------------------ ! Tank Regime ! ! v1.0 Shareware ! ------------------ by Roger Rhudy August 1995 A.D. General Information ------------------- Tank Regime requires a mouse for play. It is a two player game. Sounds occur with a Sound Blaster only. A 386+ SVGA computer is required. ***************************************************************************** *********Use the SPACE BAR to proceed page by page through Help.************* ***************************************************************************** The Story --------- Once upon a time, there existed a magnificent king whose kingdom encompassed many lands. He and the queen were blessed with twins, a son and a daughter. On their eighteenth birthday, he divided his lands into three equal regions and allowed his children to control their own part on either side of his now smaller kingdom; however, he stilled retained ultimate power. Although the three lands were equal in size, they each had their own virtues and culture. Finally, the king began to grow old and neared death. He felt his lands should again be joined together in harmony. On asking his children to rejoin the three lands and equally share, they laughed. The day of the unification, the king discovered his children had no intention of losing total control of their portion of the kingdom. Each side had amassed troops to fight the other while the king, stuck in the middle, refused to take sides. Either the princess or the prince would gain control of the three parts of the kingdom and rule everything. The Main Menu ------------- Help: Goes here Game Menu: Goes to the game menu Map Editor: Goes to the map editor Quit: Exits to DOS The Map Editor -------------- Maps can be created for the game by clicking on the squares at the right and placing them where desired on the map at left. Each game requires three maps or regions. There are seven choices down the screen: plain, forest, water, mountain, building, rubble, and bridge. Plain, bridge, and rubble are completely passable. Forest and water are only traversable by their respective tanks but let all fire through. Mountain is a permanent blockage for tanks and their fire. Buildings, once shot, turn to rubble. Maps can be saved in the registered version by clicking save and entering the map's name. Pressing will go back to the map editor. Maps can be loaded by clicking load and the map desired. If there are more maps than can fit on the screen, clicking on "go down list" will reveal further maps. Cancel returns to the map editor. Quit returns to the main menu. The Game Menu ------------- Begin game: Proceeds to the map choice Load old game: Games can be loaded the same way as maps can although a game contains three maps and all tanks, etc. Main menu: Returns to the main menu The Map Choice -------------- First, the prince's map is chosen by clicking on the desired map, then the neutral zone, and the princess' map. The prince is blue and the princess pink although nothing would be wrong with the reverse. The princess sets up her game and map, and then the prince does his. The Game Setup -------------- The game setup is set to default at the start of each game. In the shareware version, only the default values can be used. If the default values are desired, press done without changing anything. Otherwise, the numbers can be changed by clicking on the + and - signs. Whatever values the princess sets, the prince's values will be set equivalent but can be changed in order to provide unequal opponents. One can have from 1 to 99 capitals. More capitals makes the game longer as all capitals or all tanks must be shot to win. There can be from 0 to 99 warehouses, grey buildings, bridges, and bulldozers. Tanks can be set from 1 to 99. One type of tank can be zero as long as the other is one or greater. Tanks not placed on the board will be put in warehouses to provide space for larger armies. There are three dice. The first one ranges between any two numbers from 1 to 20. The other two always range from zero up to any number less than 20. The default dice are from 2 to 6, 0 to 6, and 0 to 4. Thus, a default rolls from 2 to 16. The Map Setup ------------- The prince's map is at the top and the princess' is at the bottom with the neutral zone in between. The map should be set up so that both types of tanks can pass through and destroy the capital. There must be at least one capital and one tank or one warehouse placed on each side. To place things, click on the squares at the right and then on the map. Place the capital(s) and warehouse(s) in protected areas. Place grey buildings as temporary blockades. Place bridges over water. Place tanks in defensive and offensive positions. Reconnaissance: Click on View Recon. Use the reconnaissance to check for safety from enemy fire during the early stages of the game. The princess can see the region above her, and the prince can see below. Click to return to the other map. Bulldozers: Bulldozers change plain to mountain, mountain to plain, forest to plain, grey building to plain, rubble to plain, or bridge to water. Click on the bulldozer and then the square to be altered. Bulldozing cannot be undone. Undo: To undo a tank, capital, or warehouse, click on the type of tile to be removed and then from where to remove it. It can then be placed elsewhere. The other tiles cannot be undone. The Game -------- The dice roll: The game begins when the die rolls the first time. The value of the roll is shown at the upper right of the screen. The prince goes first. The dice are rolled randomly based on the game settings. At the start of each turn, the dice can be heard. To end a turn before using all the points or to forfeit a turn, click on the die value. Map scrolling: Clicking on the up and down arrows will scroll the game board. The smaller arrows move one space at a time. The larger arrows move half a screen at a time. Movement: To move, highlight a tank and click on the arrow keys. Moving any tank into a plain square or a