Document revision 1.0 Copyright © 2006 Robert Niedziela

Roboban3D manual

Table of content

  1. Introduction

  2. Game
    1. Installing the application
    2. Rules
    3. Menu navigation
    4. Play the game
      1. Start playing
      2. Controlling the robot
      3. Game status bar
      4. Large map scrolling
    5. Hall of fame
    6. Options
      1. Managing players
      2. Level packs beaming
      3. Other options
    7. Help
    8. About
    9. Registration

  3. Editor
    1. Starting editor
    2. Creating a new level pack
    3. Importing from XSokoban
    4. Map manager
      1. Creating a new map
      2. Map selecting
      3. Map reordering
      4. Removing a map
      5. Resizing a map
    5. Map content
      1. Zoom/grid options
      2. Putting tiles
      3. Removing tiles
      4. Robot location
      5. Map content scrolling
    6. Export to PDB



1 Introduction

Roboban3D is a clone of the famous Sokoban game, which was invented in 1982 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi. Many clones of this game have been created so far. This implementation introduces an isometric view that develops your three-dimensional imagination.
Another innovation is up to six player profiles, so you can share your PDA with other people to play Roboban3D. A list of finished levels in each level pack is stored for all players. Players can compete with one another, because the high score for each level is also stored.

There are many challenging levels designed to test your brain. Some of them are shipped with this game, but there are many more levels on the Internet. If levels are in the text format (XSokoban format), then you can use your PC level editor to convert these levels into Roboban3D PDB file format. For details, please see the Importing from XSokoban section of this manual. On the Roboban3D homepage you can find the level packs converted into the PDB file. You can download them for free.



2 Game

2.1 Installing the application

To install Roboban3D decompress the Roboban3D.zip file first. Then go to the directory where you have extracted the archive file and then to the subdirectory Roboban3D. Install the file Roboban3D.prc and all PDB files (*.pdb) on your PDA.

2.2 Rules

The goal of the game is to put all the crates (boxes) on the destination floor tiles . You control a small robot that is able to move the crates. A crate can be moved only by pushing it. Only one crate can be pushed at a time. Make as few pushes as possible to achieve a better score.
Select the "HELP" option in the Roboban3D main menu to get some info about the game rules.

2.3 Menu navigation

Options in a menu can be selected by pen. Just tap on the option to execute it.

2.4 Play the game

2.4.1 Start playing

To start a new game you have to select the "PLAY THE GAME" option in the main menu.

You will then see the player selection screen. If you have created your player profile before and it is listed on the screen, then just select it - otherwise you have to create a new one.
To create a new profile select the "NEW PLAYER" option. If all player profile slots are used, then you have to remove one of the existing profiles first. See the Managing players section for a detailed description.

After selecting the "NEW PLAYER" option you will be asked your name. You can enter it using the onscreen keyboard, hardware keyboard or Graffiti®. After your name is entered you have to select the "DONE" option to continue.

The level selection screen will be then displayed, where you can select the level pack and the level you want to play.
There is the "LEVEL PACK" popup list on the screen, which is used for selecting one of the installed level packs. Below the popup list is a grid displaying all levels from the current level pack. Already finished levels are marked with background. Tap on the level number to highlight it and then select the "DONE" option to play.
If the currently played level is highlighted and you select the "DONE" option then it will be restarted. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to restart.

2.3.2 Controlling the robot

The robot is controlled by the pen. Tap on the floor tile, where you want to move the robot to. A box-shaped cursor (see the picture below) is displayed when you touch the screen. You can move it freely until you raise the pen. Then the shortest possible path will be plotted automatically from the source to the destination location and the robot will move.
To push a crate, you have to move the robot to the location next to the crate's location and then tap on the tile lying on the same line which the robot and the crate lies on.

This picture shows the situation, when the robot will push the crate to a location pointed by the yellow box-shaped cursor. Note that the robot, crate and cursor lie on the same line.
If the robot cannot reach the requested tile, then the error sound is played and the unreachable tile is marked with a red color for a short period of time.
Sometimes you may want to stop the robot while it is moving along the plotted path. In this case you can press any hardkey while robot is moving - the path will be cancelled and the robot will stop.

