************************************************** Dated: January 17, 2004 GRAVITY WELL NOTES To order the full version of Gravity Well, use your web browser and go to http://www.plbm.com This file contains information for both versions of Gravity Well, the Regular (shareware) version and the Combat (registered) version. The unregistered shareware version does not include Combat. If you register, you will receive the Combat version, a vast improvement on the Gravity Well concept. Register today! See the bottom of this file for registration information. Keys to Use During Play: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PRIMARY FLIGHT CONTROLS: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Left, Right Arrow Keys: rotate lander craft Down Arrow Key: center lander PERFECTLY!! THIS IS VERY USEFUL!!! (HINT HINT) Up Arrow Key: fires abort thrust (massively inefficient, but helpful in a pinch) Mouse: y-direction (up/down) controls main thruster rocket [Space] or [Enter]: convert Diamond to fuel (fills you up by 1/2 tank) [Alt]: fire off a bomb (if you have one) ADDITIONAL IN-FLIGHT CONTROLS: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [A]: select HIGH mouse sensitivity [B]: select MEDIUM mouse sensitivity [C]: select LOW mouse_sensitivity [D]: toggle Mouse Delta mode (ThinkPads) [G]: toggle Game mode (Combat version only; at the Main Menu screen only) [J]: toggle joystick on/off [Ctrl-J]: calibrate joystick [L]: toggle the auto-land feature on/off [M]: toggle mouse usage on/off [Ctrl-R]: use reverse gravity (disqualifies your high score, but it's neat) [Tab]: skip mission and go forward to any particular mission. You don't get the bonuses for this mission. [Ctrl]: force far (wide) view (Dangerous if you are close to the ground! Your craft must be at least 100 feet up to use this feature, higher if in combat mode.) If you do not have a mouse, the keys 1 (off) through 0 (max) at the top of the keyboard select low to high levels of main rocket thrust. JOYSTICK MODE CONTROLS: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (All above controls except mouse continue to function as before.) Joystick Up: increase thrust Joystick Left: rotate to the left Joystick Right: rotate to the right Joystick Down: feet down for landing Non-combat: Button 1 & 2: Abort thrust Combat: Button 1: drop a bomb Button 2: Abort thrust Additional keys: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [ESC]: quit to DOS - FAST! [P]: pause the game [F1]: see this file [F2]: review the high score chart [F4]: toggle mouse left/right buttons, normal, reversed or ignored [F5]: sound on/off [F8]: toggle background brightness/contrast [F10]: game over (does not exit to DOS) REGULAR GAME PLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Object: land the craft on each of the bases, with the VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator, located on the right edge) within the green. Gain more points for a soft landing. A very soft landing earns a "diamond," which earns bonus points and may be converted to fuel later on (using the [Enter] key). You must be EXACTLY vertical before you touch down. Use the DOWN ARROW to achieve this. The Auto-Land feature allows your ship to be tipped SLIGHTLY to one side. Just before landing your ship will right itself if you are going downwards slowly enough. This DOES NOT result in the BEST possible score however. To keep from getting lazy you can turn this feature on and off. Advance to next planetoid when you land on all bases. Use the Altimeter and GSI (Gross Speed Indicator, located in the upper right) and guide yourself to a base. Use the Ctrl key to maintain the "wide" zoom angle for rapid positioning along the cliff faces. Use the DRB (Directional Radio Beacon) in the upper left to locate remaining bases to land on. You have a limited number of landers and when you are out of fuel, it's game over, unless you have some diamonds that you can convert BEFORE YOU CRASH!! NEW FEATURE: Lateral (horizontal) motion is now used to decide how hard you landed. It is now possible to land with your vertical speed in the green but with so much lateral velocity that you literally rip the landing gear off the craft. NEW FEATURE: Your landing gear can now be damaged by a rough landing. It can accept only so much damage before it collapses on the next hard landing and your lunar module will be destroyed. Damaged landing gear is clearly visible: your ship doesn't look "straight" any more. NEW FEATURE: Your gear can be repaired by landing within the green range. If you have severely damaged your gear it may take more than one landing to fully repair it. Each time repairs are effected you will be see a message to that effect. NEW FEATURE: Timed Trials! A timer is kept as you progress through the planet and is compared against both a par time and the record time for each planet, one each for combat and regular game play mode. Can you beat the clock now too? HINTS ~~~~~ To remain "light" and responsive on the main thruster control, it can be useful to modulate it, just moving the mouse up and down slightly, making the flame flicker. This will give you a better feel for the power of the thruster, and keep your mind focused, not letting you wander off of the task of controlling the ship's main thruster. Your craft is powered by an impulse-type engine. To those familiar with physics you will realilze that the effectiveness of an impulse engine is directly related to the gross weight of the craft it is attached to. Therefore when you have full fuel and/or many bombs aboard, the maneuverability of the craft is somewhat less. As you burn off fuel (or drop bombs) the craft becomes lighter and more maneuverable. At higher levels (in higher gravity situations) you may find the impulse engines are not sufficient to maintain a hover with full