A quick little user's guide

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 THE UR-QUAN MASTERS
 version 0.1 alpha
 Welcome to the first release of the Ur-Quan Masters port.  This
 document will tell you everything you need to play, even if you've
 never played the original.
 For those of you who have played the original, read the first section
 (starting the game) and the last section (control summary), and you'll
 be good to go.
 STARTING THE GAME
 Simply invoke UQM.EXE from the content directory to run the game.
 This will use the default settings, which are 3DO music, 640x480
 windowed mode, and pure SDL graphics drivers.  You may pass various
 command line options to customize your experience:
 	-r 320x240   (or --res)
 Sets the screen resolution.  Unless --opengl is set, the only valid
 values are 640x480 and 320x240
       -d 24         (or --bpp)
 Sets the color depth.  If you don't set this, the game should
 autodetect an appropriate value.  Valid values are 16, 24, and 32.
 	-f           (or --fullscreen)
 Uses full screen mode.  Pretty straightforward.  Usually good to
 combine with -r 320x240.
 	-o           (or --opengl)
 Use OpenGL drivers.  This produces higher-quality graphics, and may be
 faster as well -- but it also may not work on older cards.
 	-b           (or --bilinear)
 Enable bilinear filtering in OpenGL mode.  Produces less pixelated
 graphics with a bit of a performance penalty.
 	-p           (or --fps)
 Print fps information in the status window.
 	-tv          (or --tv)
 Simulates interlaced displays.
 	-c           (or --contentdir)
 Set the directory where the game will seek its data.
 	-h           (or --help)
 Display a help message.
 	-M           (or --musicvol)
 Set music volume (0-100).
 	-S           (or --sfxvol)
 Set sound effects volume (0-100).
 	-T           (or --speechvol)
 Set speech volume (0-100).
 	-e           (or --3domusic)
 Use the 3DO remixed soundtrack for songs that were in fact remixed.
 The default.
 	-m           (or --pcmusic)
 Use the .MOD based PC soundtrack everywhere.
 	-q           (or --audioquality)
 Can be "high", "medium", or "low".  Specifies how nice the audio
 sounds.  Slower machines should lower the audio quality.
 			   THE STORY SO FAR
 For the past decade, Earth and the rest of the Alliance of Free Stars
 has fought the Ur-Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls.  In the
 course of the War, the Earthlings discovered a factory world by the
 'Precursors' - an impossibly advanced that disappeared tens of
 thousands of years ago.  This colony, Unzervalt (aka Vela I), lost all
 contact with Earth shortly after landfall.
 You are Captain Zelnick, a human that was born on Unzervalt and who
 possesses a remarkable knack for Precursor technology.  You were the
 one who worked out how to activate the Precursor installation.
 It was a factory for building starships.  However, Unzervalt is
 mineral-poor, and there were not enough materials available to
 construct a complete vessel.  Your task is to command this craft, the
 Vindicator, and return to Earth to tell them of the abandoned colony.
 Also, if the War with the Ur-Quan continues, you must fight for Earth
 and the Alliance as best you can.
 There is a great deal more to this story.  Asking Starbase Commander
 Hayes for background information will give you most of it.
 		      INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION
 When in a Solar system, use the thrust and steering controls to move
 about the system.  Intersecting a planet will move you to the
 planetary system; flying over a planet or moon will then put you into
 orbit.  From there you can talk to the inhabitants, or, if the planet
 is uninhabited, send a lander down to gather minerals, investigate
 energy readings, or capture life forms.
 			    PLANET LANDING
 To land on a planet, you need to achieve orbit, then fill a planet
 lander with crew and send them down.  You will usually want to scan
 the planet first.  Mineral scans will indicate easily harvestable
 mineral ores and other resources.  Energy scans will indicate unusual
 installations, which will effectively always be worth investigating.
 Biological scans will show where life forms are on the surface.
 Minerals are necessary for building up and maintaining your flagship,
 so harvest them wherever you can.  There are nine varieties, each
 color coded:
 COMMON ELEMENTS (carbon, nitrogen) are cyan. Worth 1 resource unit
 (RU) each.
 CORROSIVES (chlorine, iodine) are red.  2 RU per unit.
 BASE METALS (iron, tin) are grey.  These are common, and usually worth
 harvesting, but not terribly valuable.  3 RU per unit.
 NOBLE GASSES (argon, xenon) are blue, and 4 RU each.
 RARE EARTHS (lanthanum, ytterbium) are green.  5 RU per.
 PRECIOUS ELEMENTS (gold, silver) are yellow.  6 RU per.
 RADIOACTIVES (uranium, astatine) are orange.  8 RU per.
