Telephone: 888 788-1792 (US and Canada), 978 264-3945
Website: www.mindrover.com or www.cognitoy.com
E-mail support: support@cognitoy.com
Copyright 1999-2000 by CogniToy, LLC.
SciTech GLDirect(TM) graphics driver technology
copyright 1997-2000, SciTech Software Inc.
All rights reserved.
1
License Agreement and Warranty
You should carefully read the following end user license agreement before installing this software
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the terms of this agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of the agreement, promptly return
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You are entitled to use this product for your own use, but may not sell or transfer reproductions of
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computer. You may not network the product or otherwise use it on more than one computer or
computer terminal at the same time.
COGNITOY'S LIMITED NINETY-DAY WARRANTY
CogniToy warrants, for a period of ninety (90) days following the original retail purchase of this copy
of MindRover: The Europa Project, that this software is free from substantial errors or defects that
will materially interfere with the operation of the program as described in the user documentation.
This policy applies to the initial purchaser only.
If you believe you have found any such error or defect in the program during the warranty period,
call CogniToy's Technical Support Department at (978) 264-3945, between the hours of 8:00 a.m.
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Some states do not allow exclusions or limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, so the
above limitations may not apply to you.
Welcome to Europa, land of ice and more ice. With
Jupiter constantly hovering on the horizon, we've
found that homesickness among new arrivals is
common, so let's just get started.
Your time here will present you with a new type of
challenge -- one that matches the excitement of an
action game, the planning of a strategy game and
the intense thinking required in a puzzle game.
Your goal is to create robotic vehicles using a wide
array of different components, program their
behavior, then set them free to compete with each
other. Your progress through the levels will depend
on cleverness, innovation, and even deception as
you tackle some of the more challenging scenarios.
Share your successes, get advice, download new
challenges and compete with others by visiting the
MindRover website at www.mindrover.com.
Chapter 1
Introduction
4
MindRover probably isn't quite like anything you've
seen before, so please give yourself a chance to
learn it. Go through the in game tutorials and use
the F1 key for help along the way.
Ready? Free your mind, grab your mouse, and
enter into the world of MindRover!
Introduction
Quick Start
For the fastest introduction to MindRover, follow
these steps:
Create a new user name and log in. Your user
name will be used to help identify the vehicles
you build.
Go through the first 2 or 3 tutorials in the game
following the tutorial prompts.
Click on Sports category, and try Sumo Hover.
There is a tutorial vehicle (half-built) available
to get you started or you can start with an
empty chassis.
After that you should have a pretty good idea of
how to go off and build your own rovers.
Don’t forget to visit www.mindrover.com for hints,
tips, and competitors. You’ll find an active and
growing MindRover community.
5
Chapter 1
Using This Manual
Concepts
Console
Components
Start with the
tutorials
The Concepts section describes essential MindRover
concepts in some detail. You will learn about
scenarios, vehicles, components, wiring, and
competitions. You can read this chapter before you
play to get a good feel for all aspects of the game.
But if you like to jump right in and get started, just
go to the first tutorial and come back to this chapter
later.
The Console section goes into detail on each of the
user interface screens. You can read it before you
start, or just use it as a reference after you have
started playing the game.
This chapter gives you specific information on each
component in the game, listed alphabetically.
Within the game, click on a component and press
F1 to get more details and examples.
You’ll probably have the most success if you go
through at least the first two tutorials before going
on to other categories. The tutorial prompts come
up automatically when you choose a tutorial
scenario.
6
There are five tutorials in all. It's not necessary to
do them all at once; go through the first two or
three, then try some of the level one challenges.
The last two tutorials handle more advanced
concepts, so wait until you are comfortable with the
interface and with creating vehicles before tackling
them.
Concepts
Chapter 2
Concepts
Overview
When you play MindRover, you are given a series of
scenarios or challenges. Your job is to program a
robotic vehicle to solve them. There is no single
solution to each problem; MindRover lets you
devise your own personal way of getting through a
level.
This chapter will provide the basic concepts for
playing MindRover. The next chapter, Console, goes
into detail on how to use the interface.
Some scenarios may ask you to build a vehicle to
complete a series of simple tasks. Others might ask
you to program a set of vehicles that work together
to defeat another team.
You can equip your vehicles with everything from
rocket launchers to radars to speakers. You can
program them to do anything from following a
track, to finding a path through a maze, to seeking
and destroying other vehicles. The behaviors you
can create are limitless -- and the game will grow
with your abilities.
There are five basic steps in playing MindRover.
7
Chapter 2
Choose a
Scenario
Choose a
Vehicle
Add
Components
Wire it up
Go!
