How to play
Use arrow keys to navigate menus, Enter to select a menu item, and Esc to back
out of a menu.
Using the menu screens, start the Tutorial or a New Game. You can also select a
saved game slot. Your game will be automatically saved each time you beat a
level and you can select Resume Game to continue it.
Fly your thrust ship, rescue survivors, destroy anything that tries to hurt you,
and find your way to the end of each level. On some levels it is not readily
apparent how to escape, and you will need to find the way out. For example, you
may need to rescue some survivors or solve a puzzle that the evil aliens have
constructed.
This is a survival shooter game, so most players will be challenged to survive
all the levels. It is also a challenging game of skill, so you will get better
and better as you hone your flying and shooting skills. As you master the
controls you may want to play for high scores.
Controls
Retrobooster can be controlled with keyboard only, mouse and keyboard combined,
or a USB game controller. Game controllers are not hot-swappable, so if you plug
one into your computer you will need to restart Retrobooster for it to be
detected. Controls can be customized using the Controls menu.
At any time during play, press the Esc key to pause the game and show a menu
of options.
Universal controls
Use any of these key commands while Retrobooster is running.
| Key |
Function |
| Esc |
Pause game and display menu.
|
| F1 |
Toggle frames-per-second (FPS) meter in the upper-right corner.
|
| Alt + Enter |
Switch between fullscreen and windowed modes. This feature is slightly unreliable and may be removed from the final version of Retrobooster. For now, I want to see what testers think of it. Do you prefer to play in windowed mode for some reason?
|
Default mouse and keyboard settings
Rotate your ship by moving the mouse left and right. (Moving the
mouse forward and back has no effect.)
| thrust forward |
up arrow key |
left mouse button |
| thrust backward |
down arrow key |
right mouse button |
| rotate left |
left arrow key |
| rotate right |
right arrow key |
| fire main weapon |
f |
| fire secondary weapon |
d |
| next main weapon |
g |
mouse wheel up |
| previous main weapon |
v |
| next secondary weapon |
s |
mouse wheel down |
| previous secondary weapon |
x |
| select specific weapon |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 |
Default USB game controller settings
Game controllers come in many styles with different numbers of inputs.
Therefore, it is impossible to describe default settings for all game
controllers. Retrobooster recognizes some popular game controllers and
initializes with sensible default controls. Your game controller may or may not
be recognized. If the default controls for your game controller are not
satisfactory, you can configure them in the Controls menu.
Controls menu
Use this menu to assign specific input devices to each player. If you want
to customize the controls for an input device, click the Configure button
beneath the device name.
On the device configuration screen, click on a specific input that you want to
change and it will begin flashing. If you are configuring keyboard and mouse,
press a keyboard key or mouse button. If you are configuring a game controller,
press a button, d-pad, or axis on the controller. If you want to leave the
control input empty, press Esc.
When configuring the keyboard and mouse, you can also adjust the mouse
sensitivity.
When configuring a game controller, you can also select an axis to assign
to thrust and an axis to assign to rotation.
