#BLACK DAWN II - THE STORY SO FAR #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The year is 5035 - a time of intergalactic war and alien infestation. As a prisoner caught and convicted to 3000 years solitary confinement for "accidently" killing 102 scientists - even if they were mad - you thought being forced to wipe out a legion of alien scum was definitely not going to be part of your punishment. Unfortunately... er, it is. Dragged from your gloomy prison cell in the middle of the night, you soon found yourself face to face with the Government of Interplanetary Time and Space (G.I.T.S) and lumbered with this rather nasty brief:- "Rid the Dawn system of all hostile life forms. We'll give you an AJC45 pistol, some first aid, and a radio to keep in touch, and we'll beam you down to each of the planets' bases in turn. While you embark on your exterminating rounds, we'll orbit the planet in a control ship and watch over your progress - we're not prepared to waste fuel whilst you wander aimlessly around bases - you have a time limit for each mission. Upon returning to the control ship when our scanners indicate no life-forms remain, you will be spared your life and teleported to the next planet... until you have cleaned them all up for us. You will then be set free. Returning to the control ship without successfully wiping out all alien scum will result in immediate death - you are an expendable prisoner and will remain so until you have carried out our task. The Dawn system is valuable and not an inch of it can be nuked from space. Clean it up for us or die. The choice is yours..." 'One thing's for sure', you think as you're given a puny pistol and are pushed ferociously into a teleporter. 'When I've blown the hell out all the aliens down on those planets, I'll be back for you lot. Oh yes. You can be sure of that...' Just before you're beamed out of the G.I.T.S control ship, down to the first alien nest, you swear revenge under your breath... #HOW TO PLAY #~~~~~~~~~~~ Black Dawn II is a single-player 3D roleplaying game viewed from first person perspective - in other words as though you are 'inside' the game world and viewing it through your own eyes. The bases are maze-like constructions composed of walls, doors, beams, computer terminals... all manner of things, most of which you can interact with via a simple mouse-click. Here's how to get going on your first mission. Using the mouse and clicking the LEFT button to select, follow these steps: 1) Exit these instructions you are reading by selecting the MENU icon. 2) From the main menu, select START NEW GAME. The red text seen below the menu will change to "GAME NOW IN PROGRESS." 3) Click on the SELECT MISSION icon - you will transported to the mission selection screen. By moving the mouse pointer around, you will notice only 2 planets are highlighted... 4) Select one of the available planets (either WIBBLET or TERRAN) then click on ACCEPT to start the game. Once the planet/base has loaded, you will be presented with a control panel, the centre of which will contain the view through your space helmet of the current gameworld. Most bases are indoors, although some are located on the surface of the planet and have no "roof". #MOVING AROUND... Moving yourself around a base is very easy indeed, and can be done using the mouse or the keyboard (or indeed a mixture of both). The 6 arrow icons just below the viewing screen are the easiest means of moving around - by clicking on the arrow pointing UP, you will walk forwards one step. The DOWN arrow will step backwards, the RIGHT arrow will move you to the right, and (obviously) the LEFT will move you one step left. The diagonal arrows will TURN you either left or right - they do not move you at all. Experienced RPG gamers will have no problems sorting out this universal control system. You can use the arrow keys or the keypad on your Amiga's keyboard to move yourself around. Pressing >RETURN< or >ENTER< is the same as clicking the LEFT mouse button, hence you can open doors/access computer terminals (etc) via the keyboard. #ACCESSING YOUR INVENTORY AND USING ITEMS... You are capable of carrying upto 17 things: your backpack can store 15 items of any kind, you can carry something in either hand. In addition you can wear Head Up Display (HUD) units such as HOLAVISION and NIGHTSIGHT (available from the terminals) and wear body armour to increase your chances of survival. The RIGHT mouse-button toggles the inventory screen on and off. Any items you are carrying will be shown in your backpack - using the mouse you can pick up/use/move around any object in your possession. Putting an item in your hands (which are shown at either side of the control arrows below the viewing screen) will enable you to use it in the game - guns, for example, need to be in your hands before you can put them to use, as do knives and other weapons. You can USE items such as first aid, food and drink, by either picking them up and pressing them over the USE icon found in the inventory, or by putting them in your hands and returning to the game screen, from where a simple LEFT click will operate anything you're holding. From the inventory you can also go to sleep if you so wish - doing so will gradually increase your energy reserves if they are down, but also speed up time. Be warned - the game does not pause when you enter the inventory screen; aliens can still move around and attack you, and your time limit will continue to decrease... #USING YOUR HANDS... If you're carrying something and wish to use it, place it in one of your hands, return to the viewing screen (RIGHT mouse button) then click on it with the LEFT button. Guns, lazers and cannons (etc) all have ammunition (or "ammo") which is shown just below the item when it's in one of your hands. Clicking on the LEFT button will fire your weapon, thus decreasing its "ammo". If your weapon is empty (ie: the "ammo" is a value of 0) you will hear a dull click and will have to either re-load the weapon with the correct "ammo clip", or sell it and buy another. Items such as first aid, food, (etc) can be eaten by clicking the LEFT mouse button when they're in one of your hands. This is identical to clicking the item over the USE icon in the inventory screen. NOTE: you can NOT bring items into the 3D display, or drop them in the base. To get rid of them you must either sell them, eat them (if they're edible of course) or leave them on one of the many dead corpses you'll see hanging around. #E.S.R - ENERGY, STRENGTH AND RECOVERY A tough space criminal you may be, but