Merciful 2/Merciful - Disc 2.iso/software/d/datadivisiondoxdisk2.dms/datadivisiondoxdisk2.adf/hlf-bfta.doc

Text File | 1995-01-31 | 16KB | 371 lines

                            FULL DOCUMENTATION TO:

                          ** BATTLE FOR THE ASHES **


TYPED UP BY IGGY/HELLFIRE

LOADING AND INSTALLATION

IBM PC - Battle For the Ashes can be played from either hard drive or
from floppy disk provided. To play from the floppy disk insert the disk,
select the correct floppy disk drive and type CRICKET.

To install the program to the hard drive, insert the disk type INSTALL and
follow the on-screen instructions. Once the game is installed on hard drive
then you will be given further options:

Configure your soundcard: Follow the on-screen instructions to select sound
type and soundcard settings. [There is further information concerning
soundcard settings if you select F10 on the installation screen]

Format a system disk: If you experience memory problems when trying to run
the game then use this option. Insert the system disk when you reboot your
machine.

Each time you play the game you must insert the game disk, which acts as
security protection, before typing CRICKET from your cricket directory on
your hard drive.

AMIGA - Insert the disk and reset your computer (much easier than crappy
PC~S)

THE MAIN MENU

To select a menu option, move the hand which acts as a pointer to the required
option and click. Pressing ESC exits to DOS (IBM PC ONLY). To play a match
choose one player England vs Australia, one player Australia vs England or
two player game; to watch two computer controlled teams, click on computer
vs computer. All the games are test matches played over five days.

RESTORE SAVED GAME: If you have previously saved an incomplete game you can
continue it by selecting Restore Saved Game. Games can only be saved to a
floppy disk when you are playing from floppy and to hard drive when playing
from hard drive (IBM PC ONLY). Enter the name of the saved game when
requested.

(IBM PC ONLY) When playing from hard drive, to restore a game saved to floppy
you must copy the relevant saved game to hard drive before starting the game.
Saved games have the suffix. SAV and must be copied to the CRICKET directory.

SKILL LEVEL: There are three skill settings - Amateur, Professional, and World
Class - You should choose Amateur for your first game.

Amateur: Batting is a breeze at this level. The timing of the shots is very
easy and the computer bowling, batting and fielding is of the village green
standard. This level is strictly for beginners.

Professional: The correct timing of your shots when batting becomes more and
more important although there is still some margin for error. The computer
bowling and fielding is improved and runs will be harder to come by. It will
also be hard to get the computer batsmen out. The game becomes a challege at
this level.

World Class: This is the real thing. Batting is very difficult with the timing
of your shots being absolutely crucial (as soon as you press the button the
shot will be played). The computer bowling and fielding is top notch and
total concentation is required to build a decent total The computer batsmen
are very difficult to dismiss and will punish any wayward bowling. This level
will take some beating.

SOUND: This option enables you to turn on or off the music and sound effects.

CONTROL DEVICES - THIS PART REFERS TO PCS AND SO IS LAME

HOW TO PLAY

Each match is played between Australia and England Lets assume that inyour
first match you decide to play as England against an Australia side controlled
by the computer. The Englan squad will be displayed so that you can select the
eleven players you would like in your team.

Note: there are up to 20 players in each squad, more than can be shown on the
screen at a time; to see the others click on the arrows at the right hand
side.

Pick your team by clicking on each of the eleven players in turn (if you
change your mind about a player just click again to drop him from the team).
The order that you you click on the names will be the order that they will
line up to bat. To save time you can get the computer to pick the team for
you - just click on best 11.

The statistics provided with each player are important to their performance -
better batsmen (with a higher average) will be superior in shot execution;
better bowlers (with a lower average) will be able to bowl quicker or spin or
wing the ball more.

It is important to select a balanced side as having a poor selection of
bowlers or batsmen can leave your team in a weak position. Remember to include
a recognised wicket keeper (marked with a dagger symbol) as playing without
one will result in choas behind the stumps! After choosing your team click on
OK.

Note: if you select for your team more than one player who is designated as a
wicket keeper, the player who was selected last keeps wicket.

If you wish the computer will automatically choose its best team to play
against you - but you can also pick the team yourself (this is useful if you
want to recreate a particular match).

Now for the coin toss. If you win the toss you can decide whether to bat or
field first. Lets suppose that your team is batting first.

If you clicked on best 11, the batting order is automatically chosen by the
computer, based upon the players batting averages; otherwise players bat in
the order they were selected. The batting line-up is displayed before the
innings begins if you are batting. This allows you to revise the entire
batting order if you wish - just select the player you want to move up or
down the order, then indicate the position you would like him to bat.
Click on OK when you have finished, or else CANCEL if you want to go back to
the original order.

