Invaders 1.0.1
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Table of Contents:

1	General
1.1	What is invaders
1.2	System requirements
1.3	Playing invaders
1.4	Menu commands

2	FAQ
2.1	Questions about invaders
2.2	Troubleshooting

3	Developing Invaders

4	Miscellaneous
4.1	Invaders is FREE!
4.2 	Contact information
4.3	Version changes

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1	General

1.1	What is Invaders

	Invaders is a small game which is based on an old arcade game "Space Invaders".
	The reason why the world would need yet another clone is that I wanted to create 
	the coolest one!

	Invaders feature:

	* A cool retro-matrix-display to show cool graphics
	* A cool retro-electro-soundtrack to tighten athmospere
	* A cool retro-3d-movie to watch when not playing
	* A cool retro-wooden paneling



1.2	System requirements

	I've found that Invaders works quite nicely on my 500Mhz Athlon...
	
	Here's some real requirements:

	* Windows 95/98/2000/NT4
	* DirectX 5 or greater
	* 32/16-bit color desktop (works in other depths also, but is slower) 
	* DirectX compliant soundcard
	* Any Pentium2 class machine (or greater) should run invaders at correct speed


1.3	Playing Invaders

	Playing Invaders is simple, just move your turret at the bottom of screen to avoid enemy fire
	and shoot aliens with it.

	Here are the keys:
	
	Arrow left:	Move turret left
	Arrow right:	Move turret right
	Space:		Shoot missile

	However, to get good scores, you should watch your bonus meter at the bottom-right of the screen.
	When you destroy an enemy, the bonus increases by one, until it's 40 points and it drops to zero 
	when you miss enemy. So accuracy pays well. Also, every shot costs 5 points.
	If you ever manage to get past level 30, the game will start from beginning, but with more 
	enemies which shoot faster. Your score will be doubled after lvl30.

	Note that Invaders switches to "Suspended" mode, when its not the frontmost window.
	So when caught by your boss just Alt-Tab and you are back to your word-processor.
	The game will automatically resume when window becomes active again.

1.4	Menu commands

	File
		
	New Game:	Starts new game (even when game is running)
	Pause Game:	Pauses game. Select again to restore game.
	About Invaders:	Shows credits and version info. Enabled only in startup-screen
	Exit:		Exits program

	Options
	
	Sounds:		Toggle sound-effects
	Music:		Toggle music
	
	Advanced
	
	Flat Pixels:	Pixels are rendered with only one color, makes screen brighter	
	Invert Screen:	Inverts colors on screen
	Monoc. Sprites:	Sprites are drawn only with one color
	Slow Screen:	Pixels dim slowly instead of instant off. Has some impact on speed
	FPS Counter:	Displays current framerate instead of highscore at the bottom of screen
			Invaders should run at 100fps.

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2	FAQ

2.1	Questions about Invaders (also known as FAQ)

	Question: Whoa Invaders looks pretty neat! how are graphics done?
	
	Answer: Invaders display is presented as 132x152 matrix which lits those little pixels
	   All matrix patterns are created with special editor.
	   Graphics were created by using only Photoshop 5.5.

	Q: What other programs were used?

	A: Invaders is compiled with Borland C++ 5.0 using DirectX 7 libraries.
	   All sounds and music were done with VAZ Modular 2.0
	
	Q: Game gets impossible after level x?
	
	A: Its true that game gets impossible at some point, propably near lvls 45-50.
	   I've played to level 38 so at least its possible to get there.


2.2	Troubleshooting

	Problem: Game runs slowly

	Solution: Switch you desktops colordepth to 16bit or 32bit, so Invaders uses optimised
	   	  drawing-routines. You might also try disabling "Slow Screen"-option

	P: Colors doesn't seem right

	S: Colors get distorted when running in 8bit colors. Switch to 16bit or 32bit.

	P: There is no sound even when sound or music enabled

	S: Check that any other program doesnt use soundcard, ie some other game.
	   This shouldnt be problem with soundcards like Soundblaster Live!	
	
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3	Developing Invaders

	Invaders is a small project which was inspired by my old program which displayed
	movies on matrix-display. I thought it would be interesting to create whole game
	which would use that kind of display solution. So was Invaders born. I choosed to
	create Space Invaders -clone becouse its relative simplicity and becouse the original
	had also rather primitive graphics.
	
	The program was fast to build. Of course I used some DirectX -code from my previous 
	projects, but the game itself turned out very easy to implement, not counting the sprite-engine
        or directx-code, the source is only a couple of pages long.
	
	I had the game up and running with almost all features in three days but I polished
	and tweaked it for almost two months

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4	Miscellaneous	

4.1	Invaders is FREE!

	That's right. You can play invaders as long as you wish and it doesnt show a single nag
	dialog. If you plan to include Invaders in some commercial media (ie. cover disks)
	please inform me first.
	However, its still ok to pay for this game, by doing so you will help a poor student
	and make both of us happy.
	(Please make donations only in Finnish marks or US dollars) 
	

4.2	Contact information

	Sami Sierla
	Kauppalantie 22 B 8
	02700 Kauniainen
	Finland
	
	potato@iobox.fi
	also visit Invaders homepage at www.helsinki.fi/~ssierla/invaders.html for updates and info


4.3	Version changes

	1.0.1  25.12.2000 (ddmmyy)
	*Added "Double size" -option, to make Invaders more playable in resolutions like 1600x1200
	 (note that Double size may slow game a lot on slower systems)
	*Added some vital information to readme (like webpage url...)
	*Removed "Extras"-directory
	*Matrix-files are now smaller, invaders uses less memory
	*Updated about
	*Bullets (both turret and alien) are larger.
	 (making them easier to see when not in "slow screen" -mode)

	1.0.0  13.12.2000 
	*First released version


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c Sami Sierla 25.12.2000