*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*
Welcome to ->>> * Bigguns the Battleship Simulator * Version 3.3
By Don Christie.
*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*
* This new version 3.3 introduces vapor trails 300 feet
long behind the Harpoon Cruise Missiles and adds a Help screen for
all of the keys in the game, plus a new Relative Movement Line
on your radar to help avoid Collisions or Intercept a ship by
using the best course and speed.
*** New Game Changes!!! ***
* Here are the New changes for this New Version 3.3:
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* A new Help screen for most of the keys in the game,
Just press the "H" key in the Game or DEMO. Any key to go back
to the game.
* Streaming vapor trails behind the Harpoon missiles, these
are 300 feet long.
* A new set of keys player1 ( left and right Bracket [] ) to move
anywhere in the grid(in the direction of your gun) quickly
backward and forward. Player 2 uses <> keys.
* All of the other ships now make random turns up to 90 degrees,
except when you are within 500 yards of any refueling ship.
* A new relative movement line(Orange line) on the radar that does
2 things, allows you to steer a course to intercept a ship or
avoid a collision.
--> New feature: An orange line called the relative movement line
appears on the hooked ship. This projects his
movement ahead and shows you where he will be.
Put this line in the center of your radar by
changing your course or speed, or combo of both,
this will cause you to intercept the ship. If
you want to avoid a collision move this line
away from your radar center by either changing
course and speed or combo of both.
* A new MENU option "N" key to turn on or off the Harpoon missiles
so you can play a GUNS only game or use your Harpoon missiles.
* More stars in the night sky and other minor fixes.
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* Here are the changes for the previous version 3.2:
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* Each battleship has 99 Harpoon Cruise missiles that can be shot
at any ship. 3 can be shot at a time. These missiles can be
reloaded if you can get within 100 yds and 1 knot of a large
ship, Titanic, Olympic or Luistania. Missiles can shoot across
the entire grid over 50 miles. Missiles travel at over 600 miles
per hour. The missiles can be shot down by your machine gun.
* A new Pause Key during the game or Demo. Just press PAUSE.
* A new key to take a photo of screen 1 (top screen) press the
TILDE key: Photo is called BGPHOTO.PCX in game directory.
* 2 keys to play Midi Music.
HOME Key: Play next song, DELETE Key: Stop the music.
* New sounds for the missiles launching and within close range
of your ship.
* Missiles can be steered in practice mode.
F6 and F7 keys.
* The 50 caliber machine gun has been programmed to shoot down
the incoming missiles! It takes 35 hits.
* Missiles appear as snall crosses on the radar and circles
surround the missiles so you can track at long range on the
screen.
* Name of the ship hooked on radar is displayed on your gunmount.
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
Read ALL of the Documentation, it will really help with the
game. It isn't that long!. You don't have to read Player #2's keys
yet.
I put over 11 months of work and research in BIGGUNS and over
18400 lines of 'C' code and hours and hours of testing. I feel that
Bigguns is a high quality and accurate game simulation of
Battleship warfare and also lots of extra fun to shoot down the
planes while the battleship battle is raging and launch Harpoon
Cruise Missiles at your opponent while trying to shoot down his !
Thank you very much!
Don Christie
------------------------------
* Important !!! set the Game Speed first with the A or Z keys in the
Menu, even before you try the Demo or play a new game.
* I have a 300 megahertz PC and set it at 85-87 to slow it down to
normal speed.
* 100 is the fastest, use 100 if you have a 100 megahertz or below.
* You probably need at least a 166 megahertz PC at least to enjoy
BIGGUNS.
If you want to see Bigguns in action right away, go into the program
by typing BIGGUNS and then press space to get by the first intro screen.
You are now in the Main Menu, first set the Game Speed for your PC
with the A and Z keys, then just press the 'D' key to watch the demo
of 2 Battleships fighting each other with planes attacking each
battleship and machine guns from the battleships shooting back as
well as Harpoon Cruise Missiles.
Bigguns can be played in regular DOS or a Windows 95/98 DOS Box.
If played in regular DOS the file CWSDPMI.EXE is needed and is
provided. You can also just create a shortcut in Windows to the
bigguns.exe file.
Bigguns is designed to be more of a real battleship game than an
arcade game, although it has an arcade mode for easier play. The game can
be played against the computer on 10 different levels of play, or
against a friend on the same keyboard. One player can use the joystick in
game port #1 and the other the keyboard to move the guns and fire.
You can also just play a practice game by yourself and move the
battleships around and practice shooting. The action is seen from each
person's view point on both screens at the same time. Each screen covers
32 degrees of view. Moving the gun changes your view point and you see all
of the objects in the 3D world move around you.
