Readme:APT v1.0

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File: Apt100.zip

FILE_ID.DIZ

APT v1.00, highly violent paratrooper
shooting SW-game. Control your can, aim the
turret and drop the paratroopers as they
squish down to earth spilling blood all over
the place. 486 or better required. VESA 1.2
or 2.0 SVGA graphics used (800x600 res).
Registration costs 40fim or $10. This blood
filled game was splashed by Jere Sanisalo and
Esa Wiik. Enjoy!

README

                           APT v1.0 documentation
                          ------------------------
                             Copyright (c) 1997
                               Jere Sanisalo
                                 Eppu Wiik


 INDEX OF TOPICS:
  -> [Introduction]
  -> [Requirements]
  -> [Files coming with APT]
  -> [Legal]
  -> [Starting the game]
  -> [Playing APT]
  -> [Scoring]
  -> [History]
  -> [FAQ]
  -> [Problems]
  -> [Credits]
 

 [Introduction]

In modern days, you cannot kill just anyone. You must have a reason. And even
more, you cannot slaughter any paratroopers. Isn't this just boring? Well, in
APT, you can do all of this plus practise some extreme violence in the side.
You control a small vechicle with a big gun mounted on top. In the sky, there
will appear all kinds of enemies, which are mostly shooting at you or 
dropping something with parachutes. Your mission is to survive. And to have
fun. That's all there is to it.

Some specialities of APT are stunning beautiful 800x600 SVGA graphics, hi
violence rate and fun + compact game play. And it fits to one disk too!

 [Requirements]

Here is a brief list of what you will need to play APT:
 486 or better processor (intel compatible, at least 50Mhz preferred)
 abt. 2 Mbs of hard drive (to store APT)
 SVGA display card with 512Kb of onboard memory (VESA 1.2 or 2.0 compatible,
        with or without UNIVBE)
 Keyboard
 Monitor (15" monitor preferred)
 MS-DOS 4.x or above (tested with MS-DOS 6.0, 7.0, 4DOS 6.00 and Win95)

 Sick imagination
 Natural gifts for slaughtering (innocent) people
 Sharp eyes
 40fim or $10 money (to register of course!)

 [Files coming with APT]

Following files come with APT:
 APT.EXE                - Executable
 APT.DOC                - English documents (this file)
 DOS4GW.EXE             - DOS extender
 FILE_ID.DIZ            - Description
 REGISTER.DOC           - Registration form (english)
 RESOURCE.RES           - Data file

 [Legal]

All the usual legal mumbo jumbo apply. You, the user (referred as a person
who uses this product), are hereby granted rights to play the shareware (sw)
version. If you are a registered, you can play the registered version also.
You are not allowed to rip, use, spread, sell or anything like that with ANY
part coming along with APT (wither the registered version or the SW version).
You are allowed to spread the SW version, but the registered version (mainly
the register key) is personal property. You are however granted rights to
make backups of the registered version, but that also is personal property.
One registration may be used only in one computer. Group registrations can be
discussed with authors (see the registration forms).

Any damages/benefits caused by this program are not the authors head aches.
You use this at you own risk. If you become a sadistic bastard (or already are
one), or kill your cousins cat while eating a dinner, it's your problem, not
ours. Or if your hard disk just pops out, that's not our fault also.

 [Starting the game]

The game starts at DOS prompt with command 'APT.EXE'. So just type 'APT'
(without the ' -signs), press ENTER and the game will boot up. See trouble
shooting for more help.

In the main menu, there are 4 choises:

 <Start Game>
        Starts the game. But before you hurry to enjoy the squishing party,
        you need to select a war zone to play in and a game mode. (more of
        war zones and game modes later)

 <High Score>
        Shows the high scores for every war zone and every game mode. Use the
        UP and DOWN arrow keys to change battle zone and LEFT and RIGHT keys
        to change the game mode. Please note, that the UP and DOWN arrow keys
        only work in the registered version!

