PC/CD Gamer UK 4/PCGAMER04.bin/shware/inter/isw.arj/ISW.DOC

Text File | 1993-12-29 | 33KB | 992 lines

           Inter-Stellar Wars

        ** a highly detailed **
 ** tactical space combat adventure **

              Instructions

BEFORE YOU BEGIN-

Inter-Stellar Wars requires:

     -640k RAM
     -DOS 3.xx and up
     -VGA 256 color

We reccommend that you have:

     -A 286 processor or better
     -A Microsoft compatible mouse
     -Hard Drive

Optional Equipment:

     -Mouse or Joystick
     -Adlib or Sound Blaster compatible
      sound card

     If you  wish to  use  the  Adlib/SB
soundtrack, begin  Inter-Stellar Wars by
typing ISWA  at the  DOS prompt.    This
will automatically load the sound driver
and then  execute ISW.   Otherwise, just
type ISW.   When  a song is playing, the
sound will  be muted.    When  the  song
stops, sound will resume.
     Using the Adlib  music  requires  a
lot  of   memory  so  if  you're  having
problems  freeing  up  enough memory and
you have DOS 5.0 and  high  memory,  use
ISWH instead of ISWA.

Important Note-

     If you   have   a   Sound   Blaster
Deluxe,  you  will  not  be able  to use
the  soundtrack  support.    This  is  a
limitation to SOUND.COM, which is why we
were  unable   to  remedy   this.      A
representative  of  Creative  Labs  Inc.
said it  had something  to do with a new
DSP (Digital  Signal Processor)  chip in
the new  SB.  If you wish to persue this
matter, contact Creative Labs.

BACKGROUND-

     In the  year 2249, humans colonized
the Renzaar  system.    Colonization  of
Omicron  began   first  because  it  was
remarkably like  earth.  Soon after, the
other four  planets were  colonized with
the  help   of  huge   Plexi-tron  Glass
Composite(R)   domes   and   underground
facilities.
     The Renzaar  system is  also unique
in that  three other  star  systems  are
unusually nearby. Two  of them have been
found  to   have  intelligent  life  and
peaceful  relations   were  established.
They are  the Ordan system and the Alpha
system.  The fourth system, the Creendok
system, is  mysterious.    (The  opening
animation  to   ISW   illustrates   what
happened to the Alliance scout exploring
that system.)   The  closest  planet  to
Creendok,   Regulus,    is    completely
encircled  by  a  dense  asteroid  belt.
These asteroids are usually smaller than
baseballs,  and   cannot  be   seen   or
detected, but  they can  destroy a  ship
easily.
     In a  typical day  in this  region,
hundreds of  traders pass back and forth
between Renzaar,  Ordan, and Alpha.  The
basic  rule  of  the  galaxy  is:  don't
bother anyone,  and they  in turn  won't
bother you.

CONTROL DEVICES-

     The  mouse  is  the  best  pointing
device for  use with  this game.  To use
the mouse,  a mouse driver must first be
installed, and  then  'control'  on  the
menu is  toggled until  'mouse' appears.
Using  a   joystick  is   slightly  more
difficult.   The  joystick  is  used  to
simulate a mouse pointer.  Use 'control'
on  the   main  menu   until  'joystick'
appears.   When the game starts you will
be instructed to calibrate the joystick.
Follow the  on-screen instructions.   If
you use the keyboard, the arrow keys are
used to  move the  pointer, and SPACE is
the button.  Shift+Arrow keys will fine-
tune the pointer position.  All keyboard
hotkeys are  supported  in  all  control
modes.

^/0
THE INTERFACE SCREEN-

     When   Inter-Stellar   Wars   (ISW)
starts, you  will see the main interface
screen, which consists of a main viewer,
a  galactic   map  in   the  upper-right
corner, the message center below it, and
two icon bars.  The main viewer is where
the action  occurs, and  is  also  where
various  menus   are  displayed.     The
galactic map  displays the  four  nearby
star systems  and all ships.  The map is
color-coded:

          Yellow:   Sun
          Lt Blue:  Planet
          Red:      Alliance Ship
          Lt Red:   Alliance Base
          Green:    Insectia Ship
          Lt Green: Insectia Base
          Gray:     Misc. Vessels
          White:    Torpedoes
          Purple:   Asteroids

     The message  center  is  where  all
incoming messages from your ships or the
game will  be displayed.    Three  beeps
precede the message to inform you that a
message is coming in.  Old messages will
scroll off the top of the message center
as new ones come in.
     The top icon bar only has one icon.
It is  the game  speed icon.    Clicking
this  icon  toggles  the  speed  between
normal speed (18fps), half speed (9fps),
and unlimited  (operating at the maximum
speed for  your computer).  Pressing 'R'
will produce the same effect as clicking
this icon.
     The bottom  icon bar has six icons.
The hot  keys for  these icons are F1-F5
for the first five: Open a communication
channel, activate the trading  interface
or receive a shield recharge from  base,
squadron menu, zoom, and ship/base menu.
The last  icon (ESC  key) returns you to
the main menu.
^/E

THE MAIN MENU-

     There are  several choices  on  the
main menu.   To  select them,  move  the
alliance symbol  up  or  down  with  the
keyboard, mouse,  or joystick,  or press
the first letter of the choice.
     Play the  game returns  you to  the
game you  were playing  when you went to
the menu.   If  you weren't in a game it
starts a new game.
     New game  loads the  save game file
'DEFAULT.SAV' and  returns  you  to  the
game at the very beginning.
     Load a  game loads  the  save  file
with the name you specify from the disk.
To play  it, select  play  on  the  main
menu.   The default  extension '.SAV' is
used.
     Save a  game saves the current game
to the  file you  specify.    '.SAV'  is
appended to  your filename  and the game
can then be loaded with the Load option.
     Control changes the pointing device
used by  ISW:  Keyboard,  Joystick,  and
Mouse.
     Read This reads this.
     Quit exits  you  to  the  operating
system.  It DOES NOT ASK you if you wish
to save  your game, so if you don't save
your game first, it will be lost.

THE VIEWS-

     The main  viewer can  support three
views.   The Real  mode view  shows what
the active  ship  and  its  surroundings
actually look  like.  Unfortunately that
range is severely limited, so there is a
more useful  tactical view  which  is  a
computer representation  of  the  active
ship and nearby objects.  From center to
edge is  approximately phaser range.  In
the map  view,  each  object  is  a  dot
(using standard  map colors).   Its size
is about  2 pixels  of the galactic map.
Use the  view icon (F4) to cycle through
these modes

THE SELECTION SEQUENCE-

     At many  points in  the  game,  you
will be  required to  select a  ship  or
location.     When  the  message  center
informs  you   that  a  ship  is  to  be
selected, find  the target  ship on  the
main viewer  or the  galactic map.  When
you click  on a point, the ship which is
closest to  that point will be selected.
When you  are  instructed  to  select  a
location, the  exact location  you  have
selected will be used.

SHIP INFORMATION-

     At any point in the game,  you  can
get information on the current  ship  by
pressing 'I'.

SELECTING MENU CHOICES-

     In any  of  the  menus  during  the
game,  there   will  be   many  numbered
choices.   To  select  with  the  mouse,
click  on   the  number.    To  use  the
keyboard,  type  the  number  and  press
Enter.  To exit a menu at any time press
ESC or  the Esc  button at  the  bottom-
right corner of the display.
     To get  help on  a menu  during the
game, press  'H'.    If  there  is  help
available, it  will be  displayed.   (It
will actually  display the  part of  the
manual which  pertains  to  the  current
menu.)    To  get  a  list  of  keyboard
hotkeys, press 'K'.

THE CREDIT SYSTEM-

     When the colonization of planets by
humans occurred,  a monetary  system  of
credits was  designed.   The credit (CR)
is the  basic form  of money  in all the
known galaxy.  Prices constantly vary on
all the  planets  depending  upon  their
economic situation.

THE SHIPS-

     In ISW, there are basically 3 types
of ships.   Fighters are the basic ship.
They can  carry 4 SIPs (explained later)
and 3 items in its cargo bay.  There are
three types  of fighters:  alpha,  beta,
and gamma.   These vary in mass and hull
strength.
     Command  Vessels   are  huge   all-
purpose (expensive)  ships.    They  can
hold 6  SIPs and  6 items  in the  cargo
bay.   There are  also three  types:  T1
through T3.
     Cargo ships  are transport vessels.
The have  1 SIP  (hopefully used  for an
engine, but it is not required) and room
for 10  items in  its cargo  bay.  It is
most likely  used for  trade,  and  base
construction.   Again, there  are  three
types: Standard, Deluxe, and Ultra-Haul.
     The capacity  of a  ship  to  carry
crew is always twice the amount of hull.
Therefore, the  ship which can carry the
most crew  at once is the standard cargo
ship with a hull strength of 400 and can
carry 800 people.

SIPS-

     SIPs are  Standard Interface  Ports
on a  ship.    On  them  you  can  mount
phasers, torpedo bays, tractor beams, or
engines.     On  fighters   and  command
vessels there  are two  dedicated phaser
SIPs.  You can only put phasers on these
SIPs.     Dedicated  SIPs   are  handled
automatically by the purchasing menu.
     Phasers are  the basic  weapon used
by the  alliance  and  insectia  forces.
They use the power allocated to them and
fire a  destructive  energy  beam  at  a
target.     The  phasers   are  computer
controlled and  always hit.    The  more
power given  to them,  the  more  damage
they do.
     Torpedo bays  require that there be
torpedoes in  the cargo  bay.  They fire
these   torpedoes   charged   with   the
allocated  power.      They   are   more
efficient  than   phasers  and  do  more
damage, and they travel at 500 (which is
approximately equivalent  to 9.4 million
kilometers per  second).   This is  half
the theoretical  maximum  speed  of  the
universe.   Unfortunately, torpedoes use
the power  given to  them for navigation
and thrust,  and  can  be  destroyed  by
phasers (or  other torpedoes) or outrun.
You can  only use  one torpedo  bay  per
ship, so  having more than one is really
stupid.
     Tractor  beams   have  two   modes:
normal, and  station-keeping.  In normal
mode, the  beam  will  draw  the  target
toward the  source ship.    In  station-
keeping  mode,  the  tractor  beam  will
attempt   to    equalize   both   ships'
movements.   That means  the target ship
will match  the source  ship's speed and
direction.   A tractor  beam's range  is
displayed  on   the  buy   menu  in   TM
(terameters, which  are trillion meters,
or  billion   kilometers).    There  are
ineffective beyond  this range.  Tractor
beams are  also little use on ships with
a good,  or even low engine performance,
as the  engines minimize  the effect  of
the tractor  beam  with  their  inertial
dampeners.
     Engines make  it possible for ships
to  travel  through  space.    Important
factors in buying engines are power, and
maximum speed.  Power, combined with the
mass  of   your  ship,   determines  the
ability of your ship to maneuver (engine
performance).   Maximum  speed  is  just
that:   your top  speed.    When  buying
multiple engines,  the power is added to
create a  higher engine performance, but
the  maximum   speed  of  your  ship  is
determined by  the maximum speed of your
fastest engine.  Note:  the engine per-
formance calculations are based on 7 as
the normal performance.

CARGO-

     Cargo  you  can  have  consist  of:
shields, cloaking  devices, sentry pods,
various instruments  (junk),  torpedoes,
and most importantly, reactors.
     One note:   There  cannot  be  more
than one sentry pod unit or control  per
ship.

^/16
     Shields  are  the  basic  defensive
equipment.    The  use  shield  recharge
(purchased from  the buy menu) as a sort
of fuel to absorb enemy fire.  The power
determines how  much of  the enemy  fire
will be absorbed.  For example:  If your
shields are  powered at 20, and a phaser
blast hits you for 30 damage, 20 will be
absorbed by  the shields  and subtracted
from your  level of shield recharge, but
10  will   be  absorbed  by  your  hull,
possibly  killing   crew   members   and
destroying  SIPs.    This  reflects  the
importance  of   a  high  shield  power.
Multiple shields  can be  purchased, and
the power  will be  added.   Having more
shield power  than  shield  recharge  is
useless, since when the recharge is used
up, shields  are ineffective.   You  can
see this relationship on the 'Shield and
Structural  Integrity   Status'  display
available from the ship menu (F5).
^/E
     Cloaking devices  are  a  secondary
defensive mechanism.    They  make  your
ship invisible  on the  real,  tactical,
and map view on the main viewer, but you
can still  be seen  on the galactic map.
Cloaking devices must have their maximum
power to  operate at all.  You can press
'C' or  select cloak on the ship menu to
toggle the  device's status.   You can't
fire phasers  when you  are cloaked.  If
you  do,   the  cloaking   device   will
automatically disengage.   Torpedoes, on
the other  hand,  will  fire  in  cloak,
giving you a huge strategic advantage.
     Sentry pods  when in your cargo bay
are useless,  but using the ship menu to
deploy them  will make  them follow your
ship  (in  strict  formation)  and  fire
their  phasers   when  you   fire   your
phasers.   The power  allocated to their
control unit  (left behind  in the cargo
bay as  the pods are deployed) is beamed
to the pods giving them power to fire.
     Instruments  are   basically  junk.
They  are   most   useful   for   trade.
Instructions for  their use (if they can
be used on a spaceship) will be provided
upon purchase.
     Torpedoes  are   fired  by  torpedo
bays.   They usually  come in packs of 4
or 7,  but sometimes there are partially
used packs left over at planets.
     Reactors   are   among   the   most
important items  for sale.   To use your
equipment to its full potential you must
choose a reactor with an equal or better
output than the sum of the powers of all
your equipment.  A lesser reactor can be
bought (for  mass or price restrictions)
but then your power must be managed in a
strategic way.

^/1
THE SHIP MENU-

     All functions  relating to ships is
accessible via  the ship menu.  Any menu
options with  hot keys  display the  hot
key after  the menu  choice.  At the top
is  your  current  ship,  and  a  visual
inventory   of   your   SIPs   currently
mounted.
^/E

TARGET BY LOCATION-

     Target by  location  is  the  basic
form of  navigation.  Select this option
from the ship menu and click the pointer
on  your  desired  location.    If  your
engines are  powered and  a target speed
is set, the ship will begin flying there
immediately.   You can  also use the 'L'
hot  key.     You   can  keep  selecting
locations until  you switch  to  another
mode.   If you select a new location, it
will  forget  its  old  target  and  fly
toward the new one.

TARGET BY OBJECT-

     This  is  the  same  as  target  by
location  except   it  will  target  the
closest  object   (ship,  planet,   sun,
torpedo, etc.)  and fly  toward it.  The
useful part  is  if  the  target  object
moves, it  will follow it and then match
its speed as close as possible.  You can
use  the  'O'  hot  key  for  target  by
object.   You can keep selecting objects
and it  will target  the  last  one  you
selected as  long as you don't switch to
another mode.

FIRE PHASERS-

     To  fire   your   phasers,   select
phasers on  the ship  or base  menu then
select the  ship you  wish to  fire  at.
You can  fire as many times as you want,
although phasers  have a  recharge cycle
and can't fire constantly.  You can fire
the phasers  until  you  select  another
mode.   You  can  use  the  'P'  key  to
activate phaser mode.

FIRE TORPEDOES-

     To  fire   torpedoes,  select   the
torpedo option on the ship or base menu,
or press  'T' then  select the  ship you
wish to fire at.  You can fire torpedoes
constantly until  you run out.  There is
no recharge  time.   When you run out of
torpedoes  it   is  a   good   idea   to
deallocate the power to your torpedo bay
and give the power to other equipment.

^/4
SHIELD AND STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY STATUS-

     To display  a bar  graph  depicting
the status  of your  ship's shields  and
hull, select  choice  6  from  the  ship
menu.   Three bars  will  appear.    The
light  blue   bar  shows   your   shield
recharge  level,  while  the  overlaying
darker blue  bar shows  the power  level
allocated to shields.  The number on top
of this  bar  shows  how  much  of  your
shield  recharge  could  be  used  in  a
single hit.   If  it is  over 100%, then
too  much  power  is  allocated  to  the
shields.   That will do no harm, but the
energy   could   be   used   for   other
equipment, since  the power over 100% is
merely wasted.
     The red  bar is  the status  of the
ship's hull.  When a ship's hull reaches
0%, the ship is destroyed.
^/E
     The shield and structural integrity
status of  a base  is displayed right on
the base menu.

DEPLOY SENTRY PODS-

     Select this choice on the ship menu
to deploy  the sentry  pods, or  if  the
pods are already deployed, retract them.
Sentry pods  have their  own propulsion,
so when  they are deployed, your ship is
actually lighter  and engine performance
improves.   It is a good idea to retract
your sentry  pods when  you  cloak  your
ship since  your pods  will not likewise
cloak.

CLOAK-

     To cloak or reveal your ship select
cloak from the ship menu or press 'C'.

TRACTOR BEAM-

     To use the tractor beam select 9 or
10 from the ship menu depending on which
tractor mode  you want  to  use.    Then
select your  tractor beam  target.   You
must figure  out your  own use  for  the
tractor beam.  It is almost useless when
the target has a working engine.

^/3
ENGINES-

     This choice  on the ship menu, also
activated by  the 'E'  key, selects your
desired  speed   of  the   active  ship.
Normally you would set it to the maximum
speed, but  you might  want to  lower it
for some reason.
^/E

^/18
TRANSPORT-

     There are  two forms  of transport:
crew transport and equipment transport.
^/E
^/5
     To transport crew, select transport
from the  ship menu,  and then crew from
the transport menu.  Then you must enter
how many people to transport, and select
the target  ship.  If the target ship is
alliance, the  crew will be transported,
and the experience of the target  ship's
crew will  be affected  by a differently
experienced group.   If  the target ship
is insectia,  the group  is  a  boarding
party and  attempts to capture the ship.
If the  crew's number and experience are
high enough,  they can capture the enemy
ship and  it becomes alliance owned.  If
the whole group cannot fit on the target
ship, only  the people that will fit get
transported.
     If you  do take  over  an  insectia
vessel,   it   will   be   operationally
identical to an alliance ship, and since
the computer  sofware from  your ship is
downloaded to  the newly conquered ship,
the ship  menu will display the image of
an equally equipped alliance ship.
^/E
^/19
     You can  also transport  cargo  and
SIPs  between   ships.     Just   select
cargo/SIPs from  the transport menu, the
equipment to  transport, and  the target
ship.
     You cannot transport to a ship that
is out  of transport range or has active
shields.
^/E

SELF DESTRUCT-

     If  all  is  hopeless  then  select
self-destruct from  the ship  menu.  You
will be  given five  seconds to abort by
pressing TAB.   If  not, the active ship
will be  destroyed and  nearby ships may
be damaged or destroyed.

INSTRUMENTS-

     If you  get an instrument you could
possibly use,  select 14  from the  ship
menu,  and   then  follow  the  onscreen
instructions.

BASES-

     Bases are highly fortified outposts
with  almost  the  same  (and  sometimes
better)    offensive    and    defensive
capabilities of  planets.    Because  of
gravitational restrictions, bases cannot
be located  near planets, suns, or other
bases.   Bases  are  very  difficult  to
build and  destroy and  make  very  good
defensive outposts  to  protect  trading
and invasion routes.  In addition, bases
can provide free shield recharge to  any
friendly, docked ship.  By  pressing  F2
while on the ship wish to  recharge, 250
shield recharge units  (or  whatever  is
available) will be  subtracted  from the
base and added to the docked ship.

CREW-

     Crew are  needed for the repair and
the operation  of ships  not  on  manual
control.   Crew experience is the crew's
relative abilities.   A crew with higher
experience can  fix the ship faster than
a bigger,  stupider crew.  They can also
do better  in battle, and experience has
a tremendous  impact on the success of a
boarding party on an enemy ship.  When a
ship is  operating on  its own  (it is a
squadron) the  following operations  can
only be performed with the proper number
and experience of crew:

     Operation      Number    Exper.
     --------------------------------
     Navigation     5         0
     Phasers        30        0
     Torpedoes      40        450
     Tractor Beam   50        750
     Cloaking Dev.  35        1150
     Boarding
          Parties   200       2500

     However, when you are controlling a
ship manually  you can  use any of those
capabilities  of   a  ship.    (But  you
obviously can't  manually control  every
ship.)

THE ACTIVE SHIP-

     Almost all  actions  controlled  by
menus and  hotkeys occur with the active
ship.   The active  ship is the ship (or
any other object) which is in the center
of the  main  viewer.    Its  name  also
appears in  the upper-left corner of the
viewer.   To select  a new  active ship,
use the select object choice on the ship
or base menu.  You can also press 'A'.

^/15
COMMUNICATIONS-

     To communicate with a ship,  select
the  comm  icon  (F1) while on the  ship
you wish to communicate with.  The  comm
screen will display what the  person  is
saying.  Then you will get  a  list   of
choices  for   your   response.   Select
one, and the conversation will continue.
^/E

^/10
TRADING INTERFACE-

     To buy or sell anything, select the
buy icon  (F2) and  a menu  will appear.
If there is no trading post within range
of the active ship, the game will inform
you of  where to  go to  trade.    Valid
trading posts in ISW are:

     Omicron:  The home  planet  of  the
               alliance, also  where the
               game starts.
     Cstai:    another  alliance  planet
     Dnosta 2: yet   another    alliance
               planet
     Ordervia: a neutral  planet in  the
               Ordan system
     Beta:     a neutral  planet in  the
               Alpha system.
^/E

^/11
     To buy  anything (except  a ship) a
ship must  be the active ship and parked
near a  trading post  planet.   To buy a
ship, lock  on  to  the  planet  itself.
Select 1 on the trading menu to actually
enter  the  buy  menu.    The  buy  menu
consists of  a  list  of  categories  of
things you  can buy.   At the bottom are
the available items at the planet in the
current category.   Scroll  the list  by
using the  arrow keys,  and  to  buy  an
item, press  Enter.   Before you can buy
items for  a ship,  you must first buy a
ship.   Select 10, 11 or 12 on the menu,
then select  the type  you wish  to buy.
The new ship will  automatically  become
the current ship  and  a  standard  crew
compliment will be  transported  aboard.
    When selecting an item to purchase,
you  must   strike  a  delicate  balance
between    price,     mass     (weight),
durability, and  power.   The higher the
mass of your ship, the lower your engine
performance will be, but usually an item
with more  power will  be  heavier  (and
more  expensive).    Durability  is  the
percentage  chance   that  a   SIP  will
survive a  direct hit from weapons fire.
It is  only important when a ship has no
shields.   Power is the amount of energy
which the  item can use.  Generally, the
more power it uses, the more powerful it
is.   Cloaking devices on the other hand
require the  maximum power  to  operate,
and less power is better.
^/E
     Buying many  ships in  this  manner
would be  very difficult  without option
3, clone  a ship.  With this option, the
active ship  is cloned  (a new  ship  is
purchased and  equipped equally  if  the
parts are  available).  Just type in the
name of  the newly  created ship.    You
can   clone   a   ship  if  any  of  its
equipment is unavailable but the the ob-
jects won't be on the ship.
^/12
     To sell  items select  choice 2  on
the trading  menu.    A  new  menu  will
appear listing the SIPs and cargo on the
active ship.   To  sell one,  select it.
Select choice  17 to sell the whole ship
and everything on it.
^/E

BUILDING A BASE-

     Building  a   base   is   a   major
undertaking.    First,  nine  base  hull
units must  be purchased and loaded onto
ships (of  any type).   Also you need to
buy a  single base  reactor unit.  These
are all found in the base section of the
buy menu.  These ships must then rendez-
vous at  the  same  location  away  from
planets or  other bases.   When  all the
ships are  together and  not moving  the
ship menu will gain a 16th choice: build
a base.   Select  it  and  a  base  will
automatically  be  constructed  and  you
will be  asked for the name of the base.
To supply  a crew  to the  base, several
flights of ships are needed to transport
the necessary crew members to the base.

POWER MANAGEMENT-

     Power management  is how  you  tell
the ship  how much power is allocated to
each piece of equipment.  If the reactor
output meets  or exceeds  your equipment
needs, you can simply give each piece of
equipment the  maximum power.   But this
is an  ideal situation.    Most  of  the
time,  to   save  money  and  mass,  the
reactor will  not be  enough to do this,
so not all equipment can get full power.
Power management  allows you  to specify
what gets  how much power.  One idea is,
in a  time of  travel, the  engines  and
possibly a  cloaking  device  are  given
their full  power,  but  during  battle,
energy  is  taken  away  from  them  and
concentrated in weapons and shields.
^/2
     On a  ship,  the  power  management
menu is  selected as  number 15  on  the
ship menu.   The  left and  right  arrow
keys are  used to  select which piece of
equipment to modify and up and down keys
vary the amount of power.  PgUp and PgDn
keys change the power much quicker.  You
can also  use the  mouse to  select  the
exact point  on the bar which represents
the amount of power to supply.
^/E
^/7
     In a  base  or  planet,  the  power
management menu  is selected as number 5
from the  base menu.  This is almost the
same except  all bases  have  only  four
devices: phasers, torpedo bays, shields,
and tractor  beams.  Up and down specify
the equipment,  and left  and right vary
the amount  of power.  PgUp and PgDn are
still fast change keys, and the mouse is
still valid.
^/E

^/8
SQUADRONS-

     A squadron  is a  group  of  ships,
although it  can actually  be  a  single
ship if you wish, that are controlled by
the computer  (actually the  crew aboard
that ship)  and carry out the flight and
battle  as   you  command   it.    As  a
commander, you tell the squadron:

     * Where to go
     * Whether to inform you that:
          -The squadron has reached your
           specified location or target.
          -The  squadron  is  nearby  an
           enemy ship or base.
          -The squadron is attacking
          -The   squadron    is    being
           attacked
     * Whether  to  attack  all  enemies
       encountered

     Squadrons cannot  buy or  sell at a
planet.  You must do that manually.
^/E
^/9
TO BUILD A SQUADRON-

     To build  a squadron  of  a  single
ship, merely go to the squadron menu and
select choice 2, 'command squadron.'  At
this point,  the active  ship becomes  a
squadron.   Then you may give the ship a
location or  object to  navigate to, and
also, with  the last three options, tell
the ship  whether to  inform you that it
has reached  the target locations, or is
detecting a  nearby enemy.  You can also
tell the  ship to attack all encountered
enemies.   You can  even give  the  ship
multiple commands, for example:  to tell
a ship  to  circumnavigate  a  dangerous
battlezone,  tell   it  to   target   by
location at  several waypoints along the
flight path.   It  will then follow your
path waypoint  by waypoint.   Or perhaps
you want a ship to attack several ships.
Target by  object on  each ship you wish
to attack  and make  sure auto-attack is
on.   The ship will navigate toward each
ship in  the exact  order you  specified
and attack them one by one.
     To create  a squadron  of  multiple
ships, select the squadron leader as the
active ship.    All  references  to  the
squadron will  be  named  by  this  lead
ship.   Then select  'add a  ship  to  a
squadron'  from   the   squadron   menu.
Select all the ships you wish to be part
of  this   squadron.    The  ships  will
automatically move  toward the lead ship
at maximum  speed.   Care must  be taken
that the  lead ship  is not  faster than
any  of  the  following  ships,  or  the
following ship  will not be able to stay
with the  squadron.   (Although it  will
relentlessly follow  until you  tell  it
otherwise.)
     All ships  in a  squadron  must  be
previously  equipped   and   the   power
management set.
^/E

^/99
HOTKEYS-

Key   Function
----------------------------------------
A   ! Select an active object
C   ! Cloak the ship
E   ! Set new speed
H   ! Bring up online help
I   ! Information on current ship
K   ! Bring up hoykeys
L   ! Target by location
O   ! Target by object
P   ! Fire phasers
R   ! Change game speed
S   ! Sound toggle
T   ! Launch torpedoes
F1  ! Communication
F2  ! Trading or shield recharge
F3  ! Squadron
F4  ! Change view
F5  ! Ship/Base
F10 ! Exit at anytime
Esc ! Exit all menus and when in game
      go to the main menu
^/E

REGISTERING-

     As you  might  know,  Inter-Stellar
Wars is a shareware distributed piece of
software.   You DO  NOT OWN  this  game.
You only  own the  media it came on.  To
have  the  legal  right  to  use  Inter-
Stellar Wars,  you are required to pay a
registration fee  of $10.00  (US) to the
authors.   When you  register  you  will
recieve Inter-Stellar Wars II, a dynamic
version of ISW.  You can build your own:

     -Planets
     -Ships
     -Battles
     -Asteroid Belts
     -Suns
     -Systems

     When you beat ISW, the adventure is
not over.   Inter-Stellar  Wars II gives
you unlimited  dimensions  of  adventure
and excitement!
     Please remember to give us:

     - $10.00
     - Your name and address
     - disk size (3.5" or 5.25")
     - any comments, ideas, suggestions

     Send to:

          H/M Software
          2925 Birchton Rd.
          Ballston Spa, NY 12020-2035

     Thank  you   in  advance  for  your
support.  (How much more pressure can we
put on you?)


DISCLAIMER-

     H/M SOFTWARE  TAKES NO RESPONSIBIL-
ITY  FOR   ANY   DAMAGE,   HARDWARE   OR
SOFTWARE, CAUSED  BY THIS  PROGAM, AS IT
WAS NOT  THE INTENT OF THE AUTHORS TO DO
SO.  IN TESTING, WE FOUND THAT THIS DOES
NOT HAPPEN  AS A  RESULT OF THE PROGRAM,
ONLY AS A RESULT OF THE USER BECOMING SO
MAD THAT  THEY SMASH  THE COMPUTER  WITH
THEIR HEADS.  THANK YOU.