Virus Killer - Gameplay Manual

#### Contents

1. License and Disclaimer
2. Introduction
3. Requirements
4. Installation
5. Running
6. Controls
7. Starting a New Game
8. How to Play
9. Items
10. Viruses
11. Options
12. Game Over
13. Misc Gameplay Information
14. About

#### License and Disclaimer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

Virus Killer is distributed and licensed under the GNU General Public License. You can read the full license by clicking here.

This license agreement is shown the first time the game is played. IT MUST NOT BE REMOVED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE THIS GAME IN ANY FORM WHERE THE USER DOES NOT SEE THE LICENSE.

This manual is based on the downloadable version of Virus Killer as found on the Parallel Realities website. Be aware that depending on the version of the game you are playing this manual may be incomplete or incorrect in places.

#### Introduction

The Internet was created by Microsoft and first shipped with Windows 95. It was accompanied by the greatest launch lineup ever seen. A wealth of information exists for every taste, covering adverts for loans, adverts for weightless, adverts for dating and pornography.

Unfortunately in life you must learn to take the rough with the smooth. Viruses appeared in great numbers and are flooding into peoples' computers on a daily basis. But now you can fight them...

#### Requirements

Virus Killer requires the following,

- SDL
- SDL Image
- SDL Mixer
- SDL TTF
- ZZIP Lib

RAM and CPU requirements are currently not known.

Most Linux users will find that the required SDL libraries came with their system and are probably already installed. If not, click the name of the library above to go to the relevant homepage.

#### Installation

Virus Killer can be installed in two different ways. The first (and easiest) is by using a binary RPM package. The second involves building the game. It is recommended that you install via an RPM if you are able to. You will require the libraries listed in the Requirements section whichever method you choose. For installation from source you will also require the development packages for those libraries listed.

Installation from RPM Package

To install from RPM simply use your preferred method of installation (eg - via a GUI such as KPackage or via a terminal). If you wish to install via a terminal you can use the do so by typing the following (remember to change the filename to match the name of the package you are installing),

rpm -U viruskiller-0.1-1.i586.rpm

Provided you have all the required libraries installed the game should install without problems.

Installation from source

If you choose this method you will need to build the game from source. This will require all the appropriate development libraries (see Requirements) and some knowledge of building an application using the source code. Open a terminal and use the following commands to extract, compile and install the game,

tar xzf viruskiller-0.1-1.tar.gz
cd viruskiller-0.1-1
make
make install*

* - You will have to be root in order to perform this step.

Notes

- Default installation target is /usr/games for the binary and /usr/share/games for the data
- Music and Font data are extracted to /tmp and loaded from there. SDL currently does not support loading music directly from memory. Also segmentation faults occurred when loading fonts from memory. These are only minor issues and should not affect the game in any way.
- Menu items are added for Gnome and KDE desktops. Games and Games/Arcade respectively.

#### Running

Either type,

viruskiller

in a terminal window, or you can use the menu links that have been added for Gnome and KDE desktops. These under located in Games and Games / Arcade respectively.

#### Controls

In Game

Mouse | Control targetter during game
Left Mouse Button | Fire Kernel Laser
Right Mouse Button | Use Thread Stopper (when available)
P | Pause Game
Escape | Show In Game Menu

Menus

Arrow Keys | Choose option
Ctrl / Space / Return | Select highlighted option

#### Starting a New Game

From the title screen, press space / escape or return to bring up the main menu. Select Start New Game and then choose a difficulty setting. The difficulty setting you choose will affect the way the game is played, from the speed at which the viruses move, their numbers, their types and points you score.

#### Options

Fullscreen | Toggles fullscreen mode. Either Off or On.
Sound Volume | Changes sound volume. Slide the bar left or right to decrease or increase the sound volume.
Music Volume | Changes music volume. Slide the bar left or right to decrease or increase the music volume.
Brightness | Changes the brightness. Slide the bar left or right to decrease or increase the brightness of the display.

#### How to Play

Ultimately the aim of the game is to score as many points as possible. Points are scored by destroying viruses and with bonuses at the end of each round. Depending on the mode of play the points you score will differ.

Viruses will stream in each round from the various MS products and begin to make their way towards your directories. Viruses can be destroyed by firing your kernel laser at them. This laser power is limited and decreases as the laser is fired. Once the power is exhausted you must wait for it to charge up again. The laser recharges whenever it is not being fired, whenever you kill a virus and whenever you pickup a battery.

The actions of the viruses differs depending on their type. See the Viruses section for more information. You should endevour to keep the viruses away from your directories whenever possible.

The number of viruses and the length of the round increases with each new round, and therefore so does the difficulty.

It is possible to halt the action on screen with the use of a Thread Blocker. This is a special pickup that allows you to click the Right Mouse Button and freeze all the viruses on screen. For approximately 6 seconds you will be able to destroy viruses without them being able to move or without losing any Kernel Power. Note that this does not affect viruses that have already entered a directory.

There are also various pickups that can aid you in your battle, they are listed in the Items section.

#### Items

During the course of the game various pickups will appear on screen. To pick them up simply shoot them. Below is a list of what each of these pickups does,

| Battery - This pickup will fully restore your Kernel Power to maximum.
| Thread Blocker - Gives you one extra Thread Blocker (use with Right Mouse Button)
| Bomb - When shot this item will destroy all the viruses on screen (except those within directories) and then disappears. Can be extremely useful in frantic situations. It is however rare so shoot it as soon as you see it.

#### Viruses

There are three types of viruses in this game. Each performs a different action and are described below,

| Green Thief - The green thief virus enters directories and steals files. It will then attempt to take these files back to the security hole it entered from. If it is killed when it is carrying a file the file is automatically returned to its home directory.
| Red Hungry Fuzz - Upon entering a directory this virus will eat a file and then disappear. It is therefore more dangerous than the Thief since there is no way of stopping it when it enters a directory.
| Flaming Skull - The most dangerous virus there is. It moves very slowly but will destroy the entire directory once it gets into it. You should destroy these viruses as soon as you see them.

#### Game Over

The game is over when you no longer have any directories left to protect. At this point you will see the Game Over screen. If you have have managed to get a highscore you will then be prompted to enter your name, if not you will return to the title screen.

#### Misc Gameplay Information

There are two other gameplay modes available. Unlocking them will require a little patience...

#### About

Parallel Realities started off writing games on the Amiga using AMOS and then, later, Blitz Basic 2. Games written included the BOTSS Trilogy and most notably TANX Squadron. TANX Squadron was awarded Amiga Format's contributor prize of the month in the summer of 1999. Project: Starfighter was Parallel Realities' first contribution to the Linux gaming scene and was well recieved when it was released in 2003.

Virus Killer is one of several games that Parallel Realities have produced for the Linux community. Others include a puzzle game called Q; Metal Blob Solid, a platform game like those found on the SNES; And Project: Starfighter, a 2D mission based arcade shoot 'em up. All these and more can be downloaded from our website.

Virus Killer
Copyright © 2003 Parallel Realities
Licensed under the GNU General Public License

www.parallelrealities.co.uk