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1991-05-18
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Tank Wars
Release 2.5
Copyright (C) 1990 by Kenny Morse
-----------------------------------------------
If you have not done so, read the information in BOMB.TXT.
Some information in BOMB.TXT may not be repeated in this
file. Also the on-line help (F1) in BOMBCFG.EXE may be
extremely useful in understanding all start-up options.
QUICK START: The problem with most program instructions is that
you can't truly envision what they're talking about until
you've played the game. I occasionally have to play the
game once or twice before I can understand the
documentation. So now I suggest that you play this game
once or twice before reading the rest of this document.
Simply type BOMB to load the game. After the title screen
you are brought to the main menu. Press cursor-down until
the asterisk is beside "Games per Set", press cursor left to
decrement it to 1. Then go down and press return on "Start
Set". Then press space and type your name. Press Cursor
Right to get to the next player, then press "C" for computer
and then move down to Mr. Stupid and press return to play
against the easiest opponent. Then press 'S' to start.
During the game press cursor right/left to raise/lower the
cannon. Press cursor up/down to increase/decrease power.
Press space to fire. The object is to kill the computerized
opponent.
MAIN MENU: Now that you have some idea of the basics, lets get
into more detail. The main menu has numerous options that
determine the play of the game. You can use the mouse or
keyboard to change the options. Pressing up or down moves
the asterisk from option to option. Pressing cursor right
or left changes the setting for that option. With the mouse
just click with the right or left mouse button on the option
you wish to change.
SOUND OPTIONS:
Sound Effects: (Default Yes) Turns sound on or off. Sound
adds to the overall effect of the game, but there may
be a time when you don't want it.
Fly Sound Effects: (Default No) In the very first version
of this program, each weapon would make a screeching
sound while flying through the air. After playing two
or three times however this gets extremely annoying,
thus the creation of this switch.
GAME OPTIONS:
Crumbling Hills: (Default 50%) The major flaw in most games
like this is that you can blow the ground out from
under somebody and he'll hover there like Road-Runner
in a cartoon. This variable can be set between 0% and
100%. It controls how often loose ground will fall.
At 100% all loose ground will crumble after every shot.
At 0%, the ground never falls, as in cartoons.
Rebounding Walls: (Default Random) This allows you to
change the effect the border around the screen has on
the current shot. When set to No, the shot will fly
off and on the screen as gravity dictates. When set to
Yes, the ball will reflect off of all four walls. This
allows for some very interesting trick shots. Halfway
between the two is RND. On this setting whether or not
the walls rebound is purely random, and redetermined
before each round. You can tell whether Rebound is on
at any given time by the presence of a purple R on the
left side of the screen.
Visible Shot: (Default Yes) When turned off, your shot is
invisible while in the air. This can speed up the
game, but not by much. Its main purpose is confusion
and it works quite well, especially with rebounding
walls because you never know just how many times it
bounced before it landed.
Shot Trace: (Default Yes) When on, your shot will leave a
trail while flying through the air. It can make it
easier to determine what adjustments are needed to hit
your enemy. It also helps you determine whether you
are in danger of being hit by your enemy.
Background: (Default Random) There are now several
backgrounds the game can take place in front of. These
are labeled 'A'..'B'.. etc.. There is also a RND
setting which includes all backgrounds. Backgrounds
can hide tanks, and make CRI's look extremely neat.
Games Per Set: (Default 10) This determine how many rounds
will be played before the game ends. In a short game
your main objective is just to destroy as fast as
possible. In a long game you want to rack up points so
that you can buy weapons that help you destroy.
Tanks Fall Down: (Default Yes) This determines whether tanks
fall when the ground is blown out from under them.
When set to No, tanks just hover there. When set to
Yes, they fall and sustain damage.
Number of Players: (Default 2) Here you select how many
tanks will play. This includes computer intelligences.
From two to ten tanks can participate, but remember,
the more tanks present, the closer they are together,
and the better the chances that you'll get blown away
before getting a shot off.
Explosions Kill: (Default Yes) This determines whether or
not those little bits of tank that fly through the air
when someone dies can directly hurt you. Regardless of
this setting they can blow the ground out from under
you and send you careening down a cliff wall.
Computers Can Buy: (Default Yes) This allows the computer
intelligences to buy weapons to enhance their arsenals.
It is recommended that beginners set this to NO.
Palette Speed: (Default 0) This controls the speed at which
the background moves (0 is fastest). If the addition
of this effect slows down your game too much set this
number to a higher value.
