PC-SIG: World of Games/PC-SIG World of Games (CDRM1080710) (1993).iso/3231/AVVY.DOC

Text File | 1992-09-20 | 41KB | 801 lines

You're supposed to read this file first!

               Thorsoft of Letchworth presents...
               DENARIUS AVARICIUS SEXTUS

               (A Roman Graphical Adventure Game)

                  version 1.6

               by Mike, Mark and Thomas Thurman.


     (Welcome to the shareware world's first (as far as we know) graphical
    interactive adventure game about a Roman citizen with red hair.)

                 The background
                 """"""""""""""
Back in good old A.D. 79, there lived a patrician Roman named Avaricius (Avvy
to his friends.) He was about 26 years old and about six foot three. He had
married a woman named Arkata, which was a mistake he lived to regret- she
never stopped nagging him. His few slaves were so lazy he hardly ever saw them,
except for one named Crapulus, who was always at least inebriated, if not
downright drunk- apart from reading Avvy's mail (amazing! he could read) and
doing the washing-up, he preferred to spend his time with an amphora of wine
down at the "Canis et Anas" (his local.) (*)

You'd think Avvy had problems enough. However, he also lived in a pleasant
seaside resort you may have heard of, called Pompeii, and he was unaware
that in a few hours' time he would be buried alive. Well, maybe. Perhaps,
with the guidance of his guardian angel from the twentieth century (that's
where you come in) he might escape both Arkata and the volcano. The date
is... 24th August, A.D. 79.

(*) = note for non-British players: "This is an English term, signifying a
person's usual drinking establishment".

                  The aim of the game
                  """""""""""""""""""
To escape from Vesuvius (and Arkata.)

                    The game
                    """"""""
Use the cursor keys (on the right of the keyboard) to move him about.
If you want him to walk diagonally, use the key in between the two you need
(e.g. use PgUp to make him walk up and right.) Enhanced keyboard users should,
of course, use the numeric keypad arrows rather than the other ones if they
wish to take advantage of this feature. And don't forget to switch NumLock off
(if it's on), else you'll just get a lot of numbers on the command line.

You may also use the mouse. See under "Say cheese..." for more information.

                      Keys
                      """"
(Not the sort that open doors. Keyboard keys.)

Suppose you want to open a door. (Some doors are already open, so you can
just walk through them. Most doors at the bottom of the screen are like this,
as are some others.) If the door is closed, type in "open door" (with no
inverted commas around it, of course) and hit Enter. The game will respond
"Okay!".

See that "Okay!" message? It came up in a scroll. These are just to let
you know what's going on. To get rid of one, hit Enter (Esc also works, or
the plus key.)

(Something else to note: to get a list of everything you're holding, you
can type "inventory" (or "inv" for short) but it's much easier to press
Ctrl-I (or even just Tab (for new users: Tab is that key with the one or two
arrows on just above either Ctrl or Caps Lock. (It depends on your
keyboard. (Brackets' revenge!)))))

If you really like choosing things from menus instead of typing commands,
you may prefer the menu interface. This is brought up by pressing Esc, or
the / key (like spreadsheets.) Choose an option using the up, down, Home and
End keys. Hit Enter, or +, when you've got the right one. Use Esc to get rid
of a menu. This doesn't actually replace the command interface, as you must
use it to enter passwords, etc, and some puzzles are impossible to solve
using the menu interface alone because that would be TOO EASY. (which you
don't want, do you?! :-) )

Also, f7 & f8 change the background colour. You can make the screen really
abhorrent if you're into that kind of thing :-) :-), but the main use for these
two keys will be if and when the CGA version comes out (it almost certainly
won't) because CGA monochrome can get VERY boring... f2 toggles (nice word,
that) the sound on or off, so that you won't wake up your spouse or significant
mother-in-law when you play Avvy in the small hours. (Ever wondered why they're
called the small hours? They're all made up of minutes!) (Minute, get it?
Small- Oh, never mind...!) :-) ;-) :-)

OK, here's a small tip: The parser is of the old-fashioned two-word type
(you know the sort, KILL AXE, THROW DWARF and so on.) (The sequel will (of
course) have a superwhizzy parser, but that's beside the point right now.
(NB: this is not vapourware, I have actually written that part of the
sequel's code already! (So you ask: Why isn't it included in Avaricius?
Because it'd be more trouble than it's worth, stripping out the old code and
replacing the new in the parser unit, I reply. I also digress.))) The only
major problem with this is as follows: if you use any pronoun (a word that
stands in for a noun, like HIM, HER, IT, THEM, etc.), then the computer will
consult its list of people in the current room and decide you mean the first
one. For example, in the pub the first name is Sinistrus. If you were to type
GIVE POTION TO HIM, meaning Romulus, the computer would decide you meant
Sini, EVEN IF it was totally and utterly obvious who you meant. Moral: Avoid
pronouns- this particular piece of software is not a mindreader!

