(recommended: Joypad)
S P A C E
-----------
Space is a 3D shoot-em-up for high end Amigas. Minimum spec is a 603e@160Mhz
and CyberVision3D/64. Cyber/BlizzardVisionPPC is highly recommended as is a
faster proccessor.
Installation
------------
You will need a fully working Warp3D installation. This can be found at:
ftp://ftp.haage-partner.com/3DWorld/Warp3D/
and a fully working WarpOS installation from:
ftp://ftp.haage-partner.com/WarpUP/
Please try to get the demos of these running before reporting bugs to me.
Read the docs carefully but if you have any problems feel free to contact me.
The game can be unarchived to wherever is convienient.
Starting
--------
To run the game simply double click the icon or open a shell and CD to the
'Space' drawer and type 'space.wos'.
Prefs
-----
When starting for the first time space will request the following:
Sound : I recommend you use AHI here as the Direct Paula Hack is buggy.
If you do not have AHI or have problems you can use the Direct
Paula Hack. If you are not using a sound card I reccommend selecting
'Paula:DMA 8 Bit Stereo' from AHI prefs for whichever unit you have
chosen as this has a low CPU usage. Perhaps when AHI.WOS is finished
HiFi 8 Bit will be better.
Conrol: I recommend you use JoyPad here as the game is much more difficult
with any other controls. If you don`t have a joypad the keys may be
user defined. Any combination of keys is possible but you will have
to experiment on your setup to find which work. On my Power Tower
certain keys jam one another.
Display: On my 603e@160Mhz BVisionPPC 640x480 is fast enough. 320x240 is
UGLY. If you have a faster proccesor try higher resolutions.
If you need to change these prefs after running for the first time you
should run space_prefs or you will have to delete 'sound.prefs',
'control.prefs' or 'display.prefs' from the 'space' drawer.
Menus
-----
All menus are now controled from the keyboard. Generally 'L' means continue
without selecting. While 'A' means select. Cursor keys select up and down
in what I hope is an intuitive manner.
Shop
----
The controls for the shop are similar to those for the menus. To buy an item
select it using the cursor keys. You are then shown how much cash you have
and what upgrade or number you already have. To upgrade/buy press the up
cursor. To degrade/sell press the down cursor key. When you are happy with
your purchase press 'a'. You will recieve less for selling an item than it
cost to buy so if you have bought too much of an item best press 'L' and
start again. If you have any cash you can still buy/upgrade and will go
into debt. Interest is charged/payed on your spare cash at the rate of 10%
per level.
Playing
-------
For joypad the controls are as follows:
Roll left/right
Climb/Dive down/up
Accelarate right wing button
Deccelarate left wing button
Fire Lazer Red
Select Target Green
Fire Missile Blue
ECM Yellow Note: ECM destroys all missiles friendly or enemy
and drains a small amount from your shield.
Mouse control is very difficult. Right mouse button gives fine control over
movement but the whole thing is a nightmare. Keyboard control is nearly as
bad. Single button joystick and keyboard is ok. Get a joypad. Every home
should have one. I intend to add support for blittersoft`s Playstation
adapter if I can ever get in touch with them.
Cockpit indicators:
Shield ----------
Lazer Temperature / \
Remaining Missiles [ RADAR ]
Speed \ /
---------- TYPE OF SHIP TARGETED
ATM the game is at the beta stage. Don`t expect too much. If you can report
that the game runs without crashing I`ll be pleased. I`ve got about 2-6
months work to do on it before it`s finished. A bug has crept in that
results in an intermitent WOS exception. I`m tracking it down. Remember to
save your game between levels.
Things to do include:
--------------------
Better collision detection.
Some improvements to the main algorythmn will mean I can add more complex
enemies.
Lots of general tidying up.
Better between level menus etc.
I had the intention of trying to add internet play. This has be given up on
due to several reasons. Firstly the code is a lot more complex than I had
expected and the algorythmn I have have used is not really suited to it.
Secondly it was pointed out that to make such a thing worthwhile a large
number of players would be required. Given the current state of the Amiga
market...
Since I wrote the above about internet play I have been hassled to rethink.
It`s down my list of priorities but may yet be seen.
I should be able to write all of this tommorow afternoon. It will then take
me until Christmas to debug it. ;)
Suggestions are welcome as are bug reports, critisisms insults and
compliments. Whether you entirely fail to get the game running or run it
for three days continuously without a crash I need to hear from you.
Thanks go to:
Sam Jordan, Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden for WarpOS Warp3D and lots of
advice.
Massimiliano Tretene for the use of his object editor.
Alastair M Robinson for his Joypad code.
Volker Barthelmann and Frank Wille for VBCC.wos and lots of advice.
No thanks go to
Active Software for not replying to my e-mails. I like their take the money
and run attitude. I will NOT be buying anything from you guys in the future.
Tim Hanson (Marginally Sinister) msinister@connectfree.co.uk
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