
Operation
   _________________  _____  _________ __________ ___ ___ _______    _______
  /   ____/\_____   \/  _  \ \_   ___ \\_  _____//   |   \\____  \  / _____/
  \____  \  |    ___/  /_\  \/    \  \/ |   __)_/    ~    \/  |   \/  \  ___
  /       \ |   |  /    |    \     \____|       \    _    /   |    \   \_\  \
 /______  / |___|  \____|__  /\______  /______  /\___|_  /\______  /\_____  /
        \/                 \/        \/       \/       \/        \/  1.01 \/
     
                            from Free Lunch Design



GENERAL

    Welcome to Operation Spacehog! This game is completely free. You
    may play it as much as you like without paying a single buck. In
    exchange for playing it, you are instead asked for a small favour.
    You are encouraged to send any comments you might have about this
    game. If you like it or not or if you have any suggestions.


DISTRIBUTING

    Operation Spacehog is freeware, anybody may (and should) play it.
    Therefore, you are encouraged to distribute this game (in it's
    original form) like crazy. Upload to every website and bbs you know,
    give a copy to all your friends, etc.. However, this game may not be
    included in a compilation or any other kind of commercialpackage
    without the permission from the author. See contact near the end of
    this document.
  

DISCLAIMER
                  
    I do not accept responsibility for any effects, adverse or otherwise, 
    that this software may have on you, your computer, your sanity, your 
    dog, or anything else that you can think of. Use it at your own risk. 
    I have, however, never experienced any trouble with it.
                           

DESCRIPTION

    Operation Spacehog is a classic 2D shoot'em up featuring original
    graphics and new ideas. Blast your way through space defending mother
    Earth from evil aliens. Pick up powerups to upgrade your ship as the
    odds are raised!


HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

    Required:
      * DOS-equivalent
      * 486 SX 33 MHz
      * 4 MB RAM
      * VGA-card/display.

    Recommended:
      * DOS-environment
      * 486 DX 66 MHz
      * 4 MB RAM
      * VGA-card/display.
      * SB combatible soundcard  
      * Gamepad (4 buttons)
      * someone to play with

    Preferred:
      * Pure DOS-environment
      * Pentium
      * 8 MB RAM
      * VGA-card/display.
      * SB soundcard
      * Gamepad (4 buttons)
      * a good friend to play with

    When it comes to gamepads and joysticks, 4 buttons is needed for full
    features. However, the game can be played with 2 buttons only and using
    keys for the last buttons instead. See Troubleshooting for further
    details.


INSTALLING AND STARTING THE GAME

    First of all, this game works best in a pure DOS-environment. Any 
    attempts to play it from a Windows DOS-box is not encouraged, though
    it might work.

    Install the game by unzipping the zipfile into a desired directory. If
    you're reading this you have probably already done this.

    There are a few command line options you can use:
       /r_keys      resets keys to default
       /r_scores    resets highscores
       /nosound     turns all sound off

    To start the game simply type SPACEHOG at the prompt while standing
    in the SPACEHOG directory (or whatever you have choosen to call it). 
    You will be shown a screen where the game precalculates values and 
    sets up memory for later use. You can follow the progress. (This should 
    only take a short while.) When done you will be asked to press SPACE 
    to continue. Do that. After a short introduction (press ESC to skip
    (or TAB to fast-forward)) you will end up at the titlescreen.


THE PLOT

    In a near and possible future. Are we alone? Obviously not. One
    beautiful day an entire fleet of hostile alien ships suddenly
    arrive. Uninvited. The alien leader OCTO seem to have no other
    reason but to make a general living hell for the Earthlings.

    Luckily, a plan have since long time been developed to withstand
    a threat like this. Operation Spacehog. The best technologies,
    the best pilots, the best ships.

    Enter the heroes. Our brave pilots takes the challenge to save
    mother earth from the alien scum.


THE TITLESCREEN

    The titlescreen will present you with a menu of the following format:

      x PLAYER GAME     (where x is either 1 or 2)
      OPTIONS
      HALL OF FAME
      CREDITS
      EXIT

    Use the arrowkeys or gamepad to navigate the menu. The current selection 
    will be highlighted. Use enter to select. EXIT exits to DOS, CREDITS 
    shows the credits and HALL OF FAME shows the Hall of Fame. OPTIONS takes 
    you to another menu where you can customize the game. x PLAYER GAME 
    starts the game selected in OPTIONS. It is wise to visit the OPTIONS-
    screen to see what kind configuration the game will be using. Pressing 
    ESC will directly leave the game for DOS.

    (Shortcut: Use left and right arrows while x PLAYER GAME is highlighted
    to change number of players!)


