Automobiles 1.5 V 1.0 Release Date 09.4.1994 V 1.1 Release Date 21.5.1994 V 1.11 Release Date 22.5.1994 V 1.5 Release Date 24.9.1995 (See new features at the end of this doc) (C) OverFlow Productions 1994, 1995 Design, Coding, Menu Background Graphics, Sound And Manual - Tero Heikkinen (Scotty) Design, Track Graphics, Title Screen, Car Sprites, Font And Manual - Pete Heikkinen (Runelord) Musique - Lagers Call the OverFlow's BBS for comments, bug reports and possible updates The Unknown Sector BBS - Node #1: +358-0-8793935 Info: OverFlow HQ System: A2000/'030/25Mhz, 2 nodes, CNet. And leave mail to Scotty or Runelord Address: Tero Heikkinen Viljamintie 5 01800 Klaukkala FINLAND And failing the above methods, Contact us via Internet: Leave E-mail to kontio@mits.mdata.fi and he will forward your mail to us (normal mail is the sure and preferred method to reach us). ----------------------------- A U T O M O B I L E S 1 . 5 ----------------------------- Introduction Automobiles is a top-down car racing game for up to four players. The Three/Four player option is only available with 14mhz or faster Amigas. The game might slow down a bit with 14Mhz machines with 4 players unless some FAST RAM is present. Automobiles requires a PAL Amiga with at least 1MB of RAM. It has been tested with 1MB A500 (OCS, KS1.3, 512Kb Chip RAM) and unexpanded A1200 (AGA, KS3.0, 2MB Chip RAM, HD). It should work with every PAL Amiga - let us know, if it doesn't. No external libraries are necessary to play Automobiles, everything the game requires is present. Automobiles currently includes 17 different tracks. Extra tracks can be installed easily into the game (when they are available, that is ;) The Trackdata.dat text file contains the information on currently available tracks; do not alter this unless you have tracks to install. V1.5 supports the usage of different paths and volumes for tracks. Version 1.5 doesn't fit on one 880Kb DSDD disk unless you leave some tracks out - if you do so, don't spread that version! Version 1.5 uses also an "automobiles.setup" file to load default information about number of players,laps and other preferences. More of this later... The Automobiles.Setup and Trackmenu.Dat files may be edited with any normal ASCII-text editor (Such as CEd or MEmacs) or a word processor supporting ASCII format (they all should). Main Menu Menu options can be selected using either a joystick, keyboard or a mouse. The pointer is controlled with joystick or cursor keys (space selects). With mouse the pointer acts as normal. You may also switch through selections by pressing the TAB key (selecting with space). START : The game starts with the selected number of players. CONTROLS : Enters the control change submenu in where you can alter the joystick/keyboard setup. TRACK : Enter track selection screen. Cancel returns without loading a track - previously loaded track will remain active. PLAYERS : Enter the player selection screen. Click on the four icons to switch Human/None on four players. This may seem a bit clumsy compared to just selecting the number of players, but in the future this menu contains Computer/Human/None selections. RECORDS : Show the lap records of the currently selected track. INFORMATION : Show the essential About-screen. GAMEPLAY : Alter game preferences, such as number of laps, collisions, gravity and music. - Number of Laps - Gravity (NEW FEATURE) - Collisions On/Off - Music On/Off EXIT : Leave the game, quit to CLI or Workbench. Controls Normally, with control setup 0: Player One uses the joystick in the game port. Player Two uses the cursor keys. Player Three uses the joystick in the mouse port. Player Four uses the keyboard. Joystick Keyboard Cursor Keys Resulting Action Left Left Alt Left Arrow ....... Steer Left Right Left Amiga Right Arrow ....... Steer Right Fire Right Alt Up Arrow ....... Accelerate Down Right Amiga Down Arrow ....... Brake The control arrangement is alterable, via the CONTROL submenu. You may also alter the default setting by changing your Automobiles.setup file. The Lap Counter The graphic symbols in older versions have been replaced with a simple Lap Counter at the bottom of the screen. The numbers show the amount of laps driven. If the car has reached goal, it shows 'GOAL' instead. After that, there is no need to drive on, unless you want to harash other opponents (and you do want!). Gameplay Options Accessed from the gameplay menu. Also alterable via the Default Setups Text file. Laps: Select the number of laps between 1 to 9 Gravity: 10 is 'normal' gravity (by Automobiles standard), the higher gravities are perhaps more realistic but not necessarily as fun. However, some bumpy tracks are easier to play with high gravity. Collisions: Collisions between cars may be disabled, so several players may try to break the lap records simultaneously without hindrance. Music: This turns the music in menus on / off. The Default Setups File Automobiles 1.5 features an Default Setup text-file, which contains the information on the preferences loaded when the program is launched. If the file is missing or otherwise useless, no problem, the defaults are not loaded. Read the self-explanatory 'Automobiles.Setup' file for more information. Make a backup of the file if you are uncertain. Alterable topics: Music On/Off Toggle : MUSIC ON or MUSIC OFF Track Number : TRACK:nn (01-99) Amount Of Laps : LAPS:n (1-9) Amount Of Gravity : GRAVITY:nn (05-25) Amount Of Players : PLAYERS:n (1-4) Default Control Setup : CONTROLS:n (0-3) Automobiles History, Through version 1.0 to 1.5 Version 1.0 The dawn of the Automobiles Phenomenom. Even now, at the year 1995, all magazines seem to be using this version for their reviews?! Version 1.1 I have come across an "ECS/AGA Fixed" version of Automobiles, by some 'scene' group. I could not make it work with my A500 so to me it seems like that version is just a load of old rubbish. The version should have worked fine on any Amiga, since it was tested on an (AGA!) A1200 (KS 3.0), A500 (KS1.3) and A2000/030/25Mhz. Get rid of that and of any other old 1.0 versions of Automobiles. The track file format has been changed and therefore the possible extra tracks cannot be loaded into it. Features 1.1 - Music during menu selections, composed by Lagers. - Cars have a stupid whining sound, just like in reality. - Bigger and better sound effects. - Alterable control arrangement. - Improved Dynamic Menu Operation (TM). - Cars do not get stuck into the top right corner. - Compressed track data. - Massively improved graphics. - 'Information' screen was replaced by 'Control'. - Extra track. - Longer documentation file. Features 1.11 - Players are now referred as colors, Player One is red, Player Two is blue and Player Three is Yellow. In 1.1, if you changed the control arrangement, player "names" (joy1,joy2,keys) did not make any sense. - In some control arrangements, the mouse interfered with the joystick control. Not anymore! - Improved mouse operation. VERSION 1.5 When I found out it was possible to add one player more, I could not resist making another version of Automobiles. I also thought of Computer opponents and coded some routines to handle them, but encountered some problems (with processing power) that I yet have to think over. Instead I concentrated on improving the car handling and making a better system to handle menus. With better sound systems available I also could improve the previously rather pathetic sound effects. Five totally new tracks were made during the process. Several options were added and some minor bugs removed. The version number represents how close this game is to the Automobiles II ideal. NEW FEATURES 1.5 - Four simultaneous Players: Red, Blue, Yellow And Grey. - Better car sounds. Sample of car starting from Kraftwerk's Autobahn. Audiorealisation of the synthesized car sound developed at the OverFlow studios. Also a great totally new Automobiles Theme by Lagers. - More realistic car handling. You really have to really learn some tracks to be good at them (the Complex is particularly painful :) Not too realistic, however. You can still rotate the cars while not moving. - Totally Improved Menu Operation with either keyboard, joystick or mouse. - Better Lap Counter. - Alterable Gravity (some did not like the flying). - SEVEN new tracks! Total of 17 tracks. Of the seven new tracks, two have been previously released as a 'trackdisk'. Hopefully improved track design on the new tracks. We noticed that tracks with relatively flat racing lines were more fun to play than the hillside tracks. This is even more true with the new car handling. - Default Setups file. - Smaller and neater font, more information (Compared to v1.11). - Better track file handling. (It was necessary) - Intro Title screen by Runelord. POSSIBLE Future Improvements: Computer Opponents (Working On It) Special Large Scrolling Tracks (Dreaming on It) Championship Play Mode (Runelord is pressuring for it ;) Even More Tracks (For Sure!) Re-Introducing Skid Marks (A question of raw processing power!) Released Products: Automobiles, you are looking at it now. Turbo Duel, an old but still kicking Tron-game. Top Hat Willy, the best-ever platform game. Runerealm I, the famous slideshow. Runerealm II, the superlative sequel. + a number of Intros. In Production: Lunatic Lander, a lunar lander game with a twist (Coming 'Soon') Top Hat Willy II, the sequel to the world-beater (1996?) Battleground, a futuristic strategy game to beat Interstel's Empire (easily) Automobiles II Plain War, a two-player aeroplane duel game with rendered gfx Warpath, a strategy/RPG with amazing graphics and depth of gameplay A small Space-Invaders type game Ultima-Clone, actually two of them ;) Automobiles 1.5 Presented By OverFlow Productions 1995 OverFlow Productions are: Hay Coding, SysOp of Unknown Sector BBS. Author of the Turbo Duel. Spinky Pal Graphics, Design, CoSysOp of US. Graphician in the Turbo Duel and several intros. Mr. Spaghetto Trader, (GFX, SFX). * Runelord Graphics, Design, CoSysOp of US, creator of the award-winning slideshows 'Runerealm I' and the sequel, 'Runerealm II' and a HC techno nut! * Scotty Coder, Surrealistic painter, musician. Author of The Famous 'Automobiles' and The World Famous 'Top Hat Willy'. Gun Coding, Music. Rogue Coding, Noise. Reaver Music (techno). * Lagers Music, SFX, SysOp of 4th Avenue private BBS Hypno Trader, SysOp of Subway BBS Kuba Coding, Design. (Members marked with * were directly involved with the 'Automobiles' Project). If you are a good 68K assembly and/or C coder, then contact us! If you need really good graphics for your project, then contact us! --------------------------------------------------------------------------