Contents

General:

About Midway’s Arcade Classics Volume 1

About this game

In the game window, press:

Play to begin or continue a game;

Options to customize the keyboard, joysticks, or game play;

History for game history and interviews;

Change game to play a different game; or

Exit to exit Arcade Classics.

Game play:

How to play

Game controls

Changing the keyboard

Using joysticks

Changing a joystick's sensitivity

Varying the game's difficulty and settings

Other:

Troubleshooting


About Midway's Arcade Classics
About Midway’s Arcade Classics Volume 1

Digital Eclipse Software, Inc. Team

Digital Eclipse Software, Inc. has developed and published several successful commercial software packages for the Macintosh and the PC.  The company was also responsible for the DOS and Mac versions of Midway’s Arcade Classics and is currently working on projects for next generation gaming systems.

Andrew Ayre - Andrew served as Producer of Midway’s Arcade Classics for Windows® 95 and is President of Digital Eclipse Software.

Jeff Vavasour - Jeff was the Lead Programmer on this project, responsible for the emulation engine and the Arcade Room and "Behind the Scenes" interfaces, as well as supervising the overall design.

Technopop (Randel Reiss and Justin Wolf) - Technopop was responsible for the coding of the games' user interface and also for DirectX support programming.

Bert Monroy - Bert is the talented artist that lent his hand to creating the original artwork which appears in the Arcade Room.

Chris Charla and Jon Snyder - Chris and Jon brought you "Behind the Scenes" with their multimedia one-on-one interviews with the original Midway Programmers.

Midnight Design - Midnight Design provided multimedia post-production, including additional artwork for "Behind the Scenes."

Image Impressions - Image Impressions did additional layout for parts of this CD-ROM's "AutoPlay" launcher.

Developed by Digital Eclipse Software, Inc.

Emulation software © 1995 Digital Eclipse Software, Inc.


The Play Button

Press the play button to enter the actual game.  The first time you do this after choosing a new game, you will start out in the "attract mode."  This is the mode the arcade game is in when it is waiting for a new player.  To start a new 1-player game, press 1.  To start a new 2-player game, press 2.

To pause a game, press the ESC key.  This will return you to the game's main title window.  You can resume your game where you left off by selecting Play a second time.

For more information on the object of the game, see How to Play.

For more information on the controls used to play this game, see Game Controls.


Changing the Keyboard

Using the Options button on the game window, you can change the keys used to control the game.  In Options, select the Keyboard tab.  This page lists all the controls used by the game, and the current keys assigned to each.  To assign a new key to a control, click on the Change button next to it, and then press a new key.

If you press Cancel or ESC when you are asked to select the new key, the change is cancelled and the control remains unchanged.  You can also restore the original keys assigned to the controls by clicking on Restore Defaults.

For a list of the keys assigned to the controls when you first install the game, see Game Controls.


The Options Button

The Options button on the game's title window allows you to customize the game in a variety of ways.  You can vary the difficulty and game play options (see Game-Play Settings), change the keys used to control the game (see Changing the Keyboard), select joysticks to be used to control the games (see Using Joysticks), or vary the game's sensitivity to motion of the joystick (see Advanced Joystick Settings).


Behind the Scenes

Click on the History button on the main game window to enter the "Behind the Scenes" multimedia retrospective.  "Behind the Scenes" features interviews with the original game designers, insider tips and information, and rare artwork and photos that are a must-see for game enthusiasts.

Once on a game's "Behind the Scenes" page, you can view interviews by pressing one of the Clip buttons, read through the accompanying text, or see the artwork and photos in the Media Gallery.

You can also enter "Behind the Scenes" from the Arcade Room by clicking on the center of the neon sign on the back wall.

Warning: Entering "Behind the Scenes" will end any game that may have been paused.


The Arcade Room

When you first start Arcade Classics, you will enter the Arcade Room where you can select a game to play.  Pressing the Change Game button on a game's main window will end the current game and return you to the Arcade Room.

In the Arcade Room, you are shown three games.  You can either click on one of these three games to go to it, or click on the "Front/Back Room" sign to see the other three games which are available.

In addition, you can also click on the center of the neon sign on the wall to enter the "Behind the Scenes," or click on the "Exit" sign to exit Arcade Classics.

The "Go to" pull-down menu provides an alternate way to go directly to one of these options using the mouse or the keyboard.

Tip: When you first insert the Arcade Classics CD-ROM, you can bypass the Arcade Room and go to one of the six games or "Behind the Scenes" by clicking on a shortcut button at the top of the "Welcome" window.


The Exit Button

The Exit button will completely exit Arcade Classics.  To restart Arcade Classics you will either have to reinsert the CD-ROM, or open your "My Computer" folder and double-click on the CD-ROM icon.

To exit your current game in order to choose a new game to play, click on Change Game instead.


