Monster Media 1996 #14

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┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ MASTERROIDS Version 0.9 │ └─────────────────────────────┘ MASTERROIDS is a shoot'em-up game running as a PM-program for up to four players. FIRST NOTE: When you try to start the game first time (without having changed the configuration), it could happen, that the game won't start, cause the configuration does not fit to your computer. Use the delivered program "MRRESET" first to set critical options to non-critical values and then try to start the game again. Configuration helps: Below, I am speaking of threads. If you don't know what this is, don't panic. The only thing you must know here is that you can make the game faster when you set the thread's priority higher ( see below ). If you don't know what to do with the options described below ( belonging to the thread or the sound ), just press the Default-Button ( which is present for all difficult-to-handle options ). This should do it. INSTALLING: NO CHANGES to your CONFIG.SYS and .INI-files are done :-) EITHER copy the files in a directory you like and if you like create a program-object on the desktop. OR (EVEN EASIER) start the INSTALL.CMD-file, which asks you whether you want to copy the important files into a seperate directory and whether you like a program-object on the desktop. UNINSTALLING: In case you should not like MASTERROIDS :-( Simple as can be : Just delete the files and desktop-object (if created) Maybe you would be so kind and send me a short message WHY????? IMPORTANT: MASTERROIDS loads up to 3 MB data, so your computer should have a minimum of 8 MB RAM. ( Sorry about that, but I had no chance to test the game on a computer with 4 MB. I even don't know, if 4 MB is enough for OS/2 itself. ) You should have a 486 or better ( 66 MHz or more. 33 MHz is possilbe, but slow. Sorry. ) Cause the game puts your graphic-card to its limits ( and the processor as well ) it would be the best, you have no other programs running in the background. ( Please don't change the name "MROIDS" of the program cause this is required, else the game won't function. Or you rename all files that are of the category "MROIDS.*" and it should work again. ) FEATURES - up to 4 players - the keys and spacecraft functions can be edited. - Shooting another spacecraft will make this one move in that direction. - Reducing graphics is possible to gain some execution speed and reduces the need of memory. - You can manipulate some system-near parameters ( the thread's priority etc. ) to fit them best for your computer. You don't have to change them. The game works with every possible configuration, except MMPM and palette manager ( see below ). ( If you don't know what to do then press the Default-Button in the settings and configuration option. ) - You can use your own sounds as well as the timings. ( Some timings can be changed to reduce the possibility of the occurrence of the MMPM-bug. ) PLAYING THE GAME: You are flying a little spacecraft and have to shoot all comets flying around as well as other dangerous objects. Use the keys defined in the players-dialog to move your ship, to shoot and to activate your special function ( flying into hyperspace, a shield or flying with extra speed. ) OBJECTS IN THE GAME: - Comets: Shoot them ! Destroy them ! ( Do they really seam to be comets ? ) - Extras: They appear when you shoot at the alien (the gray ball) and will remain for 20 seconds. After your spacecraft was destroyed, all extras except the protector ( the dark shield-extra-ball ) were freed so they can be picked up again by someone. If you lost your last live, the protector as well will be freed. ( By the way: In the unregistered version only 2 green extras can be picked up. ) > Shield-Balls: You can have up to 3 Shield-Balls, no matter what color they have. ( If you have a protector, you can get only 2 more yellow shield extras. ) They have all a fixed maximum speed for rotating around the ship. Yellow Shield-Balls: You can have up to 3 yellow shield-balls. Each one has only some lives ( that means that a shield-ball can only resist a number of chrashes and then it disappears ). The first one has the lowest number of lives and the lowest rotation-speed. The second one lives longer and is faster, and so on. If the spacecraft explodes, all yellow shield-balls were freed and can be picked up again, but their number of lives won't be refreshed. If you have picked up 3 yellow ones, you cannot pick up a protector. Dark Shield-Balls ( Protectors ): You can have up to 1 dark shield-ball. They are much faster than the yellow ones, they live forever so you won't loose them if your ship explodes. They were freed only if your ship has lost all of its lives. If you have picked up a dark one, you can pick up only 2 more yellow ones. > Green Extras: You can pick up up to 5 green extras. They are responsible for better moves, rotations und speeds of the spacecrafts. If you have picked up neither: The values you chose in the settings-dialog were used. ( The settings-dialog is accessible when you have started the game and chosen the menu Options/Settings ) If you pick up one after another: 1. : increases the rotation speed. 