If you are bowling then the team is displayed and you can now change the
opening bowler if necessary.

CONTROLLING THE BATSMEN

In a real game of cricket the ball is bowled so fast (up to 90 mph) that the
batsmen must react instinctively, moving his feet, adjusting his posture, and
swinging his bat to play the stroke. To emulate all that in real time using a
joystick would be impossible, so instead Battle For The Ashes breaks down the
batsmens movements into two.

First, move left or right to position the batsmen. Watch the small white
square - this shows where the bowler intends to pitch the ball - when it turns
grey it will stop moving, and the bowler will commence his run-up. Start
thinking about which stroke you intent to play.

When the ball leaves the bowlers hand you have a fraction of a second to
select one of the eight possible directions to determine which stroke is
played - and when it is played (timing is particularly crucial at Professional
and World Class level). The strokes roughly correspond to the joystick
movement, for example, if you move the joystick to the left the batsmen (if
he is right-handed) will attempt a cover drive; if you move it to the right
he will try to hook or sweep the ball.

The full repertoire of strokes is as follows:

UP - FORWARD/BACK DEFENSIVE
RIGHT UP - SWEEP/HOOK
RIGHT - LEG GLANCE
RIGHT DOWN - ON-DRIVE
DOWN - STRAIGHT DRIVE
LEFT DOWN - COVER DRIVE
LEFT - SQUARE DRIVE
LEFT UP - SQUARE CUT

These joystick directions are for a right-handed batsmen; for a left hander
the controls are mirrored

The batsmen will play the best stroke he can in the circumstances - if you
choose a difficult or innappropriate (or if your timing is incorrect) he might
mishit the ball, or miss it altogether. The margin of error depends on the
skill setting you have chosen, and on the batsmens average.

If you succeed in hitting the ball and want to run, press the fire button.
The batsmen will start running at a leisurely pace - to make them run faster
waggle the joystick from side to side (in fact you can start the batsmen
running merely by waggling - there is no need to press the fire button if you
intend to waggle).

To take a second (or third) run press the fire button again, or just keep
waggling. If you change your mind about taking a run, press the fire button
to turn around and go back to the crease you have just left. Of course if the
batsman have already crossed there is no point in turning back, so in this
case when you press the fire button it acts as a signal to go for another run
after the current one.

If the ball crosses the boundary the umpire will signal a four, or a six, and
the batsmen will automatically return to their original positions.

Overthrows: in the event that the fielding side throw the ball past the bowler
or wicket keeper the batsmen can continue running.

When the batting side are all out (ie 10 wickets have fallen), or when the
alloted number of overs has been bowled, it is the turn of the fielding side
to bat.


CONTROLLING THE BOWLER

There are three types of bowler: fast, swing, and spin. Swing bowlers and
spin bowlers can move the ball in either direction - although spin bowlers
will find it easier to spin the ball in one particular direction depending on
whether they are leg or off spinners.

Before you can start your run-up you must decide where you want to pitch the
ball. Move the small white square which indicates where the ball will bounce,
and press fire to fix it into position (the square will turn grey).

This is only an approximation and the ball will not necessarily pitch in the
centre of the square.

If a fast bowler is bowling he will automatically start his run-up; waggle the
joystick from side to side or the equivalent on the keyboard to increase the
speed of the ball.

If the bowler is a swing or spin bowler, choose the direction you want the
ball to move, and press fire. Now the bowler will start his run-up - waggle
the joystick or the equivalent on the keyboard to increase the amount of swing
or spin.

You can change the bowler due to bowl the next over by clicking on Change
Bowler on the menu displayed between overs. Any played can be chosen to bowl,
with the exeption of the wicket keeper, but it will be harder to bowl with a
player who has a poor average. Remember that in a limited overs game a bowler
cannot bowl more than one-fifth of the overs allowed for each innings.


SETTING THE FIELD

You can change the predefined fields during a match, and even save them for
use in future games. Each player has a predefined field setting of his own -
but you can copy a field setting from one bowler to another, so that if (say)
you want to use the same field for all your fast bowlers you need not enter it
more than once.

To access the screen which allows you to alter the field settings, press the
space bar while the bowler is waiting to bowl. This will display a menu of
options:

POSITION FIELDERS*               SCORECARD
KEEPER-SLIP*                     SOUND & MUSIC
BOWL OTHER SIDE*                 ABANDON MATCH

* ONLY AVAILABLE IF THE FIELDING SIDE IS USER-CONTROLLED

Select Position Fielders - a diagram is displayed showing the existing field
setting (for the current bowler). To adjust the position of an individual
fielder just move the pointer to his name tag, press the left mouse button
(or fire button), and drag the tag to a new position - then press the button
again to drop the tag.

