******************************************************************************
*       ____  ____       ________    _______       _______                   *
*   .  /~  | /"  |.  +  /~______/\. /"_____/\  .  /~____ |.        .    . +  *
*     /./| |///| ||    /./______\/ /./\____\/  . ///___| ||  .    +    .     *
* .  /// | /// | || . //______/\  /// /./_\\ .  //______ ||         .        *
*   /// /|  / /| ||  ///______\/ /'/_/___///\  /'/\____| ||      .       .   *
* +/_/ / |_/ / |_|| /_______/\   \________/ / /_/ /    |_||    .    +        *
*  \_\/  \_\/ .\_\| \_______\/ .  \_______\/  \_\/  +  \_\| .     .       .  *
*       .          .      ___________ .  ________    ________  . ____  __    *
*     .    +   .    .    /____  ____/\  /"____  /\. /~____ ./\  /"  | / /\   *
* .          .        .  \___/./\___\/ ///___/// / /./\__/// / /./| |/// / . *
*         .      .       .  /// /     /'  ____/ / /// / /'/ / /// | /// /    *
*  .   +    .  |     +     /// /  +  ///\\\___\/ /'/_/_/ / / /// /| '/ /+    *
*    .       --+--     .  /_/ /     /_/ /\_\    /_______/ / /_/ / |_/ /   .  *
*        .     |  .       \_\/  .   \_\/  \_\   \_______\/ +\_\/  \_\/ .     *
*                                                                            *
******************************************************************************

Mega Tron V1.5. Date: 30-Mar-96.
Written by Chris Hodges using AMOS Professional.

Information
~~~~~~~~~~~
I am not in any way resonsible for loss of data, loss of sanity,  loss  of  IQ
and  the  possiblity  of becoming adicted ;-) Since this game is Shareware the
price for this disk must not exceed  the  cost  for  disk  and  postage.  This
document  must  be distrubuted along with the Mega Tron program. Mega Tron and
this document must not be altered in any way  (excluding  spelling  mistakes!)
without written permission.

The Game
~~~~~~~~
You certainly have seen the  movie  TRON  by  Walt  Disney.  This  is  another
conversion  of  the  film. You steer one of these rasterbikes and have to kill
the other players by jamming them and forcing them into a wall. To  make  this
easier  you  (and  the  opponents)  have  got  access to three weapons from an
arsenal of nine. Like in real life nothing is for free. Although  the  weapons
ammonition  is  unlimited,  all  of  them cost an amount of money (from 2-1000
credits). You earn money if you simply stay alive or if you kill a player  you
get  500  credits  and the score is increased by one. If you have exterminated
all opponents you will enter the next round with now more 1000 credits in your
pockets and two bonus points.

The Controls
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mega Tron can be played with an maximum of ten players, of whom seven  may  be
controlled  individually by humans using four joysticks and three key sets. By
default one human player using joystick 1 and nine computers  are  turned  on.
Joystick  3  and 4 require a Four-player-adapter plugged in the parallel port.
To change the input device for each player go into the 'Player options  menu',
select the player you want to modify and move the stick to left or right until
you are satisfied with your settings. To activate one of the three weapons you
have to use special keys. These are the defaults:

Action | Joystick 1  | Joystick 2  | Keys set 1  | Keys set 2  | Keys set 3  |
-------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
Left   | joy 1 left  | joy 2 left  | curs left   | keypad 4    | y           |
Right  | joy 1 right | joy 2 right | curs right  | keypad 6    | x           |
Up     | joy 1 up    | joy 2 up    | curs up     | keypad 8    | q           |
Down   | joy 1 down  | joy 2 down  | curs down   | keypad 2    | a           |
Weap1  | joy 1 fire  | joy 2 fire  | delete      | keypad 5    | space       |
Weap2  | right alt   | left alt    | help        | enter       | tab         |
Weap3  | right amiga | left amiga  | backspace   | keypad -    | ctrl        |
-------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+

The keys can be altered in the 'Redefine keys'-menu. Select the  key  set  you
want  to modify then press the relevant keys or 'ESCape' to keep the key. When
altering the joystick you may only change the weapon keys.

Note: Due to four player adapter support any other equipment on  the  parallel
      port (e.g printers) have to be unplugged before you can use this option.
      Since V1.41 you can disable the 4 player adapter using  a  special  tool
      type,  so  you  don't  need to unplug your printer. With V1.5, this tool
      type is entered in the icon by default. Remove it, if you want to use  a
      four player adapter.

Note: Since  V1.4  there  is  a  CD32   game   pad   support.   However,   the
      lowlevel.library  is  required  to enable this feature. Due to copyright
      reasons, I cannot include this library (it's  part  of  Kick  3.1).  Two
      button joysticks however, can be used without the lowlevel.library.

