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Manual for Cobra Gunship Copyright (C) 1997, Elysium Digital, L.L.C. Created October 13, 1997 Last Revised November 12, 1997 For current contact information, go to: http://www.elys.com/about.html or send email to: webmaster@elys.com ============================================================================== Thanks for trying Cobra Gunship! We worked very hard to make it, and we hope that you like it. TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================================================== * Overview * System Requirements * Installation * The Story * Getting Started * Registering * Playing the Game * Playing the Missions * Configuring the Settings * Options * Equipping the Chopper * Acknowledgements * License OVERVIEW ============================================================================== Cobra Gunship is a side-view scroller helicopter arcade game. Using the keyboard, mouse or joystick, you control your chopper, flying it through a variety of missions. Along the way, you will use an arsenal of weaponry to destroy your opponents. Between missions, you will customize your chopper, adding newer engines, better armor, and improved weapons. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ============================================================================== Cobra Gunship was designed to be very configurable. As a result, it runs on many lower-end machines, while still taking advantage of the extra power that faster machines offer. If you install the game on a slower system, please refer to the section on Options to see how to configure the game to run at an acceptable speed. Required Recommended ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PC * 486DX33 * Pentium 150 * VESA 1.2 compatible SVGA card * SoundBlaster-compatible sound card * SoundBlaster16-compatible sound card * 12MB RAM * 16MB RAM * DOS 6.2 or Windows 95. * Windows 95 MacOS * PowerPC or 68040 * 150MHz PowerPC 604 * 640x480 256-color display * Headphones or external speakers * 10MB RAM available * System 7.1.2 or later INSTALLATION ============================================================================== PC Installation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Just unzip the files into a directory called Gunship and run GUNDOS.EXE. That's it! The program is completely self-contained. Note that the game was carefully engineered to run perfectly from within Windows95. Just double-click on GUNDOS.EXE from the Explorer, or run it from a DOS window. If you do run the game from real DOS, it would be better if you loaded a mouse driver, since the game does make good use of the mouse. The one potential problem you might have is that your video card does not have the VESA 1.2 BIOS. You'll know that you have this problem when you get a video error message, or if the game runs, but seems to be crunched into the top half of the screen. Don't worry! You can probably download a VESA driver to bring your card up to date. Check the web site of your video card manufacturer. Also, there is a nice collection of drivers at: <http://www.elys.com/software/vesa> If you can't find a VESA driver in either place, try SCITECH DISPLAY DOCTOR, at <http://www.scitechsoft.com> MacOS Installation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Double-click the installer. If you choose the "Easy Install" option, it will install all files necessary to run Cobra Gunship. You may also choose to perform a custom installation, which will allow you to install only the application, or support libraries independently. THE STORY ============================================================================== A group of mercenaries called the Mercenary Alliance has seized oil fields in the Middle East and northern Africa. As the U.N. hems and haws, the countries whose oil fields have been taken form a group called the Small Country Alliance and prepare to solve the problem themselves. They hire an elite team to help them, consisting of one communications expert, several explosives experts, and one helicopter pilot. The team's mission: To disrupt the Mercenary Alliance's operations until the U.N. gets around to sending in troops to reclaim the fields. You are the helicopter pilot on the team. You will receive instructions from your communications guy, and carry out your orders. Sometimes, you will get to use explosives experts on your missions. GETTING STARTED ============================================================================== When you start the game, you will see the Elysium Digital, L.L.C. logo and then the game startup screen. After that, the game will take you to the Main Menu. Click on NEW GAME. On the right side of the screen, the stats for your new game will appear. Now, click on MISSIONS. This takes you to the Mission Tree. Click on MISSION 0, and read the Mission Briefing that pops up. Click ACCEPT to start playing the mission. How you control your Cobra during a mission depends on your settings. If you have a mouse, then the default settings are to use the mouse for control. Move the mouse crosshairs to where you want the Cobra to fly, and your chopper will accelerate towards the cursor. The further you move the cursor away from your Cobra, the faster it pursues it. If you have no mouse or have turned off mouse control, you can use the keyboard to control your Cobra. The default settings have you use the arrow keys to move the Cobra up, down, left and right. Regardless of how you move the chopper, you will also need to flip which way it is facing, select weapons and fire. The default keys for these are: Flip Direction: E Select Primary: S Select Secondary: F Fire Primary: <SPACE> Fire