mono
 www.binaryzoo.com
In something of a departure for us we're not going to try and claim this has any original features, gameplay twists or surprises.

Initially only written with the intention of testing our new scripting system we've decided to release it anyway in the hope someone might get some enjoyment from it....God knows there are plenty of strange people on the internet  ;)
Revisions

1.02
- Free ship rotation now activated when holding down right mouse button.
- Shield power-up added.
- Ring of bullets power-up added.

1.01
- Smallest enemies now only appear on hard difficulty setting.
- Left mouse button now pauses firing when auto-fire is activated.

1.00
- First public release.
The Game

The aim of the game is to change the colour of the entire screen from black to white or white to black.  This is achieved by shooting the alien blobs that colour the background when destroyed.  There are 3 colours of blobs to shoot (red, green and blue) and the colour they leave behind changes the behaviour of any enemies that travel over it.  A sort of "player controlled difficulty curve" where the more of the screen you colour, the more the enemies behaviour changes.

Travelling over the 3 colours effects the enemies in the following ways:
RED - Enemies are more likely to return fire
GREEN - Enemies speed will increase
BLUE - Enemies will home in on player

The player loses energy when hit by either bullets or an enemy.  The bigger the enemy the more energy lost.  Additionally being hit will result in some colour from the surrounding area being removed. 

mono is designed to have no permanent on screen information displayed.
Only the percentage of the game complete is displayed when it changes.
There should be enough audio and visual clues as to the amount of energy remaining.

There are two different game styles "Black" and "White" and they differ only in the starting colour of the background.
Controls

Mouse - Move ship
WASD or Cursor Keys - Rotate Ship
Right Mouse Button - Free ship rotation
Left Mouse Button - Fire
(Note: When Auto Fire is activated Left Mouse Button will pause firing)

Pause Game - P (any key to restart)
Return To Main Menu - Escape Key

All on screen menu options selected using the mouse
Scoring

The score is based on the percentage of the screen you have managed to colour.  The game is complete when you have coloured the screen either 100% black or white.
Power-Ups

There are four different power-ups available.
Star - Power-up weapon (20 different weapons)
Circle - Increases player energy.
Pulsing Orbs - Ring of bullets (smartbomb)
Spinng Orbs - 10 second shield (takes limited damage)

All power-ups last for 10 seconds.  Failure to collect a power-up will result in it slowing your progress by exploding and removing some of the colour from the surrounding area.  On later levels exploding power-ups will also release a shower of bullets.
Music

Game music by Michael King of FK'd Reality Compositions.

Additionally any music in mp3 format can be played in game by placing the files in the "My Music" directory and selecting "Play My Music" (play in sequence) or "Shuffle My Music" (random play) from the music menu.

Performance

mono requires DirectX 9.0b or higher to run.
The resolution is fixed at 1024 x 768 and 32 bit.

If you encounter performance problems then try altering the quality of the background image using the "Background" options on the main menu.
Alternatively try reducing the quantity of in game FX by selecting either "FX LOW" or "FX OFF" also from the main menu.

Thanks for playing.