Counterclockwise - a Knot in 3D remake

Counterclockwise - Game manual

System requirements

OS: Windows 95/98/2000/XP
CPU: 1GHz or faster
RAM: 256MB
Graphics card: OpenGL compatible, 32MB
Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Goal

Counterclockwise is a remake of 1983 Spectrum game "Knot in 3D". Your goal is to navigate a mass-trail propulsion craft through zero-G space and survive as long as you can. There are other crafts (chasers) around, trying to cut you off with their trails. Avoid crashing into trails and showoff some fancy flying and shooting skills for extra score.
The game arena is fairly small but it wraps around giving you illusion of seamless infinite space.

Difficulty

In Counterclockwise, game difficulty is closely related to speed. You can set prefered speed from the Main Menu.

Head-up display

Image below is showing typical game screen with all of the head up display (HUD) elements explained game hud

Alternatively, you can switch to simpler HUD type: Main Menu / Settings / Display / Cockpit Type / Simple Bar

Controls

Note that your craft can make only 90 degrees sharp turns in four directions - left, right, up and down.
Use mouse to move cannon aiming crosshair. If you hold down the mouselook key (default: Right Mouse Button) you can look around by moving the mouse.

Default Controls:
Turn Left - Arrow Left
Turn Right - Arrow Right
Turn Up - Arrow Up
Turn Down - Arrow Down
Boost - Middle Mouse Button
Fire - Left Mouse Button
EMP Blast - Enter
Mouselook - Right Mouse Button
Pause - Right CTRL

At any time during the game you can pres ESC to pause the game and bring up the settings menu.
You can redefine keys via Main Menu / Settings / Controls / Redefine Keys

Unfortunately, joystick and other types of game controllers are not supported in this version.

Scoring and stage advancement

You earn points by simply flying. Moving one "block" forward is worth one point. When your score reaches certain mark, you are transfered to the next stage - game space is cleared and one extra chaser is spawned. For the first 10 stages, this happens on every 10000 points. Afterwards, the score mark will increase progressively.

If you fly in a trail-dense environment your movement score gets bigger. One move forward can earn you 2, 5, 10 or 25 points, depending on number of trail block you are surrounded with.

If you use boost, you are moving faster and get more points in less time. On top of that, boost will activate a score multiplier. The longer you're in the boost mode - the bigger the score multiplier. If you crash into a trail, the multiplier is reset back to 1. Boost multiplier will affect everything except score given for shooting chasers and collecting bonuses.

But for a really big score flow you'll have to use tricks. Trick is a certain flying pattern. If you perform it correctly, you earn points. There are dozens of different tricks to learn, varying in difficulty and reward. When you master a couple of tricks you can further link them into combos. This will give you even more score and some additional rewards.

And last but not least, you can destroy chasers in several ways: shoot them down, get them caught in your EMP blast or cut them off with your trail.

In general, you want to earn as much score as possible as fast as possible, and step to the next stage before space becomes dense and impassable.

Chasers

Chasers are AI controlled crafts similar to your own. They try to overcome you by filling the space with trails, causing you to crash. Chasers differ in flying styles. Some like to run long straight lines fast, others wiggle a lot, some are more unpredictable. As you progress through stages, more and more chasers are thrown into arena. You can destroy a chaser by shooting, EMP-ing, or cutting it off. Destroyed chaser will respawn back into the game after a short period of time.

cutoff

To perform a cutoff maneuver follow the chaser's trail. Chasers are slightly faster than you so you'll have to use boost to catch up. Position your craft to be adjacent to chaser's trail (it can be from any side: left, right, up or down, but not diagonally). When close enough step firmly on boost and pass the chaser. Your trail turbulence will instantly destroy it (see above image).

When you destroy a chaser, it's explosion will annihilate all trail blocks in certain radius.

Weapons

Your craft is equiped with two weapons: plasma cannon and EMP blast. Plasma cannon can be used to exterminate chasers or clear out your way by destroying the trail blocks. It has limited ammount of ammo. You can win additional ammo by picking up bonuses left behind by destroyed chasers or, more elegantly, by doing trick combos. Maximum number of rounds you can carry is 999.
EMP blast, when activated, will destroy everything that's inside it's operational radius. It's fairly sparse so use it wisely. You can carry a maximum of 9 EMP charges. Additional charges can be obtained by collecting bonuses or doing trick combos.

Collectable bonuses

When chaser is destroyed, it will leave a bonus pack. You can pick it up by flying over it. It takes a little practice to learn to align your craft correctly for a pickup. There are four types of bonuses available in the game:

SCORE
Gives you 250 or 500 points

AMMO
Adds 50 rounds to your plasma cannon

SHIELDS
Boosts your craft's shields by 5

EMP
Wins you one extra EMP charge.