Bigguns is designed to be a 'close to' accurate simulation
of Battleship warfare between 2 battleships, with accurate gun
shots from (1/100 of 1 degree of elevation) and gun true bearing
shots of (1/10 of 1 degree). In Bigguns each player has a radar
that can be scaled from 800 yards to around 20 miles to aid in the
gun battle. All ships within range and gun shots can be seen on
the radar, and also the planes appear on radar. Ranges to other
ships can be displayed in yards or meters. And a rangefinder is
provided to make more accurate shots. Harpoon missiles appear on
radar and travel over 600 miles per hour. In practice mode use
the [] keys to move anywhere in the grid quickly for player1.
Bigguns features the following ships and objects:
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U.S.S. New Jersey BB 62 - Top Screen Player #1
U.S.S. Iowa BB 61 - Bottom Screen Player #2
The Titanic
Olympic
& Lusitania
and ...
4 U.S. Navy Cruisers from 60's - 80's era
------------------------------------
U.S.S. Harry E. Yarnell CG 17
U.S.S. Biddle CG 34
U.S.S. Richmond K. Turner CG 20
U.S.S. Josephus Daniels CG 27
and...
------------------------------------
A colorful and fast cruise boat with a helicopter on top.
You can steer this boat around in practice mode at up to 50 knots.
and...
------------------------------------
Each Battleship has 64 planes of which 3 at a time can attack the
other battleship on command.
Battleships can get fuel and more planes from Titanic, Olympic or
Lusitania (Brown dots on the radar). Planes can be steered in practice
mode and their guns shot, otherwise they are DRIVEN by
artificial intelligence if playing against the computer battleship
which is any level from 1 to 10.
Each Battleship starts with 99 Harpoon Cruise missiles, 3 of which
can be fired at a time.
*------------------------------------------------------------------*
A 16 inch gun shell can travel a maximum of 42,375 yards on a real
battleship, (23 miles). So it is with Bigguns the Battleship Simulator,
at a maximum of 45 degrees elevation for your gun, the 16 inch shell,
weighing 2700 pounds will shoot 42,375 yards. In real life the shell comes
out the the barrel at 2,500 feet per second. Bigguns uses an overall speed
for the shells that is constant throughout the game, this speed is
2022.50513 feet per second.
* Important!!!, use the Page/Down Page/Up keys along with the up/down
arrow keys to move the big gun up/down faster.
A real Iowa class battleship can fire a shell every 30 seconds
per gun. Bigguns gives the option to fire every 15, 20, or 30 seconds
from your middle gun. Bigguns has a minimum range of about 450 yards at .3
degrees, a game limit not a real limit. The guns in Bigguns can move
in increments of (1/10 of 1 degree of elevation) or (1/100 of 1 degree of
elevation) if needed, you can make a really accurate shot. The guns move
right and left using True bearings, accurate to 1/10 of 1 degree.
The bearings being 0(or 360) thru 359.9 degrees. 0(or 360) is true North,
90 is true east, 180 true south, 270 true west, and every bearing
in between, example 225 is southwest, 45 is northeast.
You can engage in furious gun battles at close or far away ranges.
You have 50x50 miles of ocean to play in and a 20 mile radar to aid
you in the shooting of your shells. All shells for both you and your
enemy can be seen on radar, as well as all of the other ships.
Also all planes are tracked on radar and have course and speed
leaders.
* Important: Player #1 use your range finder by pressing the Enter key.
Player #2 uses the Tab key for his range finder.
Remember to watch you opponents bearing drift and shoot ahead of him
to make your shells meet where he will be when the shell lands. This
is not so easy. Use your range finder by putting the red bar on top or
near the (yellow and red bar) of the center of the range finder.
Watch your radar to see if shells are short or long of the target
and adjust elevation/gun bearing accordingly. Also on the lower left of
each screen, are 2 green number boxes the first from the left is yards to
the target Hooked on radar(see keys section), and true bearing TO the
target FROM your ship. Above this are 2 more number boxes Red and Pink,
these show range and bearing of your last shots, these are True bearings
FROM the target! So if it says 1000 and 180.0 you hit 1000 yards FROM the
target HOOKED on radar and exactly south(180 degrees) FROM the target,
in this case you would adjust your next shot 1000 yards to the
NORTH from where the shot landed.
You can play a marathon game if desired and choose up to 20 kills to
end the game, in this case, refueling will come into play. You start
out with 2,500,000 gallons of fuel. The faster you go the more fuel
you burn, run out and your a sitting duck. You can refuel by
pulling along side of any of the ships Brown color-coded on radar,
Titanic, Olympic, and Lusitania. You must be within 100 yards of the
refueling ship and 1 knot of the refueling ships speed. You will see
the fuel counter(brown in right lower corner) go up quickly if you can
achieve this. Do not go closer than 36 yards to the refueling ship or you
will collide and receive damage points if collision is turned on.