The Weapons
~~~~~~~~~~~
There's a total of nine weapons and tools you can choose of. Some are directed
at you, some have effects on a randomly picked opponent. Here's a list:

None     (   0): As you might think this 'weapon' does nothing.

Speed Up (   2): Doubles your speed until you change your  direction.  Driving
                 with  double  speed  won't  give  you  any money. The line is
                 continious, so  there's  no  possibility  to  drive  through.
                 Before V1.5, 'Speed Up' was in reality 'Jumpspeed'.

Imploder ( 250): Clears a small area around your rasterbike. Use this to break
                 through walls.

Tunnel   ( 500): Creates two parallel lines to force the player in  some  sort
                 of  tunnel,  in which he shouldn't change his direction or he
                 is dead.

Autopilot( 300): Turns the automatic computer steering on for about 250 moves.
                 Your  line  will now turn white! Use it to minimize the space
                 used when driving in narrow areas.

Boxes    ( 600): Draws four boxes at an opponent. When he  gets  a  shock  and
                 turns, it's very likely that he will crash.

Circle   ( 750): Creates a large circle round an opponent.  The  only  way  to
                 escape this rather small area is to use imploders, rockets or
                 a shield.

Rockets  ( 500): Fires a homing missile which aims at an opponent. Rockets can
                 pass  through  your lines, but not at those of other players.
                 When  hitting  a  line,  the  rockets   explodes,   hopefully
                 terminating an opponent. Rockets only have fuel for about 150
                 moves, and a run out will cause the rocket to  explode.  This
                 seems to be the most powerful weapon, handle it with care.

Shield   (1000): Clears anything  that  gets  before  you  creating  a  narrow
                 corridor. This tool is time limited to 250 moves, during this
                 period your color turns white.

Teleport ( 250): Hence the name, this tool  will  teleport  you  to  a  random
                 location.  Can  be  used to escape certain situations, but be
                 warned: react fast, once you  have  been  teleported  or  you
                 might find yourself dead very soon.

Jumpspeed(   2): Like Speed Up, but draws a  corrupted  line.  In  fact,  only
                 every second will be drawn.

Eater    ( 500): Starts a small pacman type of missle. Once it finds the  line
                 of  an enemy, it begins to follow it until it reaches the end
                 and then explodes. Powerful weapon! Use with care.

Freeze   ( 250): Stops your movement for a few seconds. Handy, if you want  to
                 wait for the other players to die.

Erm... and before I forget it, the value in brackets represents the amount  of
credits  the specific weapon costs, and if you haven't got enough credits, you
cannot buy the weapons.

The Menus
~~~~~~~~~
Before you start the game there are many options you can alter.
The main menu contains:

Start game           : Guess what!
Player options menu  : Enters the 'Player options menu'.
Redefine keys        : Allows to set up your own keys.
Game options menu    : Enters the general 'Game options menu'.
Disk menu            : Menu for loading/saving and the game generator.
Credits              : Enter this for secret messages (hehe)!
Quit game            : Blows your computer up, do not touch!

The player option menu contains:

Return to main menu  : Knick knack, you know what I mean!
Player selected      : Lets you select the player number,  which  affects  all
                       other settings.
Players color        : Use this to choose your favorite color.
Players device       : Selects the players control method or turns him into  a
                       computer  or  even off. Note: It is possible to control
                       more than one rasterbike using one control.
Players weapon 1/2/3 : Lets you select the weapons you want  to  have  in  the
                       game.

The game options menu:

Return to main menu  : Hence!
Music on/off         : Toggles that irritating music!
Sound on/off         : Toggles all sounds.
Computer intelligence: Set this according to your own IQ (=low? ;-) ).
Game speed (1-20)    : Sets the game speed, when set to one the game runs very
                       slow whereas at 20 the game runs as fast as possible.
Autoplot on/off      : If set to 'on', some points will appear  from  time  to
                       time during the game.
Rounds per game      : Controls  the  number  of  rounds  to   played   before
                       returning to the main menu.
Explosion radius     : Change it if you want to exagerate.
Boundary on/off      : Toggels the boundary and makes the game quicker.
Events on/off        : Toggels the various events that can occur in the game.

The disk menu:

Return to main menu  : Getting boring, eh?
Load old settings    : Loads the settings that were saved to disk previously.
Save new settings    : Saves the current settings to disk, including the keys,
                       options, player settings, etc.
Preset               : Lets you choose a scenario, which is then generated  by
                       the 'Generate scenario' bar (?).
Humans               : Controls the number of humans  that  may  play  in  the
                       scenario. Do not forget to alter the controls!
Computers            : Controls the amount of computers that play in the  next
                       game when clicked on 'Generate scenario'.
Generate scenario    : Finally, this generates a special scenario according to
                       the settings above.

