
  Hello and welcome, before I let you loose on these three new original Unreal
Maps, I hope you will read the little information below.

  <IMPORTANT!> <- PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING !?!

  These levels consist of an episode with more levels to come in a few months
time, this means that these maps should be played in a specific order. Once
you have placed all the files into the correct directories, please start by
launching the ARRIVAL.UNR. After the brief animation (to get your adrenalin
into a rush) you will automatically start the first real map. Playing this map
to the end will teleport you to the third map and so on... exactly as if you
were playing a real game of Unreal where one level follows another!

  There, now that you read that, below is a bit more information on these 4
levels, how to install them, and what more to expect. If you do not read the
following, at least take notice of the sentence above and please play these
levels as one continuous game. 

--The Story So Far--

  (The story for this episode pics up from halfway through the game...)
  
  After a long and arduous journey, you finally found yourself face to face
with the huge teleporter in the top floor of ISV-KRAN. You noticed that the
destination was handily pointed to the small village just outside the space 
ship.
  "Oh man" you think to yourself. Mabey you should have never stepped out from
the VORTEX RIKERS prison cells. Mabey you should have just waited for some
kind of a rescue operation... but who would have come there to rescue a bunch
of no-good criminals like you anyway... 
  "Oh well" you sigh again, "No good turning back now !"
  "I guess I'll just rest a few minutes" that walking back and forth in the
never ending corridors was starting to take it's toll on you.
  "I wonder if there is any food in this place ?".
  You toss a few 'Nali Plant Seeds' to the ground and watch in slight amusement
as they grow in front of your eyes.
  "At least this stuff tastes good" you think as you eat the small berries.
  Just then, you place your hand on a small switch on the control panel in
front of you, and you hear a latch open up, "What now ?"
  A door opens with a hiss, and a green neon light shines in your face.
  "Hey, what do we have here, a... it's an entrance to a small escape pod !"
  "Great" you think, "I can just take this and fly where ever I need to go,
the damn thing looks just like an XS-450 vehicle back home on earth"...
  Climbing in, you start the engines, and the pleasant whirr of the after
burners gently rocket you out of the space ship ISV-KRAN.
  Luck was nevertheless not on your side. Withing minutes, an emergency signal
awakens you from your deep thoughts and you realise that an enemy vessel has
just fired its lasers in your direction. Embracing your self for impact, you
make a sharp u-turn, just mere seconds too late before you are hit by the evil
plasmic light rays.
  "I'm hit", "Damn, losing all power" you say out loud, hoping sumbody could
hear you, and as you see the ground speeding towards you, the shaking of the 
craft and the G-force pinning you into your seat make you pass out...
  "Uh... where am I", you wake up with a startle. It seems the emergency
landing gears had just the time to kick in, but obviously the pod took in
a lot of damage. "This shit ain't flying no more...", but the worst was yet
to come...
  "Oh fuck, my gun collection ? All my beautiful weapons are broken... there
goes my eightball gun and the stinger too..." Atleast the dispersion pistol
was still ok, and it seems that the translator is fine. Taking a
deep breath, you stand up and look around.
  "I will not give up, that I swear" are the final words you mutter to yourelf
before you pick up your belongings and continue your journey...

--Files Included In This Archive--

 size of file | name of file | file information
--------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------------
       20,619 | SHINI_U1.TXT | This current readme file
        4,490 | CHEAT.TXT    | The solutions to finishing these levels
          788 | FILE_ID.DIZ  | Archive identification file for BBS's
              |              |
    1,033,234 | ARRIVAL.UNR  | A little demo map to get you into the game...
    5,047,626 | CRASHED.UNR  | The first playable map "The Crash Site"
    7,449,992 | NALISHIP.UNR | The second playable map "Nali Pirate Ship"
    5,269,657 | SKYSHIP.UNR  | The third map "Entering the Inverted Castle"
      273,896 | EXAMPLE.UNR  | Example of how the ship was done (use UnrealEd)
              |              |
      351,073 | SHIPTEX.UTX  | Texture file for the maps
      532,549 | XSTUNE.UMX   | First music file for the maps
      404,150 | RAINTUNE.UMX | Second music file for the maps
              |              |
    1,253,038 | PICTURES.ZIP | An archive with a few bonus screen shots...
       12,583 | CRASHED.JPG  | A small photo of one of the levels
       17,375 | NALISHIP.JPG | Another photo of another level
              
