ADVANCED LASER CHESS PD Game from Amiga Resource Magazine, Summer `89 Issue Docs created by Vic Serbe, Big City Lights BBS, 217-356-7776,2400,N,8,1 GETTING STARTED: First of all you should know that this game has a slew of digitized samples that it expects to find in a directory called "samples" off of the current directory. Make sure that these are available before you run the game. If the game doesn't find the sounds, it WON'T crash your machine, but it will let you know before it loads the game that it couldn't find them. WORKBENCH: Just double click the icon and go. To exit the title screen and play the game, click the left mouse button. To bypass the title screen, double click the left mouse button. CLI: Make sure that the current directory is the one with the program files in it and the samples directory off of it. Then type "ADVLASER" . a.) The background sound can be toggled on and off by pressing the space bar. b.) Advanced Laser Chess (ALC) is a well-behaved multi-tasking program and can be pushed to the back with the left-Amiga-N key sequence. c.) ALC is strictly a two player game. One may play with one's self, but it's a good way to go blind (and it's boring too!). THE GAME THE DISPLACEMENT DEVICE: In the center of the board, you will see the displacement device. this device will randomly appear and disappear after each player turn. Any piece placed on it will disappear and re-appear at a random location pointing in a random direction somewhere on the board. When the displacement device is not present, the square becomes a gate! (see below) GATES: The center column on the playing board contains four gates (not counting the one that appears when the displacement device is absent) that open and close randomly. Closed gates act as normal playing area squares. Open gates are TOTALLY DESTRUCTIVE! If a piece is moved on to an open gate, or is on a gate when it opens, it's blown to kingdom come! THE PIECES (See the iff picture called PIECES.IFF) Like [boring] chess, each piece in the game has it's own characteristics. The brightly colored sides are reflective armor, and all other surfaces are vulnerable to laser hits. Laser hits on the reflective surfaces will be reflected with no harm coming to the piece. Laser hits on the non-reflective surfaces will cause the piece to either be frozen or destroyed (depending on which type of laser hit it). To select a piece, simply click the left mouse button on it. To deselect a piece, simply click the left mouse button on it again or move the piece (by clicking the left mouse button on the destination square). All pieces may move in horizontal or vertical directions only. Therefore, a single diagonal movement will take two moves (one horizontal and one vertical). Each player gets three moves in each turn. The three moves may be taken in any way the player wishes. All moves may be used for one piece or the moves may be shared by up to three pieces. A given laser may be fired only once per turn. The laser beam will not cease until the left mouse button is released... that way you can see exactly what the path of the laser was when it was fired. All of the pieces in the game except the fully mirrored octagon and the hypergon (see below) may be rotated to any position in 45 degree clockwise increments. Any time a piece is rotated to any new position (even if several 45 degree steps are taken) ONE of the three moves will be used. If that piece is rotated back to it's original position (BEFORE DESELECTION) then no moves will be used when deselection occurs. STOMPERS: Stompers appear as octagons (either the fully or partially reflective type). Stompers can take other pieces (EVEN OF THE SAME COLOR) if they are moved on top of them. KINGS: The Kings are the diamond shaped pieces on the board. Kill the King and you win the game. Kings can take other pieces just like the stompers can, but they are VERY vulnerable and equally important. Great care should be taken whenever you move a King. If a King is taken, the game is over. The entire playing board will then turn the same color as the assailants pieces (click any mouse button to return the board to normal). When the game has ended, the only icons that will work are the QUIT, RESTART, and DISK icons. HYPERGONS: Hypergons look like wagon wheels. The hypergon is a mobile displacement device. To displace a piece (yours OR your opponents) simply move the hypergon on top of it. Any laser that hits a hypergon is reflected in a random direction. TRIANGULAR MIRRORS: Triangular Mirrors are the basis for laser offense and defense. They have only one reflective side and may be moved, taken, or destroyed just like any other piece. ONE-WAY MIRRORS: One-Way Mirrors look like an arrow enclosed in a rectangle. A laser will pass THROUGH the one way mirror without destroying