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synkro's VERTICAL shooter for GP32
                                                               synkro@gmx.net
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INTRO
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I wanted to do something for the GBAX 2004 competiton, I thought about a demo
or some kind of puzzle game. But as we say in Germany "1. Es kommt anders und
2. als man denkt". Arcade shooter games were always one of favourites so I
play a lot of TOMAK and some PCE shooters like Gradius or Parodius. I was
happy when I heard that emumanx is going to make Xigon1, a game similar to
the classic Xenon2. After playing the first versions I was disappointed and
I dislike the way Xigon1 is evolving (no offense here). So it was my turn to
have a try on a "real" vertical shooter for GP32. It was fun and sometimes
weird doing this and I hope at least some people are having fun with this
one.

INSTALL
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Just copy VERTICAL.FXE into the GP:/GPMM/ folder.

HOW TO PLAY
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VERTICAL is a vertical shooter in TATE (rotate) mode like the shooters in the
arcades downtown. So you have to rotate you GP32 90 anti-clockwise. I don't
think this will damage your GP32 but you are your own here.

START = Fire
Stick = Movement
R     = Shield

With every shot down enemy you gain energy for your shield. Your activated
shield will protect you against enemy bullets and is also usable to destroy
enemys. But keep in mind that the shields needs a lot of energy.

TO DO
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There is a lot missing like
  + bosses at the end of each level
  + power ups
  + different and longer levels
  + balanced difficulty
  + background music
  + real sound FX and mixer
  + garbage collection
  + high score system (internet ranking?)

Known bugs
  + tile glitches in background layers
  + bad collision detection
  + weird screen flicker in the bottom right
  + wrong sound timing
  + low res samples


TRIVIA
------
  + the whole game works with one single abstract data thingy
    (I am pretty lazy, copy&paste, copy&paste, copy&paste)
  + I ripped grafics from more people than people talking in #gp32 atm
  + I still use gcc 3.2.2 (did I already say that I am lazy?)
  + runs with 43fps @ 100MHz with >100 sprites peak
  + Photoshop and Mappy drive me nuts on a regular basis
  + the title font is called Uranium
  + this game was supposed to be named "take me to the clouds above"
  + everything is done in pure C
  + powered by Mr. Mirko's SDK
  + I have beaten level 2 only once
  + I still think that sound in games is overrated ^__^
  + there is a hidden nude woman in the game, did you find her?

Thanks/Credits/Greets/Yays
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Thanks go to:

  + Chriss Tessmer for the tongue fish
  + WntrMute for sharing his button code with me
  + MaDsk8tard for his nice small explosion
  + Mr.Mirko for the SDK (I hope you add a sound mixer soon ;))
  + the developers of IKARUGA und rRootage for the inspiration

Credits:

  I ripped gfx from:
  + Ari Feldman (airplane gfx)
  + Hikoza.T.Ohkuba (big explosion, enemy and fighter gfx)
    and many more I can't remember. Sorry!

Greets & Yays 2 (in no particular order):

  donskeeto
  snesy  (Konnichi wa!)
  spivvy (I still think a loading animation for B2FXEC is a great idea. yay!)
  hando
  Inopia (no, I am not going to release my sources ^__^)
  JyCet  (I still want to rework FlipIt, I swear!)
  clem
  vimacs
  wolfsclaw
  rico
  Mr. Mirko
  WntrMute
  MaDsk8ter
  Manika (Ist doch fertig geworden!)
  and all the guys and gals @ #gp32dev and gp32x.com I forgot
  yay yo all!

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                                                          30.04.2004 16:30:53
                                                               synkro@gmx.net
                                                       www.operon-depot.de.vu
                                                                    LRCREDITS
