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 Tank Commander 1.5 for the Pilot/PalmPilot/WorkPad  10/16/98
                                                Gary Lorensen
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This game for the Pilot/PalmPilot/WorkPad puts you in command 
of a tank in hostile territory.  Your mission is to capture
the flag protected behind fortress walls.  To do this, you need
to take out enemy tanks and fast attack helicopters and A10s, 
avoid incoming homing missiles, and run down foot soldiers.  
The thick walls of the fortress itself are protected by gun 
turrets.  Scattered throughout are radar stations that can alert 
the enemy to your whereabouts and bring them running.  
Fortunately there are munitions and repair tools stored in some 
fortresses and scattered around in open country.  Pick them up 
to replenish your supplies and keep your tank running.

If you enjoy the game, send me mail at GLorensen@aol.com or 
visit http://members.aol.com/GLorensen for other programs.
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This program runs on both PalmPilot Personal & Professional 
(PalmOS v2.x) as well as the original Pilot 1000 & 5000
(PalmOS v1.x).  I have tested it on my PalmPilot Professional,
using CoPilot emulating a Pilot 5000, and on the Palm OS 
Emulator running v3.x debug ROMs.
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This program is provided as-is, with no warranty given or 
implied.  The author is not responsible for damage or loss of 
data caused by using this application.
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To play the game, you steer the tank using pen strokes and
tap on objects to shoot at them.  Select your weapons on the
right console and determine your position by looking at the 
map in the upper right corner.  Your status and frame rate are
displayed in the lower right corner.  My typical frame rate 
starts at around 3 frames per second and tops out around 25 fps.

To drive the tank, make a pen stroke from the tank in the 
direction you want to move.  The length of the stroke determines
your speed.  A short stroke means the tank moves slowly.  A
long stroke means the tank moves more quickly.

To shoot, tap on the object you want to shoot at.  If its moving,
you may need to lead it a little.  If you are firing a homing 
missile, you need to tap directly on the object in order to get
a lock.	 Note that you can also shoot down missiles.  If you've 
got an incoming homing missile on your tail, drop some mines 
or fire some missiles at it.  This will decrease the damage it 
causes if it hits, and may destroy it.

To select your weapon, tap one of the four buttons on the right.
The top button is "Shots".  Selecting this means you fire bullets.
The good news is that you never run out.  The bad news is it's 
nearly impossible to kill anything with them.  The next button 
down is missiles.  These pack a punch, but the aren't intelligent --
you need to lead an object you are firing at if you want to score 
a hit.  The third button is homing missiles.  They are your friends.
They are FAF (Fire And Forget).  You tap on the object you want to 
take out and it does the rest.  The fourth button is land mines.
Tapping this button drops a mine out the back of your tank.  Very 
useful for discouraging tailgaters.

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New features:
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v1.5
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- Labrynth mode!  Select it in the Setup menu.
- No more crashes on Setup & About!!!!!!!! (Why did Palm have to
  make it so difficult?)
- Added A10 tank killers, rocks, and trees.
- Better soldier, tank & wall bitmaps (within my limited artistic 
  ability)
- The map is now actually useful!
- The map gets properly saved & restored
- Time and kills displayed when you win.
- No more "disappearing objects."
- No more tanks & trucks backing through walls.
- Disable shooting from the grave.
- Object counts scaled to world size.  No more mobs of baddies.

v1.4
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- The "I picked up a bonus and it stole my missiles" bug is fixed.
- New scalable animation makes things look better rather than
  just moving faster at higher frame rates.
- Blowing up trucks is no longer just gratuitous violence -- 
  sometimes you get some goodies.
- The infamous "Fatal Error" when returning from the Setup & About
  windows is fixed (almost -- I still have one unhappy customer)
- Oops!  The turret shots were blowing up wall sections.  That's 
  not supposed to happen.
- The bad guys have better collision avoidance -- no more backing
  through walls!
- The "hard" mode just got harder!  Now more bad guys get created
  as you blow them up.
- That annoying 1 point health ding when you run into walls was 
  removed.
- No more "accidental shot" at the start of the game.

v1.3
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- Game gets saved/restored when you switch apps (98% working)
- Better detection of pull down menu to pause the game
- Fixed map after changing the world size and starting new game
- Better memory utilization to avoid Memory Manager errors
- Status correct when you hit new game

v1.2
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- Helicopters!
- When you pull down the menu, the game pauses
- New Setup option to select game difficulty and world size
- Objects don't materialize inside each other or fortress walls
- Game gets saved/restored when you switch apps (95% working)

v1.1
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- Disabled "revenge from the grave", where you could continue
  to shoot even after dying.
- Make the flag disappear when you pick it up, and pop up a
  "New Game" button.
- Better frame rate through better object management

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Known Problems/Future Updates
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- Hitting Find on a Pilot 1000 & 5000 crashes the Pilot.
- You can shoot a homing missile at yourself.  Tap the screen and
  drag to your tank to shoot yourself.
- Use the buttons for steering the tank & firing (lots of 
  requests for that one)
- Tank runs at 1/5th speed on CoPilot -- clock tick difference.
- Better collision detection when trying to squeeze through a
  break in the wall to get the flag.
- Better speed control & speedometer
- Add more game variations, like multiple levels, boss, hostage, 
  capture the flag, etc.
- Add sounds.
- If a homing missile has a lock, highlight its target.
- When things blow up, scatter some of their goodies around.
- Multi-player
- Left-handed weapons controls

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Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: How do I drive the tank?
A: You use pen strokes to steer the tank.  Drag the pen from your 
   tank in the direction you want to move.  A short stroke makes
   your tank go slowly, a long stroke makes your tank go faster.
   This gives you complete freedom to travel in any direction you 
   want, at any rate you want.

Q: What are those funny looking rocks & trees?
A: Those are funny looking rocks & trees.  Go ahead and waste your
   ammo on them.

Q: Can I destroy the fortress walls?
A: Yes, you can, but it takes a lot of hits.  You need to shoot
   a wall segment 17 times, or hit it 5 times with a missile, or
   3 times with a homing missile.

Q: Can I destroy the maze walls?
A: Yes, you can, but it takes something like 60 homing missiles
   to do the job.

Q: I've shot a hole in the wall, but I still can't get to the 
   flag.
A: Until I can fix some problems in the game, you'll probably
   need to blow out several sections of wall before you can get 
   to the flag, unless you can CAREFULLY drive straight through 
   the gap in the wall.  I need to handle collision detection 
   more precisely (and quicker!)

Q: Why are the humans so hard to spot?
A: Because I wanted to keep their size proportional to the tanks,
   and it's really hard to do a nice bitmap of a human in 8 
   orientations in a 4x4 2-color matrix.

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Tank Commander was developed using GCC v0.5.0 under Windows 95.
Testing was done using my own PalmPilot Pro, CoPilot running 
PalmOS v1.0, and Palm OS Emulator running v3.x debug ROMs.  If 
you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or criticisms, 
mail me at GLorensen@aol.com.  This program is also available at 
http://members.aol.com/GLorensen
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