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Assault Wing 1.2
1st Nov 1998
INDEX
-----
1.0 - Story
2.0 - Requirements
* 2.1 - Recommended
* 2.2 - Supported
3.0 - Questions, Problems & Smart Answers
4.0 - Menus
* 4.1 - Keys in Menus
* 4.2 - Specific about Menus
* 4.2.1 - Connect Menu
* 4.2.2 - Factory Menu
* 4.2.3 - Arena Menu
* 4.2.4 - Options Menu
* 4.2.5 - Help Menu
5.0 - The Game Itself
* 5.1 - Keys in the Game
* 5.2 - General about the Game
* 5.3 - Weapons
* 5.4 - Ships
* 5.5 - Bonuses
* 5.6 - Hints
6.0 - External Utilities
* 6.1 - Assault Wing Value Editor
* 6.2 - Level Creator
* 6.3 - Readme
7.0 - Miscellaneous
* 7.1 - Lead Artist's Comment
* 7.2 - Ville's Ideas
* 7.3 - Pekka about Sounds
* 7.4 - Speed Considerations
* 7.5 - A Few Words about Assault Wing
* 7.6 - The Rules of Assault Wing
8.0 - Terms of Distribution
9.0 - Credits
1.0 - Story:
------------
It's 202020 AD and the world has gone through at least ten nuclear holocausts.
The solution to worldwide pollution has been found several times, but in a
few centuries people forgot all the talk about it and began polluting again.
Many cool things have been invented and at least as many have been dumped.
In the year 202020 the latest fashion in the computer scene is to play _old_
games. So, two to four friends have gathered for an intensive game of Assault
Wing, the hit game of the late second millenium. You are these guys and gals.
Your mission is to have fun and SHOOT THEM UP!
2.0 - Requirements:
-------------------
- 486DX 50MHz
- SVGA
- roundly 8MB RAM
- VBE 2.0 compatible video card or driver
- two enthusiastic players
2.1 - Recommended:
------------------
- Pentium 75MHz
- SVGA 17"
- very fast video card with VRAM or WRAM
- four enthusiastic players and one or two joysticks or a mouse
- Sound Blaster, Gravis Ultrasound or compatible for sound effects
2.2 - Supported:
----------------
- sound card..: Sound Blaster 2.0
Sound Blaster 16
Gravis Ultrasound
- mouse.......: Microsoft
Mouse Systems
Logitech
PS/2
- joystick....: all standard ones
- display.....: any display capable of 640x480 with 256 colors
- display card: all cards supporting VBE 2.0 standard
3.0 - Questions, Problems & Smart Answers:
------------------------------------------
Q:The game says I don't have enough memory.
A:Buy more, it's cheap nowadays. You could also try removing SMARTDrive.
Q:The game says no video modes or VBE2 support was found.
A:You must have a VBE 2.0 compatible video card or driver. If you don't have
one try Scitech's Display Doctor (also known as UniVBE). You can find the
latest version from the Internet by going straight to the WWW-site at
http://www.scitechsoft.com/. One of the versions that work with Assault
Wing can be found on names SDD53A-D.ZIP for DOS only install and SDD53A.ZIP
for DOS and Win95 install. You must also have linear frame buffer enabled
which Display Doctor does by default.
Q:Why do all the other shoot-your-friend-ups look jerky after I've played
Assault Wing?
A:Assault Wing runs by default at 50 frames per second (fps) compared to the
20-40 fps the other games have.
Q:Why does the game slow down?
A:You have set too large a screen mode and window size. Decrease them in
the Options menu or add the following line to AWING.INI under the title
[Options]
FrameSkip=yes
Q:Why don't all graphic modes work on my computer?
A:It's probably up to your monitor or display card. All modes just do not
work on all monitors or display cards.
Q:The game says 'Font not found'.
A:You probably forgot to unzip the package with -d option. Try this:
PKUNZIP.EXE -d AWING12.ZIP C:\GAMES\AWING
4.0 - Menus:
------------
4.1 - Keys in Menus:
--------------------
In most (all?) menus you can move with vertical cursor keys. You can also
use mouse or joystick if they are connected. Switches can be switched with
enter or horizontal cursor keys. To go one menulevel back, press ESC. But
there are some exceptions to these general keys.
