The Game Master (3rd Edition)

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Scorched Earth "The Mother of All Games" - The Manual - Copyright 1991 (c) Wendell T. Hicken Scorched Earth page I Table of Contents ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Intro......................................... 1 Quick Start................................... 2 Customizing Scorch............................ 4 Main Menu..................................... 5 Sound Menu.................................... 6 Hardware Menu................................. 7 Economics Menu................................ 8 Landscape Menu................................ 9 Physics Menu..................................10 Weather Menu..................................11 Tanks Menu....................................12 Weapons Menu..................................13 Choosing Players..............................14 Computer Opponents............................15 Playing the Game..............................17 Controls Available............................18 Tank Control Menu.............................20 Moving Your Tank..............................22 System Menu...................................23 Reassigning Players...........................24 Buying Equipment..............................25 Equipment List................................27 Available Weapons.............................28 Standard Weapons..............................29 Earth Destroying Weapons......................30 Earth Producing Weapons.......................31 Available Accessories.........................32 Guidance Systems..............................33 Defense Systems...............................35 Miscellaneous Extras..........................36 Simultaneous Mode.............................37 Registering Scorch............................38 About the Author..............................39 Scorched Earth page 1 Introduction ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Scorched Earth is a simple, yet exciting artillery combat game, based on an auspicious history of artillery games. Most of the options are very intuitive, and you can begin playing with only a little bit of information. Then, when you are interested, you can poke in the dimmer recesses of the manual for more information and options (or just ignore it altogether!) Note that Scorched Earth was designed to run on a VGA system, and will not run on anything less. (I.E. Hercules, MDA, CGA, EGA, PGA, etc.) Scorched Earth page 2 Scorch Qwik Start ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ So, you want to play Scorched Earth...OK, here's whatcha gotta do: Start Scorched Earth by copying everything into a subdirectory of your harddisk, like c:\games\scorch, or by putting it all on a floppy disk. Now type SCORCH (and then hit <Enter> for all you novices. :-) ) You are now looking at a Shareware message. Take the time to read it and let it bother your conscience just a little bit. Don't worry, there's nothing subliminal in the message. (Trust me!) Now just hit any key, and you will be looking at the opening screen. For the first game, We'd like to make a couple of changes to Scorched Earth's normal default settings. Here's how ya do it: With the mouse, click on Sound, or press "O". Then press "F" for Flight Sound 2 times. (or click twice) so that it says POS. If you go past it, just click a couple extra times, till it comes back. Now press ESC, or click anywhere outside the dialog box. Now click on Landscape, or press "L". Then press "R" for Random Land. (Or click on it) Now press ESC, or click anywhere outside the dialog box. Now click on Physics, or press "Y". Then press "W" 2 or 3 times till it says Random. (or click on Walls Exist) Now press ESC, or click anywhere outside the dialog box. Now click on Tank Options, or press "T". Then press "T" (or click on Talking Tanks) till there is a check mark in the box. This means ON. Then press "C" (or click on Computers Buy) to turn this option off. This will give you a little advantage while you're learning. Now press ESC, or click anywhere outside the dialog box. If You have a slow system, you might want to go to the weapons menu and set the firing delay to a smaller number. The best thing is to play it once, and see how fast it is, then adjust it to suit your system. If the system seems be going too slow, just DECREASE this number. If you want, save these defaults. You can always retype them later, or get rid or them later, at your discretion. Scorched Earth page 3 Scorch Qwik Start ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Now, click on Start, or press "S", and start the game. The screen will turn red (every player has their own color). The computer will ask you if the player is a person or a computer. Select person. Now the system will ask you for your name. Then the game will show you several tanks. Select any of them for now. For the most part, they are the same. Next the computer will turn green, and ask you again whether this player will be a person, or a computer played tank. If you're all alone, select computer. Otherwise, go ahead and select person again. If you selected person, repeat the steps for player 1. If you selected Computer, Now you are asked to select the type of opponent. The opponent types are all explained later in this manual. (see page 15). For now, Choose Moron. That should give you a fighting chance. Then select the tank for the computer. Again, it doesn't really make any difference. (The computer will choose it's own name.) Now the computer will generate a random Scorched Earth background. The player that is furthest left on the screen will start. If that is the computer, you have already been fired upon. To fire, select fire-power, by using the up and down arrows, or putting the mouse over it (at the top left of screen) and pressing the left or right button to increase or decrease power. Do the same with angle, using the left and right arrows, or putting the cursor on it and using the mouse buttons. Now press space bar, or both mouse buttons at once! Boom! That's basically how it goes. You can keep shooting tell you get the other tank(s). If you're having trouble, start over, and choose the Trace -ON option, so that all your missiles leave a colored track. The screen will get messy, but it's much easier to figger out where you shot. After you kill a tank, you have the option to buy weapons, based on how much money you made. Money you don't spend will be saved till later. Try buying a Baby nuke. Then, before you fire the next time, press TAB, or select the weapons menu, by clicking the left or right mouse button on the top right corner of the screen. Sit back and watch the fun. The tank menu is activated by pressing "T" or clicking on a players name. Here you can work the guidance and defense systems. At any time, hit CTRL-S for the system menu, which will let you exit the game, or switch players, or kill everyone. Most of all, just experiment, and have fun. Any questions at all should be in the manual, but don't hesitate to email and ask. Appropriate addresses are at the end of this Document. HAVE FUN! Scorched Earth page 4 Customizing Scorch ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Scorched Earth has quite an extensive set of options for configuring how the game is played. The defaults for most of these are pretty good, but as many people have different preferences, an easy system has been designed to customize Scorch to each player's taste. Each of the menus is documented below, with a brief description of what the menu covers, and then an item by item explanation of all the options. Some letters are hot-keys - if you press that key on the keyboard it is the same as clicking on that button with the mouse. Left-clicking and right-clicking with the mouse on a button will cause the amount to decrease and increase, respectively. Some entries require a filename. If this is the case, a rectangle will appear when you select the appropriate choice. You may then type in a name, and press enter. The rectangle will disappear, and you