
                       BIKE BATTLE
            
            THE ULTIMATE MULTIMEDIA GAME FOR TWO
            
                      VERSION 1.95

                    SpotPrice: 30 $

             ORDER-FORM IN THE FILE ORDER.TXT
            
            (C) Copyright 1995 by Jrgen Thumm
            
                   Distribution by
            
                 BROKAT Systeme GmbH
                 Hanns-Klemm-Str. 5
                 D-71034 Boeblingen
                 Email: jthumm@ibm.net

             AVAILABLE PUBLIC DOMAIN DEMOS:
             Playback Demo (BBDEMO1.EXE)
             Playable Demo (BBDEMO2.EXE)

### ATTENTION:
### ==========
### This is an ASCII export file of a word processor,
### which lacks all formatting information and is therefore
### uncomfortable to read.
### We recommend you better print the file
### MANUAL_E.WRI with Window's Write.
### This file also contains the ORDER FORM in it's appendix.

Make my day ...

BIKE BATTLE is a GladiatorActionGame for two RemoteControlPilots,
whose fascination is unparalleled by other multimedia games. No
painted pictures are it's strength, but the 4S: Speed,
Smartness, Strategy and Sound. Each pilot has a FightBike
wherewith he is cruising in a fighting arena. The task is to pick up
weapons which lie around, to attack the opponent and to turn him
into a pile of dust. The fight takes place in a randomly
generated maze of walls, containing DisplacerGates which beam
you from one side of the field to the other. As soon as a weapon
is shot empty you have to pick up further ammunition or replace
it by another. If you don't want to be killed by the first hit,
you have also to collect ProtectionShields.
Unfortunately, with each hit, one shield is destroyed again.
Luckily enough, new weapons, ammunition or shields appear everywhere,
so you have always enough material to continue your fight.
The RealitySound provides the very cool MadMaxFeeling that makes
you sweat. Whoever's frightened by the use of Machineguns,
Cruise Missiles, Pump Guns, Rocket Launchers, Light Swords
or Bazookas should better play Tic-Tac-Toe...

But, whoever felt the Force of Action and triumphated in a
hard fight, shalt be addicted.

This ain't no game for youngsters under 16, or for a calme
bureau atmosphere.


                       Contents
                       ========
             
             System requirements        (1)
             Installation               (2)
             BIKE BATTLE GameDefiner    (3)
             Fighting Arena             (4)
             FightBike Throttle         (5)
             FightBike Equipment        (6)
             FightBike Usage of Weapons (7)
             GladiatorDream:
                 Set, Point and Match   (8)
             FightDetails               (9)
             BikeDetails               (10)
             StrategyDetails           (11)
             ConfigurationDetails      (12)
             Memory Optimization       (13)
             Demo Restrictions         (14)
             Final Remark              (15)


(1) System Requirements
=======================

What Hardware do you need to run BIKE BATTLE?

   Minimum for novices:
   
      486 DX2/66 with 4 MB RAM
      8 Bit Soundcard
      2 analogue Joysticks and 2 Gameports to connect them
      2 Speaker boxes
   
   Recommended hardware for intense players:
   
      486 DX2/66 or Pentium with 16 MB RAM
      Soundcard for 32 kHz stereo Sound, e.g. SoundBlaster 16
      Only use Joysticks with 2 axes and 2 buttons, no "Flightsticks"
      (3 axes, 4 buttons)!

Required Software:

   Windows 3.1
   Windows Sound driver
   Joystick driver (also provided in this package)

8 MB of hard drive space are required.

In the minimum configuration, severe losses in Sound Quality
and/or speed must be accepted.

With 8 MB or less or memory the system should have enough
Swap-Space (on hard drive).

(2) Installation
================

Select a target directory on your hard drive, uncompress the
BikeBattle packages which you've downloaded or copied there.
Make sure pathnames are preserved while uncompressing.

The following directories should now exist in your
target directory:

   BBATTLE        containing the main program(s), manuals etc.
   BBATTLE\SND    containing the sound files

Perform a sound-check; to do so, start the Sound-settings in
Windows' system settings and try to play the Windows-Sounds. If
nothing's audible, check the sound driver and (re)install it if
necessary. The sound driver was delivered with your Sound card
or with Windows. Read the sound card's manual or the
Windows-documentation for details.

If the joystick driver is missing (only needed with DEMO2 or the
full version), install it this way:

- copy IBMJOY.DRV and JOYSTICK.CPL from your targetdirectory\BBATTLE
  into the Windows\System directory. For example, if both BIKE BATTLE
  and Windows are installed on drive C:, the following commands must
  be typed:

    copy c:\bbattle\ibmjoy.drv c:\windows\system
    copy c:\bbattle\joystick.cpl c:\windows\system

- now go into the Windows directory and edit the file SYSTEM.INI
  with this command:   edit system.ini

- In the opened file, add the following line in the [drivers]
  section:
     joystick=ibmjoy.drv

Now, the joystick driver is installed. Start Windows.

In Windows, start the joystick calibration program. To do so,
search the joystick symbol in the main group's system settings.
Calibrate as described by moving the stick into the four
corners of the joystick's foot. Calibrate as exact as possible!
The joysticks have trimmers to adjust the X- and Y-centering.
After changing the centering, the calibration should be repeated.
Usually, the joystick calibration must also be repeated after every
restart of Windows.

If the joysticks can't be calibrated, the reason for this
might be that you didn't select 2-dimensional joysticks in
"System Settings/Drivers/Game adapter". Furthermore the
game ports or the adapters on which they reside might be
badly configured (depends on your PC hardware).

If anything's set, start Window's file manager, go to your
target directory and double-click on:

     BBDEMO1.EXE   to start the playback demo
or   BBDEMO2.EXE   to start the playable evaluation demo.


(3) BIKE BATTLE GameDefiner
===========================

You see a grey screen with blue shiny letters. If not,
your Windows-System is probably overloaded (e.g. with an
alternative desktop, tools or unnecessary extensions in
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT). It may suffice to reduce the
system (see also Memory Optimization), or in the worst case
Windows must be reinstalled; in that case the game should
usually work.

The first BIKE BATTLE sound is heard and pushes the heart
beat... If no Sound is audible, either the speaker boxes are
turned off or the Windows sound driver doesn't work. If it's the
sound driver, the sound check wasn't done correctly (see
Installation; the title music requires 22 kHz 8 bit mono Sound).
In that case, leave the program with the ESCAPE key, go back to
Installation and install your Windows Sound correctly.

In the BIKE BATTLE GameDefiner, playing parameters are adjusted.
The parameters are changed by pressing those keys that are
framed by a box. These settings are available:

HUMAN PLAYERS
   Number of RemoteControlPilots. For two humans,
   select '2'. For a demo or to practice targeting change the
   number: select '0' for demo mode. Two robots will then "fight"
   each other. Select '1' to practice targeting. One
   RemoteControlPilot may meet upto 5 RobotPilots, which could only
   be considered as moving targets due to their non-existent
   intelligence. 

ROBOT PLAYERS
   Number of RobotPilots.

JOYSTICK SWAP
   With this you may swap the joysticks.

WEAK SUPPORT   (Full version only)
   With this, the weaker of the pilots may get
   additional shields. The number of shields is determined
   automatically during the game. You can also pre-select certain
   values, e.g. 0:3 means that pilot 2 gets 3 additional shields
   from the start (shields are explained later). 

MUSIC FX
   If you can't bear the music effects played during the
   game, switch 'em off with this.

STEREO SOUND
   If you're using a mono sound card, the program
   should select mono sound automatically as soon as the fighting
   arena appears. Just in case it doesn't, select 'NO' here.

LOAD 32 KHZ, 22 KHZ, 11 KHZ, oder NO SOUND
   By default this game plays 32 kHz Sound, the best sound ever
   heard with an action game on the PC. If your sound card doesn't
   support this or if you're low on memory, you have to select a
   lower quality.
   22 kHz should be supported by nearly every sound card; the memory usage
   is reduced by 1/3. With 11 kHz, again 1/3 less memory is
   needed, and that's also the way it sounds then. NO SOUND starts
   the game without sound. This is usually used to quickly check
   the calibration of the joysticks, before one returns to the
   GameDefiner and then loads the sound. 

