PC Action 1997 August

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PC Action 1997 August / PCA897.ISO / demos / mdemo / _mdemo.exe / README.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1997-05-29 | 31.3 KB | 741 lines

MADSPACE Playable Demo Version ______________________________________________________________ Copyright (C) 1997 Maddox Games Ltd., Auric Vision Ltd. All rights reserved. ______________________________________________________________ ATTENTION! Question: - Have you even played a 3D-Action game using a speech recognition driver? Answer: - No! MADSPACE is the first game in the world which gives you the real this possibility. It differs from other speech recognition drivers - our driver truely works excellently. PLEASE READ THIS MANUAL! ______________________________________________________________ CONTENTS: LICENSE AGREEMENT MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ABOUT THE GAME MADSPACE VR DEVICES INSTALLATION STARTING THE GAME CONFIGURING THE GAME CONTROLS WEAPON CONTROLS SPEECH RECOGNITION CONSOLE PROBLEMS CONTACT US ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ LICENSE AGREEMENT By copying or using this MADSPACE Demo v.1.01, you indicate your agreement to the terms of this license agreement. If you do not agree to the terms herein, you are not authorized to copy or use the MADSPACE Demo v.1.01. The MADSPACE Demo v.1.01, including any images, animation, audio and text incorporated in the MADSPACE Demo v.1.01, is owned by Maddox Games Ltd. or its suppliers and is protected by copyright laws and international treaty provisions. Except to the extent expressly licensed herein, all rights are reserved to Maddox Games Ltd. and its suppliers. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the MADSPACE Demo v.1.01. Limited Warranty and Limitation of remedies: NO WARRANTIES. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Maddox Games Ltd. expressly disclaims any warranty for the MADSPACE Demo v.1.01. The MADSPACE Demo v.1.01 and any related documentation is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk arising out of use or performance of the MADSPACE Demo v.1.01 remains with you. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Maddox Games Ltd. be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profit, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or inability to use this Maddox Games Ltd. product, even if Maddox Games Ltd. has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. ______________________________________________________________ MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS For normal start of the DEMO program you need: - Pentium 100 with 8 Mb RAM minimum. WE RECOMMEND PENTIUM 133 OR BETTER. FOR STEREO GRAPHICS MODE WE RECOMMEND PENTIUM 133 OR BETTER. FOR SVGA GRAPHICS MODE WE RECOMMEND PENTIUM 166 OR BETTER. TO PLAY THE GAME WITH SPEECH RECOGNITION DRIVER WE RECOMMEND PENTIUM 133 and VGA or XVGA MODE (if with stereoscopic mode and speech recognition driver at once - Pentium 166 and if with SVGA mode with speech recognition - Pentium 200) - 8 Mb RAM (we recommend to start this demo version with 16 Mb RAM under operating system MS Windows 95); - true 100% - compatible with SOUND BLASTER (TM), Gravis Ultrasound(TM) or Windows(R) Sound System(TM) sound cards IN DOS MODE. TO RUN THE GAME FROM WINDOWS 95 YOU NEED AT LEAST 16 MB RAM. We suggest that you also remove any other applications! ______________________________________________________________ ABOUT MADSPACE FULL VERSION The distant future. Of course, Earthlings were able to create a spaceship capable of exploring the Far Cosmos. While exploring, completely to their surprise they became involved in inter-galaxy conflicts between different galactical races. In this battle, the Earthlings are on the side of the humanoid, mighty and ancient race - Kerkops. The Kerkopian race has long been the leader of the cosmic war with the inhumanoid enemies- the Krakins. The Krakins' single goal: To conquer all galaxies and to fully destroy any other living form, independent developing in the infinite Great Cosmos. Having know about the new unification of the Earthlings with the Kerkopians- the Krakins sent a special Space Destroyer to Earth which, with one powerful sweep put an end to the young, although quickly developing race. The attempt to capture Krakin's spaceship does not end successfully. However, thanks to the help of Kerkop, the Earthlings are successful in obtaining autonomy and are capable of self-improving cybernetics device - cyborgs who are capable of thinking like humans named Proteus. A few of the Proteuses were sent to