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SkyNET BETHESDA SOFTWORKS & The All Games Network http://www.bethsoft.com http://www.allgames.com This Demo is the Property of Bethesda Softworks and is Distributed by The All Games Network Please do not change the Demo or readme. Enjoy! Tune in for the interview with programmers that made Skynet at http://www.allgames.com DEMO VERSION 1.00 (BUILD 518) CONTENTS --------------------------------------- 1. Playing the Game 2. Installation Notes 3. Joining Multi-Player Games 4. Super VGA (640X480) Support 5. Configuring music under Windows95 6. Configuring your Controls 7. Hints and Tips 8. HMD Support 9. Contacting Bethesda Softworks Remember, this is just a demo, and only has one single player level, and one multi-player environment, for up to 4 players. Full version features: * Up to 8 players (3 per CD) * 10 Multi-player environments * 8 single player missions * 17 deadly weapons * Over 20 robot enemies * Full video mission briefings 1. PLAYING THE GAME --------------------------------------- To play the game, simply type SKYNET from the directory you have the game installed (usually c:\skynet). MAIN MENU --------- NEW GAME: Starts a new game. LOAD: Loads a saved game. SAVE: Saves a game in progress. OPTIONS: Allows you to change controls and graphic detail. QUIT: Returns to DOS. NEW GAME -------- MULTI-PLAYER: Starts a multi-player game. SINGLE PLAYER: Starts a single player game. TUTORIAL: Not available in the demo. FUTURE SHOCK: Not available in the demo. EXIT: Returns to the Main Menu. MULTI-PLAYER ------------ NEW GAME: Starts a new game that other players can join. The first person in the game selects all of the game parameters. JOIN GAME: Scans the network for games being played. Once the list of games is shown, click on a game to join it. EXIT: Returns to the New Game menu. CONTROLS -------- Turn Left/Right: Mouse Look Up/Down: Mouse Fire: Left Mouse Button Throw: Right Mouse Button Forward: A Back: Z Slide Right: X Slide Left: Left SHIFT Run: ALT Jump: S Crouch: C Automap: TAB Menu: ESC Full Screen: F6 Decrease Brightness: F7 Increase Brightness: F8 Toggle Sight: F9 WEAPONS: -------- 1 Pipe/Motion Tracker 2 Uzi/Assault Rifle/Machine Gun 3 Shotgun 4 Grenade Launcher 5 Rocket Launcher 6 Laser Rifle/Cannon 7 Phased Plasma Pistol/Rifle/Cannon F1 Molotov F2 Pipe Bomb F3 Grenade F4 Cannister Bomb F5 Satchel Charge 2. INSTALLATION NOTES --------------------------------------- HELP ME!! LONG LOAD TIMES If you are experiencing long load times with the game or frequent pauses during play, install SMARTDRIVE. THIS WILL MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. If you have 8 MB of RAM run SMARTDRIVE by typing: smartdrv 256 /x If you have 16 MB of RAM run SMARTDRIVE by typing: smartdrv /x 3. JOINING MULTI-PLAYER GAMES --------------------------------------- When joining a multi-player game in progress, SkyNET will scan the network for any games that are currently being played. Depending on the network traffic and communication speeds, you may not pick up all of the games that are being played. Keep attempting to join and SkyNET will keep scanning and should find the game in a few tries. If the problem persists, go back to the NEW GAME menu, select MULTIPLAYER GAME, and attempt to JOIN the game. Going back to the NEW GAME menu will reinitialize the communication settings. SPECIAL NOTE FOR INTERNET USERS: SkyNET uses KALI for its internet support. KALI is a widely available shareware program that allows your internet connection to emulate an IPX network connection. Due to widely varying traffic through the internet, it is very difficult to sustain proper communication speeds. As multiplayer games generally require a maximum of 200 milliseconds latency, internet play can often be subject to large amounts of game lag (missed connections, jerky player movement, etc) Therefore , we do not recommend playing SkyNET through the internet, using KALI if your ping times are over 200. If you do not already have KALI, you can download the latest version from them directly at www.kali.net 4. SUPER VGA (640X480) SUPPORT --------------------------------------- SkyNET supports high resolution (SVGA) graphics. To play using this option, use the detail setting in the options menu and select 640x480 resolution. SVGA will slow down the performance of the game, especially on slower videocards. We suggest you install and use the excellent program SciTech Display Doctor (SDD) from SciTech soft. This will make your graphics card use the latest display technology to achieve the best overall performance. Using SDD is not required to play SkyNET, but generally makes the game play faster in SVGA. Only a VESA v1.2 compliant videocard with support for the 256 color mode (640x480) is needed to use the high-res option. Should you ever encounter an error in ChangeMode, or a similar error, your graphics card for some reason fails to initialize the SVGA video mode, we suggest you use SDD which will usually improve performance. 