Screen shots can be taken almost anytime by pressing F9. The pictures are
saved as AWCAP###.PCX.
Keys in Factory menu:
+ and - : change the number of players
extra key : show info on an item
other game keys : move around and select weaponry and ship
F1,F2,F3,F4 : select/create pilots
Keys in Arena menu:
enter : add an arena to the playlist
delete : remove an arena from the playlist
ctrl-arrow left : empty the playlist
ctrl-arrow right : add all arenas to the playlist
F1 : random arenas
F2 : allow/decline randomizer to select an arena many times
F3 : lock/unlock selected arenas
+ and - : change the number of arenas to be randomized
4.2 - Specific about Menus:
---------------------------
4.2.1 - Connect Menu:
---------------------
In Connect menu you can establish a modem connection between two computers
and play Assault Wing together. However, this feature is not finished and
is more like an unpleasant monsterbug than a fun-filled experience.
Nevertheless, here is some advice on the Connect menu.
To play Assault Wing by modem you must do the following things:
1. Choose a name for all the players. This is done in the Factory menu by
pressing F1-F4 depending on the number of the player whose name is to be
changed. The rest of the numbered steps are to be done in the Connect
menu.
2. Choose the COM port your modem is connected to.
3. Choose a connection rate (in bits per second). Rationally speaking,
the bigger the better. I actually don't know why there are two choices
here :).
4. Choose whether your computer or the remote computer is the host computer.
You may want to make the decision before you reach this step by talking
(on the phone, in the street, whatever). Remember that one computer must
be the host and the other must not be the host.
5. Press Init Modem. This will make Assault Wing direct modem commands to
the COM port you chose earlier.
6. Press Command Modem. Now you can write commands to your modem. Use your
skills to dial your friend or to answer an incoming call. Once you
have established a connection (no data packing preferred) press ESC so
that you can move the cursor again.
7. Press Connect. Follow the instructions you see on the screen and wait
for a few seconds for some data to be transferred. Then press a key to
exit the Connect menu.
Before actually playing the game you should choose the same arenas to be
played. Also remember to set EXACTLY the same settings in the Options menu.
All this fuzz would not be necessary if we had had more time to finish
this (yes, it is unfinished. please note that).
After you have made everything right you are allowed to actually play the
game. You are lucky if you are able to play four arenas without the game
going out of synchronization. When this happens, you will not be informed.
You will probably just wonder why the guys at the other computer are flying
like blind fish and shooting at everything else but your ship. Also keep in
mind that an arena may be safely finished only by waiting the play time to
elapse or by genociding all enemies and landing. If you press ESC and F10,
the other computer will most likely crash :). Good luck!
4.2.2 - Factory Menu:
---------------------
In Factory menu players are able to move their selectors simultaneously with
thrust and rotation keys and select their main and special weapons and ship
by pressing fire. Each player's selections are shown in the upper part of the
screen. A short info on a weapon or a ship can be shown by pressing the extra
key.
To change the amount of players press +/- in this menu. You can select
your own player information by pressing F1-F4 (players 1-4) and selecting
your name from the roster with arrow keys. If your name cannot be found, you
can create it by typing it in the roster window. Every player's controls,
ship, weapons and battle statistics are saved in the file AWING.INI. You
can use a text editor to have a look at this data :).
4.2.3 - Arena Menu:
-------------------
Arena menu is divided into three parts. In the topmost part you see all the
selectable arenas in a scrollable list. In the middle part there are all
the arenas you have selected and in the last part is described the arena
your cursor in the first list points to. You can select arenas with
space/enter and remove them with delete. Pressing ctrl-left clears the list
while ctrl-right adds all arenas to the list. You are not able to select
more than 11 arenas at a time.
+ and - change the number of arenas to randomize, which is done with F1.
Arenas can be randomized so that duplicate arenas are not allowed. Press F2
to switch that feature on and off. If you have selected arenas that you
would like to play over and over again press F3 to lock the arenas. Now they
will stay in the arena list instead of being removed after a game session.
4.2.4 - Options Menu:
---------------------
In Options menu you can toggle switches with enter and change numeric values
by using left and right arrow keys. You can also choose whether a match ends
when playtime is up or when all but one player run out of lives. Just press
enter on lives/playtime to do this.
