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/------------\ | TAG | Presents | SOFTWARE | . . . . WARSHIPS 2.5 \------------/ WARSHIPS 2.5 is a computerized version of the "Classic" Battleship(TM) game. One player competes with the computer in a race to see which fleet of ships is sunk first. While there are many versions of a battleship-type game available in the shareware market, WARSHIPS 2.5 has some quality features which set it apart from the rest. First, WARSHIPS 2.5 was written for the "Battleship" purist who wants to play the game as it was originally conceived. The player and the PC opponent each have a fleet of five different ships. The object is simply to locate and sink the opponent's fleet while you are still afloat. If you prefer a game with additional obstacles or traps, WARSHIPS 2.5 is not for you. Second, WARSHIPS 2.5 is the only battleship-type game currently available which offers a SALVO mode of play. In salvo mode, the number of shots that you and the PC have per turn is determined by the number of ships you have afloat. Your shots decrease as the PC sinks your fleet and vice versa. Third, WARSHIPS 2.5 features EGA/VGA graphics, providing a clearer, more distinct display than is possible with CGA graphics. Fourth, WARSHIPS 2.5 plays introductory and victory music through the PC speaker as well as producing sound effects during game play. Fifth, WARSHIPS 2.5 features a mouse-like interface unique to TAG SOFTWARE products. Three input devices (mouse, joystick, and keyboard) are supported, yet each uses the "point and click" style of a mouse. You don't need to waste time typing "A1" or "B7", just move the pointer to the target and click. This simplicity of operation makes the game enjoyable for everyone aged 3 to 100. Finally, WARSHIPS 2.5 requires an IBM PC or compatible, an EGA/VGA graphics card, and only 256K of available RAM. WARSHIPS 2.5 is distributed as Shareware: if you like the program, please become a registered user. Print or list the file REGISTER.DOC for registration benefits and more information. Distribution of this shareware program is encouraged. The WARSHIPS 2.5 source code, object code, executables and manuals on paper or on disk, are (C) COPYRIGHT 1991,1992,1993 by Carole & Allen Grider. DISCLAIMER This program is provided "AS IS" and it is WITHOUT warranty of any kind that it will work correctly in any or all situations. No liability shall be assumed for direct or consequential damage caused by the use of this software. The only claim TAG SOFTWARE makes is that there are no intentional bugs or fatal errors in any original copy of the program that you receive directly from TAG SOFTWARE. MANIFEST WARSHIPS.DOC . . . Text, Documentation (This file) WARSHIPS.EXE . . . Warships Game WARSHIPS.OPT . . . Options file WARSHIPS.IDB . . . Graphics file README.DOC . . . . Text, Last minute information REGISTER.DOC . . . Text, Registration order form CATALOG.DOC. . . . Text, Catalog of TAG SOFTWARE products INSTALL.COM . . . Installation from floppy disk DISTRIBUTION Distribution of this program is encouraged as long as the following Shareware principles are observed: All of the above-mentioned 8 files should be included in the distributed disk and should not be altered in any way. TAG SOFTWARE authorizes the distribution ONLY of the 8 above-mentioned files. If archiving this program for BBS use or library use, please include all files and use the name: WARSHP25, ( ie: WARSHP25.ARC or WARSHP25.ZIP ). This will provide consistency for future updates. Note Disk and Rack Vendors: Please contact TAG SOFTWARE for the latest version of this and all our programs. Disk and Rack Vendors are allowed to replace INSTALL.COM with their own installation package. Also contact us if you require customization. We will consider non-exclusive registration handling agreements. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND OPTIONS COMPUTERS: IBM/PC/XT/AT or compatibles. 256K free memory. DISPLAY: EGA(128K), EGA(256K), VGA. A Mouse is recommended but not required. OPERATION The program will detect your display card and if it is unacceptable, will display an appropriate message and exit. It will also sense if there is a mouse, joystick or keyboard attached by checking for and with the mouse driver, polling the joystick, and defaulting to a keyboard. If you wish to use a mouse with WARSHIPS 2.5, you must install your mouse driver before running WARSHIPS 2.5. WARSHIPS 2.5 stores your options in WARSHIPS.OPT. WARSHIPS's graphics are stored in the WARSHIPS.IDB file. It finds these files using your PATH environment variable. Therefore, you can place WARSHIPS 2.5 (with the WARSHIPS.OPT and WARSHIPS.IDB files) in any directory in your PATH environment variable and WARSHIPS 2.5 will find them. When the program finds your display card acceptable, it will begin. You will see a title screen and possibly a menu of input devices. You will get this menu