CD-ROM Today (BR) Volume 4 #16

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HELICOPS Officer's Manual Installing HeliCOPS Technical Support Game Overview Mission Briefings Officer Profiles Enemy Profiles Helicopter Specifications Keyboard Controls Joystick Controls Power Ups Installing HeliCOPS The HeliCOPS installation program uses Autoplay (a Windows 95 feature that automatically runs a CD when it is inserted into the CD-ROM drive). If Autoplay is turned on, you do not need to run the setup program to install HeliCOPS. The first time you insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive, Windows 95 will automatically start the setup program. Once installed, every time you insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive the Autoplay feature of Windows 95 will automatically start HeliCOPS. To install HeliCOPS (if Autoplay is turned off): 1. Insert the CD in the CD-ROM drive. 2. Click the Start button and choose Run. 3. Type X:\SETUP.EXE (replace X: with the letter that represents your CD- ROM drive) in the command line and press Enter. The Installation program opens. 4. Choose the options you want and click Next. Note: The program file is automatically copied to your hard disk, and requires approximately 41 MB of disk space. You can choose to install movies, sounds, and graphics to your hard disk. The movie files require a large amount of disk space, so you may want to have these run from the CD. (If the CD is not in the drive, the movies will be skipped.) If you choose to install graphics and sound to your hard disk, game response will be significantly improved. The stages are the next most helpful item to install, followed by the movies. 5. Choose where you want to put the game and click Next. (You can click the Options button to return to the previous screen if you need to make changes.) 6. The installation program evaluates your system for optimal configuration and completes the install automatically. Note: If DirectX is not already on your system, you may need to configure some of your DirectX-compliant hardware (such as the sound card or joystick). You will need to reboot your system before running the game. After the first installation, running the setup program opens a different dialog box. This dialog box lets you run the game directly (with perhaps movies and other components being read directly from the CD-ROM already in the drive), remove it with the un-installer, copy additional components to your hard drive, or exit. HeliCOPS will load effortlessly on many different types of systems, but occasionally some problems may occur. Video cards that do not comply with DirectX 2.0 can still be used, but HeliCOPS will run in a window instead of full screen, and at much slower speeds. For sound cards that are not compatible, you will have no sound but the game will still run. Some joysticks may connect to the sound card, so if the sound card cannot work, then the joystick will not work. The joystick is a critical piece of equipment for HeliCOPS. You should calibrate it before playing the game or at any time you feel that it is not operating accurately. To calibrate your joystick: 1. Click the Start button and choose Settings, the Control Panel. 2. Double click the Joystick icon. 3. Follow the instructions to install the correct type and then test it to make sure it is operating optimally. Technical Support If you have difficulty installing or running HeliCOPS, call Technical Support at 972-498-8010. Support is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Central Time. You also can reach Technical Support via America Online (keyword Seventh) or the Microsoft Network (Go Seventh). Technical Support also is available via the World Wide Web on 7th LevelΓÇÖs web page (www.7thlevel.com). Here you can download the latest technical support information along with demos of current and future products, register your products online, and participate in contests and chats with the celebrities and individuals involved in our products. Game Overview It has been a generation since the Quake of '98 when, in the blink of an eye, most of Old Tokyo was reduced to smoldering rubble. Out of the wreckage, a new shining jewel ΓÇö NeoTokyo ΓÇö emerged like a Phoenix from the ashes, rising as the New World's center of commerce and technology. All that is past. It is now the year 2015, and NeoTokyo is in danger. The name of Maxwell Giger, the ruthless leader of the international crime syndicate known as Nemesys, is being whispered fearfully from every neighborhood. Alarmed at the growing corruption and ineffectiveness inspired by Giger within the city's police department, Governor Koyo created a secret airborne strike force known only as The HeliCOPS. Commander Iemitsu Kabutogani, a decorated veteran of the NeoTokyo police, was the only one the mayor could trust to lead the special force. This undercover unit was assembled from unconventional sources, from law enforcement to high technology, preparing for the day when Giger would reveal himself. That day came all too soon. Before the HeliCOPS even had a chance to fly their first mission, Governor Koyo was brutally assassinated in a cowardly car bombing, leaving NeoTokyo in a state of shock and Maxwell Giger more feared and more powerful than ever. The Governor's death was only the beginning. NeoTokyo is on the brink of collapse and Maxwell Giger has released a "wolf pack" of his most sinister allies to fan the flames of terror and confusion among the citizens of NeoTokyo. The HeliCOPS are the only hope to free NeoTokyo from the iron grip of Nemesys. Game Flow When you start HeliCOPS, you will see the logo and opening animations. To skip any cinematic playback, click the left mouse button or press Esc. Officer Log-In Screen The first screen you will see is the Officer Log-In. If you have logged in before, simply choose your name from the menu by clicking it. Use the up and down arrows to scroll through the list, if necessary. Then press Enter or select SOLO (or NET for multiplayer gaming when that feature is enabled). You can