The BlaggerEditor HOWTO

Note: if this howto is too long and boring, jump straight to section 8, there's a step-to-step tutorial to draw and save your first Blagger level. Have a nice reading!

Index

1. Where to find BlaggerEditor and this HOWTO
2. What is "Blagger"
3. What is BlaggerEditor
4. System Requirements
5. Insalling and uninstalling
6. Available commands
7. Mouse actions
8. Tutorial: part I
9. Tutorial: part II

1. Where to find BlaggerEditor and this HOWTO

Click here to download the latest version.

2. What is "Blagger"

Intro screen 1	Intro screen 2

"Blagger" is a nice MSX videogame written by Alligata Software in 1984. For any level of the game, you have to take the 5 keys spread around the screen, and reach the exit (the yellow "Safe" rectangle). Touching an obstacle or an enemy will kill you instantly, so be careful. You have 4 lives to complete the 20 difficulty levels, good luck.

Livello 0 Livello 3

3. What is BlaggerEditor

"BlaggerEditor" lets you draw Blagger levels, save them as single files, or insert them into the original .CAS game file. The editor has a full Win95+ graphical interface to easily build with the mouse your new levels.

Screenshot 1: a new level	Screenshot 2: level options

Screenshot 3: "Blocks" bar

4. System Requirements

BlaggerEditor should run on any Win95+ computer with mouse and keyboard. Few disk space is required for the program, but be aware that much more is needed if you use the cas2wav utility to create .WAV files (about 8 MB per file .WAV). You may also need some MSX emulator supporting .CAS files: among them, FMSX-DOS, BlueMSX and OpenMSX. Please start your emulation holding SHIFT key down, to disable floppy disk support and let some more memory free, else .CAS file won't load correctly.

5. Insalling and uninstalling

NO NEED TO INSTALL! Just expand the .ZIP file in an empty folder.
NO NEED TO UNINSTALL! Just delete the folder (remember to backup your own levels first :).

6. Available commands

File/New - create a new empty level
File/Open - load a level from a .BIN file and show it
File/Save - save a level in a .BIN file
File/Exit - close program
Tools/Blocks - shows "Blocks" palette (blocks are the graphic elements composing your level)
Tools/Level Options - sets some general options for this level
Tools/Monster Options - sets some further options for this level: type and position of monsters, man starting position etc.
Convert/.BIN to .CAS file - injects a .BIN level inside the main .CAS file
Convert/.CAS to .WAV file - calls cas2wav external program to convert .CAS file in .WAV audio format, so you can play Blagger on a real MSX via tape interface
Options/.WAV double baud rate - save .WAV file in 2400 baud rate (less waste of space, but less robust when loading)
Help/Manual(F1) - Shows online help
Help/About - Shows the "About" screen

7. Mouse actions

Left button - any click draws a block; you can also drag the cursor to draw many blocks.
Right button - draws a line of blocks, starting from last left button click point.

8. Tutorial: part I

We'll now create a single level (.BIN file).

Start BlaggerEditor
File/New: a new empty level appears
Tools/Blocks: blocks palette appears
Choose the red brick block (lower left on blocks palette)
Now draw your level with the mouse
File/Save: save it as "first.bin" (write .bin extension too)
You could now exit BlaggerEditor, file is saved
When re-entering program, choose File/Open and click on "first.bin" you saved before.
You should now see your saved level. You did it!

9. Tutorial: part II

You will now edit your main .CAS file to play your custom Blagger levels on the MSX emulator.

Start Blagger Editor
Convert/.BIN to .CAS file: a dialog box appears
Choose level to replace, specifying a number between 0 and 19
Click "Sel. level"; choose .BIN file to import (for example, "first.bin" saved before), and .CAS file to modify (probably "blagger.cas")
Repeat the procedure to replace more levels.
Now your .CAS file is ready to be played. You did it!