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                            TAILSPIN

                        Table of Contents

1. Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................3
   1.1. First Steps .............................................3
   1.2. The Evolution of Talespin ...............................4
   1.3. Equipment Requirements: .................................4
   1.4. Making Backup Copies ....................................4
       1.4.1 Disk Contents ......................................5
       1.4.2 Talespin ...........................................5
       1.4.3 Telltale ...........................................5
       1.4.4 The Library Files ..................................6
       1.4.5 The Grail Disk .....................................6
   1.5. About The Author ........................................6
       1.5.1 Acknowledgements ...................................7

2. Chapter 2: Getting Started ...................................11
   2.1. Starting Talespin .......................................11
      2.1.1 Loading 'Talespin' from the Program Disk ............11
      2.1.2 Loading 'Telltale' ..................................12
      2.1.3 Talespin ............................................12
      2.1.4 Correcting Selection Errors .........................12
   2.2. Option - Playing The Grail Adventure ....................12
      2.2.1 About "The Grail" ...................................13
      2.2.2 How to Start Playing ................................13
      2.2.3 Saving your Place in "The Grail" ....................14
      2.2.4 Finding Your Place Again ............................14
      2.2.5 Erase Placemarker ...................................14
      2.2.6 How to Cheat ........................................15
   2.3. Doing it yourself........................................15
   2.4. Control Menu ............................................16
      2.4.1 Choose & Load Title .................................16
      2.4.2 Create New Title ....................................16
      2.4.3 Set Placemarker at this Page ........................17
      2.4.4 Find Placemarker ....................................17
      2.4.5 Erase Placemarker from this Disk.....................17
      2.4.6 Select Drive\Folder .................................17
      2.4.7 Switch to Development Mode ..........................18
      2.4.8 Autorun .............................................18
      2.4.9 Help ................................................18

                               vii

      2.4.10 End Session.........................................18

3. Chapter 3: Doing It Yourself .................................21
   3.1. Creating Your Own Titles.................................21
      3.1.1 Where to start. .....................................21
      3.1.2 Page Definition .....................................22
      3.1.3 What to Draw ........................................22
      3.1.4 Palette Considerations ..............................23
      3.1.5 Drawing Definition ..................................23
      3.1.6 Drawing Menu ........................................23
      3.1.7 Drawing Functions in Detail..........................24
   3.2. Drawing completed - What now? ...........................27
      3.2.1 Building Up a Page ..................................28
      3.2.2 BOY/GIRL ............................................28
      3.2.3 Adding Text .........................................29
      3.2.4 Adding Text for Options .............................30
      3.2.5 Adding Options ......................................31
      3.2.6 The Second Page .....................................32
      3.2.7 Building Up the New Page ............................32
      3.2.8 Cursor Mode .........................................33
      3.2.9 The Third Page ......................................35
      3.2.10 Joining Pages ......................................36
      3.2.11 Testing ............................................36
      3.2.12 Problems? ..........................................36
      3.2.13 Adding Variables ...................................37
      3.2.14 Creating a Variable ................................38
      3.2.15 Adding Conditions ..................................39
      3.2.16 Adding a Page Entry Option..........................40
      3.2.17 Adding Options .....................................41
      3.2.18 Any Problems? ......................................41
   3.3. Library Files ...........................................42
      3.3.1 Using The Library Files .............................44
      3.3.2 Looking at the Grail disk ...........................45
      3.3.3 Copying from the Library Files.......................45

4. Chapter 4: Advanced Level ....................................49
   4.1. Combining Pages and Drawings ............................49
      4.1.1 Statistics ..........................................49
      4.1.2 Technical Details of Statistics......................50
      4.1.3 'The Grail' Drawings ................................50
   4.2. Use of Palettes .........................................51
      4.2.1 Using Palettes ......................................52

                              viii

      4.2.2 Examples from 'The Grail' ...........................53
      4.2.3 The Forest ..........................................53
      4.2.4 The Town ............................................53
      4.2.5 Using Black and White ...............................54
   4.3. Using Text Windows ......................................55
   4.4. Using Variables and Values...............................56
      4.4.1 Different Uses of Variables .........................56
      4.4.2 Using Conditions ....................................58
      4.4.3 Combining Conditions.................................59
      4.4.4 Drawing Conditions ..................................60
      4.4.5 Text Conditions .....................................61
   4.5. Using Options............................................62
       4.5.1 Options on Text Windows ............................63
       4.5.2 Options on Drawings ................................63
       4.5.3 Page Entry Options .................................63
       4.5.4 Execution Order of Options..........................63
       4.5.5 Sound Options ......................................64
       4.5.6 Page Entry Sound Options ...........................64
       4.5.7 Text Sound Options .................................64
       4.5.8 Drawing Sound Options ..............................64
       4.5.9 Entering Sound Options .............................65
       4.5.10 Memory Limitations ................................65
       4.5.11 Set Variable to Value Options .....................65
       4.5.12 Page Entry ........................................66
       4.5.13 On Drawings .......................................67
       4.5.14 On Text Windows ...................................68
       4.5.15 Go to Page Options ................................69
       4.5.16 Page Entry Go to Page Options .....................69
       4.5.17 Go to Page Options on Drawings.....................70
       4.5.18 Go to Page Options on Text Windows ................70
       4.5.19 Chain Options .....................................70
       4.5.20 Page Entry Chaining Options .......................71
       4.5.21 Chaining Options on Text Windows and Drawings......72
   4.6. Using Sounds ............................................72
      4.6.1 Sound Definition ....................................73
      4.6.2 Creating Sounds .....................................73
      4.6.3 Sampling ............................................74
      4.6.4 Replaying ...........................................74
      4.6.5 Setting Sound Options ...............................74
      4.6.6 Sounds and Disk Space ...............................74
   4.7. Testing .................................................75

                               ix

      4.7.1 If It Doesn't Work ..................................75
      4.7.2 Testing the Whole Adventure ........................76
      4.7.3 Demo Titles.........................................77
      4.7.4 Backup/Statistics ..................................77
      4.7.5 Statistics .........................................77
      4.7.6 Unused Blocks ......................................78
      4.7.7 Deletions ..........................................78
      4.7.8 Directory Entries Used .............................78
      4.7.9 Current Directory Size .............................78
      4.7.10 Backup ............................................79
      4.7.11 How To Backup .....................................79
      4.7.12 Enlarging the Directory Size ......................80
      4.7.13 Completing Backup .................................80

5. Chapter 5: Writing an Adventure ..............................85
   5.1. Planning an Adventure ...................................85
      5.1.1 The Storyline .......................................85
   5.2. The Wolf File ...........................................86
      5.2.1 Planning Disk Space .................................86
      5.2.2 Structuring the Game ................................87
      5.2.3 Variables and Values ................................88
      5.2.4 Outlining the Pages .................................89
   5.3. The Scientific Method ...................................89
      5.3.1 Variables ...........................................90
      5.3.2 Building up the Pages ...............................90
   5.4. The Artist's Method .....................................90
      5.4.1 Sounds ..............................................90
   5.5. Final Testing ...........................................91
   5.6. Running Out of Space ....................................92
   5.7. Large/Commercial Adventures .............................92
      5.7.1 Demos ...............................................93
      5.7.2 Quick & Aborted Title Loading .......................93

6. Chapter 6: Other Uses of Talespin ............................97
7. Chapter 7: Reference Section.................................105
   7.1. Control Menu ...........................................105
   7.2. The Development Mode Menu ..............................107
      7.2.1 Cursor Mode ........................................115
   7.3. Drawing Menu ...........................................121

                                x

                               xi

                            Chapter 1

                                1

                                2

                   1. Chapter 1: Introduction

                         1.1 First Steps

Talespin is a unique product, simplifying the process of creating a
graphics adventure almost beyond belief. Pictures, text and sound can be
joined together to form a 'page'. Successive pages are then further
connected into an interactive story, guide, or textbook, which is read
simply by using the mouse to point to the scene and clicking on the
drawings or text.

Variables may be used to control the flow of a narrative, or record
progress made through an adventure. Talespin itself is entirely
mouse-driven and very user-friendly. In fact, no programming skills are
required.

Talespin includes its' own art package and can also import pictures.
Digitized IFF sampled sounds are easy to import.

Features of Talespin include:

* Full detail of disk space usage.

* Location of all pages referring to any particular page, drawing,
  sound, or variable.

* Completely interactive development allowing changes to any part
  of a title at any time.

* Copying drawings and sounds from other titles.

* Chaining other titles. (This permits spreading a story or
  textbook across several disks.)

* Demo mode (Allows a title to run on its own for demonstration
  purposes.)

Talespin can be used for many purposes. You can create interactive
adventure games for entertainment or instruction.

Business uses include creating sales demonstrations, or product service
manuals.

                                3

Talespin can be used in educational applications to teach the design and
logic of computer systems in a non-technical way, or as a vehicle for the
teaching of any other subject from user created storyboards.

You might even use Talespin to create an expert system or an interactive
magazine. You are limited only by your imagination.

Talespin is ideal for applications requiring interlinked graphics and text,
and can be used by people with no programming expertise. Above all else,
it's fun!

                   1.2 The Evolution of Talespin

Mark Heaton wrote Talespin to inspire his artist son, Rudy. Rudy loves
drawing and adventure games, but hates programming computers. Rudy created
"The Grail", the first Talespin adventure to be published, which is
included (in a shortened version) as part of this package.

Play "The Grail", then examine the mechanics and find out how it was put
together. Try it out yourself. Modify the program to create your own unique
storyline.

                       1.3 Equipment Requirements:

Talespin works with any Amiga computer (A500, 1000 or A2000), and a color
monitor or television set. To record your own sounds, you'll also need
A.MA.S., available from MicroDeal.

Talespin consists of one disk The Program disk, 'The Grail" disk (which
contains the demonstration adventure), and of course, this Manual.

                       1.4 Making Backup Copies

The disk is not copy-protected and you should make copies for everyday use,
keeping the 'master' disk in a safe place. (If you should ever accidentally
damage your work disks, you can then create a new copy.) Consult your Amiga
Owners' Manual if you are unsure how to copy a disk.

                                4

Please note that much time and effort went into the writing of Talespin.
Contrary to what you may have heard, freelance programmers do not make a
fortune! Please do not share this copy with your friends.

However, any games you develop using Talespin remain your property to
publish or share as you please. The Telltale program, which can be used to
run stories created with Talespin, has been placed in the public domain. In
other words, you may give TellTale to your friends.

1.4.1 Disk Contents

The Program disk contains:

* The Talespin program itself

* Telltale, the run-only module for Talespin

* Two library files.

* The Grail (Sample Adventure).

1.4.2 Talespin

Talespin is a self-contained program which handles all aspects of adventure
and other title creation interactively, including viewing and testing the
product as development proceeds. Only sounds, if required by your
application, need to be externally created (using a package such as
A.M.A.S). Drawings may be imported, although Talespin includes its own
drawing package.

You can also create 'demonstration' titles which play automatically on
loading.

Your creations may also be 'locked' when complete to prevent any further
changes.

1.4.3 Telltale

Telltale is the 'read-only' version of Talespin and can be used to play
adventures such as 'The Grail' or 'The Wolf'. You will not be able to
investigate their structure, nor write your own stories with Telltale.

                                5

Telltale is a 'public domain' program: It may be freely distributed along
with your Talespin creations. 1.4.4 The Library Files

These files contain a selection of drawings and sounds that can be used in
making your own titles. Game developers will probably find them more useful
than business or educational users. They include:

ALPHABET.TAL - with one set of numbers and two alphabets, one ornate, and
one plain (which you can copy and alter to suit your needs).

THEWOLF.TAL - a short story based on "Little Red Riding Hood" used as an
example in Chapter 5 'Writing an Adventure', and containing drawings and
sounds which may be copied for your own use.

Any of the drawings or sounds from any of the titles ("The Grail", "The
Wolf", "Alphabet" or "Start") may be copied for your own use. None of these
titles are 'locked'. You can find full instructions on how to use any of
these files in the Library files section of Chapter 3.

1.4.5 The Grail Disk

This disk contains "The Grail" demonstration adventure, created by Rudyard
Heaton. To play, first insert the Program disk and double click on Telltale
or Talespin and follow the instructions. For further details, refer to
Chapter 2.

                          1.5 About The Author

Mark Heaton is a 40 year old computer systems designer. He taught
Transcendental Meditation for some years before switching to computers, and
has trained as a psychoanalyst. He is married to a language teacher and has
five children, all of whom helped in the creation of Talespin.

                                6

1.5.1 Acknowledgements

Thanks to:

Rudyard (age 19) for being inspired to write "The Grail".

Celayne (18) for writing the Help messages.

Anselm (13) for debugging the system.

Luke (8) and Jody (6) for playing with Talespin.

Nicola (38) for writing the manual.

Two Bit Systems for the sound replay source code. John Symes at MicroDeal
for snapping it up as soon as he saw it.

                                7

                                8

                            Chapter 2

                                9

                               10

                   2. Chapter 2: Getting Started

                      2.1 Starting Talespin

2.1.1 Loading 'Talespin' from the Program Disk

First place the Program disk in DF0: (the internal Drive) and switch on
your computer. The screen will show the Workbench with a program icon
called TALESPIN displayed within a window. Move the mouse pointer over this
icon and quickly click the left mouse button twice.

After Talespin loads the first screen will then be displayed.

Figure 2-1 Talespin Title Screen

                               11

2.1.2 Loading 'Telltale'

Insert the Program disk as described above, and double click on TELLTALE.
The same instructions will appear, although you will not be able to create
your own story using this system. This program is 'read-only', that is, it
can only read programs created with Talespin.

2.1.3 Talespin

When Talespin is loaded the first screen contains the titles and credits
and a box with 'Click' on it. Position the mouse in this box and click the
left mouse button. Text will appear giving you a choice of playing "The
Grail" adventure or creating your own project.

Make your selection by moving the cursor (i.e. mouse pointer) over either
the top or the bottom half of the text window and clicking on it. Notice
that each half highlights separately, giving you two options.

2.1.4 Correcting Selection Errors

If you selected the Start creating your own Title text in error, wait until
the next page appears. When it does, click on the 'CLICK' box and then
click on the part of the text which says "OOPS! If you want to restart,
CLICK here."

If, however, you clicked on the "The Grail" option in error, ignore the
'Insert disk' prompt and press the right mouse button to abort and bring
down the Control Menu. Cancel this menu (by clicking outside of it) and
you're back where you started.

            2.2 Option - Playing The Grail Adventure

Select this option and you will see a message requesting you to change
disks or select a different disk drive. Insert the Program disk.

When "The Grail" has loaded the Title page of the adventure will appear.

                               12

2.2.1 About "The Grail"

'The Grail" is the first of the new mouse-driven generation of adventure
games. You no longer need to type in text to see what will happen. In "The
Grail", you use the mouse to click on objects and text to explore further.

The story features a wizard and his henchman setting off to seek the Grail,
the reputed cure of all ills, in order to rid the land of a terrible curse.
It is up to you to make the right choices to help the wizard find the Grail
and thus bring health and happiness to this blighted land.

2.2.2 How to Start Playing

You are looking at the first page of the story with the goal of everyone's
desires, "The Grail", in the middle of the picture. Start playing by
clicking on different parts of the picture, objects, characters, and
background to find the text windows.

At the bottom of the first text window (located to the left of the Grail),
you will see a scrolling arrow which highlights when you pass the cursor
over it. Click on this arrow to see the rest of the text. Part of this
additional text will be highlighted when the cursor passes over it: click
on that part of the text to move on to the next page.

If you just click outside the window it does nothing more than close the
window. Now you are on your own - but watch out, there may be clues in the
text!

REMEMBER:

* Click on different parts of the picture to see text, produce
  sounds, and so forth.

* A scrolling arrow at the bottom (or top) of a text indicates
  there is more text to be seen by clicking on it. A line or two
  may be repeated.

* Some text becomes highlighted when the cursor passes over it:
  click on these to make choices.

* A "zz.." message means you are moving to another page. You cannot
  click until the cursor reappears.

* Press the right mouse button outside the window to see the
  Control Menu: Press the left mouse button to cancel the window.

                               13

NOTE: If, after you have made a choice, the cursor does not disappear it
means that there are further texts to be found on that page. The same
object or character may have more than one text.

Clicking on Help! in the Control Menu provides the above information (and
more) online.

2.2.3 Saving your Place in "The Grail"

You can save your place at any page in an adventure by using the See
Placemarker option selected from the Control Menu (which is called by a
clicking the right mouse button). Click on Set Placemarker and you will be
asked for a file name for saving your current position. Type un a name and
press Return. This will set your place at this page. [If you don't type in
a name and press Return, or if you click outside the window, the operation
is canceled.]

Note that there is not a lot of room on the disks as distributed. You may
prefer to insert a previously formatted disk for this operation. You will
have to re-insert the original title disk before continuing the game. Don't
worry, the system will prompt you for it, if you forget.

2.2.4 Finding Your Place Again

When you want to find your place again, click on Find Placemarker. A list
of previously saved placemarkers will be displayed. Select the appropriate
one by clicking the left mouse button while pointing to the title, and you
will return to the saved place in the game. Should the selected Placemarker
have been saved while viewing a different title the system will tell you
and ask you to load that title first.

2.2.5 Erase Placemarker

Use this option to clear any placemarkers that you no longer require, or if
you need to create some more disk space. Click on the appropriate file
name.

                               14

2.2.6 How to Cheat

Provided you have loaded "The Grail" from within Talespin (as opposed to
Telltale), you may switch to Development mode and, using the Turn to Page
option, jump to any part of the adventure. However, as various Variables
(explained later in this manual) are used, the adventure will not have been
set up as would be the case if you had proceeded from page to page in the
normal manner. You may get some unexpected results. [You could use the
List/Set Variables option, explained later in this manual, to correct this
problem, but you'd probably be better off playing the game and reading the
rest of the manual first!]

Alternatively, you could click on Autorun in the Control Menu and watch the
game play (at random) on its own. This is sometimes useful for finding
hidden areas of text! Hold the right button down to end the Autorun. [This
is used to test Demonstration mode - see Chapter 4 under Backup for
details].

When you want to move on from playing "The Grail", insert the Program disk
into the drive, press the right mouse button to call the Control Menu. From
this menu select Choose & Load Title. The title you are looking for is
'START'. This takes you back to the 'First Page' section discussed at the
beginning of this chapter.

                      2.3 Doing it yourself

This time, click on the text in the lower portion of the text window to
create your own title. As soon as you have made your selection by clicking
on the text, the cursor will disappear and a 'zz...' message will appear on
the screen. Another page is being assembled. Soon you will see various
drawings. Click on these with the left mouse button to see the
corresponding text windows which tell you about the different sections of
the manual. Click on the 'CLICK' box to proceed.

You are now going to create a title of your own and will need to change
disks. (There isn't much room left on the Program disk.) Be certain the new
disk is formatted. (Refer to your Amiga Owners' manual if you aren't sure
how to format a disk.) Talespin can not format a disk.

Click the right mouse button (outside any open window) to call the Control
Menu. On the Control Menu you will see all the possible operations in the
system at this point. Move the cursor to point to Create New Title and
click the left mouse button. This will take you directly into Development
mode.

                               15

Talespin will prompt you for a file name for your title. Legal file names
may contain up to eight characters. The operating system will not permit
longer names. Type in your unique title and press Return. (Note that all
title files end with the suffix .TAL. If you rename it to anything else the
system will no longer recognize it as a Talespin title.)

                        2.4 Control Menu

The Control Menu, which is displayed when you click on the right mouse
button, is a list of the available operations at the top level of the
Talespin and Telltale systems.

Exactly what is available depends on what you are doing. If you haven't
loaded any title or, for example, if you are playing the unlocked 'The
Grail" adventure using Talespin, all the operations will be available to
you.

If you are playing "The Grail" using Telltale or you are playing a 'locked'
Talespin adventure, you will not be offered Autorun or the opportunity of
switching to Development mode.

[If you switch to Development mode, a different menu will appear, called
the Development Menu. For more information, turn to the Reference section
of Chapter 7.]

Here is a brief description of each of the operations of the Control Menu:

2.4.1 Choose & Load Title

This will select and load a Title from the current drive or folder. You may
have a choice of one only or of several. The title START contains the
sequence of instructions you see on the screen when you first load Talespin
or Telltale; note that any title called START.TAL will be automatically
loaded when either Talespin or Telltale is first run.

