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STEROIDS (v2.2) README_ENG.TXT
Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Dreamscape, all rights reserved.
21.01.2001
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HUOM! Suomenkielinen versio tästä on tiedostossa README.TXT!

!!!IMPORTANT!!!
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DREAMSCAPE ISN'T RESPONSIBLE OF ANY DAMAGE THE GAME MAY CAUSE.

IF YOU WISH TO PLAY THIS GAME, YOU MUST ACCEPT THESE CLAUSES

- you use the game entirely on your own account
- you don't edit any files
- you don't ask reward for it (exceptions look FURTHER INFORMATION)

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	Contents:

0... THE NEW VERSION
1... FURTHER INFORMATION
2... REQUIREMENTS
3... CHOOSING RESOLUTION AND COLOUR DEPTH
4... GAME IDEA
5... HOW DO I USE GAME MENUS
6... HOW DO I PLAY THIS GAME
7... HINTS
8... BONUSES
9... SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION
10.. DREAMSCAPE
11.. CREDITS


THE NEW VERSION						[0]
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v2.2:
 Fixes one HUGE bug and adds one more picture to the end

v2.1:
 We've done some bugfixes, musics are adjusted little bit
and we've added more adjustable properties to Race-mode. Now you
can set playtime, weapons power and amount of lifes.
We also added rendered pictures to make ends neater.
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FURTHER INFORMATION					[1]
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The game is 100% freeware so you don't have to pay anything to anyone
for playing it. You may distribute it freely. You may put the game
to your homepage for downloading, send it to BBS's, put it on free
Collection CD-ROMS with other games too. You also may put it on
chargeable Collection CD-ROMS if the price is at most the costs
of making the CD.
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REQUIREMENTS						[2]
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Steroids needs at least PentiumII 333MHz and 24 megabytes to run.
But we recomment P450MHz and 32mb + a fast graphics card.
The game works on Win95 and 98 systems, also in NT and Me.
Now we quarentee that it works in 2K too. DirectX is necessary,
version 5 or newer.
The game supports 15-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit colour depths and
resolutions 320x240, 400x300, 640x480, 800x600 1024x768,
1280x1024 and 1600x1200. When you start the game for the first time,
you can choose the colour depth and resolution.
(look for more information from the next chapter)

If the sounds/musics for some reason don't work, edit file "sound.cfg"
with Notepad or corresponding.

The game is tested with these computers:
(altought sounds/musics didn't work with the last system,
it's propably in the NT, we'll never know...)

Processor,	memory, graphics card,	OS:

K6-2 400MHz,	96mt,	RIVA TNT,	Win98
Pentium 166MHz, 96mt,	ATI RAGE,	Win95
Celeron 945MHz, 64mt,	RIVA TNT2,	Me and Win2000
Pentium 233MHz,128mt,	Matrox G100,	NT
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CHOOSING RESOLUTION AND COLOUR DEPTH 			[3]
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When you start Steroids for the first time, you get a menu
in front of you, where you can choose resolution and colour depth.
Move with arrow keys and choose with ENTER.

You can choose resolution with  side arrows. With the smallest
resolution, game runs fast, but it's very difficult, almost
impossible to play. The best size is 640*480 or bigger.

Choose colour depth again with side arrows. At first try 16-bit mode.
It's fast and works on most of computers. If 16- or 32-bits don't work,
try 15- and 24-bits.
NOTICE: In Truecolour modes (24- and 32-bit) graphics aren't nicer,
cause graphics are saved to 16-bit. So use Hicolour-modes (15- and 16-bit)
if only possible, cause they're faster.

Then it's time to test the settings. Choose "Test selected mode"
and press ENTER. When you press again, the mode is tested, if you
press ESC, you return to menu. When you've pressed ENTER, there should
be a blue screen with white text. And it should be in fullscreen,
not in a window. But if the testpicture is in window, try another
colour depth. So everytime some resolution doesn't work, try another
colour depth. Also notice that menu is supposed to be in a window.

If you sometime want to try a different resolution, open file
"video.cfg" with Notepad and read the instructions.

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THE GAME IDEA				 		[4]
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Steroids is an Asteroids clone, so the idea is pretty the same:
Fly with a ship and chop asteroids to atoms! In the same time
collect bonuses to upgrade your firepower and get extra lives and so on.
(look chapter 8 for more)
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HOW DO I USE GAME MENUS					[5]
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When you start the game, you'll get a menu in front of you, with
these functions:

- "Single player"
- "Two players"
- "Hall of Fame"
- "Info"
- "Credits"
- "Exit game"

* In menus, move with arrowkeys and choose with ENTER *

* "Single player", normal single player game:
When you choose this, you'll get a menu where you can choose
the game type: Normal or Randomoids.
Normal means the basic game which goes in levels in kinda "story-mode"
where background pictures are related in level on. In Randomoids
the background picture and asteroids are allways different. You can't
play through Randomoids cause there's allways more and more levels
coming. Randomoids doesn't have a Hall of Fame.

