------------------------------------
      Dr. Blob's Organism v1.1
            User Manual
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Created by Digital Eel - http://www.digital-eel.com/
Distributed by Cheapass Games - http://www.cheapass.com/

Official Website: http://www.digital-eel.com/organism/

Minimum System Requirements:
Pentium II 350MHz (600MHz or better recommended)
64M RAM
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
DirectX 6
OpenGL 1.1 compatible video card (Geforce or better recommended)
DirectX compatible sound card
32M of free hard drive space


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             Main Menu
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Start Game
----------
Begin a game of Dr. Blob's Organism!

The start game screen allows you to select the starting level and
difficulty.

- Select Level: Use the arrow keys or click the + and - buttons to
  choose a level you have previously played.

- Enter Level Name: Type in the name of any level you wish to play.

- Difficulty: Select one of the EASY/NORMAL/HARD buttons to start
  the game at that difficulty level.


Options 
-------
This will take you to a new screen which lists various options 
and settings you can try.

- Jukebox: Play music selections from the game.

- SFX Volume: Adjust the volume of the sound effects.

- Music Volume: Adjust the volume of the music.

- Fullscreen: Switch between fullscreen and windowed mode.


High Scores
-----------
View the list of high scores that you have accumulated.

Select "Clear Scores" to erase all high scores.


Quit
----
Exit the game.


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           How To Play
------------------------------------

Controls
--------

Keyboard:
Left Arrow Key: Spin the petri dish counter-clockwise.
Right Arrow Key: Spin the petri dish clockwise.
Spacebar: Shoot

Mouse:
Move left/right: Spin the petri dish.
Left Mouse Button: Shoot


Rules
-----

You begin each level with five lives. If any part of the organism
touches the side of the petri dish, you lose a life (indicated by
lights on the bottom left side). If you lose all five, the game
ends.

You must destroy the nucleus of the organism in order to complete
a level. When the nucleus is damaged by your shots, it briefly
flashes red. As it becomes more damaged, the nucleus will turn 
red and stay that way until it is destroyed.


Tips
----

Don't take too long to eradicate a pesky blob.  Eventually it will 
go berserk and become more difficult to destroy.

Keep track of the amount of damage done to a feisty slime by 
watching its life gauge on the right side of the screen.

Shoot at powerups to gain temporary advantages.


------------------------------------
        Taking Screenshots
------------------------------------

Dr. Blob's Organism allows you to take screenshots at any 
time by pressing F12. The images will be saved in the game 
folder in targa (.tga) format, with names like "shot0001.tga".


------------------------------------
  Widescreen And Other Odd Displays
------------------------------------

Some users may want to run Dr. Blob's Organism on a screen
of non-standard proportions, for example a widescreen display.
The game includes a set of command line options to access
arbitrary sized video modes. 

In Windows, these options can be set in the properties dialog 
of your desktop or start menu shortcut. Right-click on the
Dr. Blob's Organism icon and select "properties". Find the
line that contains the name of the application (organism.exe)
and add any of the following flags to the end:

-w N       (set screen width to N)
-h N       (set screen height to N)
-sw        (start the game in a window)

For example, if you have an LCD monitor with a native resolution
of 1280x1024 and you want to run in fullscreen mode as usual, 
the line might look like this:

C:\Program Files\Dr Blob's Organism\organism.exe -w 1280 -h 1024

If you have a non-standard display and are having trouble running
the game at all, you might want to try running in windowed mode:

C:\Program Files\Dr Blob's Organism\organism.exe -sw

Note that the game is designed to be run with standard 4:3 aspect
ratio, and the layout of the screen will not take advantage of 
the extra space provided by a widescreen display.


------------------------------------
             Credits
------------------------------------

Iikka Keränen
-------------
Code
Design
Art


Rich Carlson
------------
Sound
Design
Art


Phosphorous
-----------
Art


Fearless Testers
----------------
James Ernest
Kevin Matheny
Duncan McPherson
Joe Pallai
John Slade
James Sterrett
Brian Uhrig
Thom Wetzel


Inspiration
-----------
John Conway's LIFE


------------------------------------
            Copyrights
------------------------------------

Copyright 2003-2004 I. Keränen, R. Carlson, and Phosphorous.
All rights reserved.

This software is provided "as-is," without any express or implied
warranty. In no event shall Cheapass Games or Rich Carlson, Iikka
Keranen and Bill Sears, collectively known as Digital Eel, be held
liable for any damages arising from the use of this software

Dr. Blob's Organism uses SDL and SDL_mixer dynamically linked 
libraries, which are released under free LGPL license: 
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html

The use of LGPL libraries in a closed source application such as 
Dr. Blob's Organism is allowed by section 6b of the license. 
Pre-built binaries are included in the DBO installation for 
your convenience.

SDL and SDL_mixer source code and binary downloads are available 
at the SDL website: http://www.libsdl.org/