can continue setting options. When you click on Save Changes, your current configuration, or set of choices, will be written to the file SCORCH.CFG. The next time you start Scorch, it will use the same set of options. YOUR OPTIONS WILL ONLY BE SAVED IF YOU SELECT THE SAVE CHANGES BUTTON. Otherwise, any options you change will only last for the current game. It is possible to use multiple configuration files. To do this, when you run Scorch, type "SCORCH MYCONFIG.CFG". That will tell Scorch to use the file MYCONFIG.CFG instead of SCORCH.CFG. Change the options to how you like them and click on Save Changes. The file MYCONFIG.CFG will be created if it didn't already exist, or updated otherwise. You can then use this configuration file whenever you want. There is no limit to how many configuration files you can have, but you must select which one you want to use each time you start Scorch. If you don't choose one, Scorch will always load the file SCORCH.CFG. Feel free to experiment... you can always reset the defaults by deleting SCORCH.CFG, or by running FIX.BAT. Scorch will automatically recreate the configuration file with the built-in defaults. SCORCH.CFG can also be edited directly using any word processor or editor that will edit pure ASCII files. (I.E. Sidekick's Notepad, PC Tools Desktop, etc.) (see also "Changing The Talking Tanks" page 12) Scorched Earth page 5 Main Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The main menu gives you direct access to the most common options, and lets you choose between several sub-menus for more options. Any entry followed by three dots(...) causes a menu to pop up when you select it. After you have chosen any options, you can decided whether or not to save them (as explained above), and the press the S key to start the game, or click on the Start button. Start Start playing the game. Players Select the number of people who will be playing, including computer players. (The value must be between 2 and 10.) Rounds Select how many rounds will be played. This number must be between 5 and 50. Sound... Go to the Sound Menu (See page 6). Hardware... Go to the Hardware Menu (See page 7). Economics... Go to the Economics Menu (See page 8). Landscape... Go to the Landscape Menu (See page 9). Physics... Go to the Physics Menu (See page 10). Weather... Go to the Weather Menu (See page 11). Tank Options... Go to the Tank Options Menu (See page 12). Weapons... Go to the Weapons Menu (See page 13). Save Changes Save any changes which you have made to the current configuration file (probably SCORCH.CFG). Scorched Earth page 6 Sound Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The sound menu lets you decide what kind of noises Scorch will make. Sound ON or OFF. If it is ON, then Scorch will generate sound effects using the PC's speaker. If OFF, it will shut up. Flight Sounds POS, VEL, or OFF. This option determines what sounds, if any, your weapons make while streaking through the air towards their target. POS makes sounds based on the height of the projectile. VEL makes sounds based on the current projectile velocity. OFF is, of course, No sound. Scorched Earth page 7 Hardware Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The hardware options have to do with making Scorch work as best as possible on your computer. In general, the defaults for these options will be the right thing. If you find you are having a problem with your monitor, mouse, or keyboard, one of the options might be just what you are looking for! Be careful though, as improperly setting these options can also make Scorch run very poorly, or not at all. (If you're in over your head, just run the program FIX.BAT, and it will wipe out your configuration file, and you can then make a new one.) Graphics Mode This option lets you choose which graphics mode Scorched Earth will run in. Any changes you make here must be Saved from the Main Menu, and will not take effect until you exit Scorch and restart it. Some of the options here may not be available on all systems, and should be avoided. Note that some of the graphics modes will probably be incompatible with your monitor! (use FIX.BAT to fix the system if you accidentally corrupt your copy of SCORCH.CFG.) Careful Keyboard This option can be safely ignored, unless your system locks up in strange ways while playing Scorch. It forces Scorch to use the BIOS to access the keyboard, rather than accessing the keyboard directly. This slows down the response of the game while playing, and should be avoided. (The default is off) Small Memory This option is for players who have too little memory for all of Scorch's options. By selecting this, Scorch will disable some of the extended features, and use less memory. (The default is off) Mouse Enabled This option tells Scorch whether you want to use a mouse or not. If you don't have a rodent, Scorch will not try to use one. (But wouldn't this be a good time to buy one?) (The default is on) Mouse Rate This option lets you control how fast the cursor on screen moves compared to how fast you move the mouse. High numbers mean fast movement! (The default is 0.5) Scorched Earth page 8 Economics Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The economics menu has options that control how money will affect the game and what methods of scoring will be used. Interest Rate If you start a round with unspent money "in the bank", then you will earn interest on that money. The interest rate determines what percent you earn. This rate also affects the cost of repeated-use items such as the Auto-Defense System. (The default is .05%) Cash at Start This determines how much money all players start with. If it is non-zero, players will have a chance to buy items before the first round starts. (The default is $0) Scoring Mode This determines how the game will be scored. BASIC scoring gives you points for killing tanks and surviving a round. EXPERT scoring gives you less points for actually killing a tank, but gives you points every time you damage a tank or shield. GREEDY scoring works like EXPERT scoring, but the final rankings at the end of each round are based on the Net Worth of your tank, e.g. how much all cash you have in the bank plus the depreciated value of all weapons, etc. in stock ("He who dies with the most toys wins"). (The default is EXPERT) Scorched Earth page 9 Landscape Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Landscape Menu lets you set options that determine how the land on which you fight will appear. Using these options, you can choose low, rolling hills, steep, craggy mountains, and anything in between. Bumpiness This determines how smooth or bumpy the landscape will be. Slope This determines how steep hills and valleys will be. Flatten Peaks This forces the hills the flatten out at a certain steepness if it is on. It keeps the hills from being too steep. Random Land If this is ON, the above options are set randomly by the computer at the beginning of each round. This allows for a wide variety of terrains. Scorched Earth page 10 Physics Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Physics menu let you control different aspects of reality, such as the atmosphere and gravity of the planet you are fighting on, and whether the edges you see on screen have any meaning to the game, or are just windows onto a larger playing field. Air Viscosity This determines whether or not the air is viscous, i.e. does it slow down projectiles moving through it? If you are using viscous air, J guidance will not work properly, nor will some of the computer players. Gravity This determines the force of gravity in pixels/sec². Borders Extend This option specifies how far off-screen projectiles should be tracked before being counted as a "miss." If this is zero, no missile will ever return to the screen or explode off the edge, even if the wind would have brought it back on-screen. A high enough value here will have the computer track any projectile until it hits somewhere, but might add unnecessarily long pauses as it tracks these projectiles. Walls Exist This determines