Subaqua by Digi Tallis [web]
subaqua v1.3a (C) 1996 Digi Tallis
game/intro code, graphics and ideas (C) 1996 Digi Tallis
in-game sound engine (C) Nic Alderton
falcon detection code provided by Anthony Jacques
falcon game testing by Rich Davey
the novella
-----------
The many twisting corridors of Cyrianna, one of Yikosaka's deep
space exploratory vessels, were dark, empty and silent. Without warning,
the perfect silence was broken, rudely, by a calm, gentle and almost
silent, female voice.
'Incoming message. Please respond.'
As soon as the voice stopped, the corridors fell silent again, as if the
sound had been swallowed up inside a great beasts stomach.
'Incoming message. Please respond.'
This time there was a slight sense of urgency in the voice, and just a
slight increase in volume, as if it were trying to convey the urgency of
the incoming message.
After a small pause, an electronic door hissed open with a sudden
escape of pressurised gas, breaking the calm, serene peace. Light flooded
in from the open doorway, etching the ghostly shadow of a growing figure
onto the corridor wall. The figure passed through the doorway into the
half-lit corridor and the door hissed closed, the light it offered being
sucked backwards with every passing inch, leaving the corridor to fall
into darkness again.
'Lights.'
Suddenly the corridor was awash with light, its brightness instantly
blinding the unknown figure.
'Ah shit! Half lights!'
The lights dimmed instantly and the figure lowered its hands from its
face. Now the lighting was at a suitable level the figure moved slowley
away from the doorway, its footsteps echoing slightly in the emptyness.
At the end of the corridor was another door, it hissed open when
the figure approached and hissed close after the figure had passed through
its open arch.
In Cyrianna's control room, its so called flight-deck, the self
imposed darkness was being repeatedly broken by the consistent flashing
and blinking of many warning lights. A door hissed open and a figure
appeared in the doorway.
'Ok, Cyrianna, put the lights on please.'
The soft, calm, female voice responded, whilst the lights in the
flight-deck flickered into life.
'Incoming message. From Yikosaka planetory research division.'
The figure found what looked like a chair, brushed the collection of
styrofoam cups onto the floor and sat down slowely.
'Ok, put it on-screen.'
The screen infront of the figure flickered into life, briefly displayed
Yikosaka's logo, flickered again, and changed to display a puzzled face of
another human being, many miles away. It was this figure who spoke first.
'Hello?'
'Hiya, what can we do you for?'
'The last batch of data you sent to us is very interesting.'
'Oh yeah, you mean you've found something?'
'You could say that..'
'Sounds good, so what is it?'
'The scan you did on LV-217.'
'I don't remember that one..'
'Small planet, didn't look very interesting.'
'They all look like that from in here..'
'Yeah, I suppose they do. Anyway, we've told Cyrianna to turn around.'
'What the hell for?'
'You are off back to LV-217.'
'Why? Whats so special about it?'
'Well, the scans you took show that its, er, shall we say, rich in stuff.'
'What kind of stuff?'
'Minerals.'
'Oh yeah. What type of minerals?'
'Can't say, but there is some other interesting stuff..'
'Like what?'
'Its a very volatile planet, and everytime it has a quake, it kicks out
more minerals. It could be classed as a mineral factory.'
'Thats pretty neat, anything else?'
'Er, yeah.'
'And?'
'Its totally covered by water.'
'Jesus. The real stuff? Real water? And not this recycled crap?'
'Thats the one. Real water..'
'Christ.'
'Now you know why we've told Cyrianna to turn around.'
'Yeah.. So what do I do when I get there?'
'Wait. We've sent out a troop ship or two. They should arrive a few days
after you do.'
'Troop ship? Isn't that going over the top?'
'Yikosaka wants to protect its discovery.'
'No kidding..'
'We'll be in touch. Sorry to get you out of hyper-sleep.'
'Ah, thats ok. It was worth it. Nice to know I've done something good up
here for a change..'
'Speak to you soon..'
'Yeah..'
