Flying Saucer Read Me (Demo Version v1.05e) 04.06.98 PostLinear Entertainment CONTENTS 1 - Welcome 2 - System Requirements 3 - Playing Flying Saucer for the first time 4 - The basics of Saucer flight 5 - Troubleshooting 6 - Contact Information 7 - Flying Saucer Controls 8 - Credits 1 - WELCOME Welcome to the Flying Saucer Demo. This demo includes: - One training mission (Area 51) - One real mission (Wright Patterson Air Force Base) - One abduction and abduction scan - One edited introductory cutscene - One data node (Saucer Pilot Test Reports) This demo will give you a real taste of what it's like to the play the game, and what it really feels like to pilot a Flying Saucer. For more info on the game, visit www.postlinear.com. 2 - SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Required: Pentium 100 16 MB RAM Windows 95 compatible Sound Card 2x CD-ROM Drive VGA card with 1 MB VRAM Windows 95 Microsoft Direct X 5.0 Recommended: Pentium 166 32 MB RAM Windows 95 compatible Sound Card 4x CD-ROM Drive SVGA card with 2 MB VRAM Windows 95 Microsoft Direct X 5.0 3 - Playing Flying Saucer for the first time Once the Flying Saucer Demo is installed, an shortcut icon will appear on your desktop. In addition, a Flying Saucer start-up icon will be put in the Start Menu, under Software 2000. You can select either of these icons to start-up the game. Once you have started the Flying Saucer Demo, an introductory movie will play. When this movie has completed, you will find yourself at the Title screen. From here, you can start a New Game. Other The Load and Save game menus, as well as the movie gallery have been turned off for this Demo. Selecting New Game will place you in the virtual cockpit of the flying saucer. From this cockpit, you can move your mouse (or joystick) to any one of four "hot" areas of the cockpit: the Flight POD (middle of the screen), the Abduction Viewer (left), the Data Browser (right) or the Game Options (top right). Since you haven't abducted anyone...yet. The Abduction Viewer is empty at this point. The Data Browser contains valuable information on your saucer, in the form of pilot test reports Throughout the game, the Data Browser will include valuable information about the unfolding story, your character, your saucer, and the future of the Earth. Before playing your first mission, you may want to review the test reports in the Data Browser to familiarize yourself with the saucer. To get to the World Map, select the animating Flight POD from the middle of the screen. From the World Map, you can also access the Simulator Map and the Solar System Map. Only the Earth and Simulator maps will be used in this demo. On the Simulator map, you have one Training Mission. This missions will greatly enhance your ability to pilot the saucer when it comes to really playing the game. Once you have played the training mission, you're ready to return to the World Map. You'll see one mission there, Area 51. When you select Area 51 from the World Map, you'll get the Area 51 Mission Map. All mission maps include a map of the terrain for that mission, as well as a Mission Briefing and a listing of your Mission Objectives. You'll notice that there's an empty Status box right next to your Mission Objectives. It's empty because you haven't started the mission yet. You can access the Mission Map during game play by pressing the "M" key, and it will tell you the status of each Mission Objective. A MISSION IS COMPLETE ONLY WHEN ALL PRIMARY OBJECTIVES HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED. Once you've completed all of your mission objectives, you'll get a Mission Complete voice over, as well as a graphic on your Heads Up Display. Even though the mission is complete, you can still stay in the world to collect valuable convertible matter, and kill any remaining enemies. However, if you die once you've completed all the mission objectives, you will fail the mission and need to replay it. To leave a mission once you've completed all of the mission objectives, hit the ESC key, and select 1 - Exit Mission. To start your first mission, select the Start Mission button. Good luck! 4 - THE BASICS OF SAUCER FLIGHT THE FLYING SAUCER DOES NOT FLY LIKE ANY OTHER CRAFT YOU'VE FLOWN BEFORE. IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO GET USED TO IT. Do the Training missions first. It will make all of this a whole lot easier! The saucer is propelled by a unique gravity displacement engine. This engine creates packets of concentrated gravity to move the saucer in any direction. The saucer may also displace gravity to fields to stop and start instantly, maneuver around objects precisely, as well as move laterally and horizontally without losing any