whether the edges you see on screen exist or not. OFF means they never do, ON means they always do, RANDOM means that at the beginning of each round the computer decides whether or not they do, and ERRATIC means that before each shot, the computer decides whether of not they do. To determine what the walls do when they exist, see the option below, Effect of Walls. Effect of Walls This option is only meaningful when the walls exist. CONCRETE Walls will block shots from going off screen in any direction. RUBBER Walls will cause projectiles to bounce off them (Poolsharks take advantage of this). SPRING Walls are similar to RUBBER walls, but they give the projectile a "kick" when they reflect them, much as pinball machines do. WRAPAROUND Edges cause the left and right edge to wrap around, i.e. a missile going off screen to the right will come on screen to the left. RANDOM Tells the computer to pick one of the four methods at the beginning of each round, and ERRATIC tells the computer to choose a method before each shot. You can tell what the current state of the walls is by their color: Gray: no effect White: CONCRETE Red: RUBBER Green: SPRING Yellow: WRAPAROUND Suspend Dirt This number allows dirt to remain suspended in the air some of the time. It is a percentage chance, per shot, that all the dirt on screen will fall. It can be used on slow computers to speed up the game, or to introduce more variety. Earth Disrupters are only interesting with this option enabled. Scorched Earth page 11 Weather Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The weather menu lets you set various characteristics determining how the weather will behave and what the sky will look like. Sky This determines how the background sky will look. RANDOM tells the computer to decide at the beginning of each round what kind of background it should use. Note that some skies are hostile, and will launch their own attacks. Also if you are using star backgrounds, The computer may take quite some time to draw the screen. Just be patient. Max. Wind This determines the maximum wind velocity. If 0, there will be no wind. Changing Wind If this is enabled, the wind will change slightly between each shot. This can be a real pain when targeting someone, especially if you aren't paying attention. Scorched Earth page 12 Tank Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This menu controls different aspects of the tanks. Some of the options only affect computer tanks, and some affect all tanks. Talking Tanks If this option is on, enemy tanks will "talk" to you by flashing messages on screen, like cartoon characters. Attack file This should be the name of a file which contains messages tanks will say when attacking. The Default is TALK1.CFG. Die file This should be the name of a file which contains messages tanks will say when they die. The Default is TALK2.CFG. Changing the Talking Tanks ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ If you want to change the message files, use any editor that will edit straight ASCII files, or use your favorite word processor, and when saving the file, use the ASCII option. (Sometimes this is called print to disk, or printed text) The Attack file is TALK1.CFG, the Die file is TALK2.CFG. Each comment should take up on line in the file, just add new comments to the end. Or make up your whole own file, and type its name into the Attack file or Die file option. (Note: SCORCH.CFG can also be edited in a similar fashion.) Computers Buy This determines whether or not tanks can buy items with their money. If you are having a hard time beating them, cheat a little and try turning this option off. Tanks Fall If this is turned off, tanks will not fall when the ground is shot out from beneath them. Not very realistic, but an option nonetheless. Falling Delay This lets you determine how fast the tanks fall on screen. If you don't like to wait, set this to zero. Impact Damage If this is on, tanks take damage from a fall when they hit the ground. If it is off, tanks take damage as they are falling. This isn't an important distinction, just a matter of preference. Total damage done is the same in either case. Simultaneous Mode This option will cause Scorch to run in simultaneous mode, where all players and computers can aim and fire at once. For more information, See "Simultaneous Mode" page 36. Scorched Earth page 13 Weapons Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ These options let you customize which weapons you want to play with and how they work. By default all weapons are allowed, but some people prefer to have a more restricted set of choices. SCORCH caters to all people. Arms Level This lets you disallow the use of certain items from the game. Using an Arms Level of 0 is often useful for beginners, so they don't have to deal with so many options. Some people just don't like using the large weapons at all. To see what items belong to what Arms Level, consult the Equipment List (starting on page 27). The Arms Level also affects available accessories. Bomb icon This lets you choose what the projectile will look like when you fire it: either a small dot, or a slightly larger dot. This is just a matter of preference. Tunneling If tunneling is OFF, weapons explode the instant they hit dirt (or anything else). If it is ON, they will tunnel when they hit dirt, burrowing into the ground before exploding. They might even come out the other side of a small enough pile of dirt, though at reduced velocity. If you play with tunneling ON, you can still buy Contact Triggers which force any projectile to explode on contact. Scale For the blood-thirsty players, Scorch can be "scaled up", so that the weapons are more destructive than usual. This option has no effect using 320x200 graphics, because that mode is already "scaled up" due to lack of pixels. Firing Delay This option determines how long it takes the computer to draw projectiles when they are fired. If you like suspense, make it slow (high). If you want to get on with the game, make it fast. (low numbers) (The default is 20.) Trace Paths If this is on, each projectile will leave a trail on the screen of it's path, in the color of the firing tank. This can be useful in targeting, as you don't have to remember where your last shot hit. When using this option, you can use the Clear Traces option from the "System Menu" (Ctrl-s) whenever the screen gets too cluttered. Invisible Shots This option tells the computer not to draw the arc of the projectile at all, just show where it hit. This can be very challenging, especially if you are playing with Mag Deflectors and Reflective Walls. Extra Dirt This controls how much dirt the Dirt Charges let out. If you like lots of dirt, you can use this. It's fun but can really slow the game down. Not to mention you should pay extra attention to buying Earth handling weapons. Scorched Earth page 14 Choosing Players ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Once you have chosen START from the main menu, you will be allowed to choose settings unique to each player. Most of these choices can be changed while playing the game by using the system menu (See Using the System Menu, page 23). The following procedure will repeat each player in the game: 1) The background will change to several shades of a particular color. This color will represent the current player, and may not be changed. The player will be identified by a number. 