
                           BATTLE FOR THE ASHES
                           --------------------

             Typed by Iggy/Hellfire and edited by Codetapper!


LOADING AND INSTALLATION
------------------------
IBM PC - Battle For the Ashes can be played from either hard drive or from
floppy disk provided.  To play from the floppy disk insert the disk, select
the correct floppy disk drive and type CRICKET.

To install the program to the hard drive, insert the disk type INSTALL and
follow the on-screen instructions.  Once the game is installed on hard
drive then you will be given further options:

Configure your soundcard:  Follow the on-screen instructions to select
sound type and soundcard settings.  [There is further information
concerning soundcard settings if you select F10 on the installation screen]

Format a system disk:  If you experience memory problems when trying to run
the game then use this option.  Insert the system disk when you reboot your
machine.

Each time you play the game you must insert the game disk, which acts as
security protection, before typing CRICKET from your cricket directory on
your hard drive.

AMIGA - Insert the disk and reset your computer.


THE MAIN MENU
-------------
To select a menu option, move the hand which acts as a pointer to the
required option and click.  Pressing ESC exits to DOS (IBM PC ONLY).  To
play a match choose one player England vs Australia, one player Australia
vs England or two player game; to watch two computer controlled teams,
click on computer vs computer.  All the games are test matches played over
five days.

RESTORE SAVED GAME:  If you have previously saved an incomplete game you
can continue it by selecting Restore Saved Game.  Games can only be saved
to a floppy disk when you are playing from floppy and to hard drive when
playing from hard drive (IBM PC ONLY).  Enter the name of the saved game
when requested.

(IBM PC ONLY) When playing from hard drive, to restore a game saved to
floppy you must copy the relevant saved game to hard drive before starting
the game.  Saved games have the suffix .SAV and must be copied to the
CRICKET directory.

SKILL LEVEL:  There are three skill settings - Amateur, Professional, and
World Class - You should choose Amateur for your first game.

Amateur:  Batting is a breeze at this level.  The timing of the shots is
very easy and the compuetr bowling, batting and fielding is of the village
green standard.  This level is strictly for beginners.

Professional:  The correct timing of your shots when batting becomes more
and more important although there is still some margin for error.  The
computer bowling and fielding is improved and runs will be harder to come
by.  It will also be hard to get the computer batsmen out.  The game
becomes a challenge at this level.

World Class:  This is the real thing.  Batting is very difficult with the
timing of your shots being absolutely crucial (as soon as you press the
button the shot will be played).  The computer bowling and fielding is top
notch and total concentation is required to build a decent total.  The
computer batsmen are very difficult to dismiss and will punish any wayward
bowling.  This level will take some beating.

SOUND:  This option enables you to turn on or off the music and sound
effects.


HOW TO PLAY
-----------
Each match is played between Australia and England.  Lets assume that in
your first match you decide to play as England against an Australia side
controlled by the computer.  The England squad will be displayed so that
you can select the eleven players you would like in your team.

Note:  there are up to 20 players in each squad, more than can be shown on
the screen at a time; to see the others click on the arrows at the right
hand side.

Pick your team by clicking on each of the eleven players in turn (if you
change your mind about a player just click again to drop him from the
team).  The order that you you click on the names will be the order that
they will line up to bat.  To save time you can get the computer to pick
the team for you - just click on best 11.

The statistics provided with each player are important to their 
performance - better batsmen (with a higher average) will be superior in
shot execution; better bowlers (with a lower average) will be able to bowl
quicker or spin or swing the ball more.

It is important to select a balanced side as having a poor selection of
bowlers or batsmen can leave your team in a weak position.  Remember to
include a recognised wicket keeper (marked with a dagger symbol) as playing
without one will result in choas behind the stumps!  After choosing your
team click on OK.

Note:  If you select for your team more than one player who is designated
as a wicket keeper, the player who was selected last keeps wicket.

If you wish, the computer will automatically choose its best team to play
against you - but you can also pick the team yourself (this is useful if
you want to recreate a particular match).

Now for the coin toss.  If you win the toss you can decide whether to bat
or field first.  Lets suppose that your team is batting first.

If you clicked on best 11, the batting order is automatically chosen by the
computer, based upon the players batting averages; otherwise players bat in
the order they were selected.  The batting line-up is displayed before the
innings begins if you are batting.  This allows you to revise the entire
batting order if you wish - just select the player you want to move up or
down the order, then indicate the position you would like him to bat.
Click on OK when you have finished, or else CANCEL if you want to go back
to the original order.

If you are bowling then the team is displayed and you can now change the
opening bowler if necessary.


