...........................................................................
========================> Gravity Force, v1.02 <===========================


1.  Introduction
2.  Overview
3.  System Requirements
4.  Controls
5.  Notes about gameplay
6.  Version History
7.  Download
8.  Legal Stuff
9.  Background
10. Credits



1. INTRODUCTION

About ten years ago I bought an Amiga 500. The first game I played was
Maniac Mansion. The second game was Gravity Force. And in fact this game
with its addicting gameplay impressed me for years. I played it again and
again and never lost interest. So this became the game idea I always wanted
to recreate myself. I think I can do it now, although it'll be my first
really completed game.


2. OVERVIEW

In Gravity Force you control a little ship. Your mission is to collect all  
cargo and return it safely to your home base. This would be quite easy if  
there were no enemies and no gravity pulling you to the ground. Well, for  
the enemies you have a cannon (in fact more than 6 different weapon  
systems), and for the gravity you have your skill (maybe).

My goal was not only to create an adaption of a great classic but to
include new features like different types of missions which can't be found
in any "Thrust"-clone. Besides normal "cargo missions" you have to guard
other ships or fly search-and-destroy missions. My main intention was to
include something new in every level to lower the "every time the same
thing"-feeling. If you can't complete a mission I'd be happy to send you
the required passwords. Just ask.

With version 1.0 the "Single Player Race" mode is finally implemented, but 
only with 3 maps. There is also Multiplayer in this version, but only as
a "two player, one computer, one screen"-"Arena-Dogfight". Maybe there will
be networking support in further releases.


3. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Gravity Force was done on an Intel Pentium 200 with 64 MB RAM. The game
needs about 8 MB of RAM and runs quite fine under pure DOS as well in a
DOS box under Windows 95/98. Since v0.6 it should run with a Pentium 133
or slower system (more or less). The faster the better (general rule).

The DOS version does NOT run with Windows NT or Windows 2000.
I think that the Windows version does not suffer this limitation, if
DirectX 7 is installed. But I'll not take any responsibility for
any "strange" behaviour this version may have.


4. CONTROLS

You can alter all keys for one and two player games in the Game 
Options. You can also use a joystick or gamepad.

The following keys are the default:

SPACE        --  Thrusters
Arrow Left   --  Turn ship left
Arrow Right  --  Turn ship right
Arrow Up     --  Shoot selected weapon

1            --  Select standard weapon
2            --  Select double shot weapon
3            --  Select ballistic bombs
4            --  Select megabomb
5            --  Select guided missiles
6            --  Select mines

Enter        --  Special / Detonate all mines


You can't alter following keys:

P            --  Show/hide info panels (fullscreen game)
R            --  Set zoom of radar window (1x-5x)

Pause        --  Pause :-)
F12          --  Make Screenshot
ESC          --  Abort game, back to menu
Shift+ESC    --  (in menu) leave game (menu) immediately

PgUp/PgDn    --  Alter the displayed score code (Menu)



> IMPORTANT notice
------------------

The 2-Player-Dogfight suffers one (hardware based) limitation when
both players are using the keyboard. If 4 or more keys are pressed
at once, the keyboard might not be able to recognize all keypresses
and returns lacking or wrong data. Depending on your keyboard, this
behaviour may be more or less recognizable.

The only solution for this problem: One player must use a joystick
or a gamepad.



5. NOTES ABOUT GAMEPLAY

 -- Options menu: The "pixel amount" means how many pixel effects are dis-
    played. So if you have a slow computer, decrease this value, and if you
    like the pixels and have a faster machine, increase it. (0% is no
    pixels, 200% is twice the "normal" pixels).

 -- Options menu: Only turn "Pixel Deviation" on when you have a really
    fast computer! ("Fast":  >= Pentium II)
    In fact it does not do much. Only the pixels are "pulled" towards the
    gravity walls (if there are some). So if there are a lot of pixels
    visible, some grav walls present, and the game is running on a "slow"
    computer, the game might get stuck (pause for some seconds).

