Copyright: Copyright 1997, totalPlay Software


WarHeads
WarHeads is an addictive turn-based strategy game where different species of aliens try to blow each other up!  It really is that simple: the longer a ship survives, the more points and money that ship accumulates.  In order to accomplish this, each alien ship is equipped with fifty weapons to pulverize the opponents!  Each ship can also use one of five defenses to prevent their destruction!  This war takes place in a solar system on several different planets.  To make things a little more tricky, each planet has its own mass and gravity.  The gravity affects shots fired by the ships, as well as the flight of the ships themselves.

Ordering WarHeads

Features

System Requirements

Game Menus

Game Play

Scoring

Economics

Troubleshooting/FAQ

Copyright ©1997 totalPlay Software,  All rights reserved.


Features

•  Insanely addictive game play

•  60 frames per second frame rate

•  Triple-buffered Mode-X parallax panning and zooming

•  Dynamic real-time lighting effects

•  An almost infinite variety of playfields with 3D rendered planets

•  Digital 'MOD' music

•  50 weapons and 5 defenses

•  Up to 10 simultaneous players

•  A separate weapons editor to create your own weapons

•  Killer physics

•  Internet play

•  Unique, fresh game concept

•  High compatibility


System Requirements

•  Pentium™ class CPU

•  Windows95™

•  PCI VGA compatible video card

•  8 MB RAM

•  8 MB free hard disk space

•  DirectX™ 3.0 (optional:  required for music and sound mixing)

•  Internet Connection (optional:  required for Internet play)


Game Menus

When WarHeads initializes, you will be presented with six menu items:

File Menu

Game Menu

Rounds Menu

Detail Menu

Sound Menu

Programs Menu

Help Menu


File Menu

The file menu only contains the exit option.  This closes WarHeads and exits the game.


Game Menu

The game menu has two items:

Standard Game

Internet Game

These items select which type of game you would like to play.


Rounds Menu

This menu allows you to select the number of rounds that one game of WarHeads should last.  The options are one, two, three, five, ten, and twenty.


Detail Menu

This menu lets you select the detail level for a WarHeads game.  The options are:

Low:  This is the lowest detail setting, there are no background planets and no real-time lighting effects.  It is recommended for a P60 processor or lower.

Medium:  This setting places some background planets, but has no real-time lighting effects.  It is recommended for a P75 or higher.

High:  This setting has more background planets for nice parallax; but still no real-time lighting effects.  It is recommended for P90 processors and up.

Very High:  This setting has the highest detail.  It has all of the background planets for parallax scrolling and the real-time lighting effects.  It is recommended for P100 processors and better.

Note:  You can use any detail setting you want, but if the detail is too high, WarHeads will run at a lower frame rate and thus, will not be as enjoyable.


Sound Menu

 This menu allows you to control how WarHeads creates sound effects and music.  There are two menu items:

Mixing:  This allows you to turn sound mixing on or off.  If it is checked, this means that mixing is on and WarHeads will be able to play many different sound effects at once (actually 16 at once!).  This does, however, take more computing power and may slow down the game on low end systems.  Also, WarHeads requires DirectX™ to be installed for mixing to work.  If DirectX™ is not installed, WarHeads will default to the off setting for mixing and sounds will not play simultaneously.

Music:  This allows you to turn the game music on or off.

Note:  Mixing must be selected for music to play during the game!


Help Menu

 This option brings up the help file you are looking at right now!


Standard Game

 When you select 'Standard Game' from the 'Game' menu, a dialog box will appear that lets you choose the various player options:

Name:  This allows you to alter the name of the player.

Player Type:  This allows you to change the intelligence of the current player.  Human is just that - a player controlled by you (or a friend)!

Weapons:  This drop down list will let you load in different sets of weapons created with WeapEd!  Just select the set of weapons you want to load.

Next Player:  When you are finished configuring a player, click this button to move on to the next player.  By default, the previous player's attributes will be selected.

Start Game:  Once the players are set up to your liking, click on this button and the carnage will commence!

Cancel:  This takes you back to the WarHeads main menu.


Internet Game

When you select 'Internet Game' from the 'Game' menu, a dialog box will appear that lets you choose the various player options:

Name:  This allows you to alter the name of the player.

Weapons:  This drop down list will let you load in different sets of weapons created with WeapEd!  Just select the set of weapons you want to load.