2. : enables the backward-key: You can break the spacecraft's movement now. 3. : sets the maximum speed of the spacecraft to a higher value. ( That does not include a higher acceleration ! ) 4. : the backward-key still can break the movement of the space- craft, but if you hold the key a little bit longer, you can drift backward as well. 5. : doubles the acceleration of the spacecraft. > Red Extras: You can pick up up to 5 red extras. They are responsible for a better weapon-system. If you have picked up neither: The normal bullet is used. It's a little white point. You can choose it's in the settings-dialog. If you pick up one after another: 1. : The speed of the bullet will be increased. 2. : You get a bigger bullet. The range will be increased. 3. : The speed will be increased again. 4. : You get a laser. You can target easier. The range and speed will be increased again. 5. : The speed will be increased again. > Blue Extras: You can pick up up to 2 blue extras. They are responsible for a quicker reloading of special-energy. > Missiles: You can pick up a maximum of 1 missile. They fly directly to the nearest target. A target is anything, which is dangerous for the player (this does not include the alien). If there are radioactive balls ( these are yellow balls with a radioactive sign and they turn into blue boxes ), they are used as targets first. - Mine: If the mine explodes ( by shooting or collision ), everything within a certain radius will explode. - Alien ( the gray ball ): It is mostly resistable against collisions, but not bullets and lasers. It contains the extras. Shoot it ! It will contain more extras depending on the level and the number of players. - Enemy ( the white and red spacecraft which is shooting around ): It's making you nervous, doesn't it ? - Hunting Radioactive Yellow Balls: These are balls with a radioactive-sign and they transform themselves into blue boxes. Sometimes they are coming out of comets, hunting the nearest spacecrafts. Be careful, you've been warned ! SCORING: 10 points for an alien ( the gray ball containing the extras ) but only if it were destroyed 20 points for each large comet 50 paints for each medium comet 100 points for each small comet 150 points for a mine and you get the points for all other destroyed objects, that were exploding with the mine. 200 points for a hunting radioactive yellow ball 250 points for an enemy ( the shooting ball-like spavecraft ) You get a new life every 10000 points. You get points if you shoot something with your gun or with your missile but you get no points if an object was destroyed cause it collided with your yellow or dark shield-extra-ball. CONTENTS OF ARCHIVE The following files are contained in this archive: mroids.exe - MASTERROIDS V0.9 mroids.pic - contains all sprites mroids.cmt - contains all comet sprites mroids.dig - contains other bitmaps mroids.ico - the icon wave.dll - contains all sound functions for the game (is only loaded, when MMPM used) alien.wav crash.wav danger.wav destroy.wav dieshldx.wav disappr.wav enemy.wav espeed.wav explode.wav extra.wav hitsteel.wav hyper.wav laser.wav newextra.wav newlife.wav shield.wav shldoff.wav shldon.wav shot.wav takeprtc.wav takeshld.wav warp.wav readme.1st - this file order.frm - Masterroids order form install.cmd - Installation-utility ( doesn't manipulate any of your system's config files ) emx.dll - dynamic link library of the emx-package (if you have the same or a newer version (emx 0.9a (Dec.94)) in your lib-path you can delete this one !) - ( obtained from ftp.cdrom.com ) mrreset.exe - Resets the configuration to some non-critical values. If you chose a configuration ( especially MMPM or palette manager ) that your system does not support, the game could crash after it was started. This program will solve the problem. Don't start it when the game is running, cause the the game could write back the critical values. This program only manipulate some settings and configurations of Masterroids. Your system's config files won't be touched. waveinfo.exe - This program tells you some informations of a wavefile. ( If you don't want to use your own sounds but only the sounds delivered with this package, you don't need this program. ) If you are playing with sounds and want to use your own sounds, then it would be the best, that the wavefile's parameters are the same for all of the used wavefiles. If they are different, the game will function as well ( except your MMPM-Version has the bug ), but only the game could get a little bit slower ( maybe you even won't recognize it ). This program prints the following parameters: FormatTag Channels SamplesPerSec AvgBytesPerSec BlockAlign BitsPerSample You don't have to know what these parameters mean. The program will tell you the length of the sounds in bytes as well, but this is the only