NIGHTHAWK(6) GAMES NIGHTHAWK(6)NAMEnighthawkSYNOPSISnighthawk [options]
DESCRIPTION
Nighthawk is a tribute to one of the most playable and contagious games
ever written- Paradroid by Andrew Braybrook. It was so good, it was
worthy of my attention span for 6 straight months, and was the subject
of conversation at school for many months as well. It was quite amazing
seen that i've never really been into "playing games", the only other
game that lifted my skirt was 3D-Wolfenstein (the pre-cursor to DOOM).
It all started when I was in year 10 (1987). A friend of mine gave me a
copy of Paradroid on a cassette tape (that was the common media for
C-64's among my friends at the time), and that was it!, I was hooked.
Nighthawk was named after the second ship (level) of the original game.
It was extremely difficult to get to this level. If you could slate the
Paradroid level AND Nighthawk level (let alone the other dozen levels),
you were very good, and would have been highly regarded among the gov‐
erning pimply faced C-64 evanglist aristocrary at my school (BTW, does
anyone know the full set of ship names in the original game?).
(Nb/ Here is a bit of useless but interesting trivia for you. Adrian
Bridgett, the Debian maintainer for this distribution noted to me that
Paradroid was also very similar to Quazatron for the Z80 Spectrum, one
of his favourite games. There's also an Amiga variation, and the
acclaimed Paradroid-90 on the Atari-ST).
In October 92 (during the end of my degree I was doing at the time), i
attempted to write a Messydos PC game like this, but didn't have enough
technical knowledge about real time programming and PC's etc. Four
years later, in October 96, started working on this game. Over a period
of a year, I worked on it on and off, to produce 1.0 that was released
in December 97.
Nighthawk has been exclusively written for the Unix/Linux X-Windows
GUI, and have choosen it because it's the most popular, stable, and
oldest GUI. Also, X-windows games are now very fashionable. Some say
that Linux/Xwindows is the game developers preferred choice! (i think I
read that in the Walnut Creek 1998 catalogue?), but I won't go that far
yet anyway ;).
NIGHTHAWK - PARADROID CHAPTER II - THE RESCUE FROM VEGA
The Earth forces have ambushed an enemy fleet transporting captured
Earth vessels bound for Vega. While crews were boarding these ships for
repairs, surviving Vegarian crew destroyed each ships warp core. This
has made the ships very radioactive, causing many of the droids on
board these ships to go 'rogue'. Our last contact with the crew indi‐
cated heavy loss of life. All attempts at contact or rescue have
proved futile. We can only fear the worst...
...However, we have depatched a Class 002 Paradroid. Improved over
the 001 class, the 002 will teleport to each ship and annihilate all
droids.
GAME PLAY
The mission is simple -- Slate all droids.
You start out as a 002 Paradroid. In the original game, you controlled
a 001 Influence device. They differ in the way they control their
hosts. The 001 droid was basically a helmet that fitted over the host
droids head, and could control it for a certain length of time. The
002 droid however actually transfers it's programs over to the new
host, effectively 'becoming' it, and destroying the old host it occu‐
pied.
There are good and bad points to this. The good point is that you can
occupy the host droid for an unlimited length of time, the bad point is
that you are stuck with the new hosts weaponry, speed and shields.
OPTIONS
Nighthawk game options
-h Display (this) help
-c<d> Start at a given ship (0-9)
-m Use sound effects and music
Music ('-m') options:
-p<d> No of Patterns alloc
-s<d> Sampling rate
-S<d> Stereo (S1=Stereo,S0=Mono)
-P<d> Precision (P8=8 bit,P16=16 bit)
-f<d> Frames
-F<d> Frame Fragment size
-x<d> No of FX channels
KEY SUMMARY
cursor keys - move
left click - fire
right click - panic fire
space - activate (lift, computer, boost)
t - toggle transfer mode
h - toggle headsup mode (off by default).
s - display status
p - pause
q - quit
MOVEMENT
Use the cursor keys to move around each map. To open a door, either
shoot it (see below) or move into it. Doors will close after a short
time.
To move around the ship, you must use the lifts (these look like
squares with a cross through them, you normally start on one). To use a
lift, move over it and press space. A map of the ship will appear,
showing all the lifts and a square dot which represents your droid.
Press up or down to the level you want to go to, and then press space
to exit the lift.
ATTACKING
To shoot, click the left mouse button at the target you are aiming at.
A right mouse click does a burst fire which sprays shots in all direc‐
tions.
The spin speed of a droid indicates how charged the shields of the
droid are. At full spin, the droid is fully charged. When a droid has
less than 1/4 shields green lights flash, and when they have less than
1/8 shields red lights flashes instead. To recharge shields, move over
a recharging point (they have swirly bits in them) and press space.
TRANSFERRING
You won't get very far in nighthawk unless you learn to transfer to
different droids. To transfer to a different droid, press "t" (white
lights will start flashing and you will be unable to shoot) then click
on a nearby droid (even one on the other side of a wall). The two
droids will "negotiate" (what a euphemism!) to see which one lives.
During negotiations, neither droid can shoot.
During the negotiations a bar will appear - the green part represents
your droid and the blue bar represents the enemy droid. The relative
amounts of these bars will change as the droids battle each other. When
the bar has turned one color, that droid wins. The negotiation will be
broken off if the two droids move too far apart.
As a general rule, don't negotiate with a droid that is more than two
classes above you - e.g if you are in a 423, negotiating with a 606 is
okay, but a 713 will probably kill you.
STATUS
Pressing "s" will display the number of shields you have left and the
number of droids left on the ship (assuming headsup is on). When some‐
thing interesting happens, a status message will appear. Here are some:
shields=10 you have 10 shields left
droids=9 there are 9 droids left to kill
002 d 107 002 droid destroyed 107 droid
002 h 423(8) 002 droid hit 423 droid (has then 8 shields left)
600 captured started negotiating with 600 droid
lost contact stopped negotiations (droids move too far apart)
boost=15(+3) shields were reacharged by 3 to 15
COMPUTERS
To find out information about your droid, go to a computer in the wall
and press space. Use the cursor keys to look at different droids, you
can find out:
Type - droid number
Name - title of the droid
Entry - "negotiation" skills
Height -
Weight - can it
Brain - intelligence of the droid
Arm - weapon (armament)
Shield - current and maximum number of shields
Speed - how fast the droid can move
Attack - agressiveness of the droid
SCORING
Recharging shields -10
Hit droid entry level
Destroyed droid 25 x entry level
Transferring 50 x entry level
You get points for hitting/destroying a droid even if it was another
droid that did the shooting!
WEAPON TYPES
Speed Damage
Linarite 8 4
Crocoite-Benzol 10 10
Uvarovite 12 20
Tiger-Eye Quartz 9 50
DROID TYPES
0xx - Prototype Class
These droids are prototype/ experimental class that vary in
function considerably. Approach with caution.
1xx - Cleaning Droids
Mindless, slow, low shielded, unarmed droids that clean the
ships. Harmless.
2xx - Logistic/Servant Droids
Again, brainless droids that do various tasks. These type can
vary in shield and strength. This class is harmless as well.
3xx - Messenger Droids
Mindless, but very fast. Low shield rating, and are not armed.
4xx - Maintenance Droids
Designed to repair the ships. Vary in shield and speed ratings.
Sometimes armed.
5xx - Medical Droids
These droids have a high entry level, and are difficult to
crack. All of them are armed, but are not hostile. However, they
will shoot at any droids that attack them.
6xx - Sentinel Droids
These droids 'guard' certain important area's of the ships like
lifts, power bays and other droids. They vary in shield rating,
speed and fire power, but all are armed and will attack.
Approach with caution.
7xx - Battle Droids
This class of droid 'hunts'. When confronted, any will attack.
They vary in speed, shield rating and weaponary, but all are
extremely dangerous.
