warpdocs.txt - instructions for "WARPSPACE" Documentation Update - Peter R. Van Horn - Nov 28, 1992 INTRODUCTION WARPSPACE is a two-player space ship battle game. WARPSPACE is played on two computers, using modems. It happens in real time, and has an arcade-game feel to it. The game uses high-resolution EGA graphics. The file WARPSPAC.EXE is a self-extracting file that will generate all the files required to play the game. Create a WARPSPAC directory on your hard disk and copy WARPSPAC.EXE to it. Then, execute WARPSPAC.EXE and it will create the game files. As we said, WARPSPACE is about space ships. Actually, there are eight different ships to choose from. When you start, you must decide what you will be. Your ship has phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, and warp-drive. You can customize your ship by selecting how fast it will fly and how hard your weapons fire. Fast ships use up more fuel, but they can manuever better. Torpedoes come in various sizes. You can have one monster torp, or twenty small torps, or anything in between. Phasers have a "recharge time" which you select. If you choose 1 each shot is fairly wimpy. On the other hand, if you choose a recharge time of 30 it will be a monster phaser blast! Your ship has short, medium, and long range scanners. Use the short range when you really get into the fight. Your ship has a status display showing shield strength, speed, heading, engine temperature, fuel, and damage. If you get 1000 points of damage, you are dead. If you overheat, run out of fuel, or get lots of damage, try to limp away and rest for a minute or so. Your repair crews will soon have you repaired and refueled (if you have some shields). Since this is a space game, there are stars and planets. You can orbit a planet to refuel or just hang out. When you leave orbit, you get a "slingshot" effect that may send you off at high speed. You can do a "jump" between solar systems by flying through a star and hitting "j". Different solar systems belong to different races in the galaxy. If you stay near a planet for a while, you will soon notice that it's moving. Planets orbit stars, and the stars themselves also orbit through space. Planets come in "Class-M" (life-supporting) and "Class-D" (dead) types. (The terminology is from Star Trek.) WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY IT To play this game, you need two IBM-PC compatible computers with modems. The modems should be Hayes-compatible, 1200 or 2400 baud. The game requires EGA graphics. A 286 machine is recommended. The game consists of two programs, E1USER.EXE and E1HOST.EXE. These files are generated when you run WARPSPAC.EXE. One machine must run the host, and the other must run the user. Basically, the user phones the host, and the host answers and starts the game. One gotcha - call waiting may kill the link. So if the game crashes, blame it on that salesman who phoned you while you were playing. HOW TO PLAY 1. Setup Give your opponent a copy of the game disk. Create a WARPSPAC directory on your hard disk. Copy WARPSPAC.EXE to this directory and execute it to create the game programs. Your opponent should also do this. When you execute WARPSPAC.EXE, it will create two programs - E1USER.EXE and E1HOST.EXE. To practice the game, just run E1USER. To play your opponent, instruct him to run either E1HOST or E1USER. You must then run the other program. When you run the program, a copyright message will appear. Hit any key to proceed. You will be asked to enter a number (1 - 8) to select the kind of ship you want to be (Terran, Deltan, etc.). Type the number and hit return. Next, you will be asked to enter the max speed of your ship (1-10). Enter the number and hit return. Note that a ship is very hard to steer at its maximum warp speed. So if you enter 1, your ship will be extremely slow and clumsy. However, it will be able to carry lots of armies to help you conquer enemy planets. If you select a high max speed, like 10, your ship will be fast and manuverable, like a fighter. But it won't be able to carry many armies. In fact, 10 is the maximum speed, and if you select Warp 10, you are a fighter ship and can't carry any armies. On the other hand, if you select Warp 1, just consider yourself a space station - lots of room to carry those troops, but it takes forever to go anywhere. After this, you will be asked to enter the number of torpedo tubes you have (1 - 20). When you've fired all your tubes, you have to detonate some of those torps before you can fire again. Torps auto-detonate near an enemy ship, or after 30 seconds. If you have a small number of torpedo tubes, each torp will be fairly powerful. If you have a lot of tubes, each torp will be small. Next, you must select your phaser recharge time (1 - 30 ). A short time (1) means you can shoot pretty often. However, each shot is rather wimpy. For harder-hitting phasers, choose a longer recharge time. Next, you will be asked if you want to use your joystick. Hit y for yes, or n for no. (If you do not have a joystick, answer no!) At this point, the game will come up. You'll see your ship in the center of the screen. The game begins on the long-range screen, so you will have a view of the whole galaxy. You are now in the practice mode. Read up on the keyboard commands and practice flying around a little. You'll need to turn off num lock to use the keypad. Turn off NUM LOCK! The numeric keypad keys are used to control your ship. However, NUM LOCK must be off. At this point, you are ready to practice the game. THE KEYBOARD COMMANDS Seat yourself comfortably in front of your computer. TURN NUM LOCK OFF! Also, turn CAPS LOCK & SCROLL LOCK off. Note - the keys are CASE-SENSITIVE. Capital letters do something different than small letters. Use small letters unless the instructions specify capital letters. Numeric Keypad Keys 4 = Turn left (proportional to speed) 6 = Turn right (proportional to speed) 8 = Increase speed by one warp factor - up to your maximum. 