Thanks for checking out the Jagged Alliance Playable Demo!

In this demo, you'll get a chance to play around with JA's
combat system - shooting guns, tossing grenades, blowing
enemies away (or up)!

You'll also be able to explore and search a single "sector"
of terrain as you try to find additional useful equipment,
discover where the bad guys are hiding, and avoid various
traps and other nasty surprises set for you by the opponents.

If all goes well, and you succeed in eliminating all of the
opposing mercenaries, you'll take over the sector, just like
you would in one of the 60 on the island of Metavira itself!



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installing the Demo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.  Make sure you have at least 5MB of free space on the hard drive
    where you plan to install the Jagged Alliance playable demo.

2.  While in the directory with the unzipped files, type INSTALL.

	OR

    Put the files INSTALL.EXE, this README.TXT, and JADEMO.001
    on a 3.5" high density floppy disk (this will be disk 1)
    and place JADEMO.002 on another floppy disk (this will be
    disk 2).  Now insert disk 1 into the floppy drive, go to
    that drive (with a command like A: if that's your drive)
    and type INSTALL (and off you go to the rodeo!).

3.  Follow the self-explanatory menus and prompts to INSTALL the
    game files to the selected hard drive and directory.

4.  After the installation, you will be prompted to specify your
    sound configuration.  You'll need to specify your sound card
    type and its hardware configuration settings.  The program will
    auto-detect the hardware settings for most common sound card
    setups for you.  Select "Test Settings" and make sure you can
    hear both the digital speech and MIDI music score before you
    proceed further.  Then save the settings, and exit sound setup.

5.  a) If your system has 8MB or more:

	    Type JADEMO to start the demo!

    b) If you're running on a 4MB RAM machine:

	    Type JAVM to start the demo (using virtual memory management)


An (optional) "speech pack" for the Jagged Alliance Playable Demo is also
available as a .ZIP archive file.  See the READMESP.TXT file included with
that file for instructions on installing the speech pack.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Playing the Demo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some elements of the interface (described below) are relatively complex.  We
recommend that you thoroughly read this file in its entirety BEFORE trying to
play the demo.  You may also find it useful to print out this document
beforehand, so that you can refer to it as necessary.


When you arrive on Metavira, you'll see the main play
screen.  On both sides are mercs in your command.


SELECTING MERCS:

To select a mercenary......................................Click on merc, OR
						Double click on portrait, OR
							     Press F1-F6

To locate a merc in the field.....................Left click on portrait

To identify merc by name..............Move the cursor over merc in field

To see merc's statistics values.........Click and hold on statistic bars

To see all mercs' statistics at once. .........................Press 'S'

To change merc's personal options................Right click on portrait


MERCENARY PANELS:

*   Health (Red):  The member's health.  If hurt, it lowers
    and leaves an "injury tracker" in its place.  Untreated
    injuries are yellow, and may continue to hurt the merc
    (bleeding) if not treated.  Treated injuries show pink.

*   Breath (Blue):  Breathing rate and energy.  Lowers as
    member exerts energy.  Rises as they rest.

*   Action Points (Orange): Tracks action points in turn-based time.


PERSONAL OPTIONS (ON FLIP SIDE OF MERCENARY PANELS):

*   MAX AIM: When on, the merc will always take extra time and action
    points (APs) to target the enemy to the best of his ability.  You
    can still vary the APs spent (unless the "Fast Firing" option is
    turned ON).

*   RSV PTS: When on, the merc will always stop with enough action
    points remaining to use the item in their Main Hand.  Use this
    to make sure you have enough APs to shoot or throw a grenade after
    moving as far as possible to your destination.

*   MUTE: When on, the merc's speech and sound effects will not be heard.


MOVING MERCS AROUND:

To move a merc..........................Double click on desired location

To move all mercs at once (disallowed in combat)..........Hold down left
				  button on destination plus right click

To sneak..............................Hold down SHIFT during normal move

To back up..............................Hold down ALT during normal move

To crouch..............................Hold down ALT and left click with
							cursor over merc

To look in a particular direction..........Hold right button down & left
								   click

To exchange places another merc............Hold cursor over merc to swap
							 with, press 'X'


USING ITEMS:

Items that are in the mercenary's main hand may be used at
any time.  Some items, like a medical bag for instance, have
specific uses.  To use an item in the merc's main hand,
right click in the main play field, and the cursor will
change to signify his or her intent.  If a medical bag is in
that hand, for instance, you'll get a "healing cross"
cursor.  Next, you need to select the target of the item's
use.  Where you left click is that target.  If some items
don't seem to have an apparent use, they may need to be
merged with other items.  In fact, many items in Jagged
Alliance can be merged with others to create new items.


