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1995-09-21
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BIKE BATTLE
THE ULTIMATE MULTIMEDIA GAME FOR TWO
VERSION 1.95
SpotPrice: 30 $
ORDER-FORM IN THE FILE ORDER.TXT
(C) Copyright 1995 by Jürgen Thumm
Distribution by
BROKAT Systeme GmbH
Hanns-Klemm-Str. 5
D-71034 Boeblingen
Email: jthumm@ibm.net
AVAILABLE PUBLIC DOMAIN DEMOS:
Playback Demo (BBDEMO1.EXE)
Playable Demo (BBDEMO2.EXE)
Make my day ...
BIKE BATTLE is a GladiatorActionGame for two RemoteControlPilots,
whose fascination is unparalleled by other multimedia games. No
painted pictures are it's strength, but the 4S: Speed,
Smartness, Strategy and Sound. Each pilot has a FightBike
wherewith he is cruising in a fighting arena. The task is to pick up
weapons which lie around, to attack the opponent and to turn him
into a pile of dust. The fight takes place in a randomly
generated maze of walls, containing DisplacerGates which beam
you from one side of the field to the other. As soon as a weapon
is shot empty you have to pick up further ammunition or replace
it by another. If you don't want to be killed by the first hit,
you have also to collect ProtectionShields.
Unfortunately, with each hit, one shield is destroyed again.
Luckily enough, new weapons, ammunition or shields appear everywhere,
so you have always enough material to continue your fight.
The RealitySound provides the very cool MadMaxFeeling that makes
you sweat. Whoever's frightened by the use of Machineguns,
Cruise Missiles, Pump Guns, Rocket Launchers, Light Swords
or Bazookas should better play Tic-Tac-Toe...
But, whoever felt the Force of Action and triumphated in a
hard fight, shalt be addicted.
This ain't no game for youngsters under 16, or for a calme
office atmosphere.
Contents
========
System requirements (1)
Installation (2)
BIKE BATTLE GameDefiner (3)
Fighting Arena (4)
FightBike Throttle (5)
FightBike Equipment (6)
FightBike Usage of Weapons (7)
GladiatorDream:
Set, Point and Match (8)
FightDetails (9)
BikeDetails (10)
StrategyDetails (11)
ConfigurationDetails (12)
Memory Optimization (13)
Demo Restrictions (14)
Final Remark (15)
(1) System Requirements
=======================
What Hardware do you need to run BIKE BATTLE?
Minimum for novices:
486 DX2/66 with 4 MB RAM
8 Bit Soundcard
2 analogue Joysticks and 2 Gameports to connect them
2 Speaker boxes
Recommended hardware for intense players:
486 DX2/66 or Pentium with 16 MB RAM
Soundcard for 32 kHz stereo Sound, e.g. SoundBlaster 16
Only use Joysticks with 2 axes and 2 buttons, no "Flightsticks"
(3 axes, 4 buttons)!
Required Software:
Windows 3.1
Windows Sound driver
Joystick driver (also provided in this package)
8 MB of hard drive space are required.
In the minimum configuration, severe losses in Sound Quality
and/or speed must be accepted.
With 8 MB or less or memory the system should have enough
Swap-Space (on hard drive).
(2) Installation
================
Select a target directory on your hard drive, uncompress the
BikeBattle packages which you've downloaded or copied there.
Make sure pathnames are preserved while uncompressing.
The following directories should now exist in your
target directory:
BBATTLE containing the main program(s), manuals etc.
BBATTLE\SND containing the sound files
Perform a sound-check; to do so, start the Sound-settings in
Windows' system settings and try to play the Windows-Sounds. If
nothing's audible, check the sound driver and (re)install it if
necessary. The sound driver was delivered with your Sound card
or with Windows. Read the sound card's manual or the
Windows-documentation for details.