In the submenu called Setup you can redefine each player's keys and calibrate
your joystick and do other setup things.
4.2.5 - Help Menu:
------------------
This menu provides you with some help. You can scroll the text with up and
down arrows (sorry, but we didn't have time to remove the flickering).
5.0 - The Game Itself:
----------------------
This section tells about the thing behind the Play Game button in the main
menu.
5.1 - Keys in the Game:
-----------------------
Each player's game key defaults are:
Player1 Player2 Player3 Player4
Thrust: W Num Up I Joystick1 Up
Left: A Num Left J Joystick1 Left
Right: D Num Right L Joystick1 Right
Fire: Left Shift Right Ctrl B Joystick1 Button1
Special: S Num Down K Joystick1 Button2
Extra: Z Num Ins M Joystick1 Down
These defaults can be changed in Options -> Setup. Mouse can also be used in
controlling a ship (actually it may be better than analog joystick).
During the game session each player controls his ship with his own thrust,
left and right keys. Weapons can be used by pressing the fire or special
key.
The extra key has several functions. First, when you get knocked out (you
can't move or shoot), suicide can be committed by pressing your extra key.
Also weapons can be changed. After landing on a docking place, press extra
to reveal a simple menu where you are able to move the little yellow outline
box with your ship control keys. When you press fire, an operation
correspondent to the position of your little yellow outline box is performed.
You will understand when you try it out. Pressing the extra key again (or
getting violently pushed away from the docking place) you are instantly
equipped with the main and secondary weapon you have chosen.
Please remember that you will not be able to change a degraded weapon.
Other keys in the game:
pause : pause game
ESC : quit game, confirmed by pressing F10
F9 : screen capture
5.2 - General about the Game:
-----------------------------
The object of the game is, as you already may know, that every player tries
to shoot his friends up. The easiest way to achieve this goal is to use the
weapons your ship is equipped with. Nevertheless, a true guru is able to
kill without shooting. Weapons are described in section 5.3.
An arena is the place all the ships fly in. There are different kinds of
walls. Most walls can be destroyed by shooting at them. The most common
type is harmful to crash into. Colliding into soft wall, rubber wall or
icy wall will not cause your ship any damage. Rubber wall just bounces your
ship to the opposite direction. Icy wall is slippery and it can be slid on.
Flammable wall can be set afire with a flamethrower, for example.
Docking places are important platforms. After landing on it you can repair
your ship and change weapons (extra key). You should also land on it when you
are the last player alive.
Every time you kill somebody (excluding yourself) you get a frag. When you
crash on a wall or get killed by your own bullets, you lose one frag. The
player with most frags in the end of a game session consisting of one or
more arenas is the winner. At least we planned it that way. That doesn't
mean you can't declare the player with least frags a winner... (weird :)
There are bonuses teleporting anywhere (if you haven't switched them off)
that mostly aid you in achieving your goal, yet you should keep in mind that
there is a 20 per cent possibility that something bad will happen when you
get a bonus. Bonuses are described in section 5.5.
5.3 - Weapons:
--------------
Normal Gun
This one acts like a slingshot; firing velocity isn't too high, which can
also be your advantage. Firing slow shots over a mountain is something you
can't do with a pulse laser!
Upgrades: Duogun -> Multishot -> Supershot
Trifire
You can't actually miss anything with this weapon; bullets fly all over
the place. Trifire does damage nicely when you hit your enemy with
all the three bullets! There is also no need to bash your hand on the
fire button, fire rate is low.
Upgrade: Triscat
Spreadfire
This is good for people with low accuracy and low damage inflict rates and
low.. Well, other people may use it too. :) Real fun starts when you get
the weapon upgrade. (How does a machine shotgun sound to you ?-)
Upgrades: Spreadfire Quadlet -> Hail Storm
Shotgun
Fires eight bullets per shot. Shotgun has a very long reload time
compared to other main weapons, but it is very powerful in hands of an
experienced sniper (flying an Obliterator (with a weapon power boost)).
