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        LEGAL NOTICE
        

This program and related data files constitute a game known as 'Crazy Racing'.
This game may under no circumstances be distributed without the explicit
permission of Northstar Software. This program is (c) Northstar Software 1996,
and the relevant copyright protection rules therefore apply.

Northstar Software is not responsible for any damage caused or thought to be
caused by this program. Any form of usage of this program implies acceptance
of this disclaimer.

Northstar Software includes (at the time of writing):

        Jan Lnnberg
        Jan Wirn

During the making of this game, the company also included:

        Tommy Leinonen

        SHAREWARE VERSION
        

This is a copy of the shareware version of Crazy Racing, and it may therefore
be freely distributed to anyone, as long as no payment except that needed to
cover copying and distribution costs is taken.

In the shareware version you are restricted to the four supplied tracks.
Furthermore, only computer players may buy the more expensive vehicles and
weapons. Registering removes these restrictions.

        INTRODUCTION
        

Welcome to the world of Crazy Racing, where desperate people meet in order to
gain glory, fame, honour... and money! In this game YOU can step into the
shoes (spiked leather boots?) of a Crazy Racer, and win the race using any
means possible, foul or otherwise...

        REQUIREMENTS
        

Crazy Racing requires:

        A 286 processor (486 strongly recommended).
        MS-DOS or compatible system (MS-DOS 6 or later recommended).
        VGA or better.
        A human or compatible.
        About 570K of base memory.
        A mouse with MS-DOS driver.
        About 3 MB of hard disc space.

To use sound you need:
        
        A 386 or better processor (again: 486 recommended).
        A supported sound card with speakers or headphones or such (Gravis
        UltraSound strongly recommended).
        595K of base memory.
        About 1 MB of EMS.

The sound cards supported are:

        SoundBlaster and compatible             (22 kHz 8 bit mono).
        SoundBlaster Pro and compatible         (22 kHz 8 bit stereo).
        SoundBlaster 2 and compatible           (44 kHz 8 bit mono).
        SoundBlaster 16/AWE 32                  (44 kHz 16 bit stereo).
        Pro Audio Spectrum 16                   (44 kHz 16 bit stereo).
        Gravis UltraSound with 256K DRAM        (44 kHz 16 bit GF1 stereo).

The GF1 sound chip on the UltraSound does the sound mixing in hardware. All
other cards require faster CPUs for better quality. See the SETUP program for
details.

        INSTALLATION
        

To install the game, insert installation disc 1 and start INSTALL. Then
follow the on-screen prompts. The installation program then starts SETUP
(after loading this file, in case you haven't noticed!) which allows you to
change several hardware settings. These include:

Configure sound                 (allows you to choose what type of sound card
                                 is to be used, as well as its quality
                                 settings (except on the GUS) and volume)
Configure controls              (allows you to configure your keyboard and
                                 calibrate your joysticks)
System type                     (allows you to specify what type of OS
                                 you're using)
Exit                            

The options within these menus should be self-explanatory. Simply follow the
on-screen prompts.

Note: use the 'MS-DOS or fully compatible' option unless you are certain that
the game won't run using this setting. Read the following note for an
explanation.

Technical note: (don't read the following paragraph unless you cut your teeth
on ULA:s, VGA:s, registers, DMA controllers, IRQ:s and the like)

Windows and OS/2 and such use the PIT for its own purposes, and are therefore
forced to prevent reprogramming of it (at least, that's what happens on my
Win '95-running Pentium). Running the PIT (Programmable Interrupt Timer, in
case you don't understand TLA:s (Three Letter Abbreviations)) at 18.2 Hz 
(as usual) while running Crazy Racing (which tries to reprogram it to 1024 Hz)
causes Crazy Racing to slow down to slightly less than a 1/56th of its usual
speed. Tada... In version 1.21 this can be worked around by using the 18.2 Hz
frequency; however, this decreases the smoothness of the game.

        STARTING THE GAME
        

To start the program, type CRC [ENTER] at the DOS prompt. 

The program should play an introductary animation, showing one of the ways a
Crazy Racer finds his new (and last) career. To skip this, press almost any
button you can find on your keyboard, mouse or joysticks!

