Hall of Fame/HallofFameCDROM.cdr/game2/starship.lzh/READ21

Text File | 1987-03-11 | 9KB | 226 lines

STARSHIP: Invasion v2.1      By George P. Moromisato

Copyright (c) January 1987 by Thinking Machine Associates


     Welcome to STARSHIP: Invasion!

     STARSHIP: Invasion is a real-time space combat
simulation for the IBM PC.  To run it, make sure you have
the files STARSHIP.COM and STARSHIP.000 on the default drive
and type "STARSHIP"  The F1 key will then give you brief
instructions, but if you have never played before, I advise
you to read the instructions in STARSHIP.DOC.

     For those of you who have played STARSHIP before, the
following is a list of all changes made since version 1.0:


STARSHIP: Invasion   v2.0

     - MOST IMPORTANT:  Starship now works on the color
card.  When I first wrote the game, I only had a monochrome
card and didn't realize that it wouldn't work on the color
card.  Now I've fixed that.  It should work fine on a color
monitor.  I haven't tried it on a black and white screen,
but I think it will work as well.

     - The starbase display now works even if an enemy fleet
leaves the quadrant.  ( Before, if a fleet left a quadrant
with a base, the display would still say that the base was
under attack.)

     - Enemy fleets don't always destroy a base when they
first move in.  In earlier versions, whether or not a fleet
destroyed a base in one turn was random.  Now it depends on
the size and power of the fleet.

     - Fuel routines are implemented and the rate of fuel
usage is more reasonable.

     - Starbases never appear on the front line.  They are
always at least 4 quadrants back.

     - Hull damage is repaired at a starbase.

     - The ship can repair damage without a base.

     - Enemy ships don't fire at each other.

     In addition to fixing all those bugs, I've added some
extra features and changed a few things:

     - I've removed the commands Lower Shield and Raise
Shield and replaced them with two new commands:

     <F>          Raise forward shields 100 units
     <R>          Raise rear shields 100 units

     - When docking at a starbase, you must have your
shields lowered.  If you attempt to dock, you will be
instructed to lower your shields, but you will not dock.  In
this way, accidental docking during combat is avoided.

     - You can dock an re-supply with weapons without
repairing damage.

     - While repairing damage, you will be periodically
asked if you want to continue repairs.  (Useful because
fleets move while you are reapiring damage.)

     - Phasers can shoot down photon torpedoes

     - The routines that decide which fleet goes to which
starbase have been re-written to benefit the Joharians
somewhat.

     - Troop Carriers have been added.

     - Light cruisers have been deleted.

     - Fighters and Warships have been added.

     - Enforcers have been replaced by Assassins (which are
even more powerful)

     - Avengers do not shoot phasers, only photon torpedoes.

     - Starbases are harder to destroy.

     - If you notice, I've also removed the sound.  At first
I removed it because sound routines take too much time and
the game is slow enough as it is, but now I'm thinking of
putting it back in.  Somehow I think the game loses
something without sound.  What do you think?

     I must thank Loren Pechtel for all his suggestions and
comments.  It was because of his letter that I decided to
write a new version.  He will no doubt notice that many of
the new features are suggestions that he made in some form
or another.


STARSHIP: Invasion   v2.1

     - The game is much faster because of new assembly
routines that I've added.

     - Many people complained about the shields because
they could not be lowered, so I've added a new command:
<L> will lower each of the deflector plates 100 units.

     - A few bugs were fixed.  If one played the game too
many times the program crashed with an I/O error F3.
(Apparently I had forgotten to close the high score file
after each read.  Eventually the system ran out of file-
handles.)

     - Also, sometimes ships would appear on top of each
other and cause the program to crash.

     - Most difficult to trace was a bug in which a fleet
failed to disappear even after all ships in it were
apparently destroyed.  Since the game will not go to the
next level until all fleets are destroyed, once the phantom
fleet appeared there was no way to continue.  To make things
worse, the bug was extremely rare and more than once I
convinced myself that I had fixed it.  This time (I hope) I
finally did fix it.  The error was in the routine which
created fleets.

     - The statistics of some enemy ships were balanced
somewhat.

     - I've put some sound back in.  The warp sound is often
important because you can tell when the generator has built
up enough power.  Although I have not included sound
routines for the enemy ships or for the ship's weapons
(after all, there is no sound in space,) some warning alarms
are included.

     - I've added a speed control and a sound control.

ABOUT THE GAME

     Originally I came up with this game because I was very
disappointed with the Star Trek games.  Even if they were
not in real-time they were not very complicated.  And those
that were complicated (like Starfleet by Cygnus) were either
not in real time or not quite asthetically pleasing (like
Starfleet by Cygnus)  So I decided to write my own game.
     Version 1.0 of Starship was somewhat popular (at least
with my play-testers) but unfortunately it suffered from a
few fatal flaws.  First of all, it didn't run properly on
the color card, which made it hard for people to play.  And
second of all, it was very hard to play even if you had a
monochrome card.  There were so many things to keep track of,
and so many things that could detroy you, that most people
never got very good at it and lost interest.  (Of course I
have heard rumors of people scoring over 170,000 points on
it, but I'm not sure if I believe them.  (I never got above
100,000) )
     Starship v1.0 was the first program I ever wrote in
Pascal and consequently the code looks like a BASIC program
pretending to be structured.  In fact there is very little
structure in the original version.  Version 2.0, written
almost a year and a half later takes advantage of all the
things I learned in the meantime.  The code is split into
several small files, each file handling and particular part
of the game.  The whole game is takes about 100k of source
code and is written in Turbo Pascal 3.0.
     Version 2.0, which was only a beta test for 2.1,
fixed most of the major bugs (including the color card
problem,) of 1.0.  Unfortunately, because it was a complete
revision (the code was entirely re-written,) many new bugs
were introduced.  Although many parts behaved the same way,
the inards were totally different and some things such as
timing and speed were different.  It may turn out that this
version and all future 2.0 updates have lost the excitement
of the first version.  We'll have to see.
     Version 2.1 fixed most of the bugs of 2.0 and adjusted
the game balance somewhat.  With version 2.1 my highest
score is 24,000 (which isn't comparable with 1.0 because the
scoring is somewhat different.) and have yet to even see a
Troop Carrier.  If anyone ever gets to the higher levels, (I
have never made it past wave 7, though I have come
agonizingly close,) or even all the way to Ragnarok (wave
10) please send me a note.  (And if you get PAST Ragnarok,
I'll even dedicate my next game to you!)

     If you have comments or complaints I'd be happy to
hear from you.  You can write me at:

                15 Whittier Rd.
                Natick, MA 01760

CONTRIBUTIONS

     Of course you don't really believe that I've suffered
through innumerable cries of "Here's another bug..." for
nothing.  Nor do you really expect that I toiled long and
hard hours in the darkness of the computer room, forsaking
the bright Ithaca sun, and eating only meager quantities of
food and water, for the sheer enjoyment of it, do you?  No my
friends, I'm in it for the money.  And with the Shareware
concept of marketing being as lucrative as it is, why not
ask for contributions is what I say.  So if you've enjoyed
this game and also happen to have a check for $15, why not
send it in the mail to the address above.  In return I
promise to send you the source code for the program and
anything else that I may have lying around.

     Regardless, of course, I hope you enjoy this game in
the spirit in which it was written.  Good luck!



                                George P. Moromisato
                                Cornell University
                                Ithaca, NY

                                21 Jan 1987