First, choose a scenario or challenge. Each one has
a different task or competition, and MindRover
supports several different styles of scenario.
Next, you choose a chassis on which you will place
the components for your vehicle. There are
wheeled, treaded and hovercraft type chassis in
varying sizes.
Next you load up your vehicle with the components
you feel are necessary to solve the scenario. You
can choose from over 50 different components,
from weapons to random number generators.
You then program the components by wiring up all
the components, describing how the various parts
work together.
Finally, you cross your fingers and put your vehicle
to the test by running the scenario. Your rover runs
on its own, with no further intervention from you.
Of course, you probably won’t get it right the first
time. So return to the console, tune it, and try
again!
8
Scenarios
A scenario is a challenge or competition with a goal,
such as "push your opponent off the wrestling mat."
Each scenario has particular rules that you must
follow in order to win.
Concepts
If this is your first time using MindRover, you
should go to the Tutorial category first and choose
Tutorial: MindRover Basics. After the first few
tutorials you should try a level one scenario in
another category.
After selecting a new category and a scenario, read
its description in the property box to the right. The
F1 key brings up in-game help. If you have just
selected a scenario, it will give you detailed
information about the challenge you’ve selected.
Choosing a Scenario
Scenarios are organized into five categories:
Battles, Miscellaneous, Sports, Races, and
Tutorials. Within each category, there are several
levels of difficulty, and each level contains one or
more scenarios.
To see the list of scenarios in a category, click on
the category name on the top line of the screen.
Select a scenario within a category by clicking on its
name. The preview screen in the lower right hand
corner will show a flyby of the scenario. The
property box on the right gives a description.
Start in the
Tutorials
category
Completed Scenarios
After you complete a scenario, the scenario is
"checked off" on the screen. This is a visual
indicator of the scenarios you’ve completed so far.
9
Chapter 2
You can play any scenario in any order, but you’ll
probably do best if you complete scenarios within a
category in the order they’re presented.
Vehicles
All vehicles in MindRover are based on one of three
types: hovercraft, wheeled, or treaded. There are
three sizes of each. The smaller sizes are lighter
and take less power to accelerate, but are more
easily pushed around. Larger chassis, on the other
hand, are heavier and contain many more attach
points for mounting components. However, they
also take longer to accelerate and require a higher
engine throttle setting to move them.
Once you have chosen a scenario and entered the
vehicle selection screen, both empty chassis and
pre-made vehicles will generally be available for the
competition. The scenario may restrict the use of
certain chassis types or components. In this case
any vehicles using forbidden components will not
be available for use in the scenario.
A vehicle is
stored in the
holobox row
where it was
last used.
10
For many scenarios there may be 2 or 3 opponent
vehicles to choose from. Some of the lower-level
scenarios have tutorial vehicles to help you get
started. Chapter 3, Console, has more details.
Your vehicle is automatically saved whenever you
run a competition or log out of the game. You will
find it under the row label of the scenario type in
which you created it or most recently modified it.
Concepts
For instance, if you created a vehicle while in a
Battle scenario, then it will be listed in the row
labeled "Battle." You can still use it in a Race or
Sports scenario as long as its chassis and
components are legal.
Your opponents are on the red team (team 2). Your
vehicles are on the blue team (team 1). Some
scenarios compete one vehicle against one
opponent. Others compete two on two or one
vehicle against the clock.
To get credit for beating the scenario, you must
beat one of the opponents supplied by CogniToy.
You can, if you wish, use a different opponent
altogether. Please see the section below on how to
compete with your friends.
Vehicle Types
A Hovercraft is a light vehicle that floats on a
cushion of air. It has very little friction and can slide
freely in any direction. Its friction with the ground
depends on the weight it carries.
A Hovercraft has no built-in thrust system -- you
will usually want to use at least one Thruster to
move it. For better direction control, use multiple
Thrusters.
A Wheeled vehicle is like a car with no engine. It
rolls freely fore-and-aft when unpowered, but
strongly resists being pushed from side-to-side.
Hovercraft
Wheeled
11
Chapter 2
It is possible to power wheeled vehicles with
Thrusters, but most of the time you'll want to use
one of the Engine components. An engine applies
its power directly to the wheels of the vehicle; the
throttle setting on the engine will control the
speed.The throttle can be set from -100% to 100%
of full power. You will need a large amount of
throttle if you put a small engine on a medium or
large size vehicle.
You also need a Steering component to turn the
wheels of the vehicle. The Steering component only
allows 30 degrees of turning to the left or right. To
reverse direction, you should use a negative engine
throttle.
Treaded
12
A Tank has two independent treads, and never rolls
freely. It strongly resists being shoved in any
direction. In order to move a tank, you need an
Engine to provide the power, and a TreadControl to
distribute the power to the treads.
