New OidZone Beta .75!
- Posted by Michael Packard <lgp at EXO.COM> Feb 06, 1997
- 1285 views
I'm really excited. OidZone is pretty much finished. This is the last beta, as far as I can tell. I need everyone to play it and let me know what you think. I'm planning to officially release it to the world at large on saturday. Download it from my Euphoria web page. On the page there is also an exerpt from the OZ programmers reference I'm writing. Everyone who wants to "do" games or any other kind of program that "addresses, and mails the envelope" of what euphoria can do, MUST get this valuable reference. OZ is very complex, and the issues that needed to be addressed are very interesting, especially the 2 player game issues. Lord Generic Productions Project: OidZone Subject: Beta .75 WHATSUP.DOC 2/6/97 ------------------------------------- First off, thanks for helping us playtest this thing. It's getting way cool. This document will tell you what you need to know to run it, and the current buglist. This zip is the complete data set for OidZone Beta .75. Just unzip this in your OidZone directory, overwrite everything, and type ozbeta75 [enter] NEW FEATURES IN THIS VERSION 1) The oids start off screen at beginning of each level. Looks way cool. Now when the level changes, oids don't appear on top of you. 2) Collision detection works now. I completely rewrote the collison detect routines. Now you oids can't fly through you, and you can actually hit what you aim at. 3) Hyperspace no longer moves you offscreen. 4) Current level is displayed 5) The mines AI is better. They were too easy to hit before. Now you have to move around after you pop one, because you most likely won't be able to hit all the mini mines if you stay where you are. 6) The mines now can start at you from any direction, instead of lower right corner, and they move faster. 7) Hi score table works correctly now. 8) AboutOidZone clears the keyboard before exiting. No more hyperspacing at the end. 9) F flip keys is global now. You no longer have to hit f every game. 10) Play mechanics have been seriously adjusted. Now you start with oids of all sizes, instead of just big ones. You get the same number of oids each level, and after level 1, the mines start appearing every 500 frames. At the higher levels you get multiple mines appearing at once, as follows: Level 1 no mines 2 1 mine at a time 3 1 4 2 mines at the same time from different directions! 5 2 6 3 7 3 8 4 9 4 10 5 NOTE: At this time the game is roughly play balanced and way more fun than previous versions where you couldn't hit half of what you aimed at and when the mines lined up for you to shoot them. What you need to run this version of OidZone: * A 486DX2-66 or better * A SoundBlaster or compatible sound card. * Your Blaster environment variable set, Jacques' sound drivers don't autodetect the sound card (yet) Play tester instructions: Basically, play the game until you are sick of it, then play it another thousand times. Your primary goal as a playtester is to break the program. Document anything that seems weird or not right. Document ANYTHING you think I should know. If it ain't in the big list below, I may not know about it. I'll be compiling a list of bugs submitted by the testers and mailing it around so you know where we are at. If you can make the program do something weird or crash repeatedly by doing the same steps, I REALLY WANT TO KNOW THAT! I also want your comments\reactions to the game. If you think it's too easy\hard let me know. Controls: ESC - About Box. This will bring up information and credits for the game. press any key to step through it. B - Boom. You blow up when you hit the B key. Q - Quit. Anytime your ship isn't exploding, you can quit the game by hitting the Q key. Left ALT - Fire. You can shoot up to 6 shots. As each shot disappears, you can shoot again. Left CTRL - Thrust. Thust is additive - each time you hit the thrust key, you accellerate in the direction you're facing. To slow down you need to turn around and thrust in the opposite direction. Right ALT,CRTL - Turn. ALT turns left, Ctrl turns right. You can fly in any of 12 directions. REVERSE ROTATION KEYS - F will flip the right alt\ctrl keys for you weirdos who bought the wrong keyboard. =) <SPACE> - Hyperspace. You can warp to another location when it starts to get crowded where you are. You can warp right into an asteroid too. S - Turn off sound blaster SFX go to pcspeaker mode -------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to play OidZone: ==================== OidZone is pretty easy to play. You drive your ship around and blow up all the asteroids. When you blow up all the asteroids on the screen, you get another screen full. Every once in awhile a mine will appear on the screen and hunt you down. If you shoot it, it breaks into 2 smaller mines that also hunt you down. Each one of them will also break into 2 tiny mines that ALSO hunt you down. As you move, they will swarm toward you. If you take too long shooting them, more mines will appear. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to start the program: ========================= If you HAVE a SoundBlaster type card, be sure your BLASTER environment variable is set Type ozbeta75 at the DOS prompt. Bug List 2/6/97 ----------------- !@#%CRASH BUGS%$#@! I don't know of any Crash Bugs in this version. If you find one, send me the err.ex file asap! Game Bugs I think I've stomped all known bugs at this point. Send me ANYTHING YOU FIND. The sound drivers STILL hang the game for a couple seconds sometimes. I hope Jacques can fix that soon. Graphics Bugs I think I've stomped all of these as well, Michael Packard Lord Generic Productions lgp at exo.com http://exo.com/~lgp/euphoria