THE OPTIONS-SCREEN

    Here you can select wether to play 1 or 2 players and customize keys and
    controls. Adjust sound and music output and graphical detail. You can 
    also decide how hard the game should be. Navigate with up and down arrows 
    and use left and right arrows to adjust the highlighted selection. ENTER 
    enters a submenu. A line at the bottom of the screen will present you 
    with the current keys for the selection that is highlighted. Pressing ESC 
    will always take you back to the menu you came from.


CONTROLS

    Default keys are as follows:

      Key       Player 1   Player 2     Gamepad    Mouse

      Up          UP         W            UP
      Down        DOWN       S            DOWN
      Left        LEFT       A            LEFT
      Right       RIGHT      D            RIGHT
      Fire        INSERT     H            A        Left
      Select      DELETE     J            B        Right
      Special     ENTER      K            C        Both     
      Steal Ship  ENTER      K            C        Both
    
      Console     TAB+ENTER (see CONSOLE-section for further info)

      Screenshot  PRNTSCRN 
      Pause       PAUSE
      Quit        ESC

    Screenshots will be stored as SHOG_???.PCX, where ??? is the number 
    of the screenshot taken.


PLAYING

    Having selected PLAY from the titlescreen you will be prompted to
    choose craft and pilot. There are three different available:

      VIPER      Pilot: Billy 68
                 A fast and agile ship, somewhat limited firepower
                 but with Carl's Berserk-mode this ship becomes
                 a fierce enemy.
      ALBATROSS  Pilot: Sheila Longhart
                 A roboust allround craft, good for all purposes.
                 Equipped with Hellriders - missiles with incredible
                 power.
      BULLDOG    Pilot: Maximillian Drake
                 Powerfull and heavy, armed to the teeth. However a bit
                 slow in sticky situations - where the Firework-ability
                 comes in handy.

    Use your keys (or gamepad (or right/left mousebutton)) to change/select
    craft. When you're done the game will start.

    Guide your ship through space. Enemies will come at you one and one 
    or in waves. Blast everything and stay away from enemy fire. If you 
    destroy a complete wave a powerup-token will be given. By picking up 
    a number of tokens an upgrade can be traded for them. The more tokens 
    the better upgrade. The current upgrade can be seen on the statusbar. 
    Select it with your Select-key. Sometimes a special-up token will be
    recieved instead. Picking this one up will add to your specials. If
    you are all ready at the end of your upgradebar and picks up a token
    you will be given a LOCK. This will be indicated by a blue lamp at the
    end of the bar. The LOCK protects your weapons when you die. If you
    already have a LOCK when you are at the end of the bar, your special
    weapons will increase.

    If your ship is destroyed you will loose some of the weapons you have
    collected. To be more precise, you will loose one speed and two
    randomly selected weapons will decrease one step. You can not loose
    more weapons then the baselevel of your ship. If playing in practice or
    easy mode completing a level will set the baselevel to the current
    configuration of your weapons.

    If playing a two player game and one of the players has no ships left,
    he/she can steal a ship from the other player (if he/she has any left)
    by pressing the SPECIAL-key.


WEAPONS

    Here follows a short description over the weapons/upgrades.

      SPEED     increase the speed
      GUN       add a new firesource 
      SIDE      fires ionwaves sideways
      BUILDUP   ability to hold down fire button and charge,
                then release to fire a big beam of destruction.
                Increases in power as you have more other weapons.
      MISSILE   heatseeking missile
      PLASMA    increases power of guns
      MAGMA     main gun now fires magma (ouch!)
      OPTION    an external firesource, also protects against enemy bullets
      ADD-ON    increases the number of maximum upgrades available
                on each weapon
      LOCK      protects your weapons from being destroyed if you loose a
                ship, turns blue if activated

    Each one of the craft you have the possibility of piloting in Operation
    Spacehog has a unique Special Weapon. Description follows:

      BERSERK CHARGE    the ship gets charged for a short peirod of time and
                        can fire shoots that really hurt a lot. Having MAGMA
                        equipped can lower the effect some.
      HELLRIDERS        big, evil, mean looking missiles well worth their
                        name. Heetseeking missiles that make serious
                        damage to any foe.
      FIREWORKS         lightning strikes the sky and all enemies in the
                        precinct take high damage. Also, all enemy bullets
                        are destroyed.


