501 Great Games/501 Great Games - Volume One (2001)(Guildhall Leisure Services).iso/PACK02/README.GW

Text File | 1998-03-29 | 12KB | 361 lines

**************************************************
Dated:  March 29, 1998

                GRAVITY WELL NOTES


To order the registered (Combat) version, dial
1-800-909-5701 and have your credit card ready.

International orders can dial 1-612-924-3235.

This file contains information for both versions
of Gravity Well, the Regular (shareware) version
and the Combat (registered) version.

The unregistered shareware version does not
include Combat. If you register, you will receive
the Combat version, a vast improvement on the
Gravity Well concept.  Register today!  See the
bottom of this file for registration information.


Keys to Use During Play:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    PRIMARY FLIGHT CONTROLS:
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Left, Right Arrow Keys: rotate lander craft

    Down Arrow Key: center lander PERFECTLY!!
             THIS IS VERY USEFUL!!! (HINT HINT)

    Up Arrow Key: fires abort thrust (massively
             inefficient, but helpful in a pinch)

    Mouse:   y-direction (up/down) controls main
             thruster rocket

    [Space] or
    [Enter]: convert Diamond to fuel (fills you
             up by 1/2 tank)

    [Alt]:   fire off a bomb (if you have one)

    ADDITIONAL IN-FLIGHT CONTROLS:
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    [A]:    select HIGH mouse sensitivity
    [B]:    select MEDIUM mouse sensitivity
    [C]:    select LOW mouse_sensitivity
    [G]:    toggle Game mode (Combat version
            only; at the Main Menu screen only)
    [J]:    toggle joystick on/off
    [Ctrl-J]: calibrate joystick
    [L]:    toggle the auto-land feature on/off
    [M]:    toggle mouse usage on/off
    [Ctrl-R]: use reverse gravity (disqualifies
            your high score, but it's neat)
    [Tab]:  skip mission and go forward to any
            particular mission.  You don't get
            the bonuses for this mission.
    [Ctrl]: force far (wide) view (Dangerous if
            you are close to the ground!  Your
            craft must be at least 100 feet up
            to use this feature, higher if in
            combat mode.)

If you do not have a mouse, the keys 1 (off)
through 0 (max) at the top of the keyboard
select low to high levels of main rocket thrust.

    JOYSTICK MODE CONTROLS:
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    (All above controls except mouse continue to
     function as before.)
    Joystick Up:  increase thrust
    Joystick Left:  rotate to the left
    Joystick Right:  rotate to the right
    Joystick Down:  feet down for landing
    Non-combat:  Button 1 & 2: Abort thrust
    Combat: Button 1: drop a bomb
            Button 2: Abort thrust


Additional keys:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    [ESC]:  quit to DOS - FAST!
    [P]:    pause the game
    [F1]:   see this file
    [F2]:   review the high score chart
    [F4]:   toggle mouse left/right buttons,
            normal, reversed or ignored
    [F5]:   sound on/off
    [F8]:   toggle background brightness/contrast
    [F10]:  game over (does not exit to DOS)


REGULAR GAME PLAY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Object:  land the craft on each of the bases,
with the VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator, located
on the right edge) within the green.  Gain more
points for a soft landing.  A very soft landing
earns a "diamond," which earns bonus points and
may be converted to fuel later on (using the
[Enter] key).  You must be EXACTLY vertical
before you touch down.  Use the DOWN ARROW to
achieve this.

The Auto-Land feature allows your ship to be
tipped SLIGHTLY to one side.  Just before
landing your ship will right itself if you are
going downwards slowly enough.  This DOES NOT
result in the BEST possible score however. To
keep from getting lazy you can turn this feature
on and off.

Advance to next planetoid when you land on all
bases.  Use the Altimeter and GSI (Gross Speed
Indicator, located in the upper right) and
guide yourself to a base.  Use the Ctrl key to
maintain the "wide" zoom angle for rapid
positioning along the cliff faces.  Use the DRB
(Directional Radio Beacon) in the upper left
to locate remaining bases to land on.

You have a limited number of landers and when
you are out of fuel, it's game over, unless you
have some diamonds that you can convert BEFORE
YOU CRASH!!

NEW FEATURE:  Lateral (horizontal) motion is
now used to decide how hard you landed. It is
now possible to land with your vertical speed
in the green but with so much lateral velocity
that you literally rip the landing gear off
the craft.

NEW FEATURE:  Your landing gear can now be
damaged by a rough landing. It can accept only
so much damage before it collapses on the next
hard landing and your lunar module will be
destroyed.  Damaged landing gear is clearly
visible:  your ship doesn't look "straight"
any more.

NEW FEATURE:  Your gear can be repaired by
landing within the green range.  If you have
severely damaged your gear it may take more
than one landing to fully repair it.  Each
time repairs are effected you will be see a
message to that effect.

NEW FEATURE:  Timed Trials!  A timer is kept
as you progress through the planet and is
compared against both a par time and the
record time for each planet, one each for
combat and regular game play mode.  Can you
beat the clock now too?


