Atari FTP/ATARI_FTP_0693.zip/ATARI_FTP_0693/Games/grav2.arc/README.DOC

Text File | 1987-04-22 | 8KB | 272 lines

                GRAV 2
                ======

      A game by Martin Brownlow.
         Music by Dave Gymer.

  This program is shareware.  It may be
freely copied on  condition that if you
wish to keep it, you send a £5 registr-
ation fee to the following address:

          Martin Brownlow
         89,Marples Avenue
        Mansfield Woodhouse
               Notts.
              NG19 9EZ

  In exchange for registering, you will
receive a disk of programs, including a
playable  demo of  "SPUD", which I will
release as  shareware if it is shown to
be profitable by your responses to this
game.
  At a time  when many  software houses
appear to be deserting the ST in favour
of other 16 bit  computers which MAY or
may not be inferior,and when many games
are overdue, overhyped, and, basically,
crap and not worth the money, shareware
stands out as being a way forward.
  Please support this game.  Thankyou.

Martin Brownlow.
1:09 am, Monday 27th July,1992.


Instructions.
-------------

1. The Blurb.
                Many years ago, a being
known only to us as  the Enemy appeared
in our universe from parts unknown.  It
tainted  the hearts  of men,  and  from
these men, a new empire arose to chall-
enge our society.
  An attack was  launched on the Earth,
and  was only  stopped from  destroying
the mother planet of our race by a sin-
gle fighter craft, codenamed GRAV.  The
GRAV pilot destroyed the Enemy's follo-
wers' two  base planets, but  the Enemy
escaped back to its own dimension.
  Now from the ashes of the old emipre,
a new force has arisen.   The forces of
the Earth had grown lax and ignored the
build up of  weapons and  bases on  the
outskirts  of our  galaxy until it  was
too late; The empire had returned.
  The Earth's only hope against a supe-
rior attacking force is again the  GRAV
fighter.  Updated and upgraded, the new
GRAV  command  ship  left the  Earth to
fight the empire once again.

2. The game.

  GRAV 2 is, like  its prequel  GRAV, a
game of the type  generically  known as
"rotate and thrust".  What  this  means
is easier to see during play than it is
to explain, but the basic gist is this:
Your ship can only  move forwards.   To
get it to move in a specific direction,
you rotate the ship and then thrust. To
stop, you turn the ship around and thr-
ust in the opposite direction.
  It sounds hard, and at  first it  is,
but once you get used to it (and it can
take some time) it becomes  second nat-
ure and you wonder why all games aren't
written this way.

Anyway, on with the instructions.

2.0. High Scores

  The high  score  table  can be  saved
from the title screen by pressing S.
  When GRAV 2 loads,  it  looks for the
file GRAVHS.DAT in the  folder DATA. To
return the high scores to their default
values, just delete GRAVHS.DAT.

2.1. Ship Controls.

  The GRAV fighter can be controlled by
either  the joystick  or keyboard.   To
select the control method desired, sim-
ply press fire on the title page.

  The joystick works as expected,  with
left and right rotating the ship, forw-
ard activating  the thrusters and  fire
to fire the cannons.
  The keyboard controls are as follows;

Control           Thrust
Alternate         Fire
:                 Left
'                 Right

  There are several controls  which are
common to both control types,these are;

Space             Activate secondary
                  weapon.
Return            Select secondary
                  weapon to use with
                  space.

Q                 fire bomb
A                 use defense laser
S                 use computer aided
                  retro
Z                 use cloaking device
X                 use timer shield

P                 pause
Backspace         scuttle ship(suicide)
T                 teleport up

  The controls  are slightly  different
when on a menu screen; for the joystck,
the directions move the cursor and fire
selects  an  option.  For the keyboard,
control becomes up and alternate becom-
es down and space becomes select.

2.2. Secondary weapons

  The GRAV fighter has several upgrades
available to it in the form of seconda-
ry  weapons.  These are,  in  the order
they appear in the shop screen;

Bomb
  A powerful explosive device which can
take out  several installations  in one
shot.

Defence Laser
  Like SDI, the defence laser will des-
troy all nearby projectiles.

Computer aided retros
  A very handy device that simply stops
you dead.

Cloaking Device
  Real Star Trek stuff!  What the enemy
can't see, they can't hit!!

Timer Shields
  Heading into a rough bit? Timer shie-
lds protect you from any number of bul-
let hits, but only for a short time.

Impact shield
  Not  strictly a secondary weapon,  as
you can't  willingly  activate it.   An
impact shield will  protect your  craft
from one  bullet  hit.   Timer  shields
take hits for  impact shields,  if  you
have both on at once.

2.3. The planet select screen

  This screen allows you to choose  the
planet you wish to attack next.  Simply
position the cursor over the planet you
want to attack and press fire.
  If there are more than 4 planets ava-
ilable to you, you can scroll the scre-
en by trying to move off the top or bo-
ttom.

2.4. The shop screen

  To buy an item,press select while the
cursor  is on its  cost section.   This
buys the item and puts it in your stor-
es.
  To load an item onto your ship, press
select while the cursor is in the sect-
ion marked stores.  This loads the item
onto your ship.
  To unload an item that you don't need
anymore, press select when over its lo-
adesd section.

  To alter your ship's handling,  press
left or right while the cursor is poin-
ting to the relevant handling characte-
istic.

3. Playing the game.

3.1. The panel

  The control  panel  on the  bottom of
the screen holds the following informa-
tion:

FUEL SCORE IMPACT SECOND LIVES AMMO

  Where impact is  the number of impact
shields remaining and second is a small
icon representing the secondary  weapon
currently  selected  and the  number of
this  item left.   This  can be  cycled
through all your current load by press-
ing return.  The weapon will be used by
pressing space or a specific weapon can
be used by pressing Q,A,S,Z or X.

3.2. The aim

  The aim of each  level is to  disable
the base.   This is done basically  the
same way for every base; destroying 80%
of the  emplacements,  but some  levels
have specific objectives, such as dest-
roying the cargo cannisters.
  When you have  finished a level,  you
will  hear a  unique beep and  you will
see a flashing T in the bottom  left of
the screen.  This  means that  you  can
leave  the base at any time by pressing
T, but you might want to hang around to
get the C (see below).

  There are 3 types  of enemy which are
beneficial to you.  These are fuel dump
ammo dump and computer.  To take advan-
tage of these bases,  simply land  next
to  them.   The computer  is especially
important.  When you land  next to  it,
you will see a flashing C in the bottom
right  of the  screen.  This means that
you have downloaded the bases the comp-
uter knows about, and these will be fed
into your data when you leave the level
in other words, it is a way of  finding
new levels.
  Every time you use one of these faci-
lities, your  position  is recorded  so
when you lose  a life,  you will  start
again from there.

HAVE FUN.

PS Some bases are quite ATTRACTIVE, and
   others are quite REPULSIVE, so don't
   be scared if you don't know  whether
   you're coming or going!

PPS
Please register your copy of this game!