Machine Wreckers v. 1.06 README-file

This game is freeware. Send comments and bug reports to:
bow@oyk.pkky.fi or bow@ee.oulu.fi

What is Machine Wreckers?
-------------------------
Machine Wreckers is a traditional, horizontally scrolling shoot'em up.
The thing, which makes it a bit different than the other ones,
are the randomly generated levels.
In Machine Wreckers you can play with a traditional, tiny spaceship
or pick an insect-like walking tank (called ANT).

System requirements
-------------------
A "586"-class computer is required to play Machine Wreckers.
You also need to have about 560kb of free base memory.

This game requires a mouse. The mouse can be installed (for DOS) with
a line in autoexec.bat something like this:

C:\mousepath\MOUSE.EXE

... where "mousepath" should be replaced with the full path of you mouse
driver file (usually named MOUSE.EXE).

Machine Wreckers runs fine in the Windows 95 DOS prompt. Actually, it is
recommended to run the game under Windows or alternatively to use the
MS-DOS program Smartdrive to make the disk access faster. If the game does
not work in DOS, try the Win95 DOS prompt.

smartdrv <enter>

All Soundblasters should work with this game if you have the
BLASTER-environment variable set in autoexec.bat. Trying to run MW on
a computer, which does not have a SoundBlaster may cause the computer
to lock up while loading the game.

example:
SET BLASTER = A220 I5 D1

Controls:
---------
In the main menu, you can click the three big buttons (labeled "1 player"
and so on) to choose the playing mode.

In the game the spaceship is controlled with the following keys:
A   - left
D   - right
W   - up
S   - down
tab - primary weapon
Q   - secondary weapon

ANT is controlled with the mouse and the keyboard:
mouse button 1 - primary weapon
mouse button 2 - secondary weapon
mouse x/y axis - aim
arrow up       - jump/fly
arrow down     - drop from ceiling
arrow left     - left
arrow right    - right

The keyboard "P"-key pauses the game and with "esc" you can jump back
to the main menu.

Primary weapons, spaceship
--------------------------

Phaser gun
A good all-round weapon with moderate power.

Vulcan cannon
A rapid fire cannon, which becomes extremely devastating after
collecting some weapon power-ups.

Plasma charger
The plasma charger sucks energy from the engine of the spaceship.
The longer you hold the trigger, the bigger is the released
plasma charge. Power & speed ups do not affect this one, they
repair the ship instead.

Laser
The laser gun fires rays, which reflect from the walls to
random directions. Therefore it is possible to fire around the
corners with this weapon.

Secondary weapons, spaceship
----------------------------

Rockets
The rockets are the most powerful weapon the spaceship can use.
They fly straight forward until they hit something.

Twin lasers
The twin lasers is the only secondary weapon, which doesn't
require ammunition. It consumes the battery, however.

Phase worm
When you fire this weapon, two worm-like warheads leave the ship.
One squiggles on the floor while the other crawls along the ceiling.
Upon enemy contact they explode delivering quite a bit damage.

Fire ring
The traditional fire ring weapon shoots 16 powerful fireballs all
around the ship.


Primary weapons, ANT
--------------------

Disruptor cannon
The main weapon of the ANT is a 150mm-old fashioned cannon loaded
with highly reactive antimatter. The disruptor cannon causes quite
a bit damage, but eats up your battery in no time.

Plasma Vulcan
The ANT can be equipped with a more sophisticated version of the old
vulcan cannon than the spaceship, but the firepower is almost the same.

Disruptor shotgun
This model of the Disruptor cannon fires many small pellets which
are a smaller version of the Disruptor cannon's charge.

Laser turret
The ANT's laser has a high firing speed compared to the
spaceship's one.


Secondary Weapons, ANT
----------------------

Fireball grenade
The effect of the fireball grenade is similar to the fire ring's one.

Phase worm
See above.

Anti-aircraft missiles
After being relesed, the anti-aircraft missile heads towards the most
dangerous hostile aircraft.

System freezer
The system freezer is fired like any other ANT weapon, but the effect
is quite different: the enemy becomes unable to fire. The power of the
system freezer also causes some physical damage.


Power-ups:
----------

Energy capsule
An energy capsule loads your battery partially.

Auto repair kit
The auto repair kit fixes up to 30% of the vessel's damage.

Primary weapon speedup
Enhances the firing speed of your primary weapon. The effect is
cumulative, but vanishes if you collect a primary weapon of a
different type than you are currently using.

Primary weapon powerup
Gives more power to your primary weapon. Has the same advantages
and drawbacks as the speedup.

Super accu charger
Reduces the reload-time of your ship's main battery. The effect
is cumulative.

Thrusters (ANT only)
Makes the ANT able to fly. The liftoff takes some time, though...

Energy shield (aircraft only)
Makes the aircraft invulnerable against energy-based damage. The
shield lasts for seven hits. 

Secondary weapon upgrade
This powerup upgrades all your remaining rounds for the secondary
weapon. If you pick up an other secondary weapon, the effect of
this powerup vanishes with the old weapon. This happens also, if
you take a second powerup of this type.

Known bugs:
-----------
Occasionally you can see sprites appearing from nowhere and vanishing a
fraction of a second later. This happens in the left border of the screen.
Reason unknown.

The program's error handling (well, actually there is none) isn't too good,
so if the game doesn't work on somebody's system it can get quite tricky
to find out the reason.

This version of Machine Wreckers hasn't locked up or terminated abnormally
in the betatesting, so it should be fairly stable.


Thanks to:
Steven H Don for his WAV-player.
Jere Kpyaho for his keyboard and mouse handlers in the Mikrobitti-magazine.
Matti Tiilikainen for betatesting and comments.