parameter that need not to be equal for all used sounds. SETTINGS AND CONFIGURATION: Chosen from menu "Options": - "Players": Players: Choose the player to edit his options. Properties of Spacecraft: > Shooting Range: How far you can shoot. > Spacecraft Thrust: That's the acceleration of the spacecraft. > Maximum speed: The maximum speed possible for the spacecraft. > Rotation speed: How fast the spacecraft will rotate. > Special Function: The energy level of the special function. Special Function: Which function should be done when pressing the special-key. > Hyperspace: The spacecraft will fly into hyperspace an little bit later it comes back on another position. > Shield: A shield will be activated. > Extra Speed: For the time you press the special-key, you will be able to fly very fast. Color: You can choose one of 4 colors for your ship. Key Codes: The backward-key will be enabled if you have picked up a certain number of green extras. Between the Ok- and Cancel-button there are 6 round buttons with a text-field. They are used for the keys up/down/left/right, weapon and special-function. To choose a different key click on the round button of the function you want change ( e.g. of the up-key ) and then click on the key in the drawed keyboard in the middle of the dialog. You can only choose black or white keys. The red ones indicate, that they are used by another player and the white ones are your keys. - "Settings": Graphic-Detail: > Stars in background: If you switch off the stars in background, no bitmap will be loaded. This will reduce the need of memory. > Sprites overlapping: If you switch this off, the drawing runs a bit faster, but the objects will flicker when they overlap. And sometimes moving objects delete parts of other not moving objects, when they overlap. > Background pass through sprites: If you switch this off, the background will not be painted in the rectangle area of an object. This makes the drawing a bit faster. > short Explosions: This will draw only short explosions in order to draw quicker. This option is helpful for slow computers. This option does not use more or less memory. Sound: > ON: Switch Sound on/off. Maybe after you switched on the sound you must wait a certain time for the soundfiles to be loaded into memory. WARNING: If you have set the priority to IDLETIME ( see below ), the harddisk access will be very slow. Maybe you have to wait some minutes till the sounds are loaded. > share: I implemeted this function for flexibility. You should switch it off. Otherwise another program that starts to play a sound could hang the game ( if you have another program running in background ). Emulate mathematic functions: If you don't have a mathematic coprocessor, some sqrt-functions must be simulated by the system. Then switch this button to on and the game will use its own (faster) functions. But if you have a coprocessor, switch this button off cause the coprocessor is the fastest possibility. Pause when game inactive: When switched on, the game will stop when you click on another window. "More": This enables the more system-near settings: This is the Priority Class and the Priority Level of the thread. Here you can edit the priority of execution. Try out some values, if you want to. If you don't know what to do with these values then ignore them ( or set them to default ). Priority Class: > Idletime: This is the lowest priority. The thread will run very slow. WARNING: All harddriveoperations will work very solw, even if there is no other program running in background. So you better should not use this setting. > Regular: This the default value. > Foregoundserver: This is better than Regular, but not so good as Timecritical. > Timecritical: This allows the best performance, but other programs will run very slow in background. Priority Level: In addition to the priority class you can change the priority within a priority class. Minimum level: -31 Maximum level: +31 ( By the way: If you choose a Priority Class of Timecritical and you set the Level to a value greater or equal to 1, maybe the sound won't function correctly. Set the priority level to a lower value, or don't use sounds. ) Default: Sets the thread's parameters back to normal ( Regular, priority level 0. ) By the way: The program "MRRESET" sets the thread's parameters to its defaults. - "Configuration": All Options edited in this dialog will be activated at the next start of MASTERROIDS. If you don't know what to do with these options, just press the button "Set All to Default". If you change some options in here (especially the MMPM and the palette manager to force their usage) and the game crashes the next time you try to start it, start MRRESET.EXE first. Then critical options will be set to non-critical values and the game should work again. ( Now the MMPM and the palette manager will be switched off. ) Now can edit the settings and configurations again. Reduce graphics details: With this button the animations are reduced, but the game loads faster at startup and not so much