fuel and/or full bombs, even when you are at full throttle. Keep this in mind when maneuvering at higher levels to avoid getting into a no-win situation and to avoid excessive use of your ABORT thrust key (a handy way to scrub off excess fuel...). HELICOPTER PILOT NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As an aside for anybody who has ever flown a helicopter, this game has certain elements that apply to hovering: vectored thrust that is incrementally controllable in magnitude. I'm not saying this will teach you how to fly a helicopter but the same elements that go into piloting this lunar lander module in a stable and controlled fashion also apply to flying a helicopter. COMBAT VERSION NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gravity Well Combat features a whole new range of available play strategies. Each base on the ground not only has a radar dish and a gas tank, but also has a gun emplacement that can toss bombs up at you. The gun base will only fire if it a) has bombs left in it and b) the radar dish is intact to help guide it (the gun is radar-aimed). If you drop a bomb on any of the three items at the base you will destroy it. If you destroy the gas tank then you won't receive any fuel when you land. YOU MUST STILL LAND TO CONQUER THAT BASE, EVEN IF THE GAS TANK IS GONE!!! If you destroy the gun emplacement it will not fire at you but you also won't pick up any of the bombs that were inside it (they are destroyed along with the gun emplacement). Ideally you want to only destroy the radar dish so that you can pick up gas and extra bombs easily. Additionally the radar dish activates a periodic "spark" across the landing pylons. This spark will destroy your lander but it is possible to land if you time it precisely between the discharges of the sparks. Hovering near the spark waiting for that precise moment is not recommended. Sometimes the spark jumps rather high. The radar dish is quite heavily armored and requires a direct hit on the pivot point of the dish itself in order to destroy it. Other hits have no effect. If you're clever you might find an additional way to destroy the radar base when you are out of ammunition. :) Scoring for the Combat version is as follows, in addition to the regular landing scoring: Destroy Radar Base 10000 Destroy Gun Base 2000 Destroy Gas Tank 100 (oops!) In Combat mode only, when you clear an entire planet you will receive a bonus lander craft, as well as three (3) additional bombs (if you have room aboard). To assist in maneuvering for the combat version there are tic marks drawn above the ground at two different altitudes that help you judge where you are in relation to the ground, what your relative motion is, etc. Use these to help maneuver when you are out of sight of the ground but too close to "Zoom" out the view. The maximum number of bombs that you may carry aboard your ship is 10. Keep in mind how extra bombs affect the gross weight (and hence the maneuverability) of your ship at higher levels. PRACTICE NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you start Practice Mode (either combat or regular play) then you may customize the gravity of any particular planet you want to get better at playing. You also have an unlimited number of lives on Practice Mode. You also have an unlimited number of diamonds available, and in combat you have an unlimited number of bombs. Unfortunately, any score obtained in Practice Mode is ineligible for the Hall Of Fame and any "best" times obtained will not be recorded. SOUND NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~ This program contains routines to play digital sound on a Sound Blaster or compatible card. However, this program does NOT contain auto- detection routines. This program relies upon the BLASTER= variable being set appropriately in your environment. If the BLASTER= variable is absent the program will NOT attempt to use Sound Blaster sound. If the BLASTER= variable is set incorrectly, the program may crash. Additionally you will need to have free EMS memory to hear all digital sounds (they're too big to fit in conventional memory). The sounds deemed "most important" to game play will be loaded into conventional memory on a first-come, first-served basis. To hear ALL sounds you will need enough EMS free to fit the file LUNSFX.DBO. Check free EMS with the MEM command under DOS. If your SoundBlaster is very old then the BLASTER= variable may not be set. In this case you could try one of the following: set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T1 set BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1 PROGRAMMING NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gravity Well is recommended for a 486 or faster system. It will run on a 386, but you may not get the full 36 frames per second screen update rate (and thus the game may be easier to play!). Gravity Well was programmed in Turbo C V2.0, with a few assembly routines thrown in here and there. The most recent version is built under Borland C++ V3.1. Some music done on a Casio CZ-101 synth. Credits: ~~~~~~~~ Gravity Well was created by Kurt W. Dekker exclusively for PLBM Games, at http://www.plbm.com Gravity Well is Copyright (c) 2004 - PLBM Games and Kurt W. Dekker. Ordering Information: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To receive the combat version of Gravity Well print out and mail in the ORDER.TXT form and your check or money order for $9.95. Mail to: PLBM Games PO Box 10342 Costa Mesa, CA 92627 USA You may also visit our website and order online with a credit card. Include your name, address, phone number and email to ensure rapid delivery. All orders are fulfilled VIA EMAIL ONLY. NO DISKETTE WILL BE SENT! Internet Support: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contact support@plbm.com for support via email.