Secondary: D You can also use keys { 1, 2, 3, 4 } to select a particular primary weapon, and keys {5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, - } to select a particular secondary. REGISTERING ============================================================================== When you first download your copy of COBRA GUNSHIP, it is unregistered. You will be allowed to play only missions 0-5, you can't load external missions, and some of the weapons are turned off. To play all 31 levels, be able to load external map files and buy all weapons, you need to purchase a serial number by registering. There are 2 ways to do this: ORDERING You may register the following ways: 1) Order on our web site (credit-card only) for a $1.00 discount: http://www.elys.com/ 2) Fill out the form in the ORDER file and mail or fax it to us for a $0.50 discount. EMania c/o Agile Systems, Inc. P.O. Box 221 Raritan, NJ 08869-0221 (908) 369-1317 FAX 3) Place an order by telephone (credit-card only): (888) 369-0047 (U.S. only, 9am-5pm Eastern Time) or (908) 369-0084 (International, 9am-5pm US Eastern Time) Once you have you serial number, just click REGISTER from the Main Menu. You will see a window with entry buttons for your name and serial number. Enter them here and click OK. NOTE: Both your name and your serial number must be entered EXACTLY as they are listed. If you make a mistake entering one or the other, the game will tell you which one is incorrect. Just correct your typo and hit OK. That's it! Once that is done your purchase is complete. The entire game will be available to you. PLAYING THE GAME ============================================================================== The user interface for Cobra Gunship is menu-driven. You can use the mouse to click on buttons and sliders, or use the arrow keys to select them and <SPACE> or <ENTER> to activate them. Additionally, you can press the first letter of a menu item to select it. In the Save Game and Load Game menus, you can use numbers 1 - 0 to select the save game slot. In the Equipment Purchasing menus, you can use the number keys to select which item to purchase, where 1 is the topmost item, 2 is the next one down, etc. In the Main Menu, you will see series of buttons on the left, arranged in a menu. On the right side of the screen, there is a description of you current status: how your chopper is equipped, how much money you have, and which missions you have completed. You can navigate the menus in the game using the mouse or the keyboard. From the Main Menu, you can do the following: New Game - Abandon your current game and restart at level 0 Load Game - Load one of the 10 possible saved games When you select this button, a window with 8 slots comes up. Select the game you want to load. The game loads your saved status and returns you to the main menu. Save Game - Save your current game in one of the 10 slots Selecting this button pops up a window with 10 save game slots. Select the slot that you want to use to save your status. The game will then let you edit the name of that save slot. When you are satisfied with the name, press <ENTER> or <RETURN>. Your game will be saved and you will return to the main menu. Options - Adjust the game options. Selecting this button yields another menu, this one with three choices: Video - Here you control the game's graphical settings. Audio - These are the controls for our cutting-edge audio system. Control - Determines how you will control your chopper during gameplay. You can toggle the checkboxes to enable/disable the Joystick, Mouse and Keyboard. Note that Joystick and Mouse conflict with each other during gameplay, so use one or the other. We recommend the Mouse. Select the configure button next to the devices you choose for control: Register - If you have purchased a serial number to register the game, select this to enter the number. Quit - Um, exits the game. Duh. Equip - Here is where you spend money to soup up you chopper. See the EQUIPPING THE CHOPPER section for more details. Missions - This is what you select when you are ready to play. The Mission Tree will then be displayed. All available missions will be displayed as buttons. When you first start the game, there is only one available mission - Mission 0. But once you finish Mission 0, you will have five different missions that you can play. Completed missions show up as grayed out buttons. Select the mission button to go to the mission briefing. A briefing window will pop up, describing the mission. You may then Accept or Decline the mission. You might decline the mission for a number of reasons - perhaps you want to play a different mission first, perhaps you need to equip your chopper better first, perhaps you want to save your game first. Selecting the Decline button takes you back to the Mission Tree, from which you can press Escape to return to the Main Menu. Selecting Accept commits to to play the mission. The mission loads, and once you select Go, it is under way. PLAYING THE MISSIONS ============================================================================== Once the mission is under way, the screen switches into full-screen action. On the bottom of the screen are your health indicator (on the left) and how much ammo you have for your currently selected secondary weapon (on the right). On the top of your screen are your currently selected primary weapon (on the left), how much cash you have (in the middle) and your currently selected secondary weapon (on the right). Below those are the radar screen, which shows all of the vehicles in the level. (Note that a radar jammer can distort that display.) On the bottom of the screen, you have your armor meter on the left (this tells you how close