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README.TXT
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1997-07-22
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22KB
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523 lines
________________________________________
| |
| |
| |
| Battle Ground |
| ver. 1.00 |
| |
| User's Manual |
| |
| |
|______________________________________|
Copyright (C) 1986 MVP SOFTWARE
1035 Dallas SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507
(616) 245-8376
MVP Software is a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the
shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to
resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by
contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.
The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem
with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support
for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at
545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve
message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.
DISCLAIMER
MVP SOFTWARE makes no warranties with respect to its pro-
grams, with the exception that the customer shall be entitled
to one (1) updated or modified version of the purchased soft-
ware package for a fee of 50% of the price of the updated
version and upon return of all copies of the original pur-
chased program.
The foregoing warranty is in lieu of all other warranties,
expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the im-
plied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose and mer-
chantability. In no event will MVP SOFTWARE be liable for
consequential damages even if MVP SOFTWARE has been advised
of such damages.
If any of the provisions, or portions thereof, of this Dis-
claimer are invalid under any applicable statute or rule of
law, they are to that extent deemed to be omitted.
SPECIAL SHAREWARE NOTICE
This version of Battle Ground is distributed under the
shareware or "user supported" concept. It is a full
working version of the program. However, MVP Software
receives no royalties from the distribution of this software
and cannot support users who do not register their copies.
If you enjoy this program, please register with MVP Software.
If after a brief evaluation period you choose not to register,
please pass along your copy to a friend who might enjoy the
game. To register your copy of the program with MVP Software,
please send the registration price of $15.00. If you register,
you will receive the following:
(1) The latest version of Battle Ground. The program comes
with a printed documentation manual.
(2) Full telephone support and bug fixes for at least one year.
(3) The right to purchase new versions of the program, should
they become available, for 50% off list price.
(4) The knowledge that you have supported the development of
inexpensive game software. The authors of Battle Ground
are programmers who have devoted many hours to the devel-
opment of the product. They receive royalties from the
sale of the program. Your registration fee helps to sup-
port them in their work.
(5) As a special incentive, if you register you will receive
a free game software package. This package, called "The
Front Nine," contains nine graphics arcade and strategy
games guaranteed to keep you coming back for more. It is
available only to registered owners of Battle Ground.
To register your copy of the program, send $15.00 (purchase
price) to:
MVP Software
1035 Dallas SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507
Or order by phone with MasterCard or Visa:
(616) 245-8376
Please specify which version of the program you want (IBM or
Sanyo 550/555). There is an order blank at the end of this
documentation file for your convenience.
Battle Ground
Battle Ground is a two-player tactical ground combat
game typical of the mid 20th century. Employing various
types of soldiers, weapons, and terrains, the object of the
game is to defeat your opponent by destroying his platoon of
soldiers. Each weapon available to both sides (United States
and Germany) has its strengths and weaknesses, as does each
type of soldier. For example, some weapons have a more lim-
ited range than others, and soldiers vary in strength and ef-
fectiveness in combat. In addition to a main weapon, each
soldier carries hand grenades, which can be thrown only as
far as the soldier's strength permits. A player may also
call an air strike at some points in the game, and artillery
strikes are also permitted.
In the beginning of the game the US platoon occupies a
portion of the battlefield, while the German platoon occupies
another portion. The initial placement of the respective
sides will differ with different terrains. Both players must
devise and execute a battle plan to be successful.
This manual includes instructions for playing Battle
Ground. Please read it through completely before executing
any game.
Note: Before going any further, please make a working copy
of your Battle Ground distribution disk. To do so,
first put your Battle Ground diskette in drive A,
which should be the logged drive, and a blank format-
ted disk in drive B. Type copy *.* b:, followed by
RETURN. If you have a one drive system, place the
system disk in the drive. Type DISKCOPY, followed by
RETURN. Follow the directions on your screen until
the diskcopy is completed. Now put the distribution
disk in a safe place, and use only your new working
disk. Do not place a write protect tab over the notch
on the side of the disk.
Since Battle Ground is not copy protected, it will run
from a hard drive. However, to save a game you must use the
A or B drive.
LOADING INSTRUCTIONS
Battle Ground is supplied in machine language and runs
from DOS. To run the program, put your working diskette in
the logged drive. Enter BG, followed by RETURN. This will
execute the file BG.EXE, which will automatically execute the
other program files.
4
First you will see an introductory screen. Press the
space bar to continue. Next the various weapons available to
the two players will be displayed, along with their charac-
teristics. Press the space bar once again when you are ready
to proceed. This will bring you to the "selection program."
The "selection program" allows you to select the type of
battlefield on which to conduct your battle as well as other
pertinent game information. You will first be asked whether
you are using an IBM PCjr. If you are, or if you are using
any other computer that does not have a numeric keypad, an-
swer Y. Otherwise answer N. This is important for all
phases of the game.
