	I R O N   B I R D S   0.7 Beta

   
   1. What is this?
   2. General things.
   3. Requirements & installation.
   4. Menus and configuration.
   5. Controls and how to play.
   6. Misc. things.


Readme.txt, ver. 0.7 Beta


1. What is this game?
---------------------

Iron Birds is a fast paced action game where you fly a small airplane trying to 
shoot down other players. Simple :) 


2. General things
----------------- 

I will not take any responsibily for the possible damages caused by this game. (Although
I have never noticed that the game will cause any damage.)

This program is freeware: you may freely distribute this game as long as you don't change 
the contents of the original package or sell it.


3. Requirements & installation.
-------------------------------

Installation is quite simple: unzip the packet containing all game files into empty
directory and !!!copy all39NN.dll (where NN is some number) into WINDOWS\SYSTEM dir!!!.


Requirements are quite heavy, sorry. (but who has 486's nowadays anyway :)

Minimum:
	- Pentium processor (runs even with 486 but is _not_ playable!)
	- 8 MB RAM
	- About 2 MB free HD space
	- VGA video card
	- Windows 95 or 98 (not tested on W2K or Windows ME)
	- DirectX 7

Recommended:
	- Pentium 150 MHz or better
	- 16 MB RAM
	- Enough free HD space
	- Sound card
	- Video card supporting resolutions up to 1024x768	

Enough:
	- Quad 2.3 GHz processor
	- 64 Gigabytes RAM
	- 5 TB free HD space
	- Sound card with hardware MP3 decoding
	- Video card(s) supporting resolutions up to 12000x9000
	  (highest supported resolution is 1024x768, though)	


4. Menus and configuration.
---------------------------

The game starts into the main menu. Use up and down arrow keys and enter to navigate in
menus.

Main menu
|
|
+--Options Menu
|	From options menu you can adjust game's graphical options such as ingame resolution
|		
+--Player Options
|  |	From this menu you can adjust the number of the human/cpu players, set keys, etc..
|  |
|  +----Player setup
|		Player setup menu is for configuring each player's airplane.
|
+--Game menu (play)
	From here you select number of game rounds and number of kills per round


5. Controls and how to play
---------------------------

Only four keys are needed to control your airplane. These are two turning keys and 
keys for engine on/off and for shooting. When the game starts first time, it loads default
key configuration. You can also set keys for each player from Player options menu or restore
default settings.

Default keys:
		
		TURN LEFT	TURN RIGHT	ENGINE		SHOOT
Player 1	left arrow	right arrow	down arrow	up arrow
Player 2	'a' key		'd' key		's' key		'w' key
Player 3	'b' key		'm' key		'n' key		'h' key
Player 4	num pad 2	num pad 6	num pad 3	num pad 5

Other keys:

	Take screen shot	F12
	Quit/pause		ESC

When the game begins, each player's airplane is in its own airfield. To take off, press 
engine key once. When your plane is airborne, use turning keys to maneuver. Note that
maneuvering affects on your airspeed (climbing reduces speed, diving increases it,
naturally).

Landing is probably the most difficult part of this game but it's not impossible:
just keep speed and altitude low (not too low!) and when you are close enough to 
your airfield, plane's landing gear shoud come out. When the gear is out, turn 
your engine off and your plane will land (you'll have to be above your airfield).


6. Misc. things.
----------------

This game was programmed using Allegro Game Programming library (version 3.9.32 WIP)
and JGmod, thanks goes to Shawn Hargreaves and everybody who were developing Allegro or
JGmod.

Credits thingy.
	
	Programming: Erno Kuusela
	Art, design & sound: Erno Kuusela and Tomi Karppinen

Feel free to send bug reports, ideas, comments and all kinds of feedback about this 
game to erno.kuusela@ramk.fi or tomi.karppinen@ramk.fi