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Full Moon Productions Presents -===================- U L T I M A T U M Version 1.2 -===================- Copyright ©1995 Stuart Matthews, David King and Scott Matthews. All rights reserved ®1995. Release Date 16/8/95 1. Prelude - Atmospheric Background Information 2. Introduction - Quick overview of features 2a. Quick Start - For those who hate reading 3. Installation - How to make the game work 4. Legal Stuff and Registration - IMPORTANT STUFF, PLEASE READ 5. How to Play - All the controls and what to do 6. The Arena - Where everything happens 7. Tips and Tactics - How to win (or at least survive) 8. Undocumented Features - ie bugs :) 9. About the Authors - Fascinating details about the Authors 10. Credits - All the wonderful people who helped 11. The Final Word - ... 2. Prelude PRELUDE It is the year 2030 AD and the Earth is no longer the place it once was. Crime levels have increased exponentially - Arson, theft, extortion, assault and murder are at record highs. Most citizens refer to the new breed of criminals as Transgressors. Highly organised, these criminals have a hand in almost everything that goes on within the city - from politics to medical facilities. Extremely territorial, most cities have only one Transgressor gang - an unspoken code generally helps keep the peace between the gangs from various cities. This is not to say that the Police and Governments have done nothing in response. Indeed, most National Governments are constantly increasing law enforcement numbers and equipment. However, with the Transgressors having the backing of the drug lords, the police are barely able to stem the flow of crime. Until now. Some scientific personal have been secretly researching genetics and weapons, with government assistance, in an effort to develop some form of anti-crime personnel. After five years of trials, the first of these crime-fighters are now ready. Known as the Vindicators, these civilian volunteers are a cut above any normal human. Possessing better reflexes, intelligence and perception, the Vindicators are perhaps the last chance for law and order. Success will not be easy however. The Vindicators are still in limited numbers - only one has been assigned to each city. Furthermore, if the Vindicators fail, not only will crime quickly overcome that city, but the large numbers of failures may cause the governments to abandon the Vindicator Program and submit before the Transgressors. A lot rides on the - Page 2 - 2. Prelude shoulders of each Vindicator. You are Vindicator 800, Rick Murphy, assigned to protect the city of Albora. It is your 6th week on the job and you have had some excellent results. Taking the fight directly to the Transgressors, you quickly crippled their drug and money inflows, as well as destroying many key personnel. Everything was going beautifully - at least until yesterday. Fearing that the end was near, the Transgressors decided to make a major strike. While diverting your attention through a series of raids on outlying houses, a hit squad attacked and killed your family. You were devastated. Hot rage swept through you and has not abated since. You were sick of the violence, sick of the suffering, sick of fighting. It was time to end it once and for all. You arranged a meeting with the leader of the Transgressors - Traxxion. You were willing to end the fighting as quickly as possible. Traxxion listened and agreed with you. Your plan was simple - you would fight, one by one, each of Traxxion's remaining gang members, and then Traxxion himself, in the City Battle Arena. Each fight would be to the death. If you lost then the city would be theirs for the taking. If you won - well, the Transgressors would obviously be no more. A fight to the death - the winner takes all - this was your Ultimatum. 3. Introduction INTRODUCTION Ultimatum is a 3D tank game in the vein of Battlezone and Cybersled. You play the Vindicator Rick Murphy and must fight Eight opponents - Seven Transgressors and their leader Traxxion. Each fight is one on one and takes place within the city's Battle Arena. The game is very fast and furious and includes: - A full 3D arena - Intelligent and varied opponents - Standard Laser and Missile weapons - Over 10 special Power-Ups and Extra-Weapons - Digitised Speech for the Opponent, Commentators and Crowd - Digitised Sound Effects - Full Music score - Practice mode - In-game Help Screens - Options to suit your playing preferences. 