Nicholas Ferguson
1F1
123 Nicolson Street
EDINBURGH
EH8 9ER

(0131-667-9922)


	MUD 'N BLOOD

All code, graphics and sounds
by Nick Ferguson

"The dirtiest war in the world, and you're slap bang in the middle of it! 
Use your multi-purpose rifle and mines to dispose of the opposing player 
as quickly as possible, and claim this worthless heap of mud as your own. 
Anything goes - but remember that however low your tactics stoop, the 
enemy's could stoop even lower!"

Mud 'n Blood is a two-player, one-on-one combat game - fight for 
the title of 'World's Most Vicious Bastard'!

 HOW TO PLAY:

Mud 'n Blood uses the standard Playstation controller ONLY. As it is a two-
player game, two controllers are required to play properly...

 GAME CONTROLS:

D-PAD:

The directional buttons on the Playstation pad control the movement of your 
commando (and sniper sight when in sniper mode).

L1 button

Hold the L1 button to activate sniper mode. In sniper mode, your commando remains 
motionless whilst he aims. Sniper shots are much more powerful than normal, lower 
velocity bullets (hint: go for the head)!

R1 button

Hold the R1 button to fix your commando's position onscreen. This enables you to 
turn on the spot.

X button

The X button fires your rifle, be it in sniper or fully-automatic mode....

TRIANGE button

The TRIANGLE button  drops a standard issue mine. You only have a split second 
after you drop a mine till it primes, so move fast!!!


 STATUS BAR:

Your status bar is located at the top of the screen, and provides you with all the 
necessary information to be successful in your mission. As well as the energy bar, there 
are also 4 icons which indicate the following:

  Medals: the remaining commandos at your disposal
 
  Ammo: rounds of regular ammo left
 
  Sniper Sight: rounds of sniper ammo left
 
  Mine: number of mines remaining
 
 POWER UPS:
 
 Supplies randomly appear on the battlefield at regular intervals. As your maximum 
capacity of any item is quite low, the key to success is competent use of the power 
ups!
 
  Ammo: partially replenishes your supply of regular ammunition
 
  Sniper Sight: partially replenishes your supply of sniper ammunition
 
  Mine: partially replenishes your supply of mines
 
  First Aid: partially replenishes your commando's energy levels

 KNOWN BUGS/QUIRKS:

Occasional sound mess-ups (hey, it happens when you add sound in 6 hrs)
"Sticky" collision detection
Occasional direction-facing problems after being in sniper mode
Rumoured that players can die when they still have health...?


 FURTHER INFORMATION:

Mud 'n Blood was created using:

Edit Plus text editor (C code)
MS Paint and Adobe Photoshop (graphics)
Sound Forge (sound)

 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

PAL television.
Sony Playstation capable of running Net Yaroze software from a gold disk.
2 standard Playstation controllers.

 INSTALLATION / SETUP:

Refer to documentation from SCEE re: loading GDUK Net Yaroze software

 HISTORY OF ENTRY:

6 months ago, almost to this day, I knew absolutely nothing about C 
programming. I had dabbled in BASIC on the Spectrum as a child, but rather than go 
on to develop these early skills I chose to spend most of my time on the various 
computers I have owned since then playing games! I had always considered a career in 
the 'games industry', but I lacked any practical skills or experience.
	The Sony Net Yaroze project caught my attention when it was first announced, 
but I was disheartened when I read that a decent working knowledge of 'C' was 
required to write anything for it. It wasn't until a year after the machine's European 
release that I saw a Net Yaroze in action at a university friend's house; I was utterly 
blown away by the quality of games that had been produced for the system thus far, 
and resolved to learn C and get my own Yaroze so I could begin to write games 
myself.
	In the last 6 months, I have grown comfortable with C and adapted to 
programming the Net Yaroze. This GDUK entry is my first attempt at writing a game, 
and testament to the ease with which a complete novice can begin writing for the Net 
Yaroze system. If only I'd started a few months earlier, I believe the quality of my 
entry would be greatly improved. At the moment, I realise that Mud 'n Blood is not 
the most compelling game ever made (really, it is only the bare bones of the game I 
originally conceived)!
	I'm sorry that the extremely intensive four weeks I have spent programming, 
drawing and designing my entry mean I am unable to submit a design proposal for my 
original concept, but the wider idea was for a World War One trench warfare 
simulation, heavy on the arcade-action elements (similar to Beach Head I and II). 
Hopefully, if there is a GDUK '99, I'll be able to start coding prior to the month before 
the deadline! I'm not particularly happy with the final state of this game, but I am 
proud that I was able to do what's here in four weeks (whilst working part-time), and 
the amount I've learnt from this initial effort has been phenomenal!

If you want to know more, please visit my Net Yaroze homepage (mirror) at:

http://www.saqnet.co.uk/users/nickf/public_html/index.html

or, if you have access to the SCEE server:

http://www.netyaroze-europe.com/~rookie1
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