Hero II SECTION I. UNLHARC'ing the files -- You should have at least three files on your disk : HERO_II.LZH DEMOGAME.LZH UNLZH16.PRG HERO_II.LZH is the program files for HERO II. DEMOGAME.LZH is the demonstration dungeon. UNLZH16.PRG is a PD UNLHARC'er. Double click on this file and follow standard procedures to UNLHARC the two above files. SECTION II. Hardware/Software requirements -- HERO II requires about 600k of free memory and a joystick. There are no other restraints on the manner in which you run the program. The game may be run from a floppy or a hard disk ( See section III ) or even from a ram disk provided that enough memory still remains available. The game may be run from either low or medium resolution. Low resolution is recommended, because some text color information is lost in medium resolution, and because alert boxes are not handled correctly by GEM in such a case. SECTION III. Disk setup -- There are two ways to setup a disk for the HERO_II : A. Double sided floppies, Hard disks, and RAM disks : Copy the following files to any directory on the disk - HERO_II.PRG HERO_II.SPT HEROES.DAT RUN.SPT TITLE.SCR STATIC.DAT LEVELX.DAT ( X=level #, one for each level in the dungeon ) DYNAMIC.DAT Ensure that all files are present in the same directory. You may now run the HERO II game by double-clicking on the file HERO_II.PRG. B. Single sided floppy disks -- Place all the files except the .DAT files on the disk in the ROOT directory, as above. Place the .DAT files on another diskette in the ROOT directory. Disk 1 Disk 2 HERO_II.PRG STATIC.DAT HERO_II.SPT LEVELX.DAT ( X=level #, one RUN.SPT for each level) TITLE.SCR DYNAMIC.DAT HEROES.DAT You may now run the HERO II game by double-clicking on the file HERO_II.PRG. The game will prompt you to insert disk 2 by asking you to insert the disk containing HEROES.DAT . NOTE : When run from a floppy drive, this game is INCOMPATIBLE with the disk accelerator program TWARP. If you boot up with TWARP.PRG in your auto folder and you run HERO_II from a floppy drive, you will bomb out during game save. If you have more level files than will fit on a disk, put the remaining level files on another floppy. The game will prompt you to insert the correct disk when required. SECTION IV. General terms and definitions - ( If you are an experienced gamer familiar with adventure scenarios, you may want to skip this section. ) You will be taking the part of a character you will create. The character will appear on the screen, and you will be able to move it about and perform various actions like fighting, spellcasting, etc. Each character has 'attributes'; numerical values from 3 to 18 that specify how much of a certain quality the character has. There are five attributes or qualities that make up a character : PHYSICAL (PH) -- This attribute represents how strong your character is. In actual fact, the amount of damage you do to things that you successfully strike in battle is determined by this attribute. MENTAL (MN) -- This attribute represents how smart your character is. It affects the ability to successfully cast spells, and also the power of the spell once cast. A character with a MN of 18 would be great at casting spells, while a character with a MN of 3 would be lucky to cast even the feeblest of spells. TOUGHNESS (TO) -- This attribute represents the overall health of your character and how quickly you are able to recover from wounds ( regain 'life points', see below ). AGILITY (AG) -- This attribute represents the agility of your character. A character with a high agility will be able to move around the rooms much faster than one with a low agility, and will be able to strike several blows in the time consumed by a clumsier character in just striking once. PERSONA (PE) -- This attribute represents the physical and spiritual attractiveness of your character to other creatures you may meet. In this game, it affects the price you pay for items as well as the price you get when you sell something. Other terms : LIFE POINTS (LP) -- Your character is also endowed with a certain number of 'Life points'. These represent your life force. When you are struck in battle, you lose a certain amount of life points based upon the strength of the creature attacking you and any defensive effects you may have operating. When you run out of life points, your character dies. Your character will regain life points, slowly, while resting or performing any non-battle activity. There are much faster magical means to replenish your LP's after a battle, or you may pay someone else to restore them. (See section XXX for more information on magic.) PROTECTION FACTOR (PF) -- This number represents the chances of you being hit in battle by something that attacks you. The LOWER this number is, the LESS likely you are to be hit. Wearing armor and shields reduces this number. Some armors are better than others; that is, they reduce your PF more. See Section XII for more detail on armors. Magical means are also available for reducing your PF. Hit % Vs. PF 0 ( HVPF0 ) -- This important number reflects your ability to hit another creature. It is represented by your current percentage chance of successfully striking a creature of Protection Factor (PF) 0. If you have a HVPF0 of 50 %, for instance, you should hit a creature with PF 0 (on the average) every other attempt. If you have a HVPF0 of 10 %, you should hit a PF 0 successfully an average of 1 out of every ten attempts. The PF of 0 is used only as a baseline! If the creature you are attacking has a much higher PF, say a 7 for instance, you will be much more likely to hit it. If the PF is lower, -2 for example, then you will be less likely to hit it successfully. Use the SELF command frequently to monitor your HVPF0. The higher the percentage gets, the more effective a fighter you will be. Due to certain magical effects, this percentage can be increased far beyond 100%, as well as lowered below 0% . MAGIC POINTS (MP) -- This number represents the amount of energy you have available for casting spells. Each spell that is cast uses up a certain amount of MP's. Some use up more than others. If you do not have the MP's available to cast a certain spell, the spell will fail. GOLD PIECES (GP) -- This is money. You must pay for many services, as well as the various items you may wish to obtain from a shopkeeper. You earn money by finding and selling items and treasure, and you also may (automatically) collect gold from creatures you have felled in battle. Creatures do not always carry gold; some do, some don't. You also will normally be rewarded with money at the completion of a quest. EXPERIENCE POINTS (EP) -- This represents how much adventuring and battling your character has successfully completed. You gain EP's primarily through the felling of creatures in battle. The more powerful the creature is, the more EP's you will gain when vanquishing it. You also get EP's for finding treasure, and for completing quests. So what good are they? See LEVELS below. EXPERIENCE LEVELS (LV) -- This represents the expertise of your character. You are created as a first level character. When you have accumulated 2000 experience points, you will be promoted to a second level character. All of your critical powers will increase : you will gain more life points, you will be more likely to hit an opposing creature, you will do more damage when you do hit, you will be able to cast higher power spells, and in general you will be a lot tougher and meaner than you were as a first level. When you then reach 4000 experience points, you will be promoted to third level, gaining further increases in power and survivability, and so on. The levels continue onwards, with the experience points required to attain them increasing as the powers of two. The following chart should make the progression clear : Level to be attained Experience Points