@database StarWoids.guide @node MAIN @title "Welcome to Starwoids!" --<[ STARWOIDS ]>-- AmigaGuide documentation. Hello, and welcome to the demo version of StarWoids. A condensed version of this documentation is also accessable directly from within the game. Simply press the corresponding function keys on any of the title screens. 1. @{" Quick Installation " link INSTALL} 2. @{" Rules and Features " link RULES} 3. @{" Controls " link KEYS} 4. @{" Music and TOOLTYPES " link TOOLTYPES} 5. @{" System Requirements " link SYSTEM} 6. @{" Credits " link CREDITS} 7. @{" Shareware Information " link SHAREWARE} 8. @{" Bugs and Problems " link BUGS} 9. @{" Copyright Notices " link AUTHOR} 10. @{" History " link HISTORY} @endnode @node INSTALL "Quick Installation" StarWoids can be run from both floppy and harddrive (plus even ram: if you have enough). Installation is quite easy, and there's several ways to do it. Installation to Floppy ====================== Unpacking the DMS files to two disks is all that needs to be done. The disks should be called "StarWoids1" and "StarWoids2", but DMS handles that for you. Once unarchived (which you must have done already to be reading this 8^), the game is ready to play. The game supports all external drives, but if you only have the internal drive, it will prompt you when it needs the other disk. Installation to Harddrive ========================= You will need around 1.4 meg of free space on you harddrive. Installer --------- An installation script is provided to install StarWoids onto your harddisk. This script uses the standard Commodore Installer utility, and is quite easy to use. This script will also automatically add (after prompting you) two necessary assigns to your user-startup (or startup-sequence) file. Once you install StarWoids onto your harddisk, you must reset your amiga to initialise the assignments. It is *very* important that you remove the StarWoids floppy disks before resetting, since the device names for these floppy disks will conflict with the assigns added to your user-startup file. Manually -------- If you have any problems with the installer, you can install it by hand. Start by creating a "StarWoids" directory on your harddisk, then copy all the files from both StarWoids disks into this directory. Be careful to maintain the directory structures. Finally, you will need to add these two assigns manually to your user-startup (or starup-sequence): assign StarWoids1: assign StarWoids2: Remember to reboot your amiga to initialise these assigns. If you don't wish to alter either of the "startup" files, you could enter the assigns manually via CLI or SHELL before playing the game. See also: @{" StarWoids files " link FILES} @endnode @node FILES "StarWoids Files" Here is a complete list of all StarWoids files (some files have associated .info files). Files marked with dashes between numbers, generally indicate a range of filenames. For example, gfx02-04,06 indicates gfx02, gfx03, gfx04 and gfx06 StarWoids1 StarWoids2 ---------- ---------- StarWoids data/arc.inc StarWoids-Install data/len.inc Docs/StarWoids.guide data/m1.pal Docs/SW-register.txt data/m2.pal installer data/m3.pal data/len.inc data/map1-3 data/arc.inc data/palfg data/s1.pal data/s1.pal data/s2.pal data/s2.pal data/text1 data1/f_bbase1-2 data/text2 data1/f_hbase1-2 data/text3 data1/gfx01,13,15-17 data/text4 data1/lgfx01-03 data1/gfx02-12,14,18-19 data1/lgfxs data2/m03 data1/r_base1-2 data2/s13 data2/m01-02,04 data2/s01-s12,s14 And the following files, which are included for the floppy disk version of StarWoids, and are unnecessary if installing to hard-disk. StarWoids1 ---------- c/endcli c/loadwb Docs/more devs/system-configuration l/Disk-Validator l/port-handler libs/diskfont.library libs/icon.library libs/info.library libs/mathtrans.library s/startup-sequence @endnode @node RULES "Rules and Features" StarWoids was designed to be a bit more thought reliant than the usual shoot em up. We've tried to include a puzzle element into the level designs, but subtle enough so that it doesn't distract from the blasting element. The following is a list of important rules and features. General Items ============= > Landing the craft is necessary for picking up people from the planets surface. To land the X-wing, the nose must be facing directly upwards. Heavy landings will result in a crash, so take it easy. > Some parts of the landscape are interactive. If you find yourself in a position with no possible solution, try experimenting with the landscape around you. > Shooting certain items in the game will mean a loss of points, plus the loss of a life (or two). The Rebel shield generator on level two is an example of this, so don't shoot it. > The various missions for each level vary quite considerably. Read the information between every level very carefully, as they are your only source of clues. Special Items ============= > Once collected, R2-D2 can open impenetrable access doors. Simply land the X-wing close to a door, and R2-D2 will