
                   Z O N E   O F   T H U N D E R

                      THE COMBAT EXPERIENCE

                          VERSION  1.98

               (Deluxe Graphics release 17-Mar-1996)

                          Public Domain

                  Written 1995 by Juergen Thumm


   QUICK INSTALLATION:

   - select a target directory on your hard drive. Uncompress there
     the ZOTH packages which you've downloaded or copied.

     MAKE SURE PATHNAMES ARE PRESERVED WHILE UNCOMPRESSING!

     For example, with PKUNZIP V 2.04g for DOS, the command
     would be:  PKUNZIP -d packagename.ZIP

   - after the installation, the following directories should
     exist in your target directory:

      ZOTH         containing the main program(s), manuals etc.
      ZOTH\SND     containing the sound files
      ZOTH\GFX     containing the graphics data
      ZOTH\DOC     containing the documentation

   - perform a sound-check; to do so, start the Sound-settings in
     Windows' system settings and try to play the Windows-Sounds. If
     nothing's audible, check the sound driver and (re)install it if
     necessary. The sound driver was delivered with your Sound card
     or with Windows. Read the sound card's manual or the
     Windows-documentation for details.


   FIRST LOOK:

   - start ZOTH.EXE from the Windows file manager.
   - The main menu should appear, with blue shiny letters and a heavy
     background tune. If you hear no sound, your Windows system
     has no sound. In that case, check the manual about what to do.
   - If you hear something, select '0' humans and '2' terminators.
   - then press the space bar.
   - graphics data will be preprocessed, and sounds will be loaded;
     this may take a while, so read the appearing background story
     to stay amused.
   - After the sounds are loaded, press space again to continue.
   - You should now see two terminator bikes fighting each other.
   - If the explosions are displayed in weird blue colors,
     go back to the main menu, press 'X', and try it again.
   - If you hear no sound during the game, or if there are other problems,
     read the "manual.txt" for detailed informations.


   WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

     You see two FightBikes driving through a fighting arena.
     The fighting arena contains lots of obstacles and weaponry. The main
     target is to blast hell out of the other player. To do so, the bikes
     pick up weapons by bumping them. Every Bike must collect protection
     shields. If it drives through a wall or if it's hit by some weapon's
     output, it looses a shield. As soon as all shields are lost,
     the next hit terminates the Bike.

     If the terminator fight runs well and with a good sound,
     read the MANUAL.TXT in the DOC directory. This explains how to
     use joysticks, and the whole game in detail.


   WHAT TO DO IF THE GAME CRASHES:

     If it crashes without playing any sound, buy a SoundBlaster 16,
     install it (with it's Windows drivers, of course) and try again;
     with this sound card chances are best that it will work.

     If you can't connect two joysticks, buy another adapter card,
     e.g. a multi-I/O card with game ports.

     Furthermore, best use a freshly-installed native Windows 3.1 without
     any subversive extensions, or a Win-OS/2 Session.
     Win-OS/2 may require some fondling with the settings for memory etc;
     see WINOS2.TXT for an example.

     Always make sure your Windows has enough virtual memory
     (must be adjusted in Window's "386 Enhanced" settings).


   List of packages
   ================

     1)  ZOTH1.ZIP  (  967 k)  base package with 34 sounds
     2)  ZOTH2.ZIP  (1.347 k)  45 additional sounds
     3)  ZOTH3.ZIP  (1.424 k)  32 additional sounds
     4)  ZOTH4.ZIP  (1.411 k)  38 additional sounds, sourcecode.


   List of files
   =============

     ZOTH.EXE         the game
     ZOTH.INI         configuration file
     ZOTH.DAT         data file
     SNDCHAN.DLL      wave sound mixing DLL
     IBMJOY.DRV       joystick driver for Windows
     JOYSTICK.CPL     joystick calibration program for Windows
     GFX\*.*          bitmap graphics files
     SND\*.*          base sound files     (packages 1 and 2)
     SND\EXT\*.*      extended sound files (packages 3 and 4)
     DOC\MANUAL.TXT   the English manual in ASCII format
     DOC\ANLEITG.TXT  the German  manual in ASCII format
     DOC\WHERE.TXT    Internet sites
     DOC\WINOS2.TXT   Win-OS/2 configuration example
     DOC\PACKAGES.TXT detailed file lists from all packages
     DOC\SND.TXT      description of sound files
     SRC\*.*          source code (package 4)