CONTROLLING THE BATSMEN
-----------------------
In a real game of cricket the ball is bowled so fast (up to 90 mph) that
the batsmen must react instinctively, moving his feet, adjusting his
posture, and swinging his bat to play the stroke.  To emulate all that in
real time using a joystick would be impossible, so instead Battle For The
Ashes breaks down the batsmens movements into two.

First, move left or right to position the batsmen.  Watch the small white
square - this shows where the bowler intends to pitch the ball - when it
turns grey it will stop moving, and the bowler will commence his run-up.
Start thinking about which stroke you intend to play.

When the ball leaves the bowlers hand you have a fraction of a second to
select one of the eight possible directions to determine which stroke is
played - and when it is played (timing is particularly crucial at
Professional and World Class level).  The strokes roughly correspond to the
joystick movement, for example, if you move the joystick to the left the
batsmen (if he is right-handed) will attempt a cover drive; if you move it
to the right he will try to hook or sweep the ball.

The full repertoire of strokes is as follows:

UP - FORWARD/BACK DEFENSIVE
RIGHT UP - SWEEP/HOOK
RIGHT - LEG GLANCE
RIGHT DOWN - ON-DRIVE
DOWN - STRAIGHT DRIVE
LEFT DOWN - COVER DRIVE
LEFT - SQUARE DRIVE
LEFT UP - SQUARE CUT

These joystick directions are for a right-handed batsmen; for a left hander
the controls are mirrored.

The batsmen will play the best stroke he can in the circumstances - if you
choose a difficult or innappropriate (or if your timing is incorrect) he
might mishit the ball, or miss it altogether.  The margin of error depends
on the skill setting you have chosen, and on the batsmens average.

If you succeed in hitting the ball and want to run, press the fire button.
The batsmen will start running at a leisurely pace - to make them run
faster waggle the joystick from side to side (in fact you can start the
batsmen running merely by waggling - there is no need to press the fire
button if you intend to waggle).

To take a second (or third) run press the fire button again, or just keep
waggling.  If you change your mind about taking a run, press the fire
button to turn around and go back to the crease you have just left.  Of
course if the batsmen have already crossed there is no point in turning
back, so in this case when you press the fire button it acts as a signal to
go for another run after the current one.

If the ball crosses the boundary the umpire will signal a four, or a six,
and the batsmen will automatically return to their original positions.

Overthrows:  in the event that the fielding side throw the ball past the
bowler or wicket keeper the batsmen can continue running.

When the batting side are all out (ie 10 wickets have fallen), or when the
alloted number of overs has been bowled, it is the turn of the fielding
side to bat.


CONTROLLING THE BOWLER
----------------------
There are three types of bowler:  fast, swing, and spin.  Swing bowlers and
spin bowlers can move the ball in either direction - although spin bowlers
will find it easier to spin the ball in one particular direction depending
on whether they are leg or off spinners.

Before you can start your run-up you must decide where you want to pitch
the ball.  Move the small white square which indicates where the ball will
bounce, and press fire to fix it into position (the square will turn grey).

This is only an approximation and the ball will not necessarily pitch in
the centre of the square.

If a fast bowler is bowling he will automatically start his run-up; waggle
the jotstick from side to side or the equivalent on the keyboard to
increase the speed of the ball.

If the bowler is a swing or spin bowler, choose the direction you want the
ball to move, and press fire.  Now the bowler will start his run-up -
waggle the joystick or the equivalent on the keyboard to increase the
amount of swing or spin.

You can change the bowler due to bowl the next over by clicking on Change
Bowler on the menu displayed between overs.  Any played can be chosen to
bowl, with the exeption of the wicket keeper, but it will be harder to bowl
with a player who has a poor average.  Remember that in a limited overs
game a bowler cannot bowl more than one-fifth of the overs allowed for each
innings.


SETTING THE FIELD
-----------------
You can change the predefined fields during a match, and even save them for
use in future games.  Each player has a predefined field setting of his own
- but you can copy a field setting from one bowler to another, so that if
(say) you want to use the same field for all your fast bowlers you need not
enter it more than once.

To access the screen which allows you to alter the field settings, press
the space bar while the bowler is waiting to bowl.  This will display a
menu of options:

POSITION FIELDERS*               SCORECARD
KEEPER-SLIP*                     SOUND & MUSIC
BOWL OTHER SIDE*                 ABANDON MATCH

* ONLY AVAILABLE IF THE FIELDING SIDE IS USER-CONTROLLED

Select Position Fielders - a diagram is displayed showing the existing
field setting (for the current bowler).  To adjust the position of an
individual fielder just move the pointer to his name tag, press the left
mouse button (or fire button), and drag the tag to a new position - then
press the button again to drop the tag.

