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1992-09-15
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Xerix
By Brendan Reville
Game Documentation
Version 1.1
--------------------------------------
Contents
Overview
System Requirements
Files
Getting Started
Configuration and Hard Disk Installation
The Story
Playing the Game
Credits and Acknowledgments
About the Author
Free Registration
Contacting the Author
Programmers' Information
Revision History
Disclaimer
Copyright Notice
Trademarks and Registered Trademarks
--------------------------------------
Overview
Xerix is an arcade-style "shoot 'em up" game set in the
future. You must guide a space ship through a strange world of two
different levels and destroy or avoid the many enemy obstacles in
this place. Xerix features 256 colour VGA/MCGA graphics and sound
card support. Other features include multi-level/rate scrolling,
Expanded and Extended memory support, and the support of various
input devices.
The game is public domain, and may be freely and legally
copied in its original, unmodified form.
--------------------------------------
System Requirements
Required: IBM AT (80286) or higher: '386/i486; or compatible
MS-DOS
VGA or MCGA video display
Hard disk or floppy disk with 500k bytes free
Recommended:
10 Mhz or faster processor speed
Hard disk
Supported: (optional)
Adlib sound card
Sound Blaster sound card
Microsoft Mouse or compatible mouse
Joystick
EMS (Expanded) memory
XMS (Extended) memory
--------------------------------------
Files
The following files are part of the Xerix package. All files,
apart from XERIX.CFG, last on the list, should be on the disk or in
the archive which you acquired the game on:
XERIX .DOC This file - the game documentation.
XERIXREG.DOC The registration form.
XINSTALL.EXE The installation/configuration program.
XERIX .EXE The Xerix game program.
XERIX_GM.DAT A game data file.
XERIX_A0.DAT A game data file.
XERIX_A1.DAT A game level data file.
XERIX_A2.DAT A game level data file.
XERIX .CFG Default game settings file.
(Created by XINSTALL - not on
original disk/archive)
--------------------------------------
Getting Started
To run Xerix, make sure you're on the same disk drive and in
the same directory as the game. To configure the game for your
computer initially, type XINSTALL to run the install program. If
you know that the game is already configured for your system, you
can simply type XERIX to begin the game.
Xerix Install - XINSTALL
From the main menu of the install program you can choose to
configure the default game settings, install Xerix to a hard disk,
or return to DOS.
Configuring the default game settings
Choosing 1 on the Xerix Install main menu takes you into the
default game setting configuration menus, which allow you to
configure Xerix for your computer. These settings will be saved in
the file XERIX.CFG in the current disk/directory, or on the
destination disk/directory if a hard disk installation is
performed, unless a problem in the hard disk installation occurs.
Firstly, you can choose whether Xerix runs with full 256
colour graphics, or with 64 grey-scale graphics if you prefer. The
grey-scale graphics will work with a full-colour monitor.
Next, you can choose the sound device Xerix will use.
The following options are available:
No sound:
The game is silent. The sound effects can also be
turned off during the game.
Adlib sound:
Using the original Adlib sound card's FM music and
sound effect capabilities.
Sound Blaster sound:
Using the FM music and sound effect capabilities of
the Adlib as well as digitised sound samples.
If you choose the Sound Blaster as the sound device
there will be two additional menus, in which you choose
the base memory address and interrupt number for the
card. For both menus, Auto Scan should work. If the
game locks up while loading or gives a Sound Blaster
initialisation error message, XINSTALL should be run
again and the Sound Blaster base memory address should be
specified. If the game still doesn't work, the interrupt
number should be specified as it is set up on your Sound
Blaster card.
IBM PC internal speaker:
Used for music and sound effects.
The next menu allows you to choose what memory the game uses.
Choosing conventional memory limits the game to using only the
basic 640k bytes of RAM, at most, of memory installed in your
computer. Choosing either EMS or XMS allows the game to utilise
the memory in your computer set up as either Expanded or Extended
memory.
The use of EMS (Expanded) memory requires an Expanded Memory
Manager (EMM) that conforms to the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded
Memory Specification (LIM-EMS) version 3.2 or later. The use of
XMS (Extended) memory requires an external driver that conforms to
the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft/AST eXtended Memory Specification (XMS)
version 2.0 or later, such as HIMEM.SYS.
The use of Expanded or Extended memory make subsequent
loadings of levels faster. Their use still requires adequate free
conventional memory.
The final menu allows you to choose the input device used to
control the game: either keyboard, mouse or joystick. A Microsoft
compatible mouse driver must be installed before running the game
if it is configured to use the mouse. A joystick must be connected
to Game Port 1 and centred when the game is loading if it is to be
used. The keyboard may also be used in combination with these
other input devices.
Hard Disk Installation
This option from the Xerix Install program's main menu will
copy the game into a subdirectory on your hard disk, as long as it
has enough free space for the game. The hard disk install option
will ask for the destination drive's letter, from C to F, then
check for adequate available space on the destination drive. If
there is enough space, the directory \XERIX will be created and the
game copied into that directory.
To run the game after installing it onto a hard disk, make
that drive the current drive by typing its letter followed by a
colon. For example "C:" (without the quotes).
Then make the current directory \XERIX by typing "CD \XERIX"
(again without the quotes).
To run the game, type "XERIX".
--------------------------------------
The Story
Some time in the near future...
A massive, alien structure hurtles from deep space towards the
earth. Several days after first being discovered by a space-
tracking station in the desert of Egypt, two-thirds of the
population of Los Angeles and its surrounding area are killed by a
strange radiation. The radiation's source is tracked to the alien
structure.
Panic sets in on the earth in the hours that follow. People
don't know what to do or where to go. The governments of the
world, combined through the United World Council, try desperately
to find a solution to this problem.
The World