ROBO RUMBLE readme by Metropolis Software House 1998 ==================================================== 1. How to run the game? 2. How do I play? 3. What keys do I use to play the game? 4. Units in the game. 5. Alien Boosters. 6. Known Bugs 7. How to contact us 1. How to run the game? ------------------------ Simply run RRUMBLE.EXE and choose one of the rendering methods: a) 3Dfx native version (Glide) b) Direct3D hardware acceleration c) Software rendering If you have a 3Dfx card, you will want to choose a). You should have Glide 2.43 or better installed on your system. Visit www.3dfx.com for details. If you have problems with Glide, choose b). If you have another hardware accelerator based on Permedia 2, nVidia Riva 128, Matrox Mystique or ATI Rage Pro, you will want to use the b) option. We have written the game the way that should assure every hardware accelerator is supported (through Direct3D), but we cannot guarantee your card will 100% work. Don't worry, we will support as many cards as possible in the final version of the game. Also watch for possible patches for the demo. If you have problems with b), please select c). Software rendering is different on MMX and non-MMX computers. The former has coloured lights, while the latter hasn't. If you have a slow PC, please switch SCROLL SPEED to FAST in OPTIONS menu. 2. How do I play? ----------------- After the intro (left-click to speed up the text or press ESC to skip it) you can select your leader and style of play. After that you will see a group of five characters, talk to them for: - president's representative: you start the mission here, you can also ask for the mission briefings. - advisor: you can buy hints for the mission there, and here is the man who will give you reports after the mission. - spy: you can buy info about your enemy's unit and strategy for given mission. - professor: you can develop new units (weapons, chassis, boosters, gizmos) here. - personal robo: you can load/save here, set options, restart the game, etc. 3. What keys do I use to play the game? --------------------------------------- When you play the game, watch left down corner of the screen for HINT messages, this is very important (HINT messages are to help you to get used to the game's user interface). Anyway, here is the full list of commands: a) while in MENU: You do everything with your mouse: simply left-click to close the current window and open the next one, or to select an option (or a dialogue line that you want your hero to say). You only use right-click in the OPTIONS menu (for example you increase the sound volume with right-click, and decrease it with left-click). b) while in the game: ESC : switch to menu/briefing and back DELETE and PAGE DOWN : rotate the camera left/right INSERT and PAGE UP : zoom the camera in/out HOME and END : change the camera angle F1 : toggle help F2 : move the camera over your base F3 : move the camera over opponent´s base F4 : rotate the scene by 180 degrees Shift + F5-F8 : save camera 1-4 F5-F8 : recall camera 1-4 SPACE : enter the robo-construction screen SPACE or right-click : leave the robo-construction screen ENTER or double-click : order a robo (in the robo-construction screen) left-click on robo : select the robo left-click on ground : order robo(s) to go there (if any selected) left-click on enemy : attack this enemy and/or show its statistics right-click on ground : de-select the robo(s) Shift + 1-6 : remember selected group of robos 1-6 : recall the group D : screenshot to REF0000X.TGA F : texture filtering on/off M : mipmapping on/off S : robos' shadows on/off P : Pause on/off ENTER : center view If you point your cursor over a robo in the battlefield and hold it there (without clicking) for half a second, you will see the list of things the robo is built from. If you do the same in the robo-construction screen, you will see the full data about given robo. If you left-click on territory, hold the mouse key pressed and drag the pointer over the robos you will select a group. 4. Units in the game. --------------------- As you can see in the robo-construction screen, you don't have pre-set units. You have to built a robo from at least two components: weapon (on the left) and chassis (on the right). You can add booster, if you like (bottom of the robo-construction screen). You start your first mission with two weapons: Eraser and Laser, and one chassis: 2-Legs A. Laser is pretty obvious, but Eraser is something special. If you want to know what's the secret behind it, buy a hint from your advisor. There will be plenty of other weapons and chassis that become available throughout the game in the full version, so there will be a vast pool of possible unit types. 5. Alien Boosters. ------------------ Sometimes you can see some strange glowing objects on the battlefield. When your robo touches them, it changes. These objects are Alien Boosters, the remainings of the energy Aliens used to build the Gun. The effect that the Boosters have upon the robos is unknown, but we've managed to separate three different boosters, two of which are present in the demo: 3 yellow circles : Alien Defence Booster : makes a robo indestructible red star-like object : Alien Weapon Booster : turns robo's weapon into something different. The effect is unknown, but it always change the given weapon into something much more powerful. 6. Known bugs. -------------- - This is actually not a bug, but we couldn't implement 3Dfx gamma correction. It turns out that if you have (SET GAMMA in AUTOEXEC.BAT), then 3Dfx ignores other calls to change the gamma. So, if your game seems to be a little on the dark side, please adjust your gamma correction using your 3Dfx driver (in Display Properties). - Starting the Glide version, then exiting it and starting the D3D version on a 3Dfx machine may result in a crash. We will try to fix this for the full version of the game. - We tested this demo on a wide variety of graphics cards, but since there are so many different boards out there, we cannot guarantee it will work on any machine that supports D3D. - Alien boosters are sometimes randomly placed at inaccessible locations. Will be fixed. 7. How to contact us. --------------------- If you are working for a major games publisher and are interested in publishing this game in countries belonging to the Western Hemisphere, please contact: Andreas Jäger Tel.:+49 621-4805-183 email:ajaeger@topware.com And the right person to contact for publishers in countries belonging to the Eastern Hemisphere is: Clemens Siegfanz Tel.:+49 621-4805-184 email:csiegfanz@topware.com Please report bugs (including a detailed description of your system and an attachment of the DEBUG.LOG file from the DATA subdirectory of your Robo Rumble directory) to: Ulli Smidt usmidt@topware.com And if you just want to tell us how happy you are with the game, contact: :) usmidt@topware.com fheukemes@topware or our friends at Metropolis adrianch@metropolis.com.pl For more info on upcoming and current games visit http://www.topware.com or http://www.metropolis.com.pl