PC Gamer 2.5/1996-06_Disc_2.5.iso/seek/manual.doc

Text File | 1996-02-07 | 28KB | 612 lines

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                            Seek and Destroy v1.0
                              Shareware Version

               copyright (c) 1996 Safari Software and Vision
=============================================================================

THE MISSION

For the last 10 years, ever since the end of the nuclear third world war of
1998, the world has been a peaceful place. No other wars have started and
people seem to live in relative harmony. The generals who took part in the
last war reason that, as they said all along, the proliferation of nuclear
arms has maintained this decade of peace.

Recently, North American Defense Intelligence has been following the actions
of a group of individuals based in South America. These individuals appear
to be amassing a collection of armaments from all over the world that could
threaten our now peaceful existence. As one of the few surviving Vehicular
Combat Troopers of the North American Armed Forces, you have been assigned
to halt any further advancement of this potential threat and eliminate their
current arsenal.

Your first mission takes you into the deserts of Africa. Good luck...


HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

   Minimum                         Recommended
   -------                         -----------
  A 486 or faster processor        486/66 or faster CPU for smooth play
  4 Megabytes of RAM               8 Megabytes of RAM
  VGA graphics                     Mouse or joystick


   Also Supports
   -------------
- Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Gravis Ultrasound,
  and 100% compatible music cards.
- Joystick or Mouse


INSTALLING THE GAME

To install Seek and Destroy from floppy disk, insert the disk one into the
CD-ROM drive and do the following:

1. At the DOS prompt, change to your floppy drive (for example, A: ).
2. Type INSTALL to bring up the Installation Menu.
3. Follow the instructions in the menu to install Seek and Destroy.


SETTING UP THE GAME

After installing Seek and Destroy, you must run the setup program to
configure your sound card. (You can also run the setup at a later time
by typing SETUP [ENTER] at the DOS prompt of your Seek and Destroy directory.)
When you run setup, a list of options will appear. You can move through the
available options with the arrow keys. To select an option, move to it with
the arrow keys and press ENTER. Pressing ESC will take you back one step or,
if you are at the main menu, quit the setup program.

SETUP OPTIONS

Change Sound Setup:

Lets you select your sound card, DMA channel, PORT, IRQ and sound quality.

RUNNING THE GAME

To run Seek and Destroy, type SEEK.EXE [ENTER] at the DOS prompt. The game
then displays the Title Screen, credits and high-scores before entering a
demo mode where you can watch a short period of prerecorded play. At any
time during these screens you can press a key or mouse button to go to the
main menu.

BASIC OBJECTIVES

In Seek and Destroy, you have to complete all mission phases in order to
overcome the enemy and complete the game. During play, you collect ammo for
your vehicles and medals to spend on new weapons while chalking up points to
reflect your superior combat skills.

MAIN MENU

The main menu presents you with the options listed below. To use this, or any
other Seek and Destroy menu, use the arrow keys to move through the available
option buttons. Press ENTER or SPACE to activate whichever option you choose.
You can also position the mouse pointer over an option button and press the
left mouse button to activate it. With slider options you can use the mouse
pointer to click and drag the slider knob, or you can press the left/right
arrow keys to adjust it.

New Game - Start a new game from scratch.
Resume - Resume a game you are currently playing.
Options - Set game options, e.g. detail level and sound volume.
Credits - Display the names of the people who wrote the game.
High Scores - Show the list of best players.
Load - Load a game you have previously saved.
Save - Save the current game.
Ordering Info - Show Safari Software's information.
Exit - Quit Seek and Destroy

New Game:
When you select NEW GAME, the Mission Title Screen will appear. Press a
key/mouse button to skip the picture or wait five seconds and it will
disappear automatically. This screen is displayed only once for each new
mission you encounter. Seek and Destroy features five four-phase missions
for a total of twenty levels - 2 missions in the shareware for atotal of 8
levels.

