************************************** >> E X T R E M E V I O L E N C E << ************************************** version 6.9 - an extremely violent combat game for two players Released Jan '93 Written and Compiled using AMOS v1.34 This product is SHAREWARE Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Extreme Violence is a nice game about cute bunny rabbits. - I don't think so... Extreme Violence (EV) is a game for two players - you'll need a friend and at least one joystick. It has no plot. It's kill - or be killed. Anybody over the age of 4 should be able to figure out to play EV just by messing around with it for a while. In fact, if you're one of those bizarre people who actually read the documentation before trying a program, go and try it out now. Just plug in two joysticks and shoot to kill. Ten points to win. If you don't understand anything you can always come back later. See-ya ! For convenience, the game defaults to keyboard control for player 1. This means that you don't need to mess about taking the mouse out unless you really want to play with two joysticks. To select joystick control for player 1, press J at the title screen. To return to keyboard control simply press K. Player 2 is always controlled by a joystick in port 2. The keyboard controls are : Q - Up A - Down O - Left P - Right Space Bar - Fire (if you don't like these - tough !) Gameplay ~~~~~~~~ The contest takes place in a large 640 by 512 pixel (4 screen) arena. The arena is made up of a grided floor and a number of randomly placed rectangular wall sections. Each player has their own scrolling window, which shows the area immediately surrounding the player. The idea is to concentrate on your own window, only looking at the other player's occasionally to see what they're up to. The aim of the game, in case you haven't guessed yet, is to shoot the other player before they shoot you. Each "kill" adds one point to the victor's score, and the first player to reach 10 points wins the game. Not too complicated, really. Each time somebody wins, the game moves onto the next level. On each level, 2 more walls are added to the arena, up to a maximum of 50 walls. Both players start at a random position in the arena. On each level there are two weapons power-ups, which have various exciting effects described below. You'll soon discover that you lose all your power-ups when killed, which can be annoying to say the least. When the game starts a scrolling map of the whole arena is displayed. This shows the positions of the two power-ups and the walls, but not the starting positions of the players. Each player must hunt down their opponent, making use of the radar if possible. Player 1 (on the left) is shown on the radar as a red dot , whereas player 2 is shown as a blue dot (i.e. the radar dots are the same as the colour of the player's hats). EV has a simple, but fast, weapons system. Each player effectively has only one bullet on the screen at a time. Pressing fire again before a bullet has hit an obstacle "recalls" the bullet to the gun. This means that if you hold down fire, the stream of bullets will only travel a short distance. In order to make long distance shots, you need to fire once only. It sounds weird, but you'll soon get used to it. Occasionally, especially on the later levels, it is possible for one or both of the players to become surrounded by walls, making it impossible for anyone to win (unless one player has magic bullets). I prefer to think of this as a feature rather than a bug. Pressing the HELP key will produce a new, hopefully more feasible level. As with all Amos programs, pressing Amiga + A can be used to switch between Workbench and the program (it's amazing how many people don't seem to know this). Power Ups ~~~~~~~~~ Funny Map - shows the map of whole arena, in the same way as at the beginning of each level, but at a ridiculously fast speed. Not very funny, I know, but it looked silly just called "Map". Bonus point - err.. One extra point. No kiddin'. ECM - Electronic Counter Measures. Makes the player disappear from the radar. This allows you to creep up on the other player without them seeing you. It should only be used by experienced players, since it can be as much of a disadvantage to you as to the other player. Speedy Boots - doubles player walking speed. Zoom... Speedy Bullets - doubles velocity of bullets. Can be used in combination with any of the three special weapons: (note that picking up multiple speedy power-ups has no further effect) Bouncy Bullets - Boing ! Special bullets that bounce off walls and the edge of the arena. Most effective when fired diagonally. Bullets stop after 10 bounces. Magic Bullets - enables bullets to magically travel through walls, although at a reduced speed. Power Lazer - makes it very difficult to miss