STAR CASTLE: The Readme!
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Legal note: This executable may be distributed freely without restriction, as long as this README file remains with it and no profit is made from said distribution. Relax and enjoy your shoes.

Now then... Remember Star Castle? Perhaps not, as it came out in the arcades at the start of the Reagan Administration. Nevertheless it was a minor classic: an odd little game, elegantly designed and very difficult. A fortress sat in the center of the screen, and your objective was to break through the rotating walls surrounding it and shoot down the fortress itself. This was made more difficult by floating buzz bombs which would try to ram your ship, and the fortress's own main gun which would start firing at you as soon as you broke through the walls! This PC version is very similar to the original, right down to the flickery, eyestrain-generating vector graphics. Differences include:

- The buzz bombs are slightly more intelligent and spend less time attached to the fortress walls.
- The cannon is also slightly more intelligent and will only fire at you when it's aimed at you, as opposed to whenever it had a clear shot through the walls as in the original.
- Larger play area, which theoretically makes the game easier by giving you more room to maneuver.
- Sounds are slightly more meaningful.
- Explosions are more showy.
- Added three difficulty settings: Easy, Hard, and Absurd. These determine how quickly the difficulty of the game increases as you clear each level. Hard gets tougher twice as fast as Easy, and Absurd gets tougher four times as fast. Difficulty tops out at around level 50 on Easy, 25 on Hard, and 12 on Absurd. Good luck getting that far...
- Probably some other stuff I can't remember.

Now that there's the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, you can play the original Star Castle on your PC and compare it with my version. I think mine doesn't do too badly. :)

Technical notes:
- DirectX 6.0 is required for this game to work. Earlier versions of DirectX may work, but have not been tested.
- The sound effects are sampled directly from the original arcade machine. If you do in fact have the MAME version of Star Castle and have downloaded its sound effects, they are indeed exactly the same files -- that's where I got them, after all! Just copy these .wav files from your MAME installation into Star Castle's directory, and you're good to go:
cfire.wav drone.wav lexplode.wav pfire.wav sexplode.wav shield.wav star.wav thrust.wav
- The source code of this program is available; consult the URL below.

That's all. Special thanks to Jon Kilgannon and to the creators and supporters of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, without whom etc., etc., etc.

Mark Sachs (sleet@netaxs.com) 8/31/99
http://www.netaxs.com/~sleet/masterplan

Addendum 03/22/2002: There have been two enhancements to the program.

Enhancement 1: Buzz bombs used to launch in a clump at the start of each level, allowing adroit players to destroy them all with one shot. Buzz bomb launch is now staggered.
Enhancement 2: By popular demand, keys can now be remapped. Press F4 during attact mode and then follow the instructions on the bottom right corner of the screen. Key mappings are not saved.

Mark Sachs (sleet@gallatinriver.net) 3/22/02
http://project-apollo.net

