


SPACED
BY NOAH DALEO  (rjd42@aol.com) and (http://members.aol.com/rjd42)



TABLE OF CONTENTS
=============================================================================
1. Disclaimer
2. System Requirements
3. Starting the Game
4. Controlling your Ship
5. Enemies
6. Credits
7. Programmer's Info
8. About the Space Pics
9. If You Like this Game



1. DISCLAIMER
=============================================================================
     You run this program at your own risk.  I will not be held responsible
for any negative effects that it may have on you or your computer.  But
don't be frightened; I haven't had ANY trouble with the game on either of
the computers that it was tested with.



2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
=============================================================================
     This game was designed to run on almost any PC.  It will run better on
a faster computer, but you can play it on almost any system.
Here are the basic system requirements:
8 Megs of RAM  (it might work with only 4 Megs).
25 Mhz  (more is recommended so the graphics won't flicker so much).
1.8 Megs of Hard Drive space  (shouldn't be a problem).
A Microsoft Operating System (DOS, Win 3.1, Win 95, or Win NT).
Sound Blaster (or compatible) sound card HIGHLY recommended.
     Not all configurations have been tested, so performance on your computer
system may vary.  It has been tested on:
A Packard Bell 25Mhz with 8 Megs of RAM in DOS and Windows 3.11.
A Pentium MMX with 200Mhz and 64 Megs of RAM in DOS and Windows 95.
     On both systems it ran at an identical speed.  The only difference was
that on the 25Mhz Packard Bell, the graphics flickered in front of the
background images.  Therefore, the graphics looked better on the other PC.



3. STARTING THE GAME
=============================================================================
     To play the game with music, simply run the program called spaced.bat.
Do NOT run game.exe.  If your sound card does not support the music, then
it will detect it and the game will run anyway.  However, if for some reason
the game doesn't work because of sound problems, you can run nomusic.bat to
play the game.  



4. CONTROLLING YOUR SHIP
=============================================================================
     The game has it's own instructions inside it, but here is some more
information if you still have trouble.  The game is played entirely with
the keyboard, so you do not need a mouse or joystick.  The keys that you
use to control your ship are Alt, Ctrl, and Shift.
     The Alt, Ctrl, and Shift keys are all to the right of the space bar, 
beneath the enter key.  Do NOT use the keys to the left of the space bar.  
The Alt and Ctrl keys are backwards on that side, and you will move backwards
if you use them.
     Alt moves your ship left, Shift moves you up, and Ctrl moves you right.
You cannot use the arrow keys to move.  Also, there is no "down" key.
Because of the engine system on your ship, the only way to move down is
to not use your bottom engines.  So basically, if you are not moving up, then
you will be moving down.  You cannot "hover" in one spot unless you are
quickly alternating between up & down.
     On the inner worlds of the solar system, you will be flying very close
to the surface.  So you must be careful not to crash into the ground.  On
the stages in the outer solar system and beyond, you do not have to worry
about crashing into anything except for the enemies.



5. ENEMIES
=============================================================================
     Spaced has many enemies.  There are enemies that shoot, enemies that fly,
and enemies that will try to crash into you.  Because of the limited
firepower on your ship, you cannot shoot at them.  You must save all of
your firepower for attacking the defense station, so during the game there
is not a key to shoot.
     Because you cannot attack, you will have to do all you can to avoid
enemy ships.  Some have patterns, but some just fly towards you in an attempt
to hit your ship.  You will have to learn how the enemies move while you
play so that you know how to dodge them.
     When an enemy hits you, you will lose shields.  You have a shield meter
on the screen so that you know what condition your spacecraft is in.  Your
shields DO NOT fill up between missions, so you will only have that one
shield meter throughout the entire game.  You only have one ship, so once
you run out of shields, you lose.



6. CREDITS
=============================================================================
Music:  Jeremy Jacobs
Everything Else!:  Noah Daleo
All of the great MIDI files were used with permission from Jeremy Jacobs.
If you like his music, then visit his web page to hear dozens of other songs.
His web address is:  http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6609
     I (Noah Daleo) did all the programming, graphics, and design.  I
programmed it entirely with Quickbasic 4.5 during many months.  I did not
charge any money for this game, so it is Freeware.  Please share it with
friends if you want.  And please, go ahead and distribute it around the 
internet.  I would love for it to be spread all over the place, in many
countries so that more people will play it.  There is only one condition:
You may only distribute it in it's original ZIPPED form.  You may only
distribute spaced.zip.
     You may NOT alter this game in any way.  If I had wanted people to be
able to alter it, then I would have given away the programming.  But I worked
hard for many months, so you may NOT decompile it or alter it in any other
way!
SPACED is Copyright Noah Daleo, 1998.
The MIDI files are Copyright Jeremy Jacobs, 1997.



7. PROGRAMMER'S INFO
=============================================================================
     This game was programmed with Quickbasic 4.5.  If you use Qbasic or
Quickbasic, then you should really be able to appreciate all of the hard work
I put into this game.  So you should be able to see why I am not giving away
any of the source code to this.  Do not ask me for the source code, because
I will not give it away to anyone (even if I know you).  I'm sorry that I'm
being so strict about this but I've seen other games of mine altered and 
people take credit for them (3 of them).
     
     

8. ABOUT THE SPACE PICS
=============================================================================
     It may interest you to know that all of the outer space pictures that
appear in the game are very realistic.  The title screen has an actual
photograph that I took through my telescope of the Orion Nebula.  The 
instructional screen with the moon in the background is another photo I took.
     The pictures of the world surfaces are also very realistic.  For the
stages of Venus and Mars, I rendered the 3d pictures from actual radar data
from real NASA missions.  The Mars stage takes place along the rim of the
15 mile tall volcano Olympus Mons.  The stages of the outer planets, and even
the two planet pictures in the story, are also based on NASA data.
     I'm not trying to imply that I have special access to NASA studies or
anything like that.  And NASA does NOT sponsor this game or anything of that
sort!  I simply took some information from their great websites.  If you are
interested then check out www.nasa.gov.  If you are interested in my own
space photography and you want to see more of my own pictures, then you can
go to my website:  http://members.aol.com/rjd42 and go to the astronomy
section.
        


9. IF YOU LIKE THIS GAME
=============================================================================
     If you like this game, then there are five things you can do.
1.   If you program in Qbasic, or even if you don't, then you should visit my 
website.  The website is devoted entirely to Qbasic, and there are over 200
downloads there!  There are also other games that I have made (but none as
good as Spaced) and some tutorials.  As of January 24th, it is number 1 on the 
Qb Top 50!         http://members.aol.com/rjd42
2.  You can e-mail me at rjd42@aol.com and tell me any comments you have.
But please be aware that I will not help you make a game or join forces with
you.  I'm busy enough as it is.  And  will not give you any of Spaced's source!
3.  You can save the file spaced.zip to a disk, and give it to a friend!  I'd
love to see more and more people play this game, so distribute it freely!
4.  Take the file spaced.zip and distribute it on the internet.  If you have
an ftp site or a website, then feel free to put spaced.zip there.  Or you
can email it to someone or let other people know where to get it (my website).
5.  Play it again!