How to Play

Sinistar requires strategy.  The ultimate object of each wave is to rid the region of Sinistar, a powerful creature bent on destruction.  Your normal guns are useless against the mighty Sinistar.  Fortunately, there is a way to defeat him.  You must mine the asteroids in the region for crystals, which your ship can convert into "Sinibombs."  Sinibombs are powerful bombs that, when launched, will home in on Sinistar, delivering a crippling blow.

It's not surprising that the crystals can destroy Sinistar, as they're precisely what was used to build him.  At the beginning of a wave, you may notice red "workers" dancing about the screen.  They're after the same thing you are: the crystals.  When they capture one, they bring it to a chosen location where they use the crystals to construct Sinistar.  Once they've successfully brought 19 crystals back this way, Sinistar comes to life. When this happens, you'd better be ready!

In order to extract crystals, you have to shoot an asteroid.  This causes tremors in the asteroid that will bring these crystals to the surface.  Be ready to grab them once they are freed, as the workers are opportunistic and may go after one of your crystals.  Asteroids have a limited ability to withstand these tremors, and if persistently bombarded, will eventually explode once their crystal supply is exhausted.   It is possible to retrieve a "stolen" crystal from a worker by shooting the worker carrying it, but you'll still have to chase down the crystal as it flies out of the explosion.

Also out to thwart your efforts are the "warriors."  These are small, armed, tank-like ships that are out to stop you from interfering with the workers' task.  Be careful, they may not seem too bright in the beginning, but they catch on quickly.

You only need 13 crystals to destroy Sinistar, but it doesn't hurt to have more as those pesky workers and warriors can get in the way of a Sinibomb, detonating it before it hits its target.  Messages appear just below your score telling you when a Sinibomb hits or misses.

The message area can also inform you of other events, such as when Sinistar is approaching, or when you are entering a dense "planetoid" area.

In the center of the screen is the scanner.  This can be a very useful tool when trying to locate a good "crop" of planetoids to harvest for crystals, or when you just want to try and stay out of Sinistar's way.

One final note on Sinistar:  It is best played with a joystick.  You actually get a finer degree of movement and speed that way rather than being restricted to the standard eight directions of the keyboard (up, down, left, and right plus diagonals).  See Using Joysticks for more details.

To find out more about how to play Sinistar, watch the attract mode when you select Play, before starting a 1- or 2-player game.


Game Controls

The original arcade game of Sinistar had a special joystick with a finer degree of control, more like a PC's flight stick.  By using the proper joystick with this version of Sinistar, you'll be able to have that same control.  The ideal joystick should be an analog joystick (for example, a flight stick) with at least two buttons.  Gamepads and other digital joysticks will not have the same degree of fine control (as you may have already found in other flight simulator games), and provide little superiority to the keyboard as a means of controlling the game.

On a joystick, you will find that the primary trigger fires your lasers, while the second trigger fires Sinibombs.  A joystick with more buttons can be used, but they won't do anything.

If you elect to use the keyboard, then, by default the following keys are used to control your ship:

Keypad 1 - Move diagonally down and left

Keypad 2 - Move down

Keypad 3 - Move diagonally down and right

Keypad 4 - Move left

Keypad 6 - Move right

Keypad 7 - Move diagonally up and left

Keypad 8 - Move up

Keypad 9 - Move diagonally up and right

Space - Fire

Enter - Sinibombs

You can change the keys used to control Sinistar using the Options button on the game's title window (see Changing the Keyboard).


Game-Play Settings
Varying the Game's Difficulty and Settings

These original arcade games had a number of settings which could be adjusted to vary the difficulty of play (to make it harder for people to play too long on one quarter!).  On the main game window, choose the Options button and then select the Game tab.  Here you can adjust your game in the same way to make it easier or harder.

For Sinistar, the inital settings are 3 ships and a bonus ship after the first 30,000 points.   An additional ship is awarded after the next 60,000, then the next 90,000 points, etc.  That is, you get a bonus ship at 30,000 points, 90,000 points, 180,000 points, etc.

You can vary the number of ships you start with to anything from 1 to 99 ships.  You can also adjust the points needed for the first bonus ship to anywhere from 1,000 to 99,000 points.

The "additional bonus ship point factor" determines the amount by which the points needed for the next bonus ship increases.  For example, if you set the number of points for the first bonus ship to 10,000 and the additional bonus factor to 1,000, then a bonus ship will be awarded after the first 10,000 points, after the next 11,000 points (i.e. at 21,000), and then after the next 12,000 points (i.e. at 33,000), etc.  If you set the additional bonus factor to 0, you'll simply get bonus ships when your score reaches multiples of the points needed for the first bonus ship, like the other games in this package always do.

In addition, you can vary the game's difficulty using the "Difficulty" slider control, or change the number of letters allowed in the top score to anywhere from 3 to 20.  Only the top score is allowed more than 3 letters.  All the rest only get 3 regardless.

Finally, there are two additional settings unique to Sinistar.  One is the "continuous fire" checkbox.  If you uncheck this box, you will only fire one shot of your lasers each time you press the fire button.  Checking this will produce a steady stream of shots for as long as you hold the fire button down.  This applies to both the keyboard and joystick controls.

