
               ANTS : THE EXODUS Version 1.0
                      By Michael Hughes
               February-May 2002
                          www.geocities.com/mhsoft_online
               M H S      mhsoft_online@yahoo.com
               "Welcome to the world..." 

                               README File
                                  By Michael Hughes

CONTENTS

1) Introduction
2) System Requirement
3) Installing
4) Running
5) How to Play
6) Levels 1-5 walk-through
7) Using the Level Design Utility
8) Troubleshooting
9) Files

1) INTRODUCTION

Ants:The Exodus is a single player strategy game from MHSoft. You control
a tactical ant whose mission it is to lead a party of princess ants through
a maze of tunnels to the open air, where they can leave to set up their own
colonies. Your task will not be an easy one. Each cave is full of traps and
puzzles to test your skill, speed and intelligence. To make matters worse,
the tunnels have been invaded by red ants, spiders and wasps; all desperate
to get sink their fangs into a juicy princess.

There are a total of 25 levels, arranged in increasing difficulty. Once 
you've completed these you can create your own using the MapMaker utility. 
I am setting up a downloads section on the MHSoft web-site so you can 
publish your creations online as well as getting hold of new levels.

2) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Necessary
---------
80486 Processor
EGA/VGA Colour Graphics adapter with 256K video memory
Hard Drive or other disk (1MB space)
DOS
Approx 540K Free conventional memory (Less without sound)


Recommended
-----------
Pentium processor         : For smoother graphics
Mouse (MS comp.)          : To use the MAPMAKER utility
Soundblaster Comp. s/card : To hear MIDI music



3) INSTALLING

Ants the Exodus is distributed as a ZIPPED file. You will need an unZIP
utility, such as winZIP or pkunZIP to access the game. When you unzip the
files, ensure that the directory structure is maintained, otherwise the game 
will hang.


4) RUNNING

To start Ants:The Exodus run ANTS.BAT in the main directory. Do not try
running INTRO.EXE or LEVEL.EXE directly as this may cause an error.

The first time you play Ants:The Exodus, the sound setup program will appear.
First try selecting the Auto-Detect option. Even if the settings look wrong
try playing the Test Music as the MIDI player is very versatile. If the
machine hangs or no music is heard, restart the program and enter settings
manually. Again run the test music.

If you are unable to get MIDI music to work it is possible to play without.
Instead of running ANTS.BAT, start with NOSOUND.BAT. This bypasses the MIDI
driver and should allow the game to run okay.


5) HOW TO PLAY

To begin a game of Ants:The Exodus, select New Game on the main menu. You
will have an opportunity to read the mission briefing before being taken to
level 1. At any time during the game, press Esc. to access the In-Game Menu,
which allows you to save, exit, commit suicide (lose a life and restart that
level) or go back to the game.

For details of the objects you will encounter and how to control your ant,
select the instructions option on the main menu.

6) LEVEL WALKTHROUGHS

In case you are having trouble picking up the game I have included a 
walkthrough of the first five levels:

LEVEL 1 : Go to the supply post at the top left of the area and collect the
two arrows in it. Then move down and collect the four keys. Move to the
position three squares down from the Start Square. Tab to the left arrow
on your items list and press space to plant a left arrow. Move to the left
two squares and plant a down arrow. Move down through the four locks. Press
F10 to release the princesses.

LEVEL 2 : Move down and to the right. Carefully dodge the spider web (and the 
spider!) and move to the supply post. You will collect a bridge section and
an anti-insect mine. Follow the path round to collect a blue key. Walk into
the brick to climb over it and continue to follow the path round. Walk 
through the blue lock and follow this path to collect the white key. Follow 
the path back round and go to the white lock. Walk into the lock to unlock
it and then stop. Tab to the bridge section on the item menu and then walk
into the space in front of you to lay it. Walk across and collect the yellow
key. Walk upwards and go through the yellow lock. Wait until the spider is
at its most distant and then walk onto the square to the left of the webs. 
Tab to the anti-insect mine on your items list and press space to plant it.
Move quickly upwards. Once the spider is blown up, press F10.

LEVEL 3 : Move to the right into the supply post and collect three bridge 
sections, and up arrow and a dynamite. Move right but stop just before you reach the 
bricks. Go up one and then right one square. Move down over the brick to push
it upwards. Move down and follow the arrow to the right. Stop on the square 
next to the down arrow. Press enter to use the dynamite. Tab to the bridge
section. Continue to the right, walking across the two gaps to lay the
bridges. Stop when you come to the T-junction. Lay an up arrow. Tab to the
bridge section and walk upwards, over the gap. You will be sent to the left
by the arrow. Stop and press F10.

Pretty easy, huh? Don't worry they get a lot harder...



7) USING THE LEVEL DESIGN UTILITY

Included with Ants: The Exodus is MAPMAKER.EXE which is a level design 
utility. This allows you to design all aspects of a level. Saving it in the 
ADDONS directory will allow you to load and play it from within Ants.

If you send your creations to me at mhsoft_online@yahoo.com I will post them
on the MHSoft web-site (www.geocities.com/mhsoft_online).