4. Quick Start QUICK START OK slacko's - for those of you who can't be bothered reading the whole thing here is a quick overview of what you have to do. 1. Load the game however you like 2. Go to the options screen and choose your options (if you have anything faster than a bog standard A1200, slow the game down at least one notch). 3. Choose the Campaign mode. 4. Kill the Transgressors one by one. Left Mouse - Fire lasers Right Mouse - Move forward Delete - Fire missiles 5. Kill the final Transgressor (Traxxion) and win the game. 6. Pat yourself on the back, say out loud "This game is great!" and send us some money. - Page 3 - 4. Machine Requirements 5. Machine Requirements INSTALLATION Required - Amiga Computer with KS 1.2 or higher - 2 MB Memory - Mouse or Joystick - this is a PAL game. Recommended - Faster Processor for smoother 3D action - Harddisk with 1.4 MB free for much faster loading time - A cool stereo :) INSTALLING ULTIMATUM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HARD DRIVE: - unarchive "Ultimatum_1.2.lha" to wherever you want to - make sure you have the "diskfont.library" and "mathtrans.library" in your Libs: directory Just click on the icon to play :) FLOPPY DISK: - Copy "data1" and "data2" to a disk called "Ultimatum-B" - Copy all of the other files to a disk called "Ultimatum-A" - Install the "Ultimatum-A" disk. - You're ready to go! 6. Legal Stuff and Registration LEGAL STUFF & REGISTRATION Ultimatum Copyright ©1995 Stuart Matthews, David King and Scott Matthews. All Rights Reserved ®1995. Ultimatum is shareware. It may be freely distributed for any non-commercial purpose providing that the archive and all documentation is not altered. It may be used for a period of 30 days on a trial basis. After which, the program must be registered with the Authors. Else the game must be deleted and not used furthermore. Public Domain libraries may distribute Ultimatum for a nominal cost (the cost of the disk and postage). Computer Magazines cannot distribute the game on a Cover Disk without first obtaining written permission and other considerations from the Authors. Ultimatum may not be sold, copied, modified or used for any commercial purpose. Ultimatum is designed for lots of fun and entertainment but is not designed for any professional use. Any damage, injury or losses resulting from inappropriate use of the program, whether accidental or intentional are not the responsibility of the Authors, David King, Stuart Matthews and Scott Matthews, their families, pets, friends, beta testers, or anyone else mentioned in the game or these documents. All rights to the documentation, source code and programs are reserved. - Page 4 - 6. Legal Stuff and Registration >> SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE SHAREWARE << Please note that Ultimatum is a shareware game. We have spent a lot of time developing this game and making it as good as it can possibly be. The Amiga needs good software now more than ever. Support the Amiga and support us - we are just lowly uni students after all. Register now and you'll feel happy knowing that you have helped some struggling uni students, and got a great shareware game. How to register: Send 15 Australian dollars, or 10 US dollars to this address: Ultimatum Stuart Matthews P.O. Box 83 Brisbane Markets QLD AUSTRALIA 4106 Due to high bank charges, it is best to send cash. Put the cash inside a card or something so that it cannot be seen through the envelope. Benefits of registration: - email from the authors personally thanking you - the password that activates the cheatmode - the knowledge that you have supported the Amiga! We now return to regular programming. 7. How to Play HOW TO PLAY Game Modes Get some practice before taking on the big guy. Tank Control Learn how to ram your opponent's tank. Weapons Lasers and guided missiles. State-of-the-art. Specials Lots of power-ups and super-weapons. Winning Find out how to save the City! 8. Game Modes THE GAME MODES In Ultimatum you can play several different types of games. 1. Practice Mode - Practice mode allows you to get familiar with the controls of the tank as well as some opponents and the layout of the arena. At the end of each game you will get a detailed analysis of the game to allow you to improve your strategies. 