catch the aggressor's spaceship which, as it turns out in the end is not a typical battle ship, but rather an entire factory which specializes in the production of Krakin's clones. Furthermore, the size of this space destroyer is comparable with small planets or huge asteroids. The game consists of two parts. In the first part of the game, it is necessary for you to successfully carry out a battle in the close proximity to the enemy's huge spaceship. You fly to meet the aggressor's spaceship on a fixed trajectory- although you should shoot them from your on-board weapons. In the case that you don't succeed, all that you'll see, your spaceship, will be destroyed into tiny little pieces. After having successfully shooting the enemy you go inside the enemy's ship, where the second part of the game begins. During the second part which, is truely the main section of the game, it becomes obvious that it is 3D real time rendering - mazes, halls etc. As you have already guessed, these confusing mazes are not empty. Within there are battles against the crawling, walking and flying enemy brigade of the Krakins, who absolutely not peaceful although happily use weapons which are not of Earthly origin. In a word, the Krakins are not simply one race and their forms completely do not resemble one another. Furthermore they have the kind of appearance that it is initially impossible to understand if he has back is facing you or if he has already turned around and is ready to exert to all his mortal power on you. Basically, as we see it, the Krakin race has been working for thousands of years with only one goal- to conquer or physically destroy all other races. The main goal- to take and destroy the main reactor. The amount of energy and the central direction of the enemy's space ship is unknown. During the game, you will see the reactor many times and will inevitably think-"Ah the reactor, my main goal!" But really, getting it is not so easy. Walk around a bit, sometimes even often fly around through all of the functioning sections of the spaceship. Along the way shooting from 11 types of weapons and using up to 3 types at once sometimes setting off enormous explosions to destroy bulkhead walls, try to figure out absolutely strange puzzles in search of the exit from this dead-end maze. You need to figure out how to use not only the non-Earthly weapons but to carefully use alien's energy systems - the bases of life on the enemy ship and of the Krakins themselves. This energy at times will be necessary to sustain your life also, and sometimes it will be a most unpleasant surprise. The energy systems programmed for their own self production Krakins. Therefor in certain regions of this huge battleship, in order for you to be successful during battle it would be better for you to first, find and disconnect the linked energy rather than battle endlessly with the self-reproducing clones of Krakins. Some of the enemies also will have used up all of their stored energy during the battle. It would be better if you were to find the place to where they escape in order to get new energy. When some of the types of Krakins finish their "ammunition" and you block the only way they would be able to retreat, they become Kamikaze fighters. In other words, they attack in the form of living mines which are extremely painful. Of course there are such things as multi-leveled mazes and halls, inclined surfaces, static and dynamic light from shots and explosions, and also the ability to destroy light sources, different mechanisms such as moving walls and elevators. There are 25 levels, plus if you can find them, secret levels. You have the ability to play with through serial, modem and network mode up to 16 players. The music was especially written for this game by a rock group and the sound quality is like audio CD To make it easier for you, start from Windows 95 via AUTORUN MENU. You say that all or at least most of this has been in other games, so what's new here? This is what... 1. Sometimes in the mazes there are moments of non- Euclidean space. This, for example, means that the hall may hang in the air in the middle of the room, but this can not be easily seen. Nonetheless it really exists as does the entrance into it or into the neighboring room. Or in one physical space exists two or more types of rooms which have larger scopes than they seemed to have at first. They all separate walls and work with each other through normal hallways and doors. 