SWAP PIXCOLOR
   If the FightBikes leave red tracks (which may
   happen with certain graphic boards in TrueColor-Mode), change
   this option. On pressing the key, check patterns appear at the
   left border: the first line must appear completely in red, the
   2nd green and the 3rd blue. 

TIMING SPEED
   Depending on your Systems's performance, the game
   might be sped up with this. If the game runs permanently with a
   varying speed this value may be selected too large, or the
   systems suffers from a performance overload in other ways (e.g.
   by intense memory swapping to the hard drive, which may happen
   especially in Win-OS/2 sessions). 


When all settings done, press the SPACE bar. In endlessly-seeming
seconds the ultimate BIKE BATTLE sounds are loaded. Off we
go-o!! Off we go-o!!

(4) Fighting Arena
==================

The Fighting Arena appears blue with a green-gray, randomly
created maze of walls. To the left and right of the arena's
middle you see two remote-controlled FightBikes:
triangular-armoured, colorful units,  ready for action.

The FightInfos below the arena are for both pilots. The left
half belongs to the green, the right one to the red bike.

The following infos are displayed:

1:/2  FightInfo section for pilot 1 or 2
SHD   number of ProtectionShields
PTS   achieved Points
S     achieved Sets
M     matches won so far

Furthermore, the Protectionshields are also displayed graphical
as a blue bar, and below that, you find a line for infos
and status messages.

Besides, the FightInfos display a list of weapons that were
collected so far. Initially this list is empty.

The action starts as soon as both RemoteControlPilots move their
joystick or press button 1. Every joystick has two buttons;
which one is button 1 or 2 depends upon the model used.

(5) FightBike Throttle
======================

The bikes accelerate by pressing the joystick as far as possible
into a direction. Check this for all directions! If there's no
acceleration in one or more directions, the joystick is badly
calibrated (Bad luck: in that case, recalibration of the sticks
in Window's system settings is necessary). The bikes decellerate
if you elongate the joystick less.

If no sound is audible on acceleration, there was probably a
too high selected value in the GameDefiner's LOAD SOUND option.
In that case you'll have to leave the arena, back to the
GameDefiner with ESCAPE, then select 22 or 11 kHz and go back 
again to the arena with SPACE.

(6) FightBike Equipment
=======================

In the fighting arena, weapons appear at random places. These
weapons appear as blue boxes with a letter on top. To collect
it, drive into such a box. The weapon is ready for action
immediately and can be fired using button 1. By default, every
bike has a simple pistol with 30 bullets.

The following weapons may be collected:

Weapon / ID / Description / Usage in Attack/Defense

MACHINE GUN / M / To straightly shoot the opponent. The nearer
the target laser lies on him, the better the impact. / direct:
shooting the other bike. indirect: shooting uncollected weapons
that lie around the other bike. / Against Cruise Missiles and
Rockets, provided of course one has enough time and distance to
aim. 

PUMP GUN / P / To "blow away" the other, in literal sense. The
impacts create pressure waves which do not harm the opponent in
any way, except that they make him fly. / direct: blow the other
bike into the next wall. indirect: blow up uncollected weapons
lying around the other bike. / Against Cruise Missiles and
Rockets. 

LIGHT SWORD / L / Near distance weapon. / Strike. The repulsion of
a hit slows down the attacking bike. This gives the victim a
better chance to escape. / Not usable in defense (especially not
against Cruise Missiles). 

BAZOOKA / B / Straight flying warhead which explodes at the first
obstacle or on reach of the joystick-selected flying distance.
The explosion leaves a pile of rubbish. / direct: Not easy, but
possible: a precisely aimed Bazooka that explodes on the other
one's feet may cost him several shields. indirect: If the other
 one's moving nearby an obstacle, shoot it. / The rubbish piles
left by the explosion provide a good coverage, especially
against MG. 