If the joystick driver is missing (only needed with DEMO2 or the
original version), install it this way:
- copy IBMJOY.DRV and JOYSTICK.CPL from your targetdirectory\BBATTLE
into the Windows\System directory. For example, if both BIKE BATTLE
and Windows are installed on drive C:, the following commands must
be typed:
copy c:\bbattle\ibmjoy.drv c:\windows\system
copy c:\bbattle\joystick.cpl c:\windows\system
- now go into the Windows directory and edit the file SYSTEM.INI
with this command:
edit system.ini
- In the opened file, add the following line in the [drivers]
section:
joystick=ibmjoy.drv
Now, the joystick driver is installed. Start Windows.
In Windows, start the joystick calibration program. To do so,
search the joystick symbol in the main group's system settings.
Calibrate as described by moving the stick into the four
corners of the joystick's foot. Calibrate as exact as possible!
The joysticks have trimmers to adjust the X- and Y-centering.
After changing the centering, the calibration should be repeated.
Maybe the joystick calibration must also be repeated after every
restart of Windows (depends upon the joystick driver used).
If the joysticks can't be calibrated, the reason for this
might be that you didn't select 2-dimensional joysticks in
"System Settings/Drivers/Game adapter". Furthermore the
game ports or the adapters on which they reside might be
badly configured (depends on your PC hardware).
If anything's set, start Window's file manager, go to your
target directory and double-click on:
BBDEMO1.EXE to start the playback demo
or BBDEMO2.EXE to start the playable evaluation demo.
(3) BIKE BATTLE GameDefiner
===========================
You see a grey screen with blue shiny letters. If not,
your Windows-System is probably overloaded (e.g. with an
alternative desktop, tools or unnecessary extensions in
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT). It may suffice to reduce the
system (see also Memory Optimization), or in the worst case
Windows must be reinstalled; in that case the game should
usually work.
The first BIKE BATTLE sound is heard and pushes the heart
beat... If no Sound is audible, either the speaker boxes are
turned off or the Windows sound driver doesn't work. If it's the
sound driver, the sound check wasn't done correctly (see
Installation; in the Compact Demo, the title music is played
with 11 kHz 8 bit mono sound).
In that case, leave the program with the ESCAPE key, go back to
Installation and install your Windows Sound correctly.
In the BIKE BATTLE GameDefiner, playing parameters are adjusted.
The parameters are changed by pressing those keys that are
framed by a box. These settings are available:
HUMAN PLAYERS
Number of RemoteControlPilots. For two humans,
select '2'. For a demo or to practice targeting change the
number: select '0' for demo mode. Two robots will then "fight"
each other. Select '1' to practice targeting. One
RemoteControlPilot may meet upto 5 RobotPilots, which could only
be considered as moving targets due to their non-existent
intelligence.
ROBOT PLAYERS
Number of RobotPilots.
JOYSTICK SWAP
With this you may swap the joysticks.
WEAK SUPPORT (Original version only)
With this, the weaker of the pilots may get
additional shields. The number of shields is determined
automatically during the game. You can also pre-select certain
values, e.g. 0:3 means that pilot 2 gets 3 additional shields
from the start (shields are explained later).
MUSIC FX
If you can't bear the music effects played during the
game, switch 'em off with this.
STEREO SOUND
If you're using a mono sound card, the program
should select mono sound automatically as soon as the fighting
arena appears. Just in case it doesn't, select 'NO' here.
LOAD 32 KHZ, 22 KHZ, 11 KHZ, oder NO SOUND
Bike Battle is capable of playing 32 kHz Sound, the best sound ever
heard with an action game on the PC. If your sound card doesn't
support this or if you're low on memory, you have to select a
lower quality.
22 kHz should be supported by nearly every sound card; the memory
usage is reduced by 1/3. With 11 kHz, again 1/3 less memory is
needed, and that's also the way it sounds then. NO SOUND starts
the game without sound. This is usually used to quickly check
the calibration of the joysticks, before one returns to the
GameDefiner and then loads the sound.
