Pearl Harbor Zero Hour demo

Pearl Harbor: Zero Hour(TM) Readme File ----------------------- Distributed by RealNetworks, Version 1.0 V1.22 (includes patch 1.22) ----------------------- Preface from ASAP Games ----------------------- Our objective was to make a quick, simple and fun to play game based on WWII aerial combat in the Pacific. We've always thought that traditional flight sims were, for us, too realistic and hard to play, but we love the idea of dogfights, bomber runs, etc. So our philosophy was to keep some stuff "authentic" but to allow the fun factor to be the overriding design principle. A good example is ammunition reloading in mid-air. It's obviously not realistic to have a torpedo reload during flight, but it's no fun having to constantly fly back and forth from your base to reload a single torpedo. In the Pearl Harbor reenactment, we tipped the balance back towards realism. By going over books, articles and eyewitness accounts, we surmised an order of battle. We use the correct number of Japanese planes, we drop the correct number of bombs or torpedoes on the correct American ships, and we do it in the correct order. We also used aerial photographs from 1941 to roughly recreate the position of structures and the airfield on Ford Island. Nonetheless, We acknowledge taking some liberties and accept full responsibility for any historical inaccuracies. ----------------- Table Of Contents ----------------- 1. Minimum PC Configuration 2. How to Play 3. Player Tips 4. DirectX(TM) 5. Video cards 6. Controller info 7. Miscellaneous --------------------------- 1. Minimum PC Configuration --------------------------- Processor - 233 MHz Intel(r) Pentium(r) processor Memory - 32 Mb RAM HDD Space - 105 Mb free hard disk space Operating System - Windows(r) 95/98/ME Videocard - 8Mb 3D Hardware Accelerator Card compliant with DirectX 8.0a Soundcard - DirectX compliant sound card DirectX - DirectX 8.0a -------------- 2. How to Play -------------- Starting a new game - Left click on "Flight Briefing" - Select a Mission by clicking on the arrow found next to the Mission Number. - When you have found the mission you'd like to play, click "Accept Mission" to start. Select Airplane You begin at your primary airbase. Here you will select the first plane for your mission. You can always fly back to your base to change planes. But if the enemy ever destroys this primary airbase, you will lose the mission. Note your performance level Whenever you are at your airbase, you may choose any plane with a level equal to or less than your performance level. Your performance level rises as you successfully destroy enemy units and decreases when your plane is destroyed. However, no matter how low your performance level becomes you will always, always, always be able to fly the first plane on the list. Note that each plane has primary weapons (PRO) and secondary weapons (SEC), and speed, fuel, armor and agility are all listed. Click on "Fly Plane!" to begin your mission. Standard Controls Plane Direction: Up, Down, Left, Right Arrow Keys Accelerate: A or + Decelerate: Z or - Fire Primary Weapon: Space Bar Fire Secondary Weapon: CTRL key (if secondary weapon is available) Landing Gear: L or G (must be used near airfield) In Game Options Menu (Pauses the game, shows mission objectives) Options Menu/Pause Game: ESC Advanced Controls Use of advance controls is not required to play or enjoy the game. Order Weapons to Reload: R Hide/Reveal Instruments: TAB key Left Roll: SHIFT + Left Arrow Right Roll: SHIFT + Right Arrow Front Loop: SHIFT + Up Arrow Zoom In: PG DN key Zoom Out: PG UP key Strategic View (widest area): HOME key Default View: END key Landing A Plane To land, face the runway and lower your landing gear (L) and maneuver your plane through the three landing rings, largest to smallest. Remember that your plane must pass BELOW the top of each ring and DO NOT TOUCH THE GROUND. If you have trouble, on approach use the PG DN key to zoom the camera in closer to the plane. Landing instantly repairs and resupplies your current plane, or you may choose to fly a different plane. -------------- 3. Player Tips -------------- NOTE: You do NOT need the following suggestions to enjoy this game but you may find them helpful. Winning a Mission - Remember your objectives. You do not need to destroy every enemy unit on the map to win. Use the ESC key if you forget your mission objectives. - Read the mission tips. They often provide suggestions on how to play that mission. - Destroying an enemy airbase (either an airfield or aircraft carrier) will prevent it from launching more planes. To kill an airfield, target the part of landing strip near the control tower for best results. Strafing Ground Targets - It's easier to shoot any target when flying slowly. - Dive down on ground targets from a higher position for a good shooting angle. - Use PG DN key to zoom in for a better view of your target. Avoiding Anti-Aircraft Fire - It's easier to evade all kinds of AA fire when flying fast. - Enemy machine guns are more dangerous when you are flying low. - Enemy flak is more dangerous when you are flying high. - If you fly low enough, you can avoid enemy flak. Shooting Down Enemy Planes - Fly higher to see more. Sometimes you'll see enemy plane shadows that can lead you to the enemy plane. - Fly Fast to chase planes, but fly slowly to make sharp turns. - Hold the space bar down CONTINUOUSLY when you are shooting at the enemy plane. You have an unlimited supply of ammo (although it will reload periodically). - Some planes, like the Dauntless or B-25, have side or rear gunners that can shoot enemy planes even if you are not pointed in their direction or even off of the screen. Use the SPACE bar when enemy planes are nearby to activate the gunners. - Heavily damaged enemy planes will stop fighting and return to base. These heavily damaged planes have smoke trails and are easy to shoot down. - Gravity affects bullets. If you are shooting at a plane that is far away, aim high to hit it. - The closer you are to the enemy plane, the easier it is to hit. Attacking Ships - First