Both the Engine throttle and the TreadControl must
be set for the tank to move. It is easiest to set the
engine throttle on full (100%) and then vary the
distribution of that power to each tread using a
TreadControl component. If the left and right treads
are both set to 50%, the tank will move forward
using half of the engine’s throttle.
Illegal Chassis and Components
In order to make each scenario interesting and
challenging, you will often find that certain chassis
types and components have been disallowed. For
instance, in the Drag Race you can only choose
from hovercraft chassis to build your vehicle.
Concepts
Once you have chosen a scenario, any vehicle
containing forbidden components will be filtered out
of the available choices. So if you can’t find a
vehicle you made, perhaps it is not legal for the
scenario you have chosen.
All user-created vehicles will show up in the Tutorial
scenario called Testing Ground, which has no
illegal components and allows all chassis types. If
you can’t find a vehicle that you created in the past,
choose the Testing Ground scenario, then go to
the Vehicle selection screen and scroll through the
categories of vehicles.
Saving, Deleting, Copying Vehicles
Vehicles are automatically saved in MindRover
whenever you leave the Vehicle, Wiring or
Component screen. If you drag one of your
vehicles into a vehicle slot and give it a new name,
it will be saved with that new name. It is no longer
available under the old name.
Vehicles with
illegal parts will
NOT be shown
in the holobox.
Vehicles are
automatically
saved
Once you have been playing MindRover for a while
you will have many vehicles in your vehicles folder.
To clean up your folder and get rid of vehicles you
don’t want, highlight a vehicle in the holobox and
click on Delete in the upper right of the screen.
Cleaning up
your folder
13
Chapter 2
Deleting vehicles from the holobox removes them
from your directory and you cannot get them back.
MindRover will not allow you to delete the chassis
from the "chassis" row.
Copying
vehicles
Remove the
CogniToy
opponent
If you like a particular vehicle and wish to use it as
the basis for a new vehicle, you can drag the
desired vehicle into slot 1. Drag the same vehicle
from the holobox into slot 2. When you complete
the second drag, this vehicle automatically gets a
new name which is the old name plus a number.
You cannot compete two vehicles with the same
name, so MindRover automatically renames it.
You now have a copy of the original vehicle as well
as the original. Both will be saved.
Competing with Your Friends
All scenarios will allow you to remove the CogniToy
opponent and replace it with any vehicle you like. If
you want to beat all the levels of the game, you
have to beat the opponents we supply. However, at
any time you can take on some competition from
other players. Come to www.mindrover.com and
find a worthy opponent!
You can always drag any vehicle onto a slot and
replace the one that’s there. You’ll also find an
empty slot that you can reach by clicking the left
button. You can drag any vehicle into the slot for
Team 2, and drag your vehicle into Team 1. Then
see how you do.
14
Concepts
If you would like to restore the slots to their original
configurations, you must choose a new scenario,
then go back to the scenario you were playing. The
default vehicles will be restored.
E-mail or Floppy Exchange
Vehicle files are quite small (usually only 20-30
kbytes) and can be copied to a floppy disk, emailed as an attachment to your friend, or
uploaded to a website where people are collecting
them, exchanging them, or competing them against
each other.
If you start the game from the CD (Windows
version only), you will get a menu option called
Vehicle Transport, which will let you save your
vehicles to a floppy disk or to another area on your
hard drive. The Vehicle Transport will also let you
import other vehicles into your MindRover folder.
You can manipulate your vehicle files outside of
MindRover. To get to your vehicle files using
Explorer, find the folder where you installed
MindRover (the default is c:\games\mindrover).
Here you will find a folder called ’Vehicles’ and
under that will be one with your login name. In that
folder are all your vehicle files.
For Linux users the vehicle files can be found in
your home directory:
.loki/mindrover/Vehicles/<user>
Check the web
for contests
and vehicle
upload sites:
www.cognitoy.com
15
Chapter 2
The .vmf file
lets you run it;
the .wst and
.ice files also let
you edit it.
Don’t change
the name of a
vmf file
There are three files associated with each vehicle
you have created. The one with the vmf extension
(for instance: kim_dragster.vmf) is the one that
you need to copy or upload for others to compete
against you.
If you give someone all three files
(kim_dragster.ice, kim_dragster.wst, and
kim_dragster.vmf), then they will get owner
information about your vehicle and they will be able
to modify it, rename it, and claim it as their own.
If you just give someone the vmf file, then they
cannot see into your vehicle’s brain. They can
compete against your vehicle, but they cannot see
your wiring and they cannot make any changes to
your vehicle -- not even to change its name!
NOTE: If you rename a vmf vehicle file outside the
game, it will not load in the game.