2. Campaign Mode - Story mode pits you against the eight combatants in the story outlined in the prelude. You must defeat all eight enemies to rid the city of the Transgressors. Each opponent will become progressively harder. Thankfully you will begin each fight with full shields and ammo. 9. Tank Control TANK CONTROL - Page 5 - 9. Tank Control Battles in Ultimatum are fought using tanks. The tank can be operated with the Mouse (or Joystick) and the Keyboard. The sensitivity of the mouse and Joystick can be set in the options screen. The controls are: MOUSE: Moving the mouse left and right will turn the Tank left and right. Pressing the right mouse button will move the tank forward. Pressing the left mouse button will fire the lasers. MOUSE --------- Fire Lasers ---> / | \ <--- Move Forward | | | | | | |---------| | | Turn Left <--- | | ---> Turn Right | | | | \ / --------- JOYSTICK: Left and right rotates the tank, while pressing forward moves the tank forward. Pulling back will reverse the tank while pressing the fire button will fire the lasers. *** Forward *** Press button to fire lasers | *** | Rotate left -------+------- Rotate right | | Reverse KEYBOARD: <SPACE> - Turbo. This gives the tank a short burst of speed. <DEL> - Missile. This fires a missile and switches to the missile view. The missile does not automatically hit the enemy tank. Instead you must guide the missile to the enemy tank by steering left and right. The missile has limited fuel and moves very fast. As soon as it hits anything it will explode. <RETURN> - Special. This will activate a special weapon if you have one. These are outlined below. 10. Weapons WEAPONS Lasers - The Lasers can be fired almost continuously and will show as flashing beams coming from both sides of the tank. The technical term for lasers is H-PAC. This stands for Heavy Particle Accelerator Cannon (© E Sean L Rintel). H-PAC is the term used in-game. Lasers have two restrictions: (a) Limited Ammo - The Tank cannot store the energy to keep the - Page 6 - 10. Weapons Lasers firing on a never-ending basis. The tank can hold 40 shots at any one time. Your remaining shots are indicated on the lower left hand corner of the screen. You can reload the Lasers from one of the two reload stations in the arena. The stations are at either end of the arena and marked with either a ONE or a TWO. You start in number ONE. Further, you must reload from alternate reload stations. Thus, your next reload will be at station TWO, then back to ONE, back to TWO and so on. To make it easier the computer will tell you which reload you must use next. You actually reload by driving through the centre of the station. NOTE: you can drive in either way, not just the way the arrows point. (b) Limited Strength - The Lasers are not very strong. They do very little damage from any great distance. In close, however, they make very capable weapons. Missiles - These are your secret weapons. The missiles, known as TankBusters, deliver large amounts of damage. However, you must control the missiles yourself. When you fire a missile, the tank stops moving and the screen will change to the missile view (green). You must then guide the missile to the Enemy tank. Please note a few things: the Enemy tank WILL try and dodge the missile, the missile moves very fast and can be hard to control, the missile will explode as soon as it hits anything, and the missile has limited fuel (which counts down on the bottom right of the screen). Missiles may be used to destroy Specials (to prevent your opponent from getting it). You also have limited missiles - you begin with only four - so use them sparingly. To your advantage the enemy tank does not have any missiles. Turbo - By pressing the space bar you will get a short burst of speed. This may be enough to get you to a reload station or just to get some breathing space. You can also use it to get really close to the other tank and blast him before he has time to react. The number of turbos you have left is indicated by the blue arrows at the bottom of your heads-up-display. Aegis - these are the shields. I know this isn't really a weapon but I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it :) Your shields are expressed as a percentage. When they fall below zero you are dead :( 11. Specials SPECIALS Specials are collected by obtaining the rotating power-up pyramids that appear from time to time. They will appear randomly and you will be alerted to their presence by a unique sound - you'll learn to recognise it! Whoever gets to the pyramid first will get the bonus, so quickly look for it. Specials consist of two different types of bonuses: Power Ups and Extra Weapons. Both Power Ups and Extra Weapons look identical so you will never know what special it is until you get it. These are the specials: 1. Shield Repair - This power up will either partially or (if you are lucky) completely repair your shields. 