AcaBoom 1.0 Instruction Manual

1. What is AcaBoom?

AcaBoom is a simple puzzle game for the MSX home computer. You can download here the latest available version of the game (v.1.0, .ZIP file, 20KB). If you prefer, you can download the .WAV format files for your real MSX (1200 baud (.ZIP file, 21KB) or 2400 baud (.ZIP file, 15KB)). If you prefer, you can download the the entire AcaBoom package (68KB).

2. What do you need to play AcaBoom

AcaBoom is written to be played on an MSX. It has been tested on an MSX-1 (Philips VG8010, 32KB RAM), but it should work on nearly every MSX system (including 2 and 2+). The game was loaded on the MSX by CAS2WAV tool, but obviously it's an easier task if you have a floppy drive.
The game has been tested on FMSX-DOS v.1.62b and on NO$MSX v.1.4 emulators too; it seemed to work without errors.

Note: as far as I know, some MSX machines have less than 32KB of RAM (for example, VG8000 has 8 or 16KB), there was NO TEST on these systems. Feedback information about this topic is appreciated, informations received from users will be added on this page.

3. Instructions for loading the game

On a real MSX: if you have a floppy drive, start MSX-BASIC, put the floppy inside and type RUN"A:DIAB.BAS". If you have just a cassette loader, create a .WAV file with CAS2WAV or MSXF2W, or download the .WAV file on this site. Connect at least the EAR cable from the audio source to the MSX, then type RUN"CAS:".
On an emulated MSX: start the emulator without activating the .dsk file, then activate it (the procedure depends from the emulator) and type RUN"A:DIAB.BAS". In FMSX-DOS, you can also use a .CAS file: you can start the loading by typing RUN"CAS:".

4. Playing the game - aim, actions and tiles

AcaBoom is a puzzle game (in Italian these games are known as "rompicapo"="head-breaking" games). The aim of the game is to explode all the cells of the table in the minimum number of clicks. Any click explodes the pointed cell, but some tiles propagate the explosions:

Tile image	Effect
	This is the empty cell. Clicking will explode only this cell.
	This tile will explode himself and its neighbours at North, South, East and West.
	This tile will explode himself and its neighbours at North-East, South-East, North-West, South-West.
	This tile will explode himself and its neighbours at distance 2 tiles at North, South, East and West.

5. Playing the game - startup options

When the game starts, you are requested some setup of your board. Here below you can find the parameters that the game will show to you, sorted in order of appearence in the game. You can set them in the permitted range, or you can leave the default values.

Parameter	Range	Meaning
Selecting board	0...20000	You can choose the random seed for the disposition of the blocks. That means that you can use this number to re-play the same board (assuming that size and level are unchanged). A value of zero means that disposition of tiles changes randomly every time (the timer counter is used for initializing the seed).
Selecting level	5...300	You can change the average density of tiles on the board. More tiles means more confusion, but a too high value will explode all the cells in one shot. Try different levels of density (use higher values for bigger tables).
Selecting width	1...22	You can choose the size of your board. It will be a N rows by N cols square, or a 12 rows by N cols rectangle if N>12. Larger board means harder game.

6. Commands available during the game

You can access some commands during the game, either by clicking the correspondent function key, or clicking with the arrow over the command label at the left side of the board.

Name	Action related
F1=HELP	Gives a brief help screen. Note: this will completely reset your game.
F2=RST	Reset your game completely. This means that you will have to input again all the parameters.
F3=REDO	This command will play again your board, without resetting the parameters. Note: if you chose "Selecting board = 0", the tiles will be randomly placed, as the zero value means "change the tiles every game".
F4=ANIM	Activate/deactivate explosion animation: if active, you will see the cells exploding slowly. Note: this option heavily slows down the game, so it is deactivated for default.
F5=END	Exit the game and return to MSX-BASIC. Note: the colors and the keys will be restored to screen 0.

7. Bug reports, comments, modifications, records, email address

If you liked the game, if you found a bug, or if links on this page are broken you can email me at [email protected]. If you did a good record, email me your AcaBoom parameters [table (use a nonzero value for this), level, width] and your score, I will add the best scores at the end of this page.

8. License terms

This game is released as a freeware, this means that you should not pay for this game. Modifications and improvements to the game are allowed and welcome, but the same terms of this license apply to any modified version.

9. Source of inspiration

At first this game was intended to be a conversion of "Diabolika", a rather funny freeware game for PC. Thanks give to Black Eye Software programmers for creating this amazing product (you can find it at The Underdogs site too, search for that game title). While developing, changes and simplifications to aspect, options, and aim of the game were made; at the end, the two programs have very few things in common (most notably, the explosion mechanism).

10. Conclusion

Thanks for reading until end, very few readers had such a great patience. Have fun with AcaBoom.

My best regards,

Andrea Rossetti