SWAP PIXCOLOR
If the FightBikes leave red tracks (which may
happen with certain graphic boards in TrueColor-Mode), change
this option. On pressing the key, check patterns appear at the
left border: the first line must appear completely in red, the
2nd green and the 3rd blue.
TIMING SPEED
Depending on your Systems's performance, the game
might be sped up with this. If the game runs permanently with a
varying speed this value may be selected too large, or the
systems suffers from a performance overload in other ways (e.g.
by intense memory swapping to the hard drive, which may happen
especially in Win-OS/2 sessions).
When all settings done, press the SPACE bar. In endlessly-seeming
seconds the ultimate BIKE BATTLE sounds are loaded. Off we
go-o!! Off we go-o!!
(4) Fighting Arena
==================
The Fighting Arena appears blue with a green-gray, randomly
created maze of walls. To the left and right of the arena's
middle you see two remote-controlled FightBikes:
triangular-armoured, colorful units, ready for action.
The FightInfos below the arena are for both pilots. The left
half belongs to the green, the right one to the red bike.
The following infos are displayed:
1:/2 FightInfo section for pilot 1 or 2
SHD number of ProtectionShields
PTS achieved Points
S achieved Sets
M matches won so far
Furthermore, the Protectionshields are also displayed graphical
as a blue bar, and below that, you find a line for infos
and status messages.
Besides, the FightInfos display a list of weapons that were
collected so far. Initially this list is empty.
The action starts as soon as both RemoteControlPilots move their
joystick or press button 1. Every joystick has two buttons;
which one is button 1 or 2 depends upon the model used.
(5) FightBike Throttle
======================
The bikes accelerate by pressing the joystick as far as possible
into a direction. Check this for all directions! If there's no
acceleration in one or more directions, the joystick is badly
calibrated (Bad luck: in that case, recalibration of the sticks
in Window's system settings is necessary). The bikes decellerate
if you elongate the joystick less.
If no sound is audible on acceleration, there was probably a
too high selected value in the GameDefiner's LOAD SOUND option.
In that case you'll have to leave the arena, back to the
GameDefiner with ESCAPE, then select 22 or 11 kHz and go back
again to the arena with SPACE.
(6) FightBike Equipment
=======================
In the fighting arena, weapons appear at random places. These
weapons appear as blue boxes with a letter on top. To collect
it, drive into such a box. The weapon is ready for action
immediately and can be fired using button 1. By default, every
bike has a simple pistol with 30 bullets.
The following weapons may be collected:
Weapon ID Description Usage in
Attack Defense
MACHINE M To straightly shoot the direct: shoot the Against Cruise
GUN opponent. The nearer other bike. Missiles and Rockets,
the target laser lies indirect: shoot provided of course
on him, the better. uncollected weapons one has enough time
that lie around the and distance to aim.
other bike.
PUMP P To "blow away" the direct: blow the Against Cruise
GUN other, in literal other into the next Missiles
sense. The impacts wall. indirect: and Rockets.
create pressure waves blow up uncollected
which do not harm the weapons lying around
opponent in any way, the other bike.
except that they make
him fly.
LIGHT L Near distance Strike. The re- Not usable in
SWORD weapon. pulsion of a hit defense (espe-
slows down the cially not
attacking bike. against
This gives the Cruise Missiles).
victim a better
chance to escape.
BAZOOKA B Straight flying direct: Not easy, The rubbish piles
warhead which ex- but possible: a left by the explosion
plodes at the first precisely aimed provide a good
obstacle or on reach Bazooka that ex- coverage, especially
of the joystick- plodes on the other against MG.
selected flying one's feet may cost
distance. The explo- him several
sion leaves a pile shields. indirect:
of rubbish. If the other one's
moving nearby an
obstacle, shoot it.
CRUISE C Self-guiding missiles Fire and forget. The firing
MISSILES that follow the oppo- direction should lead into
nent if he's in sight. open space.
ROCKET K Straight flying rockets Aim into the right direction and fire.
LAUNCHER with heavy impact. The stronger the rockets are, the more
No distance selection. walls are broken through.