2) You are given the opportunity to choose whether this player will be controlled by the computer, or by someone/something else. Click on the COMPUTER button to let the computer take control, or PLAYER button for someone else. 3) If you chose PLAYER, you will be prompted for the name of the player. Type in a name, and press enter when you are done. If you chose COMPUTER, you will be prompted for information on how the computer should play the tank. Choices and their meanings are listed on the next page. In any case, the computer will choose a name for its player which will not conflict with any name used by a human (or otherwise) player. Scorched Earth page 15 Computer Opponents ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Category Methods of Operation -------- -------------------- Moron Well, you can't get much stupider than this. Morons just pick an angle and power, and shoot. Definitely for beginners only. Shooter Shooters can be significantly deadlier than Morons, but only if they have a straight line of fire. Poolshark Poolsharks act like Shooters unless you are using rebounding walls. Then they try to rebound shots off of the walls and ceilings to shoot you. Tosser Tossers start out like Morons, but they'll refine their aim to get closer and closer, until they hit. If their initial shot isn't too close, you have some time to kill them. Chooser Choosers have all the above methods available to them, and decide which one will be most effective. Spoiler Spoilers are decidedly dangerous. Taking into account the wind factor and gravity, they will get a perfect shot almost every time, assuming nothing is in the way. Luckily, they aren't able to compensate for viscous air. Cyborg Cyborgs use methods similar to the Spoilers, but are much nastier about choosing targets. They will tend to attack tanks who are weakened, winning, or have attacked them in the past. Unknown If you choose this option, one of the above will be chosen randomly to control the tank, but you will not be notified of what the selection was! Scorched Earth page 16 Choosing Players (cont.) ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ 4) Next, you may choose an icon, or graphical image, that will represent the tank. For the most part, this is just a matter of taste. If you choose an icon that doesn't have wheels or treads, you are selecting a fixed emplacement rather than a tank, and that player will not be able to buy (or use) fuel. Thus, they will be immobile for the duration of each round (except for falling, of course!). One of the icons may only be selected for Computer players. This icon has a different colored background, and will not appear if you are not a Computer player. This icon is the deadly "Triple-turreted tank", which allows the tank to fire three shots at a time if it is using Missiles or Baby Missiles. This gives particularly good players a run for their money! 5) Finally, if you have chosen simultaneous mode, you must decide which keys the player will use to control their tank, as every player will use the keyboard simultaneously (Computer players don't need keys, so this selection applies only to non-computer players). You must choose six keys: The icons, in order, stand for: 1) clockwise rotation of the turret 2) counter-clockwise rotation of the turret 3) increasing firing power 4) decreasing firing power 5) the fire button 6) a button to change weapons. (The setting for these in standard mode are Left Arrow, Right Arrow, Up Arrow, Down Arrow, Tab, and Space Bar.) Simply press the key you want, one for each box. Be careful to make sure that no key is used for more than one thing! For more information, see SIMULTANEOUS MODE, page 36) That's all there is to it. If you are starting with initial cash, then each player will have a chance to buy things (see BUYING EQUIPMENT, page 25). Otherwise, you will proceed directly to the game (see PLAYING THE GAME, page 17). Scorched Earth page 17 Playing the Game ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ When the game starts, you will see a background drawn, with tanks scattered more or less evenly across the landscape. Most of the action is controlled from the thin horizontal control bar across the top, but there are a few extra options which use other parts of the screen. The top bar might be arranged like this: Power is the amount of power you wish to fire your weapon with. It may be anywhere between zero and the maximum available power for your tank. Angle is the angle at which you will be firing. It will always be between 0 and 90. You must look at you tank to know which direction you will be firing. 0 is horizontally level, and 90 degrees is straight up. Sprig would be the name of the player whose turn it is, and will be written in the same color as the tank representing that player. Dirt Clod is the currently selected weapon. On the far right, there will always be an icon, a number, and the name of the currently selected weapon. The number tells how many of that weapon you have left, and will always be greater than zero. In the upper right corner of the sky, there will be the word Wind written in a light blue, with either an arrow pointing left or right, and a number. This represents the speed and direction of the wind, which will affect your shot. You can control the wind somewhat by changing options on the Weather menu (see Main Menu, page 5). If there is no wind, the words "No Wind" will be written there. Scorched Earth page 18 Controls available ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ In addition to Alt-S and F1, which are available anytime once the game has started, there are several controls you can use. UP ARROW: Increase the power with which you want to fire. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the word Power with the right mouse button. As long as you hold the key or button, the number will continue to increase. PAGE UP: Rapidly increase the power with which you want to fire. This is similar to using the UP ARROW, except the numbers will change much faster. DOWN ARROW: Decrease the power with which you want to fire. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the word Power with the left mouse button. PAGE DOWN: Rapidly decrease the power with which you want to fire. This is similar to using the DOWN ARROW, except the numbers will change much faster. LEFT ARROW: Rotate your turret counter-clockwise. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the word Angle with the left mouse button. RIGHT ARROW: Rotate your turret clockwise. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the word Angle with the right mouse button. SHIFT: If you hold down the SHIFT key while using any of the arrow keys, the power/angle will increase/decrease more slowly. This is useful for making small adjustments to your current power and angle. ALT: If you hold down the ALT key while using any of the arrow keys, the power/angle will increase/decrease by only one for each press of the arrow key. This is useful for making very fine adjustments to your current power and angle. TAB: Change weapons. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the weapon name with the right mouse button. When you change weapons, each weapon you own appears in turn. To change weapons in the other direction of the weapons list, use SHIFT-TAB, or click on the weapon name with the left button. ENTER or SPACEBAR: Fire your currently selected weapon. This can be done with the mouse by clicking both buttons simultaneously while positioned over the playing area. You will then see you shot on screen, along with any effects, and the next player will have a turn. If you are using guidance systems, you may need to provide additional information after firing your missile, so it knows what destination it is headed for. (See the section Guidance Systems page 33) Scorched Earth page 19 Controls available ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The following letters are hot-keys for SCORCH. what they do is explained below: t: This selects the Tank Controls Menu. This may be done with the mouse by clicking on your name with the left button. For more information about this menu, see the Tank Control Menu on the next page. i: This brings up an icon inventory of all the items you have in stock. You can do this with the mouse by clicking on your name with the right button. If you have a mouse, you can click on any weapon icon, and that will become the currently selected weapon. There is no keyboard equivalent to this shortcut. To exit from this menu, click anywhere outside the inventory box, or press the ESCAPE key. k: Display a box which reads "No kibitzing, please". This is a not so subtle clue to tell people to shut up when you are trying to aim! Press any button or key to remove the box. r: Retreat from the playing field. You will gain no points for this action, but may prevent an enemy from getting points if you know you are going to die. If you kill yourself, you will actually lose cash! There is no way to do this with the mouse. You will be asked if you really want to retreat before this action takes effect. u: Display an update of the game status, i.e. what state are the walls in, and how many rounds are left. Click anywhere outside the box, or press any key to get out. 0: Display information about the tank on screen corresponding to the number. 