Readme.txt ******************************************************************************************** 3D ASTEROID PATROL (©2000) a Binary Brotherz® game ******************************************************************************************** SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: - Windows Me/98/2000 (possibly 95, only if the OpenGL dll's listed below are installed) I don't think Windows NT will run this game, but please correct me by email if I'm wrong. - 3D Graphics Accelerator Card with **OpenGL** support (sorry, NO Voodoo 1 or Voodoo2) - if you try this game on a Voodoo 1 or 2 the textures might look all messed up and the game will run at probably 2 or 3 frames a second, which is just not playable - this is because early Voodoo cards do not support Windowed acceleration, which is what my games use. Voodoo5, however has fixed this problem, has FULL OpenGL support, and is an excellent card. The games will look great AND they will run very fast! So, upgrade today! :) - Opengl32.dll and Glu32.dll inside your WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder (If you don't find these in that folder, you can download them off the internet for free at www.isdn-net.de/ado/treiber/dll/o/opengl32.zip (for opengl32.dll) and www.isdn-net.de/ado/treiber/dll/g/glu32.zip (for Glu32.dll). If this page goes out of existence, try finding it by searching www.altavista.com - Type "download opengl32.dll" or "download glu32.dll" in the blank search field). - Microsoft DirectX 7.0(or later) installed on your system (if you don't have DirectX, you can download the latest version off the internet for free at: www.microsoft.com (go to DOWNLOADS section). - 233Mhz processor or above - 32Mb RAM or above - any type of sound card INSTALLATION: - Double-click the asteroids.zip file to unpack(decompress) the file. - Inside WinZip© click on the EXTRACT button and type in a folder name and path of your choice in the field. This is where all the game files will be sent and stored. - MAKE SURE that the Asteroid Patrol.exe, .bmp files, and .wav files are in the SAME folder that you named when you previously extracted them under WinZip©. DO NOT create subfolders for pictures, sounds, etc. - the game will not work. Just dump everything into the same folder and everything should be fine. - Double-click on blue window executable ( .exe) and it should start the game. ******************************************************************************************* KNOWN ISSUES (BUGS): ******************************************************************************************* None are reported at this time ******************************************************************************************* PERFORMANCE HINTS: - Make sure that your destop settings are 640x480 or higher and your color settings are in 16 BIT MODE. This color info is important! You will see a 10 fps increase on older graphics cards with less memory if you use 16 bit color instead of 32. I can't tell the difference in 32 bit mode anyway and it just slows down the game. - For your convenience, the frame rate will be displayed at the top of the game's window (i.e. "fps: 60.4" or so). The bigger the window is, the slower your frame rate will be. The game always starts up in 640x480 mode. On my 400 Mhz computer, the framerate hovers around 50 to 60 fps. When the game is paused, you can change the window's size. Maximizing it to full screen on slower cards will generate maybe 40 fps. So, if your frame rate drops below 30 and is too chunky, make the window smaller so the game will have less area to update each split second and you will have liquid smooth animation. GAME INFO: - Press Esc to pause the game. While the game is paused, your mouse pointer will return and you can select different options from the menu. To get back into the game, press Esc again. - to Exit the game, go under File->Exit, and the game will exit. If you have an emergency situation (like your Boss is coming around the corner) hit F1 anytime and the program will perform its lightning-fast emergency exit. - Sorry, no 3rd person view in this game, unless your ship explodes. I could have added it, but when I tried to play-test the view, it became as difficult to aim as QuakeIII Arena's 3rd person view. Games like this and Quake are better experienced with 1st person view, so enjoy being insided the pod. - For all of you Flight Sim fans, I added an invertable mouseY option in the menu under Preferences->. This will make your ship pitch up and down just like your cozy 747 flight stick. - Be sure to check out my cool Sun to the left :-) . It took me a week alone to figure out how to make a non-corny sun that 'flares'. - The rotating space station below is from my favorite movie of all time - 2001. I can't believe it's almost really 2001 and we don't have squat in space. - I based the gameplay on the original 1979 Atari classic Asteroids, so no shields and no enemies that follow you around (I hated Ateroids Deluxe - it didn't really add anything to the awesome original). - Your high score gets saved immediately after you see the GAME OVER sign. Warning: if you exit or start a new game before you have lost all your ships and before the GAME OVER appears, your precious new High Score will not be saved! - I decided not to put any sounds to your ship's gun, because frankly a laser sound got real tiring to the ear real fast. So, I justified the no shooting sound with what type of gun it is - a light particle disruptor. And how much noise does light make? - The little alien guy is quite cute actually. If you can get up close enough to him and pause the game, you can admire his little antennae. Then blow his ass up. ******************************************************************************************** Comments, suggestions, or problem reports are welcome. Email us at brianlof@swbell.net If you want to download more Binary Brotherz® true 3D games, or just want to check out the latest news about our upcoming projects/games, please visit our website at http://home.swbell.net/brianlof/game.html - Thank you for playing our games! ********************************************************************************************