WBsteroids
==========



Introduction
------------

And here is again another Asteroids-clone...
But this time the action takes place in a familiar environment: in a window
on your Workbench! Of course the window is scaleable and you can alter the
keyboard/joystick definitions. The rest of the game is based on the original
Asteroids: i.e. simple vectorgraphics (but with 16 colors) instead of memory
eating raytrace objects.

You probably are familiar with the gameplay, so I will just explain some
peculiaritys of WBsteroids:

   o You gain points for...
      o ...destroying asteroids, more for little ones less for the large
      o ...finishing a level as fast as possible
      o ...for collecting a blue mine
   o You loose points for...
      o ...every shot you fire. You see, itīs nonsense to clean the level
        with autofire while trashing your hiscore.
   o Bonuses are...
      o the sqare: you get double-/trippleshot
      o the rect: increases the autofire frequency
      o the red mine: produces an eruption of free phaser shots
      o the blue mine: automatical destruction of all asteroids exept
        the little ones



Copyright
---------

This software is subject to the "Standard Amiga FD-Software Copyright Note".
It is FREEWARE as defined in paragraph 4a.
For more information please read "AFD-COPYRIGHT" (Version 1 or higher).



System requirements
-------------------

The game should run on every Amiga with at least OS3.0.
But to have fun you need some processing power...



Settings
--------

If you donīt like the default keys

   o cursor left  = turn left
   o cursor right = turn right
   o cursor up    = thrust
   o cursor down  = hyperspace-jump
   o space        = fire

you can adjust them after pressing HELP in the intro window.
Just press the desired keys or move the joystick.

All settings (windowpos/size, keys, highscores) will be saved at exit.



Tooltypes
---------

PUBSCREEN=<name>      Name of a public screen you want to play on. If the
                      screen doesnīt exist, the game falls back to wb-mode.
                      WBsteroids needs at least 4 colors, 32 would be best.

                      e.g. PUBSCREEN=DOPUS.1


SCREENDEPTH=<planes>  This tooltype advises the program to open an own screen
                      with the specified depth.
                      All other values (size, mode,...) will be taken from the
                      Workbench screen.

                      e.g. SCREENDEPTH=3


TASKPRI=<number>      Taskpriority of WBsteroids. Allowed values reach from
                      -5 to 5, default is 0.

                      e.g. TASKPRI=1


MAXPIXEL=<number>     With this tooltype you can define the number of effect-
                      pixels which may be visible at the same time. Values
                      from 10 to 2000 are allowed, default is 500.

                      e.g. MAXPIXEL=278


SHIPFIRE=<YES|NO>     Dis-/enables the shipīs thrustfire pixels. Turn them off
                      to speed up the gameplay on slower machines.
                      Default is YES (enabled).

                      e.g. SHIPFIRE=NO


BIGDEBRIS=<number>    Adjusts the number of debris which appear when destroying
                      a big asteroid. You should find a compromise between
                      beautyful explosions and a waste of processing power.
                      Allowed values reach from 0 to 500, default is 25.

                      e.g. BIGDEBRIS=45


MEDDEBRIS=<number>    Works like BIGDEBRIS, but adjusts the number of explosion
                      pixels for asteroids of medium size.


LITDEBRIS=<number>    Works like BIGDEBRIS, but adjusts the number of explosion
                      pixels for small asteroids.


STATICSTARS           Disables the zoom mode for the background stars.


LAZYDRAWING           When the game speed on slow Amigas drops too much in
                      higher levels you can instruct WBsteroids to skip some
                      frames by using this tooltype.
                      The movement of objects may look a bit strange, but
                      the game speed will stay normal. Just try it...
                      
                      I am sorry, but I canīt make the game much faster. My
                      own routines arenīt the problem, but therefore the
                      graphics.library functions are (especially Draw() and
                      WritePixel()), which are called veeery often.
                      But donīt give up. CGX and P96 are getting faster from
                      version to version. Not to talk about new graphics
                      boards....


Contact address
---------------

EMail:

relaysoft@gmx.de


SMail:

Heiko Müller
Ernst-Reuter-Str. 8
31275 Lehrte
Germany

If you are interested in others of my programs, just take a look at
the RelaySoft homepage:

http://www.relaysoft.de