required -------------------- -------------------------- 2cnd 2000 3rd 4000 4th 8000 5th 16000 And so on... mucho The levels continue onwards beyond the 5th, with corresponding increases in power and EP's required. The EP's you earn are cumulative; that is, you do not have to start over from scratch each time you make a level. All that is required is that you earn the amount that, when added to what your total already is, brings your total up to the next level's requirements. DUNGEON LEVEL (LEVE) -- A 'dungeon' is composed of levels, which are composed of rooms. Traditionally, levels are considered as going down into the depths as the level number increases. So, level 0 is usually the top floor or ground level area in the dungeon, while level 1 would be one floor below that, level 2 one floor deeper, and so on. Also the difficulty and dangers increase the deeper down you go. The dungeon included, The Search for the Stone, has two levels, 0 and 1. Hero II dungeons created with the Dungeon Construction Set can have up to 99 levels. ROOM -- This is a 16 x 12 square area in which game play takes place. This is the largest area visible on the screen at one time. A player may freely wander about it, or cross over into other rooms, in which case the new room gets displayed in place of the old. A level can contain up to 32 rooms. SECTION V. Starting the game -- Double-click on the HERO_II.PRG file. You will see a loading message, and after a short wait the title screen will come up. At this point you should have a joystick plugged into port 1 ( the one that the mouse doesn't go into ). This stick will operate player 1. If you want to play in two-player mode, you should also remove the mouse from its port and plug another joystick in. This stick will operate player 2. SECTION VI. The title menu -- You will see two large rectangles on the screen, with a sword between them. The menu options for each player are contained in the boxes. Player 1 is the player whose joystick is plugged into port 1, and player two is the player whose joystick is plugged into port 0. Initially, the menu options for player two will be 'ghosted' and not accessible. There will be a orange cursor bar in player ones' menu, highlighting the option LOAD PLAYER. To activate two-player mode, player one should move the cursor down to the TWO PLAYER command, and press the fire button. The menu options for player two should now appear in normal text, and an orange cursor should also appear in player two's menu box. The menu options have the following functions : LOAD CHARACTER -- This activates the player selection screen for selection of a player to load. See below, Loading a Character. DROP CHARACTER -- This activates the player selection screen for selection of a character to permanently remove. See below, Dropping a Character. CREATE CHARACTER -- This activates the Create Character menu. See below, Creating a Character. TWO PLAYER -- This option toggles the two-player mode off and on. PLAY GAME -- This option starts the game, and is only functional if at least one character has been loaded. RESET GAME -- This option allows you to restart a saved game. It will reset the dungeon back to the last saved position. See the section on loading and saving the game for more info. LEAVE GAME -- This option exits back to the desktop, WITHOUT saving anything. There are save options during game play that will allow you to preserve your game between play sessions. Creating a Character : Select the command CREATE CHARACTER. The character creation screen will appear. You have three commands, shown at the bottom horizontally. The orange selection cursor will be highlighting the ROLL option. Above this, you will see a panel that displays the result of the last ROLL command. As you have not ROLL'ed yet, all boxes will show zero. The boxes are labeled with what they display. See section IV above for explanation of terms. Select the ROLL option by pressing the fire button. All boxes will now contain randomly selected values. Select ROLL again. The values will change. You may select ROLL as many times as you would like. When you have a selection of values that you think will form a good character, move the selection cursor to the right, ACCEPT, and press the fire button. A prompt for the name of the character will appear. Type in what you would like the character to be named, up to eight letters long. Then press the return key. After a brief moment of disk activity, the boxes will clear back to zero. The character you created is now saved on disk and may be loaded using the LOAD CHARACTER option on the title screen. You may now exit back to the title screen by selecting QUIT, or you may select ROLL again to generate another character. You may not select ACCEPT again until you have ROLL'ed at least once. Any character you generate now will not have any affect on the previously generated character. Characters may have the same names. In general, you are trying to ROLL a character that has the highest possible values for all attributes. Any of the five character attributes above 10 or so should be considered worth-while. You should strive for a well balanced character, with all attributes relatively high. for instance, a character with the highest possible physical, 18, would still be useless if their agility was so low that they received five or six blows in the time it took them to ponderously swing their arm once. You also want to look for a LIFE POINTS value of at least 20 or so, and starting off with GOLD over 100 or so is always a plus, because you will be able to buy armor at once, rather than having to risk your unprotected neck in battle in order to earn the money to buy armor. Loading a Character : From the title menu, select the LOAD CHARACTER option. This will bring up the character selection screen. You should see the name(s) of any characters you have created listed on the screen, and the selection cursor should be highlighting the first name. To the right of the characters their current location in the dungeon is shown. New characters always begin in level 0, room 0. Next to the location field the current status is shown; that is, ALIVE or DEAD. At the bottom of the screen you will see the words CANCEL COMMAND in red. This is used to exit back without doing anything. Move the selection cursor to the character you want to load, and press the fire button. If you wish to exit without loading a a character, move the cursor all the way down to CANCEL COMMAND and press the fire button. You may not load a dead character, a character that is already loaded, or a blank entry. All three conditions exit you back to the title screen as if you had selected CANCEL COMMAND. When returning to the title screen after selecting a loadable character, there should be a moment of disk access and you should see the stats and name for your character appear in the menu box below the menu options. This means that you have successfully loaded a character and may now select PLAY GAME. In two player mode, the other player should now create and load a character in the same manner. The same character cannot be loaded for both players at the same time. Dropping a Character : Select a character in the same manner as above. The character will be permanently erased. You can drop live players as well as dead ones. There is no immediate need to drop characters, as the selection screen can hold up to twenty different entries. If you try to create a character when all twenty slots are filled, the creation process will not save the character. SECTION VII. The game display -- To start game play, select the menu option PLAY GAME. The dungeon will now begin to load, and after a few moments the game screen will appear. The game screen : You will now appear in room 0, in the lower left quadrant. The room view is looking directly down from above. Player one