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-
- ADVENTURE CREATION KIT
-
- BY STEPHEN STOUT
-
-
- If you ever wanted to design and play an endless choice
- of Ultima-type scrolling graphics role-playing adventures,
- Adventure Creation Kit gives you that power. This BASIC
- program works on all 8-bit Atari computers with at least 48K
- memory and a disk drive.
-
- You're in for an exciting and dangerous time on your
- job as a medieval knight in the domain of King Tom. Some
- villain stole the magic diamond which gives your kingdom's
- wizard his power. Without the diamond the kingdom is
- defenseless against Prince Ozzy, King Tom's evil twin
- brother who always wanted to take over the kingdom and write
- it off on his taxes. King Tom has entrusted you with the
- difficult challenge of finding another magic diamond!
-
- GETTING STARTED
-
- Type in Listing 1, CREATION.BAS, check it with TYPO II
- and SAVE a copy before you RUN it.
-
- If you have trouble typing in the special characters in
- lines 1130, 1150 and 1480, don't type them in. Listing 2
- will create them for you. Type Listing 2, checking it with
- TYPO II, and SAVE a copy to disk. When RUN, Listing 2
- creates these hard-to-type lines, and stores them in a disk
- file called D:LINES.LST. To merge the two programs, LOAD
- "D:CREATION.BAS" then ENTER "D:LINES.LST" and remember to
- SAVE the completed program before you RUN it.
-
- When you see the title screen. Press the joystick
- button to bring up the main Creation screen. To play a
- game, first you must load an adventure map from disk or make
- up a new map of your own. Owners of this month's Antic Disk
- can start with the full-length sample adventure, DEMO.ADV.
-
-
- Press [P] to start playing. Press the [ESC] key any
- time you want to exit the game.
-
- The map of your game is in standard Graphics 2 and the
- options are in the blue Graphics 0 text window. You see
- only a small piece of the total map and you can scroll
- around using the joystick. But you can't cross the solid
- blue border around the edges of the map. And you can't move
- diagonally when playing the game, only while you're creating
- a new map.
-
- The object of the game, of course, is to find a white
- diamond. There may be more than one diamond in a game, so
- there's more than one way to win.
-
- You start the game with 25 Hit Points (you're dead if
- this drops to zero) and 5 Strike Points (your strength to
- attack a monster). Your Hit and Strike Points, the number
- of keys you have, and any other possessions are displayed at
- the bottom of the screen.
-
- At the start of the game, your knight has no equipment
- and can only travel over blank green areas. Here are some
- things you might encounter while playing a map made with the
- Adventure Creation Kit:
-
- - Red bricks that you can't pass through - Red
- mountains that you can't traverse - Green trees and
- forests that you need an ax to get through. - Blue
- water that you need a boat to cross - Green, heavy
- terrain that you need a horse to travel over. - Locked
- blue doors with keyholes that you need keys to unlock.
- - White keys that can be used only once. - White axes
- to chop down trees - White boats needed to sail on
- water - White horses needed to travel over heavy
- terrain.
-
- A key can unlock only one door, and then it disappears.
- But if you pick up an ax, a boat or a horse, you will keep
- those objects for the rest of the game. When you need to
- cross water, for instance, you'll automatically be given use
- of your boat.
-
- ATTACK
-
- Watch out for the following dangerous creatures!
-
- - Green snakes which have 15 Hit Points and 5 Strike
- Points. - Red blobs that have 30 Hit Points and 10
- Strike Points - Blue bats with 5 Hit Points and 2
- Strike Points.
-
- To fight snakes, blobs, or bats you must first cross
- their paths. Usually they will be blocking the entrance to
- something.
-
- When fighting a monster, the lower part of the screen
- will say either ATTACK or DEFENSE. If it says ATTACK, it
- will also show the monster's Hit Points and your Strike
- Points. At the bottom of the screen is a randomly changing
- number between 1 and your remaining Strike Points. Pressing
- you the joystick trigger subtracts that random number from
- the monster's Hit Points.
-
- The screen will then say DEFENSE and display your Hit
- Points and the monster's Strike Points. There will again be
- a randomly changing number at the bottom of the screen.
- When you press the trigger, that number will be subtracted
- from your Hit Points.
-
- You'll continue alternating between ATTACK and DEFENSE
- screens until the Hit Points of either you or the monster
- reaches zero. If your Hit Points reach zero, then the game
- is over and you have lost.
-
- But if the monster's Hit Points reach zero, then it
- dies and disappears. You'll receive extra Hit and Strike
- Points, depending on how strong the monster was.
-
- If you can't figure out how to win a game, you could
- cheat by making a printout of the entire map or by looking
- at it with the editor module. But of course you would only
- do that as your absolutely last resort.
-
- When you complete a game or quit by pressing the [ESC]
- key, all the objects you picked up, all the monsters you
- killed, etc., will be restored to their original positions
- from before you played the game.
-
- CREATING NEW MAPS
-
- You can make really challenging adventures with the
- Adventure Creation Kit, but it takes time, debugging --
- playing the game over and over -- and imagination.
-
- The shape that you're currently using as the cursor --
- bricks, water, snakes, etc. -- is in the center of the main
- screen. The cursor is always white, so you can see it
- onscreen easily. To use the current cursor for drawing,
- hold down the joystick button while moving the joystick. To
- switch the cursor to a new character, use the [SELECT] or
- [OPTION] keys.
-
- The 15 cursor characters that you can draw with are:
-
- Bricks
- Trees
- Mountains
- Water
- Boats
- Locked Doors
- Keys
- Axes
- Heavy Terrain
- Snakes
- Horses
- Diamonds
- Bats
- Blobs
- Blank Green Spaces
-
- Your available options are listed at the bottom of the
- main screen. To choose one, press the key that has the
- character shown inside brackets [ ].
-
- [S]ave - Enter a filename. The program automatically
- inserts .ADV as the extender. Save the to a standard, DOS
- 2.0-compatible disk.
-
- [L]oad from disk - Enter a filename -- which must have
- that .ADV extender.
-
- [D]isk directory - Gives a complete directory of the
- disk in drive 1. Press any key to return to the main
- screen.
-
- [P]lay the adventure currently in memory - Press [ESC]
- to exit the game and return to the main screen.
-
- [R]estart the program - Clear the adventure in memory
- and go to the title screen. Press [Y] at the "Are you sure
- (Y/N)?" prompt to restart the game; if not, press any
- other key.
-
- [?] - Print a map of the entire adventure map currently
- in memory. The printing routine should work with most
- Epson-compatible printers. The printout takes up a whole
- page. Press any key to start. I recommend turning your
- printer off and back on before and after making a printout.
- If you know how to program, you could adjust the print
- routine in lines 1330-1450 to work with your own printer.
-
- CREATION TIPS
-
- There must be at least one diamond in the game in order
- to win. For every locked door there should be a key. If
- there is water there must be a boat somewhere, etc. When
- placing monsters, start with bats and snakes first, so the
- player can build up strength before fighting a blob. Place
- the monsters so that the player must fight to get past
- them.
-
- Stephen Stout, 19, lives in Everett, Washington and is
- the author of Diamond Dave (ANTIC, August 1987).
-
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