Last Contact Instructions Last Contact always runs in an 800 x 600 window. It never tries to change your display settings. If your screen is set to 800 x 600, it will fill the screen and hide the menu bar. When you switch out to another application or quit from Last Contact, the menu bar will be displayed again. download the instructions in pdf format Registration Screen When Last Contact is run for the first time, the registration screen will be displayed. If you already have a registration code, just enter it along with your name and click register to get started. If you don't have a registration code yet, click Buy Online and order one. If you'd like to try the game out before you order, click the Demo button (after waiting for it to become available). You will only need to enter your registration code once. After it has been entered, the registration screen will be skipped. Note: If you run Last Contact on OS 9 and on OS X, you will have to enter the registration code once on each OS because each OS stores the preferences file in a different place on the hard drive. Main Menu The main menu is where you change the name that the other players will see in the game. It is also where you edit your taunts. One of your taunts is displayed on the screen in the game when you destroy another player's city. Note: If you run Last Contact on OS 9 and on OS X, you will have to enter the name and taunts once on each OS because each OS stores the preferences file in a different place on the hard drive. Click Host to start a game of your own that others can join. Click Join to join a game that someone else has started. When you click Join, you will be prompted for the machine name or IP address of the game that you want to join. Click the GameSmith button to connect to GameSmith. If you don't already have an account, you will be prompted to create one. Once you connect to GameSmith you can talk to others who are there, host a Last Contact game of your own, or join someone elses game. In order to use GameRanger, you will need to download the Game Ranger application from www.gameranger.com and sign up for a free GameRanger account. Once you've done that, you can find other players to play Last Contact with by clicking the GameRanger button. Once a game has been started from GameRanger you will come back to the main menu. You should then click Enter Game after you have entered your name and edited your taunts. You can, of course, click About to find out who created Last Contact or Quit when you're too tired to play anymore. Network Lobby Once you have either started a game or joined a game, you will be in the network lobby. All of the players in the game are listed in the upper left corner of the screen. The upper right corner of the screen contains on screen instructions to help you get setup to play Last Contact. You first need to choose which of the 6 areas of the galaxy your planet will be in. You can choose any area that another player has not already chosen. You can also click on your name to change colors. You can chat with the other players while waiting for everyone to choose their area and color. Once you have chosen your area and color, check the box to the right of your name to indicate that you are ready. Once all players have checked their box, the host can start the game by clicking Start Game. Game The goal of Last Contact is to destroy everyone else's cities without letting your own cities be destroyed by the other players. Each player starts with four cities. In the center of each player's area is their planet. The player's cities are on this planet. The colored circle surrounding the planet in the force shield. The power sources for the shield are inside the cities. As the cities are destroyed, the shield shrinks. At the top of the player's area is the energy bar. The amount of energy in this bar governs what the player can do. In the bottom right corner of the local player's area is the energy core meter. This displays the number of energy cores that you currently have. To launch a bomb at another player, click anywhere in that player's area outside of the force shield. The further from the player's planet that you fire, the less energy it costs to launch. If you click and drag you can launch faster moving bombs, but faster bombs cost more energy. Bombs are affected by the planet's gravity, so even bombs that are initially stationary will eventually hit the planet. When you click to launch a bomb at another player and you hold the COMMAND key down, the bomb becomes a starburst bomb. All starburst bombs are detonated with an energy core by pressing the M key. If you do not have an energy core when you press the M key, the starburst bombs will not explode. To defend against an enemy bomb, click on it. A small explosion will destroy the enemy bomb. You can fire larger anti-bomb explosions by holding the mouse button down longer. You will see a growing green circle while you hold down the mouse button. When you release the button, the circle will disappear and an explosion will appear in where the circle once was. Bigger defense explosions cost more energy. If a bomb hits one of your cities, that city is destroyed. Once all of your cities are destroyed, you are eliminated from the game, but you can keep watching as the other players bombard each other. From time to time energy cores (ejected power supplies of starships) will appear in your area. These are slightly larger than bombs, they are shaped like cubes, and they change colors as they move. Unlike bombs, energy cores are good things and you want them to hit your planet. Make a defense shot near (but not on) an energy core to push it towards your planet. Watch out, defense shots can alter the trajectory of bombs, too! If you click too close to the energy core, you will destroy it. When an energy core hits your planet, it is counted on the energy core meter There are two ways to use an energy core. Press Spacebar to use up an energy core to fill your energy bar. Press B to use an energy core to create a Big Blast defense around your whole planet. Press M to use an energy core to detonate all of the starburst bombs that you have launched. Energy cores will become more and more abundant as the game progresses. Post Game Once only one player is left in the game, the game is over and everyone is taken to the post game screen. This screen shows the statistics for the game that just ended. If the Show Awards button is clicked, the statistics change to show which awards players have received. You can get awards even if you didn't win. If you'd like to play another game with the same players, the host can just click New Game and another game will start. If you want to organize a new game, click the Main Menu button.