5. CONFIGURING MUSIC UNDER WINDOWS --------------------------------------- If you experience problems under Windows while configuring music, try to disable all your screen savers and other software which might be using your soundcard. Disabling screen savers from Windows95: Right mouseclick on your desktop and select properties, then select the "screen saver" folder. Now all you need to do, is to select "NONE" in the screen saver dialog-box. Depending on your Windows configuration, you may need to reboot your system. 6. CONFIGURING YOUR CONTROLS --------------------------------------- SKYNET will allow you to set up almost any control scheme you desire. The best combination for most people is the mouse/keyboard combo. JOYSTICK: If you want to use a joystick for any of the controls, you can assign either small joystick movements, or large joystick movements to any action. First, calibrate your joystick and then select the action you want to assign the joystick to. A small joystick movement will assign JOY A to the action. A large joystick movement will assign JOY B to the action. Joystick movement type B works very well when using it as a RUN action. Many gamers enjoy using the mouse/ joystick combo. If you want to do this, configure the joystick as follows: Forward = JOY FWD A Reverse = JOY BACK A Slide Left = JOY LEFT A Slide Right = JOY RIGHT A Run = JOY FWD B Jump = JOY BUTT 1 Activate = JOY BUTT 2 The joystick will now control your feet and the mouse will control your aim. Try it out! MOUSE: Mouse movement can only be used to turn and look up and down. The mouse buttons can be assigned to any action, though. Two items have been added to the mouse configuration. Sensitivity has been broken up into both horizontal and vertical. You can also reverse the vertical movement so that rolling the mouse forward will look up as opposed to down. 7. HINTS AND TIPS --------------------------------------- Here are some hints and tips that should help you defeat SkyNet. JUMPING: If you are having trouble jumping, the game can get very frustrating. To make jumping easier, SkyNET allows you to actually move while in the air (less realistic, but a lot more fun). Thus, if you are having trouble with a jump, try pressing the jump key first, and then moving while you are in the air. There are also many jumps which require you to run. Since you can move in the air, you can hold RUN, hit JUMP, and then hit FORWARD. With a little practice, jumps should become fairly easy. DRIVING: This can be very tricky for less experienced players. If you are having trouble driving and looking around at the same time, simply stop the car and shoot the enemies before continuing. You will find the car's gun and armor to be very heavy. Be careful though, if the enemies get too close to your car, they may jump on top of, or into it. This can be an instant death for even the best Resistance fighter. Also, reconfiguring your controls may help. AMMO USE: Use your ammunition wisely. Conserve ammo by using the best gun/ ammo combo for as many enemies as you can. For instance, you could waste a lot of time and bullets on a Seeker Globe, when one Shotgun blast will nuke it! Proper use of grenades will help in ammo conservation. SEARCHING BUILDINGS: You can go in any building with a door. You never know what you may find inside. Searching buildings has kept Resistance soldiers alive many times. SAVE OFTEN: Death can lie around any corner. 8. HMD SUPPORT --------------------------------------- SkyNET supports the Virtual I/O and Forte head mounted displays with head tracking. To run the game using your HMD, use command line option /h to enable HMD support; then choose your helmet- type (v=VIO, f=Forte) and finally select which com-port to use. Example: /hv1 will setup HMD support using a VIO on com-port 1. You may need to calibrate the helmet before tracking will work properly. Start the game with the /H option to bring up a manual calibration (must be uppercase H !). With the helmet on, "look straight" and hit a key; the helmet will now be calibrated. Should you wish to repeat this while playing, "look straight" and hit F10. 9. CONTACTING BETHESDA SOFTWORKS --------------------------------------- If you have comments about the demo, please feel free to contact us. If you experience any problems, please send ALL relevant data to us. This includes what kind of system you are running on (processor, memory, free hard drive space, network type, control device, and sound card). If it is a multi-player problem, please include how many people you were playing with, and describe the problem in detail. We can only fix problems if we know all of the symptoms. You can email us at: skynet@bethsoft.com World Wide Web: http://www.bethsoft.com Tech Support: 1-301-963-2002 Via Internet: tech@bethsoft.com Via Compuserve: 71333,234 or GO BETHESDA Via America-on-Line: Bethesda01 --------------------------------------- Bethesda Softworks(TM) is a trademark of Media Technology Limited. Copyright(c) 1995,96 Media Technology Limited. All Rights Reserved. The Terminator (c) 1984 Cinema '84. A Greenberg Brothers Partnership. All Rights Reverved. The Terminator(tm) TM designates a trademark of Cinema '84. A Greenberg Brothers Partnership.