BANSHEE STUDIOS

EPISODE V: BATTLE FOR HOTH
Readme Documentation

FEATURES

3D Parallax scrolling terrain
Fast 2D Side-On Gameplay
Ray Traced Graphics
Over 600 Frames of Animation
Over zealous explosions
Netscore Internet Hi-Score Service
Multiple Enemy Vehicle Types

INSTALLATION

The default install path is C:\Games\EpisodeV\.

REBEL ALLIANCE SNOWSPEEDER

A top speed of 570km/h, 175km range, twin laser canons with fire syncronisation, heavily armoured, rear gun with secondary crewman, operates in a wide range of hostile environments and what do you have to take down an AT-AT with? A piece chicken wire on a hook.

As the Imperial forces descend on the rebel base our hero, Duke Jaywalker, takes to the skies in a Snowspeeder.  This heavily gunned, heavily armoured aircraft is the last hope to protect the Rebel base long enough for the evacuation.

"Transports will be leaving every two minutes as the Ion Canon clears a path ahead out of orbit.  Your mission Duke, is to get as many transports out intact as possible!  May the Thorce be with you."

TAKING DOWN AN AT-AT

The easiest approach is from the rear where you will not take fire from the AT-AT's gun turrets.  The AT-AT can fire across a good verticle spread to exercise extra caution when approaching these vehicles.  Fly below the main body of the AT-AT, you can fly safely through the legs, and be careful not to collide with either the head or body section of the AT-AT.

As you pass the hind legs fire your harpoon wire.  The wire will not affect your flight characteristics however your flight will affect the wire - if you make too sudden a verticle movement or if you fly too fast then the windlass will not be able to keep up and the wire will break forcing you to restart your maneuvre.

Fly a long way past the front of the AT-AT so that it does not step over the wire before you have completed your pass, then turn and accelerate as fast as you dare (being careful not to break the wire) back to the rear of the AT-AT in order to complete your loop.   Your crewmate will fire the harpoon itself to complete the maneuvre and if you have sucessfully laid your trip wire the AT-AT will be dissabled and trip over.

During the course of the maneuvre you must start at one side of the AT-AT, move to ther other, and then return to your original side.  It is almost impossible to do this at minimum speed.

AT-AT's can be destroyed by gunfire but take a considerable amount of damage, however there is a weak point on the head should you wish to risk it.  In all cases AT-AT are much easier to take down without any escorts as they are vulnerable from the rear.

DESTROYING AT-ST

The agile AT-ST can cause a few problems because they can turn to face you where-ever you move and as soon as you drop to an attack vector you'll find yourself taking fire, however their turn is not very fast, so by hopping from one side to the other and popping a shot off each time you should be able destroy AT-ST without taking any damage yourself.

DOGFIGHTING TIE-FIGHTER

During the battle you will find yourself under harassment from Imperial Tie Interceptors, these advanced Tie Fighters can deal out heavy fire but are vulnerable to attack - especially from the rear.  Try to position yourself behind a Tie and chase it down for the cleanest kill.  As you progress through the game you will find the quality of the Tie pilots improves, not only will the home in on your position better, but they'll try to dodge your attacks too.

RESCUING A DOWNED PILOT

If you see a wrecked of a downed Snowspeeder with a pilot standing nearby, you can rescue the pilot and bring him back in to the battle.  This meens you can recover your lost lives provided you can get back to your last wrecked snowspeeder.

Positioning your Snowspeeder during the rescue is vital, you must position your cockpit directly infront of the pilot as if you are too far either side he'll not run to you.  Be carefull during landing as if you are travelling too fast you'll bury your speeder into the snow.

TAKING HEAD-ON FIRE

Weaving your craft up and down will make you harder to target, this is especially usefull when approaching targets head on.

NETSCORE SERVICE

This is a purely optional feature and will syncronise your high score chart with the best Episode V: Battle for Hoth high scores in the world, you will need to have an internet connection open when you select this menu option and the program will require access to the internet (if you have a firewall installed you will need to allow Episode V: Battle for Hoth to access the internet on the ftp port).

If the Netscore service is busy at the time you update then this might cause the program to exit, requireing you to restart the game to complete your syncronisation.  This will not affect the high scores stored locally on your machine.

We also plan to pubish the high scores on our webpage at http://www.banshee.ukhq.co.uk.  However because the files scrambled this process is not automatic and you will need to wait until we next manually update the page to see your name on the page.