Server Address:  This is the TCP/IP address of the WarHeads server.  By default, the ionos server will be selected - you should not need to change this value.

Server Capacity:  This is the amount of players a WarHeads server can handle.  Since different servers support different amounts of players, you need to find out how many players a particular server can support and enter it in this box.  This number will be posted along with the 'Server Address' when you find out about a new WarHeads server.

Start:  Once your player is set up to your liking, click on this button and the carnage will commence!

Cancel:  This takes you back to the WarHeads main menu.

After you click the 'Start' button, you will see an information box pop up displaying the status of the Internet game.  If you use an online service or an Internet service provider (ISP), your connection information will pop up too.  Just connect like normal and WarHeads will automatically find its server.  Once the server is found, you may have to wait for other players to join the game.  The WarHeads server gathers as many players as it can in a short period of time.  After several players have been gathered, or a couple minutes pass with no new players, the game starts.

During Internet game play, you can chat with other players by pressing the 'T' key if it is your turn.  If it is someone else's turn, you can just type in your message and press 'Enter'.


Game Play

The object of WarHeads is simple: survive and destroy!  The longer you survive, the more points and money you get.  The more ships you destroy, the more points and money you get!  Money, in turn, buys better weapons and defenses that facilitate survival and destruction.

When a game starts, each human player is allowed to select a defense - then the actual game play starts.  When it is your turn, your ship will have a glowing label displaying your ship's health and defense strength.  A control panel will slide in, allowing you to control your ship.  The elements of the panel are:

Map/Zoom

The Scanner

Communications

Angle

Power

Weapons

Defenses

Launch

Fire!


Map/Zoom

The Map/Zoom control shows a small view of the entire battlefield.  When you click on it, or press the 'Z' key, you can zoom in and out of the battlefield by moving the mouse up and down.  When you are finished, simply click the mouse again to return to your original position.


The Scanner

This control allows you to scroll around the battlefield to examine your opponents.  Just click on the 'Scan' button or press the 'S' key to start exploring.  When you're finished, just click again.  If your ship is not visible when you click, the view will be returned to your ship.  If your ship is on the screen, the panel will simply return, leaving the screen position intact.  This is very useful when you are trying to line up a shot.


Communications

This control allows you to type in a quote that will appear above your ship when it launches or fires.  If you do not use this control, a quote will automatically be generated for you.  You can activate the communications control by clicking on the 'Comm' button or pressing the 'C' key.


Angle

When you click on the circular angle button or press the 'A' key, you can adjust the angle of your ship.  This affects the direction that a shot will fire and the direction in which the ship will launch.  Moving the mouse or pressing the left and right arrow keys changes the angle setting.  A small cross extending from the ship denotes the direction a shot will fire.  Also, you can see the angle inside the circular angle button.


Power

To activate the power bar, simply click on the slider or press the 'P' key.  You can then move the mouse up and down or use the up and down arrow keys to change the power setting.  The power setting affects the velocity of a fired shot, or the speed at which a ship launches.


Weapons

The weapon that a ship fires is, perhaps, the most important aspect of WarHeads.  Different weapons damage in different ways.  Some weapons are extremely powerful, some are not.  You can be guaranteed, however, that the more powerful a weapon is, the more it will cost.  To select a weapon, click on the 'Weap' button or press the 'W' key.  You can then scroll up and down the list of weapons by moving the mouse up and down or using the up and down arrow keys.  The currently selected weapon will flash and a description of that particular weapon will appear above in the scroll bar.  The cost of the weapon is displayed directly to the right of its name.  If you would like to purchase the highlighted weapon, just click the mouse button or press the 'Enter' key.  If you accidentally purchased a weapon that you didn't want, don't worry; you can just buy a different weapon and the difference will be returned to you.


Defenses

To help your ship survive, you can select one of five defenses to protect your ship. To select a defense, click on the 'Def' button or press the 'D' key.  You can then scroll up and down the list of defenses by moving the mouse up and down or using the up and down arrow keys.  The currently selected defense will flash and a description of that particular defense will appear above in the scroll bar.  The cost of the defense is displayed directly to the right of its name.  If you would like to purchase the highlighted defense, just click the mouse button or press the 'Enter' key.  If you accidentally purchased a defense that you didn't want, don't worry; you can just buy a different defense and the difference will be returned to you.