2. Additional ability to use weapons. This means: - may shoot with your left hand or your right- this is very helpful when shooting from behind a corner. - may shoot to the left and the right at the same time and also may choose to use different types of weapons at the same time. - if you preferred a certain type of weapon, then you may throw away the unneeded one and fill the empty slot with any other weapon which you prefer and shoot from both sides at the same time. (Only, don't forget that in doing so energy will wear out twice as fast). 3. When using the standard line 16-bit sound card (for example, Sound Blaster 16) you are able to use speech recognition specially developed for this game driver. If you use this option the style of the game absolutely changes. You simply cannot imagine, how easy, for example, it is to change weapons with the help of speech recognition during a battle- while all of your fingers are busy maneuvering you to avoid the the enemy's shots. Recognition of your voice will work 100% of the time if you'll use the stereotelephone with microphone set, although the results of using a normal microphone together with standard earphones will work also well. The system is very flexible and if you may give any weapon any name you choose. Your new voice command will be recognized. 4. The 16-bit pseudobinaural sound driver was developed by our firm especially to work with 3D games. You can realistically estimate from where sound comes- as well as distance. Not to mention the changing echoes bouncing off the walls- the sound will depend on the size of the space. 5. Furthermore, this game supports numerous virtual reality devices in the stereoscopic mode. For the first time on the market a fantasy game with stereoscopic images even in prerendered in 3D-Studio flicks. Therefor the first part of the game as well as the second may be played with stereo-images when you wear special, virtual glasses or helmet, which are now widely available. 6. You are able to smoothly change the full view (Wide-Normal- Tele) as you wish. 7. In principle, the new bonus system accurately rises the playing moment. 8. Impressive dimensions and levels of the premises, rooms, mazes and hallways. 9. In creating the game Madspace, we purposely refused to include gloomy and "monochrome" mazes and a sea of blood which are the usual protocol for this genre of games. _____________________________________________________________ SOME FEATURES IN DEMO VERSION OF THE GAME MADSPACE: ADVICE, TO HELP YOU WIN: 1. You utilize two types of energy - system energy and weapon energy. If the system energy goes down to zero, you die. If you lose the weapon energy, you won't be able to shoot. (However, you'll be able to shoot, for instance, the aliens missile). So watch your energy! 2. Needle gun bullets cannot be stable for a long time separated from the needle gun. So they do not fly very far. If its shots do not hit the target in approximately one second, they harmlessly dissipate. Our Earth engineers were unable to increase the lifetime of the flying needle gun bullet. On the contrary, the laser rays are stable and explode only when hit an obstacle. TIP. Do not shoot an enemy with needle gun if it is far away, you'll waste your ammo. ONE MORE TIP. Needle Gun is alien technology so enemy's "bullets" behave the same inability. 3. Do not forget about the mines! Their explosion can shake even the toughest of the enemies. 4. You can fly easily. Just press 'Flight mode' key! You need not search for a special flying device. But your flight takes from the weapon energy, and we recommend that you fly only for short distances. In the flight mode you can fly up using the 'jump' key. Or look up/down, press the 'forward' key - you will notice you're getting higher or lower. TIP. Try to jump over the obstacle first, and only if your jump doesn't help then switch on your flying engine. You can jump high enough. 5. Investigate the star base energy system. You will need it. On your way you will meet some alien devices operating on alien energy. You must understand their basics. 6. Madspace has recording and playback capability. To get use of them, run Madspace as follows: recording: sector [level name] r [demo file name] playback: sector [level name] pd [demo file name] Parameters "r" and "pd" must be in lowercase. Level names available in demo version are: ZONTUR, Z1_1, Z1_2, TSLEV2. You can record your playing on several levels one after another, but you must answer only (!) "YES" when a statistics box appears offering you to go to the next station sector. _____________________________________________________________ SOME ADDITIONAL WORDS ABOUT THE FULL VERSION OF MADSPACE: So you have defeated the first star base guardian. But there are more of them behind that door. And more