Besides these weapons the FightBikes may collect Ammunition,
ProtectionShields and Reinforcements:
Extra ID Description
AMMUNITION A Nearly every weapon may be reloaded with this. For every type
of weapon, one A counts different, e.g. for MG 30 shoots, for
the Pump Gun only 3.
PROTECTION S Every S is a single ProtectionShield. Whenever a bike is hit or
SHIELDS it drives through an obstacle (with exception of the arena
border), is looses one shield. By default, every bike has five
shields. Shields are very valuable; if none are left, an alarm
sound is played and the whole cockpit blinks in red. The single
task of the pilot is now to collect a 'S', because the next hit
or collision will crash his bike.
WEAPON + Strenghtens the effect of the current weapon. If the weapon
REINFORCE- already reached it's maximum effect, only the pistols's
MENT ammunition (if there's any) is reinforced.
(7) FightBike Weapon Usage
==========================
"Aim"
Pistols and Rockets:
just move the stick into the desired direction. Aim slowly when
using rockets, rapid changes of direction usually don't hit the
target.
MG and Pump Gun:
With these, the distance of the impact must be selected
additionally. To do so, these weapons have a target laser. The
more the joystick is elongated in a direction, the more the
laser's end point (the only thing visible) moves away.
Exception: if there's an obstacle in the chosen direction, the
laser will stay on it.
Pressing the fire button will always lead to a detonation at the
selected target point.
When using the MG, theroretically it would suffice to elongate
the joystick maximally into the opponent's direction and fire.
Practically one hits this way only sometimes, because you can't
select the shooting direction that precise and thus miss the
other bike by one or two degrees.
Bazooka:
The more the joystick is pressed, the farer the bazooka will
fly. Basically it's the same as with MG, but you have no target
laser. Usually it's very effective to elongate the stick just a
little and to throw the bazooka right in front of the other
one's bike.
The maximum distance of MG, Pump Gun, Rockets and Bazooka is 2/3
of the arena's width.
"Fire"
A bike may collect an unlimited number of weapons, but only the
two frontmost, i.e. latest-collected, are usable at the moment.
As soon as these are empty, the ones behind that were collected
earlier move up. Button 1 fires the frontmost, button 2 the
second-frontmost weapon. Only the frontmost weapon could be
reinforced or reloaded.
"Switch"
If you have lots of weapons on board you may change their
sequence by driving through one of the violet cross-shaped
switches which are found in the arena. If you have more than 5
weapons, only the 5 frontmost ones could be cycled.
"Reload"
Weapon Reinforcement "+": Ammunition amount "A":
Machine Gun Creates more horrible
dust in the target area. 30 bullets
Pump Gun Opponent flies longer. 3 bullets
Light Sword Longer and more inert. 50 energy units
Bazooka Larger rubbish piles. nothing (pistol is loaded)
Cruise Missiles Larger impact radius. one missile
Rocket Launcher Breaks more walls. three rockets
(8) GladiatorDream: Point, Set and Match
========================================
If a FightBike explodes, the opponent may carve a Point into his
joystick. Exception: both explode. He who first gets 4 points
and has a lead of at least 2 points wins a Set. The one winning
3 Sets leaves the arena as the winner.
(9) FightDetails
================
Shield-loss-timing:
After the loss of a shield it takes at least 250 milliseconds
(with Weak Support even longer) until the next shield could be
destroyed. This avoids for example that driving into a wall in an
unlucky angle costs 10 shields in one instant.
After the loss of the last shield the bike is protected one
Second against destruction. Therefore the last shield is the
most important! It guarantees a second of life even under
hardest fire. Whoever has no shield left must collect at
least one.
Bike-explosion-timing:
The explosion process of a bike takes several seconds. The other
bike must survive this time to get the point.
The Jedi Convention for Grandmasters:
"He who thinks he's unfailable may try to terminate his
opponent, as soon as he lost all his shields,
with the Light Sword only."