bridge requires one point from the die roll. Moving any tank into rubble requires two points. Water tanks have air baffles and require two points to move into water. They cannot move through forest, buildings, or mountains. Forest tanks have heavy-duty treads and require two points to move into forest. They cannot move through water, buildings, or mountains. Turret turning: To turn the turret, click on the tank and push the circular arrows. For water tanks, turning the turret takes no points. For forest tanks, each turn takes a point. The turret can point in eight directions. The scope: For any highlighted tank, the scope shows what would be hit on firing. Firing: To fire, click on the firing tank and then fire. Firing requires one point. Firing destroys any tank, building, or bridge. Buildings are turned to rubble. Shots can be wasted at mountains or nothing. Fire cannot pass through mountains. The warehouse: The warehouse stores any extra tanks that were not used in the map setup. They can be accessed by clicking on the warehouse, using the turret controls to toggle between tank types, and using the arrows to direct the tank out of the warehouse. Movement onto the board out of the warehouse follows the same rules as that on the board. Tanks in the warehouse must be destroyed as well as those on the board to win unless the capital(s) is destroyed. Blowing up the warehouse(s) effectively destroys all tanks within. The capital: Clicking on the capital tells the player how many tanks of each type are in the field. The capital(s) can be destroyed to win. Undo: Using undo will put the players back at the start of the last die roll and never any further back. Saving: Click on Main Menu. Then, enter the name to call the game. If the name already exists, it will be overwritten. Pressing will result in no game being saved. Winning: The first side to destroy either the opponent's capital(s) or all the opponent's tanks wins. Click the mouse to bypass the ending screens. Strategy Hints -------------- 1. At the start of each turn and for each tank you move, look at all three maps for enemy tanks that can be shot or shoot you during this and subsequent turns. Remember the die odds. If on the enemy's next turn, he or she can shoot you after 15 moves and the die ranges from 2 to 16, you can play it safe or take a chance the enemy will not roll the 15. 2. Place buildings around important areas to slow the progress of the enemy. 3. Place mountains around the capital and warehouse. These buildings must still be open to enemy fire. 4. Place bridges for faster tank advancements. 5. Civilian buildings can give false security. Even clear across the board it only takes two shots to kill an enemy behind a building (one shot for the building and another for the enemy). Technical Information --------------------- Game locks up, reboots machine, crashes, or any other fatal unexplained error: The game only uses the 640k base memory; try doing a clean boot and just installing your mouse. In MSDOS 6.0+ you can do this by hitting F5 when it loads dos to bypass your config.sys and autoexec.bat or you can create a boot disk. Error loading CT-VOICE.DRV: Versions 1.5+ of the Sound Blaster has an option to set up an environment variable to locate the CT-VOICE.DRV file so that it would be found by any program running including this one. This environment variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT would look something like this: SET SOUND=C:\SB The actual driver would then be in your C:\SB\DRV directory. If you have an earlier version you need to copy CT-VOICE.DRV to the same directory where this game is. Error initializing driver: Either your CT-VOICE.DRV is corrupt or the wrong version for your card or your sound card is not properly installed. Registration, etc. ------------------ There is a contest for computer users to send graphic sets for the game. If you do a DIR from DOS, you will see .GIF files used for making the game tiles. The .GIF files must be non-interlaced, use only a global color map, and be a GIF87A sub-type. These can be drawn using a paint program like Neopaint which is shareware. Since I am not a good artist, there will be a contest for the best graphics drawn. The deadline is NOV 29, 1995 at midnight. The winner will get a free registered version of Tank Regime. The runner-ups will have their graphics included in subsequent registered versions of the game. Submissions should be made by e-mail only. Send questions, comments, criticisms, critiques, concerns, and contest entries to: E-mail RRHUDY2@UMBC8.UMBC.EDU Registration removes the register stamp and buzzer; allows maps to be saved so that you can play with maps that you have custom made; lets you play with up to 99 capitals, warehouses, buildings, bridges, and bulldozers and with up to 198 tanks on each side; lets you change die settings; provides more maps and saved games; and gives you even BETTER graphic sets with which to play! Send registrations with $6.00 to: ROGER RHUDY 11472 OLD FREDERICK RD MARRIOTTSVILLE, MD 21104-1521 USA Personal checks only, made out to Roger Rhudy. Specify whether 3.5 (high density) or 5.25 (high density) disk desired. Outside of the U.S., add $2.00. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Use the snail mail address for registration ONLY. Send all other inquiries to the e-mail address above. Legalities ---------- This is SHAREWARE, and it is therefore distributed on the shareware concept. Please Register!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Clear your conscience!!!!!!!!!!!!! Special thanks to Robyn Rhudy and the classical composers Dukas, Bach, and Verdi. DISCLAIMER: I am in no way liable for any damage or loss of data on any machine resulting from the use of this software. All characters are fictitious; any similarity to actual persons is purely coincidental. No animals were harmed during the production of this game. Sound Blaster is a copyright of Creative Labs, Inc. Copyright 1995 Roger Rhudy