 -- Scoring system: The points are decreased depending on a "time multiplier"
    defined for each level. This multiplier is 0.01-0.04 in most levels.
    So if you need 100 seconds to complete the mission, your score will be
    decreased by 100 * (100*0.03) = 300 points.

    Hint: If you kill all the enemies in one level, you'll get a bonus score
    of 1000 points (Note: Sometimes you don't need to destroy every single
    enemy to get the bonus, e.g. when there're "big reds" around). And if
    you don't lose a life, you'll get additional 700 points.

 -- Enemies: You can kill the "big red ones" (200 hits), but you never need
    to. There is always a way to get around them without killing them.

 -- "Internet Highscore Code": If you get into the highscore, you'll be
    shown a code. Write this down and go to the Gravity Force homepage
    (www.skytrek.de/gf/gf.html), click on "Hiscores" and fill out the
    form on this page. The name (your name) you type in there must be
    exactly the same as the one you used in Gravity Force for this specific
    highscore. Click on "Update!", and if you are good enough, your score
    will be added to the correct hiscore table.

    If you wish you can download the hiscore.dat from there and use it on
    your system.

 -- Dogfight: 

    Extras selection:  None   --  No Extras
                       Little --  Approximately every 4th kill puts an extra
                       Medium --  Approximately every 2nd kill puts an extra
                       Many   --  Every kill puts an extra


 -- Bugs: With v1.0 most of the severe bugs should be fixed. If the game
    crashes on your system, then please (!) send me a mail. Thanks!

    Version 1.0 of the game is unfortunetaly not compatible with the
    hiscore.dat files of older versions.


6. VERSION HISTORY

v1.02 (24/09/00)
 + Full translation to Slovak language (by Juraj Michalek)

v1.01 (02/09/00)
 * Bugfix: "Hit percentage" error mainly in Level 10
 + Shift+ESC leaves menu immediately

v1.0 (26/08/00)
 ! First official version after 0.9b
 + some bugfixes, double keys no more possible
 + All points below beginning with v0.9c

v0.9j (18/08/00)
 + All files from the /map and /lng directories now in two data files
 + Text messages now disppaear when you start from a base
 + Menu: ESC now equivalent to "Back" button
 * Bugfixes

v0.9i (14/08/00)
 + Dogfight: Selections for weapon and extras amount
 + Race: Start & End now identical
 + Third race map
 * Some bugfixes

v0.9h (09/08/00)
 ! first pre1.0 version for betatesters
 + slightly more intelligent rockets
 + slightly more intelligent probes
 + compiled a Windows version

v0.9g (08/08/00)
 + New single player level: "Pacifism"
 + Fifth dogfight map ("Black Hole")

v0.9f (03/08/00)
 + complete keyboard configuration
 + Joystick support
 + Arena-Dogfight mode with four maps

v0.9e (07/07/00)
 + Two race maps
 + All training levels implemented
 + New panel on the top of the screen
 + Hiding the panels with "p"
 + some minor graphical changes

v0.9d (...)
 + First version of race mode with one map
 + One new enemy
 + You can (theoretically) now land everywhere
 + Menu enhanced
 + four training levels

v0.9c (...)
 * fixed a very serious bug (which caused crashing of the machine)
 + fixed some bugs in Level 9
 + You can review your scorecodes now in the highscore table
 + Autofire (very slow in basic configuration)

v0.9b (21.02.00)  (sent to the AGCII)
 + Text: "Technical Overview"
 + slight changes and bugfixes

v0.9 (20.02.00)
 + one new level ("Gravity Games")
 + new graphic effect "debris pixels"
 + new weapon: mines
 + menu music
 + some changes to general graphics
 + some little changes in gameplay and level design

v0.8 (02.02.00)
 + four new big levels ("Big Brother I-III" & "Deathmatch")
 + password system (you must complete a level or know the password to
   play the next one)
 + gravitation 'walls'
 + some little changes to gameplay and graphics

v0.7 (15.01.00)
 + complete sound update (but still no music yet)
 + explosion craters
 + scoring system changed (once again); you can now download the
   hiscore.dat on the Internet to your system.
 + one new level
 * fixed some very ugly bugs... (that crashed the system)
 * fixed some not so ugly bugs (fading and other)

v0.6b (23.12.99)
 + scoring system changed (with external hiscore.dat)
 + hiscore tables on the GF website
 + "Kamikaze" now possible (some enemies are killed when you fly against
   them)
 + German documentation
 * some bugfixes (cargo, menu, ...)

