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Download The Ship Game 447kb
Copyright© 1998 Kenneth Manta

License: FREEWARE
Warrenty: NONE
WARNING: This game is NOT user friendly. You will not be able to play without these instructions!

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INTRODUCTION


The Ship Game is a highly addicting strategy and real time battle game. Two players construct space ships out of various components known as widgets and fly the ships to battle each other. Ship construction can become very complex. If a player desires missiles, the player must construct them out of the various components including power sources, control centers, wheels, engines, thrusters, explosives, sensors, and many more. It is well known for its realistic physics. Each ship component has varying mass, bounce, friction, heat tolerance, durability, and other properties specific to the component. As always with my later games, each pixel is rendered using my own custom assembly graphics library. It is designed for two players to play on the same computer however it is still lots of fun to construct ships on your own.

INSTALLATION


The shipgame is a stand alone executable file. There is no install program for it. This means that it will run on computers which dont normally allow you to install programs on such as school/college/work computers. To install, simply extract the entire zip file into a folder and run 'shipstrategy.exe'. On some computers the game starts up with a black screen. Hit the arrow keys until the editor appears.

GAME BASICS

Essential Widgets
Command Module - This is you. If this is destroyed you lose the battle. Command Modules can also be used as power sources.
Power Source - These allow you to control your ship. You may assign a keyboard key to a power source. When the key is hit, the power source will power all of the widgets next to it.
Jet - When powered, these move your ship. Be sure to have enough jets to overcome gravity. The heavier your ship, the more thrusters you will need to move it.
Gun - When powered, these fire a bullet. If that bullet hits any ship(including yourself) it will destroy the widget it hit.

See Widget List for an extensive list of available widgets.

Winning a battle
By default battles last 2 minutes. After time is up the winner is termined by the following sequence.


NAVIGATING AROUND THE SHIP EDITOR

Mouse Commands
Left Mouse Button - Select/Place Widget
Right Mouse Button - Delete Widget
Keyboard Commands
Arrow Keys- Move cursor
'a'- The next key pressed after hitting 'a' gets assigned to the current power source
'o'- Display the options screen
'k'- Erase the current ship
'c'- Erase all key assignments
'm'- Edit the map
SPACE- Delete the selected widget
ENTER- Play the game with the current set of ships
TAB- Toggle between editing Player 1's ships and Player 2's ships. When the game starts, both ships appear.
ESC- Exit the game. The game does not ask if you are sure so be sure to save your ship!


CONSTRUCTING YOUR FIRST SHIP

Commander Placement
Make sure you have a command module! Each ship must have one and only one commander. Commanders allow you to control your power sources. If you forget to place a commander on your ship, you will not be able to control it.

Place Power Sources Carfully
Each power source should have only one type of widget next to it. When power sources turn on they power every widget in contact with them. If a power source is next to a Jet that is facing left and another one facing right, when you activate it, both Jets will turn on and you will not go anywhere.
For your first time playing I suggest you copy the sample ship or load one of the premade ships. The sample ship is saved as basic.shp and basic2.shp. basic.shp used the numberpad keys to navigate while basic2.shp uses the arrow keys.

Assigning Keys to Power Sources
To assign keys to power sources, use the arrow keys to move the cursor(not the mouse cursor) over to the power source you want to modify. Press 'a'(assign) followed by the key you want to use to activate the power source. Power sources which have been assigned keys have a checkmark on top of them. If you have assigned more than one key, two checkmarks appear. You can assign multiple keys to the same power source and multiple power sources to the same key.
To remove keys assigned to just one power source, delete the power source and recreate it.
To remove all of the assigned keys for the entire ship, press 'c'.
This sample ship has the following keys assigned to the power sources labeled in the diagram.
1: '6' or Right: Most people assign this incorrectly the first time they play. The Jets on the left side of the ship push you to the right so you should assign the right arrow key to it.
2: '2' or Down
3: '4' or Left
4: '5' or Space - This will fire the guns on both sides of your ship.
5: '8' or Up

If you are battling another player, usually one player will use the numberpad arrow keys(with Num Lock on) and the other player will use the arrow keys and space bar to fire.
Once playing, hitting the assigned keys will power all four widgets surrounding the power source for a short time. Do not hold assigned keys, tap them. This is due to the physical design of keyboards.


Choose Your Opponent
When you are ready to test your ship, if you want to just fly around, hit enter.
You can also hit tab to switch to the second player. The smiley face will turn into a sad face. Press 'l' to load a sample ship to destroy and choose 'debre.shp'.
You may also want to try surviving against 'k2BetterKiller.shp' aka. 'Giant Bomb on wheels'.
If you are playing against another player you can have them create a ship or load a premade ship and have them reassign the keys to their preference.



THE MAP EDITOR

The map editor is not very useful and almost never used. Complex map tiles were planned but never developed.
Keyboard Commands

Arrow Keys - Move cursor
'5' - Toggle map tile On/Off
'l' - Load a map
's' - Save a map
ESC - Go back to ship selection screen


Extra Info:
If one player has died you may press ESC instead of waiting for the timer.
If you want to recenter your ship in the editor grid, you can move the cursor with the arrow keys off the side of the grid.
You may assign power sources to the mouse buttons.




Copyright ©2003 by Kenneth Manta