Hover! (1995)

Hover!
Developer: Microsoft Publisher: Microsoft Platform: Windows Released internationally: August 24, 1995 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article

Hover! is a game that's something of a tech demo, with fairly basic gameplay, but demonstrating what computers could do at the time. It shipped with the Windows 95 CD-ROM, although one can download it from Microsoft's FTP server.

Unused Dialog

This About dialog is from an earlier version of the game. The final version uses the standard Windows About dialog.

Developer Credits

The intro level shown right after the game starts up contains much more than what meets the eye at first. To move around, hold Ctrl and enter the code IBMAB (the project's code name, "Bambi", spelled backwards). The controls will unlock, and you can maneuver around the wall behind you to see pictures of the game's developers.

Each developer photo may have one out of four different image borders, but there does not seem to be a meaning behind that, rather than artistic choices. Known developers are:

• Stan LePard (Sound): This was his first game he composed the soundtrack for, after which he contributed to many other Microsoft games.

Unused Graphics

The games texture files contain two placeholder images which go unused.

Texture	Usage	Notes
	TEXT1.TEX: 1 occurence as "FBASE_02_T" (floor) TEXT2.TEX: 2 occurences as "FBASE_02_T" (floor) and "CBASE_01_T" (ceiling) TEXT3.TEX: 1 occurence as "FBASE_02_T" (floor)
	TEXT2.TEX: 2 occurences as "DECAL_00_D" and "DECAL_01_D".	Demonstrates the capability of a transparency mask as it is simply the previously mentioned floor / ceiling placeholder texture with holes added to it.

Debugging Material

Debug menu items

While an early prototype of the game had many more debug menu items enabled, only two remain functional in the final version:

ID	Description
-32717 or 59393	Show statusbar (does not work in fullscreen mode). The statusbar shows the following information, from left to right: The X coordinate of the human car. The Y coordinate of the human car. The height of the human car. The current frames per second and probably the desired FPS. The width of the game resolution, in pixels. WALL if the human car currently collides with a wall. POD if the human car currently collides with a power up bubble or an opponent teams flag. FLOOR if the human car currently collides with raised or lowered steps, or a floor pad. CAR if the human car currently collides with other cars.
-32715	Opens the debug control dialog of the integrated WavMix32 sound mixer.

Game logic controlling registry keys

It is possible to control human and opponent car physics, as well as the opponent AI settings. Even though the user interfaces to edit these settings comfortably have been removed at a very early prototype stage, the functionality still remains: At startup, the game checks for the existence of specific registry keys to override default game behavior. The registry keys are all read from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Hover! and stored in binary format, representing 11 integers or floats to control specific game logic.

It should be noted that the floating point values are stored in fixed-point packed integer format: They are read like an integer, but then divided by 65536.0 to retrieve the "real" floating value.

The values default to the following settings:

Car motion physics

Key Name	Default Value	Description
HBegParams	00 00 01 00 34 F3 FF FF 00 00 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 33 33 00 00 33 33 00 00 F5 A8 00 00 7A 54 01 00 99 19 00 00 00 00 05 00	Controls car physics in Easy mode.
HIntParams	00 00 03 00 71 FD FF FF 00 00 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 CC 4C 00 00 CC 4C 00 00 00 80 00 00 7A 54 01 00 66 06 00 00 00 00 07 00	Controls car physics in Intermediate mode.
HExpParams	00 00 05 00 BF FF FF FF 00 00 4B 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 80 00 00 66 66 00 00 66 66 00 00 7A 54 01 00 8F 02 00 00 00 00 0F 00	Controls car physics in Difficult mode.
RBegParams	00 00 01 00 71 FD FF FF 00 00 28 00 00 00 14 00 CC CC 00 00 CC CC 00 00 CC 4C 00 00 F5 A8 00 00 7A 54 01 00 66 06 00 00 00 00 05 00	Controls car physics of the opponents in Easy mode.
RIntParams	00 00 01 00 71 FD FF FF 00 00 32 00 00 00 14 00 CC CC 00 00 CC CC 00 00 CC 4C 00 00 F5 A8 00 00 7A 54 01 00 66 06 00 00 00 00 05 00	Controls car physics of the opponents in Intermediate mode.
RExpParams	00 00 01 00 71 FD FF FF 00 00 3C 00 00 00 14 00 CC CC 00 00 CC CC 00 00 CC 4C 00 00 F5 A8 00 00 7A 54 01 00 66 06 00 00 00 00 05 00	Controls car physics of the opponents in Difficult mode.

The 11 floats map to the following meanings:

• Normal Acceleration - the amount of acceleration until reaching maximum velocity.
• Friction Constant - the amount of sliding when acceleration pauses.
• Max. Velocity - the maximum speed a car can reach.
• Acquire Velocity - the speed an opponent car has when running towards a flag or a human. Unused for the human car.
• Rotation Stability - the amount of spinning after hitting something.
• Rotation Kick - the amount of immediate rotation after hitting something.
• Rotation Accel - the speed of rotational skidding when turning manually.
• Slow Multiplier - the multiplication factor a car gets slower when under the influence of a red light. This has no effect on opponent cars as they can't collect pods. Interestingly, it is well set up for them though - this might hint that it was once planned that opponent cars could at least collect pods (but maybe not use power-ups).
• Speed Multiplier - the multiplication factor a car gets faster when under the influence of a green light. This is also the speed of the skid pads and sets the maximum speed displayed in the speedometer.
• Turn Lag Factor - the amount of skidding introduced when turning (e.g., the "hovering" effect amount).
• Turn Rate - the speed of rotation when turning manually.