also double click the name to immediately continue in SOLO mode. Note: You may remove a name by highlighting it and clicking DELETE. If this is the first time that you have played HeliCOPS, you need to log in. Type in the name you want to be known as. Press Backspace to delete any letters, if necessary. All of your preferences and game information will be saved under the name you enter, so it is possible for different people to play HeliCOPS on the same computer without overwriting each others' games as long as they use different log in handles. Options Screens During gameplay, press Esc to display the Options screen. This lets you set various preferences that will affect your game. These items will alter a game IN-PROGRESS, so if things are getting too tough you can reduce the difficulty or maybe turn some performance options off to speed things up. Music You have several choices for background music: OFF if you do not want any music; MIDI for a unique soundtrack per stage; CD to play any audio CD installed in the CD-ROM (this option can be used only when you do not need the HeliCOPS CD) starting at track 1 for stage 1, track 2 for stage 2, etc; OTHER randomly picks and play an audio track while you are flying. Volume controls how loudly the sound effects are played. Use the arrows to increase or decrease this number, with zero being off (no sound) up to five which is maximum. If the sound level is still too low, try adjusting the Windows 95 Volume Control window or just turn your stereo up. Game Difficulty Overall game difficulty can be Easy (excellent for novices but will quickly turn boring for experienced players), Medium (a nice compromise - it keeps you on your toes), or Hard (with the wrong combination of pilot and helicopter this can challenge even the pros!). Because enemy attacks and player damage (among many other variables) are directly controlled by this value, changing this while you play will have immediate results. This setting also determines how much repairing/restocking your helicopter receives, if any, between stages. Exit Mission Click this option to exit the current mission, which returns you to the main character selection menu. Leave HeliCOPS Click this option to exit HeliCOPS entirely. Performance Screen Clicking this option displays the Performance screen. The performance options include many features which will add glitter and splash to your game play. However, they may also slow the game down to unreasonable speeds. If your machine is playing too slowly, try adjusting some of these, especially the fog range. On the other hand, if you have a really quick system, turn 'em on all the way and enjoy! Rotated Effects Rotated effects will enable or disable rolling special effects according to the helicopter orientation. Since no effects do so right now, this can always be OFF. Textured Sky Textured sky is an easy way to get some performance back. If the pretty clouds or dazzling starscape are not very important to you, turning this OFF will greatly improve game play speed. Field of View The field of view determines how wide your vision is. If you are feeling a bit queasy at the current setting, try the other two. Narrow is generally faster but does not give you much information on the sides while Wide may take longer but gives you excellent peripheral vision. The fog range (explained below) is also adjusted internally by this setting. In Narrow you can see further than in Wide unless you pull the fog in explicitly using that control. Engine Sound The constant engine noise of your helicopter may get a little annoying after a while. You can turn this OFF to better hear sounds around you, like enemies and power ups. Fog Range Use the arrows to increase or decrease this number. A value of 1 indicates the fog is as close to the player as it can get given the current field of view (see above), which can REALLY speed the game up. However, if you would like to target your enemies from as far away as possible, change this setting up to 9. Drawing everything out that far will take longer. Set this to whatever value produces a nice balance between sight and game speed for your machine. Debris Some special visual effects can also hiccup the game on slower machines, especially if there is a lot of shooting and dying going on around you. Debris controls how many additional pieces are flung away from a blown- apart object. Effects Effects adjusts the size of the explosion when something is killed. Impact Impact affects the number of red dots that appear whenever one of your shots hits something. Keyboard Setup Screen Click the Keyboard Setup button on the main Options screen to display a screen that will let you re-map the most common control keys to whatever you prefer. Simply click once on the command you would like to change and then press the key you want instead. When two game functions have the same key assigned to them you will be warned EXCEPT when one of the functions is not adjustable. For example, you can quite easily assign the tilde (~) to fire your weapon (usually reserved for the CONTROL key) but will then lose the ability to toggle auto-firing. If you do this and want that function back, simply reassign the offending key to something else. Use the DEFAULT button to return to the standard game key assignments. Character Screen After logging in to the system, you need to choose a character. To obtain background information on the person click on the INFO button. Also displayed on this screen is the player status: the helicopter they are using (if this is an old game), the last stage number that was played and how many lives remain. You may erase a character by clicking on the RESET button to start over from the beginning! To pick a character, click the one you want. If this is a new game, you will be presented with the Choose Helicopter screen. Otherwise, the game will restart the stage you were last in with all the power ups and preference options you had at the time. Choose Helicopter Screen The Choose Helicopter screen works much in the same way as the character