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WADEWAR3.DOC
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1993-04-25
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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!