Berzerk 3D
==========
by Binary Agents (C)2006
http://www.binaryagents.com

Created for the 2006 Retro Remakes Competition

Agent 0: Neil King   : Programming & Graphics
Agent 1: Paul Dawson : Music & Sound

Contact: crew@binaryagents.com

Features included from the Original
-----------------------------------
>> Mazes/Rooms from both the Atari 2600 version and
    the more randomized arcade version (and the
    Vectrex version)
>> The speech is there, including "Get the humanoid.
    Get the intruder" and "Chicken. Fight like a
    robot" (although remade and much improved).
>> The invincible Evil Otto enters if you stay in
    a room more than 30 seconds.
>> Up to 11 robots per room.
>> Extra life at 10,000 points.
>> More than 64,000 rooms.
>> Hiscore table (auto saved) so you can prove to
   your friends how good you are.

Features new for this Remake
----------------------------
>> 3D roaming environment
>> 3D animated characters.
>> A unique pumping soundtrack to add to the frenzy:
    - Titlescreen: extract from "russian cluster
      beacon" (C)Paul Dawson
    - Main game - extract from "gun-screen contact"
      (C)Paul Dawson
>> Custom made, specially crafted sound FX and
    voices.
>> Lots of options to make the game as easy or as
    difficult as you like (auto saved).
>> Slightly smarter robots (although you can still
    get them to shoot each other or walk into walls)

Improvements in v1.1
--------------------
>> Player rotating is now much faster rather than
    the slower lifelike motion (by popular demand).
>> Shooting is now much more accurate rather than
    the slightly more lifelike spread of shots.
>> Floors are better, slightly uneven and now
    affected by the players torch.
>> When you leave a room you will appear in the
    next room at the opposite end.
>> Explosions are 20% faster and are visible for
    the entire time they can kill you so there is
    less of a chance of accidentally walking into
    a fading one.
>> Player animation improved (less camp!).
>> Blocked exits now appear in red like in the
    original versions.

Installation
------------
Put the berzerk3d.exe file in a folder on your
hard disk (or other writable drive) and run it!
The software will automatically save any option
changes and the hiscore table to a file in the
same folder, and load them the next time you play.
You need a half decent 3D graphics card and you
MUST have DirectX 9.0c (Dec 2005 or later)
installed - available free from:
   http://www.microsoft.com/directx/

What is Berzerk 3D?
-------------------
The best description is from the back of the box
for the Atari 2600 version:
"You are a prisoner on an alien planet (Mazeon)
 that is made up of mazes. Robot gangs hunt you
 and you must shoot them before they hit you.
 Evil Otto, a grinning sinister face who is
 invincible, pursues you. If you can keep cool
 and not go bonkers, you'll eliminate robots,
 escape Evil Otto, and score big points."

What do you have to do?
-----------------------
Basically, you are dropped into mazes (simple
rooms with various walls). You must shoot the
robots and move on to the next room.
>> You get 50 points for each robot destroyed, but
    NO extra points for leaving a room. No matter
    how the robot dies (shot, bumps into a wall,
    Evil Otto squashes them etc) you get the points.
>> If you hang around in a room for more than 30
    seconds, Evil Otto comes to get you. He is
    invincible, can walk through walls and will
    destroy anyone in his way (including any robots).
>> You and the robots will die if you are shot, bump
    into a robot, touch the electrified walls or
    wonder into an explosion.
>> When you first enter a room you are invincible
    for 3 seconds and the robots will not shoot. Use
    this time wisely, especially if you appear close
    to several robots.
>> In your first room, there is a single robot who
    will not shoot but will try and walk into you.
    This is so you can get familiar with the
    controls. Each level after that has an increasing
    number of robots until the maxmimum is reached
    (set in the options).
Sounds simple, eh?

How do you play it?
-------------------
From the title screen you can click on the 'Options'
button to change the settings. All of the left hand
options are for easy gameplay. All of the right hand
options are for hard gameplay. You can mix and match
different options, e.g. limit the number of robots
to 5 (easy) but start with only 3 lives (hard). The
default setting puts everything on 'hard' making it
more authentic to the arcade version.
You can redefine the keys used to control the player
by clicking the 'Keys' button. Click on the control
you want to change and then press the key to define.
By default you control your player using the cursor
keys and the space bar to shoot.
All settings are auto saved so your preferences and
keyboard definitions will stick the next time you
play. 

Some history of Berzerk
-----------------------
The game was originally created by Alan McNeil at
Universal Research Laboratories, a division of Stern
Electronics.
Stern made 37,620 Berzerk arcade machines after
releasing it in 1980, and some consider it to be the
ancestor of the first person shooter.
It was one of the first games to feature digitized
speech that really made it stand out in arcades. A
total of 16 words were digitized and put together to
form different phrases. Each word was rumoured to
have cost $1000 to sample at that time.
Berzerk has the unfortunate crown of being the first
computer game to be linked to a players death. In
January 1981, Jeff Dailey died at the age of 19 from
a heart attack after scoring 16,660 on Berzerk. The
following year in October, 18 year old Peter
Burkowski got his name in the hiscore table twice in
fifteen minutes before immediately dying of a heart
attack too.
The game was ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200,
and the Vectrex. Many, many clones appeared for just
about every home computer there was.

Who are Binary Agents?
----------------------
We are visual and audio media architects.

What?
-----
We hope you like the game.
We would like you to play it. You can give copies
to your friends. You must not make any money from
it. The entire contents remain Copyrighted and you
may not use any part of this software (including
the audio) for anything else - even free projects
without permission. If you do want to use something
or would just like to say 'hi', we'd love to hear
from you at crew@binaryagents.com

We have taken great care in producing this
software but will not be held responsible if you
run it on your computer. If your ears bleed, or
your eyes burn, or you feel slightly hungry you
should probably stop playing at once.

Quotes from the book of Binary
------------------------------
"He who compares the duration of 2 sets of equal
 beats will surely find the collective ratio, unless
 thow hath a retched button do it for you"
                     - Agent 1, Chapter 15

"Those who foresee a future of easier bug squishing
 hath embraced the 'code commenting' way of life"
                     - Agent 0, Chapter 10