will appear in blue, and player two will appear in green. Try moving them about with the joysticks. Press the fire button. The figure on the screen should extend it's arm in a striking motion. This is the basic 'attack' command. Press and hold the fire button. The character will repeatedly swing at the fastest possible rate for its agility. You can also hit and hurt each other, so be careful with your swinging. The last line on the screen is blank. This is a one-line text window, and any information or error messages will appear here. Informational messages will generally be in the color assigned to the player they concern, ie. messages for player one will be in blue, and messages for player two will be in green. Error and other critical messages will appear in red and will ring a bell. The messages only stay on the screen for a short time, so make sure you read them as they appear. If a lot is happening, it is possible that the messages will get backed up and not appear on screen until some moments after the event to which they relate. The gray blocks are granite walls, and are impassable. The mostly brown squares are doors, and can be opened. More on that later. The other objects in the room are various items, armor, weapons, etc. To the right of the room display is the Command/Display panel. The Command/Display panel : At the top you will see the current room number and dungeon level displayed in red. Below that, you will see player ones' command panel. Below that, you will see the current condition of player one displayed in blue. Keep a sharp eye on the LP: number, especially when fighting. That shows your Life Points. If that goes below zero, you are history. As a warning, this line turns red when your LP's get below 10. The other lines show your current Magic points (MP), your current Protection Factor (PF), your current number of Experience points earned (EX), and your current Experience level (LV). To the right of the LP line you will see a small box labeled THF. This box shows the current level of Thirst, Hunger, and Fatigue for your character, in lines of blue, green and red, respectively. As the lines increase in height, it indicates that your character is getting thirsty, hungry or tired. If the lines become too high, your character will begin suffering damage, and could die if appropriate action is not taken. See the REST and USE commands for more information. If the two player option is enabled and player two has a character loaded, the command panel and stats for them will appear below in green, otherwise this area will contain additional information for player 1. Activating the Command Panel : The Command panel activate key for player one is the large space bar at the bottom of the keyboard. Press this bar. You should now see a green cursor appear in player one's command panel. Joystick movement will now move the command cursor about on the command panel, and will not move the character. The character is effectively frozen at this point, but THE GAME IS NOT. Any creatures present in the room may still attack you, and the other player may still move and attack normally. To return to character movement mode, press the space bar again. You should see the green cursor disappear, and be able to move your character again. The command menu activate key for player two is the large '0' key at the bottom of the numeric keypad. Both players may be in the command panels at the same time, and may freely select commands without affecting what the other player is doing. SECTION VIII. The Command menus -- If you are not already in command mode, press the command mode activate key now. You should see a green cursor appear in your command panel. You are now at the main menu. You may select any command by moving the selection cursor to the command desired and pressing the fire button. If any command description indicates that you must 'face' something, this means that you are required to be standing directly next to and turned towards the object in question. Read the Main Menu commands below before activating any commands. Main Menu commands : INVE : This command activates the Inventory sub-menu. See Inventory commands below. MAGI : This command activates the Magic sub-menu. See Magic commands below. ACTI : This command activates the Action sub-menu. See Action commands below. REST : This command puts you to sleep, and it is what you must do periodically to lower your fatigue level ( red bar ). Lots of movement and fighting will make you tired faster than calmly exploring or standing around will. YOU ARE COMPLETELY VULNERABLE while you are asleep. You cannot wake up until your fatigue bar is down to nothing. If a monster wanders by and decides to have fresh hero for lunch, you won't be able to do anything about it. Its a good idea when in two-player mode to guard each other while sleeping. It doesn't take long to rest up, but it is dangerous. GET : This command gets something and puts it into your inventory. Face the item you want to pick up, activate the command panel, and choose GET. If the item you are facing is something that can be picked up, the text window will display a message stating what it is that you have picked up. If the item is not something that can be picked up, or you are facing an empty square, the text window will display an error message. This command automatically returns you to normal play mode ( turns the green cursor off and allows player movement ) when completed, whereas most of the other commands do not. The reason for this is to facilitate the GET'ting of many items. Once you have gotten something, you MUST move to face the next item to be gotten, so it saves you from having to hit the command activate toggle key more often than you already have to. SAVE : This command saves the current game to disk. SELF : This command displays a full screen panel showing the current stats of the character, providing more information than the small display does. It is a sub-menu, so see the Self sub-menu section below for more info. TALK : This command initiates a conversation with a creature that has something to say. It's not really a conversation, as you don't get to say anything, but if the creature has something to say it will tell you its story. You must face the creature you wish to talk to. See the Talk sub-menu section below for more details. OPEN : This command opens something. In this game, the only things you can open are doors and chests. You must face the item in order to open it. An opened door simply disappears, and an opened chest shows its lid raised. Once opened, neither can be closed. A door must be opened to go through it, and a chest must be opened to get anything out of or into it. As you normally will want to move right after OPEN'ing a door, this command also returns you to normal play mode automatically after completion. QUIT : This command turns the command cursor off and returns you to normal game play. It is the same as pressing the command activate key while in command mode. WAIT : This is a pause game command, and pauses the entire game. EXIT : This command exits you out to the title screen. Game play is suspended, and you may reload characters, create new ones, or toggle two player mode as you desire. You may then re-enter the game with the PLAY GAME command, and the game will restart WHERE IT LEFT OFF. SECTION IX. Navigating in sub-menus. All sub-menus will have as the bottom two commands MAIN and QUIT. Selecting MAIN will return you to the next level up and leave you in command mode, and selecting QUIT will return you to the next level up while turning command mode off. SECTION X. The Sub-menus. INVE sub-menu - This sub-menu is for manipulating things that you have picked up. When selected from the main menu, the screen clears and your inventory is displayed. If the other player is active, their menu panel will become