screen. You may learn a helicopter's specifications by clicking on its INFO button. To choose your vehicle click on the name or the picture. From here you will be shown the assembly animation for your craft and then automatically start loading the first stage. It is always a good idea to select the helicopter that is appropriate for the character you have chosen. Pilots in their preferred machines get a little more speed and agility out of them. Who likes what can be inferred from the character backgrounds and other not-so-subtle hints. While a stage is loading you will be shown the briefing slides. These screens contain the stage objective(s), warnings and any other pertinent information for the mission you are about to enter. Usually they wait until the voice-over is finished before proceeding but you can quicken this up by pressing the SPACEBAR while the screens are being shown. Pressing ESCAPE will abort the game load and return you to the main character selection menu. When the stage is ready, you will spin around your helicopter giving you a quick look-around before actually starting play. Game Play Use the F1 key in case you forget what the controls are. Please refer to the keyboard and joystick sections of this document for the commands available to you while flying. The Omnipod used by the HeliCOPS presents a standard cockpit no matter what helicopter type you are in. The instrument displays are as follows, with those that are available in the outside view (if TAB is pressed) in italics: The compass is centered on the top of the screen. It displays the direction that the helicopter is pointing. The precise heading is the reading above the little inverted triangle. Along the right side of the display is the altimeter. This scrolls up or down as you ascend or descend in height. The measurement units are in meters, with your exact level noted to the left of the rest of the bar. The bottom area of the cockpit contains many controls packed together. The left-hand side has four gauges with numerical counters and icons underneath. From left to right, these show how much ammunition you have in your: 100mm's (if your helicopter has them), buzz rockets, devastator missiles, and annihilator missiles. The 20mm's are not shown because they never run out. When one of these weapons is selected the appropriate graph, count and picture will highlight to show it is active. It will also flash when you fire. To the right of the ammo counts is the center console. At the top of it are numerical displays of your "X" position, "Y" position, and then your speed in meters per second. They will be green or red depending on whether the value is considered positive or negative. This information can be used to mark a particular location for later reference, such as where a weaponry power up can be found. The left side of this console contains your health bar graph while across the map from it is your shield bar graph. When full they indicate that your health or shields are in great shape. They will reduce as damage is taken, although the shields will recover over time as long as you are not being hit. If you are severely wounded a warning klaxon will sound and the high damage indicator just above the map will light. In the outside view, these two graphs are replaced by two horizontal bars in the upper-left corner of the screen, with the health on top and the shields on the bottom. The map is the single most important display in the entire cockpit. It will give you an idea of what is around you at all times. The helicopter itself is represented by a blue circle in the exact center of the map. Everything else shown is relative to the direction the helicopter is currently pointing, thus if it is above you in the map the object is ahead of you. The boundaries of the stage are represented by a dark gray rectangle which encompasses everything of interest in the area. Your helicopter will not be able to fly outside of this box, although the enemies might and they are immune to your weaponry if they are beyond these limits! Do not waste your shots on them, instead wait until they come back into the area and then blast them. Everything else that appears on the map is some object that is important. Its color describes the type of item it is, while its shape represents what altitude it is in relation to the helicopter. An "X" means it is pretty close to your height, while a minus "-" indicates it is below you and a plus "+" above. The colors are as follows: Color Object Orange Enemies on patrol - they are NOT actively engaging the player. Purple Gun emplacements and other non-moving foes. Yellow An enemy's devastator missile. Avoid these! Chaff when they get close. Red Either an attacking mobile enemy or a non-friendly annihilator missile. Sometimes you can lose persistent enemies by hugging the ground or getting out of their sight. If they turn from red to orange you have succeeded in shaking them. As for the missiles, chaff when they get near to redirect them. Green Power ups (including weaponry types). Find and collect these to greatly increase your life-span. White These are the stage objectives for this mission. What you are expected to do with them is explained in the briefing screens. Immediately to the right of the center section are four slots. These will contain the icon pictures of any power ups you have collected that can be stored for later use. Power up #1 is the upper-left one, with #2 being upper-right, #3 lower-left and #4 lower-right. The currently selected power up will be shown a little brighter. If a power up with a duration is being used right now, a sound will be played and the icon for the appropriate power up (or power ups - multiple ones can be used simultaneously) will glow. When the last long-term power up is exhausted, a termination sound will be played and the icon(s) removed from the panel. Immediate-use power ups, such as Munitions and Repair, simply go away when they are activated. In the outside view, the power ups will be displayed in a row in the bottom- right of the screen, with #1 