----------------------------------------------------------------- *RADIX: INTO THE VOID* BY: Neural Storm Entertainment & Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. "Official" pre-release FAQ, v1.0 Written by: Greg MacMartin November 1994 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= ================================================================= I. Introduction 1. Preliminary Info. [1-1] A note from the author [1-2] Version 1.0 FAQ accuracy [1-3] Game creation progress II. General Game Information 2. What is "RADIX: INTO THE VOID"? [2-1] So, what is it? [2-2] What is "shareware"? [2-3] What will the episodes be? 3. What will make RADIX different than any other "3D Action Games"? [3-1] 2 major game play features. [3-2] Sloping walls, ceilings and floors. [3-3] Fast, action packed game play. [3-4] Compelling plot and mission design. 4. What kind of game play and technological features will RADIX have? [4-1] Non-orthogonal walls. [4-2] Texture mapped walls, ceilings and floors. [4-3] Multiple lighting variations (diminishing/fog effects) [4-4] Looking up and down. [4-5] Multiple heights. [4-6] Parallaxing Background. [4-7] Analog Movement. [4-8] Complex event system. [4-9] Full Stereo digital music system [4-10] Wide variety of enemies. [4-10-1] Extra-dimensional aliens. [4-10-2] Alien fighter craft. [4-10-3] Miscellaneous alien defense systems. [4-11] High tech weapons. [4-12] New technologies. 5. Who is creating RADIX: INTO THE VOID? [5-1] Neural Storm Entertainment. [5-2] Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. [5-3] Lord Generic Productions. 6. What will be needed to run RADIX? [6-1] REQUIRED Hardware [6-2] What sound cards will be supported? [6-2-1] Will the PC speaker be supported? [6-3] What game controllers will be supported? [6-4] Will RADIX be found on other gaming platforms? III. Ordering Info / Release Dates 7. When will I be able to get RADIX? [7-1] Current Release Date. 8. Where will I be able to get RADIX? [8-1] Shareware release. [8-2] How to order Radix: Into The Void IV. Conclusion. ================================================================= I. ================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Preliminary Info. ----------------------------------------------------------------- [1-1] A note from the author This FAQ is intended to inform the general gaming public about a shareware game still being developed entitled "RADIX: INTO THE VOID". It is labeled "Official" because almost all of this information has been derived from the game's creators at Neural Storm Entertainment. I am writing it because I feel that this game deserves it and I strongly feel that it must be brought to public attention. It will be assumed that further revisions of this FAQ will be written when it is necessary. As noted above, any problems, inquiries or unanswered questions about the official RADIX FAQ can be forwarded to my Internet Email address (gmacmart@chat.carleton.ca). [1-2] Version 1.0 FAQ accuracy Radix is, at the present time, still under development. That being understood, this preliminary Radix FAQ cannot be completely accurate. Although not perfect, all the information contained within this FAQ is as accurate as possible at this present time. One can assume that all features and game play aspects presented here will most likely be implemented in the final game unless otherwise stated in a later version of this FAQ. [1-3] Game creation progress The main focus of Neural Storm at present is to complete the combat aspects of the game. Other aspects, such as the flying and maneuvering of the fighter are pretty much completed. I tell ya, these guys are incredibly dedicated individuals. ================================================================= II. ================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What is "Radix: Into the Void"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [2-1] So, what is it? "Radix: Into The Void" is a 3-D perspective action game. The player is the pilot of an experimental fighter, the Radix-class Inter-Dimensional Star fighter, in the year 2148. The player's view is directly BEHIND the plane, so the player has more control of the positioning of the fighter than if one's view was INSIDE the plane. The player has complete control of the plane's movements, including speed, and lateral / horizontal movement. The ship is heavily armed and has the capability to incorporate new technologies into it's systems if they are found. Many aliens, alien craft, missiles and mines await the Radix fighter at every turn. Not only does one playing this action packed game have to deal with these nasties, but one also has to keep the fighter from flying into walls, getting sucked down by gravity wells, and getting crushed by moving walls... You get the picture. Why would one want to put themselves through something like that? Well... In the 22nd century, after centuries of global strife and tyranny, the people of the Earth united into a