Duel 2000

Player notes

About this game

Duel 2000 is Damon Hastings’s small DOS space-combat game. Two ships fight around a planet whose gravity affects both their movement and their bullets. A direct shot is not always the best shot: a curved trajectory can reach an opponent on the far side of the planet. Thrusting and firing generate heat, and an overheated engine temporarily stops both actions.

Before each setup, choose one or two players, enter a name and assign four controls in the order shown: turn left, turn right, thrust and fire. A convenient choice is Left, Right, Up and Space. These are suggested bindings, not fixed original defaults. One player fights the computer; two players share this computer and need different keys. There is no online multiplayer.

The Game Menu lets you change collisions, gravity and the screen edges before selecting Begin game. Cool boxes reduce engine heat; hot boxes overheat the opponent. The skull summons an indestructible pursuer, so collecting every object is not automatically a good idea. This is the author’s freeware release of version 1.0 with updated contact information from 2006, preserving the original 1991 game and credits.