AI tuning parameters

Key Name	Default Value	Description
RobotAIBegParams	00 80 01 00 3C 00 00 00 66 66 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 88 13 00 00 88 13 00 00 88 13 00 00 64 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 80 01 00	Flags to control opponent behavior, in Easy mode.
RobotAIIntParams	00 80 01 00 3C 00 00 00 66 66 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 58 1B 00 00 88 13 00 00 88 13 00 00 64 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 01 00	Flags to control opponent behavior, in Intermediate mode. Due to a bug in the final games code, the first 4 bytes are always overriden with the last 4 bytes of the RobotAIExpParams - but since these are always of the same value, this should not be a problem in normal circumstances.
RobotAIExpParams	00 80 01 00 3C 00 00 00 66 66 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 10 27 00 00 88 13 00 00 88 13 00 00 64 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 80 01 00	Flags to control opponent behavior, in Difficult mode.

The 11 values map to the following meanings:

• Backup Turn Rate (float) - the chance of turning in backwards driving a drone will take when being hit and confused.
• Backup Game Cycles (integer) - the length of backwards driving a drone will take when being hit and confused.
• Backup Speed Factor (float) - the speed of backwards driving a drone will take when being hit and confused, relative to the normal driving speed.
• Max. Target Angle Adjust (integer) - the maximum angle a drone will turn to start targeting (unsure)
• Max Angle for Acceleration (integer) - the angle a target has to be in before the drone accelerates towards it.
• Max Dist to Acquire Human (integer) - the maximum distance before a green drone sees the human car and targets it.
• Max Dist to Acquire Flag (integer) - the maximum distance before a blue drone sees a red flag and targets it.
• Max Beacon Distance (integer) - the maximum distance to a waypoint before a drone queries it as the next target.
• Max Beacon Height Difference (integer) - the height at which a drone can see a waypoint and will query it as the next target.
• Beacon Search Depth (integer) - probably represents the number of beacons to validate before taking their route, making sure no other drone is using them now.
• Unknown float - always represents the first setting, and not configurable in the beta, and overwritten partly (s. above registry key note). Without any effect.

A distance of 500 is approximately the length of a car.

Script to import default settings

The following registry script can be used to set up the default values in the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Hover!]
"HBegParams"=hex:00,00,01,00,34,F3,FF,FF,00,00,32,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,80,00,00,33,33,00,00,33,33,00,00,F5,A8,00,00,\
  7A,54,01,00,99,19,00,00,00,00,05,00
"HIntParams"=hex:00,00,03,00,71,FD,FF,FF,00,00,41,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,80,00,00,CC,4C,00,00,CC,4C,00,00,00,80,00,00,\
  7A,54,01,00,66,06,00,00,00,00,07,00
"HExpParams"=hex:00,00,05,00,BF,FF,FF,FF,00,00,4B,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,80,00,00,00,80,00,00,66,66,00,00,66,66,00,00,\
  7A,54,01,00,8F,02,00,00,00,00,0F,00
"RBegParams"=hex:00,00,01,00,71,FD,FF,FF,00,00,28,00,00,00,14,00,\
  CC,CC,00,00,CC,CC,00,00,CC,4C,00,00,F5,A8,00,00,\
  7A,54,01,00,66,06,00,00,00,00,05,00
"RIntParams"=hex:00,00,01,00,71,FD,FF,FF,00,00,32,00,00,00,14,00,\
  CC,CC,00,00,CC,CC,00,00,CC,4C,00,00,F5,A8,00,00,\
  7A,54,01,00,66,06,00,00,00,00,05,00
"RExpParams"=hex:00,00,01,00,71,FD,FF,FF,00,00,3C,00,00,00,14,00,\
  CC,CC,00,00,CC,CC,00,00,CC,4C,00,00,F5,A8,00,00,\
  7A,54,01,00,66,06,00,00,00,00,05,00
"RobotAIBegParams"=hex:00,80,01,00,3C,00,00,00,66,66,00,00,1E,00,00,00,\
  0F,00,00,00,88,13,00,00,88,13,00,00,88,13,00,00,\
  64,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,00,80,01,00
"RobotAIIntParams"=hex:00,80,01,00,3C,00,00,00,66,66,00,00,1E,00,00,00,\
  0F,00,00,00,58,1B,00,00,88,13,00,00,88,13,00,00,\
  64,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,01,00
"RobotAIExpParams"=hex:00,80,01,00,3C,00,00,00,66,66,00,00,1E,00,00,00,\
  0F,00,00,00,10,27,00,00,88,13,00,00,88,13,00,00,\
  64,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,00,80,01,00

Editing Tool

The HoverHack tool imitates the beta dialogues and allows a more comfortable way of editing the parameters.