Mega Tron external Controls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mega Tron can be configured using the command line  entered  from  CLI  or  by
setting  Tool  Types  in  the 'MegaTron'-icon. For both CLI and Tool Types the
keywords are the same:

'CloseWorkbench' : Tries to close the Workbench Screen in order to  grab  some
                   memory.
'NoMusic'        : Maybe the best of all options! Turns off the music once and
                   forever.  Note:  This option frees about 36KB of memory but
                   the music cannot be turned on in the  'Game  options  menu'
                   any longer.
'NoSound'        : Disables the sound effects. Frees about 60KB.
'SkipTitle'      : Skips the intro screen.
'Load'           : Loads the old settings  directly  when  entering  the  main
                   menu.
'Music="name"'   : Special feature! Since my music sounds awful, you have  the
                   oppotunity to load an other into the game. The music has to
                   be of NoiseTracker or ProTracker type.
'50Hz'           : Will switch to 50 Hz PAL mode. Probably you prefer this.
'60Hz'           : Switches to 60Hz NTSC mode.
'DisableLowLevel': Disables the checking of the joystick as a gamepad. It  has
                   shown,  that  the  library  as  some  problems  with normal
                   joysticks from time to time.
'Disable4Player' : Disables the four player adapter support. This switch  must
                   be  used  if  you have connected a printer to your parallel
                   port.
'Players=n'      : Sets the maximum of players to n. n may range from 2 to 10.
                   Default setting is 10.
'Explosions=n'   : Sets the maximum of explosions to n. n may range from 2  to
                   20. Default is 10.
'Rockets=n'      : Sets the maximum of rockets that can fly at the  same  time
                   to n. Default is 10.

Mega Tron usually requires 1MB of ram. If you only  have  512KB  then  buy  an
expansion  or  try the tool types 'CloseWorkbench', 'SkipTitle', 'NoMusic' and
'NoSound' until it works.

History
~~~~~~~
V1.5 : Added eater-launcher weapon.
       Implemented high intelligence. Old 'High' is now 'Ultra'.
       Little fixes and changes.
       Fixed a bug in the joystick button handling.
       Teleport draws a filled circle to show where you have teleported to.
       Renamed 'Speed up' To 'Jumpspeed'.
       Added some new weapons: Speed up, Eater and Freeze.
       Thx to Mark de Jong for these neat ideas! ;-)
       Now comes with Mark de Jong's 'paralemmings'  in  addition  to  my  own
       tune.
       Fixed a bug in the max-speed-when-all-humans-died-routine.
V1.41: Arrgggh! Serious bug which made the fire button on joystick  2 useless.
       Joystick 1 could trigger the weapons instead.
       Added new tool types: DISABLELOWLEVEL, DISABLE4PLAYER.
       Slowed down the menu selection speed by about 50%.
       Save config didn't save the colours of the players. Fixed.
V1.4 : Added joypad support.
       The screen mode will now be set to the old one when quit.
       If all human players have died, the speed will be set to maximum.
V1.3 : Added (almost) NTSC compatibility.
       Changed music/sound system, no '4Voice' switch anymore.
       Quickend the game a bit.
       Now allocates the audio channels.
V1.2 : Added config screen.
       Added tool types and choosable music.
       Added disk menu, game options menu, moved and added various options.
       Added four player adapter support.
       Added events.
V1.1 : Initial release. 

Mega Tron is Shareware
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, some words to you. If you like this game, why  not  sending  me  some
money  or  a  gift  (like  disks,  PD, joysticks, mice, floppy drives, modems,
harddisks, graphic cards, Real 3D, A4000/040s, etc.). Thanks for  it!  If  you
don't  like  Mega  Tron,  copy  it  on to someone else. I would appreciate any
letters you send in to comment about the game, even if you don't like it.

Moreover, you can mail me for AMOS stuff and help in some problems.

REGISTRATION COUNTER: 00 (=$0) :'(

Other Shareware
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strike Commander: Duell for two pilots in the air.
Mega Tron       : Great action game for up to seven people.
Tubes           : Advanced pipeline game.
       
Contact address
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Any mail, comments or donations welcome:

Chris Hodges                    Account: 359 68 63
Kennedystr. 8                   BLZ    : 700 530 70
D-82178 Puchheim                Bank   : Sparkasse Fürstenfeldbruck
Germany
Tel.: +49-89/8005856
Email: platon@cu-muc.de         WWW: http://home.pages.de/~platon/ 
