<<<<<< BRAIN DAMAGE >>>>>> ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Coded & Compiled By Dave Cobbledick ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Copyright ½ 1993 Dunces Cap Software ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ SUPPORT SHAREWARE ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Please read the following important notice ___________ | SHAREWARE | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ This program is 'Shareware' .... it is not Public Domain [ though you may have received this disk from a PD library ] and it is NOT free!! The principles behind 'Shareware' are that the potential buyer can examine, test and generally find out if this program is what they would like to keep and use more than a few times. If after due examination you want to go on using this program then you are honour bound to register your copy with Dunces Cap Software ....... note: The granted examination period for this program is 'one week' from receipt after which time you will either register with Dunces Cap Software or reformat the program disk [ and any copies you may have made ] thus destroying all relevant data appertaining to the named program in the title shown above; you can then use the disk for your own storage purposes. If you support 'Shareware' it will grow - if you don't support it then it will disappear down the same path as the commercial software houses; a path we all know too well about! _______________________________ | HOW MUCH AND WHERE TO SEND IT | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ The cost of 'Brain Damage' is œ3.OO UK sterling and payment can be made either by cheque or postal order [ international money orders MUST be in UK Sterling .... no foreign currency or cheques accepted ]. Please make all cheques and orders payable to: DAVE COBBLEDICK ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ DO NOT make cheques and orders payable to Dunces Cap Software as this causes problems with the bank manager who views them as 'third party' orders. Send your registration fee to: Dunces Cap Software 245 Rosalind Street Ashington Northumberland NE63 9AZ England ________________ | YOUR GUARANTEE | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ All disks supplied 'direct' from Dunces Cap Software are top quality 'branded' disks guaranteed 100% error free. Disks obtained from other sources will be covered by their own guarantee or warranty; see the terms and conditions of supply from your local supplier. Any registered disk - no matter from where it was obtained - is covered by the unlimited lifetime guarantee from Dunces Cap Software to restore any corrupted disk or replace any damaged disk free of charge [ stamped and self addressed label is required ] no matter how said corruption or damage occurred. This guarantee does not cover any damage cause to your hardware by use or misuse of this program software. The program content and disk is sold/supplied AS IS and you use it at your own risk. All Dunces Cap Software programs are fully checked and tested to ensure error and trouble free use providing the program is used in conjunction with the following guidelines. ______________________________ | LOADING AND YOUR ST COMPUTER | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ This program is designed specifically for all Atari ST machines running versions of TOS 1.62 and under with a memory configuration of at least one megabyte .... machines running above TOS 1.62 will find that this program will, in all probability, not work. To load the game double click on the program file B_DAMAGE.PRG from the desktop and wait for the program to load. After loading the program will initiate a self test and begin to load in additional data from the disk; this takes a couple of minutes so please be patient. This disk must have a folder on it titled \DAMAGE\ and contain the following files: SCORE1.DAT SCORE2.DAT QUESTION.DAT ANSWERS.DAT WORDS.DAT and 1.DAT .... if any of these files are missing the program will not run and the error reports routines will alert you to this fact. Full error handling has been incorporated into this program to ensure continuous trouble free running - any drastic or unknown errors will be reported to you on screen - following any instructions given to you. ___________ | GAME PLAY | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 'Brain Damage' is all about you and your brain. What you set out to achieve is to increase your 'Cell Count' and so improve your I.Q. and your standing within the boundaries of the game parameters. There are fifteen stages and eight very different games to play in 'Brain Damage' with some being fun, some easy to work out and some down right annoying and frustrating. The games have been designed to inflict as much 'damage' as possible on your brain. You begin the game with your 'brain' intact and with a 'Cell Count' of 25,000 to start you off at the bottom of the I.Q. ladder, along with three lives. There are seven 'key' stages which will precede each of the other seven stages [ sub-games ] and one final stage which - if your reach it - will allow you to take your score to unlimited heights depending on how you perform. Each of the stages is preceded within the game with a brief explanation of what to do so no in-depth information will be given to you except for two stages which require a little explaining for you to understand properly. ____________ | KEY STAGES | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Stages 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 are the 'key' stages and all the same - this is where you are required to answer ten questions correctly to gain entry into one of the sub-game stages. However, unlike previous Dunces Cap Software games where you had a choice of three possible answers to choose from, 'Brain Damage' requires YOU to 'type' in the actual answer. This has been made as easy as possible for you to do. All the alphabet keys are active [ A to Z ] as are the numerical keys 0 to 9 - Backspace, Return, Enter and ESC are also active. NO OTHER KEYS WORK - so don't press them. There are three hundred questions to work through and these have been carefully selected to represent the three most popular categories of questions. MUSIC - spanning five decades covering all tastes and a few classical pieces GK - general knowledge covering topical events, sciences and sports TV - spanning five decades and including some film questions All of the questions are colour coded to help make identifying what category they belong to easy; the colour coding is as follows ...... MUSIC - these questions appear in GREEN text GK - these questions appear in YELLOW text TV - these questions appear in RED text Question selection is made at random by the computer so no two games will be alike when you play them. This prevents a pattern of familiarity occurring with repeated plays, and, unlike other Dunces Cap Software programs, when a question has been presented it is not 'automatically' deleted from its array. Only