automatically open it. > Imperial prisons can contain either Rebel soldiers, or an explosives expert (who isn't featured in the demo). Rescuing a rebel pilot awards you one extra life, and killing one results in the loss of points. Killing the explosives expert will mean that you must begin the level again plus the loss of one life. > The explosives man is used to destroy key Imperial installations. Simply land close to the base, and he will automatically perform his task. > NovaBombs can be used to destroy several ground targets in one large explosion. Use them carefully though, since you are limited to just 5 in this demo. Final help ========== This demo version of StarWoids has a very high difficulty level. This is just to keep you playing it a bit longer O:). Note that there -is- a decent reward should you manage to complete all 3 levels. See also: @{" The Status Panel " link STATUSPANEL} @{" A few good keys to know " link KEYS} @{" Hints and Tips " link HOTTIPS} ...and when all else fails - Use The Force! @endnode @node STATUSPANEL "Status Panel" The Status Panel ================ .---------------------------.------------.----------------------------. | [Score] | | [R2D2] [ExpMan] [Novas] | | [Timer] | [Demo] | | | [Lives] | | [Level Name] | `---------------------------^------------^----------------------------' [Timer] - Counts down to zero on certain levels. [Score] - Players score. [Lives] - Number of lives remaining. [R2D2] - Lit when R2D2 is being carried by the X-Wing. [ExpMan] - Lit when an explosives man is being carried. [Novas] - Number of NovaBombs currently carried. [Level Name] - Name of the current level. [Demo] - Unused for the demo. @endnode @node KEYS "A few good keys to know" X-Wing Controls =============== ACTION JOYSTICK KEYS ------ -------- ---- rotate left left left alt rotate right right left amiga thrust up right alt fire fire right amiga Additional Keys =============== Ingame Keys: Text Screen Keys: ACTION KEYS ACTION KEYS ------ ---- ------ ---- exit game ecs scroll down arrow down pause p scroll up arrow up restart fire exit text esc Press 'F1' to configure game keys (from Control menu). StarWoids supports simultaneous keyboard and joystick control, and the keyboard control keys may be modified to suit the player. The key settings may be saved for future use. @endnode @node TOOLTYPES "Music and TOOLTYPES" StarWoids keeps some of its settings inside the games Workbench icon. This is done with the use of TOOLTYPES (The Amiga's standard way of passing parameters to a Workbench program). To view StarWoids' TOOLTYPES, do a SINGLE-click on the StarWoids game icon, then select "Info" or "Information" from the Workbench menus. If you're confused about how to edit them, check your Amiga's manual. Here are the "Boolean" TOOLTYPES that StarWoids currently uses: MUSIC=1 or MUSIC=0. This turns on/off both the title music and the mid-level music. Not only does turning off music stop music from playing, but it also prevents the mods from being loaded into memory. This can be useful when running StarWoids on machines will a small amount of chip memory. ANIMS=1 or ANIMS=0 This turns on/off the title animation. Memory should not be a problem with the animation, but you can turn it off to shorten loading time. Turning off the music and animation will drastically reduce loading times. This isn't so much of a problem from harddrive, but from floppy the results are quite substantial. StarWoids Icon ============== The icon which accompanies the game is designed for 2.xx or 3.0x systems. If you use 1.3 roms, you can use the extra icon found in the /documents directory. @endnode @node HOTTIPS "Hints and Tips" Hints and Tips ============== > Level1 is a very open level. This should allow you to practice skills needed on later levels. Practice on this level is essential, because the later levels are very hard 8^). > The majority of the enemy have distinct reloading times, plus an element of randomness in their firing. Learn to take advantage of this. > There is no need to shoot every base > All of the important enemies are shown on the title screens. Wait for the title screens to cycle, and look at the different enemies and appearances carefully. > Tie-fighters are reset when you lose a life, so don't rest on your laurels when you destroy one! > Conserve your novabombs. You are limited to just 5 in this demo. @endnode @node AUTHOR "Copyright Notices" StarWoids copyright notices: > StarWoids, the game, and all associated items are copyright 1993-1994 by Kift-Crawford-Wells. > The graphical and sound/music themes are all copyright 1977 LucasFilm Ltd. All rights reserved. > StarWoids, the fan game, uses all themes without permission but acknowledges LucasFilms copyright. Sorry about that. AmigaGuide copyright notices: AmigaGuide, AmigaGuide.info, amigaguide.library, WDisplay, WDisplay.info (c) Copyright 1992 Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced and distributed under license from