2.4.2 Create New Title

This operation is not available in Telltale. In Talespin, clicking on
Create New Title will take you directly to Development mode and will ask
you for a file name

                               16

for your own title. Type in your chosen name and press Return. [Clicking
outside the window cancels the operation.]

2.4.3 Set Placemarker at this Page

Placemarkers enable you to save your position at any point while playing an
adventure such as "The Grail". If you click on this item you will be asked
for a file name to save your current position to disk. Type in a name and
press Return. This will set your place at this page. [Clicking outside the
window will cancel this operation.]

2.4.4 Find Placemarker

This will list all placemarkers on the current drive\folder. Clicking on
the appropriate one will return you to your place in the game. You will
receive a warning message should the placemarker not 'belong' to the
currently loaded title, i.e. if it was saved from another title.

2.4.5 Erase Placemarker from this Disk

Use this to clear out any placemarkers that you no longer require: click on
the appropriate file name.

2.4.6 Select Drive\Folder

This operation is only applicable if you have a second disk drive, a hard
disk, or a RAM disk. You can select a different drive or folder for loading
a title or finding and setting placemarkers.

2.4.7 Switch to Development Mode

Once a title is loaded (provided it is not 'locked' or 'read-only'), you
may go into the Development mode to investigate, make changes or browse
through the Library files. You will see a different Control Menu. For
details of the Development menu refer to Chapter 7, the Reference section.

                               17

2.4.8 Autorun

This mode allows a story to be played automatically, making random
selections for use as a demonstration copy or for testing. It is not
available with Telltale, or if the title is 'locked'. To stop Autorun, hold
the right mouse button down until the Control Menu appears. For full
details see Chapter 4.

2.4.9 Help

This option displays the Help messages relating to the Control Menu. These
messages contain most of the information from this section. It is mainly
intended to assist users of Telltale. Click outside the window to cancel.

2.4.10 End Session

Click here if you wish to stop playing or writing. Click on the highlighted
text "Confirm End Session" message to return to the Desktop screen. If you
have clicked on End Session by mistake, just click outside the window to
cancel the operation.

                               18

                            Chapter 3

                               19

                               20

                 3.  Chapter 3: Doing It Yourself

                  3.1 Creating Your Own Titles.

This chapter provides a detailed explanation on how to start from scratch
and create a page using some simple drawings. We'll proceed with a step by
step explanation of how to put a short story together. Then we'll add one
or two of the more sophisticated operations. Whatever your intended final
use for Talespin, this is a good way to begin. If you have not yet done so,
we recommend that you spend some time playing "The Grail" adventure before
proceeding. You will have a better feel for how Talespin titles operate
after playing.

Although it helps if you can draw, it is not essential by any means. You
can create an adventure with the simplest of graphics. Those who are not
budding artists can copy drawings, letters and numerals from the library
files. Also included are a few sample sounds for those who do not have
A.M.A.S. (available from MicroDeal) but wish to experiment with sound.

You may also download picture and sound files from Genie. We are presently
building a sound library for A.M.A.S. in the MichTron on RT. (See the last
page in this manual for more information about Genie.)

The full range of drawings from "The Grail" and the "Start" title on the
Program disk are also available for use. Refer to the Library Files section
below to find out how to use them. Then create your own three page story as
outlined in this chapter using drawings from the library files. Chapter 5,
"Writing An Adventure" deals with the theory and practice of adventure
writing in greater detail.

3.1.1 Where to start.

Assuming you have just entered Development mode by clicking on Create a New
Title in the Control Menu and entering the new title name. You will now see
the Development Menu. At the top, this menu displays the title name and the
current page name. Since no page has been defined, "No Page Selected" is
displayed.

                               21

Begin either by defining a page or by creating a drawing. Pages are the
connecting units in the Talespin system. A title or adventure consists of
interconnected pages, each of which may use many drawings (and sounds).

Let's define a page. As with the title, you will be prompted to supply a
name. Names of pages, drawings, sounds and variables may be up to 64
characters long - the system will not let you type in any more.

Note that the first page of your title should be called START. The Talespin
system recognizes this as the first or starting page and will display this
page when you first load a title. [If no page is called START, the title
starts with no page selected.] You may rename any page to START later.
There's no need to do it now. The naming of subsequent pages is up to you.

3.1.2 Page Definition

Click on Page Definition, which will call another menu. Then click on
Create New Page, type START, and press Return.

You have now created a page called START, albeit a blank one. This is shown
at the top of the Development Menu. The next thing to do is to create a
drawing to put on the page.

3.1.3 What to Draw

So what type of drawing and what sort of page are you going to create? You
might want to experiment with the drawing utilities first and not attempt
to draw anything in particular until you are familiar with how the whole
system works, or you might prefer to start with the first drawing of a mini
story.

In this exercise, we will be creating a very short story (involving
drawings of a boy and girl) and use it to guide you through the various
stages of creating pages, creating drawings, building pages, adding text,
adding options, and finally, more sophisticated additions using variables
and conditions.

If you do not want to use this five minute story as the basis for this
tutorial, make up your own. If drawing people is a problem for you, use
pinmen or try something like a road maze where you just need lines and an
object to move along them . Other ideas for your first title could be a
treasure hunt, getting out of jail, or a simple fairy

                               22

tale. Fairy tales are in fact very useful for trying things out. You have a
set story to work with, and many possible variations.

3.1.4 Palette Considerations

Talespin offers a palette of 16 colors on the screen at one time. This
means that all the drawings on a page must have the same palette. Don't try
to change the palette for different drawings until you are more familiar
with Talespin.

Note also that the colors BLACK and WHITE (first and last palette entries)
must always be present as they are used to display text therefore, they
cannot be modified. Even imported drawings must meet this criteria. Also,
the first palette entry (BLACK) is used to mean TRANSPARENT in drawings.
Thus a drawing with a first-palette-entry BLACK section in the middle will,
when placed on a page over the top of another drawing, allow the underlying
drawing to show through.  If you want a non-transparent Black you will have
to use one of the other palette entries for this. (See Modify Palette below
for this.)

3.1.5 Drawing Definition

Point to Drawing Definition on the menu and click the left mouse button.
For full details of all the items on the drawing definition menu, see the
next chapter. Right now, you will probably only need to use the top three
items; Create New Drawing; Modify Drawing; and Copy Drawing. If you want to
copy drawings from the library files, you will need the fourth item, Copy
Drawing from Another Title. (Refer to the Library Files section later un
this chapter for information on this function.)

Point to Create a New Drawing and click the left mouse button. You will be
prompted to enter a name for your drawing. Type un a name and press Return.
The drawing menu and the palette will now appear.

3.1.6 Drawing Menu

The Menu lists the Talespin drawing options detailed below. To get started
right away, Click on a color and then on one of the brushes (Pencil, Spray,
Mini-spray, Block and Blob) in the window. The screen will go blank except
for the appropriate cursor. You can draw on the screen by holding down the
left mouse button and

                               23

Figure 3-1: Drawing Definition Menu

moving the mouse. Right clicking brings back the drawing menu should you
want to try another type of brush or select a different color. Made a
mistake? Right click for the menu and click on UNDO. This will undo the
last stroke you made.

To erase, click on color Black in the palette and then on BLOCK or BLOB and
rub out the offending area. When your drawing is complete, click on Save
Drawing to save it. The system returns you to the Drawing Definition Menu,
ready for you to create further drawings. When you want to move on, turn to
Section 3.2, "Drawing completed - What Now?"

3.1.7 Drawing Functions in Detail

Pencil
Draws dots and lines a single pixel (dot) wide: used for detailed work and
outlining shapes.

Spray & Minispray
These two facilities give a sprayed effect. For example, for shading in
trees or a person's hair. The longer you hold down the mouse button the
more the area defined by the brush gets filled in. Moving the cursor at
different speeds gives different densities.

                               24

Line
This function is for drawing straight lines. The center of the cursor is
used to give the start and end points and assists in accuracy. Press the
left button to indicate the start of the line, then move the mouse to where
the line should end. You will see a line being drawn. Release the button
when the line is the required length and angle. This 'fixes' it, or locks
it into position.. For a horizontal or vertical line, make sure the line is
absolutely straight before releasing the button. The Undo option will erase
all of any line just created.

Fill
This fills an area of the screen with the currently selected color. Move
the Fill cursor until the tip is inside the area to be filled and click:
the Fill color will spread to all adjacent dots of the same color as that
clicked on. Note that if you are filling a line drawing and there is a gap
in the lines, the Fill color will 'leak' and the whole page will begin to
fill with color. DON'T PANIC! Click the right mouse button to abort the
Fill and then use UNDO. Select the pencil brush, look for the gap and fill
it in so it is closed. Now try again.

Block
Use this to draw right angled shapes, squares, rectangles etc. Also use it
to erase mistakes by selecting Black from the palette first.

Blob
Use it to draw thick outlines, to draw circles and rounded shapes, to do
original lettering, or to erase small areas.

Lens
This is very useful for intricate work. Click on Lens On/Off to activate
it. The Lens will stay on the screen until you click on Lens On/Off again
to cancel it. This function is like a magnifying glass to help you identify
which individual dots need changing or erasing. It magnifies the boxed area
around the cursor wherever you move it. If you approach the Lens box with
the cursor it will automatically jump to another part of the screen. This
will permit you to adjust the pixels in the area occupied by the Lens Box.

                               25

Modify Palette
When you click on this, a new menu appears along with the palette. Note
that the palette that shows up on your screen when creating a new drawing
is the same as the default palette. All 'The Wolf' drawings use this
palette to make life easy: remember that all drawings present on a page
have to use that page's palette. The first menu items assist with this
problem in allowing the whole palette to be copied from a different drawing
or page, to the current page (if any).

To change a color, click on the color you wish to change and look at the
bottom half of the menu. Six choices are available:

                     More Red
                     Less Red
                     More Green
                     Less Green
                     More Blue
                     Less Blue

There are 15 different shades of each of the three primary colors Red,
Green and Blue, plus a zero option of no Red, no Green, or no Blue. Click
on one of the choices (e.g. More Red or Less Green) and see how the color
changes. (Note that the color will change on any drawings with the selected
color too).

At the bottom of the menu is a reference to the 'RGB Values'. These are the
values of O-F for red, green, or blue. The value FFF, or all red, all
green, and all blue has a corresponding color of White. The value 000 or no
red, no green, and no blue has a corresponding color of BLACK.

The Current RGB value may be 64 1, which means 6 units of Red, 4 units of
Green and 1 unit of Blue. This translates into a shade of brown. A value of
333 is mauve. Experiment with these values. You'll soon pick up how to get
exactly the color you want effortlessly.

                               26

To create lighter and darker shades of any one color, first note the RGB
value of that color (click on that color to see it), then click on the
color you want to change and adjust it until you get the same RGB value
(i.e. the 2 colors are the same).

To change to a lighter shade, add 1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Blue. For a darker
shade, subtract 1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Blue. In other words, increase or
decrease the values of all three colors equally to get a lighter or darker
shade.

Changing the colors of the basic palette for a particular drawing can
necessitate altering the colors on any page that uses that drawing. In some
cases you will simply need to copy the palette from the drawing onto the
page to rectify the situation (see under Use of Palettes in Chapter 4);
otherwise some juggling will be necessary.

Undo
Clicking on this 'undoes' the last action performed (including clicking on
Undo!). An action is here defined as whatever happened between the last
press and release of the mouse button; so if you are doing a series of
dots, only the last dot is removed.

Save Drawing
Select this option to save the drawing to disk and return to the Drawing
Definition Menu, ready to create another drawing. Right dick outside of
this Menu to return to the Development Menu.

Quit
The system asks "OK to end without saving drawing?" to confirm your
intention to quit. Click outside this window if you do not wish to abandon
your drawing. If you do want to quit without saving anything, click on the
text (which will be highlighted). You will then return to the Drawing
Definition Menu.

               3.2  Drawing completed - What now?

By now you have completed a drawing and want to start building up a Page.
Click on the right mouse button to return to the Development Menu with a
blank screen.

                               27

Click on 'Add Drawing to this Page'. Select your drawing, which now appears
in the middle of the screen. To move the drawing, place the cursor over the
drawing and holding the left mouse button down, move the drawing to the
desired position. A skeleton outline of the drawing will accompany the
cursor. Release the left button and wait a few seconds until the drawing
has been recreated in its new position. Move it again until it is in the
exact position desired.

3.2.1 Building Up a Page

You now have one page with one drawing on it. Create another drawing and
save it in the same way. Then bring it on to the page. You will probably
need several drawings to make up a page. Maybe pictures of a person or two,
or a couple of objects and some background - a hill, house, tree, street,
etc., all very simple. To make things clearer in demonstrating how to build
up a page, we will use a specific example.

3.2.2 BOY/GIRL

The title for this story is BOY/GIRL and the first page is called START as
suggested earlier. The drawings needed for this page are:

BOY - front view

GIRL - side view

GROUND - Plain green with 2 bushes (using Spray)

[You can create your own drawings or use the drawings of the BOY and the
GIRl from the START.TAL title on the Program disk. You will need to copy
them from there. Select Drawing Definition from the menu. Then, select Copy
drawing from another title. Select the BOY and GIRL pictures to copy. Refer
to Library File below for more details on copying files.]

The first stage in building a page is to add the drawings. Select a drawing
- maybe a background drawing to create the scene. In this case, select
GROUND. Reposition the picture, if necessary. To resize a picture, select
Shrink/Reverse drawing from the menu. (This will be explained in more
detail later.)

                               28

Now add another drawing - maybe BOY. He will appear in the middle of the
screen. Place the BOY at the top right hand comer of the screen. The reason
for this will become apparent when it comes to building up the third page.

Add the next drawing, the GIRL near the center facing the BOY as if she is
calling to him. If more drawings are needed, continue adding drawings to
the page. You can add the same one several times if you want to.

If the colors appear incorrect, this means you have modified the palette on
one or more of the drawings in some way - use Modify Page Palette to either
copy the whole palette from some drawing or modify the individual palette
entries. [You

         Figure 3-2: Adding a drawing to a page.

may also choose to set a Background color other than the default Black
while in Modify Page Palette.]

3.2.3 Adding Text

Now let's add some text. Select ~ext Operations (under Cursor Mode). You
will see that nothing happens! This is because you need to indicate which
drawing is to have text added to it. Select a drawing. In this example,
start with the GIRL. The text operation menu for the drawing GIRL will
appear. Note that the menu tells

                               29

you at the top which drawing you are working with. You will want to Add
Text Entry, so click on that, and type in some text.

Let's start out with, "What a good looking guy! I'm going to say hello."

You can think of your own comments. Type them in and press Return. (Don't
forget to press Return or the dialog will not be entered.

Beware: it is only too easy to click outside the window, thus canceling it,
and then wonder later why the text is no longer there!

Note that text is automatically 'wrapped' to fit into the window. Pressing
Return means 'end of input' NOT 'new line' ! To make changes to your text,
use the Delete and Backspace keys. You may use the mouse or the cursor keys
to reposition the cursor within the text window.

Now to give the BOY something to say. Click the left mouse button outside
the window to cancel the Text operations Menu for the drawing GIRL. Now
click on the BOY drawing. The Text operations Menu for the BOY will appear.
Select Add Text Entry and add some text. Maybe a simple comment such as:

"Wow! Isn't she gorgeous?"

Don't forget to press Return.

If you press the right mouse button to get back to Development Menu and
select Normal (under Cursor Mode) and then click on different parts of the
picture you will see the text you just entered appear when you click on the
BOY and the GIRL. If you pass the cursor over these text windows, nothing
particular happens. You probably know by now that some text windows, those
that offer some choice, can highlight when the cursor passes over them.
These windows highlight because an 'option' has been associated with them.
Let's introduce some choice into our story by adding some options.

3.2.4 Adding Text for Options

Text options can only be added to existing Text entries. Create additional
text entries for the BOY - they will appear together but each one will have
its own option assigned to it. Add two more text entries for the BOY (using
Add Text as above) offering two suggestions such as:

                               30

"Shall I try my luck with her?"

and

"or shall I ignore her - she might not like me and I couldn't handle
another rejection?"

Note that the BOY now has a total of 3 text entries; the first one which is
a sort of introduction, and the two new entries which are going to have
options.

3.2.5 Adding Options

Although it's not possible in this example to complete entering the options
at this stage (there are as yet no other pages to turn to!), it is useful
to go through the operations to see what the possibilities are. On the Text
operations Menu you will see an item called Add/replace text Option. Make
sure the heading at the top still says BOY (ie. you are not about to add an
option to the GIRL's text) and select it. You will be asked to choose which
Text entry is to have the option added to it. Move cursor over the Text
entries. you will see that they are highlighted separately (hence the need
for separate Text entries). Select the middle one, the BOY's first option -
"Shall I try my luck with her?".

You will see four types of options offered:

Play Sound at Frequency:
This is a little luxury, not necessary but fun! But you do need a A.M.A.S.
(from MicroDeal) to record your own sounds. If you don't have A.M.A.S., you
can use the sounds from the library files. See Chapter 4 under Using
Options for more details.

Set Variable to Value:
This option adds the variety and sophistication to the stories and is
explained below in the section Adding Variables.

Go to Page:
This is the way to interconnect the pages in a title.

Chain to Title at Page:
This is a way of linking one title to another, for spreading stories across
more than one disk. Refer to Chapter 4 under Using Options for details of
this.

                               31

We'll use the Go to Page option. However, since there is as yet no other
page to go to - let's create some more pages. Note that as soon as you try
to do so (or even to leave the current page in any other way) a message
'Discard changes made to this page? ' will appear. Click outside the text
window to save your changes. Click inside the text window and the changes
you have made to the page will not be saved and the page will be restored
to its previous condition (which in this example would be a blank page).

3.2.6 The Second Page

We are no longer starting from scratch. You can use some of the same
drawings or copy the original drawings and modify them. In this example,
the second page will have the same background and the same two drawings of
BOY and GIRL as the first page, but will be modified to show the BOY's arm
round the GIRL. This would follow the BOY's first text option, on "Shall I
try my luck with her?"

To do this, enter Drawing Definition from the Development Menu and click on
Copy Drawing from this Title. In this case select the BOY and give the new
drawing a name, e.g. 'BOY HUGGING'. A message will appear confirming that
the drawing BOY has been saved as BOY HUGGING and asking if you'd like to
modify it. Click on this text, which takes you into Drawing Mode and use
the drawing facilities to make changes.

Alter the BOY by drawing his right arm sticking out at right angles from
his body, as though around an as yet imaginary girl.

3.2.7 Building Up the New Page

After you have altered or created your drawings, you need to build up the
new page. Click on Page Definition, then Create New Page and (after
allowing the system to save your previous page by clicking outside of the
'Discard Changes...' window) type in a name for the new page. For example,
FIRSTDATE. Start adding your drawings (using Add Drawing to this Page),
moving the drawings around so they fit together, with the BOY HUGGING close
to the GIRL so that his arm appears to go around her shoulders.

If you added the GIRL to the page before you added the BOY HUGGING, his arm
will appear in front of her instead of behind her. To rectify this, you
will need to use Change Drawing Order, which is one of the operations
listed under 'Cursor

                               32

Figure 3-3: FIRSTDATE Page

Mode'. These are briefly detailed below. A more detailed description can be
found in Chapter 4.

3.2.8 Cursor Mode

Note that the entries under Cursor Mode are all used to determine what
happens when you next click on a drawing (in other words, nothing happens
until you do subsequently click on a drawing); they determine the effect
the cursor has.

Move Selected Drawing
Click on the drawing to be moved, and, holding down the button, move it to
the desired position and then release the button. An outline follows the
mouse movement and the whole picture is recreated with the drawing in the
new position once the button is released.

Swap Selected Color
Point the cursor at the color on a drawing you wish to change; the palette
appears. Click on the color on the palette that you want to change it to.
All the areas on that one drawing having the first color will now change to
the second color. Should things get too confusing, you can always click on
Reset to Original State

                               33
Replace/Remove Drawing
Removing a drawing removes it from this page only. It still remains in the
title file for use with other pages. [Use Delete Drawing in the Drawing
Definition Menu to remove a drawing permanently.]  Replacing a drawing has
the advantage that the new drawing retains the associated texts and options
of the previous drawing, whereas these would be lost if the first drawing
were removed.

