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Text File | 1990-06-13 | 25KB | 516 lines

Shooting Gallery Release 2.1 June 13, 1990 Nels Anderson 92 Bishop Drive Framingham, MA 01701-6540 Most people seem to enjoy trying to hit a target. Whether it's tossing a ball through a hoop, trying to shoot cans off a fence, or blasting space aliens on a computer screen, there's something about it that's FUN! "Shooting Gallery" is an attempt to recreate a shooting range on a computer screen. It originally started as just a target shoot as you might find at a carnival, but even before I had that done I had ideas for other rounds. This version has seven rounds (actually two different variations on each of three ideas plus a final completely different round). I still have more ideas for rounds, so later versions of the game will probably have more rounds. Plus I'm sure that many people playing the game will offer suggestions for additional rounds. Shooting Gallery shouldn't require much instruction to play. It works, basically, on the concept: "if it moves, shoot it!". Rather than reading all the way through the instructions, just play a few games and then come back for some tips on how to maximize your scores. There is help at the title screen and each round uses a portion of the screen to give you point values or tips. Shooting Gallery runs in 320x200, 256 color MCGA graphics, thus an MCGA or VGA video card and monitor is needed. It also requires a mouse. You'll need about 450k of free memory as well. Shooting Gallery is distributed as Shareware -- this allows you to try it before you buy it, but if you continue to use the game regularly you are expected to register. When you register, please let me know what version you have (it's right on the title screen) and I'd also be interested to know where you got it from. Please, make sure you put your name and address on your letter! Or you can use the instant registration form in the file "orderfrm.txt". Just copy the file to your printer, fill it out, and mail it. If you're not familiar with the Shareware concept, please read the file "sharewre.txt". The registration is $15, for which I will send you a disk with the latest version. Or for $20 you can get the "deluxe" version which includes a copy of the latest version of the game in a binder with printed instructions. If you have any suggestions or discover any problems with the program you can reach me via the Xevious BBS (PCBoard) system (300/1200/2400/9600-HST, 8N1) at 508-875-3618 or 617-449-7322. Leave a C)omment to the sysop to reach me. Xevious is the official support BBS for all my software and the latest versions are always available for downloading there. There is also a support conference for people to exchange game tips or ask questions. J)oin conference #31 and check out the latest tips. Also check B)ulletin #1 for the list of latest versions of all my software. You can also reach Xevious through RelayNet. If there's a RelayNet board in your area send a routed message to me at node XEVIOUS. The Shareware conference would be the best choice, but if that's not available try TPascal, Games or even Common. I'm also available through CompuServe's email system. Send email to me at 71020,2613. Or join me and many other Shareware authors in the Shareware forum (GO SHAREWARE). This forum is shared with the IBM PCjr forum, so don't let the name confuse you. ***************************************************************************** * PLAYING THE GAME * ***************************************************************************** OBJECT: The object varies with each round, but in general you want to hit the targets as quickly as possible. Each round is described individually below. Even if you decide you don't like the game, please don't shoot the programmer! GENERAL: If you need to you can abort the game at any time by hitting the ESC key. Rounds 1, 4 and 7 can also be paused by hitting the space key; the other rounds already have natural pauses in them. ROUND 1: This is a version of the carnival shooting booth. Different targets have different point values, as shown at the bottom of the screen. In addition, there is a bonus for hitting something on the faster moving rows: 10 extra points for the top row, and 5 extra points for the middle row. Make sure to hit the extra ammo and extra time boxes whenever they appear to keep the round going longer. The best way to maximize points is by hitting a whole row of the same target type. The number of targets in a row varies from 4 to 8, and the bonuses vary from 100 to 250: Target Description Number in a Row Bonus Value ------------------ --------------- ----------- Duck 8 100 Spinning Wheel 8 100 Squirrel 6 100 Clay Pipe 8 100 Wine Bottle 6 100 Soda Can 8 100 Beer Bottle 4 200 Pinwheel 6 100 Fruit 6 100 Heart 6 100 Smiley Face 8 100 Coffee Mug 6 100 Candle 4 250 If you need to pause the round, just hit the space bar on your keyboard. Click the mouse to restart. ROUND 2: This round requires hitting a "clay pigeon", a target that is tossed off into the distance that you try to hit with a shotgun. The target moves quickly and so rapidly grows smaller and harder to hit. For best results, try to aim a little ahead of the target; it takes a while for the shot to reach it through the distance! No points are given for a miss. When you hit, the score is based on how quickly you hit the target. See the upper right part of the scoreboard for your time. ROUND 3: In this round you must quick draw against a target. Watch the timing lights and when they turn green, draw your "Rodent .45" from its holster, aim at the center of the target and fire! Your score is based on both your time and how close you got to the exact center of the target. See the upper right part of the scoreboard for your time. ROUND 4: This is a repeat of Round 1, but with a few complications added. All the targets have changed, and their point values have, in general, doubled. The bonuses for hitting targets on the faster moving rows have doubled as well. To