energetic devices are working on the base. Find the ways how to switch them off. Deprive the star base's segments and sectors of the alien energy, since the base is still functioning and carrying its lethal cargo to Earth. You must stop this star base and destroy it completely. In the full version of Madspace you will be able to attack not only the aliens and guards of the star base, but also your friends via network or modem! An excellent collection of Madspace network combat levels is waiting for you. You will hear the excellent CD-music tracks composed by group "Variant". ______________________________________________________________ FOR the HAPPY OWNERS of VIRTUAL SYSTEMS! At this moment demo version supports following VR devices with a stereoscopic mode of vision: SIMULEYES(TM) VR; VFX(TM) HEADGEAR; I-Glasses!; 3D-MAX. During installation select the necessary devices, supporting this system. To run MADSPACE in stereo mode you need at least Pentium 133 or better. ______________________________________________________________ INSTALLATION Before playing you need to install the program. 1. Insert CD-disk into CD-drive. 2. Type CD drive letter and press <Enter>. 3. Enter the root directory. 4. Type INSTALL and press <Enter>. 5. When prompted, follow the instructions in the installation program. If the install program detects a condition that will prevent installation, the program will stop and notify you the nature of the problem. ______________________________________________________________ STARTING THE GAME 1. Enter the game directory on the hard drive. 2. Type GO, if you are in DOS mode and press < Enter >. ______________________________________________________________ CONFIGURING THE GAME CONTROLS. While running Madspace, press 'ESC' to enter game menu. Select 'OPTIONS' and then 'CONTROLS' to configure keyboard, mouse, etc. The faster way to get to the configuration menu is to press 'F5'. We recommend that you use the mouse for looking and shooting, and keyboard for walking, strafing, jumping, etc. We think that these are the most convenient game controls and you will hardly be able to play Madspace on the 'No Chance' skill level using only the keyboard. Default controls reflect the recommendation. ______________________________________________________________ WEAPON CONTROLS 1. You have 10 weapon slots. So you can carry up to 10 weapons with you. Either weapon can be used with right or left "hand" (you have no hands since you are a cyber). In order to select the weapon, you have to select a slot (keys 1, 2 etc. on the keyboard) and while holding the key press 'Fire from Left' to put the weapon for the slot in the left hand or 'Fire from Right' for the other hand respectively. There is also a 'Change Weapon' key used similarly to the change weapon function - press it, hold and then press 'Fire from Left' or 'Fire from Right' several times. 2. You are not landing on the station empty-handed. You have already four weapons: two laser guns (which are selected into left and right hand), one needle gun (a powerful weapon based on alien technology) and one flinger. 3. You find a weapon but no longer have any free slots, what now? You can either destroy one of your weapons thus creating a free slot (press the slot number, hold it and press the "action" key) or you can exchange one of your weapons with the weapon you've just found (stand over the new weapon, and press the slot number). TIP. Have at least one laser (megablast better) in order to turn on switches behind gratings and at large distances. 4. You can swap two weapons in your slots. To do so, press simultaneously two keys (the slot numbers). This helps you to 'sort' weapons in their importance order. ______________________________________________________________ SPEECH RECOGNITION Speech recognition is supported only with Sound Blaster AWE 32, Sound Blaster 16 and Gravis Ultrasound. Computer must be Pentium-133 or faster. For best results, use Headphone/microphone combination. If you haven't headphone/microphone then you can try the following: - use headphone for listening; - don't change the type of microphone or distance to it; - use the standing microphone. Madspace supports twenty voice commands: - TACTICAL-SCREEN show/hide your map - MOTION-SCANNER motion scanner on/off - ZOOM-IN look closer - ZOOM-OUT look wider - NORMAL-VIEW normal view - TAKE-OFF flight mode on - LANDING flight mode off - MINE drop mine - LEFT select left weapon slot - RIGHT select right weapon slot - LASGUN \ - FLINGER ! - NEEDLE-GUN ! - MISSILE ! - MEGABLAST \ Your - FLAMER / weapons - PLASMATRON ! - TRACKER ! - EXPLOSER ! - PLAUNCHER / ATTENTION!!! IT IS NECESSARY TO SET UP THE SPEECH DATABASE IN A COMPLETELY SILENT ENVIRONMENT!! WHEN DICTATING THE SOUND DATABASE YOU NEED TO BE IN COMPLETE ABSENCE OF OUTSIDE NOISE, CONVERSATION, MUSIC, ETC. 1. All speech recognition features are controlled by the SETSOUND. 