The Games Machine 18/DISK1.iso/ssteel/readme.txt

Text File | 1996-06-24 | 15KB | 316 lines

Shattered Steel README.TXT FILE
=============================================

Last Updated    : 6/20/96 by Michael Stragey

Version         : 40
=============================================

Hi,

Welcome to the Shattered Steel Interactive Demo.  This build will hopefully
be the one that gets to you - it fixed our last crash bug.  I have put a
number of sections into this README file to answer many of the questions that
you might have.  The first section discuses the basic background of the game,
while subsequent sections explain how to install and how to play.

I hope you enjoy what you see.  If you have any comments, I would like to
hear them.  Please E-mail me at [e-mail].

Feargus Urquhart
Producer
Interplay Productions


INTRODUCTION
============

    The Year is 2132.  Deep space exploration and colonization have
become reality.  The human race is growing at an incredible rate; man's
sphere of influence has been expanding unchallenged for 150 years.  Man's
universe has split into 2 distinct societies, the highly structured and
lawful core worlds and the lawless frontier worlds.  The Core Worlds
represent the best that humanity has to offer; a peaceful application of
technology used for the betterment of mankind.

    The Frontier Worlds hold the seamy underbelly that the Core Worlds
want to forget; a greedy race for the elements the Core Worlds need for
expansion.  Huge mining and manufacturing corporations compete in the
pillage of the outer worlds purely for the generation of profit.  To maintain
basic "order" on the outer worlds and to "compete" with rival companies each
corporation maintains a private force for "problem solving".

It was in 2102 when these private forces reached the level of companies and
fleets that the Core Navy stepped in at Tarnok IV.  The Raw Materials division
of Ford Toyota Co. wanted Tarnok IV for the vast minerals that could be
stripped from the planet, while Universal Pharmaceuticals saw the planet for
its industrial and crop potential.  The legal ownership of the planet had
been in dispute for more than twenty years so the Sato Group decided to take
the planet by force and dedicated 75% of their forces to do so.  Universal
Pharmaceuticals also set in their own force.  As the first shots began to be
fired,  the 142nd Battle Fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Davies came out of
HyperSpace.  The Core Navies ships came out with their plasma cannons hot,
and torpedoes locked.  Without warning the ships opened fire.  When the first
barrage was over, they had destroyed over three quarters of the ships from
both companies.  Admiral Davies then demanded a cease fire from all parties.

    His orders had been given days before when it was decided that such a
precedent as mass fleet battles by corporations to decide planetary ownership
could not be set.  The repercussions of this were that the percentage of
total employees of a corporation dedicated to security could not exceed 1%.
Furthermore the corporations were only allowed to hire mercenaries if they
did not employ their own security force, and even then they were restricted
in the number that could be hired.  Because of these restrictions it became
necessary for the corporation to hire or employ heavily armored individuals.
They needed to be able to send in one man where they had previously dedicated
a thousand.  Therefore each of these individuals needed to be a one man army.
With enough fire power where they would not need to depend upon reinforcements
or help in any way.

    The Planet Runner was developed specifically for this purpose.
The Planet Runner could navigate over most terrain while carrying the fire
power of a light armored division, and the defense strength of a small battle
ship.  A modified corvette class starship provided the living quarters for
the one or two man crew, and a highly functional and adaptable computer that
could also strip down and rebuild any Planet Runner operating out of the
corvette.  The back half of the corvette was dedicated to storing parts, and
repairing and building Planet Runners.  While these one man armies could
pacify small towns and uprisings single handily, the Core Worlds do not see
them as a threat and allow their existence.

    You play the role of a freelance mercenary on a limited protection
contract with a large mining corporation. You operate a Planet Runner used
for deep recon missions and planetary pacification. You patrol a section near
the edge of known space which is frequently plagued by pirates and subject to
frequent raids.  At the start of the game a mining camp on Lanios 3 (a planet
under your jurisdiction) has stopped following the usual communication
protocols.  You are called in to investigate.

    The corporation is quite certain that an extensive pirate raid is
occurring on the surface of Lanios 3, there were numerous disturbances
reported just prior to the loss of contact.  As per standard defense protocol
you have been given free reign to react to any threat.



INSTALL INFORMATION
===================

1) You will need to run the Install program, by either double clicking on
it from Win95, or entering it at the DOS Prompt.  The Install program will
install Shattered Steel onto your HardDrive and then has you configure your
Sound Card.

2) The sound card configuration program works reasonably well, however it can
have problems with autodetecting your sound card.  Generally just Auto Detect
once, that should configure your card correctly.

3) If you are configuring your sound card manually and you have a 16 bit
sound card, you will need to enter the High DMA Channel for the DMA channel
entry.  Generally for most 16bit Sound Blaster cards this is 5.

4) To run Shattered Steel, you should either double click on Steel.Bat, or
just enter Steel from the DOS prompt in the directory where you have installed
Shattered Steel.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
===================

General Requirements:

30 Megs of Hard Drive Space
8 Megs of RAM (Win95 users see below)

From Win95:

To run Shattered Steel under Win95 in a DOS BOX (Double Clicking on it from
your Desktop) you will need at least a 486 DX2 66MHz machine with 16MEGS of
RAM.  However, it is suggested that you quit out of all your other
applications before playing.  If you only have 8 Megs of RAM you will
need to restart your machine in DOS Mode.  This can be done by going to the
START Menu and choosing exit.  Then choose the selection that allows you to
re-boot in DOS Mode.


From DOS:

You will need a 486 DX2 66MHz machine with 8 Megs of RAM.


Known Problems:

If you have 8 Megs of RAM and are having problems, free up as much memory as
possible by running a minimal config and autoexec which only loads a mouse
driver and no memory manager.