2 = Decrease speed by one warp factor. + = Increase shield power 10 points - up to 100 points max. - = Decrease shield power by 10 points. * = Fire one torpedo in specified weapons direction. Arrow Keys Up - Increase Speed Down - Decrease Speed Left - Turn left (proportional to speed) Right - Turn right (proportional to speed) Joystick Controls Forward = Increase Speed Back = Decrease Speed Left = Turn Left (proportional to speed) Right = Turn Right (proportional to speed) Button 1 = Fire Phaser in forward direction Button 2 = Fire Torpedo in forward direction Weapon Keys Space Bar = Fire phaser in forward direction Enter or Return Key = Fire torpedo in forward direction Capital D = Detonate oldest torp. Note - Torps will auto-detonate if they hit an enemy ship, or after 30 seconds. The function keys f1-f8 and shifted function keys F1-F8 shoot weapons in pre-determined directions: f4 f5 function keys f3 f6 f2 f7 f1 f8 ------------------SHIP ----------------- F1 F8 SHIFTED KEYS F2 F7 F3 F6 F4 F5 These will shoot a volley (one phaser plus two torps) in the indicated direction. Advanced Weapon Commands sxxx - where xxx is direction 0 - 360 degrees. Aims all weapons in specified direction. Example: s180 return will cause all torp & phaser shots to be fired at 180 degrees. Aiming with Letter Keys Use the lowercase keys q,w,e,a,d,z,x,c to aim your weapons. Hit the key and return. Then, fire weapons. The following diagram indicates the directions specified by these keys. q w e \ | / \ | / a------ -------d / | \ / | \ z x c If you hit 2 adjacent keys, the computer will aim your weapons halfway in between. For example, de return or ed return will aim the weapons halfway between d and e. Firing Torps After aiming, hit * on the keypad to shoot a torp. You must be on the "short-range" screen to actually see the torp. If no torps shoot, you are either low on fuel or you need to detonate some of your previous torps. Detonating Torps Hit capital D to detonate a torp. Torps will auto-detonate if they get close enough to the enemy ship. They also detonate after 30 seconds. Firing Phasers Hit lowercase p to fire the phasers. If phasers do not fire, you are either low on fuel or the phasers haven't recharged yet. Using Shields The + (plus) key on the numeric keypad will increase shields by 10 points up to the max of 1000 points. The - (minus) key on the keypad will decrease shields by 10 points, down to zero. Using Scanners There are three scanners - Short, Medium, and Long. The game starts on long range scanners. The following keys control the scanners. These are on the keyboard, not the numeric keypad. , (comma) = short range scanners . (Period) = medium range scanners / (slash) = long range scanners The Info Cursor Hit i and the Info Cursor will appear. It looks like a crosshair. Move it on the screen by using the arrow keys on the keypad, or the joystick. As the crosshair passes over a ship or planet, information about that object will be displayed. Hit a to aim your weapons to that position. Hit enter to turn off the cursor and resume normal keyboard function. (If you aimed weapons with the cursor, you must hit enter, then use * for torps or p for phasers). Interstellar Jumps To jump between star systems, you must fly through the center of a star and hit j right as you pass through the center of the star. Your warp speed will determine how far you jump. You will get some heat, and burn up some fuel doing the jump. Look at long-range scanners to see which direction you need to fly to reach your destination. Then, use short-range scanners to position yourself and fly through the nearest star and make the jump. Cloaking The Cloaking Device makes your ship invisible to your opponent. However, it will overheat your engines and use a lot of fuel. Type capital C to turn on the cloaking device. You will see a "cloaking field" circling your ship. Type capital C again to turn it off. Orbiting Planets To orbit a planet, fly close to it, at slow speed. (Use short-range scan). Hit o to orbit. Hit o again to leave orbit. While you are in orbit, your ship will cool down and refuel faster than it will in space. Once you've re-fueled and cooled down, raise your shields and your ship will be repaired if it has damage. (Space regulations prohibit repair workers from going outside a ship unless the shields are up to protect the workers from cosmic radiation). Bombing Planets To bomb a planet, fly close to it (use short-range scan). Fire a torp or phaser at the center of the planet. You will need to detonate the torp with capital D. Use the info cursor to see how many armies are on the planet before and after you fire. Bombing is most effective if you set your weapons to be powerful. Note - Once you damage a planet's armies, all of the planets in that star system will be at war with you. They will shoot torps and phasers at your ship any time you come within range. The cloaking device will help you avoid attacks from hostile planets. Beaming Armies To beam armies aboard your ship, go into orbit (o) around one of your planets and hit lowercase b to beam up one army. Keep hitting b and you will see the number of armies increase on your status display. The maximum warp speed of your ship determines how many armies you can carry. A warp 10 ship can't carry any, but if you select a slower speed