
                                 SPIN.EXE
                   Copyright 1995-1997 Ground Up Software
                             SPIN is freeware!
                                 05/05/96

                           SPIN Version 1.33 Beta
                         Featuring VAT Version 1.16
                          and GUG version 0.70 beta

==============================================================================

  What is SPIN?

     SPIN is a single player shoot-em-up game. Your mission is to protect
     the freighters from the pirates, to clear the freighter lanes of
     the pirates, and to arrest as many pirates as possible.

  Freeware:

     SPIN is freeware!!! You may distribute it freely as long as all 
     the original files are included. You may NOT distribute it if
     you make any changes to any of the files.

     You do not have permission to sell SPIN for profit.  However, we
     do grant permission for SPIN to be bundled with Public Domain software 
     collections.
  
  Running SPIN:

     CD to the directory with SPIN.EXE
     Type SPIN to start the game

     SPIN supports a few  command line options:

            /sound         disable sound
            /music         no music / Audio effects only
            /quick         for slower PC's
            /joystick      enable joystick control
            /rate nnnnn    sample rate (5000 to 44000, 11000 = default)

        IE: /rate 22000 /joystick

           /rate refers to the mixing rate for the music and sound effect.
           If you set it too high for your computer SPIN will run slowly
           and may even crash.

           Suggested rates:

             386's      /rate 5000  to  /rate 9000  or even /sound
             486SX33    /rate 11000   (this is the default)
             486DX2-66  /rate 16000
             486DX2-100 /rate 22000
             Pentium's  /rate 33000  to  /rate 44000

     SPIN will load up to 30 MOD/S3M music files for background music. 
     These can be any MOD's you like. Copy your favorite MOD's and S3M's
     to your SPIN directory. Remember that <F1> changes to the next song.


  Playing SPIN:

     Upon starting SPIN, you will be presented with a series of 
     title and information screens.  Pressing the spacebar will take you
     past each one of the screens and into the game.

     Pay attention to the information screen that shows you each of the 
     items you will encounter in the SPIN universe. You will see
     a picture of the item and a brief description of the item.

     Also pay attention to the Control screen. It will identify the
     keys used to play SPIN.

        [SPACE]      Fire Weapon
        [ALT]        Fire Weapon Backwards - Only on Advanced Weapons
        <-- and -->  Spin Left or Right
        <W>          Toggle WARP drive On or Off
        ^ and v      Accelerate / Decelerate
     
     Other Keys

       [+][-]        Set the music volume
       [F1]          Change to the next song
       [F10]         Clear stuck keys
       [ESC]         Quit playing SPIN

     Items found in the SPIN universe can be collected by touching them
     with your ship.

   SCANNERS:

        Long Range Scanner:
   
          You are in the center (The purple crosshair). Objects appear
          as colored dots in the scanners. Pirates are RED and they blink!
          To fly towards an object point the nose of the ship in the
          general direction of the object from the crosshair. Use the
          <W>arp drive to quickly move towards the object.

          When a freighter is being attacked by a pirate you will see a
          little blue crosshair at the location of the freighter.

        Short Range Scanner:

          Again you are in the center. Watch for the object you are closing
          on to appear in the short range scanner. Once it does press <W>arp
          again to shut down the WARP drive. Steer the ship towards the item.
          Fly over the item to collect and/or activate it.

   BAR Indicators:

      Energy Indicator:

          Along the LEFT edge of the screen is the energy indicator.
          Your ship can initially store 2000 energy units, indicated
          by the WHITE bar. The colored bar on top of the WHITE bar
          indicates the energy remaining. When it turns ORANGE or RED
          your energy reserve is critical!!!

          By adding addition storage tanks you can increase you capacity
          to 6000 units. Look for objects in the SPIN universe that add
          storage capacity.

          There is also an alpha-numeric indicator of your energy status.

      Speed Indicator:

          Next to the energy indicator is a speed indicator. It shows your
          speed from 0.0 to 9.9. It turns blue when you are in warp.

          There is also an alpha-numeric indicator of your speed.

   Other Indicators:

       Weapon Indicator:

          You will see an alpha-numeric indicator of your current weapon
          type and the shots remaining on it.

       Shield Indicator:

          When you first start you have no shield, the indicator will
          show an OFF status. Collect shield objects to increase your
          shield's effectiveness. Higher values are better here!


   Now go at it!!! Type SPIN and enjoy our little demo!!!!

-Neil

==============================================================================

  What the critics are saying:

      SPIN is awesome!!!!             - Jerry
      20 minutes into the future....  - MaxH
      You guys at Ground Up are gods! - Brian
      Blittin is overrated!.....      - Eric
      SPIN even runs on my slow 386!  - Paul
      Awesome, simply awesome.....    - Andre
      That's cool..............       - Bo
      Ahhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhhhhhh       - Beavis
      Like, cool...... What is it?    - Butt-head
	
==============================================================================

  Sound Problems?

     SPIN expects to find a Sound Blaster compatible sound card. It will
     not play music and sound effects on non-SB compatible cards.

     If you do not have a SB compatable card run SPIN with the -s option.
        I.E.  spin -s

     If you have a SB compatible card and you get no sound or music then
     SPIN may not be detecting you card. You can assist SPIN in finding
     you card by adding a BLASTER string to the environment.
  
     For 8-bit cards try:
       SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330 T6

     For my SB16 card I use:
       SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6

     Type in the SET command then run SPIN. If this fixes the problem
     you may want to add the SET commmand to you AUTOEXEC.BAT

     If your card is at a non-standard address/interrupt you will need
     to change Annn or In to the correct settings.

==============================================================================

  Why SPIN?

     SPIN was written to demonstrate the capabilities of VAT and GUG.

     What is VAT?

        VAT is Varmint's Audio Tools, a Sound Blaster library for playing 
        music and sound effects in the background.  VAT supports MOD, S3M,
        MID, and WAV files, as well as FM, MPU, and Mixer control.

           For more info:
              info@groundup.com
              http://www.groundup.com/vat.html
              ftp://ftp.groundup.com/

     What is GUG?
      
        GUG is Ground Up Graphics. A library for mode 13x (320x200x256)
        graphics. It is designed for Watcom 10.x 32-bit. It supports
        compiled sprites, keyboard handling, joysticks and fixed point
        math.

           For more info:
              info@groundup.com
              http://www.groundup.com/gug.html
              ftp://ftp.groundup.com/

     Both VAT and GUG have been tested against the CauseWay and
     DOS4GW extenders.


==============================================================================