Start : This starts the game, and brings you to the player
selection screen.
PLAYER SELECTION: Here is where you select who plays. For each
player playing you will be asked what will be controlling
him. Press 'K' for Keyboard, 'M' for Mouse or 'C' for
computer. Pressing Space or clicking on the name window
will prompt you for the players name. If you selected 'M'
or 'K' you will then be asked to enter your name. If you
selected 'C' you will then be asked which of the computers
available you wish to play against. Press the return on the
name of the computer you wish to play. They are described
in detail later.
Mr. Stupid (No Threat)
Lobber (A threat if rebound is off)
Rifleman (A threat if below you)
Windless Wit (A threat if there is little
wind)
Lob & Shoot (Almost always a threat)
Twanger (Very dangerous if reflect is
on, otherwise a moderate
threat)
PLAYING THE GAME: Now the game begins. First the terrain is
drawn. Then each of your tanks will fall from the sky and
land somewhere on the ground. The tanks are placed in
random order, so that no person gets the same position every
game. A random player is then selected to go first. Each
player takes his turn in order from left to right, until
only one player, the winner, remains. Then the status
screen is displayed, showing who is currently winning, the
rankings, and other important information. After that,
those who have enough points stored up will be given the
option of buying extra weapons to supplement their arsenal.
CONTROLS: At the top of the screen is information critical in
planning your attack. Next to POWER, ANGLE, and DIRECTION
are the current values of how hard you will shoot, at what
elevation, and in what direction. Next to MEN is the number
of men you currently have in your tank. Your power is
limited to 100*MEN. Wind shows the current direction and
strength of the wind. A number between 0 and 100 is
typical, occasionally however there will be gusts up to 800
mph, which can have a enormous impact on your shot. Between
this panel and the playing field is your equipment list. It
consists of 20 boxes. If a box is black, fuzzy, and hard to
see, you don't have that item. If a box is white you have
that item but it is not loaded. If a box is red it is
loaded and armed. Mouse and Keyboard commands are listed
below.
Raising/Lowering Elevation: Pressing cursor left or right
tilts the gun left or right respectively. Clicking the
left/right mouse buttons on the yellow number next to
ANGLE has the same effect. The gun has a full 180
degree range, and if lowered below 0 will wrap around
and begin climbing the other side. Remember to look at
your cannon direction itself, just the ANGLE number can
be deceptive.
Raising/Lowering Power: Pressing cursor up or down raises
or lowers the power respectively, by increments of 1.
Pressing PgUp and PgDn change power by increments of
100. Clicking the right or left mouse buttons on the
number next to POWER has the same effect as cursor up
or down. Clicking on POWER has the same effect as PgUp
and PgDn.
Changing Direction: If you simply wish to reverse direction
without changing ANGLE you can simply press 'I', or
click on the yellow arrow next to DIRECTION with the
mouse.
Firing: Pressing SPACE or RETURN will fire the gun. It can
be fired with the mouse by pressing both buttons at the
same time.
Status Information: To obtain information on any player
press the number key corresponding to their number.
Press '1' for player 1, '0' for player 10, etc.. With
the mouse simply click the left button on whomever you
wish to obtain information about. Press any key or
button to put away the information screen.
Changing Weapon: To change the active weapon, press TAB or
SHIFT-TAB. These keys will cycle through all the
weapons you currently have. Clicking right and left
mouse buttons on the strip of weapons above the playing
field has the same effect. What each weapon does is
listed later.
Guidance Systems: Later in the game you may acquire
guidance systems. To toggle a system on or off simply
press 'H' or 'V', or click on the white 'H' or 'V',
depending on which system you bought. When it asks you
what target to aim for press cursor right/left to
rotate through the possible targets, or simply click on
the target with the mouse.
Keyboard Users: If these commands change angle and power
too fast for you, you may hold down ALT while pressing
the required key. This will slow down the rate of
change to one unit per press of the key.
CONTROL KEYS:
The following keys work at any 'appropriate' time. That is
basically any time when the keyboard can be constantly
polled without slowing down the program, while the
program is on the play screen. These times currently
include when anyone is selecting his firing parameters,
while the shot is flying, while the shot is exploding,
and whenever someone is dying. If you press the key
when it is not being looked for, nothing will happen.
Sound Toggle: Pressing CTRL-S will toggle sound on or off.
Status: Pressing CTRL-P will pause the game and bring up a
status screen indicating the current game and other
helpful information.
