The object of SKRAP is to lead your band of rebel slaves through a hostile corporate county to freedom. Your mission is to pilot the experimental helicopter "Spartacus" to provide support for rebel ground vehicles which must fight their way past numerous enemy structures, vehicles, weapons and various traps. In order to destroy the enemy base, you must safely protect a truck carrying an extremely powerful explosive into the enemy base. You are in charge of coordinating the ground forces by sending out rebel attack vehicles.
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Movement control descriptions:
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There are 2 different flight models. Under the CONFIGURE menu, the "FLIGHT MODEL" selection allows you to choose whichever one suits you best.
OLD SKOOL
This flight model is simple. You have 8 movement controls. Since you can configure these controls however you wish, this description doesn't assume which settings you have chosen. To view or change the current configuration, go to the CONFIGURE menu and select either CONFIGURE JOYSTICK or CONFIGURE KEYBOARD. Each movement or fire control may be configured for both keys and joystick.
Move Forward:
Moving forwards does not affect your altitude, but does affect "pitch". The faster you move forwards, the more you point towards the ground.
Move Backward:
Same as move forwards, but instead of pitching down, pitches up.
Rotate Left:
Turns left. This affects only the horizontal direction you are travelling.
Rotate Right:
Turns right.
Ascend:
Increases your altitude.
Decend:
Decreases your altitude.
Bank Left:
Moves left (perpendicular to the direction you are facing).
Bank Right:
Moves right.
Boosters:
Boosters will double your speed either forwards or backwards. Boosters double your fuel consumption rate.
FUTURISTIC
This flight model is mostly the same as OLD SKOOL but requires 2 additional controls. In this mode, pitch control is independent of motion and therefore 2 additional controls are required:
Thrust Forward:
Moves you forwards straight along the direction you are facing.
Thrust Backward:
Moves you backwards straight along the direction you are facing.
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Weapons control descriptions:
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Your helicopter can hold a maximum of 3 weapons. You have two basic weapons to start -- a pair if rapid-fire machine guns (500 rounds) and 25 much more powerful rockets.
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Views:
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There are three view modes for your enjoyment. Pressing the TAB key will cycle through each mode:
Cockpit interior
This is the standard interior point of view from which you will probably play most effectively.
Telephoto view
This can be useful for targeting distant objects. You have a small window of opportunity to destory vehicles as they appear at the perimeter of your view before they start to attack you.
Exterior view
This is a "behind the helicopter" view. It's a cool viewpoint and shows you what you're flying.
"Imax" view
Full screen. Enjoy the scenery.
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Displays:
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When using the cockpit interior view, there are a number of displays giving you information.
The round display in the center is your radar. Enemy ground vehicles are bright red, your ground vehicles are dark brown. Helicopters are blue. You can scale your radar range with F2 and F3.
There are five guages at the left. They display the damage status of your helicopter, fuel remaining, rounds of ammo in your guns, and rockets. As other weapons become available, their remaining ammo will be displayed as well.
On the right is a computer display that is linked to the Rebel base and to your radar. Keep an eye on this display as it will notify you of a number of things including remaining resources and imortant alert messages.
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Repairing damage and refueling:
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Getting hit by enemy fire will damage your helicopter. Firing weapons will decrease your ammo. Also, simply flying around will decrease your fuel. You can repair, refuel and reload the helicopter by simply landing on the landing pad on top of your base.
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Sending vehicles:
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You can send out ground vehicles with the number keys [0-9]. When you start the game, you only have two types of vehicles: Small, lightly armoured "tractor-tanks" and "bomb trucks".
[0] Bomb Trucks:
These should be sent out with some caution. They have no defense weapons or armour. They are very volitile though. Stay clear of this vehicle if it is destroyed or you get first-hand experience of just how volitile they are. Once you send out a bomb truck, it will proceed towards the enemy base main centre and continue until reaching it and obliterating it (unless destroyed first).
[1] Tractor Tanks:
These are good, general-purpose attack vehicles. They have a pair of light machine guns mounted on a turret that has a full 360 degrees of rotation and an elevation of up to 45 degrees, making them ideal for both ground and air defense. They are not as well armoured as the corporate security tanks and will not last long alone. Two or three of these will, however be able to take out light helicopters.
As you acquire more resources, your engineers will be able to develop additional vehicle types.
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Acquiring resources:
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Resource management is simple and for the most part is handled for you. Rather than having a set number of vehicles which you can send out, you have a certain surplus of resources which is reduced by the cost of the vehicles you send out. This surplus is replenished at a rate that is a percentage of the total surplus you start with. If your helicopter is destroyed and your resource surplus is less than the amount required for a new helicopter, the game is over. You can increase your resource surplus by preserving enemy resource stockpiles rather than destroying them. The enemy resource surplus works similar to yours. If you destroy resource stockpiles, you will weaken the enemy's ability to produce its forces. On some levels you will find that it is almost impossible to win without destroying at least one stockpile. Some stockpiles contain new weapons technology. You should try to capture these if at all possible because the other weapons are more powerful than the ones you start with. They have cool effects too.