* Important!!! below
You also get more planes while refueling up to a total of 64 planes.
Also this will resupply your harpoon missiles up to 99.
If you receive 100 damage points(red numbers in the upper left of each
screen) you will be sunk, each Battleship has a sinking animation.
Depending on how many Kills you chose from the main menu the game is over
when those number of Kills are received for a player (1 - 20). Shots
from airplane hits cause 1 damage point against your battleship. A
bullet hole as in glass will appear when you are hit by an airplane
shell, and then disappear after a time messing up your vision of the
screen a little bit. The planes can sink you if you have high damage
points so shoot'em down before they sink you. Shooting a plane causes it
to go back to the other battleship getting him out of your hair for a
while, until he makes the trip back to you. Planes speed up to make the
trip between battleships and then slow down when within 2.5 miles.
You will have to learn the art of when to switch between the Big Gun
and Machine Gun to balance the outcome of the battle.
Bigguns uses the actual size and width of the battleship
to score hits. Anything inside of a 128 feet radius of the center is
40 damage points(ouch). The Battleship is really 108 feet wide, I
allowed a little extra for superstructure hits here. Anything that
would have actually hit the ship for the actual direction(course)
she is facing back or front is 40 points and below depending on how
close to the center the shell actually hits. So you could get 40
points for a hit outside of the center or just a few points
depending on exactly where you hit her, accurate down to the foot
on the ship. It DOES matter which way your ship is ROTATED(course)
for the fall of shot. Show your opponent the long axis of your ship
all of the time and you are more apt to be hit. Airplane hits are
only scored against the battleships from a 128 feet radius from the
center.
Your Battleship is 887 feet long !, remember this when watching
the radar on small scales and you are close to other ships or you will
collide and lose damage points. Take evasive course action if you think
you will collide, even the collision routine gives damage points for how
fast you are going when you collide!, so if you think you cannot avoid a
collision slow down as much as possible! You can collide with any of the
ships out there, the otherships out there are also programmed with their
actual lengths, for collision and gun hits, Yes all of the otherships can
be shot and sunk!, they also get damage points and may take a few hits
depending on exactly where you hit them. The other Battleship, Titanic,
Olympic and Lusitania all have sinking animations. The Navy cruisers and
small cruise boat will disappear when killed, but all ships will reappear
in a random part of the grid somewhere after being sunk, check your
radar and they will still be there somewhere in the 50x50 miles of ocean.
Otherships rebound off the edges of the ocean boudaries to a new course.
Battleships come to zero speed if a boundary is hit.
Bigguns Menu Options:
---------------------
Press the Key in brackets to access Menu Option.
<J>oy #1 on Player 1 or Player 2 - Press "J" - Player 1 or Player 2 gets
the Joystick and either can still use the keyboard.
<H>it Mode Easy - Press "H" - This mode allows for easier battleship
hits, any shell that hits within 1000 feet of radius,
or approx 333 yards/meters scores points.
The closer to the center of the battleship
the more points!
<S>tart Game - Press "S" - Enters the Game
alt <X> - Press "alt X" - Exits the Menu and the Game.
<A>lter / <Z> - Game Speed 1 - 100 - Use this to time the game for
your computer, a 300 megahertz is about 82.
Use higher numbers for slower computers.
<K>ills - Press "K" - Set this to the number of kills required to
win the game (1-20), 3 is the default.
<O>cean Texture On - Press "O" to turn on the moving Ocean, set off if you
have a slower computer.
o<T>herships Speed - This can be Zero, Low, Med, or Fast speed for all
of the other ships speed for the entire game you are
going to play. If otherships collide their speed
is zero until you shoot them and they are reset
randomly somewhere in the grid at their chosen
speed.
<G>un Fire Interval - How many seconds to wait to fire next shot.
30 seconds is real life for 1 gun, you can
also choose 15 or 20 seconds.
<C>ollision with Other Ships - Turn this on and real collisions based
on width and length of otherships are
possible. Turn off and you can play
around by going right through ships!
Damage points are given if a collision
occurs based on your speed.
<P>ractice Mode - This is the fun stuff, turn this on and hits are
still possible, but not kills, also their is no
fuel usage so you can play until the power goes out.
Also keys (1 - 8) Not keypad keys, are used to steer
all of the otherships(to starboard) and the 8/9
keys are used to steer the small cruiser and +- keys
to control his speed up to 50 knots. The F6/F7 keys
steer the planes and the F8/F9 keys make them fire!
