Copyright: ®1996 Humongous Entertainment


Balloon-O-Rama Help Contents
Balloon-O-Rama

Minimum System Requirements

Installing Balloon-O-Rama
Removing the Game, WinG, and Win32s
Making Changes to Balloon-O-Rama

How to Play Balloon-O-Rama
Making and Playing Custom Levels
Keyboard Commands

Contacting Humongous Entertainment
Credits


Windows CD-ROM

Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or higher

IBM PC or 100% Compatible

33 MHz 486

8MB of Ram

SVGA (640x480) 256 colors

Sound Card

Double-speed CD-ROM drive

Macintosh CD-ROM

System 7.0 or higher

Minimum 25MHz 68040 or PowerPC

8MB of Ram

640x480, 256 colors

Double-speed CD-ROM drive


How to Play Balloon-O-Rama

Controls

Strategy

Items

Powerups

Special Bonus Stuff

Making and Playing Custom Levels

Keyboard Commands


Balloon-O-Rama Controls

To start Pep bouncing, click the left mouse button.  You control where he bounces by moving Putt-Putt with the mouse.  If Pep hits the side of Putt-Putt as he comes down, he'll bounce up at an angle.  If you really want to get Pep rocketing across the screen, move Putt-Putt in the direction you want Pep to travel as they make contact.  Pep will also bounce off of the sides of the screen and other obstacles.

Note:  Moving Putt-Putt after Pep has already bounced away has no effect, so if you want to transfer some speed to Pep you need to make sure that Putt-Putt has generated some speed before he hits.

If Pep starts to get out of control, you can reduce the height of his bounce by holding down the left mouse button as he makes contact with Putt-Putt.

If Pep has the Electro Boots powerup, he'll lock onto Putt-Putt just before touching down.  After this has happened, you are free to move Putt-Putt into position while Pep levitates just above the seat.  Once Putt-Putt is in position, click the left mouse button to send Pep off.

Junior Helper Options

The Junior Helper options are designed to make Balloon-O-Rama easier for young players.  To get to the Junior Helper control panel, just move your pointer to the bottom of the level selection screen.


Balloon-O-Rama Strategy

In order to complete all 120 levels (plus the UFO Bonus Rounds) of Balloon-O-Rama, you'll need to pop all of the balloons without dropping Pep.  On the way, you'll want to rack up as many points as possible.

On any level, popping multiple balloons in a single bounce will award more points than popping them one at a time.  While Pep is in the air, you will receive the following number of points for each consecutive balloon popped:

1st balloon = 1 point

2nd balloon = 2 points

3rd balloon = 5 points

4th balloon = 10 points

5th balloon = 20 points

6th balloon = 50 points

7th balloon and above = 100 points each


Balloon-O-Rama Items

Normal Balloons:  Are worth 1 point.  Normal balloons include the Pig, HE Logo, Moon, Fatty Bear Head, Clown, Smiley-face, and Beach Ball.

Spotted Balloons:  Drop one to four candies which add 50 points apiece to your score if Putt-Putt can catch them.

Striped Balloons:  Drop one to four pieces of garbage, which will take away 50 points apiece if Putt-Putt catches them.  Note:  Your score will never drop below zero.

Flower Balloons:  Drop one or two candies (worth 50 points apiece), and one or two pieces of garbage (which take away 50 points each if caught).

Paint Bucket/Balloon:  Holds a bucket of paint from its string.  If Pep hits the bucket, paint will splash out, but the balloon will remain intact.  If Pep hits the string, he'll bounce away.  If the balloon is popped, the bucket falls.  If Putt-Putt is beneath the bucket, he'll be splashed with paint, momentarily suprising him.  Although Putt-Putt is unable to move in this stunned state, Pep will still bounce if he lands on Putt-Putt.  After recovering, Putt-Putt will be sporting a new paint-job which is saved with your score.

Question-Mark Balloons:  These contain various powerups that can help the player.  Keep in mind that Putt-Putt must catch a powerup before he or Pep will gain its effect, though.

Double-Balloons:  Most of these look the same as normal balloons, but when they are popped, a smaller balloon is revealed in its place.

Bumpers:  These cause Pep to bounce away with an additional boost to his speed, and cannot be popped.  There is no point value for hitting them.

Spinners:  Like bumpers, these objects are permanent and valueless, but they cause Pep to shoot off in an unknown direction when hit.


Balloon-O-Rama Powerups

When Putt-Putt catches one of these, you will temporarily receive a special power

Miniature Pep:  Catching one of these will allow you to drop Pep an extra time without having to start over.

Red Cape:  Enter Super Pep!  Pep now passes through all on-screen objects without bouncing off of them.  Pep will even move through multiple balloons without rebounding, for big bonus points.

Space Helmet:  Gives Pep the ability to defy the normal strength of gravity, making him lighter, loftier, fluffier!  By staying airborne longer, Pep increases the chances for multi-hits and the big scores that go along with them.  (See Strategy)

Electro Boots:  These give Pep the ability to stick to Putt-Putt.  This way, the player can catch Pep, move to a strategic location on the screen, and then let him go.  (See Controls)

Stretch Rubber Band:  Stretches Putt-Putt's body out, making it easier to catch Pep as he falls.

