0. Contents
Click on a title to jump to that section:

• 1. About the Game
• 2. Installation, and the problems with RAM
• 3. How to Play
• 4. Clarity of Graphics
• 5. Credits
• 6. Useless Nostalgia
• 7. Contact Information

1. About the Game
Fire Track 2 is a new version of Fire Track - it's not intended to be a sequel, more as the same game but with loads of improvements. The aim of the game, however, remains the same - you need to rack up points to get yourself onto the high score table. You can get points in three different ways;

• Killing an enemy ship.
• Shooting an enemy building on the terrain below.
• Kamikaze (only applies to Extended mode only).

There are two modes of play - Classic or Extended. Classic is the mode that plays like the original BBC Micro game. In this, you need to complete 10 levels with alternating terrains to win the game, whilst getting a high score. In this mode there are no powerups, and your ship is in 'continual fire' mode - you cannot control the shooting! In Extended mode, you can pick up a powerup every 100 points which add a limited extra function to your ship. You have to control the shooting, and the levels are randomly generated. This version of the game doesn't end, and is so you can crank up a whopping high score. The two different games have two different high score tables.

Fire Track 2 was written (with the exception of some pieces of code -- see the credits) by Benjamin Ryves, based on an original game by Electric Dreams (produced by Software Studios).

2. Installation, and the problems with RAM
Installation is, as ever, very easy. In the zip download you should have found 2 .8xp files - one for Ion and one for MirageOS. Using TI-Connect, GraphLink or whichever other linking package you use, send the one you want (you don't need both) to your calculator. The MirageOS one is recommended, as you'll have less problems in low-RAM conditions.
Fire Track 2 is a BIG game. It uses a lot of compression and space saving inside it, which does lead to one problem. FT2 needs to handle a lot of different buffers - and for the screen and smooth scrolling it requires some large buffers indeed. Instead of allocating the RAM required inside the program, adding some empty space to the program itself, the program creates a page file and uses that as its buffer. This page file is quite large - you'll have difficulty running the program with less than 8KB of RAM free. If you do, you'll get this message:

Press 2nd and delete or archive a few programs until you stop getting the message. This will affect Ion users worse than MirageOS users as with Ion you need to have the shell in RAM too. Once you get to the title screen, you're all set!

3. How to Play
Once at the title screen, you have a choice of which button to press; 2nd or Clear. Clear quits. Pressing 2nd will take you to the game type selection menu. Press Up/Down to make your selection, then hit 2nd to start the game.

Firstly you'll see a high score table - remember, the high scores for Classic and Extended are different. Hit 2nd and you'll be taken into the game. When the game starts, and every time after you get killed, you'll not only see your ship, but some others - these are your lives.

Every time you die, you lose one life. When all your lives are used up, the game ends. You can also end a game by pressing Clear. When in a game, press Del to pause, then press 2nd to resume.

If you are in Extended mode, pressing 2nd will fire. In Classic mode, you fire all the time. Shoot the enemy ships down, and shoot the tiles in the scrolling background. Note that the dumbbell shaped ships cannot be killed by normal bullets; they serve only to block shots. If you use a powerup, they can be killed, but give no points. Points are displayed in the counter in the top-left. Some enemies render more points than others - the same goes for the ground tiles.

At the end of certain levels, you'll encounter a face that loops. To end the level from that point, you need to shoot out both its eyes. Try and shoot out the other tiles first - remember, you're playing for points!

In Extended mode, you'll sometimes see a little circle with a question mark on it. Pick this up! Fly over it, and you'll be awarded a random powerup.

In the top-right, a little icon will appear with a number. The icon represents a powerup, and the number indicates how many uses are available. Pressing Mode will fire the powerup. The powerups are as follows:

EMP: Sends a scrolling wave of destruction up the screen.
Laser: A straight beam that kills anything in its path.
Shield: A temporary invincibility powerup. Nothing can kill you!
Time Freezer: Stops the enemies dead in their tracks.
Kamikaze: Blow up everything... including yourself! (+100 points for using).
Speed: Move twice as fast for a short period of time.

The only other thing that you need to watch out for is the tracking mine. This '+' shaped enemy follows you around - just don't crash into it! It appears in level 2 and upwards, in both Extended and Classic mode.

When entering scores, use the letter keys (space can be used to clear characters!) and the left/right cursor keys. To enter the initials, press 2nd.

Just to sum up, here is a key guide for the game-

4. Clarity of Graphics
In any smooth/fast TI game, there are going to be problems seeing the screen. To fix this, here are a few suggestions:

• Play in a brightly lit area.
• Tweak the screen contrast with the +/- keys. Low contrasts work surprisingly well...
• Use the inverse screen mode (press * to toggle).

5. Credits
(.INC files referring to source files).
KEYVAL.INC values thanks to John Wyrwas.
SPRITE.INC sprite drawing routines thanks to James Vernon of the TCPA.
LEVELMAN.INC RLE decompression code and Windows compressor by Joe Pemberton.
GENERAL.INC RLE decompression code by David Phillips.
PATHS.INC Thanks to Joe P for the idea on how to make the paths ~50% smaller, saving 506 bytes!

Thanks to all the beta testers who replied and pointed out some of the bugs I'd missed.

6. Useless Nostalgia
As with the old TI version, here are some BBC Micro screenshots to show you the original game.

As you can see by the last two screenshots, the ever-repeating levels were made more interesting by palette-switching to some different psychedelic colours - not something I can really do on the TI!

7. Contact Information
Just in case you want to send any questions, comments, or just want to say hello;
w: http://www.benryves.com
e: benryves@benryves.com
aim: calc83plus

Ben Ryves / Spitfire Productions 2004