being the left-most through #4 as you move right. The final cockpit display is to the right of the power ups. This little screen will show a picture of the current target or be blank if there is none. The enemy type will be recognizable from this, allowing the player to precisely select just who they want to destroy. The color of the foe is a general indication of their threat level, with green ones being mostly harmless up through yellow, orange and red as their dangerousness increases. On some stages, information specific to the mission objective(s) will be shown here instead. If you fail the stage a screen will appear after the lose animation providing you still have lives remaining. From it, you may choose either to TRY AGAIN immediately or return to the MAIN MENU, which is the character selection screen. If you have no lives left you will immediately restart at stage one as if you were a fresh new player. When you are successful, the win animation will be played and you are then taken to the next stage. Mission Briefings ASSAULT ON NEOTOKYO - SuperBridge Shakedown - Stop General Oblix's KillCorps from advancing to Haneda Airport via the SuperBridge. By completing the link and cracking the codes of General Oblix's battle plan, the player discovers that an attack has been launched on the SuperBridge leading to Haneda Airport. This is a vital link in General Oblix's takeover plan. If the SuperBridge is not quickly liberated from the General's iron hand, NeoTokyo will be virtually cut off. The player must handle the KillCorp's hoverjets while making sure no tanks reach the end of the bridge. Officer Profiles The HeliCOPS were recruited from a variety of sources, some quite unconventional. The unique individuals who compose this team and their backgrounds are presented below. Officer Miki Akino Sex: Female Age: 18 Height: 167 cm Weight: 54 kg Hair: Black Eyes: Dark Brown Origin: Japanese Specialty: Electronics and Computers Miki Akino is the daughter of Kanji Akino, inventor of the unique Omnipod designs used by the HeliCOPS. Miki learned to fly a Comanche before she could drive a car. While helping her father develop a revolutionary interface code-named KRMA, the sentient data-creature known as Tiamat raided the Akinos' compound, killing her father and gravely wounding Miki. She survived through a series of operations that replaced her crippled arms and many internal organs with cyberprosthetics. To fulfill her father's "last wish," Akino became an alpha-level electronics expert, holding a number of patents for technologies. Officer Michael Knox Sex: Male Age: 23 Height: 178 cm Weight: 74 kg Hair: Blonde Eyes: Pale Blue Origin: Anglo-European Specialty: Flight Mechanics Before joining the HeliCOPS, Michael Knox served as an Interpol agent in the special "Judgment" division with his twin sister Rachel. As a team, they had a near-perfect success rate in operations ranging from surveillance to assassination. Rumors of a psychic bond between them made them legends in special ops. But for reasons still unknown, Rachel betrayed the organization, becoming a double agent for Nemesys. Once revealed as a spy, Michael and an Interpol "sweeper" unit moved in to capture her. Rachel died while trying to escape, though her body was never found. Her defection cast a shadow on Michael, who soon resigned from active service. Officer Shin Otowa Sex: Male Age: 19 Height: 154 cm Weight: 45 kg Hair: Waist-length Blonde Eyes: Dark Brown Origin: Japanese Specialty: Martial Arts Officer Otowa is the son of Takamura Otowa and his wife Inada, once a dancer in the world-famous NeoTokyo Ballet. Early on, Shin chose a path of study in traditional dance and martial arts, eventually earning a master title in the World Martial Arts Championship. However, Shin's life was shattered when his father was imprisoned for murder, a charge Shin believes was a frame-up by the ruthless profiteer Viktor Shrek. The publicity following the scandal caused his mother to flee NeoTokyo in disgrace. Shin became a law enforcement officer to help vindicate his father and restore his family's honor. Officer Jackie Ramirez Sex: Female Age: 23 Height: 173 cm Weight: 63 kg Hair: Auburn Eyes: Hazel-Green Origin: Cuban Specialty: Jack-Of-All-Trades Jackie Ramirez is the daughter of Cuban arms dealer Esteban Ramirez, but she rejected her father's trade and became a law officer instead. As the HeliCOPS' anti-terrorism expert, she uses the skills gained from her family's "business" for the cause of justice. Jackie was unaware of her father's criminal activities until, when she was 17, she fell in love with one of her father's young agents, a boy named Yaku. Insanely protective, Esteban Ramirez had the boy banished. Jackie suspected that her love had been killed. She left her father, never to return, vowing to bring him and his kind to justice. Officer "Mad" Larry Washington Sex: Male Age: 25 Height: 195 cm Weight: 98 kg Hair: Black Eyes: Dark Brown Origin: American Specialty: Weapons and Mechanics Officer Washington has been a pilot since his teenage years "barnstorming" with his family's vintage "flying circus." At age nineteen he joined the Navy, quickly becoming a Top Gun pilot and instructor. He is a decorated veteran of the Gulf War III. In the much-publicized Balkan Incident, during a covert mission led by the U.N.'s General Oblix, Washington's squadron was trapped behind enemy lines and was thought to have been destroyed. Washington emerged from deep cover nearly two years later, the only one to have survived the ordeal. By then, the U.N. had disbanded, and General Oblix had formed his army of mercenaries. Enemy Profiles The people (well, most of them are anyway) that Giger has come to depend on to help sow terror and establish his power each have carved distinct niches in the underworld themselves. Information from their Interpol files is scant, but what is known about them has been detailed below. General Oblix Sex: Male Age: 45 Height: 165 cm Weight: 82 kg Hair: Gray (Balding) Eyes: Dark Blue Origin: American Following the disbanding of the