Mass Kill: Pressing CTRL-M will kill all the players on the
screen. Use this when a group of computers are
involved in a fight that it looks like it will go on
forever. All players will die after the current
players turn is over.
Quit: Pressing CTRL-Q will abort the game.
BUYING EQUIPMENT: After each round you may be brought to the
equipment screen. Here you are presented with a list of
what items you can buy with your current money supply (Money
is directly related to score). Press + or - on an item to
increment/decrement the number you wish to buy. With the
mouse simply click on the item with the right button to
select, left to deselect. Press 'P' or click on 'Purchase'
to buy those items selected. Press 'D' or click on 'Done'
to buy selected items and exit the screen.
COMPUTERS: There are currently 6 computers to challenge you. I
hope to add more, and if you have any ideas for other
algorithms please send them to me.
Mr. Stupid: A complete idiot. He just picks a random power
and angle, and shoots. There's no guarantee that he'll
even shoot in the right direction. A good opponent for
your first game.
Lobber: This computer uses fairly decent logic. He shoots
2 random powered shots at 75 degrees. The closest
person to his second shot is then dubbed his target.
He calculates how much his power needs to be altered to
hit his target. His third shot usually misses, but his
fourth is usually pretty accurate. Strong wind (150+)
can throw his shots off, lessening him as a threat.
Rebound completely confuses him. He just can't
comprehend why his shots aren't following nice
parabolic paths.
Rifleman: This computer uses one of the simplest, and
possibly most effective strategies. If he's below you
he simply points his turret at you, sets it at full
power and fires. Sometime he fires so hard that the
bomb doesn't detonate correctly, but more often than
not, he'll kill you. If there are no targets above
him, he'll just shoot randomly.
Windless Wit: This computer uses physics to hit his target.
However, he has not yet figured out how to compensate
for wind. In low wind (0-20), you could be in trouble.
The higher the wind, the longer you'll live.
Lob & Shoot: If there is no rebound, he fights as lobber.
If there is rebound he fight as rifleman. This can be
very effective when rebound is set to RND.
Twanger: If rebound is not on, will fight just like
Rifleman. However, if reflect is on he will attempt to
bounce his shot off the ceiling and nail you. This is
surprisingly effective (Better than I expected).
WEAPONS: There are currently 18 weapons, and 2 guidance systems,
and 2 defenses available for purchase. Many of them are
similar, and will only be described in general. Remember
that no weapons are perfect. They sometimes fail to
detonate correctly, and bore a hole through an opponents
tank and fly through without detonating. This happens
rarely, but occasionally.
Lead Ball: Useless, completely useless. It does no damage.
It just flies. The only time it's ever useful is when
you want to test if you can get a decent weapon far
enough away from you so that you won't be caught in the
blast. You start with 9999 of them.
Hand Grenade: This is a wimpy little bomb. It has a very
small blast range. It can only kill a tank if it hits
it directly. You start with 9999 of them.
Standard Incinerator: These are your normal weapons. They
have a reasonable blast radius, and can kill fairly
easily. You start with 5 for every round you will
play.
Mark II Incinerator: Twice the size of Standard
Incinerators.
Nukes: 20K and 5M Nukes explode the same as Incinerators,
but with MUCH bigger blast radii. 5 Meg's have been
known to take out up to 7 tanks in one explosion.
Chain Reaction Inducers (CRI's): These start a chain
reaction in the ground. Depending on the strength of
the CRI it can do little damage, or can destroy almost
all the ground on the screen. CRI's are identified
with a number followed by a 'D' or 'ND'. The number
determines how radioactive the reaction is. 'D's are
much more 'fluent' than 'ND's. It's quite hard to
explain, but you should be able to figure it out after
using a few.
Sonic Blaster: These are only helpful in games when Crumble
is set to a low percentage. When these hit the ground
they emit a high pitched sonic whine, causing all loose
ground to collapse. These are especially helpful after
a CRI has been released and there are tanks hanging in
mid air on only a few pixels of ground. This will take
those precious pixels out from under them and send them
careening to their death.
Balls 'o' Dirt: These are fairly self explanatory. When
they explode, instead of a big ball of fire, a big ball
of dirt is created. I'll leave it up to you to
determine what you'll want to use this for.
Explosive Dirt: When this hits, it spews dirt up into the
air. It may just stay there, or it may fall back down
depending on what you set crumble to.