The screen flickered back to the Yikosaka logo, the figure lent back in
its chair and stretched.
'Cyrianna honey, you heard the man, turn yourself around.'
'We are already on course for LV-217.'
'Oh.'
'I followed the instructions as soon as I received them.'
'Yeah, of course..'
'Do you wish to talk about anything?'
'Nope. I think I'll go back to hyper-sleep.'
'Have sweet dreams.'
'I will..'
Six months passed, and Cyrianna was back on its original mission,
and LV-217 had become very important to Yikosaka Inc. So important that a
permanent orbiting space station, known as OffWorld to its inhabitants,
had been built, seemingly floating above the water covered planet LV-217,
known affectionalty as Aqua. OffWorld wasn't big as far as Yikosaka space
stations went, but it did seem slightly strange to earth inhabitants that
LV-217 had a permanent space station of OffWorld's size.
Groups of earth inhabitants banded together trying to find out the truth
as to why the small, possibly barren planet LV-217 had Yikosaka tying
itself in knots. Eventually a rumour spread about Aqua's water coverage
and its mineral content and each individual group that had previously
formed decided to investigate further. Each group bought their own deep
space capable vessles, with backing from hidden sources, namely Yikosaka's
main competitors, and equipped themselves with small highly manouverable
underwater craft.
Aqua's 'goldrush' had started.
OffWorld history
----------------
After the discovery of the water covered 'mineral factory',
Yikosaka built an orbiting space station above the planet LV-217.
The sole purpose of OffWorld, as it is known, is to provide a go-between
between the underwater mines and the cargo vessels. The mines provide the
raw materials, and OffWorld ships it back to earth, or other factory
planets, by use of its cargo vessel network.
Some other history
------------------
In 3067, a new method of propelling craft underwater had been
discovered, it didn't use any existing fuels, was completely
environmentally friendly, and extremely powerful. It could propel a small
craft through water very quickly, even at great depth, and it made any
craft highly manouverable. Yikosaka bought the new method simply because
it had the money, and whatever Yikosaka doesn't own initially, it will do.
Unfortunately for Yikosaka, plans for the method had been leaked to
certain people, and thankfully for earth inhabitants, similar craft to
Yikosaka's had been built and sold on the black market.
Where YOU come into it
----------------------
After Aqua's 'goldrush' had started, it escalated simply via
rumour. People were hearing tales of other people becoming rich by simply
going to Aqua and grabbing a few minerals from underneath Yikosaka's
corporate nose. These people are known within Yikosaka as FreeMiners. You
have been hired, by Yikosaka, to protect its discovery from FreeMiners by
whatever means neccessary.
Your mission (Jim, should you accept it)
----------------------------------------
Your mission is quite simple. Kill anything that moves. You will
be credited with money for every kill made. If you shoot anything = $10,
Energy Burst anything = $7, Ram anything = $5.
You do have an bank account with Yikosaka, and when you dock at OffWorld,
all the money collected during your 'launch' will be added onto your
account instantly. OffWorld used to have a banking service, but this
proved more trouble than it was worth, so it was removed and the automatic
system was installed instead.
Your ship
---------
When you start you have the most basic ship possible. And Yikosaka
have given you a small amount of money to upgrade your ship at Scooter's
Ship Upgrades. Once you have upgraded, there is no method to downgrade.
Upgrades are for life. Yikosaka doesn't like the idea of somebody buying
its products and then selling them for an inferior version.
A small hint : the best of everything does not usually make the best ship.
Scooter's ship upgrades
-----------------------
Scooter is a friendly sort of fellow, even more so when you pay
him money for his services. Scooter's business is upgrading your ship, he
takes great pride in doing the job well, but of course, his services cost.
Depending on what you want doing, then the prices range from small to
impractically large, his excuse usually being something along the lines of
he's an old man, and crawling underneath your ship for 12 hours fitting a
new torpedo mechanism doesn't do much good for his back. The fact that
Scooter is a spritely 43 years of age and is as fit as they come has got
nothing to do with it.
