7th Level Inc., Readme Notes Welcome to the online version of Hot Shot. These three rounds of twisted arcade fun are taken from the complete version of Hot Shot, one of the three arcade games in Take Your Best Shot from 7th Level. Take Your Best Shot is based on Bill Plympton's genious animation and includes 50 levels of game play, a stress reliever, screen savers, wallpapers, desktop icons and more than 200 audio clips. Hot Shot So you want to be a hot shot? Take a shot at this game and you can call yourself a twisted hot shot. To play Hot Shot: From the File Manager, double click the HOTSHOT.EXE file. Game Options From the Hot Shot selection screen you can customize your Hot Shot game. Options available include the number of players, skill level and the number of paddles. Point to your choices using the mouse and click the left mouse button. With one player, you can play to improve your skill level by trying to better your score each time. With two players, you can alternate play with a friend. Each player will play one ball. When the first player loses that ball, it will be the next player’s turn. The skill level determines the size of the paddles and bricks in each wall. The lower the skill level the larger the paddles and bricks. As the skill level increases, the size of the paddles and bricks decreases. With two paddles you are protecting the two side walls. With four paddles you are protecting all four walls. If you leave the mouse or the keyboard idle for 60 seconds while in the selection screen, the game will begin a self-play mode. To exit self-play, simply press ESC and you will return to the selection screen. Once you have made your selections, press ENTER or click the Play button to begin a game. Game Play Begin play by launching the ball with the cannon. Use the cursor keys to position the cannon. Press the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW keys to change the direction the ball will fire. Press and hold the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW keys to move the cannon across the screen. Pressing ENTER or the left mouse button will launch the ball. The object of Hot Shot is to clear all the bricks in each wall without losing the ball. To clear a brick, let the ball hit it once. Be careful, the next time the ball hits that area you’ll lose it. Protect the empty spaces in the walls by moving the paddles with the mouse. Obstacles you’ll encounter on your way to clearing the bricks include heads and posts. The ball will simply bounce off the posts. If the ball strikes a head directly in the face, he’ll spit the ball out at a faster speed and in a different direction. Each time the ball hits a head in the face, it will continue to speed up. Hitting the ball with a paddle will slow it down. Each skill level has three rounds. You get five balls to make it through all three rounds. When you lose all five balls, the game is over. Clearing each wall will end the round you are playing and begin a bonus round. The longer you keep the ball in play, the more bonus points you’ll earn. Watch out! The ball will continue to speed up throughout the bonus round, making it harder to keep up. You will be awarded a shield after each wall you clear. You can keep a maximum of four shields at one time. Use these shields to help you keep the ball in play. One shield will protect all the walls you are defending. For example, if you are playing with four paddles, one shield will protect all four walls at one time. Press the SPACEBAR to invoke the shield. It will last for ten seconds. When the shield is about to expire, it will begin flashing and an alarm will sound. That means time is running out and you’d better be prepared to keep the ball in play. Pause the animation at any time by pressing your keyboard’s PAUSE key. Press the PAUSE key again to restart the animation. Exit the game by pressing ESC. When you lose all five balls, the game will exit to the selection screen. If you have one of the five highest scores, that score will be flashing. Type your initials and press ENTER. Exit the game by clicking the Exit button or begin a new game by clicking the Play button. KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS The + and - keys provide a convenient means for raising and lowering the volume. Some sound boards do not support volume control, so these keys may not function in all cases. The following key combinations can be used to replace mouse movements for certain activities and functions. Shift + Esc Exits Hot Shot COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Problem: The game does not display properly. Solution: Make sure you have a video card running in 640x480 or 800x600 mode with 256 colors. Also, make sure that you have the proper display driver installed. A display with more colors or running at a higher resolution also will work with the Hot Shot game. Problem: The game is working, but you don't hear any sound. Solution: Make sure your sound card is installed and working properly. You can check the sound from your sound board by using the Sound utility in the Control Panel. Choose one of the WAV files in the Windows directory and click Test. Problem: The sound or video skips during the game. Solution: Make sure you have at least 4 MB of RAM. Also, make sure that an expanded memory manager (such as EMM386, QEMM or 386MAX) is not reserving memory that Windows and the Take Your Best Shot games, living wallpaper, or screen savers will need to run correctly. Problem: The sound and video are not synchronized properly. Solution: Make sure that you are running the Hot Shot game, on a 486 25 MHz or better IBM-compatible computer with at least 4 MB of RAM. Problem: The sound breaks up or has a lot of static. Solution: You may need to change the DMA setting on your sound card. Please check the documentation for your sound card for the proper settings and how to change the settings. Problem: The volume is too low or too high. Solution: You can adjust the volume using the + and - keys within the Take Your Best Shot games, living wallpaper, and screen savers. Problem: The program seems to run extremely slow. Solution: Make sure that you have a permanent swap file set up in Windows. Please consult your Windows documentation for instructions regarding your swap file settings.