----------------------------Rocket Fuel Mayhem-----------------Version 1.2--- 
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                       by Lachie Dazdarian(KENTAURI)           09.09.2003.
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Table of Contents
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1.0 - About The Game
2.0 - Running The Game
   2.1 - Requirements
   2.2 - How To Play
3.0 - Credits
4.0 - FAQ
5.0 - Version Update
6.0 - Contact
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1.0 - About The Game
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--------------------

Rocket Fuel Mayhem is one screen, spaceship battle game.
Two teams consisted of same number of ships fight each other on one 
screen arenas until complete destruction of one team. This game 
features 8 ships, animated pilots, extra modes, tournament, large 
database, 6 arenas, music(MIDI) and much more.


R.F.M. is entirely coded in QuickBasic 4.5 using RelLib, 
a library by R.E.Lope.


2.0 - Running The Game
----------------------
----------------------

If you are running it from Windows 2000 or Windows XP you NEED to
allocate XMS memory! How?
You must create a shortcut to RFM12.EXE and modify it.
Just right click on RMF12.EXE and create a shortcut.
Right click on the shortcut and access properties.
In properties memory menu alter the amount of XMS 
memory to maximum offered.
This game comes with an already made shortcut but it will only
work if you unzip the game in RFM directory on C: drive.
Otherwise you'll have to modify it.

If you have a Sound Blaster card you can use LoadSB.BAT to
load the SB drivers and UnLoadSB.BAT to unload them once
you finished playing the game.
If you are running the game in MS-DOS or Windows 95/98 then you can
run the game with RFMSB.BAT which loads SB drivers, runs the game and
later removes the SB drivers from memory after you exit the game. 


2.1 - Requirements
------------------

You need a 386 or higher to run this game. Sound Blaster compatible
card is optional, in case you want to hear the background music.
Game should run in MS-DOS, Windows 95/98/2000/XP and Linux DOS box.


2.1 - How To Play
-----------------

Like most of games, RFM is intuitive. Inside the game you have 
instructions which basicly explain all you need to know.
From controls, game rules to available options. 
Check it, please!


3.0 - Credits
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Game idea, concept and design : Dean Janjic (a.k.a. Lachie Dazdarian)
Coding : Dean Janjic
Graphic : Dean Janjic
MIDI routines : QMIDI 4.1 by Jesse Dorland
Music : 
**Battle Star Galactica Remix - unknown author; MIDI sequencing not credited
**One love - unknown author; MIDI sequencing not credited   
**Carmina Burana - by Carl Orff; MIDI sequencing by Stan Tracy
**Blade Runner end title theme - by Vangelis; MIDI sequencing not credited
**Born Slippery - by Underworld; MIDI sequencing not credited  
        
Database : Michael Romanovsky (a.k.a. Agamemnus) and Dean Janjic      
Main game font : Adigun Polack

Testers : Nino Van Der Mark, Joq, Andrs Ferrari, Ryan Szyrra, 
          Michael Romanovsky, Obi, Slave Unit Zero

With the above credits I wish to express an extra thank you
to all the testers for all their work. You were a very valuable help. 

Thanx to R.E.Lope for making RelLib and helping me many times,
Brendan Urquhart for being a great support and all people who ever 
mailed me support e-mails (a few, but appreciated).
Also thanx to all people from QB community(especially from QBNews and 
VPlanet) for just being there and keeping QB alive. I love you all 
sluggers.


4.0 - FAQ  
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---------   

Due the game size and some issues with MIDI support I think this
section is neccesarry.

Why is game so difficult?
-------------------------
Well, that's the point - the challenge. If you find the tournament too
difficult just change the ship, enable the powerups and try again. Gravity, 
ground, one screen arenas and collision is the concept of RFM gameplay and 
if you dislike it you dislike the game and therefore, don't play it.

My score for the tournament : Tomcat 3K, without powerups, first attempt
                              0 credits left, passed the tournament
                              Dou Pai, with powerups, first attempt,
                              2 credits left, passed the tournament

Take "first attempt" with reservation since I played like zillion of
matches while testing the game but you get my point. Once you got 
experienced in it, you shouldn't have problems finishing the tournment.
Powerups help a lot. 

Why is game so fast?
--------------------
Partly my fault. I'm having problems finding the right delay routine so
you are forced to play on the current speed or on the one which is too 
low. It would be better if the game would spin on more frames per seconds 
and that ship/projectile pixel speeds would be lower but eh, what you 
gonna do? It's the game flaw and you'll have to deal with it.
I think it's just the matter of getting used to it.

You can use the TAB key during the battle to disable the delay routine
completely. You need to HOLD if for a second. It's usefull only on 
really old PCs like on a 386.

I can't load the midi drivers. Why?
-----------------------------------
That's not my fault. I didn't made those drivers. They came with the 
MIDI routines I'm using. I also had some problems running them in 
Windows 2000 so you'll just have to play the game without music.
Or try to run your system with a BOOTDISK. Don't know if that helps.

Drivers loaded fine but I'm still unable to turn on the music.
--------------------------------------------------------------
That shouldn't happen. I'm using functions which came with the MIDI
routines to check if the drivers are loaded and they should work
properly. If the drivers are not loaded you should not be able to
turn on the music. However, there is a bypass for this drivers loaded 
checkup. While in game options press S and N together to change the 
drivers loaded variable. Now you should be able to turn on the music in 
any case. If the game crashes in that moment then the SB drivers didn't 
loaded properly or you simply didn't loaded them at all. If the music 
starts to play then it's my mistake and you should warn me on 
it(e-mail me).

