Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    
    What's the game look like?
    
    -Ray
    

     Crystal Hammer is an arcade game. The top of the screen has blocks of
various colored tiles and bumpers. On the bottom of the screen is a "Hammer"
which moves across the bottom of the screen using the mouse. The object of
the game is to knock down all the tiles by bouncing a ball off of the hammer.
Catching tiles changes the parameters of the hammer or takes you to the next
level. This game has good graphics plus sound.

    Crystal Hammer is a pretty good clone of Arkanoid, in my opinion.
    Basically just a fancy breakout. Graphics and sound are excellent,
    so good that I wonder if this game is really PD.

    This exact question has been going around the various BBS's in my
    area.  So far there has been no definitive answer yea or nay.  No
    one has seen anything that says "Yes, this is (free|share)ware" or
    any copyrights that are owned by any company"
    
    				Rob

    	Great game. Excellent graphics.
    
    	Thanks for uploading !!!!!!!
    
    Miguel A. Alvarez

Crystal Hammer is great!  Regarding:  Is it public domain?  I, too, looked
at some dumps of the file and could never find a copyright notice.   Also,
the title screen does say "courtesy of..."

Question:  Can anyone tell me how this compares in quality to Arkanoid?
From the ArkDemo I've seen, it looks almost as good and much, much cheaper!
:^)

					Thanks for uploading!

					...richard

    Yeah, incredible graphics and sound.  I also find it hard to believe
    that this is PD.  I'll have to check PLINK to see if it's in their
    library.  They are usually pretty careful before they post this
    kind of stuff.
    
    Between Crystal Hammer and Amoeba, the PD stuff is getting better
    than commercial.
    

One warning... it will DESTROY VD0: when you run it. This happened to me even
when I turned off FASTMEM (twice.. so no fluke).

If you play the game, save everything you need from memory first. I also think
this is an early (read: pre commercial) release since there is no score
counter while you play, no help key or instructions...

But I DID find it addictive.. thanks!!!!

    re: .8
    
    But there IS a score counter, you just don't see it displayed. After
    playing this game for a week or so, I finally made it into the high
    score list last night. I got to enter my initials and the file on
    disk was updated.

     To the best of my knowledge Crystal Hammer is public domain. I believe
it's an advertisement for the Databus BBS, that's the name and phone number
in the title screen and also the BBS that I downloaded it from. In the past 
they have had similar graphic/musical type ad's on their BBS. I will try to
find out more from the SYSOP if I can get on the BBS tonight.

                                        Glenn

Well, ZOO is pretty cool, but Chrystal Hammer is *fantastic*!

I can't believe it's PD. This thing should be fifty bucks retail!

My roommate and I played it till late last night. We're going to hook
up the Amiga to his stereo and play it in "sensoround" (sp?)


I hit 13,000, got onto the list but it didn't save to disk... Oh well,
I'll NEVER beat "THE" up there at 68236789502 (or whatever nasty limit they put
there!)

    Gasp!  John, you mean you've been using your Amiga without an amp
    and speakers hooked up all this time???  Barbarian!  That's like
    driving a Ferrari at 55 mph!
    
    We're not speaking anymore until you remedy this horrible situation.
    
    Ed.
    

(With red face)  Time to call Abel!

    I own a legal copy of Discovery's Arkanoid, so with a fair amount
    of curiosity, I downloaded Crystal Hammer last night.
    
    It's pretty good.  Value for the dollar is naturally better than
    Arkanoid.  But, it isn't as good as the real thing.  Somehow, it
    just doesn't play as smoothly as Arkanoid.  After playing it for
    a while, I just pulled out the Arkanoid disk and played it instead.
    
    Disclaimers:  For public domain software, I'm very impressed.  I'm
    not sure I'd spend as much for Crystal Hammer as I did for Arkanoid,
    but it would be worth something to me just the same.  I am a hard
    core Arkanoid freak, so I'll naturally pick Arkanoid over Crystal
    Hammer, because while the latter captures the spirit of Arkanoid,
    it's really different in many ways, and doesn't even try to emulate
    the arcade version.
    
