The aim of Bounce is to get two small blue balls to collide with each other while avoiding spikes (deadly to touch) and various other traps placed around the levels. You may achieve this by placing blocks around the levels that deflect the balls, and by removing other blocks that are blocking your path.
Each block that you place on the level costs you 50 credits, so you must be careful that you do not run out of money, and so make the game impossible to complete.
If you remove a block from one of the levels, you get 10 credits back so it may help you to "eat" as many of the blocks on the levels as you can before the balls collide. Be careful that the blocks you do "eat" though are not necessary for you to complete that level!
In Bounce, you will find the following blocks:
BLOCKS:
These look like two parallel lines with two diagonal supports between them. These deflect the balls, but may easily be removed.
SPIKES:
These are deadly to touch, and you must avoid all contact with the balls. They may not be removed from the levels.
HARD BLOCKS:
These look like solid red squares. They are similar to blocks in that they deflect the balls, but may not be removed.
You may remove and place blocks by moving a cursor around the level. The keys to control this may be changed via the title screen, but the default keys are:
Z - Left, X - Right, K - Up, M - Down, L - Put Block, SPACE - Remove block
There are 20 levels in total and in order to avoid running out of money before finishing the gane, you must use the cheapest method on almost every level. Even if you think you have got more money than you could possibly need, you should still "eat" as many blocks as possible - and not waste your credits - because the last few levels need a lot of money to complete.
Note: Bounce uses all memory from &A00 upwards and will cause the disk workspace to become corrupted. After you quit the program, you must hard reset the computer before performing any disk operations. The use of PAGE &D00 may cause incompatibility with some hardware. Remove this before running the game.
Dominic Ford
This is a great game, simple but very addictive. Unfortunately it only currently works on the Acorn Electron. If anyone can adapt it for the other BBC machines, please do so and tell the rest of us how.
1st October 1996