Amiga Moria 3.0 1.0 Introduction Moria is a dungeon adventure game in the manner of Rogue, Hack, Larn, etc., but not descended from Rogue. Moria was originally created by Robert Alan Koeneke for a VAX 780 (a supermini computer). It is a game similar to the above games in that it involves wizards, warriors, scroll, potions, magic. In order to win the game the player must perform certain tasks. In this case he/she must destroy the Balrog that lurks in the lower levels of the dungeons below your village. Moria, however is much bigger and more detailed than the other D&D type games, and requires considerable dedication, and determination to triumph over the forces of evil. For a much more detailed description of Moria see the Moria documentation file (MORIA.DOC). The specific changes for this version are discussed in the file MORIA_CHANGE.NOTES. 2.0 Moria Amiga Requirements In order to play Moria, you must first configure your system properly. Because Moria is so big and so complex, it can only be played on Amigas with at LEAST 1 MEG of memory (two drives are nice, but not really necessary). 2.1 Stack Requirements If you are going to play from CLI, which is what we recommend, it is wise to set your stack to at least 30,000 (the simple rule is that if Moria is crashing on you, set your stack up as high as possible (200,000 or so should do it). Moria is now setup to look for the picture files and the font file in the current directory and then on a disk (device) named "MORIA:". When running from workbench, Moria will automatically set the stack to 30,000. 2.2 Memory Requirements If the memory you have is: o 512K (or LESS): Go to your local Amiga store and BUY MORE MEMORY. o 512K to 1 MEG available: Moria MAY run, and it MAY NOT. If you are just a little short on memory the only effect is that the pictures will not load. The the pictures are not required for the game, they just add to the atmosphere. If you do not have enough memory space for the pictures, or if the program cannot find the files, Moria will display an alert box and then continue. If Moria can not load the MORIA.FNT file then the game will abort. o 1 MEG to 1.5 MEG available: You should have no problem running Moria from a disk or hard disk. If you really want to save some play time load the picture files TOWN.PIC, DUNGEON1.PIC and DUNGEON2.PIC to ram: and then cd to ram: and run Moria from there. o 2 MEG+ available: You can copy the picture files, font file and executable file to ram: and assign MORIA: to ram:. 2.3 Storage Requirements The character files are now 60K, if saved on the town level, and 105K, if saved while in the dungeon. If there's not enough room on the disk Moria will abort the save operation and allow you to try again on another disk. Moria attempts to creates a character file icon for each saved character. The character file icons only seem to work if the character file is in the same directory as the executable. Moria now has a file prompter for loading and saving character files. The file prompter allows you to select the device, subdirectory and file name for the character file. If you have the following storage devices: o 1 Disk Drive: The Moria will fit on a disk with the picture files, font file, and the minimum necessary system files for a workbench disk. The following startup-sequence is a suggestion of how Moria can be started from a boot disk: c:run >NIL: c:SetAlert ;patch system c:FastMemFirst ; this is very important c:FF >NIL: -0 ; start FastFonts c:stack 20000 moria This startup-sequence assumes following commands are in the c directory on the disk: FastMemFirst FF run SetAlert stack Moria uses the following libraries (in a directory called libs): ConHandler.library diskfont.library icon.library info.library mathtrans.library version.library The disk should also have the following files in the L directory: ConHandler Disk-Validator Ram-Handler o 2 (or more) disk drives: Create a disk called MORIA and place all of the picture files (#?.pic), the font file (Moria.fnt) and the executable (Moria) onto this disk. Boot from your favorite workbench disk. Place the MORIA disk in the second drive. To start Moria from CLI type 'MORIA:Moria'. Note that you can also specify the name of a Moria character file on the startup command line (ex. MORIA:Moria Chopper). This will automatically load the specified character file. To start Moria from workbench, simply double click on the Moria icon or the icon of your Moria character file. o Hard Drive: Create a subdirectory for Moria on your hard drive. Put all of the picture files (#?.pic), the font file (Moria.fnt) and the executable (Moria) into this subdirectory. Add an assign command to your startup-sequence to assign MORIA: to your subdirectory. An example of this command is as follows: assign Moria: DH0:Games/Moria To start Moria from CLI type 'MORIA:Moria'. Note that you can also specify the name of a Moria character file on the startup command line (ex. MORIA:Moria Chopper). This will automatically load the specified character file. To start Moria from workbench, simply double click on the Moria icon or the icon of your Moria character file. 2.4 Playing Moria Once Moria has initialized (after starting from either CLI or workbench) you can either create a new, or previously generated, character, If you are creating a new character, type an 'n' on the keyboard, or select item from the menu. If you want to continue playing a previously saved character, type an 'o' command on the keyboard, or select the corresponding menu item. A file prompter will then appear on the display and allow you to select the character file that you want to play. The details for playing Moria are in a seperate documentation file called 'Moria.doc'. You can quit from Moria at almost any time by typing k. 3.0 Hints for the new Moria player 1) Start with a half-troll warrior. They have the best short-term life expectancy. They can be used to acquire a 'feel' for the game. 2) Purchase as much armor as possible. Stay away from the magically enhanced armor at the start of the game, it doesn't provide as good a cost to performance ratio (upgrade those items later when every gold piece is not so vital). 3) Buy armor for as many parts of the body as is available in the store: head, hands, arm (shield), body, feet, and around the body (cloak). 4) Buy a few (as money permits) cure light wounds potions. They can save your life if you don't have the time to heal naturally. 5) Buy a shovel (or pick). These items help you acquire more gold during the game. Later, items found in the dungeon can be sold to the stores for lots of gold. 6) If you still have gold left, buy a weapon. Cost is a reasonable indication of the capability of the weapon. If your character has a relatively low strength, then be carefull not to buy a heavy weapon. He/she won't be able to hit anything with it. 7) Get a few spikes, they may come in handy if a nasty insists on getting close to you. 8) Stay on the first level until your character is at least third or forth level. 9) Don't save your character to RAM:, this is asking for trouble. For one thing if the system dies so does your character, not to mention that character files take lots of space. 4.0 History & Comments This is our third official release, with some modification still planned. This version of Moria contains many changes to make the game faster and smaller (we almost had to require 2 megs of memory). If you should happen to come across any problems, please let us know, and we will make every effort possible to rid the game of any nasty varmints (and no, that doesn't mean we'll get rid of Lepricons, your stuck with them). Also, if you have any changes, or enhancements, that you would like to see in a future release, let us know about it and we will see what we can do about including them. The following list shows some of the possible enhancements that we are considering. If you have a preference for any of them, please let us know ASAP. 1) A map window to show the entire level (in a smaller view). 2) Multi-player and/or multi-character versions. 3) Futher game complexity (more spells,...) 4) A monster dictionary, potion list, spell list, object list,... 5) Special order store for custom made items. 6) Catalog store, where you can special order items that the stores don't have in stock. 7) Sound (various klanks, klunks, grunts and moans). 8) An all new SF based adventure game. This version of Moria is based on the excellent BSD UNIX C port by James E. Wilson of UC Berkeley, which in turn is based on the original 4.8 VMS Pascal sources written by Robert Koeneke, Jimmey Todd, Gary McAdoo and others at the University of Oklahoma. Send correspondence to: Richard Henderson 2527 Hazelwood Ave. Kettering, Ohio 45419 Or leave a message to Richard and/or Bryan Henderson on either of the following bulletin boards: Merical BBS CA/CAUG 1-513-237-1931 1-216-581-2284