United Nations, the militant General Oblix found himself without a cause or a mission. Years of peace proved unendurable to him and drove him to form a mercenary brigade in the Middle East. Within a few years, Oblix's "Death Brigade" was feared throughout the world. His alliance with Nemesys reflects his desire to claim a more permanent base of operations, a desire which places NeoTokyo in peril. Last in a line of military men dating back to Valley Forge, Oblix is the youngest general ever promoted to a United Nations command. After impressive successes in the Second Persian Gulf War he assumed control of the UN Balkan Task Force. When chaotic world politics doomed the mission the United Nations itself soon collapsed. With support from international arms merchants he formed a free mercenary company called the KillCorps to indulge his lust for destruction. In recent years, the KillCorps executed coups on four continents. It is considered the most formidable private army on the planet. Viktor Shrek Sex: Male Age: 32 Height: 173 cm Weight: 72 kg Hair: Dark Brown (w/ Gray) Eyes: Light Brown Origin: Russian Clawing his way through the maelstrom of post-Soviet capitalism, Viktor Shrek, CEO of SIN (Shrek International Network), represents the ultimate opportunist. Highly respected and gifted with an almost hypnotic ability to engender trust, Shrek has amassed a global empire in munitions and cybertechnology. However, the true power he seeks ΓÇö social engineering on a large scale ΓÇö has thus far eluded him. He sees NeoTokyo as the beachhead for a new capitalist frontier under his command. His greed knows no bounds, as does his desire to see the world in a perfect form of his own devising, free from "petty human strivings." As a young man in his hometown of Kiev, Viktor Shrek became the most highly respected businessman in a place where respect is historically granted only to those who instill fear. His power base enabled him to force political compromise in Russia where he is widely believed to be the true power behind the current Moscow Politbureau. Shrek International Networks has recently sought expansion into new markets with a dynamic line of security services and technologies field-tested during the recent civil unrest in his own country. Helicopter Specifications The vehicles available for the HeliCOPS use attempt to cover every pilot's preferences. From the agile but weak Ninja to the crawling behemoth that is the Brutus, tradeoffs between speed, agility, toughness, and firepower have been crafted into the helicopter designs. The machines themselves are briefly described below. They start with the faster but less buff versions, through those which attempt to combine a little of all the advantages up to the head-on, direct assault powerhouses. Proper matching of pilot to craft will significantly increase the chance of success while flying missions. NINJA The ultimate personal flier, this tiny craft can outpace and outmaneuver any existing manned helicopter. While lightly armored with few weapon options (100mm's are not even available until the first weaponry power up), it can squeeze into defensible areas and strategically snipe at tougher foes. Considering its great speed and agility, this is the recommended vehicle for Hard mode where patience and tactics come into play. Its shields replenish faster than any other helicopter's. SPECTRE Although it lacks heavy armor and weapons (like the Ninja, 100mm's are not initially equipped), it is reasonably fast and nimble. Its large size limits its mobility but the triple 20mm's available from the start help compensate for this and allow it to take a good bit more punishment than the Ninja. Its shields recharge quickly. RONIN This represents a nice balance between durability and maneuvering. This helicopter has a nice complement of weapons available immediately and can take a good deal of abuse as well with an average shield recharge rate. It can also fit into surprisingly small areas, making it an ideal choice for those pilots who prefer overall flexibility in their vehicles. It is considered the general purpose HeliCOPS vehicle as it is able to meet most mission requirements fresh from the factory. TRITON Another step up the ladder, this helicopter is built for taking massive amounts of damage while dealing out a hefty helping of its own. It is not unreasonably slow or unwieldy, so it is the best choice for beginning pilots on Easy or Medium mode. Once fully powered, it is second only to the Brutus in firepower. Its shields do not come back too fast to reflect the large amount of armor available to absorb hits instead. BRUTUS The big guy. This dreadnought is intended for full-on assault without much regard to dodging. It can take the greatest amount of punishment of all the helicopters and starts with the most firepower (expandable to ridiculous amounts). Unfortunately, it is also the slowest and clumsiest. Pilots who prefer to just wade in and duke it out head-to-head will love the Brutus (except on Hard!). The shields will eventually regenerate but the speed at which they do so is the slowest of all the vehicles. Keyboard Controls Most of these controls can be customized by selecting the Keyboard Setup button in the Options screen (accessed by pressing the ESCAPE key during the game). The following keyboard controls are the default controls. Note: It is possible to map a key to one that cannot be changed, such as making the slash "/" key fire your weapons. If you do this, the function of the non-changeable key will be lost (for example, in this case no network messages can be sent). To get the key functionality back, either use the Default button or change the original key. Flying the Helicopter Key Action ( Roll the helicopter left. ( Roll the helicopter right. ( Move the helicopter forward. ( Move the helicopter backwards. Z Turn the tail rotor left, spinning you to the left quickly. X Turn the tail rotor right, spinning you to the right quickly. Shift While holding this key down, press the up or down arrow to pitch you in-place up to 90 degrees. Thus, you can look or fire straight up or down as long as this key is held. Note: You will not move forwards or backwards while doing this.When this key is released, you will quickly snap back straight and level. Alt While holding this key down, press the left or right arrow will slide the helicopter in that direction without changing which way it is facing. This is perfect for strafing across a line of enemies. When this key is released, the helicopter will simply turn in the indicated direction again. Use the numeric keypad for the following: - Gain altitude. + Drop altitude. / Reduce power (throttle down). The helicopter will get more sluggish. * Increase power (throttle up). The helicopter starts at full throttle. Use the main keyboard numbers for the following: 5 Decrease the altitude at which the helicopter is flying. 