GCW Games & More & Wacky Windows Companion

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Text File | 1994-11-04 | 19.6 KB | 466 lines

LASERWARS DOCUMENTATION c1994 Rod Derousseau & Chris Stewart Last Updated: November 4, 1994 Legal Notices ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The authors hereby disclaim all warranties relating to this software, whether expressed or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data/damage to hardware or any other reason, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. This program is released as "shareware" by the authors. It is copyrighted and all rights and ownership are kept with the author. You may use it indefinitely. You may distribute this Shareware copy of Laserwars freely as long as it is distributed in its entirety, no modifications are made, and it is not sold! TABLE OF CONTENTS OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 COMPATIBILITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 THE MAIN MENU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CLIPBOARD - SECOND ICON. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 GRID TOOLS - THIRD ICON. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 SETTINGS - FOURTH ICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PLAYING THE GAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Selecting Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sequence of Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Icon Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Other Game Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 GAME STRATEGY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 FINAL COMMENTS AND THANK-YOU'S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 OVERVIEW ~~~~~~~~ Laserwars is mainly a game of strategy. Luck may be involved depending on the options that are set. The game is played on a square grid. There are two players. They can be any combination of human or computer players. The objective is to kill the other player by hitting him with your laser. Each player has a ship which he can rotate and move. In addition mirrors are placed on the grid to deflect the lasers. Each mirror that is hit amplifies your laser, therefore allowing you to get closer to your enemy and kill him. There is also an option to play with bombs and blocks, which make the game more interesting. There are many parameters that may be set for varied gameplay. The game is mostly mouse driven, with a few text prompts here and there. The easiest way to learn the game is to just play for a while. You will soon get the hang of it. COMPATIBILITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Laserwars has been played on several different machines. It has functioned well under OS/2, Windows 3.x, Windows NT as well as its native DOS. To play using the computer player at level 1 or above we recommend at least a 386. Laserwars will only run on 286 machines or higher. It WILL NOT run on a machine earlier than a 286. Laserwars requires that a mouse driver be loaded at run time. It also requires at least a VGA card and monitor. THE MAIN MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the main menu there are 5 selections that can be made. You may make a selection by clicking the left mouse button on any icon. This is true throughout the game. By hitting the left mouse button, you always select the icon your mouse cursor is under. Following is an explanation of each of those items. Green Light - First Icon: This icon begins a game of laserwars. Several screens follow asking for information. Clipboard - Second Icon: This icon takes you to a list of the players stored on disk, and their stats. Grid Tools - Third Icon: This icon takes you to the Grid Editor. Here you can make your own preset grids and save them for play. Settings - Fourth Icon: This icon brings up the Laserwars configuration screen. Here you can change settings affecting game play. Exit Door - Fifth Icon: This icon exits from Laserwars! CLIPBOARD - SECOND ICON ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you select this icon, a list of currently stored players is brought up. There are two useful icons here. (The third icon takes you back to the main menu.) The first one, 'Add Player', adds a new player to the list. This way you can use this player in all your games so that a record of his wins, losses and other stats are saved. The second icon, 'Kill Player', will delete a player that is currently on the list. Note that the prompts are case sensitive, so if use you use capitals to enter the name, you will need to use capitals to delete it also. GRID TOOLS - THIRD ICON ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you select this icon, you are first prompted for a grid file name. A list of the available files appears on the left. You may click on any of these file names or type in a new one. If you select a file already there, that grid file is loaded and you may modify it. You may also just hit enter from the prompt, and in that case a new file is created for you, allowing you to create a custom grid. A row of icons appear at the bottom of the screen. These are used to create the custom grid. On the right are a few boxes. Click on the box below 'Red Tank' or 'Green Tank' to select the respective tank color to place and rotate on the grid. The active tank color will flash. The first two icons are mirrors. When you click on either one, you may place the cursor on a grid location and hit the left mouse button. This will place the mirror of your choice on the grid. The next icon over is the remove mirror icon. Use this icon to remove a mirror you have already placed on the grid. The next icon is the move icon. Use this icon to place the players' ships. The ship you are placing depends