INVENTORY CONTROLS:

To move any item to another location...............Left click on item to
				 pick it up, left click again to drop it

To swap item from secondary to main hand........Right click on secondary
					    hand position (bottom right)

To put item in main hand into free pocket.......Right click on main hand
						  position (bottom left)

To view merc's complete inventory...........Right click on a vest pocket, OR
						 Click on the INV button, OR
								Press 'I'

INSIDE INVENTORY SCREEN:

To move any item to another location...............Left click on item to
				 pick it up, left click again to drop it

To equip items..........................Place guns/grenades in main hand,
		     vests in vest position, helmet in helm position,etc.

To trade items between mercs............Left click on item to pick it up,
					Click on another merc's portrait,
					Left click on slot to place item

To drop an item......................Move it to slot beneath merc's feet

To drink from a canteen...................Pick up canteen, left click on
					merc's face in inventory area

To camouflage a merc..................Pick up camouflage kit, left click
					on merc's body in inventory area

To attempt merging two items...............Place first item in main hand,
	   place second item in the attachment position (directly below)

To exit inventory screen.................Left click over merc's portrait
						       in inventory area


INVESTIGATING & CHECKING THINGS OUT:

You check things out in Jagged Alliance with (surprise) your
hands and your eyes.  So, the Hand Cursor is all important.
When your merc sees something, he'll tell you, and
a white circle will flash around the object.  Things that
are hidden, though, may require a bit of searching.

To get hand cursor....................Press CTRL at any time to force it, OR
		Hold cursor still for a couple of seconds over an object, OR
		       Left click on an object where the cursor is an "X"

Picking up items.............Get hand cursor (above), left click on item

Opening doors.......................Place cursor over "Door", left click

Magnifying items..................Hold cursor over it, and press 'Z', OR
					     press CTRL plus right click

Looking for land mines............Place mine detector in main hand, then
				left click on a destination.  Merc scans
				   for nearby mines along the route

Blue flags...................When a merc detects a buried object, a blue
			   flag will be placed at that spot.  Left click
			      on the flag to disarm or dig up the object



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Combat
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACTION POINTS:

Everything in a combat situation is governed by action
points.  Action points are a numerical representation of how
many actions a mercenary can perform in a single turn, and
are based upon the experience and overall statistics of the
mercenary, including his or her health.  Mr. "Hyper on Sugar"
can swim around Metavira several times, host a beachside
infomercial on psychic haircare products and still have time
to raise his gun to shoot someone.  Mr. "Slower than Death",
on the other hand, would have just figured out that something
was going on in that same period of time...

For instance, a mercenary who can run 20 feet in one second
would have 20 action points (he can move quickly).  A
mercenary who can only run only 5 feet in one second would
have 5 action points (and be pretty darn slow).  The more
the mercenary can physically do in a set amount of time, the
more action points he or she has.  So, in combat, where
physical actions cost action points, a faster mercenary can
do more.

Some actions, though, take a set amount of time no matter
how fast the mercenary is.   For instance, if a fast
mercenary and a slow mercenary pull the trigger of identical
guns at the same time, both bullets will fire at the same
time and take the same amount of time to head down the
barrel. So, the faster mercenary would expend more points to
perform the action than the slower mercenary.  Just because
one mercenary is fast doesn't mean he can make a bullet go
down the barrel of a gun faster.

In general, though, action points determine how much your
mercenary can do when it's his or her turn in combat.  Since
their action points are limited, be careful not to run
slower mercenaries all over the place.  An action that takes
10 points might not be much to a guy who has 20, but it's
sure a lot to a merc with 12.  There's only so much he or
she can do in the space of seconds, and it would be a pity
to have a merc bravely run up to an enemy, eagerly draw his
gun but have no time left to shoot.  Leave the marathon
stealth runs to the fast guys.

For whatever you choose to do, though, Jagged Alliance will
continually alert you to the action point cost.  You'll see
the amount in the center of your cursor.