 <Options>
        Allows you to configure APT:s controls.

 <Exit>
        Leaves the game, but you will probably never need to use this
        one. <grin>

 [War zones and game modes]

Different war zones:
 <Canyon Target>
 <Equator> (REGISTERED VERSION ONLY)
 <Arctic Pain> (REGISTERED VERSION ONLY)
Each of the war zones differ a bit from each other and they usually contain
some different units and attack formations.

Game modes:
 <One player game> - Play alone (it is said to raise your character)
 <Two player game> - Share the exstacy with a friend

 [Playing APT]

Okay, so now you're done with all the hassle the menu system caused you. Now
it's time to bust some butt! There are 5 keys to control your vessel. Two of
the keys move left and right, two of 'em turn the gun turret left and right
and the last one fires the turret. The keys can be seen and modified in the
options menu.

The game screen consists of two parts. The upper part is the game area and the
lower contains the display panel. In the display panel, the left part is for
player #1 and the other is for player #2. There are 5 items to display for
one player. These are:
 - Bullets (How many bullets are left, these will reload slowly.)
 - Armour (How good shape your vechicle is in. Better watch out; when this
           reaches zero, you're dead. Does not reload, but can be increased
           with bonuses found on the game field.)
 - Kills (Signed with a skull next to it. Shows how many men you have
          killed.)
 - Unit kills (Signed with a small explosion icon next to it. Shows how many
               air units you have crushed.)
 - Score (Now what is a terrorist game without any points?-)

So, just relax and wait a while. Soon the air is filling up with nasty baddies.
Just aim the turret, and let 'em have it. But watch out for your bullets. You
can wait for the men to land, and crush them, but be fast, or they start
shooting at you.

The game will end when all players are dead. The game makes the game as you
play it, so new and new attack waves happen all the time.

And that's just about it. Shoot, kill, avoid getting any hits, and, well,
enjoy the nice blood geysers flowing around the dead bodies.

 [Scoring]

This part tells you the best way to slaughter your victims. The scoring goes
like this:

 Kill a man with the parachute intact -> 15 points + kill
 Kill a man with the parachute broken -> 12 points + kill
 Break up a parachute -> 3 points (+ kill if the man is alive when he hits the
                                     ground)
 Kill a man with the parachute still unopened -> 30 points + kill
 Drive over a man shooting at you -> 5 points + kill
 Shooting a dead man hanging in parachute -> 3 points (sadism points)
 Driving over a dead man -> 1 points (sadism points)

 Shooting a bomb without an opened parachute -> 10 points
 Shooting a bomb with opened/broken parachute -> 5 points

 Shooting a transport plane (in good health) -> 2 points
 Destroying a transport plane -> 15 points + unit kill

 Shooting a transport helicopter (in good health) -> 2 points
 Destroying a transport helicopter -> 20 points + unit kill

 Destroying an orni (normal + kamikaze) -> 5 points + unit kill

 Shooting a helicopter -> 2 points
 Destroying a helicopter -> 10 points + unit kill

 Shooting a fighter (normal or russian) -> 10 points
 Destroying a fighter (normal or russian) -> 10 points

 Shooting an armed mancarrier -> 2 points
 Destroying an armed mancarrier -> 20 points

Please note, that in the high scores, only the points count. The
men/unit kills are there just for fun.

 [History]

v1.00: <<Initial release>>
Nothing much to tell, except that this version was made from scratch in two
weeks. It too me (the coder dude) to sacrifice the first day of Assembly '97
wholly to APT-coding.. But it was probably worth it (or not ;).

 [FAQ]

Q. What does APT mean? Why is it just APT and nothing else?
A. APT originally meant 'Anti Paratrooper', but it's not that
   important. And it is APT because we like it and it's short and snappy.
   APT came from APC, but we desided, that the players car does not
   contain any persons (well, the player is not a person ;), so APT came
   along. Just stand with us, okay?