                 Say cheese...
                 """""""""""""
How to use Avvy with a mouse: The left button is the same as Enter, the right
is the same as Esc. Moving the mouse in any one of the eight directions is just
like pressing that cursor key, so a light touch in that direction is ALL
that's really needed. The mouse is ENTIRELY optional: you may use it if the
driver's installed but you don't have to, and you may just use the cursor
keys, etc., as normal.

You can see if the mouse is installed, because one of the scrolls at the start
will be mouse information. Use the right key to enter the menu system (from the
prompt), and when there use the left key to select and the right key to cancel.
You may lose a scroll by clicking on either side (?!) and if you are asked a
"yes/no" question, you can use the left key for yes and the right key for no.

If your mouse switches between 3-key and 2-key (MS compatible) mode, like ours
used to, leave it on the same setting throughout the game, or it will start
sending silly messages to the computer. This is actually true for quite a lot
of programs.

Actually, it's far easier to use Avvy with the keyboard, but some people prefer
mice. However, I'm working on a solution which is more or less fixed now and
it'll appear in the sequel. Meanwhile, the keyboard will remain easier to use
than the bewhiskered rodent.

                   Saving and loading
                   """"""""""""""""""
Type "save" or "load". This is useful if you should get struck by lightning,
or something- you can just reload. (Yes, you CAN get struck by lightning!)
You will be asked to enter a filename. (Usually a good idea is to name it
with your name plus a number (e.g. "MARVIN1". This will save a file called
"MARVIN1.ASG" in the current directory.))

You will then be asked to describe your file. Don't say something stupid like
"a game file"- that's obvious! Your comment will be saved in the file, and
displayed when you reload the game, although you don't have to give a
comment if you don't want to.

Typing in "DIR" will give a list of .ASG files in the current directory.
"DIR B:" will give all .ASG files on drive B:, etc.

New feature for version 1.6! If you have a file called, say, LUGGAGE2.ASG,
then typing "luggage2" on the command line will cause it to be loaded
automatically at the start of the game. This also works for directories, e.g.
you could say "avvy d:\games\avvy\argent7" to load the file
"d:\games\avvy\argent7". (You can include .ASG at the end of the filename,
if you want, or you can leave it out. It doesn't matter.)


               Lion through your Teeth...
               """"""""""""""""""""""""""
"Avaricius" contains an integrated shoot-'em-up. I know it's not exactly
"Galaga", but never mind. The game should be self-explanatory. Please note
that the keys are:

       "A" = Up
       "Z" = Down
       "Enter" = Fire

(You are bound to get eaten while playing this. Let's hope that the gods of
Olympus are on your side. (Jupiter? No, she went of her own accord. (?)))

(An almost total refix of this routine for v1.6 means that it will run at a
 reasonable speed on all computers, hopefully, and also you can actually win
 this, which was impossible on previous versions (aaargh, what a stupid bug!))

(Remember that you need to kill 7 or more lions to continue with the game.
(It's easy, there's a knack to it. When you've got the knack you can always
knock over lions, which goes to prove the old saying: Pride goeth before a
fall...))

(Well actually, it's "Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit
before a fall." Proverbs 16.18, KJV.)

(Just thought I'd mention it.)

                 Brand loyalty
                 """""""""""""
At the start of the game, on the loading screen, is the message: "Compliments
of Thorsoft." This is known as a brand. It is embedded within the program. When
you register, please specify 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" disk. (We can supply high density
or low density 5 1/4", and high density 3 1/2".) We will then send you an
up-to-date copy of "Avaricius", branded with your name, together with a review
copy of another Thorsoft game (currently "Spellchick" v1.10). ALL THIS FOR
ONLY 8 QUID / 15 BUCKS REGISTRATION FEE!!!

Also we'd appreciate it if you told us where you obtained your copy of Avvy
(it's probably written at the end of PEDIGREE.DOC if you've forgotten!)

             Environmental Considerations
             """"""""""""""""""""""""""""
This game is environmentally friendly. It doesn't damage the ozone layer, it
has never in tests been shown to pollute the Irish Sea with radioactive
substances, and it was NOT tested on animals (they don't like the jokes
anyway.) Furthermore, 97% of the jokes used in this release were recycled.