--A Little Bit of Information (just a bit...)--

  These levels took me a horrendous amount of time to make. But now I'm happy
with the results :)
  My goal when I started making these levels were to make a short episode (of
about 8 levels) where each of the levels bore a resemblance to the original
Unreal maps made by the game creators. As you play these levels, you will see
that I have not tried to create my own style, but have instead gone for the
gothic medieval style that I though was so great in the original levels. My
third goal was to make levels that were very near perfect, and higly playable.
  Although I might not beat such classics as Bluff.unr and Nalic.unr, these
levels should be able to fill the gap after most of us have finished the
original Unreal levels for the hundreth time :). Finally, I wanted to make
levels that incorporated new ideas, such as an ancient Pirate ship like
galleon and a castle similar to Nali Castle, but suspended in the sky, and
inverted !!! (can anybody guess where I got this idea from ;) )
  As I started using Unrealed, I cursed at the incredibly poor documentation
included in the help file, and I cursed even more when Unrealed crashed so
very often (these maps would have come out several weeks earlier if Unrealed
worked well) but I persevered, and found out almost single handedly how things
worked.
  Since I don't have a proper access to internet, I could never have time to
download tutorials etc, and I even missed out on all those interesting level
making competitions (snif). Only towards the end when my levels were almost
finished anyway did I get any proper documentation, but by then I had wasted
a few months of my life learning the intricasies of the best level editor in
the world (and thats no lie, for I have tried many level editors until now),
and looking back I'm amazed I managed anything at all!?!
  But hey, UnrealEd is nevertheless fun to use, and hopefully if time allows,
in a few months time, another bunch of levels will find their way to your
favourite internet/BBS site, and you will be able to play the next 4 levels in
this episode.
  I only just got a new e-mail address from the place I work at (visit the web
site at WWW.INFOMANIAK.CH) and if anybody has anything to say, please send me
feedback, I would especially LOVE to get feedback from the boys at Epic, and
hey, I'm open for any offers on making levels for any professional game
companies (right now I'm learning 3DMAX 2.5 and Photoshop 5.0 which I hope
will help me later on in life) for that's what I would like to do... hint ;)
  I also want to give a BIG thank you to my friend Maverick from Blacktron
Music Productions (BMP) for letting me use his XS tune in the Crashed.unr.
The music is ofcoz copyright Maverick/BMP, but since the original was a 24
channel XM, I had to re-edit it a bit so that Unreal liked it a bit more
(but I got permission, so hope you like his music, I do ;) )
  Oh well, I guess I wrote too much again :) but hell, on with the show, read
the Level information below for the three levels, and finally I want to praise
the following people for some of the levels I have seen and liked :)

Jeffery "capp" miner
"Rajal Castle" was very beautiful (even if some textures were not perfectly
aligned. "But hey, I know it is damn hard to do !?!")

Staton Richardson
"MoreReal" is a real brain teaser this one, and a very interesting visual
style for the level (a bit Arabic no?)

Jarno Tuomainen
"Maddness" is a very funny level because this author tried to make things
different ("ha ha ha, tosi hyvin tehty ideoineen!")

Malcolm Lavery
"DMbunker" is visually very nice, and action wise a real blast (and I love the
music too, it kinda suits the level!)

Mooney
"Prison Riot" is a really well made and fun deathmatch level, and free from
bugs too!?! (something that is hard to do...) 

Holger Huck
"The Vigil 98 deathmatch version" WOW, this is the MOST BEAUTIFUL DeathMatch
level I have seen made by someone outside of Epic. The colouring is incredible
and the detail astounding.