ghosted and they will be unable to select commands until you leave the inventory sub-menu. Be warned - game play does NOT stop just because you can't see the room. It is perfectly possible for something to sneak up on you and begin whacking at you or the other player while you have your head stuck in your backpack or whatever. This applies for all commands that hide the room view in order to display something else. Be sure you are in a safe place before spending a lot of time with the room view hidden. All of the INVE sub-menu commands, when chosen, cause a long green item selection cursor to appear. Move the cursor to the item you wish the command to apply to, and press the fire button. If the selected command works with the selected item, all is well. If not, an error message will appear in the text window. If you wish to leave the selection mode without selecting anything, choose the CANCEL COMMAND selection at the bottom. INVE Commands - RDY : This command is used to READY a weapon. Just because you have a sword in your inventory does not mean you have it in your hand, ready to use. You must READY any weapon you wish to use. If you have a crossbow readied, you must also ready a quiver of arrows. A red star appears next to the item successfully READY'ed. If the weapon is throwable, like grenades or rocks, you only have to ready any one of them. When thrown, the next weapon of the same type will automatically be readied for you. When you run out of a throwable item, you will be notified via the text window. A wand or staff may be readied as a weapon, also. In the case of a wand, the spell it contains will be cast when you attack (press the fire button ) unless it is out of charges. In the case of a staff, when you ready it you will go to a small sub-menu to allow you to choose which of the four possible spells it contains you want to ready it for. Staffs do not run out of charges. URDY : This command is the opposite of RDY. It removes the readied item from your hand. It's not often necessary, because when you RDY a weapon, any other weapon you have previously readied is automatically unreadied. WEAR : This command works with armors and shields like RDY works with weapons. When you wear an armor, watch the AC display to see how many points the armor or shield lowers it. You may only wear one armor and shield at a time. WEAR also works with jewelry like rings and necklaces, and you may WEAR an unlimited number of those items at once. REMO : This command is the opposite of WEAR, and functions with wearable items as URDY does with weapons. USE : This command activates some other useful items, and is used to eat food, and drink water from a canteen. It is also used to cast the spell contained on a scroll. Food, drink, and scrolls disappear from your inventory when USE'd. You can also USE a staff or wand. USEing a staff will bring you to a small sub-menu to select which of its four possible functions you desire, and a wand will simply cast the spell it contains. If you have a locked door in your way, find a key and USE it when facing the door. READ : If you have a note in your inventory, you can read it with this command. DROP : This command drops the selected item on the ground around you. GIVE : This command allows you to give a selected item to the player or creature you are facing. You will be shown an inventory listing, and you simply choose the item you want to give away. If the other player or creature wants it and has room for it, it will be taken. otherwise, you will be notified and the item will remain in your inventory. You may also give some of your gold pieces to the other player. After the GIVE command, select the "GOLD PIECES" line at the bottom of the inventory display. A new menu will appear, with options that allow you to increase or decrease the amount you wish to give. If you change your mind, choose main or quit. If you want to go through with it, choose GIVE again and the amount of gold displayed will be subtracted from your inventory and added to the other players inventory. If you give gold to a creature besides the other player, it simply disappears. You will not get it back if you kill the creature you have given it to. MAIN and QUIT function as described in section IX above. ----------------------------------------------------------- MAGI sub-menu - The magic sub-menu is for preparing and casting spells. A spell must be prepared in order to be cast. This involves your character expending mental effort to properly remember a spell he knows. Once prepared, a spell may then be cast using the CAST command. Your character can only remember as many spells at one time as his character level. That is, a first level character can only prepare one spell at a time, a 2cnd level character can prepare two, and so on. MAGI commands : CAST : This command brings up the CAST sub-menu. LIST : This command lists the spells you have prepared. PREP : This command brings up the PREP sub-menu. CLR : This command enables you to 'forget' all previously prepared spells. CAST sub-menu - This command brings up a special panel of numbers. Each number represents a 'spell slot'. If you have any spells prepared, the number for that slot will be in normal text, otherwise the number will be ghosted. You may cast a spell by selecting it's slot and pressing fire. QUIT and MAIN work as usual. PREP sub-menu - This menu enables you to select and prepare any spells you may know. As a first level character, the only spell you will know at this time will be READ MAGIC. See Section XX for more details. PREP commands : NEXT : If you have more than one page of known spells, NEXT will advance you to the next page. PREV : If you are not at the first page of known spells, PREV will move you back one page. SELE : This command brings up a selection cursor on the current spell page. Choose the spell you wish to prepare, or if you change your mind, choose the cancel command selection at the bottom. If you do select a spell, it will be 'prepared' and you will be informed which spell slot it went into. As a first level, you will only be able to fill spell slot #0. (See CAST sub-menu above). If you already have all available spell slots filled, the prepare will fail. QUIT and MAIN work as usual. In general, these are the steps needed to prepare and cast a spell: From the main menu, select MAGI. Then, select PREP. Then select SELE. Move the selection cursor to the spell you wish and press the fire button. A message will appear saying "Spell xxxxxx prepared as spell #x", where xxxxxx is the spell name and x is the slot it went into. Now choose MAIN to get back to the MAGI menu, and choose CAST. Select the number of the spell to cast and press return. If you forget what you have prepared in which slot, use the LIST command from the MAGI menu. Once you have prepared a spell, you may cast it right away, or you may resume game play and do whatever you like until the spell is required. Then using the CAST sub-menu you may cast it when you wish. Sometimes it is advantageous to have an offensive spell like MAGIC MISSILE prepared and ready to go when entering a dangerous room. If you stand there fiddling about preparing the spell you may well be killed before you can cast it. So, in a safe location, get the spell prepared. Then select the CAST sub-menu from the MAGI menu panel. Then press the command mode activation key ( space bar for player one or keypad 0 for player two ), and the selection cursor will disappear and you will be in normal play mode. Notice, though, that your command panel remains in the CAST sub-menu, ready to go. Now enter the room, and if you see anything that needs to be blasted, hit the command mode toggle and cast the spell. --------------------------------------------------------------- ACTI sub-menu - This is the ACTIon sub menu. The commands here are actions you may take. All require you to be facing someone or something. Some are duplicates of commands in other menus, for convenience. ACTI Commands : OPEN : Same as MAIN menu OPEN. FLIP : This commands FLIPs switches. If you see a switch on the wall and want to see what it does, face it and choose the FLIP command. The effect it has may not be evident in the room you are currently in. PUSH : This command allows you to push most things around in the room. If you need to PUSH something REALLY heavy like a wall block you must have your PHYSICAL magically augmented up to at least 20. PUSHing things around builds up fatigue quickly. GIVE : Same as GIVE in the INVEntory menu. OUT : This command allows you to remove items from a chest. Face the chest and choose OUT ( the chest must be open ),and you will see a list of the contents. Use the selection cursor to select an item to remove. You must re-select OUT after removing each item. INTO : This command is the opposite of OUT, and allows you put things from your inventory into an open chest that you are facing. Useful for caches of food and weapons. LOOK : This identifies items. Face what you want to see, and choose LOOK. The text window will tell you what you see. It's a real good idea to look at everything in a room that you don't recognize, as long as it's not actively trying to kill you. Looking at creatures will tell you the name of the creature. If you LOOK at something and the text window says that you are having trouble seeing it, that means that the item has been HIDDEN magically and that it is not what it appears to be. Repeatedly LOOKing at a hidden item may reveal it to you, or you may cast the REVEAL spell. PICK : If you're having trouble with a locked chest or door ( it will tell if it's locked when you try to OPEN it ), then you might want to try PICKing it. As a first level, your chances are dismally small, but what the heck. An easier way is to face the door and USE a key with the INVE menu USE command. READ : If you're facing something that you think may be readable,choose this command. If its readable, you will see what it says. Its a good idea to read everything that seems appropriate. No, you can't READ scrolls. They are written in a cryptic language that only the READ MAGIC spell can translate. TALK : Same as the MAIN menu TALK command. MAIN and QUIT function as usual. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SELF sub-menu : This display shows you all of the critical info about your character. Just use QUIT and MAIN as you normally do when you are finished looking at the display. The only items displayed that have not already been defined are : ABSOR - This shows your damage absorption level. The number shown, if greater than zero, will be used as a divisor on the amount of damage you take. So, if a 2 is shown, you will receive only half the damage you normally would. This is NOT the result of wearing armor. Remember, armor only lowers the CHANCES of being hit, not the damage done. You can raise your ABSOR by a variety of magical means, potions, or rings. POISONED, DISEASED, INSANE : These show your respective status in each of these areas. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Other Sub_menus : Other submenus you may find yourself in are involved with either READing something or TALKing to someone. In either case, you may be presented with up to four screens of text. NEXT and PREV allow you to page through the text in either direction, and QUIT and MAIN work as usual. Well, that sums up the menus. Whew! ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XI. Movement and Battle. To move around, simply use your joystick. If your character will not move, you have probably forgotten that you were in command mode. Look at your command panel. If you have a green cursor there, you're in command mode. Press the command mode activation toggle ( space bar for player one and keypad-0 for player two ) to exit back into normal play mode. If you have no cursor there and still can't move, you're either RESTing or you are the victim of a FREEZE or SLEEP type of spell. To exit a room, look for openings : blank spots in the wall around the room. You then simply walk off the edge of the screen and into another room. Opening a door on the wall around the room leaves a blank spot there that you can walk through. You may be in a room with only one small opening, or you could be in a room with no walls at all. If there is something blocking you just off the edge of the screen you will be told what it is. You might want to try PUSHing it if it continues to block your way. If you enter a room and you see a creature approaching you, it does not necessarily want to fight. Creatures who approach and just stand there next to you might want to TALK. Creatures who strike at you need to be dealt with, however. Some creatures will ignore you completely until you strike one of them, and then they get cranky with you. Some just stand there, not moving. Some are friendly and will actively fight for you, and even follow you around. Try TALKing with any creature that isn't trying to kill you. You can learn important clues from some. If they don't want to talk, and aren't moving around, they are probably standing guard and may attack you if you attack them, or whomever they are guarding. Conserve your energy and life points. Don't attack something that isn't trying to kill you. To activate the weapon you currently have readied, simply press the fire button. If you are barehanded or carrying a sword or dagger you will strike with it. If you have a crossbow and quiver readied, you will shoot an arrow. If you have a throwable item ( missile ), it will be thrown, and the next ( if you have more ) will be readied automatically. You cannot throw an item if the space directly in front of you is occupied. If you have a wand or staff readied, the spell it has will be cast ( if it has any charges left ). Wands, like quivers, run out, but staffs do not. In any case, not all attacks succeed. Indeed, as a first level with poor weapons, you may swing a lot but you won't hit things much, especially higher-level creatures. You will be able to tell a hit because the creature will flash white for a moment, and the text window will tell you how much damage you did to it. If the creature disappears, you have killed it, and you have gained any gold it may have carried and the experience points from killing it. You can kill each other in two-player mode, so be careful. Similarly, not all of the attacks against you will succeed. With a high Protection Factor, you are going to get hit a lot and probably killed quickly. Your first effort should be to visit a shopkeeper that sells armor and buy some decent protection. You will flash white if struck, and the text window will inform you of how much damage you took. KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR LP: DISPLAY! When you get down below ten or so LP's left, RUN FOR IT! Remember, you can move diagonally, while the creatures cannot. Also, the creatures will not cross into another room very quickly. They do cross, but not very often. One thing to remember about game play, especially fighting, is that it is FAST and REAL TIME. You can be quickly surrounded and killed by creatures while you are standing there wondering what to do. Even in command mode, the creatures will still be busy whacking at you. PREPARATION IS THE KEY! Make sure you have everything you need at your disposal before entering a chancy situation. Expect to lose many characters until you get the hang of it. Remember, also, that while fighting you do not have to press the fire button separately for each attack. Pressing and holding the fire button will strike repeatedly as fast as you can. You can still move about while you have the fire button pressed. Two player mode and movement : The two-player mode presents some