on which tank color you have selected by clicking on the boxes on the right. After clicking on the move icon, click on a grid location and the ship will appear. The next two icons are the rotate icons. They rotate the ship of the currently selected color. That ship will change its direction according to the direction of the rotation. The next icon is the show laser icon. Use this icon to turn on or off the players' lasers. The next icon is the show grid icon. This icon turns on or off the grid. The exit icon exits the edit grid screen. You are asked to confirm. When you confirm to exit, you are prompted for a name to save your grid under. You may just hit enter if you wish to discard the grid you just made. If you wish to keep it, enter a file name (without the extension). If it already exists you will be prompted to replace or not. Answer the prompts accordingly. The last two icons let you place bombs and blocks respectively. Just click on the grid to place the bomb or block. SETTINGS - FOURTH ICON ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This icon brings you to the Laserwars configuration screen. Here you may click the left mouse button on any of the settings. When you do, you are prompted to enter a new value. You must enter a valid value that is within the limits provided. If you do not, the program will continue to prompt you for a value until a valid one is entered. Each of the settings is described below. The save icon can be used to save the current configuration to disk. The load icon is currently inactive. The original settings as we have them, are a good basic starting point for playing LaserWars. This is the 'classic' game of LaserWars. Number of starting mirrors - This is the number of random mirrors that will appear when you choose to play with a random grid. Number of starting bombs - This is the number of random bombs that will appear when you choose to play with a random grid. Number of starting blocks - This is the number of random blocks that will appear when you choose to play with a random grid. Starting energy - This is how many grid squares you laser will travel without hitting any mirrors. Energy gained per mirror - This is how many extra grid squares your laser will travel for every mirror it hits. Random mirror percentage - This is the percentage chance that a mirror will appear on any given turn. Random bomb percentage - This is the percentage chance that a bomb will appear on any given turn. Random block percentage - This is the percentage chance that a block will appear on any given turn. Time limit per round - This is the amount of time a human player will have to make a move on his turn. Enter '0' if you wish to play without time limits. This value is entered in seconds. Computer lookahead level - This is the number of moves the computer looks ahead. '0' means the computer only looks at the current move. '1' means the computer looks ahead one move, and so on. (A 486 is recommended when using lookahead 1 or 2!) Computer skill level - This is the skill level the computer plays at. When set to '0', the computer is as good as it can be. (The computer is imperfect to begin with!) The higher the setting, the more likely it is that the computer will make mistakes and/or make bad moves. PLAYING THE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Selecting Players ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you select the 'green light' icon from the main menu you must answer a few questions. First you select attributes for Player 1. You are first asked if the player is human or computer. Click on the desired icon. If you selected human, you are shown the list of available players. You may click on any of these if you wish, in which case their respective records will be updated. If you which to enter a new name (which will not be saved to the records) click on the lower right box, and type a new name. You can then select the ship you wish to use by clicking on it. (The ships are all identical with respect to playability. They only differ in appearance.) If you selected a computer player, everything else is set automatically. There is no need to enter any more information. You then do the same for Player 2. When you are done that, you are asked if you wish to play with a random or saved grid. Click on the desired icon. If you select random, you are now ready to play! A random grid will appear on the screen and you may begin playing. If you select saved, a list of available grid files appears at left. You may click on the name of the grid you wish to use. (Do no use extensions) The grid will be loaded and displayed and you are ready to play! Sequence of Play ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The game is played in turns. Each player may make one move, then it is the other player's move. When both players have gone, that is one turn. Any actions performed using any of the icons described below except 'laser on/off' and 'grid on/off' count as one move. If the time per round setting is anything but zero, you will only have the allotted time to make your move. If time runs out before you make a move, you lose your move. The other player then gets to go. If you have the bomb, block or mirror percentage higher than zero and no computer players playing, a bomb, block or mirror may appear in between player's moves. Icon Functions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The icons available at the bottom of the screen during gameplay are the same icons as in the 'edit grid' option. The first two icons are mirrors. You may click on the icon and then click on a location on the grid. This will place the chosen mirror on the grid. The next icon removes a mirror previously placed on the grid. A player may only remove mirrors that are the same