2. Laser Reload - This will reload your lasers to their maximum capacity. 3. Laser Bonus - This will both reload and increase your lasers to a - Page 7 - 11. Specials total of 80. 4. Missile Reload - This will reload your missiles to four (Major KICK BUTT TIME!). 5. Turbo Reload - This will reload your turbos to four. 6. Velocity - This will increase the speed of your tank permanantly. 7. Enemy Analysis - This will show the current statistics of the opponent. 8. H-PAC Booster - This will replace your normal laser with a better Laser. 9. Starbursts - these are self-guiding charges of energy fired at your opponent. Simply point at the enemy and shoot - the starburst will then home in on the enemy tank. Starbursts require 15 units of H-PAC each - once you have run out of H-PAC then you lose the Starburst special. Press return to activate this special. (And it makes a cool sound when you fire it!! Excellent! Party!!) 10. Recoil Bomb - this converts all your remaining H-PAC, Missiles and Turbos into one huge bomb. No aiming is required :) Just press return to activate. 11. Z-Sphere - gives temporary invulnerability - indicated by your Aegis percentage shown in yellow (Dave says, "I always have to say DIE MOTHERS when ever I get this special!!") 12. Transmogrifier - pressing return converts all of your current H-PAC into Aegis! (Scott says, "what does Transmogrifier mean again?") 13. Rammers - ramming the enemy tank will now do him lots of damage *grin* 12. Winning WINNING When you defeat an opponent or are defeated, you will get a summary screen showing you all sorts of interesting details about the game. Press any key to go on. If you have defeated the opponent the next opponent will appear and on you go. If you are good enough to defeat all the opponents you will get the end game sequence. Note that there are different end game sequences depending on the level you are playing at. You only get the really, truly, its all over, end game sequence if you are playing at the hardest level. If you are defeated you may get another chance depending on if there are any continues left. There is also a secret mode if you know what to type in and where to type it in (HAH! Send us money and we will tell you what and where - see, another good reason to register). 13. The Arena THE ARENA In total there are three different arenas set in three different locations. The locations are on the surface of the Earth, on the surface of the moon, and underground. The arenas vary in size and shape, but each consists of similar structures. Only experience will teach you how to best use each arena to your advantage. However, to get you started, the first arena is outlined below. The first arena is approximately square in shape with the four outer points marked by tall rectangular END posts - they are marked with the word "END" and indicate the boundaries of the arena. An invisible wall prevents you from moving outside the boundaries of the arena and your tank will simply bounce off it. (Map - Objects 1, 2, 3, 4) The starting points for the two tanks are at opposite ends of the arena and look like walled parking bays with arrows on the ground and walls. - Page 8 - 13. The Arena The two starting bays both have a sign above them saying either a "ONE" or "TWO" written on the sides. You start in bay ONE and the computer starts in bay TWO. You can enter the bays from either direction. The starting bays are used for reloading the lasers. (Map - Objects 5(One), 6(Two)) The center of the arena is marked by a large structure (Map - Object 7). There are also four multi-layered storage pods in the arena. Two are on each side and they are rectangular in shape (Map - objects 8, 9, 10, 11). There are also two special objects in the arena. The first is the local Television Building. It houses the commentators and the television cameras and studios. It is in one corner of the arena and looks like a large building with TV written on one