Steve Farrow "Roswell"
"LiberationEp1" was a level that really shocked me, it contained some effects
that were truly never-before-seen in Unreal ! I sure hope this guy will make
more levels, mabey with a bit more "outside areas", but his scripting was just
breathtaking. Easily the most complex level in term of ideas I have seen. One
of my levels (Crashed.unr) was meant to contain a similar idea found in this
level, i.e. the player crashes with his escape pod, but I had to take it away
because of the loading time causing the player to see a black screen during
the first few second into the level while textures data was still being loaded
(and a bigger problem would have been found in the cooperative player mode
where player one would always fall to his death because he would always start
from where the escape pod originally begins to crash land, i.e. from a place
very high up in the level)

Greygore
"The Rescue of Panunu" was relatively pretty, and I found it a bit easy too,
but hey, you wanted feedback, didn't you Graygore, sorry I can't send you
some with e-mail. (The level was also a bit slow for sum reason on my computer
but I loved the end part of the level with the underground river)

Quatto
"Beald'r" is probably the visually most beautiful third party single player
map I have had the pleasure to play. The lighting is just beautiful, and the
first time I stepped out to see the castle in front of my eyes, I had to close
them for a few seconds so that they would'nt fall out ;)

Mick "VerMoorD" Beard
"The Valley of Alshar" with it's three action packed and well made levels was
one hell of a blast because of the amount of levels this guy managed to make!
The idea is a bit like what I'm hoping to achieve, i.e. several levels that
you can play one after the other. Congratulations Mick !?!

Brad Noble
"DMJapan" is probably my favourite map that I have seen, but only because I'm
a bit biassed (I'm a NIG fan of Japan and everything to do with Japan, so this
level touches that sweet spot in my mind ;) )

Well, that's it for `my' level review. I haven't mentioned every level I have
seen, but that doesn't mean that I have seen every single level out there yet,
so I might add a few more levels to my little review sheet the next time I
have a chance to release a few maps (I did not `rate' these levels because
that would have been a bit unfair, but those levels above are still maps you
should take a look at if you haven't done so yet)
If you like my levels (or hate them), it would be nice to hear some feedback,
either through e-mail or if you could give some feedback on my level in the
text file of your next level, atleast that way I know somebody cares ;)

And finally, I have added a few pictures (photos if you want) of my levels,
and a VERY amusing "PROTECTION ERROR" screenshot that occurred to me one day
I was using Unrealed, yes, that is the picture in it's un-modified form,
exactly as I saw it when it happened !?! ;)
                      
Well, thank you for listening, lets get on with sum action !?!

                                                      - SHINIGAMI / AXSS


    INFORMATION FOR THE FIRST MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!


=============================================================================
Title                  : The Arrival
Filename               : Arrival.unr
Author                 : Shinigami
Email Address          : shinigami@infomaniak.ch
Description            : A short fly-by demo of the crash landing into the
                         first level.
Other levels by Shini  : Crashed.unr (single player map)
                         Naliship.unr (single player map)
                         Skyship.unr (single player map)
                         (I've also made a dozen Doom1/2 and Duke3d maps)
Additional Credits to  : All the available Unreal tutorial sites such as
                         Unreal.com and PlanetUnreal.com. 
			 Epic for one beautiful game.
			 My level testers from my work such as "Looping", and
			 several real life friends such as "Spectre"!
=============================================================================			
--Level Play Information--
Single Player          : yes
Cooperative            : no (the other three levels work with Cooperative)
Deathmatch             : no
Dark Match             : no
Difficulty Settings    : yes
New Sounds             : no
New Graphics           : no
Botmatch Enhanced      : no
Known bugs             : none I know of...
=============================================================================			
--Level Construction Information--
Editor(s) used         : UnrealEd Beta
Base                   : New level (a slight modification of Crashed.unr)
Construction Time      : About 1 week
Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : less than 10 seconds
=============================================================================			
--Installing This Level--
1) Unzip the Arrival.unr into your UNREAL\MAPS directory
3) Now you may play the level by double clicking on the Arrival.unr map in
   Windows, or by starting a new game, going into the console (press the tilde
   key ~, and typing in "open arrival").

   <IMPORTANT!>
   <VERY IMPORTANT!>
   <DO NOT MISS THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION PLEASE!)