Commodore. AMIGAGUIDE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE; NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED. @endnode @node HISTORY "History" Releases ======== Demo v1.00 7/7/94 - three level demo released Demo v1.01 9/7/94 - Several bug fixes History ======= The project originated in November93 from the AmigaFormat Blitz Basic 2 competition. We didn't really expect to actually have it finished in time for the comp, but AF's one month extention allowed us to enter (although still only just). The three level demo has taken around eight months of work. We now face another few months (that would be late September/October 1994) of work before the full version is complete. At this point we will send it to everyone who has sent us the registration fee. Was it all worth it? Well, it's hard to say really. We didn't win the AF competition (argh), so our original aim wasn't achieved. I guess we have to see how many people register before deciding 8^). In the progress of creating StarWoids, Martin bought the full version of Blitz 2, Rowan bought Brilliance, and Rob bought the StarWars CD set for samples. Not to mention that we all bought A1200's. About the Design ================ The design of StarWoids is based on several old classic games. The arcade game, "Asteroids", the Commodore 64 cheapo, "Thrust", and "Oids" on the Atari ST are the main sources of ideas, but our real aim was to produce something better than all three. Did we achieve that? For the game theme, we had many possibilities. We chose Star Wars for several reasons. Firstly, we are all big fans of the movies, so basing our game on Star Wars gave us that extra bit of enthusiasm. The news of a new trilogy was also a big deciding factor. Then there is the fact that the Amiga has, sadly, missed out on all the recent Star Wars games. The consoles had their rather nifty "Super Star Wars", and the PCs had their atmospheric "X-wing" series - but the Amiga has missed out on both. Why! It wouldn't be too much work to remove the StarWars theme, but we sincerely hope that we won't need to. @endnode @node BUGS "Bugs and Problems" Bugs ==== StarWoids has several bugs, the majority of which are caused by Blitz. None are detrimental to the game, but they will be sorted out for the registered version! Here they are: > The Med music player doesn't play the modules very well. The mods were originally written in ProTracker (CIA) format, but Blitz doesn't support that. This WILL be fixed (because the ProTracker versions sound great), so the full version will have ProTracker mods rather than the existing Med ones. > The sound may be corrupted if you have an accelerator. This is an unfortunate blitz problem, and a solution wasn't available at the time of releasing the demo. The release version will not suffer from this problem, however, since we understand it is being tackled by the Blitz developers at this moment. We have discovered that this problem is caused by processor caches, and therefore a temporary fix is to disable instruction/data caches, either at bootup, or using one of many software utilities. If you suffer from this problem, we suggest you at least try disabling your caches once, so you can hear how nice StarWoids sounds 8) Note that this sound corruption does not affect the music, only the sound effects. Also, sound corruption is the only way in which StarWoids is incompatible with advanced processors, it is well behaved and system friendly in all other aspects. > The fading of some pictures is not 100% correct. A small thing. Problems ======== The limitations of Blitz 2 and ECS Amigas produced some minor design problems. These may or may not be fixed in the full release, depending on whether we find a solution. Here they are: > It's hard to distinguish between Rebel pilots and Stormtroopers in the game. This is due to a lack of colours, and their small size. Just treat this as part of the challenge :). > We aimed to make the game playable on 512k chip memory machines. The game uses quite a large ammount of both graphics and sound, so it is very close to this limit. If you find that you have memory problems, try altering the TOOLTYPES settings to disable the animations, music, or both. The program may disable the title mod itself if it cannot find enough chip memory. > The graphics use "dual playfield" mode, so they are very limited in colours. The ground uses 7 colours, the baddies use another 7, plus the odd sprite can use a few more. This can only be enhanced if we do an AGA version. > If you are running the game on a 68000 based machine, you will find that bullets occationally disappear. This only happens on level two when there is a lot of objects on (or near) screen, and is a result of the processor being overworked. @endnode @node CREDITS "Credits" About the Authors ================= Coding by Martin Kift: Martin Kift is a chemical engineer currently working for a small UK based software consultancy firm, and specialises in developing Microsoft Windows applications (yes I know Windows sucks, you should try writing for it!! 8^). He is a long time amiga fanatic, although this is his first major release. Contactable at: Email: M.H.Kift@swansea.