CHAOS

Originally by JULIAN GOLLOP

Unofficial ST conversion by MARTIN BROWNLOW

Original code ported by MARTIN BROWNLOW

Graphics extracted by ADAM TURNBULL

Graphics recoloured by MARTIN BROWNLOW

ADAM TURNBULL

Samples selected by MARTIN BROWNLOW MICHAEL BROWNLOW

ADAM TURNBULL

LaTEX document file ADAM TURNBULL

September, 1992

The samples used in this game were taken from the following films:

Warlock Highlander Bladerunner Fright Night Ghostbusters Evil Dead II A Fish Called Wanda Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Extra samples taken from:

Red Dwarf series II  (Queeg, Stasis Leak)
Red Dwarf series IV  (White Hole)
Red Dwarf series V  (Quarantine)
Blackadder series II  (Head, Money)
Blackadder series IV  (General Hospital, Goodbyeee)
Yello  (Various CD’s)
Queen  (Gimme The Prize)

Numerous Noisetracker Modules STOS Maestro samples disk

1 Introduction

Chaos is a game of magical combat between 2 to 8 wizards in an arena. Each takes turns to select and cast spells and move summoned creatures. The winner is the last wizard left alive, but there is a limit to the number of game turns in which to acheive victory, and the contest could be drawn. Playing time varies from five minutes (with two wizards) to half an hour (with eight wizards).

2 Creating your wizards

Each wizard must be assigned a name and a graphic. The name can be up to twelve characters long, but must be at least one letter long and cannot start with a space. Any or all of the wizards can be computer controlled, and each computer can have a seperate level between 1 and 8 (8 being hardest), which governs how strong the wizard is.

3 Selecting a spell

During this phase each wizard must select which spell he will cast (if any). There are 4 options available to every wizard. These are:

1. Examine a spell Select a spell from the list and you are given details about it.

2. Select a spell Select which spell to cast during the following turn. If you select a monster spell, you will be required to choose if it is an illusion or not (see below).

3. Examine the board Move the cursor around the board using the standard keys (below) and 0 to exit.

4. Continue with game

Standard keys for cursor movement:

Q  W  E
↖ ↑ ↗
A ← S → D
↙ ↓ ↘
Z  X  C

I : Info on current square

4 Placing spells on the board

At the bottom of the screen is shown the name of a wizard, the spell to be cast, and the range from the wizard at which it can be cast (going diagonally costs 1.5 movement points). Use the cursor movement keys (above) to select the space you want, and press S to cast the spell. Press K or 0 to abort the spell.

5 Moving creatures

Press 1 to 8 to highlight the respective wizard’s creations. Using the cursor, select the creature you wish to move. Press S to select, or I for information. Once selected, the screen will tell you the creature’s movement points.

Movement is acheived using the cursor keys. For flying creatures, place the cursor where you would like the creature to move and press S. To attack another creature, move your creature up next to it and try to move onto its square. Some creatures have ranged combat as well as direct combat (e.g. an elf with a bow) and after moving (or pressing K to abort its movement), you can place the cursor on an enemy creature (within range) and fire at it by pressing S. Pressing K aborts a creature’s movement, and can be used before or during movement. K also aborts ranged fire. When you have moved all the creatures you wish to, press 0 to end your turn.

6 More about spells

6.1 Law and Chaos

All spells are either lawful, chaotic or neutral. This is shown on the spell menu by the following symbols.

↑ Lawful
∗ Chaotic
– Neutral

Casting chaos spells makes the universe more chaotic and the reverse applies for law spells. Chaos spells become easier to cast in a chaotic universe, and law spells easier in a lawful universe. The state of the universe is shown on the main menu under the wizard’s name e.g. (CHAOS ∗∗)

6.2 Reality and Illusion

Each spell has only a specific chance of being cast successfully, ranging from 100% for a giant rat to 10% for a golden dragon. The more powerful the spell, the lower the chance. However, creature spells can be automatically cast as illusions but may then be disbelieved, by use of a Disbelieve spell.

6.3 Properties of creature spells

The spells on the menu are printed in various colours to indicate how easy they are to cast, the brighter the colour, the easier to cast. To find out more about a particular spell press the letter of the spell (on examine spell mode only) or I in the game which will give you the following information:

Combat Offensive power

Ranged Combat and Range Some creatures have ranged combat

Defence Defensive power

Movement Allowance Number of spaces it can move in one turn Manoeuvre Rating Ability to disengage from an enemy Magic Resistance How good it is at, wait for it, resisting magic Casting Chance Guess!