2.3.3 Game status bar

On the bottom of the game screen you can see the status bar containing some buttons and displaying game info.
When the current map is small enough to fit on the screen, then the two leftmost buttons are not displayed. These buttons are used for switching between the move mode - and the scroll mode - . In the move mode you control the robot, while in the scroll mode you can see the whole level map by scrolling the game window (see the Large map scrolling section).
The next button is the "Undo" button - . By pressing it you go back one move. Undo is unlimited (or rather limited by the available storage memory).
The function of the "Rotate" button is to rotate the map if you wish to look at it from different angle. The last is the "Exit" button - . The application exits to the main menu when you confirm that you want to do it.
There is the game info display on the right side of the status bar. The current level number is displayed in the first row and the total number of pushes is displayed in the second row. Tap on this display to change the level you want to play or restart the current one. (see here for details).
For short info about the status bar select the "HELP" option in the Roboban3D main menu.

2.3.4 Large map scrolling

If the map is larger than the screen size, then you can switch to the scroll mode to view the whole map. The scroll mode is activated by tapping on the .
Then touch the game area and drag the pen to scroll the map. To go back to the move mode you have to tap the button.



2.4 Hall of fame

Here you can find the best score for each level in every level pack. The high score page is visible only for a short time and then next page is displayed. If the last page of a level pack was visible, then the first page of the next one will be displayed.
You can go to the next level pack without waiting for the last page - just tap on a level pack name. If you want to go the next page of high scores faster, then tap on the scoreboard. High scores are preserved even if a player or level pack was removed from the device.



2.5 Options

2.5.1 Managing players

If some of the player profiles are not needed anymore, then you can delete them on this screen. Just select the player's name and confirm that you want to delete it. Select "DONE" when you have finished.

Note: Unused slots contain "UNDEFINED PLAYER". Removed players cannot be restored!
2.5.2 Level packs beaming

If you want to beam some level packs to your friend, you can do it here. Select the name of the level pack you want to beam and select the "BEAM" option. Standard "Beaming" dialog will be shown and database containing the specified level pack will be sent to another device.
You should beam level packs after you beam Roboban3D application to another device.

2.5.3 Another options

In the "Options" menu you can decide whether you want menu options to be animated when selected ("MENU ANIMATION" option), what the robot's speed should be ("ROBOT SPEED" option) and whether you want to hear sound and music ("SOUND" option). The game sound should be enabled in the system preferences as well, otherwise you will not hear the sound even if it set to "ON" in Roboban3D.



2.6 Help

Select this option if you need a short description of the game status bar, game rules or robot control. Select the appropriate option to view the desired help topic.



2.7 About

Contains information about Roboban3D. You will find the version number of the application here, the home page address where you can download additional level packs, support email address and information about the author.



2.8 Registration

The unregistered version's limitation is that you can only play the first ten levels in each level pack. Please register and feel the full satisfaction of unlimited playing. Another benefit of registration is that you will be granted free upgrades of Roboban3D.

To register this application, please process the following steps:

  1. Run Roboban3D on your PDA and select the REGISTER option from the main menu.
  2. Go to www.palmgear.com and buy Roboban3D.
  3. At the end of transaction a registration code will be provided. Enter this registration code in the text field of Roboban3D "Registration" form on your PDA and tap the "OK" button.
  4. You will see the dialog box with registration status message. If registration failed, please select the REGISTER option from the main menu once again and very carefully enter the registration code.

3 Editor

This WYSIWYG editor is a companion for the Roboban3D application. This application requires Java SDK or JRE installed (version 1.5 or higher). It is designed to create the new levels for the Roboban3D game in a fast and convenient way.
You can run this editor on each operating system that is supported by Java. To download Java runtime you have to go to the Java home page, then download JRE (Java runtime environment) for your operating system. Run the setup after downloading to install the JRE.

3.1 Starting editor

First you have to open the console window and then go to the directory where the editor executable (r3ded.jar) resides. If you downloaded and unpacked Roboban3D.zip then level editor is located in Roboban3D/R3D_level_editor subdirectory of the directory where archive has been unpacked. To start the editor you have to type one of the following commands (depending on the operating system) in the console window:

Execute the command by pressing the "Enter" key.