THE CONSOLE

    By pressing TAB and ENTER anywhere in the game (almost!) the console
    will appear. From here you can alter most of the game's appearance and
    even cheat(!). To cheat however you'll need the special codes which
    isn't provided. (Yet. ;) )

    Here's what you can do:           Command:
      Show help                         help
      Show information                  info
      Take a screenshot                 take screenshot
      Turn vsync on/off                 vsync on/off
      Reset the keys                    reset keys
      Reset the highscores              reset scores
      Load a custom level               load level (ENTER) filename (ENTER)
      Return to normal levels           reset levels
      Show levelstatus                  level
      Load custom midi                  load midi (ENTER) filename (ENTER)
      Return to normal midi             reset midi
      Reset settings to default         reset
      Leave the console                 exit


TROUBLESHOOTING / FAQ

    Q: There's no sound!
    A: Try starting from pure dos. WinNT is known to generate this
       problem, sorry.

    Q: It's so slow! How can I speed it up?
    A: Lots of things can be done to speed the game up. You can turn
       sound and music OFF. If this is not enough, turn the various graphical
       effects OFF. If the game still runs slow there's something else wrong.
       Try playing under PURE DOS.

    Q: The gamepad/joystick acts strange. Pulls in wrong directions aso.
       What is wrong?
    A: During setup your gamepad/joystick will be initialised and calibrated.
       Don't touch it! Let it be still while the game is in setup-mode.

    Q: I have a 2-button gamepad and therefore I can't use the SPECIAL-button.
       How do I access it?
    A: Select KEYBOARD as controltype and check what SPECIAL-key you have.
       Switch back to GAMEPAD. Now you can use that key for SPECIAL.

    Q: When I custom my keys, some keys are not shown. Why is this?
    A: You have found a key that I have not yet have implemented. Please
       tell me which one it is.
    
    Q: Where's the leveleditor? I want to make a level!
    A: But mail me your interest and ideas and you might become level
       designer.
    
    Q: I can't destroy the meteors.
    A: They cannot be destroyed with the normal gun.
       Try some magma or missiles.
    
    Q: There's a giant meteor that I can't destroy with any weapon!
    A: Correct. It's called an obstacle.
    
                             
VERSION HISTORY

    v1.01 Released (Jul 2000)
      News:
       * fixed a few minor bugs
       * and some major ones

    v1.0  Released (Mar 2000)
      News:
       * the game is complete! :)
       * new levels
       * end sequence

    v0.6a  Released (Feb 2000)
       News:
        * pilot dialogs
        * final guardian
        * new levels
        * more music
        * switched to Allegro 3.11 :)

    v0.5a  Released (Jan 2000)
       News:
        * scored music
        * special weapons
        * new enemytypes
        * new enemies
        * new levels
        * guardian
        * intro

    v0.4a  Released (Oct 1999)
       News:
        * 3 different levels
        * dialog boxes
        * vertical scroll
        * multiple levels
        * aiming enemy fire
        * hall of fame
        * credit screen
        * gamepad & mouse support
        * console
        * 5 levels of difficulty
        * designed characters

    v0.3a  Released (May 1999)
       News: 
        * lighting effects
        * sound effects (PD)
        * music (midi) (PD)
        * pixelperfect collision (PPCOL)
        * firing enemies
        * options menu
        * background gfx

    v0.2a  Released (Jan 1999)
       News: 
        * all weapons
        * one enemy
        * enemy attack waves
        * an infinite level
        * three different ships
        * options
        * fully customisable keys

    v0.1a  First released version (Oct 1998)
       Features:
        * 1-2 players
        * 1 level (meteor storm)
        * startup-menu
        * most weapons
        * homing missiles


AUTHORS & CONTACT

    Free Lunch Design is a fictious company from Sweden.
    At present it consists only of one person.

      Johan Peitz: design, code, graphics.

    From time to time, various talents are asked for help.

      Andreas Qassim: character design
      Aaron Hankla: music

    If you have comments, bug reports, or just want to ask something
    you can contact Free Lunch Design by e-mail. 

      E-Mail: d98peitz@dtek.chalmers.se

    Free Lunch Design has a web site. 

      http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d98peitz/fld
    
    Newest version of Operation Spacehog will be available at the web site
    or at it's own site:

      http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d98peitz/spacehog


SPECIAL THANKS

    Free Lunch Design would like to thank the following people:

    DJ Delorie for DJGPP
    Shawn Hargreavers for Allegro
    Ivan Baldo for PPCOL
    Robert Hhne for RHIDE

    Emil Rolandsson, for enthusiastic testing the game in his own way.

    Betatesters:
      Peter Cech              Andreas Collen          Joseph Garvin
      Gillius                 Goldomyer               Andy Goth
      Thomas Grip             Will Henderson          Leo Hwang
      Fredrik Jensen          Anders Kjellberg        Kris
      Johannes Kristinsson    Leo Lam                 Hong Liao
      Daniel Luna             Patricio Quinteros      Robin Pettersson
      Neil Townsend           Jason Winnebeck         Marcel Zwinger



                                - The End-