The bracket keys (player#1) [] move you fast on the
grid in the direction of your gun-line backward
and forward in the grid. The <> keys do the same
for player#2, remember these only work if
<P>ractice Mode is chosen from the menu.
<L>evel Intelligence BB #2 ( 0 - 10 ) - This is the most important one.
Make sure to set at 0, unless you really want the
other Battleship to fire back at you. This uses some
Artificial Intelligence at Levels 1 - 10 for the computer
Battleship to fight player #1. Also if the planes are
turned on to fight, then the other battleships
machine gun accuracy against your attacking planes
depends on the level set, level #1 being the worst
accuracy, 10 the best.
On all levels above 0 BB#2 tracks your course, computes
the time of flight of the shell for the distance and
shoots where you will be when the shell lands according
to your present course and speed. On level 10 his gun is
not thrown off at all, he goes for an optimum hit to the
center of your ship every time, he can still miss you
but not by much! At all other levels below level 10 his
gun is thrown off by a little more for each lower level.
Level 9 is stll pretty tough.
Maybe try 7 to start. Level 1 of course is the easiest.
The computer battleship shoots less often, makes slower
turns, and his gun is thrown off a number of yards
on the lower levels. Also his machine gun is thrown
off according to the level set against your attacking
planes!
Of course leave this option at Level 0 if you just want
to play around, or play with another person who will
operate the other battleship at the keyboard/Joystick.
You can operate both battleships if the level is set at 0.
<R>un Sim at 1/1 1/2 1/3 time - This controls 2 things, the speed of the
shells, and the speed of the otherships in feet per
second movement. 1/1 would be close to real life, 1/2
is half the time, and 1/3 one third of real time.
The planes remain at a constant speed even though you
choose a different Sim time, you will see larger speed
leaders on radar for planes to compensate for Sim time.
<M>id World to Start All Ships - This is an option that starts all
of the Ships, including Battleships in the center
of the grid and within about 3 miles of each other.
If you set o<T>herships speed to zero and set this
option so can go see the parade of ships. Also
makes for an interesting real fighting game!
<D>emo Mode - Automatically chooses a random level between 8 - 10
and sets BB #1 against BB #2, just sit back and
watch them slug it out. Also comes on after a few
minutes after the game is over. Also the planes are
now envolved in the Demo and fight against the
Battleships!.
<Y>ards/Meters - Sets (Yards and Miles) or (Meters and Kilometers) for
all Range displays during the game. A "K" will appear
in upper right above radar if Meters/Kilometers is set.
"M" will appear here if Miles is set.
<B>lank Bottom Screen BB #2 - This is an option to set the BB #2 screen
blank, if you want to play him and not see what he is
doing! Only his score and kills are shown.
Harpoo<N> Missiles - On / Off option - This option will play the
game with the Harpoons activated or not. Turn this
to Off if you want to play a Bigguns only game and
not have to worry about the missiles for either
player.
A lot about Bigguns you will figure out on your own from just playing
the simulation. Have fun discovering and shooting!. The keys are
listed below these game facts.
Don Christie
**** General Nautical Facts ****
* One Nautical mile equals 6076.11549 feet
* One Nautical mile for the game equals 6000 feet
* One Nautical mile for the game = 2000 yds
* Total game grid = 50x50 miles or approx 90x90 Kilometers
* Each side of the grid = 100,000 yds or 300,000 feet
* 1 knot = 1.667 feet per second on the ocean.
* 10 knots = 16.67 feet per second on the ocean.
**** General Game Facts ****
* 11 Months of research and programming involved.
* 309 PCX picture files drawn or re-rendered.
* Airplanes use 32 sprites for different angles.
* Harpoons use 20 sprites for different angles.
* 18,400 lines of DJGPP "C" code programmed with the Allegro
Library 3.1 Thanks DJ Delorie for DJGPP 'C' and Shawn Hargreaves
for his ultra cool Allegro Library. What a blast! no pun
intended. This was like writing 2 video games at once as
all action is duplicated from screen #1 and also seen from
screen #2's viewpoint, and also all action from screen #2's
viewpoint is duplicated and seen from screen #1's viewpoint.
* Much time spent on Articfial Intelligence for BIG GUNS and
Airplane Attacks for computer player and the Harpoon missiles
locking on to the targets.
* Spent 5 years on board the U.S.S. Harry E. Yarnell CG 17, and 2 years
on board the U.S.S. Biddle CG 34 as a radar operator,
(these ships are featured in the game).
* Spent incredible number of hours testing and running the game all night
on my computer.
* Future enhancements are still possible.
