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               copyright © 1992 j.R.EVANS

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   Hi, welcome to my first Amiga program. (There was a tetris
clone but that dosn't really count as it made the Amiga look
like a ZX-80.). Solidquad was originally an exercise to draw
quadralaterals and it just grew and grew and digressed and
digressed until the game in its present form emerged. I kept
the old title (much to the dismay of my dear mother) as I
could not be bothered to think of another one more apt.

   The game is meant to be fast and to that end I have had to
do away with smoothness, a pity, but there are 2^10 other
racing games out there for anyone to go and buy. I also
wanted a little more of a puzzle approach, and a mid-level
monster to shoot. To this end each course is split up into
three distinct parts.

 Part the first.
   Basically this is a blast through the countryside,
splashing through rivers and puddles and jumping ditches and
lava flows  (blue bits, black bits and red bits respectivly).
At the top of the screen is the status bar. This shows your
score, the number of ramps you have left (this is also the
number of times you may crash before being written off) and
the number of puddles you may use to quench any fires on
board.
   You will catch fire whenever a wheel touches fire or a
lava flow. The fire can only be put out by driving through a
river, or a puddle, or activating a puddle. This is done by
holding down the fire button and pushing forwards. Puddles
are hard to come by so use them sparingly.
   To avoid fires you can drive over any of the three
strengths of ramps that occur here and there. Their strengths
are as follows; RED are very springy, YELLOW are average,
whilst the PINK ones are pathetic and carry you about 1
metre. To activate one of the on board ramps (equivalent to
a yellow ramp) you hold down fire and pull backwards. Be
careful to press fire before you pull back as pulling back
by itself slows the car down. Likewise pushing forwards
speeds the car up. Left and right are obvious.
   When the car is travelling below top speed it is not
possible to do a full jump.
   Avoid the ditches (black lines) as they will snatch your
steering wheel out of your hands if a single wheel goes into
one, or will totally write off your beautiful 1920's classic
car should you drive into one, unless you have any ramps left
in which case all your ramps but one will be stripped from
you. Be warned.
   When the car is on fire its temperature will increase at
a rate dependent on how bad the fire is. The current
temperature is displayed on the right most dial on the
dashboard. A red light comes on and a high pitch bleep will
warn you if the car gets too hot. Failure to quench the fire
will result in the number of puddles you have quickly
diminishing to zero at which point the car will burn up and 
the game will terminate. i.e. get the fire out quick.
   The temperature will rise slower the faster the car is
travelling.
   Crashing into something will drop the temperature to zero
but not put the fire out. The dial above and to the left of
the temperature gauge is the cars speedo. After a crash you
will be placed in the middle of the road and your wheels
will be pointing straight ahead.
   The number of ramps you have starts at zero and will
increase by 1,2,3 or 4 when you collide with any of the
scarecrows that abound around the courses.
   You start the game with 20 puddles. Use them sparingly
and try, whenever possible, to quench fires by driving
through rivers and puddles.
   At the end of the first part you will see a large black
split in the fabric of time and space (yawn!). Through which
you must race in order to tackle one of the great  'RED BLOB
SPITTING INVADERS FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE'.

 Part the second.
   The ground will change from black to yellow to green and
finally to red. The outskirts of 'SOMEWHERE ELSE'. Beware of
the bottomless holes that race past you. Two wheels in any of
those holes and you will plumet to your doom.
   The 'RED BLOB SPITTERS' are rather dumb and unimaginative
and tend to flap around spitting red blobs and setting fire
to the ground. Use your puddles and ramps to avoid the
obstacles whilst shooting scarecrow heads at the creatures
until they give in and sink into the ground.
   Each time you hit them the ground will get greener (or
less red depending on how well you are doing), likewise if
you take a hit the ground becomes more red (or less green
depending on how well it is doing). Yep ?. Any road up
should the ground turn completly bright red you will be
trapped forever in 'THE SOMEWHERE ELSE'.

 Part the third.
   Unfortunatly this obsession of yours to blast around the
English countryside, fight off evil BLOB SPITTERS costs
money. (Erm... so does writing computer games by the way.
hint. hint.) So in order to keep your accounts pink you need
to enter and win a few races.
   The race stage is similar to the first part, except for
the other cars on the road. The leading car is always your
arch rival in her disgusting magenta sports car. That is the
one to beat.
   At the end of the race, providing that you win, the
number of ramps you have left is added to the number of
puddles you have. You can then move onto another course.

   That is it. After completing all three courses you may
play on the fourth course, and compete for the solidquad
trophy. Providing you do not move the joystick whilst
selecting a course after playing the fouth course you may
play the fourth course again and again by pressing fire.


   Above all try and have fun, in all that you do. If you do
want to encourage people to write shareware of increasing
quality or if you want to donate some decent graphics to me
or if you want to know how to access the cheat modes and how
to invoke the built in editor and recieve instructions on
how to use it to alter courses or create your own. Then I
suggest you find a pen and cheque book and write to me with a
contribution of some kind (guess which). My name and address
is :
     j.Richard Evans,
      Woodwinds,
       St. Martins Rd.,
        Gobowen,
         Oswestry,
          Shropshire.
           SY11 3NP.

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DISCLAIMER: I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED
            TO ANYTHING BY THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM.
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p.s. My thanks go out to Andy for his extensive play testing
     sessions and usefull suggestions as to what I should do
     with it, and also to Sout for the occasional tips and
     words of encouragement.