Secret Service 56b/SSERVCD_56B.bin/Sinclair/Games/information/BattleCars.txt

Text File | 1998-02-02 | 17KB | 494 lines

THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

BATTLECARS

PUBLISHER
Games Workshop

AUTHOR
Slug

YEAR
1984

DESCRIPTION
A one- or two-player top-down driving game - with big guns!  Not
great in one-player mode, but absolutely brilliant playing
against a friend!

KEYS
See the main instructions.  The original game came with two
keyboard overlays which made finding the right keys a _lot_
easier...

INSTRUCTIONS (Manual text)

Background

By the year 2080 automobile accidents were non-existent.  One-way
traffic on the revolutionary Autoslot roads in electric cars
built with computerised destination control, automatic pilot and
speed regulators had long since put an end to collisions.  Car
travel had become totally safe, but there were those who longed
for the thrill and danger of high-speed driving; freedom behind
the steering wheel.

It was later that year that a few individuals started to search
old barns and garages for 20th century sports cars.  They would
then spend months restoring these machines to their former power
and beauty.  At secret places in the dead of night, the silence
would be broken by the roar of '57 Chevy or a '77 Corvette coming
back to life.  But just listening to the noise of a V8 engine was
not enough for their owners - they wanted to drive their cars.
Searches were started across the country for disused roads that
had not been fitted with Autoslot.  A few were found and meetings
were quickly arranged.  The first meetings were attended by only
the drivers and a few friends, and cars were run up and down
small strips of road.  But that soon became boring.  In early
2081 the first race between cars was organised, and this
attracted some spectators who yelled and cheered with excitement.

More races were organised, but it wasn't until 9:23pm on the 23rd
September 2081 that something terrible happened for the first
time that century.  Jerry Tomasko died in a car crash.  The news
spread, and the attendance at the next race doubled.  A safe and
passive society thrilled at the prospect of seeing a real car
crash, and over the next few months they weren't disappointed.
Cars were now built with machine guns, crash bars, and other
defensive and offensive modifications.  The crowd loved it, and
by 2083 the cars were more prepared for war than for racing.  The
Battlecar had been born, and brave were those who drove them.
By now the object had become the destruction of the other
drivers' cars rather than racing against them.

The sport became known as Battlecars...

Introduction

Battlecars is a game of arcade skill and strategic cunning that
can be played in a many different ways.  There are three
different arenas for battle:  a racing circuit, a town centre,
and the Autodrome - an empty stadium where your skills will be
tested to the full.  As a solo player, you can build up your
manoeuvering skills by racing against the computer-controlled car
on the circuit, and test yourself in combat against the computer
in the Autodrome.  But the ultimate test of your skill as a
Battlecar driver comes when you engage another real player in a
fight to the death on any of the battlegrounds.  In Battlecars
you can design your own cars and fill them with the weapons of
your choice.  First, though, you get straight into a game by
loading up side 1 and selecting CIRCUIT when the menu comes up.
You will still need some basic information about the game, so
read section 1of this handbook before you start!


Contents

1. The Basics
  A. The Keyboard Layout
  B. Speed and Cornering
  C. Weapons and Damage
  D. Repairs and Fuel
2. Playing Solo
  A. Racing
  B. Combat
  C. Winning
3. The 2-Player Game
4. Designing Your Own Cars

1. THE BASICS

A. The Keyboard Layout

Each Battlecar has six steering functions, four 'fire' functions,
throttle and brakes; so we've included a pair of keyboard
overlays.  These fit the two ends of the keyboard - so the top
row of keys of each overlay is (left) 1 2 3 4 and (right) 7 8 9
0 respectively.  You will see from the overlay that the steering
keys are (L) Q 1 2 3 4 R and (R) U 7 8 9 0 P.

The Steering keys work this way:

Q and U - 90 degrees turn to the left
1 and 7 - 45 degrees turn to the left
2 and 8 - drift to the left
3 and 9 - drift to the right
4 and 0 - 45 degrees turn to the right
R and P - 90 degrees turn to the right

Each car has four 'fire' buttons - one for 'missile' weapons -
submachine guns, shells, missiles, flames and lasers, and three
for the 'passive' weapons - oil, spikes, mines and smoke.  The
three 'passive' weapon buttons control the left, right and rear
pods:

A and J - left weapon pod
S and K - right weapon pod
Z and M - rear weapon pod

The 'missile' weapon button is marked 'FIRE' and controls the
forward-firing pods in all cars, and the rear-firing pods in
large-chassis cars:

W and I - missile pods

'Missile' weapons will fire towards the enemy car providing it
is in 'front' of your own - you will find that 'in front' means
anywhere in a 180 degree field in front of the driver.  If the
enemy car is behind you, you will not be able to fire at it
unless you have rear missile pods (only large-chassis cars have
them) in which case the missile weapons will fire backwards
towards the enemy car.

Each car has a throttle and a brake:

E and O - throttle
D and L - brake

These are the main control keys.

