Hover Force
Scenario / Object Of The Game
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You are an officer of the law assigned to clean up the streets of drugs and
drug runners. The game takes place sometime in the future and the preferred
method of transportation seems is in the form of HoverCrafts.
The object of the game is to chase down drug runners and accomplices,
terminating them, and collecting the drugs and money they leave behind as
evidence. In each round there is one main drug runner you are assigned to
pursue, but you must also deal with his many accomplices who will stop at
nothing to prevent you from hindering their drug run.
After collecting enough evidence from the accomplices you terminate, your
job is to seek out and terminate the leader before he completes his run.
Once he is destroyed, you progress to the next round and the difficulty
level increases.
Controls:
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Mouse: All directions active, left and right buttons each work as action
buttons for firing weapons and confirming selections.
Joystick: Same as the mouse.
Keyboard: Left/Right Arrow Keys for Direction
or
[Z] - Turn Left / [X] - Turn Right [Up Arrow] or [Space Bar]
for acceleration. [Enter9 key to fire weapons.
Miscellaneous Toggle Keys:
--------------------------
F1 - Change Hovercraft Weapon to Machine Gun (You start with this)
F2 - Change Hovercraft Weapon to Cannons (After you purchase)
F3 - Change Hovercraft Weapon to Heat Seeking Missles (After you purchase)
F4 - Toggle Detailed Map of city (Use Kybd or mouse to scroll up or down)
Map Key: Red Blips = Drug Runner Accomplices
Yellow Blips = Robots
White Blips = You and the Drug Runner
F5 - Toggle Directional Finder Target
F6 - Toggle Gun Sights On/Off
F7 - Toggle Sound Effects or Music (Can't have both!)
F10 - Toggle Pause on/off
ESC - Quit to Sheriff's Office from game.
CTRL-ESC - Quit to DOS from Sheriff's Office.
Main Menu:
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Your game starts out in the Sheriffs Office. This is basically your "Main Menu".
You can start the game from this point, begin a new game, save and load games,
and view records and stats.
The menu options are as follows:
--------------------------------
PLAY: Select to begin game.
LOAD: Select to load a saved game. A menu of your saved game positions will
appear. Highlight and click on a position to save your game.
SAVE: Select to save game in progress. A menu will appear as with the Load
command. Highlight and click on a position you desire to save your game.
RECORD: Select to view your status and record. This information is also
displayed at the beginning of each new level.
NEW: Select this to begin a brand new game from the beginning.
Playing The Game:
-----------------
Select play to start the game. The drug runners name, level number and
sector of the city you are assigned to will be displayed.
Next you will find yourself sitting in your hovercraft with a first-person
perspective view of your dashboard and the the city thru your windshield.
You will see a few robots walking around outside, maybe some of them are
even shooting at you. Kill them as soon as possible and run over the drug
and money canisters that they leave behind with your hovercraft to pick them
up.
It should be daylight out, but soon the sky will turn dark as the drug
runner begins to make his drug run, delivering drugs to various buildings
in the city. Now its time to go into action and try to stop him before he
completes his run. Your primary target, the head drug runner always drives
in a distinctive orange hovercraft. It has three turbo fans mounted on the
rear of the ship, and looks very unique compared to the other ships which
are various other colors and mostly look like flying saucers.
You may easily catch up to the drug runner and be in a prime position to
fire upon and terminate him after only several seconds of playing the game.
Unfortunately, however, it's not that easy. You must first collect a pre-
determined amount of evidence against him before you will be allowed to
terminate him. This is accomplished by running over the red drug canisters
(they look like little spheres) with your hovercraft to collect them.
A money canister or drug canister is usually left behind for each of the
drug runners accomplices you terminate. The drug and money canisters are
primary, however other types of canisters exist and may also be dropped
by a terminated accomplice. These additional types of canisters are
discussed later. Keep an eye on the drug counter on your dashboard
(discussed later) to see how many drug canisters you have/need to collect
to be able to terminate the runner. Once you have collected enough drug
canisters (evidence) - go get him.
Canisters:
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When you terminate a criminal, a canister will drop to the ground. The
types of canisters are listed and explained below. Some are good to
collect, some are quite bad. Canisters do not last long after being
dropped so make sure to collect them quickly, before they explode and
disappear.
MONEY CANISTERS have a dollar sign making them the most unique type of
canister. These are important to collect as you will be able to use the
money you collect to buy weapons, shields and other items.
All other canisters look like little 3-D spheres and each has a distinct
color which indicates what type of canister it is, as follows:
SAFE CANISTERS (Pick these up quickly)
RED: This is a DRUG canister. Collect as many of these as you can as
quickly as possible to enable you to terminate the drug runner before
he completes his run.
