The aliens will never be safe again...

User Manual

Introduction

If you are fed up with the unending ranks of boring first-person-shooters, then Polyzorg is for you, bringing retro arcade alien-blasting into the 3D age.

So collect those power-ups and kick some alien behind.

Installation Requirements

Computer : 2-GHz PC. Dual-core preferred.
Operating System: Windows XP with 512Mb of RAM.

Graphics: Polyzorg uses something called OpenGL. OpenGL is a special graphics library used by computers to draw 3D graphics. To play Polyzorg you need to have a graphics-card that properly supports OpenGL.

Testing has shown that Polyzorg doesn’t work properly on both Matrox and 3Dlabs graphics cards. Nvidia and ATI cards are well supported, and these are recommended for playing this game, a good fast(ish) one with at least 256Mb of onboard graphics memory. You should also make sure you have a good fast PC (preferably dual-core).

You might think that Polyzorg graphics are simple, but in fact the game uses a very large number of facets so you need a quick computer for best results.

If you have trouble getting the game to run properly, then check out ‘Troubleshooting’ for some suggestions.

Display Screen: Anything will do, but it looks really cool on a good widescreen monitor.

Keyboard and Joystick: The game can be controlled with the keyboard or the joystick.

The default keyboard controls are:

Left,Right,Up,Down Cursors – Moves your ship, the Raven III
Control – Fire primary and secondary weapons
Space – Fire tertiary weapon
Tab – Payload selector for tertiary weapon

F10 - Turn the camera rotation on and off.

Esc – Terminate game or exit.
Press any fire key to start the game.
Press F1 to redefine the keys to whatever you prefer.

Weapons

Primary Laser Canon – Your reliable old friend. Multiple upgrades are possible – dual or even quad cannons will send the aliens run for cover.

Spread Weapons – Blue bolts of retribution that cause merry hell with those aliens. Multiple upgrades can create a rain of blue fire.

Homing Missiles – Dispatch those annoying Zorg with better precision. Get the upgrades for extra power and dual launchers

Rear Cannons – A bit of rear defense is always wise.

Tertiary Weapons

These weapons are held in the Payload bay until selected with the TAB key. They are deployed by using Space key.

Plasma Charge – A chargeable bolt of energy that will slice through those bad guys.

Aerial Bombs – High explosive devices that will take out powerful aliens.

Proximity Mines – Travelling mines that lay in wait for unwary aliens.

Nuclear Bomb – The ultimate weapon. Inflicts massive damage. Use them wisely. Use them well, and be warned; even you are not invulnerable.

Troubleshooting

Graphics Problems

On some systems Polyzorg occasionally starts up with the graphics all squiffy - it looks a bit like a corrupted wireframe. I have no idea why it does this.

If it happens there are three possibilities you can try:

1.    Close Polyzorg and run it again - the problem often magically clears up
2.    Update graphics drivers
3.    Run it in windowed mode. (Not full screen)

If none of these work then I'm afraid that your system may simply not be fully OpenGL compatible. If you have used other OpenGL games without trouble, then all I can do is say sorry - but as of yet I simply do not know what the problem is. Suggestions welcome...

Stickykeys

If you decide to use the shift key as a control key when running on Windows XP or later, pressing it a few times will activate the Windows stickykey feature, and throw up a window. This is annoying of course. You can disable stickykeys from the window that appears (or from Accessibility Options in the control panel) but perversely you must do it in a particular way:

A. Deselect the 'Use Stickykey' check-box
B. Click 'Settings' then deselect the 'Use shortcut' check-box in the 'keyboard shortcut' section.

Just doing (A) is not enough!!

The Story

Story? You must be joking right? The only thing you need to know about this game is that it's got aliens in. Aliens are BAD NEWS, and you have awesome firepower at your disposal. So what are you going to do?

The Real Story

Ok, so you're not satisfied with the explanation above. You need a less morally ambiguous or less dubious reason to dispatch millions of aliens? Very well.

What if they stood between you and your dinner, beer, or cup of tea? Yes, I thought that would raise your ire, my friend. So listen true to this tale of misery and doom:

It was an ordinary Monday morning when the great slavering, massed alien hoards from the planet Zorg descended upon the earth and stole all the tea, beer, and cucumber sandwiches (especially those sliced into neat little triangles with the crusts removed.) They then left, as abruptly as they had arrived, leaving humanity on the verge of complete insanity.

So step forth Maximillian Resplendant, he with perfect hair and shiny teeth, the envy of every American with shares in dentistry. Now, Max is not the bravest soul ever to stride in a perfectly tailored air force uniform. In fact Max wasn't even in the air force, he was really out on his latest strip job, but having been mistakenly dispatched to a Woman's Institute garden party, he found the old ladies writhing in agony of withdrawal from tea and cucumber sandwiches. Max was allergic to cucumber and only drank Supermoccakillachino, so he didn't really care. He gazed at the scene for a while, but then decided that there was no way he wasn't going to get paid and robbed the old ladies of whatever cash he could find in their handbags and left the scene.

As Max drove through the town, dodging hovercar crashes, fires, and screaming zombie like humans rampaging around eating one another, he realised that he was the only sane human left alive - all because he was allergic to cucumber and didn't drink tea. His seldom used conscience told him that only he could save humanity. He, the flawed, self-serving, anti-hero realised his time had come and now he would make amends for his wicked ways whether he wanted too or not. In fact, he really didn't want to at all, but characters often do completely unrealistic and stupid things in a narrative mostly because the author is also stupid.

Without further deliberation he swung the hovercar around and headed straight for the nearest space showroom. He'd always wanted a shuttle, but perfect teeth don't come cheap so he had had to keep his dream as just that, but now here they all were, shiny and gleaming, laid out before him (not his teeth, you idiot) like a spread of mouthwatering lunchtime treats, minus the cucumber sandwiches of course. He let his eyes drink the gleaming chrome and sleek lines until they fell upon the ship that spoke to his deepest desires - the Raven III. It was the hottest, fastest, coolest ship on interest-free and it was just waiting for him. Max glanced around but the proprietor of the establishment seemed far too busy trying to chew through the showroom's highly flammable fuel line to bother him, so he quickly downed sixteen Supermoccakillachinos from the vending machine, clambered aboard his chosen steed, and set off.

And as the showroom exploded behind him, Max popped in his gum shield and looked to the darkness of space above. Somewhere out there, in that perpetual void was Zorg, where countless slavering alien hordes lay between him and his goal. He steeled his heart for the conflict ahead then punched the overdrive switch and headed out into the unknown.

Well then, there we are, as good an excuse for you to kill aliens as there could possible be. Corny? Tough. Just kill the aliens.