REFLECTOR CHESS INSTRUCTIONS (C)1995 DIGICRAFT SOFTWARE Reflector Chess is a two player strategy game that involves bouncing projectiles off mirrors whilst trying to destroy your opponent's pieces. It is similar to chess in that players take turns moving their pieces around a board, but the similarities stop there. Each person starts the game with a Mothership, two Baby Ships, and a number of mirrors, Beam Splitters, and Shields. The objective of the game is to destroy the other player's Mother Ship. LICENSE AGREEMENT THE UNMODIFIED SHAREWARE VERSION OF THIS GAME MAY BE DISTRIBUTED IN ANY WAY AT ALL AS LONG AS THERE IS NO CHARGE OTHER THAN A SMALL DISTRIBUTION FEE IF NECESSARY. THE SHAREWARE VERSION OF THIS GAME MAY _NOT_ BE MODIFIED IN _ANY_ WAY WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STUART CAMERON (ME)! NO SERIAL NUMBERS MAY BE DISTRIBUTED IN ANY WAY AT ALL!!! ANYONE WHO DISTRIBUTES ONE WILL BE TRACKED DOWN AS EACH GAME HAS ITS OWN ENCODED SERIAL NUMBER. ANY ATTEMPT TO HACK INTO REFLECTOR CHESS WILL RESULT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EXECUTABLE PROGRAM. WE WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED THROUGH THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM, HOWEVER UNLIKELY. SHAREWARE LIMITATIONS Until you register Reflect Chess, the following restrictions will apply: -> You may only run Reflector Chess 10 times before you must purchase it. -> You cannot load & save games in progress -> The Eliminator and Transmutor weapons are disabled Registering, however, removes these restrictions! For only $10! RUNNING THE GAME To start Reflector Chess, you must first run the SETUP.EXE program. This will let you configure your sound card (if any). Once configured, choose Exit and Save Changes. You may then run REFLECT.EXE to begin the game. Reflector Chess has been tested under OS/2 v3 Warp, and works fine! It has also been tested under Windows 95 with no problems. GETTING THE LATEST RELEASES & UPDATES FROM DIGICRAFT SOFTWARE We now run an awesome WWW page for those with 'net access. You can find it at: http://minyos.xx.rmit.edu.au/~s9312630/digicraft.html There you'll find news of upcoming releases, and you can download the latest versions of our existing software. CONTROLS Reflector Chess is controlled completely by a mouse. A two button mouse is required. During game play, the left mouse button can be used to select and move pieces around. To move a piece, click on it to select it, and then click on its destination. While a piece is selected, information regarding its health and whether it is stunned will be displayed at the bottom right of the screen. Also, any square that the selected piece can move to will be highlighted if you move the mouse over it. To unselect a piece, left-click on it a second time. To rotate a piece, you can right-click on it. You may only select and rotate your own pieces. To fire with a space ship, select it with the left mouse button, choose your weapon by clicking on the pink buttons at the right of the screen (your currently selected weapon will be displayed). Make sure you select the weapon from your control panel and not the other player's (yours will have its border flashing). Then click on the FIRE button. WEAPONS Each of the space ships can fire six types of projectiles. Each of these uses a different amount of power which is built up over time as the game progresses (3 units after each turn). Along the power bar are markings indicating how much power is required for each weapon (the first marking is for Lasers, the second for Blasters etc.). Weapon Power Required Effect Bouncer 0 units Inflicts 10 units of damage on any piece it collides with. Bounces off mirrors. Laser 14 units Inflicts 20 units of damage on any piece it collides with. Bounces off mirrors. Blaster 28 units Inflicts 45 units of damage on any piece it collides with. Bounces off mirrors. Freezer 42 units Freezes any piece it hits for a period of 3 turns. Any piece which is frozen cannot fire, rotate, or move. Bounces off mirrors. * Eliminator 56 units Destroys the first thing it hits, regardless of what it is. It does NOT bounce off mirrors - it will destroy them. It cannot pass through a shield. * Transmutor 70 units Transforms an enemy's piece into your own. Bounces off mirrors. Does not affect motherships. (* = registered version only) PIECES Piece Damage Points Abilities Mothership 50 The Mothership is the most prized piece on the board - lose it and you lose the game. Baby Ship 20 Baby Ships can fire the same as Motherships, and you have two of them. They are there for extra fire power only, so it does not matter (except as far as strategy goes) if any are destroyed. Shield 10 A shield will allow anything other then an eliminator to pass through it in the direction of the arrow, and it will block anything coming from the opposite direction. However, if it is hit from the sides it will be destroyed. Random Shooter N/A If a projectile or beam enters this piece, it will be shot off into a random direction (even possibly the direction it came from!). A Random Shooter can only be destroyed with an eliminator. Beam Splitter 10 Any projectile or beam which enters this will be split into two others, leaving each of the two other openings. If something hits the side with no opening, the piece will be destroyed. Trianglar Mirror 10 This simply reflects a projectile 90 degrees in the direction it is pointing. 2 Mirrored Square 10 Anything which hits a mirrored side of this (except for the eliminator) will be reflected back in the direction it came from. If anything hits this piece on an un-mirrored side, it will be destroyed. 3 Mirrored Square 10 This is the same as the 2 Mirrored Square, except there is an extra mirror on one side. TIME LIMIT Each player has a time limit on their turn. If this time limit runs out, they loose their turn. The length of this time limit can be changed from the options menu. OPTIONS MENU The options menu can be reached during the game by clicking on the Options button at the bottom right. There are three options: Save Game You will be asked for a filename, and your game in progress will be saved to disk. This is only active in the registered version. Games may be loaded again (continued) from the main menu. Board Colour This cycles through the available board colours. Adjust Time Limit Clicking on this will increase the time limit for each turn by 30 seconds. Once it reaches 10 minutes, it will return to 30 seconds.