make things more complicated, the targets will change direction at random times. Also, there's a special target labelled "HIT ME". Do what the target says! If you don't hit it before it scrolls off the screen there is a 500 point penalty. As in Round 1, the best way to get a top score is by hitting a whole row of the same target. In this round, the number of targets in a row varies from 4 to 8, and the bonuses vary from 200 to 250: Target Description Number in a Row Bonus Value ------------------ --------------- ----------- Bell 8 200 Flower 6 200 Baseball 8 200 Bomb 4 200 Alarm Clock 6 250 Beer Bottle 4 250 Diskette 8 200 Shield 6 250 Chicken 5 200 Flowers 6 200 Stein 6 200 Wreath 5 200 If you need to pause the round, just hit the space bar on your keyboard. Click the mouse to restart. ROUND 5: Once again you're at the skeet shooting range as in round 2. This time, though, you're equipped with a double barrel shotgun and you'll have two clay pigeons to hit each time. You're given points for each target you hit, even if you hit only one out of two. Your time, though, is always based on the time it takes to make both shots. Shoot fast for the highest score. ROUND 6: As in Round 3 you must quick draw against a target. This time, though, there are two targets to hit. HIT THE LEFT TARGET FIRST! You are scored separately on the accuracy of each shot, but your time is your total time for both shots. ROUND 7: Suddenly you find yourself back in the wild west and your town has been invaded by a gang of bad guys, all wearing dark hats! The object of this round is to finish off all the bad guys without shooting the townspeople. You have a limited amount of ammunition and time before the bad guys take over for good. Each bad guy shot will earn you 100 points. Finish off all 40 or more bad guys in time and earn an additional 100 point bonus for each second of time remaining. However, unlike the other rounds, these targets shoot back! Lose two seconds for each shot the bad guys get off. Also, if you hit one of the townspeople you lose 200 points and two rounds of ammo. Good luck, cowboy! GAME OPTIONS: The title screen provides a number of options. In addition to going straight into the game you can practice any one round, see the high score hall of fame, get some help, etc. Help: If you've read this far into the docs you probably don't need any more help, but these screens can be used as a quick reminder of what each round is. At each help screen you have the option of going on to the next screen, going back to the previous screen, or quitting help. Info: Some basic information on Shooting Gallery and how to register. Scores: View the high scores hall of fame. The high scores are also shown at the end of each game. Click to exit the hall of fame. The hall of fame is stored in the file SHOOT.SCR. Delete this file to reset the high scores. Practice: This brings up a list of all the different rounds available. Point to the button next to the round you want to practice and then click. COMMAND LINE OPTIONS: There are three options when starting up the game. Some people play in an environment where quiet is necessary so I've made it possible to play with the sound off. Add a " -s" to the command line to turn sound off. I haven't yet come up with the perfect speed calibration system and as a result some users of v1.0 found that the game moved too fast. There is now an option to slow down the game. Use " -d###" where ### is a number of your choosing that sets the delay in movements. The higher the number, the slower the game will move. Try starting at 100 and work up or down from there. To give you an idea on how fast things should move, on round 1 a target on the bottom row should cross the screen in about seven seconds. Note that there must be no space between the "d" and the number. Also, some on some systems the VGA card is not detected properly and early versions of Shooting Gallery failed to run. If you're sure your system supports MCGA or VGA graphics yet fails to run, use the " -v" (no video detection) option on the command line and Shooting Gallery will run without checking your video card type. Since command line options are confusing to some people, here are examples of how to use them. To turn the sound off, your command line should look like this: shoot -s To use a speed delay factor of 100, your command line would look like this: shoot -d100 To disable video card detection, your command line would look like this: shoot -v Finally, you can use several options at the same time. To play with the sound off and a delay factor of 125, the command line would look like this: shoot -s -d125 ***************************************************************************** * REGISTRATION * ***************************************************************************** Please remember that Shooting Gallery is not free software. As with all Shareware you are expected to purchase it after you've given it a reasonable trial. The registration price for Shooting Gallery is $15, for which you'll receive by return mail a copy of the latest version, and possibly another Shareware game to try out. Several other games are available from the same author. If you register more than one game at the same time, a discount is available. Register the first game for $15 and then each additional game is only $10. For example, $15 to register Shooting Gallery $25 to register Shooting Gallery plus one other game $35 to register Shooting Gallery and two other games etc. Games currently available include Mah Jongg, EGATrek, CIPHER and BassMap. A deluxe version of Shooting Gallery is also available. This includes a storage case, printed manual plus the registered version of the game. This version is available for $20. No discount is available on this version. Please include $2 shipping/handling with your order. ***************************************************************************** * TANDY 1000 PROBLEM * ***************************************************************************** It seems