complexities, mostly because the players can operate independently and can be in separate rooms. Which room gets displayed? The following explanation may sound complicated, but in action it is fairly intuitive and presents the best compromise for two-player play. We start with the case where we have both players in the same room. When a player leaves a room that the other player is in, the player who left disappears. They become SUSPENDED, and cannot move or fight, although they may still give commands. The game display stays with the player that remained in the room. When the remaining player leaves the room, two situations may exist : one, they exit into the same room as the other player is in, and two, they exit into a different room. If they exit into the same room as the other player, then both players will operate normally in that room. If they exit into a different room than the first player is in, the game display stays with them and the first player remains SUSPENDED. The first player will remain suspended until the second player enters the room that the first player is in, or until the 'R' ( RELINQUISH ) key is pressed. The R key is used to switch back and forth between players when they are in different rooms. Each time the R key is pressed, the game will switch to the other player. Pressing the R key while both players are in the same room has no effect. So, to sum up : Whoever leaves the room first is SUSPENDED and stays that way until the other player enters the same room, or the R key is pressed. A common problem, especially with rooms that have one square wide exits, is this : both players want to exit into the same room. Player one exits, and disappears. They are now SUSPENDED in the next room, and are occupying the square just beyond the door. Player two also exits, but is blocked by the first player, who cannot move. Normally, player two will automatically 'PUSH' the other player into an adjacent free square, and enter the room. This is done automatically by the game and no action on the part of the players is required. There can be situations, however, where there are no free adjacent squares to PUSH the player onto. In this case a " IS BLOCKED BY " message will appear and player two will not be able to exit the original room. The solution is to press the R key. The display will switch to the blocking player, and they can take action to clear space around themselves and/or move away from the square just beyond the door. Then, pressing the R key will switch back to player two, who can then leave the room. One note : It is still possible for an off-screen player to be attacked and killed, although off-screen attacks by creatures take place MUCH more slowly than on-screen. If the off-screen player is suffering damage from thirst, hunger, fatigue, poison or disease, this damage will proceed at its normal pace. When players are on different Dungeon Levels, the R key will still function to switch back and forth. This generates a lot of disk access, however, so you might want to keep the players on the same levels as much as possible, unless you are playing from a fast access device. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XII. Items - Items are any thing in the dungeon that is not alive. Wall blocks, doors, transporters, pits, traps, chests, swords, etc. are all items. Some items you can GET, some you cannot. Some are hidden. For example, it is common for a door to be hidden as a wall block. The door will appear like any other wall block, but when LOOKed at you will be told that you are having trouble seeing it. Repeatedly LOOKing at something or casting a REVEAL spell may reveal it for what it is. ARMOR and SHIELDS : Armor and shields reduce your PF when they are worn. Some armors are better than others. Here is a partial list in order of effectiveness : FIGHTING ROBE - Really cheap, hardly effective. LEATHER - Also cheap, a little better. BANDED - Not quite so cheap, decent protection. CHAIN MAIL - Expensive, but good protection. PLATE ARMOR - Very expensive, but excellent protection. SMALL SHIELD - Cheap effective protection. LARGE SHIELD - More expensive, great protection. Any armor or shield that has a + in its name, such as PLATE ARMOR +2, means that it will lower your PF that many additional points beyond what armor or shields of that type normally would. Any such item that has a '-' in its name ( -2 for ex. ) would RAISE your PF by that much. Item names do not necessarily HAVE to reflect any plusses or minuses. If you want to be sure what something does, have a priest IDENTIFY it for you. SWORDS and DAGGERS : Daggers are the cheapest and do the least damage, while short sword are a little better, long swords better yet, and two-handed long swords better still. Swords that have +'s or -'s will increase or decrease your chances of hitting something ( HVPF0 ) by the number of percentage points indicated. CROSSBOWS and QUIVERS : Crossbows shoot arrows, and quivers hold them. They BOTH must be readied to work. When a quiver runs out, it disappears and the next one of the same type in your inventory is automatically readied, unless you don't have any more. In that case your bow is useless. MISSILES : Missiles are throwable items, and some explode on impact. BE CAREFUL! Explosive missiles can have a wide blast area. They will do damage to anyone caught in the blast, including you or your buddies. It is possible to dart into a room, toss a missile, and QUICKLY leave again before the missile hits anything. The missile will explode off-screen and toast any unfortunates caught in its area. Some missiles do not explode and only do damage to anything directly hit. To use these items, simply RDY any one of them. Your character will appear as if it is bare-handed, but it is not. Now, when in normal play mode you press the fire button, you will throw the missile you had readied, and the next one of the same type in your inventory will be automatically readied for you. If you have run out, you will be informed, and you will revert to bare-handed combat. WANDS and STAFFS : These items cast spells. They can be USE'd to cast the spell one time, or RDY'ied and used as a weapon to constantly cast the spell each time the fire button is pressed. They usually are named after the spell they cast. For instance,a WAND OF MAGIC MISSILES casts a spell of MAGIC MISSILE. Staffs can have up to four separate spells. Wands can run out of charges, after which they disappear. FOOD and DRINK : The only food available in this dungeon are HARD RATIONS and STEAKS. The only water available is CANTEEN. USE them from the INVEntory menu. Look for a grocery store if you want to buy some. SCROLLS : Scrolls contain the directions for casting a spell. They usually will be of the same name as the spell they contain. Scrolls are available from stores, and can also be found in various spots while adventuring. You can do two things with a scroll : USE it from the INVEntory menu, or cast a READ MAGIC on it. If you USE it, the spell is immediately cast and the scroll disappears. If you cast READ MAGIC on it, you learn the spell permanently, and it will now appear in you spell selection list. Some spells cannot be learned until you are a higher level character, and READ MAGIC will fail. For instance, your character must be a second level character in order to learn FREEZE. POTIONS : Potions are little bottles that contain fluids that can have effects on you. Most are clearly named with what they do. For instance, a HEALTH POTION, when USEed, will instantly restore most or all of your hit points. Now that's a handy item! Others are not so clear, and must be tried. This is a chancy business, for a potion can do most anything : kill you outright, poison you, heal you, drive you nuts, increase or decrease one of your attributes permanently or temporarily, etc. Be careful. SAVE before you take an unknown potion. To take a potion, you USE it from the INVEntory menu. You can, of course, have a priest IDENTIFY it for you before you drink it, but that's the wimpy way out. NOTES and SIGNS : Notes in this dungeon look like a big stone or parchment tablet with squiggles on it. One group of signs is in the zoo, one sign next to each door. Face the sign or note and READ it from the ACTIon menu. JEWELRY : Jewelry, rings and necklaces and such, have effects like potions do, but they are never permanent. The effect begins when you WEAR them, and ends when you REMO them. If you WEAR something, and nothing seems to happen, check out your SELF display to see if anything has changed. If you see a message like " FEELS DIFFERENT " you can bet that something's happened. TRANSPORTERS : These are areas of bluish mist that when stepped on transport you to another room. FIELDS : These are variously colored misty squares that either prevent passage or inflict damage when stepped into. See the DISPELL spell. There are many other items available in the dungeons and from stores. Check them out. Try to USE, WEAR, or RDY them to see what they do. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XIII. Creatures - SHOPKEEPERS: If you see a reasonably humanoid-looking creature standing behind a brown countertop, it's a shopkeeper. These creatures buy and sell items. Go to the countertop, and wait for the shopkeeper to turn and face you. Then use the TALK command to initiate the encounter. The Shopkeeper sub-menu : The screen will display the the name of the shop, a greeting, and the first page of the items for sale in the shop. Your current worth in gold pieces is displayed at the bottom of the item list. The commands are : NEXT and PREV : These commands advance the displayed item page back and forth. BUY : This command causes a selection cursor to appear on the current item page. It's standard, move the cursor to what you want to by and press the button, or select CANCEL COMMAND to exit without selecting anything. The Shopkeeper will propose a price at the bottom of the screen, and begin waiting for you to select the YES or the NO command. This price may not necessarily match the 'official' price shown in the item list. Remember, your characters' PERSONA affects this. If you select YES, and you can afford it, the GP's will be subtracted and the item will be placed in your inventory. If you cannot afford it, then the Shopkeeper will complain and you won't get the item. If you select NO, then the shopkeeper will say ok, and nothing happens. SELL : This command allows you to sell the shopkeeper something. It brings up your inventory display and a selection cursor. Select what you want to sell, and the shopkeeper will offer you a price at the bottom of the screen. If you like it, choose YES. If not, choose no. YES : This is used to respond positively to a price offer by the shopkeeper, either for BUY or SELL. Once you have chosen BUY or SELL, you MUST choose either YES or NO before you can do anything else. NO : This is used to respond negatively to a price offer by the shopkeeper, either for BUY or SELL. Once you have chosen BUY or SELL, you MUST choose either YES or NO before you can do anything else. QUIT and MAIN work normally, as long as you have answered any outstanding questions by using YES or NO. PRIESTS : There are two priests available in this dungeon, one on each level. The one on level 0 is the High Priest ( thats just a name, he's not especially important ). You will find him sitting alone in a room behind a wall with a single door in it. Priests work like Shopkeepers : just go up and face them and choose the TALK command. Note : In addition to being stupid, trying to kill priests can also be dangerous. They have buddies they can call if things get dicey, although they will not fight themselves. Trust me, you won't like their buddies. The Priest Sub-menu - The screen will clear and you will see the available services listed on the left with a number beside them. The command panel will show the same list of numbers, YES and NO, and the usual MAIN and QUIT at the bottom. Choose the number on the menu panel that corresponds to the function you want performed, and use the YES, NO, MAIN, and QUIT commands as you do for shopkeepers. Priest functions: HEAL LIGHT WOUNDS - This restores a few LP's. HEAL SERIOUS WOUNDS - This returns most of your LP's. CURE POISON - This does what it says. CURE DISEASE - Ditto. RESTORE - This totally restores ALL of your LP's AND all of your MP's, too. RESURRECT - This allows you to bring a character back to life. You will see a player selection screen, and may restore any player there. If a player slot is open, this player will appear in the current room. In any case, all of thier items will be where they were killed IDENTIFY ITEM - If you want the straight skinny on what something is, pay for this service. Among other things, its useful for finding out just what that potion might do for you...or TO you! OTHER CREATURES: Some creatures just sit there, or wander randomly about, only turning to face you when you come up to them. These creatures usually have something important to say when TALKED to. You can try to kill them if you want to, but it usually has bad results. Some of them will fight for you. Most everybody else will be trying to kill you as hard as they can. Some creatures shoot arrows, some have swords, some have fangs, and SOME CAST SPELLS. The text window will notify you when a spell is cast against you. Remember, just because a spell is cast does not mean it affected you. Some creatures are poisonous, some contagious. Some are UNDEAD, that is, re-animated corpses. Check out the signs at the zoo for descriptions. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XIV. Magic - Magic spells can be very useful. They will work according to your character level and most importantly your MENTAL. The higher the two, the better the spell will work and the more creatures it will affect. Don't expect a room full of vicious, shambling UNDEAD creatures to be overly impressed by a feeble little first level character nervously mumbling a TURN UNDEAD spell. Now if a 4th or 5th level with a high MENTAL cast it... Here is a list of some of the low-level spells that you might find or purchase : First level spells: HEAL - This spell allows you to regain LP's. PROTECT - This raises your ABSOR number, and for a time you will not take as much damage from a successful hit as you normally do. Remember, armor does not absorb any of the blow, it just makes you less likely to get hit. PROTECT will not work if you already have a non-zero ABSOR number. SLEEP - This puts some or all of the creatures in the room to sleep for a short while. You can walk up to and easily dispose of a sleeping monster. Be quick, though. They WILL wake up. READ MAGIC - This allows you to learn a new spell from a scroll. When cast, it brings up an inventory selection screen. Select the scroll that you want to learn. MAGIC MISSILE - This fires a magical projectile in the direction you are facing. It can kill most lower-level creatures with one blow. CHARM PERSON - This allows you to calm down creatures that you have riled up by killing one of them. It will not work on creatures that wanted to kill you whether you had attacked or not. TURN UNDEAD - This spell can cause the UNDEAD creature types in the room to be stricken with fear and to turn away from you. They will not attack, and will cower in the corner. Second level spells - REVEAL - This spell can reveal any hidden objects in the room. KNOCK - This spell opens locked things. WEAKNESS - This reduces the strength of all your opponents in the room. FEAR - This is like a TURN UNDEAD, except it works on all creatures EXCEPT undead ones. FREEZE - This is like a SLEEP spell, but the effect is permanent. Third level spells - LIGHTNING - A spectacular spell that can fry quite a few creatures as it bounces around the room. You cannot be hurt by it, but the other player can. DISPELL - This will dissipate any FIELDS in the room. There are many other spells. If you get hold of one, try it out. It can not hurt you, at least not directly. Most of them are suggestively named. LEARNING NEW SPELLS : When your character is created, the only spell known is READ MAGIC. To learn a new spell, you must have a SCROLL with that spell on it in your inventory. Then PREP and CAST the spell READ MAGIC, and you will see an inventory selection screen. Select the scroll containing the spell you want to learn, and if your character level is sufficiently high the spell will be learned. Remember, even if you cannot learn a spell, it can still be cast by USEing the scroll from the INVEntory menu. This destroys the scroll, though. Nearly all scrolls are available through one of the two magic shoppes in the dungeon. There are a few, however, that must be found. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XV. Poison, Insanity, and Disease - You can be afflicted with one of these problems through a variety of means. Creatures you fight can be poisonous or contagious, and spells cast against you can drive you insane. All these effects may be relieved by a priest. You may sometimes spontaneously recover from INSANITY if you have a decent MENTAL. POISON - You take 1 LP of damage per round until you are cured or dead. Better get to a priest, and quickly. You can also be cured by magical means. DISEASE - You lose 1 point of a randomly selected attribute every 100 rounds. This loss is PERMANENT. When any one of your attributes is reduced to zero, you die. A priest can cure you, as well as some potions and spells. INSANITY - You have great trouble controlling your character, as it suffers from spastic fits and tremors. This can be dangerous to both characters if the affected character is armed with a bow or other range weapon, as the characters' trigger finger becomes spastic too... A priest can help you out. You cannot REST while you are nuts. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XVI. A beginning walk-through - Note : North is up, South is down, left is West, and right is East. Create and load a player, and select PLAY GAME. Move your character until it faces the door ( mostly brown square ). Press the command mode activate key ( space bar ). Move the green cursor to OPEN. Press the fire button. The door should disappear. Go to the note ( tan square with gold corners ), face it, and press the space bar. Move the green cursor to ACTI ( ACTIon submenu). Press the fire button, and the ACTIon submenu will appear. Move the cursor to READ, and press the fire button. You are now in the READ submenu, and the contents of the note will be displayed. When you are finished READing the note, move the cursor to the MAIN command. Press the fire button. The room will be displayed, and you will be back in the ACTIon submenu, still in command mode. Select ( move the cursor to and press the fire button ) the MAIN command once more, and you will be returned to the MAIN menu, still in command mode. Now select the GET command. The note should disappear, and a message should inform you that " : OFFICIAL SUMMONS GOTTEN ". Since the GET command automatically turns command mode off, the green cursor will disappear and you will be able to move your player normally. Now press the space bar to return to command mode. The cursor will appear. Select the INVE command. You are now in the INVEntory submenu. You should see a display listing the contents of your inventory. The note and your gold pieces should be the only items displayed. Now select QUIT to return to the MAIN menu with command mode OFF. That's the difference between MAIN and QUIT. MAIN leaves you in command mode whereas QUIT turns it off and returns you to movement mode. Open the door to the chamber with the things in it, and GET them all. From the INVE menu, RDY the sword and WEAR the robe and shield. Open the left door on the north wall, and exit. You will see some pedestrians wandering about. You may ignore them for now. If you attack one of them, they will all turn and attack you. Exit the room to the east (left). Exit the next room to the north (up). Go to the double doors, and open one of them. Enter the room and go up to the guy on the throne, LOOK at him, and then TALK. Select NEXT until it says 'no more pages', and then select QUIT. Leave the room. Go back to where you exited the first room you appeared in, but keep going west. When you see the room with the guy behind the counter ( brown bar ), open the door to his shop and go up to the counter. When he faces you, select TALK. This should be FRED'S Armoury. Now, if you have enough money, SELL the robe and sword, and BUY the best armor and sword you can, in that order. If you can't afford what you want, try to go on and kill enough bad guys to afford armor. You'll probably survive, as long as you're careful. Check your gold after each successful attack, and go back to see FRED when you have enough. An alternative would be to go back to the east and try to kill the pedestrians. You will get some money for each one, although it's not a very honorable way to earn money. When you have your armor and weaponry, continue on west until you see another shop. Enter this shop, and if you have any money then BUY a heal scroll and a protect scroll, and as many health potions as you can afford ( they're on the third item page ). Now go north (up), and you'll be in the zoo. Go up to and talk to the guy in yellow wandering around and he'll tell you what to do. After you're finished with the zoo, go north again. Enter the shop and buy as much food and water as you can. Stop here, and use the MAGI and PREP sub-menus to prepare a READ MAGIC spell. Then use the CAST sub-menu to cast the spell, which will be in slot #0. When you see the inventory display, select the heal spell. Repeat the action for any other scrolls you bought. Now PREP the PROTECT spell if you have it, but don't cast it. Leave this room to the north. Go up to the guy in the corner, and TALK to him. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION XVII. Notes on dying, saving, and restoring the game- When your character dies, all of the items you had are scattered in the room that your character died in, and that character is marked as DEAD. The only way to get the character back without RESETting the game is to use the priest Resurrect function, or cast a Resurrect spell. SAVE OFTEN! When SAVE is selected by either active player, BOTH characters, as well as the current dungeon level, are saved. The game is also saved when a character crosses between levels. When RESET is chosen from the title screen menu, the game is rolled back to the last save. Any characters that were loaded when RESET was chosen will have to be re-loaded, and will reflect the state they were in when last SAVEd. TAKE NOTE : The things that you do and the changes you make in the dungeon are permanent once you SAVE or enter a new level. Everything will NOT be back the way it was originally if you reload and restart the game. This means that you MUST keep a spare copy of the ORIGINAL data files ( all the .DAT files ) someplace if you ever want to refresh the dungeon to its original state. To start over, simply copy all the .DAT files back to your play disk. ( Yes, you may cheat by only copying some of the .DAT files. ) ---------------------- ------------------------------------------- Thanks to my playtesters, who found innumerable bugs : Mike Price Joe Bush Lee Dise Joe Stanley Rich Eflin and my wife, Viola , who put up with it all. This system was developed using GFA BASIC 3.0. Thank you, and HAPPY ADVENTURING! Dan Winslow I can be reached at GENIE D.Winslow or Compuserve 72637,1044 or 402-292-7174.