you can carry more armies. Hint - use the info cursor to scan a planet to see how many armies it has and what kind they are. You are only allowed to beam up your own armies. For example, if you are a Terran, you cannot beam up Deltan armies. To beam armies down, orbit the planet and hit capital B to beam down each army. You can beam your armies down to enemy planets to attack them. Or, beam armies to your own planets to reinforce your planetary defenses. Messaging You can send a one-line text message to your opponent. Hit capital M and then type the text. It will appear at the bottom of the screen. Hit enter to send the message. If your opponent sends you a message, it will appear on the bottom of your screen. Note - if you have the info cursor turned on, and a message comes in, the text will look garbled. Turn off the info cursor to see the message. The Help Screen Hit h to display the help screen, which tells you what keys do what. Note - While you are looking at the help screen, the game is still going. Your ship is still moving and your opponent is still shooting at you! Many brave warriors have lost their ships while staring at the help screen during a battle. Turn off the help screen by hitting enter. THE SHIP STATUS DISPLAY On the bottom of the screen is a status display, which looks something like this: S:1000 V:10.0 H:360 F:1000 T:1000 D:1000 A: 0 W/L: 1/1 This is your ships Status display. S is your shield level - 0 to 1000 points. V is your velocity, from 0 to Warp 10.0 H is your heading, from 0 to 360 degrees. F is your fuel. 1000 is full tanks, 0 is empty. When your fuel is low, you will not be able to move, shoot, raise shields, or cloak. T is your temperature. 0 is cold. 1000 is overheated. When you are overheated, you will not be able to move, shoot, raise shields, or cloak. D is your damage. 0 is no damage. 1000 points means you have been destroyed. A is the number of armies you are carrying. W/L is your win-loss ratio. As you play, you will win some dogfights and lose some. When you destroy your opponent, his ship will disappear. When he destroys you, you will see a "You Are Dead" screen. Either way, the losing party will beam back into the game after a second or two - looking for revenge. THE 2-PLAYER MODEM HOOKUP One player must run E1HOST, and the other must run E1USER. Note - if you and your opponent choose different ships, you will start off in different solar systems. If you choose the same type of ship, you will start in the same solar system - and you might both appear in the same spot! Terran ships always start in the Sol star system, for example, while Deltan ships always start in the Sirius star system. Run the game, and answer the questions. When your ship appears, press control D. The screen will clear and the message WHICH PORT? will appear. Enter 1 or 2. Return. (Sorry, guys, we can't support any other com ports at this time.) Next, the message WHICH BAUD RATE? will appear. Type in either 1200 or 2400 and hit return. Note - both players must use the same baud rate! At this point, the HOST program will be waiting for a phone call. The HOST will print a line of *'s on the screen as it waits. The USER program will ask for a phone number to dial. Enter the HOST's number and hit return. Note - the HOST should be ready and waiting when the user dials in. When the connection is made, the HOST operator will see the message "Downloading the Universe - this takes about a minute." (or something like that /*MJE*/. The USER does not see a message, but he waits patiently for a minute. Then the game will come up and each player will see his ship. (Note - If you are new to this game, you should practice your manuvers first. Do not hit Control-D if you just want to practice.) HOW TO QUIT ESCAPE ESCAPE (2 times) Note - If you are playing with the modem, you may need to power-off your computer or modem to make it turn loose of your phone line. REGISTRATION WarpSpace is copyrighted by the authors and is distributed as shareware. To register your copy of Warpspace, print out the file ORDER.TXT and mail it, along with your registration fee, to WARPSPACE c/o Mike Erskine 4301 John Cunningham El Paso, TX 79934 (Registration fees should be check or money orders, no cash or credit cards please. The amount is specified on the title screen of the software, and on the ORDER.TXT form. U.S. dollars only. Texas residents should include Texas sales tax.) COMMENTS & QUESTIONS If you have comments or questions about WarpSpace, you may write to Mike Erskine at the above address. Or, you may send E-MAIL to me (Peter Van Horn) on Compuserve. My User ID is 73530,3536. However - be warned! Compuserve is a long distance number for me, so I do not access the service very often. In fact, I may go 2 or 3 months without dialing in. But you can also send mail to PETER VANHORN on the Kev's Korner BBS in Greenville, TX. (903)- 883-4753. I cannot process registrations, but I may be able to answer your questions or forward them to Mike. Thanks, and happy blasting. Peter P.S. - hey Mike - sorry I took so long to update the documentation! BUGS AND ERRORS (Your guess is as good as mine, I fix 'em when I find 'em. /* MJE */) Oh, yeah - If the game is not responding to your keystrokes, hit return. Sometimes, in the heat of battle, you may hit the wrong key and accidentally go into the message mode or turn on the info cursor or something. So if it's not working, hit return to clear the command line and your ship should respond normally. (PRV) Oh, and one other thing. If your modem has protocols (error correction or data compression) then turn them off and run as straight Hayes-compatible modem. (PRV)