Bikez II Readme

Version 1.0 freeware

Introduction

The idea of the Bikez II is to complete increasingly more difficult missions while gathering money to upgrade your four fully customizable weapons. Money is gathered both from completing missions, and slaughtering innocent citizens. The camera located behind the bike and the cool slow motion button make for a movie-like appearance. Above all Bikez II is a fun game that satisfies the "Blood and big guns! Heehee!" feeling. This is not your average "nice colorful thingie with flowers".

Bikez II is not simply a game; it is a piece of art. So when playing it, remember that you are not just playing it, you are viewing fine art. I believe computer games are art just the same as music or paintings, but games are also fun. If you would like to see more art, you should look up my fantasy art gallery at the address http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/v/i/villemon. If the link doesn't work you should find a working link at the Bikez homepage:www.mbnet.fi/~bikez

Installing & Requirements

To begin the game:

1. Run 3Dsetup.exe to setup your 3d-hardware.In 3dsetup please select either Direct3D HAL or Direct3D T&L HAL.
2. Run Bikez2.exe.

Currently there is no support for voodoo2 or any secondary 3d-accelerators.

To work Bikez II requires that you have a Direct3D compatible 3d-accelerator as your primary display driver and that you have installed DirectX 7 on a Windows.

Controls:

You can select the keys in Bikez II, but these are the factory defaults.

F9 | exit
1,2,3,4 | shoot
5 | slow the game down (cool!)
space | hand brake
cursor keys | navigate
home, delete, end and pagedown | control the camera
tab | chance camera view
esc | pause

Playing

Firstly you should put your right hand on the arrow keys and your left hand so that your little finger is on number 1 and your index finger on number 4. Drive around using the arrow keys and remember to use the hand brake to sharpen the corners. Shoot people with the 1,2,3 and 4 keys. You can shift between bird's eye view and following camera by pressing the tab key. When things get tough use the 5 key to slow the motion down (a cybernetic mercenary ability that makes your brain faster).

To get a mission to complete, you must find a man that looks like your character. On the bird's eye view they are marked with a green dot. Any one of these agents of evil will do. After finding the guy you have to stop by him (a green circle is lit under him if everything is right), and press enter. You are given a mission, which you must complete in order to be paid. Also you are paid 1 monetary unit for each person you kill on the streets, whether it be a friend or foe.

The meter on the bottom of the screen indicates your energy level. When you are low on energy or in need of a weapons upgrade, you should find a Bikez warehouse. These warehouses are brownish buildings with a Bikez sign. Enter below the sign. Additionally, do not mistake them for the Bikez headquarters where you start. In the warehouse you can save and load the game, your bike is automatically repaired, and you can buy weapons upgrades.

Weapons are great things in Bikez II. They are upgraded with points, 10 points being the absolute maximum, and 1 point the minimum. The more points you have put into a weapon, the more expensive a point gets. You can improve a weapons damage, which makes the weapon more like a bazooka than a pistol. Improving the speed of the bullets makes the weapon more like a laser and improving the firing rate turns the weapon first into a shotgun then into a minigun. Also it is possible to buy tracking to the weapon, making it a homing missile. When purchasing tracking it is best to make the bullet speed 1, otherwise it doesn't have time to track the target.

Tips

- Speed is all in Bikez. If you stay put for too long you will be killed in a matter of seconds, so you must keep moving all the time.
- Use the bird's eye view to evade homing missiles.
- Consider setting all the weapons under one key. Then you don't have to press four times, but one. This may also help if your keyboard beeps.
- The difficulty of the game affects the actual speed of the game also.
- You can press the plus or the minus key to see the framerate.

FAQ

- After starting Bikez2.exe the game jumps right back to windows. What's wrong?
  -Have you run 3Dsetup already? Try using different settings. Do you have at least DirectX 7?

- I have a Voodoo2 accelerator and the game doesn't work.
  -Currently there is no support for Voodoo2 or any secondary 3d-accelerators.

- The policemen shoot me all the time without a reason, is this a bug?
  -No, it is a feature (I just love saying that). The police shoot you because you are the bad guy.

- When changing keys there are only numbers listed. Why don't I see the key's names?
  -The numbers are key codes. They are only intended to notify you that the key has actually been changed. (Well, I could make them names, but where's the fun in that?)

- The game doesn't draw everywhere on the screen or there are blocks of Windows desktop on the screen when playing.
  -It is possible that there is a problem with the depth buffer clearing method. Try to set the Alternate Depth Clear option in the options menu. Please note that this method is quite sluggish, so don't use it if you don't have a problem.

- The game says that a DLL is missing or the game just generally complains about them.
  -Make sure you have the latest DirectX and that all your drivers are in working order.

- I want to complain about the weapon system of Bikez.
  -Yes, I know it is not the conventional weapon system that exists in every game. Yes, I know it might be strange to go to the local store and ask:"Could I have homing bullets with that minigun? Oh, and can I get the cool exploding effect with it? Wonder what kind of bullet holes would be nice with it?" But you have to admit, it is at least an inventive weapon system.

- I put the music on in the menu and the game turns very slow.
  -There seems to be some trouble with GAudio the game uses to decode the MP3 music. The only solve is to restart the game (with the music left on) and it should be back to normal.

- How do I tell you of a bug?
  -When you mail me, list your: graphics adapter, operating system, DirectX version, memory, processor, game version, and most improtantly tell me how to reproduce the bug.

Version History

version 1.0
initial release
sound & music
improved AI

Beta version 0.8
save/load feature
start menu
readme
difficulty levels

Alpha distribute 7
warehouse (customizable weapons)
fixed some major memory leaks
(An electrical mess-up erased over half of the game code,
only back-ups on one other computer were saved and they
were from few moths ago. So this pisses me a lot! :(

Alpha distribute 6
other bikes
slo'mo!
Alpha distribute 5
handbrake
better framerate (round 80 on my computer)
homing missile
bike now takes damage
added a sky and then removed it (ingenious, huh?)

Alpha distribute 4
people now have weapons
improved lighting, headlight to the bike
borders to the map
missions work
improved collisions (hope I got it now)
new bike! Rrrocks!

Alpha distribute 3
top view
missions

Alpha distribute 2
added people
improved weapon effects
terminated few memory leaks

Alpha distribute 1
second weapon added
better collision detection
etc...

Legal

I, Ville Mönkkönen, cannot be held responsible for any damage this product may cause. Hopefully it will cause none, but there are no guarantees.

This game is freeware. All the standard freeware limitations apply to this game also: You may make copies, and distribute this game freely, as long as the game is not modified in any way. You may distribute this game on magazine cover CDs, collections, and such. You are encouraged to put this game on the front page of any web page you may own.

This game is completely free, you don't have to pay anyone anything to be able to play it. However, if you feel like contributing a considerable sum of money, please feel free to contact me ;)

Credits & Contacting

Programming, graphics, music, that sort of thing: Ville Mönkkönen.
Sounds: Ari Mönkkönen.
Thanks to all beta testers! All your help is appreciated.

E-mail:bikez@mbnet.fi
Please write in English. Mail me if you have a bug, a suggestion to the game, want to compliment me, or just have something on your mind. Though I've tried to fine-tune the game to optimum, feedback is always very welcome. (Please read the FAQ section before mailing a bug)

Homepage:www.mbnet.fi/~bikez
The pages contain possible updates to the game, some Bikez theme wallpapers and other games produced by me.

Copyright 2001 Ville Mönkkönen