Marsquake Boom:Deluxe and its associated editor, MQEd, and use thereof, are
subject to the following rules:
* You may not alter these applications
* You may distribute these applications freely, but not for profit.
* These applications should not be made part of a compilation CD, magazine
disk or similar without permission of the author.
* Use of this software is made entirely at your own risk. The author cannot
be held responsible for any loss of data through use or misuse of this
software.
* If you enjoy playing Marsquake Boom:Deluxe and using MQEd, please register
your support for the Acorn games scene by sending by sending me £5 (five
English pounds). Send the registration fee to :
Paul Taylor
17 Sandmoor Road
New Marske
Redcar
Cleveland
TS11 8BP
England
* The above payment does not form any sort of contract, for support, direct
supply of future versions, or otherwise.
* Versions 1.10 and later use !SerialDev block drivers. These drivers are not
covered by the above rules, but I have included them with Marsquake for
completeness.
Please make the effort to send me the registration fee. Just remember the
effort I've put into this software over the past two years!!
I will endeavour to solve any major bugs reported to me and make further
versions and/or patches available through my web page. This will be subject
to available time and workload.
Introduction
------------
As one of Earth's leading demolition and salvage experts, you have been
contacted by a research station based beneath the surface of Mars. It seems
they've had some trouble with rockfalls, and are quite eager to have you come
and rescue them from their predicament.
Four sections of their base have been crippled by the rockfalls. It is up to
you to clear the blockages so repairs to critical systems can begin.
Single player game
------------------
There are 32 levels within the Martian base that require your attention. You
must clear all rockfalls from each of these, along with any mobile entities
that may be roaming around. These could pose a threat to the repair crews.
The levels are seperated by energy barriers which will be released when the
level is clear. Leave through the exit guarded by the energy barrier to
progress to the next level.
To clear the rockfalls, you are equipped with an explosive generating
backpack supplied with energy cells for one low power bomb per power
recharge. Drop the bomb near a rockfall then make sure you get out of range
of the explosion. Be quick - you only have a few seconds before it goes off!
Destroying the blockages may reveal extra utility cells for the backpack.
These will give you larger explosions, extra bombs per power recharge, or
other special abilities.
The push ability allows you to push a bomb that has already been dropped by
walking into it. It will continue to roll until it hits something or
explodes. If the bomb was dropped with the rebound bomb utility cell, it will
bounce back off walls or other bombs - be careful! Pressing the secondary
fire button will stop the bomb wherever it is.
The throw ability lets you pick up dropped bombs and throw them over
blockages. To do this, drop a bomb, then press the fire button again while
standing over the bomb. This will pick it up. You can then carry it for as
long as you like - the timer won't start ticking until it's thrown, by
pressing fire once more.
Along with rebound bombs, other bomb types are available. Mega bombs create
huge explosions and can crush a player if the bomb rolls over them. Blasts
from flower bombs can spread around corners near to the centre of the
explosion, so make sure you are well out of the way of these. Flower bombs
can malfunction, sending a large cloud of flour into the air by mistake. This
can be unpleasant if it gets through the air filters of your environment
suit.
Some utility cells have no identification and you can only find out what they
are by picking them up. Some are good, such as extra lives, while others
aren't so good, like fuel leaks. If the effect of the cell is not immediately
clear, it will be identified on your status panel. Negative effects will
cease after a few seconds.
Several types of enemies will be encountered. Security droids will disarm
bombs on contact - the red variety will also disarm you on contact. Spirits
can pass through blockages, but move rather slowly. Wandering bombs will
explode if you get near them. These enemy types will wander at random or will
home in on your position.
Spryts are free-floating energy beings which will kill, set off bombs and
light fuel leaks on contact. They cannot be harmed by explosions - you need
to find a plasma protection suit utility cell and then walk into them to
destroy them. Fortunately, spryts tend to follow set paths, so are relatively
easy to avoid.
Most of the other level features are harmless. Walls and machinery you
encounter will not be damaged by the explosions and will not directly harm
you. Conveyors will cause bombs to move, or deflect a moving bomb. Drains can
be useful if you have a fuel leak - a burning trail will not reach you if you
are stood over a drain.
Pipe networks can prove troublesome. Explosions can travel through the pipes
and emerge at other openings. It's not difficult to light up half the entire
level with a single bomb and a pipe network, so watch where you stand!
Multiplayer game
----------------
Two to four players can take part in a battle against each other in a choice of eight arenas. No enemies are present on these levels, but all the utility cells will be available to the players who grab them.