Torpedos
--------
They aren't actually underwater missles with small warheads, oh
no, that archiac system went out centuries ago. Instead they are actually
small electronic pulses, and as we know water conducts electricity very
well, but because they make a drain on your power unit then you can only
fire a certain amount of torpedos at any one given time. Don't panic, they
don't last forever, after a while their power dissipates and you can
actually fire another one. Scooter offers a service where you can fire
more and longer lasting torpedos from your ship, it isn't cheap, but
that's Scooter for you..
Energy bursts
-------------
This a relatively new invention for Yikosaka. Basically it
involves sending out a surge of power from your power unit to the
surrounding water. Because it drains your power unit a great deal you can
only use the burst facility a certain number of times, the limit of 10 has
been approached after many subs tried to go higher and found themselves
exploding as their power unit went 'a little kaka'. As life underwater is
becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous then Yikosaka, in a move
highly shocking, thought any measure that stopped their employees from
exploding seemed a good idea. Again Scooter offers a service where you can
buy more bursts and suprisingly for Scooter it's reasonably cheap..
Shields
-------
Not in the biblical sense of the word. Your ships hull is capable
of withstanding a certain amount of punishment before it breaks up, and as
a consequence of this, before you die after being crushed under the great
pressure of 100 000's of tons of water. Of course Scooter can fix the
damage, and even upgrade your ships hull tolerance level. Your shield's
decrease if you run into the ground, you ram anything, or something shoots
you with a small electronic pulse. Your own torpedo's cannot damage your
hull, this has been a safeguard added into your sub after many Yikosaka
employees were reported to have shot themselves to death.
OffWorld menu system
--------------------
Your interface to the services that OffWorld provides is via a
very simple point and click window and mouse system. You point at
something and click your mouse. Easy. The bubbles waving up the side of
the menu system are not real, but are deemed by Yikosaka to be relaxing.
Yikosaka wants its pilots and staff to be relaxed as they assume it
increases productivity. Also the bubbles serve to reinforce the idea that
you will be spending most of your time under water.
Launching from OffWorld
-----------------------
Once you select to launch, there's no backing out or escaping.
The process is entirely automated and cannot be stopped. It's something
Yikosaka built into all its space stations. If you selected launch then
you must want to launch and not stop halfway through..
Your ship will be provided with data from OffWorld's many services just
before you finally leave the launch tube. Some of the information is the
amount of FreeMiners currently subaqua, a scan of the 'seascape' (If Aqua
is in the process of a seaquake, this is when you will find out about
it.), the state of various parts of your ship etc..
Some information about FreeMiners
---------------------------------
FreeMiners aren't the most intelligent people around. Years of
terrible conditions on various 'home-worlds' (such as Earth etc..) have
managed to lower the IQ of the average human being. However, they have
enough intelligence for a few basic 'sneaky' underwater manouveres.
Also every single FreeMiner ship is the same shape, and looks the
same from every angle, after all, if you don't know which part of the ship
is front, then you can't really tell which way the ship is travelling so
you have a small element of suprise.
A FreeMiner's ship can be very difficult to control, and loss of
control is a common occurance. Because of the low IQ of your average
FreeMiner, this loss of control will result in the FreeMiner crashing in
the 'seascape' and exploding. This happens quite often, so sometimes the
FreeMiners do your job for you.
Controls and important keys
---------------------------
Your ship is controlled via the mouse. Your ship rotates in steps
of 45 degrees. Depending on how much you move the mouse, your ship will
rotate through a differing number of degree's. For example, if the ship
control sensitivity is 2, then every two pixels to the left you move your
mouse, your ship will rotate anti-clockwise by 45 degrees.
ie, 4 pixels = 90 degrees.
Move your mouse up, and your ship moves up.
Move the mouse down and, suprise suprise, your ship moves down.
There is a seascape to avoid, and you can run into the 'ground', this will
take its toll on your shields as you would expect..
Left mouse = Fire torpedo.
Right mouse = Thrust. You have inertia. It doesn't show up on the
lower levels, but it can be important to consider later on in the game as
you upgrade your ship.