CRUISE MISSILES / C / Self-guiding missiles that follow the
opponent if he's in sight. / Fire and forget. The firing
direction should lead into open space. / -

ROCKET LAUNCHER / K / Straight flying rockets with heavy impact.
No distance selection. / Aim into the right direction and fire.
The stronger the rockets are, the more walls are broken through.


Besides these weapons the FightBikes may collect Ammunition,
ProtectionShields and Reinforcements:

Extra / ID / Description

AMMUNITION / A / Nearly every weapon may be reloaded with this.
For every type of weapon, one A counts different, e.g. for MG 30
shoots, for the Pump Gun only 3. 

PROTECTION SHIELDS / S / Every S is a single ProtectionShield.
Whenever a bike is hit or it drives through an obstacle (with
exception of the arena border), is looses one shield. By
default, every bike has five shields. Shields are very 
valuable; if none are left, an alarm sound is played and the
whole cockpit blinks in red. The single task of the pilot is now
to collect a 'S', because the next hit or collision will crash
his bike. 

WEAPON REINFORCEMENT / + / Strenghtens the effect of the current
weapon. If the weapon already reached it's maximum effect, only
the pistols's ammunition (if there's any) is reinforced. 

(7) FightBike Weapon Usage
==========================

'Aim'

Pistols and Rockets:

just move the stick into the desired direction. Aim slowly when
using rockets, rapid changes of direction usually don't hit the
target.

MG and Pump Gun:

With these, the distance of the impact must be selected
additionally. To do so, these weapons have a target laser. The
more the joystick is elongated in a direction, the more the
laser's end point (the only thing visible) moves away.
Exception: if there's an obstacle in the chosen direction, the
laser will stay on it.

Pressing the fire button will always lead to a detonation at the
selected target point.

When using the MG, theroretically it would suffice to elongate
the joystick maximally into the opponent's direction and fire.
Practically one hits this way only sometimes, because you can't
select the shooting direction that precise and thus miss the
other bike by one or two degrees.

Bazooka:

The more the joystick is pressed, the farer the bazooka will
fly. Basically it's the same as with MG, but you have no target
laser. Usually it's very effective to elongate the stick just a
little and to throw the bazooka right in front of the other
one's bike.

The maximum distance of MG, Pump Gun, Rockets and Bazooka is 2/3
of the arena's width.

'Fire'

A bike may collect an unlimited number of weapons, but only the
two frontmost, i.e. latest-collected, are usable at the moment.
As soon as these are empty, the ones behind that were collected
earlier move up. Button 1 fires the frontmost, button 2 the
second-frontmost weapon. Only the frontmost weapon could be
reinforced or reloaded.

If you have lots of weapons on board you may change their
sequence by driving through one of the violet cross-shaped
switches which are found in the arena. If you have more than 5
weapons, only the 5 frontmost ones could be cycled.

'Reload'

Weapon           Reinforcement "+":         Ammunition amount "A":
                 
Machine Gun      Creates more horrible
                 dust in the target area.  30 bullets
Pump Gun         Opponent flies longer.    3 bullets
Light Sword      Longer and more inert.    50 energy units
Bazooka          Larger rubbish piles.     nothing (pistol is loaded)
Cruise Missiles  Larger impact radius.     one missile
Rocket Launcher  Breaks more walls.        three rockets


(8) GladiatorDream: Point, Set and Match
========================================

If a FightBike explodes, the opponent may carve a Point into his
joystick. Exception: both explode. He who first gets 4 points
and has a lead of at least 2 points wins a Set. The one winning
3 Sets leaves the arena as the winner.


(9) FightDetails
================

Shield-loss-timing:

After the loss of a shield it takes at least 250 milliseconds
(with Weak Support even longer) until the next shield could be
destroyed. This avoids for example that driving into a wall in an
unlucky angle costs 10 shields in one instant.

After the loss of the last shield the bike is protected one
Second against destruction. Therefore the last shield is the
most important! It guarantees a second of life even under
hardest fire. Whoever has no shield left must collect at
least one.

