Daleks is a game based on an old Mac game named 'Classic Daleks'. 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 OpenGL based 3D engine I have been working on.
Please send bug reports, suggestions, comments etc to me ( mark dot harman at ntlworld dot com ).
System requirements are something like:
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'.
Distribution
Daleks may be distributed freely.
History
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 here, released under the GPL. It compiles under Borland C++ Builder (tested with Pro v4). You'll also need the includes for FreeImage, along with OpenGL and DirectX includes. Some things to note: