This version of BLADE is for demonstration purposes only, it is NOT for resale.
BLADE IS a 256 color arcade style game for the Macintosh. It features 30Mb of 8 bit graphics and stereo digitized sound. The Hero has 4 levels of animation consisting of over 250 frames each level. Enemies are just as detailed with intricate sequences of attack. There are a total of 15 terrorizing and bizarre screens of play.
BLADE DOES require this minimum configuration to run:
Mac with 68020 or better
4Mb RAM partition
8 or 4 Bit Graphics
13” Monitor (640X480) or larger
Double Speed CD ROM Drive
System 7 or greater
Accelerated for PowerPC
This BLADE Demo requires 2.0Mb of hard disk space.
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QUICK LEAD IN
You are Blade, Point Lancer of the Guardian Legion, a genetically tailored army, serving as earth’s ultimate defense and attack force. . .
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PLAYING THE BLADE DEMO
Open the application BLADE by double clicking on it. At this point the title screen is loaded and the game is idle. If you wait a few seconds, the self-running demo will pop up. To exit the self-runner click the mouse button. To play choose ‘PLAY’ from the FILE Menu, or press CMD T. This command toggles the game between play and pause. When you’re in play mode, no other selection can be made from the menus, except CMD T, once you’re paused you can then make further selections.
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KEY COMMANDS
LEFT —> Moves Hero left
RIGHT —> Moves Hero right
DOWN —> Makes Hero kneel or climb down
UP —> Makes Hero jump or climb up
ATTACK —> Makes Hero attack
DOWN + LEFT or RIGHT —> Makes Hero crawl
DOWN + ATTACK —> Makes Hero attack while kneeling
JUMP + ATTACK —> Makes Hero spin kick in the air
Character control is very simple, you can choose the keys that represent LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN and ATTACK under KEYS in the OPTIONS Menu. The mouse button also triggers ATTACK. The keys perform as you would think. LEFT moves the hero left, RIGHT moves him right, DOWN makes him kneel as well as climb down a ladder, UP makes him jump or climb up a ladder, ATTACK makes him attack.
You can also use the keys in combination, while you’re kneeling you can crawl with LEFT and RIGHT, you can also attack from this position. When you jump you can start moving left and right either before or after you start the jump. If you let go of the UP key early you will immediately start to fall, so hold on to the key to get maximum height. You may also attack while jumping by pressing ATTACK during the jump, as long as you hit ATTACK before the hero starts to fall he will spin attack. The spin attack also gives him a little more height. To get maximum height in a jump, hit ATTACK as late as you can in the jump.
The hero has one other ATTACK mode, when his heart is above 3/4 full the Guardian Legion Logo appears to the right of the heart. This means his stand attack is powered up. This is now his most devastating attack.
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WHAT TO DO
The idea behind the game is to collect all the Teleporter Pods by walking over
them, if there are more they will pop up after the previous is collected. When
you collect them all, the handle will appear on the Teleporter, get back to it
and ATTACK the handle, you will be transported to the next screen. Along the
way you will find PowerUp Pods, these can give you more life as well as speed.
To open the pods, ATTACK them.
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FEATURES
The following features can be found under the OPTIONS menu.
DIFFICULTY
Allows the player to choose the level of difficulty for the game. The options are Beginner and Advanced.
GRAPHICS
Changes the drawing mode used by the engine. CopyBits is slower but totally compatible. DirectPlot is A LOT faster but MAY have compatibility problems.
SOUND
Allows the user to toggle on and off game sound, music, and MacInTalk.
KEYS
This dialog allows the user to re-map our hero's functions to different keys on the keyboard.
ADVANCED
This dialog has a few miscellaneous settings. First is the Speed of the engine in milliseconds, the smaller the number the faster the play. Second is the Sound Percentage of total CPU load, adjust this lower if you have graphics performance problems. Third is the Demo Delay, this simply is the amount of idle time before the demo runs, set this to 0 to turn demo mode off. Finally there's the Continue check box, this feature allows you to restart at the beginning of the screen you were on when you were killed.
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GRAVIS MAC GAMEPAD
BLADE supports the use of a Gravis Mac GamePad. To use the GamePad, load the “Blade™ GamePad Set” into the “GamePad Set” folder in your system folder. Rename the file “[Blade™]” for autoloading of the set when BLADE starts. This set assumes the default key mapping listed below.
Key Controls
Left —> Left Arrow
Right —> Right Arrow
Down —> Down Arrow
Up —> Up Arrow
Attack —> Space
The GamePad responds as follows moving the directional pad around makes the hero walk left, right, jump, squat, crawl and climb. The RED button also acts as Jump, the YELLOW as Attack and the GREEN as Play/Pause.
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BUG NOTE
For those of you with the Standard Apple Keyboard or Keyboard II, there is one consideration. These keyboards cannot “see” more than two key events at a time like the Extended Keyboard can. This has caused problems because this game really needs the ability to see more than two actions. There is no direct fix to the keyboard problem; it is related to the ADB processor in the keyboard. The work around is to use the mouse button for attack with these keyboards and the keys for movement control. With an Extended Keyboard you can play either with the mouse button or the key.
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ABOUT PARAGRAPH
BLADE is the first in the FLUX series of arcade style games for the Mac. Because the series is based upon our own method of developing games, we will be continually upgrading and supporting our products.
To obtain the Deluxe CD ROM Edition of BLADE, contact your local retailer, Educorp, or us at:
