Star Shot documentation
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Star Shot, (C) 1998 Legendary Software all rights reserved
Created by LeBoneur (LeBoneur@aol.com)
Website: http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/capacity/438

CONTENTS:
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    1. What is Star Shot?
        1.1 Star Shot's creation story
        1.2 Star Shot's inside story
    2. How to play
        2.1 Controls
        2.2 Description of playing screen
        2.3 Items
        2.4 Tips
    3. Troubleshooting

1. WHAT IS STAR SHOT???

    1.1 Star Shot's creation story

    It all started on June 3, when I, LeBoneur, was informed of the QLimpics,
and its beautiful spelling ;). Anyway, the deadline was (I thought) July 10,
so I gathered my ideas (and some from friends) and scheduled June 20th to be
the programming beginning. No, this wasn't going to be any BIG production,
but just a small game that everyone was supposed to look at and see what
QBasic could do.

    Well, the actual deadline was June 30th and I hadn't started programming
Star Shot until the 22nd, which leaves me here, one week later, working on the
documentation after its completion. So, I furiously worked on the sprites and
gathered suggestions from friends, one of which helped the idea of the boss.

    The final product: Star Shot, quest for the Fried Rice. It is a spoof off
some japanese game, and becomes very humorous as it "makes up" its own ration
names, by combining two words together, like "Instant Steak" or "Sweet Rump."
The game wasn't quite what I would like it to be, and I hope my next project,
"Chronic the Hemp Hog," turns out better (and I also hope to get a few
donations!!!)

    1.2 Star Shot's inside story

    In this section I will tell you the story of Star Shot before the war, and
I will tell it in cheaply translated "babelfish.altavista.digital.com"
japanese-to-english format.

    Fried rice. That is what your family needs. How got Fried rice? How to get
it? Well, get it! Find fried rice. Feed family. Win game! To get Fried rice,
play game. Beat cybermarket clerk Silent Bob and beat him. It will be hard,
but you probably won't do it, but you could do it. Hurry! Before your family
turn into dirty ricepickers who sell sex for food and money.

    2. HOW TO PLAY
        
        2.1 Controls

    Controls are simple. The arrow keys move, and control shoots. Hold control
for rapid fire. Don't be too trigger happy or else you will run out of ammo
and you won't be able to win...easily.
    You will get certain powerups that, when you have three of them, will
enable "Da," a chinese character meaning "big" that is, well, just some sort
of symbol I used to make fun of the Japanese (hey, that's what they deserve.
They make fun of us Yankee's by making us with BIG eyes on our faces with 
their stupid Japanimation >:). "Da" takes up 250 bullets so you should use
it wisely. To use "da," push ALT.
    If you ever want to quit, Escape does it. Note, this is the only way you
can save your game.
    To get the high score, you must get a Game Over. There is no other way to
get the high score.

        2.2 The Playing Screen

    The playing screen is simple. Shoot the ships coming from behind or in
front. There are no "friends" in this game. The yellow things are shots and
they also hurt you. To the left is the status bar. The only thing you wouldn't
understand is the Bonus. That is the bonus you will get at the end of the
level.

        2.3 Items

    The fork: This item is a food item and will give you anything from 0 to
              20 hitpoints.
    The Blue-gemmed circle: This item will give you up to 250 bullets.
    The Red-gemmed circle: This is a powerup. Get three of them, and you can
                           use "Da."

        2.4 Tips

    When you use "Da" you should only use it in desperate need. Not only does
"Da" use a lot of bullets, it also won't give you any score for what it kills
(which is EVERYTHING on the screen).

    You should get all the powerups before you kill all the guys in the
formation just in case it is the last formation on the level. If you forget
to get them, they will not stay until you get them. You will pass them by.

    The Boss, Silent Bob(doesn't really look like him, huh?) will get "mad"
at 325 hitpoints. His shots from then on will take away 50 hitpoints, so it
won't matter how many hitpoints you have when he gets mad.
    In other words, if you are fighting the boss and you have less that 50%
life, and you want to conserve it, forget it. His next shots will kill you,
whether you have 9% or 49% so once you drop below 50%, go hardcore!!!

    3. TROUBLESHOOTING

    I know that THIS part is the part you came to this TXT for, but I am too
DAMN lazy to do it. I will only provide a few things, so read this whole TXT
over, then, if the TXT doesn't cover what you want, then email me your
question:

    Q: Is there any way I can make this damn game go faster?
    A: OF COURSE!!! I'm not that stupid. Go into 2. OPTIONS from the main menu
       and change detail level to LOW. That will make it go light speed.

    Q: My computer is less than a 486DX2-66. Is there ANY way I can make this
       game go faster?
    A: Buy a new computer??? Well, if you have a 486DX class at least, then you
       can. It requires some money though. You have to buy a PCI video card and
       things will go way faster. This game does run fine, however, on a
       486DX4-100 with an ISA(ISA=CRAP=My video card and my computer) video
       card, on low detail.

    Q: Is there any way I can choose what sound I want (sound/music)
    A: Read the answer to the first question, but substitute DETAIL LEVEL with
       SOUND/MUSIC. You can choose which of the two to have on or off.

    Q: I have some problem with EMM386. It says something about changing the
       size of the DMA buffer or something. (This could also be something else
       that EMM386 is doing that results in rebooting the computer).
    A: Lucky you. You're one of the people who have a computer that will not
       run this game in protected mode. Load this game with nothing but the
       SET GALAXY and SET BLASTER lines in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or AUTOEXEC.DOS.

    Q: I have this problem. GAME.EXE is telling me to load something called
       SBMIDI.EXE. Do I have to download this file, and if or if not, what do I
       do?
    A: No, you don't have to download anything else. SBMIDI comes with Star Shot
       and the way to get the music in Star Shot is by typing SBMIDI before you
       start the game. If the problem persists, you'll have to turn off music.

    Q: It's not here.
    A: Email me.