I've encountered "Out of memory error".
---------------------------------------
Hmmm...that might happen if you are running the game with SB drivers 
thought I don't know. I tried not to use too much conventional memory 
in the same time but it was hard since I'm not such a good coder. If this 
happens to you please e-mail me with your configuration and info about 
the moment when it happened. If you are running the game with a shortcut 
allocate more conventional memory in it's properties. It might help.

Game is too dark on my PC.
--------------------------
Completely not my fault. RFM is a damn bright game! You even have a
bright up palette option. You have a fucked up video card settings, man!
Change them and then talk to me. On a PC with proper video card
settings this game is bright as sunshine.

Is the end tournament animation same for every team?
----------------------------------------------------
There is a really small diference in the ship sprite appearing by
the base. And in the text of course (name of the winner). That difference
is just for the atmosphere purpose and it's that small in the same moment
so you wouldn't curse me for not being able to finish the tournament with
Zoomer and therefore not seeing the super-duper special Zoomer end 
animation which doesn't exsist.

Music slows down if I play with sound effects.
----------------------------------------------
I don't have a sound card so I can't add proper sound effects.
Instead I'm using cheesy PC Speaker sound effects which slow down 
the game. Shoot me for being poor and not being able to buy a new 
PC. Simply choose, playing just with music or just with sound effects.

Are there any cheats?
---------------------
No.

Why is your english so bad?
---------------------------
Uh, I know. I was already aware of my poor ability to express myself
good and rather crippeled knowledge of english but while making this 
game I've discovered the whole new dimension of my badness in writting.
It was a huge disappointment for me. I don't know, I guess I'll just
have work on it. Start reading books or something. :P

Anyway, I apologize for all the bad sentences and mistakes I wrote 
in the game.

Why aren't there any more extra modes?
--------------------------------------
Cause I have a life. Leave me alone. :P

You suck, you know?
-------------------
Ok, this is getting nasty. I'm not answering any more questions.



5.0 - Version Updates
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Still version 1.2(16.3.2005.):
Shees, what is he doing with this game after so much time you must 
be asking yourself. Well, I got a new PC so I was finally able to
install AntiVir anti-virus program which is able to detect some 
ancient DOS virus(Karczor) that kept fucking me.
Unfortunately, I found out that Dark Quest and Rocket Fuel Mayhem
were infected so I had to recompile those games to get brand new, 
virus free EXE files. Don't worry about the virus if you downloaded 
the old copy. As far as I could see it doesn't spread. This virus was
on a version of old DOS zipper I used to zip my games. So when I zipped
them it infected the exe files. While going over RFM I finally corrected
ALL the spelling errors in the database and instructions and fixed
the grammar to some acceptable level. Changed some sentences a bit.
So it's nothing big but I think it deserves to be said.

Version 1.2(09.09.2003.) :
Why this version? Well, while I was making Ball Blazing Fantasy I
realized that I was using Rellib's sprite collision statements on
a wrong way. So I recoded that part of RFM and compiled it. Since
the mentioned collision routine is doubfull already and it involves
sprite offsets and such it worked very poorly on projectile to ship
collision so I had to left the old code which is imperfect, but at
least with that old method projectiles cannot pass through a ship which
happened with the new code I've tried to add. Nevertheless the new
collision method was very usefull with powerups and ship collision
which is now almost perfect and the imperfection is the old code was
a bit too visible in that part. While recoding I noticed few bugs
which are fixed now. First one was that player 2 ship wasn't damaged
in collision with an asteroid and the second one is more a technical
change. Now, when a projectile hits a ship explosion doesn't appear
in the upper-left corner of the hited ship(that was bad), it appears
on the last projectile's position before the impact. It gives a better,
though not the best possible effect. Also now ingame messages such
as "Round over!" and similar appear EXACTLY on the middle of the screen.
I also economized the usage of conventional memory so posibilty of
"Out of memory" error is practily zero now. This update isn't what I
originaly planed in the meaning of perfecting the collision routines
but still is important due the spoted bugs.

Version 1.1(14.06.2003.) :
Kinda rechecked the game once more. I had to fix some grammar mistakes
in the database so I thought while I'm doing that I might try 
to spot few left-out bugs and fix few things people mentioned.
With the database I've sticked to the double spaceing method since
the letters are not the same width so I just couldn't be bothered 
with it anymore. Anyway the changes are:
-corected few spelling and grammar mistakes in the database, mostly
 in arenas topic(another Michael's revision)
-updated few things in Ship Specifications topic since during
 creation of the game some specifications changed and I also pointed
 out that Hypnos shield is ABSORB shield which I forgot to mention
 before
-done some corections with winner's team name being displayed on
 the middle of the screen (tournament matches)
-lump hunt score screen now has a background, lousy but better than
 nothing
-when a ship is in a Vangal Web and gets destroyed the Vangal Web 
 glued on that ship doesn't reappear on the destroyed ship's docking
 area for a second anymore
-when you exit the game now, screen mode 0 is initialized


6.0 - Contact
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Feel free to email me comments, bug reports or just support messages. 
You can also visit the KENTAURI website, download our other fine products 
or post in the forum. I check it every time I can.

My email : lachie13@yahoo.com                  
KENTAURI's URL : www.kentauri.cjb.net