memory will be used. This is helpful for computers with low main memory. Default is deactived. Palette manager: Normally the program determines automatically if a palette manager is available. But I have implemented these option for flexibility. So the default is the automatic detection and this should be chosen normally. Without palette manager, the colors in the game won't be as beautiful al with palette manager. But this will only happen, when you are using a OS/2-graphic-resolution with 256 colors. A resolution with 32768, 65536 or 16 million colors doesn't need a palette manager. If you set it to "force usage", the game could hang the next time you try to start it (if your OS/2-system has no palette manager). In that case start MRRESET.EXE. It sets some values back as well as this one here to "don't use palette manager". Default is autodetection. MMPM: Here is the same to say like at the palette manager. The MRRESET.EXE will set this value to "don't use MMPM". Default is autodetection. Sounds: All time settings in this section ( in the "global" and the "Wave" section as well ) are entered in milliseconds. They should be multiples of 60. So you should use values like 0, 60, 120, 180, 240 and so on. > global: The time settings in this "global" section are the same for all the sounds defined in the "Wave" section. These values here are implemented ONLY to reduce the occurrence of the MMPM-bug. If you have a OS/2-version with a correct working MMPM, just set these all to default (by pressing its Default-Button). If you are using no sounds or no MMPM then you can ignore these ones. According to the MMPM-bug the settings in this "global" section have a higher priority than the timings in the "Wave" section described below. PS: Please excuse the complexity of the following parameters. So if you don't understand them, just press the "Default"-button in this section. The game will work as well ( only if your MMPM-Version has the bug, the game or OS/2 itself will crash sometimes ). Besides: If you change values in here, the occurrence of the MMPM- bug may only be reduced but cannot be abolished. So the last possibility is only to play without sound :-( - SwitchTime: This is the time that must elapse after a sound has been started and another sound should be played. If the time has not elapsed, the sound will NOT be forgotten. It will be played, when the time has elapsed. But if it's the same sound that should be played, this time will be ignored. The greater value of "SwitchTime" and "HoldTime" will be used. This is implemented, cause the MMPM could have problems by switch between different(!) sounds if they are following too quick one after another. Default = 0. - HoldTime: This has the same effect like the "SwitchTime", but it's belonging to ALL sounds, even if two SAME sounds shall be played one after another. If two following sounds are DIFFERENT, then the greater value of "HoldTime" and "SwitchTime" will be used. Default = 0. - SilenceTime: This time takes effect, when a sound shall be played that is DIFFERENT to the actually playing sound. ( If two same sounds shall be played one after another, the "SilenceTime" will be ignored. ) This is the most powerful option to reduce the occurrence of the MMPM-bug. If you have the bug and want to play with sounds, set this value to 120 or higher. Default = 0. - Number of Stops: If a sound shall be played while anotherone is playing, the game will call a stop-command to the actually playing sound, if the new sound is a DIFFERENT one than the playing one. ( If it's the same sound again, no stop command must be called by the program. ) But sometimes a stop command does not take effect. This is another bug of MMPM (I think). So you can set here the number of stop commands to be called directly one after another. You should not set this value too high, cause this costs execution time. Something between 1 and 4 is enough. The lower value of "Number of Stops" and "total Number of Stops" will be used. Besides: This value must be greater or equal to 1. Default = 1. - Repeat Stops: Cause the "Number of Stops" should not be too high, I decided to implement this function. This means, that after 60 milliseconds there will be called the stop commands once more. Their number is the same like defined in "Number of Stops" except when the "total Number of Stops" is lower. Only if the "total Number of Stops" has elapsed, the next sound will be started, if there is one to play. Defualt = deactivated. - total Number of Stops: This is the sum of all stop commands ( occured because of the "Number of Stops" and the "Repeat Stops" ). (If you set this to 1, then the "Number of Stops" and the "Repeat Stops" have no effect, cause with this value you have allowed only one stop command before a new sound will be started.) Example: Number of Stops = 2 Repeat Stops = activated total Number of Stops = 3 This means that first there will be called 2 stop commands. After 60 milliseconds there will be called 1 stop command. That's it. Now the new sound will be