Shufflepuck Cafe

Welcome to the Shufflepuck Cafe

You are the galaxy's most successful Krypton-3 salesman. 
On the way to close the biggest sale of your career, 
your brand new Nash Sombrero has blown a capacitor in the reactor valve. 
You exit the Gravway and coast down into the wrong side of town. 
Now all you need to do is find a phone and a repair sled will be on its way. 
The only signs of life seem to be coming from a shoddy structure three doors down and across the street.

Opening the door you make your way down a flight of debris-covered stairs. 
Something loathsome scampers over your feet on its way to the activities below. 
A shout of recognition is heard as whatever it was enters the smoke-filled room.

You stumble into the room and suddenly it's as silent as the depths of space. 
Several pairs of hostile eyes, and a few sets of three, challenge you to enter. 
The only thing that stands between you and the telephone is eight galactic misfits, 
an obsolete droid and a few "friendly" games of Shufflepuck. 
Relax, if you lose you'll earn their contempt. Win, and you'll earn their resentment.

MEET THE GANG

To begin playing just click on your opponent. You may want to select the droid first 
as a practice partner and first opponent. 
He can be set up to play anyway you want. 
When you are ready to leave the Shufflepuck Cafe and go home, simply click on the EXIT sign in the bar.

DC3-ALSO
DC3-ALSO is a standard training robot developed by Tons-O-Fun Industries. 
You can adjust his playing style and characteristics to suit yourself. 
Create a wimp or a real Puck warrior, it's up to you. 
While a bit battered and known to malfunction on occasion, 
at least he's been programmed against taking a human life.

Skip Feeney
Skip Feeney is pretty much a novice player. 
He works at the local laundry putting cardboard into the collars of dress shirts. Bit of a wimp.

Visine Orb
Visine Orb is a native of Squalor III. On the shy side due to his lack of height, 
he has a great sense of humour. While not a top level player, he should never be taken lightly.

Vinnie the Dweeb
Vinnie the Dweeb is a grad student attending the University of Xytpl. 
A physics major, he is able to place his shots with great accuracy. 
In general, he is mild mannered. 
However, do not ever make him angry as he is a native of the planet Coniption in the Bessemer galaxy!

Lexan Smythe-Worthington
Lexan Smythe-Worthington is a remittance lizard from one of the finest families on Saurus VIII. 
He receives 2,500 credits a month providing he never gets within five light-years of his home planet. 
He has a real thing for the local blue champagne.

The General
Eneg Doowtrop, alias "The General," poses as an intergalactic revolutionary. 
The truth is he arrived home for dinner one evening wearing a rather garish military outfit. 
When his wife asked him what in the name of Kreinir he thought he was doing, 
Doowtrop replied, "I'm revolting." She agreed with that statement and tossed him out of the house.

Nerual Ttoille
The mysterious hooded figure, Nerual Ttoille, is one of the top players you'll face. 
Unfortunately this will be difficult as Nerual does not have a face. 
To date no one has had the nerve to even make inquiries as to its whereabouts. 
Nerual does not have a very original style so you will be about even in playing ability. 
He tends to get emotional if he loses a point, so watch out.

Princess Bejin
The lovely Princess Gejin is said to be romantically linked with "The General," 
but this is probably just wishful thinking on his part. 
She can trounce any of the other players, except Biff, so she is a worthy opponent. 
The Princess has unique mental powers and other gifts as well. Her serve is something to see.

Biff Raunch
The reigning champion, Biff Raunch, is president of the local chapter of the outlaw Galacticycle club, 
Heaven's Devils. Biff is mean, a terrible winner and an even worse loser. 
The only thing worse than losing to Biff is beating him.

Enjoy yourself and have a pleasant evening at the Shufflepuck Cafe. 
By the way, hope you have a credit card for the phone, because the bartender doesn't make change.

PLAYING THE GAME

When you are facing your selected opponent, simply move the mouse to control your Shufflepuck paddle 
(see the separate instruction card for start-up and control information). 
Holding the mouse button down while playing will give you a different playing style as explained below. 
Pressing the space bar will put the menu bar on the screen. 
Pressing the mouse button will hide the menu bar and return you to your game. 
The Droid menu appears only when playing the training droid. 
The rest of the menus appear throughout the game. 
You may select a new opponent during a game by selecting New Opponent from the Game menu. 
The rest of the menus are outlined below.

The Paddle Menu

Paddle adjustments may be made only when you are randomly seeking opponents. 
They may not be made during a tournament.

Size...

You can make the paddle tiny or as wide as the court. 
(If you make it too wide, though, you'll have trouble putting spin on the puck 
and the other players will laugh at you.) 
Just move the slider bar to the left or right to make your paddle larger or smaller. 
The figure shown is a percentage of board width. 
That is, if you set the paddle size to 50, it will be half as wide as the playing surface.

Button Up and Button Down...

These adjustments allow you to set the power and feel of your paddle. 
You actually have two sets of paddle responses at your fingertips: 
Button Down operates when the mouse button is pressed, 
Button Up operates when you are just moving the mouse without pressing the button.

