_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ /\ \ /\_\ / /\ /\ \ /\_\ /\ \ / /\ /_/\ /\ \ \ \ \ / / / _ / / \ / \ \ / / / _ / \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \_\ /\ \_\ / / / /\_\ / / /\ \ / /\ \ \\ \ \__ /\_\ / /\ \_\ / / /\ \ \ \ \__/ / / / /\/_/ / / /__/ / / / / /\ \ \ / / /\ \_\\ \___\ / / // / /\/_/ / / /\ \ \ \ \__ \/_/ / / / / /\_____/ / / / / \ \ \ / / /_/ / / \__ / / / // / / ______ / / / \ \ \ \/_/\__/\ / / / / /\_______/ / / /___/ /\ \ / / /__\/ / / / / / / // / / /\_____\ / / /___/ /\ \ _/\/__\ \ / / / / / /\ \ \ / / /_____/ /\ \ / / /_____/ / / / / / // / / \/____ // / /_____/ /\ \ / _/_/\ \ \ ___/ / /__ / / / \ \ \ / /_________/\ \ \ / / /\ \ \ / / /___/ / // / /_____/ / // /_________/\ \ \ / / / \ \ \ /\__\/_/___\/ / / \ \ \ / / /_ __\ \_\/ / / \ \ \ / / /____\/ // / /______\/ // / /_ __\ \_\ / / / /_/ / \/_________/\/_/ \_\_\\_\___\ /____/_/\/_/ \_\/ \/_________/ \/___________/ \_\___\ /____/_/ \/_/ \_\/ ___________________________________________________ ! ! ! PUT IN FULLSCREEN AND ENABLE LINE WRAPPING PLEASE ! ! ! ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ INDEX -- I What is IkarugaX ? -- II Installation --III Play the game ---- 1 Loading a save ---- 2 Progressing through IkarugaX ---- 3 In-game explanations -- IV Credits -- V Appendix I What is IkarugaX ? ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ IkarugaX is a danmaku, a Japanese-style shoot-them-up, also called "bullet hell" or "bullet curtain". You'll quickly understand this denomination while playing the game. There is no real story actually. Not that I was too lazy to create one but because the game is already as big as possible, and it wouldn't have been playable else. In this game, you control a ship and shoot at everything that is destroyable while avoiding the rest. But this is easier said than done. II Installation ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ You will need several things to play IkarugaX : - The main program, IKARUGAX.8xp (wooohooo what a surprise) - The level pack, IKRGLVLS.8xv, that YOU MUST PUT IN RAM, NOT IN ARCHIVE. If this is in archive when you launch the game, it will just exit. - The installation program, IKSETUP.8xp. Be sure to run it once before playing. You can launch it both from RAM or archive. If you don't run it, the game will just return at execution. - Any MirageOS-compatible shell, that is : ABSOLUTELY NOT ION NOR NOSHELL, ALTHOUGH THE GAME WILL PRETEND BE COMPATIBLE, MirageOS, Doors CS 7 (aka DCS7), CrunchyOS, anything you want. - At least 2112 bytes of free RAM. Come on, that's not much to ask. III Play the game ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ To play the game, all you have to do is run Asm(prgmIKSETUP) from the homescreen if you hadn't did it once already, make sure you have 2112 free bytes of RAM, enter your favorite shell and run IKARUGAX. That's as simple as that. When you see the title screen, press any key to get to the main menu. There, you have four options : - Continue : press this to continue the game from where you previously died. If you don't have a save, you will start from zero. - New game : needless to explain, but this actually erases any current save. - Credits : take a look at everyone who helped with this game. You should thank them all mentally, if not for real. Press any key to return to the title screen. - Quit : does this really need an explanation ? III-1 Loading a save ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ IkarugaX is a hard game. I mean, it's a really hard game. Okay let's be clear : this game is nearly impossible to beat. So I was king enough with you to include checkpoints. Here's how it works : each time you finish a level, your progression is saved, so that when you die or quit to play again later, you will continue the game from the start of this level. Beware that creating a new game will erase the current save, and that you can only have one save at once. It's not that important though, since there is no score. III-2 Progressing through IkarugaX ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ The whole game follows the same structure : 4 or 5 waves, then a boss, then you go to the next level with your weapon upgraded. I thought that the game was not hard enough, so I decided to make sure that nothing in the game could help you. By that, understand : no bonuses, no weapon upgrades while in a level, and no extra lives. III-3 In-game explanations ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ When you choose an option from the main menu, you finally enter the actual game. If you chose "New game", a small tutorial will start that will explain most of the commands, but not all of them (suspens, you know). But since you are clever enough to read this readme that far (unless you tried the game first and since you didn't understand shit, decided to read that damn readme.txt hoping that it would be of some help), I'll make you a favor and explain what keys you need to press. Arrow keys : move your ship through the screen. Of course, you can't go out of it. [2nd] : shoot. Your weapon will get more powerful as you progress through the game. [mode] : change the polarity of your ship. Bullets of your color will not hurt you, but fill your missiles bar instead (more on that below). [del]/[suppr] : shoot missiles (more on these later). [alpha] : pause the game. There, you can see your remaining lives and available missiles (blah blah blah pfrhjkfnld). [x,t,Θ,n] : resume the game. Like, exit from the pause screen. [+] and [-] : go to the next/previous level. JUST KIDDING those keys do nothing. You thought you would be able to skip levels ? You fool. Now that you know what keys are to press, there are some more things you need to know. In this game, your ship is a wonderful ship that has two polarities, light and darkness (respectively white and black on-screen). You can switch between polarities with the [mode] key. What is the use of that ? one could wonder. That's easy : if you are in light polarity, only darkness bullets can hurt you, and if you are in darkness polarity, only light bullets can hurt you. "But", you may ask, "if bullets of same polarity than me don't hurt me, what do they do ?", and this is a good question. When you press [alpha], you can see your remaining lives and under them your MISSILE BAR. When a bullet of your polarity hits you, you absorb it, and thus little by little fill your missile bar. When you absorb 8 bullets of any polarity, you generate a missile and one circle of your missile bar turns black. You can have up to 8 missiles at once. Those missiles are high-tech weapons that, when fired with [del] ([suppr] on French calcs), go straight to the nearest enemy to cause heavy damages. Of course, you fire all of your missiles at once when you press the button, and thus lose them all. Seriously, what did you expect ? If you try to absorb a bullet of opposite polarity, you will get hit. But don't worry, the on-board energetic shield will prevent you from exploding, at least until you run out of lives. If you still have some lives to waste, you will see your shield protecting you while you're blinking for a short amount of time. For this time, you're unhittable, so quick, get out of sight. Last thing, every bullet that goes off-screen is destroyed, including your precious missiles. So make sure that they won't get out of the screen when you shoot them. IV Credits ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ See them by selecting "Credits" in the main menu :-° V Appendix ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ Mail any comment (positive or negative, but no troll please), bug report, anything that you want to tell me or anyone that made the game at : mattias [at] refeyton [dot] fr ©RMV Pixel Engineers Matrefeytontias Rentintin Isendraël http://mattias.refeyton.fr/rmvPixEn/