Play one of the most popular games in the world on your computer. This real life simulation doubles as an arcade game and a professional practice utility for players of all standards. Ultimate Darts is unique, allowing you to play against the world's top players. Game options include competitions, exhibitions, round the board, darts soccer and darts cricket. Other features range from 2 - 8 player options, arcade/real modes through to four skill settings and a score only facility. Ultimate Darts - the only thing missing is a pint of lager. LOADING INSTRUCTIONS CBM 64/128 Cassette 1. Set up your computer as outlined in your user’s manual. 2. Insert the cassette into the data recorder, label side up. 3. Press SHIFT and RUN/STOP keys simultaneously. Press Play on the cassette recorder. 4. The game will now load automatically. 5. Ensure the joystick is connected into port #2. NOTE: the cassette is duplicated on both sides. Side 1 contains:- Competitions, Exhibitions and the Two player Scoreboard. Side 2 contains:- Round the Board, Round the Board on Doubles, Round the Board on Trebles, Darts Soccer and Darts Cricket. To load the second side refer to point 3 above. CBM 64/128 DISK 1. Set up your computer as outlined in your user’s manual. 2. Insert the disk into the disk drive, label side up. 3. Type LOAD "*",8,1 and press RETURN 4. The game will now load automatically. 5. Ensure the joystick is connected into port #2. INTRODUCTION Darts, as you may know is one of the most popular and widespread games in the world, claiming millions of players in the U.K. alone, and having devotees in over 40 countries. Ultimate Darts was designed to be both a computer arcade game and a professional practice utility for players ranging from novice through to world class. Ultimate Darts is unique in being the only game that includes computer aided darts practice, allowing you to play against simulations of the world’s top professional players. Over two years have been spent carefully studying the form and style of the masters in real-life competitions, enabling us to provide you with near-perfect imitations to compete against. There is a wide variety of different dart games to choose from, including: 1. Competitions 2. Exhibitions 3. Two Player Scoreboard 4. Round the Board 5. Round the Board on Doubles 6. Round the Board on Trebles 7. Darts Soccer 8. Darts Cricket GAME MODE There are two modes of game-play:- 1. In ARCADE mode, the player uses a mouse ( joystick CBM 64/128 ) to control the darts on a computer-simulated board, playing either against a programmed opponent or against other players ( up to 8 ) 2. In REAL mode, the player plays a game of darts on a real board, entering the scores into the computer. This enables the player to compete in ‘real-life’ against such players as John Lowe or Eric Bristow, or to use the computer as just an automatic scoreboard facility in competitions with other players. To change between these modes press either A(rcade) or R(eal) on the main options-select screen. When playing in arcade mode, the darts are controlled by the Joystick in Control Port 2. To move the aiming icon around, move the joystick in the direction you require, and then press the fire button when you are ready to throw the dart, Only half of the board is displayed at any one time moving the aiming icon towards the bulls-eye results in the other half of the board being shown. ADDITIONAL FEATURES CBM 64/128 SOUND SET-UP This option allows you to adjust the sound effect of darts hitting the dart board, Due to differences between individual sound chips, the filter settings used in the effect need to be changed from machine to machine to result in optimum sound. To implement this feature, press S whilst on the main options screen. Use the + and - keys to increment and decrement the current filter value. To hear the sound press the SPACEBAR. To exit, press X. ABORT GAME Pressing SHIFT and F1 together at any time will abort the current game and return you to the main options screen. GAMEPLAY ARCADE SKILL LEVEL To adjust the level of skill in the arcade sections use the + and - keys on the main options screen. GAMES All these games are of similar type, being the usual counting down from 301, 501 or 1001 and finishing on a double or a bulls-eye ( except competitions, which are ONLY played from 501 down ). Each game features: Displays the highest finish by a player Displays the quickest finish by a player Text commentary Recall and change of last score Illegal entry of scores check Illegal entry of scores on finishing check Precise calculation of 3-dart averages SCORING To score whilst playing these games in REAL mode, enter your score using the number keys (0-9)when it is your turn to throw. Any numbers may be deleted using the INST/DEL key. When the score is correct, press the RETURN key and the score will be displayed on the screen in text format. If your score is 0 or you ‘go bust’ (score too many), pressing RETURN on its own will result in the message ‘NO-SCORE!’