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Text File | 1996-01-10 | 15KB | 424 lines

The XTreme Racing FAQ ----------------------- Version : 1.0amiga Maintained by : Alex Amsel (Silltunna Software) What Is XTreme Racing ----------------------- XTreme Racing is a superb racing game from Silltunna Software/Black Magic for all AGA Amigas. Here are some of its features according to the cool game box : Fast & frantic racing action from Black Magic (the creators of Gloom) and Silltunna Software. Experience up to 8-PLAYER mayhem - win the race by whatever means fair or foul. Out-race, out-gun & out-think your opponents, pick-up the cash bonuses & upgrade your car. XTreme Racing is the funniest, fastest and most intense 3D racing game to hit the Amiga - Get ready for an XTreme Racing experience!!! Features ======== o High-speed 3D texture mapped graphics, surpassing anything seen on the Amiga before! o 300 plus colours on-screen from a 24-bit palette o Multiple screen sizes & resolutions - up to full screen, 1x1 pixels o Enhanced for Fast RAM/Accelerators (020/030/040) o Up to 8-Player split-screen, null modem & modem play o Over 20 different tracks o Several distinct racing venues, each with a different graphical style o Extra track features include Jumps, curbs and the ability to squash cars! o 8 different vehicles to drive, like the Ferrari F40, Lotus, Pick-up, etc... o Varied game-play modes - including Cup games, Grand Prix, Death-Match, Head-to-Head o Multiple weapon pick-ups & vehicle enhancements, including homing missiles, mines, grenades, time-delay bombs, banana skins, sheep!!, etc... o Several secret features & levels, including Lemming splat & Sheep Racing! o Extra Camera - can be placed anywhere, including on other cars and on the back of your car, and on the track etc.... Includes Zoom modes, rotate modes, Tracking modes o Choice of in-game soundtracks o Fully saveable set-up & screen preferances & lap/race times o Hard drive installable o Full support for CD32 joypad and 2 button joysticks. All controls redefinable to suit your tastes! o Run from WB, quit back to WB (if enough ram available) o No really annoying protection schemes. We are trusting you to make sure everyone buys this game. Not everyone will, but pressurise your friends if they like it and have a pirate version/your version. At the very least they could send us a small financial donation. What is the Purpose of this FAQ ? ----------------------------------- This FAQ contains the latest news, hints and tips. Hopefully it will answer any of your questions about XTR (as we call it). What have the magazines thought of the game ? ----------------------------------------------- The response has been overwhelming with magazines worldwide playing it over and over again. Even some non-Amiga magazines have shown interest. Here are some comments thus far : 'XTreme Racing has captured all the best elements of realism and action and turned them into an extremely attractive and playable game. Publishers take note : this is what games should be like.' - Jason Compton, Amiga Report 'Hot dang if this ain't one cool game! Its Mario Kart meets Mad Max so lets squash some Lemmings and toast some Volkswagens!' 'Christmas? Oh that. I'll miss it for playing XTR' 'More exciting that a forehead mains socket' - Mat Bettinson, CU Amiga 'The car that you choose handles like a dream. Its slides wonderfully round corners and you will soon find yourself in a position where you are slipping and sliding round the course with the consummate ease of Gilles Villeneuve.' 'So are there any bad points in the preview copy that might need fine-tuning? No, not really, and it's rare you can say that about any preview game.....' 'This is a game that when polished is potentially a classic game' - The One Amiga All this from an early preview which didn't even have weapons, or dust, or any track variety, and dodgy difficulty settings to say the least!! Try out the full demo for yourselves....Or just ask someone what they think. We have got so many great comments (and virtually no negative ones at all!!!) that we simply recommend you ask someone less biast than ourselves. Is there a Demo available ? ----------------------------- CU Amiga will have a coverdisk on their February issue. There is also an Internet/BBS demo already available on Aminet/game/demos or from our BBS site. The internet version is similar to the CU Amiga version, but uses a different track. Owners of the full game should also grab a copy of the demo as it uses a new 'winter' graphics set which we will use for a few future freebie tracks. Owners of the full game can also use the demo tracks within the full version. Demo Site : Aminet game/demo/xtrndemo.lha Where can I get the Full Version from ? ----------------------------------------- The usual shops or mail order