Introduction

Art Is Dead is a shooting gallery-style game with a twist.
The game takes place in the mansion of your great uncle Arthur Morgan-Ffyre (recently deceased).
When he was alive, your uncle owned a vast and priceless collection of famous works of art.

As his favorite (and only) nephew, you stand in line to inherit - only there's a problem.
Seems that, much as he loved you, Uncle A thought you were a bit of a layabout, and now his ghost thinks you should have to work for your inheritance.
So when you turn up at the mansion, you find that all but one of the paintings have mysteriously disappeared.
And there's something very strange about the one that's left...

Reckon Art is dead? Don't be so sure!

Getting Started

After you've installed and loaded the game, you'll find the following options:

Single Player

In this mode, the game begins in the entrance hall of your uncle's mansion. At this stage, only one painting can be seen on the walls - the Sunflowers, at the top of the stairs. To play the first level, click on the painting. When you move the cursor over an active painting, you'll see a magical aura surround it telling you that the painting can be entered. Your current total score is shown in the bottom right-hand corner; in the other corner is a 'Back' button which has two functions - in the entrance hall, clicking on 'Back' will take you back to the options screen (your score and progress are automatically remembered by the game), but in the other rooms of the house 'Back' will take you to the previous room.

Each level consists of a timed challenge. Read the briefing carefully - although your uncle can be cryptic, there are useful hints tucked away amongst his reminiscences. In each level you'll have to use the crosshairs (or a lightgun, if you have one) to hit as many targets as possible - but beware, sometimes there will be targets which you must not hit (you'll know which ones these are because they produce a red negative score when hit).

Each painting is composed of up to 4 separate stages. When you've played all the stages, you'll have a total score for the painting - score highly overall, and a new painting may become available (your uncle will inform you of this when you return to the mansion rooms). In the mansion rooms, you see which paintings have had their target scores reached by looking at their frames - if the painting's frame has turned from wood to silver, then you've reached the score on that painting which will unlock new levels.

If you haven't turned the frame to silver yet, you can go back and try again - the game will always remember your highest score, so you have nothing to lose by returning to paintings and trying again. It's even possible to get perfect scores on each level - if this happens, you'll see the frame of the painting turn gold!

In the first room of the mansion, you'll find there are also three locked doors. Each locked door has a score attached to it, and the door will open when you reach that total score (it doesn't matter which paintings you play to achieve that score) - your uncle will tell you when a new door has opened.

Two Player

(IMPORTANT! This mode requires at least one light-gun!)

In this mode, you can test your shooting skills against a friend by playing challenges which have been unlocked in Single Player mode. Enter you and your competitor's names, select your control device configuration (mouse/lightgun, or 2 lightguns), and enter the number of wins required to become overall champion. You will then see a selection screen which allows you to select a painting to play from those which have already been unlocked. To see more paintings, click on 'Next'; to return to the main menu, click on 'Back' in the first painting selection screen.

You will then be taken to the briefing screen for the painting you have selected. In the two-player challenge, the objective is simply to get a higher score than your opponent - you'll see that the scores are recorded individually as you play. After the round is over, you'll be presented with the results, and a winner will be declared. You can continue to select and play new stages until a player reaches the number of wins you selected during the set-up; this player is then the overall winner.

Party Mode

This mode is similar to Two Player, but allows up to 16 players to compete at once, and does not require a light-gun. In Party Mode you will be asked to enter the number of players, the number of wins required, and the input device (mouse/lightgun). You will then be asked to enter the name of each player, and select the painting and stage you wish to play. Each player takes turns to score as highly as possible; the game keeps a tally of individual scores, and the number of wins so far. The first player to reach the target number of wins is declared the overall winner.

Options

Here you can adjust sound and music levels, calibrate light-guns and manage your save-games.

To calibrate the guns, simply select the option and follow the onscreen prompts. Press Return when you have finished calibrating the gun. If you have two guns, each gun must be calibrated separately.

The game will save your progress automatically, but you can have to up to seven different save game profiles (if more than one person wants to have their own single player game, for example). Select Save Game Manager to access these profiles; select 'New' to create a new profile, 'Load' to change profiles, and 'Erase' to delete.

Original art photo images Copyright © 2000 Corbis and Bridgeman Art Library.