YELLOW: This is a LIFE canister. These seem to give you extra life.
UNSAFE CANISTERS (Stay away from these!)
GREY: This canister is booby trapped. It will explode and damage your
shield. Stay away from these.
BLACK: This is a DEATH canister. It will explode and destroy your
hover craft. Watch out!
Your Dashboard:
---------------
1- Short Range Radar - Shows surrounding enemies in your local
vicinity.
2- Directional Indicator/Target Select - Pressing F5 will let
you toggle between the directional finder and Target Select.
You may select the drug runner himself or any one of the
several stores available (pictured as buildings). Once a
target selection is made the directional indicator will
point towards it to help you find your way.
3- Shield Strength Status - Shows how much shield you have left.
When this meter drops too low your shield will no longer shield
you and further sustained hits will destroy your vehicle
4- Short Range City Map - Map of your local vicinity.
Red Blips = Drug Runner Accomplices Yellow Blips = Robots
White Blips = You and the Drug Runner
5- Weapon Indicator - Indicates which weapon you are currently
using.
6- Compass - Shows direction you're facing in relation to the
city map.
7- Resources - Total cash collected (Money Canisters)
8- Drug Counter - This will start out with the number of drug
canisters you need to collect in order to terminate the drug
runner. Each time you collect a drug canister, the number will
decrease by one. When this counter reaches zero, it's time to
hunt down and kill the drug runner.
9- TV Monitor - Let's you see a picture of the drug runner and
watch his reaction when you terminate his accomplices.
10- Run Complete Warning Light - Will start flashing in red when
the drug runner is near completion of his run. You will only
have a few seconds left to terminate him before the run is
completed so act quickly. *- The 1 2 3 4 beneath the TV Monitor
indicates which level you are on.
Stores:
-------
There are three shopping centers within the city. Use your directional
finder/target selecter to select a store you wish to go to. When you
reach the store, stop your vehicle on the dark grey or black area that
lies around the perimeter of the building. Wait for a second and you will
automatically enter into the shopping center.
Once inside the shopping center you will have 3 different types of
stores you can go to and buy things from. You start out in the Hardware
store. Here you can buy weapons and shields and other hardware.
You may press F1 on your keyboard to move to one of the other three stores.
Additional stores include an ammunition shop and a thruster shop where
you can buy thrusters to make your hovercraft faster.
To make a purchase, highlight the item with your pointer, and click on
BUY. To leave the shopping center and get back to your hovercraft,
click on EXIT
Hints & Tips:
-------------
1) Always keep moving when travelling over bodies of water.
Never come to a dead stop over a body of water as your
hovercraft will sink and you will be returned to the
Sherrif's Office and must re-start the level from the beginning.
2) You will see markers that look like trash cans established
in patterns through out the city. These "trashcans" actually
form a barrier between themselves, preventing you from going
straight through. You may also encounter "red zone" barriers
which you can't get past either. It will be like a red strip
of land that blocks you from going any further.
3) Collect as much money as you can to enable you to keep buying
bigger and better weapons and hardware.
4) When new enemies are entering the playfield, a bolt of
lightening will flash in the sky and the enemies will begin
to appear. Look for these lightening flashes and then wait
near them for the enemies to start coming. They sometimes come
in fleets of 5 or more ships at a time, so by rapid firing on
them as they come through the lightning gateway you can destroy
many at one time.
5) Sometimes the enemies will hide from you behind buildings.
This makes it easy for you to sneak up on them and waste them
easily.
6) Sometimes an enemy will hover out over the middle of a huge
body of water. What he is doing is trying to entice you over
the water with the hope and expectation that you'll come to a
stop and sink into the water. Don't fall for this little trick.
Fire upon the enemy from the shores and then scoot out over the
water quickly to collect the canister he leaves. If you must go
out over the water to get him, just make sure you keep moving
and don't come to a complete stop over the water, or you'll
sink for sure.
7) Always keep an eye on your drug canister counter and
collect as many of the red drug canisters as you can in
the least amount of time. When your counter reaches zero,
time is of the essence in tracking down the runner and terminating
him before his drug run is completed. Get to him fast.
8) Your basic strategy is kill or be killed. Destroy everything
that moves, there are no good guys to worry about hitting, just
bad guys.
9) Keep an eye on your short range radar. It's very
helpful in locating enemies (red and yellow blips) around your
immediate location who may be hiding or laying in wait to ambush
you. Get them before they get you.