directly from us. We would appreciate it if as many people as possible ordered directly from Guildhall since that way more money goes to funding new games rather than going to the middle-men. Price : 23.99 + 1.00 UK Sterling including P&P Deliveries are worldwide. Simply ask your local bank to write out a cheque for 24.99 Pounds Sterling. Order from : Guildhall Leisure : +44 (0)1302 890000 (all major credit cards) Or write a cheque payable to Guildhall Leisure Services at : Unit 15 Guildhall Industrial Estate Kirk Sandall Doncaster South Yorkshire England DN3 1QR *** Please buy and don't pirate this game *** I have an enhanced machine, will XTR work on it ? --------------------------------------------------- In almost all cases, yes. Here is a list of machines XTR is known to work 100% on : A1200 - no HD, no extra Ram A1200 - no extra ram A1200 - fast ram (2-4 megs suffices) A1200 - All Blizzard 020/030 accelerators (we recommend the 1230-50 IV card) A1200 - GVP 030-40 accelerator A1200 - MBX1230 accelerators (may require the patch from Aminet/Guildhall) A4000 030 A4000 040 060 accelerators If your accelerator isn't on here then don't worry, it'll almost certainly work. We currently know of a problem on some Warp Engine 040 systems, and if you do have a problem then contact us as we should hopefully have fixed that problem by the time you read this. Please don't run Enforcer or Cyberguard. Enhanced machines are used to full effect in XTR, and there is also special 040/060 enhanced code. We strongly recommend buying an accelerator, the Blizzard 1230-50 Mark IV boards are well priced and very fast. 1x1 mode is fine (at varying screen sizes, but all sensible!) on any 030, though we recommend 2x1 as this works much faster than 1x1 and there isn't really much difference visually. Will it work on ECS machines ? -------------------------------- This game is AGA only. Gfx card owners see below. Will it use a Graphics Card ? ------------------------------- We haven't ruled out a 'quick and dirty' gfx card version, possibly also for ECS owners. This would require owners to have the full game, and a patch will be available on our BBS and on the Internet. XTR runs perfectly well without one anyway, but gfx card support would be a nice addition. The full game includes a registration card that asks the buyers to answer 5 simple questions, including what machine they have and if they have accelerators & Gfx Cards. No-one else has asked these questions in the right places, so once and for all we will have some idea of how many A4000 / accelerated Miggy owners actually buy games. Watch this space :) Is there a CD32 version ? --------------------------- The CD32 version will probably be released late January. There will also be options to do a partial or full install to HD for CDROM owners out there. Extra Tracks -------------- Probably around Easter time we shall be published a new set of tracks which feature totally new graphics. They shall be on the very silly side, mostly because we feel the need to make them worth buying. So they won't be just more of the same, or at least they will be as different as we can make them. We will also most likely release a few tracks between now and then, on magazine disks and on the internet. If anyone has some ideas for good Deathmatch tracks (once they play the full game) then they only need tell us what they would like, and we will do the track for everyone if we like the idea. Track Editor -------------- Along with the extra tracks will be the Track Editor. It is fully OS3.0 compliant, very easy to use, features on-line help, and so on. It enables us to produce tracks very quickly, and after some hours of experience you to can do the same. The editor is fully multitasking, mode promotes, and should run very nicely on graphics cards. Secret Features ----------------- Several tracks contain some secret paths that allow you to get around them a lot quicker. We won't say which ones of course. There are 3 bonus tracks, but you had better be good to reach them, let alone win on them. There are also 3 secret passwords. Here are some hints.... 1 - Calling for an animal that we like. Welshmen like them as well, allegedly. 2 - An idiot driving very fast in the usual car. Similar to a password on a good old DMA Design Shoot-em-up. 3 - Doom fans will know this one. These should be typed when a menu is displayed. The screen will flash to show the cheat has been activated, and 'cheating' again will de-activate it. Note that some of the passwords hvae spaces in them. The 'How-To-Do' Serial Games Check List ----------------------------------------- The manual is a little unclear when it comes to playing serial games. So here is a quick and easy guide...... Modem games are no different from null modem games as far as these instructions go. 1 - Both machines should select a matching baud rate from the link-up menu. Always try 19200 Baud at first. We have connected at much faster baud rates also, but 9600 sometimes causes problems. 