Hardware Requirements

EGA or VGA compatible card recommended, CGA works also 128K of free conventional memory DOS v2.0 or greater
Disclaimer:
This program is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind. In no event will the authors be liable to you for any damages.

Quick Evaluation

Run hockey.com. In the main menu, press 1 to change your opponent, which defaults to a human player. The other names are computer teams. Press 3 to start the game. Play using cursor keys to move the player nearest to the disc, and ENTER to fire. You play from right to left.

Installing & Configuring

Just put all files in the archive (or on the distribution diskette) in a directory on hard or floppy disk, which you will probably already have done. The files require 65K of free disk space.
Now make that directory the current directory and type: hockey <enter>, and the program will run or it won't (which probably means you do not have an EGA compatible card).
If you want to change the control keys for both teams, run the configuration program config.exe. Note that some keyboards have problems with certain combinations of simultaneously pressed keys.

The Story

After the latter half of the 21st century, which had North America playing a very minor role both politically and economically, there was a worldwide (solar-system-wide actually) revival of ancient North American sports in the 22nd century, most notably of ice hockey. But in accordance with the true spirit of the time, the players in the game were actually robots, controlled externally by teams of humans. The sport, originated among American immigrants in southwestern South America, proved to be very popular, especially in the various human colonies on planets in the solar system. Now you have a chance to challenge the teams in the Solar Hockey League.

The Main Menu

In the main menu, you can choose between several game types. With key 1 on your keyboard, you can change team 1. With key 2, you can change team 2. The two teams are displayed at the bottom of the screen. The computer teams are sorted in order of increasing physical skill. In the actual game, team 1 and team 2 will play each other; team 1 plays from left to right. The default keys to control a human player are as follows:

Team 2: cursor keys for movement, ENTER - fire
Team 1: Z - left, X - right, T - up, F - down, Y - fire

These can be changed with the configuration program. In league games, the human player will always be team 2.
In the main menu, key 3 will start a single game, with the specified teams. Key 4 will start a league. You will play against all computer teams, and all computer teams will play against each other. After each round, the current standings will be displayed. For a win, you get 2 points, for a draw, 1, and 0 for a defeat. At the league standings screen, pressing ESC will abort the current league; you will have to start with round 1 again. Key 5 will return to the operating system. Key 6 selects the speed of the robots for a human player team. This can be SLOW or FAST, which makes a great difference (SLOW is much harder against computer players). With key 7, you can select the color scheme to be used in the game. If set to random, the color scheme will be randomly selected for each game. Key 8 changes the sound level. ALL enables all sounds. NO BUZZER will disable the buzzer (it may get a bit irritating with some speakers). SILENT will disable all sounds. With key 9, you can select the length of a game. A game length of 1000 corresponds with about half a minute.

The Game

The game itself is quite straightforward. Each team consists of 3 robots: a goal-keeper (which is not limited in its movement) and two field players. A human player always controls the robot that is nearest to the disc (a disc is better suited to robot mechanics than a puck or a ball). Each robot has a maximum speed and shooting power, depending on the strength of its team and whether it is a goal keeper or a field player. The other robots in your team are controlled by the computer, using default defensive and offensive positions, depending on whether your team last touched the disc or not.
At the start of a game, and after a goal has been scored or a last-touch timeout has occured, the disc is placed in the middle of the playing area and fired in a random direction (throw-off).
The scoreboard displays the of number of goals that each team has scored, along with the timer count and the maximum speed and shooting power for the currently controlled robot of each team.
Your robot takes possession of the disc by moving over it. You are then allowed to move the robot with disc around for a limited period, after which the disc automatically shoots away. When that period has nearly ended, a warning signal is sounded. You can shoot the disc by pressing fire, or waiting for the timeout. If you shoot the disc into the other team's goal, you have scored.
To prevent one team from stealing time by holding the disc in the possession of one robot by repeatedly bouncing the disc off one of the edges, there is a last-touch timeout. When a certain period has passed in which the disc has not been touched by any other robot, the game is suspended and a throw-off occurs. This timeout is also preceded by a warning sound.
You can abandon a game by pressing ESC. If you abandon a league game, the score will default to a 0-10 defeat.
Have Fun!

Technical Info and History

This game was first written under the imaginative name of 'BALL' in 1989, featuring CGA graphics designed for monochrome monitors, delays only suitable to slow XT computers and an internal 'random' routine that doesn't work on AT's. Despite this, it was included in the 'Best of 1990' selection of the Public (Software) Library in Houston, TX. Now, in 1992, the game has been upgraded and runs nicely on any modern IBM PC compatible computer, with greatly enhanced graphics and presentation (although the graphics are still monochrome - but with varying color schemes this actually looks quite nice on EGA/VGA color displays). It was written entirely in assembler (some 7000 lines).

Distributive size: 34K Windows-95,98,ME,2000,XP,NT

Game Hockey