Introduction	Version History
Overview	Legal stuff
System Requirements	Background
Guestbook

Introduction

About ten years ago I bought an Amiga 500. The first game I played was Maniac Mansion. The second game was Gravity Force. And in fact this game with its addicting gameplay impressed me for years. I played it again and again and never lost interest. So this became the game idea I ever wanted to create by myself. I think I can do it now, although it'll be my first really completed game.

Overview

In Gravity Force you control a little ship. Your mission is to collect all cargo and return it safely to your home base. This would be quite easy if there were no enemies and no gravity pulling you to the ground. Well, for the enemies you have a cannon (in fact more than 6 different weapon systems), and for the gravity you have your skill (maybe). My goal was not only to create an adaption of a great classic but to include new features like different types of missions which can't be found in any "Thrust"-clone. Besides normal "cargo missions" you have to guard other ships or fly search-and-destroy missions. My main intention was to include something new in every level to lower the "every time the same thing"-feeling. If you can't complete a mission I'd be happy to send you the required passwords. Just ask. With version 1.0 the "Single Player Race" mode is finally implemented, but only with 3 maps. There is also Multiplayer in this version, but only as a "two player, one computer, one screen"-"Arena-Dogfight". Maybe there will be networking support in further releases.

System Requirements

Gravity Force was done on an Intel Pentium 200 with 64 MB RAM. The game needs about 8 MB of RAM and runs quite fine under pure DOS as well in a DOS box under Windows 95/98. With version 0.6 it should run even on a Pentium 133 or equal system (more or less). The DOS version does NOT run with Windows NT or Windows 2000. I think that the Windows version does not suffer this limitation, if DirectX 7 is installed. But I'll not take any responsibility for any "strange" behaviour this version may have.

Short Version History

v1.02 (24/09/00) translation to Slovak language by Juraj Michalek v1.01 (02/09/00) Bugfix in "Hit percentage" code (may produce errors when you don't shoot) Shift+ESC exits menu immediately v1.0 (26/08/00) First official version after 0.9b All points below beginning with v0.9c v0.9j (18/08/00) All files from the /map and /lng directories now in two data files Text messages now disppaear when you start from a base Menu: ESC now equivalent to "Back" button Bugfixes v0.9i (14/08/00)  Dogfight: Selections for weapon and extras amount Race: Start & End now identical Third race map Some bugfixes v0.9h (09/08/00) first pre1.0 version for betatesters slightly more intelligent rockets slightly more intelligent probes compiled a Windows version v0.9g (08/08/00) New single player level: "Pacifism" Fifth dogfight map ("Black Hole") v0.9f (03/08/00) complete keyboard configuration Joystick support Arena-Dogfight mode with four maps v0.9e (07/07/00) Two race maps All training levels implemented New panel on the top of the screen Hiding the panels with "p" some minor graphical changes v0.9d (...) First version of race mode with one map One new enemy You can (theoretically) now land everywhere Menu enhanced four training levels v0.9c (...) fixed a very serious bug (which caused crashing of the machine) fixed some bugs in Level 9 You can review your scorecodes now in the highscore table Autofire (very slow in basic configuration) v0.9b (02/21/00) (sent to the AGCII) Text: "Technical Overview" changes and bugfixes v0.9 (02/20/00) one new level ("Gravity Games") new graphic effect "debris pixels" new weapon: mines menu music some changes to general graphics some little changes in gameplay and level design v0.8 (02/02/00) four new levels ("Big Brother I-III" & "Deathmatch") password system gravitation 'walls' some little changes to graphics & gameplay v0.7 (01/15/00) complete sound update (but still no music yet) explosion craters! scoring system changed (once again); you can now download the hiscore.dat from this page to your system. one new level fixed some very ugly bugs... (that crashed the system) fixed some not so ugly bugs (fading and other) v0.6b (12/22/99): some bugfixes changes in the scoring system Highscore tables on this website documentation in German "Kamikaze" is now possible (with weaker enemies) v0.6 (12/15/99): completely new timing system (nearly doubles performance!) menu system! multi language support (English & German) brand new (nice) tileset (used in level 3) one new level level statistics hiscores! slight changes in graphics and gameplay bugfixes v0.5 (10/99): Two complete levels (1 & 2) new weapon (guided rockets) radar map fading effects, "bouncing pixels" teleporters and gravitation distortion units (both in test phase, only active in test level) v0.4: Status panel shield some minor additions to enemies bugfixes "laser doors" and a switch to unlock them on screen display some new objects v0.0 - v0.3: ??

Legal stuff

Gravity Force is Freeware without any restrictions. You can distribute the program freely, as long you do it for free. To avoid downloads of old versions it's always good to include a link to this web page which is always actualized. You can also send me an eMail with your wish to be informed about future releases. As a C programmer I'd just write   #include <std-disclaimer.h> but I'll say the same thing for all others :-) Of course I can't take any responsibility for all the things Gravity Force is doing with your computer. So I urge you to save your work before playing GF. The game may crash occasionally in the current version and might crash your whole Windows system (which are as manifold as the stars in the universe).

Background

Backgrounds? Who cares about backgrounds when the game is fun? As stated in the Credits the game was programmend in C with the free compiler DJGPP and the graphics library Allegro. Up to now (1.0) the source is 700k in size and consists of approximately 17000 lines. I've started programming in the middle of 1999. Since then I'm programming mostly on free weekends or in my vacation. The code is absolutely chaotic (since it's my first big project). Maybe I'll release it some day. There're not much things to say about myself: I'm currently 21 years old and I'm doing an education to a computer "specialist". I'm living in a little village called Egringen in the south west corner of Germany.

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