, the program chooses randomly one of the previous powerups (slow ball, fast ball, 500 points, big paddle, small paddle, magnetic paddle, gun paddle).

- multiball powerup : when this powerup is caught, your ball becomes 3 balls.
You can have up to 3 balls on the screen at a time. The ball which splits into 3 is the one highest on the screen when the multiball powerup is caught.

- fireball powerup: when this powerup is caught, your ball becomes a fireball: this is a very powerful ball and is capable of destroying many more bricks than the normal one ball can.
It can destroy black bricks and also special bricks. When a fireball hits a colored brick, it will also destroy the bricks on the left and right of the brick the fireball touched.
This power up has a very limited time duration, so make good use of it !

death

- sudden death powerup: you will loose one life if your paddle hits this powerup while it is falling.

- extra life powerup: when this powerup is caught, you will have gained an additional life.
The number of remaining lives is displayed on the left side of the screen, with orange LED lights. Five (5) LED lights can be displayed at one time, but the program handles up to 9 lives.

- reverse paddle powerup : when this powerup is caught, the movements of the paddle are reversed. If you move left, the paddle will go right, and vice-versa !
This powerup has a limited time duration and it's effect is canceled if you catch any powerup which effects the paddle.

- end of level powerup: when this powerup is caught, the side gates at the bottom corners of the screen will open, as if you had destroyed all of the bricks.
This will allow you to exit the level by moving the paddle through a door if you want to.
This decision can be made depending on your strategy. You may prefer to stay in the current level to score as much points as possible, or you can choose to exit immediately to increase your chances of advancing as far as possible through the game.
If you allow the ball to pass your paddle while the doors are open with this powerup, the doors will be closed when your next paddle appears within the same game.

Each time you get one powerup, your score is increased by 100 points.

Tip: This may cause you to catch a powerup even if it is a bad one (in this case your objective would be to get the highest possible score).

A picture of the powerup you just caught is displayed in the top center area of the screen for one second, which is cool if you don't remember which powerup it was, but even more useful with the surprise powerup.

Some of the powerups have a timed duration, like the small paddle, big paddle, magnetic paddle, gun paddle, reversed paddle and the fireball.
When you catch one of these powerups, you will see in the top center area of the screen a picture which will begin as green with a slow flickering and become red with a fast flickering as the time runs out.
When the flickering ends, the powerup effect will be canceled and you will have a normal paddle if it was a paddle related powerup.

The fireball effect is also canceled at the end of its timeout or when you catch a paddle related powerup.

Some of the powerups are cumulative. For example, the big paddle powerup and the magnetic paddle powerup can be an interesting combination.
Or when you see that you are near to the end of the timed duration of a powerup, you may choose to take a powerup which is considered bad. For example you have a machine gun paddle and you know that it will end in a few seconds but you see that there is a small paddle powerup falling, you then have two choices, you can either let the machine gun paddle powerup terminate by itself, making your paddle normal, or you can try to catch the small paddle powerup and you will then have a small machine gun, but with the timeout starting over !

As you can see, you will often have to make some split-second decisions, depending on whether your strategy and goal is to play as many levels as possible or to beat your own high score.

Monsters :

On most levels, you will see some monsters.

The purpose of the monsters is to disrupt your game. The ball's trajectory is modified when it hits a monster, which can cause you miss the ball and lose a life.

Here are just a few of the monsters you might encounter :

You will also sometimes find acid monsters. When acid monsters are on a brick which is the same color as the monster, the brick is destroyed.

If there are no more bricks under them, then they will fall. Avoid them or they will kill you!

Controls :

In the main page :

When you are in the main page, you can change your selection with the up and down buttons and validate your choice with any of the 4 others hardware buttons.

You can also use your jogdial to change your selection and validate your choice, or you can use your stylus by just taping on the choice you want to select.

In the game :

When you are in the game, the up and down buttons (or jogdial) will pause the game.

You can only move the paddle with the stylus. You just need to keep it down in the graffiti area and move it left or right.

We did not allow to move the paddle with the jogdial or the hardware buttons because to enjoy this game, you need to have a very precise control of the paddle, which is only possible with the stylus. You can, however, release a magnetized ball and fire bullets with any of the hardware buttons or by pressing the jogdial.

To shoot with the stylus or release a magnetized ball, just lift the stylus from the graffiti area and place it down again.

The touch screen of the Palm is very sensitive, you don't need to press hard with the stylus. Use it gently to avoid striping the surface of the screen accidentally.

How the ball bounces depends on where it touched the paddle and is explained in the following picture. As you can see, the wide range of possible trajectories allows you very fine control of where you want the ball to go.

Main menu :

The following picture shows the main menu :

You can change your selection with the up and down buttons and validate your choice with any of the 4 others hardware buttons.

You can also use your jogdial to change your selection and validate your choice, or you can use your stylus by just taping on the choice you want to select.

The various choices are :

- new game : select this choice if you want to start a new game;

- options : select this choice if you want to change the sound option; and

- registration : select this choice to go to the screen allowing you to register the game.

Registration :

The following picture shows the registration screen :

When the game is not registered, you can try it in demo mode, which contains only 2 levels.

To register the game and play all 36 levels -- and to encourage the authors to make other awesome games for the Palm OS -- you can purchase Kickoo's Breakout online at our exclusive publisher's site :

When filling the purchase form, don't forget to enter ( in the RegCode field ) the Identification Code displayed by the program.
This will allow us to automatically send you by email the corresponding Registration Code once we receive confirmation of your purchase.

Don't worry if you forgot to specify your Identification Code when completing the purchase form. You can still get your Registration Code automatically by using our online Registration page.

Once you know your Registration Code, enter it in the game in the registration screen (picture above).
This process must be done only once. You will never have to enter it again and you will finally be able to discover the 36 available levels and other surprises contained in the game.

We wish you lots of fun playing Kickoo's Breakout !

Requirements - Instructions - Bricks - Powerups - Monsters - Controls - Main menu - Registration

( thanks to Scott R. Almas from the Capital District Palm User Group for the translation of this page )