The multiplayer menu is your kicking off point. This shows the current status
of the four players:
off - this player is not taking part in the game
active - this player is taking part, and is user controlled
cpu - this player is taking part but is controlled by the computer
remote - this player is taking part, but is at the other end of a serial link
Highlight the player name and use left and right to change their status. For
serial link information, see later.
The aim of the multiplayer game is to blow up the other players. You can preset the number of lives to start with, along with the number of rounds a player will need to win to become the overall winner.
The controls
Default key settings are provided for two players :
Player 1 Player 2
Left Z keypad 1
Right X keypad 2
Up ' keypad 6
Down / keypad 3
Fire 1 <return> keypad +
Fire 2 <space> keypad .
<escape> - bring up in-game menu
F12 - pause
Settings for all players can be redefined from the menus. Joysticks can also be used.
A mouse control is provided for one of the players. A small green arrow will appear next to the player during the game. Move the mouse to change the direction of the arrow, then left mouse button to move in that direction. Right button is fire 1 and middle is fire 2.
As well as the control method, the player names can be defined from the menus. This is useful for working out who's who during the multiplayer games.
The menus are controlled using the cursor keys to move between options and return to select. Some settings, eg. multiplayer level and lives, can be altered with left and right cursor keys.
The options menu, available both in-game and from the main menu, allows you to configure the sound settings, screen mode and other game features. The game will run by default in mode 13, but owners of newer machines will want to switch this to mode 49 to avoid the letterbox effect. The startup screen with the AU logo will indicate if the game thinks that mode 49 is available. It will also indicate if a joystick interface has been detected.
The game can be run straight from an archive, but when quit is selected from the main menu, it will try to save the current high score table, player name settings and other parameters for the next time you play.
Serial Link
-----------
To reduce the problem of fitting four people around a keyboard and finding
four sets of keys that don't clash, a serial link option is provided. This
allows the game to be played on two machines simultaneously, linked by a
serial cable. Follow this procedure to start up a serial linked game:
1. Connect both machines with the serial cable and load Marsquake.
2. Go to the multiplayer main menu on each (the menu that displays the status
of all four players).
3. Decide which machine is going to be master. Toss a coin or something ;)
4. On the master machine, mark players on the master machine as 'active' and
players to be on the slave machine as 'remote'.
5. Choose 'Establish serial link'
< Machines should now link up : master will signal success or failure >
6. SLAVE : players on slave machine will set their names, controls and so on,
then choose 'start game' option. <Slave will then wait>
7. MASTER : players on master machine will set their names, controls, and so
on, then choose 'start game'
8. MASTER : has control of which level to play and other level parameters.
Set these as required and choose 'begin game'.
< Both machines will start up multiplayer game on level chosen by master >
!SerialDev Use
--------------
Make sure that !SerialDev has been 'seen' by the filer before running
Marsquake. If Marsquake can't find !SerialDev, it will only offer the
'internal' driver. The 'internal' driver is used as default; if you wish to
change this, or the baud rate/port number, select 'Serial link...' from the
Marsquake icon bar menu.
Known serial link problems :
* Only bring up the in-game menu if you intend to quit. The menu will pause
one machine, throwing them out of sync.
* If you are playing user-defined multiplayer levels, make sure both games
are running with the same levels loaded, otherwise the outcome will be,
um, bad I guess.
* Previous problems with versions 1.00 and 1.01 encountered when linking old
pre-RiscPC machines with a RiscPC have been fixed in version 1.10, or so I
hope. I have had the game running successfully between an RPC600 and my
trusty old A3020. As I don't have the necessary equipment, only port 0 was
available for me to test, so those with multiple ports should be prepared
for the worst... Or I could be lucky and it might work ;)
Serial link in Version 1.11
---------------------------
The serial link code has been adjusted to run more quickly, and I have added
the option to turn the vsync (video refresh sync) on or off within the battle
games. Testing has shown that the speed of the game is limited by the serial
link, so the video timing is less critical. I was concerned that the screen
would flicker when the vsync was turned off, but this seems not to be the
case. I have left the vsync control as a toggle on the serial driver options
found from the Marsquake icon menu 'Serial link...' option. Again, I have
been testing the link between an A3020 and RPC600. It is possible that if the
link is between two fast machines, eg. SA RPC <--> SA RPC, then at least one
machine would need to turn the vsync option back on, otherwise the game would
run too fast!
Marsquake will now save your serial settings to file '!Marsquake.ChoicesSer',
if the game is run from a write-enabled disk, and restores these when the