you are to dying.) The figures in the center tell you how many foot soldiers (saboteurs) you have on board. On the right, you can see how much ammo you have for your currently selected secondary weapon. Note that primary weapons have unlimited ammo. What you do depends on what you were told in the mission briefing, but it will usually involve wasting bad guys. Destroying enemy vehicles sometimes yields cash, which you can collect and later use to buy more stuff for your chopper. You also get money for finishing each level. We are not going to tell you about all of the bad guys and what they can do, because discovering them is part of the fun of the game. However, we are going to tell you about structures. There are: Friendly Buildings: Landing Pad - There is one per level. You mission starts and ends on it. It cannot be destroyed. Haven - This looks like a hospital. You can rescue troops by dropping them off near it. Enemy saboteurs can blow it up. Enemy Buildings: Base - This is the enemy equivalent to your Haven. Enemy troops and vehicles that enter it are considered "rescued". Your saboteurs can blow it up. Bunker - A defensive structure that launches rockets. Your saboteurs can blow it up. War Factory - This building generates enemy vehicles. Your saboteurs can blow it up. Bridge - Your saboteurs can take this thing out, too. Once they do, no vehicles can cross it. Fuel Depot - Cannon fodder. Your saboteurs will ignore them. You can take them out with your weapons. Your team does have ground troops, usually in the form of saboteurs. These little guys will board your chopper if you land near them. If you land close to a Haven, they will run into the Haven, after which they are considered "rescued". If you drop them off near an enemy structure, they will plant a bomb against it and blow it up. Enemy vehicles will run them over, though, so guard your little guys from danger. The enemy has saboteurs too.... CONFIGURING YOUR SETTINGS: ============================================================================== If you have a fast computer with a good video card, odds are that you won't need to adjust the settings at all. The default settings leave all of the features turned on. However, here is how you make sure that your settings are correct: Go to the OPTIONS menu and click on VIDEO. Turn on the checkbox marked DRAW FRAME RATE. Then start a NEW GAME, go to MISSIONS, and play MISSION 0. Fly past the convoy to the left and see what your lowest frame rate is. (Note: The frame rate is controlled to stay down around 30 frames per second, no matter how fast your system is.) LOWEST FRAME RATE ACTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29+ You are done! Your settings are fine. play and enjoy. 26 - 28 You are getting there, you just need a little more. Try one of the following: - In OPTIONS:AUDIO, disable 16-BIT AUDIO - In OPTIONS:AUDIO, reduce the MIXING RATE - In OPTIONS:AUDIO, reduce the CHANNELS - In OPTIONS:VIDEO, turn on DON'T DRAW TREE LAYER Now replay MISSION 0, fly past the convoy again, and check your lowest frame rate against this table again. 25- You need to get a major burst of speed. Try one of the following: - In OPTIONS:VIDEO, Enable DRAW EVERY OTHER FRAME - In OPTIONS:VIDEO, Enable INTERLACE MODE Now replay MISSION 0, fly past the convoy again, and check your lowest frame rate against this table again. Once you can fly past the entire convoy in MISSION 0 without ever dropping below 29 frames per second, you are done. In OPTIONS:VIDEO, turn off DRAW FRAME RATE. Enjoy the game! If you can't reliably reach 30 frames per second, try turning off all of the available drawing options and turning down all the available audio options. If the game is still too slow, let us know. It is still quite playable, but a little easier. In some very heavily populated missions your frame rate may drop below 30 frames per second on slower machines. OPTIONS ============================================================================== Here, you adjust the game options. Selecting this button yields another menu, this one with three choices: Video - Here you control the game's graphical settings. Don't Use Menu Animation - Disables the cascading menus. Draw Every Other Frame - Draws only every other frame of graphics. Use this feature on computers that cannot update the graphics fast enough. Use Interlace Mode - Draws only every other line during gameplay. Use this feature on computers that cannot update the graphics fast enough. Don't Use Translucency - Disables the translucent feature of the radar and the status display to reduce graphics load. Don't Draw Background - Disables drawing the background to reduce graphics load. Don't Draw Tree Layer - Disables drawing the layer that contains the trees and rocks to reduce graphics load. Draw Debugging Info - Displays memory and sprite information. Draw Frame Rate - Displays how many frames per second the game is displaying. This is useful for determining what options to enable or disable. Explosion Debris - This slide bar sets how much debris thrown from explosions can be on screen at one time. Maximum Particles - This slide bar sets how many particles (animated pixels) can be on screen at one time. Audio - These are the controls for our cutting-edge audio system. Use 16-Bit Audio - Enables 16-bit audio on supported cards. Use Stereo Audio - Enables stereo sound on supported cards. The game makes good use of stereo, since you can hear enemies approaching from the speaker corresponding to the side they are on. Reverse Left/Right - Switches the speakers if they are backwards. (If you are using stereo audio, make sure you have this set correctly, or else sounds will pan in from the wrong