side and large antenna on top of the building (Map - Object 12). The other object is the Hazard. It is located diagonally opposite the TV building on the far side of the arena. A large striped sign floats above the pit warning contestents to stay away. Hitting the pit with your tank will result in damage! (Map - Object 13). [1]--- ---[2] | | | | | |6 | ------ | | | | | | | | 13 | ------ |--| |--| |8 | |9 | |--| |--| |----| | 7 | | | |----| |--| |--| |10| |11| |--| |--| ------ | 12 | | | | | | | | | | ------ |5 | | | | | | [3]--- ---[4] 14. Tips and Tactics TIPS AND TACTICS Getting Started - Read these docs from top to bottom - The first thing you should do is run the practice game, to get you familiar with the game and how to use the lasers, missiles and specials. - Also get familiar with the sensitivity of the controllers (either mouse or joy). Remember that you can change the sensitivity of the - Page 9 - 14. Tips and Tactics controllers in the options menu - different computers will require different sensitivities so try a few different ones. - Different computers will also require different speed settings. The standard game was designed to run on an unexpanded Amiga 1200, so if you have anything different (ie faster) you will need to slow the speed down a little. If you find the screen is glitching this may be because the speed setting is up to high. For instance, on my A4000/030 (Dave writing here) I knock the speed setting down one or two. Experiment till you find the setting that suits your computer. - Register and get the full version. Advanced Combat Tactics - Get in close. Your lasers do more damage the closer you are. - Use the turbo to get you to specials or reload bays quickly. - Don't be afraid to use the missiles in close (its easy to hit the enemy in close) or to just scout out the arena. - If you can't see the special, try and find the enemy tank - it may be heading for the special. - If know you can't get to the special before the enemy tank, you may wish to missile the special. At least the enemy can't get it :) - Try not to turn your back on the computer for long - it will always take advantage of your blind spots. - Get familiar with the arena - know where the reload bays are. - Try different strategies with the specials - they will often mean the difference between winning and losing. - Register and get the full version. 15. 8. Undocumented Features UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES Ultimatum has been tested on an A1200/020/2M and an A4000/040/4M and works fine on these computers. FLICKERING SCREEN DURING PLAY On an Amiga faster than a stock A1200, the "ground" may flicker. This is because the game is running too fast. Correct this by bringing the game speed down a notch or two. You can do this on the Options screen. On Dave's A4000, Dave had to use a value of 1 or 2 for the game speed. ARENA OBJECTS UPSIDE-DOWN On rare occasions the arena objects are upside-down during the "fly-in" sequence, just before you fight your opponent. This appears to be a rather annoying quirk of Amos3D and cannot be corrected as far as I know. FLICKERING GARBLED GRAPHICS Sometimes while the music is being played you may see some flickering garbled graphics. This is caused by the music player I am using :( This can often be corrected by rebooting and loading Ultimatum from a "fresh" start. If you have been using Workbench for a while and then load Ultimatum, old bits of memory may still be floating around, causing the flickering. Therefore rebooting is recommended. 16. About the Authors ABOUT THE AUTHORS We LOVE email!! So please send us some email telling us whether you liked Ultimatum or not. Dave's email address : ecdking@jolt.mpx.com.au - Page 10 - 16. About the Authors ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Stu's email address : co314519@student.uq.edu.au ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ David King was completing an Economics Degree with Honours at University, but has since finished the degree, got a real job, moved a 1000 kms away, and is living life to the max (Drink Pepsi :) ). Most people call me Dave BTW. I use and recommend: (a) Books - Anything by Katherine Kerr (Fantasy), Douglas Adams (Sci-Fi) and Joe Donnelly (Horror). Also check out the Star Wars trilogy by Timothy Zann. Everville by Clive Barker was also excellent. (b) Movies - Star Wars and Alien Trilogy, Evil Dead movies, The