Upgrade: Shotgun Prima
Bounce Cannon
Bouncy bounce... Elastic balls of armor piercing substance are quite nice
when left bouncing on a docking place. Besides of just damaging the
victim these balls push him hard! Just be extra careful when shooting
near a wall ;-)
Upgrade: Bouncegun
Dart Blaster
Dart blaster fires titanium darts. They can even be shot through a thick
wall, an ability that should be wisely used. For example, you could try
to stay behind a corner or a narrow wall in head-to-head-fights.
Upgrade: Destructor Darts
Pulse Laser
Pulse laser is a weapon that emits short bursts of coherent light. Green
light. And light travels very fast. In case you never miss, you might want
to use pulse laser. However, in close range dogfights pulse laser is less
efficient than any other main weapon, so keep your distance!
Upgrades: Autolaser -> Ion Gun
Dumbfire
The good old high explosive projectile slinging cannon is ready for your
use. Inaccurate people: don't bother!
Upgrades: Comet Cannon -> Hellraiser
Bombs
These high explosive, collision triggered bombs may not be the best weapon
in accuracy, but it doesn't make them useless. Maybe the best way to use
bombs is to use them as airbombs; fly in your enemy's course and drop 'em
away! Boom! Oh, and use A-Wing :)=.
Upgrade: Megabombs
Flamethrower
This blowtorch burrrns! It fires a short burst of fire that can also be
used in getting rid of unwanted walls. Flamethrower is very dangerous
in skilled hands. However, if you can't get close enough this just
might not be your choice.
Upgrade: Dragon Breath
Acid Shower
Lands on any type of ground and starts to burst highly corrosive acid
blobs.
No upgrades.
Sonar Wave
Shoots a wave that travels through walls and everything. Does a lot of
direct damage so don't try to surf on this wave or you'll soon surf with
the Grim Reaper!
No upgrades.
Gunpod
A small pod with a gun. With the aid of its Nanotech Anti-Grav System
(NAGS) it stays airborne. When an enemy is sighted, it starts shooting at
him. Equipped with brains of a fish, gunpod's cyborg-controlled aiming
system is not too smart. This is why the real threat comes only from a
swarm of gunpods. You are only allowed to have ten active gunpods at a
time. If there were more, they would revolt.
Upgrade: Rocket Pod
Rockets
Rockets are fired in groups of four. Each rocket continues its voyage
recklessly straight forward until it hits something and blows up or
until it runs out of fuel. Relatively short reload time makes this weapon
popular. :-P
Upgrades: Berserkers -> Gigamissiles
Soil Sampler
This is how it works: First, you dig some ground off (by pressing special
when you are on ground). Second, you wait for the device to compress all
the dirt into bullets. Third, you have some fun spilling all the stuff over
your opponents (by pressing the special again).
No upgrades.
Minigun
Shoots a burst of lightning-fast, invisible bullets. Extremely useful in
strong gravity fields.
Upgrades: Super Minigun -> Vulcan Autocannon
Hydra
Looks like a grenade, flies like a grenade, explodes like a grenade, but
produces seven grenades more. A good instrument of destruction and chaos.
Hint: press your special weapon button again when your hydra is airborne.
Another hint: press it twice with megablast and let the fat lady sing.
Upgrade: Megablast!
Toxic Cloud, aka. The Fart
Toxic cloud is truly lethal. A well placed cloud is able to melt even a
Behemoth. But the gas can also be turned against you, so be sure not to fly
into a dead end when emitting the gas.
Upgrades: Toxic Grenade -> Toxic Shuriken
Shuriken
This enlarged ninja weapon has the potential to tear a ship to shreds. Very
good against ships with low robustness.
Upgrade: Jigsaw
Hydrogen Bomb
A bomb that explodes with great magnitude. When dropped, it is left behind
just like the regular bomb. Hydrogen bomb is not so useful in games of two
players since it is relatively easy to dodge.
Upgrades: Hydrogen Dump -> Hydrogen Hydra
Multicannon
Shoots a ring of bullets around you. Does the most damage when you shoot
while passing the enemy.
Upgrades: Multilaser -> Fire Field
Mine Burst
Leaves a couple of high explosive collision triggered mines behind you. A
very nasty weapon if used while someone is chasing you. Get it?
Upgrade: Magnetic Mine Burst
Homing Missile
A missile that locks itself to the nearest enemy. It can change its target
airborne.
