Driftzone Readme

DriftZone ReadMe DriftZone Overview (version 1.03) Hey! DriftZone is a classic space combat game on steroids so playing it is pretty straightforward. Basically fly around the screen causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible. Shoot to kill, but don’t forget to get some powerups along the way. The evil aliens are back in 3D and this time it’s personal. They will do anything to reduce your ship to a pile of space-junk. Good luck! DriftZone game types There are two different game types that you can play in this version of DriftZone. One is the 'Classic' mode where all the action takes place on just one screen. Very furious, sometimes confusing and always very fast and spectacular. The other play mode is called 'Arcade'. In this mode the real screen is much bigger and you will have more room to maneuver and more cold space to explore. A small scanner in the top right corner of the game screen will give you a long range view of all the objects in you vicinity. This mode is more tactical and is better for people who like to dodge and dogfight their way around the galaxy. http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (1 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe Starting the game At any time during the game you can press the F2 key to start a new game. Remember this also works during a game in progress. If you press the F2 key, your current game will be terminated and you will be taken to the start game screen. Use the cursor keys to navigate the different menu options. Press enter on the start button when you want to start a game. http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (2 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe Game options In the option screen you can toggle certain options to change some aspects of the game. Some of these options will increase performance on slower systems but usually DriftZone will perform very well on all hardware accelerated computers since it was designed to be played well on not so state of the art machines. The following options are available: ● Fat Pixels : Turn of this option to force DriftZone to draw small pixels for explosions and background stars. This is a minor performance boost. ● StarScape : Turn the background starscape on or off. ● Score messages : Turning this option off will result in the suppression of the little score messages when you destroy an enemy. This is useful if you think the screen is too cluttered. ● Optional messages : This option toggles optional messages like for example the name of powerups. ● Background Nebulae : Background Nebula objects can be toggled with this option giving a small performance boost. http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (3 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe ● Ambient dance music : If this option is turned on the game will play a groovy dance soundtrack while you cause mayhem. If off, the ambient music will be mysteriously spacey. ● Deadly collisions : Turn this on if you are an experienced DZ player and want more realistic collisions. In practice turning off this option will force the game to be more forgiving when you fly into strong or heavily armored enemies. You can then only take one damage point per half second. Playing DriftZone Moving: Your ship is floating in the Vhol Drift, a dangerous part of alien space, and can be moved by applying thrust to the engines. Don't forget that you are flying in space and there are NO breaks, so to stop (or reduce speed) you will have to apply thrust in the opposite direction. The following keys can be used to maneuver your ship: http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (4 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe Key Action Left cursor key Rotates your ship counter-clockwise Right cursor key Rotates your ship clockwise Up cursor key Applies thrust to your engine Shooting: Since there is no way that you can clear a path through the Drift by peaceful means, your ship is equipped with a state of the art P-Type missile launcher. To fire your weapons use key: Key Action Space bar Fires missile Note: Between shots your missile launcher has to recharge so quickly pressing the space bar has no effect on your rate of fire. If you press and hold the space bar continuously, your weapon system will fire at its best possible rate. Also remember that firing a missile causes your ship to drift in the opposite direction due to "the forces of nature". Weapon configurations Depending on your ship you will have a different weapon. Picking the ship you like most, will greatly influence the game since each weapon system has different characteristics. Ship Weapon Standard plasma missiles (double shot powerups are Avenger quite effective) Driftrunner Ion torpedo (fires very fast, short range) http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (5 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe ProtoBolt (long range, flies fast and can get good Trident rear shot powerups Miscellaneous Key Action ESC Quit current game and returns to operating system F5 Displays the credits screen when not playing a game F6 Writes a screenshot to a bmp file Toggles writing of a series of bmp files. This seriously slows down the game since DriftZone needs to stream the files to disk. Also consumes a lot of disk space especially if you are running in a F7 very high resolution. Why would you want to do this? To string together a series of bmp files into an animation file format (AVI for example). Only for experienced users! Dying - NOT! You have only one (!) life in DriftZone so staying alive is your main concern. Don't crash into any asteroids and evade the shots (and ships) of the aliens. Remember that your shots affect the momentum of your ship so for quick maneuvers: stop shooting. Your ship however does have armor. The small number just above your ship indicates the armor rating. This can go up if you collect armor powerups or down if you get shot or hit things. PowerUps Luckily for you, the Aliens have hidden weapon stores inside some of the bigger asteroids. If you destroy these asteroids there is a good chance that some weapon systems will be undamaged and will be floating in space. Your spaceship is equipped with a Universal PowerUp Magnetic Connector (UPMC standard IFFF 2101) and the Aliens weapon systems are 100% compatible with this system (yep... it is a Universal standard after all!). So if you see a weapon system floating in space, the only thing you have to do is fly over it at a reasonably speed and the weapon system will automatically connect with your UPMC and install itself on your ship. http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (6 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe DoubleShot : This powerup will give your ship an extra missile launcher. The maximum number of missiles that you can have depends our your current ship configuration. You will be able to fire two missiles instead of one. Don't forget that if you fire two shots, your ship will be pushed backwards with a much bigger force. Some nifty flying may be necessary. LongShot : This powerup increases the range of your shots by adding extra booster units to your missiles. There is no maximum to the number of PowerUps of this kind that you can collect but don't forget that you can shoot yourself in the back if your shots fly too far! RearShot : This powerup installs a rear missile tube. Yes... guess what... you will be able to shoot those tricky asteroids behind you. Supershield : Flying over this powerup installs a Aliens shield generator that protects you against collisions with asteroids and weapons. Unfortunately your ships fusion batteries are not powerful enough to maintain full shieldpower so after a while this powerup module will become weaker. Picking up another powerup of this type will replenish the batteries. Hitting asteroids will decrease the power of your shield dramatically so don't hit too many asteroids if you want your shield to last. Your shield will change color when the batteries are running out. SpeedShot : This upgrade improves your ships weapons cooling systems, allowing you to fire more rapidly. Beware that you will be pushed backwards with a tremendous force if you fire very quickly. Engaging thrust while firing at the same time is a good strategy to stay more or less stationary. Armor Up : Increases your armor rating by releasing a small repair droid. http://users.pandora.be/teamc3/driftzone/manual/readme.html (7 of 13) [7/21/2003 2:59:07 AM] DriftZone ReadMe Mine Crate : This powerup contains a number of very dangerous fusion- mines. Fly into it and you will release the mines and create a wave of destruction. The mines smart electronic brain will ignore the ship that triggers the release. So be careful that you pick up the mine crate before an enemy does. Escaping this explosion might be a little bit too much for any pilot! Speedup : Installs the latest in fusion injection boosters on your main thrusters increasing your maximum speed. Pick up lots of these for that warp-speed rush! Defense drone : The defense drone is very new and advanced technology.

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