2. First you must create speech database: - run SETSOUND; - select SPEECH RECOGNITION SETUP; - select USE RECOGNITION->YES; - select SET MICROPHONE LEVEL, say something in microphone and adjust level indicator inside NORM bounds using left and right arrow keys; - select CREATE SPEECH DATABASE; - say 5 series of 20 words, which you will see on your screen. If you said some word wrong select PREVIOUS. Here you can repeat the previously incorrect word. 3. Now the speech recognition system collected enough data to create speech database. You will have to wait some time (up to twenty minutes!). 4. Having created speech database, you may want to test it. During testing you will see word "Speak" on the screen which prompts you to say some of just recorded words. 5. If the recognition quality is not good you can select menu item MODIFY SPEECH DATABASE. Your actions are the same as during CREATE SPEECH DATABASE. If the system is still not working try again to create database because it is probably bad. 6. We recommend that you at least once MODIFY SPEECH DATABASE after you have created your speech recognition database. 7. To turn speech recognition off, you run SETSOUND and select SPEECH RECOGNITION SETUP -> USE SPEECH RECOGNITION -> NO. Your speech database will be preserved for the next time you'll want to use it. 8. To select the weapon in left/right "hand", say, for example: "LEFT"..."NEEDLE-GUN". This command puts needle gun in your left "hand". PS: Numerous check-ups showed that our really high quality speech recognition driver differ from many others. Therefore, if the system works poorly you should carefully check the installation directions and equipment. - Make sure there are no breaks in the microphone wire which connects the microphone to the sound card. - Make sure you have correctly set the sound levels. The level indicator microphone in the actual game (down-right) should move approximately half a scale. - If you have Sound Blaster compatible sound card (not true Sound Blaster (TM)), make sure that the microphone is turned on to record (connected, enabled etc.) . To do this, start up Windows 95 mixer (properties => record) or the mixer from original sound card programs. - If the apparatus works normally, the reason therefor probably lies in unqualified experience setting up the sound base. To set up the system accurately, avoid the presence of loud noise and loud music, do not talk with other people during the set-up process. ______________________________________________________________ CONSOLE We have made a console in Madspace. You can press the "~" key to get into it. Console commands currently supported: - WEAPON: gives you all the possible weapons. - CLIP: allows you to walk through the walls. - GOD: makes you invulnerable. - KILL: kills all the monsters on the level. - SCAN: gives you the motion scanner. - RESTORE: gives full energy and re-charge all weapon. ______________________________________________________________ PROBLEMS 1. The game support 5 video modes: 320x200 VGA; 320x200 X-Mode; 640x480 SVGA VESA 1.0; Small screen VGA (for 486x PC). Stereoscopic mode for VR devices. Note: In SVGA mode with some video cards require a vesa driver to be loaded to play the game. We recommend the Display Doctor drivers available from SciTech Software at http://www.scitechsoft.com. 2. The game can support a few types of sound devices: DOS/WINDOWS: Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster PRO, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE32, Gravis Ultrasound (only in DOS mode), Windows Sound System, and 100% compatible. Internal PC speaker is not supported! The SETSOUND Program, built in the installer, will prompt you how it is correct to define installations for your Soundcard. The Program can detect presence and settings of your Sound Blaster automatically. In this case you should select "AUTODETECT". Remember that the mode "AUTODETECT" will work correctly in case of 100%- compatibility with the list of above sound devices. If your sound card is not completely compatible with one of the list of above sound devices - you may have the problems with the start of the MADSPACE sound driver! Pay attention to the option "CHANGE SETTINGS". Here it is necessary to correctly set up the volume of all sound sources, used in the game. We do not recommend to set general volume "MASTER" to