This demo shows you two of the thirty scenarios you will play during the course of Absolute Zero. They are chapters from the beginning of the story when little is known about the aliens you've encountered and you're just trying to bring survivors out of the destruction.
The scenarios here are good examples of the two main modes of play in the game: turret-style and free-flying. We recommend that you start your demo experience with the turret mission so you can get used to the interface and play style before tackling the more difficult free-flying mission.
Absolute Zero has received good reviews from the gaming world. We hope you enjoy this demo enough to check out the real game. It gets better and better the deeper you get into the storyline.
Absolute Zero is designed to push your hardware to its fullest potential. We put a lot of really cool stuff in this game, but unfortunately this really cool stuff takes up a lot of RAM. If you’re lucky enough to have a machine with 16MB or more of RAM, you don’t have to worry about AZ’s memory requirements. But if you’re one of the many people who only have 8MB of RAM, you’ll probably soon discover that AZ will want to use every little bit of it.
The first thing you need to do is to eliminate all unnecessary extensions from your System folder. If you have not installed the entire game to your hard drive, you will need to keep the Apple CD-ROM extension on (if your CD-ROM drive has it’s own special extension, it will have to stay on as well). If you have a Sound Manager extension, it will have to stay on. Also, if you’re playing with a joystick there is probably an extension that comes with it, which must stay on. You should be able to turn off all other extensions, except any third-party extensions that you need to run your hard drive, monitor, keyboard or mouse. If you don’t have a third party startup manager, use the Extensions Manager control panel that comes with System 7 to turn off extensions — see your Apple manuals for details. Turning off all extensions should leave you with enough memory to run Absolute Zero.
We’ve tried to squeeze AZ into the approximately 6MB of free RAM left on 8MB machines after the System takes its 2MB, but you might encounter the infamous ‘Unable to load a needed resource’ error occasionally. We will try to squeeze it down even more, and hopefully we’ll be able to release a patch sometime soon that works better on 8MB systems. In the meantime there are several things you can do to reduce the memory requirements of Absolute Zero.
1) Make sure there are no other programs running when you launch Absolute Zero.
2) You should turn on virtual memory from your Memory control panel. This will allow Absolute Zero to run even if there isn’t enough available RAM. Unfortunately it can cause long pauses when sounds and graphics are being loaded from disk.
3) You can try turning the music off in the VR Visor Controls. This may also improve the frame rate on some missions, especially if virtual memory is on. Please read the manual for details about the Visor Controls.
4) Likewise, you can try turning off some of the other sounds (Engines, Voices, and/or the other sound Effects).
5) Try not to switch back and forth between the VR Tunnel and the game, especially if virtual memory is not on.
6) Turn off the Voiceovers option in the VR Visor Controls. This will prevent the voiceovers from automatically playing in the Overlink and News areas of the VR Tunnel. This will affect the memory situation only when you’re in the VR Tunnel, and then only if you’re currently playing a mission and have manually switched back to the VR Tunnel. Please read the manual for details about the Visor Controls.
7) We have included an extension called QuitLaunch, which will allow you to quit the Finder when launching Absolute Zero. This should give AZ another 300K-500K of RAM to work with. See QuitLaunch above under Installation Options for details.
• Memory and the Frame Rate •
Absolute Zero has a lot of really cool sounds and object textures, which take up a lot of memory. If the program doesn’t have enough memory to hold it all at the same time, it will have to reload these sounds and textures repeatedly as it needs to use them. This could have a considerable impact on the frame rate, especially if virtual memory is on. If you are experiencing long pauses in game play while you’re playing a mission, try to improve the memory situation with one or more of the above options.
Absolute Zero is designed to push your hardware to its fullest potential. We put a lot of really cool stuff in this game, but unfortunately this really cool stuff can take more CPU power than your machine can handle. If you’re lucky enough to have a machine with a PowerPC 604 or better CPU, you shouldn’t have to worry about the frame rate. But if you’re one of the many people who have only a PowerPC 601 or 603 CPU, you’ll probably soon discover that AZ will want to use every little bit of your computer’s power. Here are some things you can do to help speed up your frame rate, in the order in which you should try them:
1) Make sure there are no other programs running when you launch Absolute Zero.
2) Turn off all unnecessary extensions, especially network extensions, including File Sharing.
3) Turn the Music off in the VR Visor Controls.
4) Turn the Engine sounds off in the VR Visor Controls.
5) Turn the No Sky option on in the VR Visor Controls.
6) Turn the Flat Shading option on in the VR Visor Controls.
7) Turn the Line Skipping option on in the VR Visor Controls.
8) Turn the Low Resolution option on in the VR Visor Controls.
If you are experiencing any problems with Absolute Zero, please contact our support staff (see How To Contact Domark below). They will be happy to send you the latest version of AZ when updates become available. Or if you have access to a network such as America Online or the internet, check for updaters occasionally. We almost certainly will be releasing a patch with the inevitable bug fixes as soon as we are able.
Users of Connectix Speed Doubler™: If you notice that animation sequences are playing very slowly off the CD, turn off Speed Access™. This extension can cause dramatic slowdowns in CD access operations for Absolute Zero. Connectix and Domark are working together to solve the problem.