Keys for Bigguns
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Ship #1 (Player #1 - U.S.S New Jersey BB 62) (Top Screen)
---------------------------------------------------------
This Player has White planes on the screen.
*** New Key: Press the H key for the HELP screen, any other key
to return to the game.
*** New Key: Press the left/right Bracket keys [] to move fast on the
grid in the direction of your gunline forwards and
backwards. If a harpoon is active this movement will
match the harpoon speed so you can ride the missile in
to the target. Practice mode only!
*** Key: press Right CONTROL key to fire a harpoon missile at the
target hooked on the radar. 1 out of 10 could be a dud missile
with no explosion, but scoring only 5 points on the opposing ship.
*** Key: press the PAUSE key to Pause the Demo or the Game.
*** Key: Press the TILDE key to take a photo of screen #1.
PHOTO will be in game directory called BGPHOTO.PCX.
*** Keys: HOME: Play next SONG, DELETE: MUSIC OFF
*** Key: Press the "N" key to switch from day to night MODE
and back from night to day MODE.
If chosen player #1 can use the Joystick in game port #1.
Use Joy Up/Down Left/Right - Button #1 to fire, Button #2 to switch
between big gun and machine gun.
O - Steer Ship left
P - Steer Ship right
L - Increase Speed
K - Decrease Speed
* Your course and speed are displayed in light gray at the top center of
your screen, course is on the left, speed is on the right.
J - Move Radar Hook(Yellow circle) on Radar screen for Ship Hooked.
This gives Range(in Yards or Meters, chosen from Main Menu with "Y"
key). Also gives true bearing (0 - 359.9) for (1/10 of 1 Degree
accuracy). For Ship #1 this is the upper screen on the lower left side
of the screen for the ship hooked. This only shows when your Radar
is On. This will show up in Green Numbers. Press the I key for
Radar.
---> New feature: An orange line called the relative movement line
appears on the hooked ship. This projects his
movement ahead and shows you where he will be.
Put this line in the center of your radar by
changing your course or speed, or combo of both,
this will cause you to intercept the ship. If
you want to avoid a collision move this line
away from your radar center by either changing
course and speed or combo of both.
Up Arrow - Gun Elevation Up + .1 degrees (1/10 of 1 degree)
Also moves machine gun up after selecting with the Insert Key
and planes fight is on.
Down Arrow - Gun Elevation Down - .1 degrees (1/10 of 1 degree)
Also moves machine gun down after selecting with the Insert Key
and planes fight is on.
PageUp - Gun Up + .01 degrees up slow (1/100 of 1 degree)
PageDown - Gun down - .01 degrees down slow (1/100 of 1 degree)
Important!! * Press Up/Down arrow keys along with PgUp/PgDn keys to go faster
for gun elevations. Example: press PgUp and Arrow Up at the
same time to move gun up faster.
Right arrow - Train Gun Right (Max 135 degress from Ships Bow Starboard side)
Also moves machine gun right
Left arrow - Train Gun Left (Max 135 degrees from Ships Bow Port side)
Also moves machine gun left
F12 - Train Gun Right Slow
F11 - Train Gun Left Slow
* Your gun elevation and guns True bearing are displayed just left of
your gun mount on the lower left corner of your screen. Gun elevation
is far left, you start out at 22.00 degrees of elevation. Your guns
true bearing is just to the right of this. You will know when your gun
reaches 135 degrees relative of either side of the ship and you can move
it no further, a little sailor man will appear on deck, at this point you
must move your ship if the gun is not free to fire at the target.
Space bar - Fire Middle 16 inch Gun or machine gun if active.
I - Radar On, press I again for Satelite overhead view of entire
simulation play area, 50x50 Nautical miles or 90x90 Kilometers
approx. Press I again to turn Radar/Satelite view off.
For the Satelite/Radar view ships are color coded. Navy cruisers
and small cruise boat are green. Titanic, Olympic, Lusitania are
brown. The other battleship is white, there is a purple dot
to show the center of the grid. The blue dot is you.
Press the "J" key for player #1 to move the hook when the radar
is on to get ranges and bearings to the other ships.
Bearing/Ranges are displayed as green numbers in the lower left
part of the screen. These ranges can be in yards or meters
chosen in the Main Menu with the "Y" key. When shells are fired
the first shell is red on the radar, the second shell will be
pink. The time of flight for each shell is displayed on your
gun mount, color-coded with the radar colors for shells.
Planes on the radar are purple for player #1 and red for
player #2.
Radar contacts have direction and speed leaders, showing
their course and speed each pixel equals 3 knots of speed
for ships. Otherships can have zero, low, medium or fast speed
chosen from the Main Menu.
