Lotus II....
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Another project over (nearly), another Christmas approaching.
Spare a few moments, O inquisitive one, for the thoughts of a programmer.
Long gone are the days of scrolling credits so this will have to do.


Thanks first....
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To Mum and Dad for helping out, tidying up and generally being great !
To everyone at The Fish for testing the game, Craig, Ric and Nijel mainly.
To the guy at Gobowen Red Star office.


Hello to....
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Cath !!!! 
Craig, Nijel, Clare, Tom, Iwan, Becca, Jane, Ric, Beverley, Jane, 
Emma, Rich, Darren, Julie, Timmy, Suzie (9 mm), Andy, Davros, Buzz, Penny,
Dave, Rachell, Tim, Maggie, Mel, Sue, Christine, Mandy, Janet, Steve TV,
Ali in Australia, Damien, Hon, Rachel, Nige and Ged, Craigs Mum, All the
neighbours, Melissa, Tim, Will, Steve, Heather, Mark, Steve, Kim, Rachel,
Helen, Tristan, Rufus, Stuart, Emily, Hugh, Shelley, Gwenda, Jo, Carl,
Jez, Adam, Gary, Brig, Steve, Helen, Fiona, Spike, Claire, Rachel, John,
Stewart, Nick, Musky, Stav, Steve, Pete, Gareth, Steve C, Eric, Dafydd,
Cornflake, Jenny, Scott, Julian, Dmitri, Sue, Tracey, Marina, Tom, Dick
and Harry, Sammut the long lost drummer, wherever he is, the Irish guy
we met in the bar in Crete, Pat and Ian, Vicky, Wild Gill, Glyn, Mad
Fred, Mildly annoyed Kevin, Psychotic Sid, (stop that - Ed),
Kath, Ben, Ben, Chris, Jane, Matthew, Gareth, Ron and Cherry,
Tetris the cat (so named because of the odd shaped places he gets into).
Barry Leitch who did the music, Everyone I know at Gremlin, Graham, Barry,
Dave, Margaret and Max, and of course everyone at Magnetic Fields.
All the staff at the Boars Head, and anyone else I forgot....


Music....
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Not in the game, but listened to while programming to keep me sane(ish).
Big Country (shock horror), The Alarm, The Skids, New Model Army, 
Shute the Tailor, Voice of the Beehive, Damned, Guns and Roses,
The Clash, Waterboys... The usual, the old stuff is the best.
Oh yeah, and EMF.


Food and Drinks....
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Rather like music, this section.
Coffee, Newcastle Brown, John Smiths, Guinness, Murphys, Merry Monk,
Diamond White, Lucozade Sport, Diet Orange and Vodka....
Raj Mahal Tandoori restaurant and Golden City Chinese takeaway
Pot Noodles and Pasta with Turbo sauce....


Development system....
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For anyone who's interested, an Amiga 2000 with 5Mb of ram and a 25Mhz
accelerator with 40Mb Hard disk. None of this posey PC stuff for me.
Software used - Devpac 2, Dpaint 3, Audiomaster II.
Action Replay - they are useful for programmers, really....
Also a Trilogic stereo sampler and a cheap foreign tape recorder.


Dux....
-------
Hope you like the 'free' bonus game. Now you don't think I'm going to tell 
you the password, do you ? That, I'm sure you know is easy enough to find.
See if you can beat 498800 on level 9. Also just for the record, my highest
score on Rox - the free game on Lotus I was 92 seconds without autofire,
but with a cup of coffee with six spoonfulls in it.


Hints and tips....
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Use Fire button to accelerate, its much easier.

Use manual gears, if you are good at it, you can easily beat the automatic
gears for acceleration, especially when changing down after hitting
something.

Get used to overtaking cars on both sides, and using the fire button on
and off to keep your speed up while not crashing into signs etc.

Learn the courses, well at least the important bits that are likely
to cause you to crash and slow down.

Forest course - learn where the logs and rocks are, otherwise a doddle.

Night course - dont hit ANYTHING; on the fast swervy section, turn very
early, watch out for the Gremlin sign.

Fog course - Watch out for missing and 'wrong' signs.

Snow course - Use the very light steering to your advantage, Try to stay
on the road and out of the snowbanks.

Desert course - Stay in the middle of the road. It can be useful to use
obstacles to get you back on course. Avoid tumbleweed.

City course - Stay on your own side, believe me. Only try to go under
lorries if they are in your way. Be even more careful not to hit anything.

Marsh course - Remember which logs to hit to avoid the water - learn where
the extra times are, and on the last section stay in 3rd gear at about 60
mph and clip the water to slow down.

Storm course - Hit all the turbos and dodge the water. Aim for the thinnest
parts of the rivers. Find the best line on the last few hundred yards.

Don't panic.

When playing in link mode, press the pause key at awkward moments to
confuse your opponent.

If you're losing badly press escape and say, 'Oops my finger slipped'....

Dont play in four player mode cause its SLOOOW....

Places to go on holiday....
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Crete. Well I did, for two weeks anyway. Nothing to do but lie on the beach
and go out at night. Or you could try Prestatyn, nr (sunny) Rhyl.


Lotus III ????
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I don't know, It's not up to me. But if we did, it would be quite fun to
release a compilation at a later date of all of the trilogy, called
Lotus 1-2-3....


The End....
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Or is it ?


