Creative Software Applications The War Simulator By Adam Barker Welcome to the War Simulator. Firstly, I'd like to you to contact me if you got this game without the doc files, because they are meant to be together at all times. Please make sure that the docs are with the game, before distributing to anyone. The War Simulator was written be me, Adam Barker. Thanks to AMOS, it wasn't a program that took ages to write, but debugging it takes time. Hopefully, you will be satisfied with this game. I'd like everyone to note that it is for two players. O.K- The War Simulator. It needs a setup process that is very easy to do as long as you follow the instructions carefully. First of all- you need three (3) blank disks. Make two copies of this disk onto two of those blank disks. Label one of those disks PLAYER1 and the other PLAYER2. You now need to go to the CLI and delete the file "PLAYER2.AMOS" from the WarSim directory of the PLAYER1 disk. Get this right!! Now delete the file "PLAYER1.AMOS" from the WarSim directory of the PLAYER2 disk. In other words, the PLAYER1 disk has PLAYER1.AMOS and PLAYER2 disk as PLAYER2.AMOS. Don't get these mixed up. The startup-sequence's of these two disks needs to be altered. All they need to say is: RUN >NIL: RAMOS1.2 PLAYER1.AMOS for the PLAYER1 disk or RUN >NIL: RAMOS1.2 PLAYER2.AMOS for the PLAYER2 disk. and ENDCLI on the second line. On the third disk, labelled PASSER, you must copy the file F.SEQ - which is found in the warsim directory of this disk. Please don't make a directory warsim here- it needs to be on it's own. Also- no startup-sequence is needed here. That's the main explaining done. Read it carefully and make sure you get it right before playing the game. TWS is played bewteen to players. You do not need to be in the same room, using the same computer at the same time to play. TWS is what we call a Time-Game. Each of you is in control of a small army of 30. There are four tanks, four planes, and twenty-two troops. Each of these can be individually controlled by yourself. TWS is played on a large screen (640x320 pixels). This gives the players a large landscape on which the battle will be fought. Upon loading the game for the first time, and getting started, the landscape will have each army at each end, in one line, ready to go. The battle is fought by moving the different pieces on the landscape towards your enemy, and attacking them. Attacking come's differently depending on who's making the attack. 1) Planes can kill and individual opposing piece, or the surround nine depending on the situation. 2) Tanks can only kill opposing pieces when they are exactly five squares away, either to the north, south, east or west. 3) Troops kill opposing pieces when they are next to them- either to the north, south, east or west. 1. LOADING THE GAME AND GETTING STARTED. To load the game, simply insert the disk with the altered startup- sequence and wait for the game to load. If you are player 1 then you have the white pieces with black labels, and if you are player 2 then you have the black pieces with white labels. Upon loading, you are presented with a menu. There are 11 options on here, but don't get worried with them all- only three are needed to function the game. When you want to play the game, tap 0 and the F.SEQ file will load. After a few seconds loading time, the screen will turn to the landscape screen, and the pieces will flash onto their current positions. 2. PLAYING THE GAME. Use the mouse to scroll around the screen. There are about 320x250 pixels in view, so there will be alot of movement free horizontally and only around 60 pixels vertically. As you scroll around, the pieces will be displayed in their positions. If you have just loaded for the first time, the pieces will be at each end:- White pieces at the left. Obviously you can only move your pieces. Please note that you can get back to the menu at this Selection Stage (being able to scroll around the screen) by pressing both mouse buttons. Scroll around the screen until you find one of your pieces that you want to move. You may want to make an attack, providing that the piece and the opponent are in valid positions. When you have decided which piece to move, or make an attack with, click the left mouse button. The screen will now lock itself, and you can move the mouse around the whole screen. Click on your piece with the RIGHT mouse button.A bell will sound. A new screen will appear as a thick black bar at the top of main screen. This bar will contain most data that will be of value to the players. At the moment, it show's what number the object is that you clicked on, how many times that object's been moved in your turn, it's co-ordinates and how many previous moves you've had. Press a key and the screen will clear. What follows is a set of options that determines the next event concerning the piece you clicked on. There are 6 main options. The first four ask you which way you want to move. North is up- not the direction towards the opponents. The fifth option is for making an attack, and the sixth is to exit. By exiting, you return to the selection stage. By selecting a direction, you're asked if you are sure (no lets you select again), and then displays the number of moves available to that piece. Tap in the number of moves you require, and press RETURN. You piece will be moved in your selected direction, and for that number of squares. 