U - This will decrease the range scale of the radar.
The radar scales from 0 - 20 miles (0 = approx. 850 yards).
The number of miles for the scale are displayed in the upper
right corner above the radar. If meters are chosen from the Main
Menu with the "Y" key, Kilometers will be displayed here instead
of miles and a 'K' will be here instead of a 'M'.
Y - Does the same as the U key only increases the Radar Scale.
Important!!!
<Enter> key - This turns on the range finder for player #1. Move the
big gun up/down and you will see a solid red bar appear
on the left side of the screen when your gun angle is
somewhat near his range. This moves fast with the cursor keys,
use the Page/up Page/down keys to move slower once it is on
screen. Put the solid red moving bar over the red and yellow
bar in the center of the range finder to set your gun angle
for the shot. Remember this is where he is now, for the
actual shot the solid red bar should be in the middle when
the shell hits. Each tiny yellow tick mark and space
in between is only 100 feet difference!. You can now make
much more accurate shots.
<Insert Key> - This toggles between the Big Gun and the Machine Gun
when the planes are chosen to Fight from the Menu <E> key.
Use the Joystick or up/down/left/arrow keys to move your
gun site. Use the space bar or Joystick button #1 to fire.
Also use button #2 on the Joystick to toggle between
the Big Gun and Machine gun if player #1 gets the joystick.
M - This makes your planes attack the other battleship.
Press this key and within a short time you will see your
planes go out on radar to attack the other battleship.
Also press this key to Recall your planes. If your
planes are not attacking then they are circling your ship.
A message will appear at the top of the screen for a
few seconds saying whether the plane attack is On or Off.
You get 64 planes to start, but can get more planes by
refueling, pull alongside Titanic, Olympic or Lusitania
within 100 yards, go no closer than 36 yards/meters!!!.
You may want to recall planes if you are low on them and
want to save a few for the end of the game. The number
of your planes is displayed, on the lower right side of
your screen, just to the left of the radar. 64 is the max
number of planes. It takes 25 hits to shoot down a plane
with your machine gun. You will hear a metallic hit
or ricochet sound when hitting a plane.
Keys (F6/F7) Steers the planes right/left in <P>ractice mode.
Keys (F8/F9) Makes planes for Player1/Player2 shoot their guns in <P>ractice.
------------------------------------------------------
Ship #2 (Player #2 - U.S.S Iowa BB 61) (Bottom Screen)
------------------------------------------------------
*** New Key: Press the <> keys to move fast on the grid in the direction of
your gunline forwards and backwards. If a harpoon is active this
movement will match the harpoon speed so you can ride the
missile in to the target. Practice mode only!
*** Key: press Left CONTROL key to fire a harpoon missile at the
target hooked on the radar.
This Player has Green planes on the screen.
If chosen player #2 can use the Joystick in game port #1.
Use Joy Up/Down Left/Right - Button #1 to fire, Button #2 to switch
between big gun and machine gun.
Q - Steer Ship left
W - Steer Ship right
S - Increase Speed
A - Decrease Speed
* Your course and speed are displayed in light gray at the top center of
your screen, course is on the left, speed is on the right.
F5 - Move Radar Hook(Yellow circle) on Radar screen for Ship Hooked.
This gives Range(in Yards or Meters, chosen from Main Menu with "Y"
key). Also gives true bearing (0 - 359.9) for (1/10 of 1 Degree
accuracy). For Ship2 this is the lower screen on the lower left side
of the screen for the ship hooked. This only shows when your Radar
is On. This will show up in Green Numbers. Press the E key for
Radar.
---> New feature: An orange line called the relative movement line
appears on the hooked ship. This projects his
movement ahead and shows you where he will be.
Put this line in the center of your radar by
changing your course or speed, or combo of both,
this will cause you to intercept the ship. If
you want to avoid a collision move this line
away from your radar center by either changing
course and speed or combo of both.
T - Gun Elevation Up + .1 degrees (1/10 of 1 degree)
Also moves machine gun up after selecting with the "X" key
and planes fight is on.
V - Gun Elevation Down - .1 degrees (1/10 of 1 degree)
Also moves machine gun down after selecting with the "X" Key
and planes fight is on.
F1 - Gun Up + .01 degrees up slow (1/100 of 1 degree)
F2 - Gun down - .01 degrees down slow (1/100 of 1 degree)
* Press T / V keys along with F1 / F2 keys to go faster
for gun elevations. Example: press T and F1 at the same time to move
gun up faster.
