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NIGHT STALKERS
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A game by Tim Nolan
Version 0.1

A CITY IN CRISIS
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The city of Jaguarville is on the brink of anarchy. A crime wave of 
unprecedented proportions has overwhelmed the police force and paralyzed 
law-abiding citizens with fear. As hope fades, it becomes increasingly clear
that only desperate measures can stave off catastrophe now. Frightened
residents clamor for someone, anyone to do something.

The city's cry for help will not go unanswered. 

Four heroes will heed the call. Their disdain for traditional methods of 
law and order is resented by city authorities, but there is no other option 
now. The time has come for vigilante justice. The time has come for the 
NIGHT STALKERS.

INSTALLATION
------------
You make a directory, you unzip the contents of the compressed folder into
the new directory, you run ns.exe. No fancy installation programs for me!

GAMEPLAY
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Guide your Night Stalker through the streets of Jaguarville, trashing every
crook who crawls out of the woodwork. In this early version of the game, only
Lenny the mountain lion is available. Eventually, there will be four Stalkers
to choose from. The game allows up to 4 players (all will have to use Lenny
clones), but since the game so far only has keyboard controls, I don't
recommend any more than two players, and even two might be a stretch.

CONTROLS:

Player 1:
Up: Up arrow
Down: Down arrow
Left: Left arrow
Right: Right arrow
Attack: Left Ctrl
Jump: Left Alt

Player 2:
Up: Home
Down: End
Left: Delete
Right: Page Down
Attack: 9
Jump: 0

Player 3:
Up: Num pad slash
Down: Num pad 8
Left: Num pad 7
Right: Num pad 9
Attack: F11
Jump: F12

Player 4:
Up: Num pad 5
Down: Num pad 2
Left: Num pad 1
Right: Num pad 3
Attack: Insert
Jump: Page Up

Press Attack repeatedly to string together a combo.
Press Attack while jumping for a midair attack and a quick knockdown.
Move in very close to an enemy and you will grab him.
Press Attack while holding an enemy to hit him in the hold (up to 3 times).
Press Attack+Left or Right while holding an enemy to throw him.
Press Jump+Attack together to do a spin attack. The spin attack is very
powerful, but the trade-off is that it costs you a little energy.
Press F9 to take a screenshot, which is saved in .PCX format.
Press P to pause the game, then press it again to resume.
Press Esc during gameplay to quit the game.
Finally, use the arrow keys, Enter (to select options), and Esc (to go
back) to navigate the game's menu. Not all menu options currently work.

Your Stalker has three lives, and if those aren't enough, you can continue
three times. After that, you've done enough dying. Time to start over.
Your life meter refills at the beginning of each new mission.

HOW COMPLETE IS IT?
-------------------
Only five levels of the eight slated for the complete game are even partially
represented--and only the first level is anywhere near complete. I'm not even
sure I'm going to keep that elevator fight in Mission 5. The level graphics
are in the rudimentary stage and will undergo many improvements. Only a few
of the game's enemies are actually in right now, and do not have all of their
planned animations yet. Lots of music is yet to be written for this game, and
most of the music that is in the game is incomplete. The game has just a few
sound effects in it right now, and several of those are borrowed from other
games. In terms of percentage, I would say "Night Stalkers" is about 10%
complete. But hopefully, there's enough of a framework here to get people
interested in this project.

CHEATS
------
To compensate for the relative lack of content in such an early version of
the game, the cheats are available at all times. Simply press these keys:

F: Make your character fall down (If you're wondering what the purpose of
   this is, I use it to make sure the falling animations look right)
C: Toggle visible collision boxes on/off (The collision boxes are the actual
   lines of demarcation used by the computer to figure out if an attack hits)
F10: Change the music
R: Instantly make a rat appear
B: Instantly make a boar appear
W: Instantly make a weasel appear
Q: Instantly make a koala appear
E: Instantly make an elk appear
F1:Instantly make a cat boss (Fluffy Calico) appear
F2:Instantly make a rhino boss (Roughhouse) appear. The rhinoceros is
   obviously unfinished, and doesn't do anything, but you can kick his ass.
   Just don't knock him offscreen, because he can't get back onscreen and so
   you won't be able to kill him. If that happens, and you want to proceed,
   then your only option is to hit the 'K' key.
Also note: If you hold down Shift, Ctrl, or Alt while pressing any of the keys
   that make an enemy appear, you can get different types of that enemy. For
   example, if you simply press 'Q', Aaron the koala appears. But if you hold
   Alt and press 'Q', then Jayson, the strongest of the koalas, materializes.
Tab: Change your character. You can actually play as each different type of
   enemy--just keep hitting Tab to cycle through them. Keep in mind that they
   each have their limitations. Most can't grab, some can't jump, and none
   have a spin attack like Lenny. Also, changing characters in the middle of
   an action can have some strange effects, which can usually be escaped by
   pressing 'F' to flop on the ground. This cheat only works for player 1 at
   the present time.
K: The Kill 'Em All key! The 11th letter of the alphabet leaves no foe alive.

Thanks for trying my game, and I hope you enjoy it.

-Tim Nolan
tjnolan@earthlink.net