
===== Core Runner 1.02 =====

http://www.sinistersystems.com/crunner

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This is a freeware game. You may play it and copy it around as much as you please. 
If you want to sell it though, ask for permission first.

Unzip everything into a folder. Run "CoreRunner.exe". If you get any odd messages and
the game won't run, try installing microsoft's vc+ 2005 sp1 components at:

http://www.sinistersystems.com/geeny/release/vcredist_x86_sp1.exe

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Overview
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In a randomly generated reactor, your goal is to guide your droid ship around 
the maze, evading contact with walls and other obstacles while trying to hack 
into as many purple and cyan computer consoles as necessary to disable the core. 
This has to be done using as little time as possible, which makes Core Runner 
essentially a racing game. Thus if your ship is destroyed, you are immediately 
provided with another one, but there is a 5 minutes penalty. The number of ships 
is unlimited, and so is the time to complete the task. 

You are aided by special powers of the droid ship. To use them, and also to 
replenish your force field and protect your hull against the hot radiation 
within the core itself, batteries have to be collected and stored, which happens 
when hacking into purple consoles. Blue consoles, on the other hand, may boost 
your force field when nearly charged. The field may recharge automatically when 
the temperature of the environment is low enough. 

To start the game, press fire (space). This will randomly select a beginner size 
reactor. To select a specific reactor instead, use the keyboard to enter its PIN 
first, then press space. The pin has up to 5 digits, the last digit selects the 
size of the reactor (0 - easy, 4 - medium, 9 - hard), and the first 4 digits are 
random seed for that particular size. 

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Droid Ship
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To move the ship around, use cursor keys or the mouse for rotation, acceleration 
and decceleration. For turbo speed, hold the left shift key. To disable a 
console, simply drive over it. This will also give you a certain bonus, 
depending on the color of the console. Quickly disabling a series of consoles 
will increase this bonus. 

Every console that you disable counts towards the end goal, to disable the 
reactor core. The progress indicator is in the top left corner of the screen. 
90% of all consoles in the reactor must be disabled. 

The droid ship is equipped with several utilities necessary to maintain a 
reactor core. The kinetic force field deflects the ship away from the hot walls 
to minimise contact and damage, however, it does not protect it against damage 
and heat. When the kinetic field is depleted, the droid is broken beyond repair 
and is disabled. 

The same kinetic field may be used to brake the vehicle. Press the fire button 
(space) once or a couple times, quickly, to achieve full stop. The brakes eat 
away some of the fields energy, and will not activate if not enough of it is 
available. 

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Utilities
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The remaining utilities are deflector shield, shrinker, ghost form, EMP and 
teleport (not yet implemented). They are all powered up by batteries which are 
collected by disabling the purple consoles. The number of batteries carried is 
indicated by the green bar on the right side of the screen. The utilities only 
become available when the number of batteries is sufficient, which is indicated 
by corresponding LEDs on the bottom of the screen turning red. Yellow color 
indicates the utility is currently enabled / being used. Any combination of 
utilities may be used at the same time, but that also means faster battery 
consumption. 

The more batteries you carry around, the more resistant your kinetic force field 
becomes to core heat. Also, it recharges faster when temperature is less than 
25%. The thermometer is next to the progress indicator. 

Deflector shield. Switch on/off with d. Prevents damage from contact with 
walls and high temperature core heat. Batteries are spent while deflector shield 
is up. 

Shrink. Switch on/off with s. Shrink the droid ship to fit into smaller spaces 
and corridors. Batteries are spent while the ship is shrunk. 

Ghost form. Switch on/off with g. Allows passage through walls, but this will 
damage the force field. Batteries are spent while the ship is in ghost form. 

EMP. Use with e. Will disable turbines next to the ship. Also, disables nearby 
consoles. This will count towards the reactor shutdown, but no bonus is gained. 

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Cool PINs so far:

80770
20089
12340
08024
45340

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Published by Sinister Systems, in January 2008
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http://www.sinistersystems.com


Designed and created by Charon@SinisterSystems/Matija Kostevc
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http://www.sinistersystems.com/charon