    Jeepers, Mr Science mode:  In general, I can't believe the high
    quality of public domain software I've seen on the Amiga.  The one
    terminal emulator I like the best is free, same for programmer's
    (not word processing) editor.  Same for many of the games (Space
    Invader's clone, PacMan clone, Crystal Hammer).  Sort of brings
    back the hacker spirit that says software should be free and shared.
    One of the more interesting, and unexpected features of owning an
    Amiga.

    Re: .8 and .9 -
    
      There really is a score counter, and it's not invisible.  Playing
    the other night I noticed a few pixels getting turned on and off
    on the bottommost scan line of my monitor.  Curiosity took over
    and I adjusted the vertical size control on the back of my monitor
    to reduce the raster's vertical height.  After doing this, could
    see 1- and 2- player scores and messages on the very last scan lines.
    
      Not sure, but it seems to me either:
    
      1) My monitor has been out of adjustment all this time --- seems
         unlikely since with the monitor adjusted like this there is
         a lot of wasted space at the top and bottom of the screen
    
      2) The author(s) miscalculated the size of their screen, perhaps
         because the monitor(s) they used to write it weren't adjusted
         properly.
    
    At any rate, this game is excellent, and addictive!  Thanks for
    making it available!

Ok, I've got a question:  what do the orange tiles do for you?  I just can't
seem to figure this one out!!

							...richard

    The orange tiles give you an extra life. (Took me quite a while
    to figure that one out too.)

    I have both Arkaniods and (since down loading today) crystal hammer.
    I can honestly say that Arkanoids is a better game, it has a better
    play feel and allows the user to pick from 20 different play fields
    However it cost me 45.00 dollars, and Crystal Hammer was free. Crystal
    hammer has good potential only I wish they a better placement of
    the score and documented what each rotating piece did.  Very good
    PD softwre and it is one I will keep. Also if you like this game
    then you will love arkanoids.
    
     Thank you for you're support
                    
         DDT
    
    

A couple of comments:

	1)  The definitly placed the whole screen incorrectly. It is shifted
	    down by 8-10 scan lines. It's far enough that the bottom of the
	    scores have wrapped around to the top of the screen. (You can only
	    see this if you shrink your vertical size on your monitor.

	2)  The number of balls you have left is on the lower left of the
	    display and is easy to see (I just never noticed them before).


	3)  Red definitely does NOT give you more balls... I still can't
	    figure it out (I did find what DOES give your more balls).


	4)  Anyone know how many screens there are? I haven't gotten past 3.

	5)  After the form-feed are the colors I have figured out (don't
	    hit return if you don't want to see them)

All the best,
dave



    White   = kills you
    Green   = causes ball to stick to the hammer
    Blue    = doubles the length of the hammer
    Aqua    = splits ball into 3
    Yellow  = slows speed of game down
    Gold    = gives you new balls (lower left corner display)
    Purple  = moves you to next screen
    Red	    = changes type of hammer (picture)... I don't know what good it is

REP  .-1

    Red arms your hammer with lasers. Pushing the left mouse button will fire.
You can blow away crystals at warp speed!

Has anyone gotten it to write out new top scores?

Frank

    re .20
    I have gotten it to write out new top scores many times. I had it
    guru on me once last night though and it left my disk trashed. 
    
    re .19
    It's the orange tiles, not the red, which will give you an extra
    ball.

re:	.21

That's what I said... (except I called them gold... that's what I get for
using a SONY monitor :^)

time to try to lasers... thanks!
dave

    re .-1
    Sorry Dave, didn't remember you mentioning the "gold" bricks in
    your spoilers.
    
    I've seen the first 5 or 6 screens. I've also found a way to start
    on a different level.....
    
    
    On the opening screen, if you press both mouse buttons simultaneously,
    you get to start on a more advanced screen. 

I've seen 5 screens, although I havent gotten it to write high scores
to disk yet (but then who likes the guru?)


Also, Purple tiles get you to the next screen...

John

    Crystal Hammer is super, indeed. It maybe PD in States, but a friend
    of mine saw in on sale at a software shop here in Finland last
    saturday. The price was 120 FIM (= $ 30) and he said it was
    professionally packed, but could not remember the publisher.
                                      
    - Tuomo

    .25:
    
    Hmm. Interesting.  The first time I ran it and saw half the score
    stuck down at the bottom of the screen, my first reaction was that
    whoever wrote it did so on a PAL system (one which has more scan
    lines than an NTSC system).  Anyone suppose this is a bootleg of
    a european game?
    
