ABSOLUTE ZERO
README.TXT 3/14/95
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Welcome to the Absolute Zero Demo CD-ROM! You are about to experience
an alpha version of the game, but we think you'll find it entertaining. In it, you'll
move through the Europan Mining Consortium's Virtual Tunnel interface, 
fly around the colony on Europa, see mining operations, the floating city
arcologies, and even experience battle with the aliens.

Enjoy!

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Final Game System Requirements:
486-33 MHz (66 MHz or better required for SVGA)
8 MB RAM
DOS 5.0 or better
CD-ROM Drive
Supports S3, ATI and Weitek Accelerator chips
Most major Sound Cards supported


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Table Of Contents:
Section I: Installation
Section II: Controls
Section III: Playing The Game
Section IV: Commonly Asked Questions
Section V: Ordering Info 
Section VI: Credits


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SECTION I:INSTALLATION

1) Installation Instructions

To install the necessary files to your Hard Disk, insert the CD into your 
CD-ROM drive and type INSTALL from the AZ directory. 

You MUST be in DOS to run the installer, make sure you are completely out 
of Windows by selecting End your Windows Session. You need to decide
whether to install either the FULL version or the PARTIAL version of the
demo. The FULL version installs about 40MB of files on your hard drive. It's
advantage is twofold: a) the demo runs faster from hard drive; and b) if
your machine has 8MB RAM, it allows you to create a simple boot disk
(see below) to run the demo.  The other option is PARTIAL install. This only
installs the game files -- the interface portion of the game (about 25MB) is
left on CD. This creates a smaller footprint on your hard drive, but you
will notice a performance difference. If your run from a boot disk, it also
requires you to set up CD drivers in stripped down versions of
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS.

2) Setup

Once you have finished installation, type SETUP. This walks you through
the Sound Card, Video Mode, and Controller Selection screens and creates
a file used by the demo when running. NOTE: The current demo uses 
heavy texturing on many objects. Therefore, SVGA settings are suggested
for Pentiums only. When the final product comes out, textures
will be optional and may be toggled off for speed enhancements.
Speed does vary from machine set-up to machine set-up, so you can try
it on 486s if you want to -- at least you'll be able to see what the graphics
will look like.

If your machine has 8MB RAM, we suggest you create a BOOT DISK to
prevent memory conflicts.
If you did a FULL install, then you only need to copy your COMMAND.COM
file onto a blank, formatted diskette and use it to boot your computer from.
If you only did a PARTIAL install, then you'll need to add an AUTOEXEC.BAT
and CONFIG.SYS file to your boot disk (in addition to the COMMAND.COM
file), that has your CD drive information in it. Since that varies from computer
to computer, we leave it up to you to configure those files.

3) Running the Demo

Once your boot disk is completed, then move to the appropriate directory
(default is c:\AZ), and type AZDEMO to begin playing.

If you have not run SETUP you will be asked to do so before running
the game the first time.


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SECTION II:CONTROLS
Joystick controls: The stick will move the entire turret as you move it. 
Control is like in an airplane, where pulling back on the stick angles the 
turret up, and pushing forward angles it down.Button 1 (the trigger) will 
fire the selected weapon while Button 2 will cycle through your available 
weapons.

Keyboard
Turret Movement- 
Pitch Up                                      Down Arrow
Pitch Down                                    Up Arrow
Rotate Left                                   Left Arrow
Rotate Right                                  Right Arrow

Weapon Systems-
Select Next Weapon                            Backspace
Fire Weapon                                   Spacebar


Mouse 
Moving the mouse will swing the turret up, down, or sideways, matching 
the movement of the mouse. Clicking Left mouse button will fire your 
weapon.


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SECTION III:PLAYING THE GAME
Background:
Europa City, the largest arcology on Jupiter's moon Europa, was destroyed 
recently by aliens who have been living under the moon's icy surface. The 
resulting explosion of the city leveled 30 square kilometers of the moon's 
surface. Areas on the outskirts of the explosion were pounded by the 
massive shockwave. 

Playing the game:
You play a newly arriving SysDef Commander coming to replace the resident 
commander, Toshiro Watanabe. When you were arriving in orbit, the aliens 
erupted from the moon's interior, thus putting you on uncertain footing and 
in a hostile situation. You meet with a resident maglock pilot who plans to 
take you on an inspection tour of Europa. You will be in a controllable 
turret on a Maglock Cargo Carrier. The Maglock has been refitted with 
weapons to better defend itself in case of alien attack. Control with a 
joystick is simple, push the stick left to rotate the weapons platform left, 
and push right to rotate it right. The tricky part is that up and down on 
the stick act like an aircraft, where pulling down on the stick will angle 
the turret up, and pushing forward will angle the turret down. Your viewing 
angle up and down is restricted to about 60 degrees from horizontal. You 
will be looking out of the helmet of a Vac-Suit, with your view of the world 
out the faceplate. Two monitors below the faceplate are used for displaying 
various system status screens and incoming information, but are not 
implemented in the demo.  

