Is this... the end?
v1.0, 28/2/2000
======================

by Spyros Paraschis
abyss@x-treme.gr


Overview
........

"Is this... the end?" is a shoot-em up game, inspired by Galaga and other,
less well-known, older shoot-em up games. The main objective of the player
(as if you needed instructions!) is to destroy all the alien ships, by
shooting them from his ship at the bottom of the screen.

"Is this... the end?" is my entry for the Allegro Games Competition 2,
organized by Mr. Arron Shutt.

This is the final version  of the game and it was supposed to contain
proper documentation, but, unfortunately, I barely had time to complete
the game. So, for the time being, this text file will pretend to be
some kind of documentation. If you need more instructions, you can
visit the game's homepare, at http://members.xoom.com/abbysios

About "Is this... the end?"
...........................

My version of the game tries to add some things to the basic Galaga
formula, which will hopefully help to make the game more playable and
challenging.

Apart the the cosmetic changes I've made (Galaga is a 20-year old game
after all), I tried to make the aliens smarter. Thus, most alien ships try
to avoid your shots and generally do not follow preset movement patterns. 
However, each alien type has a certain weakness, and the player has to study
their behaviour, to recognize this weakness, in order to fight the aliens
effectively.

This final version of the game contains twelve levels. My initial plans
were to include over 20 levels, with more variety and personality,
but I had very little time in my hands, since on Jan 11th, 2000, I had
to join the Greek Air Force to serve my 20-month obligatory duty.
So this version (1.5) will be my entry for the Allegro Games Competition
2. I know that the game is not finished yet and I had many things in
mind for it, but I have to live with that.

This version is distributed in two archives: end10.zip and end10DX.zip. (Note
that the old archive name "gala.zip" will no longer be used). The first
archive contains the DOS executable, which runs under DOS and Win 9xx 
systems. If you want to run the game under a pure DOS environment, you 
have to get a DPMI server (like CWSDPMI) and copy it to the game's
directory. The endDX.zip archive contains the Windows DirectX version.
In general, the DOS version is considered to be more stable, but I
didn't encounter any trouble with the Windows DirectX version.

The source is written in a portable (I hope) style, so it can probably 
even run under Linux, with a simple rebuild (thanks to Allegro of
course). We 'll have to wait and see...


Installation
............

To run this beta version (which has been compiled with DJGPP and Allegro WIP 
v3.9.27) just execute the end.exe file. The files level1.dat, level4.dat, 
level7.dat, bonus.dat, sound.dat and title.dat should go in the same 
directory as the main executable.

As for the game requirements, I really do not know. I think that a slow
Pentium will be enough, but I depend on user feedback to find out.

In the options menu, all options shall be obvious, with the exception of
"Bullet Shield". If this is on, then whenever the player bullets hit
the alien bullets, they will both be destroyed. If the "Bullet Shield"
option is off, then there will be no collision between them, as is the
case with most shoot-em ups. I my opinion, setting this option to on
makes the gameplay better.

To move your ship use the left and right cursor keys. To fire use the
left control key. To pause, press P.

During gameplay, F12 writes a screenshot to the game directory, with the
filename "dump.pcx"

If you run the game and wait a bit, a screen explaing the various bonii will
appear. Wait a little longer and a demo will start.

If you do not hear any sound, the reason might be that you sound card cannot
be autodedected. This problem applies only to the DOS version. If you have
Allegro, use its setup utility to identify the sound card and copy the
allegro.cfg file to the directory where gala.exe is. The final version of
"Is this... the end?" will come with a customised setup utility, so that won't
be a problem.


My comments
...........
In general, I am quite happy with the way this game turned out to be. It is my
first game in C (and my first experience with Allegro) and I really enjoyed it.
The game has many flaws and look rather incomplete to me. I really wanted to
add many things, in order to enrich the gameplay experience of "Is this...
the end?", but, as I have already mentioned, I did not have enough time. 
Especially the later levels were done in a harry and are not tested well. I am
not particularly happy with the enemy behaviour. In addition, I am sure that 
my code is very inefficient, since I did not do any optimizations. However, 
I hope that every decent Pentium will run the game with no problems.

 
Changes
.......

Jan 28, 2000: Version 1.0
- Added 3 more levels in a hurry, reaching 12
- Changed the behaviour of some aliens
- Added a new end screen, better that the previous one, but still horrible...
- Changed the music; now the game's soundtrack is an original piece
  composed by Costas Ntokos. We met during our service at the Air Force.
- Added in-game music
- Other minor changes

Jan 11, 2000: Version 0.5
- Added 3 more levels
- Fixed some glitches, pointed by An Ly
- Added graphic counters to represent the duration of the time freeze 
and reverse control boni.
- Added support for a stretched 640x480 mode, if the default 320x240
is not supported by the graphic card (is this possible?)
- Added a second type of particle explosions
- Other minor changes.


Jan 3, 2000: Beta version
- Added 3 more levels
- Many bugs were found and killed
- Added sound effects and title music
- Changed the options screen

Dec 22, 1999: Alpha version - initial release


Legal state
...........

"Is this... the end?", and especially this beta version, can be freely
copied, as long as nothing included in the archive is changed. I haven't
protected, in any way, the data files, but please, contact me first,
if you want to use ay of the resources contained there. Keep in mind
that not all of the resources are mine. Proper credit to all those who
contributed to the game, whether they know it or not ;-), will be given
in the documentation of the final version. For now, this will have
to do:

The background graphics and some other game graphics (title screen,
option screen etc) were rendered in POV, using the Galaxy plugin
by Chris Colefax.
Some of the game sprites were taken from Ari Feldman's SpriteLib.
Some of the game sprites were ripped from the arcade games Alpha
mission II, Andro Dunos, Blazing Star and Temutjin 2, using the
well known emulators NeorageX and Raine. After ripping, they were
processed and slightly modified using PaintShop Pro 5.
The game music was composed by Costas Ntokos.
This game uses the amazing Allegro library, made by Shawn Hargreaves.
Allegro is often described as a game library, since it contains
many advanced graphic, audio and timing functions, of particular
interest to game creators. However, its numerous features (and
especially its portability, since it supports DOS, Windows and Linux)
can be used for many more things than games. Visit Allegro at 
http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro


Credits
.......
Game concept, programming and graphics: Spyros Paraschis
Music: Costas Ntokos
Allegro library: Shawn Hargreaves


Contact
.......

For any comments or bug reports, please contact me by e-mail. I may not
answer you soon, since I will be away for a while (as I said, I have to
serve my Air Force duty). However, I will read every mail you send me.

Visit the homepage of "Is this... the end?", to find out more about the game:
http://members.xoom.com/abbysios

Spyros Paraschis
abyss@x-treme.gr

