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//       SHORT CIRCUIT                  //
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Original Apple ][ game by David H. Schroeder
Quake4 version by John "Hal9000" Schuch
hal9000@planetquake.com
http://www.planetquake.com/whatthehal

I take **absolutely no credit** for the general gameplay of this mod.
Mr. Schroeder wrote the original game many moons ago.  It is one
of those long forgotten but damn fun games that I wanted to bring back.
The Quake4 engine and its powerful level scripting language were perfect for it.

Although 'Short Circuit' appears to be a mod, in reality it is simply custom maps and nothing else.
No game code has been touched in any way.  This entire project is all done using existing Quake4 source.

I highly reccomend running 'Short Circuit' at a minimum of 1024x768 as the player's scoreboard is
pretty hard to read at anything less.  There's no AI and the levels aren't overly complex so you should
be able to crank up the settings and have a solid high framerate.



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//       INSTALLING THE MOD             //
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I put the mod in its own folder to keep your /q4base folder clean.  No reason to muck about
putting pk4 files in there and whatnot.

Create a folder alongside /q4base called /shortcircuit ( i.e. c:\quake4\shortcircuit ).
Put the shortcircuit.pk4 file into the /shortcircuit folder.

Create a new shortcut for Quake4 and add the following to it:
+set fs_game shortcircuit +map level1

( it should look something like this: C:\quake4\Quake4.exe +set fs_game shortcircuit +map level1 )



///////////////////////////////////////////
//       PLAYING THE MOD                //
/////////////////////////////////////////

'Short Circuit' may seem complex at first, but it is really very simple.  Strategy plays a key
role in how well you do.  Here's the deal:


Your objective is to overload one of the three batteries in the circuit board.

Power is constantly draining from all batteries.

Power is added to all batteries each time you pick up the blue spark.

Power can be transferred from one battery to the others by touching its terminal.

Once a battery is overloaded, it will show its power level in red.  You must touch
this battery's terminal to overload the rest of the circuit.

Once the overloaded battery has been activated the Lightning Round begins and lasts
until the overloaded battery ticks down to zero. During this round colliding with neutrons
gains you points.  Picking up the overload spark increases the score multiplier
for colliding with neutrons.

You can jump from one wire trace to another near jumper wires; however, some trace jumps are one-way.

Before the overload, avoid all bouncing neutrons. Colliding with these will cost
you points and battery power.

The Microfuse slowly builds up towards its opposing terminal.  Keep an eye on it.
If it is getting close you can reverse its polarity by touching its terminal.
If it closes the circuit, the circuit is lost and
the game is over.

If all three batteries drain to zero, the circuit is lost and the game is over.



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//       BUILD NOTES                    //
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Things I want to do:

1. Unify the main game code script so any map can use just one script.  In this version
each map has it's own script, albeit nearly identical to any other, there are a couple
variations from map to map.  This can easily be rectified ... at some point.

2. More levels, if I have time.  The original game had 12 circuit boards.

3. A better fixed camera.  What you see in the mod right now is the best you can do without
modifying source code.

4. Make a new main menu gui that lets you start the game from there, rather than the command
line or console.

5. Sorting issues between GUIs and world objects.
 

Thanks X-VomitBomb for testing (and bitching about hitting neutrons over and over) despite his busted,
gimpy, dysfunctional thumb.
