echoes... by Binary Zoo Studios
echoes is essentially Binary Zoo Studios do Asteroids and to save anyone else the trouble of making the comparison, yes, it is "a bit like Geometry Wars" :)
Instructions Shoot everything, avoid everything, score some points. The game consists of 10 levels with a new enemy introduced on each new level. They have different strengths, weaknesses and require different strategies to deal with effectively. (mini asteroid, small asteroid, large asteroid, XXL asteroid, comet, meteor storm, asteroid belt, planet, black hole & sun.)

The player loses energy when hit by an enemy. Remaining energy is shown on the HUD but the coloured ring around the player also indicates energy status (a large, green circle changing to a small red circle as energy depletes).

There are 3 different powerups that appear at random intervals to aid your progress:

Weapon Up - Increase weapon power
Energy Up - Increase energy (a circle around the player shows your current energy level)
Ring of Bullets - creates a ring of bullets that rip through anything in their path

Crack Crack now appears an un-lockable bonus game in Echoes. Get a Zoot score of 50% or higher and you can access Crack from the Echoes main menu.....or maybe there is another way ;) A never ending stream of increasingly large asteroids must smashed into smaller fragments to move onto the next. Sounds simple but when one hit kills, it is not quite as easy as it sounds.
Get in close for a x5 score multiplier and get the job done fast for a points bonus.
Profiles From the profiles menu up to 5 different user profiles can be created, viewed and deleted. This allows several players to track a series of statistics as well as your Zoo Trial progress (see below)
Zoo Trials "Inspired" by Microsoft's excellent Gamerpoints we have Zoo Trials (Zoot's). These are a series of 10 trials to complete, with each completed trial increasing your Zoot progress rating. Zoot's can be attempted on any difficulty setting but only completing them all on hard will you get the perfect 100% Zoot score. The trials & your progress can be viewed from the Records screen.

Zoots:
- score 1.5 million
- score 175k without moving
- score 500k without getting hit
- get to level 10 in under 12 minutes
- get hit 100 times in a single game
- get to level 7 using no powerups
- collect 100 powerups in a row
- shoot the sun 100 times
- kill 10 black holes
- make 3000 kills in one game

And as a reward for getting a 50% Zoot score you will unlock the Crack mini-game!

Controls From the Control menu you can toggle auto-fire and adjust the players movement speed. There are also several default control configurations available (Keyboard, Mouse & joypad). Selecting one of these options displays the default movement and rotation controls below.

Additional to these settings you can also use a Custom set of controls. This is done by clicking on either the Movement or Rotation option until the desired input method is displayed. Any combination of WASD, cursor keys, mouse, left stick and right stick can be used.

P or ESC - Pause

Joypad Configuration From the Controls menu you also have the option to configure your joypad. The game is supplied with a number of known joypad configurations but you may have to configure your own. To configure your pad simply follow the on screen instructions, moving the sticks as indicated.
(note: you will be prompted for 4 buttons but only 1 will be used in echoes.)

If you do configure your joypad then please send us the "my_joypad.zoo" file from the Data directory so we can include it in our library for other users to easily access.

Graphics From the Graphics menu you can adjust the number of FX and the amount of motion blur. Also the Screen FX option allows you to enable of disable the screen flashing and shaking. (if you may be effected by flashing lights then please set Screen FX to off.)
If you are having frame rate problems then try reducing the number of in game FX.

Audio The Audio menu gives you options to mute or adjust sound and music volumes. There is also an option to change which music is played in game. This defaults to the supplied track but can be changed to play any of your own music either directly from file or through play lists. For detailed instructions see the "Readme" file in the "My Music" directory.
Online Highscores Online options will follow soon. Please keep checking our site.
Requirements echoes... requires DirectX 9.0b or higher to run. The resolution is fixed at 1024 x 768 and 32 bit.
Revisions 1.02 "Crack" game added. Get 50% Zoot progress to unlock. Instant replay feature added. (press space to activate in game) Fixed bug that sometimes prevented award of "get to 500k with no hits" Zoot.
Compare Zoot progress screen added to Records menu.
Addressed issue of some Asteroid Belt (snake) enemies spawning on top of each other.
Intro and exit screens now skipable.
Weapon and energy powerup creation no longer random (now based on kills)
Fixed bug that sometimes stopped custom music from looping.
Current Zoot status display option added (select HUD Full from graphics menu)
Display of zoots no longer possible added to pause menu.
1.01
First public release.
1.00
Beta release to play testers.
Thanks for playing.