AmTank ~~~~~~ by ~~ Rubber Duck Software ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Version 1.12 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table Of Contents ================= 1. Getting Started --------------- 1.1 Story 1.2 Requirements 1.3 Installation & Loading 2. Controlling and playing the game -------------------------------- 2.1 Options Screen 2.2 Main Game 2.3 Scores Screen 3. Coming Soon ----------- 3.1 Enhanced PC Version 3.2 Other RDS releases 4. Changes To Latest Version ------------------------- 4.1 v1.02 4.2 v1.10 4.3 v1.11 4.4 v1.12 [1] Getting Started =================== (1.1) Story ----------- It's always the same isn't it! There you are minding your own business, just enjoying a peaceful drive through the country in ya' little tank, and suddenly you come across another tank. You tense your muscles prepared for anything but ever conscious that this could end in annhilation. Your tanks pass...it's going to be okay. Then, a distant voice can be heard from inside the other tank, "Call that a tank ya' rectum faced pigmy!!!" That's more than you are prepared to take. You move to a good firing position, take aim and...Game On! How many times have we heard that story? Or at least...that's one way it might have started. The other (perhaps more likely) explanation is... There you were in the pub, minding your own business when you feel a jolt from behind and suddenly the contents of your glass have made an unscheduled excursion to the South. Not only that, but your favourite top has now got the most blatant stain on it! You turn around and search for the fiend you commited this most vicious of acts. You're not sure...it was either that one or that one. You approach the first. "Did you spill my pint?" Next thing you know, you're in your favourite Sherman tank out in the lovely Staffordshire countryside and it's time to remove this scum from the face of the Earth. (1.2) Requirements ------------------ To run AmTank, you'll be excited to know, the minimum requirements are as follows: * Amiga 500 or better. (It may work on the A1000... Let me know!) * A mouse. (1.3) Installation & Loading ---------------------------- If you have a hard drive, just copy the two files 'AmTank' and 'AmTank.info' to any directory on your Hard Drive. If you only have 512k of Chip RAM (like me) make sure that you haven't got anything running in the background before you run AmTank. [2] Controlling and playing the game ==================================== (2.1) Options screen -------------------- After a short time you will be presented with the imaginitely titled Options Screen. Here, you can (guess what) change a few options. So it's not just a clever name. The buttons: PLAYER1 - This holds the name of Player One. To change it simply click inside and type in the new name. You are limited to eight characters (sorry.) Important: When you have typed the name you must either press return or click the mouse before you can continue selecting. PLAYER2 - Exactly the same as the above but for Player Two. MOUNTAIN HEIGHT - If you click in here, the words will be replaced by a solid red bar. This can then be dragged from left to right whilst the value to the left varies from 1 to 99. Once you are happy with the value, simply click the mouse button again. Important: This value only alters the MAXIMUM possible height that the landscape can reach. Since it is random, it is possible to select a vlue of 99 and still have a relatively flat landscape. (Uncommon though!) AIR RESISTANCE - Clicking in here will invert the state from OFF to ON and vice versa. With Air Resistance Off (The Default), the shot will behave as a projectile in a perfect vacuum at the surface of the Earth. If it is on, then the shot will be SERIOUSLY affected by air resistance at approximately twice that of real life. Why? Simple, it's more fun. SOUND EFFECTS - Again, this is a two state option. If those booms, bangs and other twiddly bits are just a little too annoying then switch them off here. BATTLE - If you are happy with the above options, click here...and prepare for battle. QUIT - If you have had too much fun for one session, or you loaded AmTank by mistake (HOW?) or you just want to try it out, click here and you will be asked to confirm if you want to quit. AM-TANK - These words (at the bottom of the screen) are a doorway to a land of discovery. Can you discover the secret mouse key combination that will allow you to enter the credits? (Blatant sarcasm.) (2.2) Main Game --------------- When you have selected 'Battle' from the options screen, after a short wait, the game begins. To control the game you simply use that rodent which is sitting next to your Amiga. You can only interact with the proceedings when the control panel is on screen. <- POWER - "Decrease Power" Click here with the left mouse button to reduce the power value of your shot by one. If you use the right mouse button it will go down by 5. The minimum value is 10. -> POWER - "Increase Power" Click here with the left mouse button to increase the power value by one. The right mouse button will increase the value by 5. The maximum value is 250. <- ANGLE - "Decrease Angle" Click here with the left mouse button to reduce the angle of your turret by one. As before the right mouse button will reduce the angle by 5 degrees. The minimum value is zero. -> ANGLE - "Increase Angle" Click here with the left mouse button to increase the angle of your turret by one or with the right mouse button for a step of 5 