 EXOTICS (antimatter, magnetic monopoles) are purple, and a princely 20
 RU per cargo unit.
 Minerals may be unloaded at Earth Starbase by talking to Commander
 Hayes, which will give you RU that you may spend to upgrade your
 flagship.
 However, there are many hazards on planetary surfaces.  Life forms are
 often hostile, and need to be subdued with your stunner or evaded.
 Earthquakes (expanding circles) can hurt your crew, lightning may
 crisp them, or lava flows and hotspots can fry them.  Be careful,
 especially on hotter or more seismically and atmospherically active
 worlds.  If your crew level starts dropping dramatically, flee quickly
 with the ESCAPE key!
 Stunned life forms may be captured and analyzed by your planet
 landers.  The information you gain from this may not be immediately
 useful, but it will eventually come in handy.
 Landing on a planet costs fuel, and the heavier the planet, the more
 fuel it requires. Make sure you don't spend so much fuel exploring
 planets that you can't get back to Sol!
 			 INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL
 When you leave a solar system, you will push up into HyperSpace.  In
 HyperSpace you can travel great distances quickly, but you must
 continuously thrust to move.  Otherwise, you will gradually slow to a
 stop.
 While you can fly about in HyperSpace just like you do in a star
 system, the Galaxy is LARGE, and you will usually want to use the
 Auto-Pilot.  To use the Auto-Pilot, select "Starmap" on the menu.
 This will show you a map of the quadrant (the galactic Core is in the
 upper right corner).  To fly to a location, move the cursor there and
 press Enter.  Then press Space to engage the Auto-Pilot.
 			      DIPLOMACY
 When you encounter an alien starship, you will usually get a picture
 of their task force and a chance to choose between conversation and
 fighting.  If you choose to fight, you will transition immediately to
 space combat (below).  Otherwise, you will talk first.  If talks go
 poorly, space combat will likely ensue.
 If the task force shows ships streaming off in all directions, you
 have reached a fortified world, and there are an unlimited number of
 starships facing you.  You cannot win such a fight - if combat ensues,
 you will need to warp out.
 			     SPACE COMBAT
 When combat begins, you are prompted to select a ship from your task
 force.  A one-on-one space combat then begins, and continues until
 either the enemy fleet is destroyed (in which case you salvage the
 wrecks and continue the game), your flagship is destroyed (ending the
 game), or your flagship warps out of combat (consuming 5 fuel units
 but ending the encounter).
 Each ship has two major stats: Crew and Combat Battery.  Crew are
 effectively hit points.  Getting hit by weapons kills crew, and if all
 crew are eliminated, the craft is destroyed.  Firing weapons typically
 requires energy from the combat batteries, which is replaced over
 time.  The precise speed of energy regeneration and cost of weapons
 fire varies by ship.
 Space flight is *mostly* inertial (you'll drift if you stop
 thrusting), but each ship has a maximum velocity that can only be
 exceeding by "gravity whipping" around the planet.  Don't hit the
 planet unless you want to take LOTS of damage.
 Each ship has a primary and secondary weapon mode, unique to that
 race's craft.  The descriptions of those follow.
 			  SHIP DESCRIPTIONS
 			 Androsynth Guardian
 Primary weapon: Fires homing acid bubble clouds.
 Secondary weapon: Transforms into the 'Blazer', a comet that does
 considerable damage by ramming its opponents.
 			 Ariloulaleelay Skiff
 Primary weapon: Auto-aiming, short-range laser
 Secondary weapon: Random teleport
 Note: The Skiff is inertialess, and stops instantly when thrust is
 removed.
 			  Chenjesu Broodhome
 Primary weapon: Crystal Shard.  Will travel until the fire button is
 released, then shatters.
 Secondary weapon: De-energizing Offensive Guided Interceptor.
 Launches an autonomous DOGI that rams the opponent to drain their
 combat batteries.
 			     Chmmr Avatar
 Primary weapon: Immensely powerful short-range laser
 Secondary weapon: Tractor beam.
 Note: Has three orbiting "ZapSats" that attack anything that gets in
 range.
 			    Druuge Mauler
 Primary weapon: Long range, high-recoil cannon
 Secondary weapon: Sets one crew on fire to gain combat energy.
 			  Earthling Cruiser
 Primary weapon: Homing nuclear missile
 Secondary weapon: Point-defense laser
 			   Ilwrath Avenger
 Primary weapon: Short-range flamethrower
 Secondary weapon: Cloaking device
 			   Kohr-Ah Marauder 
 Primary weapon: Spinning blades that stop and home when the fire
 button is released
 Secondary weapon: Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction
 (F.R.I.E.D.), a short-range corona of energy that blocks shots and
 inflicts lots of damage
 			   Melnorme Trader
 Primary weapon: Charged shot.  The longer the fire button is held, the
 stronger the shot.