Q. I'm filty rich and I really like your game. What can I do?
A. Register the game (see the registration documents)! And better yet,
   DONATE us money! Give as ALL the money you want. We actually like money
   pretty much. We just don't like expensive games, and that's the reason for
   the cheap price. Live and learn.

Q. I don't like the violence in you game at all. I actually hate your guts,
   even if they are not showing up. What can I do about it?
A. Actually, all you can do, is to buy one 8-bit Nintendo(tm) machine and
   some Tetris clone-games and play them until you learn to like violence.

Q. I'm interested in some technical details about APT. Could you share some?
A. Certainly. APT was done with Watcom C/C++ 10.6 compiler, mostly with C++.
   The game works in protected mode with DOS/4GW as the DOS extender. You can
   replace it with PMODE/W (made by Tran and Daredevil), but it is not allowed
   to include PMODE/W with any SW/commercial game, so if you want to use it,
   please, do so, but that version is for your own use only. Do not spread it.
   The SVGA routines detect for 2.0 VESA standard, and if none was found, then
   1.2 is searched. Most SVGA-cards support VESA 1.2. The game is powered up
   with a dirty rectangle system to update only those areas of screen changed
   since the last redraw.

Q. I'm a new programmer, and I'd like to learn to make as good games as this!
   Can you help me?
A. Well, not so much as you may think. We can only direct you to the right
   direction. First of all, take it easy! Everything takes time to learn. And
   think first, then ask, then think some more, then check out any code
   available to the public, then think it over and make your own, improved
   version according to it. Our coder (Jere) has done this all his little
   life, and well, it has lead to some results. Just be patient and think. And
   do not take too big projects right at the start. Most of new comers crash
   when they try to make a Quake a-like game as their first project. Take
   care and ask some more if you like. If you're lucky, you may even be
   answered.

Q. What's this UNIVBE thing and where do I get it?
A. It's a handy dandy VESA 2.0 driver for cards that do not directly support
   it. We do not know where to get it, so ask someplace else. On most
   occasions, you will not need it, but it should boost up the performance a
   bit (in some cases).

Q. Why are there some nonrealistic aspects in APT?
A. Because it's a GAME! U'know, a game does not need to implement 100% pure
   realistic values. It is supposed to be fun, and, let's face it, reality
   sucks, big time. Some there are some anomalities, and I hope you will not
   bother us too much with.

 [Problems]

P. The game tells something about some loader and DOS/4GW. What to do?
S. For some reason, the game does not find DOS4GW.EXE. So place it along your
   path or in the same directory as APT, and you'll be fine.

P. The game says it's out of memory.
S. The game is out of memory. Get some more. (unload smartdrive etc.)

P. The game says something about being unable to set the screen mode??
S. Perhaps you do not have enough memory on your display adapter or your card
   does not support the VESA standard. Try installing UNIVBE.

P. I've messed up my configs, and I want to reset them. Can this be done?
S. Of course. Just delete the file 'APT.CFG', then a new configuration will be
   created - with defaults.

P. The game is a bit tacky (sometimes faster, sometimes slower)..
S. We know. The reason for this is still unknown. Bear with us.

 [Credits]

ALL coding      : Jere Sanisalo
Graphics        : Esa Wiik
Design          : Jere Sanisalo
                  Esa Wiik

By the way, the original version was done in two weeks, just before the
Assembly '97 parties.

 [Contacting us]

You can contact the primary author via the following methods:

 e-mail: cooldude@sicom.fi
         jere.sanisalo@*****.fi (if the first one fails)

 snail mail: Jere Sanisalo
             Kappalai******* 4d**
             50*** Mikkeli / Finland

NOTE! If the matter is about something else but the actual registration, please
      use e-mail (or BBS mail if it's available to you).

Finnish people: If you have access to MBNet and use it to send e-mails, please,
                leave me a PERSONAL message if you something to ask. It's a
                pretty bit stupid to send e-mail from MBNet to MBNet.. :)