Firstly, you're going to need a minimum of a 486/66, 8Mb of RAM and 45Mb of free hard drive space to play our Gene Wars demo. Secondly, Gene Wars is a DOS game, but if your system is up to it it should run in Windows 95. Here's how you do it:
i) Click the Install button. The game will then
install to your hard drive.
ii) Click the Sound Setup button to configure
the game for your sound card.
iii) Click the Run button. The game should then
start.
If you find it won't run in Windows 95 on your system then you'll need to quit to DOS and run it from our DOS menu. Here's how:
i) Click on 'Restart in MS-DOS mode' from the
'Shut Down' menu.
ii) Type GO at the prompt of your CD drive. (This
is usually D:).
iii) Click on the Gene Wars button in the DOS
menu.
You can however run the installation program in Windows. Feel free to do that now by clicking the Install button.
2) Windows 3.1:
Firstly, you're going to need a minimum of a 486/66, 8Mb of RAM and 45Mb of free hard drive space to play our Gene Wars demo. Secondly, Gene Wars is a DOS game, and won't run in Windows 3.1. You'll need to quit to DOS and run it from our DOS menu. Here's how:
i) Close this menu and quit from Windows.
ii) Type GO at the prompt of your CD drive.
(This is usually D:).
iii) Click on the Gene Wars button in the
DOS menu.
You can however run the installation program in Windows. Feel free to do that now by clicking the Install button.
3) Running Gene Wars manually:
Alternatively, if you don't want to use our menus, or have memory constraints then you can install and run Gene Wars manually. Here's how:
i) Quit to DOS (see above).
ii) Type INSTALL in the GENE directory of the
CD.
iii) After installation you can change to the new
GENE directory on your C:\ drive and type
SETSOUND to configure the game for your
soundcard, or DEMO to play it.
4) The Story
Thousands of years into the future a scout ship belonging to the Ethereals, an inter- galactic space police, venture into a distant corner of our galaxy. The Ethereal scouts come from a civilisation which is advanced and peace-loving, and are on a mission to rid the universe of violence. They are both surprised and saddened, then, to find that in this hitherto unexplored sector planet after planet has been decimated by war and its after- effects.
They travel deeper into this star system and find twenty four decimated worlds, the results of years of conflict that still continues between four separate races: the direct, rumbustious Earthlings; the subservient, sly Saurians; the laid-back Bohemians, and the take-no-prisoners Schnozzoids. each of which are all aiming to dominate the other three races by whatever means possible.
While these space travellers are dedicated to the pursuit of peace, they are infinitely more powerful than any other being in the universe. They abduct all of the planetside members of the alien races, the specialists who were put there to investigate the workings of the planet and set up a base there, and imprison them. The leaders of the four races are understandably annoyed by this, but after a display of the infamous Killing Stick by Kkka Sidrik, the Ethereal High Commander, they decide not to pursue the matter and make it known that they would never normally fight or do anything nasty, while thanking the Ethereals for their help and expressing the hope that the wayward individuals who caused this war would rot in hell.
The Ethereals, though, are into all things peaceful, and after a short time they feel that the specialists, who have now been banged up in stir for several years, would have paid their dues to the Galaxy. Releasing them on community service, they split the races up into teams and send them down onto the still-charred planets, confiscating their weapons but providing them with the means to rebuild the eco-system for that planet. They offer the teams a challenge: complete freedom to the team which does the best job, eternal damnation to those that fall behind.
The teams, now planetside, are not overly keen on working with their old arch-enemies, but having been disowned by their peers they have no choice but to play along with the Ethereals. While they wouldnt want to harm the other members of their own team, if the chance came to nobble a member of another team, who happened to be from a different race, they might just take it. With no weapons available the only option is invent new ones, but it is apparent to everyone that if the Ethereal see anything but peaceful building and creating, your team will pay a heavy price.
Then inspiration comes to you - if you already have the ability to biologically engineer creatures to top up the eco-system, why not extend it to create killer creatures to dispatch your enemies for you? Should the peace-keepers hear of it, of course, you can always claim that these rabid creatures were just an unforeseen aberration.
The only problem is that the other teams have come to the same conclusion, and are busily creating their own killer creatures somewhere on the same planet. They quickly realise that its still war, but this time its sneaky and underhand; your aim being to use your mutant creatures to crush and obliterate your opponent teams.
In time-honoured tradition, Bullfrog have taken the concept of a war game, added a spoonful of god game and topped it up with a healthy helping of humour to create a program which is original, amusing and very playable.
Colourful SVGA graphics belie the serious business of annihilating the opposition, while the atmospheric soundtrack adds yet another dimension to the game.
5) How to play the demo
You're going to have to use your brain and quick reflexes for this one. When the game starts you'll be attacked straight away by two strange creatures. We recommend that you use the Ranger to dispatch them with his gun, or the Genetisist to stun them for study, otherwise your go will be very short indeed!
Remember however that if you go around shooting all the wildlife the Ethereals will not be best please, and will decide to eradicate you. Maybe a spot of recycling, rather than outright destruction might please them more?
After dealing with the initial attack your first priority is to establish your base. The very first structure you should get up and running is the Extractor, a Goop mine that's very fussy about where it's placed. Near where your team starts are two mineral patches recognisable by the small Goop crystals nudging up out of the ground. Use your engineer to build an Extractor on one of the patches.
While your engineer is hard at work on the new Extractor, your Botanist should start to plant a forest on the grassland nearby. It's also a good idea to use your Ranger and Geneticist to explore the local area, with the Geneticist preferably researching anything he finds.
After the Extractor you need a first stage Distributor, Photon Processor and Genepod.
Move your Botonist to the first zone and harvest the root plants that are there; these are far more efficient than the bulb plants you start with.
When the Genepod is up and running, and your forests are established, you should build a recycler and start producing mules. Click on the Genepod to create a mule, click on the green left/right arrows until the mule lifeform is displayed, then hit the big red button just below the creatures on the panel.
As long as you can maintain your forests, recycle everything available and keep your base well defended, you should have no trouble. The next step is to try and take the marked zones before the enemy team does the same.
The first zone is really close to a set of indigenous crabs. These should be researched before the herd develops too much. Larger herds are more tricky to research because it's easier for them to get to your Genetisist and eat him. Yuk!
Remember to keep a balance between good and bad actions, or the Ethereals, who pay regular visits may decide to waste you.
