Fighter Duel Short Docs Typed by: Perpetual Demise/ORACLE The Fighter Duel Menu The Fighter Duel menu follows the standard conventions for an Amiga menu. Hold down the right mouse button to display the menu headings along the menu bar at the top of the screen. Move the mouse pointer over a heading and the items belonging to that menu will appear in a column beneath the heading. Some items have a ">>" to their right indicating that these items have submenus associated with them. These submenus are displayed to the right of the item when the mouse pointer is placed over the item. To make a selection, place the mouse pointer on the item, which will highlight it, then release the right mouse button. Selected items have check marks to the left of them. Items that are not available are ghosted. The flow for making selections from the different menus is from left-to-right. The default items will already have check marks. Starting on the left, PLAYER MODE menu will have ONE PLAYER option checked. Next over, in the PLAYER OPTIONS menu, the MISSION item will have the TRAINING option checked. In the AIRCRAFT menu, the FRIEND item which corresponds to the aircraft that you will fly, has the CORSAIR option checked, and the FOE item, the enemy aircraft, has the ZERO option checked. In one-player mode, the two-player items, MODEM, LOCALE, and START, in the PLAYER OPTIONS menu are ghosted. The menu on the far right is named CONFIG. The COLORS item will display the COLORS screen, which will allow you to fine tune many of the screen colors used in the actual flight part of the program. This is necessary because of the marked shade variation that exists among monitors displaying a high-resolution, interlaced screen. To help in the selections, the top two-thirds of the COLORS screen is a combination of various scenes from Fighter Duel. The lower third contains eight color squares plus three selector buttons. The color squares represent the eight alterable colors. Default shades are either the Fighter Duel defaults or a set saved earlier using the SAVE option (see below) in the CONFIG menu. The shades can be cycled by clicking the mouse pointer on the square or on a part of the Fighter Duel scene where color appears. Labels above the squares refer to objects of that color in the scene. Only a portion of the brown carrier deck can be seen in the lower left-hand corner of the scene. Numbers below the squares identify the shade; some colors have only 2 shades. The Fighter Duel default shades can be restored by clicking the DEFAULT button. When the shade selections are completed, click on the USE button to use these shades in the pending flight and return to the Fighter Duel menu screen. Click the CANCEL button at any time to return to the Fighter Duel menu screen without affecting the color selections. The second item in the CONFIG menu is SAVE. SAVE will save to disk the current settings of PLAYER MODE, PLAYER OPTIONS, AIRCRAFT, and COLORS. The next time Fighter Duel is run, these settings will be loaded automatically. You can return to the original Fighter Dueal default settings, including COLORS, by selecting the DEFAULT item, the last item in the CONFIG menu. Aircraft Controls The mouse and joystick are used to control all flight and systems operations; there are no keyboard equivalents. Fighter Duel supports both digital and analog-type joysticks. Each provides quick response and accurate control, but there are fundamental differences in the methods by which they affect the aircrafts's movement. The descriptions below may help you decide which stick you will want to use. Aileron control with the digital stick is left stick for left roll and right stick for right roll. Continuous stick pressure will cause the aircraft to roll with increasing rate until the stick is brought back to the center position, which stops the roll and maintains the angle of bank. Elevator control is back stick for increased pitch or nose-up attitude, and forward stick for decreased pitch or nose-down attitude. The angle of attack indicator on the instrument panel will show a positive value for nose-up and a negative value for nose-down attitudes. Returning the stick to the center position will stop the change and maintain the elevator and the angle of attack of the aircraft in the airstream at their current angles. This will also keep the aircraft at it's current angle of pitch. Trim tabs are used to stabilize excess roll and pitch that would otherwise require constant stick movements to keep the aircraft straight and level. Trim with the digital joystick is accomplished by holding the left mouse button down while moving the stick in the direction trim is required. The effect is cumulative so that the longer the stick is held in a direction the greater the amount of trim. There is no trim indicator in Fighter Duel. Aileron control with the analog stick is left stick for left roll and right stick for right roll. The further from the center the stick is moved, the greater the rate of roll. Returning the stick to the center position stops the roll and maintains the angle of bank. Elevator control is back stick for increased pitch or nose-up attitude, and forward stick for decreased pitch or nose-down attitude. The angle of attack indicator on the instrument panel will show a positive value for nose-up and a negative value for nose-down attitudes. The further from the center the stick is moved, the greater the angle of attack of the aircraft in the airstream. Returning the stick to the center position will return the elevator to it's center position and cause the angle of attack to return to zero. The operation of the analog stick is identical to that of the control stick in an actual aircraft. The desired roll rate and pitch can be set instantaneously. Also, the analog stick will have fine-adjustment wheels for trim adjustment. The joystick fire button is involved in the operation of three flight systems: armament, glide-slope indicator, and brakes. With the left mouse button down, the fire button will alternately arm and disarm the guns. When a black gunsight appears in the center of the display, the guns are armed and the fire button will fire the guns. The guns cannot be armed in the vicinity of the carrier. Instead, pressing the fire button and the left mouse button will display a grey gunsight that functions as a glide-slope indicator. Finally, the fire button will activate the brakes independently of the other systems. In the NO-BUTTONS mode, the mouse is moved without pressing the buttons. Left and right mouse movement controls the rudder; forward and back movement controls the throttle. The relative position of the rudder is give by the vertical bar in the turn and bank indicator. Left rudder will move the bar to the left and cause the aircraft to yaw to the left. Right rudder will move the bar to the right and cause the aircraft to yaw to the right. (Yaw is the turning