played. Besides: This value must be greater or equal to 1. Default = 1. - scale Sound Memory: Normally a sound is loaded into memory that is as large as the sound itself. But sometimes MMPM tries to get access to more memory ( that's the MMPM's bug fault ). So I decided to include a possibility to use more memory for a sound. The sound itself will be as large as always, but only more memory will be used. So be careful. If your computer has few memory ( 8 MB or less ), then don't set this value too high, cause the higher you set this value, the higher will be the needed memory. This value depends on the value of "use Maximum Sound Memory": If "use Maximum Sound Memory" is deactivated: The memory for a sound will "scale Sound Memory" times larger than the size of the sound itself. If "use Maximum Sound Memory" is activated: The largest sound will be searched first ( of course the list of sounds used for the searching consists only of the used sounds which can be set or changed in "Wave"-section, ) and the used memory for each sound will be "scale Sound Memory" times larger than the size of the largest sound used in the game. Besides: This value must be greater or equal to 1. Default = 1. - use Maximum Sound Memory: See "scale Sound Memory" description. Default = deactivated. > Wave: These values are the sound definitions: The sound files and the major timings are set here. ( These values, especially the timings are NOT used in connection with the MMPM-bug ) The Default-Button is the normal solution for these settings. - Sounds-list: Here the game's events are listed for which sounds can be defined. They are sorted in their priority-order. The most top sound has the highest priority, the most bottom one has the lowest priority. The priority of a sound ( so the position in the list ) can be changed by clicking on that sound event in the list and moving in up or down with the UP- and DOWN-buttons. For more information see the descriptions of "Minimum Play Time" and "Sure Play Time" below. - Filename: Here stands the sound file name (and path) for the chosen sound in the "Sounds-list". It must be a file with the extension ".WAV". If no file name is entered in here, the defined file does not exist or the file is not a wave file, no sound will be played for that event. - Browse-Button: With this button you can search a sound file name on your drives. - Minimum Play Time: This time takes effect, only if the "Sure Play Time" has elapsed. If the "Sure Play Time" has elapsed but not the "Minimum Play Time" while a sound is playing and another sound should be started, then the playing sound will be stopped and the other one started only if the new sound has a higher or equal priority then the playing one. A value of 0 means that sounds with higher priority can always be stopped by sounds with lower priority ( but only if the "Sure Play Time" has elapsed ). - Sure Play Time: This is similar to the "Minimum Play Time", except that the priority of the sounds make no difference. A playing sound will never be stopped during the "Sure Play Time", no matter which priority the new sound has. This time setting has a higher priority than the "Minimum Play Time". So if this value here is greater than the "Minimum Play Time", the "Minimum Play Time" looses it's sense as well as the priorities of the sounds. A value of 0 for the "Sure Play Time" and the "Minimum Play Time" means that a playing sound can always be stopped by another one. This includes, that the priorities of the sounds make no more sense. - UP-Button and DOWN-Button: See "Sounds-list" description. BENEFITS OF REGISTERING *) you'll keep the shareware-idea alive :-) *) no annoying registering-dialog at startup and end *) all options are accessible *) you can pick up all extras *) no limitation of 5 levels *) the last settings will be saved in an INI-file *) you'll be informed when there are updates which will work with your old registration-Number -> Updates are for FREE !!! HOW TO REGISTER You are allowed to use Masterroids for a period of 30 days, after this trialperiod you are asked :-) to register. The registration fee is 20 US$ or 200 ATS or 30 DM. You can send the money in cash (which is cheaper for you) or you use a postal order (you have to pay the extra-money). If you choose a postal order, please send the money in ATS (Austrian Shillings), and if you send cash don't send coins ! DO NOT use any other form of payment (e.g. credit cards) as I won't be able to accept that ! I am really honest, so you don't have to worry when sending the money in cash ! Of course all of the given information will be treated confidentially ! Take care your first and last name are readable and correct, because I will send you a code calculated based upon these informations. After you enter this code together with your names in the registration- menu in the game, your version of Masterroids is registered. It will be much easier if you also send me your Internet e-mail address, so I can send you update-infos & registration-Nr. faster and easier. To