Shrink/Reverse Drawing
When you click on a drawing, a chart of possible reductions (measured in
percentages) for height and width will be displayed. Note that height and
width are independent. Move the cursor to point to the desired percentage
for height and click. Do the same for the width using the same percentage
(unless you want a distorted reduction). You may simply want to reverse the
drawing. Make your selection, then click on Execute Selection. In the
BOY\GIRL example you may want to reduce one or both of the characters to
give an effect of perspective.

Change Drawing Order
This changes the order of the drawings, that is, which drawing is in front
of which. This order is determined initially by the order in which the
drawings are added to the page, later drawings appearing in front of
previous ones. Click on a drawing and its current position will be
indicated on a chart with the drawings at the front of the page appearing
at the top of the chart. Supposing you wanted to change the order of the
two drawings, the BOY HUGGING and the GIRL if the current order was:

                         GIRL
                         BOY HUGGING
                         SKY
                         GROUND

Click on the BOY HUGGING, which will show the list as above, with the words
Current Position appearing instead of the BOY HUGGING. To move the BOY
HUGGING in front of the GIRL, click on GIRL in the list.

Drawing Conditions/Options
This allows for the placing of conditions (see below under 'Adding
Variables') and options directly on drawings, i.e. with no text
intervening.

                               34

Text Operations
This handles all aspects of adding Texts to drawings along with conditions
and options on those texts.

3.2.9  The Third Page

Before adding more information to page two, FIRSTDATE, create a third page.
 This page will relate to the second text option on page START: "or shall I
ignore her...".  This time we are going to create a different page with no
new or modified drawings, which makes it a lot quicker.  From Page
Definition, click on Copy Page. Select the page to be copied (in this case
START) and give it a new name (REJECTION).

Remember, our START page has the drawing BOY on the right of the screen at
the top, and the drawing GIRL is near the center, facing him.  Now, change
the new page as follows:

Click on Move Selected Drawing and then the BOY and move him from the top
right of the page to the top left.  Click on Shrink/Reverse Drawing and
then the BOY and reduce him to 75% to show he is going away.  Then click on
the GIRL (you should still be in the Shrink/Reverse Drawing cursor mode)
and reverse her so she is facing the other way.  Then click on Move
Selected Drawing and select the GIRL.  Move her down to the bottom right
and you have a different page, with the GIRL, still desperately trying to
attract the BOY's attention, and the BOY vanishing into the middle
distance, hoping she'll go away.

Note that as these drawings were copied from page START, the attached text
windows will have been copied too, so you need to delete them.  Click on
the following in sequence:

     'Text operations'
     The GIRL
     'Remove Text Entry'
     The next entry to remove
     Now do the same for the BOY.

Click:

     Outside the window (to cancel it)
     On the drawing BOY (to reopen it for the BOY)
     On 'Remove Text Entry'
     On each of the text entries in turn.

You can now add some new text windows if you like.

                               35

 3.2.10 Joining Pages

Now comes the final touch, connecting the pages. Click on Turn to Other
Page. A message 'Discard changes made to this page' will appear. Click
outside the window to save your changes. [If you click on the window, the
changes you have made to the page will not be saved.]  Select START and
wait for this page to appear. Now it is a matter of adding the Go to Page
options (which we couldn't add before) to the appropriate texts.

Click on 'Text Operations' and then on the BOY. Select Add Option from the
Text operations Menu. You will be asked to select the text to which the
option is to be added. Click on the first text "Shall I try my luck with
her?" Then select the option 'Go to Page' and, from the pages offered,
select FIRSTDATE. Click outside the window to cancel adding options to this
text and repeat the process for the text "or shall I ignore her..?",
selecting page REJECTION to go to. Click outside the window to cancel.
(Clicking the right mouse button will take you back to the Development
Menu.)

Congratulations! You have created your first sequence of pages. Now to test
it!

3.2.11 Testing

Click on Normal under Cursor Mode in the Development Menu. This will enable
you to see whether what you have done works, and still stay within
Development mode. Click on both characters and try the options. Notice that
only the two text entries on the BOY that have options highlight. The first
entry does not and neither does the GIRL's text. Select one of the options
and you will be asked to confirm Go to Page REJECTION or FIRSTDATE. This is
a way of testing without having to activate the options; it would be a real
nuisance to have to leave the page every time you wanted to test it! If you
do want to carry out the option, click on the 'Execute the following text
options' message. [If you had made any changes to the page (which in this
example you have), the system will query whether you want to discard these
before turning to the new page and if not, save them to disk.]

3.2.12 Problems?

If something hasn't come out right, go back and check what you have just
done. Maybe you forgot to press Return for one of your text entries, or
selected the wrong text entry for an option.

                               36

1. The right texts don't appear for a particular character.

   Click on Text Operations for that character. Click on Edit Text Entry.
   If necessary, Select the text to edit and alter it, not forgetting to
   press Return to save the changes. [Clicking outside the window will just
   cancel the operation.]

2. The right texts don't highlight, or the option doesn't work as expected:

   Check the text entries (see above) and check that each text has been
   entered separately. Then check the options:

   Click on List Options in the Text operations Menu to verify them.

   If they are wrong.

   Click on Add option to replace the incorrect 'Go to Page' option with a
   new one.

If you leave Development Mode now by selecting Quit Development Mode, you
can see what this story looks like from a user's point of view. This is
very similar, except that there is no query before executing the options.
Also, once you have progressed to pages FIRSTDATE or REJECTION, there is
nowhere else to go.

You might want to temporarily put in Go to Page options on these two pages
leading you back to page START. In this manner you can avoid having lo
continually return to Development Mode to start again (using 'Turn to Other
Page'). For further enhancements of this simple example would require using
variables to control the flow of action. This subject is covered in the
next section.

3.2.13 Adding Variables

Variables offer a way to control particular text entries (and, as we shall
see later, drawings). Each variable is defined along with the values that
it may have. An example could be a variable called GOLD along with 2 Values
HELD or NOT HELD which could be used to indicate in a story whether the
hero had or had no found the gold. This could then be used to control the
text windows appearing so that other characters would only ask him for the
gold if he had found it.

                               37

In our particular BOY/GIRL example we will use a variable CONVERSATION with
many values LEVEL 0, LEVEL 1, LEVEL 2, and so on to control the dialog
between the characters.

A variable of this kind is highly useful and can be used in almost any
story or se-

Figure 3-4: REJECTION Page

quence of pages, to create a two way dialog. Here's a simple demonstration
using the FIRSTDATE Page from our story:

3.2.14 Creating a Variable

Click on Variable Definition in the Development Menu and then on Create New
Variable. Type in CONVERSATION and press Return. The system will ask for
any values to be given for this variable. Type in LEVEL 0 and press Return.
When the same message reappears, type in LEVEL 1 and press Return, and so
on up to and including LEVEL 3. Then press the right mouse button while the
mouse cursor is outside the window to return to the Development Menu.

You have now created a variable CONVERSATION with LEVELS 0 to 3 as the
possible values for this variable. (More values can be added at any time).
We are going to allow the characters to have several text windows appearing
in sequence rather than altogether.

                               38

First, it is necessary to give the variable a particular value. This is
done by using an option, Set Variable to Value. Then it is necessary to be
able to use the fact that a variable has or has not a particular value to
control which text windows (or drawings) appear. This is done using
Conditions (which may be applied to either text windows or drawings).

It will be necessary to put some text entries on page FIRSTDATE; here's a
sample:

GIRL:         "What do you think you're doing? Let go of me!"

BOY HUGGING:  "Not so fast - you looked keen enough just now"

GIRL:         "Yes, but I thought you were someone I knew"

BOY HUGGING: "Well you do now! Hey, what's happening here? Take
              your hand off my wallet!"

We'll leave it to your imagination to complete this sequence. Each
character now has two text windows and all four text windows must be put
into the right order. Once you have entered the text, click on Normal to
test them and you will find that the two text windows for each character
appear together and that none of them highlight. At this point there are no
options.

3.2.15 Adding Conditions

Conditions are principally a way of testing a variable against a value in
order to control some event, which, in the current example, is whether text
appears or not. Their format (for both text windows and drawings) is as
follows:

IF Variable CONVERSATION IS Value LEVEL 0

or

IF Variable CONVERSATION IS NOT Value LEVEL I

To add some such conditions to our current example do this: Click on Text
Operations and then on the GIRL. Next select Add Text Condition and select
the text "What do you think ..." (the top one of the two).

                               39

You will see three condition types for the appearance of a text entry. The
third variable introduces a new and interesting dimension - that of
probability. (Refer to Chapter 4 for more information.) Here we need the
first type of condition, so click on that. CONVERSATION is our only
variable so there is little choice of variable here. Select LEVEL 0 as the
value to be tested. The text "What do you think..." will appear 'IF
CONVERSATION IS LEVEL 0'. There is nothing more to be done with this
dialog. Click outside the window to return to the text operations menu for
the GIRL. Again, Add Text Condition but select the "Yes but 1..." text and
continue as before except that you will need to select value LEVEL 2 for
this text [Note that value LEVEL 1 will be used to allow BOY HUGGING's
reply to appear.]

Now it is the BOY HUGGING's turn. So make sure that you use the Text
Operations Menu for BOY HUGGING, and add conditions to each of texts 'Not
so fast. .." and "Well you do now...". Test CONVERSATION against LEVEL 1
and LEVEL 3 respectively.

If you return to Normal Cursor Mode and click on the drawings of BOY
HUGGING and GIRL you will see absolutely nothing happening. This is because
the variable CONVERSATION has none of the four possible values required for
text to appear. In the lower half of the Development Menu you will see an
entry called List/Set Variables. Select this and you will see that the
current value of CONVERSATION is undefined, i.e. it has no value. If you
click on the entry 'CONVERSATION is undefined' you can manually set its
value to one of the four values defined for it. Then, if you click on one
of the characters, the corresponding text will appear. As this is obviously
not possible (or desirable) while playing a game, it is necessary for there
to be some way of setting variables to specific values when entering a
page. This is done by means of a Page Entry Option.

3.2.16 Adding a Page Entry Option

These options are executed when the page is first loaded. In order to set
CONVERSATION to LEVEL 0 at the start of this page, click on Page Entry
Options. Select Set Variable to Value and then, in turn, click on
CONVERSATION and LEVEL 0 in response to the prompts. Click the right mouse
button outside the window to return to the Development Menu. To test,
select Restart Page. The system will query whether you wish to execute the
option. Click on Execute Page Entry Options and then click on the GIRL.
Make sure the first part of the conversation appears. [If it doesn't,
recheck the conditions and Page Entry option.]

                               40

The text doesn't highlight when the cursor passes over it. We need to add
in options on the texts to allow the conversation to progress from level 0
to 1, to 2, and to 3.

3.2.17 Adding Options

You need to put in an option on the GIRL's first text segment to set
CONVERSATION to LEVEL 1 (which will display the BOY HUGGING's first text).
Do this by clicking on Text Operations and then on the GIRL. Then click on
Add Option and the first text. Select Set Variable to Value and then choose
CONVERSATION as the variable and LEVEL 1 as the value when prompted.
Continue in this manner setting CONVERSATION to LEVEL 3 on the GIRL's
second text. Only the BOY HUGGING's first text needs an option, to set
CONVERSATION to LEVEL 2 as (at the moment) nothing further happens after
his last piece of repartee.

WELL DONE! You've made it!

Now test it using Normal. Notice that now, only one text appears initially
on the GIRL and none on the BOY HUGGING. There will be no options on the
BOY HUGGING's final speech. We have stopped there. Now it's your turn to
forge ahead.

Now test this storyline also in 'User' mode. Don't forget, this is only the
start - use many other variables to make your story more interesting.

3.2.18 Any Problems?

If it doesn't quite work, go back and check all the variables, conditions
and options as follows:

Variables
Click on List/Set Variables and check that CONVERSATION is at the level it
ought to be at. Click on CONVERSATION to check that the four values are
indeed available.

                               41

Conditions and Options  Check the conditions and options by clicking on
Text Operations, first for one drawing and then the other. Click on List
Text Conditions to see if the right text appears with the right condition.
Click on List Options to check the options. If you need to change any
conditions or options, go through the instructions after clicking on Remove
Text Conditions or Remove Text Option and adding the correct one (not
necessary in the case of Go to Page or Chain options as there can only be
one of these per text). Finally check that you put in the Page Entry Option
to set CONVERSATION to LEVEL 0.

It should now all work. If not, think it through again. Go through all the
steps mentally or writing it out on paper and it will probably become clear
where you went wrong.

Congratulations!

You have now graduated from 'Starting from Scratch' and are ready for the
'Advanced Level' of Chapter 4, where you will find details of all the
Talespin Options.

3.3 Library Files

Here is how you may use the Library Files. The contents of the files
(including START and THE GRAIL) are as follows:

1. ALPHABET.TAL This contains a set of numerals and one alphabet
   of ornate letters (as used in the START title page) and one
   alphabet of plain letters for you to use in titling. Using the
   Shrink/Reverse operation, you can reduce the letters to
   whichever size you want (sometimes reducing the height more than
   the width can be effective). Or you can copy them (see below)
   and embroider them to your taste.

2. THEWOLF.TAL This file contains all the drawings in 'The Wolf'
   adventure. The names of the drawings provide a clue as to what
   they are. The palette used in all 'The Wolf' drawings is
   the default palette so there will be no need to alter the
   colors unless you have modified a palette.

                               42

The following sounds are also on 'The Wolf' title:

Sound       Length

LAUGH     20,688 bytes.

CRY       6,966 bytes.

HELLO     4,886 bytes.

As sounds take up a lot of disk space, the number of sounds we could put on
these files for your use was limited.

3. START.TAL  The first page of this title contains the drawings
   TITLE SCREEN (which is specific to the Talespin title) and
   CLICK. The second page contains the following drawings:

                   BOY
                   GIRL
                   BOY HUGGING

These three drawings can be used to create the BOY/GIRL story outlined
above.

                   WOLF NASTY (Drawing copied from 'The
                   Wolf' title.)
                   QUESTION Icon
                   MOUSE Icon
                   REF Icon
                   CLICK Icon

4. THEGRAIL.TAL This is the demonstration adventure written by
   Rudyard the GRAIL disk) Heaton. All these drawings are available
   for your use as well as the following three sounds:

                               43

Sound     Length

BEAST1    16,562 bytes

MUTANT    8,950 bytes

MUTANT2 8,164 bytes

Note that the palettes on the drawings from 'The Grail' are different from
the default palette so you may need to play with the palette and swap the
colors around on any pages you create using these drawings.

3.3.1 Using The Library Files

There are two aspects: browsing through the files to see what is there, and
copying a drawing to your own title for use in your own stories.

Looking through the Files
If you want to 'look' at the files on the Program disk, first load
Talespin. If you wish to look at:

The 'Start' title:
This will automatically be loaded and the title page will appear. Right
click for the Control Menu; enter Development mode and carry on as outlined
below.

Thee Wolf' title:
Once Talespin has been loaded, right click to bring down the Control Menu
and click on Choose & Load Title. Select 'THEWOLF' and a START page will
appear on the screen once the title has loaded. Note that 'The Wolf' title
is a story in its own right, so you can 'look' at the drawings by playing
the game from User mode; or you can 'look' at the drawings directly by
clicking the right mouse button to call the Control Menu, enter Development
mode and continue as outlined below.

                               44

The 'Alphabet' title:
Right click as above for the Control Menu and click on 'Choose & Load
Title'. Select 'ALPHABET' and, once loaded, the Control Menu only will
appear as there is no START page. Click on Switch to Development Mode.Note
that in the 'Alphabet' title, there are no pages. A shorter Development
menu will appear as a result.

In Development mode, click on Drawing Definition and then on Modify
Drawing. Select a drawing to view; when you want to leave this drawing
right click for the Drawing Menu and select Quit. When you have finished
looking at the drawings in this title, right click to call the Development
menu. You will need to Quit Development Mode in order to load a different
title.

To Play the Sounds (only present on 'The Wolf' and 'The Grail' titles):

Click on Sound Definition and then on Play Sound Select your sound and you
will then be asked to select a rate of replay in Kilohertz (for full
details, refer lo 'Using Sounds' in Chapter 4). For now, just try them out.
Click to return to the Sound menu, right click to return to the Development
menu.

3.3.2 Looking at the Grail disk

To sample the drawings and sounds from 'The Grail' title, follow the
instructions on the first page of the START title, and the system will
chain to 'The Grail' title, asking you to insert the Grail disk where
necessary. Then you may ' look' at the drawings from 'The Grail' in the
same way as with the titles on the Program disk.

3.3.3 Copying from the Library Files

Having browsed through the Library files and established what you want to
copy, follow these instructions from the Development Menu, having created
(or reloaded) your own title.

Insert the Program disk (if you want to copy a drawing or sound from one of
the titles on this disk) or switch your disk drive if the other disk is on
another drive (using Select Drive\Folder). Select the drawing or the sound
definition. Select

                               45

Copy Drawing (or Sound) from Another Title. The system will search the
current drive\folder for any titles present; select whichever you want.

If you don't want any of the titles on that disk (or any of the drawings or
sounds on the title), click outside the window to cancel it, insert a
different disk and stan again. The system will save the drawing or sound
under the same name unless there is already a drawing or sound of that name
present in your title. In this case you will be asked for a new name. If
you've changed disks, you will be asked to reinsert your work disk. [In the
case of drawings, you are given the opportunity to immediately modify the
drawing.] The drawing or sound is now available for use by your title.

                               46

                            Chapter 4

                               47

                               48

                  4. Chapter 4: Advanced Level

This chapter provides a more detailed discussion of Talespin and its
capabilities via an analysis of 'The Grail' and 'The Wolf'. For a more
direct description of all the operations in the Development Menu, see
Chapter 7 "Reference Section". For guidelines to the basic design of a full
length adventure, refer to Chapter 5 "Writing an Adventure".

                4.1 Combining Pages and Drawings

To appreciate the concept of using pages and drawings, you must first
understand that when a drawing is copied to a page, it means that there is
a pointer to that drawing on the page. The actual drawing itself is not
copied on to the page (that would take up a lot of room). Using the same
drawing on many different pages is very economical on space; however if you
subsequently make any modifications to a drawing, the changes will show on
ALL the pages where that drawing is used.

Drawings, along with sounds, variables and pages themselves, are considered
to be 'global'. In other words, they can be referred to from any page
throughout the title, whereas text, conditions and options are 'local' to
the page on which they appear. This is reflected in the layout of the
Development Menu. At the start of the Development Menu each of drawings,
pages, sounds and variables has its own Definition Menu.

4.1.1 Statistics

Unless you are creating a very short title, where you do not need to
concern yourself with 'space saving', it is useful to understand how
Talespin organizes disk space. Each Talespin title is a self-contained file
which has a 'directory' pointing to all the pages, sounds and drawings
which are contained in the file.

Details of this space usage ate available from the Development Menu
facility, Statistics. Examining this will show that variables and values do
not take up any more room on the disk other than a Directory entry for
each. However, by clicking on any of drawings, pages or sounds you can get
details of the size, in bytes, of any individual item. Drawings and sounds
take up the most space on the disk.

                               49

By way of illustration, look at the Statistics for 'The Grail' (you will
need to load it first). The largest page is STREET3, which has many
drawings and text windows on it, with 1872 bytes. Most of the drawings use
much more space than that, up to 14K of memory (K stands for 'Kilobyte').
Compare the overall number of bytes: 25K for 31 pages, compared to 291K for
69 drawings and 33K for only 3 sounds. Admittedly your drawings do not have
to be as detailed as those used in 'The Grail'. Simple figures use about 2K
(as in the BOY/GIRL example in Chapter 3).

4.1.2 Technical Details of Statistics

Some further items are shown in Statistics which may not be immediately
obvious, but without which the sums would not add up. By way of
explanation, note that when you modify a drawing or page, and the new
version is saved to disk, a 'hole' may be left in the file (where the
previous version used to be located). This is referred to as an 'unused
block' and this space will be re-used by any further items being saved. In
the long run, a number of small fragmented unused blocks may accumulate
throughout the file. The process called 'Backup' (explained later in this
chapter) clears these out.

Also, when a page, drawing, sound or variable is deleted, (removed entirely
from the file) some pages may still refer to the deleted item. References
to these items are still kept in the Directory under the heading
'deletions' until the presence of any references to them from anywhere
within the title can be checked. This is also done during Backup.

