Merciful 3/Merciful_Release_3.bin/software/x/xp8/xp8aga.txt

Text File | 1996-05-28 | 8KB | 201 lines

                 FULL DOCUMENTATION TO XP8 / WEATHERMINE SOFTWARE

Typed up by HELLFIRE!


The Story:

In the cold darkness, the alien probe drifts into the outer reaches of the
star system, drawn by the stars gravity. For days it continues unnoticed,
its power systems long ago burnt out. Finally, it crosses the outer system
sentry ring, and triggers a series of automatic warnings.

On the homeworld, a computer console hums into life, beginning a chain of
events that eventually leads to interstellar war.

Planetary defence launches fighter craft to intercept the unidentifies
object, and find it to be a probe of unknown origin, apparently adrift and
powerless. It is brought back to a high security military base for
examination.

After many days, military scientists reach the conclusion that the probe
represents no immediate threat. It appears to have been launched by an
alien civilisation, in the hope that it may be found by intelligent life
and lead to contact between the two species. It has been sucessful.

The information within the probe has revealed what we believe to be the
alien own star system. The probe itself suggests their technology is
inferior to ours, although it must be remembered that much time has passed
since it was cast into the vastness of space - we do not know how long it
has taken to reach us, and must expect the aliens to have advanced
technologically in the intervening years.

Twenty years later....

All attempts to contact the aliens with interstellar communications have
failed. We do not know if the signals have failed to reah them, or have
simply been ignored. Military command has therefore decided to send a
starship to the alien star system with the intention of establishing
contact with them. This is a peaceful mission, and as such the starship is
lightly armed, and carries many respected scientists. We eagerly await the
moment when contact will finally be made....

Our starship reported entering hte alien star system, and detection of
approaching alien craft. That was the last we were to hear to from it.
Fearing the worst, we launched several military cruisers towards the alien
star system to investigate. Shortly afterwards we learnt from long range
scanners that our starship had been destroyed. As cruisers approached alien
space, they themselves came under unprovoked attack, and responded with
deadly force. We destroyed many of the aliens attack craft before we
withdrew from enemy space.

Since then, we have been at wra with the aliens.


Several years later....

We are losing the war. The enemy are simply too numerous, and have
inflicted severe losses on our forces in recent encounters. We fear that in
another year, they may have completely defeated us. However, we believe
they have a fundamental weakness. Their military infrastructure appears to
be heavily centred upon their homeworld. We believe that a successful
assault upon their homeworld would leave their military in disarray, and
lead to our ultimate victory.

We have therefore thrown everything into a strike force which is even now
entering alien space and heading straight for their homeworld. The next few
days will determine the outcome of the war.

Loading instructions:

Disc 1 is self-booting - simply turn on your machine and put the disc in.
You will see some title screens, then the main XP8 menu screen (hold down
fire to speed through the different screens). Disc 4 contains a hard disk
installer.

The Main menu screen:

From the main menu screen ou have the choice to start the level indicated,
(see playing the game) or to enter the option screens. Use your particular
control method to highlight the various options, pressing fire to select.

The Main option screen:

From here you can change various aspects of the game. Most are
self-explanatory. It is from this screen that you choose one or two
players, by turning the selector on or off. Make sure you have your
preferred control method selected for each player.

Customise options:

You can also enter a 'customise option' screen, from here you can cheat as
much as you like. It is possible to make the game extremely easy with all
the options turned on. So, if you would like to see all of the game, who
are we to stop you.

Password:

If you have completed a mission already and don't wish to repeat the
experiece you can enter the password given at the end of the mission.

Control methods for Player 1 and 2:

Joystick: Joystick positions for movement.
Fire button fires.
Left Alt to toggle weapons.
(Right Alt for player 2).

Joypad:
Directional controller for movement
Red or Green button for fire.
Blue or Yellow button toggle weapons.
Side buttons scroll up and down through weapons
Pause / play for pause / resume
While paused press Yellow and Green together to quit level.

Keyboard: Player 2 only
Cursor keys for movement
Right shift for fire / or turn off auto-fire.
Right Amiga for auto-fire.
Right Alt to toggle weapons

Additional controls:  All methods

<Space> Morph ships
< P >   Pause game

While paused:

< Q > Quits mission
< R > Resume mission
<F10> Jump to Workbench

Playing the game:

After the mission objective has been described to you, the game will begin.
You should first become aware of your ships status panel, at the top of the
screen for player one, and at the bottom for player two:

---------------------------------------------------------
|Mission|Weapon| Weapon  |Your |Number| Shield |   %    |
|objects|power |  type   |Score|shield|Strength| Level  |
|  left | bar  |Indicator|     | left |   bar  |Complete|
|--------------------------------------------------------

Basically, your overall objective is to reach the end of the level without
losing all your shields. Along the way you will meet various types of
ships, some are useful power-up ships the other will try and destroy you.

If you fail to achieve the mission objective you will have to try again.

You will also come across boss ships, ypou can't miss them, they're bigger
than the rest and they don't leave you alone until one of you is gone. To
help you judge their shield strength the '% level complete' indicator will
change red, when this % reaches zero it's destroyed.

Power-ups:

You will notice green disc shape objects spinning around, these are
power-ups for your ship. There are eight standard weapons available, plus
special all powerful weapons which will temporarily disable all standard
ones. As well as these weapons there are:

Bomb:           B
Extra Shields   S
Shield Restore  +
Immune          I

You can power up each of your weapons by collecting more of the same. You
can see the particular weapons power bar go up each time this occurs, but
there is a maximum after which any more collected will result in an
overload explosion which acts like a bomb.

You will never lose your weapons you lose a shield, in which case your
present firing weapons power will drop. You can disable this in the
customised options if you wish.

Two-player mode:

If things get a little tough by yourself you can call on a friend to play
as your wing man. In two player mode you fight side by side, any power-ups
revealed can be collected by either player. You can however, combine your
ships to become one. This is activated by pressing the space bar when in
close proximity to one another. Player one will steer and fire forward
guns, player two acts as rear turret gunner. Space bar will release your
two ships. The gun turret will gain power the longer it is left unfired.

Finally: Good Luck!

(c) 1996 M.C Waters & A.J. Fenton-Jones.
WeatherMine Software. All rights reserved.

Program: Matthew Waters

Graphics: Anthony Fenton-Jones

Music: Daniel Dean

Title Page & Logo: Tero Lehtonen