The End To End All Ends Essay (стр. 2 из 2)

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–== Weapons ==–

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The Worminator has 9 unique weapons at its disposal. They all have varying strengths and weaknesses, and it is important to select the best weapon for each situation. In order to use a weapon, you must have found it in the game and have enough ammo to fire it. To select a weapon, simply press the number key which is indicated for each weapon in its description below. To select no weapon, press the ‘0′ key on your keyboard.

Minigun – This is the Worminator’s basic weapon, which does minimal damage. It fires small bullets extremely fast, which means that it eats up ammo at amazing rates. However, there is also plenty of ammo for this gun lying around for this weapon, so don’t be over conservative. You can hold up to 999 bullets for this weapon at a time. This weapon is one of only two that can fire under water! The minigun can be selected by pressing the ‘2′ key on your keyboard.

Shotgun – This weapon does a little more damage than the minigun. It also has the advantage of being an instant hit weapon, meaning that the instant you pull the trigger, the shell will hit your target. This makes the shotgun ideal for precision shots that you must line up carefully. The shotgun also has unlimited range, which can allow you to hit enemies from out of their range. To select the shotgun, press the ‘3′ key during the game. The shotgun is the second weapon that can fire under water, so make sure you have some shells handy before you decide to go for a little swim. The Worminator can carry up to 50 shells for the shotgun at a time.

Rocket Launcher – Pressing ‘4′ on your keyboard will select one of the more powerfull weapons avalible to the Worminator, the rocket launcher. You can have up to 75 rockets with you for the rocket launcher at any given time. When fired, the rocket launcher will fire off a small rocket, which will then accelerate and fly off in the direction it is fired. The rocket explodes on contact with an enemy or a wall. The explosion from the rocket will do moderate damage to any enemies in its radius, and can also damage the Worminator if you are not careful! Make sure that rockets explode far enough from you so that they don’t blow up in your face. The rocket launcher is not able to fire under water.

Split Rocket Launcher – This is an upgrade for the rocket launcher that can be selected by pressing the ‘5′ key. You automatically recieve this weapon when you pick up a rocket launcher, so don’t do looking for this weapon in any of the levels. This weapon is essentially just a rocket launcher, but instead of fireing off a single rocket, this weapon fires off two rockets at a time which branch apart, one flying at an angle upward and the other downward. This fires the same type of ammo as the standard rocket launcher, and like the rocket launcher, it can not fire underwater.

Laser Gun – The laser gun is one of the more interesting weapons avalible to the Worminator. It can be selected by pressing the ‘6′ key on your keyboard. The laser gun is powered by cells, of which you can have up to 75 at any given time. When fired, the laser gun emits a pink laser beam that will instantly hit all enemies in its path. Thats right, the laser rifle is capable of fireing through any number of enemies, as long as they are all alligned. If there are four robotic dogs in front of you when you fire the gun, they all take an equal amount of damage. This weapon, like the shotgun, is an instant hit weapon. Unlike the shotgun, however, the laser gun can not fire under water.

Flame Thrower – One of the most devastating weapons that the Worminator can obtain is the flame thrower. When fired, a large flame bursts out of the nozzle of this weapon, burning flesh and melting metal. The longer you keep the flame on an enemy, the more damage is done. Selecting this weapon once you have it can be accomplished by pressing the ‘7′ key on the keyboard. Naturally, the flame thrower is not able to fire under water, and unfortunately, you can only have up to units of gasoline avalible for the flamethrower at any given time.

Mortar Cannon – This is the best weapon for makeing cheap shots and stealth attacks. The mortar cannon will fire off a large, bouncy mortar at a 45 degree angle when used. The mortar will then bounce around like crazy until it hits an enemy or simply explodes due to being bounced around too much. Select the mortar launcher by pressing ‘8′, and be careful, because you can only have 25 mortars at any one time. Mortars, like rockets, will damage the worminator if they explode near him, and can not be used under water due to their explosive nature.

CLASSIFIED – This weapon is top secret and no information on it can be disclosed.

CLASSIFIED – This weapon is top secret and no information on it can be disclosed.

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–== ‘Skin’ Notes ==–

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One of the neatest features of Worminator is that you are allowed to play as different characters if you wish. This is called selecting a ’skin’, because the game is essentially applying a different skin on top of the Worminator to create a different character for you to play as. Sure, the Worminator is pretty cool, but after a while, you may wish to play as one of the other included characters. To select a different character, simply go to the ’skins’ menu on the main menu bar, and make your selection. Note that the changes made by selecting different characters are graphical only, so the gameplay is completely uneffected by the character that you choose from the ’skins’ menu. By default, you will, of course, be playing as the totally cool Worminator, and every time you die or exit and restart the game, the game will revert back to the default Worminator skin. You can change characters at any point in the game. For your conveinance, I have listed the avalible playable character ’skins’ below.