of the aircraft about it's vertical axis.) The position of the throttle is reflected in the rpm reading of the tachometer. Moving the mouse to a full-back position will close the throttle and idle the engine at 700 rpm. Moving the mouse to a full-forward position will open the throttle and increase engine rpm to around 2700. The propellor governor is set to MAX rpm. Pressing the left mouse button allows instrument panel selections as well as gun arming and trim tab input. Pressing this button will display a yellow selector arrow on the instrument panel. Moving the mouse will move the arrow. The arrow controls the lowering and retracting of the landing gear and hook, which are positioned on the left end of the panel, and of the flaps, on the right end. Place the arrow over the object and move the arrow downward for extension and upward for retraction. Remember, the hook cannot be lowered until the gear are fully down, and gear cannot be retracted until the hook is raised. Also, while the left mouse button is held down, the return heading to the carrier is written over the fuel gauge at the lower-right corner of the instrument panel. Pressing the left button and the joystick fire button will toggle on and off the cross hair in the center of the display screen. Away from the carrier, this will also toggle the arming of the guns. Pressing the left button and clicking the digital joystick will accumulate aileron and elevator trim. Pressing the right mouse button enables panoramic viewing that imitates the pilot's ability to look side-to-side and up and down. Pressing this button will display an orienting arrow at the bottom center of the view. The color code of left-half yellow and right-half red indicates the view is straight ahead. Moving the mouse to the right will pan to the starboard or right side of the aircraft. When looking 90 degrees to the right, the arrow is full red. The view can be panned further to the right until the left-half red, right-half yellow arrow appears indicating a full-rear view. Moving the mouse to the left will pan back to the normal view and continue past the full left view with it's yellow arrow to the full-rear view. Back movements of the mouse will pan the view upwards in the same sense that back movements of the joystick will produce a nose-up attitude. Accordingly, moving the mouse forward will pan the view downward. When panning upwards do not pan beyond the vertical view or the view will automatically pan back to the normal view. Side-to-side and up-and-down panning can be combined. Releasing the right button will automatically pan back to normal view. Panning the view is not allowed in extreme nose-up or nose-down attitudes in which the horizon is not visible on the screen. Pressing the right button in these situations will display the orientation arrow but movements of the mouse will be ignored. Also, if the aircraft attitude becomes extreme while the view is being panned then the view will automatically pan back to normal. While the right button is pressed the guns and aileron controls are temporarily disengaged but the elevator control continues to function. Holding both mouse buttons down will pause the program at any time other than while in two player mode. Upon releasing both mouse buttons the program will remain paused and a set of four option buttons and a selector arrow will appear on the instrument panel. Placing the arrow over a button and pressing the left mouse button will highlight the button, and then releasing the mouse button will select the option. To unpause, select either the RESUME TRAINING or RESUME COMBAT buttons. If the aircraft is stationary on the carrier deck, either mission may be chosen. (Pressing the fire button on the deck will activate the brakes and ensure that the aircraft is stationary.) If the aircraft is in flight, only the current mission type may be selected. The CENTER STICK button will center the analog stick at the moment when the left mouse button is released. The RESET button will reset the program and the aircraft will begin again on the carrier deck. Two Player Mode Two nearby machines can be connected directly at their serial ports using a null-modem cable. Null-modem cables are available from your local computer hardware retailer. Before making the connection, make sure that the null-modem cable is of the correct gender for the serial port connection on your machine. Remember that the serial port connection on the Amiga 1000 is of opposite gender to that on other Amiga models. Two machines can also be linked by modems via a telephone line. Fighter Duel requires and external, Hayes-compatible, 1200 or 2400-baud modem. Follow the directions included with the modem for connecting the modem to the computer and the telephone line. In addition, it is necessary that a telephone be connected directly to the modem. Before running Fighter Duel, manually dial your opponent on this telephone and establish voice communication. Before either player presses the BEGIN FLIGHT button, both players must select a set of parameters in the Fighter Duyel menu. You and your opponent will have voice communication at this time and should discuss and agree upon your respective selections. It should also be noted that in two-player mode the program begins with the aircraft in full flight. Begin by selecting the option TWO PLAYER in the PLAYER MODE menu. Then move to the PLAYER OPTIONS menu. The first item is MODEM TYPE with options null modem, for two machines connected directly by a null-modem cable, or the two possible baud rates, 1200 or 2400, for two machines connected by modems and a telephone line. If both modems are 2400 baud, then both players should select 2400. If one or both modems are 1200 baud then both players must select 1200. The modem type must be the same for both players. Next, the item LOCALE is set to either the arch, the towers, or the islands. The LOCALE also must be the same for both players. Finally the item START is set to either NORTH or SOUTH, refering to the northern or southern perimeters of the locale. Your selection must be different from that set by the other player. The program will halt if the same START is selected by both players. Move to the AIRCRAFT menu and set FRIEND to the aircraft that you will fly, and set FOE to the enemy aircraft. Of course, one player's FRIEND must be the second player's FOE and vice-versa. This concludes the menu selections. When you and your opponent have finished with the selections, together press your respective BEGIN FLIGHT buttons and the program will then attempt to make a modem connection. If succesful, the program will load from the floppy or hard drive; in the case of the hard drive this could be just a couple of seconds. If you have Fighter Duel installed on hard drive and your opponent is running off floppy then you will have to wait with a blank screen during the time the floppy loads on the other end.