Note:  Powerups are temporary!  They last from 2 to 4 minutes, and could disappear in a puff of smoke at any moment.


Balloon-O-Rama Special Bonus Stuff

For even more bonus points, you may want to try some of the following tricks.

Off the Screen:  If you can maneuver Pep off the top of the screen, a point will be awarded for every 1/2 second that he stays there.  This is very difficult to do without the space helmet powerup.

UFO Bonus Round:  Every five rounds, starting at 10, there is a UFO bonus round.  In each bonus round, there will be a horizontal row of balloons holding a UFO off of the screen.  Popping all of these balloons will allow the UFO to enter.  If you are able to hit the UFO with Pep, then complete the round, you will be taken to a bonus round on the Cartown Moon.  In the UFO bonus rounds you will be able to earn huge amounts of points without fear, since you can never lose a Pep in a bonus round.

Super UFO Bonus Round:  If you are able to get to the UFO bonus round three times in a row, you become eligible for the Super UFO bonus round.  You will play through the third bonus round as usual, but after popping all of the small UFOs, a large UFO appears which drops small UFOs this way and that.  Each of these small UFOs is worth 100 points when caught by Putt-Putt.  The large UFO will stay on the screen for a couple of minutes, or until it is struck by Pep.

Note:  After completing three UFO bonus rounds and the Super UFO bonus round, the super bonus is reset, so you will have to complete three more UFO bonus rounds before getting another Super UFO bonus.


Making and Playing Custom Levels

Upon selecting the Make New Custom Levels or Change Old Custom Levels options from the Main Menu, you will be required to enter a name for the set of levels, or select an existing set.  After providing a name, you will find yourself in the Balloon-O-Rama Level Editor.

The Up and Down arrows will allow you to select which of the 10 levels in your custom set you wish to work with.

Click on one of the Balloon Pieces at the bottom of the screen to "pick up" the piece.  You may then place it on the level blueprint by moving the piece into place and clicking the mouse again.

Use the Color Picker buttons to choose one of four different color schemes that will affect the balloon pieces that you have available.  (you can use more than one color scheme on the same level)

To erase pieces, just pick up the Pin, and "pop" the pieces which you want to remove from your blueprint.

To test a custom level, just click the Go button.

To leave the editor and return to the Main Menu, click Stop.

How Custom Levels Are Saved

Your changes will be saved automatically when you click Stop to leave the editor, or when you click the Go button to play your custom level.

Playing Custom Levels

Just click the Play Custom Levels button on the Main Menu to be presented with a listing of all the custom level sets which have been created so far.  After selecting the set that you want to play, you'll be taken to a level selection screen, where you'll be able to choose here which of the 10 custom levels you want to start on.


Keyboard Commands

<Spacebar>	Pauses the game, and opens the pause dialog box.  To continue, just click the Play button.  Game Options are also available from the pause dialog box.

<Alt><F4>	Quit the game.  You can also stop playing by pressing the Spacebar, then clicking the Quit button .

<Esc>	Fast-forward through the current cutscene.

<Period>	Same as the <Esc> key, but skips only the current character's line -- not the entire scene.

<F1>	Displays the help file.

<Shift><F5>	Toggles the game between running full-screen or in a window.

<Shift><F7>	Increases the size of the game display if your screen resolution is 1280x1024 or higher.  If the game display has already been expanded, <Shift><F7> will toggle the display size back to normal.


Credits

Designed By	Rhett Mathis

with

Kris Summers

Lead Artists	Brad Carlton

and

Tom Verre

Project Lead	Rhett Mathis

Programming

Producer	Kris Summers

Paper Animation	Edward Pun

Brad Carlton

Kelle Vozka

and

Chad Hawks

Additional Animation	Greg Griffith

and

Jay Sopp

Additional Programming	Richard Moe

Peter Crayne

and

Bret Barrett

Game Level Design	Dolores Carney

Chris Bui

Nicholas Sutton

Kris Summers

and

Rhett Mathis

Background Art	Jeremy Kromberg

and

Dave Danioth

Background Layout Design	Rafael Calonzo

Music Produced Composed	Rhett Mathis

and Performed By

Dialog Written By	Laurie Bauman Arnold

and

Rhett Mathis

Lead Ink and Painter	L. Michael Fisher

Digital Ink and Paint	Michael Jacob

and

L. Michael Fisher

System Programming	Brad P. Taylor

Jason King

Brian Brown

and

Ron Gilbert

Macintosh Game System	Scott Warren

and

Peter Crayne

Dialog Editing	Laren Crawford

QA Lead	David Nixon

Junior QA Lead	Spencer Kimmel

Testers	Marcus King

Brad Lyons

Andrés Méndez

and

Ruth A. Lopez

On-Line Help	Stephen Johnson

Putt-Putt Created By	Shelley Day

Putt-Putt Played By	Jason Ellefson

Special Thanks To	Bret Barrett, whose talent, guidance, and eternally positive attitude continues to inspire us all.

