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*          Welcome to the           *
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*               STAC                *
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*             demo disk             *
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 This disk contains demonstrations of 
adventures   created  using  the   ST 
Adventure  Creator  (  STAC  )   from 
Incentive Software.


            PLEASE COPY !

This  disk is unprotected and  Public 
Domain  - please copy it and give  it 
to your friends !  Further copies can 
be  ordered from Incentive (  address 
below ) at œ1.99 each. 


           FREE ADVENTURE

 Firstly,  there is a full  adventure 
which you can actually  play,  called 
SHYMER. To start this up, move to the 
window   displaying  an  icon   named 
SHYMER.PRG,  click  in the window  to 
activate  it,  then  double-click  on 
SHYMER.PRG.  After a few seconds, the 
title  page  of  the  adventure  will 
appear, and you can start playing the 
game. 


           FREE SLIDESHOW

  Secondly,  there is a slideshow  of 
pictures that have been created using 
the STAC. This is started by clicking 
on the window containing STACDEMO.PRG 
and then double-clicking on the icon. 
To  start the slideshow,  go  to  the 
SLIDES   menu,   and   select   "Show 
compressed".  The slideshow will then 
run  automatically,  displaying  each 
picture   in  turn.   To   stop   the 
slideshow,  press Cntrl-C ( press and 
hold the Control key, and press C ).

  If you are likely to be  displaying 
the slideshow for a long time ( maybe 
as a window display in a shop ), then 
select  "RAM compressed"  instead  of 
"Show compressed".  What this does is 
load all the compressed pictures into 
memory,  displaying  them as it  does 
so,   then  continues  the  slideshow 
without  accessing the disk  at  all. 
This saves wear and tear on the  disk 
drives  which would otherwise  be  in 
constant operation.

  The timing between pictures can  be 
altered  using the "Time"  menu.  The 
default time is 10 seconds,  but this 
can  be taken up as far as a  minute, 
and down to no delay ( ie as fast  as 
the pictures can be loaded from  disk 
and   decompressed  ).   On   a   RAM 
slideshow,  the  pictures  are  first 
loaded  as  fast  as  possible,  then 
displayed at the correct speed.

 To pause between pictures until  you 
press a key,  go to the OPTIONS menu, 
and  select  "Pause" (  A  tick  will 
appear  next  to  it  if  the   pause 
facility is switched on already ). To 
turn  this  off,  do the  same  thing 
again.

  The slideshow program also has  the 
ability  to compress  and  decompress 
pictures  saved to disk in  NEOCHROME 
format,  in  order to save  space  on 
your  disks.  It will also act  as  a 
NEOCHROME slideshow.

 To compress NEOCHROME slides ( which 
will  have  names ending in  .NEO  ), 
load  the slide in using "Load  .NEO" 
from  the FILE menu,  and choose  the 
picture  you want to load  using  the 
file selector box that  appears.  The 
picture  will then be loaded  in  and 
displayed.  You can then save this as 
a  compressed  picture  by  selecting 
"Save compressed" from the file menu. 
Again, the file selector will appear, 
allowing you to choose a name for the 
compressed slide. The default name is 
the same as the original picture, but 
ending  in  .CMP ( for  compressed  ) 
rather  than  .NEO.   After  the  few 
seconds  taken to compress  the  pic-
ture, the new compressed picture will 
be saved on to the disk.

  To decompress a  picture,  use  the 
reverse    process   (    ie    "Load 
compressed" then "Save .NEO"  ).  You 
will  need to do this if you  have  a 
compressed  picture that you wish  to 
edit  -  NEOCHROME cannot  cope  with 
compressed slides directly.  You will 
also  need to do this if you want  to 
import  parts of the compressed  demo 
pictures into the STAC.

 There is one more option not covered 
yet  - the "Show info" option on  the 
OPTIONS  menu.  When this is  active, 
then  the  length of  the  compressed 
picture is displayed before saving.


               CREDITS

  SHYMER adventure by Sandra  Sharkey 
of Adventure Probe magazine, pictures 
by Dicon Peake of Wildfire Graphics.

   Demo  pictures  by  David   Wyatt, 
digitized by SAM from Start  Systems, 
tidied by Paul Gregory at Incentive !

 STACDEMO program and STAC itself  by 
Sean Ellis.

 NEOCHROME and ST are trade marks  of 
Atari Inc.

  DEGAS is a trade mark of  Batteries 
Included.


             OUR ADDRESS

  If you want to order the  STAC,  or 
want   more   information   on    any 
Incentive product, please write to us 
at this address:

     Incentive Software Ltd.,
     Zephyr One,
     Calleva Park,
     ALDERMASTON,
     Berkshire RG7 4QW,
     ENGLAND

     Tel. (07356) 77288