In addition, each time you start a game you will be given a
'READY' signal.  To indicate that you are 'STEADY', press C for
the left hand car and B for the right hand car.  You will then
be given a GO signal.  If you press your throttle before the GO
signal comes up, you will have to start again, by pressing your
'STEADY' key.

In the bottom corners of the screen are the DAMAGE DISPLAYS
(DDs).  When you are playing the game, the DD will change to a
WEAPON DISPLAY (WD) and back again, each time you fire or are
hit.  You can manually change it to the other display by pressing
X (left car) or N (right car).

CAPS SHIFT and 6 (together) stops a game.  C restarts it with the
same cars. Any other key takes you back to the menu.

B. Speed and Cornering

Driving is just like driving in life.  Next to your DD you have
a fuel gauge, stopwatch, and speedometer.  The speedometer reads
from 0-80mph, and as you travel faster your screen display will
change colour as a general indication of your speed.  These
colours are: Yellow (0-50mph), White (50-80mph) and Blue (80mph
and over).

As you race you will find it harder to manoeuvre at speed.  Safe
corneering speeds are:

45 degree turns: on roads - 60 mph
                 on grass - 50 mph

90 degree turns: on roads - 40 mph
                 on grass - 30 mph

Every tyre damaged reduces your safe cornering speed by 10 mph
(and your max speed by 20 mph).  You can drift to either side at
any speed.  Oil will make you skid!

If your car has auto-steer its safe cornering speed is increased
by 10 mph.

C. Weapons and Damage

Each weapon pod can only take one type of weapon, but can carry
a certain number of rounds.

'Missile' weapon pods carrying machine guns (MGs) can take up to
16 rounds.
Shells can take up to 8 rounds.
Missiles can take up to 4 rounds.
Flame throwers can take up to 4 rounds.
Lasers can take up to 4 rounds.

Passive weapon pods can take up to 8 rounds of any weapon.

Although the more powerful weapons have fewer shots, they have
a greater range and inflict much more damage - the choice is up
to you!

Accuracy of shots:
Although each shot is automatically aimed at the enemy car, it
does not always hit - the target is at the centre of a 15 degree
field of fire, and the shot can go anywhere within that angle.
This means that the longer the range, the more likely you are to
miss.  If you have a GUNNERY COMPUTER in your car, the field of
fire is reduced to about 10 degrees - greatly increasing your
chance of hitting the target, particularly at long range.  Lasers
cannot fire through smoke.

Taking Damage:
Your Battlecar is made up of a grid of 35 sections with your
driver in the middle.  Each section of the car has a strength
value, which depends on the size and strength of the components
in that section: for example, large wheels are stronger than
small wheels.  As you are hit, or you crash, damage works its way
in from the outside of the car.

A powerful weapon such as a laser might its way through to your
engine with a single shot if it got a direct hit.  Your Damage
Display shows the state of your car - as damage increases, it is
shown first as a white area, then solid red, then flashing red
and yellow.

Weapon Display:
The WD tells you how many shots and passive weapons you have
left, and how much damage both cars have taken.

Missile     ---------->  M42
Weapon:  _ /        31         42   )   Passive weapons; type and
Type &     \             P32        )   number left.
number of   \--------->  M53
shots left               L042   <------  Left car's damage points
                         R014   <------  Right car's damage
points

Weapon types are indicated on the WD by these numbers:

Missile weapons          Passive weapons
1 = SMG                  1 = Oil
2 = Shells               2 = Spikes
3 = Missiles             3 = Mines
4 = Flamethrowers        4 = Smoke
5 = Lasers

The car above, for example, has, in its right-hand passive weapon
pod, 2 smoke bombs; and in its rear missile pod, 3 laser shots.

Damage points are incurred each time you are hit or crash, and
take away strength points; although each car has over 100
strength points, by the time you have taken about 50 damage
points you will probably be immobilised - because all your tyres
are blown.

D. Repairs and Fuel

In the Circuit and the Town, there are pitstops where you can get
your car repaired and refuelled.  All you have to do is pull up
alongside the gas tanks or mechanics and they will do the work
for you.  But you will have to find the pitstops first!


2. PLAYING SOLO

A. Racing

Load side 1 of the tape.

When loaded, the main menu will appear:

1 CIRCUIT
2 AUTODROME
3 TOWN
4 DESIGNER
5 CAR DATA

Press 1.  You will then be given another menu:

1 TIME TRIAL
2 RACE

* Press 1 for Time Trial:
The computer will display the existing lap record.  Then it will
display a grid of cars and ask you to select one.  They are
numbered 1 to 8 like this:

          1 2 3 4
          5 6 7 8

For the Time Trials, you will probably want a big engine and a
Turbocharger - cars 4 and 5 are best.  Select your car.

     You will be asked:
     CRASH DAMAGE?
     (Answer Yes or No)

Then press a key to go to the circuit, press B and C when you are
ready, and your throttle when GO is displayed.