Worminator – This is the default ’skin’. You can use this option to play as the Worminator again if you have already selected a different character. If you die or restart the game, this skin will also be automatically selected.

Damaged Worms (1 – 3) – These ’skins’ simply allow you to play using one of the damaged frame sets for the Worminator. This looks kind of weird, but it can be fun to play around with.

The Brain – One of our favorites, this ’skin’ is the offical Electroencephalogram brain. He is purple, and walks on his spinal coard and nerve endings.

The Yipnik Mikimbo – Keith just drew this, so Dave programmed it right in. No one is sure what exactly it is, but it looks really creepy and cool. Purple slime creatures rule!

Hotdog Hero – One of the smartest hotdogs in the world, this guy is out to liberate all hotdogs in the world from the greedy jaws of fat people.

VooDoo Badie – A creepy red VooDoo mask. This guy started out as a chunk of moldy cheese, and was then converted by and ancient VooDoo witch doctor into the walking red menace it is today. This dude is so tough, he holds his weapons in his mouth!

Yuanti – The famed Yuan-Ti (who had his name changed to avoid C++ ASCII character restrictions of variable names), a fantasy creature of legend and myth. We thought it was too cool NOT to put in the game… so its really not there for any particular reason. It just looks cool.

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–== Development/Mapping Information ==–

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Using the editor that is avalible for free on the Worminator website, you can create your own maps and then play them in the game by starting a new game, and selecting the custom map option. The editor is fairly self explanatory, and I do not offer any support on it. If you have trouble with it, I am sorry, but I can’t do anything to help you out. I have, however, included a little information on hotkeys and other features below to help you get started. When saveing maps, you can save them with any file name you choose, as long as the extention is on them is .map, inciating to the engine that this is a Worminator map file. Do not overwrite the maps called Map01.map-Map07.map, or you will corrupt the included campaign game, and the scripts may cause problems on your new maps. I suggest giveing your maps meaningful names such as forest.map or city.map or something else like that. Anyway, on to the info…

-First and foremost, load up the maps that we made with the editor and look around. Learn how to do things by experimenting and looking at our maps for examples.

-Unlike the game, the editor will not adjust to the speed of your computer. Unfortunately, this means that the editor will be to fast to use on high end Pentium III/Athlon machines. It runs at a reasonable speed on my Pentium II/400 MHz, though.

-There are four ‘data layers’ in Worminator. Use the display properties button to control which ones are visibile, and the select layer button to pick which layer you wish to edit. The first two layers, background and foreground, are graphical layers which contain ’tiles’ of art that make up the level. The next layer, the info layer, contains all the information the game needs to run the physics code in your map, such as what areas are solid, which are water, and so on. The final layer, the graphical properties later, is used to create special effects and is not important to the novice user.

-’Sprites’ are anything that moves around or interacts with the player. These include enemies, weapons, and other items. Use the ‘Add Sprite’ button to add in sprites of a given type. All sprites are represented by small tiles in the editor, but will be shown normally in the game. Once again, examine the included maps for examples of how to use sprites. In order to delete sprites, put the mouse cursor over a sprite and press the ‘delete’ key on your keyboard. This will remove all sprites under the mouse cursor.

-When selecting tiles, you can select rectangular ‘blocks’ of tiles all at once to save time. To see what I mean, try left clicking on the select tiles display, and the right clicking somewhere under the spot where you left clicked. You should now see a white box surrounding the selected tiles. When you add these tiles into the map, all of them will be added at once. When creating patterned background areas and such, this tool can save a lot of time.

-Well, thats about it for now on mapping. Good luck mapping!

Also, as I mentioned before, the Worminator source code may be avalible to you for use on your own projects if you request it. Having the source code would let you compleltely redesign the game into whatever you like, but it is also extremely complicated and should only be attempted by exptert users with knowledge of C++ and experience with Allegro + DJGPP

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–== Credits ==–

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Programming – David Layne (also sort of the project leader, if we really had one)

Artwork – Keith Palmer and Jeff Nielson

Level Design – Kurtis Palmer, David Layne, Keith Palmer, and Jeff Nielson

Music – Garret Thomson (garret_t@sympatico.ca, www.sirsonic.com)

Special Thanks:

-Shawn Hargreaves and all others who helped make Allegro. Free stuff rules!

-Apogee + ID Software. They made lots of cool sidescrollers and got us interested in computer games years ago

-Anyone who submits comments or bug reports to us

-Jeff Nielson (For being fun to pick on

-Keith Palmer (For being lazy as all hell

-Daniel Layne (For, well… nothing actually. Never mind

-Creaters of UPX, which was used to compress the EXE file. (see http://www.nexus.hu/upx)

-Did I forget anyone?

