Main Title Screen- Break Ball 2 has a title screen that is full of choices.  When you first start a game you are offered 7 buttons to the right of the "Break Ball 2" or Break Ball 2 Gold title.  They are from top to bottom:

Start Game
Single Player
Music ON
Register
Credits
High Scores
Quit

Whenever you mouse over any of the buttons, you will see the button color change.  The change in color signifies that the button is selected.  While the button is selected, you can left click it using your mouse to either toggle different configuration settings or to access the menu selectable through that button.

Start Game - When you choose the start game button, the game will begin.  Any configuration settings you set by clicking on the "Single Player" or "Music ON" buttons will be taken into consideration when you begin the game.

Single Player - This button when clicked will toggle between "Single Player", "Team Game", "vs. Human" and "vs. Computer" game modes.  To find out more about these modes, please look at the "Game Modes" section of this manual.  To select your game mode, simply choose it by clicking on the button until it displays the game mode you wish to play, then click on the "Start Game" button.

Music ON - This button is another toggle button.  When you click on it, it will toggle between "Music ON" and "Music OFF."  If you wish to play with the music on, you will need to leave it selected before clicking the start button.  (NOTE:  Turning the music off will cause a slight increase in overall game performance on older systems)

Register - In the shareware version of the game, this button will take you to a screen that describes how to register the game.  In the full version of the game, this button will give you a sneak peak into games under development at BC Soft Games.

Credits - Ever wonder who BC Soft Games really is?  The credits screen will give you information about who created the game, and thanks to those whose programs and help make Break Ball 2 a reality.

High Scores - Clicking on the "High Scores" button will take you to the "High Scores" screen.  This screen will give you the top 10 scores you and those who have played Break Ball 2 have achieved.  This is a great place to show off your prowess!

Quit - If you click this button, the game will exit...I'm certain you'll never want to do that, so this button will probably remain unused!

Single Player >> Controller Setup >> Level Select >> Paddle Select
Team Game >> Controller Setup >> Level Select >> Paddle Select
vs. Human >> Controller Setup >> Player Profile >> Level Select >> Paddle Select
vs. Human >> Controller Setup >> Player Profile >> Level Select >> Paddle Select

Controller Setup - To select your controller, use the mouse to move the 1UP and/or 2UP button under the controller that the player will be using.  (Either "mouse," "joystick" or "keyboard")

If you choose joystick or keyboard as your controller type, you will be allowed to set the controller speed.  This speed is broken into two sections: normal and turbo.  The normal speed is the speed of moving left to right, and the turbo speed is the speed moving left to right when holding down the "turbo" button.  (button 3, C, 7, 8, R, or L when using a joystick such as the Microsoft SideWinder or the 'space bar when using the keyboard.)

Player Profiles - Player profiles keep track of your record versus other human players or against the computer.  To play with a profile, just choose one from the 4 slots by clicking on the number to the left of the name of the profile. 

The fourth slot will allow you to play without a profile. 

If you do not have a profile, click "Edit Profile."  Doing this will erase the profile for that slot and allow you to enter in a name for the profile.

Level Selection - To choose a level, click on the number to the left of the level name.  There are 30 level slots available in Break Ball 2. 

You can fill the different level slots by purchasing Official Board Packs from the Break Ball 2 Website.

Paddle Selection - The paddle selection screen lets you do many things.

First, you choose your paddle and ball skin.  If you are playing solo, just click on the paddle you want from the 6 options provided, and choose your ball from the 6 skins.  (if a paddle is locked, you need to unlock it through "Quest Mode")  (If you want to select the alternate ball skin colors hold down F10 while selecting your ball.)

If you are playing against a computer opponent, click on their selection area to the right and then you can choose a paddle and ball skin for them.  You can change your personal paddle selection by clicking in the left selection area and then choosing a paddle or ball. 

When playing against a computer opponent, you will see the paddles become grayed out when you attempt to select them for the computer player.  A grayed out paddle is one that you have defeated. Defeating each paddle at each difficulty level will earn you more ball skins through "Quest Mode."

Game Speed is set by by clicking on the number under the "Game Speed" text in the middle of the screen.  There are 5 speeds that you will be able to scroll through by continuing to click on the number.