There is no help within MAPMAKER, so a short set of instructions is included
here:

A) Starting the program

Run MAPMAKER.EXE from the main Ants Directory.

B) The Main Screen

The grid covering most of the screen represents the map. To the right is the
tool bar. This is made up of lots of different squares which can be placed
on the map. Click on one to select it and then click on a square on the map
to place it there. You can see which tool is currently selected in the red 
box to the left of the tool bar.

C) Sprites

Click on the Add Sprites button to engage the sprite tool. Then click on a
square on the map to place a sprite there. The Sprite Design window will
appear. You will be asked for the type of sprite. Bear in mind:

WASPS: Can fly anywhere on the map, are not obstructed by obstacles. Will
eat ants AND spiders. Move randomly.
SPIDERS: Can walk over webs. Will eat ants. Walk in a straight line.
RED ANTS: Similar to your ant, cannot walk over webs. Walk in a straight 
line.

You will also be asked for the initial direction of the sprite. Regardless
of which direction you input, the sprite will always face downwards in
MAPMAKER.

Finally you are asked for the turn direction. This does no apply to wasps. 
This refers to the direction that the sprite will turn when it encounters 
an obstacle. The options are 90d, -90d and 180 d. 90d indicates a quater 
turn clockwise, -90d a quater turn anti-clockwise and 180d an about turn.

D) Supply Posts

When you add a supply dump, the supply dump design window will appear. On 
the left are the items currently in the dump, on the right are all the 
items you can add. You can have up to 10 items to the supply post. The 
available items are listed in Click on an item to add it to the supply 
post. Click on an item in the supply post to remove it.

E) Edit Tool

The bottom right icon on the tool bar is the Edit tool. Click on this and
then select a sprite or a supply post to edit its properties again.

F) Adding Header Information

Click on the Info button to add the following:
  i) The name of the level
 ii) Your name
iii) The date it was written
 iv) The time limit for stage 1 (Prior to release of the princesses)
  v) The time limit for stage 2 (After the release of the princesses)

Time limits are measured in ticks. One tick is one ant step, approximately 
0.4s on a normal machine.

G) Error Checking

Click on the Error Check button for an error check. This will check:
i) There is one start and one finish square
ii) The time limits are both above 0.


H) Important notes

i) Make sure you set the Header information in the Info box. If the time 
limits are 0, the game will hang.

8) TROUBLESHOOTING

PROBLEM : Game hangs on start-up.
REMEDY  : 1) Try running NOSOUND.BAT
          2) Check that your PC matches the requirements.
          3) Make sure that all files are present (see list below) and
             that they are in the correct directories.

PROBLEM : MIDI music does not play.
REMEDY  : 1) Run SETSOUND.BAT to input your settings.

PROBLEM : File not found error.
REMEDY  : 1) Check all files are present from the files section below.

PROBLEM : Insufficient memory to play.
REMEDY  : 1) Make sure no unnecessary programs are running in the background.
          2) Create a bootdisk using the FORMAT A: /q /s command. Edit
             AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS on the disk and remove lines which
             load drivers other than sound and video. Boot from the disk.
          3) Try running Memmaker
          4) Try running NOSOUND.BAT

PROBLEM : Gameplay is sluggish.
REMEDY  : 1) Exit any shells (such as Windows) and run straight from DOS.
          2) Try running NOSOUND.BAT


9) FILES

The following files should be present with Ants:The Exodus:

In the Main ANTS directory:
ANTS.BAT
NOSOUND.BAT
SETSOUND.BAT
INTRO.EXE
LEVEL.EXE
SETSOUND.EXE
BRUN45.EXE
MAPMAKER.EXE
INTRO.BAS
LEVEL.BAS
MAPMAKER.BAS
README.TXT
SRCDOC.TXT
BRUN45.LIB
SOUND.DAT    *Created when you first run SETSOUND

There will be six sub-directories
SAVE
MAPS
ADDONS
DATA
IMAGES
MIDI

In the SAVE sub-directory:
1.SAV through to 10.SAV

In the MAPS sub-directory:
LEVEL1.MAP through to LEVEL25.MAP

In the ADDONS sub-directory:
EXAMPLE.MAP

In the DATA sub-directory:
INS.DAT
MISSION.DAT
WIN.DAT

In the IMAGES sub-directory
ANT.SPR
ANTS.SPR
BT.SPR
CH.SPR
DONE.SPR
FLIER.SPR
FLIER2.SPR
FRONT.SPR
FRONT2.SPR
JD.SPR
LD.SPR
LOGO.SPR
LOGO1.SPR
LOGO2.SPR
LOGO3.SPR
LOSE.SPR
M.SPR
MH.SPR
MJ.SPR
PG.SPR
SPIDER.SPR
TCLOGO.SPR
TE.SPR
TIME.SPR
TT.SPR
WASP.SPR

In the MIDI sub-directory
MISSION.MID
WIN.MID
INTRO.MID
1.MID through to 7.MID

--END--
