
				 GALACTOID
				-----------

				 QSW-1993
			      By Clay Hellman

			  Release Date: 31-Aug-93


ShareWare Notice:
-----------------
	If you play this game and think it is worth something, please
send $10 (Canadian funds) or whatever you think it's worth, to:

		Clay Hellman
		3140-107 Avenue SW
		Calgary, Alberta, Canada
		T2W 2X5

	Questions or comments can also be sent to the address above, or
you can leave Fidonet mail to:  Clay Hellman@1:134/20.  Direct E-Mail can
also be left on the Byte Bucket BBS in Calgary, at: 403-247-3900 or
403-286-3692.



The Game:
---------
	Galactoid is a 1 or 2 player shoot-em-up game that resembles the
old classic shoot-em-ups Galaxian and Galaga.  There are 30 different
progressively harder stages in the game and each stage follows a specific
format.

	When you first enter a stage you will see the first wave of
enemies fly onto the screen and then seek their place in a formation or
'pack'.  Each full wave consists of 4 enemies per side.  The first stage
consists of exactly four full waves, and generally the higher the stage
the more waves fly in.  Sometimes the last wave of a stage will be a
half wave containing only 2 enemies per side.

	After all waves have flown on (or shortly before), the enemies in
the formation will start diving at you, and you must avoid them and their
bombs.  You may shoot the enemies while coming on in waves, while in the
formation, or when they are diving at you.  You get more points for
shooting them when they are not in formation.  Scoring will be discussed
later in this document.

	You will frequently find that a 'power-up' will fall from one of
the enemies that you destroy.  This will only fall when you are 'single'
(ie. you can only shoot 1 shot at a time).  When you pick up the power-up,
you become double and can fire 2 shots at a time.

	When you get hit (either by an enemy or a bomb), one of two things
happen:  1) If you are single; you lose a life.  2) If you are double;
you become single.  You start out with 3 lives (including the first one),
and you have the option of continuing gameplay when you lose all of your
lives.

	Bonus stages occur after every 3 or 4 stages except for the first
one, which occurs after the second stage.  Each bonus stage contains 4
waves of 10 targets each, and each target is worth 100 points.  If you
manage to destroy all 40 targets you get a bonus of 10,000 points.



Scoring:
--------
	Single-hit enemies:      40 pts  for when in formation
	Single-hit enemies:      80 pts  for when not in formation
	Double-hit enemies:      60 pts  for when in formation
	Double-hit enemies:     120 pts  for when not in formation
	Bonus targets:	        100 pts
	Perfect Bonus Stage: 10,000 pts

	Note: You gain a free fighter every 100,000 points.



Control:
--------
	Game control for both players is done via a joystick or control
pad plugged into Joystick Port 2.

	- Press ESC to reset the game
	- Press P or Space to pause or unpause the game
	- Fire button also unpauses



Details:
--------
	* When playing the two player mode, both players use the same
	    joystick.  The players alternate upon completion of each
	    level, unlike many games which alternate players each time
	    a player loses a life.

	* This game does not multitask.  It puts all running tasks on
	    'hold', but it exits friendly, freeing all memory and
	    resources.  (ie. You do not need to reboot after exiting)

	* It was written in 100% MC68000 Assembly language using direct
	    hardware manuipulations for maximum speed, efficiency and
	    smoothness.  A game like this cannot really be expected to
	    multitask, since there are upwards of 80 animated and
	    moving objects on the screen at once.  If you attempted
	    this with the operating system routines, you might be lucky
	    if you got 10 frames per second of flickering, jittering
	    bobs (which is horrible).

	* It runs properly on the A500 and A3000, although it has not
	    been tested on the AGA chipset machines (A1200 and A4000).

	* This game was released as Shareware under QSW, unlike the
	    other releases which were in the Public Domain under QPD.



Acknowledgements:
-----------------
Design - Sound - Graphics - Programming		Clay Hellman
Graphics - Ideas - Testing			Christopher Bailey
Documentation - Ideas - Testing			Shane Bro


This game was made in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
By Clay Hellman

QSW - Quality ShareWare



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
** QPD Titles:
	- Tetroid    -  Game involving falling blocks		(Jan '93)
	- Megasquad  -  Two player tag/duel game		(May '93)
	- 64Door     -  Commodore 64 Terminal emulator program  (May '93)