Upgrade: Quite Smart Missile
Waypoint Mine
A very high explosive mine that moves between two waypoints. The worst
thing in using waypoint mine is the fact that you'll have to remember where
you left your mines. If you don't, you will be as dead as your opponents!
Usage: Pressing your special weapon button the first time places waypoint A.
When you press it again, waypoint B will be placed (along with the mine).
No upgrades.
Hyperspace
This goes for a very handy escape pod. The fact is that you don't have to
eject your ship in a dangerous situation, just press the button and let
your hyperspace device create a wormhole that teleports you and your ship
to a random place. And guess what? You can use this even when you are
knocked out! But remember that you are not able to teleport twice in a
short time (this is due to the hypercomplicated megastructure of the
universe).
Upgrade: Stable Wormhole (which is used in the same way as Waypoint Mine)
Flash Bomb
Rock the Discotheque.. =) Hold on your eyes, coz this starts flashing the
victim's screen. And with every flash it takes nicely energy from the ship
it has diseased. (Seriously, flash bomb makes your eyes burn, so USE THIS
ONLY ON YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY.)
No upgrades.
Repulsor
Repulsor is actually a gigantic magnet that is VERY dangerous when used
well. Everything is pushed from its way .. I mean EVERYTHING!
Upgrade: Suck-o-Matic
System Jammer
Jams its victim's flight controls for a while or until the jammed ship hits
a wall. If you have good accuracy, you should try this out.
Upgrade: Control Mixer
Sparrow
Sparrow looks like a rocket, but it is launched from behind and it is more
powerful. If you are accurate and tend to make runaways, this weapon is
really made for you.
Upgrades: Doublesparrow -> Gigasparrow
Quake
No no, this is not ID's Quake. This is a weapon that can shake a ship like
the wind shakes leaves. Ground can also be shaken.
No upgrades.
Sword
A very powerful melee weapon. You should be a flyer guru and fast too.
A-Wing is something with this one.
Upgrade: Two Swords
Proton Torpedo
Proton torpedos are formed in a temperature of several million degrees
centigrade. As a consequence, the torpedo, when shot, flies not regarding
the gravity! It is possible, though somewhat infrequent, that the proton
mass slows down and starts floating in the air. However, after a few
seconds the lethal proton porridge gets unstable due to the unimaginable
differences in temperature and explodes.
No upgrades.
Shaker Missile
This Bonzo class missile flies rather slowly, but when it explodes, the
consequences are horrible. The shockwave the explosion generates, is
comparable with hurricanes and nuclear bombs. This is a very, very, very
dangerous weapon when opposing a light ship.
No upgrades.
5.4 - Ships:
------------
V-Wing
V-Wing is an average ship, so it is Speed ��������������
recommended for new players. No Weapon Power �������������
surprises, no disadvantages. Armor ��������
Upgrades Weapon Power,
Flight Stabilizers
Behemoth
Behemoth was designed to survive a Speed ����������
direct hit of almost anything so an Weapon Power ���������
extra thick armor plating was used. Armor ������������������
Unfortunately, that inflicted a Upgrades Aerodynamics,
noticable speed degrade. Weapon Power
A-Wing
A-Wing is made of very light composite Speed �����������������
material. That's why only one thruster Weapon Power ����������������
is needed for the high maneuverability Armor ����
and speed it has. A good way to make Upgrades Armor,
your friends angry is to use the hit- Fast Recoverability
and-run-technique. A-Wing is no good
with close range weapons.
Obliterator
With its built-in weapon power Speed �����������
amplifier Obliterator demolishes almost Weapon Power ������������������
everything. Luckily, all berserks who Armor ���������
fly with this ship tend to be slow. Upgrades Weapon Power,
Lucky Amulet
Crab
Crab is a cleverly degined ship. Rumors Speed ��������������
tell about a grenade that was in a Weapon Power ��������������
certain collision course with a Crab. Armor ��������
Still the Crab was not hit, the Upgrades Aerodynamics &
grenade just flew straight through Weapon Power,
it! Crab is also quite fast a ship. A Four-Leaf Clover
Avatar
What flies through a fiery field of Speed ��������
exploding hydras getting only minor Weapon Power ������������������
scratches and deals death and major Armor ��������������������
damage all over the place? Of course, Upgrade Bonus Magnet
it's Avatar, the heaviest ship around.
