"The Great Stroke-Off." Adventure Game!
Brought to you by Team *** Old School Point n' Click ***
		         (ATC Deluxe Edition Winners)
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Created during the ATC Deluxe Edition Competition
[January.21.2005 - March.21.2005] 
[Public Release, April.2005]
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Copyrite & Disclaimer:
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This game is Copyrited by the author(s) / creator(s) of "The Great Stroke-Off" Adventure Game.

This game is Freeware and may be distributed freely! This game is not to be sold for profit or modified.
We made this game for fun, and want to freely share it with all people who enjoy Adventure Games.

This game is provided As Is. The game author(s) in no way shall be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential or incidental damages and/or events arising from the use of this software.

This game is provided without warranty and by downloading and choosing to run on your computer(s), you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk. The author(s) / creator(s) of this game, and the creator of the AGS engine cannot be held responsible for anything that may happen to your computer(s) or software as a result of downloading, installing, loading or playing our product. 
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Credits:
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Programming, Story, Voice Narration, Puzzles, Team-Captain: Don "The Barbarian" McPherson.
Visit Barbarian's "Amazing Adventures!" site over at: www.adventure.easyurl.org

All Artwork (Backgrounds, Characters, various Sprites): Adrian "HillBilly" Bernsten.
Visit HillBilly's site at: www.hillbillyworm.com

All Music: Eigen Lenk.

Gord10's Stickman Fight Game: Ahmet "CoolBlue-Gord10" Kamil Kelesh.

Jordan "Scuthbert" Burnett: Thanks for the Message Forum we used during development and various game ideas/suggestions.

The incredible AGS Game Engine, without which this game would not be possible: Chris Jones. 
Visit the Adventure Game Studio website at: www.bigbluecup.com 

A thank you also goes out to all of the wonderful people in the AGS community for helping to keep the spirit of adventure gaming alive and well.

A "BIG HELLO!!!" goes out to my two wonderful nephews: Matthew and Michael. I'm proud to be your "Uncle Don".
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Brief Game Outline:
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This game will be heavy on the "humor" side of things, with a variety of wacky characters, interesting scenes to explore, and an amusing, unique and interesting storyline.

The setting of the story takes place in a type of small "Amusement Park" called "Stickz & Ballz". The main attraction of the park is the Mini-Golf Course (thus the Stickz & Ballz name), as well as a Hunted House of Mirrors and a Video Arcade, plus a large shop with snacks and souvenirs as well as more areas to explore. 

The main character in the game that the player will control, goes by the name of Ned Flobolid. 

Ned (who is around 16 years old) is working during his "summer-break" at the "Stickz & Ballz" amusement park, which is owned and operated by his Uncle Ernie. His parents gave him the choice to either work there for his Uncle during the summer, or to attend tutoring lessons at summer-school. So, Ned choose to work at the amusement park.

The story takes place during the day of "The Great Stroke-Off Competition", in which teams are competing to win the trophy. During the opening scenes of the game, Uncle Ernie will tell Ned "Half of a Proverb", and make it as a riddle for Ned to solve. So, in the course of the game, Ned will also find the "answer to the riddle of the proverb" as well.

Ned will have to do various tasks, solve various puzzles (some a bit bizarre), and interact with many other characters in the game as the story unfolds.

At one point during the game, Ned can choose to help and befriend one of two opposing teams (One team being a group of "Nerds" and the other team a group of "Punks").  Deciding on which team Ned decides to help win the competition, will decide on what different puzzles Ned may have to solve as well as affecting the direction of the story.
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Game Controls / Commands:
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Use the mouse to interact with the game. 
Click on an option from the either the Main GUI "Graphical User Interface" towards the bottom portion of the screen, or from the Top GUI which will appear when you move the pointer towards the top of the screen, to select an action to perform, which will change the cursor mode. 

Depending on the current cursor mode of the pointer and what you click on will determine the type of action and/or response. To Use an object from your inventory with something else, Click on "Interact" then click on the item you want to use, then when the cursor changes into that item, you can click that item on top of various things, places, or characters in the game, or in some cases, click it on top of another item in the inventory to attempt to either use or combine the items together.

The six main cursor modes are: 
Talk, Look, Walk, Pick Up, Interact, and Eat.

  --- Mouse Commands:

Mouse Buttons:
Left = Perform Action of current cursor mode.
Right = Next Cursor Mode. 

  --- Key Commands:
Escape: This will allow you to "skip through" most cut scenes in the game.
F5 = Save Game.
F7 = Restore game.
F9 = Restart game.
F12 = ScreenShot (Saved in game directory).
Tab = Inventory.
Ctrl+Q = Quit.
Alt+X = Force Exit (good if game ever locks up).

  --- In Game Music can be "Turned Off" or "Turned On" by "Interacting" with the Stereo-player in Uncle Ernie's shop.
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Game Screen / Playing Area:
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    Depending on the current room you are in and what things or characters may be there will determine the type of actions which can be or can not be performed. 

To walk in a direction, simply click the Walk cursor in the directon you want to walk. If the current room can lead into different room in a certain direction, simply click the Walk cursor towards the edge of that room in the direction you want to go, and when the character walks close enough he will automatically be taken to and reappear in the different room. If the character can not leave the current room by going a certain direction, then clicking on the edge of the playing area in that direction will simply make him walk as close to that direction as he can go but he will not leave the current room.

In some cases, to enter a new area or room, you may need to "Interact" with a door or ladder.

The text name of various "HotSpots" that your cursor are over will be displayed in the main GUI. "HotSpots" are things / items / characters / etc...  of interest that perhaps some interaction can be performed with. This is also a good way to determine if your cursor pointer is properly positioned on a playing area that you may want to do some interaction with.

From the Top GUI, you will find icons you can click on to Save a Game, Load a Game, or to Exit the Game. 

When a message in game appears on screen (usually of a character speaking), the game will pause for a moment to allow the player a chance to read the message. After a moment, the message will automatically dissapear, or the player can also choose to skip the message and resume game play by simply clicking any of the mouse buttons or by pressing most any Key on the keyboard.

The overall game control is fairly simply to figure out with a little practice. The main thing is to have fun by exploring and trying various interactions with the many things, items or characters that you may encounter during game play.
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Tech Notes:
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This game is of a large size, and depending on your system it may take a moment for the game to load in and run when starting up, so be patient if the game does not start immediately when first running.
This game is designed to be run on computer using a Windows operating system.
The game was designed to be best run in 640 X 480 video display mode. 
If your computer has troubles running in this setting, or if you have an older/slower computer and want to try and improve performance, run the "winsetup.exe" file to try one of the other video display settings. 
Disabling the "Anti-Alias" setting can sometimes give better performance. 
If you are running the game on an older/slower computer and you still want to try to improve the game's performace, you could also try using the "No Sound" and/or "No Music" option settings from when running the the "winsetup.exe" file.
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Other Notes:
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We hope you enjoy playing the game. 
We put a lot of hard work into this project, but it was great learning experience and we had a lot of fun making it.

Of course it would be nice to know what you thought of the game.
If you have any comments, suggestions, feedback (but no SPAM please), feel welcome to send an email to:
Don "The Barbarian": lonewolfdon@yahoo.com

For more independantly made freeware Adventure games, check out my site "Amazing Adventures!" over at: www.adventure.easyurl.org
I will try to update my site occasionally with news, resources, links, etc...


					*** Rock On! ***