questions that you answer correctly will not appear again in any one sitting [ unless you exhaust all of the questions and the arrays reset ]. Those you answer incorrectly WILL appear again. There is no time limit for answering the questions in these 'key' stages and this will give you time to study, ponder or go look up the answer in a reference book. Before you begin to answer questions you will be taken to a grid screen where you are required to select the reward/penalty 'value' for your questions - this ranges between 100 cells and 1000 cells. To select, by either skill or pure luck, just press the spacebar. When a question is presented to you all you need do is type in the simple answer and, if necessary, press Return or Enter to confirm your entry. If you make any spelling mistakes or errors you can use the backspace key to eliminate them - 'before' you confirm your answer. All answers consist of 'one' word only so if your answer to a question would normally be THE SHADOWS you would only type in SHADOWS. In fact any answer that uses the prefix 'THE' 'A' or 'AN' should have these prefixes omitted. Also, any answer that is a number should be input as a number not characters. If you answer correctly your 'Cell Count' will increase according to the value you struck in value grid. If you answer incorrectly then your 'Cell Count' will be decreased by the same value. You can 'PASS' on up to five questions in any visit to a 'key' stage by pressing the ESC key. There will be no 'Cell' penalty for passing but the PASS will be deemed as a wrong answer and fifteen wrong answers loses you a life. The wrong answer counter is not reset until you lose a life so watch it! ______________ | OTHER STAGES | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ There will be no explanation as to what the sub-games consist of or what they are called as a brief explanation will precede each sub-game within the game itself. What you do need to know is what keys to press when you get there. Control has been made as simple as possible for you with the majority of these stages using only the arrowed cursor keys and the spacebar. Stage Two: Use the arrowed cursor keys pointing up and down to make your selection - no other keys work. Stage Four: Use the spacebar only to confirm your choice Stage Six : Use the arrowed cursor keys pointing left and right and confirm your choice with the spacebar. Stage Eight : Use the arrowed cursor keys pointing left and right and then hit any of the keys on the numerical pad 1 to 9 only. Stage Ten: This is the most important stage in your current game. Use the right and left pointing cursor keys to move the blue arrow and then confirm your choice by pressing the spacebar. If you make the right choices here then on you go - but the wrong choice will end the game there and then. Stage Twelve: Use the right and left facing cursor keys to move the blue arrow next to your selection and press the spacebar to confirm. Note: If you fail on your first pass in this stage your current 'Cell Count' will be halved and the stage terminated. You can quit this stage any time you like by pressing the ESC key or it will end automatically when penalties exceed rewards. Up to here each stage has a big fat juicy bonus for your 'Cell Count' for doing well, but there are equally nasty penalties for doing badly or failing. The next stage is a little more complex and requires a detailed explanation. Stage Fourteen: Detailed explanation. In this stage you will be presented with a clue word or phrase and you are required to give another word that means the same as the clue or can be derived from the hidden meaning of the clue. The answers will be words of between five and eight characters in length - the number of characters in the answer will be dictated by the number of boxes that will roll up from the bottom of the screen. You 'type' in your answer from the keyboard; mistakes can be backspaced out, but only before you enter the last character of your answer. There is no limit to the number of attempts you can have at clues and answers providing the rewards outweigh the penalties at all times. And, like stage twelve you can quit anytime you want by pressing ESC. Look for the obvious, devious, sublime and the ridiculous in the clues and some clues have clues within clues. Whilst there may be more than one alternative answer to the clue or phrase only the one held in memory by the game will be accepted. This limits your choice but the rewards to be gained are very high. _____________ | HIGH SCORES | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Only the top 'five' punters can get to see their names in lights. If at the end of a game you have a high score you will be prompted to input your name; do this by typing in your name from the keyboard and end by pressing Return or Enter. Your name will be displayed at the appropriate place within the table and you will then be asked if you want to play again or quit. If you choose to quit the program will ask if you want to save your scores to disk. Use the left and right facing cursor keys to move the blue arrow under YES or NO and confirm your choice by pressing the spacebar. If you choose to save your high scores then make sure that your disk is not write protected and that it is your 'Brain Damage' disk - see note below! WARNING: WARNING: WARNING: WARNING ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ If you are writing information to the program disk please use a 'backup' copy and not your original disk. This will help prevent accidental corruption. ____________ | CHEAT MODE | ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ At the end of play of each game you will be asked if you want to play again or quit - use the cursor keys to move the arrow to your choice and confirm by pressing the spacebar. No matter what you select you will then be given the opportunity to view the questions you got wrong or passed on along with their answers. Select the option you want as above. If you choose NO then whatever your selection was prior to this section will be executed - either play again or quit. If you select YES [ you cheaters!! ] then scroll through your wrongly answered and passed questions by using the spacebar. If there are a lot and you get fed up look through them then press ESC to return you to your previous option. This section is only for questions and answers in the 'Key' stages and not for wrongly guessed clues in stage fourteen. And that's it for this time round folks .... as always, your comments and opinions are sought as to what you think of this program. Please don't be shy and speak your mind - I won't be offended. In fact it is your input at this stage which gives Dunces Cap Software an idea of which direction it should be heading for future projects. Tell me what you would like to see and I will endeavour to oblige you. All Good Wishes, Dave Cobbledick 245 Rosalind Street Ashington Northumberland NE63 9AZ England Tele: O67O 85O629 anytime after 6.30pm weekdays 11.OOam to 7.OOpm Sundays