Fisher King, Ace Ventura, Reservior Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction. (c) TV - The X-Files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Seinfeld, NYBD Blue, Star Trek, Picket Fences, Lois and Clark. (d) Music - Dire Straits, Was (Not Was), Rodney Jordon, The Cure, Pink Floyd. (e) Computer Games - Civilization, Mean Arenas, Doom (on IBM) , Black Crypt, Stunt Car Racer, Kick Boxer, Black Crypt, NBA Jam (on Sega), IK+, Sim Anything, Black Crypt, Hired Guns!!! (f) Computer Programs - Final Writer (we need more software like this), DPaint, Imagine, Art Expression, Memacs, Directory Opus, X-Comm. Stuart Matthews is doing a Commerce/Law degree (no, he doesn't know why he's doing Law either, so don't ask). Stuart likes... (a) Books - Books by Tolkien, Zahn, Moorcock, Piers Anthony, any of the Dragonlance books. (b) Movies - Star Wars, Aliens, Indiana Jones movies, every one of James Cameron's movies, Army of Darkness, James Bond. (c) TV - Star Trek: The Next Gen (I hate the original series), X-Files, Seinfeld, The Simpsons. (d) Music - Billy Joel, any sort of Jazz, Pet Shop Boys, Enigma, Clannad, Michael Jackson, Elton John, The Lion King soundtrack. (e) Computer Games - Hired Guns (top game!), Cannon Fodder, Elite and Frontier, Super Cars 2. (f) Computer Programs - AmosPro, OctaMED (what else do you need?) 17. Credits CREDITS Ultimatum - A Full Moon Production. Designed by David King and Stuart Matthews. Stuart Matthews - Programming, Music, Sounds Effects, Creative Input David King - 3d Objects and Graphics, Game Design and Scripting, Documentation Scott Matthews - Bitmap, handdrawn, pictures of the Characters and the Game Over pics. Starring: Sean Rintel as the Evil and Nasty Transgressors Stuart Matthews as the Cheerful and Helpful Commentators David, Stuart, Tim, and Jim as the Crowd The following Programs were used to help make this game: 1. Amos Professional - a beautiful piece of software and a joy to work with. But where is the AGA update!! AARRGGHH!! 2. Amos Compiler -Works fine. I wish it'd speed up the frame rate a bit more *grumble* - Page 11 - 17. Credits 3. Amos 3D - "Arrrrrrrrggggghhhh I hate this stupid program", says David, "What about you Stuart?". "I think Voodoo (who made Amos3D) never actually intended anyone to make a game with it. Amos3D lacks a lot of features that are needed to make a good 3d game. You have to struggle to do anything with it", says Stuart. 4. DPaint 4.5 - Very nice. 5. Imagine 2.0 - I wish I had a faster computer, more ram, 24 bit graphics, and Imagine 3.0. 6. OctaMED Pro - a truly fantastic program. Ignore the other trackers, MED is the best! 7. Final Writer - The best. 8. Memacs - Fast, small and easy to use. (It has stupid hot keys though - Stu.) 9. Directory Opus - The best directory management program ever, but why doesn't it free all memory when it exits?? ("Yeah" says Stu.) 10. X-Comm - Ok, so its buggy. But its fast and gets the job done. And I like the interface. The following bits of hardware were used to help make this game: 1. David's Computer - Amiga 4000/030/4/120, Commodore 1940 Monitor. 2. Stuart's Computer - Amiga 1200/020/2/170, Commodore 1940 Monitor. 3. Stuart's Sound Digitizer. 4. Stuart's Microphone. 5. David's Chair. 6. Stuart's Chair. 7. David's Brain. 8. Stuart's Brain ("Sometimes", says David.) 9. David's Modem. 10. Stuart's Modem. 11. Lots of Telecom's cabling. The authors would like to thank the following people for playing and testing our game and making useful suggestions: Craig Smith, Scott Matthews, Sean Rintel, Jonathan Mitchell, Tim Ling, Scott Holden, Jim Hawkins, Mark Hermanussen, Greg Romans, Scott Whitla, Eng-lye Ong, Chris Gascoigne and probably a lot of other people we've forgotten but said something useful at some stage in the last 18 months. 18. The Final Word THE FINAL WORD Its taken us a year and a half to make this game, and its turned out completely different from the program we both spoke about right at the start. Funny how things turn out like that. Truth be told we probably could have finished this game a hell of a lot quicker but life in general got in the way. Anyway, its been a lot of fun and we hope that at least some of you enjoy it. Please write and tell us what you think: - flames will be deleted - constructive criticism will be taken on board - praise will be graciously accepted Go ESCOM and may the Force be with you, always.