SpinBall
From Sonic Retro
- Not to be confused with the official Sega title Sonic Spinball.
SpinBall |
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Latest version: 2.6.0 |
Latest release date: 1998-02-26 |
Credits: Eric Carr |
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SpinBall is a DOS fan game created in QBasic. With no relation to Sonic Spinball, the game has Sonic running through dungeons collecting coins. It was a 2D platformer just like the Mega Drive titles, and was ahead of its time as a fangame. Some of its files even date back as far as last modified on 25th April 1996.
Although this is a Sonic fangame, the creator made it his own (and avoided copyright issues) by renaming Sonic to "SpinBall" and Dr. Robotnik to "Dr. Spoz".
On modern platforms, DOSBox has issues compensating the clock speed when running this game; a manual adjustment to >7800 cycles is recommended to play the game at manageable levels.
Contents
Gameplay
Controls
Action | Key |
---|---|
Move Left | RightAlt |
Move Right | RightCtrl |
Jump | Shift |
Help Screen | F1 |
Quit to Menu | Esc |
Levels
There are 7 levels playable and a cutscene in the game. The game cuts out after the cutscene which is named level 8.
Escape 1/3 | |
---|---|
Escape 2/3 | |
Escape 3/3 (battle vs. steely) | |
Password: HAGAR | |
Crystal Waters | |
Password: SWORDFISH | |
Rescue 1/3 | |
Password: WIRE STRIP | |
Rescue 2/3 | |
Password: IN TROUBLE | |
Rescue 3/3 | |
Password: WHEW | |
The Rescue (Cutscene) | |
Password: E1M1C1 | |
Cheats
Type these in at any point:
Cheat | Code |
---|---|
Extra Life | ERICRULES |
Get 90 coins | POOR |
Win the current level | GETMEOUT |
Temporary Zombie Mode (Invincibility) | ZOMBIE |
Super Zombie Mode (Invincibility) | ERICISCOOL |
Jump much, much higher | JUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMP |
SpinBall bleeds as he runs | BLEED |
"No way! You are NOT god!" dialog | GOD |
"This may of helped in DOOM, but NOT HERE!" dialog | IDDQD |
"There MUST be another way to do this!" dialog | COIN |
Technical information
Source code and editing rights
The source code is included in the archive below. The creator Eric Carr has said:
“ | You may look at the source to see how I did anything, and use it for your liking as LONG as you give me credit and send me the program you make! If you have ANY ideas about a level, or would like the program to unPAK my level files to view them (in edit), please let me know. Also included are the .DAT level files. These are text files that can be EDITed and rePAKed to play in the game. Feel free to look at and edit these DAT files. | „ |
His email address can be found in the included README.
Level editing
The level files are raw text files saved as .DATs. These files are full of symbols laid out in the same way as the level, making them relatively easy to edit in software such as Notepad (Windows) or gedit (Linux). Here are my observations from viewing the playable levels in Notepad:
Object | Symbol |
---|---|
Ground Type 1 | G |
Ground Type 2 | B |
Background (Wall) | ° |
Background (No Wall) | l or SPACE |
Blank (with shadow) | E |
Coin | O |
Spikes (Harmful) | + |
Falling Lava (Not Harmful) | H |
Breakable Ground | X |
Surface of Lava (Harmful) | T |
Lower Lava (Not Harmful) | L |
Door (End of Level) | = |
Hanging ball on wall | b |
Window | W |
Compiling custom levels
Eric Carr also explained how a user would use their own custom levels:
“ | Say you edited LEVEL1.DAT. Go to dos and type CODEIT and press enter. Type in LEVEL1 and press enter again. Codeit will create a PAK file, which you should then copy it to main directory. Then run spinball and go to level 1, voila! | „ |
Downloads
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Download SpinBall
File: Spinball.7z (151 kB) (info)
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