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Text File | 1993-04-25 | 17KB | 501 lines

WADEWAR3.DOC Copyright 1993 FISH SOFTWARE 930425 PACKING LIST ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following files should all be present and intact when the game is un-archived: WADEWAR3.DOC WADEWAR3.EXE WADEWAR3.VOC WADEWAR3.MSG WADEWAR3.TEC WADEWAR3.A00 WADEWAR3.A01 WADEWAR3.A02 WADEWAR3.A03 WADEWAR3.A04 WADEWAR3.A05 WADEWAR3.A06 WADEWAR3.A07 WADEWAR3.B00 ABOUT FISH SOFTWARE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We at FISH SOFTWARE are dedicated to bringing you the very best in interactive fiction. Those of you who are familiar with text adventures (and those who are not) can help us achieve our goals by sending in comments and recommendations to the address at the end of this memo. Although we have spent the last two years developing what we believe to be one of the most advanced parsers on the market today, we feel that there is always room to improve. By giving us your feedback, you can help us to improve our games in the future and keep our standards of quality as high as possible. We hope that you enjoy this game enough to satisfy the conditions laid out by the SHAREWARE marketing plan. SHAREWARE ~~~~~~~~~ This game is distributed via the SHAREWARE marketing strategy. This means several things: First, you are free to distribute this program in its entirety as much as you like, but you should in no way gain profit from the distribution itself. Second, the program should in no way be altered and should be passed on as it came: COMPLETE. Finally, if you feel the program is worthwhile or enjoyable, then you are asked to send in a small registration fee (check or money order only) of what ever you feel the game is worth (do this to the address at the end of this memo.) Those who send in $15 or more will receive the latest registered version, complete with all commands. They will also receive the entire map, and special hints document to the game. THIS IS NOT CRIPPLEWARE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is not crippleware. It is a complete, working version of the game and can be played completely from beginning to end. However, with nearly one hundred rooms, it is a game that takes much time to complete (often days or even weeks.) Those who send in a registration fee of $15 or more (see above) will receive the registered version of this game which includes commands for saving and restoring your game positions. ABOUT TEXT ADVENTURES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some games are geared for kids. Video games that demand you use only hand-eye coordination tend to fall into this category. They are easily fathomed by anyone over the age of six and the satisfaction gained in completing one is often shallow at best. Text adventures, which have been around for years, are another kind of game all together. As the name implies, they use only text. A good author can create a world of great depth and detail using nothing but words. People who like to read and solve puzzles enjoy text adventures the most. Because of this, text adventures are rarely played by children. Though their content might be totally G-rated material, by their very nature they are still adult games. A text adventure (also called "interactive fiction") starts by describing your current room. Every room is different, but a typical example might be: Basement You are in the basement. The only disturbance to the thick dust on the floor is your footprints. Though the light is very dim in here, you can vaguely make out a picture on the wall. The only exit from this room is the stairs to the North. There is a rusty key on the ground. The player then responds by typing commands in plain english. There are several things that could be done here. The player could EXAMINE THE PICTURE, PICK UP THE RUSTY KEY, or simply GO TO THE NORTH. A truly worthwhile parser should be able to understand these commands in a variety of ways: LOOK AT THE PICTURE, TAKE KEY, or N. In other instances more complex commands might be used: UNLOCK THE MAHOGANY DOOR WITH THE RUSTED KEY. Keep in mind that a text adventure is only a program, and does not truly comprehend what is being typed. Because of the unique way that they are designed, they will often use a word in a description that they are unable to understand at the command line. If the game does not understand the word you are using, you might try another. If you continue to have problems, you are probably trying to refer to something that is not necessary to complete the game. To some, interactive fiction is the most enjoyable type of game there is. If you have never played a text adventure before then you are in luck! Because you are about to enter the never- ending fight against the evil Wade Dabis! WADE WARS BOOK III ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do not let the roman numeral three scare you off. As we write this in April, 1993; books one and two are in the works, and coming soon. There are many references in this game to previous books, but these just tie the story lines together and have little bearing on the game itself. The story stands on its own without knowledge of the prior games. Wade War III is actually the first release in the Wade War series. Wade War III is an INTERMEDIATE level game. This means simply that it is geared toward people that have had some sort of experience with text adventures in the past. To clarify this I must say that, in actuality, it borders on the INTERMEDIATE and BEGINNER levels and should be enjoyable to anyone. The most seasoned text adventurer should have fun as well as those who have never come in contact with interactive fiction before. ABOUT FISH SOFTWARE'S INTERACTIVE FICTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In addition to one of the most flexible parsers available today, we at FISH Software have equipped our games with several features that we hope will enhance the overall interactive experience. Here are just a few: STATUS LINE - A status line crowns the top of the screen on each of our games. It lists important information so that it will always be quickly accessible to you, the player. WORD WRAPPING - Our games are equipped