of input devices on the first usage of WARSHIPS 2.5. Select the input device you want to use to play the game by typing the number of the device. If WARSHIPS is unable to initialize the device, an error message will be displayed and you will be presented with the menu of input devices again. When the selected input device (either by menu selection or by Option specification) initializes, you will be requested to hit a button (for mouses and joysticks) or a space (for keyboards). Then you will be presented with the play screen. From this point on (until you exit the game), input will only be accepted from the selected input device. For mouses, either the LEFT or RIGHT mouse buttons can be used on all clickable areas. We wanted no left- or right-handed mouse bias in this program. For joysticks, either button can be used on all clickable areas. Finally, for keyboard usage, the SPACE, ENTER, and the 5 key can be used on all clickable areas. We standardized on a mouse type interface for all three supported input devices. This means that you will be presented with an arrow on the screen (called a pointer) and you use the input device to move the pointer around. For a mouse this type of operation is obvious. For joystick usage, the operation is very similar to a mouse and if you calibrate your joystick properly during initialization you will have a good amount of proportional control of both speed and direction of the pointer. Keyboard operation is slightly different. Hitting a direction key will cause the pointer to move in that direction. Hitting the same direction key again will cause the arrow to stop. There are eight direction keys. Keys 8, 4, 6, and 2 are the Up, Left, Right, and Down arrow keys. Note that the extra arrow keys on Extended-101 keyboards work properly also. The 7, 9, 1, and 3 keys move you on diagonals. The 7 key (HOME) moves you up and left. The 9 key (PGUP) moves you up and right. The 1 key (END) moves you down and left. The 3 key (PGDN) moves you down and right. As mentioned above, the 5, SPACE, and ENTER keys are the button keys. These are to be used to select a clickable area. The whole idea of this setup is that you can place your hand on the numeric keypad and totally control the game. Whether you use a mouse, joystick, or keyboard, the operation of the game is similar. There will be areas of the screen that are clickable. In the following documentation, we will refer to buttons. Buttons are well defined clickable areas that somehow affect the operation of the program. Basic operation requires you to move the pointer to the button and hit a mouse button, joystick button, or a button key to invoke its operation. When the play screen is displayed, you will see four buttons across the top of the screen. These buttons are labeled INFO, PLAY, OPTIONS, and QUIT. The INFO button gives you information about the program and how to register. The PLAY button allows you to start a game. The OPTIONS button allows you to set the game options to your preferences. Finally, the QUIT button allows you to exit the program. /------\ | INFO | \------/ Clicking on the INFO button will cause an informative window to be displayed. Clicking on the OK button within this window will cause the window to be removed (and play resumed). /------\ | PLAY | \------/ There are two modes of play in WARSHIPS 2.5, the standard "single-shot" game and the alternate "salvo" or "multi-shot" game. You can select the mode of play in the OPTIONS window (see the OPTIONS button below). Regardless of the play mode that you select, the object of the game is to find and sink all of the computer's ships before it sinks yours. There are five types of ships -- each player starts with one of each. These ships include a Carrier (5 shots), a Battleship (4 shots), a Submarine (3 shots), a Destroyer (3 shots), and a PT Boat (2 shots). Starting a new game is the same for either mode of play. Clicking on the PLAY button will start a game of WARSHIPS 2.5 with your current option settings (see the OPTIONS button below). Your ship board will be displayed on the left and your hit board will be displayed on the right. (Your ship board shows the locations of your fleet of ships, while your hit board shows the results of your shots.) If you have selected MANUAL ship placement, you will be presented with a menu of ships to be placed on your ship board. First, click on a ship in the menu. Then click on a ship board location. Finally, indicate the direction (up, down, left, or right) by clicking on one of the squares immediately surrounding that location. Once a ship is placed, it cannot be moved. At any time during this placement process, you can click on the RANDOM button to place any remaining ships randomly. If you generally prefer to have all of your ships placed randomly, you may want to set the placement option to random (see the OPTIONS button below). It is important to note that the DISPERSAL option (discussed under the OPTIONS button below) will effect the placement of ships. If DISPERSAL is set to ANY, your only restrictions are that ships do not overlap and that each ship fits completely on the playing board. If DISPERSAL is set to DISPERSED, an additional restriction is enforced -- ships may not occupy adjacent squares. This prevents the PC from finding a second ship accidentally while zeroing in on a hit. If DISPERSAL is set to DISPERSED, this restriction will be enforced whether you place your ships randomly or manually. (For more information, read about the DISPERSAL option under the OPTIONS button below.) Once all of your ships have been placed, the game begins. Whether the player or the computer starts first is determined by the setting of the FIRST option (see the OPTIONS button below). When it is your turn, you indicate your shot(s) by clicking on a square(s) on your hit board (the right board). A red peg indicates a hit. A white peg indicates a miss. When you hit all of a ship it will appear. You can also keep track of your progress by regularly glancing at the status window. This window tracks which ships have been sunk by each player and the number of games won/lost in this session. If you are playing a single-shot game, you and the PC each get one shot per turn. In the salvo game, each player has a varying number of shots based on the number of ships in his own fleet that are afloat at the beginning of each turn. Both players start with 5 ships and 5 shots. When it is the player's turn, a pop-up "targeting" screen with a number of gray dots will appear, one dot for each available shot alloted to you. As you select positions on your hit board, the dots will turn red. If you change your mind about a square that you have targeted, click on that space again and the question mark symbol (which indicates a targeted area) will disappear and you can make another selection. Once you have selected targets for all of your shots, your weapons will be armed. Click on the FIRE button to release your shots and learn the results of your turn. The pop-up targeting screen will disappear when you fire your shots so you can watch the PC take shots at your ship board. Remember, the main strategy of the salvo game is to sink your PC opponent's ships as quickly as possible to reduce it's number of shots at you. The more successful you are at finding the PC's ships quickly, the greater your chances of winning. The first player to sink all 5 of his opponent's ships is the winner of the game. At this point, all hidden ships are revealed, the status box is updated, and a game "statistics" box is displayed. This box shows the number of shots, hits, misses, and the overall effectiveness for the PC and the player. Click on the OK button to remove the box from the screen. At this point, you can reset any of the options as you wish. To start a new game, click on the PLAY button. To exit the program, click on the QUIT button. /---------\ | OPTIONS | \---------/ Clicking on the OPTIONS button will cause the options menu to be displayed. Clicking on an option will cause its value to change. Keep clicking until you get the value you want. There are two buttons on this menu, OK and CANCEL. Clicking on the CANCEL button will cancel the options menu with no changes to your game options. Clicking on the OK button will cause the options currently displayed to be updated to disk and affect the operation of the game. These options will carry over from one invocation to another, until changed. There are currently seven options. They are SOUND, LEVEL, FIRST, PLACE, DEVICE, MODE, and DISPERSAL. The SOUND option has two values, ON or OFF. When set to ON, there will be interesting sound effects and background music. When set to OFF the game will be silent. The default is ON. The LEVEL option has three values, NOVICE, ADVANCED, or EXPERT. A setting of NOVICE uses a very simple strategy to find ships. A setting of ADVANCED uses a modified version of the strategy used in WARSHIPS 1.0. A setting of EXPERT uses a highly optimized strategy (which has been further refined since WARSHIPS 2.1). The default value is EXPERT. The FIRST option has six possible values, COMPUTER, PLAYER, RANDOM, WINNER, LOSER, and ALTERNATE. This option controls who shoots first when a game is started. This option is especially important in the salvo game, because it can mean the difference between victory and defeat. A setting of PLAYER means you always shoot first. A setting of COMPUTER indicates that the PC will always shoot first. The RANDOM setting means that the person to shoot first will be picked randomly. If WINNER is selected, the winner of the last game shoots first. If LOSER is specified, the loser of the last game shoots first. ALTERNATE (the most fair) means that the PC and you will alternate who shoots first. For settings of WINNER, LOSER, and ALTERNATE, who shoots first in the first game of a session is