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–== Contact Information ==–

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You may contact the members of the Worminator Team at the following e-mail adresses:

David Layne – DML1001@aol.com (Programmer, map reviser, sort of project leader)

Keith Palmer – Superwormy@hotmail.com (Artist, map creator, group weirdo)

Kurtis Palmer – Klayman6@hotmail.com (Map creator, idea generator)

Jeff Nielson – Tiamat80@aol.com (Artist, map creator, guy who draws stuff too hard to program)

Garret Thomson – garret_t@sympatico.ca/www.sirsonic.com (Cool guy who let us use his MIDIs)

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–== The Future Of Worminator ==–

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The future of Worminator depends on you, the player. If we get a lot of positive feedback or serious bug reports, we will probabaly release patches or expansion packs for the game. Additionally, if the demand is there, I may clean up the source code and release that publically in some form. Currently, Worminator is completely functional and playable, but there are several areas that I would like to improve, but I will only do so if there is enough interest in the game. Also, if anyone makes any user maps that they think are really good, then zip them up and send them over to us (see contact info above for more info), and we may just post your maps on the Worminator website! Please, if you enjoy the game, at least just drop us a quick e-mail at: DML1001@aol.com. Thanks!

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–== Mini FAQ + Hints And Tips ==–

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This section will provide answers to a few common questions, as well as give out a few secrets and tips to help you get started in Worminator.

Q: What video mode should I use

A: We recommend that you simply have Worminator autodetect video modes for you. However, if this causes the game to crash or run slowly, first try regular VGA, and then the VESA mode. Remember, you pick the video mode when Worminator starts up.

Q: Can I adjust the sound volume?

A: Yes, but not from inside the game. Look in your Worminator folder, and locate the worm.cfg file. Open it up, and adjust the numbers for sound volume and music volume. The values can range from 0 (off) to 255 (maximum).

Q: Can I customize the controls?

A: Right now, no. However, if enough people download the game, we will probably release an update for Worminator. Currently, we expect it to include several new features and options in the engine, as well as some new levels and enemies.

Q: What language was Worminator programmed in?

A: Worminator was written from scratch in C++, and compiled with DJGPP (avalible for free on the net at www.delorie.com). Worminator also uses the Allegro game library, which is a free add on for DJGPP and is also avalible from the DJGPP website.

Q: Can I have the source code?

A: We plan to release the full Worminator source code soon. Check the site for updates and news regarding source code release.

Q: Do you have a website?

A: Yes, the Worminator website is currently located at http://www.classicgaming.com/worminator

Q: Is there a level editor avalible?

A: Yes, see the Worminator website downloads section for the add on level editor as well as lots of other cool stuff.

Q: I just made an add on map, now how do I run it?

A: Start a new game in Worminator, and then press the F12 key to bring up the load custom map dialogue box. Then, just select the level, press ok, and Worminator will load up the level.

Q: I just used the custom map feature to jump ahead in the campaign game, but the switches don’t work and I can’t beat the level!

A: Don’t use the custom map feature to jump ahead in the campaign game! If you do, the special scripts will not work and you will be unable to finish most of the maps. Also, don’t replace the existing campaign maps with different ones, as the scripts will make the levels work improperly. If you want to make your own campaigns with scripts, wait for the source code release.

Q: What different versions of Worminator are avalible?

A: There are two main versions of the game at this time. The first is the full version which is about 10 megs when zipped up, and contains all the movies. The second is the ’stripped’ version, which does not include any movies, but still has the rest of the content of the game. This is for people who don’t want to download the full 10 meg file. The stripped version is only about 5 megs.

Q: I’m stuck! Help!

A: Try harder. If you still are having a lot of trouble beating Worminator, then try these secret cheat codes to help you out. To use them, simply make sure debug mode is on, and then press the letter for the cheat you want.

D + M + L = Activates debug mode

K + R + P = Deactivates debug mode

G = Give 10 health (if debug mode is on)

W = Give all weapons and ammo (if debug mode is on)

Q: How bout some tips?

A: Ok, here:

-See if you can beat level 1 without using the red key. If so, you can get a super secret in a later level.

-Save your game often!

-Try using many different weapons to conserve ammo. It is usually a good idea to have a little ammo for each gun instead of no ammo for one and a ton for another.

-Rocket explosions will damage you if you are too close.

-Enemy’s rocket explosions can damage enemies, not just you.

-Don’t give up. Worminator is hard, but possible. In fact, I once beat the game without dying or even being hit!

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–== The End ==–

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Well, thats all for now, I hope you found this ReadMe helpful. Remember to contact us with any comments or problems, and let Freeware rule the cosmos!

Enjoy Worminator, the game took over 500 hours of work between everyone to finish, and I do think its pretty cool.

-David Layne (DML1001@aol.com)