LightSpeed v2.4
By Jeremy Vight

Everyone can read a .TXT file! :^)

[ Story ]
It is the year 2092, and space racing is a lucrative carreer; well, at least legal space racing. See, you raced illegally for years in uncharted space until one day you got caught. The space police eventually set you free, but not before they took just about everything you had. To get back on your feet, you took out a small loan to purchase a rather basic ship to enter in legal space racing. Now, you must get rid of your debt, play by thier rules, and try to race yourself back to the top!

[ System Requirements ]
450mhz machine
16mb RAM
640x480x16bit compatible graphics card
16-bit sound card
Mouse
Keyboard
Monitor
Speakers
Fast fingers!

[ Getting Started ]
*When you start the game for the first time, you will have 200 credits and a basic ship.
*You can choose an empty slot to start a new game. This game saves your progress every time you exit the program or start a race in the selected slot.
*I highly recommend taking a few time trial runs before taking a race. This will allow you to get a feel for the controls and gameplay.
*I highly recommend listening to your favorite MP3s and OGGs while playing this game.

[ Token Awards ]
*Tokens are simply symbols of victory and achievement.
*You recieve tokens from winning increasingly difficult races; the awarding details are for you to discover.
*You can achieve up to 5 tokens for each ship you own.
*Your ship's tokens are displayed on each menu, beside the ship's icon.

[ Main Menu ]
*The version of the game, your credits and your debt (if any) is shown on the main menu.
*You can press P to make a payment to reduce your debt. Your debt will slowly gain interest each day. If you run out of time to get rid of your debt, you will default your loan and the game will be over. After you pay off your loan completely, you will have no more loan restrictions, and you will have the opporitunity to take out new loans by hitting the L key.
*Use the mouse to make a selection in the grey box below.
*Buy Ship - This brings you to the ship purchasing menu.
*The Shop - From here, you can buy any and all the parts you will need for your ship.
*Race - Brings you to the racing selection menu.
*Manage - This menu system allows you to take parts off your ship and put them back on. You can also sell parts from this menu.
*Quit - You never want to press that button... ;^)
*You can use the UP and DOWN keys to set the detail level. Level 4 has all the stars, background graphics, weapons and acceleration particles. Level 3 drops the background images. Level 2 drops the weapon particles and some stars. Level 1 drops some acceleration particles.

[ Racing Controls ]
*Up/Down - Engine acceleration; only 60% of engines are available in reverse.
*Left/Right - Turner functions.
*Right Control - Afterburner acceleration.
*Right Shift - Charge activation.
*Enter - Fire weapon at targetted ship.
*Escape Key - Lose and quit the current race.

[ Actual Racing ]
*Your position and current time is listed at the top of the screen.
*The node you must reach is in the direction that the bright green circle lies in; the distance to this node is also indicated.
*The direction of the node after your current node is indicated by the smaller dark green circle.
*If AI racers are present, their directions are indicated by red lines. The brighter the red line is, the closer the AI racer is.
*If you are in a championship race, your current race number will be listed at the top of the screen between your position and time.
*If you are in a time trial, "TRIAL" will be posted at the top of the screen.
*Your current energy, hull and speed information is displayed by bars at the bottom of the screen, watch these closely.
*As your hull decreases, so doesn't your acceleration ability.
*Your current node, and the maximum number of nodes will always be displayed in the lower right hand corner.
*If you have any charge system installed, your current charge status will be displayed in the lower right hand corner.
*If you have any weapon system installed, your current weapon status will be displayed in the lower right hand corner.
*If you have any weapon system installed, your ship will automatically target opponents in the direction you are pointing.
*If a projectile has a lock on your ship, you will be notified by a red box surrounding your ship.
*At the end of every race, your position and reward will be presented. You can hit [ESC] at this point to continue.