4.1.3 'The Grail' Drawings

A brief analysis of some of the pages and drawings in 'The Grail' will
demonstrate how you can build up many pages using only a few drawings. The
pages we will use for this example are in the forest. They are ail created
using one simple foreground and two simple types of tree. The foreground is
drawing FIELDS3, used with some of the colors swapped to give different
effects. This drawing is used three times in Page COTTAGE.

The trees are drawing TREE4, a tall thin red tree used in all of the forest
scenes, and drawing TREE8, a short fat green branchy tree, which is used in
the routes to and from the forest. Embellishments include a smaller red
version of TREE8, and a couple of bunches of leaves and a bush.

                               50

The variations in the different pages are all made by reducing, reversing,
and it duplicating these few drawings, adding leaves and, on one occasion,
the drawing SKY reduced. In this way many pages are created using only a
few drawings. This also helps when it comes to sorting out the palettes.

Figure 4-1: COTTAGE Page from "The Grail"

                       4.2 Use of Palettes

Making full use of the 512 colors available on the Amiga requires a little
forethought and strategy. The system is limited by 'Talespins' palette
capacity of 16 colors on the screen at one time.

Analyzing some of the palettes in 'The Grail' can demonstrate some of the
difficulties resulting from this limitation and how to handle them. The
palettes of the WIZARD and BILLOT drawings are fairly similar, except for
the bottom line of the palette. The colors needed for the WIZARD are two
shades of red for his cloak, three blues for his robe and two skin shades.
The colors for BILLOT are similar except for the green of his trousers. Now
look at the page palettes of any of the scenes outside the town, and you
will see that all these colors are in the same places in the page palettes
as on the drawing palettes.

                               51

Inside the town it is a different matter. Almost all the STREET scenes have
a totally different palette, although all must still have the necessary
colors for the WIZARD, even if the blues are sometimes slightly different
shades. But these are not in the right position on the palette. When the
drawing is added to the page, you will need to change the colors around
using Swap Selected Color. Sometimes a compromise must be made. Notice on
Page STREET that the Wizard's cloak is not as red as elsewhere.

4.2.1 Using Palettes

The page palette is taken from the first drawing added to the page. If the
palette of this first drawing is not the one you wanted, using Modify Page
Palette (from the Development Menu), you can copy the whole palette from
another drawing or page. Note that Copying a Palette only copies palette
entries that are non-black. If you copy the palette from a drawing in which
only the top eight palette entries are used and all the lower half of the
palette has been set to black, then any colors present in the lower half of
the palette will remain unchanged. Thus you can combine palettes from
different drawings.

Figure 4-2: FOREST from "The Grail"

                               52

4.2.2 Examples from 'The Grail'

4.2.3 The Forest

Referring back to 'The Grail', the make up of the pages in the forest is
designed to make maximum use of drawings and palettes. The pages consist of
very few drawings, all differently arranged. The palette for all of them
has been copied from the WIZARD. The colors on this palette which are not
used for the WIZARD have been used in various ways on each of the pages, to
create a different impression. Pages as different as COTTAGE and GATE or
GUARD all use the same palette except for these five unused colors from the
WIZARD's palette.

4.2.4 The Town

As mentioned before, this system breaks down in the town, mainly because
the principal drawings became the STREET drawings. The WIZARD and BILLOT
had to take second place. This is because the STREET drawings were done
before the author realized quite what he was going to use them for and
therefore hadn't

Figure 4-3: STREET3 from "The Grail"

                               53

thought to make provisions in the palette for the colors needed by WIZARD
and BILLOT. So the WIZARD's colors were slotted into the few unused spaces
in the palette, necessitating a fair amount of color-swapping when the
characters were brought on to the page.

4.2.5 Using Black and White

Note that the Black and White default colors on the palette cannot be
modified (i.e. the top left and bottom right positions on the palette).
This is because they are always needed for the display of text. [If you are
importing pictures, you will be warned and these palette entries forced to
Black and White if they are not so already.]

The unchangeable black top left palette entry is also special in that it
represents 'Transparent' . If you need a non-transparent black, one through
which any underlying drawings will not show, you will need to set a
different palette entry lo Black for this. [Note that this will then not
copy (see above) so perhaps color '001' (a blue so dark as to be invisible)
would be a better choice.]

Figure 4-4: Text Window

                               54

                     4.3 Using Text Windows

Text windows are found by clicking on drawings. They are always 'local' to
a page. In other words, one page cannot refer to another page's text
windows. The appearance of Text can be controlled by the use of
'conditions', and 'options', as will be explained shortly. Conditions and
Options can be placed on text windows to control the action in various
ways. Note that the maximum amount of text that may appear on a page is 6K
(6144) characters, spread between ALL the text on that page. The various
uses of text include:

Narrative
It is sometimes useful to have some narrative to se[ the scene at the start
of an adventure. In 'The Grail' this kind of narrative is to be found on
the START page by clicking on the drawing GRAIL and on the END page by
clicking on one of the characters. Otherwise all the narration is in the
dialog. If you wanted more narrative and less dialog, one idea might be to
use a 'narrative icon', for example, a drawing of a mouth in a box, which
could always be located in the corner of the screen and which would produce
narrative text if selected.

Comic Elements &  Clues
You can use comic asides on characters to add color to your story and to
encourage play as to click on everything. A character may say something
different next time around. This device is used in the crowd scenes in 'The
Grail' and with Billot, who acts as the Wizard's sidekick. Also, minor
characters are used to give clues as to how well the player is doing and
what to do next. Comments such as the one the beggar makes on the page
FIGHT WITH BANDIT gives hints. This text is 'unconditional' (always
appears), but many other hints are controlled by 'conditions' so that they
only appear when needed.

Dialog with Options
This is an essential part of the text operations. These text 'options' are
necessary to move the action from one place to another and also to allow
for two or three way dialog, where text becomes available in set sequence
rather than all at once. For more details, refer to Using Options below.

                               55

                 4.4 Using Variables and Values

The variables are the key to using Talespin effectively. It is the
variables which let Talespin titles be more than just computerized comic
strips and give them their flexibility. A Talespin 'variable' is simply a
name up to 64 characters long which may have a 'value' assigned to it. A
'value' is simply another name (also up to 64 characters long).

You might have a variable called STATE OF MIND which could have the values
HAPPY, SAD, ANGRY or FRIGHTENED. Each value needs to be defined (in
Variable Definition) as belonging to a particular variable, although more
may be added in at any time. The value of a particular variable remains
'undefined' until it is given a value by using a Set Variable to Value
option (see below for Options).

The variable retains this value unless changed by another Set Variable to
Value option. It is a sort of memory, used to indicate a particular event
or state. Once created, variables are used to control the appearance of
drawings and text via 'conditions' such as 'IF Variable IS Value' or 'IF
Variable IS NOT Value' (see below for details of Conditions). The variable
STATE OF MIND could be used to control which of a range of expressions
should appear on a face.

4.4.1 Different Uses of Variables

Variables may be used to create apparently different pages from one page.
Taking an example from 'The Grail', the variable ENT (for entrance) allows
the Pages BEGINNING and WIZ & BILL MEET GA to be used in different
situations. They are used first as the initial introductory pages, setting
the scene, with the variable ENT set to value NOT REACHED. Then when the
Wizard and Billot reach the page GATE, ENT is set to REACHED [(on the
option to return to the forest) or (if they go into the town)] on page
ENTRANCE.

When they return to the forest, they will re-enter the two pages BEGINNING
and WIZ AND BILL MEET GA, but as the variable ENT now has a different
value, they appear without the initial dialog and without GA. Both of these
factors are controlled by conditions, on text and drawings respectively.
This isn't perhaps the most obvious way of going about things (especially
when GA no longer appears on a page called WIZ AND BILL MEET GA), but it
does save on disk space.

                               56

Another use of variables is to create dialog using the variable
CONVERSATION and values LEVEL 0, LEVEL I and so on. On the first page
BEGINNING there are three text windows controlled by the variable
CONVERSATION. This variable is set to LEVEL 0 on the Page Entry option
(these are Options that are executed when a page is first loaded, see below
under Options for details). The WIZARD's first text is conditional on
CONVERSATION being set to LEVEL 0. An option on this text sets CONVERSATION
to LEVEL 1. BILLOT's text is conditional on CONVERSATION being LEVEL 1, and
an option here sets it to LEVEL 2, and so on.

Variables may also be used to determine which text window to display in a
scene.  In 'The Grail', the Wizard on page STREET3 has five different text
windows depending on which of various conditions have been fulfilled.

Variations of the same scene may be created when a scene is revisited by
using variables. For example, look at page INSIDE THE INN. If you list the
variables (List/Set Variables) you will see that there is a variable INSIDE
THE INN with possible values of ONE, TWO or THREE. This variable is used to
vary the scene each time the Inn is visited. The first visit, when the
variable INSIDE THE INN is ONE, Billot has a drinking companion who is
interested in the Grail and encourages him to continue in the quest. The
second time around (INSIDE THE INN is now TWO) a blind beggar appears - a
sign of increased decay in the town. On the third visit, no one else is at
the Inn and Billot is fading fast himself!

The necessary conditions for successfully completing an adventure may be
set by variables. Decide on the criteria for completing your adventure,
define them as variables and give these variables at least two possible
values (true or false). If all criteria according to these variables are
fulfilled, then the adventure can be completed. The criteria used in 'The
Grail ' are MERCY, STRENGTH and CHARITY. 'The Wolf' requires the variables
CLEVER and APPEALING. Of course, you can elect anything - states of mind,
skills, status, wealth, knowledge, power.

Variables can be used to further the progress towards the ultimate goal.
These variables are used to achieve the desired criteria. For example, the
CURE is needed in 'The Grail' to be able to help the woman in the cottage
and attain the status of CHARITABLE. Also, unless the variable BILLOT has
the value GOTRIDOF, the MENDIANT leading the WIZARD to the cottage will not
appear.

You can also create variations within a page by using a variable with
drawing conditions. Drawings can appear and disappear during a page. This
allows many more choices on a page. (See below under Using Conditions for
details.) However, note

                               57

that the whole page must be re-drawn each time, and the delay is similar to
that experienced when moving from one page to another (the 'zz..' icon
appears).

Variables are also used to vary the Go to Page options. The choices the
player has made up to this point (i.e. how the variables have been set),
will determine where it is possible to go to next. This has to be done
indirectly, using conditions to control different text or drawings which
have the different Go to Page options.

Complex maps may also be created by skillful use of variables. FROM, for
example, is used in the forest in 'The Grail' to establish which page The
Wizard has just come from. This will determine the text and options on the
current page, and is a way of making the few forest pages seem like many
more (il is possible to go round in circles in both directions). This is
the basic methodology in creating a maze.

4.2.2 Using Conditions

A condition applied to a drawing or text determines whether or not the
drawing or text appears. There are three types of conditions which may be
applied to drawings and text windows:

                      if VARIABLE is VALUE

The drawing or text will only appear when the variable is set at that value
and not at other times. In 'The Grail', as mentioned before, the page WIZ &
BILL MEET GA is first entered in the early stages of the tale before they
reach the entrance to the town. After this point they will probably return
to this page several times, only GA will no longer be there. This is
because there is a condition on the drawing GA that it will only appear:

                      if ENT is NOT REACHED

Once the variable ENT has been set to some other value than NOT REACHED, GA
will not appear again. When first putting such a condition on a page, the
drawing (or text) will vanish if the variable concerned is undefined or set
to a different value. A variable remains undefined until it is set manually
via List/Set Variable (or a Set Variable to Value option is created and
executed for that variable, see below under Options). The rule is, if a
text or drawing having a condition isn't showing, check the current value
of the variable.

                               58

                    if VARIABLE is not VALUE

The drawing or text will always appear, except when the variable is that
value. This allows them to disappear under certain circumstances. This can
be illustrated using an example from 'The Wolf. On Page RRH MEETS HUNTSMAN,
if you click on List Drawing Conditions, you will see that a condition for
drawings HUNTSMAN TALKING and RRH STANDING is:

                      if WOLF is not CHASED

This means that these drawings will appear UNLESS the variable WOLF is set
to the value CHASED.

                          % Probability

This is very useful for varying scenes, as in the crowded street scene
(STREET3) in 'The Grail'. Here, nearly all the drawings of people appear
only some of the time, i.e. with a 40% - 80% probability, making it look
different each time you come to this page. Probabilities can also be used
to make the story more difficult to advance. For example, in 'The Grail'
you can only get the cure from a cripple in the gutters; but the drawing
CRIPPLE only appears with a 30% probability, so it is possible to go round
the town three times before seeing him. [A hint that this might be
necessary is given in one of the other scenes.]

4.2.3 Combining Conditions

In many situations, it is necessary to combine conditions. For example,
look at the drawing BANDITONE on Page UPSTREET in 'The Grail'. He only
appears if the following conditions are met

if BILLOT is GOTRIDOF AND if CURE is HELD AND with 40% probability

This ensures that he only appears towards the end of the adventure, if the
wizard is alone, and then only 40% of the time. These conditions are ail
joined by AND. This means that ALL of the conditions must be met for the
drawing lo appear. It would also have been possible to join them with an OR
instead of AND, in which case ANY of the conditions being met would be
sufficient to make the drawing appear. However, you may also combine OR's
and AND's to produce any required logical result; but note that ANDs 'bind'
tighter than ORs. So

Condition A AND Condition B OR Condition C AND Condition D

                               59

is equivalent to

(Condition A AND Condition B) OR (Condition C AND Condition D)

In English: both A and B or both C and D. If what you wanted was: A and
either B or C and also D, i.e.

Condition A AND (Condition B OR Condition C) AND Condition D

you could achieve this by doing: all of A and B and D or all of A and C and
D, which is logically the same.

In Talespin, this is:

Condition A AND Condition B AND Condition D OR Condition A AND Condition C
AND Condition D

This is slightly longer, but it achieves the result without the use of
parentheses. Just remember that groups of ANDs go together. For this
reason, when you add additional conditions (after the first one) the system
asks you where you want to insert it, as its location is very important as
regards its effect on the combined logic of the conditions.

4.4.4 Drawing Conditions

The sea reentered by selecting Drawing Conditions/Options and clicking on
the required drawing. The menu presented allows you to enter, remove and
list conditions on any specific drawing. Click directly on List Drawing
Conditions in the top Development menu to see ALL drawings on a page
together with any conditions. A typical example is on Page RRH MEETS
HUNTSMAN in 'The Wolf'. Here is a list of all the drawing conditions for
the page.

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Conditions             Drawings

If WOLF is CHASED      HUNTSMAN TALKING
AND if CONVERSATION
is not LEVEL 2
OR if WOLF is not
CHASED

If WOLF is CHASED      RRH STANDING
AND if CONVERSATION
is not LEVEL 2

If CONVERSATION is     HUNTSMAN FIGHTING
LEVEL 2 AND WOLF
is CHASED

If WOLF is CHASED      SCARED RRH
AND if CONVERSATION
is LEVEL 2

This page is visited twice, before and after the Huntsman goes after the
Wolf in the story. Although the text windows will be different, the
drawings, at least initially, will be the same. However, under certain
circumstances, the drawings change during the page. The only situation in
which SCARED RRH and FIGHTING HUNTSMAN appear is IF WOLF IS CHASED (the
huntsman didn't kill the Wolf in the previous page) AND CONVERSATION IS
LEVEL 2 (we've reached the point at which the page changes in mid
conversation). Note that this same set of conditions must be responsible
for making HUNTSMAN TALKING and RRH STANDING disappear; otherwise all four
drawings would appear together!

4.4.5 Text Conditions

Text Conditions are used to determine what text appears on a Page. They
offer the same facilities as Drawing Conditions, except that with text
windows the effect is less dramatic in terms of what the page looks like.
The effects are only discovered by clicking on drawings.

Text Conditions are entered by selecting Text Operations and clicking on
the required drawing. The menu presented allows you to add, remove and list
text conditions. In this example from 'The Grail', the Wizard on page
STREET3 has five

                               61

different text windows depending on which of the various sub-goals have
been achieved. The text is used to give hints to the player.

Condition                  Gist of Text

if CURE is NOT HELD        Hint to go round again

if CURE is HELD            Neutral comment

if CRIPPLE is CURED        Billot might not be a suitable
AND if BILLOT is PRESENT   companion

if BILLOT is GOTRIDOF      You should head for the forest to find
AND if CRIPPLE is CURED    the old woman to cure.
AND if COTTAGE is
not DONE

if CRIPPLE is CURED AND    You've nearly made it!
if BILLOT is GOTRIDOF AND
if COTTAGE is DONE

[Note that the cripple can't be cured if the cure is not held; so if you
gel Text 1, you won't get any of the others. But if you have the cure and
yet failed to cure the cripple, well, you just don't deserve any hints!]

Logic such as this becomes easy to understand if you use meaningful
variable and value names. Setting X to 1 if someone is alive, and to 2 if
they are dead is a recipe for disaster when it comes to debugging (finding
and removing hidden errors) as you'll forget only too soon the meaning of
abstract symbols. Also, resist the temptation to have variables do things
other than those implied by their name: create a new variable instead - in
the long run, it'll pay off.

                        4.5 Using Options

Options DO things, like playing sounds, setting variable values, turning to
another page or chaining to a different title. They can be placed on text
windows, drawings or at the entry to a page, offering different degrees of
control to the player.

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4.5.1 Options on Text Windows

From the player's point of view, there is always a visible choice to click
on, as any text with an option on it will highlight when the cursor passes
over it. It is up to the player which way he/she goes. These options are
entered by selecting Text Operations from the Development menu, clicking on
the required drawing, and then on the required text belonging to that
drawing. Execution is by clicking on a section of highlighted text.

4.5.2 Options on Drawings

From the user's point of view, there is a choice of drawings to click on,
but the choice is not clear as the consequences of each click are not
known: nothing 'highlights' to show you that an option is present on a
drawing. Thus an element of chance is introduced. [If however, the player
has been through parts of the game several times, he/she will have some
experience of what consequences belong to each click.] These options are
entered by selecting Drawing Conditions/Options and clicking on the
required drawing They are executed just by clicking on a drawing (in Normal
cursor mode).

4.5.3 Page Entry Options

There is no choice at all here, not even chance. The Page Entry options are
controlled solely by the author of the story. These options are always
executed when the page is loaded. These are entered via Page Entry Options,
and executed in Development mode (other than by leaving and re-entering the
page) by Restart Page.

4.5.4 Execution Order of Options

There are four types of options: Play Sound, Set Variable, Go to Page and
Chain to Title. On Page Entry options, the variables are set, the page
displayed accordingly, and any sound is played before Going to another Page
or Chaining to another title. This is what you would expect: you want to
see the picture, then hear the sound before anything else happens.

With Text and Drawing options, the page is already displayed. The first
thing to happen should be the Sound, after which the page should only be
re-displayed if

                               63

there have been any changes made to it (only if there is no Go to Page or
Chain option present).

4.5.5 Sound Options

Decide whether you want to have your sounds played:

* Once only, as the page fades in (use Page Entry Options)

* Repeated on clicking on same text (use Text Options)

* Repeatable at any time (use Drawing Options)

4.5.6 Page Entry Sound Options

A sound will be heard as soon as the page is displayed and before anything
else happens. This is a useful way of setting up a one-time sound as the
result of some action, for instance a monster appearing and a girl
screaming. Other uses include creaks and other noises, exclamations, and so
forth, or any Page Entry musical notes (though this could use up a lot of
memory, see Memory Limitations below).

4.5.7 Text Sound Options

A sound will be heard as soon as the highlighted text is clicked on, but
before any changes are made to the page. The sound will be heard before any
drawings appear or disappear. Use sounds on appropriate text windows - a
roar from a monster, a wail from a ghost or a shriek from a girl, or maybe
a cackle of laughter. As the sound options on text windows are always
assigned to a particular text window, they will only repeat if that
particular text window is re-selected. The sound is no played until after
the text has been clicked on, so you can see the sound written in the text
("Aaaagh!" for example) and then hear it when you click on the text.

4.5.8 Drawing Sound Options

A sound will be heard as soon as the drawing is selected, and every time it
is re-selected, before any changes are made to the page and before any text
windows are displayed. If there are several text windows on a drawing and
you don't want the sound to be repeated prior to the appearance of each
text window, put the sound on a Page Entry option (see above) or on the
text windows themselves. You can

                               64

use Drawing Sound options for exclamations of surprise, fear, anger,
enthusiasm, for animal, environmental or mechanical sounds to set the scene
and create an atmosphere.