with automatic word wrapping of all text. This eliminates odd phrases that seem to stand apart from the rest of the description and makes the story flow much more naturally. LINE EDITOR - Because our parser accepts long sentences, we have included a full line editor to save the player typing. It is very similar to the DOSKEY which appeared in DOS 5 and remembers the last 20 commands that you have typed. Previous commands can be scrolled through by using the up and down arrow keys. Right and left arrows, Ins, Del, Home, End, and Esc also perform various line editing tasks. ALLOWANCES FOR MONOCHROME MONITORS - Although our games attempt to detect what kind of monitor you are using, there are some cases where it may be unable to do so. If you are using a monochrome monitor or if some of the game's text does not appear on the screen, you may want to use the /B switch which forces the game into black and white mode. SCREEN SAVER - In order to protect you from the problem of IMAGE BURN that occurs on any monitor left displaying the same screen for too long, our games include a built-in SCREEN SAVER. Note that the SCREEN SAVER is not a TSR, or background resident program, and only occurs when the game is running. Those of you that already have TSR SCREEN SAVERS may wish to turn ours off with the /S switch. Also, because the standard monochrome video cards do not support page flipping, the SCREEN SAVER does not work if such a card is detected. If you have a monochrome monitor that does support page flipping you can force the game to activate the SCREEN SAVER with the /A switch. FLEXIBLE WINDOW SIZE - Because some video cards support a varied number of rows and columns, our games have been designed to support these. If you have a preference other than the standard 80 columns by 25 rows, these can be changed (provided you have the appropriate video card and a registered version of our game) by using the /H and /W switches (see COMMAND LINE SYNTAX elsewhere in this document for details.) PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTION KEYS - For long commands that are typed out several times (ie: PUSH THE ROUND, RED BUTTON.) all of the function keys can be programmed. Holding down the ALT key and pushing the function key of your choice stores anything currently being displayed on the command line. Pressing the function key alone restores the command line. F1 - F12 can all be programmed in the same manner. This feature is only available on registered versions. PRINTER OUTPUT CAPABILITIES - The LOGG command makes a copy of all output for later reference. This makes it easier to review things previous sessions. BUGS ~~~~ Even though our games have been extensively beta-tested, it is conceivable that several bugs have slipped through our nets. With help from people like you, these bugs can be caught and eliminated. If you have any problems, receive any error messages, or simply have any suggestions, please write them down with a complete description of what you were trying to do when/if the error occurred and send it to the address at the bottom of this memo. If you include a blank disk, formatted on your computer, we will return your disk with the latest revision of the game. SOME COMMANDS AND ABBREVIATIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is a short list of a few commands along with their abbreviations (if any) and a brief description of what they do: COMMAND ABBR. DESCRIPTION ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ SCORE - displays your current score in the game (the score is already displayed in the right-hand corner of the STATUS LINE on registered versions) LOOK L displays description of current surroundings, or of an object when it is LOOKed AT WAIT Z pauses for one turn (does nothing) DESMAX DMAX turns descriptions of room and contents to ALWAYS ON DESMED DMED sets descriptions to come on only when room is first entered DESMIN DMIN does not describe room GET - picks up an object DROP - puts an object on the ground SET - puts an object on another object INVENTORY I lists objects you are holding LOGG - sends all output to the printer QUIT - exits the game COMMAND LINE SYNTAX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When first starting the game at the DOS prompt, certain features can be turned on or off. Use the following syntax: SYNTAX : WADEWAR3 [/A] [/B] [/H{1|2|3|4|5}] [/L] [/S] [/W{1|2}] [/?] SWITCHES:/A - activates the resident SCREEN SAVER even when a monochrome card is detected /B - forces the game into black and white mode */H1 - sets the number of screen lines to 25 (DEFAULT) */H2 - sets the number of screen lines to 30 (EGA & VGA) */H3 - sets the number of screen lines to 43 (EGA & VGA) */H4 - sets the number of screen lines to 50 (VGA) */H5 - sets the number of screen lines to 60 (SVGA) /L - turns the LOGG command on at game start. /S - suppresses the resident SCREEN SAVER */W1 - sets the number of screen columns to 40 */W2 - sets the number of screen columns to 80 (DEFAULT) */W3 - sets the number of screen columns to 132 (SVGA) /? - displays the COMMAND LINE HELP SCREEN * These options are only available on registered versions When two switches that perform opposite tasks are found on the same command line (like /S and /A) then the last switch encountered becomes significant. REGISTRATION!!! THE FINAL WORD. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once again we will stress the point of the $15 registration (or more if you feel that the game is worth it, we do!) Remember that it will enable you to receive the latest version of Wade War III. This version will not have the status line cluttered with the words "Not registered" and will include the SAVE and RESTORE commands (which will greatly improve your ability to complete the game.) In addition to this, you will also receive a map of the entire game and a hints document that will practically TELL you step-by-step how to finish the game! Not bad. Here's the address: FISH Software P.O. Box 690982 Tulsa, OK 74169-0982 Check or M.O. only, please. (US currency) Please make these payable to "FISH Software". Those who send $15 or more should specify disk type (3 ½" or 5 ¼") and density (high or low) requirements. Thank you, and enjoy the game!