you're not superhuman - like all mortals you have a constantly depleting recovery rate and a life force which will drop if you are attacked and bitten by aliens. Each of your energy percentages are shown by green bars at the right hand side of the control panel. The first of these is your ENERGY - upon your injury, this is the first bar that will sink. When it turns red you are in serious need of medical attention/food/drink, and when it vanishes completely... well, lets just say you're in serious trouble. The next bar is your STRENGTH rating and will deplete very quickly if your energy is low. Once this bar hits rock bottom, you're DEAD, so keep it as high as you can at all times. The final bar is your RECOVERY rate - the higher this value the more quickly your wounds will heal whilst you sleep, and the better you'll perform whilst in battle. Your RECOVERY rate will decrease as you tackle more difficult missions without rest - often the only way to restore yourself to normal is via "recovery capsules" - expensive drugs, available from most terminals throughout the Dawn system. #USING THE RADIO... At the bottom right hand side of the control panel you'll see a RADIO and four icons. These are very important: you can communicate with "Control" (ie: the cowardly G.I.T.S orbitting the planet safe and sound) and ask them for various pieces of information. Here's what you can get by communicating with Control: * The top left icon (in the shape of a little man) will radio to Control that you wish to be beamed out of the base. Use this icon when you've completed a mission. * The top right icon (shape of the number 1) will radio to Control that you would like an extra minute mission time. In most cases, unless you're doing very well, they'll deny you this no matter how hard you beg, but it's worth a try if you're almost there... * The bottom right icon (in the shape of a question mark - ?) will ask Control for a "heat scan" (how many lifeforms are left). They might claim their equipment is faulty if you keep on calling them too often. #THE PREFERENCE ICONS... Down the left hand side of the control panel you'll see five icons, the last one being PAUSE GAME. From top to bottom the others involve: 1) Sound FX on/off - even an alien would know what this does. 2) Game Statistics - reveals some useful information. 3) Gore Splat on/off - toggles the 'bloodiness' of the game. This option is not for the squeamish - alien blood is very red indeed and can stick to your space suit/helmet - you may find a cloth useful for getting rid of xenomorph remains. 4) On-Screen-Controls on/off - some people may prefer clicking on the actual viewing screen to move themselves around, rather than on the arrow icons. If you're one of these people, this feature is here to stop your endless moaning. #INTERACTING WITH THE GAME WORLD... You can open or close a door by clicking on the LEFT mouse button whilst pointing at it with the mouse. Similarly, you can access computer terminals (known in the 20th century as "shops") by clicking on them (and exit them by selecting the "X" icon). You can collect bags of money by simply walking over them - your cash is stored in an account, closely watched over by Control, not in your backpack. The amount of cash you have is always displayed when you enter the computer terminals, but if you're desperate to know your financial situation on the spot - click on the "?" preferences icon. Clicking on game elements before walking into them may give you a clue to whether or not they are safe. #WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'VE COMPLETED A MISSION #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once you've teleported out of a base and been told you've successfully completed it (a congratulations screen will appear) you will find yourself back at the main menu. From here you can SAVE your game (which I insist you do), or carry on by clicking on SELECT MISSION again. The planet map will have changed slightly (the last planet you visited will be filled in and labelled "COMPLETE"). This shareware version contains a mere 10 planets all of which are rather tame. Register TODAY for 20 MORE WICKED LEVELS! #SAVING A GAME... Black Dawn saved games take up very little disk-space, but you can only save ONE game per disk. Your current energy, inventory, money, preferences and accomplishments will all be saved. A normally formatted disk will do the trick, even if it contains several programs or files already. The program will tell you if the disk is write- protected, and will recognise an external disk drive (DF1). #INSTALLING THE GAME ON YOUR HARD DISK #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Black Dawn II is fully hard drive installable. Due to lack of disk space there is no "installation program" to make things easier but by simply copying the fonts into the "Fonts" directory on your HD and copying all the files on this disk (including the NEWDECKS and TEMPGFX directories) across into the desired directory you should have no problems. Write to the author if you get stuck. #CREDITS #~~~~~~~ DESIGN, CONCEPT AND CODING........................Andrew Campbell GRAPHICS AND MONSTERS..............James Dearie & Andrew Campbell SOUNDTRACK......................................Graeme `Q' Virtue DESIGNED USING.........................Amos Professional/Compiler Magazines wishing to put this game on a coverdisk should contact the author (Andrew Campbell) first. Exclusive levels can be arranged! See the contact address found in the "HOW TO REGISTER" section or ring (0422) 248252 between 10am-4pm. Games-players can also ring me if they have difficulties or wish to enquire about the full version. #YES THIS IS ONLY THE SHAREWARE VERSION!! THERE'S MUCH, MUCH, MORE!!! #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #Q. I've completed all 10 levels and I can't go any further! I'm so # annoyed! How can I commence battle on the rest of the planets? A. Easy! Black Dawn II is a SHAREWARE game which means you've only got a `taste' of what is really a complete, commercial-quality game. To Get the next 20 pant-wettingly fearsome missions you'll need a £5 note, an envelope and a stamp. Return to the title screen and click on 'HOW TO REGISTER' - you'll see jaw-dropping snapshots from later levels and find an address to which you need to send your dosh. #Q. Just £5? Are you for real or WHAT?! A. Yes indeedy! Commercial games are a rip off - get something just as good for an affordable price, and help a team of humble young games designers to stay alive. Thanks. - AJC/Black Dragon.