Tricks

Trick is simply a series of turns performed in certain timing, mostly in relation to existing trails, e.g. doing turns around trail blocks or avoiding crashes. Some of them, like Slick, are fairly simple and you'll probably do them unintentionally at first. Others, like Snake, require a bit of planing or maybe even setting up the trails by yourself and then returning to fly around them. The more complex the trick, the more score you earn by performing it.
Below is a list of available tricks. There is an in-game Trick Trainer facility (Main Menu / Trick Trainer) that can give you some more info on specific trick as well as opportunity to train it without getting hurt.
Performing tricks is essential for winning top scores.

SLICK (variants: left, right, up, down)
Simple sharp turn just in time to avoid crashing into the obstacle.
Rank: Rookie, Score: 50

CORNER (variants: left, right, up, down)
A turn around the corner of the obstacle.
Rank: Rookie, Score: 50

DOUBLE SLICK (variants: left, right, up, down)
Two consecutive slicks.
Rank: Intermediate, Score: 150

U-TURN (variants: left, right, up, down)
A 180 degrees turn around the obstacle
Rank: Intermediate, Score: 100

BRIDGE (variants: left, right, up, down)
Going around the obstacle while keeping general movement direction
Rank: Advanced, Score: 250

ORBIT (variants: left, right, up, down)
Full 360 deg turn around the obstacle
Rank: Advanced, Score: 200

SNAKE (variants: left, right, up, down)
Wiggle over two obstacles
Rank: Expert, Score: 350

CRAZY BORIS (variants: up left, up right, down left, down right)
Rank: Expert, Score: 350

KNOT
Rank: Expert, Score: 300

Trick trainer

Trick Trainer is a part of the game that lets you inspect and safely train tricks. It's available from: Main Menu / Trick Trainer.
When you select a trick you wish to train, you'll be transported into the game arena with trail obstacles arranged to perform that particular trick. Briefly continue flying forward to get into proper position. Then press the controls the trainer is suggesting. Timing is crucial here. If you fail, you'll be set off to the starting position. If you succeed, you can continue to fly freely. Try to position yourself again to perform another trick. If you're in the position the arrows will appear again. Continue until your fingers are trained and confident.

trick trainer

If you have difficulty following the sequence, then try to set your game speed (from the Main Menu ) to Slow or Very Slow. It's much easier to train at those speeds. After you master the trick in slower mode, switch back to your preffered speed and train some more.
Inside the trainer, you can crash as much as you want without any penalties.

Combos

Combo is a sequence of tricks performed briefly one after another. Combos can earn you some serious score. You can link up to 10 tricks in one combo. After you perform a trick, the combo indicator will appear, letting you know how many tricks you have in current combo and how much time is left for another trick. If you crash during the combo, you'll lose some of the time.

Combo score depends on how many (and how difficult) tricks you've managed to squeeze in. Game will rank your combo in one of 4 categories, and give you additional bonuses for each category. If you perform any type of 10-combo, you'll earn an EMP charge.

GOOD: shields +1, ammo +5
VERY GOOD: shields +2, ammo +15
EXCELLENT: shields +3, ammo +25
SUPERIOR: shields +5, ammo +50

ANY 10-COMBO: emp +1

Gameplay and strategy tips

- Remember that you get an EMP charge at the beginning of each stage.
- Any 10-combo will give you an extra EMP, even the simple combo of 10 Slicks.
- Use chaser explosions to free up some space when it gets cluttered.
- Try to perform tricks when your boost multiplier is high. It will afect your trick score as well as combo score.
- If you have trouble picking up bonuses, don't make small loops around them. Instead, go further away, turn 180 degrees and align properly from distance.
- Enabling the display of chaser bounding boxes (Main Menu / Settings / Display / Chaser Bounding Boxes) can help you to better estimate distance from chaser.

Credits

Original game Copyright (c) 1983 New Generation Software
Original game by Malcolm E. Evans

Game design, programming and graphics
Nenad Jalsovec

Music
Bruno 'Aesqe' Babic (skyphe.org)

Sound effects
Nenad Jalsovec
Bruno 'Aesqe' Babic (skyphe.org)

Voice samples
Bankie and Spankie

Play testing
Nenad Jalsovec
Tihomir Jalsovec

Thanks:
Tihomir, Bruno, Bankie and Spankie, Petania, Liliy
Ovine by Design, Smila, John Valentine for inspirational remakes
Everyone at retroremakes.com

Developed using mingw gnu C++ compiler and Dev-C++ ide
Random numbers generation: Mersene twister algorithm
Sound: fmod

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions write to: nenad@16x16.org

http://16x16.org/games/ccw

16x16