Next you will be asked if you wish to resume an old cam-
paign. If you are continuing a game previously suspended and
saved, answer Y, and then enter the filename in which the
game was saved. Otherwise enter N.
Now you must select the type of battlefield on which to
conduct your campaign. Five types are available, each with
their own characteristics. For each main type, the program
will select one of five screens available to it, which means
there a total of 25 possible playing fields.
Finally you must decide whether you wish the game to be-
gin with bombing, and the availability of air strikes and ar-
tillery.
Now you are ready to begin the main game. After the
game is initialized, you will see a graphic protrayal of the
battlefield, with the American troops and German troops at
their initial stations. Troops are represented by small
squares. Both players take turns moving troops, firing
weapons and executing strategy. Both sides may do as much as
they like on any turn. Following is a description of the
basic rules and how to execute playing procedures.
BATTLE GROUND RULES AND PROCEDURES
1 Cursor Movement (Cursor Mode)
The Battle Ground cursor is x-shaped, and at the begin-
ning of each turn is located in the middle of the playing
field. To move soldiers, fire weapons, or execute any other
maneuver, it must be moved. But before the cursor can be
moved the NUM LOCK key must be on. The following are the
commands available in the cursor mode:
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Q -- quit turn
O -- quit and save game
1 -- moves cursor down and to the left
3 -- moves cursor down and to the right
4 -- moves cursor to the left
5 -- moves cursor down
6 -- moves cursor to the right
7 -- moves cursor up and to the left
8 -- moves cursor up
9 -- moves cursor up and to the right
If you are using an IBM PCjr or other computer that does
not have a numeric keypad, use the following keys for cursor
movement.
V -- moves cursor down and to the left
N -- moves cursor down and to the right
G -- moves cursor to the left
B -- moves cursor down
H -- moves cursor to the right
T -- moves cursor up and to the left
Y -- moves cursor up
U -- moves cursor up and to the right
Cursor movement is accomplished by pressing the numbered
keys on the numeric keypad (note the arrangement of the
keys). When in the cursor mode, a line of less than symbols
(<) will be printed at the upper right of the screen. To
move the cursor 5 times faster than normal, press the greater
than key (>) before attempting to move the cursor. To move
the cursor 10 times faster than normal, press the question
mark key (?).
2 Registering a Soldier (Command Mode)
To move a soldier, fire his weapon, or accomplish any
other tasks with a soldier, the cursor must be located on the
soldier. Once a player moves the cursor directly onto a sol-
dier, press RETURN to enter command mode. At this point sev-
eral new options are available:
1 -- soldier movement (relocation)
2 -- fire soldier's main weapon
3 -- throw hand grenade
4 -- give medical aid (medics only)
5 -- hand-to-hand combat
6 -- call an air strike (major only)
7 -- display status of soldier
. -- return to cursor mode
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2.1 Soldier Movement
To relocate a soldier, from the command mode enter 1.
You may move any player once in a round. If you attempt to
move a soldier again in the same round, an error message will
be displayed, from which you will be returned to command mode
by pressing any key. To quit player movement enter a period
(.). To move a soldier, press the cursor control keys 2, 4,
6, or 8, depending on the direction in which you wish to go
(Y, G, H, B for PCjr). Pressing one of these keys moves a
dot cursor in the appropriate direction. Once the dot cursor
is in the location to which you wish to move the soldier,
press RETURN to relocate the soldier.
Soldier movement is limited. First, a soldier can be
moved a maximum of five cursor lengths in a round. Second, a
soldier cannot be moved on or through an obstacle on the
field.
2.2 Firing Main Weapon
With the cursor on a soldier, press 2 at the command
mode to fire his main weapon. You may fire a weapon, throw a
grenade or engage in hand-to-hand combat once a round per
soldier. Once you have entered the firing mode, a direction
prompt will appear. The following are the firing commands:
1 -- fire up and to the left
2 -- fire up and to the right
3 -- fire down and to the left
4 -- fire down and to the right
. -- quit command mode and return to cursor mode
After you have chosen the direction in which to fire,
you will be asked to enter the firing angle. This is a two-
digit number, so if you wish to shoot at an angle less than
10 degrees, you must press 0 and then the number. For ex-
ample, to fire at 7 degrees, enter 07. To quit without
firing and return to cursor mode, enter a period or enter a
two-digit angle greater than 90. Weapons fire includes bul-
lets from rifles and hand guns and bazooka shells from bazoo-
kas. A beep indicates that a soldier has been injured or de-
stroyed by weapons fire.
Note that when a player inputs firing values (direction,
angle, distance), the numbers do not appear on the screen.
This prevents your opponent from observing the values and
using them against you when it's his turn.
7
2.3 Throwing a Grenade
Press 3 while in command mode to throw a hand grenade.