1: The leftmost tank will be numbered one, the next numbered two, and so on. 2: If there are ten tanks, the last one will be numbered 10, represented here 3: by a 0. Note that when tanks die, their representative order will change. 4: This information can be got more easily by clicking on the tank you are 5: interested in with the left button. To get rid of the information box, 6: click anywhere outside it or press ESCAPE. 7: 8: 9: 10: Scorched Earth page 20 Tank Control Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ When the Tank Control menu is displayed, the above commands are disabled and replaced by a new set of commands. For more information on some of the items described here, see the extensive descriptions in the Equipment List starting on page 27. Most of the hotkeys will be highlighted. If any entry is gray, that means that the option is not currently available. b: Discharge one battery in order to increase your remaining power. If your remaining power is 100 (the maximum), or you have no batteries, then you cannot use this option. Each battery will increase your power by ten, unless doing so would give you more than 100 power. In this case your power will simply be put to 100. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the word Batteries. p: Change the active state of parachutes. Parachutes may either be passive, or deployed. Each time you press p, the state will change back and forth. This may be done with the mouse by clicking on the word Parachute. Note that if you have no parachutes, you may not change the state of them. For more information on what the state of a parachute means, consult the Equipment List under parachutes (page 27). v: Change the safety threshold of the parachute. This may be done with the mouse by clicking on the tiny dial to the right of the word Parachutes. When you select this, the number to the right of the dial will disappear, and a large box will appear. You may type any number between 1 and 100, then press enter to register your change. If you decide not to change the value, you can press ESCAPE. This number can only be entered from the keyboard. For more information on what the safety threshold is, see the Equipment List under Parachutes (page 34). e: This option will Engage the currently selected shield. This can be done with the mouse by clicking on the words Energy Left, or by clicking on the power bar to the right. The currently selected shield is the one pointed to by the slide bar directly underneath the words Energy Left. If any shields are engaged, the percentage of protection remaining will be indicated by how much of the power bar is lit. Engage shields will remove whatever shields were present, if any, and put the currently selected shields to full. If the currently selected shields are None, then energizing them will put your shields down all the way. If you put down your shields, or energize a shield when a shield was already present, there is no way to regain that shield. For more on shields, see the Equipment List under Shields and Auto Defense (page 34). Scorched Earth page 21 Tank Control Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ s: This option lets you change the currently selected shield. This has no effect on the game unless you energize the shield, as described on the command above. You may do this with the mouse by clicking on the slide bar. Note that each type of shield will say how many of that type you have left. If you have a shield currently in place, the name of the shield will be highlighted here. The currently selected shield need not be the same as the currently energized shield. For more on shields, see the Equipment List under Shields (page 34), and the paragraph above on Energizing Shields. t: This lets you use triggers. You may do this with the mouse by clicking on the box next to the word Triggers. You may only do this if you have more than zero triggers. If you select triggers, your weapon will be equipped with a trigger when you fire. No triggers will actually be used until you fire, so until that point you may reselect Triggers to turn them off. For more information on triggers, consult the Equipment List, starting on page 27. g: This lets you choose a weapons guidance system. You do this with the mouse by clicking on the slide bar beneath the word Guidance. When you fire a weapon, the guidance system which you have chosen, if any, will take charge and do whatever it is that it does. No guidance system will actually be used until you fire. After firing, the guidance system will be set back to None, so you don't accidentally waste some expensive electronics. For more info on Guidance Systems, consult the Equipment List (page 33). f: This lets you move your tank, assuming that you have some amount of Fuel which is not zero. You can do this with the mouse by clicking on the words Fuel Remaining. For information on how to move your tank, see Moving your Tank (page 22). Scorched Earth page 22 Moving your Tank ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ When you choose "f" from the Tank Controls Menu, that menu will disappear, to be replaced by the Moving Control Menu. The Moving Control Menu has two arrows, one pointing left, and one pointing right, and a button between them which says how much fuel you have left. To move in a direction, click on the arrow in that direction, or press the LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW keys. Moving one pixel requires one unit of fuel, unless you are going uphill, in which case it depends on how steep the hill is. If a hill is too steep, you will be unable to climb it. If you really want to go that direction, you'll have to blow the hill up! If a hill which you are descending becomes too steep, your tank will slip and fall, possibly taking severe damage. If this happens, control will return to the main area of the game. If you want to move further, you'll have to re-select f from the Tank Controls Menu. When you have no fuel left, you can move no farther. In any case, when you decide you are done moving, you may press ESCAPE, or click on the button which indicates how much fuel you have left. This will return you to the main part of the game, not the Tank Controls Menu. Scorched Earth page 23 System Menu ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Once the game has started (after setting up all the players), you may use the Alt-S key combination at any time to bring up the System Menu. The System Menu has several options which aren't directly related to playing the game but which control certain parameters. The choices from the System Menu are: Clear Screen This option is only significant if you are playing with traces enabled. If so, then this will erase whatever traces are currently on the screen. Mass Kill This option kills everyone on the screen, giving them all an equal portion of whatever points remained to be won in the round, but giving no one credit for surviving the round. This option can be used when a couple of stupid computers seem unable to kill each other within your lifetime. Quit Game This option does just what it says, quits the game. You will be prompted with a "Do you really want to quit?" message, and when you select yes, you will be promptly returned to DOS (or wherever you came from...). Reassign Players This option lets you change some of the information you specified when configuring the players. You can change who is controlling each tank, and