Smoking Colts - Manual

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### Table of contents

- Introduction
- Main menu
  - Difficulty grade
  - Levels
  - Level variations
  - Start playing
  - Quit the game
- Submenus
  - Options
  - Highscores
  - Targets
  - Credits
- Gameplay
  - Screen layout
  - Targets
  - Bonus objects
  - Weapon categories
  - Focus events
  - The status bar
  - Game summary
  - Keyboard configuration
- Technical problems
  - Drivers
  - Command line parameters
  - Technical support

### Introduction

Prove your skills in this virtual shooting gallery and shoot your way through different scenarios. Finish off evil bandits in a Wild West town or warlike Indians attacking a fort, wipe out extraterrestrial invaders and dangerous aliens on a moon base and hunt down ghosts, vampires and other monsters. But be careful not to hit any innocent civilians by mistake!
Constantly set yourself new challenges with thousands of variations, or try to top the highscore in a fixed-sequence variation.
You can also replace the default targets and integrate your own ones. There are no limits to your creativity.

### Main menu of Smoking Colts

(Just click on the numbers and you will get more detailed information!)

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Difficulty grade

Here you can set the difficulty grade using the four buttons "Easy", "Normal", "Hard" or "Crazy".

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Levels

Directly below the difficulty grades you see two preview pictures which show the levels included in the game. You can select a preview by clicking on it with the mouse. You can tell which level is currently selected by looking at its surrounding frame. Below you see the name of the level and the highest score reached in this level up to now.
To display other levels use the arrow buttons to the right and left of the preview pictures. If the preview is shown in grey this tells you that you will first have to unlock the level. To do this you must first successfully complete all currently accessible levels. You can tell which levels have been successfully completed because the word "Solved" will appear above the preview picture.
Caution: The game distinguishes between the different difficulty grades in which levels have been completed. Levels are marked as solved for the difficulty grade in which they have been won and for all lower difficulty grades; but not for higher difficulty grades. For example if you successfully complete a level on "Hard" this level is also treated as solved in "Easy" and "Normal" - but not in "Crazy"!

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Level variations

Each level variation generates a unique level succession for the selected level. You can tell which level variation has been preset by the number shown by the number above the dice. At the start you only have one digit available per level ( and therefore only 10 combinations ) but the more points you achieve for a level the more digits will become available for this level.
You can generate a random level variation by clicking on the dice or adjust it using the arrow buttons above and below the individual numbers. This means you can replay your favourite level variations any time you want, or train yourself in a level variation to get higher scores.

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Start playing

To play the selected level with the current level variation press the target on the right marked "Start".

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Quit the game

If you really want to quit this game use the button on the left marked "Exit".

### Submenus

Using the buttons "Options", "Targets", "Highscores" and "Credits" you access the submenus of the game. These can be exited by using the double arrow button in the lower left corner.

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Options

In the options menu you can set the "Monitor refresh rate". On some computers you may only be offered the "Default" setting. Only set refresh rates which you know are suitable for your monitor. If you are not sure, choose "Default."
Caution: Wrong settings may damage your monitor.
The "Monitor synchronization" tells you whether the game will be shown synchronised with the monitor. Activating this option will result in better visual quality. If you turn this option off you will see tearing effects on your monitor. On slow computers we recommend turning the sychnronization off to get better game performance.
The "Music" setting lets you turn the music on and off. For computers which are slow or do not have much memory ( 32MB ) we recommend to turn the music off.

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Highscores

This menu shows you the highscores ranking list for the level selected in the main menu. For each entry you will see the player's name, level variation played, difficulty grade and score achieved.

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Targets

Here you can replace targets from the game with your own ones. For this you first select the target you want to replace using the button below the word "Target" and then select the target. After this you select a new target using the button below the word "Substitute". If you want to add your own images to the game, you have to copy them as BMP, PNG or TGA image files into the sub-directory "UserBillboards" of your Smoking Colts installation before you start the game. Pixels which have the colour magenta ( red 255, green 0 and blue 255 out of 255 ) won't be displayed in the game. This means you can make areas of your targets transparent. Most targets in the game have a size of 256x128 pixels. If the original and substitute target are different in size the program will automatically correct this.
Using the button "Mirror" you can mirror your targets.
If you're not satisfied with your current changes you can easily discard them by clicking the "Reset" button. To discard all the changes you have made use the "Reset all" button.
You can save and reload your changes using the buttons "Save" and/or "Load".

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Credits

Here you will find a list of all the people who have to created this great game!