speed.. To properly generate gravity fields, the engine must remain parallel to the area beneath the saucer at all times. As a result, the saucer does not pitch, roll or bank, unless the saucer comes into contact with a foreign object, such as a missile or a mountain. The Saucer is a simple disk, with no obvious front or back. All movements are relative to each other, not a front or a back, and are controlled from a gyro-stabilized flight POD that is nestled in the center of the saucer. The view on the screen is the view of the POD, not necessarily the saucer itself. Unlike an aircraft, which can fly just about anywhere, a saucer requires a tremendous amount of information to be able to enter any terrain environment. The saucer's gravity engine requires Destination Terrain Data, or DTD, in order to enter any terrain environment. In addition, the saucer's targeting computer uses DTD in order to track the exact locations of objects in an environment. DTD is geographic data that includes terrain height data, standard electromagnetic readings, and environmental spectral readings for a location. 5 - TROUBLESHOOTING For more troubleshooting information than is contained here, please visit www.postlinear.com. Problem: Flying Saucer won't start up Potential Solution: Did you install Direct X 5.0? Direct X 5.0 is necessary for Flying Saucer to be able to run properly. If you've already installed Flying Saucer but didn't install Direct X 5.0, you can still install it from the Flying Saucer CD-ROM. Right click on your CD-ROM icon from your Windows 95 desktop, and then select Open. Look for the DirectX folder, and then open that folder. Run Setup.exe from within the DirectX folder to install Direct X 5.0. Problem: Flying Saucer won't start up Potential Solution: Are you letting Windows manage your Virtual Memory? Regardless of whether or not you have enough memory to run Flying Saucer, Direct X 5.0 requires Virtual Memory be engaged in order to work properly. To activate Virtual Memory, select the Settings > Control Panel from the Windows 95 Start Menu. Then select System. Select the Performance tab. Click on the Virtual Memory button. Select "Let Windows manage my virtual memory." Click O.K.. Problem: The game appears to be running REALLY slow. Potential Solution: This could be a couple of things. First, if you have a slower machine, such as a P100, then you really should run the game in Low Resolution. That will definitely speed it up. However, if you've got a fast machine, and the game is still running slowly, then it could be your video card. Direct X 5.0 has some problems running non-accelerated video cards when the Windows Advanced Graphics Settings are set to Full Acceleration. To fix this problem, select the Settings > Control Panel from the Windows 95 Start Menu. Then select System. Select the Performance tab. Click on the Graphics button. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider bar from whatever it's at to none, and then restart your system. That may take care of the problem. Problem: I'm turning the saucer, but it isn't moving Potential Solution: Are you really turning the saucer? Using the arrow keys or the joystick only changes the view POD, not the actual direction of the saucer. To change the saucer's direction, you must hit the Ctrl key, or use either the Shift or Alt keys in conjunction with the arrows or the joystick. Problem: No music or sounds are playing in the game Potential Solution: Check the Game Settings screen. It includes options for turning the music on and off, as well as the sound effects and the voice overs. These switches can also be engaged in the game by using the F10, F11 and F12 keys, respectively. Problem: No cutscenes are playing Potential Solution: This option can also be set in the Game Settings Screen. In addition, though, if you are playing the game in Low Resolution (320 x 240), the cutscenes won't play at all. All of the cut scenes can only be played in a 640 x 480 window. When playing in Low Resolution, you can view cut scenes after the mission is over by going to the Movie Archive and viewing them there. Problem: I can't seem to abduct anything Potential Solution: To abduct the contents of a building, or a boat or any other object in the world, that object must first have something in it which can be abducted. You can tell whether an object has something that can be abducted by switching to Electromagnetic or Biomass sensor modes when you have an object targeted. If a green or blue dot appears within your target indicator on either of those sensors, then you can abduct something from that object. To abduct make sure you're within 500 meters of the object, and then hit the O key to abduct it's contents. Problem: The Flying Saucer install aborts, even though I have enough disk space. Potential Solution: To install Flying Saucer, the installer needs more than the actual disk space for the game in order to extract the compressed files before we write them to the disk. To be safe, you should always have double the install size available on your hard drive in order to install the game. Once the game is installed, though, it uses only as much disk space as is specified in the installer. Problem: I finished all my primary mission objectives, but the mission doesn't exit. Potential Solution: You have to leave a mission manually in order for it to be finished. The reason for this is so that you can continue to explore the world and pick up Convertible Matter for the saucer. Once you've completed all the primary mission objectives, hit the ESC key, and press 1 to return to the cockpit. 6 - CONTACT INFORMATION Product Related Issues: Damon Dean - Project Producer PostLinear Entertainment Inc. 2650 18th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415-487-1100 x244 www.postlinear.com 7 - FLYING SAUCER CONTROLS FLIGHT CONTROLS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- A Increase Throttle Z Decrease Throttle Q Set to Maximum Speed W Stop X Track Currently Targeted Object L Follow Currently Targeted Object Up Arrow POD View Down Down Arrow POD View Up Left Arrow POD View Left Right Arrow POD View Right Shift + Up Arrow Slide Forward Shift + Down Arrow Slide Backward Shift + Left Arrow Slide Left Shift + Right Arrow Slide Right Alt + Up Arrow Slide Up Alt + Down Arrow Slide Down Alt + Left Arrow Slide Left Alt + Right Arrow Slide Right Ctrl Match Motion to Current View Vector Enter Match View to Current Motion Vector WEAPONS CONTROLS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- 1 Select Lasers 2 Select Plasma Missles 3 Select Guided Plasma Missiles Tab Cycle Forward through Weapons ~ Cycle Bacward through Weapons Space Bar Fire ENERGY MANAGEMENT CONTROLS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- E Bias Energy to Engines S Bias Energy to Shields D Bias Energy to Weapons C Balance Energy to Engines, Shields and Weapons F Invert Shields Shift + S Transfer Energy from Weapons to Shields Shift + D Transfer Energy from Shields to Weapons TARGETING / TRACKING / SENSOR CONTROLS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- Y Target Nearest Object G Target Object in Crosshairs T Target Next Object R Target Previous Object U Auto-Target Mode I Inspect Targeted Object O Abduct Targeted Object (Web, Abductee, or Convertible Matter) L View Follows Targeted Object N Cycle through Navigation Points B Cycle through Sensors (Spectral, Electromagnetic, and Biomass) V Toggles Sensors between Short- and Long-Range Modes FUNCTION KEYS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- F1 Return to Saucer F2 External Camera F3 Zoom In External Camera F4 Zoom Out External Camera F5 Head-Up-Display On / Off F6 Missle Camera F7 Enemy Camera F9 Joystick On / Off F10 Music On / Off F11 Sound Effects On / Off F12 Voice Overs On / Off ADDITIONAL KEYS FOR ACCELERATOR CARD USERS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- [ Fogging Effect On / Off GAME CONTROLS: Key: Action: ---------------- -------------------- Esc End / Restart Mission P Pause Mission 8 - LEGAL "Postlinear is a trademark of Postlinear Entertainment, Inc. Flying Saucer is a trademark of Postlinear Entertainment, Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners." "All characters, firms, and events in this game are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), firms, or events is purely coincidental." THIS GAME IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, POSTLINEAR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE OPERATION OF THE GAME WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. POSTLINEAR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY KIND OR NATURE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST REVENUES OR PROFITS, LOST DATA OR INFORMATION, OR LOST BUSINESS, WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY IS ASSERTED ON THE BASIS OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF THE OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN WARNED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGE IN ADVANCE. POSTLINEAR'S LIABILITY IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE SALE OR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS PRODUCT SHALL IN NO EVENT EXCEED THE PRICE PAID BY THE PURCHASER FOR THIS PRODUCT. "Uses Miles Sound System from RAD Software. Copyright 1994-1996 by Miles Design Inc." "Uses Smacker Video Technology. Copyright 1994 -1996 by Invisible Inc. d.b.a. RAD Software"