degrees. The maximum value is 90 degrees. VIEW - There are 4 arrowed buttons around the word View. These scroll the main screen in the appropriate direction. This allows you to locate your enemy and consider the path of your shot. FIRE - When you are happy with your choice of Power and Angle, click here to send a message on its way to your enemy. MOVE TANK - Here there are 2 buttons which allow you to move your tank left or right. You are however limited to the immediate area around the tank. You can however squash some of the land around you. PLAYER - The current player's name resides here. ESCAPE - No, there is no button labelled Escape. However, if you press the Escape key (while the control panel is in view) you will be returned to the Options Screen. (2.3) Scores Screen ------------------- When you have destroyed the enemy, or come to an unfortunate demise yourself, you will be presented with the Scores Screen. Here is a tally of the wins of both players. These scores will remain until either one or both of the names are changed or you quit out of the game. [Since version 1.10 of the game, there is now a helicopter in the battle arena. If you manage (by skill or by chance) to hit the chopper, you will be awarded a bonus point.] LEFT MOUSE BUTTON - Play again with exactly the same options. RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON - Return to the options screen. [3] Coming Soon =============== (3.1) Enhanced PC Version ------------------------- The PC version is being written in C++ and will incorporate all of the features of AM-Tank and more. For example, the main screen is twice as big. Also, the tank moves over landscape even when it is not flat land. This actually involves real-time rotation and texture mapping. Cool huh? At the moment, the PC version is at a very early stage in development. You can (soon) download a copy of the latest work from my webpages rooted at: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ma4rms/home.html (3.2) Other RDS releases ------------------------ There are several little things I have going at the moment, they are: [1] MAX - Cartoon animation [2] D.E.P (Working Title) - Disk Examination Program (A file manager) You can get these from my Web Pages aswell. Check it out! [4] Changes To Latest Version ============================= (4.1) v1.02 ----------- Firstly, although there does exist a standard and proper method for how to calculate the version number...I don't know it. So, for the time being you will just have to accept my technique. v1.01 did exist for about 3 days. Then, I made some more changes which, well, quite frankly, were worthy of another increment. So, here's what's new in v1.02 from v1.01. * A lookup table was created for the exponential function call in the air resistance shot routine. (This was the main step from v1.00 to v1.01). * The complete automation of this ReadMe. Why? Well, when putting together a boot disk, it became annoyingly obvious that ppmore needed far too many libraries to operate. Therefore, I wrote this text viewer myself! (Not at all based on ppmore...honest!) * Obviously, the HD-Install program had to be updated to cope with these change. Now, the only file that must be present is mathtrans.lib in the SYS:Libs directory. However, I am considering making all the lookup tables into a binary file and then simply loading it in. Next time perhaps! * The removal of duplicate code. The fonts were being loaded in twice! (Ooops.) * A wait command was sitting pointlessly in the initial loading. Not any more! * Further optimizations were performed on the Fire routine making the scrolling smoother as less time is being spent on calculations. * All other changes are merely asthetic (spelling?) such as the palette for the loading text (Present, By, and Richard M Smith). As well as changes to the wait times. (4.2) v1.10 ----------- * The dependence on the existance of mathtrans.library has been removed by incorporating all lookup tables (sine, cosine, exponential) in the program itself. This is part of the attempt to make AmTank more of a stand-alone program. * The helicopter was added. (My father asked "So where's the helicopter?" "What helicopter?", I replied. "Well, you hear a helicopter in the title music don't you!". "Aha." I replied. Hence, there is now a very 'Cobra' like helicopter that flies from one end of the screen to the other. This is all handled under AMAL thankfully. * Helicopter sample. Exactly the same as the one in Cry Of War (.mod) just for consistency. * Atmospheric sample. There is now a 'wind-type-thing' sample that plays in the background. This was to add a little atmosphere to the game. * IFF pictures have been spacked to save space on the disk. (4.3) v1.11 ----------- * The game is no longer shareware but public domain! BIG Mistake making it shareware in the first place! * Merged the two sprite banks (intro-sprites and game-sprites) in to one. * The terraforming routine now uses second order differential equations! This means that the ladscape is more curvy. However, the time taken to generate the ladscape is much greater because the random values used can be unacceptable. * All data files: pictures, sprites, samples and music are now implicit to the executable file. This makes it easier to move around both on your hard drive or floppys but also on the net! (4.4) 1.12 ---------- * Increased the length of time before the Title Screen automatically goes in to the credits. * Tidied up the code ready for release via my Web Pages.