              The next game in the series
              """""""""""""""""""""""""""
Would you like to know what happened to him when he DID get out? (assuming
you managed it.) Well, so would we. We won't even THINK about starting
coding the sequel until we get some registrants (e.g. you.) Whether you liked
this one or not, you'll be pleased to hear that the next one will be (even)
better. So will the graphics and ESPECIALLY the jokes. We will send a review
copy of this, or our latest game, to all registrants.

           Who borrowed all the giraffe's paperclips?
           """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Just to check if you're still reading. I'm glad to see that you are.
(What would be the point of me sitting here typing all this if you weren't?)

                  File logging
                  """"""""""""
If you want to remember your progress through Pompeii, work out where you
went wrong, and so on, you can redirect output to a file thus:

Instead of:  avvy
type:        avvy <SPACE> = <SPACE> filename.ext
e.g.:        avvy = memo.txt

Of course, you can also redirect output to a DOS device: "avvy = prn" copies
all the info to the printer on LPT1: (for parallel printers. If yours is
serial, use "avvy = aux" instead.)

The only device you can't log to is "con", which is the screen. This would
really muck up the screen display if you could (I tried it.) To see whether
it is or not, a "\" is printed first, then checked to see if it's on the
screen or not. If it is, the log file is terminated.

>Lines beginning with a prompt character are what you typed.
"Lines beginning with an inverted comma are what the computer replied.
(Bracketed lines are "stage directions"; e.g. "The game was restarted.")

(You may also use /q on the command line to hush Avvy up and prevent your
boss's wrath from flaring up if she hears the strains of "The King of the
Beoetians" floating across the office.)

                    Setup
                    """""
I thought, let's make Avvy look more like a useful program so that people
won't think it's a game. So, unlike most games (but, yes, I can think of
some that do, as well as us) Avvy has an Install routine. And also, new
for version 1.6, there is a Setup program. You type (er...) SETUP to run it.
It's pretty self-explanitory, but I'll just point out (since people get
annoyed if you don't tell 'em what's going on) that you can use a mouse if
you want, you use the up & down keys to select an option, Return to change it
and choose the bottom two to save & quit, or quit without saving, respectively.

There's a minor undocumented option on Avvy: /z skips the tune & "This is
shareware" scrolls at the start. Hang on, I've just told you, so it's not
undocumented!

                  Shift-PrtSc
                  """""""""""
There is a screen-dump routine built into Avvy. Press Shift-PrtSc to activate
it. (Not on the "Back in good old..." or loading screens.) It unhooks itself
from Int 5 when you leave the program. (Sorry if I'm confusing you...)

Use the option /n on the command line to stop the program hooking Int 5. This
is in case you own one of those super-whizzy EGA screen dump programs which are
slightly less naff... sorry, more well-polished... than our built-in one.
(Thanks to Mark, who designed the colour shading on the dump. Great.) The /n
option is also useful if you haven't got an Epson-compatible and are using a
special screen-dumping routine.

NB: Epson-compatible is as Epson-compatible does, as the old saying goes (I
think.) It works fine on our Panasonic KX-P1080. Whether it does on your Epson-
compatible, or even on your Epson, is only discoverable by you, as clones vary
a lot. I should think it probably would, but you never know.

                For power users.
                """"""""""""""""
Some power users who have '286s or above may think you'll need to have the
program slowed down slightly for your computer's "brain the size of a
planet"! However... there is a routine which reads the system clock and slows
your computer down accordingly! Clever, huh? Those of you with the
tortoise-compatible 4.77Mhz XT's will have to grin and bear it, sorry.

                 Avvy T-Shirts!
                 """"""""""""""
This is (at the moment) just an idea. We know where we could get them from,
but we want to know that our users have some support for the game. They
would probably cost just over a fiver each plus p&p. (You never know, we
might get some sweatshirts, baseball caps, etc, too if people want them.)
Let us know if you're interested. Of course, this is ONLY for the registrants.
Our advice to non-registrants is: register!

                  Your boss is coming!
                  """"""""""""""""""""
OK, you can look back to the screen now, I was only joking. But suppose he (or
she) WAS coming? With Avvy you're prepared. Just hit ^B or alt-B and then Enter
and you will get a nice graph showing spring sales for the first quarter.
(There's an option on the menu that does this, too.) If you watch it,
you'll see why it was for "spring"! Esc gets you out of this and back to your
game when SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) has gone elsewhere. You may press
any key to pause the graph, so it looks slightly more conventional.

