TANK ATTACK by AIDAN A CULTURE PRODUCTION 6/10/95 Copyright 1995 - Aidan Boustred This game may be freely distributed, provided that: - ALL of the files listed below are included. - None of the files are altered in any way. - A reasonable fee (under #À1.50) is charged for handling. It may also be included in CD compilations, but I would like to be notified. Please read MoreInfo as well as these instructions, and watch the slideshow (Demo). FILE SETUP To play Tank Attack, you should have the following files- TankAttack - the main game TankAttack.info - the icon for the main game Demo - a slideshow programme Demo.info - its icon README - text file(you're looking at it) MoreInfo - another text file, all about future games. g1 g2 g3 s1 xg1 xg2 xg3 xg4 xg5 so1 so2 These will be looked for under the path "TA:" If they are on a HD then you will need to use an ASSIGN e.g. ASSIGN dh0:Games/TankAttack TA: If you dearchive from an lha file, then the archive includes the libraries necessary to use the game. SET UP When the game runs there will be a picture of a tank with 6 boxes underneath. Each box corresponds to a tank. There will also be a flashing cursor controlled by the primary joystick. 4 OPTIONS BOXES (in the top left corner) 1. TEAM GAME/ALL AGAINST ALL - selects the type of game. 2. RESET - puts all ranks and scores back to default values. 3. HIDE - If the tank is hidden, (an outline), then computer controlled tanks will only appear on the screen if a human controlled tank can draw a line of sight to them. 4. ? - This plays the Xenomorphs slideshow and then returns to Workbench. NAMES Click on the names with the cursor to alter them. Type in a new name. TEAMS The team is indicated by a grey box with a '1' in it or a green box with a '2' in it. Click on the box with the cursor to change team. CONTROL METHODS The control method can be changed with the cursor or by pressing keys 1-6 The options are: - 2 joysticks - computer control (the chip icon) - not playing (a dash) There are also 4 key sets Keyset 1: cursor keys to move, help fires. Keyset 2: On number pad: 5=FORWARD 1=LEFT 2=BACK 3=RIGHT Enter= FIRE Keyset 3: p=FORWARD l=LEFT ;=BACK #=RIGHT Rshift=FIRE Keyset 4: s=FORWARD z=LEFT x=BACK c=RIGHT Lshift=FIRE WEAPONRY Select each tank's armament with the cursor or by pressing keys q-y the options are: -Gun - good all round, the computer's best weapon. -Flamethrower - short range, overheats slowly high damage. -Rockets - overheat very quickly, high damage. STARTING THE GAME Press the space bar. Once you are playing then Esc aborts the game. INGAME CONTROLS The panel at the bottom shows -energy,(green bar) -gun temperature,(red bar) -kills -ammo -rank -weapon type There is a few seconds truce at the beginning of the game when the guns can't fire. Use this time to get into position. During this period tanks with flamethrowers are also not allowed to move, but only turn. In a team game, there are 2 teams, green bodied tanks and grey bodied tanks. Kill the other team. In an all against all game, the tanks will still be green or grey, but this is irrelevant. Each tank has a turret colour which corresponds to a coloured box on the control panel. If a tank survives a round, it is increased in rank. The higher a tank's rank, the harder it is to kill. If a tank is destroyed then it loses its rank. CONTROLLING FIRING If fire is held down then left and right turn the tank turret. Release the fire button to shoot the gun. Each time a gun fires, the red overheating bar will rise. If it reaches the top, then the tank cannot fire until it has cooled. TACTICS -Stay close to cover, facing in a direction where you can rapidly get behind it. -Watch your gun temperature very carefully. Let it fully cool before starting to attack. -Don't get in a straight shoot out in the open with the computer, it'll win every time. -If a tank is very close to a barricade then it can be damaged when a rocket hits the other side. -Attack by turning your turret to a 90 degree angle to the direction you are going. Then drive across a gap between cover, firing. This makes you hard to hit and gives a good spray of fire. -If you are in a 1 against 1 situation with a computer tank, try to keep at long range where you can use your superior ability to dodge fire. -Look for tanks which are overheated, they will not be able to return fire very effectively if you attack them. -Pincer attacks work particularly well. A tank can only fire in one direction at a time. COMPUTER CONTROL A large proportion of the time spent on this game was spent making the computer into the equal of a human player. This was done without cheating - that is, the computer absorbs the same amount of damage, drives at the same speed etc. In fact, the only difference is that a human tank turret turns quicker than a computer one, so they are mildly disadvantaged. The theory is that they can be substituted for humans, so 2 humans + a computer would be reasonably fair against 1 human and 2 computers. They tend to get more kills than human players, as they are much more aggressive, but they also die more. GAME SPEED On an A500 the game is a bit sluggish if 4+ tanks are under computer control. (The Artificial intelligence routines are quite time consuming as they assess tanks' vulnerability, check line of sight etc.) Just play with as many tanks as your computer can cope with. THIS GAME WAS PRODUCED WITH.. BlitzBasic2 DPaintIII Docs written in Scribble The slideshow was written in AMOS. Hardware used: A1200 + HD ActionReplayIII(such easy file handling) It has been tested on an A500 and an A1200. It probably needs more than 0.5MB, but I haven't got round to checking. It works with 1MB anyway. Contact me on: Aidan Boustred Brook House Small's Hill Road Leigh Reigate Surrey RH2 8PF ENGLAND Phone:01306 611 388 (Not in term time) E-mail:a.m.boustred@sheffield.ac.uk(only in term time)