FA-18 INTERCEPTOR
-----------------

CHEAT/TIPS:

 Select "Free Flight, No Enemy Confrontation" from the Main Menu.
 Then select 0 instead of 1 to 4. The screen will go into a spiral and
 scroll way south to 34 by 117 degrees, placing your plane somewhere
 without a runway. This happens to be in the middle of Edwards Air
 Force Base, where the F/A-18 was flight tested. To take off you have
 to use the afterburners.

 
 KNOWN BUGS
 ----------
  
 * It is possible to 'skip' your jet over land or water as long as you
 keep the nose fairly level and pull up right after touching the
 surface.  If you do not pull up, the plane will bog down as if in some
 sort of dense mud puddle and eventually come to a halt (although your
 THRUST will not change).  There seems to be no recourse other than to
 either bail-out or restart the mission.
  
 * The Flight Log contains a bug in its ability to record and keep
 track of your Call-Sign.  Merely a nuisance, and it does not hinder
 gameplay/simulation at all.
  
 * Although this is not a bug in the true sense of the word (it was
 obviously programmed as such), there is an artificial ceiling of
 40,960 feet.  When this height is achieved your plane will simply hang
 there, waiting on you to move away from the barrier.

 * The same is true for the North/South/East/West boundaries in the
 terrain.
  
 * Any Flight Simulator which does not support an analog joystick is
 destined to be labeled such things as 'GAME, PURE AND SIMPLE',
 'UNPROFESSIONAL', 'SERIOUSLY LACKING', etc.  This is the case with
 Interceptor, and as such it should go into the record books as being a
 BUG of the highest magnitude.
  
 * It is possible to land, refuel, and rearm your jet by landing on the
 enemies carrier/sub during the Shadow Sub mission.
  
 * It is impossible to land on, taxi over, or crash into any of the
 bridges in the Bay Area.  Nor can you kill the downed pilot in the
 Search And Rescue scenario, or destroy a parachuting rescue pod.  All
 of these seem to be invisible as far as your plane and weapons are
 concerned.
  
 * When asked to 'Press SHIFT-ESCAPE' to return to main menu, you must
 actually press any key before that particular key-combination.  It
 doesn't accept SHIFT-ESCAPE on the first take.
  
 * As far as can be determined, all missions are indeed capable of
 being completed as per instructions except for the Shadow Sub mission,
 which must be completed in a way that is contrary to the orders given
 to you.
  
  
 WEIRDNESS
 ---------
  
 * While on the carrier, you can inch your way to the edge of the deck
 and hang about 7/8ths of your plane over the water without falling in. 
 Also, at SFO when Air Force One is sitting there you can inch your way
 -onto- its tail section almost up to its midsection before 'falling
 through' and destroying AF-1.
  
 * There seem to be certain instances (though I cannot reliably repeat
 this at will) when you can bail-out of an aircraft <it crashes,
 naturally> and as you are parachuting down choose the Control Tower
 view at which time you find a replacement aircraft sitting on the
 runway waiting on you.  This aircraft can indeed be flown, although
 you will not be able to acquire a cockpit view and must fly by what
 you can see from your parachute view and tower view.
  
 * In the DEMO mode, the only interaction you can achieve is firing
 missiles when the demo arms them.  No other keypresses are
 operational. I had hoped to find a way to exhaust the missiles before
 the MIG was within range and see if it would shoot down the F18, but
 as yet I don't see how this can be accomplished.
  
  
 UNDOCUMENTED 'FEATURES'
 -----------------------
  
 * Although the documentation states that you can use the '=' key to
 increase throttle by one step and the '-' key to decrease throttle by
 one step, it doesn't tell you that if you hold these keys down the
 throttle will continue to increase/decrease in one step increments.
  
 * While on the ground (or carrier, or sub) and stopped, you can
 actually go in reverse by holding down the '-' key for a moment.
  
 * You can 'bump' into buildings and other stationary objects without
 crashing if you do so only at low speeds.  Once thrust is increased to
 a certain point while up against an object, you will crash.
  
 * The program seems to run fine on a 68010/68020 equipped Amiga.
  
 * All of the VIEW MODE keys (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,and decimal point) work
 just as well when parachuting.
  
 * The ZOOM KEYS (left and right brackets) work just as well while in
 MAP VIEW or in the TOWER VIEW.
  
 * While in TOWER VIEW, your viewpoint will change dependent on the
 plane or parachute position.  It automatically pans around in
 reference to the plane/parachute, much like a camera follows its
 subject.
  
 * The RANGE MARKER in the AIMING RETICLE located on the Heads-Up
 Display (HUD) works thusly:  It starts at the 11:00 position, which
 indicates that the enemy is 10 or more miles away.  As the targeted
 enemy approaches your plane, the range marker will rotate
 counter-clockwise around the reticle.  At the 12:00 position, the
 enemy is extremely close to you.
  
 * A very nice feature of the radar, which many haven't caught onto
 yet, is that when other planes are below your altitude they will be
 one (1) screen pixel wide.  When they are above your altitude, they
 become two (2) pixels wide.
  
  
 NIFTY ENHANCEMENTS
 ------------------
  
 * There is a file called LACE.EXE floating around in the public domain
 which runs well along with Interceptor and improves its appearance by
 filling in every other screen line, much like interlace but keeping
 the same screen dimensions.  If you usually boot Interceptor from its
 own disk, do the following:  
     1) Copy LACE.EXE to the root of the Interceptor disk  

     2) Copy the RUN command from your WorkBench C directory to the
 Interceptor C directory  

     3) Use a text editor or word processor and alter the
 STARTUP-SEQUENCE located in the S directory of the Interceptor disk to
 include the line - RUN LACE.EXE - directly after it says BINDDRIVERS  

     4) Save the altered STARTUP-SEQUENCE back to its S directory.
  