Objectives:
After the Mission Title Screen, you will see the Objectives Screen. Here
you get your objectives for the current phase and any other information
about certain enemies you can expect to encounter. You can click PLAY to
continue to play the game, EXIT to go back to the main menu, or LOAD or SAVE
to load or save a game. You can also click on SHOP to buy weapons for your
vehicle.

Equipping and Selecting Your Vehicle:
Next comes the Vehicle Select and Equip Screen. Here you select a vehicle to
use for the current phase and load it up with the weapons you have bought so
far. If you have just begun, you will have a chaingun and rockets on your
chopper and a chaingun and shells on your tank. Tthe same method is used to
equip both your chopper and your tank, so for simplicity only the chopper
equipping will be described.

You will see on your screen six banks of weapons labeled WEAPON BAY 1 to
WEAPON BAY 6. Each bay features a list of available weapons. Weapons that
you already own are shown in light colors, while those weapons you have not
yet purchased are darkened and unselectable. At first, only the chain gun
and rockets will be usable, but as you progress through the game you will be
able to buy more weapons. Indicators next to the weapon names tell you the
current level of each weapon. For instance, if your rockets have two yellow
indicators beside them, then you know you have level-two rockets.

To load a bay with a particular weapon, simply select the weapon name in the
appropriate weapon bay. You can have multiple bays loaded with the same
weapon, it is up to you how many you load. At first, Bay 1 will be loaded
with a chaingun and Bays 2-6 with rockets.

The Specials Bank is located beneath the six standard weapon bays. This bank
contains your chopper's built-in special weapons. You get three special
weapons per vehicle (mega missile, bomb, and super napalm for the chopper, and
power shell, flame thrower and ground to air for the tank). You do not need to
buy special weapons, but they can not be upgraded and you can have only one
of them loaded at a time.

When you load different bays with the same weapon, during play you will have
only one bay of that weapon, but X times more ammo (X being the number of
bays you loaded with the weapon). This will alter how you select weapons via
the number keys while playing. A number key is assigned to each different
weapon being used. Whenever a bay containing a new loaded weapon is found, it
is assigned the next available number on the keyboard. Say, for example, your
bays were loaded as follows:

Bay 1  Always chain gun        Bay 2  Rockets
Bay 3  Air-to-Ground           Bay 4  Rockets
Bay 5  Air-to-Air              Bay 6  Air-to-Ground
Bay 7  Mega Missile

Going through the bays in order we see that Key 1 will be assigned to the
chain gun. Bay 2 is a new weapon so it gets the next key (2). Likewise with
Bay 3, it gets key 3. Bay 4, on the other hand, contains a weapon that
already has a key assigned to it (which means Bay 2 will have twice as many
rockets in it). So Key 4 is assigned to the next new weapon, which is the
air-to-air in Bay 5. Bay 6 contains another air-to-ground which already has
Key 3 assigned to it, so Key 5 is assigned to Bay 7. The final key
distribution ends up as follows:

1  Chain gun            2  Rockets
3  Air-to-Ground        4  Air-to-Air
5  Mega Missile


Obviously, if you select your weapon during gameplay by cycling through them
(see Changing Weapons), the next different weapon is selected when you press
the key/button. You can also modify your vehicle's characteristics. Next to
the Specials Bank are sliders for fuel, armor and speed. Adjusting either
fuel or armor will change the speed of your vehicle. By default your
vehicle's characteristics are evenly balanced. Some tweaking will allow you
to get the best benefit for your personal style of play.

One thing you should not do is crank the fuel and armor way up. If you do,
your vehicle will move so slow that it may take you a few millennia to
complete your mission.

Note the three colors on each slider. The red area indicates a value is
getting too low. If you adjust your sliders so your speed is in the red,
your craft may be frustratingly slow. On the other hand, if it goes to the
green, it may be too fast to handle. Consider starting off with the default
settings and slowly tweaking the settings as you play to find a mix that
works for you.

Clicking the OK button in the bottom-right corner of the Vehicle Select and
Equip Screen will start the next phase using the vehicle you are currently
equipping. The EXIT button brings you back to the Objectives Screen. The TANK
button switches to the tank so you can equip this vehicle instead.