Excalibur
Ever heard of Excalibur the legendary Speed �����������
sword? Well, Excalibur the ship is Weapon Power ���������������
quite much like it. Lethal to mess Armor ����������
with and able to cut stone. Too bad Upgrades none
it's quite slow a ship.
Amazon
Amazons are made in the most secret Speed ��������������������
tropical forest. There lives an ancient Weapon Power ��������������������
tribe practising black magic. As a Armor ���
result of a weekly voodoo session a Upgrade Repair System 2.0
leaf-covered Amazon bursts into the
air like a lightning with its deadly
weapons glittering against the sun.
Spear
Spear is excellent in maneuverability Speed ����������������
and speed. Moreover, its cylinder- Weapon Power ���������������
shaped hull is the best there is for Armor �����
flying through dense mine fields. All Upgrades none
these advantages revenge themselves in
thin armor plating that makes Spear a
good ship only in experienced hands.
Cludge
Cludge is a do-it-yourself kind of Speed �����������������
ship. It's cheap and easy to upgrade. Weapon Power ����������
The worst thing about it is that as Armor ����
default Cludge has only an extra Upgrades Spare Parts
booster; it's armor and weapon power
are not very good. But wait until you
find the spare parts bonus.
5.5 - Bonuses:
--------------
Quick Repair
Increases your armor a little.
Surprise Bomb
Decreases your armor a bit.
Wormhole
Your ship's matter travels through another dimension to a place about to
be defined.
Drone
You gain an additional barrel to your main gun. It aids you in your holy
mission. (And don't ask us why is it called Drone. That's rather a long
story.)
Energy Shield
Energy shield is the more often used name of the "small object to
antimatter converter". After being installed to your ship, it
dematerializes most of the crap that was about to hit you into small but
bright flashes (one per particle). But because this device takes a little
while to load, it won't save you from sure death.
Repair System
This one repairs your ship's armors continuously if they happen to be
damaged. As an extra, you get to recover more quickly when you are knocked
out.
Engine Trouble
Something goes wrong in your engines and you suffer the consequences.
Thanks to the engine repair droid every ship is fitted with, your engines
should be fixed in twenty seconds.
Booster
Your ship gains a hi-tech boosting device that almost doubles your maximum
velocity and maneuverability. As an extra nice thing this device makes
flames come out of your thrusters.
Fire Ring
After collecting this bonus, two flaming comets start to circle clockwise
around your ship causing major damage to anybody who dares to be too near
to you.
Main Gun Jammer
Halves your main gun's fire rate. This will hang on for a while and no
weapon upgrade will help you.
Special Weapon Accelerator
Your secondary weapon's loadtime is halved. This won't last long, but
doubled firepower sure is an ability to make you a true killer. Try to
get two in row :).
Special Weapon Quickloader
Your secondary weapon is instantly loaded and ready to rock'n'roll. Be
sure to notice this so that you can have all the advantage of it.
Jailball
The nightmare of every pilot. The force that rips your wings off. The
lawnmower that cuts the last violet in your garden. Practically speaking,
jailball clings to your ship and never lets go! Only after one minute of
desperate fly-trying you are unshackled, unless you have found another one.
Gravity Well
Gravity well is a well of gravity. You get sucked in, you know? No direct
damage is done. However, if there happens to be the remains of someone's
megablast, YOU may be in trouble...
Sidearmor
Sidearmor consists of two separate shields that are magnetically connected
close to your ship. Because the shields are at your sides, they provide no
help to shots closing from ahead or behind.
Megaboost
You instantly get loads of addons to your ship. Be quick because in a
short time you will lose all your nice-looking thingamagigs.
In addition to the bonuses listed above there are ship-specific bonuses that
are listed in chapter Ships (5.4). Also many main and special weapons have
upgrades that are listen in chapter Weapons (5.3).
5.6 - Hints:
------------
Two players playing Assault Wing may find the game a bit slow and boring. In
such situations both players should equip themselves with a fast ship
(A-Wing or Amazon) and have a very effective don't-come-in-my-way-weapon
(Shuriken or Dumbfire should do the job). With these equipment the game
should be full of adrenaline because you may get killed if you don't watch
out!