The menu system follows... Here you use the mouse to select alternatives from
the screen. These include:

        Start new game          (which starts a new game, of course)
        Load game               (which loads a saved game)
        Options                 (which allows you to change several
                                 parameters pertaining to the gameplay)
        View introduction       (guess!)
        Exit game               (which quits Crazy Racing)

The options include:

        Laps in race            (the amount of laps to be driven to complete
                                 a race)
        FX volume               (the volume of the sound effects)
        Music volume            (the volume of the music)
        Car size                (the size of the cars in the race)
        Explosion size          (the size of explosions in the race)
        Prize money             (the amount of money given to players
                                 completing the race)
        Start money             (the amount given at start)
        Show reports after race (allows you to choose whether you want the
                                 animated de-briefing after each race)
        Lives                   (defines how many times a Racer must be
                                 killed in order to stay dead)
        Exit options            (not an option!)

All these parameters can be adjusted using the mouse, by clicking on the
position for the slider bar, and clicking outside the bar to confirm the
position.

        STARTING A GAME
        

        STARTING A GAME
        

Now, ignoring the oddly familiar heading, we will discuss the 'Start new game'
feature. This is probably the most important part of the program, as the game
is almost unusable without it. Selecting this option from the main menu
causes the computer to ask you to specify the tracks to play. To select a
track to play, click it. To deselect it, click it. The tracks that will be
used for play are listed to the right, the tracks available to the left.

After that, you can select the players. The alternatives include:

        Inactive                (this player does not participate)
        Keyboard                (player controlled by keyboard, as defined by
                                 the SETUP program)
        Joystick                (uses a joystick, the first one joystick A,
                                 the other joystick B)
        Computer                (the computer drives this car)

To cycle through these alternatives, click the relevant button. For human
players, click the name of the player to change which human plays. The
selection screen shows the name of the player, races played (R), average
score (S), games played (G) and deaths (D). To add a player, click 'New
player' and enter the short name (4 letters) and long name (15 letter) of
the player. You may then select a picture for your player.

When these selections are satisfactory, click OK.

Please note that these settings are saved and provided as defaults the next
time you start a new game... This seems to be a much-wanted feature!

        THE SHOPS
        

Once the game starts, every player takes it in turns to buy the things he/she
wants from the shops. These shops stock:

Car Shop:

        Cheap Jeeps             These cars are quite average at everything.
                                They handle well off the road, and are quite
                                cheap. They cost $5000.
        Crazy Racers            These things are expensive ($50000), but they
                                are certainly worth it! They are specially
                                designed for Crazy Racing, and handle well,
                                move quickly, and take a LOT of damage!
        Velocipedes             Commonly known as 'bicycles' or 'bikes',
                                these things are very cheap and absolutely
                                dangerous in Crazy Racing. They do move at a
                                decent rate, though. They cost $500.
        Racing cars             These things were designed for more civilised
                                races. This is reflected in the fact that
                                they move extremely quickly, turn well, but
                                react badly to damage... They cost as much as
                                $20000.
        Perrari                 The world famous Perrari cars may be fast, but
                                their safety record isn't perfect... For your
                                $10000 you certainly get some horsepower.
        Bored XL-99             The huge Bored factories produce lots of cars,
                                among them the quite fast but still safe
                                XL-99, which can be yours for only $8000.
        M-25 Tank               The British M-25 urban tank is specially
                                designed to destroy enemy forces in cities and
                                on roads. This makes it a natural choice for
                                the more destructive Crazy Racer. Its largest
                                problem is its low speed. For only $20000
                                it is an absolute steal.
        Trike                   Your original vehicle, the trike or tricycle
                                features three wheels and pedals for only
                                100 dollars...
        Ramboghini              The Ramboghini is quite fast, turns well,
                                but is slow for a sports car. Still, it is
                                one of the safer ones... It costs $9500.
        Folksvagn               The Swedish Folksvagn was specifically
                                designed for safety, and is therefore one of
                                the slowest cars ever. It only costs $5000.
        Jamaha MC               Like most motorcycles the Jamaha is fast but
                                unstable. You get a lot of speed for your
                                $10000.
        Lunar Rover             Stolen from NSA (Nationella ventyrsSpatiella
                                Avdelningen - the Swedish Space Agency), it
                                bounces off things with little damage, takes
                                rough terrain nicely, but is still slow.
                                On the black market it costs $6000.
        Bored Model T           The bestselling Model T doesn't break down
                                easily, but is not fast by any means. You
                                still buy one for $7000.

Weapons shop:

        Flamethrower            Quite devastating, but really only useful for
                                short range work. $5000. Its special fuel
                                costs 500 dollars/litre.
        Bazooka                 It may cost $20000, and every projectile
                                $2000, but it has a large effect.
        Heavy cannon            It costs 30000 dollars, and uses special
                                ammunition that costs 2000 dollars each.
                                These projectiles drill into the target before
                                exploding...
        Machine gun             These weapon are progressively more 
        Heavy machine gun       destructive version of the same basic weapon.
        Assault rifle           They all fire lots of bullets that cause small
        Heavy assault rifle     amounts of damage. Their ammunition is 
                                mutually incompatible, and costs $700-$1000.
                                The weapons cost $8000-$8600.
        Uzi                     The $6000 Uzi is the cheapest machine gun,
                                and uses cheap $600 ammo. It has a low bullet
                                exit speed and rate.
        Grenades                The grenade launchers are inexpensive (your
        Heavy Grenades          hands) but the grenades cost $1000-$1200 each.
                                They may make a lot of damage, but they are
                                very slow.
        Missile Launcher        These things fire missiles that make a lot of
        Devastator Launcher     damage but take aeons to load. Taking out a
        Nuke Launcher           vehicle with one missile is usually possible.
                                These thing cost $10000 to $14000 and fire
                                missiles costing $10000 to $20000.
        Revolver                These two are feeble, basic weapons. They're
        Pistol                  very cheap ($1000 to $1500) and use bullets
                                that cost $20 to $30 dollars/clip.
        Molotov Cocktail        The $2000 Molotovs are destructive, but tend
                                to be slow-moving (they don't!).

Repair shop:

        Fuel                    The new universal BioFuel costs $200. Any
                                engine (even humans) runs on it.
        Full Repair             After this your car is as good as new... The
                                cost depends on the damage taken.
        Tyres                   You can change your tyres for $500, $1000 or
                                $2000, depending on how good tyres you want.
                                Better tyres decrease skidding.
        Extra armour            Improves the durability of your vehicle.
        Extra engine            Connecting several engines to one pair of
                                wheels is wierd, but works... It speeds your
                                car up nicely! The cost of extra armour and
                                engines varies with the car type.

At the top of the screen you can see the status of your car (except for the
tyres, because they always look OK).

Please note that your are only allowed ONE car and ONE weapon. This is due to:

        a) Crazy Racing rules
        b) an attempt to keep to controls simple and minimise key conflicts.

Pressing 'Exit shops' ends your turn.

When every player has done his/her/its shopping, the game may be saved, ended,
or the race may begin.

        THE RACE
        

The goal of the race is to drive/pedal/whatever around the track. The amount
of laps is user-specified, but defaults to 3. To prevent your opponents from
winning, you may use weaponry. When everyone is either dead or has completed
the race, the race ends.

The status panel shows (for each player):

        Laps driven
        Ammo (grey bar)
        Fuel (black bar)
        Damage (long red bar)
        Partial lap (red bar on top of lap number)

Blowing up a person's car causes him to jump out of it. This poor little
fellow is easily killed by weapons or by being run over.

You are allowed to drive off the screen, but note that getting back isn't
easy. Note that anyone off the screen is still in the race, however, pressing
[ESC] ends the race.

The default keyboard controls are:

                        US      Nordic  British German  French
Player 0:
        Accelerate      W       W       W       W       Z
        Brake/Reverse   X       X       X       X       X      
        Turn Left       A       A       A       A       Q
        Turn Right      D       D       D       D       D
        Fire!           S       S       S       S       S

Player 1:
        Accelerate      [              [              ^
        Brake/Reverse   /       -       /       -       !
        Turn Left       ;              ;              M
        Turn Right      \       *       #       #       *
        Fire!           '              '              

Player 2:
        Accelerate      NUMERIC KEYPAD 8/UP ARROW
        Brake/Reverse   NUMERIC KEYPAD 2/DOWN ARROW
        Turn Left       NUMERIC KEYPAD 4/LEFT ARROW
        Turn Right      NUMERIC KEYPAD 6/RIGHT ARROW
        Fire!           NUMERIC KEYPAD 5

Player 3:
        Accelerate      HOME
        Brake/Reverse   END
        Turn Left       DELETE
        Turn Right      PAGE DOWN
        Fire!           ENTER

Afterwards, the results are displayed, and if the game hasn't ended, the
surviving players are allowed to go to the shops again.