NOTE: For some phases, you will be required to use the tank. In these cases,
only the OK and EXIT buttons will appear on the Equip Screen, and, obviously,
the tank will be the displayed vehicle.

Options:
The detail levels each have three values: low, med. and high.

Explosion Detail - How much debris and metal flies off things when they are
  destroyed.

Terrain Detail - The amount of trees and ground detail present on a level.

Overlay Detail -
Low: Text/numbers on screen are solid; no rain or snow on levels that have
  them; shadows are solid.
Med: As above, with the addition of rain and snow.
High: Real shadows, masked text/numbers, snow/rain.

Difficulty - Difficulty ranges from enemy weapons doing little damage and
not being very aggressive up to lethal weapons, rapid fire rates, etc. On
the med. level, you have to land on medals to pick them up. On the high
difficulty level, you also have to land to pick up fuel and armor. In
addition, you will crash if you land on the ground while moving too fast.

Sound Volume - Adjust the slider to change the volume.
Controller - Select keys, mouse or joystick. Depending on what controller
you select, other option buttons will appear allowing you to configure the
controller.

Keys-Define: Allows you to define what keys invoke certain actions. Clicking
on DEFINE brings up another window where you can assign a new key to an
action. Clicking EXIT or pressing escape returns you to the Options Screen.

Joystick-Buttons: Allows you to define what buttons on your joystick invoke
certain actions (see Setup Options above for a description).

Joystick-Calibrate: Allows you to calibrate your joystick for optimum
performance. If you have changed to joystick control when you exit or
save you are automatically asked to calibrate your joystick.

Mouse-Sensitivity: Allows you adjust the mouse sensitivity.

Load and Save:
These screens are very similar. Simply select a space where you want to load
or save a game from the displayed list of file names. If loading, the file
you click loads and the game continues (nothing will happen if no file
exists). If saving, clicking on a file name allows you to enter or change
the name of the file. Pressing ENTER saves the game; pressing ESC aborts the
save and returns to the main menu.

Demo Mode:
If the main menu remains inactive for around 15 seconds the game
automatically goes into demo mode. You can exit this mode by pressing a key
or mouse button while the demo is playing.


PLAYING THE GAME

Starting:
You start your mission at your base on a starting pad which is usually a
safe way off from the sight of your objective. You cannot damage your base
buildings. You can refuel at your base simply by landing on or driving over
your starting pad.

Flying:
Near the bottom left of the display you will see a square with a green cursor
(dot) in the middle. Moving the cursor forward or back moves your vehicle
forward or back. Moving the cursor left or right rotates your vehicle. The
further to the sides or ends you move the cursor the faster your vehicle
will move/rotate. The world that you fly around in the game is a wrap around
map, so you can keep flying in one direction and eventually end up back where
you started.

Landing (Chopper only):
You cannot land on objects like buildings and trees. If you are descending
and you fly over something you cannot land on, your chopper will automatically
start ascending. If you are hovering over an object you cannot land on, you
will not be allowed to start descending. On the HARD difficulty level, if you
are moving or rotating too fast when you hit the ground, you will crash. You
can safely move/rotate a little, but not much!

Strafing (Chopper only):
Strafing involves moving your chopper left or right through the air without
rotating. To strafe, hold down the appropriate key or button while moving
left or right. This maneuver is incredibly useful if an enemy missile is
headed straight at your cockpit. When strafing you cannot move forward or
back.

Changing weapons:
To select a weapon you can either cycle to the next weapon bay by pressing
the appropriate key or button, or you can select a specific bay by pressing
the assigned number key. (See Equipping Your Vehicle)

Shooting (The best part):
Simply press fire! All weapons are auto firing if you hold down the fire
button/key. While shooting, you will get overkill bonuses when you shoot a
number of buildings in quick succession. You will get bonus points at the end
of each phase for the overkills you manage to chalk up.

Bonuses:
As you shoot buildings, certain bonuses appear. To collect these, simply
fly/run over them.