4.5.9 Entering Sound Options

Sound Options are entered using the Add Option operation in the Page Entry
Options, Text Operations and Drawing Conditions/Options menus respectively.
Since the order in which sounds are played is significant (as opposed to
the order in which variables are assigned values, which is irrelevant), on
entering any subsequent sound options after the first one, you will be
asked where to insert the new entry. You are then asked for a replay
frequency for each sound. This should be the same as the sampling frequency
when the sound was digitized if you wish to re-create the original sound.
Alternatively, you may play it back al different frequencies to create
special effects. Playing the same sound back at different frequencies in
different situations is one way of economizing on disk space. See below
under Using Sounds for more details.

4.5.10 Memory Limitations

Note that all sounds on a page have to be present in memory before they can
be heard. This limits the total sounds on any one page to around 64K bytes
on a 500K computer. Any further sounds will just be ignored. [On a one meg
or larger computer, all of the available memory will be used as a buffer
(temporary storage area) both sounds and drawings, resulting in less time
being spent accessing the disk] .

4.5.11 Set Variable to Value Options

These options are essential for controlling all aspects of an adventure if
it is to be more than a simple sequence of pictures. They form the
instrument by which the adventure progresses. They can be executed at the
entry to a page, on drawings or text windows, as can all the options.

Other than being used to keep a record of the player's progress, they are
also frequently used in conjunction with conditions to allow for changes
during a page; either on text windows, to allow a conversation or
exposition to unfold, or on drawing, to allow objects to appear or
disappear. These options can be placed:

                               65

a.) on a text item where a choice has to be deliberately selected.

b) on a drawing, when it is an unwitting selection, as nothing indicates to
the player that the drawing does anything (unless the drawing is some form
of icon or says CLICK in large letters!).

These options are also placed at the beginning of a page, with the Page
Entry options, as a means of 'initializing' a variable, either for that
page alone (e.g. set CONVERSATION to LEVEL 0), or for the whole adventure
(e.g. set GOLD to NOT FOUND).

4.5.12 Page Entry

On loading a page, these options are executed first, setting the various
variables to their specified values before evaluating any of the drawing
conditions which determine which drawings to display. Some of the uses of
these options are listed below.

1. Initializing Variables at the Start Or a Title.

Variables, until they are 'set' (given a value), remain 'undefined' .
Although you may use List/Set Variables to manually change the variable
values to affect the outcome of conditions while testing, these values are
not saved in any way and the variables will be found to be 'undefined' once
more on re-loading the title.

Therefore, Page Entry options may be used to 'initialize' the variables in
a title. At the beginning of 'The Grail', thirteen out of a total of twenty
variables are set on the Page Entry option of the START page (the others
are se later on in Page Entry or Text options).

2. Setting 'recurring' Variables.

Any recurring variables, i.e. variables used independently on different
pages, such as CONVERSATION, should be set to the first level, in this case
LEVEL 0, as the variable CONVERSATION might well have been left at value
LEVEL 2 on the previous page.

                               66

Setting 'Achievement' Variables.

A variable may be set indicating that a certain page has been reached. For
example, in 'The Grail ', as soon as the Wizard and Billot reach the
entrance to the town, the Page Entry options on Page ENTRANCE set ENT to
REACHED and TOWN to VISITED. There may be several ways of arriving at a
page, so it is often easier to set the variables establishing position or
status on the Page Entry options of the page being branched to rather than
on the Text options of the current page where the ac- tual decision was
made.

4.5.13 On Drawings

You can, for example, set a variable on a drawing so that the drawing (or a
different one) will disappear (i.e. the page will be recreated without that
drawing). Using an example from 'The Wolf', see how Red Riding Hood
miraculously rises from the dead on Page WOLF KILLS RRH, if you click on
her first. This is achieved as follows: Define the variable RRH DEAD with
values YES and NO, and set RRH DEAD to YES. Set a condition on drawing RRH
KILLED to appear: if RRH DEAD is YES Put an option on drawing RRH KILLED:
set RRH DEAD to NO

She will now disappear if you click on drawing RRH KILLED.

You can then add text to the WOLF "Oh! Where's she gone?", putting a
condition on this text 'if RRH DEAD is NO', so that this text will only
occur if Red Riding Hood has vanished. So far so good - you can then
recreate Red Riding Hood by adding the appropriate drawing to the Page (for
example RRH STANDING) with the condition 'if RRH DEAD is NO', and can then
add text to this drawing. [To make the scene look better, the drawing RRH
CLOAK was also added with the same condition, so that by clicking on Red
Riding Hood, the drawing of RRH RTT KILLED disappears and the page is
recreated with an empty cloak in her place, and she herself reappears
behind the tree.] DON'T FORGET to add in a Page Entry option to set the
variable RRH DEAD to YES so that the page is set up correctly; failing
which neither drawing of RRH will appear when the page is first loaded.

In other scenarios where succeeding in the adventure involves finding
objects, you can also make the object, a pot of gold for instance, remain
hidden behind a tree, door or window, until you click on the tree, door or
window. Once you have defined

                               67

the variables and values, set up a condition on the object to appear: if
GOLD is VISIBLE Then add an option on the drawing TREE, DOOR or WINDOW: set
GOLD to VISIBLE The final touch is to put in the Page Entry option: set
GOLD to INVISIBLE

In any of these situations, which action takes place is determined by which
drawing is clicked on first. This device can double or triple the number of
possibilities available and make the story more intriguing.

4.5.14 On Text Windows

As with drawings this option adds variety and complexity to the story. With
a choice of highlighted text windows to click on the possibilities are
many.

1. Create Dialog

Do this using a variable such as CONVERSATION with values LEVEL 0, LEVEL 1
and so on. Add an option to set the CONVERSATION to a level one higher on
each text controlled by a CONVERSATION condition in the required order.
Don't forget to put in the Page Entry option to set CONVERSATION to LEVEL 0
at the start of the page, or the dialog will never get off the ground; and
put in a condition for the first text to appear only if CONVERSATION is
LEVEL 0.

2. Make a Change in the Current Page

You can make text appear or disappear in the same way as with Drawing
options. You could, for example, set a variable to a value that will cause
this to happen on a text such as 'I wonder what would happen if I pressed
this?', and then something could appear or disappear.

3. Advancing the State of Play

An example of this is in 'The Wolf' on Page TALK TO WOLF where the choice
is to tell the truth or to lie. Both options lead on to the cottage, but
one sets the variable INTELLIGENCE to value PATHETIC and the other the same
variable to value CLEVER, which will make a dif-

                               68

ference later on when Red Riding Hood confronts the wolf in the cottage.
This is executed behind the scenes so that the player is unaware of it, but
influences the way the story unfolds.

To give another example, this time from 'The Grail', the player may not
realize (on Page UPSTREET) that making a choice to kill the Bandit will set
MERCIFUL Lo NOT OBTAINED, and that this was his/her last chance to obtain
the status of MERCIFUL; that is, without having to go round the town again
until the Bandit reappears on page UPSTREET (there is only a 40%
probability of this each time round, assuming the other conditions on
drawing BANDITONE are met).

These conditions are entered using the Add Option operation in the Page
Entry Options, Text Operations and Drawing Conditions/Options menus
respectively. First select the variable; then you are offered a choice of
the values previously defined for that variable in Variable Definition.

4.5.15 Go to Page Options

this moves the action from page to page and is executed after the other
types of option, so that the sounds will be played and the variables set
before the page is changed. For the differences, see below.

4.5.16 Page Entry Go to Page Options

Go to Page option at the entry to a Page will display the page before going
immediately to another page. [Otherwise you would see nothing.] In this way
you can set up sequences of pages, which automatically run with or without
sounds or even loop. [The only 'exit' here in User mode is obtained by
holding the right mouse button down until the Control menu appears. The
user may then load another title, or (if in Talespin, not Telltale) enter
Development mode. If he just clicks outside the window, the system resumes
looping.] You could use this facility as an introductory sequence to give
an impression of the whole story, running through until a page is reached
which does NOT have a Page Entry Go to Page op-

                               69

tion. It could also be used as a slow type of animation, illustrating
different stages of a fight, stopping to make a choice of weapon or action,
and then continuing. Leaving the realm of fantasy, it could also be used as
stages in a demonstration, a cooking recipe, or how to service a car or a
washing machine, stopping only when some choice needs to be made.

4.5.17 Go to Page Options on Drawings

As drawing options are executed before text is displayed, a Go to Page
option on a drawing will leave the page immediately, and any text on that
drawing will no appear. If you want a Go to Page option AND text assigned
to a drawing, put the Go to Page option on the text.

If you have a Go to Page option on a drawing as well as a Set Variable
option which changes something on the page (i.e. an appearance or
disappearance) the change on the page will NOT be displayed. This is so
that you can set variables just before you go to another page, to set the
scene on that page, without affecting the page you're just leaving. [If you
want to have a drawing appear and an immediate Go to Page option, use an
extra page with the Go to Page as a Page Entry option.]

4.5.18 Go to Page Options on Text Windows

This is the most frequent use of Go to Page options, used on the last of a
string of conditional text windows to turn to another page once the current
one is done with. Note that, as with drawings, if a variable is set on a
text window which changes the appearance of a page and a Go to Page option
is added on the same text, the new page will NOT be displayed before the Go
to Page option is executed.

The above are entered using the Add Option operation in the Page Entry
Options, Text Operations and Drawing Conditions/Options menus respectively.
You will be offered a choice of the pages already defined; if you haven't
yet created the destination page, you will have to come back later in order
to add in this option.

4.5.19 Chain Options

Chain options are used to link from one disk to another in the case of
large applications, i.e. extensive adventures or tutorials. Chaining can
also be used as the only way 'in' to a locked title with no START page
(unless you've already been there

                               70

and saved a placemarker). Thus a monthly adventure magazine could be
produced in which all of an introductory newcomers section could be skipped
by readers 'chaining' from the end of the previous issue.

Chaining works by saving all the variable values in the current title,
loading the destination title, turning to the required page in that title,
and then restoring all the variable values for those variables which are
common to both titles. Before you can enter a Chain option, you will need
to define two variables: Title and Page. To each of these you should give
as values a list of any title names and page names to which you could want
to chain. For example, if you want to chain from title PARTONE, page END
PAGE to title PARTTWO at page CONTINUE, you should create variable TITLE
with value PARTTWO and variable PAGE with value CONTINUE on title PARTONE.
Then when you come to enter the Chain option on Page END PAGE, you will be
offered (and should select) PARTTWO and CONTINUE. When the option comes to
be executed, the system will look for the requested Title on the current
Drive\folder and, if present, load it without further ado. If it doesn't
find it, it will ask the user to insert the requested title in the current
drive OR to select a different Drive\folder on which to look.

This caters, in a generalized way, to users with multiple drives, and also
to users who might copy different parts of an adventure (originally issued
on separate disks) onto one drive. [Users may right click to abort this
procedure and call down the Control Menu - if they cancel this without
loading a different title or a placemarker, the system will resume asking
for the to-be-chained-to title.]

4.5.20 Page Entry Chaining Options

Chaining can be used here to display a title page on title START (which
will be auto-loaded as soon as Tailspin or Telltale is run) before loading
the main title, which could take a little time. This method also allows you
to put Telltale (which takes up just under 50K bytes) on a program disk
along with a short START title and so use ALL of a second disk to hold your
main title.

Once entered, use Restart Page to test the chaining; you will then have lo
re-load the original title to carry on. Note that the Development menu
names the current Title and Page at the top to let you know where you are.
For obvious reasons, the system won't let you chain to a Locked title in
Development mode.

                               71

4.5.21 Chaining Options on Text Windows and Drawings

Use a Chaining option on drawings and text windows to connect large stories
in the middle of that story so that all the variables values are
'transferred' to the second title exactly as they were at the end of the
first title (always providing that the same variables and values exist on
the second title; failing which, they will just be ignored. Thus you don't
have to bother defining the trivial, local-usage only variables in the
second title.

PLEASE NOTE:

Once a Title has chained to another Title, you can no longer ' Go to' a
Page on the first Title, without previously having re-loaded the first
Title via another chain. As this loading takes a little while, frequent use
should be avoided. So before setting up a Chain, make sure there is a cut
off point in the title, such that once this point is passed, there will be
no need to return to any previous stage (other than as a major event such
as restarting a chapter or the whole adventure).

Just as any text or drawing can only have one Go to Page option, and
inputting another will replace the previous (you can't go to two pages at
once),likewise entering a Chain option will replace any previous Chain or
Go to Page option.

                        4.6 Using Sounds

Sounds are used for effect and embellishment rather than for furthering the
action. As such they can create an atmosphere and add liveliness to an
adventure. Although in theory individual words could be used to build up
sentences, in practice digitized sound takes up so much room as to make
this impractical.

Sounds are executed as an option and can be played as a Page Entry option.
This means that the sound will be heard immediately whenever the Page is
displayed, but will not be repeatable. A sound appropriate to the scene
could be played at this point; the creaking of a door, ringing of a bell,
cry of a bird or beast, or possibly the scream of a girl with a monster
appearing at the beginning of the page.

Sounds can also be used as Text options, in which case they are played as
soon as a highlighted text is selected, before anything else happens. It
will only repeat if that particular text is available again and reselected.
You could use this for emotional cries of anger, fear, surprise,
enthusiasm, or for the cries of talking beasts.

                               72

Finally sounds can be played on drawings as a Drawing option. The
difference here is that they are directly repeatable.

As with ail Drawing options, every time you click on a drawing with a sound
option, the sound is played. Use sounds on drawings for animal noises or
bells or fighting noises rather than for speech, otherwise the same sound
will be played every time you want that drawing to have text If you want a
one-time scream on a drawing, insert an extra page and put the scream on
the Page Entry option instead of on the drawing itself.

4.6.1 Sound Definition

Sounds can be added in two ways:

1. Copied from another Title, 'The Grail' or 'The Wolf' for
   example, or another Talespin adventure.

2. Imported from an A.M.A.S. sound file.

In most cases you will have to switch disks or drives for either operation.
Do so before you click on Copy Sound from another Title, or Import Sound;
as soon as you do so, the system looks on the current Drive\folder for
titles (.TAL files) or sounds (.SPL files). Select your sound and the
system will (if necessary) ask you to re-insert your work disk. When you
want to play the sound you will be asked to select a frequency. More
information follows about how the sounds are sampled and about the
frequency levels.

4.6.2 Creating Sounds

To create sounds yourself you must have a digitizer capable of creating IFF
compatible sample files. A.M.A.S. from MicroDeal is one such sound
digitizer.

                               73

4.6.3 Sampling

Sampling basically does what its name implies: it takes a sample, a
'slice', of the sound being played into the microphone at regular
intervals. Providing the ' slicing ' is done often enough, playing back the
level found at each slice at the same speed as that at which the sampling
was done recreates the original sound. The higher the sampling rate, the
better the resulting fidelity of reproduction. But here's the rub: if you
double the sampling frequency, you double the amount of data that has to be
stored. The A.M.A.S. range of sampling frequencies offers a choice of six
between 5 Kilohertz (5000 samples per second of sound, giving a fairly
coarse quality especially with any musical sounds) and 31 Khz (31000
samples per second). Talespin offers eleven levels between 5 Khz and 31 Khz
to give you greater variety with each sound as regards playback.

4.6.4 Replaying a Sound

Unless you created the sound yourself and took note of the frequency level
it was sampled at, you will not immediately know which frequency level will
sound best. Once you have copied or imported a sound to your current title
(or loaded the title on which the sound exists), play it at different
frequencies to see which one is suitable for your purposes. That may depend
on the frequency level it was sampled at. A man's voice sampled at 10 Khz
is high pitched if played back at 15 Khz, whereas a man's voice sampled at
20 Khz is in 'slow motion' at 15 Khz.

4.6.5 Setting Sound Options

As mentioned before, sound options can be executed on drawings, text and at
the entry to a Page. A sound can also be played several times on one option
at different or the same frequencies,or different sounds can be played
together. When you add a sound option, you will be asked to select the
sound and a frequency. You will then be offered the opportunity to insert
an additional sound, only this time you decide in which order the sounds
will be played. Once you have selected the position, you then select the
sound and frequency.

4.6.6 Sounds and Disk Space

Please note: sounds take up a lot of disk space. Look at the statistics on
'The Grail ' or 'The Wolf' and you will see that each sound takes up at
least 5K of memory,

                               74

ranging up to 20K. So, unless you are unconcerned with disk space, be
economical un your use of sounds. The number of bytes used depends on the
sampling frequency as well as the length of the sample, with higher
frequency levels using more bytes, which is the cost of the better quality.
This is why it is not, in practice, feasible to use the sound option to
reproduce dialog in spoken form, rather than seeing the written text on the
screen.

                           4.7 Testing

Test everything you create using Normal cursor mode, and in User mode. Make
sure you Restart the page you are testing to check out the Page Entry
options. In Normal cursor mode while in Development mode, the system
queries before executing any options, to enable you to check whether the
options are correct and to avoid doing things you don't want to do, like
Going to another Page. Assuming it works, Quit development mode and try it
out as a user and see what it looks like without all the querying.

4.7.1 If It Doesn't Work

1. Check that all the correct variables, values, text windows, conditions
   and options have been defined and added to the appropriate drawings or
   text. Use the LIST operations for each item. If they are incorrect,
   alter them as below.

   Text Windows:     Edit Text

   Text Conditions: Remove Text Condition and Add Text Condition

   Text Options:     Add/Replace Text Option

   Drawing Conditions: Remove Drawing Condition and Add Drawing Condition

   Drawing Options: Add/Replace Drawing Option

   Page Entry Options: Add/Replace Page Entry Option

2. Check that the page has been set up correctly. If you have used LIST/SET
   variables to manually adjust the value of a variable when developing,
   make sure there is a Page Entry Option to set it to this value when the
   game is being played. Check

                               75

   for values being 'left over' from previous pages rather than being
   initialized on the current one. Check that you Restarted the page before
   testing.

3. Check the logic of your variables, conditions and options. For this
   purpose, particularly with a long story, it is a good idea to keep track
   of your variables on a flow chart along with the pages. There may be a
   logical reason why, for example, a drawing does not appear where and
   when it should. It could be caused by an omission or an error with the
   variable setting a few pages back.

4. To this end, check the references to any particular item using Locate
   Item from the top development menu. Locate Item will tell you which
   pages contain a reference to the item you are checking. Turn to that
   page and List the Page Entry options, text and drawing conditions or
   options to locate how the item was used.

5. If you have deleted an item, there may still be a reference to that item
   somewhere which will cause an error when you turn to the page containing
   it. Use Locate Item to search for references to any deleted items.
   Although they are deleted, they will still be held on the directory
   until a Backup is made (see below) and will only be removed once Backup
   has checked that no references to that item remain.

6. Note that if you delete a page, drawing, etc., you can recreate another
   page, drawing, etc., with the same name, but the system will not allow
   you to Rename a page to that same name, as it is still on the directory
   as being a Deleted item. Normally, you can just use a different name.
   However, in some cases, such as the page START, the name is important.
   The solution is either to use Backup (see below) or to create a new
   START page, rename that to something quite different and then delete it,
   so that the name START is now available. You can now rename your chosen
   page to START. 4.7.2 Testing the Whole Adventure

One way of testing an adventure, to make sure that there are no pages where
the story would 'hang ' or get stuck, is to let it Autorun overnight (see
below for details).

AUTORUN

This facility is for debugging (removing hidden errors) and for testing
demonstration titles, i.e. titles which can be distributed to demonstrate
your adventure or system. In Autorun (selectable from the Control Menu) the
system runs automatically, clicking randomly on drawings and text windows.

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As a debugging aid, set your title to Autorun and check every hour or so to
see that the system has moved on to a different part of your title. If it
appears to get stuck, quit Autorun by holding down the right mouse button
until the Control menu appears and then check that your variables have not
arrived at such a combination of values that there is no longer any exit
from the page. As Autorun selects randomly, it will eventually cover all
possible alternatives, including some that will probably not have occurred
to you.

4.7.3 Demo Titles

Backup allows you to create a backed-up title in demo-mode, which means
that on loading it will autorun automatically (and also be locked, so that
no one can get into Development mode and interfere with your work). Rather
than potentially give the whole of your adventure out as a demonstration,
you may prefer lo produce a cut-down version, which could also have the
advantage of running on one disk (whereas your full length title could be
spread over several disks).