You have the ability to switch between three weapons while in the turret, 
the Laserlance, Fusion Cannon and the Gatling Blaster. You can do this by 
using the "Backspace" key. The Blaster and Cannon generate heat and require a 
cool-down period when it reaches it's tolerance level of 100%. The two 
numbers next to the weapon show the ammo count and heat level. The ammo 
count is not used in the demo, so you only have to worry about heat. 

Targets will appear on your Top-Down radar (the circular radar on the right). 
The red blips near the top of the radar are in front of you, while those near 
the bottom are behind you. Blue blips are "friendlies", so you won't want to 
shoot at them. Get a target in front of you, and use the Bore Sight to 
locate them. The nearer to the center of the radar, the closer the target is 
to you. Line the sight up on the target and fire. The Bore Sight Radar is 
the Box to the left, and shows targets that are directly ahead of you. To 
center these targets onto the crosshairs, bring the diamonds to the center 
of the box. The selected target should be in the center of your screen. 
The Laserlance needs very little lead time, so try to advance the sight just 
in front of the target. The Gatling Blaster has slower projectiles, so you 
will need to lead moving targets by an inch or two, depending on the alien's 
distance and speed. The Gatling Blaster also fires in a spiral pattern 
because of it's barrel configuration, so you may have to adjust for that. 
The Fusion Cannon fires balls of super-heated Plasma, which are slow but do 
devastating damage. You will need to lead these on moving targets as well. 

Listen to your pilot as he will point out areas of interest. You'll start 
out over friendly territory, and they don't want you firing at the valuable 
equipment, but there will be targets soon enough. 


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SECTION IV:COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Questions:
Q:  Why can't I control my vehicle's movement?
A:  You're not driving it. Greg (your pilot) is. Don't worry. You'll drive, 
fly and move your way through the world in a lot of different scenarios in 
the real game. But, in the demo, you just man the weapons.

Q: How do I get my turret to face forward?
A: Just move the turret sideways until the landscape is moving toward you. 
In the final game, you'll see "ghost line" computer imaging of the vehicle 
you're in so you'll have easy referenceas to which way the vehicle is moving.

Q: Why does the Gatling Blaster fire slower sometimes?
A: It's overheating. Watch the numbers on the bottom of the screen and wait 
for it to cool down to 50% or so. When it does, you'll be able to volley 
fire again.

Q: Why does my machine lock-up after I calibrate my joystick?
A: There are a few machines out there (about 20%) that have a
conflict with our calibration routine. Don't worry. It will be fixed
before the game comes out. In the meantime, we suggest you use the mouse. It 
works well with turret movement.

Q: Why can't I see my vehicle?
A: Your computer is showing you a virtual display of the world in your VR 
helmet. This eliminates "blind spots" in your vision by not drawing the 
vehicle you're in. However, since the inception of this feature, the company 
has found that some pilots are acrophobic, so the "ghost line" feature has 
been implemented to give pilots a frame of reference.

Q: How can I speed up my Frame Rate?
A: Switch to VGA in the Setup program.

Q: How do I exit the game?
A: Hit "Esc" and say yes to "Quit Absolute Zero?"


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SECTION V: ORDERING INFO
Absolute Zero will be available May 1995 at Software Etc., Babbages, 
Electronics Boutique, as well as other fine stores.

Or, if you'd like direct order information, call 1-800-695-GAME.

Suggested retail price for PC: $54.95, Macintosh: $49.95.

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SECTION VI:CREDITS
Producer: Dave Georgeson
Lead Programmer: Colin Boswell
Programmers: Francine Hunter, Michael Kelly 
Engine Design: David Payne and Jonathan Newth
SGI Art & Animations: Andrew Osiow, Rebecca Shearin
In-Game Art: Jesse Conklin, Joe Marullo, Matt Miller, Andrew Osiow, 
                    Rebecca Shearin 
Scenario Design: Dave Georgeson, Matt Miller, Joe Marullo



This document and the demo game it describes are both 
(C) 1995 Domark Software, Inc.