8xx - Crew Droids
These are armed droids that control the ship. These like the
5xx class are not hostile, but will become hostile to any droids
that attack them. 8xx's are armed with Uvarovite lasers, and
pack a rather powerful wallop.
9xx - Command Cyborgs
Each ship will have one of these. They command the ships.
Extremely armed, extremely shielded, often very fast, and very
deadly.
SHIPS
Ship Type Difficulty
-------------------------------------------
Haldeck Fleet Support Very easy
Seafarer Cargo Vessel Moderate
Anoyle Attack Frigate Difficult
Esperence Battle Cruiser Tricky/Very difficult
Ophukus Medical Frigate Moderate (lots of 5xx's)
Mearkat Scout Ship Tricky/Difficult
Friendship Destroyer Class Tricky/Difficult (6xx's)
Discovery Scientific Frigate Difficult (lots of 8xx's)
Zaxon Battle Cruiser Tricky/Very difficult (7xx's)
Tobruk Flag Ship EXTREMELY difficult
To start at a particular ship, run nighthawk like this:
nighthawk -c<ship-number 0-9>
Note that the high score table will treat this as cheating.
GAME TIPS
If possible, create 'friendly fire'. This is very easy to do. Get
inbetween any two armed droids. If one of them preemptively attacks,
simply duck at the last minute (if not, then just shoot at one). Their
laser fire will/should/hopefully hit the other droid. The other droid
will then fire back at the droid that accidently attacked it. When the
attacking droid is hit, it will fire back at the droid firing at
it....hence a shoot out will occur. The result is either two destroyed
droids, or one left staying with a reduced shield.
Another good thing about friendly fire is that it's an excellent dis‐
traction. Any 6xx,7xx, 9xx droids involved in one, won't be concerned
with you at all; they will be too busy blowing away their mate.
Always duck for cover when fired upon, and when you shoot a droid fit‐
ted with weapons, be ready to duck for cover. Don't just take it.
Armed droids will always return fire immediately with an equal or
greater rate.
Get into the habit of firing a 4-6 round volley, then ducking behind a
wall, door, storage unit... or even another droid. 261's are excellent
to hide behind. These droids are industrial cargo movers. Being heavy
machinery, they have a very high shield rating and can buffer many
laser blows. Medical Droids (5xx series) are another good example.
Medical droids are armed but passive. They won't attack anyone unless
fired upon. When an attack droid is firing at you, duck behind a medi‐
cal droid. If the attacking droid hits the medic, then the medic will
fire (one shot) back at the attacking droid (yet another 'friendly
fire' example). The 599 Surgeon droids are fitted with the powerful
Uvarovite lasers, and will cheerfully sodomise any minor class 6xx's or
7xx's that accidently attack it.
This game requires lots of lateral thinking. Simply blasting everything
in sight is not going to get you very far (maybe the first and second
ship if you're lucky). You have to rely on transferring to higher order
droids inorder to conquer droids with more fire power than yourself or
to go through walls. You have to shoot smart. Hostile droids will
always attack with an equal or greater rate. With "head-on" shoot outs
(that most newbies will tend to do), it's only a matter of who has the
bigger shields and lasers who will win. Some droids are simply too
risky to confront, like 799's, and 9xx's. It's far better to transfer
to them through a wall (where you can't get shot at). In Ship "Zaxon"
you are forced to confront 7xx's head on as there are so many of them.
On some ships, be selective with droids to destroy. You may need to
transfer back through a wall inorder to return to the place you
started.
As a general rule, if a 6xx is shooting at you, don't shoot back,
instead duck for cover, even if you sustain some hits doing it. Don't
stand your ground and fire back. However, with 7xx's & 9xx's, because
of their unpredictable behaviour and rapid fire power, the above tactic
may not work.
Nb/ that there is a systematic "nack" to completing the levels, and if
people are having difficulty, i'll publish a guide on how to complete
each level.
CONTACTS
- http://jsno.leal.com.au
Nighthawk Version 2.x NIGHTHAWK(6)