Note that if your adventure occupies two or more disks (using Chaining),
when the Autorun reaches the Chain option, it will ask and wait for the
second disk to be inserted (or the Drive\folder to be switched) UNLESS the
to-be-chained-lo title is on the same Drive\folder.

4.7.4 Backup/statistics

The Backup facility is a means of 'compacting' your adventure, using the
disk space in the most economical way. It reclaims no-longer-used areas of
the title file and releases deleted directory entries for further use. It
also allows the directory to be enlarged if necessary. To explain, look at
Statistics, which gives out details of directory and disk space usage.

4.7.5 Statistics

If you select Statistics, you will see displayed the number of entries in
the Directory and total number of bytes used for each type of entry. The
Pages, Drawings, and Sounds, all highlight if you pass the cursor over
them, and when selected will display the number of bytes used in each
individual page, drawing or sound.

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Statistics also tells you the total file size (including the room taken up
by the directory) and the amount of room left on the disk.

4.7.6 Unused Blocks

If you have made any modifications at all in your adventure there will be
unused blocks. If an original drawing (or page or sound) uses 1000 bytes
and you then modify it, so that it now uses 1200 bytes, the modified
drawing will now be added at the end of the file, leaving 1000 free bytes.
A subsequent smaller drawing of, say, 650 bytes will be fitted into this
slot, leaving a still smaller free block of 350 bytes and so on, until no
more items can fit into this space. But there will, in all probability,
always be a few bytes left over, where nothing can fit. Over time, the file
will become more and more fragmented, with each unused block needing a
directory entry to keep track of it. The number of unused blocks is noted
on the Statistics screen, along with the total number of bytes used in
these free blocks.

4.7.7 Deletions

These items, even though deleted, are still present in the directory,
whether or no there are still references to them in your story. It is only
safe to remove them once the system has checked that there are no
references to them left; this relatively lengthy task is performed at
backup time. Any Deletions remaining after a Backup indicate that there are
still references to these items on one or more pages; use Locate Item to
uncover these references.

4.7.8 Directory Entries Used

This refers to the total number of actual entries used in your title. In
other words, Directory Entries Use is the sum of all the figures above the
line, including the number of unused blocks and deletions.

4.7.9 Current Directory Size

The initial directory size is 128 and uses up 4368 bytes. If there are less
than 64 entries left free, you will be asked by Backup if you want to
enlarge on the current size in modules of 128 up to a maximum of 1024.

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4.7.10 Backup

When you Backup a Title, the unused blocks are removed, as well as the
Deletions, provided there remain no references to the deleted items
anywhere in the title. Any items with references still present will remain
on the directory, so it is a good idea for maximum economy to check this
(using Locate Item) before doing a Backup. In this way a file size of
103433 bytes was reduced to 94160 bytes, about a 9% reduction.

4.7.11 How To Backup

Select Backup from the top development menu, and three types of Backup file
will

be offered to you:

Unlocked:
This means that, as currently, development mode is available for use.

Locked:
This means that only User mode is available, and Development mode will not
be available on the Control menu, even in Talespin. This type of file is
for commercial resale. For a completely automatic run, use an auto-loading
product to self-load and run your Title with the supplied Telltale program.

Autorun is disabled when the file is locked (i.e. Autorun         will not
appear on the Control menu), to prevent a user from selecting Autorun and
discovering how to play the game from the not-quite-random selections (it
selects from drawings with options or text windows on, even if these are
very small and might not be noticed for a long time by the user).

Demo:
This is specifically for public demonstrations of your ad-venture. The
system is locked and will Autorun on loading. As it is locked, only Autorun
is available on that Title and you cannot run it manually or go into
development mode. For a completely automatic run, use an auto-loading
product to self-load and run your Title. Use the supplied Telltale program,
having Backed-up your Title as a Demo file. When the machine is switched
on, your Title

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will automatically load and Autorun. If anyone should stop the Autorun the
only options open are to Choose Title (should there be any other Titles on
that disk) or Find a Placemarker (which you can supply, as reviewers often
prefer to jump from place to place in an adventure rather than having to
work their way through it).

4.7.12 Enlarging the Directory Size

If, on your current directory, there are 64 or less free entries left, you
will be offered the possibility of increasing the directory in size by 128.
The directory can be enlarged only in modules of 128, each module using an
extra 4368 bytes, up to a maximum of 1024 entries.

4.7.13 Completing Backup

Once you have selected the type of Backup file, you will need to name it.
If you are backing it up on to the same Drive\folder, you will need to
choose a different name from the current one; as long as you keep the .TAL
suffix, you can rename it later. The Backup file will then be saved; it
will take a little while as it will be re-writing the complete file and
checking on references to any deleted items throughout the story. Once this
has been completed, you may want to exit from the current Title and select
the backup Title to see how much space has been saved and to use it
further. Unless you wish to retain both the original file and the Backup
file on your disk (probably the case with a Demo or Locked file), you will
also need to delete the original file. BEWARE! always keep an un-locked
version of any Demo or Locked titles; failing which you will never be able
to correct any unforeseen bugs or make any changes.

PLEASE NOTE that the Backup operation requires both the source and
destination titles to be on-line simultaneously; disk-swapping is NOT
allowed. This means that if you have a double sided disk drive, you can
backup a single sided disk size adventure, having both source and
destination titles on the same disk. Alternatively, if you have 1 Megabyte
or more of memory, you could use 400K or so of it as a Ram-disk and Backup
to or from this. However, there is not enough memory available for a
RAM-disk on an unexpanded A500. If you have an A500 with one disk drive
only, Backup can only be executed with adventures using up to half the
available disk space; perhaps it's time to go and get a second disk drive?

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                            Chapter 5

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               5. Chapter 5: Writing an Adventure


Writing a full length adventure requires thought and planning. You can
start with just one page and build on that, allowing your imagination to
take over. Some writers prefer to do this and work out the sequences as
they go along. Although Talespin permits this, things can get complicated
later as choices affect previous scenes and variables. A lot of editing
will become necessary. You may also find that you are using many more
drawings and backgrounds than you need. Planning your storyline in advance
is much more efficient in time and disk space.

                    5.1 Planning an Adventure

5.1.1 The Storyline

First decide what your adventure is going to be about: the basic storyline,
the participants and what the ultimate goal will be. One way of starting is
to lay out the direct route from the beginning to the end of the adventure
(which could, for example, be a simple classical tale such as Little Red
Riding Hood) and then add in detours and sub-plots to turn a trivial story
into something more interesting. With just this example in mind, and as a
means of illustrating the creation of a more complex story, we have
included a title file called WOLF.TAL on the Program disk, which will serve
as the basis for the rest of this chapter.

Should you wish to practice writing an adventure of your own using drawings
that have already been created, you could copy WOLF.TAL on to your own disk
renaming it to something more appropriate. (Remember to use the .TAL suffix
Talespin and Telltale won't recognize a file as a Talespin title without
it.) Then delete all pages and variables from WOLF.TAL, leaving just the
drawings and sounds. After you've completed your own adventure, you can
delete any unused sounds/drawings and then Backup the title to reclaim any
unused file space. Otherwise you would have to copy each drawing separately
from the WOLF title on to your own disk. Note that all the WOLF drawings
use the default palette, so any additional drawings with different palettes
may not be compatible. If this is the case, you may have to swap some
colors around.

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                        5.2 The Wolf File

The WOLF title was originally the first test story created by Rudyard
Heaton while Talespin was still in development. The file contains all the
drawings required for a basic Red Riding Hood story with one or two
variations, such as the inclusion of an extra character, Jack, who could
change the course of events. Also, the possibility of a murderous huntsman
is introduced with the drawings HUNTSMAN BEHEADING RRH and RRH HEADLESS.
Use all these drawings to create your own version. Examples will be used
from a variation of this tale in this chapter.

5.2.1 Planning Disk Space

With any adventure you need to pay attention to using your disk space
efficiently. Otherwise you could find that you have used up a whole disk
with relatively few drawings, pages and sounds. Looking at the Statistics
screen of 'The Grail' or 'The Wolf' you will see that sounds take up the
most space. One approach would be to add sounds at the end of development
phase at appropriate places depending on how much space you have left. Of
course, this would depend on how essential sounds are to your story.

Next in terms of byte-greediness come drawings. Drawings take up far more
space than pages. Adding a drawing to a page uses only a few bytes compared
to the thousands that the drawing itself can take up. So plan your pages
carefully. Use the same drawings on many pages in different combinations.
Using one large drawing as a background may sometimes be necessary, but you
can often split it up into component parts (for example, separate houses in
a street scene) in order to be able to use the component drawings more than
once. Within a town or a house, the scenes can change drastically from one
to the other, so it is not so easy to keep on using the same drawings.
However in forests and other rural backgrounds, the same collection of
drawings can be used in many different ways to create different looking
scenes. Using the WOLF drawings, 5 different forest scenes were created,
ranging from a bright green meadow with a couple of trees to a dark and
mysterious forest. However, for the Cottage Outside and Inside scenes, full
screen drawings were used.

If the adventure is to last at all, (which 'The Wolf doesn't) it is
generally necessary to make the scenes revisitable (the player is allowed
to return to any page several times), using variables and conditions to
create different appearances and dialog according to events that may have
happened elsewhere in the story. The

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question only becomes: to what length are you prepared to go to make a page
look different on subsequent visits?

On a simpler level, in 'The Wolf, pages INSIDE COTTAGE and RRH MEETS
HUNTSMAN are re-used as the same places but with different variable values
controlling the text and drawings, depending on whether the wolf is about
to be killed, has been killed, or has been adopted as an ally. Similarly,
page SETTING OUT differs according to whether Jack has been met or not.

In bigger adventures you can have characters repeatedly returning to a
scene as in a maze, where it is easy to move in circles, or in a town where
a failure to make the best choice can result in a return to a previous
stage in the adventure.

Pages, however, apart from the text they contain, consist principally of
'pointers' to the drawings and sounds they use. Thus, they are economical
in space usage. Although it's possible, it is generally not worth while
making a page fulfill lots of different functions. The danger being that
the page becomes incomprehensible and impossible to make any changes to
without getting tangled up in knots of logic.

Limit the number of drawings of each main character that you need. Remember
that each drawing can be reversed, shrunk and palette-swapped to appear
different. For crowd scenes you can use only a few characters over and over
again. The WOLF drawings include 7 versions of the wolf, 6 of Red Riding
Hood and 5 of the huntsman.

5.2.2 Structuring the Game

Providing structure for your game consists of two parts. First the
unfolding of the game in terms of the goals achieved as shown by the values
of the different variables. And second, the sequences of pages, as in a
comic strip.

The minute-to-minute situation, to which the player must react, is
determined by what is on the screen but the actual state of gameplay, that
which determines winning or losing, is governed by unseen variables,
controlling the overall flow of the game. The interplay between these two
parts creates interest. Use too much of the former and the game will seem
superficial; too much of the latter and the game will be too abstract.

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5.2.3 Variables and Values

Variables control the action and determine whether the adventurer can win
the game. They can be used in two main ways: to determine a winning status,
and to determine the actions leading to that status. It is a good idea to
plan out the first type of variable before you start Decide which variables
are going to be the criteria for success. For example, in the WOLF tale the
criteria for success are intelligence and attractiveness, (i.e. Red Riding
Hood had to be smart to get away from the wolf and seductive to entice the
huntsman into killing him for her). The variable INTELLIGENCE was used with
values CLEVER and PATHETIC, and RRH CHARM with values APPEALING and
REJECTING.

One tip - it is also useful with characterization variables to include a
neutral value (in this case UNMEASURED and NORMAL respectively) in order to
set the variable on the START Page Entry Option. If you leave them
undefined at the START, and the game is played more than once (assuming you
include some sort of loop back to the start from the end to save the player
from having to reload the whole adventure) then the values will remain as
they were at the end of the previous game. However, if you want players to
be able to return to the beginning of the adventure without changing any
variable values, it would be best to have some other page, perhaps a title
page, called START on which the variable values could be initialized and
which could perhaps do a Page Entry Goto option to your adventure-beginning
page.

The second type of variable which determines the text, enables pages to be
revisited and controls most of the action can be planned out first You may
find the need for others to be added while you are developing the story.
The variable CONVERSATION or DIALOG, with values LEVEL 0 and up, is one
means of controlling conversations and will be essential unless you do not
intend to have any two way dialogs.

Some variables will be obvious to you before you start, others may occur to
you as you build up the page sequences. Variables with values MET and NOT
MET or PRESENT and NOT PRESENT are useful for revisiting pages and
determining whether drawings of accompanying characters appear or not; also
variables with values DEAD and NOT DEAD (as with the WOLF drawings) where
various endings or branchings are possible depending on who is dead!

Other useful variable values can be SEEN and NOT SEEN for hidden objects,
OBTAINED and NOT OBTAINED for objects or qualities necessary to win the
game. In a maze, the variable FROM is useful. What happens next can be
dependent on

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which page the hero/heroine has just come from.  This entails a fair amount
of setting up on all the possible 'came-from' pages, though.

5.2.4  Outlining the Pages

At this stage there are two ways of implementing your adventure:

A. Sketching in all the Pages first, with rough drawings and skeletal text.

B. Completing each Page in its entirety before moving on to the next.

The first method is more professional, in the sense that it implies that
you have a complete grasp of the whole story in the abstract, just as a
professional programmer should have an abstract overview of the system
before attempting to write any of the code in detail.  This system is more
likely to produce a bug free story and will be more economical and precise
in its mechanics. Some professionals, however, in any creative field
(including computer programming) prefer to use the second method as it is
more flexible and allows for more spontaneity.  This way of creating is
more concrete and detailed initially.  It is more immediate.  You can see
some results almost at once, and as such is more satisfying.   But it does
require a lot more editing and having to remember or take note of details
that have to be added later.  It is more prone to error and you will find
yourself abandoning work that you spent many hours on as you find it no
longer fits in!

                   5.3  The Scientific Method

If you use the Scientific Method, a flow chart is helpful.  Start with a
simple chart indicating which pages will go where, and expand it late.
Later, include a chart of how the variables change and where.  With a maze,
a diagram is essential.  Otherwise even you will get lost.

Assuming you have drawn up a flow chart, start by creating all the
necessary pages. Obviously if you are using the WOLF file you only need to
add the appropriate drawings to each page, just the character drawings and
something as a background screen.  If you're starting from scratch, just
sketch in outlines of the characters and very basic backgrounds, enough to
be able to distinguish one page from another.

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On those pages which will have conditional drawings, put all of them on the
page, so you can see clearly where to add the conditions.

5.3.1 Variables

You now have all the pages in skeleton form, so you can now organize your
variables. Use your flow chart to decide which variables and values will be
necessary for the action. You may find it useful at this stage to draw up a
second flow chart showing which variables are set to various values at
different stages.

5.3.2 Building up the Pages

With the complete plan at your disposal you can now build up each page in
its entirety, starting with the drawing conditions. Add the text, text
conditions and options for each set of conditional drawings. Then alter the
necessary variable for any other conditional drawings to appear on the
page, and complete the text and so forth for these.

Alternatively, on pages with several drawing conditions you can add all the
text, text conditions and options on all the drawings and only add the
drawing conditions afterwards, so you don't have to keep changing the
variables to work with a different drawing. With complicated pages, you may
find it helpful to draw up a plan of the page so you don't leave anything
out. That way you can see at a glance what needs to be done.

Keep track of what you are doing on your variable flow chart, expanding it
if necessary. Test each page and then the whole story. Finally, perfect the
drawings and layout of the pages. Note that if you REPLACE a drawing, the
text attached to the first drawing will reappear on the second drawing. If
you don't want the same text REMOVE the first drawing and then ADD the
second drawing.

                     5.4 The Artist's Method

As mentioned before, this method is more immediate, and requires less
forethought and patience. The tricky work comes later fitting all the
pieces together. This is the method used in Chapter 3 describing in detail
how to create a mini 3 page story. The longer the adventure, the greater
the need to pre-plan, so this method is more suited to shorter adventures.

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Start with the first page. Add the desired drawings from 'The Wolf' or
create your own. Create the variables you have decided on so far, and add
in the texts, conditions and options as far as you can. You will not be
able to add in any Go To Page options as the pages ahead have not been
created yet. Make a note of which ones to add in later. Then carry on with
the next page of the story, creating any new variables or values where
necessary. As you go on you may find it helpful to draw out a flowchart to
show the variables and conditions that you have created so far, noting in
red the items you need to add in later. It's probably easier with this
method to stop after every few pages and go back to put in the Go To Page
options and any new variables, values, or Set Variable options, than to
wait until the end.

Continue through the story, going back to previous pages as indicated on
your flow chart and adding in any new items, sculpting the adventure into a
form you like as you progress. Where a page 'becomes' revisitable and you
add in different drawings with conditions to handle the subsequent visits,
make sure that you add conditions on to the original set of drawings as
well, so that they disappear to make way for the new set. Make sure that
the Page Entry options are set correctly. If the page is highly
complicated, it might help to make an outline of it.

5.4.1 Sounds

Finally add in the sounds, either from the Library files, or make your own
if you have A.M.A.S. Check your disk to make sure you have enough space.

                        5.5 Final Testing

The best type of testing is to get a friend to play the game. Even better
is to get several friends to play. Different people will react differently,
and what may be obvious to one may not be so to the others. Avoid prompting
them. Watching their mistakes is much more useful than having them solve
the adventure quickly.

Testing every possible combination of circumstances is a long process.
Autorun can help (see previous chapter for details) as it plays at random,
and will (at least in theory) eventually play every possible combination.
Your task is then to check every so often that the game has not gotten
locked in a loop (the same few pages endlessly repeating) or stuck on the
same page. If the system does appear to be bogged down, go into Development
mode and prove to yourself that there is an exit from the situation. It may
just be so improbable a combination of choices that it would take the
random selector 100 years to hit on it. For example, if on three

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connected pages you have five texts of which only one gets you to the next
page (and all the other choices return you to the first page), then it will
on average take 125 purely random attempts at the whole thing to get
through.

                    5.6 Running Out of Space

It can sometimes happen that you run out of space unexpectedly in the
middle of an operation - for example, you cannot copy a sound, or worse,
you have made changes to a page, but cannot move on to another page or exit
from the page at all without losing the changes. In such a situation,
losing your last changes may be inevitable. Keep a running check on the
space left on the disk you are using and the space left in the title
directory. Statistics gives details of both of these.

If you do find yourself without disk space, see if there are any files you
can delete or copy to another disk. If this fails, you may have to consider
restructuring your story to fit onto two or more disks, using Chain to go
from one to the other.

This is not a trivial change, as chaining is equivalent to loading a new
title and takes a little while. The space gained is only partial as any
drawings that you want in both parts of the adventure must be present in
BOTH titles. Chaining is best employed at decisive 'breaks' in the story,
from which no return to previous stages is expected. If you have run out of
'directory' space, you can expand or reclaim this by executing Backup (see
previous chapter for details). Incidentally, this will also reduce the
title file size if it contains any unused space.

                 5.7 Large/Commercial Adventures

When writing an adventure for commercial purposes, plan the use of your
disk space carefully. A commercial adventure will need to be sent out with
TELLTALE on the disk, which takes up 50K of memory.

For larger titles with two or more disks, you can either put the first part
of the adventure on the first disk along with TELLTALE, and then chain to
the second disk and so on. OR, you can create a START Title with a page of
titles and credits on the TELLTALE disk and automatically chain to the
second disk (via a Page Entry option). This will allow a START page to show
on the screen while the second disk is loading. At the end of the second
disk, you could always chain back to the TELL-

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TALE disk, to a third title, to complete the adventure.  (The commercial
release of "The Grail" was done this way).

The point to emphasize is that you need to design in your 'chain' breaks
from the start.  Each disk is self-contained, chaining transfers only the
variables and values from one disk to the other.  So, having chained, you
cannot then return to a previous page without reloading the first disk.
Decide on a place to break the story so that the first part is complete and
cannot be returned to, or recreate any necessary previous pages on the
second disk.  Unless you have already added them, remember to  keep enough
space on each disk for any sound effects.

5.7.1  Demos

To send out a demo, Backup your story in Demo mode, either full length, or
as a shortened version.

5.7.2  Quick & Aborted Title Loading

To abort loading a title in Tailspin (not Telltale) or simply to save time
on loading, you may press the Right mouse button while the title is
loading.  This aborts the pre-loading of drawings and sounds and the title
will finish loading much more quickly.  At this point, no page will show,
just a blank screen with the control menu. You can either load another
title, or, if you switch to Development Mode, you can then use Turn to Page
to load the page you want.  This does mean, however, that on machines with
more than 512K of memory, the transition from one page to the other will
take a little longer as all drawings and sounds have to be loaded as each
Go to Page option is executed.  On smaller memory machines, where there
wasn't enough memory to load many of the drawings or sounds anyway, it
doesn't make that much difference.