Other Characteristics

Some crestures have special characteristics which are printed below its name. These are: Flying The creature can fly Mount The creature can be ridden Undead These can only be attacked by other undead, spells or wizards with magical weapons.

6.4 Other spells

(LOS) means the wizards needs to have a line of sight to the target square. Disbelieve All wizards have this spell. If you suspect a creature to be an illusion, then this

spell will automatically succeed if you are right and fail if you are wrong. It always remains in your spell list.

Chaos 1&2, Law 1&2 These spells simply alter the balance of the universe. Gooey Blob (LOS) The gooey blob cannot be cast on another creature. Once cast it will

spread, engulfing enemy creatures but not affecting yours. Creatures engulfed do not die, but are trapped until the blob holding them is killed.

Magic Fire (LOS) The magic fire cannot be cast on another creature. Once cast it will spread,

destroying enemy creatures but not affecting yours. Magic Wood (LOS) Up to 8 magic woods will spring up around you. Any wizard may enter

a tree, and there is a chance of gaining extra spells from them. Shadow Wood (LOS) You can place up to 8 trees provided they are placed in empty spaces

and are not adjacent to another tree. These trees can be selected as though a creature. They cannot move but can attack creatures next to them.

Magic Castle / Dark Citadel (LOS) These must be cast in an empty space. The casting wizard can enter the castle or citadel. They are impregnable to attack, but don’t last forever!!

Wall (LOS) You can place 4 walls in empty spaces. Nothing can enter or move through a wall. Magic Sword/Knife/Bow These affect a wizard’s combat power: the sword adding 4, the

knife 2, and the bow giving a ranged combat option. You cannot have the sword and knife at the same time.

Magic Armour/Shield These affect a wizard’s defense rating: the armour adding 4, the shield 2. You cannot possess both at the same time.

Shadow Form This make the wizard semi visible and fleet, adding 3 to defence, increasing movement to 3 and allowing the wizard to move freely without becoming engaged, but if the wizard attacks anything, these effects disappear.

Magic Wings This spell transforms the wizard into a flying creature with range 6.

Teleport (LOS) This spell moves the wizard across the board, but takes more time than any other spell, so the wizard cannot then move. You can only land in an empty square or on a corpse.

Magic Bolt/Lightning (LOS) These are both ranged physical attacks of magical origin. Lightning has a shorter range but is more powerful.

Vengeance/Justice/Dark Power/Decree For these spells, pinpoint an enemy creature or wizard with the cursor and press S. If the target is a creature, it may die, depending on its magic resistance; if a wizard, then their creations may all vanish. Decree and Dark Power give three attacks, Justice and Vengeance both give just one.

Subversion (LOS) This spell tries to change a creature to your side. The lower its magic resistance, the better the chance of it defecting. You cannot subvert a mount being ridden or an illusion.

Raise Dead (LOS) You must select a corpse for this spell to act on, if successful, it reanimates as an undead creature, behaving as any other undead, but retaining its other skills.

Mutate (LOS) This spell will mutate a creation into another form, gaining all the abilities of this new form and retaining none of its old abilities. If this spell is cast at an undead,it will mutate into another undead.This spell’s success depends on the magic resistance of the target. Illusions and mounts being ridden are immune to this spell.

Turmoil This spell causes huge amounts of disruption to the arena by randomly swapping the positions of creatures and wizards. Use carefully.

This program was written in 2 weeks, and was assembled from 149088 bytes of source code. There are 56 samples (including the one in the loader) taking up about 700K of memory.

I hope you enjoy this game.

Martin Brownlow (11:54 pm Friday, 11 September 1992)

See you again soon!

Hi! to:

Steve ”The BSc” Camber Daniel Marc ”With a C” Littlewood Duncan ”No sharp objects” Robertson Richard ”Ringo” Clements ”Grave” Dave Gymer ”Captain” Kirk Jackson Adam ”Put this spell in” Turnbull And anyone who’s ever played and enjoyed one of my games!

Other games by me for the ST:

ABOMBINABALL (written in STOS) GRAV GRAV 2 (Shareware, available from LAPD) GEMS TANX GRAV BATTLES

Games under construction

SPUD (cute platform game) ”ROTO” (one step better than rotoscape)