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1. About the Game

• Programing and Graphics by Davin Pearson.
• Game Testing by Roger Burgess and Carl Prebble.
• Allegro Games Library by Shawn Hargreaves.
• GCC compiler and Emacs text editor by Richard Stallman.
• C++ language by Bjarne Stroustrup

^* The executable installer module is provided courtesy of Ripway File Hosting Services and the download time should be approximately 20 minutes on dial up and approximately 20 seconds on broadband. If the download fails due to excessive bandwidth consumption, please try again on another day.

1.1 Featured R4 download sites

This game has been certified by softpedia as being free of spyware, adware and viruses. Click on the icon on the right to read reviews of R4:

This game has been rated as recommended by brothersoft. Click on the icon on the right to download R4 and other recommended games:

2. Version History

Note that paying the registration fee grants you access to all future versions of R4.

• Version 1.0: First stable release
• Version 1.1: Fixed a bug when the registration file is corrupted. Also added an extra level to the unregistered version.
• Version 1.2: Changed initial completed levels from 1,10,20 to 1,11,21.
• Version 1.3: Moved the version number from the scrolling marquee to the top of the screen.
• Version 1.4: Ship chooser now appears after the description of the level rather than before.
• Version 1.5: Added Game Over sound samples for when you die.
• Version 1.6: Made some of the doors thicker to prevent your ship from flying through them.
• Version 1.7: Removed the registration code entry feature so that the game is now free software. Also removed game over samples following a request of a user of my game.

Improvements that I have planned for future versions of R4 include more levels and better graphics.

3. Your Mission

An intergalactic alliance known as The Nice People of the Universe have contracted you (an space ship pilot freshly graduated from Space School) to defeat the so-called Evil Zippy Empire. To complete each level, you will need to destroy all of the enemy gun installations and space ships and you will also need to locate all of the precious cargo and return it to your Home Base.

4. System Requirements

This game was written on a Windows XP 2.7 GHz PC with 256 MB of RAM. and has been tested on a 64 MB Windows 98 system. The game needs approximately 40 MB of hard drive space.

5. Controls

Control of your ship is achieved by using the following keys:

• Left/Right are for turning clockwise and counterclockwise.
• Up/Down are for forward/backward thrust.
• Left Control is for firing bullets.

6. Your Ships

To complete each level you will need to choose the most appropriate ship for the level. There are three ships to choose from and each ship has its own strengths and weaknesses. The ships are listed below in order of suitability to the novice user. Novices will most likely find the first ship to be the best choice, while for advanced levels the user might find the other ships to be more suitable. In the following diagram, the strengths are coloured yellow and the weaknesses are coloured light blue.

When handling is good your ship will not be affected by bullets hitting your ships and when handling is bad your ship will be pushed around a lot when your ship is hit by bullets. When your shields go less than zero, any further bullet or wall hits will cause your ship to become damaged, making your ship harder to control. To boost your shield up to maximum and repair any damage you will need to land on Repair Modules (see later) or Shield Regenerators (see later) or your Home Base. Note that due to cutbacks in military spending, you cannot replenish your shield by landing on a Home Base, but you can repair any damage that your ship has.

7. Enemy Units

• Shooter Guns: Shooter guns are stationary and relatively easy to kill.
• Aimer Guns: Aimer guns turn around to aim at your ship and are harder to kill than shooter guns.
• Antennae Guns: Antennae guns are the hardest to kill as they fire a lot of bullets.
• Tie Fighters: are intelligently-controlled ships that seek you out and destroy you. If you have come across a Tie Fighter you cannot complete the level without killing the ship. Luckily for you the Tie Fighter has a lousy thruster and gun.
• Zippy Ships: are the best ships that their namesake, the Evil Zippy Empire can build. They can turn more quickly, fire more often and are generally harder to kill than Tie Fighters.

8. Items you can Pick up

• Cargo is already explained above.
• Repair Modules are denoted by a red cross over a white background. They bring your shield up to the maximum possible value for that ship and also repair any damage that your ship has.
• Shield Regenerators are denoted by a black cross over a cyan background. They bring your shield value up towards the maximum possible value for that ship. Note that these items leave any damage that you have and therefore this kind of pick-up is less useful than the previous one. In the advanced levels there will be more Shield Regenerators and fewer Repair Modules so you will need to use the Repair Modules frugally.
• Fuel Modules bring you fuel up towards the maximum value.