Hitting the space bar sets of an energy burst.
Pressing 'P' pauses the game, pressing space whilst paused will
return to the game.
If any other key does anything, then please tell me, because it
isn't meant to. It'd be nice to figure out what my code actually does. =]
Some game playing tips
----------------------
1) Build lots of shield strength, and just run into everything.
2) Stock up on energy bursts and go crazy with the space bar.
3) Pilot your craft into a group of FreeMiners, flick the mouse in a
random direction and keep the right mouse button down.4
) Buy LONG torpedos and lots of em, then fire them in random directions.
the history behind the game
---------------------------
This game was originally started in 1994. But due to computer
failure (knackered ST for a year, I was lazy and didn't get it fixed),
stress at work (and lots of it too), university exams etc. Work has been a
little, er, haphazard (To say the least..)
Back in 1994, when the world was healthier, the idea behind
subaqua seemed flawless, but over time, it has aged and it shows.
Apologies to all if it doesn't live upto expectations..
This game was entered into the STFormat win a jag compo, and it
came second to a platformer. Bitter? Nah.. =]
How to support this game
------------------------
If you like this game enough, and wish to show your appreciation
then you can do one of the following :
1) Send a sum of 5 pounds sterling to the address at the bottom
of the document. (If paying by cheque then please make payable
to 'Mr. J.M.Lewis.', sorry no credit card stuff..)
I'm afraid you won't receive a freebie game, or a poster
or anything like that, but you will probably get a letter
back as I can't see that many people registering..
(Prove me wrong huh?)
2) Send a Jaguar/PlayStation development kit. (Hoho!)
I still say the Jag can kick butt, given the chance..
And to be honest, I want to see what it can REALLY do..
(Sega Rally? If you work hard.. )
If you do any of the above, or even if you can't afford the fiver,
then PLEASE include/send a letter and if possible a postcard of where you
live, explaining whats good about the game, whats bad, and whats annoying
as hell.. It helps us out a little..
By doing any of the above, you will be showing us that the game
is hitting the right market. Its sort of a market research you see, how
can we please the public if we don't know what the public want?
You would also be showing us that there is still life in the ST
market as its becoming increasingly tempting to shift machine to the PC.
Ok the architecture sucks and you need six pentiums and a big fan to be
able to do anything good on there, but there's lots of 'em, and the owners
seem willing to fork out god knows how much for that chunk of dross they
call Windows.. (Like the PC? Oh, I just -=LOVE=- the PC...)
Postal address
--------------
Digi Tallis
c/o Jon Lewis
30 Wembley Park Ave
Ings Road
Kingston Upon Hull
East Yorkshire
England
HU8 OND
Internet
--------
email : orm@digitallis.co.uk
web : www.digitallis.co.uk
VERY IMPORTANT STUFF! DON'T IGNORE!
-----------------------------------
This game works on a Falcon (providing the checks work ok, see
later on those..) Bloody hell. Now, because of the odd code in the game,
it might be wise to drop your Falcon down to 8Mhz. It will run at 16Mhz,
but it might go a little too quick..Ok, so it works on a Falcon, so what
special stuff will you Falcon owners get? Nothing I'm afraid. I've only got
your bog standard 1040 STm (yes, you read right, thats 'm'), and the fact
that the game code works on a Falcon at all, is, to be frank, bloody amazing..
Run this game from floppy, and not hard-drive. The reason being
that I'm using some very OLD disk access/reading/saving code, and god
knows what they do. They work fine on drive A:, but I really don't know
what it'll do on anything else. A tale: I've used the same code in a menu
I once did for somebody, and suffice to say, it wrote some data over the
poor guys hard drive controller, hence trashing it. The drive was ok (just
a reboot), but it does go to show you should be careful!
If you do try it on a hard-drive, then I'm -=NOT=- responsible if
it trashes your hard-drive contents. I -=HAVE=- warned you..
If the disk you attempt to save to is write protected, then
subaqua will, quite frankly, 'throw a wobbler' and crash.
Make sure any disk you wish to save to is WRITE-ENABLED!