Tip: You can create a shortcut to the appropriate starter file on your desktop instead of running from commandline.

3.2 Creating a new level pack

Open the "File" menu and select the "New" option, or click button on the toolbar. A dialog box will be displayed where you have to enter the name of the new level pack (up to 16 characters), name of the level pack author (up to 15 characters), and the version number. If the level pack name is empty, then the project name is used.
Level pack properites can be changed later by selecting the "Properties" option from the "File" menu.

3.3 Importing from XSokoban

Open the "File" menu and select the "Import from text file" option. The file dialog will be displayed. In this dialog you have to select a text file containing a definition of levels in the XSokoban format.
If there are more than 1000 levels defined in the text file, then you will be prompted to select the starting level and the number of levels to be imported. This is because Roboban3D supports databases containing up to 1000 levels. Large level packs must be divided into smaller parts.

3.4 Map manager

There are two tabs on the right side of the editor application window. Select the "Maps" tab. You can manage the maps here. There is a list of maps on the top of this tab and some buttons on the bottom. All these items are described below.

3.4.1 Creating a new map

Press the "Add" or "Insert" button on the "Maps" tab to create a new map. On the map size dialog enter the dimension of the new map and click the "OK" button.

3.4.2 Map selecting

Click on the desired map list entry to edit the appropriate map. If there is something wrong with the current map, you will be prompted to confirm. The error dialog box is displayed when there are no crates, no robot, or the number of crates is different than the number of target tiles on the map.
Another way to choose another map is to click the "Browse" button on the "Maps" tab - a large window containing a visual preview of all levels will be displayed. Click on the map you want to go to and then click the "OK" button.

3.4.3 Map reordering

Use the "Move up" or "Move down" buttons to change the order of the maps. The selected map will be moved up or down, depending on the clicked button.

3.4.4 Removing a map

If you want to delete selected map, then click the "Delete" button. You will be prompted to confirm.

3.4.5 Resizing a map

A map can be resized. Click the "Properties" button to change the current map's dimension. A dialog box will be displayed, where you can modify the map's properties.

3.5 Map content

Click the "Tiles" tab to see all the available tiles. Here you can select a tile to be used while editing the map.

3.5.1 Zoom/grid options

Zoom the map in or out to achieve the best work conditions. Select the "Zoom in" or "Zoom out" option from the "View" menu or click the , button to change the map zoom level.
Another useful tool is the grid on the map canvas. If you turn it on ("Grid" option from the "View" menu, or button on the tool bar), then each map tile will be surrounded by a thin frame.

3.5.2 Putting tiles

To put the current tile (selected on "Tiles" tab) on the map you have to move the mouse cursor on the desired map cell (you will see box-shaped, green cursor on this cell) and press the left mouse button. A new tile will replace the old tile in the selected map cell.

Note: On systems with a one-button mouse, just press this single mouse button.
3.5.3 Removing tiles

To remove the uppermost tile from a map cell, first point this cell, and then press the right mouse button.
If there is a crate on the floor in the pointed cell and you try to remove the tile, then the crate will be removed and the floor tile will stay. If you remove the tile on this cell again, then the floor will be erased and the cell will be empty.

Note: On systems with a one-button mouse you have to press and hold the "Alt" or "Meta" key on the keboard and then press the single mouse button.
3.5.4 Robot location

Initial robot (the player) location must be specified for each level. Select the robot tile on the "Tiles" tab and then press the left mouse button on the desired map cell. If the robot location was already specified, then the robot will be moved from the old location to the new one.

3.5.5 Map content scrolling

Map content can be scrolled using options from the "Map data" menu. These options are: "Scroll up", "Scroll down", "Scroll left" or "Scroll right". The same effect can be achieved by clicking the following buttons on the tool bar:

3.6 Export to PDB

Finaly you can export your work to a PDB file that can be installed on your PDA. Select the "Export to PDB" option from the "File" menu. You will be asked to save a project if you haven't done it before. If the level pack name was specified (see Creating a new level pack) then a PDB file will be named as follows:
R3D <LEVEL PACK NAME>.pdb
otherwise its name will be based on the editor project name:
R3D <PROJECT NAME>.pdb

A PDB file will be saved in the same directory where a project file is stored.