Developed using the Sprite Animation Toolkit, by Ingenmar Ragnemalm
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Many brave pilots have sought their fortune in the emeraldium-rich asteroid belts of Arvis Omega. Some have returned with wealth beyond the wildest dreams of men, women, or small fuzzy creatures from Alpha Centauri, retiring to a life of luxury and exotic frozen drinks. Most, of course, have simply died brief but heinous deaths.
You, of course, being a brave but currently poor pilot, do not plan to die one of the aforementioned deaths.
Alone, or with a single companion, you will enter the asteroid belt to blast the precious emeraldium loose from the rocks where it hides. You will also uncover rare elements that provide energy to sustain your ship. If you are successful and gather the delicate crystals, you will be able to trade them for better equipment and eternal fame.
Of course, you are not the only pilots in the belts of Arvis Omega! Aliens from far-off worlds come there as well, to gather the crystals for themselves, or just to blow away some annoying humans.
Good luck!
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Asterax is a single- or multi-player arcade game for Macintosh™ computers, growing out of the classic arcade game Asteroids(™), but with new strategic elements. Asterax makes use of many features of the modern Macintosh system, including multiple screen sizes and 4-channel sound!
Features:
Classic arcade action with new strategic elements
Smooth animation on Motorola 680x0 and PowerPC processors
Full support for multiple monitor sizes -- allowing you to actually use all of your monitor, whether you have a Color Classic or a 21" multi-sync!
Four-channel sound support
Completely modeled and rendered 3-dimensional graphics
System Requirements:
A Macintosh computer with a Motorola 68020, 030, 040, or PowerPC 601 processor
System 7.0 system software or later
A monitor supporting 16 or 256 colors
At least 4 MB of available RAM -- Asterax has been tested on a 4 MB system using Connectix RamDoubler™ without any problems.
Asterax has been successfully tested on machines ranging from a Duo 210 to a IIvx to a Quadra 800, and all of the PowerMacs (as of May 8th, 1994...)
Instructions for Use:
Asterax automatically creates preferences and high-score files when you run it for the first time. The program will ask you what size monitor you wish to use, and will remember that size for later games. You may change this setting later by selecting "Preferences..." from the main Asterax screen.
The screen size you choose will determine, in part, the amount of memory Asterax requires to run. Roughly, you can estimate your memory load using this table:
Screen Size Recommended Memory (from the Finder's Get Info box)
512 x 384 3.5 MB
640 x 400 3.7 MB
640 x 480 3.8 MB
832 x 624 4.2 MB
1024 x 768 4.8 MB
1152 x 870 5.2 MB
Some players report that smaller screens (about 640x480) are the most fun for a single player, while those using two-player mode prefer larger screens so that they have room to work. Since your screen size is recorded with each high score, feel free to experiment and find what works best with you. Note, however, that the "About" screens are not guaranteed to display properly on screen sizes smaller than 640 x 480.
During game play, the following key shortcuts can come in handy:
caps lock: Pause the game and allow normal Macintosh menu operation. You can change the volume, as well.
escape or command-q: Quit the current game and return to the main screen
Legal Agreement: By Using This Software, you Agree To This. So Read It.
Arvandor Software is not responsible for any damage to the hardware of users or the data contained therein that may result from the use its products. All software products from Arvandor Software are understood to be delivered "as is," and no guarantee of correctness is stated or implied. Operators of Arvandor Software products use them at their own risk; the staff of Arvandor Software will not be held liable for any direct, indirect, or consequential damage resulting from use of its products.
Arvandor Software, Shareware, and all that Jazz
This is Arvandor's first public release. We are a group of students who believe in the development of high-quality software for the Macintosh; Asterax started as an experiment, to see if we were able to put together a product that actually worked. We think that it does, and that it can move some new ideas into the Macintosh game community. We intend to continue to support Asterax and to develop new versions of it as time allows; we have high hopes for a networked version, and many plans for other Macintosh games and applications. We intend to support our products "90's style", with a strong Internet presence, rapid replies to USENET and e-mail comments, and with rapid integration of new Macintosh technologies.
Of course, we are also students. We have classes, we have bills, we have tuitions to pay. Writing programs for the Mac is a lot of fun, and is definitely something that we will continue to do as much as we can -- but we are far more likely to keep working on projects like Asterax if the community supports our efforts.
So that's the deal. We hope you like Asterax -- play it alone, play it with your friends. If you like it, send in a check for $10.00 (heck, more, if you like. Less if you can't). If you don't like it, tell us why. If you do, tell us why. Send in your comments, complaints, bug reports, raves, rants, recipes... whatever. We'll read it all.
Distribute Asterax freely to your friends, relatives, enemies, pets... heck, everyone you meet. But...
Any distribution of Asterax must include this file, along with all of the standard application files, and...
Asterax may NOT BE DISTRIBUTED FOR PROFIT WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF ARVANDOR SOFTWARE!!!
Contacting Arvandor:
If you want to reach Arvandor, the quickest way is through Internet e-mail:
e-mail to "hanson@cs.stanford.edu"
If you want to send money, chocolates, olives, or good-old-fashioned letters (this is slower than e-mail, by the way...):
Michael Hanson
P.O. Box 10009
Stanford, CA 94309
Re: Arvandor Software
Thanks to:
Many thanks to EVERYONE who made this project happen...
to Ingenmar, for SAT, and our testers, for putting up with us...