(10) BikeDetails
================
Change the Target Laser's shape:
Press 'T' during the game to select 1 out of 8 shapes.
Clock display:
Press 'C' during the game to select one of these displays:
- no clock
- short format with time, round time, session time in minutes
- long format with the same infos plus date.
After pressing the key, wait a second until it's displayed.
Hiding the mouse cursor:
In Window's Program Manager, create a program symbol with
File/New/Program, to start the game with.
As the working directory select the directory in which bb.exe
resides.
Saving the current score (original version only)
Press F7 during the game or in the main menu.
This will save your current score.
You can leave the game then and, for example,
re-calibrate your joysticks.
If the score cannot be saved, check your harddisk
if write access is allowed and if there is any free
space available.
Loading the score (original version only)
Press F5 in the main menu.
This will load your score;
enter the Fighting Arena then and continue your match.
(11) StrategyDetails
====================
The "most popular" errors of novice pilots are these:
Aimless collecting. The rule is: Quality before Quantity. For
example, one MG with 3 plus and 100 shoots of ammunition is much
more useful then five weak MG's with 30 shoots each.
Inadequate Distance. For example, holding a MG under the
opponent's nose though the opponent has a Light Sword is as
brave as insane, and usually results in sudden death (of the MG
owner).
(12) ConfigurationDetails
=========================
Settings which are selected by hand at every start of BIKE
BATTLE should be entered in the configuration file bb.ini. To do
so, load this file from the bbattle directory with a text
editor, e.g. the Notepad of Windows (but not with a word
processor). Before changing the file, first create a backup
copy! Each line contains a keyword with a single value (both
separated by blanks), and remarks beginning with ";" and lasting
'til the end of the line. Remarks are ignored by BIKE BATTLE und
just serve better understandability.
The following keywords are recognized:
Keyword Description Possible values
humans number of human players 0,1,2
robots number of robot players 0 to 5
swapsticks swap joysticks 0 = no, 1 = yes
weaksupport automatic force balancing 0 = no, 1 = yes
music music effects 0 = off, 1 = on
stereo Stereo Sound 0 = off, 1 = on
khz sound quality in kHz 0 (no Sound), 11, 22, 32
clock clock display 0 (none), 1 (min), 2 (max)
width minimum picture width 640, 800, 1024, 1280, ...
height minimum picture height 480, 600, 768, 1024, ...
yshift vertical picture shift to
top of screen 0 to ca. 20
swappixcol see GameDefiner description 0 = no, 1 = yes
usepalette use palette (is the default) 0 = no, 1 = yes
tlasershape target laser shape 0 to 7
colback1
colback2 change background colors 12-Bit RGB-value
colback3 (only for freaks) from 0x000 to 0xfff
coltlaser1
coltlaser2 change color of target lasers like colback
coltlaser3 of player 1, 2 and others
(13) Memory Optimization
========================
With 8 and especially 4 MB of RAM it is highly recommended to
remove all superfluous memory-eating extensions (e.g.
SmartDrive) from the system files CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
A maximum-reduced CONFIG.SYS may look this way:
DEVICE = C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS = HIGH
The meanings of these entries can be looked up in your DOS- or
Windows manual.
The recommended screen resolution for playing is 800 x 600
pixels.
The program uses at least 1 MB of additional memory in
resolutions higher than 1024 x 768.
(14) Demo Restrictions
======================
In the Bike Battle Demo package which is available through the
Internet, the playable demo BBDEMO2.EXE has the following
restrictions:
- in the Compact Demo, all sound files have only 11 kHz quality.
- no "Weak Support" settings in the GameDefiner.
- no Rocket Launcher available for the players.
- 20 minutes after the game was started, a terminator robot (which
looks like a snake) appears and terrorizes the players. To get
another 20 minutes of free playing time, you have to leave and
restart the game.
If you can't stand this torture,
ORDER THE ORIGINAL VERSION !!!
(15) Final Remark
=================
"So Then, Drive On And Strike Each Other In Peace."
J. Thumm, 20-Aug-1995