. To change the previous score in case of incorrect entry, you must wait until your next throw. When asked to enter your score, press the L key instead. You will then be given the option of changing your last entered score. After changing this, the computer will ask you to enter the current score as per normal. All ARCADE scoring is done automatically by the computer. Remember, all games must be finished on a double or bulls-eye. Thus if you have 32 left to score, you should aim at double 16. If a single 16 is hit instead then you should aim for a double 8, and so on. The bulls-eye scores 50 points. GAME 1 - COMPETITIONS Up to 8 external players can take part in the line-up of 16 players in each of the 5 different competitions. Press 1 - 5 to select the level of competition from novice to world class. Each competition has a certain number of legs and sets necessary to win each round. These are shown in the table below:- COMPETITION - SETS TO WIN ROUND - LEGS TO WIN SET ROUND1 ROUND2 SEMI-FINAL FINAL Novice - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 Pub - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 Town - 2 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 2 County - 2 - 3 - 4 - 7 - 3 World - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 3 After selecting a level, enter the number of external players and then their name(s) when instructed using any of the keyboard characters (and delete INST/DEL when necessary ) and press RETURN to enter them. At the end of each round, providing there is at least one external player remaining in the competition, the following options are available:- 1. Continue Game 2. Save Game. 3. Quit Game SAVING A GAME If you decide to save the game, make sure you have a blank cassette tape in the data recorder before executing the save command. Note that both the tape and disk versions save the competition to tape. LOAD LATEST NAMES From the competition select screen you can load the 16 currect top ranked players in the world and the throwing data needed to emulate them. On loading, the game originally holds the ranking for Jan ’87, but this facility loads the rankings for Jan. ’88. LOAD OLD GAME This option on the competition select screen allows to load a previously saved game from cassette. NB: All load or save operations can be aborted at any time by pressing the RUN/STOP key. GAME 2 - EXHIBITION You can play an exhibition match against any of the top 16 world ranked players, or against the computer opponent, choosing how many legs per set and how many sets you wish to play. The computer opponent plays a ridiculously good game of darts, ( better than anyone in the world in fact!!! ), having a treble hitting capability of 45% and a double hitting capability of 55%. The world’s best players average around 37% treble hitting capability and 50% double hitting capability. GAME 3 - TWO PLAYER SCOREBOARD This option allows two people to play against each other in either REAL or ARCADE mode. Player 1 always throws first on the first game whereas the first player is chosen at random in subsequent games. GAME 4 - ROUND THE BOARD The aim of the game is to hit all the singles 1-20 consecutively and then hit either the bulls-eye once or the twenty-five circle twice ( in the same go ) to finish.<> A double under 11 (e.g. 1 - 10 ) doubles the number you are on. For instance, if you are on 4 and you hit double 4, your next shot will be for the 9 ( 4*2+1 = 9 ). When you reach 20, you either have to hit the first double you hit on the way up ( if it was below 11 ), or ( if no double below 11 was hit ) the double 20 before you are allowed to try for the bulls-eye or the twenty-five circle to win the game. GAME 5 - ROUND THE BOARD ON DOUBLES This is similar to round the board except that you go around the board hitting the DOUBLES 1-20, also finishing on either the bull or two hits in the twenty-five circle in the same throw. GAME 6 - ROUND THE BOARD ON TREBLES Again as above, but going around hitting trebles. GAME 7 - DARTS SOCCER In this game, you have to outscore your opponent in order to gain possession of the ball. If you continue to outscore the other player, you move up the pitch and eventually score a goal. If not, the other player gets possession. If you are attacking goal and you throw the same score as your opponent, a penalty will be given. To score from penalty involves beating the score set by the computer. There are ten penalty levels to choose from on the initial set-up page of the game. If you are playing in REAL mode, enter the scores in the same way as the previous games. GAME 8 - DARTS CRICKET Darts cricket involves scoring as many points (runs) as possible before being bowled out by your opponent. The player bowling has to aim at the bulls-eye. Each bull outs two men, while the twenty-five circle bowls out just one. The player batting has an innings of 11 men, playing ech man in turn until they are bowled out. When the score board is being displayed, a picture of a bat, or a ball is also shown, a bat meaning that the player about to throw is batting, a ball meaning that it is the bowlers turn to play. Note that in REAL mode, the computer will not allow you to take more than 6 wickets in any one throw, since three bulls-eyes count as 6 wickets. There is also an illegal scores entry check when batting. ARCADE MODE HINTS AND TIPS When playing in arcade mode, the aiming icon moves in one of four random triangular motions. There are also deflections programmed into the game. Two darts landing in the same place will cause the second one to bounce off the board. Therefore when attempting to get three darts in a treble, make sure that you aim for an available space or else one is likely to be deflected. There is a short delay before you can throw the dart after you have moved the aiming icon around the board. This is to prevent cheating by moving and then throwing instantly, always hitting the target you are aiming at. Pressing FIRE during this delay will result in you ‘pulling’ the dart wide of the target. To add more pressure to the game, there is an auto-shoot delay built in. If you take too long a time aiming the dart, the computer throws the dart for you, resulting probably in a miss. The four skill settings in ARCADE mode relate to the movement of the aiming icon, The icon moves at two different speeds, and the higher the skill level, the greater the ratio between the faster and slower movements. Also, raising the skill level increases the probability of the dart being deflected or bouncing out.