================ Barrage ================ a game by Michael Speck http://lgames.sf.net ------------ Introduction ------------ Barrage is a rather violent action game with the objective to kill and destroy as many targets as possible within 3 minutes. The player controls a gun that may either fire small or large grenades at soldiers, jeeps and tanks. It is a very simple gameplay though it is not that easy to get high scores. I wrote this game ''by accident''. I created a little particle system just because I never did this before and I had read somewhere that it allows nifty effects for games. Okay, but of course I needed an enviroment to test it so I started with a background... than I defined the grenade explosions... but what's an explosion without something that is destroyed by it? So little inanimate soldiers followed... and soon I wanted some moving targets... then why not adding scores to the whole thing? Plus a little menu and a highscore chart and then there it was. I know a one-gun barrage is not really a barrage but I like the title, so what? :) ------------ How To Start ------------ As stated in the INSTALL file, start barrage from the proper location. You may pass the following options to barrage when running it from a console: -d <DELAY> wait <DELAY> milliseconds in the main loop and when fading; this may reduce CPU usage a great deal but may have impact on the frame rate depending on the speed of your CPU -w don't start in fullscreen but in windowed mode; you can switch this anytime while playing by pressing 'f' -s play silently, thus don't play any sounds; this can also be switched by pressing 's' while playing ----------- How To Play ----------- The main menu is quite self-explaining, so we get directly to what is up when entering the shooting range: The gun is located at the left side of the screen and has an ammunition of 36 shots. Aiming is done by simply moving the mouse pointer which is a crosshair above a target and left-click it for example. A shot is then fired and an angle of 60 degrees and it will exactly hit the spot you aimed at. The meaning of the mouse buttons is as follows: Left Button Fire a large grenade. Middle Button or Ctrl + Left Button Fire a small grenade. Right Button Reload gun to full 36 rounds. Similiar to Ctrl+LeftButton being an alternative to MiddleButton you can use the SpaceBar to reload the gun. ESC quits the game without checking the highscore. To enter the highscore you'll have to play a full game of 3 minutes. Whenever you fire a large grenade the crosshair will turn red for 0.5 seconds. In this time you cannot shoot. Small grenades can be fired so fast that the crosshair will not change its appearance. If you run out of ammo the crosshair becomes a triple of red rounds indicating that you have to reload either by pressing SPACE or clicking the right mouse button. Note, that reloading ALWAYS costs 36 points of your score (which cannot drop below 0) no matter how may rounds where actually reloaded! Small grenades cannot damage a tank. Use large ones and aim carefully you have to hit quite exactly. Also try to prevent jeeps and tanks from escaping. Tanks come from the bottom and jeeps come from the top of the screen and for any vehicle that makes it safe through the battlefield you will loose half the score you would have received for destroying it. Soldiers do not have such a penalty. Target Scores are: Soldier 5 points (no penalty) Jeep 20 points (10 points escape penalty) Tank 50 points (25 points escape penalty) Also keep an eye at the ammo to see wether you have to reload. If you aimed at a target and clicked, just to realize you have no rounds left, the target may be out of sight before you can try to fire a second time. Good luck! Dismissed. Michael Speck http://lgames.sf.net