Soviet Union 2011 for Virtual Boy
Readme file and manual

Matej Horvat
July 6, 2012

*** Note ***

  This game is the sequel to Soviet Union 2010. You should play it if you
  haven't already.

*** Disclaimer ***

  This game is not necessarily pro-communist.
  Nor is it anti-capitalist.
  Nor is it anti-USA.
  It is simply a video game, meant to be played and enjoyed as one.

*** The story so far ***

  (The story is also explained in-game.)

  It is now the year 2011. The war between the two superpowers is still going
  on. After successfully taking out scores of the United States space army's
  ships, the Red Army has sent you to make order on Earth.

  The war on Earth is severe and has taken many lives. The United States air
  forces are strong and dangerous and will not go away easily.

  Have no mercy! Show them who is the boss!

*** Gameplay ***

  You control a Soviet airplane that's equipped with a cannon. Your mission
  is to take down as many US airplanes as possible, and get out alive while
  getting a high score.

  Ammo is limited, but can be found throughout the levels. You start with 15
  cannon bullets, and you get 15 more when you complete a level. There are
  two other weapons for which ammo is more rare. You can carry a maximum of
  99 bullets of each type at a time, though you shouldn't need to.

  When you touch an enemy or an enemy projectile, you lose a life. You have
  five lives; when you lose them all, the game is over and you have to start
  from the beginning again.

  There are two modes of play: story mode and endless mode. Each can be
  played in three difficulties; easy, medium, and hard.

  Note: the high score is lost when you change the mode of play or the
  difficulty, or when you turn off the Virtual Boy.

*** Story mode ***

  In this mode, you play the game from the beginning to the end, and when you
  finish it, you see the ending and it's over.

  When you lose a life, the level you're playing starts from the beginning as
  if you had first entered it; the only difference is that you have one life
  less. The first level has unlimited lives.

  If you finish the game, you get 10 additional points for each spare bullet
  of each weapon and 1000 points for each spare live.

*** Endless mode ***

  Here, you start at the beginning of the game, but when you finish the last
  level, you go to the first level again, until you use up all of your lives.

  While you are playing the game, additional enemies will randomly appear.
  Thus the game will become much harder and unpredictable.

  When you lose a life, the level restarts as in story mode, but you keep
  your score. Unlike in story mode, the first level has only five lives, just
  like all the other levels.

*** Difficulty ***

  This table summarizes the three difficulty settings.

  "Endless random frequency" refers to how frequently random enemies will
  appear in endless mode.

  On the easy difficulty, you will receive 5 additional cannon bullets each
  time you pick up cannon ammunition.

  +--------------+------------------+----------+----------------------------+
  |  DIFFICULTY  |  ENEMY STRENGTH  |  AMMO    |  ENDLESS RANDOM FREQUENCY  |
  +--------------+------------------+----------+----------------------------+
  |  easy        |  one hit weaker  |  more    |  less frequent             |
  |  medium      |  one hit weaker  |  normal  |  normal                    |
  |  hard        |  normal          |  normal  |  normal                    |
  +--------------+------------------+----------+----------------------------+

  If you leave the game at the title screen for five seconds, you will see it
  play itself. Study the demonstration to see what techniques you can use to
  defeat the enemies.

*** Controls ***

  +---------------+-----------------------------+
  |  CONTROL      |  EFFECT                     |
  +---------------+-----------------------------+
  |  Left D-pad   |  move                       |
  +---------------+-----------------------------+
  |  Right D-pad  |  change weapon (see below)  |
  +---------------+-----------------------------+
  |  A            |                             |
  |  B            |                             |
  |  L            |  shoot                      |
  |  R            |                             |
  |  Select       |                             |
  +---------------+-----------------------------+
  |  Start        |  pause                      |
  +---------------+-----------------------------+

  When the game is paused, you can press left or right on the right D-pad to
  change the brightness level. On consoles with glitchy displays, lowering
  the brightness may reduce the severity of the glitches.