 * Interceptor can be run from your standard WorkBench screen in a
 number of ways (see the next tip for running it from a hard-drive). 
 The first way is the simplest.  Remove your WorkBench disk from DF0:
 and place it into another drive.  Place Interceptor into DF0:, open up
 the disk, click on the files icon, away you go.  Apparently, the
 program has a nagging need to find what it wants on DF0: and does not
 use standard AmigaDOS volume names as reference.  The second method is
 more permanent in nature, and should not be accomplished unless you
 know what the heck I am talking about or what the heck you are doing. 
 Using a COPY of your Interceptor disk, run a disk editor (or text
 editor that can deal with binary files and has search/replace options)
 on the main Interceptor file.  Search for all occurances of DF0: and
 replace them with DF1: or DF2:, depending on where you will run the
 program from in the future.
  
 * For hard-drive booting of Interceptor, again do not attempt this if
 you know not of what I am talking about here...  The first method is
 to do basically that which is outlined above, but replace all
 occurances of DF0: with DH0: (or whatever your drive is designated
 as).  This would mean, however, that your Interceptor files would need
 to be on your hard-drives root directory.  Hardly what most would want
 to do.  The alternative is to copy Interceptor to any subdirectory you
 wish (lets say, GAMES), use the disk editor to change all occurances
 of DF0: with any logical device designation that you choose (for
 instance INT:), and then ASSIGN that logical device to the
 subdirectory of your hard-drive (or use XICON to make the assignation
 for you automatically every time you click the Interceptor icon).
  
  
 FUN-STUFF, HINTS, TIPS
 ----------------------
  
 * Use the 'TRAINING - PRACTICE MANEUVERS' scenario in order to hone
 your cannon-firing abilities.  Although you cannot actually fire
 weapons in this mode, it does a lot of good to follow your flight
 instructor around and try to keep him in your aiming reticle.  Click
 the button to make him evade you, and try to stay within gun range
 from him.
  
 * Want to try and set a land speed record?  Use the 'NO ENEMY
 CONFRONTATION' scenario and choose to take-off from SFO or Moffett
 Field.  Taxi your plane onto any of the longer Bay Area highways (like
 101 for instance) and kick in the afterburners.  If you don't pick up
 the planes nose you can really put a Ferrarri to shame!  Try to keep
 your plane on the highway as long as possible.  Also try driving this
 way while using an outside-rear view or an outside-overhead view.
  
 * The Electronic Arts building (actually it is the northernmost of the
 two twin buildings) is located just west of the San Mateo bridge in a
 gray 'plaza' (much of which is really parking lot).  Not shown is the
 gorgeous fountain located between the two buildings.  <shucks>  By the
 way, for those wondering... the large black building in downtown San
 Francisco is the Bank Of America building (right next to the
 TransAmerica pyramid).  The island right off the coast of the city
 which has two towers and a low building in between them is Alcatraz. 
 The island which is in the center of the Bay Bridge (joining Oakland
 and San Francisco) is Yerba Buena (and the Coast Guard's Treasure
 Island).  The mountain located on the Marin County side of the Golden
 Gate Bridge is called Mount Tamalpais.  (Complete sightseeing tours on
 request)
  
 * It is possible to acquire a good close-up look at one of the MIG's
 in a number of ways.  I do it the Air Force One scenario.  Follow AF-1
 to SFO and land alongside it without engaging any of the MIG's which
 follow you in.  Taxi around the runway and keep a close eye on the
 enemy planes.   Usually if they shoot at you while you are on the
 ground, their missiles will explode next to you harmlessly (an
 interesting sight by the way).  Wait until you see one or both of the
 MIG's come so low that they get bogged down in the water next to the
 runway or on land nearby.  Taxi on over to them (or as close as
 possible if they are in the water and use your ZOOM keys) and give em
 a thorough inspection.
  
 * For an interesting visual effect, take off from the aircraft carrier
 and head west (direction really makes no difference).   Go out about
 10 miles and come to about 170 feet.  Turn around and head directly at
 the carriers tower, and arm your AMRAAM missiles.  Hit the SHIFT-ENTER
 key combination in order to get a Control Tower view.  As you see
 yourself approaching the tower *from* the tower, let loose a few
 missiles.  If you think you are going to hit the tower, pull up or to
 the side and watch your plane as it passes by the tower.  Your tower
 view will follow your flight path rather nicely.  (You may also ZOOM
 in/out.)
  
 * Another interesting visual effect... take off from SFO and head
 straight for San Francisco at about 15 feet.  Acquire an OUTSIDE
 BELOW-PLANE view using the decimal key and watch as you pass (and/or
 crash into) the downtown buildings.  Try and circle the city using
 only this view.
  
 * Something which has been occupying a lot of my Interceptor
 flight-time is precision parachuting drills.  I head for a target
 (like the Transamerica pyramid), take an OUTSIDE-ABOVE view with the
 ZOOM all the way out, and try to bail-out at the precise moment so as
 to land atop the buildings pinnacle (no easy task).  Even if you miss,
 you can treat yourself to some spectacular close-ups of the target
 using your view keys as you parachute down.  Other 'chuting targets of
 interest:  The E.A. building, any of the bridges, the carriers tower,
 the Bank Of America building, Alcatraz Island, and the downed pilot!
  
 * Want to take a close look at the rescue pod?  Go to about 40,000
 feet and eject it.  Turn around and make some close fly-bys.  Or go to
 a clear land mass and let it loose while at low-altitude, then turn
 around and land near it.