Daleks


Requirements - Screenshots - Troubleshooting - Instructions - Source Code

Daleks is a game based on an old Mac game named 'Classic Daleks' (which in turn is a variant of Robots). After a few years of playing about writing various 3D engines, I decided I wanted to try to put together a game. Daleks seemed something that would be fairly simple to do, but would still be somewhat fun to play. Daleks uses Vision 3 which is an 3D engine I have been working on.

Download Daleks!

Please send bug reports, suggestions, comments etc to me ( mark dot harman at ntlworld dot com ).

System requirements are something like:

Preferences for the game (such as resolution, windowed/full-screen mode, choice of Direct3D or OpenGL, and various renderer and debug options) can be set by running the Preferences program.


Troubleshooting

If you have the above requirements, and Daleks doesn't work, please let me know. Useful information to send includes: Any error message that is displayed; the log.txt file, if one is created (in the same folder that the program is located); details of your system, including Windows version, CPU, graphics card, DirectX version.

If the game runs too slowly, go to Settings and try setting "Shadows & Reflections" to "Off" or "Projected Shadows" (Stencil Volumes are most realistic, showing shadows on all objects rather than just the board, but this takes a lot more CPU power).


Instructions

On the game board, you should see a number of daleks, and a man which represents you. Each turn, you can move in one of eight directions, using the numeric keypad. Alternatively, you can move by clicking on a square adjacent to the man with the left mouse button (the square will highlight yellow if it is an allowed move). Everytime you move, you'll see the daleks move towards you.

The object of the game is to destroy all the daleks by making them bash into each other. They move dumbly towards you. If two or more daleks enter the same square, they are destroyed. Additionally, they leave a pile of rubble behind, and any daleks moving into this are also destroyed. However, you must avoid moving into a dalek yourself, otherwise the game ends.

Instead of moving to an adjacent square, you also have the choice of teleporting. This is done by pressing 'space', and will move you to a random square (with a chance that you'll move right next to a dalek, so this is always a risk). Generally you should only teleport when you have no choice.

Another choice is to use your Sonic Screwdriver, by pressing 's'. This destroys any adjacent Daleks, but you only have so many uses - initially just one, but you gain an extra one per level.

When all daleks are destroyed, you move onto the next level. On later levels, you will meet different types of Daleks. Red Daleks are not affected by rubble; Black Daleks are indestructable to everything except your Sonic Screwdriver.

Controls

If the framerate is too slow, you can speed things up by going to Settings, and setting Shadows & Reflections to 'Off' or 'Simple'.

Licences

Daleks is released under the GPL, except where noted below.

The following items are used under licence:

History

Version 1.0 (2009/09/19)

FIXED   OpenGL threw error when exiting from fullscreen application (when no
        alt-tabbing) - shouldn't be reacting to WM_SIZE anymore.
UPDATED Replaced all files with free (Creative Commons etc) files or
        procedurally generated, and added all licencing information.
UPDATED Improved error reporting when loading game data.

Version 0.7 (2009/08/16)

ADDED   New Direct3D 9 renderer (on by default - seems to give better frame
        rates on Intel GMA 950 at least).
ADDED   High Dynamic Range (HDR) rendering (off by default - use the Preferences
        program to enable it - not supported on old graphics cards).
ADDED   New software renderer - experimental!
ADDED   New "Preferences" GUI.

Version 0.6 (2007/05/28)

FIXED   Switching to full screen mode now supported (currently only a limited
        choice of resolutions).
ADDED   2x and 4x anti-aliasing (defaults to 2x; not supported by older graphics
        cards).

Version 0.5 (2007/05/26)

ADDED   New Dalek types (Red and Black).
ADDED   Sonic Screwdriver.
ADDED   Can now skip a turn.
ADDED   Fade out/in effect when teleporting.
ADDED   Fade effect when Daleks are destroyed.
ADDED   In game instructions on "About" screen.
UPDATED Improved lighting algorithm.
UPDATED Shadows are now cast from all light sources rather than just the main
        one.
UPDATED Smoother animation (MD2 frames are now interpolated).
ADDED   Realistic shadows option (stencil volumes).
REMOVED Simple "black" shadows no longer available.
ADDED   Specular lighting.
ADDED   Per-pixel lighting (requires shaders).
UPDATED Different 3D model used for Dalek.

Version 0.4 (2005/01/22)

UPDATED Improved shadow effects option giving translucent shadows (requires
        stencil buffer).


Source Code

The source code is available (tested under Visual Studio Express 2005), released under the GPL.


More software.