*** Weapons ***

  You have three weapons on your airplane. Each of them has its own type of
  ammunition.

  To switch between weapons, press the right D-pad in the appropriate
  direction.

  When choosing the play mode and difficulty, you can also turn automatic
  weapon switching on or off. When automatic weapon switching is turned on,
  the game will automatically switch your weapon if you run out of ammunition
  for the weapon you are using or if you pick up ammunition for a weapon you
  previously had no ammunition for. Automatic weapon switching is turned on
  by default. However, you should not always rely on it.

  The table below summarizes the weapons. "Stars" refer to the appearance of
  the ammo. "Direction" refers to the direction of the right D-pad. "Pickup
  amount" refers to the number of bullets you get by picking up ammo.

  +------------------+---------+-------------+------------------------------+
  |  WEAPON          |  STARS  |  DIRECTION  |  DESCRIPTION / PICKUP AMOUNT |
  +------------------+---------+-------------+------------------------------+
  |  Cannon          |  one    |  up         |  Slow. One at a time.   / 10 |
  |  Machine cannon  |  two    |  left       |  Fast version of above. / 33 |
  |  Two-way cannon  |  three  |  right      |  Two bullets at once.   / 15 |
  +------------------+---------+-------------+------------------------------+

  If you pick up more ammunition than you can hold, some of it will be
  discarded.

*** Enemies and scoring ***

  Below is a table of the enemies and items in the game.

  +----------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
  |  THING         |  HITS  |  POINTS  |  APPEARANCE AND DESCRIPTION        |
  +----------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
  |  Satellite     |  2     |  150     |  Bounces left and right.           |
  |  Cannon ship   |  5     |  500     |  Moves slowly and fires bullets.   |
  |  Suicider      |  3     |  300     |  Tries to crash into you.          |
  |  Drone         |  1     |  100     |  Slowly moves forward.             |
  |  Fast drone    |  1     |  125     |  Same as above, but a bit faster.  |
  |  Slider        |  2     |  200     |  Moves diagonally left or right.   |
  |  Spy           |  3     |  250     |  Enters from behind and goes up.   |
  +----------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
  |  Score pickup  |  N/A   |  500     |  Hammer & sickle; extra points.    |
  |  Ammunition    |  N/A   |  N/A     |  See the "Weapons" chapter.        |
  |  Mine          |  N/A   |  N/A     |  Deadly and indestructible.        |
  +----------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+

  When you kill (not just hit) an enemy, you'll get points based on how soon
  you killed it. For example, if you killed a satellite when it has already
  travelled half the screen height, you'll get 75 points, whereas you would
  get 150 if it was at the top of the screen or not completely visible yet.
  (This, however, is extremely rare, if not impossible, with anything other
  than drones.)

  There are also various special enemies, such as bosses, which have
  different scoring rules. They will not be discussed here.

  When you finish the game, you'll get an additional 1000 points for each
  life you didn't use. Similarly, you'll get 10 points for each spare bullet.

*** Soviet Union 2011 on the Web ***

  The official Web site of Soviet Union 2011 is:

    http://matejhorvat.si/en/software/su2011/

  This is where news, updates, and (hopefully) ports of the game to other
  platforms will be posted. Of course, they will also be posted to Planet
  Virtual Boy at planetvb.com.

  Note: at the time of this writing, the Web site is not available yet.

*** Credits ***

  Idea, story, design, programming, graphics, sound, documentation, and level
  design:
    Matej Horvat ("HorvatM")

  Additional programming in Soviet Union 2010:
    Dan Bergman ("DanB")

  Special thanks to:
    * Richard Hutchinson for a FlashBoy Plus to test and fix bugs on hardware
    * Planet Virtual Boy and its community

  Address questions, suggestions, bug reports, and comments to:
    matej.horvat@guest.arnes.si