                File extensions
                """""""""""""""
The following special filename extensions are used here (apart from .EXE,
.DOC and .ME, which should be fairly obvious!).

     AVD = AVvy Data file. Nothing interesting to you here, only to the game.
     TRP = "TRiPpancy". Also, uninteresting to you!
     ASG = Avvy Saved Game (the saved positions)
     BGI = Borland Graphics Interface- needed for EGA.
     HST = High Score Table. If it's not there, it's created.
     CFG = ConFiGuration- holds your choices from SETUP.
 and ICO = Windows Icon Format (see below...)

                How was it done?
                """"""""""""""""
Good question. The pictures were almost all drawn by Mark Thurman, and the code
was written by Thomas Thurman in Turbo Pascal 5.5, on an Opus PC IV Turbo with
EGA and an AMS mouse (and some bits of it on a super shiny 386sx from Olympic
Technology... but that's another story.) Mike Thurman bought Turbo (and the
computers) in the first place. Thanks to Mike, Liz, Mandy and Andrew for
support and suggestions of what we could do.

(If you see a dud picture it was probably drawn by me (Thomas). I'm no artist- I
got kicked out of Art at school. Sorry. Next time a higher percentage of the
pictures will be by Mark. (NB: Most of my pictures have now been tidied up
by Mark, anyway.))

The finished .EXE file was compressed using the brilliant public-domain
utility "LZEXE" by Fabrice Bellard.

NB: Hands off the files. Anyone who is discovered to have mucked around with
*ANY* of the Avvy files (apart from PEDIGREE.DOC, of course) will have their
registration terminated and we will NEVER EVER EVER let them re-register! So
there. You have been WARNED.

Oh, yes... Virtually all of the places in this game actually existed in towns
such as Pompeii, but not necessarily exactly as we've shown them or in that
order. We tried to make it fairly historically accurate, but if you discover
anything that doesn't fit, take it as surrealism... (halibuts wear
sunglasses...)

"Special Thanks In This Version" go to Cameron Grant, who gave us some
incredibly useful code for accessing the screen directly. Hey, everybody...
buy his game!!! It's called Domination. You can get it on CompuServe, from
the PCPlus forum. No, he didn't tell me to write that! It was all of my own
accord! And it's also supported on Paradise (see below). Just go to the
Icarian Dreams section.

For all you players who don't believe that the game's possible (if there are
any), here's some news. As far as we know, the first person who won the game
without any help from us at all was:

             GUY BREWSTER of BUCKINGHAM

Congratulations! Actually, I think I'll put a part like this in all the games
I write in future, saying who won the game first, and then I can see if I'm
making them too easy (eg if someone wins it in three days, it's too easy. Six
months and it's too hard! (But I don't think I could write one that
difficult! :-) ))

                   How about support?
                   """"""""""""""""""
Fine. You can 'phone us and ask about the game, or write to us, but you'll have
to be registered- more info pending on registration!

If you want, you can also send us messages on our support area on Paradise City,
or on Compuserve... see below...

               When I'm Cleaning Windows....
               """""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Right... here it is for 1.6, the definitive guide on How to Run Avvy Under
Windows. Avvy is, of course, a DOS program, and so won't run under Windows
(until whenever I have the time and equipment to rewrite the whole thing.)
(I'd prefer to get it out on other computers first before I did a Windows
version, anyway, because it CAN be run from Windows... listen carefully and
you'll discover how...)

(By the way... I really like the way you can run loads of programs at once
under Windows. A rather nifty way of taking advantage of this ability is to
go into the Notepad, choose File/Open/c:\avvy\avvy.doc (or wherever you've
put this file) and then choose Search/Find, and type "asymptote" or "jellyfish",
both of which will get you to this place in the document!)

Right, OK, here we go. There are two icons included: AVVY.ICO, for the file
AVVY.EXE, and SETUP.ICO, for... surprise surprise... SETUP.EXE. Mark drew both
of them. (Tinker around with .PIF files until they work! :-) ) You use these
files as follows:

      1) Go into Program Manager.
          (Not too difficult, because it's usually the first program
          loaded!)
      2) Using the Window menu, select the Games group (or wherever you want to
      put it.)
      2) From the File menu, choose New...
      3) Select OK from the New Program Object dialogue box, then use Browse to
      select AVVY.EXE (or you can type in its path and filename, if you
      want.)
      4) Rather important: Change "Working Directory" to c:\avvy (or wherever),
      because otherwise Avvy won't be able to find its .AVD and .CFG files!
      5) Select Change Icon... Windows will give you an annoying message about
      Program Manager. Select OK to get rid of the message box, then
      type in "c:\avvy\avvy.ico" (or wherever Avvy is located) and press
      Enter twice.
      6) Get out of the Program Item Properties dialogue box by selecting "OK".