G - Train Gun Right (Max 135 degress from Ships Bow Starboard side)
Also moves machine gun right
D - Train Gun Left (Max 135 degrees from Ships Bow Port side)
Also moves machine gun left
F4 - Train Gun Right Slow
F3 - Train Gun Left Slow
* Your gun elevation and guns True bearing are displayed just left of
your gun mount on the lower left corner of your screen. Gun elevation
is far left, you start out at 22.00 degrees of elevation. Your guns
true bearing is just to the right of this. You will know when your gun
reaches 135 degrees relative of either side of the ship and you can move
it no further, a little sailor man will appear on deck, at this point you
must move your ship if the gun is not free to fire at the target.
F - Fire Middle 16 inch Gun or machine gun if active.
E - Radar On, press E again for Satelite overhead view of entire
simulation play area, 50x50 Nautical miles or 90x90 Kilometers
approx. Press E again to turn Radar/Satelite view off.
For the Satelite/Radar view ships are color coded. Navy cruisers
and small cruise boat are green. Titanic, Olympic, Lusitania are
brown. The other battleship is white, there is a purple dot
to show the center of the grid. The blue dot is you.
Press the F5 key for player #2 to move the hook when the radar
is on to get ranges and bearings to the other ships.
Bearing/Ranges are displayed as green numbers in the lower left
part of the screen. These ranges can be in yards or meters
chosen in the Main Menu with the "Y" key. When shells are fired
the first shell is red on the radar, the second shell will be
pink. The time of flight for each shell is displayed on your
gun mount, color-coded with the radar colors for shells.
Planes on the radar are purple for player #1 and red for
player #2.
Radar contacts have direction and speed leaders, showing
their course and speed each pixel equals 3 knots of speed for
ships. Otherships can have zero, low, medium or fast speed
chosen from the Main Menu. Planes also show up on radar.
R - This will decrease the range scale of the radar.
The radar scales from 0 - 20 miles (0 = approx. 850 yards).
The number of miles for the scale are displayed in the upper
right corner above the radar. If meters are chosen from the Main
Menu with the "Y" key, Kilometers will be displayed here instead
of miles and a 'K' will be here instead of a 'M'.
C - Does the same as the R key only increases the Radar Scale.
Keys (1 - 8) Not Keypad keys, during <P>ractice Mode Only.
Change any other ship's course(to Starboard only), set <P>ractice Mode On
in Main Menu first. The small cruise boat can be fully controlled here
use 8 to turn to port, 9 to starboard, speed up (+ key), slow down
(- key). The small cruise boat can go up to 50 knots. Turn on the radar
and watch his speed leader grow and change direction as you operate these
keys. If collision is On he can collide with you or the other battleship.
Esc - Quit/Suspend Game - This will ask: Do you really want to Quit (Y/N)?
Can be used as a Pause key. Just press "N" to return to the game.
Important!!!
<Tab> key - This turns on the range finder for player #2. Move the
big gun up/down and you will see a solid red bar appear
on the left side of the screen when your gun angle is
somewhat near his range. This moves fast with the T and V keys,
use the F1/F2 keys to move slower once it is on
screen. Put the solid red moving bar over the red and yellow
bar in the center of the range finder to set your gun angle
for the shot. Remember this is where he is now, for the
actual shot the solid red bar should be in the middle when
the shell hits. Each tiny yellow tick mark and space
in between is only 100 feet difference!. You can now make
much more accurate shots.
X - This toggles between the Big Gun and the Machine Gun
when the planes are chosen to Fight from the Menu <E> key.
Use the Joystick or up/down/left/arrow keys to move your
gun site. Use the space bar or Joystick button #1 to fire.
Also use button #2 on the Joystick to toggle between
the Big Gun and Machine gun if player #2 gets the joystick.
Z - This makes your planes attack the other battleship.
Press this key and within a short time you will see your
planes go out on radar to attack the other battleship.
Also press this key to Recall your planes. If your
planes are not attacking then they are circling your ship.
A message will appear at the top of the screen for a
few seconds saying whether the plane attack is On or Off.
You get 64 planes to start, but can get more planes by
refueling, pull alongside Titanic, Olympic or Lusitania
within 100 yards, go no closer than 36 yards/meters!!!.
You may want to recall planes if you are low on them and
want to save a few for the end of the game. The number
of your planes is displayed, on the lower right side of
your screen, just to the left of the radar. 64 is the max
number of planes. It takes 25 hits to shoot down a plane
with your machine gun. You will hear a metallic hit
or ricochet sound when hitting a plane.
Keys (F6/F7) Steers the planes right/left in <P>ractice mode.
Also steers the Harpoon Missiles!
Keys (F8/F9) Makes planes for Player1/Player2 shoot their guns in <P>ractice.
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To load the Game in DOS:
Even though the ZIP FILE is BG32.ZIP Bigguns version 3.3 is inside!!!
