Pocket Raider - v1.03
2008 By John A. Reder

This is my second GameBoy Advance game done in a little over 50 hours of development.
Pocket Raider was inspired by one of my favorite 8bit era video games Will Wright's
Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984). This game has 9+ levels, each 88+ screens in size.

Goal of the Game

You fly an Airship whose mission is to bomb all enemy Gun Turrets, Speed Boats, 
Tanks and Buildings to complete each mission progressing through the enemies 
backbone of bases, factories and finally their command center.

You can land your Airship on various support bases and platforms to repair your 
damage and or reload your bombs. Not every platform is full-service so you may 
have to find more than one to keep your attack going.

When the last target is destroyed the level will end and the next level will load.  
the game saves your best level completion time. The game starts with all but the 
1st level locked. Subsequent levels will unlock as you complete the preceding 
levels.

Enemies

Enemy         	Damage / Defense
------------- 	---------------------------
Gun Turrets	1
Speed Boats	5
Tanks		10
Buildings	Sonic-siren slows movement


GameBoy Buttons Action
--------------- -----------------------------------
Directional Pad	Change Direction
A		Drop Single Bomb / land on platform
B		Drop Cluster of up to 9 Bombs
R               Stop / Hover
L               Scan level for enemy locations
Start		Pause (timer does not stop)


Technical note and tips

Use the X and Y position information to remember key locations like enemy bases, and 
support bases. Note that you can land on enemy support bases for bombs and repairs too.
top left is x=1 and y=1, bottom right is x=231, y=230.

The Scanner shows general 25x25 map sections as a single color block and represents 
the entire map in a 10x10 grid/block display. Red = Enemy, White = Airship.

Many open water levels have islands, most islands have many smaller islands that may be 
near by, if you see a small blip of an island look around a larger one may be near by.

Enemy tanks, turrets and boats have a range of 5 spaces in all directions. If you get
within 5 spaces (reference your x,y position) from one of these ther is a chance that 
they will shoot at you. Once an enemy gets a lock on your position you may be hit 
multiple times. Your Airship turns yellow when you are hit by a bullet or shell.

To help you conserve bombs, bombs will not drop into empty water and into craters.

Cluster bombs are dropped in a 3x3 (9 bomb) pattern with your airship in the center. 
You can hold down the cluster drop button to create a carpet bomb pattern noting that 
bombs will not fall into craters you only use 3 bombs with each additional forward drop 
just ahead of your airship.

It is best to approach targets from the water side if they are next to water so you can 
start pressing the bomb release button ahead of your target since bombs will not drop 
over empty water.

Destroy buildings first so your Airship will not be slowed down when striking other 
more dangerous targets in the area.

Bomb capacity increases in later levels, but beware, so does enemy weapon accuracy!

You can reset all times and unlocked levels back to locked by pressing the following 
buttons when viewing the level selection screen: R, L, Start, Select.

VERSION UPGRADES

v1.02 - Faster Airship and improved screen refresh rate!
v1.03 - Made bombstrike routine more effecient, old routine was causing system crash!