When you seem to be losing all the time, try changing your weapons. If this
doesn't help, change your ship. There are some combinations of ships that
are unfair. Imagine two Obliterators and a A-Wing. This doesn't concern
gurus.
If the game pauses for a long time (without you pressing the pause key!) you
should wait a few seconds for Assault Wing Crash Guard (TM) to activate. As
this happens, messages start to pop on the screen. Following these
instruction-wanna-bes you are able to continue the game almost as if nothing
had happened.
6.0 - External Utilities:
-------------------------
6.1 - Assault Wing Value Editor:
--------------------------------
Filename: UTIL\AW-EDIT.EXE
Use this proggy to change some constants in AWING.EXE. Make weapons load
faster, change all the ships into pervertic mutants, finetune the damage
done by fire ring. You are advised to use the Value Editor with fun in mind.
Warning: brainlessity may completely destroy playability, therefore always
keep a backup of AWING.EXE before changing its constants!
Keys:
tab : select between weapons and ships
+/- : select weapon/ship
a-z : quickselect weapon/ship
cursor keys : select the value to be changed
enter : edit value
esc : quit (and save if you wish)
6.2 - Level Creator:
--------------------
Filename: UTIL\LEVCREAT.EXE
You can create your own arenas with this one. Store the arenas as PCX and
use this to convert them to Assault Wing arenas. The program doesn't need
a resident mouse driver. You can configure Level Creator the first time you
run it or by giving the executable any parameter.
Example: LEVCREAT.EXE asdf
All commands are listed in the right side block. Select them with left mouse
button. Right mouse button brings you one level backwards in the menu tree.
There are no keyboard shortcuts yet. Sorry :I.
6.3 - Readme:
-------------
Filename: README.EXE
With this program you are able to read the documentation files AWING.DOC,
AWINGFIN.DOC and the revision file AWING.REV. All keyboard commands can
be seen by pressing F1 in the program.
7.0 - Miscellaneous:
--------------------
7.1 - Lead Artist's Comment:
----------------------------
All the graphics was designed for 640x480 mode so you should not blame me if
the gfx looks stupid on your jerky-slow machine. Pentium-machines are very
cheap nowadays so if you have a 486 you should think about buying a new
machine. When you play Assault Wing please try to keep the resolution of
400x300 or better because 320x240 just doesn't look good enough!
7.2 - Ville's Ideas:
--------------------
Never switch off bonuses. They create fun and surprising moments.
All the other switches are worth switching. (and it is possible to mess with
the INI-file :). You may find something to be considered fun.
7.3 - Pekka about Sounds:
-------------------------
We're sorry but we don't have 10000mk synths to create samples, so we just
had to (or I just had to) rip them from various places. A couple of samples
were sampled from Ville's cheap synth and the rest I've made with various
programs.
7.4 - Speed Considerations:
---------------------------
The speed of this game depends highly on the system RAM to video RAM transfer
speed. Reason to this is that the game updates your viewport 50 times per
second to give you some smooth action. Here's a little table that helps you
choose the correct video settings for your computer.
+---------+------------+--------+--------------------------+
| players | resolution | window | minimum video card speed |
+---------+------------+--------+--------------------------+
| 4 | 640x480 | 100% | 13.1 MB/s |
| 3 | 640x480 | 90% | 8.2 MB/s |
| 3 | 512x384 | 100% | 4.3 MB/s |
| 2 | 400x300 | 100% | 2.7 MB/s |
| 2 | 320x240 | 100% | 1.7 MB/s |
+---------+------------+--------+--------------------------+
Parallax scroll doesn't increase the video speed requirements, but instead
your system RAM speed must be at least 3 times faster than the required video
speed thus with 640x480, 100%, 4 players your system memory transfer speed
ought to be near 40 MB/s.
Don't forget that also the calculations take some time so all values above
are valid only if nothing is moving on the screen.
7.5 - Few Words about Assault Wing:
-----------------------------------
Mikko and I got the idea of making this kind of game when we were playing
the famous mother of all PC shoot-your-friends-ups, Auts. Although Auts was
the best (and probably the only one) of its kind at the time, we thought we
could make a better game. You can read about the creation history of Assault
Wing in the AWING.REV file.