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0)792 775819 (home) +44 (0)792 205678 ext 4096 (work) Graphics by Rowan Crawford: Rowan Crawford (Sumaleth/Pearl) is an Electronic and Computer Engineering student at Monash University in Victoria (Australia), Gippsland campus. He wishes to work as a professional computer artist. Contactable at: Email: dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au sumaleth@portal.apana.org.au Phone: +61-(0)51-977284 Music and sound by Rob Wells: Rob Wells (Ginseng/Alchemy) is a Computer Science student at Monash Uni in Victoria (Australia), Melbourne campus. He has released several music packs at Amiga shows throughout Australia, and has just finished some "Scala" music sets. Contactable at: Email: ginseng@yoyo.cc.monash.edu,au rewel1@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au Phone: +61-(0)3-5792980 Mail: Rob Wells 114 East Boundry Rd East Bentleigh 3165 Victoria, Australia Additional Thanks ================= For beta testing: Nigel Hughes, Mike Cox, and many others. For coding assistance: Nighel Hughes, Jon Staniford, and many friends on the Blitz mailing list. For graphical evaluation: Sami Vanhatalo. @endnode @node SHAREWARE "Shareware Info" ShareWare Information for StarWoids =================================== This is a three level ShareWare demo of StarWoids. The idea of ShareWare is that it allows you try out the game before you buy it. We encourage you to spend a couple of weeks playing this demo. Then at the end of that time, you can decide whether you want to pay the small fee which allows you to get the full version. Registration fees are as follows: * Australia - 20 Australian dollars * UK - 10 English pounds America - 15 American dollars Germany - 23 German deutsch marks Finland - 76 Finnish marks When registering, you MUST send the money as an 'International Cheque' in either 'Australian dollars' or 'English pounds'. The above amounts for America, Germany and Finland are purely for comparison because the international exchange rates are constantly changing. Your bank should calculate the amount from the marked '*' values above, based on the exchange rates at the time. To entice you into registering, the full version of StarWoids will contain many extra features, along with many more levels. Here's a list of proposed features: o A large number of levels. o Big raytraced intro and outro animations. o Raytraced intro scenes (possibly both HAM6 & HAM8). o A working hi-score table (saveable to disk). o Many more characters and craft. o A lot more music and sound. o More weapon powerups. o Possible AGA version if demand is great. o Proximity mines, enemy shields etc. o Maximum use of FASTMEM to cache graphics/sound etc. o Bascially it will kick ass. The full version of StarWoids is not yet complete (as of the 8th July 1994), so any of the above are subject to change (just as anything could be included). We are keen to hear any comments and suggestions for inclusion in the full release, so feel free to include ideas with your registration fee. To register, all you need to do is send the registration fee and the registration form to either of these address (the choice is yours): Martin Kift Rowan Crawford 23 Davis Street Flynns Creek Upper Plasmarl Via Traralgon 3844 Swansea. SA2 8PP Victoria S.Wales, UK Australia Your registered version with have your name on the title screen stating that it is registered to you. As protection for us, each registered copy will also have that persons name and registration number embeded into the program in several places. This will allow us to easily track down anyone who spreads the full version around (so don't do it). Please keep in mind how much work we have put into this product. Message To PD Libraries ======================= This product is FreeWare, however you are free to distribute this program for the usual cost of a disk and the copying fee. You may NOT distribute the registered version under any circumstances. The demo may be distributed in either DMS or unpacked form (this applies to Fred Fish too), so long as ALL files are present, and nothing is added or changed. CD distribution is also allowed, but only as two DMS files, and we must receive a free CD each (ie. one disk each for Martin, Rowan and Rob). Please register :-) @endnode @node SYSTEM "System Requirements" Memory ====== StarWoids should work on all Amigas with at least 1 meg of memory. However, a machine running with only 512k of chip memory may not work with all features turned on. See @{" Music and TOOLTYPES " link TOOLTYPES} for more information. Speed ===== Machines with fast processors will have a much smoother game, although it is still playable on 68000 based machines. Fast ram is recommended on all machines to maximum game speed and smoothness. See @{" Bugs and Problems " link BUGS} for more information. @endnode