Mania! Instruction Manual

Contents:

1.  What you'll need
2.  Objective
3.  Controls
4.  Scoring
5.  Helpful hints
6.  In case you care...


1.  What you'll need

a.  Windows Requirements

Mania! has been written and tested under Windows 98 and later.  DirectX 8 is required, as well as proper OpenGL drivers for your video card.  If the game runs extremely slow, you need to update these drivers.  Visit www.opengl.org and download GLSetup to do this.

b.  Macintosh Requirements

The game was written to run under Mac OS X.  I would recommend having OS X 10.1 or later.  The game may run under OS 9 with CarbonLib, but it hasn't been tested.

2.  Objective

Mania! is a simple arcade-style space shooter.  The objective is to destroy as many enemies as possible and score as many points as you can.  Your ship is equipped with a laser cannon that you must use to blow up the enemies.  The bad guys are firing back at you too, however, so you must evade their attacks as well.

In the early stages, the enemies move slowly, their laser blasts move slowly, and they remain near the top of the screen.  As the game progresses, the speed of both the enemies and their shots will increase, and they will slowly become more daring and inch closer and closer to you.

The enemies attack in waves.  You must destroy all the enemies in the wave before you can move on to the next one.  The first wave has ten enemies.  This number increases by two for each subsequent wave.

You begin the game with four ships.  Extra ships can be earned by having high accuracy ratings after each wave.  When all of your ships have been destroyed, the game is over.

3.  Controls

The game's controls are as follows:

Left Arrow:   Moves your ship to the left.
Right Arrow:  Moves your ship to the right.
Space Bar:    Fires your laser cannon.
Escape:       Pauses the game.

4.  Scoring

Each enemy ship you destroy is worth 5 points times the number of the current wave.

After each wave, you will be given an accuracy report, and awarded a bonus based on your hit percentage.  The bonuses are awarded as follows:

Percentage:	Bonus:
1-9		0
10-19		50
20-29		100
30-39		200
40-49		250
50-59		500
60-69		600
70-79		700  + Extra Ship
80-89		800  + Extra Ship
90-99		1000 + Extra Ship
100		2000 + Extra Ship

5.  Helpful hints

Be very thrifty with your shots in the early waves and try to earn an many extra ships as you can.  After wave 10, things get kind of crazy, you'll need all the lives you can get.

Your ship cannot be hit at the far right side of the screen.  Go there when you need to take a breather and form a strategy.  Just be careful, the enemies will sometimes corner you there.

6.  In case you care...

This game was written in C++, using the OpenGL graphics system.  It is our first C++ game, and our first OpenGL game.

At the time of this writing, my high score is 56035.

The game reaches its peak difficulty at wave 30.  I have never been beyond wave 21.

If you are interested in learning OpenGL, try visiting nehe.gamedev.net and checking out the tutorials there.  They are very helpful, especially when combined with the Official OpenGL Programming Guide(the "Red Book").