2 - Decide which machine is to be master, and which is to be slave. Modem users decide which machine will answer 3 - See the manual for initialising the connection 4 - If a successful connection is established both users will be returned to the 'Link-Up' menu, and the 'Hang Up' (or hand up according to the manual!) option should now be available. Both users must select Hang-Up if they want to quit the connection, and if you are informed that an error has occurred at any point you *must still* select hang up. 5 - The 'Slave' machine then selects Exit, and starts a game. When prompted for the number of players, this refers to the number of players on the 'Slave' machine, not the total number of players. 6 - Once the number of players has been selected, the screen will go blank 7 - Once this is done the 'Master' machine should do the same thing. The 'Master' machine then decides all further gameplay options. 8 - With the 'Slave' machine still blacked out, the players on the 'Master' machine select their cars. Once this is done, players on the 'Slave' machine can do the same thing. 9 - Once this is complete, the game will start. You may have to wait for the other machine to finish loading, and this can take quite different times on different machines. 10 - The Frame rates are *independent*. This means that a fast computer can still run the game smoother than the slower computer. 11 - Sometimes the game will suddenly get slow. This is when an error has occured. After a few seconds the problem is usually sorted. Sometimes faster or slower baud rates can help reduce this problem, as can using a shorter serial cable. 12 - Thats about it really :) Best Lap Times ---------------- Will appear here for all tracks, including the bonus ones. We ask people to mail us their > .laptimes < file as proof. This file can be found in whatever directory XTR was installed in, or on disk 1 for floppy users. If you EMAIL the laptime file you must send them to : alex@teeth.demon.co.uk and the subject should be : xtr laptimes Please *do not* mail the laptimes more than once every 2 weeks or I shall start ignoring your mail (it will clog up my mailbox). Ensure you select SAVE SETUP from the main menu if you wish to save your laptimes! The Graphics Engine is available ---------------------------------- There are several good games that could be written with this gfx engine. As such we are prepared to offer it out to other programming teams. This will involve a royalty to us but the exact details may vary upon your situation. The engine will *only* be sold to teams who can prove their dedication and quality. This means people working full time (or nearly) on the game and not just 1 night a week. We can help with music, graphics & testers if necessary. From spring 1996 there will also be a similar PC engine therefore games can be done for both the PC and Amiga fairly easily. Note : We can and will publish games that are of high quality. We would prefer teams who can work both on Amiga and PC than Amiga only, although we can organise conversions for good enough products. Future Products ----------------- We have other products planned, but we will also look at your products if you consider them high-quality. They may be Amiga or PC based. We are currently looking for high-quality artists, especially if you are handy with a renderer and can do *high quality* rendered graphics. Artists should contact Rich Whittall at : rich@xtreme.demon.co.uk Contact Details ----------------- To contact us : alex@teeth.demon.co.uk (thats me - I programmed and co-designed XTR) or our BBS +44 (0)1789 842105 10pm -> 7am : Rich Whittall runs this (almost all gfx, tracks, and co-designer of XTR) This BBS is not guaranteed to be running past June, so if you don't get a reply from there then email *Rich* for the new BBS information. I can also be reached on 01295 678 173 (not mornings!) but please only use this number if you wish to ask us any business details or wish to offer us work/publishing deals. What are you waiting for? Go and play the game !! Don't forget to tell us what you think...... Alex Amsel Silltunna Software Credits --------- Alex Amsel : 3D Programming and Game Code Richard Whittall : Vast amounts of Graphics, and Chief of Track Designs Ltd Mark Fitt : Additional Code, Editor code, Samples, Eater of Ring Doughnuts Simon Speight & Tony Farrell : The Music Nigel Critten : Misc gfx Thomas Schwarz: Compression Routines Game Design : Alex 'Bully is Back' Amsel and Richard 'Pounding Musical Score' Whittall Thanks to Bullfrog Productions Limited for providing samples of the Magic Carpet Soundtrack. XTreme Racing is Copyright © 1995 Silltunna Software Limited.