If you have problems running on a Cirrus Logic machine, try using a univesa
driver.

If you have a 16bit sound card you must use DMA channel 0, 1, or 3.

If you have a 16bit Creative Labs sound card set to 260 or 280, auto detect
will detect it as a Roland RAP-10. You must use manual setup.



PLAY INSTRUCTIONS
=================

The Planet Runner controls much like the player does in DOOM.  The Keypad
allows the player to move forward and backward, and to turn left and right.
A few configurations should be done initially to show the extent of play
controls.

1) Go to the "Go on Campaign Section", this is the main menu for the
    one-player game.
2) Goto Options and pick your controller type.

This should configure the program to show off most of what it can do.

You could goto the Arming Screen and change the weapons on your Planet Runner
at this point, but it is not necessary to play the game.  If you do enter it
then you will need to click on the EXIT sign to go back to the main menu.

Now goto the Holograph Screen off of the Main Screen.  Pressing the Mission
Briefing part of the control panel will give you a quick run down on the
mission that you are scheduled to go on.  The other option on the control
panel of the Holograph Screen is Intelligence which will allow you to look at
the enemy and friendly units that will be in the mission that you are going
on.  To actually Launch the mission you can either click on the Left Side of
the screen on the Holograph Screen, or on the Left Side of the Main Menu.

Once you have entered the mission you will use the arrow keys to move the
Planet Runner around and the Mouse to fire weapons and move the cockpit.
This is if you have chosen the mouse and keyboard as your controller type.
If you look at the radar screen, the pie piece there represents where your
cockpit is looking.  This will change
if you move the mouse around, however your Planet Runner will continue to
move in the same direction.  The direction that your Planet Runner will move
is represented by the straight line that is going up on the radar screen.
Press the left mouse button and your lasers will fire.  You will also see a
count go down on the left side of the cockpit, this is how much laser energy
you have stored.

If you have chosen a joystick as your controller type then you can move the
Planet Runner around by pressing forward and turning right or left.  The
trigger under you index finger will fire your lasers, and the second button
on top of the joystick will fire the missiles.

Now Press the Space Bar until the Missiles are highlighted in the lower left
of the cockpit, you can test them by pressing the right mouse button.  One
missile will fire off for every tap of that button.

You can press f4, to show the map.  The cursor keys will spin this map right
and left, and zoom in and out.  The Green Dots are friendly units, while the
red dots represent enemy ones. Press f1 to return to your cockpit view.

Those are the basics, you should be able to get through a number of missions
using the above controls.


SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE
============================================

    SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE

    This special 5-level preview  version of Shattered Steel  (the
"Software")  is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home
entertainment use.   You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble
the Software, except as permitted by law.  Interplay Productions and BioWare
retain all rights and title in the Software including all intellectual
property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof.  You are granted a
revocable, nonassignable limited license to create derivative works of this
Software solely for your own personal noncommercial home entertainment use
and may publicly display such derivative works to the extent specifically
authorized by Interplay in writing.  A copy of this authorization, if any,
will be provided on InterplayÆs World Wide Web site, located at
http://www.interplay.com, or by contacting the legal department at Interplay
at [phone].  The Software, including, without limitation, all code,
data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play,
derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied
(except as provided below), resold, rented, leased, distributed
(electronically or otherwise), used on  pay-per-play, coin-op or other
for-charge basis,  or for any commercial purpose. You may make copies of
the Software for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use and to
give to friends and acquaintances on a no cost noncommercial basis.  This
limited right to copy the Software expressly excludes any copying or
distribution of the Software on a commercial basis, including, without
limitation, bundling the product with any other product or service and any
give away of the Software in connection with another product or service. Any
permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be
withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time.  All rights not expressly
granted are reserved.

        Modem and Network Play.  If the Software contains modem or
network play, you may play the Software via modem transmission with another
person or persons directly without transmission through a third party service
or indirectly through a third party service only if such service is an
authorized licensee of  Interplay.  Authorized licensee services are listed
on the Interplay Productions World Wide Web Site. This limited right to
transmit the Software expressly excludes any transmission of the Software
or any data streams thereof on a commercial basis, including, without
limitation, transmitting the Software by way of a commercial service which
translates the protocols or manages or organizes game play sessions.  If you
would like information about obtaining a pay-for-play or commercial license
to the Software, please call Interplay Productions at [phone].

    Acceptance of License Terms.  By downloading or purchasing and then
retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this
limited license.  If you purchased the Software and do not accept the terms
of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all
packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where
you purchased the Software for a full refund.  If you downloaded the
Software, you must delete it.


INTERPLAY SUPPORT INFORMATION (United States)
=============================================

Hours:            9:00 am to 6:00 pm Pacific Time

Telephone:              [phone]

Fax:                    [phone]  Att: Customer Service



Internet E-mail:        [e-mail]

Web Site:               http://www.interplay.com

BBS: Telnet:            199.182.211.86 or bbs.interplay.com

Modem Phone #:          [phone]

American On-line:       Keyword INTERPLAY or E-mail IPTECH

Compuserve:             GO GAMBPUB or E-mail 76702,1342

GEnie:                  Type M805;1

Prodigy:                E-mail PLAY99B

FTP Site:               ftp.interplay.com



INTERPLAY SUPPORT INFORMATION (United Kingdom)
==============================================

Write to:               Customer Support
            Interplay Productions, Ltd.
            Harleyford Manor
            Harleyford
            Henley Road
            Marlow
            Buckinghamshire
            SL7 2DX
            ENGLAND

Telephone:              [phone]
Fax:                    [phone]