a maximum level, since it can result in overload of your sound card amplifier and effects in the game will sound with big distortions. We recommend to set the sound volume of CD AUDIO music to 1/3 lower than volume of effects "FX". In SETSOUND program you must set up the general ratio of sound effects and background music in the game, and also correctness of Left and Right channels sounding, so as that allows to correctly define a direction of moving of different sounding objects in the game. If you want to change settings you must run SETSOUND program from the game directory. ______________________________________________________________ PROBLEM WITH SOUND CARD __________________________ I. MADSPACE works too slowly. If your computer does not manage processing of 3D sound: Start the SETSOUND program, select the 'effects quality' and then 'off' item. II. One of following problems: 1. The SETSOUND Program does not find a sound card. 2. The SETSOUND Program does not work when determining sound card. 3. Sound card works incorrectly. 4. Sound card does not work. By default program tests the presence of the sound card on base address from 220h up to 280h, hardware interrupt from 2 up to 10 and the DMA channel. If settings of your Sound card differ from those you must insert in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file the following string: SET BLASTER = A220 I5 D1 H5 T6 ... where after characters: A - base address; I - hardware interrupt number; D - number of low DMA channel; H - number of high DMA channel; T6 - type of the synthesizer MIDI in a sound card. This is a standard of Creative Labs and if you install the software of Creative Labs this string occurs in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file automatically. SETSOUND program first tests the presence of the sound card with these settings. For more information consult your sound card manual. If nothing changed in parameters during installation of your sound card, most likely the problem will be absent. Note: The above is correct for sound cards by Creative Technology production. In other cases check in the user's manual, delivered together with your sound cards by the manufacturer. If the mode "Autodetect" does not work, it is possible to select Base Address, IRQ and DMA channel manually. III. You installed everything correctly, but the program stalls during the game. 1. We recommend to turn off EMM-like program when you play the game. However with EMM it functions normally. 2. KNOWN PROBLEM: MADSPACE runs unstable with the memory manager QEMM. IV. Problem with Sound Blaster (TM) compatibility. 1. This is one of the most serious problems in the world. In this case and in general we always recommend to purchase modern sound cards, and we recommend to use not less then Sound Blaster(TM) 16. 2. The sound partially or completely is away. It means that there is not enough memory for normal operation of 3D sound driver. Look above for parts III.1 and III.2, and also read below. 3. MADSPACE will not work with such emulators of Sound Blaster (TM), as program emulators of GUS MAX, PAS16 and TURTLE BEACH TROPEZ. The program emulators cannot supply normal operation of sound driver working in protected mode. 4. With GUS the game can not work under Windows 95. Please start setsound and the game in DOS. ______________________________________________________________ TSR / DEVICE DRIVERS / DOS SHELLS ___________________________________ TSR stands for Terminate and Stay Resident. A TSR is a program, like a menu system or a DOS shell, that automatically starts up when you start up your computer from a hard drive. These programs are generally installed in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (found in your root directory, usually C:). Device Drivers and DOS shells are also loaded automatically. These are usually installed in your CONFIG.SYS file (also found in your root directory, usually C:). These TSRs or Device Drivers sometimes interfere with games, or take up valuable memory the game may need. We recommend that you not run any such programs, device drivers, or shells when attempting to play the game. ______________________________________________________________ CONTACT US: ms@auricvision.com maddox@auricvision.com http://www.auricvision.com/ http://www.auricnet.com/ GOOD LUCK! ______________________________________________________________ Copyright (c) 1997 Maddox Games Ltd., Auric Vision Ltd. All rights reserved. MADSPACE(TM) - is a trademark of Maddox Games and Auric Vision. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ______________________________________________________________