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HIRED GUNS DEMONSTRATION For all 1mb Amigas (Inc. 1200 & 4000) A DMA Design game by Scott Johnston Copyright © DMA Design 1992-93 Release 0.7 (demonstration version) Version 37.14 Thursday, 5th January 1993, 11:15 PM These notes by Scott Johnston & Steve Hammond Welcome to the Hired Guns demo. What follows is a brief overview of the game, scenario, controls, hard disk installation and memory requirements. The finished game should be available around March '93 (with a PC version not long after). So until then you'll just have to play with this demo - feel free to use the "Duplicate*" program and pass copies around. Bear in mind though that the copyright resides with DMA Design and the contents of the disk may not be altered in any way without permission. If you have any suggestions or bug reports then please write or fax a note to the author. Scott Johnston. DMA Design, Discovery House, Dundee Technology Park, Dundee, Scotland. DD1 1TY. Fax 0382 562333. *Unfortunately the Duplicate program will not work on an Amiga 4000. 1. MEMORY REQUIREMENTS ---------------------- The following points also apply to the full game. RUNNING FROM FLOPPY DISK When running from floppy, Hired Guns requires a full 1mb of memory to run. As a result it will take over the machine and you will be unable to multitask. RUNNING FROM HARD DISK Once installed correctly onto your hard disk, Hired Guns will need a total of 2mb of memory to run, 1mb of chip ram and 1mb of fast. This means that Hired Guns will not work from hard disk if you have an A500 or an A1000. MACHINE RUN FROM RUN FROM FLOPPY DISK? HARD DISK? A500 NO NO, NOT ENOUGH CHIP RAM A500(1MB) YES NO, NOT ENOUGH CHIP RAM A500+ YES YES, WITH 1MB EXPANSION A600 YES YES, WITH 1 MB EXPANSION A1200 YES YES A1500 YES YES, WITH 1MB EXPANSION A2500 YES YES, WITH 1MB EXPANSION A2000 YES YES, WITH 1MB EXPANSION A3000 YES YES A4000 YES YES 2. HARD DISK INSTALLATION ------------------------- Drag the "Hard Disk Install" icon into a drawer on your hard disk that you would like Hired Guns to be installed into. Run the installation from within that drawer then click "Install". A drawer called "HiredGunsDemo" will be created containing the game (if it does not already exist). Approximately one minute later you will have a working version on your hard disk. You may have to select the destination drawer window and choose "Update" from the Windows menu on the workbench to show the Hired Guns drawer. (1.3 users will have to close the window and reopen it to register the change.) 3. SCENARIO ----------- FULL GAME Numerous events led up to this point. From his military days - five years and an entire star system away - Rorian Deevergh has amassed a group of people who are collectively hunted by the authorities. Some of them he can even call friends. In the high technology future of 2707, all credit transactions are relayed to a central authority. Names and ID are automatically logged. When you're effectively criminals, normal life becomes almost impossible. Skills are difficult to sell. For each ability possessed by a human, there is a robot who can do the same - cheaper and more reliably. The only area in which humans can excel is in killing. For a price Rorian's group will take on illegal jobs where their rare skills are at a premium. Payment in rare metals. No questions. Nobody cares. If you live, that's your business. Such as now. The patron who is funding the current operation will probably remain unknown forever. What matters is the successful completion of the task, in this case a rescue. The political implications of extracting a set of hostages have been glossed over. It is almost routine. Half payment up front, half on completion. If one terrorist organisation holds hostages of another terrorist organisation then nobody much cares. Both oppose the authorities and that can only be good, right? That's why the authorities can't and won't be called in. That's why a group of mercenaries fit the job profile perfectly. That's why red tape and protocol can be ignored. What does it matter who gets in the way? The target zone is on a backwater world called Graveyard. That wasn't its intended name. A corporate competition to name the place faded from view. So much was planned for this little planet before funding ran out for the terraformers. These days it is seldom talked about and visited even less. But this is not a simple hostage extraction. Things don't fit into place neatly. It will become apparent that there is a great deal more to this mission than expected. Something that may kill them all. Events of the past are about to make themselves felt. THIS DEMO Tesseract Battle Systems often hold simulations of various scenarios. If you know the right contacts it's possible for civilians to gain a