1,000 Games

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ 1,000 Games / Disc1.iso / ARCADE / BBATTLE / MANUAL_E.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-09-21 | 24.6 KB | 637 lines

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