The last Sinistar setting controls the orientation of the screen.  The original coin-op Sinistar had its monitor installed sideways.  The playfield was designed for this orientation, having more height than width.  (The extra height was used for the scanner and score area with the actual playfield almost square.)  In order to fit the Sinistar screen on a regular monitor, it had to be rotated and shrunk vertically.  If you want to reproduce the original Sinistar screen look, you can check the "sideways orientation" box.  Note that everything will be on its side when you do this. In order to see the picture correctly, you'll have to tip your monitor on its side.  If you want to do this, ensure that your monitor is stable and DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK!

If, at any time, you want to restore the game to its original "mint condition," simply press the Restore Defaults button under the Game tab.

Finally, the game options also allow you to clear all your high scores, restoring the high score table to the factory-set scores.  To do this, click on the Reset High Scores button.

Warning: If you attempt to change any of these settings or reset high scores while you are in the middle of a game that has been paused, that game will end and your score in that game will be lost.  If you attempt this, however, you will be warned and given a chance to change your mind.


Troubleshooting

The action in Arcade Classics stutters:  Windows® 95 may do a momentary "garbage collection" (that is, a clean-up of memory and disk) after a new program has settled in for a short time.  If this occurs on your machine and is unsatisfactory, try letting the attract mode run through once or so before playing a game.  If it occurs frequently, it may be a sign of insufficient memory, or another active application may be requiring intensive use of the CPU or hard disk.

I get no picture or a corrupt game screen:  Ensure that your video board is at least a local bus video board.  Microsoft's DirectX requires local bus video (or better) in order to work properly.

The sound seems choppy or poor:  Ensure that you have an up-to-date Windows® 95-compatible audio driver for your sound card, and preferably a sound card which is recommended for use with Microsoft's DirectX.  Consult with the manufacturer for details.

I can't move the ship using the keyboard: Ensure that the NUM LOCK key is on, and that your key controls are set correctly.  (See Game Controls and Changing the Keyboard for more more information.)

I am having trouble using my joystick with the game: See Joystick Troubleshooting.


About this Game

The Sinistar Team

Noah Falstein, Sam Dicker, Jack Haeger, R. J. Mical, Richard Witt - Design

Noah Falstein, Sam Dicker - Software

Jack Haeger - Artist

Bob Mical, Richard Witt - Support software

John Newcomer - Preliminary design

Greg Wepner - Hardware

Leo Ludzia and Gary Berge - Mechanical

Ken Lantz - Video manager

Sinistar © 1982 Midway Amusement Games, LLC.

Sinistar is a registered trademark of Midway Amusement Games, LLC.

All rights reserved.  Used under license.


Using Joysticks

In order to use a joystick with this game, it must first have been set up under Windows® 95's Control Panel.  To do this, choose Start, then select Settings..., then Control Panel, and finally select the Joystick icon.  See the help within for more details.

Once this is done, you must tell the game which joystick you wish to use with it.  This is done by selecting the Options button on the title window, and then selecting the Joystick page.  Select the joystick from the combo box there.

If you are having trouble with your joystick, see Joystick Troubleshooting for help.


Advanced Joystick Settings

The Advanced button on the Options' Joystick tab gives you access to the joystick sensitivity slider and the calibration tester.  Because Sinistar uses a finer grading of positions, it is not possible to adjust the sensitivity in this game.

The calibration tester is the graph on the right of the dialog box.  It is divided up into forty-nine squares, representing center (the gray square) and the various possible displacements of the joystick.  By moving your joystick around, you can see how far the joystick has to move in order for the game to register it as being "centered", "up", "right", etc.

If you are having trouble getting your joystick to respond properly, you can use the calibration tester to troubleshoot the problem.  See Joystick Troubleshooting.


Joystick Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble getting your joystick to respond correctly, first ensure that you have the correct joystick selected under the Joystick tab of the Options button.

If the joystick is not listed there, then it may not have been calibrated. Joysticks must be calibrated in Windows® 95 using the Control Panel.  To access this, select Start, Settings..., then Control Panel and then double-click on the Joystick icon.  Follow the instructions there to calibrate your joystick.  If you do not have a Joystick icon under your Control Panel, you may not have installed the needed multimedia drivers.  Check your Windows Setup under Add/Remove Programs.

If your joystick has been calibrated under Windows® 95, and selected in the game's Options' Joystick tab (a joystick must be selected in each of the six games individually), click on the Advanced button under that tab to access the Advanced Joystick Settings.

The graph in this window shows you where the game "sees" the joystick, using a small "+".  The graph is divided up according to the different possible positions of the joystick, with "centered" indicated by the gray square.  You can try recalibrating your joystick or adjusting the trim controls (on joysticks that have them) and seeing how this graph responds.

If no "+" is shown on the graph, then the Windows® joystick driver is reporting that the joystick is not responding properly, and so its plug may be loose or not connected, or else the joystick driver has not been correctly selected in Windows® Control Panel.