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                            Chapter 6

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              6. Chapter 6: Other Uses of Talespin

As well as being a games development system, Talespin has many more uses in
the fields of business, industry and education. It can be used for any
application requiring inter-linked graphics and text (and sound), but its
main advantage lies in the fact that Talespin can be used by
non-programmers. Experts in their own field (along with a graphic artist if
necessary) can design demonstrations or teaching applications without
requiring a professional programmer. At the other end of the scale it is
easy enough for children to use (a 7 year old has created a simple three
page space story with just a little help), which opens up many
opportunities in the field of education.

Some possible uses for Talespin could be:

Sales
Example: To Illustrate the Features of a Car A demonstration such as this
could be displayed in a showroom for potential customers, either
Auto-running to advertise the various features, or allowing interested
customers to choose the items about which they'd like to know more. It
could be done in the following way:

Create a drawing of the car in skeletal form, and then create further
drawings of the different pans of the car, the hood, trunk, doors, wheels,
and so forth. 11 is necessary to have the different drawings fitted
together rather than one large drawing, so as to be able to add text to
individual parts of the car. Then add appropriate text to each part with
perhaps a Go to Page option to a further page for more details, or a Go to
Page option could be added directly to the part drawing itself without any
intervening text.

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These further pages would consist of that particular car part in greater
detail and explanatory text; for example, a view of the engine in which
once again each part could either yield information or lead on to further
pages. Additionally, if full sized drawings of each part were made, then
the 'assembled' versions could be built from reduced instances of each of
the drawings.

In this way the design of a car could be unfolded on the screen, either
using Demo mode (Auto-run) so that the sequence can run automatically in a
showroom, or 'locked' mode requiring a user to click on highlighted texts.

Training
This example could be expanded further to include a teaching element. As in
adventure titles, the system can ask questions and offer multiple choice
answers. An answer, when clicked on, would go to another page (by adding a
Go to Page option to that text), which would illustrate the answer (right
or wrong), offer explanatory text, and so on. By using variables and
conditions the user's progress can be charted, and he or she would only be
given the possibility of advancing to a higher level, once the previous
level had been satisfactorily completed. This can be assessed by having
various grades of values attached to the variables used to chart this
progress (for example a variable ACHIEVEMENT could have the values 1- 5 or
A to E perhaps, with 5 or E signaling [he completion of this level), the
values being upgraded by putting in a Set Variable to Value option when the
right answer to a question has been selected. At the end of this section a
condition would be added to the text with an op- tion which offers
advancement, so that it only appears if the value of that variable has
reached the highest grade.

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Servicing
A similarly structured title could graphically illustrate part numbers,
allowing servicing personnel to quickly ar- rive at the level of detail
required. Additionally, any changes can be easily made and distributed on a
single re-usable floppy disk, obviating the need for expensive print runs.
The sound facilities of Talespin could be useful in servicing many kinds of
electronic equipment, which emit different 'beeps' to signal different
states. Talespin could actually create the sound, far superior to trying to
describe it in words! Talespin can also handle the language barrier, as a
simple variable LANGUAGE could be used as a condition to select texts in
the corresponding language.

Education
To Teach any Subject

In schools Talespin would be an efficient and fun way of teaching children,
and not just about computers!

In fact Talespin could be used to design teaching applications in any
subject, history, geography, maths etc. To take a simple example in
mathematics, a sequence for teaching the four basic skills would consist of
four pages, one for adding, one for subtracting, one for multiplying and
one for dividing. On each page there would be many small drawings or icons,
each one with a multi-choice question on the drawing text in ascending
order of difficulty.

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Initially, only one text would be available. The next text would only
appear once the first question had been successfully answered. This could
be achieved using a variable (say QUESTION) and values (LEVEL 1,2, 3 and so
on) and text conditions in the same way that the variable CONVERSATION was
used as an example in the earlier chapters to create two way dialogues.
[i.e. by putting a text condition on the first text so that it only appears
if variable QUESTION is value LEVEL 1 (having set QUESTION to LEVEL 1 as a
Page Entry option), and then setting variable QUESTION to LEVEL 2 on the
text with the correct answer, and so on with all the drawing texts until
the final question was answered successfully).]

A wrong answer could have a Go to Page option, going to an 'Adding Error'
page with an ERROR icon which, when clicked on, would inform the pupil of
this fact and then return him or her (via another Go to Page option) to the
original ADDING page.

Having completed a page of adding, a Go to Page option on the final
successful answer would send the pupil to the second page called
SUBTRACTING. At the same time a Set Variable to Value option could record
the pupil's progress. A variable ADDING LEARNT, initially set to NOT
ACHIEVED could at this point be set to ACHIEVED; additional variables for
each of the four pages would be set in the same way once the pupil had
completed each page.

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A final 'score' of the pages successfully completed in a certain time could
be presented in the following way: add an extra drawing on each page to
indicate the time, maybe a clock, which will be clicked on when the lesson
is over. Add a Go to option to this 'clock' to go to a final page which
would present the 'results'. This could be done in several ways with texts
(stating Adding Learned, Multiplying Learned, etc.) or drawings
(symbolizing these skills, or as a bar chart), the appearance of the text
or drawing being conditional on the different variables ADDING LEARNED,
DIVIDING LEARNED, etc. having been set to value ACHIEVED during the lesson.
The amount learnt can be broken down into smaller levels using different
values (QUARTER LEARNED, HALF LEARNED, THREE QUARTERS LEARNED, etc.).

To Teach Computers
This is just a simple example to give you an idea of how Talespin could be
useful to teach any subject, although its most obvious use is in teaching
computer technology itself.

In teaching computer or information technology, although not all pupils
will actually learn how to program, most will learn about the technological
age we live in, the part that computers play in it, and will have the
opportunity to use a computer. Talespin offers a wide range of
possibilities for teaching the logic and design of computers in a
non-technological way which will be fun for those not interested in
learning a programming language. Designing a Talespin system only involves
clicking the mouse on windows and texts (the only typing necessary is to
name pages, drawings, variables etc) and is easy to pick up. A beginner can
make a couple of simple shape drawings and create a page fairly rapidly,
producing a quick, visible result, which always aids motivation! The logic
of adding texts and options is easy to understand, as are the concepts of
variables and values when they are put into context.

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Once the pupil has grasped the basic logic of a simple sequence of pages,
he or she can start designing his or her own project.  The student will
discover through experience the logical way in which computers work (for
example, it is necessary to set a conversation type of variable to LEVEL 0
at the entry to a page, (in case it had reached LEVEL 3 on a previous
page), as the system won't automatically 'remember' this fact).  This
'project' can expand to a highly sophisticated system, useful in his own
right, as well as an easy, efficient and fun way of finding out how
computers work!

Conclusion
These are only a few general ideas for other uses of Tailspin.  This system
has many other, more specialized uses, which will become apparent as its
availability spreads to experts in different fields of knowledge.

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                            Chapter 7

                               103

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                 7. Chapter 7: Reference Section

In this chapter the items on the Control Menu, the Development Menu, and
the Drawing Menu (in that order) are listed, with a brief description, as
they appear on each menu. For alphabetical location of these items, see the
index.

                        7.1 Control Menu

This is a list of all the possible operations in 'User' mode (as opposed to
Development mode). If Talespin has been loaded, all the operations are
available. If Telltale has been loaded, the following three operations do
not appear on the Menu - Create New Title, Switch to Development Mode and
Autorun. If the title is 'locked', Switch to Development Mode and Autorun
are not available.

Choose & Load Title
This will select and load (or re-load) a Title from the current drive or
folder. You may have a choice of one only or of several.

Note that any title called START.TAL will be automatically loaded when
either Talespin or Telltale is first run.

Create New Title [not in Telltale]
Requests the new title name and takes you directly to Development mode -
see Chapters 3 & 4.

Set Placemarker at this Page
Placemarkers enable you to save your place at any point in any title, for
instance, while playing an adventure such as 'The Grail'.

If you click on this item you will be asked for a file name under which to
save your current position to disk. Type in a name and press return. This
will set your place at this page. [Clicking outside the window will cancel
this operation.]

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Find Placemarker
This will list all placemarkers on the current drive\folder. Clicking on
one of them will return you to the place in the game at which the
placemarker was saved. You will receive a warning message should the
placemarker not 'belong' to the currently loaded title. In other words, it
was saved from another title.

Erase Placemarker from this Disk
Use this to clear out any placemarkers that you no longer require. Click on
the name of the file to remove.

Select Drive\Folder
This operation is especially applicable if you have a second disk drive
(DF1) hard disk (DH0), or a Ram disk. Here it allows you to select a
different drive or folder for loading a title or finding and setting
placemarkers.

Switch to Development Mode
Once a title is loaded, provided it is not 'locked' ('read only'),  you may
go into Development mode to investigate, make changes or browse through the
drawings and sounds when the title is used as a Library file. You will see
a different Control Menu. For details of the menu in Development mode see
below.

Autorun
This mode allows a story to be played automatically, making random
selections. It can be used either to view the 'Demo' mode or for testing.
It is not available with Telltale, or if the title is 'locked'. To stop
Autorun, hold the right hand button down until the Control Menu appears.
For full details see Chapter 4.

Help
This will give you Help messages relating to the Control Menu containing
most of this information. It is mainly intended to assist users of
Telltale. Click outside the window to cancel.

End Session
Click here if you wish to stop playing or developing. Click on the
highlighted Confirm End Session message to return to the Desktop screen. If
you have clicked on End Session in error, just click outside the window to
cancel the operation.

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                  7.2 The Development Mode Menu

In Development Mode, you may make changes to existing titles and expand new
titles. At the top of the menu is the name of the title and the current
page. Although file names are limited in length to only eight characters,
all other names in Talespin may be up to 64 characters long.

Drawing Definition
There are several ways of defining drawings in your Title:

1. Create New Drawing and use the Talespin drawing facilities. See below
   under the separate section 'Drawing Menu' for details of these.

2. Modify Drawing to make changes to an existing drawing.

3. Copy Drawing from this Title. You may give it a new name and make
   changes to it, leaving the original drawing unchanged. This is useful
   for drawings that are similar.

4. Copy Drawing from Another Title (such as 'The Wolf', 'The Grail',
   'Start' or 'Alphabet'). If the title is on another disk, insert that
   disk first before you select this operation. You will be asked to select
   a title and drawing in turn. When you have selected the drawing to be
   copied, you will be asked to replace your original disk in the drive. If
   the drawing is on a disk in a different drive, switch the drive using
   Select Drive\Folder from the Drawing Definition Menu before clicking on
   Copy Drawing from Another Title. You may then modify the drawing in the
   usual way. Note that the system will save the drawing under the same
   name as it had on the other title. You are only asked for a new name if
   the existing one is in use.

5. Import Picture - Refer to the next entry.

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6. Import Picture. Providing you have an already created an uncompressed
   low-resolution file, you may import it using the 'import' operation. It
   works in much the same way as the 'Copy from other Title' operation,
   only you don't get asked for a title name. Note that the number of bytes
   used will be reduced considerably when it is imported into your Talespin
   title, as Talespin 'compacts' all drawings. This file will still however
   remain on the disk, so you will probably find it useful to delete it
   when you have ended a session and returned to the desktop.

   A note about Palettes: you may well find that the palettes of the
   drawings being copied or imported will not be compatible with the rest
   of the page upon which they are to be used, so you will have to adjust
   the colors using Swap Selected Color (see below). The first and last
   palette entries are always reserved in Talespin for black and white
   respectively. If Talespin finds that these palette entries are not as
   expected, it will set them to black and white respectively, and inform
   you of this fact, giving you the opportunity to abort the import.

7. Rename drawing. This allows you to change the name of a drawing
   throughout a title. Used, for example, when you created a drawing LITTLE
   GIRL only to find out later it was really MATURE WOMAN. Note that you
   cannot rename a drawing to a name that has been deleted (see next
   entry).

8. Delete drawing. Removes a drawing permanently from a title. However, as
   references to that drawing may still exist on various pages, the deleted
   drawing will nevertheless remain as a directory entry until the title is
   Backed up (see below under Backup). For this reason the system will not
   allow you to rename a drawing to the name of a deleted drawing (use a
   different name). [You may re-create a deleted drawing, and, if required,
   rename it to something else in order to 'liberate' the desired name.]

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9. Select Drive\folder.  Used to select a different drive or folder from
   the current one; in this case, for copying drawings from different
   places.

Page Definition
Pages are the basic units of Tailspin.  Note that if a page called START
exists on a title, then this page will be displayed immediately whenever
the title is loaded.  The operations possible on whole pages are:

1. Create New Page.  This creates a blank page with no drawings and
   returns you to the Development menu ready to add in drawings etc.

2. Copy Page.  This allows the duplicating of whole pages in the current
   title.  You are asked for the new page name. Note that a copied page
   will retain the text conditions and operations of the original page.

3. Rename Page.  This allows you to subsequently change the name of a page.
   Note that if you delete a page the system will not allow you to rename a
   page to the deleted name as it is still on the Directory (see also
   Backup below).  You can recreate another page with the same name.  With
   most pages, you can just use another name; but with a START page which
   is automatically loaded, this may not be possible.  The solution is to
   create a new START page, rename it to something else and then delete it,
   so that the name START is now available.  You can then rename your
   chosen page to START.

4. Delete Page.  Completely removes a page from the title.

Sound Definition
This menu is used to load sounds into your title.  Tailspin itself has no
facilities for recording sounds since special hardware is required for this
(e.g A.M.S. from MicroDeal). The operations in this menu are:

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1. Copy Sound from Another Title (e.g. The Grail or The Wolf). If the title
   is on another disk, insert that disk first before you select this
   operation. You will be asked to select a tide and sound in turn. When
   you have selected the sound to be copied, you will be asked to reinsert
   your original disk. If the sound is on a disk in a different drive,
   switch the drive using Select Drive\Folder from the Sound Definition
   Menu before clicking on Copy Sound from Another Title. Note that the
   system will save the sound under the same name as it had on the other
   title. You are only asked for a new name if the existing one is in use.

2. Import Sound File. If you have some IFF sound sample files you can
   incorporate these samples into your title. If the file is on another
   disk, insert the new disk (or switch the drive if the disk is on another
   drive) before selecting Import Sound File. You will be asked to
   re-insert the current disk if it is necessary. Talespin will save the
   sound under the same name as the base name of the file, querying you
   only if this name is already in use.

3. Play Sound. This allows you to hear any of the sounds present on the
   current tide without going to the trouble of putting a Play Sound option
   on a page first. It asks you for the speed (in Kilohertz) at which to
   replay the sound. For correct reproduction, this should be the same
   frequency as that at which the sound was originally sampled. Other
   frequencies may be used to create special effects.

4. Rename Sound. This allows you to change the name of a sound throughout a
   title.

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5. Delete Sound Removes a sound permanently from a title. However, as
   references to that sound may still exist on various pages, the deleted
   sound will nevertheless remain as a directory entry until the title is
   Backed up (see below under Backup): for this reason the system will not
   allow you to rename a sound to the name of a deleted sound. [You may
   however re-import or copy a deleted sound, and rename it to something
   else in order to 'liberate' the desired name.]

6. Select Drive\folder. Used to select a different drive or folder from the
   current one; in this case, for copying sounds from different places.

Variable Definition
This menu is used to define variables and their values. They are used to
control whether or not drawings and text appear on a page.

The possible operations on this menu are as follows:

1. Create New Variable. You will be asked for a name for the variable (up
   to 64 characters long) and then the system will ask you for any possible
   values that this variable may have. Note that in Talespin variable
   values are words, such as HOT and COLD, not numbers; they therefore must
   be explicitly defined. Click outside the window when all the values you
   currently require have been entered, which will return you to the
   Variable Definition menu. [Right clicking takes you back to the
   Development menu.] Note that when a variable is created, along with its
   possible values, the variable will remain 'undefined' (not set to any
   particular value) until it is explicitly set to a value using either
   List/set Variables or a Set Variable to Value option.

2. Rename Variable. Use this to change the name of a variable throughout
   the title. Note that you cannot rename a variable to a name that has
   been deleted (see entry below).

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3. Delete Variable. Use this to remove a variable from the title. However,
   as references to that variable may still exist on various pages, the
   deleted variable will nevertheless remain as a directory entry until the
   title is Backed up (see below under Backup). For this reason, the system
   will not allow you to rename a variable to the name of a deleted
   variable. You may however recreate a deleted variable, and then rename
   it to something else in order to 'liberate' the desired name.

4. Add New Value. Used to add extra values to a variable, after that
   variable was initially created. The system will ask you to select the
   relevant variable and then to enter the new value. You are offered the
   opportunity of adding as many new values as you wish, until you click
   outside the window to return to the Variable Definition menu.

5. Rename Value. Use this to rename a value throughout the title. You will
   be asked to first select the variable to which the value belongs and
   then the value itself. See under 'Delete Variable' above for remarks
   about re-using deleted names.

6. Delete Value. This removes a value permanently from the title. See
   'Delete Variable' above for remarks about re-using deleted names.

Turn to Other Page
This is a way of manually moving from one page to another. If you have
altered anything on the first page, the system will query whether you want
to discard the changes made to that page: click OUTSIDE the window to save
the page with the changes; clicking ON the window throws the changes away.

                               112

Add Drawing to this Page
Select the drawing to be added. Once the drawing has appeared on the page,
you may immediately move it by passing the mouse over the drawing, holding
the mouse button down and moving the mouse to where you want the drawing to
go. An outline will follow the mouse and when you release the button, the
drawing will be recreated in that position. [This is because the Add
Drawing operation puts you straight into 'Move Selected Drawing' Cursor
mode.] You may add up to 64 drawings to a page, including the same drawing
several times over if you wish. Note that the palette of the first drawing
added to a page is adopted by the page.

Modify Page Palette
There are three ways of modifying the colors on a page:

1. Copy Whole Palette from Other Page or Other Drawing. Note that any
   palette entries which are BLACK (color 000) on the other page or drawing
   will not be copied across, leaving the corresponding palette entry on
   the current page untouched. This allows you to combine partial palettes
   from different drawings onto the one page, by setting the unused parts
   of each drawing's palette to BLACK.

2. Make Selected Color More Red, Less Red, More Green, Less Green, More
   Blue, Less Blue. Select the color on the palette you wish to change and
   then make it less blue, more red etc one step at a time. Note that the
   color on the page will change at the same time as on the palette so you
   can immediately judge the effect. There are 15 shades of each of red,
   green and blue as well as a zero level for each, which, combined, form
   the color palette of the Amiga. These levels are shown as the 'RGB'
   (Red, Green, Blue) value; this helps in accurate color selection.

3. Set Background Color. This allows the background to be set to a color
   other than black; this color will show through any first-palette-entry
   BLACK (i.e. transparent) parts of any drawings on the page. Click on the
   desired color before selecting Set Background Color.

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Page Entry Options
These are used to set up conditions or create effects immediately when a
page is loaded, using 'options'.

An option is an action used to set a variable to a value, go to another
page, play a sound or 'chain ' to a different title and page (for stories
spread across more than one disk/title): an option can be executed on a
text or drawing as well as at the entry to a page. [You may have up to a
maximum of 128 options on a page.]

The possible operations here are:

1. Add/Replace Page Entry Option. Used to set one or more options to be
   executed on entry to a page, i.e. each time that page is loaded. It
   'replaces' rather than 'adds' when it doesn't make sense to have two
   separate options. For instance, you can't go to more than one page, or
   set a particular variable to more than one value. Likewise, you can only
   have one of Chain or Go to Page, not both; thus adding in a Chain will
   replace any previous Go to Page (or Chain). For Sounds, the order (if
   there is more than one) is all-important; the system therefore asks you
   where to 'insert' any additional sound: there is no replacing.

2. Remove Page Entry Option. This removes an option from the entry to a
   page. If you wish to replace a variable in a Set Variable to Value
   option with a different variable or to replace a sound on a Sound
   option, it is necessary to remove the previous variable or sound, and
   add in the new one separately..

