Byteria Heroes
Far Wars

Version 5.4
© 1995-2007 Michael Hoffmann

This program is freeware. It is copyrighted, but the latest version of the program may be distributed and copied for free as long as it remains unchanged.

 

Story

In some multiverse there is a disk-like world called Byteria. It is home to many different people and bizarre creatures.

Our story takes place on the continent of Glashelm, which was dominated by the Cervisian Empire until its eventual collapse a long time ago. One day the Cervisian head of government announced he was going to restore the empire. Styling himself Dicius I., he greatly upgraded the military, and his strategic skills allowed him to quickly reconquer most of the former provinces.

Eventually, while preparing the attack on the land of Talluna, Emperor Dicius disappeared all of a sudden. Nobody seems to really know the reason, but his successor, a man called Scrapper, quickly announced he was going to subjugate the whole world. Fortunately, Marty, the son of the Tallunian Chancellor and his friends turn out to be talented superheroes, destined to protect their country …

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The Main Characters

Some of the folks.

Marty
Son of George Wynne, Chancellor of Talluna. Marty is a surprisingly talented superhero, chosen by superior powers to protect his homeland from Scrapper. He might even be the legendary hero prophesied millennia ago by the Ancients …

Scrapper
An ambitious and strong-willed man with a great goal: to conquer the world! When the Emperor of Cervisia disappeared, Scrapper took over, although nobody really knows where he came from. If he has any skills then he does a great job at hiding them …

Marina
Marina is actually from Earth but was brought to Byteria by Scrapper when he messed around with some strange machines. Now she helps Marty fight evil.

David
Another Earthling who has joined the superheroes. He apparently needs more time to get used to the bizarre activities in Byteria, though.

Dr. Noble
The brilliant scientist who lives in Tallun City. He has agreed to support the superheroes (if the goverment pays him well for it).

George Wynne
Marty's father, the Tallunian head of government.

Dr. Insidious
Dr. Noble's evil rival, who tries to conquer the world with fighting robots.

Sick Test
Scrapper's mysterious extrabyterian master. No idea who he is, but Scrapper has to have gotten his advanced equipment from somewhere …

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Overview

Byteria Heroes: Far Wars is a classical platform game. Your job is to move Marty through various levels and beat several villains. The story is told through optional cutscenes. In most levels you will run, jump and climb around, avoiding numerous enemies and traps to somehow reach the exit, which will take you into the next level. Each world ends with a boss for you to defeat. In order to strike back at the various sleazebags you always have superballs available. If you still lose all of your initial 5 lives the save feature will allow you start your next game at a later stage. Even so, it cannot harm to get yourself some extra lives, so try to collect as many items as possible.

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Game Controls

You control Marty with the keyboard, or alternatively with the joystick. Set your preferences via the corresponding menu bar entry. Default keys are:

D-pad (Cursor keys): Walk, climb, duck, aim, enter doors etc.
Fire button 1 (shift key): Jump
Fire button 2 ([Ctrl]): Throw superball
Fire button 3 ([0] on numpad): Pause and resume game

Cutscenes:
This is just the story being told. Simply press the first button to continue with the text, or [Esc] to skip the sequences.

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Game Mechanics

The game consists of various "worlds" that in turn each consist of several levels. While exploring them you will naturally have to avoid numerous enemies and traps. If Marty gets hit he will lose a life and be put back to his starting point (the blue sign). When your lives are exhausted you end up back at the main menu and must restart the world. Thus, Marty should pick up as many items as possible to gain many points and lives. Other, rarer things directly help you fight the enemies, but even without such special items you can defeat them by simply throwing superballs at them. Superballs are unlimited and always available, although you must wait for them to actually hit something and disappear before you can throw another one.

The current numbers of lives and points as well as the stage number are shown at the top of the screen. To solve the normal levels you simply need to reach the door (stand in front of it and press "up"). Most of the time your path will be blocked but open up when you collect various keys. Reaching all keys of one color causes the corresponding pillars to disappear and make room for you.

The last level of each world has you fight one of the villains. Pelt him with your superball until he retreats; of course, he will attack you as well. Deplete his life energy (shown at the top of the screen) to zero to win the battle and be able to use the door to finish the world. Both the boss and Marty himself are invulnerable for three seconds after getting hit, so you cannot just fire away.

Defeating the boss will normally reward you with a bonus round where you can gain extra lives for the points you collected. There will be a heart for every 75 points, but you only have a few seconds to pick it up, so be quick.

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Menu

Before you begin your adventure, there is the main menu. Here you can start the game and choose certain additional options (all with the mouse).

The game saves your progress automatically. Use the list to choose your starting world – any world you already reached in the past is selectable, so you do not need to always restart the whole game from the beginning. Extra lives and points are however not saved, which might be a reason to intentionally start with easier levels to collect some …

There is also a check box that completely disables the story sequences. Additional options that can be changed at any time are found in the menu bar at the top of the screen; you can e. g. change the keyboard configuration or switch to a joystick, turn off the sound etc.

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Items

These items can be found in the game:

1UP Heart
An instant extra life.

Key
You must collect all keys of a color to make the corresponding pillars disappear.

Money
2 points for each coin.

Star
10 points.

Jewel
25 points.

Gold
A nice 50 points.

Sack with Gold Dust
A whopping 100 points.

Ruby
Destroys all normal enemies on the spot. You do not gain any points, however.

Magic Potion
This will make Marty invincible for a certain time (as indicated by the music), so you can defeat the enemies by simply touching them instead of the other way round.

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Contact

Latest information, even more crazy adventures and a forum are all on the official Web site:

http://www.skullbyte.com/

Send your mindless invective and mail bombs not to the author:

mh@skullbyte.de

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