If you are playing a mission, and you have the VR Helmet turned on, you may hear the message notification sound but no message scrolls across the top. This indicates that you are running very low on memory, and the program doesn’t have enough memory to display the message banner. The same sort of thing can happen with the MFD windows — if they display incorrectly it’s likely that the program doesn’t have enough memory to display them. See the Memory section of this document for details.
If the frame rate of a particular mission seems to suddenly get much slower than it normally is, and the VR Tunnel interface starts to slow down or get jerky, try restarting your machine. We’re pretty sure there’s something going on with the music that causes this problem occasionally, and we’ll try to fix it as soon as possible.
The default key settings given below are intended for the extended keyboard (the one with the row of F-keys across the top). They use keys that don’t exist on the standard Apple keyboard. If you don’t have an extended keyboard, you will need to change the key settings. We have provided a default key set designed for the standard keyboard.
Movement
Velocity Changes: You can change the throttle 10% at a time by hitting the number keys. "1" is slowest and "0" is fastest. Also, the "-" and "+" keys decrease and increase by 1% increments.
keys: 1-0, -, +
Movement Keys: If using the keyboard to move, use the up/down/left/right arrows to move. Remember that when flying, the "up" arrow actually dives your vehicle and the "down" key makes you climb.
keys: up/down/left/right arrows
Positional Thrusters: You can use vernier jets to slew your vehicle left and right. This makes fine adjustment for firing easier. Use the "<" key to slew left, and ">" to slew right.
keys: <,>
Weapon Control Keys
Fire Weapon: Fires currently selected weapon.
keys: space bar (or Btn 1 on a joystick)
Change Weapon: Cycles to next weapon in list.
keys: W (or Btn 2 on a joystick)
Lock Onto Target: Using this key locks onto the closest target that is under or near your crosshairs. This causes the virtual arrow and lock-on box to activate immediately.
keys: tab
View Controls
Outside View: Hit the "O" key to switch to the outside view of your vehicle. There are two outside views depending on what you have your pan/snap toggle set to. There is a static view from behind your vehicle and a fade away view. Experiment with the toggle to find out.
keys: O
Toggle Pan/Snap Views: Use keypad-7 to toggle whether your views pan around your vehicle or snap left/right/back when using the view change keys.
keys: keypad-7
View Change Keys: These move your view around your ship to help you keep track of your surroundings.
The Terrans have been mining the Jovian system for over 110 years. Since Europa has large amounts of water ice available to refuel space craft (which utilize fusion drives), it was the first of Jupiter’s moons to be colonized. There are three cities on Europa: Orion, Aegis, and Europa City. They hold well over 200,000 people. All of these people are associated with mining in some way, shape, or form.
Recently the “core bore” operations on Europa (mining the rocky center of the moon), detected an open space within the core. They dug close to it and awakened a long-sleeping race of aliens. The aliens reacted angrily, killing the miners in the core and used a powerful weapon to blow their way out of the moon’s interior, destroying the colony’s capitol, Europa City, in the process.
The Terrans are now faced not only with humankind’s first extraterrestrial contact, but also their first extraterrestrial war. Since the colony is not a military base, few weapons or specialized military vehicles exist. Everything has to be cobbled together from existing mining devices, extra side plating, guts and ingenuity.
Europa is one of the four major moons of Jupiter. There is no official count of the actual number of moons of Jupiter, simply because no one has been able to decide on the minimum size of an object to be classified as a moon. There are thousands of objects rotating around Jupiter in and around its thin ring system.
Jupiter’s magnetosphere is a tremendous drag on its moons. In the case of Io, this creates violent volcanism as the drag, and the gravitic tidal forces, push and pull that moon’s core into molten rock. In Europa’s case this causes the ice to buckle, crack, and melt causing massive seismic quakes and an odd sort of water volcanism as warmed water rises quickly through the ice cracks to freeze again on the surface.
Since one person is rarely critical in all places, you’ll move from character to character as they become pivotal in the storyline. In addition, you’ll fly and drive vehicles, as well as helping to man defensive positions during alien attacks, offensive campaigns, scouting missions, and rescue attempts.
The VR Tunnel interface allows you to outfit your vehicles, hear news from all over Europa and the entire solar system, read your character’s diary information and e-mail, as well as to receive briefings and examine intelligence on the alien crafts.
As the game progresses, RepDep will provide you with improved vehicles, weaponry, and defenses as your missions become more ambitious and complicated. Be sure to refer to this manual and the VR Tunnel interface as the game progresses so you can best utilize the new technology when it comes about.
Only two of the six options in the VR Tunnel work in this demo due to constraints on file size for downloading purposes and demo CD requirements. The other four are fully functional in the regular version of the game and add greatly to your game experience.
OverLink
Originally designed for EMC managers to coordinate field teams, OverLink is where you get your briefings at the start of each scenario. There is a summary paragraph of your objectives at the bottom of the text screen as well as a complete listing of Nav points to help you find your way around during game play. Audio can be played, or not played, by hitting the “Sound” button below the character's photo. To get back to the main selection screen, click on that picture in the lower, left cheek screen. To start the scenario, click on the lower, right cheek screen.