### Gameplay

Once you press "Start" the game will finally begin!

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Screen layout

(Just click on the numbers and you will get more detailed information!)
Before going into the details here is a brief introduction to the most important elements of the game screen.

- The status bar: This bar shows you how well you are playing. You will find more detailed information below.
- The clock: Here you can see what the ticking clock will bring you. As time passes, the clock display will keep getting redder - but time bonuses allow you to push the clock back. If the clock ends up completely red your playing time is over.
- Current score: Here you can see the score you have reached up to now. Below your own score you see the current highscore for the current level.
- Current weapon: Here you will see whatever weapon you are currently using to fill your enemy full of holes. The ammunition that goes with it is displayed on the left next to the picture of your weapon. By right-clicking you can reload the weapon. If you forget to reload the weapon the program does it automatically for you - but it is slower than if you reload manually.

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Targets

Move your mouse cursor quickly to targets as they appear and shoot 'em up using the left mouse button. If you hit them, they will disappear immediately. You will come face to face with the following targets in this game:

- Enemies: You should hit enemies as fast as possible before they take cover again. The various enemies differ according to difficulty grade. The more difficult an ememy is the less time he will stay visible for you. In favor you get more points for more difficult enemies than for easier ones. Additionally you can also slightly increase the points you get for an enemy by taking less time to wipe him out - so keep at it! The excact amount of points you get for hitting an enemy is shown in green numbers which rise upwards above him.
- Civilians: You should never shoot a civilian. Take special care when using the shotgun that no civilian is near. If you do nonetheless hit a civilian you will be punished by a massive score decrease which is shown by red numbers which sink down from above the civilian.
- Hidden Targets: Hidden targets are in the level from the beginning on and do not disappear until they are hit. Many of these targets will be hard to find.
- Special targets: You will not get any points when you shoot down a special target - but in exchange you will get something even more important: a shot-down special target will launch a parachute which contains a bonus.
- Parachutes: Every parachute contains a bonus. You will get the bonus if you have managed to hit the target.

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Bonus objects

Bonus objects are of crucial importance if you want to achieve high scores. Parachutes carry the bonuses into the gaming area.
The following events can get you a parachute:

- Hit combinations
  If you're a very skilled shooter you can achieve hit combinations in the follwing ways:
  - By hitting lots of enemies in succession without missing even once or hitting a civilian.
  - By hitting several enemies in a very short space of time.
  - By hitting several enemies with only one shot of the shotgun.
- By topping certain score boundaries.
- By shooting down special targets.

The following bonus objects exist in Smoking Colts:

- Multiplier: When you hit this bonus object you get a multiplier for a short amount of time. With this, all points you get for shooting targets get multiplied. The multiplier is shown on the top right below the highscore when it is active. If you manage to hit another multiplier during this time then the multiplier will increase by another grade.
- Dynamite: When a dynamite bar you have hit explodes, all currently standing targets will disappear. Thereby all enemies will get hit and you will collect the points for it. Civilians will manage take cover just in time - so you will never get a points penalty through dynamite.
  Parachutes which carry a dynamite bar are flying more slowly. Thus you can wait for a good moment to shoot the parachute down.
- Extra Time: With this time binus you can extend your playing time. If you hit this bonus object you will the small section of the stopwatch turn green - this is the amount of time you have gained.
- Slowdown: This bonus object slows down gameplay speed. The turtle displayed on the stopwatch shows you that slowdown mode is activated. Thus targets move much more slowly and you have more time to shoot them.
- Bonus score: You immediately get a score bonus.
- Telescope: A random focus event will be started.
- Weapon: You get the displayed weapon for a certain amount of time.

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Weapon categories

The following weapon categories are available:

- Colt: These are bigger variants of your standard gun with more ammunition and shorter loading times.
- Shotgun: The shotgun only has two shots, but thanks to its bullet dispersion you can hit several nearby enemies with only one shot.
- Machine gun: The machine gun is perfectly suited for wiping out larger numbers of enemies. If you keep the left mouse button pressed down your enemies will be under rapid fire.

Weapons you manage to get disappear after a certain amount of time. For such weapons a countdown is displayed beside the weapon picture.