Bike-explosion-timing:

The explosion process of a bike takes several seconds. The other
bike must survive this time to get the point.

The Jedi Convention for Grandmasters:

"He who thinks he's unfailable may try to terminate his
opponent, as soon as he lost all his shields,
with the Light Sword only."


(10) BikeDetails
================

Change the Target Laser's shape:
   Press 'T' during the game to select 1 out of 8 shapes.

Clock display:
   Press 'C' during the game to select one of these displays:
   - no clock
   - short format  with time, round time,  session time in minutes
   - long format with the same infos plus date.

After pressing the key, wait a second until it's displayed.

Hiding the mouse cursor:
   In Window's Program Manager, create a program symbol with
   File/New/Program, to start the game with.
   As the working directory select the directory in which bb.exe
   resides.


(11) StrategyDetails
====================

The "most popular" errors of novice pilots are these:

Aimless collecting. The rule is: Quality before Quantity. For
example, one MG with 3 plus and 100 shoots of ammunition is much
more useful then five weak MG's with 30 shoots each.

Inadequate Distance. For example, holding a MG under the
opponent's nose though the opponent has a Light Sword is as
brave as insane, and usually results in sudden death (of the MG
owner).


(12) ConfigurationDetails
=========================

Settings which are selected by hand at every start of BIKE
BATTLE should be entered in the configuration file bb.ini. To do
so, load this file from the bbattle directory with a text
editor, e.g. the Notepad of Windows (but not with a word
processor). Before changing the file, first create a backup
copy! Each line contains a keyword with a single value (both
separated by blanks), and remarks beginning with ";" and lasting
'til the end of the line. Remarks are ignored by BIKE BATTLE und
just serve better understandability.

The following keywords are recognized:

Keyword        Description                    Possible values

humans         number of human players        0,1,2
robots         number of robot players        0 to 5
swapsticks     swap joysticks                 0 = no, 1 = yes
weaksupport    automatic force balancing      0 = no, 1 = yes
music          music effects                  0 = off, 1 = on
stereo         Stereo Sound                   0 = off, 1 = on
khz            sound quality in kHz           0 (no Sound), 11, 22, 32
clock          clock display                  0 (none), 1 (minimal), 2 (lots of)
width          minimum picture width          640, 800, 1024, 1280, ...
height         minimum picture height         480, 600, 768, 1024, ...
yshift         vertical picture shift to
               top of screen                  0 to ca. 20
swappixcol     see GameDefiner description    0 = no, 1 = yes
usepalette     use palette (is the default)   0 = no, 1 = yes
tlasershape    target laser shape             0 to 7
colback1
colback2       change background colors       12-Bit RGB-value from 0x000 to 0xfff
colback3       (only for freaks)
coltlaser1
coltlaser2     change color of target lasers  like colback
coltlaser3     of player 1, 2 and others   

(13) Memory Optimization
========================

With 8 and especially 4 MB of RAM it is highly recommended to
remove all superfluous memory-eating extensions (e.g.
SmartDrive) from the system files CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.

A maximum-reduced CONFIG.SYS may look this way:

   DEVICE = C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
   DOS = HIGH

The meanings of these entries can be looked up in your DOS- or
Windows manual.

The recommended screen resolution for playing is 800 x 600
pixels.

The program uses at least 1 MB of additional memory in
resolutions higher than 1024 x 768.

(14) Demo Restrictions
======================

In the Bike Battle Demo package which is available through the
Internet, the playable demo BBDEMO2.EXE has the following
restrictions:
   - no "Weak Support" settings in the GameDefiner.
   - no Rocket Launcher available for the players.
   - 20 minutes after the game was started, a terminator robot (which
     looks like a snake) appears and terrorizes the players. To get
     another 20 minutes of free playing time, you have to leave and
     restart the game. Or even better, order the full version.

(15) Final Remark
=================

"So Then, Drive On And Strike Each Other In Peace."

         J. Thumm, 20-Aug-1995