If you don't use all of your action points in a turn, up to
5 points will roll over to the next turn.  If you have more
than that left over, the extra is lost.


FIRING GUNS/THROWING GRENADES:

To target an opponent...........................Have weapon in main hand,
					    right click in play field to
					     "use," left click on target

	. . . then (optionally) . . .

To improving the merc's aim.......Once targeted, right click for desired
		    level of extra accuracy; more points = better aiming

	. . . then . . .

Fire the bullet / Throw the grenade.....................Left click again


ENDING TURN:

WHEN YOU'VE USED UP ALL YOUR ACTION POINTS OR DON'T HAVE ENOUGH LEFT
TO DO ANYTHING, CLICK DONE (OR PRESS 'D') TO PASS THE TURN OVER TO THE
ENEMY FORCES.

Sometimes, however, you may prefer to end your turn earlier, keeping
some extra action points available to be able to react as the enemies
come to you...


TREATING WOUNDED:

Get a medical or first aid kit in a medically-trained merc's main hand,
use it (right click), and select the wounded merc as the target.  (Note
that mercs are also able to treat themselves this way).  This serves to
clean and bandage the wounds sustained, and prevent additional bleeding.

A merc whose health drops below 15 falls down, and will die unless he or
she receives prompt treatment (which will restore health back to 15).
A merc whose health drops to 0 or below is DEAD!

The actual healing of wounds (regaining of health) occurs only on a
day-to-day basis and is beyond the scope of this demo.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOP-OF-THE-SCREEN BUTTONS:

    DONE........................End your turn, let opponents have theirs
    INV.........................Display selected mercs' inventory screen
    OPT......................Enable/disable sound, music & other options
    MAP...............Shows map of Metavira island (UNAVAILABLE IN DEMO)
    ABORT..................................................Quit the demo


SCREEN VIEWS:

Display overhead sector map..................................Press 'Ins', OR
				   Hold down right mouse button and drag
				      mouse downward until "MAP" appears

Show "automap" (which areas mercs have seen).................Press 'Tab'
				     (ONLY while in overhead sector map)

Cycle through other main view field sizes...........Press 'PgUp', 'PgDn'


GENERAL CONTROLS, KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:

    Select merc (1-6)...........................................F1-F6
    Select merc (1-6) without relocating view...................ALT + F1-F6
    Select next merc............................................Spacebar

    Show only enemies seen by selected merc.....................F9
    Relocate view to next enemy.................................Enter

    Done (in combat)............................................D
    Inventory of selected merc..................................I
    Map of Metavira island (UNAVAILABLE IN DEMO)................M
    Options menu................................................O
    Abort Day/Demo..............................................A

    Show all mercs' stats.......................................S
    Magnify items (cursor over item)............................Z
    Repeat last message.........................................L
    Compress time (moves day along, disallowed in combat).......C

    Pause.......................................................P
    Cancel action in progress...................................ESC
    Show Options Menu...........................................F10
    Exit demo...................................................ALT X

    Increase Music Volume.......................................+
    Decrease Music Volume.......................................-
    Increase Sound FX Volume....................................Comma
    Increase Sound FX Volume....................................Period


Be sure to check out the companion press release (filename JAPRESS.TXT)
to read about Jagged Alliance's other exciting features!



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Requirements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Required (CD-ROM version):
	486SX-25
	4MB RAM
	15MB Hard Disk space
	CD-ROM Drive
	PC/MS-DOS 5.0, 6.0+
	Mouse
	256-color VGA graphics

Recommended (CD-ROM version):
	486DX-33
	8MB RAM
	28MB Hard Disk space
	Double Speed CD-ROM Drive
	Sound Card

Sound Support:
	Ad-Lib
	Sound Blaster/Pro/16/AWE32 and 100% compatible
	Pro Audio Spectrum (PAS)
	Gravis Ultrasound (GUS)
	Roland LAPC-1/MT-32
	MPU401-interface General MIDI


- 3.5" floppy disk version will be available June 1995, requires 23MB HD space
- Jagged Alliance Strategy Guide will be available June 1995



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to get in touch with us...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sir-tech Software Inc.
Ogdensburg Business Center, P.O. Box 245
Ogdensburg, NY 13669
(315) 393-6633

Compuserve: 76711,33 [Brenda Garno]

Internet: 76711.33@CompuServe.COM [Brenda Garno]