Around the wicket at the strikers end is a darkened area. To add an extra slip
drag the players tag into this area. Fine positioning of players in this area
is carried out using the Keeper-Slip option (see below). Only two fielders,
plus the wicket keeper can be in this area.

If you want to exchange the positions of two fielders click first on the swap
icon, then on the tags of the two players.

To copy to the field setting from another bowler click on Copy until the
correct field setting is displayed, eg to copy the field setting for Malcolm
to Gough (the current bowler), keep clicking until Setup for D Gough copied
from D Malcolm appears. If you keep clicking on copy, eventually you will be
back where you started.

If you make an error select Cancel which exits leaving the original field
placing intact (changes which have been saved to disk cannot be cancelled).
To save your changes to disk or hard drive click on the DISK icon - however
you can use the new field settings in the current match without saving them
to disk, though they will be lost at the end of a match. Click on OK to
return to the game.

The Keeper-Slip screen can be selected either from the menu, or by clicking
on the icon at the top left-hand corner of the field setting screen (beware -
this also confirms your changes to the field, even if you subsequently select
the Cancel icon on the Keeper-Slip screen).



To move the keeper or a slip just click on him, and move him to your preferred
position. Be careful - the wicket keeper obeys your instructions to the
letter, so you will concede a lot of byes if you put him in a silly position!
When you have the keeper and slips in the correct positions click on OK to
save them to disk.

OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE DURING A MATCH

Bowl Other Side
Normally a right handed bowler will bowl over the wicket. However, you can
make the bowler bowl on the other side by selecting this option from the menu.

Score card

This displays the scorecard for the current innings. By clicking on the tabs
at the botton of the scorecard you can also display the batting and the
bowling statistics for the innings, the carreer batting statistics of the
batting team, and the career bowling statistics of the fielding side.

Abandon Match
Allows you to abandon a match, in which case the game goes back to the main
menu.

SAVING A GAME

Although the games are played faster than real matches, some games will last
for hours, or even days! At the end of each over you have the option to save
the game - this will save all the information about the match, including the
team and field settings.

IBM PC - You can save to hard drive if playing from hard drive to a
pre-formatted floppy disk if playing from floppy disk. Follow the on screen
instructions once you have selected this option.

AMIGA - You will need a pre-formatted floppy disk. Click on the SAVE GAME icon
and follow the on-screen instructions.

HINTS AND TIPS

  Occasionally you will find that a fielder "gets stuck", perhaps running on
  the spot! Do not worry - press the ESC key and the game will continue
  normally.

  When you select Best 11 the batting order is chosen automatically by the
  computer - the players with the highest averages bat first. However if you
  make any changes to the team the computer has picked, the batsmen are not
  sorted into order. If you choose your own team the players bat in the order
  of selection.

  Rain: It can rain at any time and for any length of time and if it has
  already rained during a match then it is likely to rain again.

  During a "computer vs computer" match you can press SPACE (while the bowler
  is waiting to bowl) to display the scorecard. At the end of an over you can
  also save the game. When you restore the saved game you will be able to
  restart the match as a 1 or 2 player game - so you can take full control.


Programmed on the Amiga and Atari ST by Gary James Gray.

IBM-compatible PC conversion for Audiogenic Software Ltd by Simon Prytherch.


Game and Manual (c) Audiogenic Software Limited 1994
All Rights Reserved

UPGRADE OFFER

If you have enjoyed playing Battle For The Ashes then you will enjoy World
Class Cricket which is available to owners of Battle For The Ashes at A VERY
SPECIAL PRICE and comes complete with a free copy of our 94/95 data disk.

World Class Cricket contains all the features of Battle For The Ashes plus:
* All forms of cricket from limited overs matches to full Tests
* All the Test playing nations and an XI
* A full team editor
The 94/95 data disk has the very latest squads and averages for:
* The 18 English County sides
* The 9 Test sides

For details of this offer call our Customer Services Department
on 081-424 2244 or write to:

CUSTOMER SERVICES (REF:ASH/95
AUDIOGENIC SOFTWARE LIMITED
UNIT 27, CHRISTCHURCH INDUSTRIAL CENTRE
WEALDSTONE
HARROW HA3 8NT

Further cricket games will be available in 1995 and 1996. Write now to
ensure that you are on our mailing list.



end.
IGGY/HELLFIRE 30/1/95