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Saving/Loading games
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When starting a new game, you will be prompted to enter a new game name. This file will be updated as you complete each level. To load a previously saved game, type its name at the prompt. To change the current game, select current game and type in a new or saved game name. SKRAP's dialogs will be extended in the future. If you can't remember the name of a saved game, quit SKRAP, look in the SKRAP folder for files with the '.sav' extension (you can use the Properties menu selection to see the extension of a file). Any '.sav' files are games previously created. You can delete '.sav' game files that you no longer wish to play.
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Configuring the keyboard & joystick
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To assign joystick functions, select the CONFIGURE option from the main menu. Then select CONFIGURE JOYSTICK.
To assign keyboard functions, select the CONFIGURE option from the main menu. Then select CONFIGURE KEYBOARD.
Each game function can be assigned both to a joystick function as well as a key.
SKRAP will use the joystick you have currently configured in the Windows 95 Joysticks control panel. If you need to re-calibrate the joystick, you can do so via that control panel. You can set the joystick sensitivity with the CALIBRATE option under the CONFIGURE JOYSTICK menu.
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The Windows key
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Windows key/Alt-Tab: For now, just don't press those keys.
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Flying tips:
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Just like any action game, you will need some practice to get the hang of the controls. The toughest part about mastering SKRAP is becoming skilled at aiming and flying. It might seem difficult at first, but you will soon learn how to shoot a little bit ahead of the target. The real trick to mastering the controls is this: learn to move up/down while shooting. Try to set up the controls so you can simultaneously shoot, move forwards, turn and change altitude at the same time. With a little practice it will become second nature.
The best way to avoid getting hit is to keep moving. The enemy forces are very accurate, but will have a hard time hitting you while you are moving. Learning to move up and down or left and right rather than simply back and forth and turning should really increase your lifespan.
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Strategy tips:
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Always send out attack vehicles in front of a bomb truck. Since bomb trucks have no defenses, they will likely be destroyed by the first enemy vehicle they meet.
Give the bomb truck some space, especially to the rear. If it goes off, it will take out anything in its blast radius, including you.
Attack the enemy helicopters as much as possible -- on the higher levels, they attack your ground vehicles mercilessly. Also, by destroying enemy helicopters, you are also depleating their resources.
Be as sneaky as possible. Sometimes it's easier to attack a convoy from behind or from the side, rather than head-on. You have the advantage of flight. Use it.
If you can see a group of enemy vehicles approaching on the radar, you can try landing on the road, and using the telephoto view, target vehicles from a distance with rockets. Rockets have a much greater range than machine gun fire.
If you're having a particularly hard time pushing back the enemy forces on higher levels, you can try 'damaging' their resource stockpiles. Remember -- you don't want to destroy them as you need to recover all the resources you can. But if you damage them, the enemy base will temporarily slow production while repairs are made. And remember to keep shooting those helicopters.
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Performance
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SKRAP was written to run fast without hardware acceleration. DirectX (particularly Direct3D) requires fair amount of processing power. A minimum of a Pentium processor is required.
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3D Accelerators
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SKRAP will default to NOT using 3D acceleration. To turn on acceleration, select an accelerator from the 3D ACCELERATION selection on the CONFIGURE menu. 3D Accelerators vary in capabilities and speed. Some run faster than others. Some have better effects. Some have both. If for some reason you can't get SKRAP to use your 3D accelerator properly, choose "NONE" under the 3D ACCELERATION selection on the CONFIGURE menu. Please let us know if your 3D accelerator fails to work with SKRAP.
Currently, SKRAP does NOT support the following 3D accelerators:
- Matrox Millenium
- Some ATI RAGE boards
- PowerVR boards
- Diamond Stealth 3D
SOFTWARE RENDERING
In general, you should use 8-bit video modes when not using a 3D accelerator. It is possible to use 16 bit modes but on current PC's, performance will be much slower.
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Trouble Shooting
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If you're having trouble running SKRAP, first check that you have the following set up properly:
- Windows95
- DirectX 3 or later (available from Microsoft's web site)
- Associated video & audio drivers
Having the latest set of drivers for your card is one of the most important things to check. Older drivers for many cards can produce strange errors. Most card manufacturers have web pages with downloadable driver patches. SKRAP was tested with the latest drivers available.
SKRAP was intended to be very flexible and work in a variety of screen resolutions. However, some resolutions require more video memory than is available. If you get an 'out of video memory' error try reducing the screen size via the CONFIGURE menu.
If you're still having problems, and you can run other DirectX applications without problems, you can e-mail us at "skrap.support@neuronware.com". Please try to be as specific as possible in your e-mail.
Good luck. As a beginner you will get killed often. Have fun. And thank you for playing SKRAP.
