                          
                         ___________________________
                        |                           |
                        |   S P L A Y M A S T E R   |
                        |___________________________|
                             
                       Version 1.10 Copyright 1993-1996
                               by Chris Elsbree



Description
===========
SplayMaster is a tournament style space combat game in which you must 
destroy your opponent before your opponent destroys you.

* Choose from eight ships with different flight/weapons characteristics.

* 256 color VGA graphics with smooth panning/zooming and real-time
  sprite scaling and rotation.

* SoundBlaster support for digitized sounds and music.

* For 1 or 2 players; three skill levels.



System Requirements
===================
  - 386 processor or better (486 or better highly recommended)
  - VGA graphics
  - MSDOS
  - About 500K free conventional memory
  - 1 joystick recommended (2 joysticks recommended for 2 player game)
  - SoundBlaster recommended



Game Controls
=============

Controls during combat  
----------------------  
  joystick left:                        rotate ship counter clockwise
  joystick right:                       rotate ship clockwise
  joystick down:                        engage thrusters
  joystick up:                          engage hyper drive
  press fire button 1:                  fire photon cannon
  press and release fire button 2:      launch guided missile
  press and hold fire buttons 1 and 2:  raise deflector shield
  
  Escape key:                           Quit combat; return to player
                                          selection/title screen
  'P' key:                              Pause the game


Controls at title screen
------------------------
  joystick up/down:                     Move selection pointer
  fire button1/button2:                 Change/make selection
  
  Escape key:                           Quit the game


Controls at player selection screen
-----------------------------------
  joystick left/right:                  Move selection indicator
  fire button1/button2:                 Make selection
  
  Escape key:                           Return to title screen


Keyboard equivalents of joystick controls
-----------------------------------------
  'S' key:                              Joystick1 left
  'F' key:                              Joystick1 right
  'E' key:                              Joystick1 up
  'D' key:                              Joystick1 down
  '3' ('#') key:                        Joystick1 fire button1 
  '2' ('@') key:                        Joystick1 fire button2

  left arrow key (numpad 4):            Joystick2 left
  right arrow key (numpad 6):           Joystick2 right
  up arrow key (numpad 8):              Joystick2 up
  down arrow key (numpad 2):            Joystick2 down
  '9' ('(') key:                        Joystick2 fire button1 
  '0' (')') key:                        Joystick2 fire button2

Note:  The keyboard equivalents for a given joystick are only functional 
if that joystick is _not_ present (or if the -nojoy command line switch
is used (described below)). 



Command Line Switches
=====================
  -j      :  calibrate joystick(s) before starting game
  -s      :  disable digitized sounds
  -m      :  disable music
  -nojoy  :  ignore attached joysticks; use keyboard for all controls

  For example, at the C:> prompt, type:
  splay -j -s -m
  to calibrate the joystick(s), and disable sound and music.
  Note:  joystick calibration information is saved to disk, so you don't
  have to calibrate the joystick(s) every time you play the game.