Fuel - Gives you about half a tank of fuel.
Shield - Repairs some of the damage your vehicle has taken.
Ammo - Most bonuses will be in the form of ammunition to restock your
vehicle's weapons. Depending on what type of ammo you find, you may get
anything from two units to 150 for each bonus you pick up. (The chain gun has
unlimited ammo and the air strike weapon cannot be reloaded during game play.)
Medals - At the conclusion of a phase, medals you have found may be may be
used to purchase new weapons for your vehicles. Each new weapon or weapon
level has a cost in medals that you must pay at the shop in order to get that
weapon/level.

Picking up People:
At times, you will need to rescue people to complete your mission, or pick
them up as a secondary objective. In most cases, your landing spot will be
indicated by a "STOP HERE" label over a pickup zone. When landing spots are
not marked, you will be instructed in your briefing where to land to pick
the people up.

Once you have picked people up, you must carry them all in your chopper until
you complete your mission. As you pick up POWs or allies, an indicator will
appear letting you know how many people you have in your vehicle. Be aware
that if you die, all people you are carrying are lost. If rescuing them was
your objective and there are now no people left to rescue, you will fail to
complete your objective and the phase will automatically end.


THE GAME OVERLAY

Several indicators display vital information on the screen during game play.

Score (Top left of the screen):
This indicator displays your current game score. Achieving an exceptional
score will earn you a spot on the high-score table.

Fuel (Top right):
Your vehicle can only move as long as you have fuel. Once you run out of
fuel, your mission fails. You can obtain fuel by collecting fuel bonuses
from destroyed buildings and from landing on or stopping over your mission
start pad. If your fuel gets too low, the fuel indicator will start flashing
and a pulsing alarm will sound.

Lives (To the left of Fuel):
The helmet icon has a number next to it indicating how many lives you have
left, not counting the current one. You receive a bonus life every 15,000
points. You can have a maximum of nine lives at any one time.

Armor (Bottom left):
The amount of damage your vehicle can take before exploding is displayed in
the armor bar at the bottom left of the screen. If this indicator reaches
zero, you lose a life and continue the phase from your base with your next
life. As your armor gets low, sound effects will warn you. The armor
indicator will begin to flash when your vehicle is in imminent danger of
exploding.

POW Count (Next to Armor):
Indicates how many people you currently have in your vehicle.

Cursor (Right of POW Count):
Displays your current direction, rotation and speed. See Flying for a
description.

Radar (Big circle at the bottom):
One of your most important displays, this indicator is a large circle in
which colored dots indicate most of the objects present on the level. Your
vehicle always remains in the middle of the radar and the other objects on
the map rotate and move around relative to this center dot. The radar is
color coded as follows:

    Brown:    Buildings up for destruction.
    Black:     Your position (in the middle of the radar) and your base
        buildings.
    Red:     Most enemies are displayed in red. Your radar may not
        detect some smaller enemies, like troops.
    Orange:    Airborne enemy craft.
    White:    Objectives. When you start a phase, objectives are
        displayed in their regular colors until you discover them.
        Once discovered, objectives turn white.

At the beginning of each phase your radar displays most of the available map,
but auto zoom can enhance the view. (See AUTO ZOOM)

Weapon (Bottom right):
Displays your current weapon and ammunition remaining.

TARGETING

Some weapons have locking ability. This means that you do not have to aim
precisely at the target before firing. Most targeting systems work only
within a 45-degree arc, so you still have get the target in front of your
vehicle. The tank's special air-to-air weapon is an exception (see GOING
SHOPPING for a description).

AUTO ZOOM
With auto zoom off, you can see almost all of the level on the radar
display. When it is on, the radar zooms into a relatively small area of the
map allowing you to see the positioning of enemies and buildings more
accurately.

DEATH
When your armor level reaches zero or you run out of fuel, your vehicle will
explode. If you have lives remaining you will restart back at your base and
continue the phase.

PAUSING A GAME
While playing, you can press `P' to pause your game and the screen will dim
slightly. Pressing `P' again continues.