Selecting either Button Up or Down reveals two types of adjustments:

Bounce and Power.

Each type has two sliders so that you can separately adjust response 
in the side-to-side and front-to-rear directions. 
The Bounce sliders control how fast the puck leaves your paddle when you block your opponent's shot. 
The number in the slider is a percentage: 
at a setting of 50 the puck leaves your paddle at half the speed it struck with. 
The Power sliders control how fast you can actually hit the puck when you swing your paddle. 
In general, high Bounce settings favour a defensive game, and high Power settings favour an aggressive game.

Example Paddles

The paddles are set to the Tournament setting when you start the game, 
and whenever you begin (I.G.S.P. Tournament Rule #35FTG42.1.2.1a Paddles, Tournament). 
They favour an aggressive game. The Button Down paddle hits slightly harder and straighter.

If you desire pinpoint accuracy, modify the Tournament Paddle by adjusting both bounce settings to zero.

To create a Down-the-Line Paddle, use the basic Tournament Paddle with the sideways power set to zero. 
This allows you to hit the puck straight back, parallel to the side of the court. 
Unfortunately you will not be able to do bank shots with this setting so use it with caution.

A Set-Up Paddle requires that everything be set to zero. 
It is used to slow the puck down so you can really smash it with a more powerful paddle 
at the precise moment to send it rocketing past your opponent. 
Use the button up/button down feature to select the proper paddle, 
and your own keen eye to choose the time to do it.

The Blocker Menu

To add even more excitement and variety to a Shufflepuck challenge, 
try selecting a Blocker from the Blocker menu. 
This will place an obstruction of a selectable size between you and your opponent. 
it will start to move the first time it is hit. 
The Custom Blocker allows you to set the exact Size and Weight. 
The Weight setting determines how fast the Blocker will move.

It's a good idea to get in lots of practice before entering a tournament. 
DC3-ALSO can really help you sharpen your playing ability. 
You can adjust his skill to whatever level you choose by using the Droid menu.

TRAINING

The Droid Menu

Paddle Size and Paddle Power... let you control the droid's paddle response. 
The available settings are the same as those in the Paddle menu's Button Up selection described above. 
Pressing the mouse button will make no difference when playing against the droid.

Idle...

Controls the droid's behaviour when he isn't doing anything else like chasing or hitting the puck. 
The Range sliders control how far he wanders, the Speed controls how fast. 
The slower and wider his movement, the easier it is for you to find open court to hit to.

Speed...

Blocking Speed controls how quickly the droid can chase the puck, 
and Backswing Speed controls how quickly he can then set up to hit it. 
The higher the Backswing Speed the more likely he'll hit the puck back as hard as he can.

Return...

Controls how hard the droid will hit the puck. 
Remember, the Backswing Speed controls how quickly he can set up for the shot, 
and Paddle Size and Paddle Power will control how effective the hit will be.

Serve...

Controls the serve exactly the way Return controls regular shots.

THE TOURNAMENT

When you think you are ready to challenge the house, just click on the Champion sign in the barroom. 
You will be whisked to the game room where you will begin your ordeal with Skip Feeney. 
Each subsequent opponent will automatically enter the game room after the defeat of the current one. 
No modifications of any sort will be allowed. 
If you defeat all of your opponents you will have the extreme honour and pleasure 
of writing your name on the board as the reigning champion. 
The Shufflepuck Cafe's Roster of Champions will also be displayed at this time. 
If you fail, well, you're on your own, and don't say we didn't warn you.

STARTUP SPECIAL

Shufflepuck Cafe has been designed to work specifically with a mouse, so be sure your mouse is properly attached.

AMIGA

If you are using an Amiga 500 or 2000, insert the Shufflepuck Cafe program disk into df0:, 
then turn on your monitor and computer in that order. 
If your computer is already on, press CTRL-AMIGA-AMIGA. The program will load automatically.

If you are using an Amiga 1000, insert a Kickstart disk (version 1.2 or later) into df0:, 
then turn on your monitor and computer in that order. 
At the Workbench prompt, remove the Kickstart disk and insert the Shufflepuck Cafe disk. 
The program will load automatically.

When the title screen appears, and the light on the disk drive goes out, press a mouse button to enter the barroom.

Once in the barroom, use the left mouse button to select from the nine available opponents.

In the game room, press the space bar to access the menu bar, 
then use the right mouse button to select items from the menu.

The ESC key can be used to pause a game. Press any key to resume play.

Loading and Saving Tournaments

You may enter a tournament at any time by clicking on the Champion sign in the barroom, 
or by pressing the space bar to access the menu bar, then selecting LOAD TOURNAMENT from the GAME menu.

A tournament may be saved at any time by clicking on SAVE TOURNAMENT from the menu bar, 
however only one tournament in progress may be saved. 
Be sure the Shufflepuck Cafe program disk is in the drive, 
and that the disk is not write protected before attempting to save the tournament.

To load a saved tournament, click on LOAD TOURNAMENT as described above. 
The previously saved tournament will be resumed, with both scores reset to zero.