Insectroid

Hello again!!


Welcome to INSECTROID vr 1.0.  This is the Galaga clone that all you 
fans have been requesting.  This program is SHAREWARE and may be 
distributed as long as the .DOC files are unmodified.  This program is 
(C) 1992 Robert Dytmire and is written in GFA Basic 3.5e and The GP 
Graphics Engine (C) 1992 DSA (Beta Version, used with permission).

The docs are divided into two parts 1) How to play Insectroid and 2) 
Techie Talk.  Please see the REG.DOC file on how to register this game.


1: How to Play Insectroid
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Insectroid is designed to run on any 520/1040/Mega ST/STE or TT with 
512K or greater memory.  Those players with only 512K should have no 
other .ACC or .PRG files active when they boot Insectroid as this games 
wants all of the 375K that GEM leaves you.  All files should be in the 
INSECT folder when you activate the program.  The disk that Insectroid 
is booted from MUST be write ENABLED or it will fail to run.

UPDATE:  Ok, I hear from a lot of you power users out there that 
my games don't like your systems.  Well, of course not!  If you're 
running a lot of backround software on your system such as Turbo 
ST or Backtrack or lots of .ACC's or lots of .PRGs in your AUTO 
folder DON'T EXPECT MY GAMES TO PLAY FOR YOU!

The reason:Your stuff traps the vector the Engine's sample replay 
routine is using.  While the GP Graphics Engine is respectful of 
system traps some accessories are not.  If you have trouble 
booting my games, disable the ram-resident stuff and try again.

HARD DRIVE OWNERS: You cannot store my games several directories 
deep.  ie: LEGAL="D:\Insect\*.*"  ILLEGAL:"D:\Games\Insect\*.*"
If I get enough support  I'll upgrade my registered 
versions to boot from any place on your hard drive.

Movement:  Your ships can move all eight directions within the lower 1/3 
of the playing area.  This allows you to get right in the alien's faces 
and commence to reap havoc!

Aliens are worth 100,50 and 10 points each.  If they are shot while 
diving then they are worth 10x the original value.  Shooting all of the 
aliens advances you a level.  Every 5th wave is a challenge wave, which 
is a good place to pick up bonus scores.  Every 10th wave is a boss 
wave.  Boss waves are hard to beat and it is recommended that you have 
double firepower when tackling one.  Each boss has a different attack 
pattern and firepower method.  All Bosses are VERY fast and have huge 
amounts of firepower to throw at you.  The Boss-O-Meter at the bottom of 
the screen will show you how much strength the boss has left...sometimes 
this is very depressing to look at!  As usual, a boss can take zillions 
of hits before even feeling mildly unwell.

You start the game with 10 lives and gain an extra one every 20,000 
points after.

The aliens have two types of shots, straight bombs (which have no 
intelligence) and smart bombs (Purple spheres that track you).  The 
aliens have a chance of launching these at ALL TIMES.  Even while 
lowering a capture beam.  The speed of these shots will increase as the 
levels increase as will the intelligence of the straight bombs.

To gain super firepower you must first allow a Captain Alien (Top Row) 
to fly down close to the ground.  It will then lower a capture beam.  
Flying into this beam will result in your losing this ship and the alien 
will drag it back into the formation with it.  By shooting the alien who has 
your ship you gain back the original ship and now have double firepower!!  Be careful, as shooting this captured ship destroys it.  
Also remember that the capture ship doubles the area that can be hit, 
making it harder to manoeuvre.  This sounds like more trouble than it's 
worth until you get double firepower and start raking aliens like ripe 
wheat.

The Keys:

F1 = Jump to a boss wave.  At every boss wave you will be shown a name.  
By typing in this name at the prompt you can automatically jump to that 
boss.  I HIGHLY recommend playing the lower levels for awhile as the 
upper levels will jump all over you.

F2 = Set game to child mode.  This function places the game in a 
slower/easier mode so that small children can play the game.  It's also 
a great way to see all those levels you can't get to in adult mode.

F3 = Set game to adult mode.  This mode is the default setting for the 
game. For maximum enjoyment and challenge you should play Insectroid in 
this mode.

F4-F8 = Preset skip modes.  These keys allow you to skip the first few 
waves (which are really easy) and begin the game at a more challenging 
wave.

F9 = Set to 50hz (Game plays smoother overall in this mode).

F10 = Set to 60hz (Game can really fly but will bog down to 4 VSYNCS if 
the screen fills up with sprites (53 sprites and 40 stars AND digital 
sound!!).

Q = Quit back to main menu.

Esc = Quit to GEM.

P = Pause game.  Pressing fire or hitting any other key will 
resume the game.

That's all... Enjoy the game!!!