register, send the filled in order-form & the payment to: Roman Komary Am Hundsturm 11/12 A-1050 Vienna AUSTRIA e-mail : e8925453@stud1.tuwien.ac.at The registration is for personal use only !!! Running this program on more than one machine requires a special registration - contact the author for special prices. Students can ask me for special prices, too. (just send me a letter or e-mail, I know how hard your life is :-) REPORTING BUGS If you find any bugs, or have ideas of improving Masterroids I will be very happy hearing your ideas. Send me a letter or e-mail : Roman Komary e-mail : e8925453@stud1.tuwien.ac.at When you send me a bug report, please include a description of the procedure for reproducing the bug and a description of your system configuration (hardware and software and Masterroids-configuration). KNOWN BUGS: *) Sound-Troubleshooting: Sometimes, when playing with sound, the game hangs ( or even OS/2 itself hangs ). This happens cause the MMPM of OS/2 3.0 has a bug. So I have added some configuration parameters to reduce the occurence of this bug. But sometimes it will happen nevertheless. See the "Configuration" description above. If you tried out all the settings explained above, switch off the sound in the settings-dialog, or switch off the MMPM in the configurations-dialog. By now, my computer didn't hang playing the game without sound. By the way: I've heard that the new version of OS/2 that should be appearing soon ( I hope ) has solved many big bugs of the MMPM. ( I hope once more ) *) If you were playing with sounds and have opened the sound device as NON-shared ( see in the settings-dialog ) and you have a program running in the background that wants to play a sound sometimes (maybe a clock that wants to play a sound every hour etc.), then this could make problems: When the program tried to play a sound ( but that didn't work cause the game opened the sound device as non-shared ), there was no sound any more to here while playing. Solution: Press the PAUSE-Key twice. The sound will be playing again. If you don't, the game could hang a some seconds or minutes later. The best would be to turn off all programs in background that tries to play sounds. By the way: I tried to open the sound device as shared. So the clock program could play its sound. But after the sound has finished, the game did hang. *) If you play the game together with one or more players and you recognise, that some pressed keys don't function, then it's NO(!) bug. This is a problem of the keyboard's hardware. You cannot press as many keys as you want at the same time. SOME HELP *) If you have installed MMPM and the WAVE.DLL is in the directory of the game, but the game says, it can't load the WAVE.DLL, then look in the LIBPATH in the CONFIG.SYS. The beginning should be: LIBPATH=.; With this setting, DLLs will be searched in the actual directory first. TO COME Currently I am working on : *) some more extras and dangerous objects *) hopefully correcting bugs *) And of course your suggestions :-) DISTRIBUTION CONDITIONS You are free to distribute this shareware version of Masterroids as long as the following conditions are met: 1) The distributed archive must contain ONLY the files listed above. 2) The contents of this archive are NOT MODIFIED in any way. 3) This version is not to be sold. However, a reasonable disk copying fee is permitted. DISCLAIMER (as usual :-) The author of this program accepts no responsibility for damages that are caused by this program and make NO WARRANTY or representation, either express or implied, with respect to this software. This software is provided "AS IS," and you, its user, assume the entire risk when you use it. SOME EXTRA NOTES: Where to get emx ---------------- emx (and the emx.dll) is available for anonymous ftp on ftp.uni-stuttgart.de [129.69.18.15]: /pub/systems/os2/emx-0.9a ftp-os2.cdrom.com: [192.153.46.2]: /os2/32bit/unix/emx09a src.doc.ic.ac.uk [146.169.2.1]: /packages/os2/32bit/unix/emx09a ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de [131.159.0.198]: /pub/comp/os/os2/devtools/emx+gcc By the way: ----------- Have you seen "SYSMON20.ZIP" on ftp-os2.cdrom.com: /pub/os2/incoming (or another directory) ? It's a system monitor program and very helpful program which tells you what's happening in your computer and offers some advantages. It shows you time, date, the processor's execution time, virtual memory, swap file, info about your drives and more. There are features like different versions to shutdown your system and restart it automatically, a new tasklist, an option to start programs, ... Please excuse that I am not able to answer your mails very often or fast. I have an account from the university and no modem. So I will look for mails onyl once a week. Sorry :-) Please excuse as well that this game appears so lately. Friends of mine, who have programmed Sysmon 2.0, told you to look for my game, but unfortunately I was ill and had no possibility to go into the internet. So, at last, I only can say: Have fun with the game !