********************************************************************** *+------------------------------------------------------------------+* *|+----------------------------------------------------------------+|* *|| ||* *|| RACING MANIACS ||* *|| by Paul Gaze, August 1993 ||* *|| ||* *|+----------------------------------------------------------------+|* *+------------------------------------------------------------------+* ********************************************************************** WHAT THE GAMES ABOUT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This game lets you race around a track against either the computer or another player. You also have the option to pick up tokens on the track and drop mines out the back of your car to hinder your opponent GETTING STARTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Getting the program running is simple enough, you just click on the icon if from the workbench or type in racingmaniacs from the cli. If you have one of the newer amigas (i.e. the A1200 or A4000) then you will have to change to the enhanced chip set when you run the program. The first thing you will come to when you run the program is the intro screen with the theme music playing in the background. If you press the fire button on the second joystick (or left mouse button) you will now arrive at the main menu screen. To select an option all you do is use up and down on the joystick to highlight the option you're interested in and then press fire. Heres a description of what each option does: (1)PLAY AGAINST COMPUTER:This lets one player race against a computer controlled opponent. Once you're chosen this option you will come to another menu letting you choose the track. Once you've chosen the track the race begins. See below for information on how to control the car. (2)TWO PLAYER GAME:Lets two players race against each other. (3)ONE PLAYER PRACTICE:Lets one player practice any track. (4)KNOCKOUT COMPETITION:Lets you set up a knockout competition between any number of players. First of all you will come to a screen looking something like this: CHOOSE NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Competitors:2 Human competitors:1 DONE This tell you the total number of competitors in the tournament and the number of those competitors which are controlled by humans. The remainder are controlled by the computer. To change one of these numbers you use up and down on the joystick to highlight the number you want to change and then left and right to alter it. Once you are happy with the number you choose done. Obviously, you can't have more human players than the total number of people in the competition so if you try and do this you will not be able to continue. After finishing this bit each player can put in their name. To alter a letter in your name, all you do is use the joystick to highlight the letter you want to change and then hold down fire while using left and right to change it. Once again, once a player is happy with his name he selects done to exit and let the next player put in his name. Once everybody has put in their names, the tournament begins. At the beginning of each game, a screen will come up telling you who is to play and the round it is. The concerned players then take their joysticks and the game begins. The player given at the top takes joystick 1 and the other joystick 0. If a game is between two computer controlled players then the computer will figure out the race internally and tell you the result. (5)GAME PREFERENCES:This option lets you choose the number of laps in a race and various other things. The screen looks like this: GAME PREFERENCES LAPS PER RACE:1 REVERSE RACE?:NO SCENERY?:YES TOKENS?:NO WEAPONS?:NO SKILL LEVEL:8 To change one of these options you just highlight the one you want to change using the up and down on the joystick and then use left and right to alter it. Once you happy you select DONE to exit. The meanings of the options here is as follows: LAPS PER RACE:This is just the number of laps in a race. SCENERY:If this is YES then the program draws scenery by the side of the track. If its is no, it just draws the road and the opposing car. TOKENS:If this is YES then you will find various tokens lying on the track to pick up. See below for an indepth description of them WEAPONS:When this is YES, you will find you car armed with a mine dropper. See below on how to use it. REVERSE RACE:When you choose YES here, the cars will race round the track in opposite directions as opposed to the same direction SKILL LEVEL:This controls how good the computer opponents are, it ranges from 1 to 8. 1 is the easiest to beat and 8 the most difficult. (6)ABOUT PROGRAM:This tells you all about me. (7)QUIT:Ends the program CAR CONTROL ~~~~~~~~~~~ The control of the car is rather straightforward, just look at this diagram. ACCELERATE ^ | | TURN LEFT <-----+-----> TURN RIGHT | | V BREAK The effect of pressing fire depends on your speed. If your at zero speed then it changes you from forward gear to reverse and vice versa. If your moving then it drops a mine out the back of your car (provided you have one). On your control panel you will find the following information: SPEED:This is the number next to the S LAPS COMPLETED:This is next to the L GEAR:This is next to the letter G. F=forward gear, B=Backward gear. RACE POSITION:This is given next to the P. Below this lot comes information on damage to your car. There are four icons and on each side of them four strips. The strips give the damage to the different sides of your car. The one on the right gives the damage to your right side, the one on the left the damage to your left side, the top one the damage to your front and the bottom one the damage to your rear. When a strip is blue it means that that side is undamaged. When part of its is red it is partly damaged and when it is completely red it is destroyed. When a side is completely destroyed any damage occuring on that side goes directly to internal components of the car. This is represented by the icons in the middle. When an icon is blue, the system it represents is undamaged, when its red its damaged. The meanings of these icons is as follows. The top left icon is the cars suspension. When this is damaged your car won't corner so well. The top right icon is the engine. When this is damaged you won't be able to go as fast. The bottom left icon represents damage to the breaks. If you damage your breaks then you will experience intermittent break failure This means that ever so often your breaks won't work. The bottom right icon is your weapons system. If this is damaged then you won't be able to drop any mines. Below the information on car damage comes four indicators telling you how many mines you have left. Each indicator represents a mine. When it is blue you still have that mine, when it is red you have dropped it. TOKENS ~~~~~~ Here is a description of the different tokens you can pick up: CUBE WITH RED CROSS ON IT. This is first aid. If you pick it up, any damage to your car will be repaired. YELLOW THING:This is a booster. If you pick it up you will improve your acceleration but the effect will only last for ten seconds. RED AND BLACK THING:This is a mine. Driving over it will cause damage directly to the internal components of you car. BLACK RECTANGLE:This is a warp gate. Driving through it will transport you a random distance further around the track. All these tokens except the mine can be used twice. CREDITS ~~~~~~~ This game was written using DEVPAC 2 and DEVPAC 3 on an amiga 500 and 1200. If you have any queries about it you should send them to: Paul Gaze, 9 Larch close, Kingsworthy, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 7NE. Telephone:- (0962) 882819