IN GAME MENU
While playing, you can press the ESC key to go to an in-game menu with the
following options:

Mission Objectives - Allows you to view your mission briefing again.
Options - Goes to the Options Screen.
Help - Shows the default key mapping for controlling your vehicle and
  other standard keys.
Return to Game - Returns to playing the game.
Exit Game - Ends current game and returns to the main menu.


COMPLETING A PHASE
A voice message and a flashing message on the display will inform you that
you have completed a phase. You then have to make your way back to your base
and stop on the starting pad. The screen then dims and your destruction stats
are displayed.

GOING SHOPPING
From the Objectives Screen you can choose to go into the shop. Here you can
buy new weapons or upgrade your existing ones by spending the medals you
have collected on previously completed phases. The main part of the shop is
comprised of lists of weapons. For the chopper, you can see there are six
weapons, each with three levels of power. An indicator along the bottom of
the screen displays the number of medals you have in your possession. The
indicator displays a large medal for every 10 medals you have and a smaller
one for single medals. You can also tell the exact number you have by the
number to the left of the medals. The boxed area at the top of the shop
screen shows you the following:

-  The medal cost to buy the selected weapon level
-  A description of the currently selected weapon level
-  A PURCHASE button to buy an upgrade
-  A TANK button to go to the shop for the tank
-  And the DONE button for when you are all finished

Some of the weapon levels on the Shop Screen will be darkened. These weapon
levels cannot be selected because they are below the one you currently have.
For instance, if you already have three levels of rockets, then the first two
rocket icons will be darkened leaving only the last one to select.

Checking Out a Weapon Level:
If you select a particular weapon's icon, the description area at the top of
the screen will provide information about the weapon. If you select a weapon
that you do not have enough medals to purchase, the PURCHASE button darkens
and becomes unselectable. Time to deal more carnage.

The Cost of a Weapon Level:
The cost of a particular weapon level depends on what your current level in
that weapon is. You receive half the cost of your current weapon level back
as a sort of trade-in and this is subtracted from the cost of the new weapon
level. For instance, say you currently have level-two rockets and you want to
purchase level-three. Your level-two cost you four medals, so you will get
half of that (two) back. The cost of level-three is normally six medals, but
with your trade-in it becomes four.

Since you can spend fewer total medals by purchasing a higher weapon level
directly rather than trading up for it, you can maximize your purchase value
by saving up medals for high weapon levels. Of course, you may need an
intermediate level just to keep yourself alive.

BUYING A WEAPON
If you have enough medals to buy the selected weapon, you can click on
purchase and that level of weapon will be added to your arsenal. The
appropriate number of medals will be deducted from your supply. Once you
have bought a weapon it will become unselectable.

Powering Up Your Other Vehicle:
To power up your other vehicle, just click on the TANK or CHOPPER button at
the top of the screen and you will go to the shop for that vehicle.

Finished:
When you have finished spending all your hard-earned medals, click DONE to
go back to the Objectives screen.

WHAT ARE ALL THESE WEAPONS?

Chain gun:
This is the wimpiest of all weapons. But when ammo is low it could save your
life, as you are always equipped with it and it never runs out of bullets.
-  Level 1 Single stream low impact gun.
-  Level 2 Dual stream of bullets
-  Level 3 Dual stream swinging arc of bullets

Rockets (Chopper only):
Rapid fire weapons that deal respectable damage. Good for taking out buildings
as you run through an enemy base.
-  Level 1 Dual rockets.
-  Level 2 Triple fire that spreads out slightly.
-  Level 3 Four rockets let loose, two from either side of your chopper.

Air-to-Ground (Chopper only):
The most lethal of ballistic weapons on your chopper. They are fast, and the
second- and third-level versions have locking ability.
-  Level 1 Non-locking rocket.
-  Level 2 A single rocket fires from your chopper at a locked on target.
-  Level 3 These locking missiles take off in pairs. Takes out an enemy twice
    as fast.