But remember that you may use only one weapon per soldier per
round. Again you must enter the appropriate direction (1, 2,
3 or 4); press . to return to cursor mode. As in firing the
main weapon, you must then enter the angle, using a two-digit
number. Finally, enter the distance you wish the grenade to
be thrown in a two-digit number. Distance is limited, how-
ever, by a soldier's strength. After the grenade explodes,
fragments will spread and debris may accumulate. Remember
that grenades can be thrown over objects such as trees and
shrubs.
2.4 Giving Medical Care
To give medical care to an injured soldier, press 4 at
the command-mode prompt. Only medics can give aid. To give
aid, the medic must be moved next to the unconscious soldier
and remain there until the beginning of the following round.
Only then can the medic give aid. If the medic has been next
to the unconsious soldier for an entire round, adminster aid
by pressing either the 2, 4, 6 or 8 (G, Y, H or B for PCjr)
to indicate the direction of the injured soldier from the
medic. Although medical aid is not always successful, and
although soldiers may recover on their own, the odds of re-
covery are much greater with a medic.
2.5 Hand-to-hand Combat
Hand-to-hand combat is useful near the end of the game
when soldiers have run out of ammunition. To engage this
function, at the command mode press 5. An enemy must be next
to the attacking soldier. To attack, press either a 2, 4, 6
or 8 (G, Y, H or B for PCjr) to indicate the direction in
which to attack. If no enemy soldier is located in the di-
rection indicated by the key you strike, an error message
will be generated. If the attack is successful, a beep will
sound. The enemy will be injured, but only rarely does hand-
to-hand combat prove fatal.
2.6 Calling an Air Strike
Each side has one major, and he is the only soldier ca-
pable of calling an air strike. Locate the major, and press
6 at the command mode to call the strike. Due to weather
factors, or lack of planes, a strike will not always be per-
mitted. If you may carry out the strike, you will have a
choice of three weapons to employ. These are the following:
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1 -- 200 lb. bombs
2 -- block buster bomb
3 -- machine gun fire
Press the number corresponding to the type of air strike
you want. Next, you must specify the location of the strike.
Enter a letter (A-E) to indicate the appropriate X sector and
a number (1-5) for the Y sector. The air strike will occur
between rounds from 2 to 6 rounds after it has been called.
After all, WWII planes cannot achieve the speeds of contem-
porary jet aircraft.
2.6 Soldier Status
To see a soldier's life status, weapons and other fea-
tures, from the command mode press 7. S, L and M represent
strength, life points and medical status respectively. U
stands for unconscious and C for conscious. Sgt. is an ab-
breviation for Sergeant, G represents the number of grenades
remaining and A indicates the amount of ammo left. Press any
key to return to command mode.
2.7 Saving a Game
If you wish to quit a game and save it to a disk file,
from the command mode enter O. You will be asked to specify
a filename. Do not enter the name of a file already on the
disk, as the file will be overwritten. If you wish to resume
the game without quitting, simply press RETURN. To exit the
game without saving it, press ESC.
It will take a little while to save a game. When it is
saved, you will be returned to the main menu. The file in
which the information is stored will occupy over 40K of disk
space. Consequently there is enough room on the distribution
diskette to save several games. However, you may wish to
keep a separate Battle Ground data disk on which you save
games. To do so, run Battle Ground from the A drive, and
keep your data disk in the B drive. When you specify your
filename, type B:<filename>, where <filename> is the name of
the file you wish to use.
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SOLDIER/WEAPON INFORMATION
10 Privates with .30 M-1 (US) or 8mm Musler (German) Ammuni-
tion=10; shots per round=1; unlimited range; excellent ac-
curacy.
4 Privates with .45 Thompson (US) or 9mm MP-40 (German) Am-
munition=50; shots per round=5; unlimited range; fair ac-
curacy.
2 Privates with .30 Bar (US) or 7.62mm MG-88 (German) Ammu-
nition=100; shots per round=10; unlimited range; extremely
poor accuracy.
2 Medics with .45 Colt (US) or 9mm Luger (German) Ammuni-
tion=8; shots per round=1; limited range of 125; poor ac-
curacy.
1 Major with .45 Colt (US) or 9mm Luger (German) Ammuni-
tion=8; shots per round=1; limited range of 125; poor ac-
curacy.
1 Sergeant with Bazooka (both sides) Ammunition=5; shots per
round=1; unlimited range; poor accuracy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order Form
Please send me the latest version of Battle Ground, along with
my nine FREE graphics games. Enclosed is $15.00.
Name __________________________________________
Address _______________________________________
City ___________________________ State ____ Zip __________
Computer make and model ____________________________________
Disk size (circle one) 5-1/4" 3-1/2"
For credit card orders only:
MC/Visa number _________________________________
Expiration date ____________________