Also, please be careful to create unique names for
your vehicles. You cannot compete two vehicles
with the same name.
vmf files must
have unique
names
16
MindRover gives you default names that start with
your login name. If you keep that part and just
change the rest of the name, you are less likely to
have problems with uniqueness.
The owner of the vehicle (the one who has the wst
and ice files) is the only one who can change the
name of the vehicle.
Concepts
When you receive a vehicle that you would like to
run against your own, you can import it using the
’Vehicle Transport’ feature in the AutoStart program
(for Windows), or you can add the file directly to
your vehicles\<login name> folder.
Components
After choosing a scenario and choosing a vehicle
chassis, the next step is to add physical
components: movement, sensors, weapons,
navigation/communication, and extras.
In the Component selection screen you get a topdown view of the chassis with grid markings. Your
components must fit in the open grid spaces on the
top of the vehicle.
Components cannot be placed on top of other
components and they cannot span across different
grids. The different grids light up as your mouse
passes over them.
You can rotate the component by 90 degrees as you
are placing it by clicking on the right mouse button.
Some components can be rotated during play. If
you plan on rotating a component while playing
(like a ProximityRadar or SpinThruster), then we
recommend that you don’t rotate it while placing it.
It becomes confusing to try to rotate it in more than
one place.
The Component chapter of this manual will give you
some details on each component. While in the
Right-click
while dragging
to rotate a part
before you
place it.
17
Chapter 2
game, you can also click on a component and then
press F1 for detailed help.
Component Types
Movement
Sensors
The movement components are used to propel a
vehicle or affect its direction.
A Thruster is used primarily for hovercraft
movement. The location of a thruster affects how
the vehicle will behave. If you put the thruster on
the far left of the vehicle facing forward, when it
turns on it will tend to turn your hovercraft towards
the right. There is also a SpinThruster which can
rotate while the thruster is on. This can be used to
push your hovercraft in the desired direction.
The three different Engines (small, medium, and
large) are used with the wheeled and treaded
vehicles. These components take up 1, 2 or 4 grid
spaces. The placement of the engine does not
affect the vehicle’s performance.
A Steering component is used only with a wheeled
vehicle to control its front wheels. A TreadControl is
used only with a treaded vehicle to control each of
its treads. It doesn’t matter where on the vehicle
you place a TreadControl or Steering component.
Sensors are the ’eyes’ and ’ears’ of the vehicles
giving you information on what is in the arena. You
use this information to decide how to move or steer
your vehicle or when to fire your weapon.
18
Concepts
Sensor types include the TrackSensor,
BumpSensor, Sonar, Filter, Speedometer,
SpinOmeter, LootSensor and three types of Radar.
The Radar, TrackSensor, and Sonar are locationdependent, while the others are not. For instance,
the BumpSensor detects any collision of your
vehicle whether it was in the front, back or on
either side. You can place the BumpSensor in any
open grid space on your vehicle.
Weapons are used to damage, slow down or move
another vehicle. They do varying amounts of
damage. In some scenarios, after a certain amount
of damage the vehicle will be destroyed. When this
happens, in some cases the competition will end; in
other cases, the vehicle will "respawn" and can
continue to play.
Most weapons are fixed in place, which means that
you must rotate the entire vehicle to aim them. You
can set their initial orientation by using the right
mouse button to set the mounting position.
However, the Machine Gun does have a limited
ability to adjust its angle during a competition.
Navigation and communication components help
you to find things and communicate with your
team. BearingSensor,WaypointSensor, XYSensor
and XYFinder are used to find specific points in the
arena; RadioTransmitter and Recevier allow you to
send and receive information to a teammate.
To get more information, including usage notes on
these components, select a component and press
F1.
Weapons
Nav/Comm
19
Chapter 2
Extras
The Extra components are mostly just for fun but
can also be used to help debug your vehicle if
something isn’t working correctly.
For instance, the Speaker can be set up to say the
numbers from 1-5. You can have the speaker sound
the number 1 when your vehicle has reached the
first waypoint.
The RunningLight was designed to be connected to
the ModeSwitch to tell you what mode color the
vehicle is in. See F1 help on ModeSwitch for more
information on this component.
The LootCarrier is used to pick up objects in the
scenario such as the enemy flag. Anything that
might be carried by a vehicle will require a
LootCarrier.
Points and Weights
Each component has a point cost and weight
associated with it. The scenario you choose will
determine the total amount of weight and total
points you have to configure on your vehicle.
20
For scenarios with more than one vehicle/team, the
total points and weight is the sum from each
vehicle. So if you build your first vehicle with many
heavy components, you may not have enough
weight budget left to add basic components on your
second vehicle.
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