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                            - Cosmic Ambush -                                
                                                                             
                              Instructions                                   
                                                                             


--- AIM OF THE GAME
Try to survive through the 31 levels of constant alien onslaught. Fire at 
will, though sometimes firing isn't the best alternative for staying alive... 
Sometimes when an alien is hit it drops a flashing icon. Pick it up to gain 
a new weapon, smartbomb, more shield, an extra life, more firepower or 
faster bullets. 

--- SETUP 
Start by going to the directory where you installed 'Cosmic Ambush'. 
Stand at the DOS-prompt, then just type SETUP and press Enter. 
Select the appropriate music and SFX hardware by wandering through the menus.
All keys necessary to operate the setup are typed out on the bottom line of 
the screen after running the SETUP.EXE file. 
!! Please note that you cannot select General MIDI as the music device 
together with SoundBlaster as the Sound FX device. If one of these is 
selected, the other one will automatically disappear from its menu. !!

--- GAME 
To start the game, go to the directory where you installed 'Cosmic Ambush'. 
Stand at the DOS-prompt, then just type CA and press Enter. 
 
-- Intro 
The intro will eventually reach the main menu by itself. To skip the intro 
and go directly to the main menu, press Esc, Space or Enter. 

In the main menu, you may select the following: 
Start playing the game 
Choose one or two players 
Choose input device, keyboard or joystick 
Music on/off 
Sound FX on/off 
Quit to dos 
 
Use the Arrow Up-Down keys to skip between options. Use Enter to select an 
option. Move to the top icon and press Enter to start game. 
You may also use the Esc key to quit the game. 

-- Ingame 
General keys:
Esc - Quit game 
P - Pause the game, press it once more to continue playing
Shift <-> P - Pause the game without the 'Paused' logo (Useful for taking
screenshots, hint, hint!)

If you selected the keyboard as the input device, the following keys are used: 
Arrow Up - Move the player up 
Arrow Down - Move the player down 
Arrow Left - Move the player left 
Arrow Right - Move the player right 
Rightmost Ctrl - Fire 
Alt Gr - Fire smartbomb 

For the joystick: 
Button 1 - fire 
Button 2 - fire smartbomb 
When you select the joystick in the main menu, you are automatically asked to 
calibrate it before the game starts. This will only happen once. Should you
wish to recalibrate it, just hit Enter twice while standing by the 
Game Control icon in the main menu. This will deselect and then reselect the 
joystick, forcing another calibration.

-- Status bar
The status bar at the top of the screen indicates what player is playing  
at the moment (only interesting in two-player mode), what score the player  
has reached, how many lives he has left, the amount of shield energy the 
player has, the heat level of the weapon (an 'OVERHEAT' sign will flash if 
the weapon is used too much) and how many smartbombs are left.  


Have fun!