Voila! (And voici!) A picture of our hero appears with "Avvy" written
underneath. If you want to include Avvy Setup in the Games group too, follow a
similar process to the one above, except the icon's called setup.ico, and after
step 5, remember to change Description to "Avvy Setup" (because otherwise it'll
be called "Setup", which is rather vague...)

Now, there's also another neat trick you can do with Avvy and Windows together.
It involves File Manager. Do the following:

      1) Load File Manager. (It's probably in the Main group. (Look for a
      little picture of a filing cabinet and double-click on it. Got it?
      Good! (Hey, nobody can accuse us of not being user-friendly...)))
      2) Here goes... From the File menu, choose "Associate...".
      3) You should now have a dialogue box on your screen called "Associate".
      In the space marked "Files with extension:" type "ASG" (without the
      quotes, of course.) Then, click on the box marked "Associate with:",
      delete "[None]" and replace it with "c:\avvy\avvy.exe" (or wherever
      you've put your copy of Avvy!) Then click on "OK".
      4) Now, this is the fun bit. Find yourself an .ASG file somewhere, using
      File Manager. If you can't find one, run Avvy and save one, then
      exit, and get back to File Manager. (Isn't multi-tasking fun?!)
      Now... double click on the .ASG file's name in the File Manager
      window, and... Ta Daaaaaa... Avvy will load, with the specified
      .ASG file, all ready to go!

(This process will make .ASG files appear with some lines drawn on paper beside
their names in the File Manager listing. This is because .ASG files are now
set up as documents associated with AVVY.EXE. Funny kind of documents, but
there you are.)

Note that I haven't been able to get Avvy (or Setup for that matter) to run in
a window in '386 enhanced mode. Come to think of it, I haven't been able to
get anything to do that. Everything runs fine until you try to put it into a
window, and then it starts playing up. That's why I said that you may need to
tinker around with .PIF files. (Well, it adds to the fun of the game for
some people...) If you managed it, drop me a line and tell me how. Also, do
that if you've managed to run Avvy under something unusual (like DesqView,
SoftPC, any PC emulator...) so that I can tell the world that it works. You
never know, you might get your name in the doc file! But no promises... I'm
not uploading an updated version to all the boards that Avvy's on just for one
change in the docs! (More likely it'll be changed, and then afterwards, when
some major change happens, it'll be included along with that.)

If you want to save space and you're not using either of them, you can delete
the .ICO files, of course.

                 "Register, or your..."
                 """"""""""""""""""""""
Several shareware programs give the following cheerful message at the end:
"Register, or your conscience will haunt you for the rest of your life."
We decided to cheer this up a bit, by making a few improvements!

             What on earth is a "pedigree?"
             """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Check the file PEDIGREE.DOC. This contains a list of names. The first one will
be the name of a member of Thorsoft. This person will have given it to a
friend, a bulletin board or a shareware library, etc., and this recipient will
put their name down as no.2. Whoever gets it next will be no.3, and so on. This
file doesn't have to be completed, but it's nice if you do (of course, you can
use a nickname like "Cowboy" or "Mouse", or something). You should also add
your rough geographical location (eg Letchworth, Tewkesbury, New York or
whatever.) It's then possible to see where on earth (literally) that copy
of the program's been.

How to put your name into PEDIGREE.DOC:

    a) Add your name and so on to the end of the file.
    b) Type:
        lha a avvy pedigree.doc
       (add paths as necessary,
         e.g. c:\tools\lha a c:\down\avvy c:\avvy\pedigree.doc
         Try to use the same copy of the archive that you originally
         obtained.)
    c) When LHArc has finished doing this, type:
        lha s avvy
        If LHArc asks you whether you want to replace the archive,
         type "y".

It should now work!