6 Increase the altitude at which the helicopter is flying. Cockpit View To alter the view (use main keyboard numbers but a joystick hat will take precedence over keys 1-4): 1 Forward (cockpit) view from inside the helicopter. The instruments are visible here. 2 Look left out of the cockpit. 3 Look right out of the cockpit. 4 Directly behind the helicopter. Nice for watching enemy missiles chase your chaff or to see if anyone is on your tail. 8 Stationary view facing the front of the helicopter. 9 Stationary view facing the back of the helicopter. To control the "swagger" in views 8 & 9: [ Tightens the camera view (less wobble). ] Loosens the camera view (more helicopter movement visible). 7 View from the outside of the helicopter. This has a great deal of options and flexibility in camera movement (explained below), which can get quite confusing. We recommend just trying the various possibilities until you achieve a position you like (right underneath the helicopter looking where it is going is a nice one). To move the camera (use the numeric keypad): 4 Circle the camera clockwise around the helicopter. 6 Circle the camera counterclockwise around the helicopter. 8 Rotate the camera looping above the helicopter. 2 Rotate the camera going underneath the helicopter. 5 This determines which way we point the camera. Initially, it is set to point with the helicopter, i.e., in the direction it is going. Pressed once, it will point the camera directly at the helicopter at all times. Pressing the key again reverts back, etc.. 7 Move the camera closer to the helicopter, although it will never go completely through it. 9 Move the camera farther from the helicopter - there is no upper limit to this range so your vehicle can get out of sight! . The camera usually points towards where the helicopter is going. To get a quick look in the exact opposite direction, tap this key. Tap it again to look ahead once more. 0 By default, the camera's pitch is locked to that of the helicopter. Thus, it cannot tilt up or down to look at a slight angle. When pressed, this key unlocks the camera so it can do just that (and the following two keys can be used). Pressing it again locks the camera. 1 Pitch the unlocked camera lower (look down). 3 Pitch the unlocked camera higher (look up). Weapons The HeliCOPS have a variety of weaponry available in their arsenal. Two types of guns, rockets, and two different missiles exist to pound the forces of Nemesys into powder. Each weapon has a unique firing rate (a delay between successive shots), auto-targeting range (some weapons will not lock unless the enemy is close), and auto-target field of view (for example, the main guns and missiles can target over almost the entire visible range while buzz rockets lose track easily unless the player is pointed more or less right at the enemy). The difficulty level chosen by the player will also affect the weaponry. The field of view gets smaller as the difficulty increases and the weapons do less damage. Key Action T Chooses the main guns, 20mm's, which have unlimited ammunition. They can be quite lethal at high levels of weaponry powerups. Q Selects 100mm guns (if available). They are more powerful than 20mm's but fire slower. They do have a much longer targeting range, however. W Arms buzz rockets. These burst in groups and do a great deal of damage but have a slow reload time and are only effective at relatively close ranges. E Picks devastator missiles. They are less accurate and pack less of a punch than annihilators but fire faster. R Prepares annihilator missiles. Having great range and a fast top speed these are the most powerful weapons around. On Easy mode they can kill many enemies in just one hit. Ctrl Fires the selected weapon if any ammunition is left. ~ Toggles auto firing on or off. By default, this is turned off. For keyboard players, turning this on leaves more fingers available for maneuvering and defense. 0 Turns missile tracking on. Every new missile fired will then be tracked. If this gets old, press this key again to turn it off. Enter Releases chaff. Enemy missiles can be quite as deadly as your own. These particles have a good chance (that drops as the game difficulty level increases) of attracting missiles CLOSE to the player and causing them to target the chaff instead. They then spiral harmlessly down until they exhaust themselves. The only limit on this is the delay between which successive chaff bursts can be fired. This delay is short on Easy but is long enough on Hard, so that care must be taken to time it for the best effect. Targeting Key Action Home Auto-targeting (default). With this on, the nearest enemy will always be targeted. End No targeting. Crosshairs appear and all player shots are directed straight ahead. This can be useful to concentrate on a non- or slow-moving enemy to the exclusion of others that may be close enough that auto- targeting would get distracted and lock onto them instead. To enter the manual targeting mode: Page Up Selects a target that is farther away from the current target and sticks with it as long as possible. Page Down Selects a target that is closer than the current target and sticks with it as long as possible. Once you are in manual