Lasers: These work a little differently than the other
weapons. Purchasing one of these gives you 1000 units
of laser energy. The power value you select is how
much of this energy you wish to use. If you have less
than 100 units the laser cannot fire.
Guidance Systems: I'll leave it up to you to figure out how
to use these. They're very powerful, effective, and
easy to misuse.
Defense Systems: The two defense systems are fairly self
explanatory. Buy them and they will save you life.
COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS: You can override all of the defaults on
the command line. The format is:
BOMB command1 command2 command3 ....etc.
The commands are as follows:
SOUND EFFECTS - S+ (ON) S- (OFF).
FLY SOUND - F+ (ON) F- (OFF).
CRUMBLE - C+ (100%) C- (0%) Cnnn (nnn%).
REFLECT - R+ (ON) R- (OFF) RR (RND).
INVISIBILITY - I+ (ON) I- (OFF).
SHOT TRAIL - T+ (ON) T- (OFF).
GAMES PER SET - Gnn (nn games).
TANKS FALL - D+ (ON) D- (OFF).
EXPLOSIONS KILL - K+ (ON) K- (OFF).
COMPUTER BUYS - B+ (ON) B- (OFF).
BACKGROUND - BK+ (RANDOM) BK- (NONE) BKa (Set to a)
XTENDED KEYBOARD - X+ (ON) X- (OFF).
DIRECT VIDEO - H+ (ON) H- (OFF).
OVERRIDE MOUSE - M+ (Mouse Present) M- (No Mouse)
PALETTE ROTATION - P+ (Rotate Palette) P- (No Rotation)
PALETTE SPEED - Pxxx (Palette delay set to xxx)
SHOW MEMORY USAGE - MEM.
SKIP TITLE SCREEN - SKIP.
SET INTERFACE SPEED - SPEEDxxxx (Set speed delay to xxxxms)
SET FALLDOWN SPEED - FALLDELAYxxxxx (Set fall delay)
CRUDE PALETTE - CRUDE (Use fastest palette routines)
For example, to play a 30 game set, with crumble set at 75%,
random rebound, and shot trails you would enter the
following.
BOMB G30 C75 RR S+
There is no required order. If contradictory commands are
issued, all but the last one will be ignored.
By default BOMB will attempt to communicate with video
hardware directly, bypassing BIOS. This may not work
on all machines. Adding a H- will disable the new
code. The effects of the direct communication depend
on the machine, ranging from no change to faster,
cleaner palette changing.
My keyboard interface has been accelerated to the level of
the mouse. On many computers they both are now too
fast. That is the reason for SPEEDxxxx. The default
setting is 0, no delay. On a 16Mhz machine I find that
a setting of 25 is convenient for me. You may need to
experiment to find what is most comfortable for you.
Zero is the fastest setting. The slowest value is 9999,
but any value above 150 is too slow and should not be
used. If the keyboard locks up when attempting to aim
the gun, use the X- parameter. This will force Tank
Wars to go through BIOS. This may slow down execution,
but will prevent the lockup.
If tanks are falling too fast for you to see, and you want
to see them use the FALLDELAYxxxxx parameter. It works
just like SPEEDxxxxx, but controls the rate at which
tanks fall.
If the program is detecting a mouse, when there is one or is
not detecting your mouse, use the M parameter. M+ will
force a mouse to be detected. M- will prohibit use of
the mouse.
INTENDED ADDITIONS: I've been building this program for the last
8 months, and it is by no means complete. I intend to add
more weapons, and to develop more computer intelligences.
Also, I hope to find even more ways to speed up the program
without sacrificing any graphical effects.
REGISTRATION: This program is distributed as Shareware. You are
free to try the game and make copies for others. If you
continue to use the game, however, you are required to pay
the author a registration fee of $10. In return you will be
notified of all major releases, and will be using the
program legally. Send Registrations to:
KENNY MORSE
11800 SILENT VALLEY LANE
GAITHERSBURG, MD 20878
Please include your registration fee of $10, and if you have
one, a Compuserve or Prodigy ID at which I can contact you.
I would also like to know from where you obtained a copy of
my program, and what version you are using. I don't require
it, but I would also like to know your age, and what kind of
system you are running on. I will currently answer questions
from all users via CIS or Prodigy. I can be reached at
TGTM35B on Prodigy, or 76427,3305 on Compuserve. I will
answer mailed questions to the above address only if the
asker is a registered user, and includes a method of reply,
such as a self addressed stamped envelope, or Prodigy or
Compuserve ID.