what their name is. (See Reassigning Players, page 24). Sound This option lets you turn the sound effects on and off. It does not give you control over the flight sound effects individually. (useful for when you put the kids to bed at night, and want them to go to sleep.) Scorched Earth page 24 Reassigning Players ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ When you choose Reassign Players, you will be given a list of player names, and who controls them. To change who controls a player, click on the name of the controller. The name will be one of those available to the computer, or Sentient. There is no way to do this with the keyboard. To change the name of a tank, click on the name. The name will erase, and be replaced by an empty box. Type the new name for that player and press ENTER. If you change you mind, press ESCAPE. There is no way to enter a new name with the mouse. To finish reassigning names, click outside the box or press ESCAPE. Scorched Earth page 25 Buying Equipment ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Between rounds, players who have extra cash will be given the opportunity to buy more equipment. For a list of available equipment, see the Equipment List. This section explains the commands available for selecting and purchasing equipment. Along the right hand side of the buying screen, there is a large column of rectangles, each of which displays an icon, a name of a item which can be bought, and the cost per bundle of that item. Some items can be bought singly, and others may only be bought in groups of three, five, or some other number. To buy an item, click on the name representing that item. You will see the count increase, and your money decrease. When you have no money left, you must select Done, (or ESC) so that the game may continue. Depending on which version of Scorched Earth you have, the large box in the lower left part of the screen will display the inventory catalogue of the current item pointed at by the triangular marker. Note that you can never have more than 99 of any item. You can try to buy more, and the computer will gladly take your money, but it will never give you more than 99 of any item at a time. Note also that each player has an unlimited supply of Baby Missiles. You can try to buy some, but you will never get more than 99 of them. (Again, the computer is only too glad to take your money for them.) Controls Available ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ PAGE DOWN: Go to the next screen, if any, of the current group of items. This is equivalent to clicking on the down arrow. If the down arrow is grayed, this will do nothing. Note that the list wraps around, i.e. if you are on page 2 of 2, then pressing page down will put you back on page 1. PAGE UP: Go to the previous screen, if any, of the current group of items. This is equivalent to clicking on the up arrow. If the up arrow is grayed, this will do nothing. Note that the list wraps around, i.e. if you are on page 1 of 2, then pressing page up will put you on page 2. i: This will display an icon inventory of what items you currently have it stock. You can do this with the mouse by clicking on the thin horizontal bar at the top, where your name and remaining cash are displayed. This inventory will not tell you how many you have of each item, only if you have them. To get rid of the inventory and return to buying things, click the right button, or anywhere outside the box, or press ESCAPE. Scorched Earth page 26 Controls Available ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ UP ARROW: This will move the triangular marker for the currently selected item up one. This wraps around, i.e. if you are at the top of the list, it will put you at the bottom. It will not, however, change between pages of a list. You cannot move the marker in this fashion with the mouse. DOWN ARROW: This will move the triangular marker for the currently selected item down one. This wraps around, i.e. if you are at the bottom of the list, it will put you at the top. It will not, however, change between pages of a list. You cannot move the marker in this fashion with the mouse. HOME: This will move the triangular marker to the top of the list. It will not change pages. END: This will move the triangular marker to the bottom of the list. It will not change pages. TAB: This can be used to select different groups of items to look at. This is equivalent to clicking on the slide bar in the upper left corner. The gun icon represents the Weapons group, and the box icon represents the miscellaneous group. SPACE BAR: This will purchase one group of the item pointed to by the triangular marker. This can be done with the mouse just by clicking on the item you want to buy (the marker will jump there). Note that you can buy anything you can see, because items which are too expensive never appear until you can afford them. If making this purchase decreases your free cash to the point where you can't afford something, that item will disappear from the list of items. (It will return when you can afford it again). ESCAPE: You this when you are done buying items. This will let the next player buy items, or if everyone is done, it will begin the next round. You can do this with the mouse by clicking on the DONE button. Scorched Earth page 27 Equipment List ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The currently equipment list is grouped into two categories: weapons and accessories. These are the same categories which appear on the buying screen, except that the accessories category is labelled "Miscellaneous." The name of the item is the name which you will see on the screen. The cost is given in dollars per bundle, e.g. $400/10 means that you get 10 for $400 ($40 each, but you have to buy in multiples of 10). For weapons, a blast radius is given, which is an estimate of how large the area of damage for that particular weapon is. The arms level shows where the cut-off are between different categories (see Configuring Scorch, the Weapons Menu, on page 13, for a description of how to use arms levels). Each category has a table describing the available items, and then lists descriptions of the items and how to use them, along with pictures of the icons which help you recognize the items. To further help you group similar items, there are some subcategories within the weapons and accessories. Scorched Earth page 28 Available Weapons ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Name Cost Blast Radius Arms Level ------------------------------------------------------ Baby Missile $400/10 10 0 Missile $1,875/5 20 0 Baby Nuke $10,000/3 40 0 Nuke $12,000/1 75 1 Leap Frog $10,000/2 20,25,30 3 Funky Bomb $7,000/2 80? 4 MIRV $10,000/3 20 2 Death's Head $20,000/1 35 4 Tracer $10/20 0 0 Baby Roller $5,000/10 10 2 Roller $6,000/5 20 2 Heavy Roller $6,750/2 45 3 Plasma Blast $9,000/5 10-40 3 Riot Charge $2,000/10 36 2 Riot Blast $5,000/5 60 3 Riot Bomb $5,000/5 30 3 Heavy Riot Bomb $4,750/2 45 3 Baby Digger $3,000/10 N/A 0 Digger $2,500/5 N/A 0 Heavy Digger $6,750/2 N/A 1 Baby Sandhog $10,000/10 N/A 0 Sandhog $16,750/5 N/A 0 Heavy Sandhog $25,000/2 N/A 1 Dirt Clod $5,000/10 20 0 Dirt Ball $5,000/5 35 0 Ton of Dirt $6,750/2 70 1 Dirt Charge $5,000/5 N/A 1 Earth Disrupter $5,000/10 N/A 0 Scorched Earth page 29 Standard Weapons ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The standard weapons are straightforward destructive devices. You launch them and they cause damage. How much simpler can it get? The Baby Missile is the earliest developed weapon, and performs as such. Every player has an UNLIMITED supply of them. The Missile is an enhancement of the baby missile, increasing both the blast radius and the damage delivered. The Baby Nuke is a nuclear explosive capable of destroying a large region. The Nuke is a large-scale nuclear weapon capable of mass destruction. The Leapfrog has three warheads which launch one after another. This is often very effective for penetrating shields. The Funky Bomb explodes in a multi-colored toxic chain reaction. Sometimes they