Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/606b.lha/Offender/Offender.doc.pp/Offender.doc

Text File | 1992-02-04 | 10.5 KB | 306 lines

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Hi folks, friends and neighbours !

This is OFFENDER, the first game designed exclusively for A3000 and
turbo-board users.

******************************************************************************



0. Installation and requirements
================================


0.0 Copyright
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender is shareware. You may distribute this demo only with all
files (see 0.5) in its entirety.

If you enjoy this demo, you're encouraged to  send $15 to
the following address to get the complete registered version.
You can even obtain the full source code (SAS C 5.10) with all self-written
tools used in developing this game and documentation for only $50.


    Fred Bayer
    Artilleriestr. 21a
    W8000 Munich 19
    Germany

    Account#    36853751
    BLZ (bank#) 700 202 70
    at "Bayerische Vereinsbank, München"
    (German account, I don't know the internatiomal specification for it)

Be sure to give your full address for I can send you your package
immediately.


0.1 General
~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender is based on the classical game Defender® by Williams Corporation.
Offender was coded from the scratch and all game features have been
based on the memory of the author (spending too much time at the arcade
machines :-)).


0.2 Hardware requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender requires an Amiga with a 68020 CPU and a 68881 FPU or better.
It has been developed on an A3000 with 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU (25 MHz).
68040 users should know that Offender uses some trigonometric FPU instructions
not available on their CPU, but with the right F-line trap-handler this should
not be a problem.

¡¡¡ Important Note : Offender will definitely NOT run on an Amiga with a
68000 or 68010 CPU or without a FPU. I'm NOT planning to release a version
for those chips !!!

The demo version requires 446 kByte chip and 109 kByte fast memory. If
there's not enough chip memory available, you won't hear all sounds, but
the game is playable.

The full version will need 698 kByte of chip memory to load all sounds.
With fewer memory you won't hear all of them, either.


0.3 Software requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender requires Kickstart 1.3 or 2.0.
It needs the standard diskfont.library in the LIBS: directory and the files
Script.font, Script/15 and Script/20 (included with Offender) in the FONTS:
directory.


0.4 Multitasking considerations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender uses all four sound channels. If it can't allocate them. it'll
exit. Improper operation can be caused by other programs not using the
proper sharing protocol.

Though Offender takes control over the keyboard and the mouse, other tasks
will continue to run. You just can't communicate with them. So you can do
a lengthy download or compiler run or whatelse while playing Offender.
You should ChangeTaskPri Offender to a higher priority than the other tasks
to gain snappy respondence. Offender doesn't Forbid() or Disable(), so
interrupt-driven background tasks (like downloading) aren't disturbed.

Offender uses CPU time proportional to the number of objects on the screen.
So, most of the time (when there're only a few objects) other tasks will get
enough CPU time. On the other hand, sometimes (but only for short periods, e.g.
when smartbombing a screenfull of aliens) Offender needs much more CPU
cycles, so you should run Offender at a higher task priority to avoid slowing
down the animations.


0.5 Files
~~~~~~~~~
    Offender.README          A short introduction
    Offender_PAL_demo        The game itself (PAL version)
    Offender_NTSC_demo       The game itself (NTSC version)
    Offender_PAL_demo.info   The corresponding icon
    Offender_NTSC_demo.info  The corresponding icon
    Offender.logo            Logo for titlescreen
    Offender.doc             -- this file --
    PoorSounds/#?            Various sound effects (poorly sampled)
    Script.font              Offender's font
    Script/15                  coming in
    Script/20                  2 sizes


0.6 Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copy 'Script.font', 'Script/15', and 'Script/20' to your FONTS: directory
Copy all other files (including the 'PoorSounds' subdirectory) into any
directory you like.


0.7 Running Offender
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CD to the directory where Offender resides and type 'Offender_NTSC_demo' or
'Offender_PAL_demo' to start it. Or doubleclick the icon. Offender might
create the file 'Offender.HiScore' in the current directory, but you may
delete it to start again with a virgin hiscore table.


0.8 Differences between PAL and NTSC versions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The PAL version uses the extra lines available and plays at 50 frames per
second; the NTSC version plays at 60 frames per second but is restricted
to 200 horizontal lines. Because of the higher frame rate the NTSC version
requires more CPU power, so you should use the PAL version if you have a
slow CPU. Though timing is based on the frame rate, the overall speed of
the game is the same in both versions.


0.9 Testing configurations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender was tested and ran successfully on the following systems:

- A3000, 25MHz 68030 & 68882, 2 MB Chip, 4 MB Fast, 52 MB Quantum HD,
  KS 36.143, WB 36.68
  (my machine)

- A3000, 16MHz 68030 & 68882, 1 MB Chip, 1 MB Fast, 52 MB Quantum HD,
  KS 36.143, WB 36.68
  (Thanks to Pernhard!)

- A2000B with GVP turbo-board, 28MHz 68030, 33MHz 68882,
  Kickstart 1.3
  (Thanks to Pille!)


0.10 Bug reports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offender has been tested many hours and has been found 'bugfree' :-)
It'll exit if there's a resource not available giving you a short
explanation. If you should encounter an "Internal error RC = xxx" or
a guru or other strange behaviour, PLEASE report it to me together with
your system configuaration, including model, CPU type, FPU type, memory
configuration, Kickstart version etc.

Offender hasn't been tested yet with 2.04.


0.11 Differences to the registered versions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This demo contains only the first 2 levels. Additionally all sound
effects are down-sampled to about 4000 samples per second.

The full registered version will contain all levels plus the original
sound effects at about 10000 samples per second. (450 kBytes sounds!)

The source code version will further include all sources in C and
assembler (SAS C 5.10 and SAS Assembler) as well as the IFF images
and the self-written tools used in developing Offender, together with
a documentation on the source code (in fact all the files on my hard disk
concerning Offender !).


1. Handling
===========


1.0 Basics
~~~~~~~~~~
I assume, you are comfortable with the game's rules. If so, skip to the
next section. If not, here's a short description:

  You're flying with your fighter over an unknown planet. There are
  some fellows of you on the surface, waiting to get back home.
  But --- there're those ugly bad green (what color else ???) alien landers
  wanting to capture and eat (or whatelse) your friends; of course you
  have to save them. So you have to shoot those landers and if they've
  captured a humanoid, you can save him by touching him with your
  fighter. Now you can put him back to the surface by flying against it.
  If you can't get him, he'll certainly survive falling a certain height,
  but he'll break his neck after a too long fall.
  When a lander has gotten a humanoid and has reached the top, it'll turn
  into a mutant.

  Mutants are quite aggressive and you've got to be tricky to shoot them.
  And if all humanoids have been captured or shot, the planet will explode
  and there'll be a lot of mutants fighting against you.

  If your mission takes too long, baiters will appear. As the name implies,
  they're chasing you and you have to smartly out-maneuver them.

  On later waves there'll also appear pods and bombers. Pods are quite
  harmless, but if you shoot them (giving you many points) they release
  a handful of swarmers, tiny red UFOs jumping on the surface and accele-
  rating towards you. Bombers don't shoot but they leave mines which are
  deadly for you.

  All this sounds quite horrible for you (and your fellows on the surface!),
  but  wait: There're two extras you can use in your mission: The
  smartbomb, which kills all aliens on the visible screen (you only have a
  limited amount of them), and the hyperspace key, which allows you to
  escape from critical situations and teleports you to another place.

  After completing an attack wave you'll receive bonus points for
  the humanoids having survived it.

  For every 10000 points you scored, you'll be awarded an extra fighter
  and an extra smartbomb.


1.1 Titlescreen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's very simple:

 - Start the game by pressing FIRE

 - Quit Offender by pressing ESC

 - Or watch the titlescreen and hear that wonderful music


1.2 The game itself
-------------------
Offender is controlled by the joystick (connected to the 2nd port),
the mouse (1st port), and the keyboard.

Your fighter is entirely steered by the joystick (yes, there's no reverse
button!). Lasers are fired with the fire button. Smartbombs can be activated
either with the left mouse button or the space bar.
Hyperspace is activated with the right mouse button or the RETURN key.

Sound on/off is toggled with the 'S' key (initially on)
You can immediately abort the game and return to the titlescreen by pressing
the ESC key.


1.3 Joining the Hall of Fame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you hear that Chinese gong after losing your last fighter, you'll have
made it! One line in the hiscore window is painted red and it's the chance
to immortalize you. Just type your name (max. 7 chars) and press the ENTER
key. You can correct typos with the BACKSPACE key.



2. Programming
==============
[this chapter only included with the full source code license]

...


3. Credits
==========
Ok, I've done most things by myself, but:

  Thanks to

  -- Adrian Aylward, whose post.library and MkBmap programs were used
     to render the fonts

  -- Pille and Pernhard for gametesting

  -- Funky and Jolly for helpful suggestions at Le Barbú

  -- Bassi for support on sampling sounds

  -- my coffee machine


*****************************************************************************

SnailMail:
  Fred Bayer
  Artilleriestr. 21a
  W8000 Munich 19
  Germany

Email:
    [e-mail] (expires soon)
or: [e-mail]

Voice:
  [phone] (possibly german speaking answering machine)


*********************** "Wosmoneedsiagtmuassmawissn!" ***********************