 Secondary weapon: Confusion beam that scrambles enemy controls.
 			   Mmrnmhrm X-Form
 Primary weapon:  Lasers (X-form) or homing missiles (Y-form).
 Secondary weapon:  Switch between X-Form and Y-Form.
 			    Mycon Podship
 Primary weapon:  Homing Plasmoid.
 Secondary weapon:  Regenerate 4 crew.
 			     Orz Nemesis
 Primary weapon:  Howitzer cannon.
 Secondary weapon: Secondary with left and right arrows rotates the
 primary cannon.  Secondary with Primary launches space marines that
 invade the enemy ship and kill their crew.
 			      Pkunk Fury
 Primary weapon:  Three-way cannon
 Secondary weapon: Fling insults at opponent.  This is the only way the
 Pkunk can regenerate combat energy.
 Note: On occasion, a destroyed Fury will be resurrected with full fuel
 and power.
 			    Shofixti Scout
 Primary weapon:  Energy Dart.
 Secondary weapon: Glory Device.  When pressed three times, the ship
 will self-destruct, inflicting vast damage on nearby vessels.
 			   Slylandro Probe
 Primary weapon:  Lighting weapon.
 Secondary weapon: Absorb a nearby asteroid and convert to combat
 power.  This is the only way the Probe can recharge.
 Note: The Probe is inertialess and always in motion.  Pressing thrust
 will reverse its direction.
 			    Spathi Eluder
 Primary weapon:  Simple forward cannon.
 Secondary weapon: Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.), a
 homing missile fired from the rear of the vessel.
 Alpha release warning: Since collisions are only using bounding boxes
 right now, the B.U.T.T. missile is far more likely to hit you on
 launch than your opponent.
 			     Supox Blade
 Primary weapon: Forward firing glob weapon
 Secondary weapon: Secondary + left or right will cause you to drift
 laterally, while Secondary + thrust will make you fly backwards.  This
 cancels your current velocity, so be careful!
 			  Syreen Penetrator
 Primary weapon: Particle Beam Stiletto.
 Secondary weapon: "Syreen Call" - psychic attack that induces enemy
 crew to jump ship, where you (or your opponent) may capture them to
 add to your complement
 			   Thraddash Torch
 Primary weapon:  Straightforward blaster cannon.
 Secondary weapon: Afterburner.  The afterburner exhaust does more
 damage then the blaster, so use it as a weapon!
 			     Umgah Drone
 Primary weapon:  Anti-Matter cone.  Does not require combat batteries to use.
 Secondary weapon:  Fly backwards suddenly and at high speed.
 Note: The Drone only recharges batteries if you do not fire for a long
 time, and then the energy all returns in one lump.
 			 Ur-Quan Dreadnought
 Primary weapon:  Fusion Blast.
 Secondary weapon: Launches autonomous fighters to harry the enemy.
 When they run low on fuel, they will fly back to the Dreadnought.
 Catch them before they expire.  Each fighter requires one crew to
 pilot it, so take care not to weaken the core ship.
 			     Utwig Jugger
 Primary weapon: Six-shot cannon.  Requires no combat battery energy to fire.
 Secondary weapon: Force shield.  Absorbing hits re-energizes your
 batteries.  When the batteries are exhausted, the shield is
 permanently disabled until combat ends.
 			     VUX Intruder
 Primary weapon: Gigawatt laser.
 Secondary weapon: Limpet mines that track enemy ships and slow them
 down dramatically if they hit.
 			   Yehat Terminator
 Primary weapon: Twin autocannons.
 Secondary weapon: Force shield.
 			 Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger
 Primary weapon: Anti-matter spray gun.
 Secondary weapon: "Tongue attack", a point-blank range attack that
 does grievous damage.
 			   CONTROLS SUMMARY
 	Space flight
 UP or ENTER:        Thrust
 LEFT and RIGHT:     Steer
 SPACE:              Main menu
 	Menus
 Arrow Keys:         Scroll through selections
 ENTER:              Make selection
 SPACE:              Up one level
 	Space Combat
 UP or ENTER:        Thrust
 LEFT and RIGHT:     Steer
 SPACE:              Fire Primary Weapon
 ESCAPE:             Fire Secondary Weapon
 Numpad + and SPACE: Emergency Warp Escape
 	Planet Exploration
 UP:                 Forward
 LEFT and RIGHT:     Steer
 SPACE:              Fire stun bolt
 ESCAPE:             Blast off