Chicken Invaders 5: Cluck of the Dark Side Readme

Hero's log, Stardate 8008.5

As the last intergalactic chicken invaders flee our Solar System and lingering feathers still smolder in interplanetary space, I ease up on the trigger and wipe the sweat from my brow.

My work here is done.

Saving the world sure works up an appetite. I'm plotting a course for the nearest Space Burger. I think I'll have the spicy chicken wings tonight. Or perhaps their galaxy-renowned chicken pie?

Ah, the choices of a hero are never easy.

Suddenly, I am yanked back to reality by the whine of my trusty spaceship's automated warning system. Why are all my dashboard lights flashing red?
Why has the Earth darkened so? And why does it all have to happen just as I'm about to eat?

Looks like tonight's dinner will have to wait...

The basic game mechanics are very simple:

Clear each wave by destroying chickens and other appearing enemies.
Avoid falling eggs and other enemy projectiles.
Collect gifts and powerups to upgrade your spaceship weapons.
Collect falling food items to earn missiles.
Collect keys to purchase items in the unlockables menu.

That's it! It may sound simple but (as you'll soon discover) simple things aren't always easy! Those chickens have got a few tricks up their proverbial sleeves that will keep your hands full from the very beginning. Good luck!

Most of what you see while playing the game proper is taken up by a view of your fight against the chickens. Along the edges of the screen you'll also be able to find useful information about the game status:

Score area (top-left): This area displays your score. The heat level of your current weapon is also shown next to your score.
Status area (bottom-left): This area displays a series of informative icons related to your status. From left to right, these are: your remaining lives (heart icon), your remaining missiles (rocket icon), your current weapon level (lightning icon), and collected food items (drumstick icon).
Network area (top-right): This area shows information about the status of all players currently playing. Various pieces of information are cycled periodically. This area is only displayed in multiplayer games.
System area (bottom-right): This area displays system messages. The last message is displayed highlighted, along with the previous 3 messages. When there are no new messages to display, this area will slowly disappear.

Game options can be accessed by clicking on the "Options" button from the main menu. Options are organized in the following categories.

Gameplay

In-game help: Displays tutorial, help messages, and tips while you play.
Allow wingman: Allow Hen Solo to help you in your mission. If you'd rather do everything yourself, Mr. "I-don't-need-no-stinking-help", you can deactivate this option.
Satellite auto-fire: Activating this option will cause satellites to automatically fire simultaneously together with your main weapon (you can still use the dedicated satellite key to fire them independently). This makes satellites easier to control, but restricts their versatility.; Displays a mission progress screen during the cut-scenes. Items that you have not yet collected/discovered are displayed in dark blue, and items that you already have are displayed in light blue. Items that you gained in the last checkpoint are highlighted in bright green (the difference from the last checkpoint is also displayed).
Allow cheats: Allows the use of in-game cheat keys. Refer to the "cheats" section for more information.

Controls

Controls can be re-defined in this menu. The default controls are as follows:

Arrow keys or mouse movement: Fly around.
SPACE or left mouse button: Fire.
M or right mouse button: Fire satellites (if any).

ENTER or middle mouse button: Launch missile.
ESC or PAUSE key: Brings up the in-game pause menu.
Ctrl-Alt-X: Use this key combination to immediately quit while you're in a game (you need to hold down Ctrl and Alt before pressing X).

You can also set the keyboard sensitivity here, which controls how fast your keyboard/joystick/gamepad reacts to button presses. Low values will cause your spaceship to move more smoothly, while high values will allow for rapid changes in direction. Experiment with different settings until you find the one you're most comfortable with.

Graphics

Detail (fastest setting: Low, best setting: High): Controls the overall level of graphical detail and special effects in the game. Set this to "low" if the game runs slowly on your computer.

In addition to the detail setting, there are more options that you can tweak to maximize the game's performance (you can also visit the website for an in-depth guide on how to run the game as fast as possible). These can be found in the "Advanced" area:

Video Mode (fastest setting: 640x480, recommended setting: 1600x960): Selects the game resolution. The last setting ("Native") will use your desktop's resolution, allowing the image to stretch and fill your entire screen (note that this may introduce some distortion in very wide monitors). The game's native resolution is 1600x960 (all the graphics have been optimized for this resolution) and setting the resolution higher may make the game run a lot slower. However, higher resolutions will allow more details to be clearly seen, especially in cases where the game camera zooms away from the action. If your hardware does not support the requested resolution, it will just be ignored.
Full Screen (fastest: On, recommended setting: On): Selects whether the game will run in full screen (recommended), or in a window on your desktop. Some graphics cards run much faster when in full-screen, while others run better when windowed. Experiment!
Letterbox (recommended setting: On): This setting only takes effect when "full screen" is on. When letterboxing is off, the image will fill your entire screen (this may introduce some distortion and make the image appear elongated or squashed). When letterboxing is on, black bars will border your image (if required) in an attempt to preserve the game's native aspect ratio (which is 16:9, or widescreen).
V-Sync (fastest setting: Off, recommended setting: Off): Selects whether each frame will be synchronized with your monitors vertical refresh signal. Setting this option on will make the frames smoother, but will limit your maximum frame rate (typically to 60 or 75 frames per second). Turn it off to make the game run faster.
Maximum fps (fastest setting: 125, recommended setting: 100): This puts a limit to the maximum frames per second (fps) of the game. There is generally no need to lower this from the default setting unless you want to free up processor time for other tasks running in the background. In any case, it's not recommended that you set this below 40 fps. Setting it too high will result in an uneven frame rate and may cause your sound output to stutter on some configurations.
Bilinear Filter (fastest setting: Off, recommended setting: On): This turns bilinear filtering on or off. Bilinear filtering significantly improves the smoothness of graphics, however it does slow things down on older computers. It's only recommended to turn this off if you are running the game on a very slow computer.
Show fps: Enabling this option will show your current frames-per-second (fps) at the top-right of the screen.

Sound

Quality (fastest setting: Low, recommended setting: High): There is normally no need to change this from the default "high" setting. Try setting it to "low" on very slow computers, and only after you have tweaked your graphics settings first. You can also set it to "very high", although the difference in quality will be negligible. This option requires quitting the game and restarting it before it takes effect.
In-game music: Turn this on to have music play while you're playing the game. Note that turning this off will still play music during the introduction and while in the menu.
Sound volume: Controls the sound effects volume.
Music volume: Controls the music volume.

This section is only available in the full registered version of the game.

For help with any problem or difficulty (or if you simply need to contact us) visit the InterAction studios website at www.interactionstudios.com. There you will find a dedicated support section with up-to-date lists of known problems, frequently asked questions & answers, and additional technical information.