RepDep
RepDep is the maintenance area in the VR tunnel. Here, you choose what weapons configuration you'll use during the scenario. If you replay the scenario you can quickly and simply choose a different weapons package if so desired. There are eleven different weapons in the game (laserlance, pulse laser, gatling blaster, blaster cannon, fusion cannon, mini-MAAC, fusion missile, MAAC, jump mines, drop mines, and bombs), and you'll get them in many different configurations. NOTE: You cannot change your weapons configuration in mid-scenario. To get back to the main selection screen, click on that picture in the lower, left cheek screen. To start the scenario, click on the lower, right cheek screen.
Vehicles
Each scenario places you in one of seven vehicles. These include:
Valkyrie -- A jet cycle with extreme maneuverability and speed.
Charger -- The civilian air transport. Think of it as a streamlined car that flies.
Dragonfly -- A four-winged, maneuverable vehicle that becomes the colony's most dependable fighter.
Maglock -- A gigantic behemoth of a carryall. Tough, heavy, and it flies like a pig.
Wolverine -- The standard civilian ground car, it hovers across the ice.
M.U.T. -- Think of it as the ultimate Urban Assault Vehicle (bus with an attitude).
M.U.L.E. -- A large, treaded tractor puller. It quickly becomes the tank of the colony.
The demo scenarios only use the Wolverine, M.U.T., and Dragonfly.
The VR helmet was designed to do two things: a) get more visual input for the pilot, and: b) make cockpit construction cheaper.
The pilot’s helmet now has VR display screens mounted in its visor. This allows the computer to interpret the pilot’s viewing angle and then display the visual information the wearer would receive as if the vehicle were not in the way. Thus, the pilot is no longer constrained by windows and can look freely about as if seated in an invisible vehicle.
The “freefall” feeling this gives pilots resulted in some early difficulties, so a “ghost” outline of the ship is now overlayed onto the surrounding world information to give the pilot a reference point at to which direction is being viewed.
The helmet is jacked into the vehicle’s console via a universal coupling mechanism and the helmet’s processor then interfaces with the vehicle’s on-board computer.
Many helmets use specialized software modules with the helmet’s multi-functional display (MFD) system (the "cheek" screens), increasing the usefulness of the HUD-style environment.
The Map module displays a 40km x 40km area around you as you move across the world. The flashing blip is your position on the map. The only other features that show up are waypoint indicators. You’ll have to rely on your radar screens for enemy and friendly unit positions.
VR Tunnel
The Tunnel screen is your window into the VR world. When you have this window selected and you hit the “Enter” key, you’ll enter the Virtual Tunnel and have access to all the information gathered therein.
Weapons
You’ll see a top-down view of the vehicle you’re piloting, or a schematic of the turret if you’re manning a turret. On it, you’ll see the position of the weapon currently selected brightly lit in red. The other weapons available are a dimmer color. As you hit "W" and cycle through your weapon options, the different weapons are highlighted in turn. Next to the vehicle schematic, you’ll see visual indicators telling you the weapon’s heat status and whether it’s ready to fire.
Target I.D.
When this module is activated, you can toggle through the available field of enemies using the “tab” key (or Btn 2 on a joystick). When an enemy is selected, its image appears in the cheek screen, the virtual arrow locks onto that target, and an orange “lock” box appears around the target. The lock box allows you to keep track of the enemy you’re chasing. The box and the arrow point indicate the direction the enemy is, even if the target goes off your screen. It’s a great assistance in dogfights. Also, Target I.D. is required when guided weapons are used against enemy — without a lock, the weapon will only fire in a straight line and won’t guide.
Once you have a lock on an enemy, a yellow “lead” box shows you the approximate location you should fire your weapon to hit the locked-on target.
• Play with headphones on to get the full stereo ‘3D sound’ effect. This helps you judge where the other objects are in reference to your own position.
• If what you’re doing gets you killed, then change your tactics. Be flexible.
• Many of the aliens are agile fliers. “Joust” with them by going to max velocity, getting some distance, and then doubling back to shoot again.
• When playing as a turret, USE YOUR VIEWS! It’s much faster to look left than to spin left.
• Learn to use your speed keys when flying. Moving at the same velocity all the time gives your enemy too much advantage. Vary your speed and you’ll do a lot better.
• Use your positional thrusters to line up shots. It’s a lot easier than trying to bank or roll into position.
• Your Target ID window is quite useful for identifying long-range opponents.
• The aliens tend to do the same things in the same situations (like we do). Learn their tactics and anticipate their moves.
• The aliens are not afraid of ramming you. Beware.
• Pay attention to your speed. If you go too slow, you’ll fall out of the sky. A fun option — cut your engines, fall a bit, then go to max thrust again. You can change altitudes quickly this way.
Our customer support staff is available Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm. If you would like to contact our sales staff, you may call (415) 513-8929 x105, or send email to paulbald@domark.com.