the other player. Especially dangerous when combined with speedy bullets. Good sound effect, too. Well, that's it for the instructions. Hope you enjoy the game... Compatibility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NTSC users will be glad to hear that the game should run okay on their systems. The program will auto-detect an NTSC system and adjust the display to suit. It won't look quite as nice, but at least it's playable. The bad news is that due to the large virtual screens and sound effects used in the program you'll need at least a meg (that's one megabyte) of memory. (If there are still any 512k owners out there - wise up and upgrade!). If the program quits back to Workbench when you try to start the game, it means there wasn't enough free chip ram to allocate the playing area screen. Close any windows or other programs that may be lying around the Workbench and try again. As far as I know the game should work fine on A500+ / A600 / A1200 / A3000 / A4000 / Workbench 2 / ECS / AA machines (and whatever other crazy stuff Commodore have developed since last time I looked) but if it doesn't it's probably a bug in Amos. So blame François Lionet, not me ! Quotes ~~~~~~ Here's just a selection of some the nice things people have said to me about Extreme Violence : "My brother and I spent a great deal of time yesterday playing your game "EXTREME VIOLENCE". We want you to know we enjoyed it very much and think you have come up with a winner. The graphics and sound effects are great." - Ian Kavanagh, Toronto, Canada. "... your game is a hit... This is really what computer games is (sic) all about... no stupid Psygnosis-style graphics but pure playability..." - Stefan Axelsson, Lulea University of Technology. "... the most addictive game on my Amiga..." - Malcolm Purvis, UNSW, Sydney, Australia. "... *wonderful*... my household and I have been playing this simple, but elegant game religiously over the past week or so..." - Martin Cowie, Queen Mary College, London. "Thanks for writing such a sexy game!!! The program is one of few games written in AMOS that does not jerk when scrolling... Well Done !!!" - Ben Jarret, Strathclyde. "Here is $10 for your game... I love it !" - Jeremy Andrews, Moscow, Idaho, USA. "I got Extreme Violence and like it... I think it is a cool game... so does all my friends that I have been playing it with... its very addicting..." - Bhroam Mann, Internet (US). "Can you tell me what you used to compress the Extreme_Violence.lha ?" - James LaPlaine ("Static"), Internet. "Who are all these loonies ?" - Simon Green (Author: "Extreme Violence"), UK. Acknowledgements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special hellos and thanks to : Martyn "Team17" Brown, Simon Bird, Ian Kavanagh, Dennis "Bucket", Dave, Sue and Jane... Thanks to the following for exhaustively play-testing EV and for their usually stupid, but occasionally constructive suggestions : Dan Tulett, Mike "DOS" Barnes, Paul "Paul" Lewis, Stu Nevill. Distribution ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm releasing EV as SHAREWARE. This version is freely distributable, under the conditions that no profit is gained from it's distribution, and that this doc file is always included with the executable. You are encouraged to give copies of it to your friends, upload it to your favourite BBS systems, Internet FTP sites etc. If you enjoy the game, why not make me happy by sending a small token of your appreciation to the following address. If you send £5 (or equivalent) or more, I'll send you the latest version of Extreme Violence, which includes multiple bullets, a one-player option and devastating new power-ups, and is only available to registered users. You'll also receive details of new versions of EV and other products when they are released. If you'd like a copy of the Amos source code this could also be arranged, if you give me a good reason ! Overseas users please note - don't send me personal bank cheques drawn on foreign banks, as these can be difficult and expensive to cash. You are welcome to send cash (ie. notes) of any currency as these are usually much easier to convert, but this is at your own risk. Pounds sterling is the most convienient from my point of view. Don't forget to include your address ! Even if you reckon you can't spare any money, feel free to drop me a note saying what you think of the game. I'm always pleased to hear any suggestions. The future of Extreme Violence depends on your support... Contact Addresses ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Real : Si Green 'Selsfield' Oxenturn Road Wye Ashford Kent TN25 5AZ U.K. Virtual: ssusgree@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk Look out for the sequel to "Extreme Violence" - "Unmitigated Boisterousness" - coming soon... Not ! See-ya !