*** WORMS - THE DIRECTOR'S CUT *** * LATEST STUFF - 2/9/96 The new version of Amiga Worms, for AGA machines only, will be released in September/October - a price has yet to be decided on, but there will be an upgrade offer for owners of the original version. The aim of this version was to give the Amiga the best possible version of WORMS 1. Thanks again to everyone on #Amiga+#Worms+csa.games who's suggested stuff for it ... Here's an (almost) complete list of the extra stuff in it ... * THE TECHY STUFF ... Over 300 colours on screen Super-smooth quarter-pixel scrolling 9 level parallax (including two layers of mountains) 24-bit fades + explosion flashes * MAD COWS, HOMING PIGEONS, OLD WOMEN ... A few of these things are still being put it in (last-minute-panic-type situation) ... but I should get them all in there ... 15+ (count 'em) new weapons New standard weapons ... Grenade Launcher Hand Gun Petrol Bomb (Sheep has been promoted to a standard weapon as well) New special weapons ... Homing Pigeon Mad Cows Holy Hand Grenade Baseball Bat Super Sheep Sheep-on-a-Rope Sheep Strike Old Woman ... and the rest =) Graffiti Mode Lets you paint your own level in the landscape generator - like drawing freehand in a paint package ... Worms then turns it into whatever landscape type you want (Forest/Arctic...) and places objects/bridges on it. DIY Landscapes Using a template you can create your own types of level (like Mars/Hell...) You can also set the gravity/friction/sky-colour/water-colour, and which set of mountains it uses. Mountain Sets You can create your own mountains (both back+front) in a paint package and then turn them into a mountain set which can be used by Worms for standard+custom levels. Both back+front mountains can use their own 16 colours. 2-layer levels Levels can now have background scenery which you can walk infront of. On standard levels this means that tunnels+small explosions are not see-through. On custom levels you can now have a whole second picture as the background scenery. Cavern Levels 1-in-4 levels are now caverns (this option can be turned off though) Weapon Damage Settings The amount of damage each weapon does (and therefore the size of the crater it makes) can be changed. This lets you have weapons like Banana Bomb enabled + have a game that lasts longer than a minute =) Air Moves Certain moves can now be done in the air. Worms also have a straight-up jump and backflip. This allows you to jump up and kamikaze, or backflip off a cliff and Ninja Rope the underneath of it. Ninja Rope can also be done repeatedly, tarzan-style - very useful in cavern levels - and dynamite can be dropped when you're swinging. Improved Team Entry Worms now handles unlimited number of teams - they are just stored in a TWTEAM drawer. The number of games played/won, cpu setting etc. are also stored - so even if a team is hardly ever used, it's stats will still be remembered, and the team will still be selectable at Game Start. As a lot of people like to have more than 4 worms on the go, and the WormList was a bit confusing for selecting them, you can now have A+B Teams under the same name. Improved sample-sets Samples are now loaded into fast-ram if you have it - letting you have a different sample-set for each team. Worms also handles unlimited amount of sample-sets, and uses a default set if any sound fx are missing - you don't need to include standard fx, such as the bazooka, in your set if you don't want to change them. Personalized samples Each worm can have a specific sample for when they go byebye. So Jessica Fletcher can now go down in a blaze of glory to the Murder She Wrote theme tune ... WormCam The equivilant of "action-tracking" on the PC/PSX version - the screen will scroll to follow moving worms/mines etc. You can also go and look at the position of each worm by pressing "*" on the keypad. WormCam can be toggled on/off with the "/" key on the keypad. The "very exciting" crate menu Which items appear in weapon-crates, and how often they appear, can be adjusted. Donor cards If you would like to help some worm to live after your death you can get your team to carry a donor card - when the last worm on your team dies, all your unused weapons are left in a crate ... WormPrefs The game can be configured from a WormPrefs program for Workbench. This lets you edit the gravity/friction etc. of custom+standard levels, create 2-layer level/DIY/mountain files, assign samples to individual worms ... Small changes ... Air Strikes are now directable, Homing Missiles can go off-screen+underwater, you can swing off-screen when on the rope, pressure or proximity mines, continue on same level option, medi-kits, wind on/off, maximum of 250 energy for worms, options can now be saved ... * CUSTOM LEVELS, BUT MORE SO If the thought of drawing levels in just 8 colours made you shout at people you didn't even know, this will calm you down. You can now use 16 (!) - the colour restrictions are the same as before ... colour 0 - transparent colour 1 - white-ish colour 2 - pink-ish (204,136,136/12,8,8) colour 3 - anything (t-shirt colour) colour 4 - lighter version of 3 colour 5-15 - anything Levels can be in AGA colours. 8-colour levels can still be loaded, but if your making an AGA level make sure you put .WRM16 on the end of it so you don't make the original Worms explode trying to load it. Also, you can now have background scenery which your worm can walk infront of. To do this draw two pictures, both 960x350 in 16 colours and using the same palette. The first picture will be the foreground, all the stuff you can stand on and shoot, and the second will be the background. In the game the two pictures are combined on screen, like the first being overlaid on the second, and as the foreground is blown up, the background is revealed. WormPrefs will eat both pictures to create a single custom level file. This means you can produce levels like the inside of a house, with the back wall drawn as background and the walls + stairs drawn as foreground. This will allow your worm to walk into the house and climb up the stairs (cor!). * THE DIRECTOR'S PATCH Because of the time the AGA version has taken up, I haven't been able to get the patch done for the original Worms. This patch will fix the infamous cd.device bug, and add some extra stuff to the game. As soon as I've got the AGA version out the way, I'll get it finished. Sorry =( * NEVER USE CHEAP 70s CONCRETE And yes, a certain "garden ornament" will probably be making an appearance ... Keep on worming ... -- ANDY DAVIDSON MAD? POSSIBLY worms@thenet.co.uk WORMS HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU TODAY BY THE LETTERS A+D, AND BY THE NUMBER 17 END ===