This game always puzzled me as I couldn't figure out how to play it until now. Here are some tips I found out:
1) Game keys and screens
- Player-1 keys are UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT and ENTER
- The respective player-2 keys are E, D, S, F and ESC
- The game has a dual-screen setp. The lower screen is used by the player-1, while the upper screen is used by the player-2
2) Game configuration
The start screen allows you to configure the game:
- The Up/down direction keys of a given player sets it to computer mode and select the computer level. By pressing the right directional (F key for the player2/upper screen), a human player (NINGEN) is selected.
- When a computer player is selected, it's possible to enable/disable its screen by pressing it's left directional (S key for player2/upper screen).
Note: Only one player can be set to computer mode at a time.
2) Gameplay
The player-1 uses the lower screen and has the green color.
The player-2 uses the upper screen and has the red color.
The game objective is to topple all the poles that have the same color as your player before your adversary does it.
You must have enough speed to topple a pole, otherwise you'll just bounce back in the opposite direction.
Press SPACE in the start screen to start the game.
The game has two parts: The 1st part where the players place the poles with the opposite color in the field. Place the poles wisely. The color status bars will decrease to indicate the number of poles that still have to be placed.
After all the poles are placed, the 2nd part (and real game play) automatically starts. Now it's the time to topple all the poles that have the same color as your player. Be careful not to topple the poles of the other player.
The color status bars will now increase to show all poles you have topped. As mentioned before, the winner is the player that finishes this task before the other player.
3) Performance tips
The default game performance is less than stelar. But there are some tips to improve the frame rate and make the experience much more enjoyable.
On a real MSX computer, before playing against a computer player, it's highly recommended to turn off the opponent screen with the left direction button (S key for player-2) in the start screen, for a nice performance boost. The MSX version of Dires runs very slow when two screens are being updated simultaneously.
If you have an OneChipMSX or one Zemmix computer, turn on the "turbo blitter" function before running the game. Note that this is not the turbo CPU, but the really turbo blitter (hardware accelerated video commands). Then you'll have enough speed to run both screen without performance issues.
On openMSX it's also possible to speed up the blitter, for a much smoother gaming experience even with two screens running. For that, open the console and type:
![[DIRES] - giger . loop - (1987, MSX2, Bothtec)](http://images.generation-msx.nl/software_title/c95018a0.png)
![[DIRES] - giger . loop - (1987, MSX2, Bothtec)](http://images.generation-msx.nl/software_game/5ff68762.png)
by FRS | 8 years ago
This game always puzzled me as I couldn't figure out how to play it until now. Here are some tips I found out:
1) Game keys and screens
- Player-1 keys are UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT and ENTER
- The respective player-2 keys are E, D, S, F and ESC
- The game has a dual-screen setp. The lower screen is used by the player-1, while the upper screen is used by the player-2
2) Game configuration
The start screen allows you to configure the game:
- The Up/down direction keys of a given player sets it to computer mode and select the computer level. By pressing the right directional (F key for the player2/upper screen), a human player (NINGEN) is selected.
- When a computer player is selected, it's possible to enable/disable its screen by pressing it's left directional (S key for player2/upper screen).
Note: Only one player can be set to computer mode at a time.
2) Gameplay
The player-1 uses the lower screen and has the green color.
The player-2 uses the upper screen and has the red color.
The game objective is to topple all the poles that have the same color as your player before your adversary does it.
You must have enough speed to topple a pole, otherwise you'll just bounce back in the opposite direction.
Press SPACE in the start screen to start the game.
The game has two parts: The 1st part where the players place the poles with the opposite color in the field. Place the poles wisely. The color status bars will decrease to indicate the number of poles that still have to be placed.
After all the poles are placed, the 2nd part (and real game play) automatically starts. Now it's the time to topple all the poles that have the same color as your player. Be careful not to topple the poles of the other player.
The color status bars will now increase to show all poles you have topped. As mentioned before, the winner is the player that finishes this task before the other player.
3) Performance tips
The default game performance is less than stelar. But there are some tips to improve the frame rate and make the experience much more enjoyable.
On a real MSX computer, before playing against a computer player, it's highly recommended to turn off the opponent screen with the left direction button (S key for player-2) in the start screen, for a nice performance boost. The MSX version of Dires runs very slow when two screens are being updated simultaneously.
If you have an OneChipMSX or one Zemmix computer, turn on the "turbo blitter" function before running the game. Note that this is not the turbo CPU, but the really turbo blitter (hardware accelerated video commands). Then you'll have enough speed to run both screen without performance issues.
On openMSX it's also possible to speed up the blitter, for a much smoother gaming experience even with two screens running. For that, open the console and type:
set cmdtiming broken