Around the wicket at the strikers end is a darkened area.  To add an extra
slip drag the players tag into this area.  Fine positioning of players in
this area is carried out using the Keeper-Slip option (see below).  Only
two fielders, plus the wicket keeper can be in this area.

If you want to exchange the positions of two fielders click first on the
swap icon, then on the tags of the two players.

To copy to the field setting from another bowler click on Copy until the
correct field setting is displayed, eg to copy the field setting for
Malcolm to Gough (the current bowler), keep clicking until "Setup for D
Gough copied from D Malcolm" appears.  If you keep clicking on copy,
eventually you will be back where you started.

If you make an error select Cancel which exits leaving the original field
placing intact (changes which have been saved to disk cannot be cancelled).
To save your changes to disk or hard drive click on the DISK icon - however
you can use the new field settings in the current match without saving them
to disk, though they will be lost at the end of a match.  Click on OK to
return to the game.

The Keeper-Slip screen can be selected either from the menu, or by clicking
on the icon at the top left-hand corner of the field setting screen 
(beware - this also confirms your changes to the field, even if you
subsequently select the Cancel icon on the Keeper-Slip screen).

To move the keeper or a slip just click on him, and move him to your
preferred position.  Be careful - the wicket keeper obeys your instructions
to the letter, so you will concede a lot of byes if you put him in a silly
position!  When you have the keeper and slips in the correct positions
click on OK to save them to disk.


OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE DURING A MATCH
--------------------------------------
Bowl Other Side
Normally a right handed bowler will bowl over the wicket.  However, you can
make the bowler bowl on the other side by selecting this option from the
menu.

Score card
This displays the scorecard for the current innings.  By clicking on the
tabs at the bottom of the scorecard you can also display the batting and
the bowling statistics for the innings, the carrer batting statistics of
the batting team, and the career bowling statistics of the fielding side.

Abandon Match
Allows you to abandon a match, in which case the game goes back to the main
menu.


SAVING A GAME
-------------
Although the games are played faster than real amtches, some games will
last for hours, or even days!  At the end of each over you have the option
to save the game - this will save all the information about the match,
including the teams and field settings.

IBM PC - You can save to hard drive if playing from hard drive to a
pre-formatted floppy disk if playing from floppy disk.  Follow the on
screen instructions once you have selected this option.

AMIGA - You will need a pre-formatted floppy disk.  Click on the SAVE GAME
icon and follow the on-screen instructions.


HINTS AND TIPS
--------------
* Occasionally you will find that a fielder "gets stuck", perhaps running
on the spot!  Do not worry - press the ESC key and the game will continue
normally.

* When you select Best 11 the batting order is chosen automatically by the
computer - the players with the highest averages bat first.  However if you
make any changes to the team the compuetr has picked, the batsmen are not
sorted into order.  If you choose your own team the players bat in the
order of selection.

* Rain:  It can rain at any time and for any length of time and if it has
already rained during a match then it is likely to rain again.

* During a "computer vs computer" match you can press SPACE (while the
bowler is waiting to bowl) to display the scorecard.  At the end of an over
you can also save the game.  When you restore the saved game you will be
able to restart the match as a 1 or 2 player game - so you can take full
control.

Programmed on the Amiga and Atari ST by Gary James Gray.

IBM-compatible PC conversion for Audiogenic Software Limited by Simon
Prytherch.

Game and Manual (c) Audiogenic Software Limited 1994
All Rights Reserved


UPGRADE OFFER
-------------
If you have enjoyed playing Battle For The Ashes then you will enjoy World
Class Cricket which is available to owners of Battle For The Ashes at A
VERY SPECIAL PRICE and comes complete with a free copy of our 94/95 data
disk.

World Class Cricket contains all the features of Battle For The Ashes plus:

* All forms of cricket from limited overs matches to full Tests
* All the Test playing nations and an XI
* A full team editor

The 94/95 data disk has the very latest squads and averages for:
* The 18 English County sides
* The 9 Test sides

For details of this offer call our Customer Services Department on 081-424
2244 or write to:

CUSTOMER SERVICES (REF:ASH/95
AUDIOGENIC SOFTWARE LIMITED
UNIT 27, CHRISTCHURCH INDUSTRIAL CENTRE
WEALDSTONE
HARROW HA3 8NT

Further cricket games will be available in 1995 and 1996.  Write now to
ensure that you are on our mailing list.