                Revision history
                """"""""""""""""
ver.no.   date      comments

1.60   July 1992  A bug (or four or five or six) were fixed. Firstly, you can't
     (and long     clone pictures of Avvy by walking into the right-hand
      overdue)     wall of Lupus's house any more! Secondly, the trippancy
           system was upgraded to v.4 (I pinched the routines from
           the source code to the sequel... which proves I *am*
           writing it!) Thirdly, the command line load option was
           added (see above), and fourthly, you can now restore to the
           catacombs without the doors disappearing! Fifthly, the
           Caecilius clue code in the forum has been cleared up.
           Sixthly and lastly (let's hope), keystrokes on the credits
           screen are now checked directly, rather than at the end of
           the chord(?!), so if you press Space first, you don't get
           "Thorsoft o" written before it loads. Many thanks to Guy
           Brewster for his Constructive Criticisms, which helped to
           improve v1.60- they're much appreciated! Another thing is
           that this was the first version to come in a self-extracting
           .EXE file on both the disks and (most) BBSs. (Formerly we
           used .LZH files on the disks and .ZIP files on the boards,
           which wasted space & time because .LZH files are smaller.
           So we're using .EXE files prepared from .LZH files now.
           On boards that don't allow .EXE files, we're using .LZH.)

           Also... (I'm adding to the end of this list as I fix 'em)
           there is a new routine called SETUP, described elsewhere
           in this document, and also the old Salvete! routine has
           been upgraded to Salvete II, called INSTALL.EXE, on the
           distrubution disks, because the old one i) required *no*
           write-protection, which annoyed (some) libraries, and ii)
           because it had some annoying defects (like not being able
           to install to a directory that already existed.)

           Also you can now type IN to go through a door, and I
           thought that the nag screen wasn't naggy enough, so, in
           true Arkata style, there is an annoying delay on it when
           you exit the program. Of course, it's removed on
           registration... *** HEAVY HINT! ***

           Speaking of Arkata, she now turns her head when she nags
           you (with full sound effects), and when Avvy's asleep,
           you can see his feet under the bedclothes. (In previous
           versions I chopped them off at the knee, for some reason.)
           Also a support section on Paradise City was set up (see
           below,) and the documents were revised, most notably to
           include the disclaimer (which applied implicitly to the
           other versions as well, but I thought I'd better put it in
           (because I read about it in PC Shareware Magazine!))

           This is actually such a major revision that I was thinking
           of calling it ver 2.0, but then I thought, Nah! What the
           heck! And having thought that, I continued to fiddle around
           with the code. So there we are. The branding routines were
           changed (again), and Sinistrus now has a footsteps sort of
           sound effect when he walks.

           Also the lions sequence was overhauled, especially the
           slowdown routines (which now work.) Also, idiotic bug
           of the century: The lions procedure called the "you've
           killed all the lions" routine after killing 30 lions.
           What I failed to notice was that there are only 24 lions
           in the arena! This was changed within seconds of my
           winning the game and then discovering it didn't work.
           Also a few more effects were added to the lions-win
           routine, not that this matters, because obviously you
           couldn't see it it other versions!

           Plus (I'm not beginning yet another paragraph with "also"),
           Didymus cannot be talked to when he's gone away (you could
           keep talking to him in other versions, which got you 10
           points each time!) Also Gedalodava is now finally (let's
           hope) fixed, in that she's slowed down with the rest of the
           program, and leaves no traces behind her. Some boundaries
           were fixed, the annoying "You can't do that here, Avvy"
           was changed to "You can't do that right now, Avvy", which I
           think explains it better. A few scrolls changed too.

           I hope this is the final revision...

           (September 1992: Big changes to AVVY.DOC, and added
            PARADISE.DOC and FILE_ID.DIZ. I didn't think that that
            was important enough to warrant a change in version
            number, though, 'cos the programs themselves aren't
            changed, just the documentation.)

1.50    Mar 1992  One or two bugs fixed: firstly, the lions now have to get
           closer to kill you than before, and secondly, Gedalodava's
           legs no longer get left behind at a certain part of the
           game (can't tell you where, it would give away clues!)
           Also you fall down the crack when you reach it,
           not about six feet beforehand, like in previous versions!
           One or two titchy other ones eliminated, too. Oh, yes,
           saying "hello" no longer gets you struck by lightning...

1.40    Jan 1992  Various shoot-'em-up bugs fixed, also another interesting
           little one- did you know that in 1.30 & below if you
           walked where Didymus was he reappeared? Also, in previous
           versions only registrants were allowed to win. In the
           interests of goodwill and the shareware ethic, this
           "feature" has now been permenantly disabled. See below.
           Plus, the bug that has plagued us since almost the
           beginning has been fixed! Gedalodava no longer leaves
           shadows on the screen. (Would you believe, just one
           variable was wrong? I set it to False, and hey presto! it
           worked.) Oh yes, the three versions prior to 1.40 claimed
           to be v1.10 in the saved files. A flash of lightning has
           been added on MOAG PLC's report, also a proper keyboard
           sink, and the writing effect has been speeded up. "Talk to
           him" now works everywhere, even with Didymus (it didn't
           before.) Also, for some reason all previous versions gave
           the menu option "talk to Gedalodava" in the harbour. That's
           now fixed. Anything else...?