side.) Mixing Rate - This slider lets you set the audio mixing rate from 11 to 44 kHz. The higher it is set, the more clear will be the audio, while the amount of time spent mixing will increase. Audio Channels - This slider lets you determine how many simultaneous sounds can be played. If your system can support it, you want this value to be set to 8 or higher. This will let you still hear engine noise behind gunfire and explosions. Control - Determines how you will control your chopper during gameplay. You can toggle the checkboxes to enable/disable the Joystick, Mouse and Keyboard. Note that Joystick and Mouse conflict with each other during gameplay, so use one or the other. We recommend the Mouse. Select the configure button next to the devices you choose for control: Joystick Configure - Calibrate the stick and assign functions to buttons. Mouse Configure - Assign functions to buttons. Keyboard Configure - Assign keys for functions. EQUIPPING THE CHOPPER ============================================================================== Here is where you spend money to soup up you chopper. You can buy: Engines - Your first engine is very sluggish. Buying a better one gets you snappier response and faster flying. Armor - Hey, even the best pilots take hits from time to time. This stuff makes sure you can survive the occasional mating with a heat-seeking missile. Utilities - These are a few little extras that might come in handy: Armor Ranking - shows you how much armor your opponents have left Critical Ranking - Shows you which vehicles are critical to your mission. Marks items that needs to be destroyed, protected or rescued. Radar De-Jammer - Counteracts enemy radar jammers. Repair Crew - Repairs your chopper slowly during a mission. Primary - This is your main gun. It has unlimited Weapon ammo. It is your staple weapon. You start out with a dinky machine gun. Get a bigger weapon to wreck more opponents in less time. Secondary - These are your special weapons. They have Weapon limited ammo, so they have to be restocked. You start out with a bomb launcher and a few bombs. From this menu, you can buy and refill: Bombs - Plain and simple. They drop and explode on impact. Rockets - Regular forward-firing rockets. Floaters - Fall towards the ground. Once they near the surface, an air cushion kicks in, so that they float just above the ground, moving at the same speed at which they were dropped. Droprockets - When you depress the Fire key, a rocket drops out of the bottom of the chopper. When you release the key, the rocket's engine fires, and the rocket flies horizontally from that point on. Each packs a powerful punch. Scatterbombs - When you depress the Fire key, a canister drops out of the chopper. When you release the key, the canister releases several explosive pellets. These are great for taking on groups of vehicles, troops or choppers. Heatseekers - Automatically homes in on the closest enemy. Ideal for holding enemy aircraft at bay while attacking ground targets. Napalm - For ground targets only. This is a large canister that spreads devastating flames across the ground. It has the highest destructive capability of all the secondary weapons. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ============================================================================== Special thanks to: * Elliot Berk * Joe Corkery * Ben Davenport * Dan Davenport * Tim Mackenzie * James Mackey * Paul Mattal * Jack McCarthy * Patrick Min * Joe Sislow * Bob Thomas * Fletch LICENSE ============================================================================== BY COPYING, USING OR DISTRIBUTING THIS SHAREWARE PROGRAM, YOU INDICATE YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE: Terms: "Program" shall refer to the game "Cobra Gunship", with all associated files. The "Trademarks" consists of "Elysium Digital, L.L.C.", any Elysium Digital, L.L.C. logo, "Cobra Gunship" name, and any associated labels and trademarks. Ownership: The content, layout and format and associated Trademarks of this Program are the property of Elysium Digital, L.L.C. Terms of Distribution and Use: 1. The unregistered version of this Program may be freely copied or distributed, provided that: o All of the files from the original archive are distributed together, unmodified. The distributor is responsible for making sure that he distributes no version of the Program that is missing files or contains modified files. o No charge of any kind is levied for distribution of the Program. If a charge is to be levied, specific written permission must first be obtained from Elysium Digital, L.L.C. Walnut Creek CDROM is exempt from this limitation. 2. The registered version of this Program may NOT be distributed in any way. The Program and its accompanying documentation are protected by United States copyright law and also by international treaty provisions. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this package, or any portion of it, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties. 3. Any distributor or user agrees not to modify, reverse compile, disassemble, or reverse engineer the Program, or use or disclose any confidential information that it contains. 4. Any distributor or user agrees to the Warranty below. Warranty: This program is provided "as is" with no warranties of any kind, including implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Under no circumstances will Elysium Digital, L.L.C. provide any remedy for direct, indirect, special, consequential, incidental or other damages arising from the use of this Program, including such from negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty or contract, even after notice of the possibility of such damages.