chosen randomly. The default is ALTERNATE. The option PLACE has two values, MANUAL or RANDOM. A value of MANUAL allows the player to place his ships at the beginning of a game. A value of RANDOM causes the player's ships to be randomly placed at the beginning of a game. The default value is RANDOM. The DEVICE option allows the user to select the preferred input device. The settings are MOUSE, JOYSTICK, KEYBOARD, or SELECT. A setting of MOUSE, JOYSTICK, or KEYBOARD will cause that device to be used to play the game if one can be initialized. If the device cannot be initialized or if this option is set to SELECT, a menu of input devices will be presented upon startup of the game. However, changes to this option will only take effect when the program is restarted. The default value is SELECT. The MODE option has two values, SINGLE or SALVO. Choosing SINGLE will start the standard single shot game. Selecting SALVO will start the multi-shot game, where each player gets a certain number of shots based on the number of ships in his fleet that are still afloat at the beginning of each turn. The default setting for MODE is SALVO. Finally, the DISPERSAL option has two values, ANY or DISPERSED. As discussed under the PLAY button above, DISPERSAL affects ship placement. If DISPERSED is set to ANY, you are free to place your ships (or have them randomly placed) anywhere on the board as long as the ships fit completely on the playing grid and do not overlap. If DISPERSAL is set to DISPERSED, an additional restriction is enforced on ship placement. This restriction does not allow two ships to occupy adjacent squares. Keeping DISPERSAL set to DISPERSED will eliminate the possibility that the PC will accidentally find a second ship while zeroing in on a hit. It should be noted that if DISPERSAL is set to DISPERSED, both RANDOM and MANUAL ship placement will be affected. In other words, you cannot manually place two ships so that they are touching. If you want to do this, set DISPERSAL to ANY and you will not have the additional restriction on ship placement. Remember that the PC will have the same restrictions on its ship placement as you do. The default value is DISPERSED. Please note that any and all of these options can be changed as often as you like. If you are currently playing a game, the new settings will not take effect until the next game is started. /------\ | QUIT | \------/ Finally, clicking on the QUIT button allows you to exit the game. There are two buttons in this window. The CANCEL button allows you to resume the game. The OK button will exit the program and return you to DOS. DOCUMENTATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS If you have a printer, please print out and read the documentation file WARSHIPS.DOC. There are many people who have helped us in one way or another. First, to our children, Douglas and Christopher, thank you for acting as testers and for being willing to let Daddy use the computer when they wanted to play games. Second, thanks to our friends for their many suggestions and comments. In particular, we would like to thank Paul Barbieri for his time and patience. Thanks also to Alan Dowd for acting as a tester and for his many suggestions. Third, a big thankyou to Paul McClenon for his encouragement and help in adding salvo mode to this game. It was his letter that started us thinking about how to add a salvo mode. In addition, he has made a number of suggestions for improvements which will be incorporated in future updates of WARSHIPS. Finally, we owe many thanks to Christopher Schmitt, son of our chiropractor, Dr. Richard Schmitt. Christopher helped us find a "bug" in WARSHIPS while his dad is fixing the "bugs" in our backs. Thanks to both of them. FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS We have been working on Adlib/SoundBlaster/Disney Sound Source support but it is not ready for this release. Expect it in future versions. Our digital sounds engine is written (see our line of digital sound products in the file CATALOG.DOC). We are still working on our FM music engine. There are other optimizations that can still be implemented. The first suggested by Paul Barbieri (and independently by Paul McClenon) is to use a two shot strategy to find ship direction instead of the current four shot strategy. Another optimization concerns the search strategy after the PT Boat has been sunk; it has a few glitches. REGISTRATION BENEFITS WARSHIPS 2.5 is distributed as Shareware: if you like the program, please become a registered user by sending $15 to TAG SOFTWARE. List or print the file REGISTER.DOC for more information. - You will receive the latest registered version of this program. - A printed manual and strategy guide. - Technical Support. Please write TAG SOFTWARE. Or you can contact us through the Programmer's Corner BBS 301-596-7692 or 410-995-6873. - Registered users receive more free shareware from TAG SOFTWARE.