   This level is included in a zipped file with three other levels. All of these
   Levels are single player (or cooperative) maps and they should be played in
   an episodic way. i.e. first start by playing the Arrival.unr, once the fly-by
   is over, you will automatically go to the second level (if it can be found),
   from this map, you will go to the next one if you finish this map correctly
   and so on...
   More levels will come later, so once you finish this fourth level, save your
   game so that you will be able to continue from there when I release another
   four maps...
=============================================================================			


    INFORMATION FOR THE SECOND MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!


=============================================================================
Title                  : The Crash Site
Filename               : Crashed.unr (requires Xsmusic.umx music file)
Author                 : Shinigami
Email Address          : shinigami@infomaniak.ch
Description            : Single player Unreal map featuring a crash landing
			 near the port of Armaana.
=============================================================================			
--Level Play Information--
Single Player          : yes
Cooperative            : yes
Deathmatch             : no
Dark Match             : no
Difficulty Settings    : yes
New Sounds             : yes (Xsmusic.umx)
New Graphics           : no
Botmatch Enhanced      : no
Known bugs             : The usual Unreal and Unrealed related bugs.
			 (i.e. very slow on most pc's)
=============================================================================			
--Level Construction Information--
Editor(s) used         : UnrealEd Beta
Base                   : New level (with sum ideas from Epic's levels...)
Construction Time      : About 3 weeks
Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : less than 5 minutes
=============================================================================			


    INFORMATION FOR THE THIRD MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!


=============================================================================
Title                  : Nali Pirate Ship
Filename               : Naliship.unr (requires Shiptex.utx texture file)
Author                 : Shinigami
Email Address          : shinigami@infomaniak.ch
Description            : Single player Unreal map featuring an ancient
                         pirate ship like galleon.
=============================================================================			
--Level Play Information--
Single Player          : yes
Cooperative            : yes
Deathmatch             : no
Dark Match             : no
Difficulty Settings    : yes
New Sounds             : no
New Graphics           : yes (Shiptex.utx)
Botmatch Enhanced      : no
Known bugs             : a few rare hall of mirror effects in complex areas)
=============================================================================			
--Level Construction Information--
Editor(s) used         : UnrealEd Beta
Base                   : New level from scratch !
Construction Time      : About 4-5 weeks (several hours of work per day)
Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : About 20 minutes
(Note: on my old K6-233 with 64MB Ram this level took over 1 and a half hours
 to rebuild... talk about slow, blaaaaaaah...) 
=============================================================================			


    INFORMATION FOR THE FOURTH MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!


=============================================================================
Title                  : Entering The Inverted Castle
Filename               : Skyship.unr (requires Raintune.umx music file AND
                                      Shiptex.utx texture file!)
Author                 : Shinigami
Email Address          : shinigami@infomaniak.ch
Description            : Single player Unreal map featuring the entrance
                         of a huge Inverted castle in the sky ?!?
=============================================================================			
--Level Play Information--
Single Player          : yes
Cooperative            : yes
Deathmatch             : no
Dark Match             : no
Difficulty Settings    : yes
New Sounds             : yes (Raintune.umx)
New Graphics           : yes (Shiptex.utx)
Botmatch Enhanced      : no
Known bugs             : A few polygons disappear if you use the "fly" cheat
=============================================================================			
--Level Construction Information--
Editor(s) used         : UnrealEd Beta
Base                   : New map but used the ship in Naliship.unr
Construction Time      : About 2 weeks
Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : Less than 5 minutes
=============================================================================			

--Copyright / Permissions--
ALL OF THESE LEVELS are copyright by Shinigami (c) 1998.

Authors may NOT use these levels as a base to build additional levels.

You are NOT allowed to commercially exploit these levels, i.e. put them on a
CD or any other electronic medium that is sold for money without my explicit
permission! Computer Magazines MAY include these levels on their cover CD's if
they keep the original files intact in this archive.

You MAY distribute these levels free of charge on any electronic network (such
as the internet, FIDO, various BBS's etc.), provided you include this file and
leave the zipped archive intact. All files in this zipped file should be
distributed with each other!!!
=============================================================================			
--Legal Information--
UNREAL (c)1998 Epic Megagames, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by
GT Software, Inc. under license. UNREAL and the UNREAL logo are registered
trademarks of Epic Megagames, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are
properties of their respective owners.