2: Techie Talk 3.0
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Well, This is the 3rd game I've written with the engine.  I've tried 
some new things and explored some intelligence routines for use in CYBER 
DROID.  This game took me about 2 weeks to write, although I was going 
through finals at the time.  This amounts to about 40 hours of 
programming time.  I'm getting better at using the GP Graphics Engine 
every day.  The final docs/program are now in the works and will 
probably be available by the time you read this.  All of the Engine's 
commands are nicely transparent to you and GFA Basic.  You need only 
activate the command and vola! awesome graphics power.

Insectroid 512 is a completely re-written game.  When the people 
at ST Format said "Great game...but we want EVERYBODY to be able 
to play it...get us a 512K version" they didn't know the massive 
re-write I had to go through.  I hope the support for this product 
shows me that it was worh the effort.  The 1 meg registered 
version has ALL of those nasty external files inserted into the 
main program...register today!!

This game is running pretty slow.  Really!!  In 60Hz it runs 
between 4-5 VSYNCS and in 50Hz mode it runs at a pretty steady 3 
VSYNCS.  I have things jumping around in large hops to fool the 
eye and give the game a more frantic feel.  Those samples really 
slow things down (I'm dropping about 1 VSYNC because of them).  I 
wrote this game while waiting for the Dropix Samples to be 
delivered to me.  They have arrived and work on Dropix starts this 
week (which is Dec 30th 1992).  You'll probably get to see Dropix 
before you see this game as it's release is coming in the March(?)
issue of ST Format. (Hi guys!).

Yes..I AM responsible for all that dorky music.  Forgive me, I've never 
written music before and can't read a lick of it to save my life.  These 
tunes were experiments in XBIOS(32) command handling and really nothing 
more.  I welcome and XBIOS donations for my next few games...it will 
help your ears at least.  BTW the way I designed this music was to 
put the notes in "Nice patterns"...Dave still shakes his head over 
this!

Thanks go out to Ari Feldman, the designer of my Bosses in this game.  
Ari is also a Beta tester for my stuff...so thank him for some of the 
quality of this game.

Thanks to Dave Munsie (My sample source) for the title screen music and 
for further Beta Testing.  Dave is also the GP Graphics Engine guru and 
helped me many times when the beta docs failed me.

Some techie specs: There are 53 Sprites and 40 Stars on the screen 
(Max). Normally there are 40 Sprites/40 Stars.  The stars are being 
manipulated in color every game loop.  The Boss wave runs with 40 
stars/30 Sprites.  The challenge wave works with "only" 25 sprites and 
40 stars.  This program is NOT redrawing the background, instead it uses 
a fastclear and a starplot routine for simulated backgrounds.  All 
sprites are 16 x 10 pixels with 4 planes and FULL clipping and Masking 
at ALL times!  I cheat a bit and only use the first 160 scan lines as a 
play area for increased speed.  There are a Minimum of 3 collision 
checks (28 sprites vs 1) every frame.  This moves up to 6 collision 
checks per frame with two player ships on the screen. Even with all 
this, I still think this is a VERY fast game (for Basic). 

Extra update: If I'd redrawn the background I wouldn't have lost a VSYNC 
guys!   I just haven't the need to draw one in this game.  Also, I've 
got 3 and 4K hz samples playing with NO HARDWARE TRICKS along with the 
game.  This always slows things down but I wanted to make this program 
compatable with as many machines as possible.


Hmmm...

The next game out is DROPIX ST. About 5 solid days of work will clean 
this puppy up and have it ready for Beta Testing.  About Two weeks from
this day  I'll be sending it out to all my sources.  Dropix ST is a 
Tetris meets Gods game.  The players can throw powers at each other 
while playing a vicious Tetris clone.

Cyberdroid has undergone massive changes since it's conception.  I've 
decided to work with really large sprites, digital sound, and an 
advanced screen srolling routine to give this game the Smash TV meets 
Gauntlet II feel it deserves.  Wathc for it after Dropix is finished.

Mr. Cud Lee is beginning to take shape.  A smooth scrolling platform 
game with lot's of cute monsters and things to do...due out in January (I 
think I'll actually make this deadline!!).  UPDate:  Cud Lee is going 
VERY WELL.  The consensus is that it's going to have digital sound as 
well as the "Mario" feel.

Riders of the Storm- My newest game idea...Is beginning to take shape.  
Basically this is a really HUGE wargame with unit design and multiple 
players.  A special command structure will allow for movement of many 
units at once.  This one's release date depends solely on how much 
SUPPORT you people give my other games.  Update:  I'll be making this 
one a BBS game for both the Atari and IBM machines.  The front-end 
programs will allow either machine to look transparent to the other.  
Imagine a BBS game with GREAT front-end graphics, digital sound, ect!

Well, time to go a celebrate the New Year...have fun!!


Later


Rob...