ASTARIEL v1.8 Welcome to Astariel. Astariel is a journey into the mellow side of space shooters. It is fairly gentle, highly visual and can be great fun in two player mode. ------------ RELEASE DATE ------------ 20 Jan 2006 ------------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ------------------- 900 Mhz CPU 256 MB RAM 16 MB VIDEO CARD DIRECT X 8.1+ 30Mb of disk space On a Windows PC ------ TO RUN ------ Double click on Astariel.exe. ----------- UNINSTALLER ----------- Is provided. Start->All Programs->Astariel->Uninstall under WinXP ----- MUSIC ----- Point the game to your MP3 music folder via the FILE menu in windowed mode. Michael Howes wrote the intro theme. If you are interested in his music I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from you. You can find him at FunkFolk Records: www.funkfolk.com - email is michael AT funkfolk DOT com --------- GAME KEYS --------- TILDE - switch to windowed mode (where you can access the menu for more options) F1 - music/on or off F2 - frame rate (if it's below 30 much you will have to switch down a mode - see 4,5,6 below) KEYPAD 0 - shuffle to next music track KEYPAD . - display music track name F6 - music spectrum analysis on/off. Does not work with WMA music files F7-F10 - music and sfx volume O - options. Available only in intro LEFT CONTROL - fire LEFT SHIFT - shields ZXC - regenerate life or ammo ARROW KEYS - movement ESC - restart game SHIFT ESC - exit game 4-9 - quick settings select ------ STATUS ------ Astariel is freeware. It is still copyright, however, so please don't attempt to sell it. If in doubt, just ask. ------------- ASTARIEL USES ------------- FMod www.fmod.org for its sound system. Easy to use, stable and basically highly recommended - especially for its easy spectrum analysis facilities. Inno Setup for its installer. Jordan Russell gets a massive number of brownie points from me. It's just so intuitive to use. Dance EJay for the creation of some of the sound effects. The font "7 Days" --------------- TROUBLESHOOTING --------------- For best performance, close all other applications before running the game. The first thing you should do in the event of an error is to delete the "Settings.dat" file found in the Astariel home folder. This will reset all game settings to default. It will also wipe your highscore file, so be warned! If you are still having problems, please send the error_log.txt file to david@astariel.com together with a clear description of the problem and the system you are running the game on. --------------- PLAYING TIPS --------------- -Make sure you try the game in 2 player mode! Press F5 to access 2 player mode -Learn what each powerup does - don't just mindlessly collect everything -Powerup any given weapon by collecting more of the type you currently are using -Try to powerup a low level laser in case you fall back to it at endgame -Remember you have a shield -Watch your health and ammo - and recharge as necessary -Ammo is perhaps the most important stat in the game... ------------------------ THE CREATION OF ASTARIEL ------------------------ Astariel is a game that almost never was... Late February 2002, I set out to write a simple space shooter with the aim of further developing my understanding of Direct 3d. I had previously written and released a few screensavers that touched upon 3d code - Angelicus being the better of these - and now felt it was time to work on something more interactive. My key design ideas were shamefully vague. "Keep it simple" and "something like Deluxe Galaga" was about as advanced as my design document ever got. During development my basic principles were to choose the gentle over the harsh in my design decisions; and to come up with something fairly abstract. My ideal (never attained!) was an interactive fireworks display in the guise of a space shooter. So if you are puzzled at the amorphous aliens, now you at least know where I was coming from. Although I worked on the game primarily alone, I did periodically (perhaps weekly) test the patience of a long-time friend of mine, Andrew Wright, by emailing him an update and asking for gameplay advice and constructive criticism generally. In retrospect he was outstanding in this regard - coming up with a lot of good points and fresh ideas. At the time I recall stubbornly ignoring many of them for far, far too long. It was amusing to see my ego consistently seek praise first, and criticism a very distant second! Working on it in my spare time, I dropped the game late December 2002. Whilst I felt it was a fairly decent two player game - and Lara and I did have some fun times testing it together - it just didn't satisfy me. Much about the code, especially the rendering system, was primitive and clunky. So I moved on