3. ATTACKING OPPONENTS. Option 5 is attacking an opponent. The screen clears and there is a prompt for you to select your opponent. Press RETURN. The black bar will disappear and the landscape will be available again. Click on your opponent. Make sure firstly that the opponent is in the correct position to make your attack valid:- 1. (If you are a) PLANE. You have two options. By clicking on your opponent, you kill it. Your opponent must be one square away (the next square), and can be in any direction (N,S,E,W,NE,NW,SE,SW). By clicking on yourself, you kill the surrounding nine pieces. There are eight around the outside and one that may be underneath you plane piece. 2. TANKS. Tanks are harder to handle than planes and troops, and their firing system is very limited. To attack with a tank, you must exactly five squares away in any of the N,S,E or W directions. In other words, you can't use tanks to fire diagonally. This is the only option for attack. 3. TROOPS. Troops carry Surface to Air launches as well as machine guns etc. This means that a troop can attack a plane providing it's in the valid position. The troop must be one square away in N,E,S or W directions. Troops can't fire diagonally. Once the opponent is selected, and providing the positions are valid, a message will appear acknowledging you that it was a successful attack. Press any key and you will return to the selection stage. (Remember: BOTH mouse buttons for main menu). If the positions weren't valid, then a message will appear saying that the attack was invalid, and it won't take place. Valid attacks will mean that the opponent will disappear. 4. PIECE IDENTIFICATION. There are only three pieces to identify on the landscape. Your opponents are just the inverse. Plane's have a P letter inside. Troops have a small cross, and Tanks have a T inside. If you are player 1, the letters will be black, and vice versa for player 2. 5. SCORING. A player has one the game when all the opponents pieces have been removed. 6. DEVELOPING TACTICS. TWS is meant to be a strategic game. But in that, it's not difficult to play and isn't full of puzzles. But take a hint- plan your tactics. Move troops about sometimes in groups, so that others can take over if one gets killed. Make up different plans for each group. Try to eliminate planes and tanks first being that can destroy more and move the furthest. Keep your eye on opposing tanks- don't forget they kill from five squares away- so an attack may come unexpected from any direction (N,S,E or W). Troops against Troops will take a long time. Make drastic moves sometimes to speed up the game a bit- don't make your turn just an odd square. 7. RESAVING THE ARRAY. Once you have decided all your moves and the army is where you like it, you have to resave the file, so that player 2 can see where you are and make his moves accordingly. On the selection stage, press both mouse buttons to return to the menu. Here, you MUST select SAVE NEW ARRAY. Don't switch off before doing so or else your moves will be lost. Make sure that the correct disk is inserted in drive 0 (the disk that is being swapped between you) before selecting this option. Also make sure that the disk is not busy before ejecting the disk or switching off- faulty files means that the whole game is lost. Eject the disk when it is saved, and then give it to your friend when you next see him. 8. OTHER OPTIONS. The other options are self explanitory. You have the option of printing to a printer, the positions (in pixels only) of all the pieces on the landscape. These are really only for future versions, or for programmers who may want to look into the program. 9. VIEW WHOLE MAP. You can select this option and this will give you the whole landscape in one screen. Currently, there is a bug with the writing of this, and the odd piece does appear in the wrong place. But the rest appear where they should be on the real landscape. There isn't a grid on this option. 10. CREDITS. By pressing X at the menu, you get a brief note of the credits etc. Creative Software Applications 3 Bellmans Close Whittlesey Peterborough Pe7 1TU 0733 208681 The War Simulator by Adam Barker (May 1991) IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS OR FIND ANY BUGS, PHONE 0733 208681, OR WRITE TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. THANKS.