color as he is. He may not remove mirrors belonging to the other player, and he may not remove mirrors that are blue in color. There is a way to destroy other player's mirrors. You can do so by moving your ship into them. The next icon will move your ship. Click on the icon, and then click on a grid location a maximum of one square away from your current location. You will be moved there. Note you can only move one square away from your present location. (Diagonal moves are possible.) You may move onto a square that contains a mirror. If you do, that mirror will be destroyed. You may also move into a square which contains a bomb. If you do, the bomb will disappear permanently. The next two icons will rotate your ship counter- clockwise and clockwise, respectively. When you click on either of these two icons, your ship rotates, and your move is over. The next icon turns on or off the players laser. The next icon turns on or off the grid lines. The last icon exits from the current game. You are prompted to verify. Other Game Concepts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bombs - Bombs appear randomly on the grid. They will not appear on a square that is occupied by either mirrors, players, or a laser path. When you hit a bomb with your laser, the bomb explodes. The bomb explodes two squares in every direction except diagonally, where it explodes only one square. Anything within that radius is destroyed except for blocks, including a player. If another bomb is within that radius, that bomb will also explode. Blocks - Blocks are indestructible. Your laser will not go further if it hits a block. GAME STRATEGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Since hitting mirrors increases your laser's length, it is important to make you laser hit as many mirrors as possible so that you may reach your opponent. There are many moves a player may make. You must be aware of all of them so that you may defend yourself, as well as plan offensively. Remember that you may place mirrors, remove them, move your ship, and rotate your ship. This gives you many options on any given turn. It will take a while for you to learn all the strategies and use them effectively. Defensively, you should always do one thing every turn. Always follow the four possible paths away from your own ship. This way you can trace where any possible opponent's laser may come from. (Think about it - you can only get hit from any of four directions.) If you can do this at the beginning of each of your turns, you will be guaranteed not to get hit. Of course, you have to realize what moves your opponent can make in order to get that laser to go down any one of those four directions. Once you recognize that your opponent can hit you, you must make a defensive move. You have many choices. You can place a mirror in his laser path to block him, you may move over a square, you may remove one of your mirrors, or you may be able to make a move which will kill him on that turn. There are advantages and disadvantages to every strategy. We will let you discover them. FINAL COMMENTS AND THANK-YOU'S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have worked on this game off and on for a long time. The code is crappy and we're getting tired of working on it. But we wanted to put it out as shareware anyway just to see if people would like itl. The game was originally played without bombs or blocks. They were added later just for fun. The computer player is also just an afterthought. If you know how to beat it, it becomes fairly easy. Anyway, enjoy! If you have any comments, or if you discover any bugs in the program please e-mail either of these two internet addresses: RDEROUSS@NOVICE.UWATERLOO.CA CRSTEWAR@ELECTRICAL.WATSTAR.UWATERLOO.CA We would like to thank the following people who aided in the design and programming of Laserwars either directly or indirectly: Rod 'I don't recall this from the lectures' Derousseau - for programming. Chris 'Its too windy' Stewart - for more programming. Mario 'I've got to go home for the weekend' Filipas - for his car. Bryan 'I've got a knife' Hunt - for his cartoons (and his car). Ali 'Worst impressionist in the world' Murtaza - for being someone we could laugh at indefinitely. Chris 'I've got too many CDs' Flaman - for not being ordinary. Cam 'I've got a synth' Macereth - for teaching me Piano. Ben 'I've got a band' Coulson - for endless play testing while I wanted to go to bed. Anil 'Disc jockey' Rhemtulla - for changing the CDs (once or twice). Dreeni 'I'm allergic to everything' Geer - for increasing my win percentage. Wes 'I wanted to work an extra term anyway' Root - for play testing while he should have been studying. Jeff 'That game sucks, man' Ng Thow Hing - for the movies and for the consistant complaining about PC's. Mike 'I'm better than you' Cutler - for ridiculing this project (and his car). Professor 'Yes I know the lab takes 24 hours' Barby - for delaying this release by one term. (And for failing our friends) Spike 'Its just like your stereo' - for giving us indispensible insight about how to do our labs. The guy who invented computers - It's bitchin' what these things can do... [From Under The Pink by T.A.] Our brains for not having any run-time errors. UW Computer Engineering - for an education and shortening our life expectancy. Future thanks to all those that illegally plagiarize this product and lose their law suit. (The preceding was intended to be solely humorous. Any similarity to anything serious is completely coincidental.) (If you don't get the inside jokes - don't worry you weren't supposed to.) This game is dedicated to, Rod: My friends that failed out. (At least it wasn't me.) Chris: My Father - I miss him... Laserwars is copyrighted 1994 by Rod Derousseau & Chris Stewart