The Best of Select: Games 9/CD_1.iso/dosgames/ufocards/ufo.doc

Text File | 1994-05-29 | 42KB | 942 lines

                            UFO(tm), The Card Game
                           (C) 1994 Ed T. Toton III
                             All Rights Reserved.
                           NecroBones Software (tm)
                     Special Thanks to: Jeremy A. Kusnetz


NOTE:

  So what does UFO stand for? Well, it has been suggested that it means
"Unending Flood of Obscenity", or even "Unavoidable Fall into Obscurity",
but we'd like to think not. Actually, if you come up with a good idea,
let me know!



CONTENTS:

   Contents:          Right here.
   Credits:           Next thing.
   Overview:          After the credits.
   Important info:    A little further down.
   Tech notes:        Even further.
   Getting started:   Fairly far down.
   Playing UFO:       Pretty far.
   Customizing UFO:   Way down that-a-way.
   Revision History:  Way down yander...
   Title Screen GFX:  Far far away...
   NecroBones:        Wooohie! Tis distant!
   About the Author:  Way way way down near that end...
   Legal Shtuffs:     Way way down at the end, far far away.




CREDITS:

   Title Screen:     Jeremy A. Kusnetz
   Conceptual ideas: Ed T. Toton III & Jeremy A. Kusnetz
   Everything else:  Ed T. Toton III

   Thank you.




TRADEMARKS:

   UNO is a registered trademark of International Games, Inc
   Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International Inc.

   UFO and NECROBONES are trademarks of Ed T. Toton III.




OVERVIEW:

   UFO (pronounced like UNO, but with an F) is an UNO clone. In this
documentation we will assume that you already know how to play UNO, for the
sake of simplicity. However, a file called UFO.TXT has been included which
very briefly describes the rules.

   UFO offers you multiple computer (alien) controlled opponents, as well as
a wide range of colorful VGA graphics and digital sound, in an easy to use
mouse interface. I'm sure you'll agree when I say that UFO is probably one
of the best computer UNO games in existence (I currently only know of two
others, one of which runs in text mode, the other is much more recent).

   One thing I have noticed over the years is that many people (myself
included) often yell at the computer opponents, screaching things like "Hey!
No fair!" and "You cheater!" and "Gotcha!". Well, I decided it was high time
the computer players started complaining and taunting back! Hence, UFO. UFO
is an UNO-like game in which several alien species and robots and the like
compete against you, screaming and kicking all the way. This adds an
important flair to the game. As a two player UNO game, UFO works fine without
the sound, but when you get into 3 or 4 players, most games lose the sense
of personality in the other opponents. One of the things that makes the REAL
card game fun, is skipping over players, or making them draw cards, or
whatever, and seeing them whine and complain (admit it, you like nailing
your friends, siblings, loved ones, and relatives, don't you?).

   So UFO breaks ground in this department. You will see on the screen a
portrait of the character who is currently taking its turn (yes, you get a
portrait too). Each character has 7 sound effects stored on the disk (that's
what all those NSN files are), which are played at certain times, such as
when the character is skipped, forced to draw, forces a draw, wins, etc.
Each has it's own distinct personality. However, the character you are
playing will not say anything, because we all know you will do enough
talking, whining, and taunting yourself, right?

   In the near future there may be some expansion sets, as UFO is capable
of using externally added aliens. Currently it can support up to 32 external
aliens, later versions may support more, if enough new aliens are created.
The expansion packs will include instructions on how to use them. As of the
time of this writing, thirteen such external aliens exist, such as a green
snorting fat toad-like creature, and a cussing red alien. The game is not
intended to be used solely with the aliens provided. The reason the game
only includes those four is so that the minimum requirement is met should
you wish not to download everything else. Of the nine existing aliens as of
this writing, four of my five favorites are included in the game (the cussing
one being the fifth one, which could not be part of the original package
for obvious reasons). Unfortunately I feel like I'm running out of variations
of my own voice, even with all the different speed changes and distortions
I can add, so hopefully I'll be able to recruit some of my friends to aid
in the task of creating these aliens.

   Each alien has its own playing style. These playing styles are
configurable from the "characters" menu. Simply select the "Style" button
assiciated with the alien you wish to edit, and change what you like. If
you would like to have the same settings later click on "Save" (the "Save"
button is only functional if you have registered your copy of the game.
This "Save" button is the only disabled feature to non-registered users).




IMPORTANT INFO:

  VGA AND 286+ REQUIRED!!!

  (this game was personally tested on a 286, a 386, and
   two 486's successfully, all with math-coprocessors)

  A 286 or better is required, though because of the digital sound, a 386
or better is recommended. A 286 is fine without the digital sound however,
and a 286 can be used for the sound, though the game will be sluggish. While
the mouse is the recommended input device, the keyboard can also be used to
play the game. There are a few things that can only be done with the keyboard
(i.e. the function keys to toggle sound and call up the game options menu,
and the ESC key for quick exit to DOS).

  If you are playing the game using the sound through the internal speaker,
you should probably try using 4 channel mixing. It's slightly clearer on the
internal speaker.

  Also note that if you are playing the game on a 286 or some other slow
system, and you have a soundblaster, setting the game to run in "Adlib"
mode may give you a little extra speed. The SoundBlaster (in digital mode,
not FM) is the slowest device to respond of the three that are supported.

  This game may require as much as 600,000 bytes free (in dos) to load all
of the digital samples for a 4-player game with all computer players
(depending one which aliens are loaded). On the 'starting line-up' screen,
it should show how many samples have been loaded. If the number is between
24 and 28 when you do a 4-player all-computer game, you're ok (the last 4
are used fairly infrequently). If the number is less, you simply won't hear
those sounds that weren't loaded. If you play a game with less aliens loaded,
less sounds will be loaded. For instance, if only two computer players are
playing, there will be no more than 14 samples loaded, and if there were 4
players, but all set to the same character, then only 7 will be loaded.

  As implied above, UFO only loads the samples for the aliens that are
playing and being controlled by the computer. So what if you change which
players are human and which ones are 'alien' during the game? You will see
a brief delay as the samples are removed or added as appropriate. In the
lower right window on the screen, next to the word "Computer" you will see
in very dark grey a number showing how many samples are currently loaded.

  If you don't have a soundcard, and have decided never to use the internal
speaker for digital sound, you can save disk space by deleting SAM*.NSN (the
sounds for the first 4 aliens).




TECH NOTES:

  When you first run the game, it will create a new 64000 byte file. This
wasn't included in the zip archive simply because it's disgustingly simple to
calculate and therefore would have been a waste of space.

  This is the first game of mine to include my new digital sound daemon
("daemon" is a network buzzword that refers to a background process that
basically runs itself. It is simply an alternate spelling for "demon" and
is pronounced the same).