sovereign world government. The Planetary Exploration and Space Administration (PESA) launched a dynamic plan to expand the reaches of the human race beyond that of our solar system. This effort resulted the launching of the first of two colony ships, in the year 2147. These massive vessels were destined to colonize an asteroid on the outskirts of our solar system, designated Theta-2. After 5 months, the first ship safely arrived and initiated the colony. Soon after, the second of the two ships departed from earth with 10,000 colonists to place the Theta-2 base into full operation. Once the colony was fully established, mankind was to finally have the opportunity to leave the confines of the Solar system. It happened on October 24th, 2148. While the second ship approached the colony, something unnatural occurred. A dark shape began to form of out nothingness, blacking out the starscape and eating away at a small portion of our reality. The commander of the colony vessel "Salvation", Captain Thomason, barely managed to communicate to Earth that there were dozens of alien ships emerging from this void when the largest of these ships tore the Salvation apart with an immensely powerful particle beam. The gigantic alien craft then somehow dragged both portions of the Salvation into a huge hangar bay, sealing the fates of the 10,000 human beings aboard... According to the information collected from the destruct beacon (the "black box") that reached the Titan colony orbiting Saturn, there were 45 alien vessels. The one that destroyed the Salvation, the largest one, started on a slow (8-9 month) flight to Earth. The remaining 44 ships attacked the tiny Theta 2 base (with only 300 personnel) and set up what looked to be a base of their own. Almost immediately after the incident, Earth Command (the military arm of PESA) went on alert status and began assembling a fleet to counteract this alien force. Our fleet reached the huge enemy craft well before it had even entered the inner solar system. Although the 3 battlecruisers, 10 frigates and 15 destroyers fought well, all were destroyed by the massive vessel. Although the attack was a devastating failure, it confirmed the fact that these aliens were out for blood. It also allowed Earth Command to realize that large ships did not stand a chance against this vessel. One small, fast, deadly ship armed to the teeth just might be able to slip by the defenses of the vessel and cause some serious damage. Meanwhile, Earth scientists combined their knowledge and pooled their ideas, and eventually concluded that the black space, dubbed "The Void", is in fact some sort of inter-dimensional portal; a tear in the structure of our universe. Using the current knowledge of multi-dimensional physics and quantum mechanics, they were able to develop a device that would allow a small spacecraft, preferably a fighter of some sort, to enter The Void and successfully leap into a different universe. Three months after the incident at Theta 2, the Radix-class inter-dimensional star fighter was built. Considering the unimaginable costs involved and the time required to build this powerful fighter, only one was able to be built. Loaded onto the "Defiance", a battlecruiser, Operation Vengeance commenced. Although the Radix class had just barely begun the experimental stage of it's development, there was no more time left. The Defiance had to leave, and the Radix, the last desperate hope for humanity, was going with it... [2-2] What is "Shareware"? Shareware is a popular method of distributing software in which the possible buyer gets to "try it" before buying it. It the case of games, the first episode, usually out of three is the one that is freely distributed for people to try. This game is no exception. RADIX: INTO THE VOID will be a shareware game separated into 3 episodes, the first of which will be distributed freely. [2-3] What will the episodes be? Episode One: Vengeance The Radix class star fighter's first mission: Save Earth from destruction by destroying the massive earthbound enemy ship. Once you penetrate the ship's shielding system, there is no turning back! Will you be able to stay alive long enough to make your way to the main engine core and destroy it? Episode Two: Theta 2. After an amazingly successful campaign against the enemy's lead ship, the Earth forces move to the offensive. After plotting out a strategy, it is decided that the Radix class fighter will fly offensive missions against the Enemy's gruesome Theta 2 base, with the aim to destroy it so that the Earth colony once residing there can be rebuilt! Episode Three: The Void. The mastermind of the Enemy's conquest has escaped into the void, and you must follow it in. This is the ultimate test for the Radix fighter. What awaits you on the other side? Will you be able to seal the Void closed and still get out of it alive? ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. What will make Radix different than any other "3D Action Game"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [3-1] 2 major game play features. Unlike almost every other "3D Action Game" out there, Radix has two fundamental game play portions to it: Combat and shooting at bad guys, and flying and maneuvering in 3-D. In Radix, both game play features are equally as important as the other. Both can get you killed, and both require the same amount of attention. Both features, if used individually are almost games in themselves. IMHO, this is what truly makes Radix very different from other games. [3-2] Sloping walls, ceilings and floors. Almost all of the 3-D games out there at this point are games with straight floors with no sloping at all. Imagine if there were slopes instead of stairs. No longer would stairs be necessary to change heights; there could be a hill. All sorts of unique effects can be produced using sloping surfaces, including a greater feeling of immersion. Radix has such slopes, and they are used throughout the game on ceilings, walls and floors. [3-3] Fast, action packed game play. Some games strive to use the newest technology and techniques to create a virtual world. Although these techniques may be neat, you need a Pentium-90 to play them so they are not agonizingly slow. The creators of Radix have picked and chosen the techniques that will make the game as real an experience as possible, and yet not slow the engine down. As a matter of a fact, Radix designers have made the engine to run as FAST as the technology allows it to. [3-4] Compelling plot and mission design. Many "arcade shooters" have one, main purpose behind playing the game: Test your physical reflexes and shoot bad guys down while watching pretty graphics. That's it. That's the whole reason to spend 30 or 40 bucks of your money. These games lack any resemblance of a true story or plot behind the gore, and instead make up lame plot scraps that give some vague significance to the killing. Of course, no one actually reads that part anyway. Well, for those of you who like those elements of shooters, don't worry. Radix has more than plenty of reflex testing and bad guy blasting action to wet your appetite. For those of you who are truly bored of nothing plots and seemingly random mission design, Radix is also the game for you. Missions are designed with the story in mind, and things you shoot at you shoot at for a PURPOSE. The story is designed to make you want to kill aliens and put all of your efforts into doing so. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. What kind of game play features will RADIX have? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [4-1] Non-orthogonal walls. This feature is fast becoming the standard among 3-D games, although there are still some that aren't implementing it. Basically, this means that the walls can be at any angle to one-another. For instance, in some 3-D games the walls are at 90 degrees to one another, so that every locale was rectangular in shape. Radix never had this problem. Areas can be created that look much more real than before and increase the feeling of realism and immersion into the gaming world. [4-2] Texture-mapped walls, ceilings, and floors. This feature allows all surfaces to have full VGA 256 colored graphics on them. This is another standard feature that is common with most 3-D games. There are still, however, some games that use it very sparingly or not at all. [4-3] Multiple lighting variations (diminishing/fog effects) Radix has 120 some-odd different shades of lighting built into it's engine. This allows for a more realistic depiction of light in the game. The lighting also has a diminishing effect and there is also a cool fog effect. The fog can also be a number of different colors, including blue, green and red. [4-4] Looking up and down. This feature allows the player to see up and down. It is, of course, a required feature for a game like Radix because the player is right behind the plane, and the player's view must stay behind the plane if it moves up or down. Nevertheless, it is a cool thing to watch. [4-5] Multiple heights. Radix allows the player to fly at different altitudes, depending on the level that is being flown. Some missions have staggering height differences, in which there are deep chasms and crevices that one can fly into. Others have tunnels and shafts that require some heavy climbing or diving to navigate. Whatever the case, height differences are certainly one of the key features of Radix. [4-6] Parallaxing Background. This feature means that the background graphics move up with the player's view to look more realistic. Also, there are actually two different bit-maps used for the front and for the back view to simulate how a true world would look like. This prevents a "wraparound" effect that can make background graphics look cheap. [4-7] Analog Movement. Analog movement is a kind of movement that automatically adjusts for the speed of the CPU, which means that the player will move at the same RATE on a 