place in one of the scenarios for a day. Naturally this doesn't come cheap - the bribe level is high - but the training is invaluable. This time the conditions are from the planet known as Graveyard. A few years ago, Rorian, Cheule, Jennillee and CIM undertook a training exercise in the Battle Simulator. It stood them in good stead for the day in 2707 that they would have to go to Graveyard for real.... 4. GAMEPLAY & OBJECTIVE ----------------------- CAMPAIGN DEMO Tesseract Battle Systems: Simulation Suite 127. Program "Graveyard-20" Training Objective: Reach Exit and thereby escape. The area comprises several levels each with their own hazards. The purpose of the exercise is to promote team work, to familiarise yourselves with the conditions of Graveyard and of course to improve weapon skill. Security doors will be in place over the map. Several will require security wafers to open. These are concealed in various places. A crucial item which you may not be familiar with is the Psi-Amp. These are use to create various `effects' up to and including creation of matter (the Bridge Effect) amongst other things depending on the version. Teleport units will be used in strategic locations. This will test your problem solving ability. Moveable frictionless blocks may be found and used to block passageways and so on. They will play a significant role. You will encounter creatures, some of which `hatch' from eggs. All are hostile. Some are more dangerous than others. ACTION DEMO Tesseract Battle Systems: Simulation Suite 131. Program "Graveyard-22" Training Objective: Reach Exit and thereby escape. The area has been specially designed to test the participants reactions and strategy when under pressure. Two teams will play against each other. The first person to reach the exit will be the winner. As usual for these scenarios there is a time limit (in this case 15 minutes). 5. CONTROLS ----------- Hired guns features a simplified and hopefully intuitive control method. Each mercenary has access to four overlaid panels. Any one of which can be brought to the front and viewed by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of a panel. Here is brief description of the options available on each. 3D VIEW This is the main panel on which you can move around in the 3D world. The main window shows what the character can see from their eyes. As you drag the mouse around, the pointer changes to reflect whatever action will happen if you press the left mouse button). Some `hot spots' have a different action if you use the right mouse button. Try moving your character around. Every time you click the `forward' hot spot your character will walk about 2m directly ahead. When he (or she) turns the view will spin 90 degrees in that direction. Clicking with the left mouse button when the pointer is a cross-hair in the centre of the view will use whatever item the character is holding (see STORE below). Also doing this when standing behind a pushable block (the white metal blocks with handles) will push forwards. Clicking with the right button will pull a block. When a character is standing over an object on the ground an icon will appear at the bottom left of the panel. Clicking on this with the left button will pick it up and put it directly into the characters pack. STORE The Majority of the encounters your characters will make will probably end in blood shed. Whether its the enemy or your team that meet a grisly death depends on your armament. There is plenty of hi-tech. weaponry to choose from, fortunately your characters arrive already equipped. By selecting to the store panel the characters inventory can be viewed. The items on the left show what is carried in their pack, the item on the right is currently ready for use. If this is your first time on this panel then try putting a gun into the hands on the right. Click with the left mouse button when the cursor is a right facing arrow on the pack. This will move the item into the characters hands ready for use. Similarly by clicking when the pointer is a left facing arrow will move the item from the characters hands back into their pack. To use an item click with the left mouse button when the pointer is a cross-hair in the centre of the view on the 3D view panel. When a gun runs out of ammunition, click with the right button instead. If there is suitable ammunition available then it will be automatically loaded into the gun. On the store panel, clicking with the right mouse button over an item in a characters hands will also use that item. D.T.S. (DIGITAL TERRAIN SCANNER) By now you're probably completely lost. This is when your character's D.T.S. module comes in handy. Most characters will start the game with one of these in their store. If a character's D.T.S. is destroyed or they simply do not have one (like the two characters on the right) then this panel will simply fill with the static. A D.T.S. module will basically perform an auto-mapping function for its user. Some models do more but they tend to be rather expensive. Again, by clicking on the hot spots you can scroll around a plan view of a cross-section of the map in which your character is located. The red cross-hair marks your characters position and direction. Note that by clicking the right mouse button the D.T.S. will centre back onto your characters position. STATS This panel will show a selected range of statistics about your character. Fitness This is the main indication on how well your character is. As he takes hits this value will fall. Once it reaches 0% then it's death. Note that the green/red bar at the top right of each panel gives a quick reading of the fitness value. Physique A general measurement of how big and strong a character is. With a high physique a character can withstand more damage and carry more items, however the general bulk and weight will be greater - which can be a disadvantage when trying to survive falls (hint: drop as much of your inventory as possible to save weight). Psionics Most non-engineered organic lifeforms exhibit some form of natural Psi energy. This is seemingly required to get the best out of the rare psionic amplifiers. The higher this rating then the more ambitious an effect the user will be able to achieve. Experience This reflects the wisdom and skills that a character accumulates throughout life. As this rating increases and certain levels are attained the characters physique and psionics will be permanently boosted. AUTO-LEADER This is a handy function for allowing up to four characters to be moved at once. By electing one character to be the leader the others in the team will follow him/her. On each panel there is an orange light at the top right-hand corner. When this is activated (by clicking on it with the left mouse button) is signifies that the character is part of a team. It can be deactivated by clicking on it again. When you try to move a team member that character will automatically become the leader and the other members will try to follow. When first forming a team all members must be in close proximity (no more than 4m from each other). BUG WARNING - There are still some problems with the implementation of this function. Characters can get stuck behind obstacles or jump off lifts, etc. KEYBOARDS CONTROLS Pressing HELP during the game will bring up an information screen reminding you of the following keys.... CTRL R Restarts the current map. CTRL W Pauses the current game and returns control to the workbench screen. Click on the gadget in the Hired Guns window to go back into the game. (Only available to hard disk users). CTRL ESC Exits Hired Guns. (Only available to hard disk users). 6. GAME FEATURES ---------------- FEATURES SHOWN IN THIS DEMO.... - Four 1st person perspective 3D views on screen. - Up to four independent players on one machine. - True 3D levels. Each level can be up to 42,320m3. - Auto-mapping. - Transparent water effect. - On-line encyclopedia. - Hard disk installation. - Full use of 1mb or more of memory. ADDITIONAL FEATURES IN THE FULL GAME.... - Customisable graphics Edit the characters graphics to you liking. You can even put yourself in the game! - Guild VII Digital Terrain Processor. Continent-wide recognisance and survey system. - Choose from a selection of 12 characters. - Loads of original music and sound effects. 1.2mb. - Four background graphics styles. Outdoors, caves, hi-tech. installations, tombs, etc. - Mouse, joystick and keyboard support. Supports parallel port joystick adaptor for an extra two joysticks. - Probably 80 hours or more of playing time during the campaign game. 1,735,120m3 of total playing area. - Extra 20 stand-alone action orientated levels. - 24 types of enemy. - 8mb of data packed onto 5 disks. - Comprehensive literature. 7. CREDITS ---------- CONCEPT, DESIGN, PROGRAMMING, MAPS, EDITOR, SOUND EFFECTS, ICONS, HARD DISK INSTALLATION & HARD WORK Scott Johnston GRAPHICS Graeme Anderson Scott Johnston David Osborne ORIGINAL MUSIC Brian Johnston DOCUMENTATION Steve Hammond CHARACTER ILLUSTRATIONS Jamie Grant DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE Brian Watson GRAPHICS TOOLS Russell Kay MED V3.00 MODULE PLAYER Teijo Kinnunen DISK IO & DATA COMPRESSION Rob Northen Computing TEA BOY Mike Dailly QUALITY ASSURANCE David Hally (first to complete demo) Gary Timmons (finds lots of bugs) Mike Dailly (no side step, sorry) Scott Cheetham Derrick Angus + development team Thanks to Commodore for an excellent machine, espe cially for the best multitasking O.S. around (well, 2.0 up wards anyway!). Plus lots of thanks to every Amiga devel oper out there for supporting it and continuing to make it great.