* "Two players", two player game:
In this you also get a game type choise and after that comes another
menu. There you choose game mode, either Co-operative or Race. In
Co-operate players collect common points and at the end
points are added. Also notice if one of the players die, the other
also dies. In Race, the winner is player who survives longer.
Before starting Race, you choose some settings for it.

* "Hall of Fame", high score lists:
Here you can look at Steroids high scores. There are two lists,
single player- and co-operatelists. You can look at
the lists by pressing side arrows. If you sometime wish to clear lists,
all you have to do is delete all *.top files.

* "Info", game bonuses:
Here you can see what the bonuses give you. You really should check it
out before playing. It helps a lot!

* "Credits", makers:
Well.. the credits.

* "Exit game", quit:
Throws you back to Windows.......
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HOW DO I PLAY THIS GAME					[6]
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Player 1 plays with a keyboard, player 2 with a mouse.
Playing with keyboard is easy but slow.
Side arrows turns the ship, up arrow gases and right CTRL shoots.

With mouse control may seem tough at first but in the very end
it's better than keyboard: for example, you can do cool 180 degree
turns! By moving the mouse sideways ship turns. The faster you move,
the more ship turns. Gas with left button and fire with right.

Then something about the general controls.
In top of screen you see scores. Below them is a rectangle
and pictures of your ship. Rectangle shows your energy
and ships are lifes. When you get a bonus, below energy-bar
you see which bonus you got. If you have a "doubledamage"-
bonus, you see green "2x"-ball. When the ball disappears,
doubledamage is gone. Btw, when you have a shield, you
see large blue ball around your ship. The shield is in use
as long as the ball is visible.

You can quit by pressing ESC, pause the game with P where
you can get out by pressing P again. F12 takes a screenshot
to "shot.bmp"-file.
Use cheats with F5-F8. You'll see...
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HINTS							[7]
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Here's some hints to make playing easier:

- Never roam around too fast (except every time)

- In the very beginning, you shouldn't go to track of
   an asteroids and stay shooting it, because in most
   cases asteroid collides with you before you get it killed.

- Avoid red bonuses

- Stay in the center of screen, so you don't get
   hit by an asteroids-/enemyrush coming outside
   of screen.

- Destroy asteroids with care: from the smallest to the largest

- Remember, when you get a shield, even enemies can't hurt you


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BONUSES							[8]
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You see available bonuses by selecting "Info" from main menu.

"Weapon upgrade": Upgrades power of your weapons. Steroids
  has 18 different powerclasses.
"Weapon downgrade": Downgrades the power of your weapons.
"Double damage": Doubles the damage of your weapons.
"Small Energy bonus": Gives you one energy unit.
"BIG Energy bonus": Gives you three energy units.
"Random bonus": Gives you one of these bonuses, selected randomly.
"Extra life": Gives you an extra life. (Max. five lives)
"Shield": Gives you a shield.
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SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION				[9]
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The whole idea of Steroids started when I tried to render
asteroids in 3D Studio Max (and you can see the results :).
I made 7 different asteroids, four sizes of each.
Then I decided to make a game. Later I rendered two more, so
the total count is 9. Then I begin programming. Teemu joined
to the project as main designer and I coded, and coded and....
Steroids was supposed to be a "one-weekend-game", made in couple of
days, but well..., project stretched to four weeks.
And here we are, desperately writing the readme...
Game is programmed with Microsoft Visual C++ using C-language
and Allegro. Graphics are created and rendered fully with
3D Studio Max, except couple of 2d-pictures made with
Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop. I just count that the
source contains 7107 lines of C-code.
We also have another project, Outburst, almost finished,
but we're not going to release it, because it contains
too old technology... (and it's shit anyway)
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DREAMSCAPE						[10]
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Dreamscape is a little group which makes freeware games.
At the moment, we've got three members, programmer,
graphicsartist and designer/musician.
We don't take new members, but if you're EXCELLENT artist,
contact us! Mail me if you want to join. (lsoft@mbnet.fi)

See our homepages at:
	www.dreamscap.cjb.net

New versions are available at our homepages.
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CREDITS							[11]
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Programming....................Mika Halttunen

Game design....................Teemu Ruokolainen
				Mika Halttunen

Graphics.......................Mika Halttunen

Musics.........................Teemu Ruokolainen

Documentation (finnish)........Mika Halttunen

Documentation (english)........Teemu Ruokolainen
				Mika Halttunen

Greetz:

	Dreamscape - members
	Mikrobitti - magazine
	Pelit - magazine

You can reach me by dropping mail to lsoft@mbnet.fi
Btw, if you found bugs, report them to us and send
feedback about graphics, code and everything.
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