386-33 as on a 486-50. Obviously, the FRAME rate would be (significantly) slower, but the rate that one MOVES is not effected. [4-8] Complex events and event system. Radix employs a very complex event system that allows for the activation of many events at once. Events could be things such as lighting effects, moving surfaces, teleportation, super speed boosters, gravity wells, scrolling bitmapped surfaces, among others. For example, triggers could deactivate one event and activate two others simultaneously. This feature really shines even on the alpha version of the game. [4-9] Full Stereo digital music/sound system Radix: Into The Void uses a multi-channel digital music and sound effect system that produces crystal clear music and sound. All sounds, including the music, use digitally sampled instruments and sound effects instead of the more limited FM synthesis emulation. This allows for a wide dynamic range of super-cool sound effects and music. [4-10] Gruesome extra-dimensional aliens and their weaponry. Here is a preliminary list of the kinds of enemies that are to be faced in Radix: Into The Void. [4-10-1] Aliens: All of the aliens in the game have some similar features, as they are all of the same species. They are really sick looking, with slime and gore covering them. They have many different limbs that appear to have no specific function. Very weird stuff. There are many varieties of them, each bred for specific purposes in their extra-dimensional society. In this dimension, however, all use their unique abilities to ATTACK YOU. There are two main breed of aliens: There is the flying variety, which make for very formidable foes, and the less powerful walking variety. Aliens in RADIX: INTO THE VOID will have unique abilities, such as plasma breath, and fireball throwing. A few might also carry firearms such as sophisticated laser rifles. [4-10-2] Alien fighter crafts: There are two types of alien spacecraft : Fighters flown by alien pilots and computer controlled drones. In the final game, there will be about an equal amount of each of these. Obviously, the manned (aliened?) fighters will have a significantly higher AI than the computer drones. These ships will be the most common enemy target in the game, and the player will encounter most of them throughout all three episodes. Having to shoot them before you pass them or before they shoot you might be quite the chore to begin with, but it will quickly become second nature... [4-10-3] Miscellaneous alien defense systems: There are numerous other nasties that will attempt to prevent the Radix from completing it's mission. There are various types of mines and a mine layer which flies ahead of the player and drop mines in its wake. Other things include laser cannons, plasma cannons, and scanner stations. [4-11] High tech weapons. At the present there are about nine different weapons that will go into the game. Some of these will only be usable if the player has the registered version. How many will be saved for the registered is still uncertain, but it probably be 3. Some of the weapons include the basic dual-lasers, explosive projectile cannons, plasma spreaders, energy torpedoes, atomic projectiles, and strafe bombs. [4-12] New technologies. There are many neat power-ups and technologies that the player can collect throughout the game. These usually aid the player in doing certain things easier, such as lighting up darkened areas, exposing holographic images, and destroying all visible enemies :). There is one really neat system, called the "Automated Laser Defense System", or ALDS. It is a small capsule that hovers just below the Radix ship. Whenever enemies get near, this thing automatically fires out lasers at them. Very cool. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Who is creating RADIX: INTO THE VOID? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [5-1] Neural Storm Entertainment. Neural Storm Entertainment is a brand new company formed in Ottawa, Canada in late 1993. It is one dedicated to producing the games of the highest caliber, and will stop at nothing to do so. These guys are almost too dedicated. One might even call them paranoid perfectionists. In the end, though, this dedication will be evident in the final game. RADIX: INTO THE VOID will be their FIRST game, believe it or not. [5-2] Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. is a leading edge publisher, producer, and developer of professional shareware entertainment software. [5-3] Lord Generic Productions. Lord Generic Productions is a band of digital sculptors and pixel painters dedicated to stretching the state of the art in computer graphics and animation beyond the ken of mortal man. They thrive on doing the impossible or at least the highly unlikely. With over 20 commercial game credits to their name, they've been a driving force in game art for over 10 years. It's rumored that their inspirations come from visions induced by late night TV, lack of sleep, and an overdose of Twinkies and Jolt Cola. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 6. What will be needed to run RADIX? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [6-1] REQUIRED hardware. RADIX: INTO THE VOID has been developed to be played well on a 486-33 with 4 megs ram, standard VGA. It really flies on a 486 DX2-66 local bus, and if you have a Pentium, you MUST get this game. Also, Neural Storm is currently working to make the game quite playable on a high-end 386 (i.e. 386DX-33, 386DX-40). Now, the game will run on a 386SX-16, but I wouldn't want it to. - Minimum requirements: 386DX-33 4 Megabytes RAM Standard VGA [6-2] What sound cards will be supported? Currently, RADIX has native support for the "big three": 1) The Sound Blaster family (SB/SBPRO/SB16 and compatibles) 2) Pro Audio Spectrum family of sound cards 3) Gravis Ultra Sound NOTE: There is no support for the original Adlib sound card, as RADIX uses pure digital music and sound effects which are not possible to reproduce on the FM synthesis based Adlib card. [6-2-1] Will the PC speaker be supported? "Nope." No explanation. No apologies from the designers. Just Nope. (Direct quote from Dan Dufeu of Neural Storm Entertainment) [6-3] What game controllers will be supported? There is support for the keyboard, joystick and Gravis Game Pad at this time, and possible additions are the mouse and cyberman. If they get any feedback regarding this, it may help sway their final decision... [6-4] Will RADIX be found on other gaming platforms? RADIX is currently written under DOS for 386 and above PC's and compatibles. There are no immediate plans to port RADIX to any other platforms besides DOS. Future ports MAY include different operating systems like OS/2, Linux, Win95, SEGA 32X and others, depending on the demand for them. ================================================================= III ================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7. When will I be able to get RADIX? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [7-1] Current Release Date. Radix will be release through Union Logic Software Publishing in the first quarter of 1995. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Where will I be able to get RADIX? ---------------------------------------------------------------- [8-1] Shareware release. The first Episode, "Vengeance" will be put on FTP sites and BBS' world wide so you can download it on your PC. The shareware version can be freely distributed, so you will be able to get Radix from your local BBS or Internet provider. You will also be able to pick up Radix on a shareware vendor rack in your local retail stores, where it should cost you no more than the price of the disks. [8-2] How to order Radix: Into The Void To find out the shipping and order status of Radix, contact: Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. sales@unlogic.com or by phone (613)828-1173. ================================================================= IV. ================================================================= Please keep in mind that this FAQ is very preliminary and most of the information is subject to change. However, as stated before, much work has gone into this to ensure that it is as accurate as possible. Please don't hesitate to send any comments, suggestions and questions you might have regarding this FAQ. ================================================================= ================================================================= This article is Copyright 1994 by Greg MacMartin. All rights reserved. The following rights have been granted to the public: I. To make copies of this work in original form, so long as (a) they are complete and exact; (b) the copies include the copyright notice and these paragraphs in their entirety; (c) the copies give obvious credit to the author II. To distribute this work, or copies made under the provisions above, so long as (a) you do not charge a fee for copying or for distribution; (c) you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright notice, this paragraph and credit to the author; (d) the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or within computer software (without explicit permission from the author); (e) the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article; (f) the distributed form is electronic. ================================================================= ================================================================= Radix: Into the void is a trademark of Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. ================================================================= ================================================================= The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. ***************************************************************** *********** Greg MacMartin ************ *********** Email address: gmacmart@chat.carleton.ca ************ *****************************************************************