don't explode exactly where you want them to, but they are generally confined to the area where they hit. The MIRV contains five Missile warheads, which split apart when the original missile reaches apogee. If the warhead hits something before reaching apogee, it will not explode. The Death's Head is the most destructive weapon created to date. Functionally equivalent to MIRVs, it contains nine large scale explosive warheads. Tracers have no destructive capability, but are useful for targeting someone without causing unwanted damage. Baby Rollers are the smallest of the roller family. When they hit ground, they roll downhill until reaching a valley or a tank. They then explode with the force of a baby missile. If a roller hits a shield, it will just roll off! Rollers are functionally the same as baby rollers, but contain a warhead equivalent to a standard missile. Heavy Rollers are non-nuclear, but deliver a payload more explosive than a baby nuke. The Plasma Blast allows you to expel radioactive energy from your tank to kill neighboring enemies. When you discharge a Plasma Blast, you will be asked how many batteries you want to expend in the blast. The more batteries you expend, the larger the blast will be. If you expend no batteries, the blast will be very small. You cannot expend more than 10 batteries on one blast. Your turret direction has no effect on the Plasma Blast. Scorched Earth page 30 Earth Destroying Weapons ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Earth destroying weapons are weapons which cause large (or small) amounts of dirt to be destroyed. Most of these weapons cannot directly harm a tank, though they can cause them to fall and take damage that way. Earth destroying weapons are also good for removing mountains that are in your way, or even removing dirt beneath yourself so that your tank is repositioned. (perhaps away from an enemy tank!) Riot Charges destroy a wedge-shaped section of dirt from around your turret. This weapons primary use is to unbury yourself when you get covered with dirt. Riot Blasts are a larger version of the Riot Charge. The destroy a wider angle of dirt, and the thickness of the wedge destroyed is also greater. Riot Bombs destroy a spherical section of dirt wherever the detonate. They do no damage to tanks. Unlike Riot Charges and Riot Blasts, the Riot Bomb is a projectile weapon. Heavy Riot Bombs are scaled up versions of Riot Bombs. Baby Diggers are useful for removing small amounts of dirt. They tunnel when they hit ground. If they hit a tank, they fizzle. Diggers are more powerful versions of Baby Diggers. Heavy Diggers are the largest Digger-weapon available, but often fail to reach their full potential. Baby Sandhogs employ an alternate technology to achieve an effect similar to the Diggers. In addition, each tunneling warhead contains a small but powerful charge, which can destroy an enemy tank from beneath. Sandhogs are often useful for burrowing beneath enemy shields, and attacking an enemy tank directly. Sandhogs contain more warheads than the Baby Sandhogs. Heavy Sandhogs can potentially destroy the world, and should be used with caution... Scorched Earth page 31 Earth Producing Weapons ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The category of Earth Producing Weapons includes weapons which take some form of compacted earth that explodes into a much larger amount of dirt. These weapons can be used to build fortifications and to bury enemy tanks. There are other creative uses which can also be discovered... be creative! The Sonic Disrupter is not technically an Earth Producing weapon, but has is grouped with this category because it often has a similar tactical effect. Dirt Clods are small warheads which explode into a sphere of dirt when hitting something. Dirt Balls are a larger form of Dirt Clods. A Ton of Dirt is a very large Dirt Ball, easily capable of burying someone alive. A Dirt Charge expels a cloud of dirt into the air in a wedge shape. Earth Disrupters force all dirt to settle to the ground if dirt is being suspended in the air. This weapon is only useful if you are playing with the Suspend Dirt probability set to something greater that 0%. Scorched Earth page 32 Available Accessories ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Name Cost Arms Level -------------------------------------- Heat Guidance $10,000/6 2 J Guidance $10,000/2 2 Horz Guidance $15,000/5 1 Vert Guidance $20,000/5 1 Lazy Boy $20,000/2 3 Parachute $10,000/8 2 Battery $5,000/10 2 Mag Deflector $10,000/2 2 Shield $20,000/3 3 Force Shield $25,000/3 3 Heavy Shield $30,000/2 4 Auto Defense $1,500/1 3 Fuel Tank $10,000/10 3 Contact Trigger $1,000/25 3 Scorched Earth page 33 Guidance Systems ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Guidance Systems category contains items which help you use your weapons effectively. To use a guidance system, you select it from the tank menu using the slide bar. Move the arrow by clicking on it until it appears beneath the letter representing the guidance system you desire. The letters in parentheses following the guidance system's name are the letters used in the Tank Menu to represent that system, e.g. Ht will represent the Heat Guidance System. (After you buy guidance systems, they are used by accessing the Tank Menu from the Main playing screen.) The number on the tank menu next to the guidance system indicates how many of them you own - if you own zero, then the letter won't even appear. When you fire your weapon on that turn, the guidance system will take effect. After you have fired using a guidance system, the slide bar will reset to None (N), meaning no guidance system is in effect. This way, you don't accidentally waste expensive technology. (So if you want to keep using the guidance system, you need to re-select it at the beginning of every turn.) Some guidance systems (indicated below) require you to specify a target. The manner in which that is done is as follows: After you press SPACE or double-click the mouse to fire, a small box will appear on screen reading "Choose Target". At this point, you select your target using the keyboard or the mouse. With the keyboard, you press a number between 1 and 9, or 0 (0 represents 10). This is the number of the tank you wish to aim at. Tank 1 is the leftmost tank, tank 2 is just to the right of tank 1, and so on. Note that if tank 1 is killed, tank 2 becomes the leftmost tank, and will thus be referred to as tank 1 in future turns. To you choose your target with the mouse, just click anywhere on the screen. The guidance system will do its best to make your weapon explode there. (Choosing a tank by number is the same as clicking on the center of the base of the tank). Note also that some weapons simply won't work with any guidance system. If you fire such a weapon with a guidance system enabled, you will waste your guidance system. Weapons which fall under this category are: MIRVs, Death's Head, Riot Charge, Riot Blast, and the Plasma Blast. Scorched Earth page 34 Guidance Systems ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Heat Guidance Equips your weapon with a radar which, when in range of (Ht) any enemy tank, will guide it in a straight line to that tank. You must be able to fire your weapon well enough to get it close to the target you want to hit. J Guidance Will attempt to hit a target of your choice by determining (J) the amount of power needed to hit the target based on your current firing angle. You must select a target for this guidance system. If your firing angle or current maximum power make the shot impossible, this system will become confused and fire at whatever power it feels like. The J Guidance System can correct for any type of wind, but cannot correct for air viscosity. Horizontal Guidance Sends your weapons in a horizontal straight line as soon (H) as they are even with your target. You must select a target for this guidance system. Vertical Guidance Performs as Horizontal Guidance, only it operates (V) vertically. You must select a target for this guidance system. If you