Mikko began working on the low-level code, parallax scroll, gfx functions,
sound system, etc. When some kind of base code had been created, I began
coding things like weapons, menus and such. I also worked on all kinds of
details and tried to carry out ideas. And so did Mikko.
During the coding of Ouch (as we called it) some of our friends got
interested in it and helped us by giving ideas and bug reports. Pekka should
be mentioned especially for doing all the fancy graphics. Without him this
game would probably be filled with crappy-looking hand-drawn graphics.
But meanwhile this game gets released at Assembly '97, Mikko is in the army.
That makes it much harder to code this game, because I'll have to do it all
alone! But that doesn't mean that there will be no updates or things like
that. I will carry out all kinds of ideas when I get some time for them.
- Ville, just before 1.0 beta got released
I would really like to thank all the people who sent mail concerning Assault
Wing. It's really nice to know that there is something out there after all :).
Thanks go also to all the registered people, who help us buy PMODE (still
some money is needed, so don't hesitate to write to Pekka and ask about the
ways to send money to us)!
- Ville, after the release of 1.1 beta
When I started to make this game I knew that if I was going to do money with
graphics it would come from game business. I have always been interested
in game graphics, so when I found out that Ville and Mikko were doing this
kind of a game I got interested.
I didn't expect Assault Wing (at the time it was called Ouch) to make any
money or anything at all. It has been some kind of a "test" to me and it
has given me respect to other people in this project. Especially I was
happy about Mikko's and Ville's activity in making this game. I thought
that they were kinda' lazy but what actually happened was just the
opposite 'cause when Assault Wing grew and came better their speed
was so fast that I was the one who was in trouble.
Now when Assault Wing is (almost) finished I'm very happy about it. I can
only say that AW is good! One thing that tells about it is all those
nights we have spent at Tuukka's place playing AW until 2am. I'm hoping
to move on to bigger fields of game business and hoping to get company from
my friends on that voyage. This doesn't mean that I will not do graphics
for Assault Wing anymore. I will always do new graphics to AW when needed.
Also thanks to all those people for the huge amount of e-mail... It has
been more than 10000mk. There are even rumors of Assault Wing 2 .. but
that's a different story...
- Pekka
7.6 - The Rules of Assault Wing:
--------------------------------
#1 : "Greedy boys shall die"
#2 : "Men with big guns make mistakes"
#3 : "If you play three sessions good, the fourth will be horrible"
8.0 - Terms of Distribution:
----------------------------
You may spread Assault Wing only in the original package (unmodified that
means). No payment can be charged without our permission. You can also play
Assault Wing freely as long as you wish. But if you like this game, you
should tell us. That will make us very happy. Sponsoring our work is also
an option. Write us for more info.
We can be contacted by e-mail in the following addresses:
Mikko.Tiihonen@hut.fi
ppalmu@mbnet.fi
ville.nurmi@cyber.fipnet.fi
We will probably share our mail concerning Assault Wing, so it doesn't matter
who you send your mail to.
9.0 - Credits:
--------------
Programming: Mikko Tiihonen (Engine & utilities)
Ville Nurmi (Weapons & other stuff)
Jukka Jalkanen (GUS & AWE32 & IPX & serial support (where?))
Graphics: Pekka Palmu (Lead Artist)
Ville Nurmi (Couple of smaller sprites & palette horrors)
Sounds: Pekka Palmu
Ville Nurmi
All those who we ripped our sounds from (don't be angry).
Arenas: Pekka Palmu
Viet Nguyen
Documents: Ville Nurmi
Ideas, abc: Mikko Miettinen
Matti Mustonen
Viet Nguyen
Ville Nurmi
Pekka Palmu
Markus Salom�ki
Mikko Tiihonen
Tuukka V�limaa ("Uuh this idea credit list IS long" - Pekka)
Betatesters: Tuukka V�limaa (The official betatest team)
Matti Mustonen
Markus Salom�ki
Markus Kujala (The unofficial betatester from America)
Thanks to: Markus Kujala
Juha Ker�t�r
Janne Sinivirta
Made in: Suomi/Finland
