CONFIGURING MOLECULE MAN
The most obvious way to configure the game is to use the maze designer supplied with Molecule Man to completely change the layout of the game. You can either edit the maze supplied with the game, or create a completely new one of your own. Once you've saved your maze, you can then load it into Molecule Man by selecting the relevant menu option. Note that to complete the game, you must have collected all of the circuits in the maze before you step on the teleporter square.
You can also configure the game in other ways. For example, you can add your own graphics to the game, or replace the existing ones with a brand new set. Take a look at the molgraphics.ini file that comes with the game - at the top it specifies the number of graphics within the game (you'll need to change this is you add or remove graphics) and which ones are Molecule Man and the circuits he has to collect. Following this are sections specifying properties each of the graphics e.g. the filename, whether or not they can be blown up by bombs etc. For animated graphics, you can also specify the number of frames of animation, and the filenames of each frame. Each graphic that you add should be saved as a .xpm file and be 64x64 pixels in size. You can increase the height and use taller graphics, but you'll have to change the height specifier in the ini file.
You can also change the layout of the status area of the game i.e. the time remaining indicator, the number of pills left etc. This is controlled by the panel.ini file. It specfies the number of lines which are drawn to form a border around around the play area, their thickness, colour and positions. It also specfies the graphics used for the status indicators (allowing you to use your own) and where they appear on screen. Finally, it also specfies the font colour, font size and positions of each of items of the status items.
The molman.ini file controls various game options. By editing this, you can change the amount of time remaining when the game starts, and how quickly it counts down. You can also change the initial number of pills Molecule Man has and how quickly they are used up. Other options allow you to specify the initial number of bombs and coins Molecule Man starts the game with, and the number of pills and bombs each coin buys. The ini file also specfies the keys used in the game, but it's easier to use the redefine keys option within the game to change them.
With V0.92 there's an option in the game which allows you to change the sounds used. Now you can use your own sounds for the clock tick, buy, use bomb etc events. You can also change the ambient sounds that appear at random intervals during the game, and how often they play. Linux users need to bear a few things in mind
1 the sounds must be sampled at a rate 22050Hz, mono, and 8 bit. You can use the sox program to convert your wav files to this format.
2. after you've configured the sounds, you must restart the game for them to take effect.
3. an external program is used to preview the sounds in the sound configuration dialog. By default, this is artsplay, but if you don't have this, you can edit the sounds.ini file and change the soundpreview option to another suitable program (e.g. esdplay, wavplay, playwav etc).
From all this you can see that it's possible to completely change the look and feel of the game.