HINTS
~~~~~
To remain "light" and responsive on the main
thruster control, it can be useful to modulate
it, just moving the mouse up and down slightly,
making the flame flicker.  This will give you a
better feel for the power of the thruster, and
keep your mind focused, not letting you wander
off of the task of controlling the ship's main
thruster.

Your craft is powered by an impulse-type engine.
To those familiar with physics you will realilze
that the effectiveness of an impulse engine is
directly related to the gross weight of the
craft it is attached to.  Therefore when you
have full fuel and/or many bombs aboard, the
maneuverability of the craft is somewhat less.
As you burn off fuel (or drop bombs) the craft
becomes lighter and more maneuverable.  At
higher levels (in higher gravity situations) you
may find the impulse engines are not sufficient
to maintain a hover with full fuel and/or full
bombs, even when you are at full throttle.  Keep
this in mind when maneuvering at higher levels
to avoid getting into a no-win situation and to
avoid excessive use of your ABORT thrust key (a
handy way to scrub off excess fuel...).


HELICOPTER PILOT NOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As an aside for anybody who has ever flown a
helicopter, this game has certain elements that
apply to hovering:  vectored thrust that is
incrementally controllable in magnitude.  I'm
not saying this will teach you how to fly a
helicopter but the same elements that go into
piloting this lunar lander module in a stable
and controlled fashion also apply to flying a
helicopter.


COMBAT VERSION NOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gravity Well Combat features a whole new range
of available play strategies.  Each base on the
ground not only has a radar dish and a gas tank,
but also has a gun emplacement that can toss
bombs up at you.

The gun base will only fire if it a) has bombs
left in it and b) the radar dish is intact to
help guide it (the gun is radar-aimed).

If you drop a bomb on any of the three items at
the base you will destroy it.  If you destroy
the gas tank then you won't receive any fuel
when you land.  YOU MUST STILL LAND TO CONQUER
THAT BASE, EVEN IF THE GAS TANK IS GONE!!!

If you destroy the gun emplacement it will not
fire at you but you also won't pick up any of
the bombs that were inside it (they are
destroyed along with the gun emplacement).

Ideally you want to only destroy the radar dish
so that you can pick up gas and extra bombs
easily.

Additionally the radar dish activates a periodic
"spark" across the landing pylons.  This spark
will destroy your lander but it is possible to
land if you time it precisely between the
discharges of the sparks.  Hovering near the
spark waiting for that precise moment is not
recommended.  Sometimes the spark jumps rather
high.

The radar dish is quite heavily armored and
requires a direct hit on the pivot point of the
dish itself in order to destroy it.  Other hits
have no effect.

If you're clever you might find an additional
way to destroy the radar base when you are out
of ammunition.  :)

Scoring for the Combat version is as follows,
in addition to the regular landing scoring:

    Destroy Radar Base      10000
    Destroy Gun Base         2000
    Destroy Gas Tank          100 (oops!)

In Combat mode only, when you clear an entire
planet you will receive a bonus lander craft,
as well as three (3) additional bombs (if you
have room aboard).

To assist in maneuvering for the combat version
there are tic marks drawn above the ground at
two different altitudes that help you judge
where you are in relation to the ground, what
your relative motion is, etc.  Use these to
help maneuver when you are out of sight of the
ground but too close to "Zoom" out the view.

The maximum number of bombs that you may carry
aboard your ship is 10.  Keep in mind how extra
bombs affect the gross weight (and hence the
maneuverability) of your ship at higher levels.


PRACTICE NOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you start Practice Mode (either combat or
regular play) then you may customize the gravity
of any particular planet you want to get better
at playing.  You also have an unlimited number
of lives on Practice Mode.  You also have an
unlimited number of diamonds available, and in
combat you have an unlimited number of bombs.

Unfortunately, any score obtained in Practice
Mode is ineligible for the Hall Of Fame and
any "best" times obtained will not be recorded.


SOUND NOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~
This program contains routines to play digital
sound on a Sound Blaster or compatible card.

However, this program does NOT contain auto-
detection routines.  This program relies upon
the BLASTER= variable being set appropriately
in your environment.  If the BLASTER= variable
is absent the program will NOT attempt to use
Sound Blaster sound.  If the BLASTER= variable
is set incorrectly, the program may crash.

Additionally you will need to have free EMS
memory to hear all digital sounds (they're too
big to fit in conventional memory).  The
sounds deemed "most important" to game play
will be loaded into conventional memory on a
first-come, first-served basis.  To hear ALL
sounds you will need enough EMS free to fit
the file LUNSFX.DBO.  Check free EMS with the
MEM command under DOS.

If your SoundBlaster is very old then the
BLASTER= variable may not be set.  In this
case you could try one of the following:

    set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T1
    set BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1


PROGRAMMING NOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gravity Well is recommended for a 486 or
faster system.  It will run on a 386, but
you may not get the full 36 frames per
second screen update rate (and thus the game
may be easier to play!).

Gravity Well was programmed in Turbo C V2.0,
with a few assembly routines thrown in here
and there.  The most recent version is built
under Borland C++ V3.1.

Some music done on a Casio CZ-101 synth.


Credits:
~~~~~~~~
This program was written by Kurt W. Dekker
and is distributed by PLBM Games.  You may
contact Kurt via email at [e-mail]


Registration Information:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To receive the combat version of Gravity Well
print out and mail in the ORDER.TXT form and
your check or money order for $14.95 plus
$4.95 shipping and handling.

Mail to:

    PLBM Games <[e-mail]>
    PO Box 10342
    Costa Mesa, CA  92627


Internet Support:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Contact [e-mail] for support via email.
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