                           - Space War 0.14a -

                       Written By Matthew Kiehl '98
                            waffles@swbell.net
                www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/8232/

Table of Contents
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1.0 Running Space War
 1.1 System Requirements
 1.2 Speed Performance

2.0 Playing Space War
 2.1 Control
 2.2 Level Design
 2.3 Objective

3.0 History

4.0 Problems / Trobleshooting

5.0 Website & Email
 5.1 Credits


1.0 Running Space War
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before you run Space War, you must run the two included files:

SBMIDI.EXE
SBSIM.COM

Its important that you run then in that order, in DOS!
otherwise your computer may crash..

To begin playing space war.. after loading the two drivers, type SPACE.EXE


1.1 System Requirements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An IBM Compatible Computer with MS-DOS
A Pentium 133 or better for optimum performance
A Microsoft Compatible Mouse
A Sound Blaster Compatible Sound Card
VGA Monitor

1.2 Speed Performance
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CPU        OS      DETAIL    FPS     VSYNC
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5x86 133   w95      5        20-50   OFF
5x86 133   sm       5        60      OFF
p100       w95      5        30-60   ON
p100       sm       15       70      ON
p200       w95      10       70      ON
p200       sm       50       70      ON

key:
w95=Windows 95
SM=MS-DOS / Windows 95 Ms-Dos Safe Mode Command Prompt
FPS=frames per second
Space War is optimized to run at 70 frames per second

2.0 Playing Space War
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After running space war.. You will see the Space War title screen.
with the mouse,
if you click on "new game" you will start a new game
if you click on "continue" you will start from a previous game
if you click on "options" this will take you to a menu which will allow you to
customize the various settings, such as turning the music on, or off..

Now, click on "new game" a screen will appear and display the story. press
the mouse button, or push a key on the keyboard to skip this

Now you will see a scrolling starfield.. at the bottom of the screen, you will
your space ship..

At the top of the screen you will see your score, your lives, and a shield
meter. whenever you get hit by an enemy, your shield meter will decrease.
when your shield meter is empty and you get hit, you will lose a life.
If you run out of lives you will lose the game.

2.1 Controls
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the options for Space War is set to mouse.. move
the mouse to control your ship, and press the left mouse button to fire lasers

If the options for Space War is set to keyboard.. use the arrow keys to
to control your ship, and press the space bar to fire lasers.

To pause the game press P

To save your game.. press S (not finished..)

To quit playing.. press the ESCape key.


2.2 Space War Level Design
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During each level.. you will encounter a whole fleet of new enemies.
At the end of the level, you will encounter a boss.

So far there are two complete levels so far.


2.3 Objective
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The main goal of the game is to stay alive and destroy as many enemies as
possible.


3.0 History
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/14/98: Release 14 is now available for download!!!
Changed some menu stuff
Fixed some minor bugs

04/14/98: Release 13 is now available for download!!!
New title screen
removed help screen, added credit screen
new option screen
continue works better
three new enemies
Fixed some bugs
new font
High score list
second boss will be easier
Demo that plays on title screen after 60 seconds
Lots of fading in and out
Different midi music for level 2
Boss music
potential error fixes
Independent Enemy Animation
Enemy Animation Speeds
Up to 6 frames of enemy animation
Third Boss
third level
More code cleanup

03/29/98: release 12 is available for download!
Three new enemies plus a new boss!
Lots of shading for the first boss (much, much, MUCH better!)
level 1 enemies redone
bug fixes in support for more levels
Support for multiple bosses
Story background will scroll by one pixel, instead on two (much more smooth)
Level Backgrounds and Story Background will now "load" a lot faster
Levels will load a little faster
Game Over Screen
Lots (LOTS) of code cleanup (lots..) :)
Experimental Save/Load Game
Bug fixes
Second level.
readme.txt file

03/25/98: Received a review from Angelo Mottola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03/14/98: Reposted Release 11, with source code!