or freezing it as long as the laser is going in the EXACT direction of that arrow. Any beam that strikes any other surface (except the reflective surface) will either freeze or destroy the piece. One way mirrors are excellent shields for Destructive Lasers. DESTRUCTIVE LASERS: Destructive Lasers look like a cannon. These little muthers will destroy ANY piece (except the hypergon) whose non-reflective surface is struck by their beam. Please note that the laser itself has no reflective surfaces, so it's as vulnerable as it is powerful! FREEZE (STUN) LASERS: Freeze Lasers look like little romulan space ships and fire from the back end. Any piece struck on a non-reflective surface (except the hypergon) by an Freeze Laser's beam will turn white and be temporarily frozen (disabled). A frozen piece has a 20% chance of being un-frozen at the beginning of each turn. Frozen pieces are VERY vulnerable. They cannot be selected or moved, and become non- reflective on all sides! BEAM SPLITTERS: Beam Splitters look like smaller triangular mirrors that have two reflective sides. If a beam of any type strikes the point where the two reflective sides meet (the reflective vertex), the beam is then split into two equivalent beams and are deflected perpendicularly to the original beam. Any beam that travels parallel to the reflective surface will miss the Beam Splitter and pass through the square freely. BOMBS: Finally, the Bombs are square shaped pieces that are between the Freeze Lasers and the Triangular Mirrors at the beginning of the game. Potentially the most destructive pieces on the board, Bombs will take out everything in a bordering square when detonated by the destructive laser! Bombs are detonated with laser beams. There are 4 detonation portals on the Bomb... one on each side. If a laser hits the Bomb on any other surface, the Bomb will be destroyed or frozen depending on the type of beam that hit it. If a freeze beam enters a detonation portal of the Bomb, all pieces in squares bordering the Bomb are frozen along with the Bomb. If a Bomb is in a square bordering a Bomb that's detonated, it will be destroyed, but NOT detonated (no chain reactions allowed here). ICONS All of the icons will change to the color of the pieces who's turn it is at the beginning of each turn. The numbers in the upper left corner display the number of moves left in a given players turn. The QUESTION MARK icon will highlight all of the possible destination squares available for a given piece. Simply select a piece, then click the left mouse button on the icon and hold it as long as you like (no moves will be used) while that piece is selected (good for new players). The PASS icon will forfeit any moves remaining in a turn and bring up the next player's turn. The LASER icon will fire a selected laser and use one move. If that particular laser has already been fired in that turn, then nothing happens and no moves are forfeited. The DISK icon will bring up a requestor that will allow you to either save a game, restore a game, or cancel the requestor. This function can be used at any time during, before, or after a game. When Save or Restore is selected, a string gadget is brought up and you type the name of the game in ( a .ALC extension is assumed on a restore and appended on a save). The standard board setup (like at the beginning of the game) is named DEFAULT.ALC. The LOSS icon will bring up a screen displaying all of the pieces lost by both players up to that point in the game. The screen will be displayed as long as the left mouse button is held, and gameplay will resume as soon as the mouse button is released. The RESTART icon will restart the game from scratch. The QUIT icon will exit the game completely. GAME CUSTOMIZATION All of the samples in the samples directory are stored in standard IFF form and may be changed to whatever you would like them to be, but make sure that your samples are named the same as the originals, sampled at about 10,000 samples per second, and are less than 32K. All you need is sampling hardware and software (sold together for as little as $65.00 Mail Order) and the ability to store samples in IFF form. NOTE: BACKUP THE ORIGINALS IF YOU CHANGE THESE! There is also an IFF file called ALC_PIECE.PIC. You may customize the color of the game pieces by using a paint program such as Deluxe Paint on this picture. STRATEGIES The main factor in wiping out the opponents King is foresight. Always remember that each player has THREE moves in which they may fire or capture in. Try to sneak your mirrors around without giving away what you're setting up. Indirect laser shots are the most impressive and destructive by far! Use the One-Way Mirrors as shields for your lasers. The One-Way Mirrors will allow your shots out, but no others in (at least not directly).