3. List Page Entry Options. This lists out the page entry options present
   on this page.

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Restart Page
Used to execute Page-Entry options without having to leave the page and
come back to it; useful for testing the page. As with all options in
Development mode, the system will list the options and query execution.
This operation also mimics the normal loading of a page (in Development
mode). It checks that all the drawings on a page that should be visible are
displayed. If drawings are displayed which should not be displayed you can
remove them from the page. The system also checks at this point for
sufficient memory available to hold all the sounds on the page. This is
necessary in order to be able to play them immediately if required.

List Drawing Conditions
This lists all the drawings on the page, whether currently visible or not,
together with any conditions governing their appearance. If you want to
alter something on a drawing that only appears under certain circumstances,
this facility is useful for finding out how to make it appear (which
variables to alter to which value (using List/Set Variable, see below)).

A condition is a test of the kind 'If variable is/is not value' or a
probability factor, used to control the appearance of a drawing, sound or
text.

List Drawing Options This lists all drawings on the page together with any
options that will be executed if the drawing is clicked on.

7.2.1 Cursor Mode

The entries under Cursor Mode are all used to determine what happens when
you next click on a drawing (in other words, nothing happens until you do
subsequently click on a drawing); they determine the effect that the cursor
has.

Normal
This mode is used for testing pages. It operates in the same way as in
'user' mode (i.e. after leaving Development Mode) except that the system
queries any options, enabling you to test a page without having to execute
every option.

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Move Selected Drawing
Click on the drawing to be moved. Holding down the button, move it to the
desired position and then release the button. An outline follows the mouse
movement and the whole picture is recreated in the new position once the
button is released.

Swap Selected Color
Use this operation to swap colors around on a drawing as necessary; perhaps
to make several instances of the same drawing appear different. Point the
cursor at the color on a drawing that you wish to change; then click on the
color on the palette that you want to change it to. All the areas on that
one drawing having the first color will now change to the second color.
Should things get too confused, you can always click on 'Reset to Original
State'. Click outside the window to cancel the operation.

Replace/Remove Drawing
Removing a drawing removes it from this page only: it still remains in the
title file for use with other pages. [Use Delete Drawing in the Drawing
Definition Menu to remove a drawing permanently .] Replacing a drawing has
the advantage that the new drawing retains the associated texts and options
of the previous drawing, whereas these would be lost if the first drawing
were removed. To cancel the operation, click outside the window.

Shrink/Reverse Drawing
On clicking on a drawing, you will see a chart of possible reductions
measured in percentages for Height and Width independently . Move the
cursor over the desired percentage for height and click - do the same for
the width (unless you want a distorted reduction). To make a drawing face
the other way, i.e. left instead of right, select 'Reverse'. Then click on
Execute Selection; clicking outside the window (as everywhere else in
Talespin) cancels the operation.

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Change Drawing Order
This changes the order of the drawings, that is, which drawing is in front
of which. This order is determined initially by the order in which the
drawings are added to the page, later drawings appearing in front of
previous ones. Click on a drawing and its current position will be
indicated on a chart with the drawings at the front of the page appearing
higher up the chart. Click on the drawing in front of which you wish the
selected drawing to now appear; or outside the window to cancel the
operation.

Drawing Conditions/Options
This allows for the placing of conditions and options directly on drawings,
i.e. with no text intervening.

A condition is a test of a variable, value, or a probability factor used to
control the appearance of a drawing, sound or text [You may have up to a
maximum of 128 drawing conditions on a page.]

An option is an action used to set a variable to a value, go to another
page, play a sound or 'chain' to a different title and page (for stories
spread across more than one disk/title): an option can be executed on a
text and at the entry to a page as well as on a drawing. [You may have up
to a maximum of 128 options on a page.]

The possible operations are as follows:

1. Add Drawing Condition. You will be asked the type of condition to add,
   but note that on adding any additional conditions, it is necessary to
   'integrate' the new condition in with the existing ones. First you will
   be asked the position at which to insert the new condition, and then how
   to combine it logically with the one before it. ' AND ' means both
   conditions must be met, while 'OR' means either will suffice for the
   drawing to appear. Where there are many conditions, with mixed ANDs and
   ORs, the ANDs bind tighter, i.e. take precedence.

2. Remove Drawing Condition. This removes a condition from a drawing. To
   alter a condition, you need to remove it first and then add a new one
   (using Add Drawing Condition).

                               117

3. List Drawing Conditions. This lists any conditions present on this
   drawing.

4. Add/Replace Drawing Option. Use this to add an option to a drawing. It
   also can be used to replace a value on a Set Variable to Value option
   (for the same variable), or to replace a Go to Page or Chain option. For
   sounds, the order of execution is significant; for any additional
   sounds, the system asks you where to 'insert' the new sound.

5. Remove Drawing Option. This removes an option from a drawing. If you
   wish to replace a variable in a Set Variable to Value option with a
   different variable or to replace a sound on a Sound option, it is
   necessary, to remove the previous variable or sound, and add in the new
   one separately.

6. List Drawing Options. This lists out the options added to this drawing.

Text Operations
This handles all aspects of adding, editing and removing Text on drawings,
along with any conditions and options on those texts. Note that the total
of all text on a page may not exceed 6K (6144) characters, spread among a
maximum of 64 individual text entries.

A condition is a test of the kind 'If variable is/is not value' or a
probability factor, used to control the appearance of a drawing, sound or
text [You may have up to a maximum of 128 text conditions on a page.]

The Text Operations are as follows:

1. Add Text Entry. Use this to enter new text and then press Return. A
   drawing may have several text entries, each created by separate uses of
   this operation - each one is an indivisible whole, and any options or
   conditions added to it, will apply to the whole of that one text entry:
   for individually selectable options, use separate text entries.

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2. Edit Text Entry. Use this to edit a text entry or to check all of the
   text entered on a drawing without altering anything. You will be asked
   to select the text to edit. Note that at all times text is automatically
   'wrapped', fitting as many words onto each line as possible.

3. Remove Text Entry. This removes a text entry from the drawing. You will
   be asked to select the text to remove.

4. Add Text Condition. You will be asked to select a text, and then the
   type of condition to be added. Note that on adding any additional
   conditions, it is necessary to 'integrate' the new condition in with the
   existing ones; so first you will be asked the position at which to
   insert the new condition, and then how to combine it logically with the
   one before it 'AND' means both conditions must be met, while 'OR' means
   either will suffice for the drawing to appear. Where there are many
   conditions, with mixed ANDs and Ors, the ANDs bind tighter, i.e. take
   precedence.

5. Remove Text Condition. This removes a condition from a text To alter a
   text condition, you need to remove the previous condition and then to
   add a new one (using Add Text Condition).

6. List Text Conditions. This lists all the text present on the selected
   drawing (abbreviated) along with any conditions.

7. Add/Replace Text Option. Use this to add an option to a text. It works
   also to replace a value on a Set Variable to Value option (for the same
   variable), or to replace a Go to Page or Chain option. [These types of
   options are replaced as any one variable can only be set to one value at
   a time, and only one Go to Page or Chain option can be executed at any
   one time. Many different sounds may be played or different variables set
   however.] For sounds, the order of execution is significant; for any
   additional sounds, the system asks you where to ' insert' the new sound.

                               119

8. Remove Text Option. This removes an option from a text. If you wish to
   replace a variable in a Set Variable to Value option or to replace a
   sound on a Sound option, it is necessary to remove the previous variable
   or sound, and add in the new one separately.

9. List Text Options. This lists out all the text present on the selected
   drawing (abbreviated) along with any options.

List/Set Variables
Used to manually change variable values (i.e. without executing an option).
For example, to affect the outcome of a drawing condition, in order to
render visible a previously invisible drawing. Use the List Drawing
Conditions operation (above) to find out which variable values have what
effect. Select the variable; and then the required value. Note that these
manually set values are not in any way 'saved' by the system, and unless
specific options exist explicitly setting variables to particular values,
the variable values will be found to be 'undefined' next time the title is
loaded.

Locate Item
Used to find references to any page, drawing, sound, variable or value, as
well as any deleted items, throughout the title: lists pages on which item
was found. Note that just because a variable, drawing, etc. has been
created, it may not have been used on any page as yet; in which case it
will not show up using this operation.

Statistics
Gives details of the file space usage of the current title, including
remaining directory space, unused blocks on the file, and deletions. Also
gives the sizes of individual drawings, pages and sounds (when you click on
that item).

                               120

Backup
Copies the title to a new file, clearing out unused blocks and
no-longer-referred-to deletions and expanding the directory size if
necessary.  Also allows the new file to be 'locked' (making it 'read-only',
i.e. Development mode is no longer available) or 'demo' (auto-runs on
loading, for demonstrations).  Both source and destination files must be
on-line simultaneously.  Disk-swapping is not possible.

Quit Development Mode
Returns you to user mode.  Right-click for the main system menu.

                        7.3  Drawing Menu

This menu is brought down by selecting Create New Drawing or Modify Drawing
from the Development Menu or by clicking on the window which gives you the
option of modifying a copied or imported drawing.

Pencil
Draws dots and lines a single pixel (dot) wide; used for detailed work and
outlining shapes.

Spray & Minispray
These two facilities give a sprayed effect - for example, for shading in
trees or a person's hair.  The longer you hold down the mouse button the
more the area defined by the brush gets filled in; moving the cursor at
different speeds gives different densities of spray.

Line
This facility is for drawing straight lines.  Here the center of the cursor
is used to give the start and end points and assists in accuracy.  Press
the left button to indicate the start of the line and move the mouse to
where you wish the line to end.  You will see a line being drawn. Release
the button when the line is the desired length and angle; this 'fixes' it.
For a horizontal or vertical line, make sure the line is absolutely
straight with no 'kinks' in it before releasing the button.  The Undo
facility will erase the whole of any line just created.

                               121

Fill
This fills an area of the screen with the currently selected color. Move
the Fill cursor until the tip is inside the area to be filled and click:
the Fill color will spread to all adjacent dots of the same color as that
clicked on. Note that if you are filling a line drawing and there is a gap
in the line drawing, the Fill color will ' leak' and the whole page will
begin to fill with color. DON'T PANIC! Right click to abort the Fill and
then use UNDO. Using the pencil, look for the gap and close it; then try
again.

Block
Use this to draw right angled shapes, squares, rectangles etc. Also use it
to erase mistakes by selecting Black from the palette first.

Blob
Use it to draw thick outlines, to draw circles and rounded shapes, to do
original lettering or to erase small areas.

Lens
This is very useful for intricate work. Click on Lens On/Off to activate
it. The Lens will stay on the screen until you click on Lens On/Off again
to cancel it. It is like a magnifying glass and helps you identify which
individual dots (or pixels) need changing or erasing. It magnifies the
boxed area around the cursor wherever you move it. If you approach the Lens
box with the cursor (should you wish to work in that area) it will
automatically jump to another part of the screen.

Modify Palette
There are two ways of modifying colors on a drawing:

1. Copy Whole Palette from the Current Page, Other Page or Other Drawing.
   Note that any palette entries which are BLACK (color 000) on the page or
   drawing will not be copied across, leaving the corresponding palette
   entry on the current drawing untouched. This allows you to combine
   part-palettes from different drawings, by setting the unused parts of
   each drawing's palette to BLACK.

                               122

2. Make Selected Color: More red, less red, more green, less green, more
   blue, less blue. Select the color on the palette you wish to change and
   then make it less blue, more red etc one step at a time. The color on
   the drawing will change at the same time as the palette so you can
   immediately judge the effect. There are 15 shades each of red, green and
   blue as well as a zero level for each, which, combined, form the color
   palette of the Amiga. These levels are shown as the 'RGB' (Red, Green,
   Blue) value; this helps in accurate color selection.

Undo
Clicking on this 'undoes' the last action performed (including clicking on
Undo). An action is here defined as whatever happened between the last
press and release of the mouse button. If you are doing a series of dots,
only the last dot is removed.

Save Drawing
Click on this to save the drawing to disk and return to the Drawing
Definition Menu, ready for you to create another drawing. Note that
changing a drawing will affect ALL the pages on which it is used; but that
changing the palette of the drawing will have no effect at all, as it is
the palette of the page that governs the colors used for that drawing on
any particular page.

Quit
The system queries 'OK to end without saving drawing?' if you have made any
changes. Click outside this window, i.e. cancel the window, if you do NOT
wish to abandon your drawing; you should then click on Save Drawing. If you
do wish to quit without saving anything, click on the text and you will
then be returned to the Drawing Definition Menu.

                               123

                              Index

                                        End Session          18
                                        Erase Placemarker    17
                                        Find Placemarker     17
                                         Help                18
                                         Select Drive/Folder 17

Add Drawing                  113         Set Placemarker     17
Add Drawing Condition        117         Switch to
Add Drawing Option           118         Development Mode    18
Add New Value                112      Copy Drawing           32
Add Page Entry                40         from another Title  107
Add Page Entry Option        114         from this Title     107
Add Text                     118      Copy Page              109
Add Text Condition        39,119      Copy Palette
Add Text Option              119         from Current Page   122
Adding Options                31         from other Drawing  122
Adding Text                   30         from other Page     122
Autorun                   15,106      Copy Sound
                                         from another Title  110
                                      Copy Whole Palette     113
                                      Copyright                3
B                                     Create New Drawing     107
                                      Create New Page        109
                                      Create New Title  15, 21,105

Backup                    77,121     Create new Variable     111
Backup Copies                  4     Cursor Mode         33,115
Blob                      25,122
Block                     25,122



                                     Debugging Tips           75
                                     Delete Drawing           108
Chain                    31, 63      Delete Sound             111
Chain Options                70      Delete Value             112
Change Drawing Order     34,117      Delete Variable          112
Choose and Load Title       105      Demo                      79
Condition                   117      Demos                     77
Conditions              59 - 60      Development Menu          16
Control Menu        15 - 16,105      Development Mode Menu    107
   Autorun                   18         Add Drawing
Choose and load title        16           Condition           117
Create new title             16           Add drawing to page 113

                               127


Add Text Entry         118-119       Modify Drawing           107
Add Variable               112       Modify Page Palette      113
Add/Replace                          Move Selected
Page Entry Option          114         Drawing                116
Add/Replace                            Normal                 115
Text Option                119         Page Definition        109
Add/Replace                            Page Entry Options     114
Drawing Option             118         Play Sound             110
Backup                     121         Quit Development
Change Drawing                       Mode                      121
Order                      117         Remove
Copy Drawing               107         Drawing Condition       117
Copy Page                  109         Remove
Copy Sound from                        Drawing Option          118
another Title              110         Remove Page
Copy whole palette         113         Entry Option            114
Create New Drawing         107         Remove Text
Create New Page            109         Condition               119
Create New Variable        111     Remove Text Entry           119
Delete Drawing             108     Remove Text Option          120
Delete Page                109     Rename Drawing              108
Delete Sound               111     Rename Page                 109
Delete Value               112     Rename Sound                110
Delete Variable            112     Rename Value                112
Drawing                            Rename Variable             111
Conditions/Options         117     Replace/Remove
Drawing Definition         107       Drawing                   116
Edit Text Entry            119     Restart Page                115
Import                 107-108       Select Drive/Folder       111
Import Sound                          Set Background
from A.M.A.S.              110        Color                    113
List Drawing                          Shrink/Reverse
Conditions             115,118        Drawing                  116
List Drawing Options       115        Sound Definition         109
List Page Entry                       Statistics               120
Option                     114        Swap Selected Color      116
List Text Conditions       119        Text Operation           118
List Text Options          120        Turn to other page       112
List/Set Text                         Variable Definition      111
Variables                  120        Directory Size            80
Locate Item                120             Enlarging            80
Make selected color        113            Disk Contents          5

                               128

Drawing                  22, 24
Drawing Condition
   Add                  117-118
   List                     118
   Remove              117 -118
   Replace                  118         Edit Text Entry         119
Drawing Conditions                      End Session             106
                    34, 60, 117         Equipment Requirements    4
Drawing Definition       23, 32         Erase Placemarker        14
Drawing Definition     107 -108         Erase Placemarker from
   Copy Drawing                          Disk                   106
   from another Title       107
   Copy Drawing
   from this Title          107
   Create New Drawing       107
   Delete Drawing           108
   Import Picture       107-108
   Modify Drawing           107          Fill                 25,122
   Rename Drawing           108          Find Placemarker     14,106
   Select Drive Folder      109
Drawing Menu             23,121
   Blob                     122
   Block                    122
   Fill                     122
   Lens                     122          Go to page               63
   Line                     121          Goto Page                31
   Minispray                121          Grail, The                4
   Modify Palette           122
   Pencil                   121
   Quit                     123
   Save Drawing             123
   Spray                    121
Drawing Options          34,117          Help                    106
Drawing Order              117
Drawing Sound Options 64

                                        Import Picture     107 - 108
                                        Import Sound File        110

                               129

                                        Make Selected Color      123
                                        Move Selected Drawing
J                                                            33, 116

Joining Pages                   36      N

L                                      New Page                   32
                                       Normal                    115

Lens                       25, 122
Library Files                6, 42    O
ALPHABET.TAL 6
   THEWOLF.TAL                   6
   Using                        44    Option                     114
Line 25,121                           Options                     62
List Drawing Condition 118               Chain                    63
List Drawing Conditions 115              Drawings                 63
List Drawing Options 115, 118            Go to page
                                                                  63
List Page Entry Options        114        Play Sound              63
List Text Conditions           119        Set Variable            63
List Text Options              120        Text Window             63
List/Set Variables              15
Locate Item                    120
Locked                          79     P

M                                      Page
                                          Building                28
                                       Page Definition            22
Make Selected Color            113     Page Definition           109
Memory Limitations              65       Copy Page               109
Minispray                   24,121       Create New Page         109
Modify Drawing                 107       Delete Page             109
Modify Page Palette           52,113     Rename Page             109
   Copy Whole Palette 113             Page Entry Options     63, 114
  Make Selected Color 113                Add Page Entry
    Set Background Color  113              Option                114
        Modify Palette 26                  List Page Entry
         Copy Palette 122                  Options               114

                               130


   Remove Page                           Reverse Drawing  28, 34, 116
   Entry Options          114            RGB                       26
   Replace Page
   Entry Option            114
Page Entry Sound Options 64              S
Palette                   23
   Modify                 122
Pencil               24 121             Save Drawing        27, 123
Placemarker                14           Select Drive/Folder  106,109,111
Play Sound            63,110            Set Background Color    113
                                        Set Placemarker     14, 105
Q                                       Set Variable         31, 63
                                        Shrink Drawing   28, 34,116
                                        Sound                72 -74
Quit                     27                Options               74
Quit Development Mode    121               Play                  31
                                           Replaying             74
                                        Sampling                 74
R                                       Sound Definition      109,111
                                           Copy Sound from
                                           another Title        110

Remove Drawing          34,116              Delete Sound        111
Remove Drawing                              Import A.M.A.S.
Condition                 117           Sound File              110
Remove Drawing Option 118                 Play Sound            110
Remove Page                               Rename Sound          110
Entry Option                 114     Select Drive/Folder        111
Remove Text Condition        119     Sound Options               64
Remove Text Entry            119     Spray                   24,121
Remove Text Option           120     Statistics         49, 77, 120
Rename Drawing               108     Swap Selected Color     33,116
Rename Page                  109     Switch to
Rename Sound                 110       Development Mode         106
Rename Value                 112
Rename Variable              111
Replace Drawing           34,116     T
Replace Drawing Option       118
Replace Option               119
Replace Page Entry Option    114     Talespin                    5
Restart Page              40,115        Features of,             3

                               131


Telltale                 5,12              Delete Variable     112
Testing                36, 75              Rename Value        112
Text Conditions            61              Rename Variable     111
Text Operations   35, 118 -119           Variables          56 - 59
   Add                118-119              Adding               37
Add Text Condition        119              List                120
Conditions                118              Set                 120
Edit Text Entry           119
List Text Conditions      119
List Text Options         120
   List Variable          120
   Locate Item            120
   Remove Text
   Condition              119
Remove Text Entry         119
Remove Text Option        120
   Replace                119
   Set Variables          120
Text Sound Options         64
Text windows           13, 55
Turn to Other Page        112
Turn to page               15

U

Undo                24, 27,123
Unlocked                    79

V

Values                      56
Variable
   Creating                 38
Variable Definition    111-112
Add New Value              112
Create New Variable        111
Delete Value               112

                               132

============================================================================
         DOCS PROVIDED BY  -+*+-THE SOUTHERN STAR-+*+- for M.A.A.D.
============================================================================