03/02/98: Release 11 is available for download!!
Better looking shield stuff
after you lose a life, you will be invincible for about 1 second
faster loading boss sprite
More help
Lots of code clean up (to prevent problems in future releases)
Better looking font
Midi music
3 different midi tracks
game over / pause bug, fixed


02/28/98: Release 10 available for download!
Cleaned up help, options, and demo ending screens
Better looking boss explosions
More programmable boss stuff
Vsync option
better looking lowercase "G" font
More help


02/28/98: Had lots of problems with space war locking up..
I think I have it fixed though..
Release 10 should be available soon


02/24/98: Release 9 available for download!
my own font routine
misc bug fixes
the screen will shake when you hit a "blast" power up
Better looking backgrounds
scrolling background in the "story/scrolling text" thing
you can press the mouse button to skip the story
it will load sprites much, much faster
Awful keyboard control
problem that lets you hit power ups when your dead , fixed
adjustable explosion detail
percentage of bosses life, when fighting boss.
P to pause
secret cheat code (mainly for easy debugging)
more option menu stuff


02/14/98: Release 8 available for download!
boss now shoots
boss now moves
Support for multiple levels
Cleaned up code, about 3% faster.


02/13/98: Release 7 available for download!!
Fixed small bug that crashed the game. More detail for boss
Multiple boundaries for Boss hit detection
The ability to crash into the boss
auto fire for all weapons
minor bug fixes
cleaned up some future memory problems
working on having the boss shoot (almost finished)


02/12/98: Release 6 available for download!!
New power up that blows up everything on the screen.
Wider story / text scrolling stuff
bug fixes
If you crash into an enemy it takes off 3 from your shield intead of 1
More detail to your ship
Fixed Score prob that prevented score to get higher than 32768
New laser type
a Boss at the end of the level!!!!!!
a complete level!!!!
An ending to the demo
and more.
There are some problems with the boss though:
it doesnt shoot
it looks stupid
you can fly right through it
crappy hit detection
and a few minor other things


02/11/98: Release 5 ready for download!
Cheesy temporary story (to test my scrolling text thing)
bug fixes
images fixed
different background
laser power ups that actually make the lasers more powerful
three different lasers
A lives meter that shows "x23" or similar when you have more than 9 lives
more help


02/10/98: Release 4 ready for download!
Better lives and shield meter stuff
faster way for the ship to smoke
Better Game over screen
New Background
Bug fixes
Enemies that shoot
4 different power Ups
scrolling text for a story. Story not done yet though.
More varity to the scrolling starfield, looks much better. added new "star"


02/9/98: Release 3 available for download!
Added the ability to die.
Added shields for your ship
Added shields for enemies
Your ship will smoke when its about to explode
working on options, and help
Added new enemy


02/9/98: Release 2 available for download!
Added new explosions
Increased size of starfield
Added scripted level stuff
Increased amout of enemies on-screen
Added an errorhandler
Added more menus

02/8/98: Release 1 available for download!


4.0 Problems / Troubleshooting
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: Space War freezes right after the warning screen

Answer: The Sound Drivers SBMIDI.EXE and SBSIM.COM have not been loaded,
        or they have been loaded improperly, or you dont have a sound
        blaster compatible sound card.
        Make sure when you load the two drivers. that you load them from dos,
        and not windows!

If your experiencing any problem that isn't described here please email me
at: waffles@swbell.net


5.0 Website & Email
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or whatever.. Please email
me at: waffles@swbell.net
For new updates of Space War, new Games, New versions of current games, and
more, please go to: www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/8232/


5.1 Credits
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Off-Screen Buffer Manipulation routines were written by: Andrew L. Ayers
Qmidi midi routines by: Jesse Dorland
Music by: Jeffrey M Colletti
          Steven C. King
          Jim Gilsinan
          Andrew Thompson
          Kevin Fishburne
Fading Routines By: Manny Najera
Mouse Code by: Unknown
Font by: Matthew Kiehl
Graphics by: Matthew Kiehl
Programming by: Matthew Kiehl
Testers: Matthew Kiehl
         Michael Mason
All other stuff: Matthew Kiehl