to a more complex design and complete game engine rewrite (which was eventually to evolve into Akasa). Or maybe I just got bored with it... Time passed and a house move or two later I skilfully managed to lose the original Dec 2002 game and source code entirely. After a while I even managed to forget I'd written the game at all. In June of 2005, however, rummaging through my backup discs produced the entire source for the original game. Originally coded for Direct X 7, to my pleasant surprise it actually compiled. The extended break from the game meant that what I saw on compilation wasn't half as bad as I remembered it - particularly since video card capabilities had improved so much in the interim. Sure it's simple, graphically primitive and blatantly derivative - but hey, these can be good things sometimes... From a certain point of view... So I decided to clean it up a little and release it as freeware. Which is how you came to be reading all this. Anyway, I hope you have some fun with it. It really comes alive as a 2 player game, so please do try it out with a 2nd player. Finally, thanks for playing and peace to you all. David De Candia June 2005 Byron Bay NSW Australia ------- CONTACT ------- www.astariel.com david@astariel.com Astariel is Copyright © David De Candia 2002 - 2005. ---------- CHANGE LOG ---------- v1.8 Jan 23 2006 - Fixed an end-game bug in Hero mode - 2x replays now worth 100,000 - Meteor laser graphic changed and easier to achieve, but does not regenerate. Degrades to Arc laser. - Arc laser graphic changed. Arc laser slightly less potent - Fixed a countdown message display bug - Eject credits now lasts only 5 seconds (max of 1000 credits lost) - Purple point crates slightly more common in normal and hero mode - Settings file encrypted. Unfortunately this requires all hiscores to be wiped. Sorry, I'm trying to keep these wipes to an absolute minimum. v1.71 Dec 31 2005 - Realised that Normal and Advanced modes were far too tough! Toned them down a bit. - Changed the name of Advanced mode to Hero mode. v1.7 Dec 26 2005 - Enabled 2 player mode without needing a joystick (finally!) - Fixed mouse sensitivity scrolling too fast in Options menu bug - Added 10 more attack waves to the game - Fine tuned spectrum output vs alien size v1.6 Dec 3 2005 - Added online hiscore table - Encrypted the level file to make hiscore cheating more difficult - Added mouse support and made the mouse the default game controller v1.5 6 Aug 2005 -Display now indicates current weapon and weapon strength -Changed powerup crate model to a bevelled crate, for that little bit extra reflection -Power downs now glow green so you can easily spot the bad guys -Incendiary laser bomb fx changed, hopefully improved! -Adjusted life down in Normal and Advanced -Normal and Advanced now have slightly less crates spawned -Adjusted a few of the star bitmaps as they looked square under the new bright colour space -Changed the mystery crate texture to a '?', which surprisingly makes me more willing to collect it. -Player to player collisions no longer cost life/points if a shield is active. -Toned down space colour as it was a bit over the top -Charge laser does less damage in Normal and Advanced -Aliens have double life in Advanced -Fixed a music text display bug for foreign character sets -Extra life powerup now gives less life v1.4 23 July 2005 -I decided the game had too much black in it. Optional space colour now sweeps through randomly chosen spectrum -Game now runs without a soundcard or onboard sound (increasing the chances it can be run at work!) BTW Astariel doesn't touch the registry... -Some gfx cards didn't like solid debris, so debris is now an alpha blended white. I think I prefer it... -Elongated the debris and stars on warp a la Warblade. Great idea Edgar! -Decreased the number of debris in Extreme Display Mode v1.3 14 July 2005 [the game was too easy!] -Increased the distance to the planets in NORMAL mode -Increased almost all difficulty modifiers in ADVANCED mode -Bosses now spawn much more children, and child shape has been changed. -Fog removed from game entirely, as it wasn't helping anything -Freakout now cut short if you are zooming into a shop v1.2 10 July 2005 [wipes old hiscore table - sorry] -Added a "has reached Astariel" star to the hiscore table -Changed the reverse graphic -Decreased mine damage -Game never wraps on reaching Astariel -Extra life in NORMAL/ADVANCED modes -Added Joystick Sensitivity to Options menu (1000 = most sensitive/responsive, 0 = least) -Fixed wave miscount past 109 -Changed powerup explosion flash from green to orange v1.1 9 July 2005 -Player can now quit game anytime. -Turned off in-game fog entirely. Fog now only present in intro. v1.0 1 July 2005 Initial release