1.30    Dec 1991  Three Little Bugs sorted out- if you left your house, turned
           round and then walked straight back in again, you hung
           the computer up! This is now fixed, of course. Also a
           small error with the wall outside the Treasurer's house,
           and a bug where if you DIR'd a non-existent drive it
           caused a run-time error.

1.20    Oct 1991  Fixed an annoying bug which hung the game up if you went
           anywhere near the amphitheatre! (Thanks to Ken Hughes
           for pointing this out.) Also one or two minor ones.

1.10    Sep 1991  Cleared up minor bugs: incorrect version no. on title
           scroll, slight error on Sinistrus's walking, one joke
           changed, proper branding routines implemented, and
           one or two other slightly annoying, very minor, bugs.

1.00    Aug 1991  First ever...

This is version 1.60. (We've scrapped the /E/E business, at least for the
moment, as it was confusing. Versions for any other kit will have letters
attached to their numbers (eg for the Cray, ver 1.60c. (No, there won't be
a Cray version!!!)))

In the interests of goodwill to all men and all that, we have commented out
the lines that let only registrants win (from v1.40 onwards). Henceforth,
anyone can. ("Spellchick" has never had this restriction.) If you are playing
an older version for some reason (which is to say versions 1.00 to 1.30),
give whosoever it is a copy of this version!

If you know of any bugs in the current release, please tell us. Then you can
get it out of your system, and we can get it out of ours. (old joke...)

                   Trademarks
                   """"""""""
Some of the words used in this release are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners (who else?). Just so you'd know...

                   Cast List
                   """""""""
Denarius Avaricius Sextus : our hero
Arkata                    : his wife
Crapulus                  : his slave
Wynsellus                 : another slave (who's never around)
Gaius Lupus Malus         : a rival of Avvy's
Compactus Discus Romulus  : an old friend of Avvy's in the army
Titus Nervus Pecunia      : a worried official
Gedalodava                : a very beautiful slave girl!
Sinistrus                 : a left-handed barman
Julius Selfimportantius
    Noxius                : a big-headed guard
Didymus Spluduicius
    Hicesse               : someone who got on the wrong side of Lupus
Gaius Quicphingus
    Haruspicis            : a sly soothsayer (with a secret identity...
                 wait until the sequel to find out who he is!)

        AND... a star guest appearance from an Olympian god...
                   (plus his guest)

                 Press Reviews
                 """""""""""""
"...You may even be treated to a few corny but amusing jokes! The best part
of the game has to be the droll conversation between Avvy and his friends.
Searching the screens for clues and trying out the various commands is also
good fun. I did, however, find it very difficult, when fighting the lions,
to control my side of the battle... perhaps you'll do better. ...I would
recommend it as an addition to your library."
                 PC Shareware Magazine, February 1992, p.42.

(The problem with the lions was that the slowdown routines didn't apply to
that part of the game, so with anything faster than an 8086 it became almost
unplayable. Yes of course I've fixed it!)

"Brothers Thomas and Mark Thurman have had a hard year's work... Avvy, the
game's hero, is in pursuit of his ultimate goal... He is impeded by the
power of the taxman and the temptations of the vine, but if, in helping him
in his quest, you lose the ultimate battle and die, you go to heaven and have
your life evaluated by the gods!!"
                  HiFiW3, January 24th 1992, No. 735

               To sysops, vendors, et al
               """""""""""""""""""""""""
Everyone: please distribute in the original archive.

Sysops: please use the filename AVVY160.EXE for this sfx archive.

Both sysops and vendors: do us a favour and TELL us you're distributing Avvy!
(Vendors, send us the copy of your catalogue that has us in... and updates,
for that matter.) If you do this, we'll send you a copy of the sequel when it's
finished.

Also, please don't forget to add your name, etc., to the pedigree file. (BBSs
and libraries are welcome to include a short plug for themselves in this file,
as long as it's not more than about five or six lines long!)

If anyone can get this game reviewed in a magazine, go ahead. Even better,
go ahead and then tell us about it, we'd love to know. Even better still,
go ahead, and then send us a copy of the magazine!

