Arr!

Pirate Ship Combat

Manual

©2002-2003 Winterborn Software

 

 
 

 
 
 
 

     Get ready to sail the high seas! The object of Arr! is simple; collect as many doubloons as you can. The primary way to accomplish this is by destroying enemy ships. Of course, the enemy ships will be trying to stop you, too. And don't forget about a pirate's worst enemy (outside of scurvy), the clock! With each successful raid, the other territories become more aware of your reputation, and you will have two fewer seconds to complete your raid. Will you go down in history as another Blackbeard, or will you walk the plank down to Davy Jones's locker? Send up the Jolly Roger and heave away!

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Upon starting Arr!, you will notice four choices:

 

Select the "1 PLAYER" choice and you will see this screen:

 

Three different ships are available in the one player game. Each ship has different abilities:

 

The key controls are different for each ship:

 

The following keys are constant for every game (for more information, see options):

Press the equal sign key "=" at any time to enter full screen mode.
Press the hyphen key "-" at any time to enter framed mode.
Press the accent key "`" at any time to toggle graphic quality.
Press the escape key at any time to quit.


After you choose your ship, play will begin. Islands will block your and enemy ships' shots, and will reverse the direction of ships upon impact. Power ups can increase or decrease the abilities of your ship. Being shot or running into an enemy ship will reduce your hull strength. Sink all of the ships in the scene to continue. The amount of time remaining will be multiplied by five and added to your doubloon total. When your hull strength reaches zero or time expires, the game is over.

Main screen:

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There are many different power ups in Arr! Some will increase your ship's abilities, some will decrease them. Those in green will help you while those in red will hurt you.

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After a one player game ends, the player will be presented with their end score and a rank. There are seven total ranks in the game. Only the saltiest buccaneers will reach the level of "Master Pirate."

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In the two player game, two players go head to head against one another (both players must be on the same computer; netplay is unsupported).

Select the "2 PLAYER" option on the title screen and you will see the two player options menu:

The "NUMBER OF BATTLES" option allows you to set how many rounds will determine the winner.
The "POWER UP" option determines whether power ups will occur during gameplay.


Both players use the CUTTER ship in a two player game. The key controls for the players are:

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Select the "OPTIONS" choice on the title screen and you will see the options menu:

From this screen you can set graphics options to speed up gameplay. These same options can be accessed anytime during gameplay by pressing the following keys:

Press the equal sign key "=" at any time to enter full screen mode.
Press the hyphen key "-" at any time to enter framed mode.
Press the accent key "`" at any time to toggle graphic quality.
Press the escape key at any time to quit.

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The game is too slow.

If the game plays too slowly, there are several ways you can speed it up. First try setting the game to "framed" mode in the options screen or by hitting the "-"key during gameplay. This will force the game to its native 800 X 600 pixels. You can also toggle the graphic quality in the options menu or by hitting the "`" key during gameplay. If neither of these steps is sufficient, you can quit the game, set your monitor to 640 X 480 resolution, and relaunch. Because the game uses vector graphics, it will initially fill the screen regardless of resolution. If you set your monitor to 640 X 480 resolution, make certain not to switch to "framed" mode, as this forces the game to play at 800 X 600 pixels, which is too large for the screen. If all of these steps fail, a faster computer is necessary.

The game hangs after scene 5.

If the "arrkey.txt" file is not present in the same directory as the Arr! application, the game will appear to freeze after scene 5. In truth, the system is not frozen, but rather waiting on an obscured dialog box reporting that the file cannot be found. If this occurs, you can force quit the application and the rest of the system will remain unaffected. To prevent this issue, make certain the "arrkey.txt" file is in the same directory as the Arr! application before launch.

I registered the game and placed the new "arrkey.txt" file in the same directory, but the game still says it is unregistered.

The "arrkey.txt" file is simply a small text file containing your registration code. If there are any problems, simply contact winterborn@alwaysondubs.com for a new copy of your registration key. Then drop your new "arrkey.txt" file into the same directory as the Arr! application and relaunch.

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Until your register the Arr! application, the game will present this reminder screen after scene 5:

From this screen you can click the "REGISTER" button, which will launch your web browser and direct it to the Winterborn Software web site. From here you can register the game. Otherwise, you can click the "QUIT" button to exit the game.

The five scene allotment is the only shareware limitation. All other features of the game (two player mode, power ups, etc.) are otherwise accessible. If you enjoy the game, please register it to remove the reminder screen. You can do so through the following website: http://www.winterbornsoftware.com.

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This manual and all images contained herein are the expressed property of Winterborn Software, ©2002-2003.

If you have any questions or comments about this product or any Winterborn Software product, please email winterborn@alwaysondubs.com.