mode, a new target will be selected if the current one is destroyed or moves out of range / view. However, it is recommended that auto-targeting be turned back on instead of relying on manual mode's selection capabilities. Targeting Display Options: B Toggles a "shrinking" box (the smaller the box, the better the lock is) with crosshairs. The length of the crosshairs indicate how accurate the current weapon can ideally be (the longer the better) while the color of this display indicates the degree of lock established. Red means we have just started and anything fired now will be pretty inaccurate. This changes as time goes on from orange to yellow to green, by which point the weapon will have the best accuracy it can. This is most useful for missile firing to help ensure a good lock and therefore a hit. C Toggles a numerical display of the distance to the target in meters. The color of these numbers follows the lock reasoning of the box explained above. V Toggles a picture of the target shown in the small right-hand cockpit screen. Good for determining just what a far-off target actually is and to ensure you are on the enemy you want. G Toggles enemy health bar graph on and off. This bar reduces as the foe takes more damage and is closer to death. When the bar is exhausted the target dies. Insert Toggles current weapon's field of view on and off. Some weapons (like buzz rockets, especially on Hard mode) have very narrow areas in which they will auto-target. This display will outline the rectangle that the current weapon's good in to remind the player to keep the enemy within that view. Power Ups The available power ups and what they can do are listed later in this document. Key Action A Selects power up 1 (upper-left icon). S Selects power up 2 (upper-right icon). D Selects power up 3 (lower-left icon). F Selects power up 4 (lower-right icon). Spacebar Activates the selected power up. Sometimes the result is immediate and other times a sound will begin and last for how long the effect is good for. This depends on the power up used. Miscellaneous Key Action F1 Displays On-screen help of game controls. Esc Displays the options screen, unless an animation is playing, in which case it cancels the cinematic playback. H Toggles the display of a hit to the player helicopter. This is a circle with a line and bar on it. The line points where the enemy who just hit the player is in relation to the helicopter (straight up is directly ahead, down is behind the helicopter, etc.). The bar indicates the altitude of the enemy - if it is towards the top of the circle they are above the 'copter, while if it is at the bottom of the circle they are underneath. The color of the entire display indicates the severity of the impact - white means a relatively insignificant hit, while yellow, orange and red suggest ever more damaging blows. Pause Halts all game action while flying until this key is pressed again. , and . Decreases or increases the cockpit map magnification. The larger the number, the more area can be scanned but the more crowded the display is. Use lower magnifications to home-in on a power up while bigger ones can quickly pinpoint stage objectives. The numbers with their respective zoom factors are: 1 - 100 meters 3 - 300 meters 6 - 600 meters 10 - 1 kilometer 20 - 2 kilometers 30 - 3 kilometers 60 - 6 kilometers Tab Toggles instrument displays on or off (when the view is not in the cockpit). To reduce the tediousness of long flight times, especially in slow helicopters, the pace of the entire game can be changed. The following keys implement this. Do not let events get too quick for you to handle! - (main keyboard) Reduces the time factor by one if it has been accelerated. = (main keyboard) Increases the relative speed of the game, up to five times normal play. This can just be an even faster way to get killed unless most of the enemies have been destroyed. Backspace Immediately jumps to time factor one, which is usual. Joystick Controls Flying the Helicopter Key Action Left Rolls the helicopter left. Right Rolls the helicopter right. Up Moves the helicopter forward. Down Moves the helicopter backwards. Button 2 While holding this button down, pressing left or right slides the helicopter in that direction without changing which way it is facing. This is perfect for strafing across a line of enemies. When this button is released, the helicopter will simply turn in the indicated direction again. Button 4 While holding this button down, pressing up or down pitches you in-place up to 90 degrees. Thus, you can look or fire straight up or down as long as this button is held. Note you will not move forwards or backwards while doing this. When this button is released, you will quickly snap back straight and level. Throttle This is the helicopter's collective. If the throttle is centered midway between its two extreme positions the helicopter will hover. A "lower" throttle will start the helicopter descending while pushing it to full will cause altitude to be gained. It takes some practice to return the throttle to the centered position when the desired height is achieved but the sensitivity this input allows makes it well worth learning this skill. Weapons Key Action Button 1 Fires the currently-selected weapon if any ammunition is left for it. Button 3 Selects a new weapon type to ready for firing. Pressing repeatedly will eventually loop through all the possible choices. Cockpit View If a "hat" is present, the following additional actions are possible. Note: The "hat" takes precedence over the keyboard, so changing the view from the cockpit using a keyboard key only "flashes" the new view and then returns to whatever the "hat" indicates. While in the cockpit (key 1): Hat Up/Normal Forward (cockpit) view from inside the helicopter. The instruments are visible here. Hat Left Look left out of the cockpit. Hat Right Look right out of the cockpit. Hat Back Directly behind the helicopter. Nice for watching enemy missiles chase your chaff or to see if anyone is on your tail. While in the chase (outside) view (key 7), to move the camera: Hat Left Circle the camera clockwise around the helicopter. Hat Right Circle the camera counter-clockwise around the helicopter. Hat Up Rotate the camera looping above the helicopter. Hat Down Rotate the camera going underneath the helicopter. Miscellaneous HeliCOPS fully supports the Microsoft 3-D joystick and all of its functions. Rudder pedals may be used and are quite handy for spinning quickly (they affect the tail rotor). Not all joysticks have hats, throttle controls or as many buttons as HeliCOPS supports. The keyboard will have to be used to supplement those controls which cannot be activated through the joystick. Power Ups Power ups can be identified within the game as hexagonal spinning objects of assorted colors (green, blue, purple, etc.). They have a picture (an icon, usually similar to what will be displayed in your cockpit power up area if it is collected) and a text description of what they are. You can carry up to four at on time in the helicopter. Power ups survive from stage to stage unless the helicopter is destroyed or they are used. Sometimes a power up will not be accepted on-board - this is probably due to it being ammunition when the player is already maxed-out in that particular weapon. If a player has two or more of a type of powerup that lasts for a while and uses them both at once, the effective duration is doubled. Four Invincibilities would be effective for a good long time. You pick up a power up by running over it. You must be able to see it right in front of you, then move over it. Weaponry power ups are special. They look like spinning gun turrets. When you collect these power ups, they will increase the on-board weaponry of 20mm's and 100mm's (i.e., more will fire simultaneously) as well as increase the maximum ammunition available for all weapon types. For the Ninja and Spectre, which do not start with 100mm's, the first weaponry power up will cause this weapon to be added to the helicopter. There are six unique levels of weaponry. A new helicopter starts at 0 with the default complement of weapons available for that helicopter type. Each weaponry power up collected will increase overall firepower up to a maximum of five. At this point, all helicopters deliver 20mm and 100mm death very effectively, with the Ninja still having the "weakest" (relatively speaking) and the Brutus the most overpowering assortment of destruction. Every time a life is lost one level is subtracted from the weaponry level, making things a bit harder. As a reward for successfully completing a stage, one powerup level is automatically added to your helicopter. In summary, seeking out and retrieving all the available weaponry power ups at the beginning of each stage will make completing it much easier and more enjoyable. They show up on your cockpit map as green, just like other power ups. The normal power ups are as follows: Ammo One of these exists for each relevant type of weaponry (100mm [Ammo], Buzz Rocket, Devastator and Annihilator). Unless the player already has full ammunition for that weapon, they will boost that weapon to its full capacity immediately when collected. They are not stored in the helicopter for future use. Cloak This will last for a while once activated. It will hide the player from the enemy, causing them to wander about aimlessly as long as it is in use. This provides a nice breather if the action is getting too heavy. Conflict When this is used, the enemies will turn on and fight each other with the same tenacity they usually reserve for the player. While they are off killing each other, the player can be collecting more power ups or just picking the enemies off while they are distracted. It does not last for too long. Extra Life One life will be added to the player's current total as soon as this is picked up. HyperSpeed This doubles the maximum speed and effective agility of the player helicopter, making even the Brutus snappy and responsive. This effect lasts for a good long time before wearing out. Intensifier The player's weapons (all types) will do TWICE their normal damage if they are fired while this is on. It doesnΓÇÖt hang around for too long but the results can be incredibly awesome while it lasts. Try a Smart Bomb when one of these is on in Easy mode within a bunch of enemies. Invincible The standard - all weapons will be reloaded and no ammunition will be used while this lasts. Of course, the player can not be hurt at all either. Very good to just blindly wipe-out everything around and you can forget about defending or dodging for a while. Lock On This lasts a while. While it is activated, all weapons have PERFECT accuracy with NO lock-on time required. Tons of very smart missiles can be released while it is on to clear an area quickly. Munitions Out of ammunition? This will immediately restore all weapons to full capacity when it is used. Nova Restore The perfect cure-all. This will be used AUTOMATICALLY if a hit is taken that would kill the player but he has one of these lying around. It will repair all damage and restock all weapon supplies when it is used. Rapid Fire This will temporarily double the firing rate of all weapons. Buzz rockets suddenly become real useful while this is on. Repair This quick-fix removes all damage from the helicopter when it is activated. It also is used automatically if required, just like the Nova Restore. Scrambler When used, all enemy missiles in-flight will retarget on other enemies. Any new missiles fired for a while will also ignore the player and go after other enemies instead. Other weapons are NOT affected. This is great if you are tired of chaffing. Smart Bomb The classic area-of-effect weapon. When used, a large amount of damage will be inflicted on all enemies around the player, dropping off in effectiveness the farther away they are from the helicopter. The difficulty mode the player is playing also affects the base damage done. Easy is quite satisfying while on Hard this is normally not too impressive. However, combined with the Intensifier, it can be quite chilling.