Important: DO NOT put these new files in any OLD BIGGUNS DIRECTORY!
make a totally NEW DIRECTORY for this version 3.3.
If you want to save the old bigguns go ahead, but create
a NEW DIRECTORY and put all of the NEW files in it.
You could name this new directory BIGGUN33. This update
contains all that the old BIGGUNS program had and much
more.
#1 First: Create a New directory on your hard drive and name it
BIGGUN33. Do this first by going to your C:\ root
directory by typing C: <ENTER> and then CD \ <ENTER>. You
should now be at C:\ now type MD BIGGUN33 and press
<ENTER>.
#2 Second: Change directory to the new directory by typing CD
BIGGUN33 and pressing the <ENTER> key. Now you should be
at C:\BIGGUN33.
#3 Third: Copy the BG32.ZIP file from what directory it is in now
into this new directory, example you have already
downloaded the file into a directory called C:\DOWNLOAD,
now type:
COPY C:\DOWNLOAD\BG32.ZIP C:\BIGGUN33
#4 Fourth: Pkunzip the BG32.ZIP file by typing PKUNZIP BG32
To LOAD in windows:
Use WINZIP or some other windows compatible zip utility to unzip
the files into the new game directory/folder (you could have
created a new folder for the game first). Then create a
windows shortcut to the games BIGGUNS.EXE full file PATH such as
C:\BIGGUN33\BIGGUNS.EXE. Then you can just click on the
shortcut/icon to play the game.
The files unzipped will be.
--------------------------
1 BIGGUNS.DOC (the file you are in now)
1 BIGGUNS.EXE (the executable game file)
309 *.PCX files. (picture files) Sprites
18 *.WAV (sound files)
1 cwsdpmi.exe file (needed if game is played in pure DOS mode,
but not needed from a Windows DOS BOX).
3 midi *.mid (MUSIC) files.
---
333 files total
Now just type BIGGUNS to play the game.
Press Space at the intro screen and then press the "D" key in the
Menu to see the Demo right away.
Important: Save the zip file BG32.ZIP, if you are missing
anything in the future just PKUNZIP that file to make sure you
have everything again to play the game.
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IMPORTANT Game tips and other facts:
---------------------------
* Player #1 has White planes.
* Player #2 has Green planes.
* Planes only attack/shoot near the front and sides of your ship not the
rear or fantail of the ship. 0 - 135 degrees on each side.
* It takes 25 hits to down a plane.
* It takes 35 hits to down a harpoon missile.
* A straight on missile is much easier to down! Start shooting right
at or just before the 2000 yard range and don't stop firing until it
is downed!
* Aim for the center of the planes/missiles as much as possible.
* Planes are tough to hit when going right down the side of your ship
easiest to hit when going away or right at you.
* Planes can be hit at up to 1500 yds/meters.
* Missiles can be hit at up to 2000 yards(1 mile).
* When your machine gun is on, your radar will turn clear to give you
a better view of the sky and planes, you can still see planes on
the radar.
* Watch your radar with small scale chosen say 1 mile when planes
are on the attack. Anticipate where they will appear in your
field of vision by looking at your ship's head marker(red line
on your radar about 3/4 length of radar) and see where they will appear
and be shooting when they appear, you may get some lucky shots in.
* The machine gun moves 2 times faster right/left than the big gun
does. To go even faster use the O or P key while moving the machine
gun, this turns your ship also, same for player #2 only with the Q and W
keys.
* If you refuel near a game boundary (check your satelite view) you
stand a chance of colliding with the refueling vessel if the
vessel hits the boundary and you are right next to it, of course
collision must be turned ON from the menu first for this to occur.
* Use the range finder, it will make playing 10 times easier.
Remember use the Range finder so that WHEN the shell hits, the red
line should be directly in the middle. So you will have the red
line slightly above or below the middle line when you shoot
according to his range, you will have to estimate this!
* With the Bigguns remember to lead the target according to his
bearing drift.
* Press H to get the HELP screen with the biggun keys on it.
* Use the Orange line (Relative Movement Line) on the hooked ship
on the Radar to avoid a collision or make an intercept, if the
line is pointed near the center of your radar you may have a
collision with that ship, so change course/speed to avoid.
Also use the orange line to come up behind a refueling ship
an intercept it to refuel.
* Use the [] bracket keys in practice mode to move around the grid
quickly, you can have a lot of fun with this in Practice mode.
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I am committed to providing free, but high quality game/
simulation programs to people. Enjoy BIGGUNS the Battleship
Simulator. And please send email.
Don Christie.
Please send E-mail/comments to:
LJC77777@AOL.COM