[ The Parts Menu ]
*Engine - The legs of every ship. This part uses energy to generate thrust for your ship. Mass = engine mass, Force = force it generates, Usage = how much energy it uses from your reactor per frame.
*Afterburner - If you have a decent afterburner, you can generate some more thrust for your ship at the cost of more energy consumption. Has all the same properties as the engine.
*Anti-Matter - This expensive piece of equipment actually harnesses negative mass. Add this to your ship to reduce its overall mass.
*Armour - You sometimes will need some protection from weapons. Armour does not provide any protection from distortion, only damage.
*Charge - Charges cause explosions right behind your ship, which very quickly accelerates you in your pointed direction. There are E-Charges and M-Charges. E-Charges use energy, while M-Charges are 'mass charges' that use stored chemicals to create a charge. You can only have a certain amount of M-Charges per race. As you use the M-Charges during the race, each charge's mass will be deducted from your total mass.
*Reactor - This is the heart of every ship. The reactor supplies your ship with energy to a certain maximum. Your reactor will charge your ship at a certain rate per frame.
*Turner - You need one of these to turn your ship! The more force a turner has, the faster you will turn. In addition, the less mass your ship has, the faster you will turn.
*Trash - Trash is very abundant at this time of year. For a couple of credits, you can put some on your ship to raise its overall mass.
*Weapon - Use these to damage and distort your enemies. Dam = damage done to ship minus any armour protection, dis = how much distortion (speed reduction and angle warping) the weapon will cause, rate = how fast the weapon shoots (higher number means slower), hom = homing ability (higher percentage means more homing ability).

[ Buy Ship Menu ]
*The available ships will be listed in the first large box in white. Each ship's mass and price is listed.
*You can click on a listed ship to view its details below, including what type of ship it is. Your selection will be listed in green.
*You can right click a listed ship to purchase it into an empty selected slot above.
*You can buy and have up to 9 ships.

[ The Shop Menu ]
*Your currently selected ship's details will be listed in the top box.
*Parts available for sale will be listed in the bottom box.
*Crossed-out parts are parts you cannot afford.
*Click on a part to purchase it.

[ Race Menu ]
*Your currently selected ship's details will be listed in the top box.
*Races available will be listed in the bottom box.
*Purse = how much money you can win, Dif = race difficulty (higher means harder), Nodes = how many nodes you have to reach, MassRq = minimum required ship mass, Curviness = how much of an angle can be between nodes, AB = afterburner allowed (Y/N), CH = charger allowed (Y/N), W = weapons allowed (Y/N)
*A crossed-out race means you cannot enter that race with your currently selected ship.
*Click on an available race to begin! You automatically pay a 10% purse fee when entering a race. If you cannot afford this race fee, the race will be crossed out.
*A yellow listed race is a ship specific race. These races offer more money, but you can only race with your specific type of selected ship. These races are not always available.
*A green listed race is a championship race. Championship races consist of multiple simular races where you win points for placing. The ship with the most points at the end of the races wins first place, while the second most number of points wins second place etc. You win 5 points for first place, 3 for second place, and 1 for third place.

[ Time Trials Menu ]
*This menu functions the same as the racing menu.
*Time trials are free races that can be used for practice and timing reasons.
*The first three trials are single trials. These trials have no AI opponents and you just race the clock.
*The 'drone trial' trial includes a drone in the time trial. You can select the difficulty of the drone with the UP and DOWN keys.
*The 'owned ships' trial includes all of your owned ships into a single trial. You can use this to see how your other ships measure up against each other.

[ Manage Menu ]
*Here you can move parts on and off your selected ship from your ship's specific supply by clicking them with the left mouse button.
*When parts are in your supply, thier value will be shown. You can sell that part for that value by right clicking it.
*If you have a simular part in your supply and on your ship, you can swap the parts by clicking the part.

[ Hints ]
*You can sell your engine, turner or reactor early in the game in attempt to buy a better piece of equipment if available.
*Always remember to sell an old part before you buy a new part; purchasing a part replaces anything that was already there.
*Anticipating the next node may be the best way to get ahead of your opponents.
*Charges work best when you are not moving, and also when you are facing in the opposite direction in which you are floating.
*You can attempt to go without an engine and race with just an afterburner.
*Watch how you spend your money, you could find yourself to poor to afford a single race.
*Do not worry about your initial loan for awhile; you have a long time to pay it off. Instead, work on upgrading your ship so you can win more lucrative races.
*Try to buy as many different ships as possible. This will allow you to enter more ship-specific races that pay more, and allow you to have fun 'owned ship' trials.

[ About Author ]
http://phr00t.two.am/
jvight@student.umass.edu

Go www.allegro.cc!! :^)