    .*:
    
    Anyone got any idea as to whether Crystal Hammer can be won?  In
    the case of Arkanoid, there are 32 "normal" rounds, and once you've
    finished them, you get to a round 33 where you get a chance to use
    the ball to punch some dude's lights out.  Doing so wins the game
    (although I'm not sure what exactly you have to do other than hit
    the dude a lot).  Not doing so loses the game.  Both winning and
    losing puts you back at square 1 (meaning that you can't restart
    from the level where you left off as with the other 32 levels)
    
    Is there a similar hack on Crystal Hammer?  By getting at least
    10,000 points each time and punching the right mouse button when
    it tells me to, I was able to get Crystal hammer into a 7th or so
    frame, but I lost interest at about that point.  Just wondering
    if there's a goal as with Arkanoid.

If anyone is interested (and hasn't figured it out); you can get 
Crystal Hammer to work on hard drives; you need two assignments

assign	"Crystal Hammer:" dh0:mumble/game/frobitz
assign  cry: dh0:mumble/game/frobitz

where frobitz is the directory.  CRY can be any 3 letter logical;
because you have to use a filezap utility on the LOADER and CRYING
modules to change DF0: to CRY:.  Works like a charm.

Apologies if someone already mentioned this.

I can't wait to go try the laser; I couldn't figure out what the red
ones were supposed to do.

Dave

    Hmmm.. I hate to sound like a fart, but if there's any doubt about
    whether or not this game is PD, we should get it off the e-net pretty
    soon.  DEC lawyers have been know to read these notes, and they'd
    want no part of any potential wrongdoing, whether intentional or
    not.
    

    I have heard from software developers (specifically, the developers
    of Magic SAC and PC-Ditto for the Atari-ST) that this practice of
    stealing software from the States and selling it in Europe can be
    (marginally) legal.
    
    From what I heard, it is really a sad state of affairs, but unless
    you do something to explicitly ensure that your program can not
    be pirated and re-sold in other countries, there is nothing to prevent
    this sort of grey-market enterprise.  I don't remember all the details.
    
    
    That aside, try calling the author.
    
    If the program has no explicit markings about PD or not, it is probably
    not PD, since most PD programmers like to get recognition, and will
    boldly advertise the gift status of their programs.
    
    Steph
    

	I finally got a response from the SYSOP of the DataBus BBS.


Date: 01-17-88 (20:00)              Number: 72     
  To: GLENN SORGE                   Refer#: 70      
From: SYSOP                         Recv'd: Yes
Subj: CRYSTAL HAMMER                Sec'ty: Public Message

Glenn,
 I downloded it from a bbs on the west coast. It contains no copyright 
notice so I assume it is public domain. if anyone KNOWS that it is not,
please leave me a message. I do know that it was written by the same guy 
who did Amegas. The score screen is identical.

TheBusDriver

    Yesterday I saw a (pirated) copy of Crystal Hammer at a friend of
    mine. It it showed a load screen I assume to be original. 
    That screen showed the following data:
    
    	Created by Guido Bartels
    	Music by Karsten Obarski
    	Graphics & animation by GIB
    	Sounds Obarski
    	Background Uwe Grabosch
    
    		Hannover, November 1987
    
    So, it seems that the game is commercial and originated from Germany.
    
    	                       
    following

	Thanks for letting us know the true status of Crystal Hammer, I will
inform the sysop of our local board since he does not normally keep pirated
software on it. My copy will be deleted ASAP (as should everyone elses).

						Glenn

    Well it was fun while it lasted.I reformatted the disk Crystal Hammer
    was on.I guess now I will look into buying a similar game.Until
    then I will amuse myself with "PLUTOS"(got it for christmas).
   
    
    								bill
    

    Yeah, sigh!  I was getting real stuck on it.  It was *really* hard
    to trash that disk.
    
    Gary

    I thought it was great for PD...but I'd rather play my Arkanoid!
    
    I find it much more appealing to the eyes and ears...

    Crystal Hammer is not PD.  Some one stole a pre-release copy and
    broke the copy protection.
    
    Anyway ARKANOID is much better (66 Levels, $30 List)