9. Other Stuff

• Water: When your ship is travelling through the water, you cannot travel as fast as through space. When you are underwater, the force of buoyancy pushes your ship up not down. Therefore underwater pickups are always at the top rather than the bottom as they are for above water pickups. Since your ship travels slower underwater it is easier for the guns to hit you so be careful!
• Black Holes: When your ship gets too close to a black hole, some of your ship's shield will be sucked out of your ship. When you get close to a black hole, you will receive a warning message. You can also see black holes in the radar (see below).
• Keys and Doors: There are three different keys, one red, one green and one blue. The red, green and blue keys can open (respectively) the red, green and blue doors. Note that your keys only last for the duration of that level, so you cannot use a key obtained from level 5 to unlock doors from level 6 etc. When you get killed you also lose all of the keys in your possession.
• Radar: Radar gives you a wider view of the level than is possible through the main screen alone. In the radar, the following items are coloured:
  1. Empty space is coloured black and walls are coloured dark green as you would expect from a radar.
  2. Water is coloured blue.
  3. Your ship and guns are coloured white.
  4. Black holes are flashing white for easy identification.
  5. Cargo is coloured light blue.
  6. Shield regenerators, repair modules, fuel modules and keys are all coloured light red.
  7. Doors are the colour of their keys.
  By checking the radar often, you can increase you performance at killing enemies and avoiding any bullets that they fire. Note: that the Screen Dimensions Menu in the Main Menu gives you an opportunity to view a wider screen that what is possible using the default settings.
• Secret Areas: Finding a secret area can be useful for finding extra shield and and fuel pickups. You can find secret areas by shooting at the wall periodically. In secret areas the bullets travel through the walls unlike regular walls. If you see some money or other bonuses behind a wall it is a good idea to try and shoot the wall to see if there is a secret area at that location.
• Load Game: Whenever you complete a level, it saves that level number to disk so that you can play that level another time. To play that level another time, simply press the Load Game menu button and you will be presented with a menu of levels that you can play.

10. The Head-up Display

Over the image of your ship flying around the level is what it known as a Head-up Display containing information perninent to your ship and your progress towards completing the current level. The Head-up Display looks like so:

Level: A/B Cargo: C/D Cargo Remaining: E
Enemies Killed: F/G Secrets Found: H/I
        

In the above here is what the letters A-I stand for:

1. A is the level number of the level that you are currently playing.
2. B is the total number of levels that make up the game.
3. C is the number of cargo units currently in the Cargo Bay of your ship.
4. D is the capacity of your ship's Cargo Bay.
5. E is the total number of cargo units still to be collected.
6. F is the total number of enemies killed so far.
7. G is the total number of enemies present in the level.
8. H is the total number of secrets found so far.
9. I is the total number of secrets present in the level.

11. An Overview of the Levels

1. Levels 1-10 are small and simple. Their purpose is to familiarise yourself with the features of the game such as: guns, water, black holes, space ships, doors, locks and radar. Each level builds on the previous ones in terms of difficulty. In these levels there are plenty of shield regenerators lying around in case you are hit by enemy bullets.
2. Levels 11-20 are still simple but are larger than the previous levels. You will start to need to use the radar to navigate these levels. These levels are basically horizontally symmetrical, so once you have visited the left side of the level you know what lies in the right side of the level and vice-versa.
3. Levels 21-40 are large and complex. Unlike the previous levels there are fewer shield regenerators and repair modules so you have to be more careful about being hit by enemy guns.

12. Adding Music to the Game

If you have midi files (files that end with .mid) on your hard drive, then R4 can play them at random during the presentation of the in-game menus. Simply drag your midi files into the music folder. If you followed the recommendations of the R4 Installer, the location of the music folder is as follows:

You can access this folder using Windows Explorer by clicking on the Windows Start Button, then My Computer, then the C: Drive, then the Program Files folder, then the R4 folder and finally clicking on the music folder.

NOTE: The game R4 can only play midi files and not other formats such as .mp3 or .wma.

To find midi files on the Internet simply go to google.com and enter free midi in the search box. Alternatively, you can browse these websites that I recommend:

• Rick's top MIDI pics: Contains many popular songs members.tripod.com/~BBB1/index-6.html
• The World of Midi Music: Claims to be one of the biggest midi files archives on the Internet. virtual.xs4all.nl/world/index.html
• Free high quality MIDI files: Contains many popular songs www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Dorm/4805/midi.html
• Free MIDI Downloads: Extensive collection divided into categories mididb.com
• Free MIDI sound resources: Contains links to many other MIDI websites www.thefreesite.com/Free_Sounds/Free_MIDIs
• Free MIDI Zone:Another big site www.free-midi.org

13.0 Author Info

Author Website:	Check these websites for R4 updates and R5 and beyond... http://www.davinpearson.com http://www.geocities.com/davinpearson
Author Email Address:	I welcome emails containing comments and/or suggestions on how R4 can be improved!