Geo-Cube 3D, Version 1.0
                 Copyright (C) 1998, Weston Software
                       All Rights Reserved
                        Indianapolis, IN
                          June 14,1998

PLAYING THE GAME
Pilot your ship through the Geo-Cube and blast the Geoms to score points and advance to the next level before the cube shrinks into oblivion.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Pentium PC, Windows 95, DirectX 3 or higher.
(the drivers can be found at:  http://mssjus.www.conxion.com/msdownload/directx/5.2/enduserdl/en/dx5eng.exe)
A 3D-Accelerated video card is highly recommended but not required.
Windows NT is not supported (although NT5.0 should support DirectX when it is released)


INSTALLATION
Unzip geo-cube.zip into a directory and run SETUP.EXE.


KEYBOARD KEYS
Aim Ship         - Up Arrow 
                 - Down Arrow
                 - Left Arrow                        
                 - Right Arrow                       
Zoom In          - Page Up  
Zoom Out         - Page Down
Thrust Forward   - A
Thrust Backward  - Z
Thrust Left      - <
Thrust Right     - >
Shift            - Speed Boost
Fire             - CTRL
Shield           - S
Full Stop        - 5
Pause            - Pause
Help             - F1
Quit             - ESC


KNOWN BUGS
- fullscreen mode cannot be entered twice without restarting the program
- using Alt-tab to switch away from fullscreen causes lost surfaces
- bullets seem to go astray when your ship bounces off a wall
- Geo-Cube has not been tested on a wide variety of hardware
(Please save your work before running Geo-Cube!)

HEY, I KNOW IT ISN'T PERFECT YET
The toughest part about developing software is calling a project "finished".  Yes, there are many features that I wanted to add to Geo-Cube that haven't made it in yet and yes there are still a few bugs, but at some point you have to call it "done for now" and move on or you'll never ship anything.  So bear with me, if you find a bug or something lacking, send me some email and I'll add it to my list for consideration in the next version.


FEEDBACK
If you liked it, hated it, found bugs, anything, send me email at "aweston@iquest.net" ... I would appreciate any feedback I can get as that is the best way to improve the game.  Check out http://members.iquest.net/~aweston for the latest updates.


IN-THE-WORKS FOR THE NEXT VERSION
- Multi-Player games over the internet


POST-MORTEM
This DirectX stuff takes a lot of time and effort!  I'd hate to admit to the number of evenings and weekends I've spent developing this game (my wife Beth is very understanding).  It must have been worthwhile for me though because I'm reasonably happy with how the game turned out.

My original goal was to learn as much about all of DirectX that I could.  In the course of doing that this game appeared.  I used DirectDraw for setting up the video modes and handling surfaces, Direct3D for rendering, DirectInput for reading the mouse and keyboard and DirectSound for the sound effects.  I did some work with DirectPlay but decided to save that for Version 2.0.  I used Visual C++ for development and did my testing on a Pentium 200 with an ATI All-In-Wonder 3D video card.


DIRECTX BOOKS I'VE READ
"Inside DirectX", 1998, Bargen, Donnelly, MS Press
"The Awesome Power of Direct3D/DirectX", 1998, Kovach, Manning Pub.
"3D Graphics Programming for WIN95", 1996, Thompson, MS Press


DISCLAIMER
This version of Geo-Cube 3D is Freeware, but it is copyrighted material.  You are hereby granted permission to freely distribute and use this program for personal use and entertainment. You may upload this program to electronic bulletin boards or the Internet.  You are specifically prohibited from selling or charging or requesting any monetary amount for the distribution or use of Geo-Cube 3D or accompanying documentation. It may not be used for any commercial purposes without the prior express written permission of Weston Software.  Geo-Cube 3D may not be distributed for use with any for-profit products (software, hardware, or other; including, but not limited to, commercial software, shareware, etc.) without the prior express written permission of Weston Software. There is no warranty of any kind; this software is provided on an "AS-IS" basis. The author of this software shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever that may result, directly or indirectly, from the use of this software or documentation. By owning a copy of and/or using Geo-Cube 3D, you agree to all the above terms.


--Andy Weston (aweston@iquest.net)