Balloon-O-Rama

Copyright MCMXCVI Humongous Entertainment, Inc.

All rights reserved


Installing the Game

Windows 95

There is no need to run install.  To start, simply insert the CD into the drive.  When the AutoPlay window pops up, click the Play button to play the game, the Demos button to see the Humongous Interactive Catalog, or the Quit button to quit without doing anything.  To run the game again, open the My Computer window and double-click on the game icon.  The AutoPlay window will appear again.

If AutoPlay has been disabled, you can run the game by double-clicking My Computer, then double-clicking the CD-ROM icon, and finally double-clicking AUTOBALL.EXE.  Or, create a shortcut to AUTOBALL.EXE for a more permanent solution.

Windows 3.1

The install program must be run before playing the game for the first time.  We install Microsoft's 32-bit Windows system files, Win32s, and WinG to the hard disk if they are not already present.  These files require only about 3MB of disk space.

To install Win32s and WinG, just follow these steps:

1.	Insert the game CD into your CD-ROM drive.

2.	Open the File menu in Program Manager and select Run...

3.	Type D:\INSTALL and press Enter
(Be sure to replace D: with the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive)

4.	Click Quick Install, and follow the prompts

5.	After installation is complete, click Restart Windows to enable Win32s and WinG

Install will create a Humongous group in Program Manager and add the game icons to it.  To run the game, just insert the CD and double-click the game icon.


Removing the Game
Removing the Game, WinG, and Win32s

The game, Win32s, and WinG may all be removed from within the installation program.  Because installation of the product is only necessary under Windows 3.1, you should never have to uninstall the game with Windows 95.

Note:  Removing WinG or Win32s will render the system unable to run Humongous Entertainment games, or any other programs which require these libraries.

To remove the game files, just follow these steps:

1.	Insert the game CD into your CD-ROM drive.

2.	Open the File menu in Program Manager and select Run...

3.	Type D:\INSTALL and press Enter
(Be sure to replace D: with the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive)

4.	Click the Advanced Options button in the Welcome to Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-O-Rama dialog box.  This will open the Advanced Options dialog box.

5.	Click on the Uninstall Options button to open the Uninstall Options dialog box.  Click Yes to continue.

6.	Check the components (Game, WinG, or Win32s) which you wish to uninstall, then click Continue.

The selected components will be removed from the system, as will the icons which they created.  The computer may have to be restarted for these changes to take effect


Making Changes to the Game

The Options Screen

Game-specific settings may be customized through the options dialog box, which is accessible at any time by pressing the Spacebar, then clicking the Options button.

Learn more about the options screen by clicking anywhere the [image] appears.


Contacting Humongous Entertainment

Order Department

Phone	(800) 499-8386

Fax	(206) 806-0480

Internet Mail	custserv@humongous.com

U.S. Mail:	Customer Service

Humongous Entertainment

13110 NE 177th Pl.  Suite 180

Woodinville, WA  98072-9965

Technical Support

Phone	(206) 485-1212

Fax	(206) 806-0480

Internet Mail	support@humongous.com

U.S. Mail	Technical Support

Humongous Entertainment

13110 NE 177th Pl.  Suite 180

Woodinville, WA  98072-9965

On-line

America Online Mail: HumongousE	WWW www.humongous.com
Compuserve Game Publisher C Forum GO HUMONGOUS 72662,1360	MSN Questions can be posted in the Family Fun area of the Humongous Entertainment forum


Win32s is Microsofts collection of 32-bit Windows system files.  These extensions to the operating system will allow a 32-bit application to be run under Windows 3.1 and 3.11.  Since Win32s does not ship with Windows 3.1 or 3.11, it must be installed prior to running Humongous Entertainment games.  We install version 1.3.


WinG is a Microsoft system component which can greatly increase display performance.  We install version 1.0.


A cutscene is one of the animated sequences in a Humongous Entertainment game which unfolds without any need for input from the player, like a movie.  A good example would be the animated introduction to the game.


Turning on Easy Catch makes it harder to drop Pep.  He will still bounce off of Putt-Putt, even if it looks like he is going to land a little to the right or left side.


The Never Lose Pep option will not stop Pep from falling to the ground, but the number of times you can drop Pep without having to start a new game will never decrease (you'll be able to play forever).


Toggles between a full-screen and windowed display.  You may also toggle between full-screen and window mode by pressing <Shift><F5> from within the game.


If the resolution of your screen is 1280x1024 or greater, this option will double the size of the game to fill more of your screen.  You may also expand the screen size by pressing <Shift><F7> during the game.


Toggles the background music on and off.


Although levels will take a little longer to load, this option will allow the game to run more quickly on slow machines.


The sound card options may eliminate "skipping", static, or other sound playback problems with can occur with some hardware.


Accept changes and return to the game.


Return to the game without making any changes.


Displays system configuration information.