Hot Wheels Track Editor Documentation by John Gymer Kingfisher Software All Rights Reserved written for Atari ST User June 1991 To load the Track Editor double-click on the file "EDITOR.PRG" and wait for it to load. Follow the prompts until the editor screen appears. Operation of the Editor is through the mouse. MODE ICONS Along the top of the screen are the 5 Mode Icons. From left to right... 1: Background editor 2: Check Point editor 3: Car Positions 4: Route Marker editor 5: Disc options The options for each of these modes appears down the right hand side of the screen. The bottom right icon (QUIT) exits the program. If you choose to Quit it is best to reboot completely rather than using this option - don't ask me why... it works perfectly from DevPac2! I will now attempt to explain each of these modes... drum roll pleeeeze...! BACKGROUND EDITOR There are 3 icons associated with this mode... 1: Choose icon - this brings up the Sprites screen from which you select what you want to draw onto the track - like a paint brush. Alternatively, you can press the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the track display to bring up this screen. More than one icon may be selected at a time by dragging the box over the ones you want. There are 2 Sprites screens which you can select between to grab the various sprites. Click on the bar at the bottom of the Sprites screens to swap between the two. 2: Cover - this option allows you to cover the whole of the track area with the current sprite. An Alert box appears to check that you really want to do such a drastic thing! 3: Move Arrows - allows you to scroll around the track area. NOTE: when designing tracks always remember that collision detection works on anything GREEN. CHECK POINT EDITOR Check points are areas into which the cars must go in order to complete a lap. They are set in ascending order ALWAYS starting from 0. Cars MUST travel through these areas in the right order. There is provision for up to 31 Check Point areas. To select a Check Point area on the track simply click on the track and drag the box which will appear until it is the size you want. NOTE: Make these boxes sufficiently large to ensure that a car is detected when it passes along that section of the track. NOTE2: Before you run the Game program "HOTWHEEL.PRG" ensure that AT LEAST ONE Check Point is set. The icons concerned with this mode are... 1: Check Point number - select which Check Point you are editing by clicking on the left and right mouse buttons to decrease and increase the value by one respectively. 2: Delete - Once you've set all the Check Points for one lap you MUST move onto the Check Point after the last one you used and Delete it using this button. This acts as a marker for the last Check Point so the the game knows when a lap has been completed and starts detecting from Check Point 0 again. 3: Move Arrows - allows you to scroll around the track area. CAR POSITIONS Using these options you can position the 3 cars anywhere on the track. This controls where they start at the beginning of a race. To position a car on the track simply click on the track area. The car will appear at that position. Take care to position them on the track and not on any GREEN areas! The icons concerned are... 1: Car - select car 1, 2 or 3 to position. 2: Direction - select with the left and right mouse button what direction the current car will face at the start of a race. 3: Move Arrows - allows you to scroll around the track area. ROUTE MARKER EDITOR This is similar to the Check Point Editor but is used to control the route that the drones take around the track. Only 1 route can be created which MUST ALWAYS start at Route Marker 0. To place a Route Marker on the track simply click on the track at the desired position. A cross-hair cursor will appear on the track at that position with red lines pointing in the direction of the previous Marker and also the Next Marker so that you can judge whether you've put them in the right place or not. Make sure that the lines don't go too close to the edge of the track or else the drones are likely to get stuck! NOTE: At least one Route Marker MUST be set if drones are going to be used or else how do they know where to go?! NOTE2: It is sensible to place Route Markers fairly close together or the drones will become stuck on the edge very easily. The icons concerned with the Route Marker mode are... 1: Route Marker Number - select which Route Marker you wish to edit. 31 are provided. 2: Delete Route Marker - this option is used to mark the end of the Route Marker list. Once you have selected the last Route Marker, increase the number by 1 and Delete it. YOU MUST DO THIS! If you don't, the drones will not know where to go after the last one! 3: Move Arrows - used to scroll around the track area. DISC OPTIONS To load and save tracks from the disk you must use the icons which appear for this mode... 1: Track number - select which track you want to load or save. Range is 0 to 9999 although I can't really see you making that many!! The files created are named "TRACxxxx.DAT" where "xxxx" is the four digit track number eg. 0001, 0002 etc. 2: Save Track - click here and an Alert box will appear to make sure that you really want to Save that track. Click on OK to save or Cancel to abort. 3: Load Track - click here to load a previously saved track from disk. You can also load in the ready-made tracks and edit those! TECHNICAL GUMPH All files which are in the "HOTWHEEL" folder must remain in the same folder or else the programs may not work correctly. The whole folder may be moved to a RamDisk or HardDisk from which they should run perfectly. The picture files are in Compact Format which is used by Microdeal's Canvas Art Package. If you wish to add some more icons to the editor screens you must load them into Canvas. NOTE: Icons must be on a 16*16 grid like the ones supplied. Only use the colours used on the current "SPRITES0.CPT" and "SPRITES1.CPT" screens (8 colours - greys, white, black, light blue and greens). If you use more, they simply wont be displayed when you run the game. Thanks to HiSoft for the incredible DevPac 2 assembler! Thanks to my brother Simon and his mates, Squirt and Womble, for play testing and creating some of the tracks.