Item description:

DeadBabiesX extreme edition is a long overdue update to DeadBabiesX that fixes many bugs, adds a few things, and changes many others. It's more stream-lined and polished, and carnage-tastic.

I've had this sitting on my drive for some time since the original was released over a year ago, and in light of the emails I've received lately I decided I should go ahead and release it for the people who somehow manage to enjoy this game.

Removed the menu system entirely, it didn't do anything anyway.
IGR is now possible from in game.
All the weapons have been made "eXtreme". More firepower, more carnage, more mayhem. 'nuff said.
New level with new music. Seeing as how the "levels" in DBX aren't really more than scenery, this isn't really a big improvement, but it does help the blue player see his aimer easier.
Several graphics improvements. This includes better explosion effects, machine-gun muzzle flashes, better railgun impact effects, etc.
A new weapon: The flame-thrower, which yes, does catch the babies on fire.
A lot of performance optimization. No more weird stuttering with the noise that sounds like a cat going through a meat-grinder. I figure even with the "eXtreme"ness you'd be hardpressed to get any significant slow-down with all 4 players and thousands of babies.
A few gameplay improvements. Notably, babies can be exploded in mid-air, and the scoring system was reworked a little as well to be less partial to the railgun and machine-gun weapons.
The slow-time super-weapon no longer permanently screws up the music pitch. Chalk this one up to a DirectMusic bug, yay.
That said, I'd also like to say I received a surprising number of emails from people over the past year who were obviously too stupid to read the readme, because if they did, they'd know the game was multiplayer, and how to use the super-weapon powerups. I think I speak for all the good people at xbox-scene when I say read your friggen' readme's!

That said, I'd like to take this space to announce an upcoming project that I've been working hard on for some time now. I don't have a lot of specific details yet, but suffice to say that it will be fun and multiplayer, and deadbabies should not be taken as any indication of the level of quality I'm aiming for with my new project. If you're interested and think you'd be able to provide assistance, you're welcome to contact me at parlance @ wafflemind.net (with the removed).

What follows is the original readme for the original deadbabiesx. A lot of the information is no longer accurate, but the controls and basic gameplay principles are still the same so I've included it because I'm just too lazy to write a new readme. So sue me.

Dead Babies X is a homebrew xbox game based off of an elaborate practical joke based off of one hell of a weird SNES puzzle game. The game itself is simple and isn't meant to be taken seriously, but hopefully it can provide at least a few minutes of entertainment for you. The game itself was written as a school project (think high school here people) and within class time constraints to meet a certain level of quality. I hope you will be able to enjoy it despite it's many flaws, and if anybody cares I might consider finishing it up or something.


1.) Disclaimer
I, Chris Friesen, or Dead Babies X's distributors are not responsible for any damages caused by the use of this software. So eat a dick.

2.) System Requirements
- A modded xbox, some sort of television and at least 1 controller. - A brain isn't required but it'll help.

3.) What the hell?
Okay the first thing you're going to notice is that the intro and logo movies are some wmvs that came with the XDK as examples. This is because that although we did HAVE intro and logo movies, we were never able to convert them to the right format and get them into the final version of the game on time. THe second thing you are going to notice, unless you pressed the A button to skip the movies, because that would skip the menu system as well, is that the menu system exists but functionally does nothing. Don't try to create profiles or anything silly like that because it's not going to work. Just go to quick start and hit A.

After you are in the game you are going to need to know how to play. The object of the game itself is simple. Get as many points as you can. You accomplish this a number of different ways, primarily by blowing the babies off the top of the screen as they float in on their balloons. This act will score you 500 points a pop, plus you get 100 points for just popping all the baby's balloons. The second way is by hitting a baby many times without letting it hit the ground or get knocked off the top of the screen. Each successive hit is worth 10 more points than the last. This 'combo' system was supposed to be replaced with a time based system that would've been more balanced but it never happened. The last and most messy way is to pound a baby into oblivion after it is knocked out of the sky, rolls to a stop, and gets up. This will score you 1000 points, and look really cool. Another note about score combos is that if you are to say, chain detonate a series of babies, each kill is worth double the points of the last. The combo works for the balloon popping bonus as well. So how do you do all that? Well it's not that hard. After you press start to join the game if you're not already in the game, you can start killing some dead babies. Note that you can join the game at any time on any controller, unless that player has already gotten a game over. Cooperatively with 4 people is the best way to play Dead Babies X. Anyways, the left joystick is going to move your player left and right. The right joystick is going to move your aimer (which is color coded for your convenience). The right trigger will use the primary fire of your current weapon, and the left trigger will use the alternate fire. In addition if you have any black or white super weapons, the black and white buttons will trigger them respectively. Different weapons are better for different situations and some work better with others. The default weapon you spawn with is random for variety's sake, but you can collect others that will appear frequently in crates on parachutes that magically levitate accross the screen (that's one email averted). In total there are 5 weapons and their functionality is as follows.