can get your weapon to go over a target, it will hit it with this guidance system. (In other words once you are above a target, this heads straight down to the target.) The Lazy Boy Is the ultimate guidance system. Choose your target and (L) watch it die. If the weapon happens to hit a tank different from your target, then it will explode prematurely. (C'est La Vie!) Scorched Earth page 35 Defense Systems ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Defense Systems are ways to keep your tank alive longer. They include mechanisms both to prevent and to repair damage to your tank. The wise user of defense system will find their tank lasting much longer than an unprotected tank. Parachutes are useful as a means of preventing damage when falling. Parachutes work as follows: If you are going to fall, an onboard system computer looks down and estimates how much damage you tank will take from the fall. If your parachutes are deployed, and the safety threshold is less than the amount of damage you will take, the parachutes activate, and your tank takes no damage from the fall (unless it lands on an enemy tank.) If your parachutes are passive, or the pre-computed damage is less than the safety threshold, then you will fall without parachutes, and take damage. You can choose whether the parachute is passive or deployed, and you can set the safety threshold, by using the Tank Control Menu (page 20). By default, parachutes are deployed, and the safety threshold is 5. Batteries can be used as an energy source for recharging your tank and for firing Plasma Blasts. When using a battery to recharge your tank, each battery is equivalent to %10 of your energy, or 10 points. You use batteries to recharge your tank by using the Tank Control Menu (page 20). Mag Deflectors are simple shields which exert an upward force on projectiles that are near and over your tank. If a missile falls down fast enough, the deflectors will be unable to deflect it. Mag Deflectors cannot absorb very many shots before being destroyed. Shields protect your tank by absorbing damage from explosions. In addition, a weapon which hits a shield directly will not explode, though it will damage the shield slightly. Force Shields deflect projectiles away from you,and are generally capable of sustaining more damage than normal shields. Heavy Shields are immune to the shield failures which often plague lesser shields. They are also capable of sustaining tremendous amounts of damage. Auto Defense allows you to enable any defense system of your tank each round before combat begins. Their cost is based on the number of rounds left, as buying them once gives you this capability for the rest of the game. Scorched Earth page 36 Miscellaneous Extras ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The miscellaneous extras are things that just didn't fit in the other categories. They are described individually below. Fuel Tanks allow you to move your tank, if it is equipped with treads. Each fuel tank will give you 10 units of fuel. Each unit of fuel will let you move 1 pixel, less if you are going uphill. To use fuel, choose "f" from the Tank Control Menu. (page 20) Contact Triggers cause projectiles the explode the moment they touch something. This is equivalent to turning off the Tunneling option. To use triggers, you must go to the Tank Control Menu (page 20). Each trigger will cause one projectile to explode on contact. (Note that when using multiple warhead weapons like the MIRV, you need only use one trigger for all warheads involved in a single shot!) Scorched Earth page 37 Simultaneous Mode ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This is a brief summary of the differences between Simultaneous mode and normal play. The main difference is that many people (and computers!) will be moving at once. Because there is only one keyboard, and everybody is using it simultaneously, it is important that each player have a unique key for everything he or she wants to do. For this reason, you probably wouldn't play Simultaneous mode with more than three players. When you assign keystrokes at the beginning of the game, try to keep each player to their own section of the keyboard, so that their fingers don't get crossed. In simultaneous mode, whoever hits the keyboard fastest moves most often (the computers move at a medium sort of speed regardless). When someone fires, the action is suspended until the missile hits somewhere (this will probably change in a future version of Scorch if enough people are interested in Simultaneous Mode). The status bar on top of the screen gives much less information in Simultaneous Mode, because all players are sharing the screen also. You must try to remember what weapons you have and what your current power is. When you increase power, you tank will flash brightly. When you decrease power, your tank will flash dark. Changing weapons causes your tank to flash red. These are the only clues you have about what your tank is doing, so be careful not to waste good weapons! When all players are dead, the end of round status will come up as usual, and the players with cash will have an opportunity to buy things just like normal Scorch. When the round begins again, though, watch out! The special keys like i,t,r, and so on, are not supported in Simultaneous Mode, so it is impossible to use the Tank Control Menu. You can only use Shields if you have an Automatic Defense System, and Batteries are not useful at all. Parachutes will always be deployed (unless you have Automatic Defense), and you will not be able to change the threshold. This is so that each player needs only six keys. The System Menu functions as it normally would. Good luck and have fun! Scorched Earth page 38 Registering Scorch ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ It is my hope that Scorched Earth will provide a great source of enjoyment to all age groups. This version of Scorch is a preliminary release intended to get the public informed about and interested in Scorch. I am releasing it as shareware in order to gain as large an audience as possible. Scorch is not Crippleware. Each and every copy is a fully functioning game. If you would like to register Scorch send 10 dollars to the author, at the address listed below. Feel secure that in doing so you are adding to the functionality of Scorch. Users who register will receive a password that does some as yet undocumented things. In addition, they will be notified of upgrades (via Prodigy or other E-Mail if possible), as long as practical. Anyone interested in Scorch, or with ideas for improvement, or questions for support, may contact me as described below. The author makes no warranty about the fitness of Scorch for any purpose, nor does he guarantee that it will not crash your system. Nevertheless, every attempt has been made to insure that Scorch is a robust, user-friendly game. The most recent version of Scorched Earth will be kept on Compuserve, and GEnie and may be gotten directly, or through someone else who has Compuserve, GEnie, or Scorch. Or check your favorite local BBS. And why not upload it there, if they don't have it, share it with your friends. Scorch was written using Borland C++. Scorched Earth page 39 About the Author ▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Wendell Hicken, a.k.a Sprig, was born March 14, 1967. He graduated from Caltech with a B.S. in Computer Science in 1991, and is currently working for ParaSoft Corporation, a Pasadena-based firm specializing in tools for Parallel Programming. Scorched Earth is in no way affiliated with Caltech or ParaSoft Corporation. I may be contacted at one or more of the following places: Wendell Hicken 59 Esperanza Apt. M Sierra Madre, CA 91024 HCBN64A on Prodigy 70671,606 on CompuServe whicken@parasoft.com on internet. or through: Arthur Hicken A.HICKEN on GEnie CVTS94A on Prodigy RIME Common conference or Turbo Pascal conference. Address to Arthur Hicken (Route to ->LRBBS for quickest service.) METROLINK Current Conference or Turbo Pascal Conference Address to Arthur Hicken