* Press 2 for Race:

You will then be shown a grid of cars and asked to SELECT LEFT
CAR.  As you are racing against the computer, there are no
weapons involved, so the most important factor in the cars is the
engine size.  The engine is two squares in front of the driver,
and comes in 3 sizes: cars3,6 and 8 (Magahey, Armenia, and
Ryallity) have a small engine, 2,4,and 7 (Guy Lopp, Spyder, and
Ferraro) have medium engines; cars 1 and 5 (The Nuke and
Silkwood) have large engines.  When you start playing, give the
computer a car with a small engine!  (The bigger the engine the
faster it goes).  Immediately in front of the driver is the
controls compartment.  The number here indicates how many
controls the car has and the lettes on the right of the car tell
you what the controls are:

     A = Autosteer
     P = Power Brakes
     T = Turbocharger
     G = Gunnery Computer

When you start playing do not give the computer a car with any
controls - it is a very good driver even without them!  Also,
watch the size of the fuel tank - that is immediately behind the
driver.

The best startign combination is to give the computer car no. 8
and take no.1 yourself.

So: press 8

You will be asked - COMPUTER CAR?

Press Y (for Yes)

SELECT RIGHT CAR

Press 1
COMPUTER CAR?
Press N (for No)
(If you ask for both to be computer cars, you will get a
demonstration
race).
CRASH DAMAGE?
(Y or N)

NUMBER OF LAPS?
(Enter desired number.  1 will be enough when you are starting).

The race is now ready to start; you are the right hand car, so
remember to use the right hand set of keyboard controls.  Your
car appears in the centre of the right hand window; in the centre
of the lower part of the screen is an overall map of the circuit.

Press B and C when you are ready, and your throttle when you get
the GO signal.  If you get badly stuck, remember you can end the
game with CAPS SHIFT/5, and retart with the same cars by pressing
C.


B. Solo Combat

When you've mastered driving your battlecar, you will want to try
some combat - select from the main menu:

2. AUTODROME
Then fast forward the tape to the end of side 1, turn it over,
and press play.  The AUTODROME data files are in the middle of
side 2, so the first section of the tape will not load.  If your
cassette player has a counter on it make a note of the location
of the Autodrome data on the tape, as you can save a lot of time
by starting the tape in the right place.  When the Autodrome data
has loaded, stop the tape; if you want to play the Circuit after
the Autodrome, you will have to reload the Circuit data, which
is on side 2 of the tape immediately after the Autodrome data
(the Circuit is also contained in the main program).  The
Autodrome data is contained in the same code block as the Town,
so when it is loading you will be given the message LOADING SLUG
CITY.

As in the Circuit, you will be shown a grid of cars and asked to
select the ones you want.  This time, though, your decision must
be made on the basis of the cars' strength, and their weapons.
You can tell the cars' strengths by the size of their armour,
wheels, and chassis (only large chassis cars have rear missile
pods).  Their weapons are given by the numbers underneath each
car.  For example, Car 1 (The Nuke) has these numbers:

14  34  22
  24  18

These represent:

Passive Weapon Pods
left | back | right

   Missile Pods
   front | back

Each pod shows the weapon type and the number left, as detailed
in section 1C.  Select the cars, press a key, and press B and C
when you are ready.


C. Winning

All th games of Battlecars end when you press CAPS SHIFT/6.  The
winner will be whoever has suffered the least damage points.  If,
in the course of a game, a driver is killed, or a car's engine
or tyres are destroyed, then that car will stop moving and will
usually have lost, although you will still need to officially end
the game.  You can tell when a part of the car (including the
driver) is destroyed because it will be flashing red and yellow.


3. The 2-Player Game

When you have mastered the basic skills of Battlecars, you can
move on to playing against a real opponent!  You each take one
side of the keyboard (see section 1A) and the loading and
selection procedures are exactly the same, except that when the
computer asks 'COMPUTER CAR?' you press 'N'.  You can also play
in full combat on the Circuit, and you can now play on the TOWN
(select 3 on the main menu, and load from side 2 of the tape).


4. Designing Your Own Cars

In Battlecars you can design and drive your own car!  The
DESIGNER PROGRAM is at the start of side 2 of the tape; if you
have been playing, and are at the main menu, you can select 4,
rewind the tape to the start of side 2, start the tape, and it
will load automatically.  Otherwise, load the Designer program
first (LOAD "DESIGNER"), as you will have to reload the main
program afterwards anyway.  When designing cars, you have a
certain amount of money (displayed in the top left hand corner
of the screen) either which to buy your parts and weapons - but
remember the weapons come last, so save some money for them!  You
can design all 8 cars; when you load the main program, these will
take the place of the computer's cars.  You also have the option
to save the cars you have designed; you can load these into the
main program by selecting option 5 from the main menu.

Broken Programs:
To restart programs if broken RUN the main program or GOTO 1 in
the Designer program.



CHEATS
It's written in BASIC - just change whatever you like...
(A good one is the amount of money you're allowed when designing
your car).

RE-RELEASES
Not that I know of.

URLS

NOTABLE FEATURES
Written entirely in BASIC - and still quite an impressive game
(in two-player mode, anyway).