Air-to-Air (Chopper only):
The Chopper's Air-to-Air missiles operate like the Air-to-Ground but they are
only effective against airborne targets.

Napalm (Chopper only):
Napalm is a good area affect weapon, but the range is limited.
-  Level 1 A single stream of flame fires from the front of your chopper.
-  Level 2 As above but a triple stream.
-  Level 3 A multi-stream, star-shaped napalm bomb.

Air Strike:
You can call on your buddies to give you a hand. Allows you to take out an area
without having to hang around and get shot.
-  Level 1 Low impact air strike. More useful on damaged buildings or troops.
-  Level 2 Slightly more impact, this air strike will take out most buildings.
-  Level 3 Nighty night bad guys.

Shells (Tank only):
The tank's primary weapon. Not much can withstand a blast from a tank shell.
-  Level 1 Single shell.
-  Level 2 A superior reloading mechanism allows this tank to fire faster.
-  Level 3 Utilizing the tank's other barrels, this version fires dual shells.

Flame Thrower (Tank only):
Fires a long stream of napalm from your tank.
-  Level 1 Single stream
-  Level 2 A stream of napalm with a longer range.
-  Level 3 Dual-stream, long-range napalm using two of your tank's barrels.

Special Weapons:

Mega Missile (Chopper only)
A super-fast, super-tough missile. Has no locking ability, but who needs it
when it goes this fast!

Super Napalm (Chopper only)
A long stream of napalm emerges from the front of your chopper and spreads
out, annihilating everything in a 45-degree arc in front of you.

Bomb (Chopper only)
Lobs a death-dealing bomb from the front of your chopper.

Mine (Tank only)
A timed mine is dropped from your tank. Just drop and get outta' there!

Power Shell (Tank only)
An almost indestructible tank shell. Power shells will penetrate objects
and continue through the other side to take out more victims.

Ground to Air (Tank only)
Has locking ability of a full 360 degrees unlike other locking weapons.


HINTS
Here are a few hints in case you are having a little trouble.
1. If using the chopper, use your strafe ability.
2. Use your radar! It can indicate openings for you to exploit.
3. Destroy the enemy radars and towers found throughout the game as soon
   as possible. Enemy missiles rely on them to target you.
4. Don't waste possible fuel or ammo powerups, when you do not need them.
   Leave some buildings intact, so you can blow them up and refuel/reload
   when you really need to.
5. Do not take on a lot of choppers at once-they can be very deadly. Try
   picking them off one at a time.
6. If you have completed a phase but there are still buildings and enemies
   to destroy, try taking them out. You may find some valuable medals and of
   course you will chalk up more points.
7. Area-affect weapons like bombs, napalm, etc. are good for getting
   overkills because they destroy lots of things at once.

CHEATS
-  Immediately after pressing NEW GAME or RESUME hold down Left-Shift,
Left-Ctrl and Left-Alt. You will see a simple list that allows you to
select a specific mission to play.
-  In the Objectives Screen, type the word GIMME. Four new gadgets will
appear, allowing you to select a specific phase to play.
-  While in the shop, type CAPO. All future purchases until you leave
the shop (or go to the shop for the other vehicle) are now free.
-  While playing a phase you can hold down certain keys to activate
certain cheat codes. To activate an in-game cheat, hold down each of the
appropriate keys below. A short message will appear on screen when the cheat
is activated. If you want to turn the cheat off, hold down the same keys but
also press the TAB key.

Name    Code    Description
----    ----    -----------
AMO     R       Gives you lots of ammo!
MEGA    PO      Gives your current vehicle the best of all the weapons
                currently equipped.
LIFE    PT      Gives you loads of hit points immediately and for
                future phases.

Codes   Description
-----   -----------
P       Permanent, lasts until you run seek again
T       Toggle. Hold down the keys again, and at the same time hold down
        TAB, to turn the cheat off
R       Repeat. You can repeatedly keep doing this.
O       Once. Can only be done once and not toggled.

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                       Enjoy Playing Seek and Destroy!
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