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Focus events

If you have hit a parachute with a telescope a focus event will begin. For this the current gameplay is stopped and the action focuses on a small part of the level.
The following focus events can happen:

- Duel: There is only one enemy and you only have one bullet! As long as your enemy is lying on the ground there is no danger. But he will get up sooner or later. You have to hit him before he is completly upright or you loose the duel and get no points. The longer you stay on the colt bag with your cursor the higher your score will be if you hit your enemy.
  If you're outstandingly brave you will wait until your enemy moves first before you draw your weapon from the colt bag. Thus if you draw second and still manage to hit your enemy before he has risen completely you will get a big score bonus as well. If not you will get nothing.
- Hit Em All: Here it is important not to shoot off target. With every enemy you hit your multiplier increases. But if one of your shots misses the enemy or hits a civilian the multiplier is reset back to one.
- Hit Em Hard: Here the targets do not disappear straight after you hit them. Choose a target and hit it really hard!
- Sniper Time: A single enemy is hiding in a group of civilians. Be vigilant and shoot him before he vanishes again - this enemy will bring you a specially high number of points.
- "Armageddon": The whole level is crowded with enemies! Use your machine gun and wipe out the hordes.

When a focus event finishes, normal gameplay is continued where it stopped before the focus event.

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The status bar

At the top of the screen in the centre a status bar is displayed. On it you can see how well you are playing. The better you play the more the bar fills with colour. The bar shrinks a little if you let an enemy escape, and retreats a good amount if you hit a civilian.
If you play a level which you have not yet solved you will see an additional small vertical line. If the coloured bar reaches or exceeds this line at the end of the playing time, you complete the level successfully. As time passes in the game, the line moves slowly from right to left - so if you play over a long period ( time bonuses! ) small mistakes will be forgiven and you can still win the level.

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Game summary

Once playing time is over a summary screen is displayed. Here you get an overview of how many enemies, civilians and hidden targets were visible and how many of them you hit. If your score is high enough to be entered in the highscores list you will also see your ranking there.
After a short delay a hint will appear telling you that you can quit the level by clicking the left mouse button. This gets you back into the main menu and you have the chance to enter yourself into the highscores list ( presuming your score is high enough ). With a click on the right mouse button the level will be restarted with the same level variation you were playing before. Your score will be saved by the program and can be entered in the highscores list later on - so it won't be lost!

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Keyboard configuration

In the game there is the following keyboard configuration:

- "Esc": The "Escape" key quits the current game and returns to the main menu. Points gained in the current game are lost, but not points achieved in previous rounds.
- "F5": The current level is restarted straight away. Points gained in the current round are lost.
- "F8": A screenshot is created and saved as an image file in your Smoking Colts directory.
- "F9": The current scene refresh rate is displayed.
- "F12": Smoking Colts is terminated immediately. This key can also be used in the menus.
- "Space" or "Enter": The current weapon is reloaded.
- "P" or "Pause": The game is paused.

### Technical problems

DirectX
The game needs DirectX in version 8.1 or higher. Therefore you must have installed DirectX 8.1 compatible hardware drivers on your system so that the game functions. You can get an appropriate DirectX version on the game CD or in the internet at www.microsoft.com/directx.
Current driver software:

3D labs: | www.3dlabs.com
ATI Technologies: | www.ati.com
Creative Labs: | www.creative.com
Diamond Multimedia / S3: | www.diamondmm.com
Hercules: | www.hercules.com
Matrox: | www.matrox.com
nVIDIA: | www.nvidia.com

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Command line parameters

Should you have problems with the game's graphic display you can try to fix them using the command line parameters. This parameters can be set by right clicking on the "Smoking Colts" link in the start menu or the desktop and choosing the option "Properties". On the register card "Shortcut" at the end of the input field "Target" add the desired options separated by spaces. These are the possible commands:

/window | This means you can run the game in windowed mode if you have problems with the fullscreen mode.
/nodxcursor | The standard Windows mouse cursor is used. This can help if the cursor in the game is displayed incorrectly.
/device0 | With this option you can select with which graphics card the game should be running if you use more than one graphics card in your system. Replace the 0 in the instruction with a 1 to select a second graphics card. In normal circumstances the game will detect a 3D capable second graphics card and use it ( for example the Voodoo2 ).

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Technical support

If our previous instructions have not been able to help you please contact our technical support.
The support employee will probably need information about your hardware and software. You will get all the needed information by starting the program DXDiag.
Use the following steps to save your system configuration.
1) On the desktop click the "Start" button.
2) Click on the menu entry "Run".
3) Enter "dxdiag".
4) Click on "OK".
5) Click on "Save all information" to save your configuration.
You can then send the saved information about your system configuration as an attachment to your support inquiry.
Email: support@egames.com
Web: www.egames.com