Overview     Video      Screen Shots      Design      Plan      History      Team        Design Table   of Contents   Game Flow    Introduction    Menus    Game Screens     Status Indicators     Pause Overlay   The Game    Winning    Exhibition     Tournament    Scoring     Game Play     Controls    Moves     Banking Turn     Kick Turn     Push     Jump     Ollie     Bluntslide     Nosegrind     Tailgrind     Noseslide     Tailslide     Railslide     Kick Flip    Inverted Indy     Powerslide     Five-Oh     Fifty-Fifty     Fakie     Varial    Objects     Immobile Objects     Mobile Objects     Power Ups     Protective Gear     Food and Water     Ethereal Imagery     Product Logos    Arenas     City Streets     Skateboard Park     Storm Drain     City Park     Construction Site

Vertigo Design  The Game    Winning the Game   In exhibition mode, players can skateboard as they like, moving freely from one arena to the next and performing tricks in no particular order. Players may challenge each other to reach certain goals, but there is no defined beginning and end to game play.   In tournament mode, play progresses through each of the arenas in turn. Time limits and marked goals define how the player must earn points and complete each arena. Players may reach the end of the tournament by performing well in every arena a certain number of times. Tournament play earns players pennant marks, free rein of the arenas, and the respect of other skaters.   Exhibition Mode   In this mode, the player can skate at will through the world, entering any arena in any order. This allows the player to hone his skating skills, explore the city and learn the features of each of arena.   AI-controlled players and other human-controlled players also skateboard within the arenas providing examples of moves and stunts for new players. Skaters from some tribes are more aggressive and may attempt to knock the player off his board. Other skaters may take the time to teach the player the moves that are appropriate for each arena. Tribes may wander through each others arenas, but they claim a particular arena as their turf. They are described in depth in the arena section of this document.   The player can skate anywhere within an arena, but may not enter the skaters’ inner sanctum. If they attempt to do so, a group of skaters from the tribe will block their way or challenge them to a competition.   Once a player feels they have mastered a particular arena, they can hit the "Challenge" button. This indicates that they are ready to challenge members of the tribe on their own turf. Members of the tribe appear, ready to meet the challenge, and, after a little bit of audible taunting, explain the rules for newbie players.   Challenge competition consists of a timed pass through a course in the arena. The rules and judging vary, depending on the personality of the tribe. Successful players are accepted by the tribe as "one of them" and are allowed free rein of the arena, including some portion of the arena’s inner sanctum. If unsuccessful, they are booted out of the arena in disgrace.   Tournament Mode   This is an organized, progressive mode in which the player competes against other skaters in each of the arenas. The computer controls the progression through each of the levels, and the courses and opponents increase in difficulty as the player advances.    Tournament play begins in the park arena and proceeds one-by-one through the remaining four arenas. Play begins with a rolling start at the first arena. A sportscaster’s voice announces the event and describes rules and goals for the arena. As more skaters enter the event, the status display begins to reflect the ranking of the player versus other skaters. The sportscaster narrates the event, describing exceptional stunts and spills. "That’s gotta hurt," is just one refrain of many driven by game events. The announcer highlights superior moves, the changing ranks of players, collisions between players, and dwindling time remaining.   The player must take into account the nature of the arena and the scoring emphasis. For example, in the skateboard park, catching big air will earn more points than in the construction site where the emphasis is on completion of every hazard.   The player has a certain amount of time in each arena to earn points. Once the time has elapsed, the player’s score and statistics are displayed against those of the other competitors. If the player places in the top ranks of an arena, he proceeds through the city streets to the next arena. Moving through the streets affords a player a chance to pick up essential power ups and prepare for the next competition. A fixed amount of time limits the extent of a player’s wandering and refitting before the next round.   Once the player completes a circuit of the arenas, new portions of the arenas open up, presenting new challenges. If the player successfully completes a circuit of the arenas, he is allowed access to the new turf in future exhibition play.   Successfully completing all the arenas in the tournament earns the player a pennant that appears in the player’s statistics screen. A pennant marker on the player’s avatar informs other skaters of the player’s status during game play.     Scoring   Scoring consists of three components, obstacle points, maneuver points and style points. Clearing an object such as a ramp, rail, or block, generates a base point value. The maneuver performed to clear the object adds an additional score. Style points are awarded for a particularly smooth or high move, depending on the arena.   In this example, there are three ways to get across the gap. Each approach generates its own score based on the object used to clear the gap and the maneuver performed on top of the object. Using an ollie maneuver off the ramp generates a score of 20 points for clearing the ramp plus 20 points for performing the ollie.           The more difficult railslide earns the rail’s object score of 30 points plus the railslide’s 80 points for a total of 110. Riding a fifty-fifty on the curved block on the right earns the player the fifty-fifty score of 60 in addition to the block’s obstacle score of 20 for a total of 80.       Move Points Jump 10 Ollie 20 Bluntslide 50 Nosegrind 50 Tailgrind 50 Noseslide 70 Tailslide 70 Railslide 80 Kick Flip 30 Inverted Indy 80 Five-Oh 60 Fifty-Fifty 60 Fakie 10 Varial 60       Object Points Ramp 20 Stairs 20 Curb 10 Hand-Rail 30 Block 20 Pole 100 Fire-hydrant 20 Pylon 10 Barrel 20 Skateboard 40 Skater on Skateboard 100 Rat 50                                                         Clearing object earns score.   Performing move earns score.   Style points are awarded in addition to the basic move points and object points. Style points are calculated differently in the different arenas. The computer evaluates the move based on factors such as speed, orientation, and time spent in the air.