Launch

Launching a ship into space can be a very useful tactic.  You can launch your ship to avoid a dangerous situation, get closer to a potential victim, or more likely, to retrieve the gold and silver coins floating through space.  To launch your ship, click on the 'Launch' button or press the 'L' key.  The ship will then travel in the direction of your angle setting at a speed corresponding to your power setting.


Fire!

When you are satisfied with your angle, power, and weapon, click on the 'Fire' button or press the 'F' key.  Your selected weapon will then fly through space, hopefully inflicting mass amounts of damage to your opponents.


Scoring

The scoring of a WarHeads game is pretty simple.  The rules are as follows:

•  1 point for every point of damage done to another ship.

•  50 points for every kill that you survive.

•  100 points for every ship you actually kill.

•  100 points for being the last survivor of a round.


Economics

 During game play, you are rewarded money credits for surviving and killing.  The actual money rewarded is as follows:

•  1 credit for every point of damage done to another ship.

•  50 credits for every kill that you survive.

•  100 credits for every ship you actually kill.

•  100 credits for being the last survivor of a round.

•  100 credits for collecting a silver coin.

•  500 credits for collecting a gold coin.

In between rounds, whatever money you have earns 20 percent interest- so choose your weapons and defenses wisely!  Sometimes saving money early can lead to devastation in later rounds!


Troubleshooting/FAQ

•  I don't hear any music.

•  The sound effects and music sound muffled and scratchy.

•  After a WarHeads game, some of my windows look corrupted.

•  The sound seems to lag behind the video.

•  A ship gets eternally stuck in space, what do I do?

•  I try to play an Internet game, but I just get a message saying: 'Socket Busy, Retrying'.

•  Is WarHeads a DirectX™ game?

•  How do I make my own weapons?

•  I have an AMD or Cyrix processor, will WarHeads work with it?


MusicQ
WarHeads requires Microsoft DirectX™ for music to play.  If you do not have DirectX™, you will not hear music and only one sound will play at a time.  You can get DirectX™ from www.microsoft.com or any game related web site.


SoundQ
You need to acquire the latest Windows95™ sound drivers from the manufacturer of your sound card.  This problem often occurs with older Creative Labs SoundBlaster™ drivers.


VideoQ
You need to acquire the latest Windows95™ video drivers from the manufacturer of your video card.  This problem often occurs with video cards based on Trident or Cirrus Logic chipsets.


LatencyQ
Your audio card is not supported by Microsoft DirectSound™.  If you do not have the latest version of Microsoft DirectX™, you should install it.  The commercial version of WarHeads comes with the latest version, DirectX™ 3.0a, on the CD-ROM.  If the problem persists, contact your sound card manufacturer.


StuckQ
A ship can very occasionally get stuck in perpetual motion.  Unfortunately, the only cure for this is to hit the 'Esc' key and restart the game.  This problem is extremely rare.


ServerQ
There could be a number of reasons for this.  The first is that the WarHeads Internet Server is actually full and cannot accept new guests.  More likely, however, is that the Internet address in the 'Internet Game' dialog box is not correct.  Please see the ionos web site for the latest server addresses.


DirectXQ
The answer to this question is: yes and no.  WarHeads only utilizes the DirectSound™ portion of DirectX™ for higher quality audio.  Actually, DirectSound™ isn't even required for WarHeads to operate.  Unlike most Windows95™ games, the DirectDraw™ portion of DirectX™ is not used in WarHeads.  WarHeads uses a method other than DirectDraw™ to achieve high video performance.  In fact, with the video resolution WarHeads uses, this method significantly out-performs DirectDraw™.


WeaponsQ
The commercial CD-ROM version of WarHeads comes with WeapEd, a full featured weapons creation utility.  Different players can use different sets of weapons; even during Internet games!


ProcessorQ
Yes, WarHeads is compatible with all fifth generation processors and higher.


Ordering WarHeads

To order WarHeads, call 1-888-775-1766 x27 toll free!

The price is only $29.95 + S&H!


Programs Menu

 The 'Programs' menu item runs two different programs thet come with WarHeads:

•  The 'WeapEd' item runs the WeapEd, the WarHeads Weapon Editor.  This program allows you to make your own custom weapons in WarHeads.

•  The 'Install DirectX 3.0b' item runs the DirectX™ installation program.  DirectX™ is a set of graphics and audio drivers that yield higher performance than the standard windows drivers.  In addition, DirectX™ provides several other gaming enhancements.  WarHeads only uses the DirectSound™ portion of DirectX™.