"Versus self kill" is an option at the bottom of the screen that is available only in a versus game.  (either vs. a computer or a human opponent)  When this is on, if your opponent's ball goes past their own paddle, it counts as a point for your opponent.  If it is off, the only way to score is to get your ball past your opponent's paddle.  (i.e. if you are at the bottom, and your ball goes off the screen at the bottom with versus self kill on, it will count as a point for your opponent.  If versus self kill is not on, your ball going off the bottom of the screen does not count against you)

"Poison" is a special new feature to Break Ball 2.  If you turn this on, all of the "Poisons" from the "Powerups" section will be available to you as possible rewards for breaking bricks.  If it is not on, then the Poisons will not appear.

"Computer Player Difficulty" controls the difficulty of the computer when playing a versus game.  Defeating each paddle at each difficulty level will earn you more ball skins through "Quest Mode."

Board Importing - One of the great abilities of BB2 is the endless expandability of the game through board creation.  Board sets can be downloaded from the internet through the Break Ball 2 website.  After you have downloaded the board set, you will need to add them to the board sets available.  To do this, first you will need to find the .zip file that contains the board set.  Unzip the board set.  The unzipped board set will be contained in a folder.  In the directory where you installed BB2, you have a folder called levels.  Inside that directory is the folder for each level you have installed.  They are numbered from Lev01-Lev30. 

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU DON'T OVERWRITE A BOARD SET YOU WANT TO KEEP...BACK UP THE Lev## FOLDER BEFORE YOU COPY A NEW ONE IN...

The level you download from the internet will contain a folder with .txt files in it, that will be numbered Lev01-Lev20.  The .txt files are the actual levels on the board set.  There is also a file called "lev config.txt"  this file contains information about the number of levels in the board set, the name of the board set, and the creator of the board set.  All 21 of these files together constitute a board set.

You can import a board set in 2 ways.  First you can copy all the *.txt files into a Lev## folder and past them into the folder.  This will overwrite ALL the files in the folder.  YOU WILL LOSE any level that was previously saved there.  For this reason, I recommend checking the "lev config.txt" file before you copy the .txt files into the folder.  The "lev config.txt" file can be opened by double-clicking on it.  This will give you the title of the level so you will know if there is already a level in this level slot.

The other way to copy a level set is to copy the folder which contains the .txt files into the Levels folder in the BB2 installation directory.  (c:/Program Files/BB2 CD version or C:/Program Files/BB2 by default)  You will need to ensure that the name of the folder fits somewhere from Lev01-Lev30...again, always make a back-up of the folder you will replace before you copy the new folder in.

After that, the rest is easy, just start up BB2 and select the new level.  If you have any questions, please post them in the forum.

In-Game Play Screens & Game Play- While playing the game, you are given a great wealth of information.  In the top left-hand corner if you are playing as player 1, and in the top right hand corner if you are player 2 you will find the Paddle Level indicator, this shows what level your paddle currently is. 

The other information available at the top are "Lives" which shows how many lives you have left.  If you are playing a VS game, this is how many hits you have left.  If the number reaches 0, you lose. 

The score is shown at the top as well.  You can compete for the highest score, and save your high scores as well. 

To the right of your score is a small circle.  This circle is the paddle special weapon power-up indicator.  It fills as you hold down the button on your mouse/controller/keyboard to power-up your special weapon.  When fully charged, it changes color.

To the right of the special weapon power-up indicator is a blank space.  Several of the poisons will display an icon in this area if you have been infected by them.  The following table shows the different icons that can show in that area.

-Freeze Poison

-Drop Paddle

-IT Poison

-Gravity Poison

-King Poison

-Slide Poison

Game-play is fairly simple.  You attempt to destroy all the bricks by hitting the ball into the bricks with your paddle.  If the ball goes past your paddle without you hitting it, you lose one life.  The game will continue until you destroy all the bricks on every level, or until all of your lives are gone, whichever comes first.

The ball can be caused to SPIN.  To do this, hit the ball while moving.  The ball will make a spinning sound and will show blue sparks flying off it.  It will also arc or spin in the direction your paddle was moving when you hit the ball.  The faster your paddle is moving when you hit the ball, the more spin will be put on the ball.

POINTS are accumulated for each brick you destroy and for each power-up or poison you catch with your paddle.  If a brick is destroyed on its own, either by sitting on the board too long, or by it exploding on its own in the case of the toxic ball, you do not receive any points.

To PAUSE the game while you are playing it, hit the "ESC" button on your keyboard.  Doing so will prompt you with a dialog box stating "ARE YOU SURE"  If you click no, the game will resume.  If you click "Yes" or click the "ESC" button again the game will exit to the main menu.  After you click "no" you will be able to PAUSE the game again by once again clicking the ESC key on your keyboard.