Tandy has an error in it's BIOS that screws up programs that try to autosense the video mode. An article in the magazine One Thousand provided a fix for this. The fix to the problem is to change the value of the byte at 0000:048A from 3F to the correct value. The correct values are listed in Table #3. Until Tandy comes up with a fix to their BIOS, th following program written by ATI will solve the problem: Using DEBUG.COM from you Disk Operating System, type the instructions in Figure #4 to create a short executable file called T1KVGA.COM. Put the value from Table #3 that matches the set up of your computer in where the "__" is shown. For almost all users, the value will be "0B". Run this program every time you boot the computer and want to use software that auto-detects your VGA card. Table #3: Fix Values --------------------- Default Video Mode Value Meaning --------------------- ----- ---------------------------- VGA color 0B single VGA color display VGA color and MDA 0C dual monitors with VGA color and mono text boards VGA mono 0D single VGA monochrome display VGA mono and CGA 0E dual monitors with VGA mono and CGA color boards Figure #4: T1KVGA.COM Listing ------------------------------ C:> DEBUG E 100 B8 00 00 8E D8 B0 __ 3E A2 8A 04 B8 00 4C CD 21 RCX 0010 NT1KVGA.COM W Q Note that you can also use the " -v" command line option to avoid this problem. ***************************************************************************** * INCLUDED FILES * ***************************************************************************** The following files are included in Shooting Gallery: SHOOT.EXE The runnable program VGA256.BGI Video driver *.PCC Background pictures *.PIC Target pictures SHOOT.DOC This file ORDERFRM.TXT Ready to print registration form. SHAREWRE.TXT Information on Shareware SHOOT.TXT A brief description of the game and other software available from the same author You are free to pass this program along to friends, give it to user groups, upload to BBS's, etc. with the understanding that anyone who continues to use the game is required to register it. All these files MUST be included when distributing this program. If you archive the program for distribution through BBS's, please use the name SHOOTG21.ZIP (or .LZH, .PAK, etc. as appropriate). ***************************************************************************** * DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY * ***************************************************************************** This software is sold "as is", without any warranty as to performance or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. Because of the many hardware and software environments into which this program may be used, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. Any liability of the seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or the refund of the registration fee. ***************************************************************************** * ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS * ***************************************************************************** This software is produced by Nels Anderson who is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006, USA or send a CompuServe message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER ***************************************************************************** * AVAILABLE SOFTWARE * ***************************************************************************** Other software which I've either written or contributed to: EGATREK: Space strategy battle game, using full EGA graphics, based on the classic minicomputer game. Winner of Public Brand Software's 1988 software contest. MAHJONGG: Solitaire game played with Chinese tiles. Supports EGA and Hercules graphics; mouse optional. See reviews in December 1988 "PCWorld" and April 1989 "Compute!". CIPHER: A word puzzle game involving solving quotations that have been encrypted. Runs in EGA or VGA graphics mode with or without a mouse, or in text mode. New in January 1990. MOUSTOOL: A collection of utilities for Turbo Pascal programmers wishing to incorporate mouse input in their programs. Sample programs included for both EGA and CGA graphics. Used extensively within CIPHER. SOUNDPAS: A collection of utilities for Turbo Pascal programmers to add music and sound effects to their programs. Includes units for interrupt and real time sounds. BASSTOUR: (Written by Dick Olsen). Game that simulates a fishing tournament, including rod and lure selection. Runs in EGA/CGA/Hercules graphics modes. Uses many of the utilities from MOUSTOOL. BASSMAP: Companion program for BassTour which allows lakes to be created or modified. CALLDOOR: A PCBoard 14.x door that lets users view the system caller log. Logs for any node can be viewed in reverse order (i.e., most recent caller back) or the logs can be searched for any string. WAITDV: A sysop's utility that allows synchronizing of nightly house keeping events on a multinode system. WAITDV was written especially for systems running under DESQview: it's DV-aware so the active task runs much faster than it would if a non-aware wait utility was used. TOPPERS: A PCBoard 14.x sysop utility that generates a formatted list of the board's top users (by number of calls, downloads and uploads). The output file has three columns, one for each category. Graphics and non-graphics output is available. TOPTALK: A PCBoard 14.x sysop utility that tracks user activity in conferences based on number of messages posted. Included is a complete record of all user activity plus a bulletin file of the top ten most active message posters. GROUPERS: A PCBoard 14.x game door. Players gamble on the outcome of the next card drawn from the deck. The game is set up to run as a monthly contest and keeps track of current scores, generates a current scores bulletin and an end of month final scores bulletin. Coming Soon: SUPERFLY, an all new hi-res EGA action game. - - - - - Shooting Gallery is copyright (c) 1990 by Nels Anderson. All rights reserved.