target areas of the ship that have AA guns to knock them out. - Torpedoes deliver the greatest damage against ships. Torpedoes are short-lived, so drop them when flying low to maximize the distance they travel. - Fly low to avoid flak. - Be wary of crossfire - try not to fly in-between enemy ships. Landing the Plane - Note the arrows on the runway. They tell you which side of the runway to use for landing. - Get your plane pointed in a direction that approaches the runway before using L to activate the landing gear. - Never try to land unless the landing rings are visible. - Be careful to not fly too low - you will safely land if you fly through any area in the rings. Watch your plane shadow to see how close to the ground you are. - If you are having trouble gauging your altitude, use the PG DN key to zoom in. ---------- 4. DirectX ---------- If you try to run the game without DirectX8.0a installed, you will receive the following error message: "Could not initialize Direct 3D" If you receive this message, you may need to install DirectX8.0a and update your video drivers or you may not be running a video card with at least 8MB RAM on board (minimum spec). If you are unsure about updating video drivers, please see the section below entitled "Updating Drivers" a) The latest version of DirectX can be downloaded from the following site: http://www.microsoft.com/DirectX/ Make sure you download the correct version for your operating system. b) DirectX8.0a and supported hardware We recommend that Pearl Harbor:Zero Hour be run with DirectX compatible sound boards and video cards. While there is a chance that Pearl Harbor:Zero Hour will run with non-DirectX compatible hardware, you may find that: i) Sound quality suffers. ii) The game runs slower. iii) The game does not run at all. If your sound card or video card does not support DirectX8.0a, please contact your vendor. Also, there may be updated drivers on the websites of your card vendors. Updating Drivers Before you can download drivers for your video or sound card, you'll have to know what kind you have. Please take the following steps do determined what cards your machine uses. 1. Is your machine a Compaq, Dell, Gateway or other name brand system that came as a complete package? If so, then go to the web site for that company and look up video drivers for the system you purchased. These web site are usually pretty intuitive. If not, continue to the next step. 2. Go to the START button, then SETTINGS, and then click on CONTROL PANEL. 3. Open the file named SYSTEM. 4. Click on the TAB named DEVICE MANAGER. 5. Look on the list below for DISPLAY ADAPTERS and click once on the plus sign to the left of it. 6. This should list the name of your video card and it's manufacturer. 7. Find out what the manufacturer's web site is by doing an internet search for the name. Most video card manufacturer sites simply use their names, like www.nvidia.com 8. Once you have located the manufacturer's site, look for a section named "Drivers." 9. There you should find a list of various products. Find your video or sound card there and download the latest DirectX 8.0 compatible drivers for that card. 10. Follow the directions given with the driver to successfully install them. 11. Once the updated drivers and DirectX 8.0A are successfully installed, the game should function properly. --------------- 5. Video cards --------------- To run correctly, Pearl Harbor:Zero Hour requires DirectX8.0a or higher and a 3D accelerated graphics card with a minimum of 8 Megabytes of memory. The game has been tested to work with the following cards: Riva 128 TNT TNT2 Vanta GeForce SDR GeForce DDR GeForce 2 GeForce 2 MX Voodoo 3 Voodoo 4 Voodoo 5 Rage Pro Rage Pro Turbo Rage 128 Radeon Savage 4 Savage 2000 Savage 3D Matrox G400 Matrox G200 Intel 810 Trident Blade 3D If you are experiencing problems with your video card and Pearl Harbor:Zero Hour, try updating your video card driver by downloading the latest driver available from the video card manufacturer. If there is no improvement, try using the latest driver provided by the video chipset manufacturer. Your video card chipset is the video processing chip located on your video card. If there is no information in your video card manual or website, check the video card for an identifying chip with the chipset manufacturer's name on it. Some popular video chipset manufacturer's websites are listed below: NVidia http://www.nvidia.com/ Matrox http://www.matrox.com/ S3 http://www.s3graphics.com/ ATI http://www.ati.com/ ------------------- 6. Controller Info ------------------- We do not officially support the use of gamepads or flight sticks. However, they may indeed work if you would like to try using one. If your peripheral functions with the game, the default controls would be modeled on the Hammerhead controller: - Face - A button: Primary Fire B button: Secondary Fire C button: Landing Gear D button: Increase speed E button: Decrease speed F button: Enter - Left Side - Button 9 (aka trigger): Shift Button 7 (aka shoulder): Tab - Right Side - Button 10 (aka trigger): Zoom In Button 8 (aka shoulder): Zoom Out Your controller probably has software for customizing its configuration to various applications such as this one. ----------------- 7. Miscellaneous ----------------- * Check out the dramatic view when you skim your plane just above the water at MAXIMUM CAMERA ZOOM IN (use the PG DN key) and attack an enemy ship. * If you are having trouble killing an enemy airfield, concentrate your attack on the part of the runway that is right next to the control tower. Remember: don't target the control tower, target the runway next to it. -- Legal Lines -- Software (c) 2001 ASAP Games LLC. Pearl Harbor:Zero Hour, ASAP Games logo are trademarks of ASAP Games LLC. All rights reserved. DirectX and Direct3D are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, Inc. Permedia is a trademark of 3D Labs, Inc., LLC. nVidia is a registered trademark of Nvidia Corporation. Matrox is a registered trademark of Matrox Electronic Systems LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.