Rocket Launcher:
Primary Fire - Fires 1, 2, or 3 rockets depending on the power level of the weapon. The rockets will always home towards your aimer and the rocket launcher will not fire again until there are no rockets that you fired left. Also the rockets will eventually run out of fuel and explode by themselves if you have not hit anything by then (congratulations!). Alternate Fire - Detonates the rockets prematurely. In order to effectively use the rocket launcher you should always be using this instead of letting the rockets run into stuff directly.

Grenade Launcher:
Primary Fire - Fires a single frag grenade in an arc that sort of goes towards your cursor (fuck the quadratic formula). If the grenade doesn't hit something directly it will bounce along the ground until it hits something or the fuse runs out and it detonates. In addition to the explosion the grenade also lets go of a wave of shrapnel in all directions, the higher the power level the more shrapnel is released. Unlike the rocket launcher, you can have as many grenades out at once as you want. Alternate Fire - Detonates all your grenades prematurely and simultaneously. Really straight forward.

Assault Rifle:
Primary Fire - Fires a rather inaccurate machine-gun towards your cursor. Hold down for sustained fire until your clip is empty and then you will need to reload. There are no reload time or clip meters because I'm a lazy prick. Increased power level increases the damage and knockback of each bullet. Secondary Fire - Fires the entire clip in a shotgun-like fashion.

Stardriver Railgun:
Primary Fire - Fires a powerful and accurate uranium slug towards your aimer. This puppy will go through anything, and deals quite a bit of damage and knockback power. The only real drawbacks are that the weapon has long reload times for each shot and increasing the power level of this weapon does absolutely nothing. Secondary Fire - Exactly the same thing as the primary fire. Aren't I creative?

Plasma Cannon:
Primary Fire - Fires 1, 2, or 3 plasma bolts in a spreadfire fashion depending on the power level. These bolts don't do much damage or knockback, but the rate of fire is high, and you never have to reload. Secondary Fire - Hold this down without using the primary fire until the pink swirly crap disappears. You are now charged. After you have been COMPLETELY charged use the primary fire to unleash a devestating shockwave of plasma. The size of this shockwave increases with your power level.

You can pick up a crate by holding A when your player is touching it. You increase the power-level of your weapon by picking up the weapon you already have. The powerlevel of your weapon cannot exceed 3 and you can check it by looking at the red vertical gauge by your HUD. In addition to the regular weapons, there are also 5 super weapons that are availible for your pleasure:

Missile Strike:
Super Type - Black What it does - Saturates the screen with rockets from the sky for a while. 'nuff said.

Ion Cannon:
Super Type - Black What it does - Fires an orbital laser in a sweep from the right to the left side of the screen. 'nuff said.

Shield:
Super Type - White What it does - Makes your player invincible for a little while.

Gravity Disruptor:
Super Type - White What it does - Lowers the gravity for a little while.

Super-weapons will come in the same way as regular weapons but can be denoted by the black or white color of the crate. You can carry only 1 white super and 1 black super at a time and picking up another one will just replace the previous one.

Now obviously there has to be some sort of obstacle to your goal, otherwise this wouldn't be a game. This is where dying comes in. When you start or join the game you will start with 4 lives. The number of extra lives remaining can be found with the miniature player icons located by your HUD. After you die you will lose the weapon you had and the power level will be reset to 1, and you will lose any super-weapons you were holding as well. After you lose all your lives you will be removed from the game. Once there are no players left the game ends (it is so sad, really). There are basically two ways to die. The first is if you let a baby actually cross the screen with one or more balloons left. The baby doesn't just leave. The baby comes back. With a bomb. They will drop these bombs on you, and if you get caught inside the blast radius, you will die. If somehow the baby manages to cross the screen once again, it will once again come back with a bomb, only moving faster than before. The other way to die (this is more common) is if a baby who has no balloons rolls to a stop and gets up. The baby will then proceed to walk around at the bottom of the screen (this is not good, that is where -you- are). If the walking baby gets too close to you he will detonate himself in a blaze of suicidal glory. Chain reactions caused by the baby self-detonation will not result in any points for the player.

So there you have it.

4.) Contact Information
Please direct your insults, complaints, questions, requests, and hatemail towards friesen @ wafflemind.net. I will also send you the source code if you really want it, for god knows what twisted reason. I check my email frequently (at least twice a day) so you can expect quick replies.

5.) Credits
Lead Programmer / Designer / Person you should be mad at - Chris Friesen ([email protected])
Assistant Programmer / Reason the menu system isn't done - Ken Sumner ([email protected])
Artist / Art ripper / Case (really! we made a game case!) - Andrew Young ([email protected])
Goof-off / Moron / Chronic Masturbator - Brad Ryckman ([email protected])

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