(Please note: the full title of this game is "Denarius Avaricius Sextus", but
the *short* title is "Avaricius." It should therefore come under the A's in
an alphabetical listing, rather than the D's. If that's any trouble, just
call it "Avaricius" in the listings. Just for the sake of standards...)

                  Disclaimer
                  """"""""""
Oi! You've gotta read this! (By convention it must be written entirely
in CAPITALS, for some reason...)

"AVARICIUS" IS LICENSED "AS-IS." THORSOFT OF LETCHWORTH ("THORSOFT") MAKES
NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS PROGRAM,
ITS QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. IN PARTICULAR, IT IS NOT GUARANTEED TO PREVENT OR DETECT DAMAGE TO
YOUR DATA OR PROGRAMS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THORSOFT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIMS
FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY DAMAGE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR ANY OTHER DAMAGE. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE
EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE
LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN NO CASE SHALL THORSOFT'S
LIABILITY EXCEED THE LICENCE FEES PAID FOR THE RIGHTS TO USE THE LICENSED
SOFTWARE. THE LICENSE AGREEMENT SHALL BE CONSTRUED, INTERPRETED AND
GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

(RIGHT, NOW I THINK I'LL SWITCH CAPS LOCK OFF ANd get on with the
documentation...)

                **** Registration! ****
                 """""""""""""
This is NOT free software. We decided to distribute it as shareware because
we believe we can trust you. If you don't register we have no incentive to
continue writing games. (Even if you don't like them, we must get better!) Go
on, restore our confidence in you. This game costs 8 pounds sterling, or 15 US
dollars (posting to the USA is expensive, you know!) You must have bought more
expensive software than that! Our address is:

       Thorsoft,
         71, Baldock Road,
           Letchworth,
         Herts SG6 3JP,
           Great Britain.

Make cheques payable to L.V. Thurman. Thanks!

(In light of recent confusions... L.V. Thurman is Liz Thurman, who is
respectively our mother, wife and mother.) (The V stands for... no you'll
never believe it... well... yes... it's... VALERIE!!!!!!!)

Cheques must be in UK funds, drawn on a UK bank. If you want to register in
your native currency, that's OK. If it's not sterling, work out how much
US$15 is in your currency. Then, send EITHER the currency itself in
banknotes (like $15 in $5 bills) or an international money order (you can
get these from most post offices), payable to L.V. Thurman. This is because
it would cost us more than the value of a (non-sterling) cheque to clear it!
So we can only accept personal cheques in sterling. (Sorry.)

Site licences are £10 sterling plus 50p per computer (or US$20 plus US$1 per
computer), if you want a site licence. Certain nameless companies in the
City of London have, I hear, been using alleged copies of a certain nameless
game that may, at first sight, bear a vague resemblance to Avvy. Well, now's
your chance to get a LEGAL clone. (This is only if you've got loads of
computers (over 5), otherwise, the standard registration is OK.)

If you're on Compuserve, type GO SWREG at any ! prompt (or choose
Services/Go/SWREG from the CIM desktop) to register. I don't *know* that this
works, 'cos nobody's done it yet, but knowing Compuserve it probably will!
You can also register a whole lot of other people's products using this
service, so it's pretty useful.

If you want to contact us, you can e-mail us on:
           Ebby: SEND your message to Thomas Thurman.
     CompuServe: send to Mike Thurman, number 100021,3441.
          SSBBS: send to Thomas Thurman. (SSBBS is on [phone].)
     Computer Pages: send to Mike Thurman, 275024. (CP is on [phone].)

         Or....

     /*************************************************************\
     * Yeah! Hey! Wow! We now have a support BBS! Not only does it *
     * have a section entirely devoted to Thorsoft games, BUT it's *
     * also a pretty neat board anyway, and it's well worth a look *
     * round, especially if you like Guns'n'Roses (but don't let   *
     * that put you off if you don't!) The sysop is Robert Elmes,  *
     * and the number is:                                          *
     *                                                             *
     *     PARADISE CITY on Reading [phone]. Get dialling!   *
     \*************************************************************/

     (Yep sure thang me man.)

(Oh, and hi there to everyone on Ebby!)

(In case your printer doesn't support it, this sign, £, is the pound sign.
 (Windows Write shows it as an "oe" dipthong, for some reason.))

(This game comes to you from Letchworth, the Land of the Black Squirrels, the
First Garden City- a town where there's only one street!)

Io!