v0.6 (15.12.99)
 + completely new timing system (nearly doubles performance!)
 + menu system!
 + multi language support (English & German)
 + new nice tileset (used in level 3)
 + one new level
 + level statistics
 + hiscores!
 + slight changes in graphics and gameplay
 * bugfixes

v0.5 (10/99)
 + Two complete levels (1 & 2)
 + new weapon (guided rockets)
 + radar
 + map
 + fading effects, "bouncing pixels"
 + teleporters and gravitation distortion units (both in test phase,
   only active in test level)
 * minor bugfixes

v0.4
 + Status panel
 + shield!
 + some minor additions to enemies
 * bugfixes
 + "laser doors" and a switch to unlock them
 + on screen display
 + some new objects

v0.3 - v0.0: ??


7. DOWNLOAD

You can download the game from the web page

http://www.skytrek.de/gf/gf.html

The archive is about 2,5 MB in size.


8. LEGAL STUFF

Gravity Force is Freeware without any restrictions. You can distribute the
program freely, as long you do it for free. To avoid downloads of old
versions it's always good to include a link to this web page which is
always actualized. You can also send me an eMail with your wish to be
informed about future releases.

As a C programmer I'd just write

  #include <std-disclaimer.h>

but I'll say the same thing for all others :-)

Of course I can't take any responsibility for all the things Gravity Force
is doing with your computer. So I urge you to save your work before
playing GF. The game may crash occasionally in the current version and
might crash your whole Windows system (which are as manifold as the stars
in the universe).


9. BACKGROUND

Backgrounds? Who cares about backgrounds when the game is fun?

As stated in the Credits the game was programmend in C with the free
compiler DJGPP and the graphics library Allegro. Up to now (0.9b) the
source is 700k in size and consists of approximately 16000 lines.

I've started programming in the middle of 1999. Since then I'm programming
mostly on free weekends or in my vacation. The code is absolutely chaotic
(since it's my first big project). Maybe I'll release it some day.

There're not much things to say about myself: I'm currently 22 years old
and I'm doing an education to a computer "specialist". I'm living in a
little village called Egringen in the south west corner of Germany.



10. CREDITS

The game was done using "Allegro" by Shawn Hargreaves and DJGPP by D.J.
Delorie. Further I used "Mappy" by Robin Burrows for creating and
displaying the game map and "AllegTTF" by Doug Elevald for the font stuff.

Tobias Gaertner created the teleporter effect, the brown "hunter" enemy
and the maps for level 2, 4, 5 (including 6 & 7), 9 and 10. The first
two race maps are also his work. Thanks to him again for the nice
GF icon (gf.ico).

Sound effects are taken from various sources, including the original
Gravity Force on the Amiga 500.

Thanks to Robin Burrows (again) for his great help with the menu music.
It's in the style of the original Gravity Force tune.

Michael Kuehnert wrote the German and English versions of the text
"Gravity Force: Technical Overview".

The translation to Slovak language was done by Juraj Michalek 
(georgi@home.sk).

A big "Thanks" goes to all betatesters: Michael Kuehnert, Jan Kuehnert,
Malte Schmidt, Tobias Gaertner, Erik Wucher, Martin Zeilinger, Bastian
Guetlin and all of you who sent me any comments by eMail.

If you like the game or if you have something to criticize, send me a
mail or check out the feedback form on the Gravity Force homepage.
You may also sign the guestbook there.

Thanks for your interest.


Jens Hassler (lukey@skytrek.de)