Yikosaka is a fictional corporation. Hopefully it doesn't exist.
If it means anything in any language (be it rude or not) then its a total
fluke as the name was created at random. If it does turn out to offend,
(say for example, it means Testicle in one language), then mail me and
I'll change it in future releases/bug fixes.
This game uses a sound engine written by Nic Alderton (Count Zero)
years before the Falcon existed, and I have it on good authority that this
sound engine just reboots/crashes the Falcon. Now, there is some code in
the game that tries to detect a Falcon, but if for some reason it fails,
then the sound engine will try to initialise, and hence crash the Falcon.
Don't panic, just make a note of what you've got running and try again.
If it keeps doing it, then mail me, and I'll see if I can figure out whats
going on or release a bug fixed version..
Nic Alderton is -=NOT=- a member of the Digi Tallis development
team, and his sound engine has been used simply because it was there, and
I'm as musical as a fart in a tin can. Hopefully he doesn't mind its use
in this game, but if he does object (in writing or whatever) then the
sound engine will be changed.
Bugs!
-----
Not the amazing (hoho) programme on BBC1, or the
crawly-with-loads-of-legs kind, but the nasty computer kind.
At the time of writing, there is one known bug. It involves an STe, and it
hasn't been eradicated due to the fact that I haven't got a clue as to
whats causing it. Its beyond me, and I've spent many hours debugging the
damned thing..
It is known as 'the case of the dissapearing ship' bug, basically
what happens is this : You'll be pottering along within the main game,
probably going in for the kill that'll net you an extra couple of bucks
and make the next ship level a possibility and all of a sudden, your ship
graphic will dissapear. As if it's hit the Aqua version of the Bermuda
Triangle. As I said earlier, this only seems to happen on an STe, and so
far we haven't managed to find a sequence of events that triggers it off.
If you can solve this mystery, then please let me know, and I'll
release a new version with it fixed (if its fixable!), and you will get
eternal thanks etc!
For a bigger list of bugs, visit 'DT/Web' at the web address
above, and not only will you find a big list of the damned little
blighters, but possibly an updated version of the game to download..
Packing/hacking etc..
---------------------
This game has been packed with Pack-Ice 2.4. If it turns out that
the use of Ice crashes the Falcon, then simply depack the files
subaqua.prg and subaqua.gam
and if desired, repack them with something that works.. Or, leave them in
their unpacked state. (file sizes 280k for .prg and 340k for .gam (sizes
are approximate!))
If you wish to hack a routine out of either the game or the intro,
then it is possible, as, if my knowledge serves me well, the symbol table
will probably be included into the binary, so you too can look at some
pretty strange code.
If you do hack a routine and use it for some other purpose, then PLEASE
credit the author (ie, Me, Orm of D.T.) as its only manners..
I'll warn you know, the polygon drawer isn't the fastest on the planet (it
uses a pretty novel method..), the line drawer works (just) and the
variable size font text print isn't amazingly quick, but it does the job.
Digi Tallis are
---------------
Ormolu, Jon Lewis, Coder, Graphics, Crazy Ideas.
Maguay, Si Hall, Coder, Graphics, Sound, Weird Ideas.
So why doesn't this game use Mag's sound routines? Simple. During the
development of this game, Mag has been working for a company in Malaysia,
and didn't have his ST at hand..
Greets and magubbins in no order
--------------------------------
Hello to everyone that knows, or has known at some point, a member
of the Digi Tallis development team. We send waves to you all.
And we don't really want to make you blush by putting each and everyone of
your names in a large greetings list..
You know who you are, and you know we love you. =]
The next game?
--------------
At the time of writing, I'm 'messing around' with a fully texture
mapped, depth shaded doom/wolfenstien engine that works on your bog
standard 8Mhz 1040 STfm. Its coming along nicely and isn't too slow. =]
For latest information about it, take a visit to 'DT/Web' at the web
address provided earlier on.
Have fun..
()rm..
April 24th 1996
(nearly two years since the game was started.. yikes..)[ back to the prod ]