At the end of the game, the results are displayed. The score is calculated as
follows:

        First place     3 points
        Second place    2 points
        Third place     1 point
        Fourth place    0 points

        ACCESSING THIS README FILE
        

If you are reading this during the installation process, you may want to know
where to find this ReadMe file. The answer is simple: start ReadMe.Exe (i.e.:
type 'readme' at the DOS prompt).

        CREDITS
        

        Artwork                 Tommy Leinonen.
        Blood and violence      Tommy Leinonen.
        Documentation           Jan Lnnberg.
        Graphical editing       Jan Lnnberg, Jan Wirn (JAWA).
        Music                   Jan Lnnberg.
        Programming             Jan Lnnberg.
        Sound effects           Tuomas Angervuori, Jan Lnnberg.
        Sound system            Edward Schlunder.
        Text Art                Tuomas Angervuori.
        Tracks                  Tuomas Angervuori (25%), Jan Wirn (85%).

        TROUBLESHOOTING
        

Besides being what Crazy Racers do with their guns to trouble... This section
documents several common problems with the game.

Q: The setup program refuses to acknowledge my sound card.
A: Make sure the sound card works. Try checking your SET BLASTER= line in
   AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Q: The game is unacceptably slow.
A: a) Use only MS-DOS or Windows 95's MS-DOS mode. The game will not work
      under Windows or OS/2 or anything like that. See "Starting the game"
      for the technical explanation.
   b) Decrease sound quality or use the game without sound. If that doesn't
      help enough, upgrade your computer. If THAT fails, try decreasing the
      amount of players.
   c) Choose the 'Windows, OS/2 or other multitasker' setting in the SETUP
      program.

Q: The sound doesn't work in the game; only in the SETUP program.
A: a) Check the system requirements.
   b) Your multitasker is probably messing things up. Use MS-DOS or Win95
      MS-DOS mode. Other systems may cause sound problems.

Q: The game is unplayably fast.
A: Set the processor type in the setup program to '486 or faster'.

Q: Aaargh! I keep dying!
A: Buy a more durable car or upgrade its armour.

Q: Why doesn't the track I just made in EditTrax work?
A: a) Make sure it has at least 2 checkpoints.
   b) Make sure it has less than 5000 pieces.
   c) Make sure it has less than 50 checkpoints.
   d) Having more than 100 volcanos is unacceptably anti-social.
   e) Make sure it isn't corrupted.
   f) The track's impossible, isn't it?!?

Q: What's the meaning of life?
A: To answer the question you just asked. I'm off to tweak my code again!

Q: The game used to crash all the time. Now it doesn't! How come?
A: Welcome to Crazy Racing 1.3! Version 1.12 wasn't beta tested sufficiently!

Q: ARRRGH! Death haunts me in every race!
A: Increase the amount of lives (see the options menu). Also, try saving some
   money for a new vehicle and weapon...

Documentation written by: ---< Jan Lnnberg >---.

        REGISTRATION
        
        
You can register Crazy Racing in Finland by sending one of the following:

- 15 FIM (Finnish Markkaa), a 3.5" HD floppy and a SAE (stamped
  (self-)addressed envelope).
- 20 FIM and a SAE.

Users in all European countries can register by sending:

- 30 FIM.

To register from other countries, please send:

- 40 FIM.

We also accept German Marks, British Pounds, French Francs, Swedish Kronor
and US Dollars, according to current exchange rates.

Send orders to:

        Jan Wirn
        Keskiyntie 21
        00750 Helsinki
        FINLAND

Feel free to add any complaints, compliments, et.c. you like (preferably as
more money...)

        VERSION 1.20
        

Changes since version 1.12 (first release):

- Improved SB sound quality.
- Improved music.
- Extended music.
- Minor price changes.
- Bug fixes (lots of them!).
- Added pictures in menus.
- Added upgrade options for cars.
- Added option to remove race de-briefing.
- Added partial lap meter.
- Added system test before start.
- Added support for Windows, OS/2, and other multitaskers.

        VERSION 1.21
        

Changes since version 1.2:

- Devastator and Nuke now target-seeking.

        VERSION 1.22
        

Changes since version 1.21:

- Improved prize money adjustment.
- Added selectable start money.
- New car/explosion size.

        VERSION 1.3
        

- New player selection.
- Multiple computer "personalities".
- Added pictures for players.
- Statistics for human players.
- Added optional reincarnation.
- Updated track selection.
